Abraham Lincoln: Was He a Christian?
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Title: Abraham Lincoln: Was He a Christian?
Author: John E. Remsburg
Release date: December 22, 2011 [eBook #38374]
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABRAHAM LINCOLN: WAS HE A CHRISTIAN? ***
Produced by David Widger
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: WAS HE A CHRISTIAN?
By John B. Remsburg
"I am not a Christian."--Lincoln.
1893
TO THE FRIENDS OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WHO HAVE HAD THE COURAGE TO AFFIRM
THE TRUE AND DENY THE FALSE;
AND
TO THE FRIENDS
OF
TRUTH
WHO WILL HAVE THE HONESTY TO REJECT
THE FALSE AND ACCEPT THE TRUE,
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED
BY THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
Almost immediately after the remains of America's most illustrious son
were laid to rest at Springfield, one of his biographers put forward
the claim that he was a devout believer in Christianity. The claim was
promptly denied by the dead statesman's friends, but only to be renewed
again, and again denied. And thus for a quarter of a century the
question of Abraham Lincoln's religious belief has been tossed like a
battledoor from side to side.
As a result of this controversy, thousands have become interested in a
subject that otherwise might have excited but little interest. This
is the writer's apology for collecting the testimony of more than one
hundred witnesses, and devoting more than three hundred pages to the
question, "Was Lincoln a Christian?"
About few other men has so much been written as about Abraham Lincoln;
while no other American's life has engaged the pens of so many
biographers. A thousand volumes record his name and refer to his deeds.
In a hundred of these he is the central figure. Nearly a score of
elaborate biographies of him have been written. As many more books
pertaining wholly to his life, his martyrdom, and his character have
been published. Of the many works on Lincoln which the writer has
consulted in the preparation of this volume, the following deserve to be
mentioned: Nicolay and Hay's "Life of Lincoln," Herndon and Weik's "Life
of Lincoln," Lamon's "Life of Lincoln," Holland's "Life of Lincoln,"
Arnold's "Life of Lincoln," Raymond's "Life of Lincoln," Stoddard's
"Life of Lincoln," Barrett's "Life of Lincoln," "Every-Day Life of
Lincoln," Arnold's "Lincoln and Slavery," Carpenter's "Six Months at
the White House with Lincoln," "Reminiscences of Lincoln," "Anecdotes
of Lincoln," "Lincolniana," "The President's Words," "The Martyr's
Monument," "Tribute of the Nations to Lincoln," "Lincoln Memorial" and
"Lincoln Memorial Album."
The testimony concerning Lincoln's religious belief presented in this
volume has been derived chiefly from three sources. 1. A part of it
has been gathered from the works above named. In a single volume is
published for the first time matter which heretofore was only to be
found scattered through numerous volumes, some of them inaccessible to
the general reader. 2. A considerable portion of it has been gleaned
from newspapers and periodicals containing statements brought out
by this controversy, many of which would otherwise soon be lost or
forgotten. 3. A very large share of it has been obtained by the writer
from personal friends of Lincoln; and when we realize how rapidly those
who lived and moved with him are passing away--that erelong none of them
will remain to testify--the importance of this evidence can hardly be
overestimated.
The writer believes that he has fully established the negative of the
proposition that forms the title of his book. He does not expect to
silence the claims of the affirmative; but he has furnished an arsenal
of facts whereby these claims may be exposed and refuted as often as
made.
This effort to prove that Lincoln was not a Christian will be condemned
by many as an attempt to fasten a stain upon this great man's character.
But the demonstration and perpetuation of this fact will only add to his
greatness. It will show that he was in advance of his generation. The
fame of Abraham Lincoln belongs not to this age alone, but will endure
for all time. The popular faith is transient and must perish. It is
unpopular now to reject Christianity, but the day is fast approaching
when to accept its dogmas will be considered an evidence of human
weakness. To perpetuate the claim that Lincoln was a Christian is to
perpetuate an idea that in a future age will lessen the luster of his
name.
It will be urged by some that the intent and purpose of this work is
solely to promote the interests of Freethought. But it is not. The
writer advocates no cause that requires the prestige of a great name
to make it respectable. The cause that requires the indorsement of the
great to sustain it is not worthy to survive. He has prosecuted this
investigation, not in the interest of any belief or creed, but in the
interest of truth; and truth is certainly as high as any creed, even if
that creed be true. In proving Lincoln a disbeliever he does not presume
to have proved Christianity false, or Freethought true; but he has shown
that some Christians are not honest, and that an honest man may be a
Freethinker. Atchison, Kan., April, 1893.
INTRODUCTION.
Was Abraham Lincoln a Christian? Many confidently believe and earnestly
contend that he was; others as confidently believe and as earnestly
contend that he was not.
Before attempting to answer this question, let us define what
constitutes a Christian. A Christian is one who, in common with the
adherents of nearly all the religions of mankind, believes, 1. In the
existence of a God; 2. In the immortality of the soul. As distinguished
from the adherents of other religions, he believes, 1. That the Bible is
a revelation from God to man; 2. That Jesus Christ was the miraculously
begotten son of God. He also believes in various other doctrines
peculiar to Christianity, the chief of which are, 1. The fall of man; 2.
The atonement.
Those who in nominally Christian countries reject the dogmas of
Christianity are denominated Infidels, Freethinkers, Liberals,
Rationalists, unbelievers, disbelievers, skeptics, etc. These Infidels,
or Freethinkers, represent various phases of belief, among which are,
1. Deists, who affirm the existence of a God and the immortality of the
soul; 2. Atheists, who deny the existence of a God, and, generally,
the soul's immortality; 3. Agnostics, who neither affirm nor deny these
doctrines.
The following are the religious views Lincoln is said to have held as
presented by those who affirm that he was a Christian:
1. He believed in the existence of a God, and accepted the Christian
conception of this Being.
2. He believed in the immortality of the soul, and in the Christian
doctrine of the resurrection.
3. He believed that the Bible is a revelation from God--the only
revealed will of God.
4. He believed in the divinity of Christ--believed that Christ is God.
5. He believed in the efficacy of prayer, and was accustomed to pray
himself.
6. He believed in the doctrine of experimental religion, and had
experienced a change of heart.
7. Although he never united with any church, he was contemplating such a
step at the time of his assassination.
8. The church with which he would have united, we are led to infer, was
the Presbyterian.
The following is a statement of the theological opinions of Lincoln as
understood by those who deny that he was a Christian:
1. In regard to a Supreme Being he entertained at times Agnostic and
even Atheistic opinions. During the later years of his life, however, he
professed a sort of Deistic belief, but he did not accept the Christian
or anthropomorphic conception of a Deity.
2. So far as the doctrine of immortality is concerned, he was an
Agnostic.
3. He did not believe in the Christian doctrine of the inspiration of
the Scriptures. He believed that Burns and Paine were as much inspired
as David and Paul.
4. He did not believe in the doctrine of Christ's divinity. He affirmed
that Jesus was either the son of Joseph and Mary, or the illegitimate
son of Mary.
5. He did not believe in the doctrine of a special creation.
6. He believed in the theory of Evolution, so far as this theory had
been developed in his time.
7. He did not believe in miracles and special providences. He believed
that all things are governed by immutable laws, and that miracles
and special providences, in the evangelical sense of these terms, are
impossible.
8. He rejected the doctrine of total, or inherent depravity.
9. He repudiated the doctrine of vicarious atonement.
10. He condemned the doctrine of forgiveness for sin.
11. He opposed the doctrine of future rewards and punishments.
12. He denied the doctrine of the freedom of the will.
13. He did not believe in the efficacy of prayer as understood by
orthodox Christians.
14 He indorsed, for the most part, the criticisms of Thomas Paine on the
Bible and Christianity, and accepted, to a great extent, the theological
and humanitarian views of Theodore Parker.
15. He wrote a book (which was suppressed) against the Bible and
Christianity.
16. His connection with public affairs prevented him from giving
prominence to his religious opinions during the later years of his life,
but his earlier views concerning the unsoundness of the Christian system
of religion never underwent any material change, and he died, as he had
lived, an unbeliever.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: WAS HE A CHRISTIAN?
CHAPTER I. CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY
Dr. J. G. Holland--Hon. Newton Bateman--Rev. J. A. Reed--
Rev. James Smith. D.D.--N. W. Edwards--Thomas Lewis--Noah
Brooks--Rev. Byron Sunderland. D.D.--Rev. Dr. Miner--Rev.
Dr. Gurley--Hon. I. N. Arnold--F. B. Carpenter--Isaac
Hawley--Rev. Mr. Willets--A Pious Nurse--Western Christian
Advocate--An Illinois Clergyman--Rev. J. H. Barrows. D D.--
Rev. Francis Vinton, D.D.--Bishop Simpson.
In confirmation of the claim that Lincoln was a Christian, the following
evidence has been adduced:
DR. J. G. HOLLAND.
President Lincoln died on the 15th of April, 1865. In the same year, the
"Life of Abraham Lincoln," written by Dr. J. G. Holland, appeared. In
the fields of poetry and fiction, and as a magazine writer, Dr. Holland
had achieved an enviable reputation. His "Life of Lincoln" was written
in his usually entertaining style and secured a wide circulation. He
affirmed that Lincoln was a Christian, and by means of this work,
and through _Scribner's Magazine_, of which he was for many years the
editor, contributed more than any other person to render a belief in
this claim popular. Referring to Lincoln's administration, Dr. Holland
says:
"The power of a true-hearted Christian man, in perfect sympathy with a
true-hearted Christian people, was Mr. Lincoln's power. Open on one side
of his nature to all descending influences from him to whom he prayed,
and open on the other to all ascending influences from the people whom
he served, he aimed simply to do his duty to God and man. Acting rightly
he acted greatly. While he took care of deeds fashioned by a purely
ideal standard, God took care of results. Moderate, frank, truthful,
gentle, forgiving, loving, just, Mr. Lincoln will always be remembered
as eminently a Christian President; and the almost immeasurably great
results which he had the privilege of achieving were due to the fact
that he was a Christian President" (Life of Lincoln, p. 542).
HON. NEWTON BATEMAN.
Dr. Holland's claim rests chiefly upon a confession which Lincoln is
said to have made to Newton Bateman in 1860. During the Presidential
campaign Lincoln occupied the Executive Chamber at the State House. Mr.
Bateman was Superintendent of Public Instruction at the time, had his
office in the same building, and was frequently in Lincoln's room. The
conversation in which Lincoln is alleged to have expressed a belief in
Christianity is thus related in Holland's "Life of Lincoln:"
"On one of these occasions Mr. Lincoln took up a book containing a
careful canvass of the city of Springfield in which he lived, showing
the candidate for whom each citizen had declared it his intention to
vote in the approaching election. Mr. Lincoln's friends had, doubtless
at his own request, placed the result of the canvass in his hands.
This was toward the close of October, and only a few days before the
election. Calling Mr. Bateman to a seat at his side, having previously
locked all the doors, he said: 'Let us look over this book. I wish
particularly to see how the ministers of Springfield are going to vote.'
The leaves were turned, one by one, and as the names were examined Mr.
Lincoln frequently asked if this one and that were not a minister, or an
elder, or the member of such or such a church, and sadly expressed his
surprise on receiving an affirmative answer. In that manner they went
through the book, and then he closed it and sat silently and for some
minutes regarding a memorandum in pencil which lay before him. At length
he turned to Mr. Bateman, with a face full of sadness, and said: 'Here
are twenty-three ministers, of different denominations, and all of them
are against me but three; and here are a great many prominent members of
the churches, a very large majority of whom are against me. Mr. Bateman,
I am not a Christian--God knows I would be one--but I have carefully
read the Bible, and I do not so understand this book;' and he drew from
his bosom a pocket New Testament. 'These men well know,' he continued,
'that I am for freedom in the territories, freedom everywhere as far
as the Constitution and laws will permit, and that my opponents are for
slavery. They know this, and yet, with this book in their hands, in the
light of which human bondage cannot live a moment, they are going
to vote against me. I do not understand it at all.' Here Mr. Lincoln
paused--paused for long minutes--his features surcharged with emotion.
Then he rose and walked up and down the room in the effort to retain or
regain his self-possession. Stopping at last, he said, with a trembling
voice and his cheeks wet with tears: 'I know there is a God, and that he
hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that his
hand is in it. If he has a place for me--and I think he has--I believe I
am ready. I am nothing, but truth is everything. I know I am right, for
Christ teaches it, and Christ is God.'
"The effect of this conversation upon the mind of Mr. Bateman, a
Christian gentleman whom Mr. Lincoln profoundly respected, was to
convince him that Mr. Lincoln had, in his quiet way, found a path to the
Christian standpoint--that he had found God, and rested on the eternal
truth of God. As the two men were about to separate, Mr. Bateman
remarked: 'I have not supposed that you were accustomed to think so
much upon this class of subjects. Certainly your friends generally
are ignorant of the sentiments you have expressed to me.' He replied
quickly: 'I know they are. I am obliged to appear different to them; but
I think more upon these subjects than upon all others, and I have done
so for years; and I am willing that _you_ should know it'" (Life of
Lincoln, pp. 236-239).
REV. J. A. REED.
In 1872, seven years after the publication of Holland's work, Lamon's
"Life of Abraham Lincoln" was published. In this work the statements of
Holland and Bateman concerning Lincoln's religious belief are disputed,
and the testimony of numerous witnesses cited to prove that he lived and
died a disbeliever. Soon after Lamon's book was published, the Rev. J.
A. Reed, a Presbyterian clergyman, of Springfield, Ill., delivered
a lecture in which he attempted to refute or modify the evidence of
Lamon's witnesses and prove that Lincoln died a Christian. He admitted
that Lincoln was an Infidel up to 1848, and possibly as late as 1862,
but endeavored to show that previous to his death he changed his views
and became a Christian. The following extracts present the salient
points in his discourse:
"Having shown what claims Mr. Lamon's book has to being the 'only fair
and reliable history' of Mr. Lincoln's life and views, and of what
'trustworthy materials' it is composed, I shall now give the testimony
I have collected to establish what has ever been the public impression,
that Mr. Lincoln was in his later life, and at the time of his death, a
firm believer in the truth of the Christian religion. The Infidelity of
his earlier life is not so much to be wondered at, when we consider the
poverty of his early religious instruction and the peculiar influences
by which he was surrounded." "It does not appear that he had ever
seen, much less read, a work on the evidences of Christianity till his
interview with Rev. Dr. Smith in 1848. We hear of him as reading Paine,
Voltaire, and Theodore Parker, but nothing on the other side.
"While it is to be regretted that Mr. Lincoln was not spared to indicate
his religious sentiments by a profession of his faith in accordance with
the institutions of the Christian religion, yet it is very clear that he
had this step in view, and was seriously contemplating it, as a sense of
its fitness and an apprehension of his duty grew upon him."
In support of his claims, Dr. Reed presents the testimony of Rev.
Dr. Smith, Ninian W. Edwards, Thomas Lewis, Noah Brooks, Rev. Dr.
Sunderland, Rev. Dr. Miner, and Rev. Dr. Gurley.
REV. JAMES SMITH, D.D.
The Rev. James Smith was for many years pastor of the First Presbyterian
Church of Springfield. Lincoln formed his acquaintance soon after
he located there, remained on friendly terms with him, and with Mrs.
Lincoln frequently attended his church. Dr. Smith was one of the three
Springfield clergymen who supported Lincoln for President in 1860,
and in recognition of his friendship and fidelity, he received the
consulship at Dundee. Dr. Reed quotes from a letter to W. H. Herndon,
dated East Cainno, Scotland, January 24, 1867, in which Dr. Smith says:
"It is a very easy matter to prove that while I was pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church of Springfield, Mr. Lincoln did avow his belief in
the divine authority and inspiration of the scriptures, and I hold that
it is a matter of the last importance not only to the present, but all
future generations of the great Republic, and to all advocates of civil
and religious liberty throughout the world, that this avowal on his
part, and the circumstances attending it, together with very interesting
incidents illustrative of the excellence of his character, in my
possession, should be made known to the public.... It was my honor
to place before Mr. Lincoln arguments designed to prove the divine
authority and inspiration of the scriptures accompanied by the arguments
of Infidel objectors in their own language. To the arguments on
both sides Mr. Lincoln gave a most patient, impartial, and searching
investigation. To use his own language, he examined the arguments as
a lawyer who is anxious to reach the truth investigates testimony. The
result was the announcement by himself that the argument in favor of the
divine authority and inspiration of the Scriptures was unanswerable."
HON. MINIAN W. EDWARDS.
Ninian W. Edwards, a brother-in-law of Lincoln, writes as follows:
"Springfield, Dec. 24th, 1872.
"Rev. Jas. A. Reed:
"Dear Sir--
"A short time after the Rev. Dr. Smith became pastor of the First
Presbyterian church in this city, Mr. Lincoln said to me, 'I have been
reading a work of Dr. Smith on the evidences of Christianity, and have
heard him preach and converse on the subject, and I am now convinced of
the truth of the Christian religion.'
"Yours truly,
"N. W. Edwards."
THOMAS LEWIS.
In corroboration of Mr. Edwards's statement, Thomas Lewis, of
Springfield, Ill., testifies as follows:
"Springfield, Jan. 6th, 1873.
"Rev. J. A. Reed:
"Dear Sir--
"Not long after Dr. Smith came to Springfield, and I think very near the
time of his son's death, Mr. Lincoln said to me, that when on a visit
somewhere, he had seen and partially read a work of Dr. Smith on the
evidences of Christianity which had led him to change his views about
the Christian religion; that he would like to get that work to finish
the reading of it, and also to make the acquaintance of Dr. Smith. I
was an elder in Dr. Smith's church, and took Dr. Smith to Mr. Lincoln's
office and introduced him; and Dr. Smith gave Mr. Lincoln a copy of his
book, as I know, at his own request.
"Yours etc.,
"Thos. Lewis."
NOAH BROOKS. Noah Brooks, a newspaper correspondent of New York, and the
author of a biography of Lincoln, gives the following testimony:
"New York, Dec. 31,1872.
"Rev. J. A. Reed,
"My Dear Sir:
"In addition to what has appeared from my pen, I will
state that I have had many conversations with Mr. Lincoln, which were
more or less of a religious character, and while I never tried to draw
anything like a statement of his views from him, yet he freely expressed
himself to me as having 'a hope of blessed immortality through Jesus
Christ.' His views seemed to settle so naturally around that statement,
that I considered no other necessary. His language seemed not that of an
inquirer, but of one who had a prior settled belief in the fundamental
doctrines of the Christian religion. Once or twice, speaking to me of
the change which had come upon him, he said, while he could not fix any
definite time, yet it was after he came here, and I am very positive
that in his own mind he identified it with about the time of Willie's
death. He said, too, that after he went to the White House he kept up
the habit of daily prayer. Sometimes he said it was only ten words, but
those ten words he had. There is no possible reason to suppose that Mr.
Lincoln would ever deceive me as to his religious sentiments. In many
conversations with him, I absorbed the firm conviction that Mr. Lincoln
was at heart a Christian man, believed in the Savior, and was seriously
considering the step which would formally connect him with the
visible church on earth. Certainly, any suggestion as to Mr. Lincoln's
skepticism or Infidelity, to me who knew him intimately from 1862 till
the time of his death, is a monstrous fiction--a shocking perversion.
"Yours truly,
"Noah Brooks."
REV. BYRON SUNDERLAND, D.D.
Mr. Reed presents a lengthy letter from the Rev. Byron Sunderland, of
Washington, dated Nov. 15, 1872. Dr. Sunderland in company with a party
of friends visited the President in the autumn of 1862. In this letter
he says:
"After some conversation, in which he seemed disposed to have his joke
and fun, he settled down to a serious consideration of the subject
before his mind, and for one half-hour poured forth a volume of the
deepest Christian philosophy I ever heard."
REV. DR. MINER.
The Rev. Dr. Miner, who met Lincoln in Washington, says:
"All that was said during that memorable afternoon I spent alone with
that great and good man is engraven too deeply on my memory ever to be
effaced. I felt certain of this fact, that if Mr. Lincoln was not really
an experimental Christian, he was acting like one. He was doing his duty
manfully, and looking to God for help in time of need; and, like the
immortal Washington, he believed in the efficacy of prayer, and it was
his custom to read the Scriptures and pray himself."
REV. P. D. GURLEY, D.D.
While in Washington, Lincoln with his family attended the Presbyterian
church of which the Rev. Dr. Gurley was pastor. Mr. Reed cites the
following as the testimony of Dr. Gurley in regard to the alleged
Infidelity of Lincoln:
"I do not believe a word of it. It could not have been true of him while
here, for I have had frequent and intimate conversations with him on the
subject of the Bible and the Christian religion, when he could have
had no motive to deceive me, and I considered him sound not only on the
truth of the Christian religion but on all its fundamental doctrines and
teachings. And more than that, in the latter days of his chastened and
weary life, after the death of his son Willie, and his visit to the
battlefield of Gettysburg, he said, with tears in his eyes, that he
had lost confidence in everything but God, and that he now believed
his heart was changed, and that he loved the Savior and, if he was not
deceived in himself, it was his intention soon to make a profession of
religion."
HON. ISAAC N. ARNOLD.
One of the most ardent friends and admirers of Abraham Lincoln was Isaac
N. Arnold, for several years a member of Congress from Illinois. Mr.
Arnold wrote a work on "Lincoln and Slavery," and a "Life of Lincoln"
which was published in 1885. Lincoln's religious views are thus
described by Mr. Arnold:
"No more reverent Christian than he ever sat in the Executive chair,
not excepting Washington. He was by nature religious; full of religious
sentiment. The veil between him and the supernatural was very thin.
It is not claimed that he was orthodox, for creeds and dogmas he cared
little. But in the great fundamental principles of religion, of the
Christian; religion, he was a firm believer. Belief in the existence of
God, in the immortality of the soul, in the Bible as the revelation of
God to man, in the efficacy and duty of prayer, in reverence toward the
Almighty, and in love and charity to man, was the basis of his religion"
(Life of Lincoln, p. 446).
"His reply to the Negroes of Baltimore when they, in 1864, presented him
with a magnificent Bible, ought to silence forever those who charge him
with unbelief. He said: 'In regard to the Great Book I have only to say
that it is the best gift which God has given to man. All the good from
the Savior of the world is communicated through this book'" (Ibid., p.
447).
"His faith in a Divine Providence began at his mother's knee, and ran
through all the changes of his life. Not orthodox, not a man of creeds,
he was a man of simple trust in God" (lb., p. 448).
F. B. CARPENTER.
Mr. Carpenter, the artist, in his popular book, entitled "Six Months in
the White House with Abraham Lincoln," uses the following language:
"I would scarcely have called Mr. Lincoln a religious man--and yet I
believe him to have been a sincere Christian" (Six Months in the White
House, p. 185).
ISAAC HAWLEY.
In the spring of 1887, in going from Springfield to Havana, I met Isaac
Hawley, one of the early settlers of Illinois, and who for nearly twenty
years resided within a few blocks of Lincoln in Springfield. In answer
to the question, "Was Lincoln a Christian?" Mr. Hawley replied:
"I believe that Lincoln was a Christian, and that he was God's chosen
instrument to perform the mighty work he did."
REV. MR. WILLETS.
The Rev. Mr. Willets, of Brooklyn, N. Y., is credited with the following
statement concerning Lincoln's reputed conversion. The information
it contains was obtained, it is said, from a lady of Mr. Willets's
acquaintance who met Lincoln in Washington:
"The President, it seemed, had been much impressed with the devotion
and earnestness of purpose manifested by the lady, and on one occasion,
after she had discharged the object of her visit, he said to her: "Mrs.
--------, I have formed a high opinion of your Christian character, and
now, as we are alone, I have a mind to ask you to give me, in brief,
your idea of what constitutes a true religious experience." The lady
replied at some length, stating that, in her judgment, it consisted of a
conviction of one's own sinfulness and weakness, and personal need of a
Savior for strength and support; that views of mere doctrine might and
would differ, but when one was really brought to feel his need of divine
help, and to seek the aid of the Holy Spirit for strength and guidance,
it was satisfactory evidence of his having been born again. This was
the substance of her reply. When she had concluded, Mr. Lincoln was very
thoughtful for a few moments; He at length said, very earnestly, 'If
what you have told me is really a correct view of this great subject, I
think I can say with sincerity that I hope I am a Christian'" (Anecdotes
of Lincoln, pp. 166, 167).
A PIOUS NURSE.
A pious lady, who served in the capacity of a hospital nurse at
Washington, and who sometimes visited the White House, testifies to
Lincoln's belief in the efficacy of prayer. The incident narrated
occurred while a battle was in progress. The report says:
"The possibility of defeat depressed him greatly; but the lady told
him he must trust, and that he could at least pray. 'Yes,' said he, and
taking up a Bible, he started for his room. Could all the people of the
nation have overheard the earnest petition that went up from that inner
chamber as it reached the ears of the nurse, they would have fallen
upon their knees with tearful and reverential sympathy" (Anecdotes of
Lincoln, p. 120).
WESTERN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.
Soon after the close of the war, the _Western Chris-tian Advocate_, the
leading Christian journal of the West, published the following:
"On the day of the receipt of the capitulation of Lee, as we learn from
a friend intimate with the late President Lincoln, the cabinet meeting
was held an hour earlier than usual. Neither the President nor any
member was able, for a time, to give utterance to his feelings. At the
suggestion of Mr. Lincoln all dropped on their knees, and offered in
silence and in tears their humble and heartfelt acknowledgment to the
Almighty for the triumph he had granted to the national cause."
The above is quoted by Raymond and other biographers of Lincoln.
AN ILLINOIS CLERGYMAN.
In the "Lincoln Memorial Album" appears what is reported to be Lincoln's
"Reply to an Illinois Clergyman:"
"When I left Springfield I asked the people to pray for me. I was not
a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was
not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg, and saw the graves
of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to
Christ. Yes, I _do_ love Jesus" (L. M. A., p. 366).
REV. JOHN N. BARROWS.
In the "Lincoln Memorial Album," Dr. J. H. Barrows contributes an
article on "The Religious Aspects of Abraham Lincoln's Career," from
which I quote as follows:
"In the anxious uncertainties of the great war, he gradually rose to the
hights where Jehovah became to him the sublimest of realities, the ruler
of nations. When he wrote his immortal Proclamation, he invoked upon it
not only 'the considerate judgment of mankind,' but 'the gracious favor
of Almighty God.' When darkness gathered over the brave armies fighting
for the nation's life, this strong man in the early morning knelt and
wrestled in prayer with him who holds in his hand the fate of empires.
When the clouds lifted above the carnage of Gettysburg, he gave his
heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. When he pronounced his matchless oration
on the chief battlefield of the war, he gave expression to the resolve
that 'this nation, under God, should have a new birth of freedom.'
And when he wrote his last Inaugural Address, he gave to it the lofty
religious tone of an old Hebrew psalm" (L. M. A., p. 508).
REV. FRANCIS VINTON, D.D.
This clergyman, a resident of New York, and a stranger to Lincoln,
visited the White House in 1862, it is claimed, and indulged in an
argument and exhortation, the effect of which was to convert the
President to a belief in the Christian doctrine of the resurrection
and the immortality of the soul. During the interview, Lincoln, it is
reported, fell upon the neck of his clerical visitor and wept like a
child.
Before retiring, Dr. Vinton said: "I have a sermon upon this subject
which I think might interest you." "Mr. Lincoln," the report continues,
"begged him to send it at an early day, thanking him repeatedly for his
cheering and hopeful words. The sermon was sent, and read over and over
by the President, who caused a copy to be made for his own private use
before it was returned" (Anecdotes of Lincoln, pp. 107, 108).
BISHOP SIMPSON.
The most eminent Methodist divine of that period was Bishop Simpson.
During the war his commanding influence and rare eloquence did much to
secure for the Union cause the united support of Northern Methodists.
Lincoln appreciated the services of the distinguished divine, and they
became warm friends. When the remains of the President were conveyed to
their final resting-place at Springfield, Bishop Simpson was selected
to deliver the funeral oration. Alluding to the religious phase of
Lincoln's character, he spoke as follows:
"As a ruler, I doubt if any President has ever shown such trust in God,
or in public documents so frequently referred to divine aid. Often did
he remark to friends and to delegations that his hope for our success
rested in his conviction that God would bless our efforts because we
were trying to do right" (Lincoln and Slavery, p. 673).
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY--HOLLAND AND BATEMAN.
Character of Holland's "Life of Lincoln"--The Bateman
Interview--Inconsistency and untruthfulness of its
statements--Holland's Subsequent Modification and Final
Abandonment of his original Claims.
In the preceding chapter has been presented the Christian side of this
question. It has been presented fully and fairly. Even the Christian
claimant must admit that it is the longest and most complete array of
testimony that has yet been published in support of his claim.
This evidence is explicit and apparently conclusive. To attempt its
refutation may seem presumptuous. And yet, in the face of all this
evidence, the writer does not hesitate to declare that Abraham Lincoln
was not a Christian, and pledge himself to refute the statements of
these witnesses by a volume of testimony that is irresistible and
overwhelming.
Before introducing this testimony the evidence already adduced will be
reviewed. This evidence may properly be grouped into three divisions: 1.
The testimony of Holland and Bateman; 2. The testimony of Reed and his
witnesses; 3. The testimony of Arnold and the miscellaneous evidence
remaining.
Holland's "Life of Lincoln," from a literary point of view, is a work
of more than ordinary merit. It possesses a beauty of diction and
an intellectual vigor seldom surpassed; but as an authority it
is unreliable. Like Weems's "Life of Washington," it is simply a
biographical romance founded upon fact, but paying little regard to
facts in presenting the details. Following the natural bent of Christian
biographers, Holland parades the subject of his work as a model
of Christian piety. He knew that this was false; for, while he was
unacquainted with Lincoln, he had been apprised of his unbelief--had
been repeatedly told of it before he wrote his biography. But this did
not deter him from asserting the contrary. He knew that if he stated the
facts the clergy would condemn his book. They needed the influence of
Lincoln's great name to support their crumbling creed, and would have it
at any sacrifice, particularly when its possession required no greater
sacrifice than truth. Holland was equal to the emergency. When one of
Lincoln's friends in Springfield suggested that the less said about his
religious views the better, he promptly replied: "Oh, never mind; I'll
fix that." And he did. With dramatic embellishments, he presented to
the delight of the orthodox world the now famous, or rather infamous,
Bateman interview.
The publication of this story produced a profound sensation among
the personal friends of the dead President. It revealed to them the
unpleasant fact, assuming Holland's account to be correct, either that
Newton Bateman, who had hitherto borne the reputation of being a man
of veracity, was an unscrupulous liar, or that Abraham Lincoln, whose
reputation for honesty and candor, long anterior to 1860, had become
proverbial, was a consummate hypocrite; and loath as they were to
believe the former, they rejected with disdain the latter.
Referring to this story, Lamon, in his "Life of Lincoln," says:
"There is no dealing with Mr. Bateman except by a flat contradiction.
Perhaps his memory was treacherous or his imagination led him astray,
or, peradventure, he thought a fraud no harm if it gratified the strong
desire of the public for proofs of Mr. Lincoln's orthodoxy" (Life of
Lincoln, p. 501).
While Bateman undoubtedly misrepresented Lincoln in his account of
their conversation--for it is not denied that he had an interview with
Lincoln--it is quite probable that he did not to the extent represented
by Holland. Bateman doubtless exaggerated the affair, and Holland
magnified Bateman's report of it. In an article originally published in
the _Index_, and subsequently quoted by Lamon, Lincoln's law partner,
Mr. Herndon, says:
"I doubt whether Mr. Bateman said in full what is recorded there. I
doubt a great deal of it. I know the whole story is untrue--untrue in
substance, untrue in fact and spirit. As soon as the [Holland's] 'Life
of Lincoln' was out, on reading that part here referred to, I instantly
sought Mr. Bateman and found him in his office. I spoke to him politely
and kindly, and he spoke to me in the same manner. I said substantially
to him that Mr. Holland, in order to make Mr. Lincoln a technical
Christian, made him a hypocrite; and so his 'Life of Lincoln' quite
plainly says. I loved Mr. Lincoln, and was mortified, if not angry, to
see him made a hypocrite. I cannot now detail what Mr. Bateman said, as
it was a private conversation, and I am forbidden to make use of it in
public. If some good gentleman can only get the seal of secrecy removed
I can show what was said and done. On my word, the world may take it
for granted that Holland is wrong--that he does not state Mr. Lincoln's
views correctly" (Lamon's Life of Lincoln, p. 496).
In a lecture on "Lincoln's Religion," delivered in Springfield in 1874,
alluding to the same subject, Mr. Herndon says:
"My notes of our conversation bear date December 3, 12, and 28, 1865.
Our conversations were private, I suppose. However, I can say this much:
that Mr. Bateman expressly told me Mr. Lincoln was, in the conversation
related in Holland, talking _politics_ and not religion, nor
Christianity, nor morals, as such. I have persistently dogged Mr.
Bateman for the privilege of publishing my notes, or to give me a letter
explaining what Mr. Lincoln did say, so that I might make known the
facts of the case. Mr. Bateman has as stoutly refused."
Dr. Bateman finally permitted Mr. Herndon to make public a letter,
marked "confidential," which he had written Mr. Herndon in 1867. In this
letter Bateman says:
"He [Lincoln] was applying the principles of moral and religious truth
to the duties of the hour, the condition of the country, and the conduct
of public men--ministers of the gospel. I had no thought of orthodoxy or
heterodoxy, Unitarianism, Trinitarianism, or any other ism, during the
whole conversation, and I don't suppose or believe he had."
Had Lincoln made the confession he is reported to have made, this would
have suggested to Mr. Bateman the idea of his admitted orthodoxy as well
as his reputed heterodoxy. Had Lincoln declared that "Christ is God,"
this would have suggested to him the idea of Trinitarianism. It will
be seen, even from this letter, that instead of talking theology
and professing a belief in Christianity, he was talking politics and
denouncing the intolerance and bigotry of Christian ministers.
Dr. Bateman privately asserts that he was not correctly reported, that
Holland's version of the interview "is colored." It is to be regretted
that he had not the courage to state this fact to the public, and his
plea, "My aversion to publicity in such matters is intense," is a poor
apology for refusing to do so.
As previously intimated, this story is probably founded on fact and
has an element of truth in it. Lincoln and Bateman had a political
interview, and the object of this interview was the examination and
discussion of the list of Springfield voters. This list revealed the
fact that twenty out of twenty-three clergymen and a very large majority
of the church-members of Springfield were opposed to Lincoln. The
significance of this fact Dr. Holland and Dr. Bateman have apparently
overlooked. Why was the church opposed to him? It must have been either
because it was opposed to the Republican party, or because he was
personally objectionable to the members of that party. His political
principles were the principles of his party, his ability was conceded,
and his moral character was above reproach. It is fair to assume
that the political sentiment of the Christians of Springfield was
substantially the political sentiment of Northern Christians generally.
Now, was the Northern Church overwhelmingly in favor of the extension of
slavery? Were eighty-seven per cent, of Northern Christians Democrats?
Or did the Christians of Springfield oppose Lincoln because he was an
Infidel?
Holland makes Bateman affirm that Lincoln "drew from his bosom a pocket
New Testament." It is generally believed by Lincoln's friends that he
did not have a New Testament, that the only book used in the interview
was the book containing the list of Springfield voters. One of them
says: "The idea that Mr. Lincoln carried the New Testament or Bible in
his bosom or boots, to draw on his opponents in debate, is ridiculous."
It is possible, however, that there was a New Testament in the room, and
that Lincoln used it to enforce an argument. Indeed, there is internal
evidence in the story, aside from the declaration of Bateman, that such
was the case. The central idea in his political creed--the keynote of
his campaigns, both in 1858 and in 1860--was contained in that memorable
passage, "'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' This government
can not endure permanently half slave and half free." The figure quoted
was a familiar and powerful one, and Lincoln recognized its force in
dealing with the masses. It was taken from the New Testament, and
from the words of Christ himself. That he should use it against those
Christians who were acting contrary to this well-known truth, is not
strange. Immediately after the declaration, "Christ is God," he is
reported as saying: "I have told them that a house divided against
itself cannot stand, and Christ and reason say the same." This furnishes
a solution to the whole story. This shows what he was doing with a New
Testament. In connection with this, nothing is more natural than that he
should exclaim: "Christ teaches it, and Christ is [their] God!" That he
was terribly in earnest, that he was deeply agitated and pained to learn
that his Christian neighbors were opposed to him, is not improbable.
Thus the incidents of a simple political interview that were natural
and reasonable have been perverted to make it appear that he was a
Christian. A mere reference to the New Testament and Christ have been
twisted into an acknowledgment of their divinity. Bateman himself admits
that Lincoln said: "I am not a Christian." Why not accept his statement,
then? Why then distort his words and in the face of this positive
declaration attempt to prove that he was a Christian? Bateman reports
him as modifying the statement by adding: "God knows I would be one."
Yes, "God knows I would be one were I convinced that Christianity is
true, but not convinced of its truth, I am an unbeliever." Lincoln is
also reported to have said that in the light of the New Testament "human
bondage can not live a moment." But he did not utter these words. He did
not utter them because they are untrue, and none knew this better than
himself. He knew that in the light of this book human bondage had lived
for nearly two thousand years; he knew that this book was one of the
great bulwarks of human slavery; he knew that there was not to be found
between its lids a single text condemning slavery, while there were to
he found a score of texts sustaining it; he knew that that infamous law,
the Fugitive Slave law, received its warrant from this book--that Paul,
in the light of its earliest teachings, had returned a fugitive slave to
his master.
In this story Lincoln is charged with the grossest hypocrisy. He is
declared to have professed a belief in Christ and Christianity, and when
Bateman observed that his friends were ignorant of this, he is made to
reply: "I know they are. I am obliged to appear different to them." Now,
to use Lincoln's own words, "A sane person can no more act without a
motive than can there be an effect without a cause," and what possible
motive could he have had for such conduct? Supposing that he was base
enough to be a hypocrite, what could induce him to lead the world
to suppose he was an Infidel if he were not? In the eyes of the more
ignorant and bigoted class of Christians, Infidelity is a more
heinous crime than murder, and an Infidel is a creature scarcely to be
tolerated, much less to be intrusted with a public office. Freethinkers
generally detest the dogmas of Christianity as thoroughly as Christians
possibly can the principles of Freethought. But free thought and free
speech are the leading tenets of their creed. They recognize the fact
that we are all the children of circumstances, that our belief is
determined by our environments, and while they reject Christianity, they
have nothing but charity for those who conscientiously profess it. They
may repudiate a bigot, but will not oppose a man merely because he is
a Christian. If Lincoln were an Infidel, discretion might urge a
concealment of his views; if he were a Christian, policy would prompt
him to give it as wide a publicity as possible, especially when he
rested under the imputation of being a disbeliever. Had he changed his
belief and become a convert to Christianity, a knowledge of the fact
would not have lost him the support of his friends, even though some
of them were Freethinkers; while it would have secured for him a more
cordial support from the Republican side of the church, many of whom had
been alienated on account of his supposed anti-Christian sentiments.
It is hard to believe that Lincoln was a hypocrite; but this story,
if true, makes him not only a hypocrite but a fool. If he believed in
Christianity there can be but one reason advanced for his desiring to
keep it a secret--he was ashamed of it.
Holland, in trying to explain away the inconsistencies of this
fabrication, repeatedly blunders. In one of his attempts he makes use of
the following remarkable language:
"It was one of the peculiarities of Mr. Lincoln to hide these religious
experiences from the eyes of the world.... They [his friends] did not
regard him as a religious man. They had never seen anything but the
active lawyer, the keen politician, the jovial, fun-loving companion
in Mr. Lincoln. All this department of his life he had kept carefully
hidden from them. Why he should say that he was obliged to appear
differently to others does not appear; but the fact is a matter of
history that he never exposed his own religious life to those who had
no sympathy with it. It is doubtful whether the clergymen of Springfield
knew anything of these experiences" (Life of Lincoln, pp. 239, 240).
What! had the clergymen of Springfield no sympathy with a religious
life? A person can utter one falsehood with some degree of plausibility;
but when he attempts to verify it by uttering another, he usually trips
and falls. The above passage is mere hypocritical cant. It carries
with it not only its own refutation, but that of the rest of Holland's
testimony also. It is the language of the man who is conscious of having
stated a falsehood; conscious that there are others who believe it to be
a falsehood. He knew that the personal friends of Lincoln all understood
him to be a disbeliever. He knew that the church-members of Springfield
all entertained the same opinion. He virtually says to these people: "It
is true that Lincoln professed to be an Infidel, but he was not; he was
a Christian. The fact has been kept a profound secret. Bateman and I
have been the sole custodians of this secret, and we now give it to the
world."
A Christian writer, apologizing for the absurd and contradictory
statements of Holland and Bateman, says, "They aimed at the truth." I
do not believe it. It is clearly evident that they aimed at a plausible
lie. But in either case they made a bad shot.
In his "Life of Lincoln," Holland endeavors to convey the impression
that Lincoln was always a devout Christian. He declares that even during
the years of his early manhood at New Salem, "he was a religious man;"
that "he had a deep religious life." When Herndon and Lamon exposed his
shameful misrepresentations he retreated from his first position, and in
_Scribner's Monthly_ wrote as follows:
"What Abraham Lincoln was when he lived at New Salem and wrote an
anti-Christian tract (which the friend to whom he showed it somewhat
violently but most judiciously put in the fire) is one thing, and it may
be necessary for an impartial historian to record it. What he was when
he died at Washington with those most Christian words of the Second
Inaugural upon his lips, and that most Christian record of five years of
patient tenderness and charity behind him, is quite another thing."
He admits that Lincoln was an Infidel in Illinois, but would have us
believe that he was a Christian in Washington. He refers to "those
most Christian words of the Second Inaugural," and "that most Christian
record of five years of patient tenderness and charity." In the Second
Inaugural there is not a word affirming a belief in Christianity--not a
word in reference to Christianity. He mentions God, and quotes from
the Bible, but does not intimate that the Bible is God's word. That
Christians have a monopoly of "patient tenderness and charity," can
hardly be accepted. The history of the church does not confirm this
assumption. Many Christians have possessed these virtues. So have
the votaries of other religions. These attributes belong to good men
everywhere, but they are the distinguishing features of no particular
creed.
Smarting under his exposure, with that whining cant so peculiar to the
vanquished religionist, Holland finally sent forth this parting wail and
virtually abandoned the whole case:
"The question is, not whether Abraham Lincoln was a subscriber to the
creeds of orthodoxy, but whether he was a believing--that is to say,
a truthful Christian man; not whether he was accustomed to call Jesus
Christ 'Lord, Lord,' but whether he was used to do those things which
Jesus Christ exemplified and enforced. He was accustomed, as we know
well enough, to speak of an Almighty Father, of whom justice and mercy
and sympathy with weak and suffering humanity were characteristic
attributes. Who was it that revealed to man a God like this? Who was it
that once 'showed us the Father and it sufficed us?' Whoever it was that
made this revelation to mankind it was of him that this man, even though
he knew it not, had learned, and it was in his spirit that he acted"
(Scribner's Monthly).
The concluding words of Dr. Holland's testimony, as quoted from his
"Life of Lincoln," are as follows:
"Moderate, frank, truthful, gentle, forgiving, loving, just, Mr. Lincoln
will always be remembered as eminently a Christian President; and
the almost immeasurably great results which he had the privilege of
achieving were due to the fact that he was a Christian President."
This prediction and this assumption are false, change one word and make
them grandly true.
"Moderate, frank, truthful, gentle, forgiving, loving, just, Mr. Lincoln
will always be remembered as eminently a Liberal President; and
the almost immeasurably great results which he had the privilege of
achieving were due to the fact that he was a Liberal President."
CHAPTER III. REVIEW OF CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY--REED AND HIS WITNESSES.
Reed--Smith--Edwards--Lewis--Brooks--Statements of Edwards,
Smith, and Brooks Compared--Sunderland--Miner--Gurley--
Failure of Reed to Establish his Claims.
Of the twenty Christian witnesses whose testimony is given in
Chapter I., ten admit that, during a part of his life, Lincoln was an
unbeliever, or Infidel. Of the remaining ten, not one denies the fact.
It is conceded, then, that he was once an Infidel. Now, it is a rule of
law that when a certain state or condition of things is once proven to
exist, that state or condition is presumed to continue to exist until
the contrary is proven. If Lincoln was, at one time, an Infidel, it is
fair to assume that he remained an Infidel, unless it can be shown that
he changed his belief and became a Christian. This Dr. Reed attempts to
do.
His lecture, under the caption of "The Later Life and Religious
Sentiments of Abraham Lincoln," will be found in _Scribner's Monthly_
for July, 1873. The evidence presented by Lamon had placed Dr. Holland
in a most unenviable light. As Reed's lecture reaffirmed the claim
made by Holland, and brought forward fresh evidence to substantiate the
claim, it was naturally regarded by many Christians as a vindication of
Holland's position, especially by those who had not read Lamon's work.
Holland was particularly pleased at its opportune appearance, and
cheerfully gave it a place in his magazine.
Reed's individual testimony proves nothing. He does not profess to know,
from personal knowledge, what Lincoln's religious views were. The object
of his lecture was to invalidate, if possible, the testimony of those
who affirmed that he died an Infidel, and to present, in addition to
what had already been presented by Holland, the testimony of those who
affirmed that during the last years of his life he was a Christian. To
answer his witnesses is to answer his lecture.
The Rev. Dr. Smith affirms that he converted Lincoln to a belief in
"_the divine authority and inspiration of the Scriptures._" It was
imperative that he should, for, said he, "It was my honor to place
before Mr. Lincoln arguments designed to prove _the divine authority and
inspiration of the Scriptures._" As a matter of course, "the result was
the announcement by himself that the arguments in favor of _the divine
authority and inspiration of the Scriptures_ were unanswerable."
Consequently, "Mr. Lincoln did avow his belief in the _divine authority
and inspiration of the Scriptures_."
Impressed with a deep sense of the gravity and importance of his work,
he declares that "It is a matter of the last importance not only to the
present but to all future generations of the great Republic, and to all
advocates of civil and religious liberty throughout the world that this
avowal on his part,... should be made known to the public," coupled with
the more important fact, of course, that it was Dr. Smith who did it.
It is to be regretted that his waiting until after Lincoln's death to
announce it, prevented the convert's Christian friends from tendering
their congratulations and extending the hand of fellowship. It is
possible that he counseled Dr. Smith not to divulge the secret for fear
it might injure his political prospects. Certain it is, his neighbors
were ignorant of this remarkable change. When Holland canvassed
Springfield, in 1865, eager to obtain a morsel of evidence upon which to
base his claim that Lincoln was a Christian, he failed to catch even the
faintest whisper regarding this alleged conversion.
When Dr. Smith's letter was made public, the Christians of Springfield
generally smiled, but said nothing, while unbelievers laughed outright
and pronounced it the acme of absurdity. Dr. Reed read it to his
audience and tried to look serious.
Concerning this claim, Lincoln's biographer, Colonel Lamon, says:
"The abilities of this gentleman to discuss such a topic to the
edification of a man like Mr. Lincoln seem to have been rather slender;
but the chance of converting so distinguished a person inspired him with
a zeal which he might not have felt for the salvation of an obscurer
soul. Mr. Lincoln listened to his exhortations in silence, apparently
respectful, and occasionally sat out his sermons in church with as much
patience as other people. Finding these oral appeals unavailing, Mr.
Smith composed a heavy tract out of his own head to suit the particular
case. 'The preparation of that work,' says he, 'cost me long and arduous
labor;' but it does not appear to have been read. Mr. Lincoln took the
'work' to his office, laid it down without writing his name on it,
and never took it up again to the knowledge of a man who inhabited the
office with him, and who saw it lying on the same spot every day for
months. Subsequently Mr. Smith drew from Mr. Lincoln an acknowledgment
that his argument was unanswerable--not a very high compliment under the
circumstances" (Life of Lincoln, p. 498).
The gentleman whom Colonel Lamon refers to as testifying that Lincoln
did not read Dr. Smith's book was Lincoln's partner, Mr. Herndon. In his
lecture on "Lincoln's Religion," Mr. Herndon says:
"Mr. Lincoln received a book from Dr. Smith on Infidelity. He placed it
on our law table. He never opened it--never read it to my knowledge."
If Dr. Smith had converted Lincoln, as claimed, is it not reasonable
to suppose that he would have joined Dr. Smith's church? Had he been
converted would the clergymen of Springfield have denounced him as
an Infidel in 1860? Again, if Dr. Smith's book was so effective as to
convert from Infidelity to Christianity as great a mind as Lincoln, why
have we not heard more of it? Why has it not been used to convert other
Infidels? Was its vitality as an evangelizer exhausted in converting
Lincoln?
Mr. Reed was a trifle more successful than Dr. Holland in obtaining
witnesses; for while Holland was able to secure but one witness in
Illinois, Reed was able to summon two--Ninian Edwards and Thomas Lewis.
The testimony of Mr. Edwards, providing that he was the author of the
letter accredited to him, can only be accounted for on the following
supposition. Being a believer in Christianity himself, he considered
Lincoln's Infidelity a grave defect in his character, and was vexed to
see that this controversy had given it such wide publicity. To assist
in removing this stain, as he regarded it, from his kinsman's name, he
allowed to be published over his signature a statement which, unless his
memory was very treacherous, he must have known was untrue.
It may be that Lincoln did change his views in regard to some historical
or doctrinal point connected with Christianity, and informed Mr. Edwards
and other friends at the time of the fact. He might have changed his
opinions on a hundred theological questions without having in the least
changed his views in relation to the main or fundamental doctrines of
Christianity. An admission concerning some trivial question connected
with Christianity has been tortured to convey the idea that he accepted
the whole system.
A prominent and respected citizen of Springfield, a gentleman whose name
has, as yet, not been mentioned in connection with this controversy,
had a conversation with Mr. Edwards relative to this subject, soon after
Reed's lecture was published, and, as the result of that conversation,
he writes as follows: "Mr. Edwards was not as good a witness on oral
examination as he was in print."
The letter of Mr. Edwards is dated Dec. 24, 1872. On Jan. 6, 1873, the
letter of Thomas Lewis was written. After two weeks of arduous labor,
Reed, it seems, succeeded in finding one witness in Springfield who was
prepared to corroborate the testimony of Edwards--Thomas Lewis.
In a lecture on Lincoln which appeared in the _State Register_, of
Springfield, Mr. Herndon disposed of this witness as follows:
"Mr. Lewis's veracity and integrity in this community need no comment.
I have heard good men say they would not believe his word under any
circumstances, especially if he were interested. I hate to state this
of Tom, but if he will obtrude himself in this discussion, I cannot help
but say a word in self-defense. Mr. Lincoln detested this man, I know.
The idea that Mr. Lincoln would go to Tom Lewis and reveal to him his
religious convictions, is to me, and to all who know Mr. Lincoln and Tom
Lewis, too absurd."
The introduction of this Lewis as a witness demonstrates the paucity
of evidence to be obtained on this side of the question among Lincoln's
neighbors. Reed, living in a city of twenty thousand inhabitants, many
of them the personal friends of Abraham Lincoln, after a vigorous search
for evidence, is able only to present this pitiable apology.
I have reason to believe that the letters of Edwards and Lewis were
drafted, not by the persons whose signatures they bear, but by the Rev.
J. A. Reed.
We come next to the testimony of Noah Brooks. Mr. Edwards, supported
by Mr. Lewis, states that Lincoln was converted soon after Dr. Smith
located at Springfield, and about the time of his son Eddie's death. Dr.
Smith came to Springfield in 1848, and Eddie died toward the close of
the same year. Dr. Smith, in his letter, does not state when Lincoln's
conversion took place, but it is understood from other sources that he
claimed that it occurred about the year 1858. Mr. Brooks, in his letter
to Dr. Reed, says: "Speaking to me of the change which had come upon
him, he said, while he could not fix any definite time, yet it was after
he came here [Washington], and I am very positive that in his own mind
he identified it with about the time of Willie's death."
Willie's death occurred in February, 1862, nearly fourteen years after
the death of Eddie, and four years after Smith claimed to have converted
Lincoln. Thus it will be seen that these witnesses nullify each other.
The testimony of each is contradicted and refuted by the testimony of
the other two. Mr. Edwards says that Lincoln was converted in 1848. This
is contradicted by the testimony of both Smith and Brooks. According to
Dr. Smith his conversion happened about 1858. This is contradicted by
the testimony of both Edwards and Brooks. Mr. Brooks is quite positive
that it took place about the time of Willie's death, in 1862. This, in
turn, is contradicted by the testimony of both Edwards and Smith. If Mr.
Edwards is right, both Dr. Smith and Mr. Brooks are wrong. If Dr. Smith
is correct, both Mr. Edwards and Mr. Brooks are incorrect. If Mr.
Brooks has stated the truth both Mr. Edwards and Dr. Smith have stated
falsehoods.
The testimony of these witnesses does not strengthen Reed's case, but
weakens it. The testimony of two of them is self-evidently false, and
this is a sufficient reason for doubting the truthfulness of the third.
Had the evidence of neither Edwards nor Smith been invalidated by the
evidence of the others, the fact that Lincoln is so generally conceded
to have been an unbeliever up to the time that he became President,
would render it unworthy of consideration. The testimony of Brooks alone
demands notice. Did Lincoln change his belief after he left Springfield
and went to Washington? The evidence upon this point is decisive.
The man who stood nearest to President Lincoln at Washington--nearer
than any clergyman or newspaper correspondent--was his private
secretary, Col. John G. Nicolay. In a letter dated May 27, 1865, Colonel
Nicolay says:
"Mr. Lincoln did not, to my knowledge, in any way change his religious
ideas, opinions, or beliefs from the time he left Springfield to the day
of his death."
In a letter to his old friend, Judge Wakefield, written after Willie's
death, he declared that his earlier views of the unsoundness of the
Christian scheme of salvation, and the human origin of the Scriptures,
had become clearer and stronger with advancing years, and he did not
think he should ever change them.
After his assassination Mrs. Lincoln said: "Mr. Lincoln had no hope and
no faith in the usual acceptance of these words." His lifelong friend
and executor, Judge David Davis, affirmed the same: "He had no faith
in the Christian sense of the term." His biographer, Colonel Lamon,
intimately acquainted with him in Illinois, and with him during all the
years that he lived in Washington, says: "Never in all that time did he
let fall from his lips or his pen an expression which remotely implied
the slightest faith in Jesus as the son of God and the Savior of men."
Why do the statements of these witnesses, Smith, Edwards, and Brooks,
not agree respecting the date of Lincoln's conversion? When their
testimony was given, Smith was in Scotland, Edwards was in Illinois, and
Brooks was in New York.
If he was converted, why was the fact not revealed before his death? Why
did these men wait until he died to make these statements to the world?
Simply because the dead can make no reply.
Had Lincoln been converted, the news would have been wafted on the wings
of lightning from one end of the continent to the other. It would have
been published in every newspaper; it would have been proclaimed from
every pulpit; it would have been a topic of conversation at every
fireside. When Henry Wilson, a man of far less note than Lincoln, was
converted to Christianity, the fact was heralded all over the land.
Lincoln's home was twice visited by death during his lifetime, and both
occasions have been seized upon to assert that he experienced a change
of heart. The death of a beloved child is no common sorrow, and the
womanly tenderness of Lincoln's heart made it doubly poignant to him.
"When death entered his household," says his friend, George W. Julian,
"his sorrow was so consuming that it could only be measured by the
singular depth and intensity of his love." That Mr. Edwards and Mr.
Brooks did each observe a change in the demeanor of the grief-stricken
father, following the sad events referred to, is not improbable. But a
manifestation of sorrow is no proof of a theological change.
Three of Reed's witnesses remain--three clergymen--Dr. Sunderland, Dr.
Miner, and Dr. Gurley. Dr. Sunderland is a man of distinction. He has
had the honor of praying for the United States Senate and officiating at
the marriage of a President. Yet, distinction is not always the badge of
honesty. W. H. Burr, a literary gentleman, of Washington, writing to
a Boston paper in 1880, paid the following tribute to Dr. Sunderland's
veracity: "He can probably put more falsehood and calumny in a page of
foolscap than any priest out of prison."
Mr. Sunderland called upon the President in 1862. In his letter to Reed
he says: "For one half hour [he] poured forth a volume of the deepest
Christian philosophy I ever heard." Notwithstanding ten years had
elapsed since that visit, he proceeded to give from memory a verbatim
report of Lincoln's remarks. The report is too long to reproduce in
this work, and even if correct, would add but little to the weight of
Christian evidence already presented. It is merely an ethical discourse,
and aside from a few indirect admissions in favor of Christianity for
which Sunderland doubtless drew upon his imagination, there is nothing
that Paine or any other Deist might not with propriety have uttered.
Those who wish to peruse Mr. Sunderland's letter will find it in
_Scribner's Monthly_ for July, 1873.
Dr. Miner, like Dr. Sunderland, had a quiet chat with the President, and
what was said he assures us is too deeply engraved on his memory ever
to be effaced. But, unlike Dr. Sunderland, he does not favor us with a
transcript of it. He does not repeat a word that was uttered. He states,
however, that, "If Mr. Lincoln was not really an experimental Christian,
he was acting like one." But how does an experimental Christian act? If
he behaves himself, if he is intelligent and honest, his actions are not
materially different from those of a good Freethinker. Dr. Miner did not
believe that Lincoln was an experimental Christian, and in his article
there is an implied admission that he knew nothing about his religion.
He says that, "Like the immortal Washington, he believed in the efficacy
of prayer." The comparison is happily drawn. Lincoln probably did
believe as much in the efficacy of prayer as Washington; that is to say,
he did not believe in it at all, in the evangelical sense. There is
no evidence that Washington believed in prayer, no proof that he ever
uttered a prayer. That story about his praying at Valley Forge is as
truly a myth as the story about the hatchet. The Rev. E. D. Neill, an
eminent Episcopal minister, and a relative of the person who is reported
to have seen Washington engaged in prayer, pronounces it a fiction.
Dr. Gurley is represented as saying: "I considered him sound not only
on the truth of the Christian religion, but on all its fundamental
doctrines and teachings." This, remember, is from a Calvinistic
standpoint. Lincoln, then, not only accepted Christianity, but its most
ultra variety--Calvinism. He believed in original sin, predestination
(including infant damnation), particular redemption, irresistible grace,
and perseverance of the saints. Because he sometimes went with his wife
to the Presbyterian church, of which she was an adherent, the priests of
this denomination have the contemptible assurance to assert that he was
a rigid Calvinist!
When he died Dr. Gurley, being Mrs. Lincoln's pastor, delivered the
funeral oration in Washington. In that oration Dr. Gurley did not affirm
that Lincoln was a Christian, a thing he would not have failed to do
had it been true. Long after Lincoln's death, Dr. Gurley, if Reed has
correctly reported him, makes a statement that he had not the courage to
make over his dead body.
A reputable Christian gentleman, of Springfield, who desires to have
his name withheld from the public, declares that Dr. Gurley knew and
admitted that Lincoln was a disbeliever in Christianity.
It is quite probable that Gurley did not state in full what Reed reports
him to have stated. A man who can take up his pen and at one sitting
indite a score of falsehoods and misrepresentations, as Reed, on a
subsequent occasion, is shown to have done, can not be relied upon for
accuracy as a reporter.
The reader has doubtless not failed to notice the introduction of
a claim by Reed to the effect that Lincoln at the time of his
assassination was intending to unite with the church. That the idea was
suggested by Reed is shown by the fact that no less than three of these
witnesses, including Reed, allude to it. Reed says: "While it is to
be regretted that Mr. Lincoln was not spared to indicate his religious
sentiments by a profession of his faith in accordance with the
institutions of the Christian religion, yet it is very clear that he
had this step in view." Dr. Gurley is made to say: "It was his intention
soon to make a profession of religion." Mr. Brooks says: "I absorbed
[the porosity of some of these witnesses is remarkable] the firm
conviction that Mr. Lincoln... was seriously considering the step which
would formally connect him with the visible church on earth."
This _dernier resort_ of an argument has been repeated respecting nearly
every notable person who has died outside of the church. Soon after
the publication of Reed's lecture, the New York _World_ contained the
following pertinent answer to this stale fabrication:
"It is admitted by Mr. Reed and everybody else that Mr. Lincoln was a
working Infidel up to a very late period of his life, that he wrote a
book and labored earnestly to make proselytes to his own views, that he
never publicly recanted, and that he never joined the church. Upon
those who, in the face of these tremendous facts, allege that he was
nevertheless a Christian lies the burden of proof. Let them produce it
or forever hold their peace. In the mean time it is a sad and puerile
subterfuge to argue that he _would_ have been a Christian if he had
lived long enough, and to lament that he was not 'spared' for that
purpose. He _had_ been spared fifty-six years and surrounded by every
circumstance that might soften his heart and every influence that might
elevate his faith. If he was at that late, that fatal hour standing
thus gloomily without the pale, what reason have we to suppose that he
intended ever to enter?"
Reed speaks of "the poverty of his early religious instruction,"
apparently forgetting that he was raised by Christian parents. His
father was a church-member, his mother was a church-member, and his
stepmother was a church-member. Reed states, also, that the books he
read were all of an anti-religious character. Holland, on the contrary,
declares that better books than those he read could not have been chosen
from the richest library. The fact is, Abraham Lincoln did not become an
Infidel to Christianity from a lack of knowledge respecting its claims.
He thoroughly examined its claims, and rejected them because he found
them untenable.
One important feature of this subject Reed has either inadvertently
omitted or purposely ignored, and that is in regard to the validity of
the Bateman story. As the result of previous controversy this evidence
had been rendered valueless. Lincoln's partner had declared it to be
false, had asserted that Mr. Bateman in private conversations
acknowledged it to be in part untrue, and announced his readiness to
substantiate his assertions if Mr. Bateman could be prevailed upon to
permit the publication of his notes of these conversations taken at the
time. If Mr. Herndon's affirmations were true, it destroyed the
testimony of Holland and Bateman; if untrue, it challenged Mr. Bateman
to reaffirm the statements recorded by Holland, and allow the seal of
privacy to be removed from his conversations on the subject. Why did Mr.
Reed not rehabilitate this damaged evidence? Did he forget it? No, it is
plainly evident that he did not dare to attempt it.
In reviewing this Calvinistic _coterie_ of witnesses (they are all
Calvinists, and nearly all Presbyterians), one is struck with the
formidable display of theological appendages. What an imposing array
of D.D.'s! Rev. J. A. Reed, D.D.! Rev. James Smith, D.D.! Rev. Byron
Sunderland, D.D.! Rev. Mr. Miner, D.D.! Rev. Mr. Gurley, D.D.! It was a
desperate case--divinity was sick and needed doctoring. The doctors of
divinity were accordingly called in, and prescribed "The Later Life and
Religious Sentiments of Abraham Lincoln," after which it was supposed
that divinity would recover. He may be better, but it is painfully
apparent that some of these D.D.'s are themselves sadly in need of a
doctor.
CHAPTER IV. REVIEW OF CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY--ARNOLD AND OTHER WITNESSES
Arnold's "Life of Lincoln"--Claims Concerning Lincoln's
Religious Belief--Address to Negroes of Baltimore--
Carpenter--Hawley--Willets--Pious Nurse--"Western Christian
Advocate"--Illinois Clergyman--Barrows--Vinton--Simpson.
With the Christian masses whose minds have become warped by the bigoted
teachings of their clerical leaders, nothing affects the reputation of a
man so much as his religious belief. Public men who are disbelievers
are fully cognizant of this, and generally refrain from expressing
sentiments that would tend to alienate those upon whom the retention
of their positions depends. Biographers understand this, too, and are
likewise aware that a dead Infidel is as cordially hated as a live one.
They know that a cold reception awaits their works unless they are
able to clothe the characters of their subjects in the robes of popular
superstition. Mr. Arnold realized this when he wrote his "Life of
Lincoln." He had been most forcibly reminded of the fact by the fate of
two biographies of his own subject which had already appeared--Holland's
and Lamon's. Holland's work by catering to popular prejudice, regardless
of truth, had been financially a success; Lamon's work by adhering to
truth, regardless of popular prejudice, had been financially a failure.
Determined to profit by these examples, and intimidated by the threats
and entreaties of those who had resolved to secure for Christianity
the influence of the Great Emancipator's name, Arnold dare not give the
facts regarding Lincoln's religious belief. Nor is it to be presumed
that he desired to. He had previously appeared as a special pleader for
the popular faith.
He affirms that "No more reverent Christian than Lincoln ever sat in
the Executive chair, not excepting Washington." The fact is, when Arnold
wrote his biography of Lincoln, no very reverent Christian ever had
occupied the Executive chair. Previous to the installation of Gen. B. H.
Harrison no real orthodox Christian communicant had held the office of
President.
If Mr. Arnold knew no more about Lincoln's religion than he appears
to have known about Washington's, a more charitable reason than those
suggested might be assigned for his statements concerning the former.
Washington, like Lincoln, has been claimed by the church; yet,
Washington, like Lincoln, was a Deist. This is admitted even by the
leading churchmen of his day. Three of the most eminent divines of his
age, and the three to whom he was most intimately related in a social
way, were Bishop White, Rev. Dr. Abercrombie, and Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green.
Bishop White declares that Washington was not a communicant, as
claimed by some, and intimates that he was a disbeliever. The Rev. Dr.
Abercrombie, whose church he attended while he was President, said:
"Washington was a Deist." The Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green, chaplain to
Congress during his administration, said: "Like nearly all the founders
of the Republic, he was not a Christian, but a Deist."
Arnold presents the following as the basis of Lincoln's religion, and
proofs of his Christianity: "(1) Belief in the existence of God, (2) in
the immortality of the soul, (3) in the Bible as the revelation of God
to man, (4) in the efficacy and duty of prayer, (5) in reverence toward
the Almighty, and (6) in love and charity to man."
1. "Belief in the existence of God." This does not prove a belief in
Christianity. The Jew believes in the existence of God; the Mohammedan
believes in the existence of God; the Deistic Infidel believes in the
existence of God.
2. "Belief in the immortality of the soul." That he believed in the
immortality of the soul is a claim that cannot be clearly established;
and even if it could, would not confirm the assumption that he was a
Christian. Deists, many of them, believe in the doctrine of immortality.
Paine believed in immortality; Voltaire believed in immortality.
3. "Belief in the Bible as the revelation of God to man." This, if
true, would be evidence of his Christianity; but, unfortunately for Mr.
Arnold's claim, Lincoln did not entertain this belief.
4. "Belief-in the efficacy and duty of prayer." This, in the orthodox
sense of these terms, is not true; and if it were, would not furnish
conclusive evidence that he was a Christian. Jews pray; Mohammedans
pray; Buddhists pray; some Deists pray. Franklin believed in the
efficacy and duty of prayer, and Franklin was an Infidel.
5. "Belief in reverence to the Almighty." This does not demonstrate
a belief in Christianity, for all Deists believe in reverence to the
Almighty.
6. "Belief in love and charity to man." When it can be shown that only
Christians believe in love and charity, then will it be time to affirm
that Lincoln was a Christian.
Arnold confounds Christianity with Deism. In the following words he
admits that Lincoln was simply a Deist: "Not orthodox, not a man of
creeds, he was a man of simple trust in God."
When the subject of Lincoln's belief was once mentioned to Mr. Arnold,
he said: "Lincoln was a rational Christian because he believed in
morality." With equal propriety one might say of an upright Christian,
"He is a rational Freethinker because he believes in morality."
"His reply to the Negroes of Baltimore," he says, "ought to silence
forever those who charge him with unbelief." This alleged reply of
Lincoln was as follows:
"In regard to the Great Book I have only to say that it is the best gift
which God has given to man. All the good from the Savior of the world
is communicated to us through this book. But for this book we could not
know right from wrong. All those things desirable to man are contained
in it" (Lincoln Memorial Album, p. 340).
The writer of this was in Washington when the colored deputation
from Baltimore presented the President with a $500 Bible. The papers
mentioned the fact at the time, but no such speech as Lincoln is said
to have made appeared in the reports. About two months later, this
apocryphal version of his remarks on the occasion referred to, made its
appearance.
The first two sentences contained in this speech (the only part of it
that Arnold has quoted), Lincoln, if a Christian, might have uttered.
They are words that any intelligent Christian might, from his
standpoint, with propriety affirm. We are familiar with these claims.
We are also familiar with the claims embodied in the last two sentences.
They are repeatedly made. But they are made only by very ignorant
persons, or by clerical hypocrites who try to impose upon the ignorance
and credulity of their hearers. Had Lincoln been a Christian he would
not have used these words, because he was too intelligent to believe
them, and too honest to pretend to believe them.
Concerning this speech, Lincoln's partner, Mr. Herndon, thus vigorously,
yet truthfully, remarks:
"I am aware of the fraud committed on Mr. Lincoln in reporting some
insane remarks supposed to have been made by him, in 1864, on the
presentation of a Bible to him by the colored people of Baltimore. No
sane man ever uttered such folly, and no sane man will ever believe it.
In that speech Mr. Lincoln is made to say: 'But for this book we could
not know right from wrong.' Does any human being believe that Lincoln
ever uttered this? What did the whole race of man do to know right from
wrong during the countless years that passed before this book was given
to the world? How did the struggling race of man build up its grand
civilizations in the world before this book was given to mankind? What
do the millions of people now living, who never heard of this book, do
to know how to distinguish right from wrong? Was Lincoln a fool, an
ass, a hypocrite, or a combination of them all? or is this speech--this
supposed--this fraudulent speech--a lie?"
Arnold would have his readers believe that this speech is genuine.
And yet it is plainly evident that he himself does not believe it.
He mutilates it by omitting the more orthodox portion of it--the very
portion he would have retained had he believed it to be genuine. The
first part would suffice to serve his purpose; the remainder he knew was
too incredible for belief and would stamp the whole as a fraud.
Arnold says: "The veil between him and the supernatural was very thin."
Yes, so thin that he easily saw through it and recognized the greater
part of it to be a sham.
"His faith in a Divine Providence began at his mother's knee, and ran
through all the changes of his life." I do not desire to charge Mr.
Arnold with plagiarism, but the foregoing recalls the following much
admired passage to be found in Holland: "This unwavering faith in a
Divine Providence began at his mother's knee, and ran like a thread of
gold through all the inner experiences of his life" (Life of Lincoln,
pp. 61, 62).
There is much in Arnold's biography, aside from the above, to suggest
that Holland's work formed the basis and model of his own. While more
accurate in the main than Holland's "Life," Arnold's "Life" is in some
respects equally unreliable, and less readable.
Adverting to the many fraudulent stories that have been circulated
concerning Lincoln, in an address delivered in London, Mr. Arnold said:
"The newspapers in America have always been full of Lincoln stories and
anecdotes, some true and many fabulous." Unfortunately for the cause of
truth, Mr. Arnold has himself recorded some of these fabulous stories,
not because he deemed them authentic, but because they agreed with his
preconceived prejudices, or the prejudices of those whom he wished to
please.
Mr. Carpenter says: "I would scarcely have called Mr. Lincoln a
religious man, and yet I believe him to have been a sincere Christian."
In a letter, Mr. Herndon makes the following correction in regard to his
friend Carpenter's statement:
"Mr. Carpenter has not expressed his own ideas correctly. To say that a
man is a Christian and yet not a religious man is absurd. _Religion_ is
the generic term including all forms of religion; _Christianity_ is a
specific term representing one form of religion. Carpenter means to say
that Mr. Lincoln was a religious man but not a Christian, and this is
the truth."
It is unfortunate that while in many cases we have several words to
express the same idea, the same word in many cases is employed to
express different ideas. Ideas thus become confused. If the terms
_morality, religion, and Christianity_, were always used in their
legitimate sense--used to express the ideas of which they were the
original signs--much trouble and ambiguity would be avoided. As it is,
they are promiscuously used as interchangeable terms. Many use the
word _religion_ and even _Christianity_ when they mean morality. Mr.
Carpenter uses the word _religious_ in its proper sense, and the word
_Christian_ to mean a _moral man_. The following examples will serve to
illustrate the various forms employed to express the thought now under
consideration:
"I would scarcely have called Mr. Lincoln a religious man, and yet I
believe him to have been a sincere Christian."--_Carpenter_.
"I would scarcely have called Mr. Lincoln a Christian, and yet I believe
him to have been a truly religious man."--_Herndon_.
I would scarcely have called Mr. Lincoln a religious man, and yet I
believe him to have been a truly moral man.--_Author_.
We all desire to express substantially the same thought. I do not wish
to dictate to Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Herndon what words they shall
employ to convey an idea, but this explanation is essential to a proper
understanding of the question in dispute and will help to reconcile much
of the apparently conflicting testimony presented in this work.
As Lincoln was in a certain sense a Deist, the religious element was not
entirely wanting in him, and hence the statement of Mr. Herndon that he
was a religious man is, in a degree, true.
The basis of Carpenter's work was a series of articles contributed to
the New York _Independent_. When it was decided to publish these in book
form, to swell them into a volume of the desired size, to his personal
reminiscences he added many of the stories pertaining to Lincoln then
going the rounds of the press. Although he was as it were a member of
Lincoln's household six months he failed to hear from Lincoln's lips a
word expressing a belief in Christianity. These apocryphal stories, and
these alone, contain all the evidences of Lincoln's alleged piety to
be found in Carpenter's book. And his admission that Lincoln was not a
religious man disproves them.
Mr. Hawley professed to believe that Lincoln was a Christian, but he had
no personal knowledge of the fact, although his neighbor for many years.
The only reasons he was able to adduce upon which to predicate his
belief were the Bateman story and his farewell speech on leaving
Springfield. The former has been exploded, the latter proves nothing.
During all the later years of his life Lincoln generally refrained from
expressing his anti-Christian opinions, except to friends who shared his
views. This silence, in connection with his sterling moral character,
might lead some of his Christian neighbors to suppose that he was a
believer, the more especially as Christians are generally ignorant of
the extent of unbelief, and are loath to believe that a person, unless
he openly avows his disbelief, can be an Infidel.
According to Mr. Willets, Lincoln, during the war, had an attack of what
he thought might be a "change of heart." He consulted a pious lady in
regard to it and requested her to describe to him the symptoms attending
this theological disease. She defined "a true religious experience" as
"a conviction of one's own sinfulness and weakness, and personal need of
the Savior for strength and support." She said that "when one was really
brought to feel his need of divine help, and to seek the aid of the Holy
Spirit for strength and guidance, it was satisfactory evidence of his
having been born again." Lincoln replied that if what she had told him
was "a correct view of this great subject," he hoped he was a Christian.
But was this a correct view of it? I was not aware that conviction
constituted conversion. We have been taught that conviction is but a
preliminary step toward conversion. If Lincoln relied upon this as a
true exposition of this doctrine, the genuineness of his conversion may
well be questioned.
It is to be regretted that Mr. Willets did not give the name of
his informant. As it is, we do not know whether to credit "a lady
acquaintance of his," or himself, with the invention of a first-class
fiction.
In regard to the story of the "Pious Nurse," we have not even a
clergyman to vouch for its authenticity. We do not know the name of this
witness; we do not know whom she communicated the story to; we do not
know when nor where it made its first appearance. We only know that for
years it has been floating through the columns of the religious press, a
companion-piece to Washington's devotional exercise at Valley Forge.
"History," said Napoleon, "is a set of lies agreed upon." Of the many
lies agreed upon by Christian writers in making up the history of
Lincoln, none has become more thoroughly established than the one
originally published by the _Western Christian Advocate_. It has been
incorporated into the works of a score of historians and biographers,
and is almost universally accepted as a historical fact.
Nearly all the pious stories relating to Lincoln, while palpably false
in the eyes of those who knew him, are yet of such a nature as to render
a complete refutation of them extremely difficult. The story under
consideration, however, is of a different character. Its truthfulness
or falsity could at the time of its publication have been easily
ascertained. If true, any member of Lincoln's cabinet could have
verified it. I knew that it was untrue--at least I knew that a Cabinet
meeting had never been transformed into a prayer meeting at Lincoln's
suggestion. I finally resolved to demonstrate its falsity if possible.
But a quarter of a century had passed away, and every member of
Lincoln's Cabinet was dead save one, Hugh McCulloch, his last Secretary
of the Treasury. With the aid of a friend, Mr. N. P. Stockbridge, of
Ft. Wayne, Ind., an old acquaintance of Mr. McCulloch's, I succeeded
in bringing the matter before this only surviving witness, and received
from his pen, in February, 1891, the following prompt denial:
"The description of what occurred at the Executive Mansion, when the
intelligence was received of the surrender of the Confederate forces,
which you quote from the _Western Christian Advocate_, is not only
absolutely groundless, but absurd. After I became Secretary of the
Treasury I was present at every Cabinet meeting, and I never saw Mr.
Lincoln or any of his ministers upon his knees or in tears.
"We were not especially jubilant over Lee's surrender, for this we had
been prepared for some days. The time for our great rejoicing was a
little earlier. After Sherman had commenced his celebrated march to the
sea, and long and weary days had passed without any reliable reports
from him, we were filled with anxiety and apprehension. It was when
the news came that he and his army, in excellent condition, were in the
neighborhood of Charleston, that our joy was irrepressible; not only
because of their safety, but because it was an assurance that the days
of the Confederacy were nearly ended. With Grant before Richmond in
command of superior forces, and Sherman with the finest army in the
world, ready to move northward, everybody felt that the war must be soon
concluded, and that the Union was safe.
"We were, of course, happy when General Lee and his severely tried
soldiers laid down their arms, but this, as I have said, was not
unexpected. It was when our anxiety in regard to Sherman was succeeded
by hopefulness and confidence that our joy became exuberant. But there
was no such exhibition of it as has been published by the _Advocate._"
An "Illinois Clergyman" reports Lincoln as saying that when he left
Springfield he was not a Christian, that when his son Willie died he was
not a Christian, but that when he visited the battlefield of Gettysburg
he gave his heart to Christ. Christians cite the testimony of this
anonymous witness, seemingly unconscious of the fact that if true
it refutes the testimony of every other Christian witness. If this
statement be true what becomes of the testimony of Holland and Bateman?
What becomes of the testimony of Reed's witnesses? The testimony of
Brooks invalidated the testimony of every other witness; the testimony
of this Illinois clergyman invalidates the testimony of Brooks itself.
Reed did not present this evidence, doubtless aware that his lecture
already contained a sufficient number of discrepancies. He was
thoughtful enough, however, to anticipate it. He had Dr. Gurley refer to
Lincoln's conversion as taking place "after the death of his son Willie
and his visit to the battlefield of Gettysburg." These events are
referred to as if they occurred in close proximity to each other;
whereas the death of Willie occurred during the first year of his
administration, his visit to Gettysburg less than seventeen months
before his assassination.
The passage quoted from Dr. Barrows contains six specific affirmations.
1. "In the anxious uncertainties of the great war, he gradually rose to
the hights where Jehovah became to him the sublimest of realities, the
ruler of nations."
Collect all the utterances of Abraham Lincoln, all the letters he ever
wrote, all the speeches he ever delivered, all the state papers he gave
to the public; and from this full store of words that fell from his lips
and flowed from his pen, I challenge Dr. Barrows to produce one word
expressing a recognition of Jehovah. Jehovah was to him, not "the
sublimest of realities," not "the ruler of nations," but a hideous
phantom. He recognized a God, but his God was not Jehovah, the God of
Dr. Barrows.
2. "When he wrote his immortal Proclamation, he invoked upon it not
only 'the considerate judgment of mankind' but 'the gracious favor of
Almighty God.'"
When he wrote his immortal Proclamation he did not invoke "the gracious
favor of Almighty God." This instrument, as drafted by Lincoln,
contained no allusion to God. The paragraph containing the words quoted
was drafted by Secretary Chase and inserted in the Proclamation at his
urgent request after it was printed and ready for delivery.
3. "When darkness gathered over the brave armies fighting for the
nation's life, this strong man, in the early morning, knelt and wrestled
in prayer with Him who holds in his hand the fate of empires."
A "Christian lady from Massachusetts" (name unknown), and a Christian
gentleman from New York (Noah Brooks), declare that Lincoln was
accustomed to pray. This declaration is echoed by Arnold, and reechoed
by Barrows. If true, is it not strange that a hospital nurse and
a newspaper reporter were in possession of the fact while his most
intimate friends were entirely ignorant of it?
4. "When the clouds lifted above the carnage of Gettysburg, he gave his
heart to the Lord Jesus Christ."
This is the fifth time that Lincoln gave his heart to Christ. The above
statement is the vital one in Dr. Barrows's testimony--the keystone in
the arch comprising "the religious aspects" of Lincoln's Presidential
career. The others, even if true, only prove a Theistic belief. This
statement affirms that he became a Christian--a statement evidently
based upon the anonymous story of the "Illinois clergyman." Between
the original presented by the "Illinois clergyman" at large, and that
presented by the Illinois clergyman from Chicago, however, a grave
discrepancy appears. From the time that "the clouds lifted above the
carnage of Gettysburg" to the time that Lincoln visited its cemetery, a
period of twenty weeks had elapsed. Now, did Lincoln give his heart to
Christ when the battle ended on the 3rd of July, as stated by the one,
or not until he stood upon the battle-field on the 19th of November, as
asserted by the other? This is a question that we leave for the Illinois
clergymen themselves to decide.
5. "When he pronounced his matchless oration on the chief battle-field
of the war, he gave expression to the resolve that 'this nation, under
God, should have a new birth of freedom.'"
This simple Deistic phrase, "under God," is the only utterance of a
religious character to be found in that oration. When this speech was
delivered, Lincoln, it is claimed, had experienced a change of
heart, and consecrated himself to Christ. This address furnishes an
overwhelming refutation of the claim. At the dedication of a cemetery,
surrounded by thousands of graves, he ignores Christianity, and even the
doctrine of immortality.
6. "And when he wrote his last Inaugural Address, he gave to it the
lofty tone of an old Hebrew psalm."
This is true; and it is likewise true that in that document he made no
more reference to Christianity than did the Hebrew psalmist who lived
and wrote a thousand years before it had its birth.
The "Lincoln Memorial Album," in which Dr. Barrows's article appears,
contains the offerings of two hundred contributors, twenty of them
divines, and among them Lyman Abbot, Dr. Bellows, Theodore L. Cuyler,
Eobert Collyer, Bishop Coxe, Dr. Crosby, Bishop Haven, Philip Schaaf,
and Bishop Simpson. The work is prefaced with a biographical sketch of
Lincoln, written by Isaac N. Arnold, in which he makes substantially the
same statements regarding Lincoln's belief as those made in his "Life
of Lincoln." Aside from this, Dr. Barrows is the only one of these
two hundred memorialists who ventures to affirm that Lincoln was a
Christian.
The story of Dr. Vinton, too absurd to demand serious
consideration--apparently too incredible for belief--is yet believed by
thousands. When such fabulous tales are told by men who are looked upon
as the exponents of morality, and published in papers and periodicals
that are presumed to be the repositories only of truth, it is not
strange that such stories as Washington's Praying at Valley Forge, Ethan
Allen and His Daughter, Don't Unchain the Tiger, Paine's Recanting, and
a thousand and one other pious fictions of a similar character,
have gained popular credence. To read the fabrications of this class
pertaining to Lincoln alone, one would suppose that this
astute statesman, this Chief Magistrate of a great nation, this
Commander-in-Chief of two millions of soldiers, engaged in the most
stupendous civil conflict the world has known, occupied the greater
portion of his time in studying the Scriptures, poring over doctrinal
sermons, participating in prayer-meetings led by pious nurses, and
weeping upon the necks of clerical visitors.
Bishop Simpson's remarks have been presented, not because they furnish
any proofs of Lincoln's reputed Christianity, but because he was one of
the clergymen who officiated at Lincoln's funeral, and because his words
on that occasion have been cited in support of this claim. But he does
not assert that Lincoln was a Christian. He simply testifies to his
belief and trust in God--to his Deistic faith--nothing more.
I am aware that in some of the published reports of his address there
have been interpolated words intended to convey the idea that Lincoln
accepted Christ. Bishop Simpson, I am sure, never authorized the
insertion of these words. They express a claim he never made--a claim he
certainly did not make on the day of Lincoln's interment.
In his funeral address at Washington, Dr. Gurley did not affirm that
Lincoln was a Christian, or that he was intending to make a profession
of religion. Bishop Simpson, in his oration at Springfield, made no
mention of these claims, and Dr. Gurley and Bishop Simpson are known to
have held a consultation before that oration was delivered.
This silence is conclusive evidence that these men knew that Lincoln was
an unbeliever. Commenting on this notable omission, Mr. Herndon says:
"Bishop Simpson delivered the funeral oration, and in that oration there
was not one word about Mr. Lincoln's Christianity. Bishop Simpson was
Lincoln's friend; Dr. Gurley was Lincoln's pastor in Washington, Now
these men knew or had reason to know, Lincoln's religion, and the world
would have heard of his Christianity on the day of his burial if it had
been known. But Simpson and Gurley are silent--dumb before the Christian
world."
One of the most beautiful and exhaustive tributes ever paid to Lincoln,
aside from the matchless tribute paid by Colonel Ingersoll, is that from
the pen of Bishop Simpson which appears in the "Lincoln Memorial Album."
In this tribute he does not make even the remotest allusion to Lincoln's
religious belief. He appears to have heeded the advice tendered a
less discreet Christian writer, and recognized the fact that, from
his standpoint, the less said about the subject the better. Had all
Christians acted as wisely and as honorably in this matter as Bishop
Simpson, this controversy about Lincoln's religion would never have
arisen.
I have now reviewed the testimony of these witnesses. Tested in the
crucible of honest criticism, little remains of their statements save
the dross of falsehood and error. I may be charged with unjust severity
toward these witnesses, nearly all of whom are men of recognized
respectability and distinction. But a majority of them have testified to
what they know to be false, and against those who knowingly bear false
witness no censure can be too severe. Thousands of Christian men and
women, misled by this false testimony, honestly believe and contend
that Lincoln was a Christian. Against these I have not an unkind word
to offer. But I am resolved to disabuse their minds of this erroneous
belief. Painful as the birth of an unwelcome idea is, they shall know
the truth.
CHAPTER V. TESTIMONY OF HON. WILLIAM H. HERNDON--PUBLISHED TESTIMONY
Herndon's Association with Lincoln--Character--Writings--
Competency as a Witness,--The Abbott Letter--Contribution to
the Liberal Age--Article in the Truth Seeker--Herndon's
"Life of Lincoln."
Having presented and reviewed the evidence in behalf of the affirmative
of this question, the evidence in support of the negative will next be
given, and in consideration of his long and intimate association with
Lincoln, and the character and comprehensiveness of his testimony, the
first to testify will be Hon. Wm. H. Herndon, of Springfield, Ill.
In 1843, Lincoln formed a partnership with Mr. Herndon in the law
business, which existed for a period of twenty-two years, and was only
dissolved by the bullet of the assassin. The strong attachment that
these men had for each other is illustrated in the following touching
incident, related in "The Everyday Life of Lincoln:"
"When he was about to leave for Washington, he went to the dingy little
law office which had sheltered his saddest hours. He sat down on the
couch and said to his law-partner, Herndon, 'Billy, you and I have been
together more than twenty years, and have never "passed a word." Will
you let my name stay on the old sign till I come back from Washington?'
The tears started to Mr. Herndon's eyes. He put out his hand. 'Mr.
Lincoln,' said he, 'I will never have any other partner while you live;'
and to the day of the assassination all the doings of the firm were in
the name of 'Lincoln & Herndon'" (Everyday Life of Lincoln, p. 377).
Mr. Herndon died in 1891. Though younger than his illustrious partner,
he was at the time of his death well advanced in years. He had retired
from the active practice of law, and resided at his country home
near Springfield. He was noted for his rugged honesty, for his broad
philanthropy, and for his strong and original mental qualities. He was
one of the pioneers in the antislavery movement, and one of the founders
of the Republican party. He was the Republican nominee for Presidential
Elector of the Springfield district when the first Republican ticket,
Fremont and Dayton, was placed in the field. Governor Bissell, Governor
Yates and Governor Oglesby successively appointed him Bank Commissioner
of Illinois. His talents were recognized and his friendship was sought
by many of the most eminent men in the nation. Garrison stopped for
weeks at his home; Theodore Parker was his guest; Horace Greeley was his
devoted friend, and Charles Sumner was his friend and correspondent.
When Lincoln and Herndon were first thrown into each other's society,
Lincoln's mind was dwelling, for the most part, in the theological (or
rather anti-theological) world, while Herndon's found a most congenial
habitation in the world of politics. They were destined to exercise
an important influence in molding each other's characters. Herndon was
indebted chiefly to Lincoln for the religious views he entertained,
while Lincoln was indebted mainly to Herndon for the political
principles which he finally espoused. Colonel Lamon, in his "Life of
Lincoln," gives the following truthful sketch of the character of the
man whom Lincoln made a Deist, and who in turn made an Abolitionist of
Lincoln. Alluding to the Abolitionists of Illinois, as they appeared in
1854, when Lincoln took his stand on the side of freedom, Lamon says:
"Chief among them was Owen Lovejoy; and second to him, if second to any,
was William H. Herndon. But the position of this latter gentleman
was one of singular embarrassment. According to himself, he was an
Abolitionist 'some time before he was born,' and hitherto he had made
his 'calling and election sure' by every word and act of a life devoted
to political philanthropy and disinterested political labors. While the
two great national parties divided the suffrages of the people, North
and South, everything in his eyes was dead. He detested the bargains by
which those parties were in the habit of composing sectional troubles,
and sacrificing the principle of freedom. When the Whig party paid its
breath to time, he looked upon its last agonies as but another instance
of divine retribution. He had no patience with time-servers, and
regarded with indignant contempt the policy which would postpone
the natural rights of an enslaved race to the success of parties and
politicians. He stood by at the sacrifice of the Whig party in Illinois
with the spirit of Paul when he held the clothes of them that stoned
Stephen. He believed it was for the best, and hoped to see a new party
rise in its place, great in the fervor of its faith, and animated by
the spirit of Wilberforce, Garrison, and the Lovejoys. He was a fierce
zealot, and gloried proudly in his title of 'fanatic;' for it was his
conviction that fanatics were at all times the salt of the earth, with
power to save it from the blight that follows the wickedness of men. He
believed in a God, but it was the God of Nature--the God of Socrates and
Plato, as well as the God of Jacob. He believed in a Bible, but it
was the open scroll of the universe; and in a religion clear and well
defined, but it was a religion that scorned what he deemed the narrow
slavery of verbal inspiration. Hot-blooded, impulsive, brave, morally
and physically, careless of consequences when moved by a sense of
individual duty, he was the very man to receive into his inmost heart
the precepts of Mr. Seward's 'higher law'" (Life of Lincoln, pp. 350,
351).
His literary abilities, both as a speaker and as a writer, were of a
high order. He had written a meritorious work on Mental Philosophy,
and a "Life of Lincoln," which had just been published when he died. In
addition to numerous addresses upon historical, economical, and other
subjects he prepared and delivered several able and interesting lectures
on Lincoln: "Abraham Lincoln and Ann Rutledge," a beautiful and touching
representation of that pathetic and romantic love episode which forms
one of the saddest chapters in Lincoln's history; "The Analysis of
Lincoln's Character," which appears in the "Lincoln Memorial Album," and
"Lincoln's Religion," which was published in the _State Register_, of
Springfield, Ill.
Carpenter, and in fact nearly every writer on Lincoln, has made free use
of Herndon's writings. Carpenter declares that his "masterly 'Analysis
of Lincoln's Character' has scarcely an equal in the annals of
biographical literature." Both Holland and Lamon acknowledge that they
were more deeply indebted to him in the preparation of their respective
works than to any other person. The Petersburg _Democrat_, published in
Menard county, where Lincoln spent the first years of his manhood, says:
"Mr. Herndon was the law partner of Mr. Lincoln from 1843 to 1860, and
knew his inner life better than any other man." The Sangamon county
_Monitor_, of Springfield, where Lincoln lived for a quarter of a
century, says: "Herndon knew Lincoln's views better than any man in
America." Judge David Davis, the lifelong friend of Lincoln, in whose
court both Lincoln and Herndon practiced for years, declared that
Herndon knew more about Lincoln's religion than any other man.
In this chapter will be reproduced the evidence of Mr. Herndon that has
already been made public.
The first elaborate exposition of Lincoln's Free-thought views was made
in 1870, in what is known as the "Abbott Letter," an article which Mr.
Herndon by request contributed to the _Index_, a paper then published at
Toledo, O., and edited by Francis E. Abbott. The article was extensively
copied and commented upon, and produced a profound sensation in the
religious world, which, to a great extent, had been misled by such
writers as Holland. The first and more important part of Mr. Herndon's
article will now be presented:
"Mr. Abbott: Some time since I promised you that I would send a letter
in relation to Mr. Lincoln's religion. I do so now. Before entering on
that question, one or two preliminary remarks will help us to understand
why he disagreed with the Christian world in its principles as well as
in its theology. In the first place, Mr. Lincoln's mind was a purely
logical mind; secondly, Mr. Lincoln was a purely practical man. He
had no fancy or imagination, and not much emotion. He was a realist
as opposed to an idealist. As a general rule, it is true that a purely
logical mind has not much hope, if it ever has faith in the unseen and
unknown. Mr. Lincoln had not much hope and no faith in things that
lie outside of the domain of demonstration; he was so constituted, so
organized, that he could believe nothing unless his senses or logic
could reach it. I have often read to him a law point, a decision, or
something I fancied. He could not understand it until he took the
book out of my hand, and read the thing for himself. He was terribly,
vexatiously skeptical. He could scarcely understand anything, unless he
had time and place fixed in his mind.
"I became acquainted with Mr. Lincoln in 1834, and I think I knew him
well to the day of his death. His mind, when a boy in Kentucky, showed a
certain gloom, an unsocial nature, a peculiar abstractedness, a bold and
daring skepticism. In Indiana, from 1817 to 1830, it manifested the same
qualities or attributes as in Kentucky: it only intensified, developed
itself, along those lines in Indiana. He came to Illinois in 1830, and,
after some little roving, settled in New Salem, now in Menard county
and state of Illinois. This village lies about twenty miles northwest of
this city. It was here that Mr. Lincoln became acquainted with a class
of men the world never saw the like of before or since. They were large
men--large in body and large in mind; hard to whip and never to be
fooled. They were a bold, daring, and reckless sort of men; they were
men of their own minds--believed what was demonstrable; were men of
great common sense. With these men Mr. Lincoln was thrown; with them
he lived, and with them he moved and almost had his being. They were
skeptics all--scoffers some. These scoffers were good men, and their
scoffs were protests against theology--loud protests against the follies
of Christianity. They had never heard of Theism and the newer and better
religious thoughts of this age. Hence, being natural skeptics, and being
bold, brave men, they uttered their thoughts freely. They declared
that Jesus was an illegitimate child. They were on all occasions, when
opportunity offered, debating the various questions of Christianity
among themselves. They took their stand on common sense and on their
own souls; and, though their arguments were rude and rough, no man
could overthrow their homely logic. They riddled all divines, and not
unfrequently made them skeptics, disbelievers as bad as themselves.
They were a jovial, healthful, generous, social, true, and manly set of
people. It was here and among these people that Mr. Lincoln was thrown.
About the year 1834 he chanced to come across Volney's 'Ruins' and
some of Paine's theological works. He at once seized hold of them, and
assimilated them into his own being. Volney and Paine became a part of
Mr. Lincoln from 1834 to the end of his life. "In 1835 he wrote out a
small work on Infidelity, and intended to have it published. This book
was an attack upon the whole grounds of Christianity, and especially
was it an attack upon the idea that Jesus was the Christ, the true and
only-begotten son of God, as the Christian world contends. Mr. Lincoln
was at that time in New Salem, keeping store for Mr. Samuel Hill,
a merchant and postmaster of that place. Lincoln and Hill were very
friendly. Hill, I think, was a skeptic at this time. Lincoln, one day
after the book was finished, read it to Mr. Hill, his good friend. Hill
tried to persuade him not to make it public, not to publish it. Hill
at that time saw in Mr. Lincoln a rising man, and wished him success.
Lincoln refused to destroy it--said it should be published. Hill
swore it should never see light of day. He had an eye on Lincoln's
popularity--his present and future success; and believing that if the
book was published it would kill Lincoln forever, he snatched it from
Lincoln's hand when Lincoln was not expecting it, and ran it into
an old-fashioned tinplate stove, heated as hot as a furnace; and so
Lincoln's book went up to the clouds in smoke. It is confessed by all
who heard parts of it that it was at once able and eloquent; and, if I
may judge of it from Mr. Lincoln's subsequent ideas and opinions, often
expressed to me and to others in my presence, it was able, strong,
plain, and fair. His argument was grounded on the internal mistakes of
the Old and New Testaments, and on reason and on the experiences and
observations of men. The criticisms from internal defects were sharp,
strong, and manly.
"Mr. Lincoln moved to this city in 1837, and here became acquainted
with various men of his own way of thinking. At that time they called
themselves Freethinkers, or free thinking men. I remember all these
things distinctly; for I was with them, heard them, and was one of them.
Mr. Lincoln here found other works--Hume, Gibbon, and others--and drank
them in. He made no secret of his views; no concealment of his religion.
He boldly avowed himself an Infidel.
"When Mr. Lincoln was a candidate for our Legislature, he was accused
of being an Infidel and of having said that Jesus Christ was an
illegitimate child. He never denied his opinions nor flinched from his
religious views. He was a true man, and yet it may be truthfully said
that in 1837 his religion was low indeed. In his moments of gloom he
would doubt, if he did not sometimes deny, God.
"Mr. Lincoln ran for Congress against the Rev. Peter Cartwright in the
year 1846. In that contest he was accused of being an Infidel, if not
an Atheist. He never denied the charge--would not--'would die first.'
In the first place, because he knew it could and would be proved on him;
and in the second place, he was too true to his own convictions, to his
own soul, to deny it.
"When Mr. Lincoln left this city for Washington, I knew he had undergone
no change in his religious opinions or views. He held many of the
Christian ideas in abhorrence, and among them there was this one,
namely, that God would forgive the sinner for a violation of his laws.
Lincoln maintained that God could not forgive; that punishment has to
follow the sin; that Christianity was wrong in teaching forgiveness.
"From what I know of Mr. Lincoln, and from what I have heard and
verily believe, I can say, first, that he did not believe in a special
creation, his idea being that all creation was an evolution under
law; secondly, that he did not believe that the Bible was a special
revelation from God, as the Christian world contends; thirdly, he
did not believe in miracles as understood by Christians; fourthly, he
believed in universal inspiration and miracles under law; fifthly,
he did not believe that Jesus was the Christ, the son of God, as the
Christian church contends; sixthly, he believed that all things,
both matter and mind, were governed by laws, universal, absolute, and
eternal. All his speeches and remarks in Washington conclusively prove
this. Law was to Lincoln everything, and special interferences, shams
and delusions."
In 1874 Mr. Herndon delivered in Springfield a lecture on "Lincoln's
Religion." It was a reply to Reed's lecture, and was published in the
_State Register_, of Springfield. In this lecture he reaffirms the
statements made in the "Abbott Letter," supports them with substantial
arguments and proofs, and completely overthrows the claims advanced by
Reed. From it I quote the following:
"It is a curious fact that when any man by his genius, good fortune,
or otherwise rises to public notice and to fame, it does not make much
difference what life he has led, that the whole Christian world claims
him as a Christian, to be forever held up to view as a hero and a saint
during all the coming ages, just as if religion would die out of the
soul of man unless the great dead be canonized as a model Christian.
This is a species of hero or saint worship. Lincoln they are determined
to enthrone among the saints, to be forever worshiped as such."
"I believe that Mr. Lincoln did not late in life become a firm believer
in the Christian religion. What! Mr. Lincoln discard his logical
faculties and reason with his heart? What! Mr. Lincoln believe that
Jesus was the Christ of God, the true and only begotten son of him, as
the Christian creed contends? What! Mr. Lincoln believe that the New
Testament is of special divine authority, and fully and infallibly
inspired, as the Christian contends? What! Mr. Lincoln abandon his
lifelong ideas of universal, eternal and absolute laws and contend that
the New Testament is any more inspired than Homer's poems, than Milton's
'Paradise Lost,' than Shakspere, than his own eloquent and inspired
oration at Gettysburg? What! Mr. Lincoln believe that the great Creator
had connection through the form and instrumentality of a shadow with a
Jewish girl? Blasphemy! These things must be believed and acknowledged
in order to be a Christian."
"One word concerning this discussion about Mr. Lincoln's religious
views. It is important in this: 1. It settles a historic fact. 2. It
makes it possible to write a true history of a man free from the fear
of fire and stake. 3. It assures the reading public that the life of Mr.
Lincoln will be truly written. 4. It will be a warning forever to all
untrue men, that the life they have lived will be held up to view. 5. It
should convince the Christian pulpit and press that it is impossible in
this day and generation, at least in America, to daub up sin, and make
a hero out of a fool, a knave, or a villain, which Mr. Lincoln was not.
Some true spirit will drag the fraud and lie out to the light of day. 6.
Its tendency will be to arrest and put a stop to romantic biographies.
And now let it be written in history, and on Mr. Lincoln's tomb: 'He
died an unbeliever.'"
In January, 1883, Mr. Herndon contributed an article on "Lincoln's
Religion" to the _Liberal Age_, of Milwaukee. From this article the
following extracts are taken and submitted:
"In 1837, Mr. Lincoln moved to the city of Springfield, and there came
across many people of his own belief. They called themselves at that
time Freethinkers. Some of these men were highly educated and polished
gentlemen. Mr. Lincoln read in this city Hume, Gibbon, and other
Liberal books. He was in this city from 1837 to 1861, an
Infidel--Freethinker--Liberal--Free Religionist--of the radical type."
"In his philosophy, he was a realist, as opposed to an idealist; he was
a sensationalist, as opposed to an intuitionalist; and was a materialist
as opposed to a spiritualist."
"Some good men and women say that Mr. Lincoln was a Christian, because
he was a moral man. They say that he was a _rational_ Christian, because
he loved morality. Do not other people, who are not Christians, love
morality? Morality is not _the_ test of Christianity, by any means.
If it is the test, then all moral men, Atheists, Agnostics, Infidels,
Mohammedans, Buddhists, Mormons, and the rest, are Christians. A
_rational_ Christian is an anomaly, an impossibility; because when
reason is left free, it demands proofs--it relies on experience,
observation, logic, nature, laws. Why not call Mr. Lincoln a rational
Buddhist, a rational Mohammedan, a rational Confucian, a rational
Mormon, for all these, if true to their faith, love morality."
"Did Mr. Lincoln believe in prayer as a means of moving God? It is said
to me by Christians, touching his religion: 'Did not he, in his parting
speech in Springfield, in 1861, say, "I hope you, my friends, will
pray that I may receive," etc.?' and to which I say, yes. In his last
Inaugural he said: 'Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray.' These
expressions are merely conventional. They do not prove that Mr. Lincoln
believed that prayer is a means of moving God.... He believed, as I
understood him, that human prayer did the prayer good; that prayer
was but a drum beat--the taps of the spirit on the living human soul,
arousing it to acts of repentance for bad deeds done, or to inspire it
to a loftier and a higher effort for a nobler and a grander life."
"Did Mr. Lincoln, in his said Inaugural, say: 'Both read the same _Word
of God?_' No, because that would be admitting revelation. He said: 'Both
read the same _Bible_' Did Mr. Lincoln say: 'Yet if God wills that
it [the war] continue till all the wealth piled by the bondman's two
hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until
every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid with another drawn
by the sword, _as was said by God_ three thousand years ago?' He did
not; he was cautious, and said: 'As was said_ three thousand years ago_.'
Jove never nods."
A little later Mr. Herndon wrote an article entitled, "Abraham Lincoln's
Religious Belief," which appeared in the _Truth Seeker_ of New York.
From this article I quote the following passages:
"In 1842 I heard Mr. Lincoln deliver a speech before the Washingtonian
Temperance Society, of this city.... He scored the Christians for the
position they had taken. He said in that lecture this: 'If they [the
Christians] believe, as they profess--that Omnipotence condescended
to take on himself the form of sinful man,' etc. This was spoken with
energy. He scornfully and contemptuously emphasized the words _as they
profess_. The rebuke was as much in the manner of utterance as in
the substance of what was said. I heard the criticisms of some of
the Christians that night. They said the speech was an insult and an
outrage."
"It is my opinion that no man ever heard Mr. Lincoln pray, in the true
evangelical sense of that word. His philosophy is against all human
prayer, as a means of reversing God's decrees."
"He has told me often that there was no freedom in the human will, and
no punishment beyond this world. He denied God's higher law, and wrote
on the margin of a newspaper to his friends in the Chicago convention
in 1860, this: 'Lincoln agrees with Seward in his irrepressible-conflict
idea; but he is opposed to Seward's _higher law_' This paper was handed
to Judge Davis, Judge Logan, and other friends."
"Mr. Lincoln and a minister, whose name is kept in the dark, had a
conversation about religion. It appears that Mr. Lincoln said that when
his son--bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, and blood of his own
heart--died, though a severe affliction, it did not arouse him to think
of Christ; but when he saw the graves of so many soldiers--strangers to
him--... that sad sight aroused him to love Jesus.... It is a fine thing
for the reputation of the 'Illinois Clergyman' that his name is to the
world unknown. It is a most heartless thing, this supposed conversation
of Lincoln with the Illinois clergyman. What! Lincoln feel more for the
_graves_ of strangers than for the death of his once living, loving, and
lovable son, now dead, moldering to ashes in the silent tomb! The charge
is barbarous. To make Lincoln a lover of Jesus, whom he once ridiculed,
this minister makes him a savage." "I wish to give an illustration
of the uncertainty and unreliability of those loose things that float
around in the newspapers of the day, and how liable things are to be
inaccurate--so made even by the best of men. Mr. Lincoln on the morning
he started for Washington to take the oath of office, and be inaugurated
President of this great Republic, gave a short farewell address to his
old friends. It was eloquent and touching. That speech is copied in
Holland's 'Life of Lincoln,' in Arnold's 'Lincoln and Slavery,' and in
Lamon's 'Life of Lincoln,' and no two are exactly alike. If it is hard
to get the exact truth on such an occasion as this, how impossible is it
to get at Mr. Lincoln's sayings which have been written out by men weeks
and months after what he did say have passed by! All these loose and
foolish things that Mr. Lincoln is supposed to have said are like the
cords of driftwood, floating on the bosom of the great Mississippi, down
to the great gulf of--Forgetfulness. Let them go."
Herndon's "Life of Lincoln," is a most important contribution to
biographical literature. It will enable the present and future
generations to become better acquainted with Lincoln the man than with
any other prominent American. The author has performed substantially the
same work for Lincoln that Boswell performed for Johnson; only he has
performed it more faithfully. Political partisans and religious bigots
may condemn the work, but impartial critics are almost unanimous in
their praise of it.
The metropolitan journals of Lincoln's and Hern-don's own state commend
the work. The Chicago Tribune says: "All these loving adherents [of
Lincoln] will hail Herndon's 'Lincoln' with unmixed, unbounded joy." The
Chicago _Times_ says: "Herndon's 'Life' is the best yet written." The
_Inter Ocean_ says that Herndon "knew more of Lincoln's inner life than
any living man." The Chicago _Herald_ says: "It enables one to approach
more closely to the great President." The Chicago _Evening Journal_
says: "It presents a truthful and living picture of the greatest of
Americans."
The _Nation_ thus refers to it: "The sincerity and honesty of the
biographer appear on every page." The New York _Sun_ says: "The marks of
unflinching veracity are patent in every line." The Washington _Capital_
says that it places "Lincoln before the world as he really was." The
_Commercial Gazette_, of Cincinnati, says: "He describes the life of his
friend Lincoln just as he saw it." The _Morning Call_, of San Francisco,
affirms that it "contains the only true history of the lamented
President." The St. Louis _Republic_ says: "It will do more to shape the
judgment of posterity on Mr. Lincoln's character than all that has been
written or will be hereafter written."
In this work Mr. Herndon states in brief the substance of the articles
already quoted in this chapter. I quote as follows:
"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 that no such personality ever existed" (Life
of Lincoln, pp. 445, 446).
"The world has always insisted on making an orthodox Christian of him,
and to analyze his language or sound his belief is but to break the idol"
(Ibid).
"The benevolence of his impulses, the seriousness of his convictions,
and the nobility of his character, are evidences unimpeachable that his
soul was ever filled with the exalted purity and the sublime faith of
natural religion" (Ib.).
CHAPTER VI. TESTIMONY OF HON. WILLIAM H. HERNDON--UNPUBLISHED TESTIMONY
Extracts from Herndon's Letters--The Books Lincoln Read--His
Philosophy--His Infidelity--Refutation of Christian Claims--
Attempts to Invalidate Herndon's Testimony--Reed's
Calumnies--Vindication.
In the preceding chapter has been submitted the evidence of Mr. Herndon
that has already been published. In this chapter will be presented some
hitherto unpublished testimony.
The writer corresponded with Mr. Herndon for many years. Much of this
correspondence related to Abraham Lincoln, and no inconsiderable portion
of it to the subject under consideration. Permission was granted by Mr.
Herndon to use such parts of this correspondence as may be deemed of
value. The limits of this work preclude the presentation of much that is
really interesting, but no apology is needed for devoting space to
the following extracts from his letters, written at various intervals
between 1880 and 1890:
"I was the personal friend of Mr. Lincoln from 1834 to the day of his
death. In 1843 we entered into a partnership which was never formally
dissolved. When he became unpopular in this Congressional district
because of his speeches on the Mexican war, I was faithful to him.
When he espoused the antislavery cause and in the eyes of most men had
hopelessly ruined his political prospects, I stood by him, and through
the press defended his course. In these dark hours, by our unity of
sentiment and by political ostracism we were driven to a close and
enduring friendship. You should take it for granted, then, that I knew
Mr. Lincoln well. During all this time, from 1834 to 1862, when I last
saw him, he never intimated to me, either directly or indirectly, that
he had changed his religious opinions. Had he done so--had he let drop
one word or look in that direction, I should have detected it.
"I had an excellent private library, probably the best in the city for
admired books. To this library Mr. Lincoln had, as a matter of course,
full and free access at all times. I purchased such books as Locke,
Kant, Fichte, Lewes; Sir Wm. Hamilton's 'Discussions on Philosophy;'
Spencer's 'First Principles,' 'Social Statics,' etc.; Buckle's 'History
of Civilization,' and Lecky's 'History of Rationalism.' I also possessed
the works of Parker, Paine, Emerson, and Strauss; Gregg's 'Creed of
Christendom,' McNaught on Inspiration, Volney's 'Ruins,' Feuerbach's
'Essence of Christianity,' and other works on Infidelity. Mr. Lincoln
read some of these works. About the year 1843 he borrowed 'The Vestiges
of Creation' of Mr. James W. Keys, of this city, and read it carefully.
He subsequently read the sixth edition of this work, which I loaned him.
Mr. Lincoln had always denied special creation, but from his want
of education he did not know just what to believe. He adopted the
progressive and development theory as taught more or less directly
in that work. He despised speculation, especially in the metaphysical
world. He was purely a practical man. He adopted Locke's notions as his
system of mental philosophy, with some modifications to suit his own
views. He held that reason drew her inferences as to law, etc., from
observation, experience, and reflection on the facts and phenomena
of nature. He was a pure sensationalist, except as above. He was
a materialist in his philosophy. He denied dualism, and at times
immortality in any sense.
"Before I wrote my Abbott letter I diligently searched through Lincoln's
letters, speeches, state papers, etc., to find the word _immortality_,
and I could not find it anywhere except in his letter to his father. The
word _immortality_ appears but once in his writings."
"If he had been asked the plain question, 'Do you _know_ that a God
exists?' he would have said: 'I do _not know_ that a God exists.'"
"At one moment of his life I know that he was an Atheist. I was
preparing a speech on Kansas, and in it, like nearly all reformers, I
invoked _God_. He made me wipe out that word and substitute the word
_Maker_, affirming that said Maker was a principle of the universe. When
he went to Washington he did the same to a friend there."
"Mr. Lincoln told me, over and over, that man has no freedom of will,
or, as he termed it, 'No man has a freedom of mind.' He was in one sense
a fatalist, and so died. He believed that he was under the thumb of
Providence (which to him was but another name for fate). The longer he
lived the more firmly he believed it, and hence his invocations of God.
But these invocations are no evidence to a rational mind that he adopted
the blasphemy that God seduced his own daughter, begat a son on purpose
to have mankind kill him, in order that he, God, might become reconciled
to his own mistakes, according to the Christian view."
"Lincoln would wait patiently on the flow and logic of events. He
believed that conditions make the man and not man the conditions. Under
his own hand he says: 'I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I
claim not to have controled events, but confess plainly that events have
controled me.' He believed in the supreme reign of law. This law
_fated_ things, as he would express it. Now, how could a man be a
Christian--could believe that Jesus Christ was God--could believe in the
efficacy of prayer--and entertain such a belief?"
"He did not believe in the efficacy of prayer, although he used
that conventional language. He said in Washington, 'God has his own
purposes.' If God has his own purposes, then prayer will not change
God's purposes."
"I have often said to you, and now repeat it, that Lincoln was a
scientific Materialist, i.e., that this was his tendency as opposed
to the Spiritualistic idea. Lincoln always contended that general and
universal laws ruled the universe--always did--do now--and ever will. He
was an Agnostic generally, sometimes an Atheist."
"That Mr. Lincoln was an Infidel from 1834 to 1861, I know, and that
he remained one to the day of his death, I honestly believe. I always
understood that he was an Infidel, sometimes bordering on Atheism. I
never saw any change in the man, and the change could not have escaped
my observation had it happened."
"Lincoln's task was a terrible one. When he took the oath of office his
soul was bent on securing harmony among all the people of the North, and
so he chose for his Cabinet officers his opponents for the Presidential
candidacy in order and as a means of creating a united North. He let all
parties, professions, and callings have their way where their wishes did
not cut across his own. He was apparently pliant and supple. He ruled
men when men thought they were ruling him. He often said to me that the
Christian religion was a dangerous element to deal with when aroused. He
saw in the Kansas affairs--in the whole history of slavery, in fact--its
rigor and encroachments, that Christianity was aroused. It must be
controled, and that in the right direction. Hence he bent to it, fed
it, and kept it within bounds, well knowing that it would crush his
administration to atoms unless appeased. His oft and oft invocations
of God, his conversations with Christians, his apparent respect for
Christianity, etc., were all means to an end. And yet sometimes he
showed that he hated its nasal whines."
"A gentleman of veracity in Washington told me this story and vouched
for its truthfulness: 'A tall saddle-faced man,' said he, 'came
to Washington to pray with Lincoln, having declared this to be his
intention at the hotel About 10 o'clock A.M. the bloodless man, dressed
in black with white cravat, went to the White House, sent in his card,
and was admitted. Lincoln glanced at the man and knew his motives in an
instant. He said to him angrily: "What, have you, too, come to
torment me with your prayers?" The man was squelched--said, "No, Mr.
Lincoln"--lied out and out. Lincoln spoiled those prayers.'"
"Mr. Lincoln was thought to be understood by the mob. But what a
delusion! He was one of the most reticent men that ever lived. All of
us--Stuart, Speed, Logan, Matheny, myself, and others, had to guess at
much of the man. He was a mystery to the world--a sphinx to most men.
One peculiarity of Mr. Lincoln was his irritability when anyone tried to
peep into his own mind's laboratory. Considering all this, what can
be thought of the stories about what he is said to have confided to
strangers in regard to his religion?"
"Not one of Lincoln's old acquaintances in this city ever heard of his
conversion to Christianity by Dr. Smith or anyone else. It was never
suggested nor thought of here until after his death."
"I never saw him read a second of time in Dr. Smith's book on
Infidelity. He threw it down upon our table--spit upon it as it
were--and never opened it to my knowledge."
"My opinion is, from what I have heard and know, that these men--Gurley
and Simpson--refused to be a party to a fraud on the public touching
Lincoln's religion. I think that they understood each other the day that
the remains of Lincoln were put to rest."
"Holland came into my office, in 1865, and asked me this question: 'What
about Mr. Lincoln's Christianity?' To this, I replied: 'The less said
about it the better.' Holland then said to me, 'Oh, never mind, I'll fix
that,' and went over to Bateman and had it fixed."
"Lincoln never revealed to Judge Davis, Judge Matheny, Joshua F. Speed,
Joseph Gillespie, nor myself that he was a Christian, or that he had
a change of heart, or anything like it, at any time. Now, taking into
consideration the fact that he was one of the most non-communicative of
men--that Bateman was, as it were, a mere stranger to him--that Bateman
was frightened, excited, conscience-smitten when I approached him on the
subject, and that in after years he confessed to me that his notes
in Holland's 'Life of Lincoln' _were colored_--taking all this into
consideration, I say, can you believe Bateman's story to be true?"
"I see quoted frequently a supposed speech made by Mr. Lincoln to the
colored people of Baltimore, on the presentation, of a Bible to him.
This supposed speech contains the following: 'All the good from the
Savior of the world is communicated to us through this book.' This idea
is false and foolish. What becomes of nine-tenths of the life of Jesus
of which we have no history--nine-tenths of the great facts of this
grand man's life not recorded in this book? Mr. Lincoln was full and
exact in his language. He never used the word Savior, unless in a
conventional sense; in fact, he never used the word at all. Again, he is
made to say: 'But for this book we could not know right from wrong.' The
lowest organized life, I was about to say, knows right from wrong in its
particular sphere. Every good dog that comes into possession of a bone,
knows that that bone belongs to him, and he knows that it is wrong
for another dog to rob him of it. He protests with bristling hair and
glistening teeth against such dog robbery. It requires no revelation to
teach him right from wrong in the dog world; yet it requires a special
revelation from God to teach us right from wrong in the human world.
According to this speech, the dog has the advantage. But Mr. Lincoln
never uttered such nonsense."
"I do think that anyone who knew Mr. Lincoln--his history--his
philosophy--his opinions--and still asserts that he was a Christian,
is an unbounded falsifier. I hate to speak thus plainly, but I cannot
respect an untruthful man."
"Let me ask the Christian claimant a few questions. Do you mean to say,
when you assert that Mr. Lincoln was a Christian, that he believed that
Jesus was the Christ of God, as the evangelical world contends? If so,
where do you get your information? Do you mean to say that Mr. Lincoln
was a converted man and that he so declared? If so, where, when, and
before whom did he declare or reveal it? Do you mean to say that Mr.
Lincoln joined a church? If so, what church did he join, and when did
he join it? Do you mean to say that Mr. Lincoln was a secret Christian,
acting under the cloak of the devil to advance Christianity? If so,
what is your authority? If you will tell me when it was that the Creator
caught with his almighty arms, Abraham, and held him fast while he
poured the oil of grace on his rebellious soul, then I will know-when it
was that he was converted from his Infidel views to Christianity."
"The best evidence this side of Lincoln's own written statement that he
was an Infidel, if not an Atheist, as claimed by some, is the fact that
he never mentions the name of Jesus. If he was a Christian it could be
proved by his letters and speeches. That man is a poor defender of
a principle, of a person, or of a thing, who never mentions that
principle, person, or thing. I have never seen the name of Jesus
mentioned by Mr. Lincoln."
"Mr. Lincoln never mentioned the name of Christ in his letters and
speeches as a Christian. I have searched for such evidence, but could
not find it. I have had others search, but they could not find it. This
dead silence on the part of Mr. Lincoln is overwhelming proof that he
was an unbeliever."
"While Lincoln frequently, in a conventional way, appeals to God,
he never appeals to Christ nor mentions him. I know that he at first
maintained that Jesus was a bastard, and later that he was the son of
Joseph and not of God."
"Lincoln was not a Christian in any sense other than that he lived
a good life and was a noble man. If a good life constitutes one a
Christian, then Mill and a million other men who repudiated and denied
Christianity were Christians, for they lived good and noble lives."
"If Mr. Lincoln changed his religious views he owed it to me to warn me,
as he above all other men caused me to be an unbeliever. He said nothing
to me, intimated nothing to me, either directly or indirectly. He
owed this debt to many young men whom he had led astray, if astray the
Christian calls it. I know of two young men of promise, now dead
and gone--gone into endless misery, according to the evangelical
creed--caused by Mr. Lincoln's teachings. I know some of the living
here, men in prominent positions of life, who were made unbelievers by
him."
"One by one, these apocryphal stories go by the board. Courageous and
remorseless criticism will wipe out all these things. There will not be
a vestige of them in fifty years to laugh at or to weep at."
Mr. Herndon's testimony, even in the absence of all other evidence, is
conclusive. This was recognized by the Christian claimants after the
appearance of his "Abbott Letter." They employed various measures to
break the force of his testimony by trying to induce him either to
retract or modify his statements. But they were not successful. He
was not to be coaxed, he was not to be purchased, he was not to be
intimidated. He had stated the truth and by the truth he proposed to
stand. Foiled in these efforts, their last resort was to destroy his
credibility as a witness by destroying his character. The most brazen
falsehoods were invented and the most cruel calumnies circulated in
order to crush him. Some of these stated that he was a drunkard, others
that he was a pauper, and still others that he had become insane.
These defamatory statements were usually first noticed in some religious
paper or periodical. From this they were naturally copied into the
secular papers and sent broadcast over the land. Journalists who
had once known Mr. Herndon, either personally or by reputation, were
surprised and shocked at the announcements, and wrote articles like the
following which appeared in a Kansas paper:
"Bill Herndon is a pauper in Springfield, Ill. He was once worth
considerable property. His mind was the most argumentative of any of the
old lawyers in the state, and his memory was extraordinary.
"For several years before Lincoln was nominated for the Presidency,
Herndon was in some respects the most active member of the firm,
preparing the greatest number of cases for trial and making elaborate
arguments in their behalf. It is said that he worked hard with Lincoln
in preparing the memorable speeches delivered by the man who afterward
became President, during the debates between Lincoln and Douglas in
1858, and in constructing the Cooper Institute address delivered by
Lincoln a short time before the war. Herndon, with all his attainments,
was a man who now and then went on a spree. This habit became worse
after Lincoln's death, and, like poor Dick Yates, he went down step
by step till his old friends and associates point to him as a common
drunkard."
I was in Springfield the very week that this article was published, and
passed a day with Mr. Herndon at his home. I was prepared to testify,
as all his neighbors were, that the charges it contained, together with
others that were being circulated, were false. I knew that he still
possessed a sound and vigorous intellect; I knew that he was in
comfortable circumstances financially; I knew that he was an earnest
advocate of temperance, and that he practiced what he preached; in
short, I knew him to be a man of pure morals and exemplary character. At
the very time that he was declared to be an inmate of the insane asylum,
the Old Settlers' Society selected him to examine and report upon the
correctness of the "History of Sangamon County," which, as it included
a history of the capital of the state where, at one time or another,
had resided a majority of Illinois's most gifted sons, was an important
work, and one whose revision would not likely be intrusted to a
lunatic. At the very time that he was said to be a pauper in the county
poorhouse, he was entertaining such distinguished guests as William
Lloyd Garrison. At the very time that he was reported to be a common
drunkard, his neighbors had just appointed him guardian of the
educational interests of their children.
All efforts to trace these slanders to their source and discover their
author proved futile until 1880, when the writer of this saw in an Ohio
paper an article on Lincoln, in which was quoted a portion of a letter
which the contributor of the article stated had just been received from
the Rev. J. A. Reed, of Springfield. It related wholly to Mr. Herndon,
and did not contain one fair, truthful statement. In thirty brief lines
were concentrated, in addition to several statements calculated and
intended to deceive, no less than sixteen deliberate falsehoods, some of
them of the most cruel and infamous character. It was evident that Reed
had intended that the substance of his letter should be given to the
public without disclosing its authorship. But, thanks to the innocent
credulity and indiscreetness of the friend to whom it was sent, the
defamer was discovered and exposed. And this sneaking, cowardly assassin
was the "defender of Lincoln's Christian faith!" Could the inanimate
remains of Abraham Lincoln have been revivified when this exposure was
made, he would have arisen from his mausoleum at Oak Bidge, have come
into the city, and have kicked this pretended "defender," this base
calumniator of his beloved friend and associate, out of Springfield.
The cause of all the vituperation which for years had been heaped upon
Mr. Herndon was now apparent. He had replied to Reed's lecture, and
openly, honestly, and courteously, but effectively, refuted it; and
because the latter could not come forward with a successful rejoinder,
he was thus heartlessly and covertly plunging a dagger into the
reputation of his chivalrous opponent.
The intercession of friends secured for the culprit immunity from
arrest for libel, but in the newspapers of his city he received such
a castigation as he will not soon forget. The _Daily Monitor_, in an
editorial replying to the slanders that were being circulated concerning
Mr. Herndon, said:
"Mr. Herndon is not a pauper, is not a drunkard; whisky did not ruin
him, and, in a word, the whole thing is a lie. Mr. Herndon lives on his
farm near this city. He is a great admirer of nature, loves flowers,
and spends his whole time on the farm, except when doing his trading,
or coming into the city to see his children and grandchildren. He don't
drink, he don't chew tobacco, he don't gamble, he is honorable and
truthful, and he is highly respected by his fellow-citizens. He is a
great reader, a great thinker, loves his neighbors and his neighbors
love him. He has a great, big, kind heart for his fellow-man in
distress, and, while never worth 'considerable property,' he has always
had enough for his generous purposes. Just why this thing should be
allowed we are at a loss to know, and have waited to see if some of
those who profess so much of the Christ-like in their composition would
not have enough of the man-like to be men, and not allow a good and true
man as Mr. Herndon is to be thus infamously maligned and belied by those
whose works in the salvation of men would have more effect if more akin
to Christ in practice."
After a life of honest toil, much of it in behalf of the poor and the
weak, without reward and without the expectation of reward, to be in his
old age thus shamefully robbed of his good name, was an outrage almost
without a parallel, save in the treatment received by Thomas Paine. That
Mr. Herndon was keenly sensitive to this great wrong is disclosed by the
tone of his letters written at the time. In one he says: "I have done
nothing in the spirit of self-laudation. I prefer moving down the
grooves of time unnoticed and unknown, except to friends. I have no
ambition for fame or money. My ambition is to try to do good. I spent
ten or more years of my best life for the negro, liberty, and union,
not forgetting Kansas and her brave people. But let it all go; I make no
complaint. I try to live a moral and a manly life, love my fellow man,
love freedom, love justice, and would die for the eternal right."
As an index of public sentiment in the community where the defamed and
the defamer resided, I will state two facts. On a pleasant September
evening, in 1882, I attended Dr. Reed's church in Springfield. In that
commodious edifice, built to accommodate an audience of nearly one
thousand, I found assembled to listen to this renowned "defender of
Lincoln's Christian faith," an audience of forty-four persons. About
the same time, in the published report of a public meeting held near
Springfield, appeared the following: "Five thousand people hovered
around the speaker's stand for the purpose of listening to the able,
eloquent, and well-known Hon. W. H. Herndon."
It has been charged that Mr. Herndon's statements concerning Lincoln's
unbelief were inspired by a spirit of revenge in consequence of
Lincoln's not having recognized him with an appointment. This charge and
this assumption are both false. There is now on file at Washington and
at Springfield a telegram from Lincoln tendering him a judgeship, which
he declined.
To know Lincoln was to love him. None knew him better than Mr. Herndon,
and none entertained a deeper affection for his memory. In a letter to
me, dated Nov. 4, 1881, he pays this tribute to his dead friend:
"Some people say that Mr. Lincoln was an ungrateful man. This is not
true, and especially when applied to myself. He was always kind, tender,
and grateful to me--clung to me with hooks of steel. I know that I was
true to him. It is said that no man is great to his valet. If I was Mr.
Lincoln's valet, the rule does not apply in this case, for my opinion of
him is too well known. His was a grand, noble, true, and manly life. He
dreamed dreams of glory, and glory was justly his. He was growing and
expanding to the day of his death. He was slow in his development, but
strong and big when he did come. The last letter which I ever received
from him concluded thus: 'God bless you, says your friend.--_A.
Lincoln_' He felt what he expressed, and in return I say, _God bless you,
Lincoln._"
CHAPTER VII. TESTIMONY OF COL. WARD H. LAMON
Lamon's "Life of Lincoln"--Lincoln's Early Skepticism--His
Investigations at New Salem--His Book on Infidelity--His
Religious Opinions Remain Unchanged--Holland's Condemnation
of Lamon's Work--Holland's and Lamon's Works Compared.
In 1872, seven years after the President's assassination, appeared the
"Life of Abraham Lincoln," written by Col. Ward H. Lamon. As a faithful
record of the life of one of the most sublime characters in the world's
history, this work stands unrivaled. More accomplished writers have
written biography--have written the biography of Lincoln. But no writer
has ever been more thoroughly informed respecting his subject, and no
writer has ever made a more conscientious use of the information in his
possession than has Colonel Lamon in his "Life of Lincoln." In Illinois
he was the friend and confidant of Lincoln. When the time approached for
Lincoln to take the Executive chair, and the journey from Springfield
to Washington was deemed a dangerous undertaking, to Colonel Lamon
was intrusted the responsible duty of conducting him to the national
capital. During the eventful years that followed, he remained at the
President's side, holding an important official position in the
District of Columbia. When Lincoln died, at the great funeral pageant
in Washington, he led the civic procession, and was, with Major General
Hunter and Judge David Davis, selected to convey the remains to their
final resting-place at Springfield.
The following extract, from the preface to his work, shows what an
inexhaustible mine of materials he had with which to prepare a full and
authentic record of Lincoln's life and character:
"At the time of Mr. Lincoln's death, I determined to write his history,
as I had in my possession much valuable material for such a purpose....
Early in 1869, Mr. Herndon placed at my disposal his remarkable
collection of materials--the richest, rarest, and fullest collection
it was possible to conceive.... Mr. Herndon had been the partner
in business and the intimate personal associate of Mr. Lincoln for
something like a quarter of a century; and Mr. Lincoln had lived
familiarly with several members of his family long before their
individual acquaintance began. New Salem, Springfield, the old judicial
circuit, the habits and friends of Mr. Lincoln, were as well known
to Mr. Herndon as to himself. With these advantages, and from the
numberless facts and hints which had dropped from Mr. Lincoln during the
confidential intercourse of an ordinary lifetime, Mr. Herndon was able
to institute a thorough system of inquiry for every noteworthy
circumstance and every incident of value in Mr. Lincoln's career. The
fruits of Mr. Herndon's labors are garnered in three enormous volumes of
original manuscripts and a mass of unarranged letters and papers. They
comprise the recollections of Mr. Lincoln's nearest friends; of the
surviving members of his family and his family-connections; of the men
still living who knew him and his parents in Kentucky; of his
schoolfellows, neighbors, and acquaintances in Indiana; of the better
part of the whole population of New Salem; of his associates and
relatives at Springfield; and of lawyers, judges, politicians, and
statesmen everywhere, who had anything of interest or moment to relate.
They were collected at vast expense of time, labor, and money, involving
the employment of many agents, long journeys, tedious examinations, and
voluminous correspondence. Upon the value of these materials it would be
impossible to place an estimate. That I have used them conscientiously
and justly is the only merit to which I lay claim."
Lamon's evidence concerning Lincoln's unbelief is complete and
unanswerable. He did not present it because he was himself an unbeliever
and wished to support his views with the prestige of Lincoln's great
name. While the Freethinker regards Lincoln's rejection of Christianity
as in the highest degree meritorious--a proof of his strong logical
acumen, his sterling common sense, and his broad humanity--Lamon
considered it a grave defect in his character. He states the fact
because it is a fact, and because the purpose of his work is to disclose
and not conceal the facts of Lincoln's life. If he devotes considerable
space to the subject, and exhibits a special earnestness in its
presentation, the misrepresentations of Lincoln's Christian biographers
have furnished a reasonable pretext for it.
In the pages immediately following will be given the individual
testimony of Colonel Lamon:
"Any analysis of Mr. Lincoln's character would be defective that did not
include his religious opinions. On such matters he thought deeply, and
his opinions were positive. But perhaps no phase of his character has
been more persistently misrepresented and variously misunderstood, than
this of his religious belief. Not that the conclusive testimony of many
of his intimate associates relative to his frequent expressions on such
subjects has ever been wanting; but his great prominence in the world's
history, and his identification with some of the great questions of our
time, which, by their moral import, were held to be eminently religious
in their character, have led many good people to trace in his motives
and actions similar convictions to those held by themselves. His
extremely general expressions of religious faith called forth by the
grave exigencies of his public life, or indulged in on occasions of
private condolence, have too often been distorted out of relation to
their real significance or meaning to suit the opinions or tickle the
fancies of individuals or parties.
"Mr. Lincoln was never a member of any church, nor did he believe in the
divinity of Christ, or the inspiration of the Scriptures in the sense
understood by evangelical Christians" (Life of Lincoln, p. 486).
Holland and other Christian biographers have represented Lincoln as
a youth of extreme piety, whose constant companion was the Bible. The
concurrent testimony of the friends of his boyhood compels Colonel Lamon
to affirm that the reverse of this is true--that Lincoln, at an early
age, was noted for his skepticism. He says:
"When a boy, he showed no sign of that piety which his many biographers
ascribe to his manhood.... When he went to church at all, he went to
mock, and came away to mimic" (Ibid, pp. 486, 487).
"At an early age he began to attend the 'preachings' roundabout, but
principally at the Pigeon Creek church, with a view to catching whatever
might be ludicrous in the preacher's air or matter, and making it the
subject of mimicry as soon as he could collect an audience of idle boys
and men to hear him. A pious stranger, passing that way on a Sunday
morning, was invited to preach for the Pigeon Creek congregation; but
he banged the boards of the old pulpit, and bellowed and groaned so
wonderfully, that Abe could hardly contain his mirth. This memorable
sermon was a great favorite with him; and he frequently reproduced it
with nasal tones, rolling eyes, and all manner of droll aggravations, to
the great delight of Nat Grigsby and the wild fellows whom Nat was able
to assemble" (lb., p. 55).
"His chronicles were many, and on a great variety of subjects. They
were written, as his early admirers love to tell us, 'in the Scriptural
style;' but those we have betray a very limited acquaintance with the
model" (Ib., p. 63).
Of his Freethought reading and theological investigations at New Salem,
and his book on Infidelity, Lamon says:
"When he came to New Salem, he consorted with Freethinkers, joined with
them in deriding the gospel history of Jesus, read Volney and Paine,
and then wrote a deliberate and labored essay, wherein he reached
conclusions similar to theirs. The essay was burnt, but he never denied
or regretted its composition. On the contrary, he made it the subject
of free and frequent conversations with his friends at Springfield, and
stated, with much particularity and precision, the origin, arguments,
and objects of the work" (lb., p. 487).
"The community in which he lived was preeminently a community of
Freethinkers in matters of religion; and it was then no secret, nor has
it been a secret since, that Mr. Lincoln agreed with the majority of his
associates in denying to the Bible the authority of divine revelation.
It was his honest belief, a belief which it was no reproach to hold
at New Salem, Anno Domini 1834, and one which he never thought of
concealing. It was no distinction, either good or bad, no honor, and no
shame. But he had made himself thoroughly familiar with the writings of
Paine and Volney--the 'Ruins' by the one, and 'The Age of Reason' by
the other. His mind was full of the subject, and he felt an itching to
write. He did write, and the result was a little book. It was probably
merely an extended essay, but it is ambitiously spoken of as 'a book' by
himself and by the persons who were made acquainted with its contents.
In this work he intended to demonstrate--
"'First, that the Bible was not God's revelation;
"'Secondly, that Jesus was not the son of God.'
"No leaf of this little volume has survived. Mr. Lincoln carried it in
manuscript to the store of Mr. Samuel Hill, where it was read and
discussed. Hill was himself an unbeliever, but his son considered his
book 'infamous.' It is more than probable that Hill, being a warm
personal friend of Lincoln feared that the publication of the essay
would some day interfere with the political advancement of his favorite.
At all events, he snatched it out of his hand, and thrust it into the
fire, from which not a shred escaped" (lb., pp. 157, 158).
Colonel Lamon is confident that while Lincoln finally ceased to openly
promulgate his Freethought opinions, he never abandoned them. He says:
"As he grew older, he grew more cautious; and as his New Salem
associates, and the aggressive Deists with whom he originally united
at Springfield, gradually dispersed, or fell away from his side,
he appreciated more and more keenly the violence and extent of the
religious prejudices which freedom in discussion from his standpoint
would be sure to arouse against him. He saw the immense and augmenting
power of the churches, and in times past had practically felt it. The
imputation of Infidelity had seriously injured him in several of his
earlier political contests; and, sobered by age and experience, he was
resolved that that same imputation should injure him no more. Aspiring
to lead religious communities, he foresaw that he must not appear as an
enemy within their gates; aspiring to public honors under the auspices
of a political party which persistently summoned religious people to
assist in the extirpation of that which is denounced as the 'nation's
sin,' he foresaw that he could not ask their suffrages whilst aspersing
their faith. He perceived no reason for changing his convictions, but he
did perceive many good and cogent reasons for not making them public"
(lb., pp. 497, 498).
But he never told anyone that he accepted Jesus as the Christ, or
performed a single one of the acts which necessarily follow upon such a
conviction.
"At Springfield and at Washington he was beset on the one hand by
political priests, and on the other by honest and prayerful Christians.
He despised the former, respected the latter, and had use for both. He
said with characteristic irreverence that he would not undertake to 'run
the churches by military authority;' but he was, nevertheless, alive to
the importance of letting the churches 'run' themselves in the interest
of his party. Indefinite expressions about 'Divine Providence,' the
'Justice of God,' 'the favor of the Most High,' were easy, and not
inconsistent with his religious notions. In this, accordingly, he
indulged freely; but never in all that time did he let fall from his
lips or his pen an expression which remotely implied the slightest faith
in Jesus as the son of God and the Savior of men" (Ib., p. 502).
Lamon was Lincoln's intimate and trusted friend at Washington, and had
he changed his belief, his biographer, as well as Noah Brooks and the
Illinois clergyman, would have been in possession of the fact.
In 1851 Lincoln wrote a letter of consolation to his dying father, in
which he counseled him to "confide in our great and good and merciful
Maker." This letter was given to the public by Mr. Herndon, and has been
cited by the orthodox to prove that Lincoln was a believer. Adverting to
this letter Lamon says:
"If ever there was a moment when Mr. Lincoln might have been expected to
express his faith in the atonement, his trust in the merits of a living
Redeemer, it was when he undertook to send a composing and comforting
message to a dying man.... But he omitted it wholly. He did not even
mention the name of Jesus, or intimate the most distant suspicion of the
existence of a Christ" (Ibid., p. 497).
Lincoln's mind was not entirely free from superstition, but though born
and reared in Christendom, the superstitious element in his nature was
not essentially Christian. His fatalistic ideas, so characteristic of
the faith of Islam, have already been mentioned by Mr. Herndon, and are
thus referred to by Colonel Lamon:
"Mr. Lincoln was by no means free from a kind of belief in the
supernatural.... He lived constantly in the serious conviction that he
was himself the subject of a special decree, made by some unknown and
mysterious power, for which he had no name" (Ibid., p. 503).
"His mind was filled with gloomy forebodings and strong apprehensions
of impending evil, mingled with extravagant visions of personal grandeur
and power. His imagination painted a scene just beyond the veil of the
immediate future, gilded with glory yet tarnished with blood. It was
his 'destiny'--splendid but dreadful, fascinating but terrible. His case
bore little resemblance to those of religious enthusiasts like Bunyan,
Cowper, and others. His was more like the delusion of the fatalist
conscious of his star" (Ibid,, p. 475).
When Lamon's work appeared, Holland, backed by the Christian element
generally, fell upon it like a savage and sought, as far as possible,
to suppress it. Lamon had committed an unpardonable offense. He had
declared to the world that Lincoln had died a disbeliever, and, what was
worse, he had proved it. Holland's attack was made in an eight-column
review of Lamon's "Life," which was published in _Scribner's Monthly_,
for August, 1872. In order to give an air of candor and judicial
fairness to his venomous criticisms, he opens with this flattering
recognition of its merits: "It is not difficult to see how Colonel Lamon,
who during Mr. Lincoln's Presidency held an office in the District of
Columbia, which must have brought him into somewhat frequent intercourse
with the President, and who, indeed, had come with him from Springfield
to the Capital, should feel that there rested on him a certain
biographical duty. And certainly he was in possession of a mass of
material so voluminous, so original, and so fresh that in this respect
at least his fitness for the work was remarkably complete. Moreover, Mr.
W. H. Herndon, who was Mr. Lincoln's partner in the practice of the law
at Springfield, and was, of course, closely intimate with his partner
in a business way,... added to Colonel Lamon's material the valuable
documents which he had himself collected, and the memoranda which,
with painstaking and lawyer-like ability, he had recorded from the oral
testimony of living witnesses.
"As far as the story of Mr. Lincoln's childhood and early life is
concerned, down to the time when his political life began, it has never
been told so fully, with such spirit and zest, and with such evident
accuracy, as by Colonel Lamon."
Nearly the entire review is devoted to a denunciation of Lamon's
exposition of Lincoln's religious opinions. He repeatedly pronounces
this "an outrage on decency," and characterizes Lincoln's Free-thought
companions as "heathen," "barbarians," and "savages." The review
concludes as follows:
"The violent and reckless prejudice, and the utter want of delicacy and
even of decency by which the book is characterized, in such instances as
this, will more than counterbalance the value of its new material,
its fresh and vigorous pictures of Western life and manners, and
its familiar knowledge of the 'inside politics' of Mr. Lincoln's
administration, and will even make its publication (by the famous
publishers whose imprint imparts to it a prestige and authority which
its authorship would fail to give) something like a national misfortune.
In some quarters it will be readily received as the standard life of the
good President. It is all the more desirable that the criticism upon it
should be prompt and unsparing."
Christianity must have the support of Lincoln's great name. To secure it
Holland is willing to misrepresent the honest convictions of Lincoln's
lifetime, to traduce the characters of his dearest friends, and to rob a
brother author and a publisher of their just reward.
Lamon states that during the last years of Lincoln's life he ceased to
proclaim his Infidel opinions because they were unpopular. Referring
to this statement, Holland says: "The eagerness with which this volume
strives to cover Mr. Lincoln's memory with an imputation so detestable
is one of the most pitiable exhibitions which we have lately witnessed."
This outburst of righteous indignation, coming from the source it
does, is peculiarly refreshing. To appreciate it, we have only to open
Holland's work, and read such passages as the following: "I am obliged
to appear different to them." "It was one of the peculiarities of Mr.
Lincoln to hide these religious [Christian] experiences from the eyes of
the world." "Who had never in their whole lives heard from his lips one
word of all these religious convictions and experiences." "They [his
friends] did not regard him as a religious man." "All this department of
his life he had kept carefully hidden from them." "There was much of his
conduct that was simply a cover to these thoughts--an effort to conceal
them" (Holland's Life of Lincoln, pp. 239, 240).
Consummate hypocrisy in a Christian is all right with this moralist;
but for a Freethinker to withhold his views from an intolerant religious
world is a detestable crime.
As a biographer of Lincoln, Holland possessed many advantages over
Lamon. His work was written and published immediately after the awful
tragedy, when almost the entire reading public was deeply interested
in everything that pertained to Lincoln's life. So far as Lincoln's
religious views are concerned, he advocated the popular side of the
question; for while those outside of the church cared but little about
the matter, the church desired the influence of his great name, and was
ready to reward those who assisted her in obtaining it. Holland, too,
had an established reputation as an author--had nearly as large a class
of readers as any writer in this country. His name alone was sufficient
to guarantee a large circulation to any book he might produce. Lamon, on
the other hand, possessed but a single advantage over his rival, that of
having the truth on his side. And while "truth is mighty," and will in
the end prevail, yet how often is it "crushed to earth" and for the time
obscured. In view of all this, it is not strange that the public should
be so slow to reject the fictions of Holland and accept the facts of
Lamon.
That Lamon's "Life of Lincoln" is wholly undeserving of adverse
criticism, is not claimed. He has, perhaps, given undue prominence to
some matters connected with Lincoln's private affairs which might with
propriety have been consigned to oblivion. A larger manifestation of
charity, too, for the imperfections of those with whom Lincoln mingled,
especially in the humbler walks of life, would not have detracted from
its merit. And yet, those who desire to know Lincoln as he really
was, should read Lamon rather than Holland. In Lamon's work, Lincoln's
character is a rugged oak, towering above its fellows and clothed in
nature's livery; in Holland's work, it is a dead tree with the bark
taken off, the knots planed down, and varnished.
In the New York _World_ appeared the following just estimate of these
two biographies:
"Mr. Ward H. Lamon is the author of one 'Life of Lincoln,' and Dr. J.
G. Holland is the author of another. Mr. Lamon was the intimate personal
and political friend of Mr. Lincoln, trusting and trusted, from the time
of their joint practice in the Illinois Quarter Sessions to the moment
of Mr. Lincoln's death at Washington. Dr. Holland was nothing to Mr.
Lincoln--neither known nor knowing. Dr. Holland rushed his 'Life' from
the press before the disfigured corpse was fairly out of sight, while
the public mind lingered with horror over the details of the
tragedy, and, excited by morbid curiosity, was willing to pay for its
gratification. Mr. Lamon waited many years, until all adventitious
interest had subsided, and then with incredible labor and pains,
produced a volume founded upon materials which for their fulness,
variety, and seeming authenticity are unrivaled in the history of
biographies.
"Dr. Holland's single volume professed to cover the whole of Mr.
Lincoln's career. Mr. Lamon's single volume was modestly confined to a
part of it. Dr. Holland's was an easy, graceful, off-hand performance,
having but the one slight demerit of being in all essential particulars
untrue from beginning to end. Mr. Lamon's was a labored, cautious,
and carefully verified narrative which seems to have been accepted by
disinterested critics as entirely authentic.
"Dr. Holland would probably be very much shocked if anybody should
ask him to bear false witness in favor of his neighbor in a court of
justice, but he takes up his pen to make a record which he hopes and
intends shall endure forever, and in that record deliberately bears
false witness in favor of a public man whom he happened to admire, with
no kind of offense to his serene and 'cultured' conscience. If this were
all--if Dr. Holland merely asserted his own right to compose and publish
elaborate fictions on historical subjects--we might comfort ourselves
with the reflection that such literature is likely to be as evanescent
as it is dishonest, and let him pass in silence. But this is not all. He
maintains that it is everybody's duty to help him to deceive the public
and to write down his more conscientious competitor. He turns up the
nose of 'culture' and curls the lip of 'art' at Mr. Lamon's homely
narrative of facts, and gravely insists that all other noses and all
other lips shall be turned up and curled because his are. He implores
the public, which he insulted and gulled with his own book, to damn Mr.
Lamon's, and he puts his request on the very ground that Mr. Lamon has
stupidly gone and narrated undeniable truths, whereby he has demolished
an empty shrine that was profitable to many, and broken a painted idol
that might have served for a god.
"The names of Holland and Lamon are not of themselves and by themselves
illustrious; but starting from the title-pages of the two Lives of
Lincoln, and representing, as they do, the two schools of biography
writers, the one stands for a principle and the other for the want of
it."
CHAPTER VIII. TESTIMONY OF HON. JOHN T. STUART AND COL. JAMES H. MATHENY
Testimony of Hon. John T. Stuart--Testimony of Col. James
H. Matheny--Stuart's Disclaimer--Matheny's Disclaimer--
Examination and Authorship of Disclaimers, Including the
Edwards and Lewis Letters.
Besides his own testimony concerning Lincoln's unbelief, Colonel Lamon
cites the testimony of ten additional witnesses: Hon. Wm. H. Herndon,
Hon. John T. Stuart, Col. James H. Matheny, Dr. C. H. Ray, Wm. H.
Hannah, Esq, Mr. Jas. W. Keys, Hon. Jesse W. Fell, Col. John G. Nicolay,
Hon. David Davis and Mrs. Mary Lincoln. The testimony of Mr. Herndon
having already been presented, the testimony of Mr. Stuart and Colonel
Matheny will next be given. This testimony was procured by Mr. Herndon
for the purpose of refuting the erroneous statements of Dr. Holland.
Hon. John T. Stuart, who was for a time a member of Congress from
Illinois, was the first law partner of Lincoln. He says:
"Lincoln went further against Christian beliefs and doctrines and
principles than any man I ever heard: he shocked me. I don't remember
the exact line of his argument--suppose it was against the inherent
defects, so called, of the Bible, and on grounds of reason. Lincoln
always denied that Jesus was the Christ of God--denied that Jesus was
the son of God, as understood and maintained by the Christian church.
The Rev. Dr. Smith, who wrote a letter, tried to convert Lincoln
from Infidelity so late as 1858, and couldn't do it" (Lamon's Life of
Lincoln, p. 488).
Col. James H. Matheny was one of Lincoln's most intimate friends, and
was for many years his chief political manager. He testifies as follows:
"I knew Mr. Lincoln as early as 1834-7; know he was an Infidel. He and
W. D. Herndon used to talk Infidelity in the Clerk's office in this
city, about the years 1837-40. Lincoln attacked the Bible and the
New Testament on two grounds: first, from the inherent or apparent
contradictions under its lids; second, from the grounds of reason.
Sometimes he ridiculed the Bible and the New Testament, sometimes seemed
to scoff at it, though I shall not use that word in its full and literal
sense. I never heard that Lincoln changed his views, though his personal
and political friend from 1834 to 1860. Sometimes Lincoln bordered on
Atheism. He went far that way and shocked me. I was then a young man,
and believed what my good mother told me. Stuart and Lincoln's office
was in what is called Hoffman's Row, on North Fifth street, near the
public square. It was in the same building as the Clerk's office, and on
the same floor. Lincoln would come into the Clerk's office, where I and
some young men--Evan Butler, Newton Francis and others--were writing or
staying, and would bring the Bible with him; would read a chapter, argue
against it. Lincoln then had a smattering of geology, if I recollect it.
Lincoln often, if not wholly, was an Atheist; at least, bordered on it.
Lincoln was enthusiastic in his Infidelity. As he grew older, he grew
more discreet, didn't talk much before strangers about his religion; but
to friends, close and bosom ones, he was always open and avowed, fair
and honest; but to strangers, he held them off from policy. Lincoln used
to quote Burns. Burns helped Lincoln to be an Infidel, as I think; at
least he found in Burns a like thinker and feeler.
"From what I know of Mr. Lincoln and his views of Christianity, and from
what I know as honest, well-founded rumor; from what I have heard his
best friends say and regret for years; from what he never denied when
accused, and from what Lincoln has hinted and intimated, to say no
more, he did write a little book on Infidelity, at or near New Salem, in
Menard county, about the year 1834 or 1835. I have stated these things
to you often.
"Judge Logan, John T. Stuart, yourself, know what I know, and some of you
more.
"Mr. Herndon, you insist on knowing something which you know I possess,
and got as a secret, and that is, about Lincoln's little book on
Infidelity. Mr. Lincoln _did_ tell me that he _did write a little book
oil Infidelity_. This statement I have avoided heretofore; but, as you
strongly insist upon it--probably to defend yourself against charges of
misrepresentations--I give it to you as I got it from Lincoln's mouth"
(Life of Lincoln, pp. 487, 488).
The evidence of Stuart and Matheny, as recorded in Lamon's work, having
been presented, it is now proper to state that this evidence has, in
a measure, been repudiated by them. Dr. Reed, in his lecture, produced
letters from them disclaiming in part or modifying the statements
imputed to them. Dr. Reed says: "I have been amazed to find that the
principal persons whose testimony is given in this book to prove that
their old friend lived and died an Infidel, never wrote a word of it,
and never gave it as their opinion or allowed it to be published as
covering their estimate of Mr. Lincoln's life and religious views."
Alluding to Stuart's evidence, he says: "Mr. Lamon has attributed to
Mr. Stuart testimony the most disparaging and damaging to Mr. Lincoln's
character and opinions--testimony which Mr. Stuart utterly repudiates,
both as to language and sentiment." Regarding Matheny's testimony,
he says: "Mr. Matheny testifies that he never wrote a word of what is
attributed to him; that it is not a fair representation of either his
language or his opinions, and that he never would have allowed such an
article to be published as covering his estimate of Mr. Lincoln's life
and character."
The following is the disclaimer of Mr. Stuart:
"Springfield, Dec. 17th, 1872.
"Rev. J. A. Reed:
"Dear Sir--
"My attention has been called to a statement in relation to the
religious opinions of Mr. Lincoln, purporting to have been made by
me, and published in Lamon's 'Life of Lincoln.' The language of that
statement is not mine; it was not written by me, and I did not see it
until it was in print. I was once interviewed on the subject of Mr.
Lincoln's religious opinions, and doubtless said that Mr. Lincoln was in
the earlier part of his life an Infidel. I could not have said that
'Dr. Smith tried to convert Lincoln from Infidelity so late as 1858,
and couldn't do it.' In relation to that point I stated, in the same
conversation, some facts which are 'omitted in that statement, and which
I will briefly repeat. That Eddie, a child of Mr. Lincoln, died in 1848
or 1849, and that he and his wife were in deep grief on the account That
Dr. Smith, then pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Springfield,
at the suggestion of a lady friend of theirs, called upon Mr. and Mrs.
Lincoln, and that first visit resulted in great intimacy and friendship
between them, lasting till the death of Mr. Lincoln, and continuing with
Mrs. Lincoln till the death of Dr. Smith. I stated that I had heard at
the time that Dr. Smith and Mr. Lincoln had much discussion in relation
to the truth of the Christian religion, and that Dr. Smith had furnished
Mr. Lincoln with books to read on that subject, and among others one
which had been written by himself, sometime previous, on Infidelity;
and that Dr. Smith claimed that after this investigation Mr. Lincoln
had changed his opinions, and became a believer in the truth of the
Christian religion; that Mr. Lincoln and myself never conversed upon
that subject, and I had no personal knowledge as to his alleged change
of opinion. I stated, however, that it was certainly true that up
to that time Mr. Lincoln had never regularly attended any place of
religious worship, but that after that time he rented a pew in the First
Presbyterian church, and with his family constantly attended the worship
in that church until he went to Washington as President. This much I
said at the time, and I can now add that the Hon. Ninian W. Edwards, the
brother-in-law of Mr. Lincoln, has, within a few days, informed me that
when Mr. Lincoln commenced attending the First Presbyterian church he
admitted to him that his views had undergone the change claimed by Dr.
Smith. I would further say that Dr. Smith was a man of great ability,
and on theological and metaphysical subjects had few superiors and
not many equals. Truthfulness was a prominent trait in Mr. Lincoln's
character, and it would be impossible for any intimate friend of his
to believe that he ever aimed to deceive, either by his words or his
conduct.
"Yours truly,
"John T. Stuart."
Col. Matheny's disclaimer is as follows:
"Springfield, Dec. 16th, 1872.
"Rev. J. A. Reed:
"Dear Sir--
"The language attributed to me in Lamon's book is not from my pen. I
did not write it, and it does not express my sentiments of Mr. Lincoln's
entire life and character. It is a mere collection of sayings gathered
from private conversations that were only true of Mr. Lincoln's earlier
life. I would not have allowed such an article to be printed over my
signature as covering my opinion of Mr. Lincoln's life and religious
sentiments. While I do believe Mr. Lincoln to have been an Infidel in
his former life, when his mind was as yet unformed, and his associations
principally with rough and skeptical men, yet I believe he was a very
different man in later life, and that after associating with a different
class of men and investigating the subject, he was a firm believer in
the Christian religion.
"Yours truly,
"Jas. H. Matheny."
This disclosure startles you, my dear reader. But be patient. I will
show you that this apparently mortal thrust of Dr. Reed's was made, not
with a lance, but with a boomerang.
When Reed made his assault upon Lamon's witnesses, all stood firm but
two--two old Springfield politicians whose political aspirations had not
yet become extinct--John T. Stuart and James H. Matheny.
These men had been among the first to testify in regard to Lincoln's
unbelief. His Christian biographers had misrepresented his religious
views; they believed that the fraud ought to be exposed, and they
were ready and willing to aid in the work. Their testimony exhibits a
frankness that is truly commendable. They knew that lying was a vice,
but they did not know that truth-telling was a crime. They had yet
to learn that the church tolerates murder more readily than the
promulgation of a truth that is antagonistic to her creed. But this fact
they were destined to learn. Lamon's work had scarcely been issued
from the press before he was anathematized and his book proscribed. The
merciless attack that had already been commenced upon Herndon portended
danger to them. Nor had they long to wait. In December, 1872, they were
approached by Reed and his coadjutors. They were informed that the idol
which their ruthless iconoclasm had helped to break must be repaired.
They were given to understand that if they repented of the part they had
performed and recanted, peace would be their portion here and endless
bliss hereafter; but that if they did not, endless misery would begin on
Jan. 1, a.d. 1873.
The situation was critical. They did not like to tell the world that
they had borne false witness against the dead, nor did they, any more
than Galileo, wish to wear a martyr's crown. A compromise was finally
effected. It was incidentally ascertained by Reed that their evidence as
presented by Lamon was not originally given in the shape of a letter or
a written statement, but orally. A happy thought suggested itself--one
worthy of the unscrupulous theological pettifogger that he is. The
thought was this: "Say to the public, or rather let me say it for you,
that you did not _write_ a word of the testimony attributed to you."
Just as a witness in court might point to the stenographer's report of
his testimony and say, "I did not write a word of that."
In addition to this, Mr. Stuart, in endeavoring to explain away, as far
as possible, the obnoxious character of his testimony, declared that
some things which he did say at the time his testimony was given had
been omitted; while something he did not say was inserted. They were
both trivial matters, hardly worthy of notice, even if true, and having
no especial bearing upon the case. But they served an admirable
purpose in enabling Reed to say that the testimony adduced by Lamon was
"abridged and distorted."
Stuart's disclaimer, then, divested of its misleading verbiage, contains
but two points. In the first place, he says: "I could not have said that
'Dr. Smith tried to convert Lincoln from Infidelity so late as 1858,
and couldn't do it.'" This sentence, like everything else in these
disclaimers, is cunningly worded and intended to deceive. One would
naturally suppose the idea he intends to convey is that he never
declared that Dr. Smith tried to convert Lincoln and couldn't do it.
This, it has been ascertained, is not his meaning. What he means is
this: "I could not have said that 'Dr. Smith tried to convert Lincoln
from Infidelity, _so late as_ 1858, and couldn't do it.'" His denial
is a mere quibble about a date. He did undoubtedly say just what he is
reported to have said. But admitting a doubt, and giving him the benefit
of this doubt, by throwing out the disputed date, the passage is not
less damaging than it was before: "Dr. Smith tried to convert Lincoln
from Infidelity, and couldn't do it." But let us omit the entire
sentence, and the testimony of Mr. Stuart that remains, about which
there is no dispute, that portion of his testimony which he admits to be
correct--is as follows:
"Lincoln went further against Christian beliefs and doctrines and
principles than any man I ever heard; he shocked me. I don't remember
the exact line of his argument; suppose it was against the inherent
defects, so called, of the Bible, and on grounds of reason. Lincoln
always denied that Jesus was the Christ of God--denied that Jesus was
the Son of God, as understood and maintained by the Christian church."
In the second place, Mr. Stuart complains that the rumors concerning Dr.
Smith's attempted conversion of Lincoln which he had mentioned to Mr.
Herndon at the time of giving his testimony, were omitted. They were,
and very properly, too. Mr. Stuart, or any other good lawyer, would have
omitted them. Mr. Herndon desired him to testify about what he _knew_,
and not about what he had _heard_, especially as he was going to
headquarters in regard to these rumors. He wrote to Dr. Smith himself
about them, received his testimony, and gave it to the public.
Stuart affects to believe that this story, which Ninian Edwards is
dragged around by Reed to verify, may possibly have been true. But in
the same sentence, he refutes this idea, and refutes the claim itself,
by saying: "I had no personal knowledge as to his alleged change of
opinion." Stuart was a family connection of Lincoln, and if Lincoln had
been converted, he, as well as every other person in Springfield, would
have known it.
He states that Dr. Smith's first visit to Lincoln was "at the suggestion
of a lady friend." To have avoided another glaring contradiction in the
evidence of his witnesses, Reed should have had Major Stuart state that
this "lady friend" was Thomas Lewis. As it is, the account given by
Stuart of Dr. Smith's first visit and acquaintance with Lincoln is
entirely at variance with the account given by Mr. Lewis in his letter,
quoted in chapter I.
Mr. Stuart evidently entertained no very kind opinion of Colonel Lamon's
work, and this made him all the more disposed to accede to Reed's
demands. His position on the slavery question, for a time, was one
which, in the light of subsequent events, he had no reason to be proud
of, and Lamon in narrating the acts of Lincoln's life found it necessary
frequently to refer to this. Such passages as the following were
calculated not only to make him offended at Lamon, but jealous of
Herndon: "John T. Stuart was keeping his eye on Lincoln, with the view
of keeping him on his side--the totally dead conservative side." "Mr.
Lincoln was beset by warm friends and by old coadjutors, and besought to
pause in his anti-slavery course while there was yet time. Among these
there was none more earnest or persuasive than John T. Stuart, who was
but the type of a class.... But Mr. Herndon was more than a match for
the full array against him. An earnest man, instant in season and out
of season, he spoke with the eloquence of apparent truth and of real
personal love" (Life of Lincoln, pp. 374, 352).
Colonel Matheny was not prepared to deny the correctness of a single
statement in his testimony, but was forced to modify its bearing as a
whole. He was made to say: "It does not express my sentiments of Mr.
Lincoln's entire life and character." Now, anyone who reads his evidence
cannot fail to observe that he did intend to cover Lincoln's entire
life and character. There is not in it the slightest intimation that he
referred merely to a part of his life. Indeed, there is one statement
in his evidence which utterly precludes such an assumption. He expressly
says: "I never heard that Lincoln changed his views, though his personal
and political friend from 1834 to 1860." But Reed must have a sufficient
portion of his life reserved in which to inject the story of his alleged
conversion; and so Matheny's offense was condoned on the condition that
he retain the earlier part of Lincoln's life for his testimony to
rest upon, and concede the remainder to Reed for "The Later Life and
Religious Sentiments of Lincoln." This division of Lincoln's life is
quite indefinite, but Reed would have us believe that Colonel Matheny's
evidence relates wholly to that portion of his life anterior to
1848, when Dr. Smith began the task of Christianizing him. Matheny's
disclaimer is dated Dec. 16, 1872. On Dec. 9, 1873, he made the
following explanation, which was published in a Springfield paper:
"What I mean, in my Reed letter, by Mr. Lincoln's earlier life, is his
whole life and history in Illinois. In Illinois, and up to the time he
left for Washington, he was, as I understand it, a confirmed Infidel.
What I mean by Mr. Lincoln's later life, is his Washington life, where
he associated with religious people, when and where I believe he thought
he became a Christian. I told Mr. Reed all this just before signing the
letter spoken of. I knew nothing of Mr. Lincoln's investigation into the
subject of Christianity."
He says that his evidence "is a mere collection of sayings gathered from
private conversations." It is doubtless true that he had many private
conversations with Mr. Herndon on this subject; but his published
testimony was all given at one sitting, and more, _he signed that
testimony_. Every word attributed to him in Lamon's work, and repeated
in this chapter, originally appeared above his signature.
The concluding words of his disclaimer are as follows:
"While I do believe Mr. Lincoln to have been an Infidel in his
former life, when his mind was as yet unformed, and his associations
principally with rough and skeptical men, yet I believe he was a very
different man in later life; and that after associating with a different
class of men, and investigating the subject, he was a firm believer in
the Christian religion."
These words, as modified by the following, constitute a most remarkable
statement:
"In Illinois, and up to the time he left for Washington, he was, as I
understand it, a confirmed Infidel. What I mean by Mr. Lincoln's
later life, is his Washington life, where he associated with religious
people."
Colonel Matheny confines Lincoln's Infidelity to that portion of his
life "when his mind was as yet unformed," and affirms that this portion
comprised all the years preceding his removal to Washington in 1861.
Thus during the first fifty-two years of Lincoln's life, "his mind was
as yet unformed." His enviable reputation as one of the foremost lawyers
of Illinois was achieved while "his mind was as yet unformed;" when his
friends sent him to Congress "his mind was as yet unformed;" when he
made his Bloomington speech, "his mind was as yet unformed;" when he
delivered his famous Springfield speech, "his mind was as yet unformed;"
when he conducted his masterly debates with Stephen A. Douglas, "his
mind was as yet unformed;" when he prepared and delivered that model of
political addresses, the Cooper Institute address, "his mind was as yet
unformed;" when at the Chicago Convention he outstripped in the race for
Presidential nominee such eminent leaders as Seward and Chase, "his mind
was as yet unformed;" when he was elected Chief Magistrate of this great
nation, "his mind was as yet unformed."
It was only by leaving Illinois and going to Washington that he was
thrown into religious society. Washington politicians are noted for
their piety, you know. According to Matheny et al., New Salem was a
second Sodom, Springfield a second Gomorrah and Washington a sort of New
Jerusalem, inhabited chiefly by saints.
Neither in Matheny's letter, nor in his interpretation of this letter,
is there a word to indicate that he recognized the fact that Lincoln
went to Washington to assume the office and perform the duties of
President. On the contrary, the whole tenor of his remarks is to the
effect that he believed the people sent him there on account of his
wickedness, and while "his mind was as yet unformed," to attend a reform
school, and that subsequently he entered a theological seminary, and
there died.
The most amusing feature of Matheny's letter is that he unwittingly
certifies that his own character was not good. He declares that Lincoln
was an Infidel because his associations were "with rough and skeptical
men;" but that after removing to Washington and "associating with a
different class of men" he became a Christian. Now, it is well known
that one of the most conspicuous of his "rough and skeptical" associates
in Illinois was James H. Matheny.
Colonel Matheny, in his explanatory remarks, says: "I _believe_ he
_thought_ he became a Christian;" and in almost the next breath says,
"I knew nothing of Mr. Lincoln's investigation into the subject of
Christianity." Can anything be more unreasonable than this? Colonel
Matheny knowing that Lincoln was a confirmed Infidel--an Infidel when
he went to Washington--knowing nothing about his having afterward
investigated Christianity--knowing that he had no time for such an
investigation, and yet believing that Lincoln thought he became a
Christian! Why did he not mention this when he gave his testimony? The
fact is, he did not believe that Lincoln became a Christian; but with
an orthodox club raised above his head, he found it very convenient to
_profess_ to believe it.
As Mr. Reed has endeavored to prove that Lamon and Herndon did not
faithfully report the evidence of Stuart and Matheny, it is but just
that Mr. Herndon, wh
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