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 h