Abraham Lincoln: Was He A Christian? Part 13

Among the many Christian hymns which Lincoln parodied, Mr. Hanks recalls the following:

"How tedious and tasteless the hours."

"When I can read my t.i.tle clear."

"Oh! to grace how great a debtor!"

"Come, thou fount of every blessing."

MRS. MATILDA MOORE.

Lincoln's first husband was named Johnston. By him she had three children, a son and two daughters. The latter, like their mother, developed into n.o.ble specimens of womanhood; and both loved Lincoln as tenderly as though he had been their own brother. The elder was married to Dennis Hanks; the younger, Matilda, married Lincoln's cousin, Levi Hall, and, after his death, a gentleman named Moore.

Lamon says that Lincoln in his youth made a mockery of the popular religion; not from any lack of reverence for what he believed to be good, but because "he thought that a person had better be without it."

That he was accustomed to turn so-called sacred subjects into ridicule is attested by his stepsister, Mrs. Moore. She says:

"When father and mother would go to church, Abe would take down the Bible, read a verse, give out a hymn, and we would sing. Abe was about fifteen years of age. He preached and we would do the crying" (Every-Day Life of Lincoln, p. 71).

JOHN HALL.

On the 28th of April, 1888, the writer, in company with Mr. Charles Biggs, of Westfield, Ill., visited the old Lincoln homestead, near Farmington, Ill. We dined with Mr. John Hall, a son of Lincoln's stepsister Matilda, in the old log-house built by Lincoln's father sixty years ago, and in which his father and step-mother died. Mr. Hall, who owns the homestead and preserves with zealous care this venerable relic, is an intelligent farmer over sixty years of age. He greatly reveres the memory of his ill.u.s.trious uncle and loves to dwell on his many n.o.ble traits of character. He stated that the family tradition is that while Abe was a most honest and humane boy he was not religious. He referred to the mock sermons he is said to have preached. "At these meetings,"

said Mr. Hall, "my mother would lead in the singing while Uncle Abe would lead in prayer. Among his numerous supplications, he prayed G.o.d to put stockings on the chickens' feet in winter."

WILLIAM McNEELT.

William McNeely, of Petersburg, Ill., who became acquainted with Lincoln in 1831, when he arrived at New Salem on a flatboat, says:

"Lincoln said he did not believe in total depravity, and although it was not popular to believe it, it was easier to do right than wrong; that the first thought was: what was right? and the second--what was wrong?

Therefore it was easier to do right than wrong, and easier to take care of, as it would take care of itself. It took an effort to do wrong, and a still greater effort to take care of it; but do right and it would take care of itself.

"I was acquainted with him a long time, and I never knew him to do a wrong act" (Lincoln Memorial Alb.u.m, pp. 393-395).

WILLIAM G. GREEN.

One of Lincoln's early companions at New Salem was William G. Green.

He and Lincoln clerked in the same store and slept together on the same cot. The testimony of Mr. Green has not been preserved. We have simply an observation of his, incidentally made, the substance of which is thus presented by Lamon:

"Lincoln's incessant reading of Shakspere and Burns had much to do in giving to his mind the 'skeptical' tendency so fully devoloped by the labors of his pen in 1834-5, and in social conversations during many years of his residence at Springfield" (Life of Lincoln, p. 145).

Mr. Green's conclusion, especially in regard to Burns, is quite generally shared by Lincoln's friends. Burns's satirical poems were greatly admired by-Lincoln. "Holy Willie's Prayer," one of the most withering satires on orthodox Christianity ever penned, was memorized by him. Every one of its sixteen stanzas, beginning with the following, was an Infidel shaft which he delighted to hurl at the heads of his Christian opponents:

"O thou, wha in the heavens dost dwell, Wha, as it pleases best thysel', Sends ane to heaven and ten to h.e.l.l, A' for thy glory, And no for ony guid or ill They've done afore thee!"

JOSHUA F. SPEED.

Another of Lincoln's earliest and best friends was Joshua F. Speed. When he was licensed as a lawyer and entered upon his professional career at Springfield without a client and without a dollar, Speed a.s.sisted him to get a start. W. H. Herndon was clerking for Speed at the time, and for more than a year Lincoln, Herndon and Speed roomed together. Referring to the religious views held by Lincoln at that time, Mr. Speed, in a lecture, says:

"I have often been asked what were Mr. Lincoln's religious opinions.

When I knew him, in early life, he was a skeptic. He had tried hard to be a believer, but his reason could not grasp and solve the great problem of redemption as taught."

This is the testimony of an orthodox Christian, and a church-member. Mr.

Speed, during the years that he was acquainted with Lincoln, was not a member of any church; but late in life he united with the Methodist church. As "the wish is father to the thought," Mr. Speed professed to believe that Lincoln before his death modified, to some extent, the radical views of his early manhood.

GREEN CARUTHERS.

Soon after Lincoln removed to Springfield, he became acquainted with Mr.

Green Caruthers and remained on intimate terms with him during all the subsequent years of his life. Mr. Caruthers was a quiet, un.o.btrusive old gentleman, universally respected by those who knew him. The substance of his testimony is as follows:

"Lincoln, Bledsoe, the metaphysician, and myself, boarded at the Globe hotel in this city. Bledsoe tended toward Christianity, if he was not a Christian. Lincoln was always throwing out his Infidelity to Bledsoe, ridiculing Christianity, and especially the divinity of Christ."

JOHN DECAMP.

Another of Lincoln's most intimate Springfield friends was John Decamp.

Mr. Decamp was interviewed by Mr. Herndon regarding Lincoln's religious views in July, 1887. His statement was brief, but to the point. He says:

"Lincoln was an Infidel."

MR. LYNAN. In 1880, at Bismarck Grove, Kan., the writer of this delivered a lecture ent.i.tled, "Four American Infidels," a portion of which was devoted to a presentation of Lincoln's religious views. In its report of the lecture, the Lawrence _Standard_, edited by Hon. E.

G. Ross, formerly United States Senator from Kansas, and more recently Governor of New Mexico, said:

"In regard to Abraham Lincoln being an Infidel, the evidence adduced was overwhelming, and was confirmed by a gentleman present, Mr. Lynan, who had known him intimately for thirty years. Mr. Lynan declared that none but personal acquaintance could enable one to realize the n.o.bility and purity of Lincoln's character, but that he was beyond doubt or question a thorough disbeliever in the Christian scheme of salvation to the end of his life" (Lawrence Standard, Sept. 4, 1880).

JAMES B. SPAULDING.

Mr. J. B. Spaulding, well known as one of the leading nurserymen and horticulturists of the United States, a man of broad culture and refinement, who resides near Springfield, became intimately acquainted with Lincoln as early as 1851, and for a long time resided on the same street with him in Springfield. Mr. Spaulding says:

"Lincoln perpetrated many an irreverent joke at the expense of church doctrines. Regarding the miraculous conception, he was especially sarcastic. He wrote a ma.n.u.script as radical as Ingersoll which his political friends caused to be destroyed."

EZRA STRINGHAM.

A short time since I was conversing with a party of gentlemen in Riverton, Ill. It being near Lincoln's old home, the subject of his religious belief was introduced. An old gentleman, who up to this time had not been taking part in the conversation, quietly observed: "I think I knew Lincoln's religious views about as well as any other man." "What was he?" said one of the party. "An Infidel of the first water," was the prompt response. The old gentleman was Ezra Stringham, one of Lincoln's early acquaintances in Illinois.

DR. G. H. AMBROSE.

Dr. G. H. Ambrose, of Waldo, Fla., who was a.s.sociated in the law business at Springfield from 1846 to 1849 with a relative of Mrs.

Lincoln, says: "Mr. Lincoln was an Infidel--an outspoken one."

J. H. CHENERY.

Mr. J. H. Chenery, one of Springfield's pioneers--for many years owner and proprietor of the leading hotel of Springfield--says:

"Reed tried to prove that Lincoln was a church man; but everybody here knows that he was not. Once in a great while, and only once in a great while, I saw him accompany his wife and children to church. His attacks upon the church were most bitter and sarcastic. He wrote a book against Christianity, but his friends got away with it."

SQUIRE PERKINS.

A few years ago there died near Atchison, Kan., an old gentleman named Perkins. He was poor, but honest, and a bright man intellectually. He was a son of Major Perkins who was killed in the Black Hawk war. Lincoln after the fight discovered the scalp of Major Perkins, which his savage a.s.sa.s.sin had taken but lost. His first impulse was to keep it and take it home to the family of the dead soldier. Then realizing that it would only tend to intensify their grief, he opened the grave and deposited it with the body. This incident led to an intimate acquaintance between Lincoln and the younger Perkins. In June, 1880, Mr. Perkins made the following statement relative to Lincoln's religious belief:

"During all the time that I was acquainted with Abraham Lincoln I know that he was what the church calls an Infidel. I do not believe that he ever changed his opinions. When Colfax was in Atchison I had a talk with him about Lincoln. Among other things, I asked him if Lincoln had ever been converted to Christianity. He told me that he had not."

W. PERKINS.