Abraham Lincoln: Was He A Christian? Part 14

Mr. Perkins, an old lawyer and journalist of Illinois, who was acquainted with Lincoln for upward of twenty years, and who was his a.s.sociate counsel in several important cases, writing from Belleview, Fla., under date of August 22, 1887, says:

"The unfair efforts that Christians have been putting forth to drag Lincoln into their waning faith betray a pitiable imbecility. Were it possible for them to get the world to believe that Was.h.i.+ngton, Jefferson, and Lincoln, all prayed, had faith, and were washed in the blood of the Lamb, would that prove the inspiration of their Bible, harmonize its contradictions, put a ray of reason in its gross absurdities, or humanize the first one of its numerous b.l.o.o.d.y barbarities? I knew Mr. Lincoln from the spring of 1838 till his death.

Like Archibald Williams, our contemporary, an able Lord c.o.ke lawyer, he no more believed in the inspiration of the Bible than Hume, Paine, or Ingersoll. Less inclined openly to denounce its absurdities and cruelties, or to antagonize the well-meaning credulous professors, than was Williams. Mr. Lincoln had no faith whatever in the first miracle of the Bible, or the scheme of b.l.o.o.d.y redemption it teaches. To attribute such sentiments to him, is to tarnish his well-earned reputation for common sense, and to impair the estimation of his countrymen and the world of his high sense of humanity, justice, and honor. Two of my Presbyterian friends at Indian Point, near Petersburg, told me that they had interviewed Mr. Lincoln to prevent his impending duel with s.h.i.+elds--claiming that it was contrary to the Bible and Christianity. He admitted that the dueling code was barbarous and regretted much to find himself in its toils, but said he, 'The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my profession.'"

In some reminiscences of Lincoln, recently published, referring to a celebrated murder case in which they were counsel for the defendant, Mr.

Perkins says: "I reminded him that from the first I had seen, and to him said, the case is hopeless, and that he must have expected to work a miracle to save the accused. He answered that I did him injustice, _since he_ had no faith in miracles."

Alluding to Lincoln's alleged change of heart, he writes:

"He never changed a sentiment on the subject up to his final sleep."

JAMES GORLEY.

Mr. Gorley, who was the confidential friend of Lincoln, and who spent much time with him, both at home and abroad, made the following statement:

"Lincoln belonged to no religious sect. He was religious in his own way--not as others generally. I do not think he ever had a change of heart, religiously speaking. Had he ever had a change of heart he would have told me. He could not have neglected it."

WILLIAM JAYNE, M.D.

Dr. Jayne, who was appointed Governor of Dakota by Lincoln, is one of the most prominent citizens of Springfield, and was one of Lincoln's ablest and most faithful political friends. He secured Lincoln's nomination for the Legislature once, and was one of the first to pit him against Douglas. In a letter to me, dated August 18, 1887, Dr. Jayne says:

"His general reputation among his neighbors and friends of twenty-five years' standing was that of a disbeliever in the accepted faith of orthodox Christians. His mind was purely logical in its construction and action. He believed nothing except what was susceptible of demonstration.... His most intimate friends here, and close to him in the confidential relations of life, a.s.sert, in regard to those who claim for Lincoln a faith in the orthodox Christian belief, that the claim is a fraud and utter nonsense."

HON. JESSE K. DUBOIS.

Jesse K. Dubois, for a time State Auditor of Illinois, a n.o.ble and gifted man, and one whom Lincoln dearly loved, once related an anecdote which shows that if Lincoln did believe in a Supreme Being, he had little reverence for the G.o.d of Christianity. In company with Dubois, he was visiting a family in or near Springfield. It was summer, and while Dubois was in the house with the family, Lincoln occupied a seat in the yard with his feet resting against a tree, as was his wont. The lady, who was a very zealous Christian, called attention to his appearance and commented rather severely upon his ugliness. When they returned home Dubois referred to the lady's remarks. Lincoln was silent for a moment, and then said: "Dubois, I know that I am ugly, but she wors.h.i.+ps a G.o.d who is uglier than I am."

HON. JOSEPH GILLESPIE.

Judge Gillespie, of Edwardsville, Ill., one of Lincoln's most valued friends, writes as follows:

"Mr. Lincoln seldom said anything on the subject of religion. He said once to me that he never could reconcile the prescience of Deity with the uncertainty of events." "It was difficult," says Judge Gillespie, "for him to believe without demonstration."

JUDGE STEPHEN T. LOGAN.

Lincoln was admitted to the bar in 1837, when he was twenty-eight years of age, Judge Logan being on the bench at the time. Soon after his admission he formed a partners.h.i.+p with John T. Stuart which existed nearly four years, or until Mr. Stuart entered Congress. He then became the partner of Judge Logan, and continued in business with him until 1843, when he united his practice with that of Mr. Herndon. The testimony of Mr. Stuart and Mr. Herndon has already been given. No formal statement of Judge Logan concerning this question has been preserved. All that I have been able to find is contained in a letter from Mr. Herndon dated Dec. 22, 1888. Mr. Herndon wrote in relation to Lincoln's letter of consolation to his dying father. In Lincoln's letter, while Christ and Christianity are wholly ignored, there is an implied recognition of immortality and an expressed hope that he may meet his father again. Lincoln's friends, for the most part, consider the letter merely conventional, not an expression of his real sentiments, but simply an effort to console his Christian father whom he could never meet again on earth. Mr. Herndon, however, is inclined to believe that while the tone of the letter is not exactly in accordance with the views generally held by Lincoln, it is yet a sincere expression of the feelings he entertained at the time. Referring to this letter, Mr. Herndon says:

"I showed the letter to Logan, Stuart, _et al,_ Logan laughed in my face as much as to say: 'Herndon, are you so green as to believe that letter to be Lincoln's real ideas?' I cannot give the exact words of Logan, but he in substance said: 'Lincoln was an Infidel of the most radical type.'"

HON. LEONARD SWETT.

I close this division of my evidence with the testimony of that gifted lawyer and honored citizen of Illinois, Leonard Swett. Previous to his removal to Chicago, in 1865, Mr. Swett resided in Bloomington, and for a dozen years traveled the old Eighth Judicial Circuit with Lincoln.

Few men knew Lincoln better than did Swett, and none was held in higher esteem by Lincoln than he. It was he who placed Lincoln in nomination for the Presidency at Chicago in 1860. I quote from a letter written by Mr. Swett in 1866:

"You ask me whether he [Lincoln] changed his religious opinions toward the close of his life. I think not. As he became involved in matters of the greatest importance, full of great responsibility and great doubt, a feeling of religious reverence, a belief in G.o.d and his justice and overruling providence increased with him. He was always full of natural religion. He believed in G.o.d as much as the most approved church member, yet he judged of him by the same system of generalization as he judged everything else. He had very little faith in ceremonials or forms. In fact he cared nothing for the form of anything.... If his religion were to be judged by the lines and rules of church creeds, he would fall far short of the standard."

CHAPTER XI. TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES OF LINCOLN WHO KNEW HIM IN ILLINOIS

Hon. W. H. T. Wakefield--Hon. D. W. Wilder--Dr. B. P.

Gardner--Hon. J. K. Vandemark--A. Jeffrey--Dr. Arch E.

McNeal--Charles McGrew--Edward Buller--Joseph Stafford-- Judge A. D. Norton--J. L. Morrell--Mahlon Ross--L. Wilson-- H. K. Magie--Hon. James Tuttle--Col. P. S. Rutherford--Judge Robert Leachman--Hon. Orin B. Gould--M. S. Gowin--Col. R. G.

Ingersoll--Leonard W. Volk--Joseph Jefferson--Hon. E. B.

Washburn--Hon. E. M. Haines.

I will next present the evidence that I have gleaned from the lips or pens of personal friends of Lincoln who were acquainted with him in Illinois. The relations of these persons to Lincoln were, for the most part, less intimate than were those of the persons named in the preceding chapter; but all of them enjoyed in no small degree his confidence and esteem.

HON. W. H. T. WAKEFIELD.

Mr. Wakefield, our first witness, is a son of the distinguished jurist, Judge J. A. Wakefield. He is a prominent journalist, and was the nominee of the United Labor party, for Vice-President, in the Presidential contest of 1888. In a letter to the author, dated Lawrence, Kan., Sept.

28, 1880, Mr. Wakefield says: "My father, the late Judge J. A. Wakefield, was a life-long friend of Lincoln's, they having served through the Black Hawk war together and been in the Illinois Legislature together, during which latter time Lincoln boarded with my father in Vandalia, which was then the state capital. I remember of his visiting my father at Galena, in 1844 or 1845. They continued to correspond until Lincoln's death. My father was a member of the Methodist church and frequently spoke of and lamented Lincoln's Infidelity, and referred to the many arguments between them on the subject. The noted minister, Peter Cartwright, boarded with my father at the same time that Lincoln did, and my father and mother told me of the many theological and philosophical arguments indulged in by Lincoln and Cartwright, and of the fact that they always attracted many interested listeners and usually ended by Cartwright's getting very angry and the spectators being convulsed with laughter at Lincoln's dry wit and humorous comparisons."

Lincoln's legislative career at Vandalia extended from 1834 to 1837. It was about the beginning of this period that he wrote his book against Christianity. He was thoroughly informed and enthusiastic in his Infidel views, and it is not to be wondered at that on theological questions, he was able to vanquish in debate even so eminent a theologian as Peter Cartwright. Ten years later, Lincoln was the Whig, and Cartwright the Democratic candidate for Congress. In this campaign a determined effort was made by the church to defeat Lincoln on account of his Infidelity.

But his popularity, his reputation for honesty, his recognized ability, and his transcendent powers on the stump, carried him successfully through, and he was triumphantly elected.

HON. D. W. WILDER.

One of the most gifted and honorable of Western journalists is D. W.

Wilder, of Kansas. He was Surveyor General of Kansas before it was admitted into the Union, and after it became a state, he held the office of State Auditor. Many years ago Gen. Wilder wrote and published an editorial on Lincoln's religious views in which he affirmed that Lincoln was a disbeliever in Christianity. The article excited the wrath of the clergy, among them the Rev. D. P. Mitch.e.l.l, the leading Methodist divine of Kansas, who replied with much warmth, but without refuting the statements of Gen. Wilder. Some of my Western readers will recall the article and the controversy it provoked. I have been unable to procure a copy of it, but in its place I present the following extract from a letter received from Gen. Wilder, dated St. Joseph, Mo., Dec. 29, 1881:

"Lincoln believed in G.o.d, but not in the divinity of Christ. At first, like Franklin, he was probably an Atheist. Although a 'forgiving' man himself, he did not believe that any amount of 'penitence' could affect the logical effects of violated law. He has a remarkable pa.s.sage on that theme."

Concerning Lincoln's partner, Mr. Herndon, with whom he was acquainted, Gen. Wilder says:

"Write to Wm. H. Herndon, a n.o.ble man, Springfield, Ill. Send him your book ['Life of Paine']. He will reply. The stories told about him are lies."

B. F. GARDNER, M.D.

Dr. Gardner, an old and respected resident of Atlanta, Ill., in March, 1887, made the following statement in regard to Lincoln's views:

"I knew Lincoln from 1854 up to the time he left Springfield. He was an Infidel. He did not change his belief. Herndon told the truth in his lecture. Lincoln did not believe that prayer moved G.o.d. When he requested the prayers of his neighbors on leaving Springfield for Was.h.i.+ngton, he saw that & storm was coming and that he must have the support of the church."

These words of Lincoln in his farewell speech requesting the prayers of his friends, though used merely in a conventional way, have been cited by Holland, Arnold, and others, to prove that he believed in the efficacy of prayer. That no such import was attached to them at the time is admitted by Holland himself. He says: "This parting address was telegraphed to every part of the country, and was strangely misinterpreted. So little was the man's character understood that his simple and earnest request that his neighbors should pray for him was received by many as an evidence both of his weakness and his hypocrisy.

No President had ever before asked the people, in a public address, to pray for him. It sounded like the cant of the conventicle to ears unaccustomed to the language of piety from the lips of politicians. The request was tossed about as a joke--'old Abe's last'" (Holland's Life of Lincoln, p. 254).

HON. J. K. VANDEMARK.

J. K. Vandemark, who formerly resided near Springfield, Ill., and who was well acquainted with Lincoln, on the 13th of October, 1887, at Valparaiso, Neb., testified as follows:

"I met Lincoln often--had many conversations with him in his office. To a.s.sert that he was a believer in Christianity is absurd. He had no faith in the dogmas of the church."

Mr. Vandemark at the time his testimony was given was a member of the State Senate of Nebraska.

A. JEFFREY.

Mr. Jeffrey, who has resided near Waynesville, Ill., for a period of fifty years, and who was in the habit of attending court with Lincoln, year after year, in an interview on the 1st of March, 1887, made the following statement: