Abraham Lincoln: Was He A Christian? Part 7

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 wors.h.i.+p. Lincoln they are determined to enthrone among the saints, to be forever wors.h.i.+ped 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 G.o.d, 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 a.s.sures 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 G.o.d? 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 G.o.d.... 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 n.o.bler and a grander life."

"Did Mr. Lincoln, in his said Inaugural, say: 'Both read the same _Word of G.o.d?_' No, because that would be admitting revelation. He said: 'Both read the same _Bible_' Did Mr. Lincoln say: 'Yet if G.o.d 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 G.o.d_ 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 ent.i.tled, "Abraham Lincoln's Religious Belief," which appeared in the _Truth Seeker_ of New York.

From this article I quote the following pa.s.sages:

"In 1842 I heard Mr. Lincoln deliver a speech before the Was.h.i.+ngtonian 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 G.o.d's decrees."

"He has told me often that there was no freedom in the human will, and no punishment beyond this world. He denied G.o.d'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 ill.u.s.tration 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 Was.h.i.+ngton 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 pa.s.sed 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 Was.h.i.+ngton _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--G.o.d--than Mr.

Lincoln, but the continued use by him late in life of the word G.o.d must not be interpreted to mean that he believed in a personal G.o.d. In 1854 he asked me to erase the word _G.o.d_ from a speech which I had written and read to him for criticism, because my language indicated a personal G.o.d, 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 a.n.a.lyze 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 n.o.bility 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 s.p.a.ce 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 partners.h.i.+p 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 friends.h.i.+p. 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 G.o.d exists?' he would have said: 'I do _not know_ that a G.o.d 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 _G.o.d_. He made me wipe out that word and subst.i.tute the word _Maker_, affirming that said Maker was a principle of the universe. When he went to Was.h.i.+ngton 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 G.o.d.

But these invocations are no evidence to a rational mind that he adopted the blasphemy that G.o.d seduced his own daughter, begat a son on purpose to have mankind kill him, in order that he, G.o.d, 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 G.o.d--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 Was.h.i.+ngton, 'G.o.d has his own purposes.' If G.o.d has his own purposes, then prayer will not change G.o.d'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 G.o.d, 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 Was.h.i.+ngton told me this story and vouched for its truthfulness: 'A tall saddle-faced man,' said he, 'came to Was.h.i.+ngton 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."