Chapter XII: Testimony of Friends and Acquaintances of Lincoln Who Knew Him in Washington

Hon. Geo. W. Julian--Hon. John B. Alley--Hon. Hugh McCulloch--
Donn Piatt--Hon. Schuyler Colfax--Hon. Geo. S.
Boutwell--Hon. Wm. D. Kelly--E. H. Wood--Dr. J. J. Thompson--
Rev. James Shrigley--Hon. John Covode--Jas. E. Murdock--
Hon. M. B. Field--Harriet Beecher Stowe--Hon. J. P. Usher--
Hon. S. P. Chase--Frederick Douglas--Mr. Defrees--Hon. Wm.
H. Seward--Judge Aaron Goodrich--Nicolay and Hay's "Life of
Lincoln"--Warren Chase--Hon. A. J. Grover--Judge James M.
Nelson.

The evidence of more than fifty witnesses has already been adduced to prove that Lincoln was not a Christian in Illinois. Those who at first were so forward to claim that he was, have generally recognized the futility of the claim. They have abandoned it, and content themselves with affirming that he became a Christian after he went to Washington. These claimants, being for the most part rigid sectarians themselves, endeavor to convince the world that he not only became a Christian, but an orthodox Christian, and a sectarian; that even from a Calvinistic standpoint, he was "sound not only on the truth of the Christian religion but on all its fundamental doctrines and teachings."

The testimony of Colonel Lamon, Judge Davis, Mrs. Lincoln, and Colonel Nicolay, not only refutes this claim, but shows that he was not in any just sense of the term a Christian when he died. In addition to this evidence, I will now present the testimony of a score of other witnesses who knew him in Washington. These witnesses do not all affirm that he was a total disbeliever in Christianity; but a part of them do, while the testimony of the remainder is to the effect that he was not orthodox as claimed.

HON. GEORGE W. JULIAN.

Our first witness is George W. Julian, of Indiana. Mr. Julian was for many years a leader in Congress, was the Anti-Slavery candidate for Vice-President, in 1852, and one of the founders of the party that elected Lincoln to the Presidency. He was one of Lincoln's warmest personal friends and intimately acquainted with him at Washington. Writing to me from Santa Fe, N. M., under date of March 13,1888, Mr. Julian says: "I knew him [Lincoln] well, and I know that he was not a Christian in any old-fashioned orthodox sense of the word, but only a religious Theist. He was, substantially, such a Christian as Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and John Adams; and it is perfectly idle to assert the contrary."

HON. JOHN B. ALLEY.

In 1886, the publishers of the _North American Review_ issued one of the most unique, original, and interesting works on Lincoln that has yet appeared--"Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln." It was edited by Allen Thorndike Rice, and comprises, in addition to a biographical sketch of Lincoln's life by the editor, thirty-three articles on Lincoln written by as many distinguished men of his day. One of the best articles in this volume is from the pen of one of Boston's merchant princes, John B. Alley. Mr. Alley was for eight years a member of Congress from Massachusetts, serving in this capacity during all the years that Lincoln was President. To his ability and integrity as a statesman this remarkable yet truthful tribute has been paid: "No bill he ever reported and no measure he ever advocated during his long term of service failed to receive the approbation of the House." Lincoln recognized his many sterling qualities, and throughout the war his relations with the President were of the most intimate character. Mr. Alley is one of the many who know that Lincoln was not a Christian, and one of the few who have the courage to affirm it. He says: "In his religious views Mr. Lincoln was very nearly what we would call a Freethinker. While he reflected a great deal upon religious subjects he communicated his thoughts to a very few. He had little faith in the popular religion of the times. He had a broad conception of the goodness and power of an overruling Providence, and said to me one day that he felt sure the Author of our being, whether called God or Nature, it mattered little which, would deal very mercifully with poor erring humanity in the other, and he hoped better, world. He was as free as possible from all sectarian thought, feeling, or sentiment. No man was more tolerant of the opinions and feelings of others in the direction of religious sentiment or had less faith in religious dogmas" (Reminiscences of Lincoln, pp. 590, 591).

In conclusion, Mr. Alley says: "While Mr. Lincoln was perfectly honest and upright and led a blameless life, he was in no sense what might be considered a religious man" (Ibid).

HON. HUGH MCCULLOCH.

Hon. Hugh McCulloch, a member of Lincoln's Cabinet, his last Secretary of the Treasury, writes: "Grave and sedate in manner, he was full of kind and gentle emotion. He was fond of poetry. Shakspere was his delight. Few men could read with equal expression the plays of the great dramatist. The theater had great attractions for him, but it was comedy, not tragedy, he went to hear. He had great enjoyment of the plays that made him laugh, no matter how absurd and grotesque, and he gave expression to his enjoyment by hearty and noisy applause. He was a man of strong religious convictions, but he cared nothing for the dogmas of the churches and had little respect for their creeds" (Reminiscences of Lincoln, pp. 412, 413).

DONN PIATT.

The distinguished lawyer, soldier and journalist, Donn Piatt, who knew Lincoln in Illinois and who met him often in Washington, writes: "I soon discovered that this strange and strangely gifted man, while not at all cynical, was a skeptic. His view of human nature was low, but good-natured. I could not call it suspicious, but he believed only what he saw" (Reminiscences of Lincoln, p. 480).

Those who are disposed to believe that Lincoln's Christian biographers have observed an inflexible adherence to truth in their statements concerning his religious belief would do well to ponder the following words of Mr. Piatt: "History is, after all, the crystallization of popular beliefs. As a pleasant fiction is more acceptable than a naked fact, and as the historian shapes his wares, like any other dealer, to suit his customers, one can readily see that our chronicles are only a duller sort of fiction than the popular novels so eagerly read; not that they are true, but that they deal in what we long to have--the truth. Popular beliefs, in time, come to be superstitions, and create gods and devils. Thus Washington is deified into an impossible man, and Aaron Burr has passed into a like impossible monster. Through the same process Abraham Lincoln, one of our truly great, has almost gone from human knowledge" (Ibid, p. 478).

HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX.

Previous to the war no class of persons were louder in their denunciation of Abolitionism than the clergy of the North. When at last it became evident that the institution of slavery was doomed, in their eagerness to be found on the popular side, they were equally loud in their demands for its immediate extirpation. In September, 1862, a deputation of Chicago clergymen waited upon the President for the purpose of urging him to proclaim the freedom of the slave. Notwithstanding he had matured his plans and was ready to issue his Proclamation, he gave them no intimation of his intention. In connection with their visit, Colfax relates the following: "One of these ministers felt it his duty to make a more searching appeal to the President's conscience. Just as they were retiring, he turned, and said to Mr. Lincoln, 'What you have said to us, Mr. President, compels me to say to you in reply, that it is a message to you from our Divine Master, through me, commanding you, sir, to open the doors of bondage that the slave may go free!' Mr. Lincoln replied, instantly, 'That may be, sir, for I have studied this question, by night and by day, for weeks and for months, but if it is, as you say, a message from your Divine Master, is it not odd that the only channel he could send it by was that roundabout route by that awfully wicked city of Chicago?" (Reminiscences of Lincoln, pp. 334, 335).

In a lecture delivered in Brooklyn, N. T., in 1886, Mr. Colfax stated that Lincoln was not a Christian, in the evangelical sense. To a gentleman who visited him at his home in South Bend, Ind., he declared that Lincoln was not a believer in orthodox Christianity. Again at Atchison, Kan., he informed Mr. Perkins that Lincoln had never been converted to Christianity, as claimed.

HON. WILLIAM O. KELLEY.

William D. Kelley, for thirty years a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, relates an incident similar to the one related by Mr. Colfax. A "Quaker preacher" called at the White House to urge the President to proclaim at once the freedom of the slave. To illustrate her argument and emphasize her plea, she cited the history of Deborah. "Having elaborated this Biblical example," says Mr. Kelley, "the speaker assumed that the President was, as Deborah had been, the appointed minister of the Lord, and proceeded to tell him that it was his duty to follow the example of Deborah, and forthwith abolish slavery, and establish freedom throughout the land, as the Lord had appointed him to do.

"'Has the Friend finished?' said the President, as she ceased to speak. Having received an affirmative answer, he said: 'I have neither time nor disposition to enter into discussion with the Friend, and end this occasion by suggesting for her consideration the question whether, if it be true that the Lord has appointed me to do the work she has indicated, it is not probable that he would have communicated knowledge of the fact to me as well as to her'" (Reminiscences of Lincoln, pp. 284, 285).

HON. GEORGE S. BOUTWELL.

A great many pious stories have been circulated in regard to the Emancipation Proclamation. We are told that he made a "solemn vow to God" that if Lee was defeated at Antietam he would issue the Preliminary Proclamation. And yet this document contains no recognition of God. He even completed the draft of it on what Christians are pleased to regard as God's holy day. Mr. Boutwell states that Lincoln once related to him the circumstances attending the promulgation of the instrument. He quotes the following as Lincoln's words: "The truth is just this: When Lee came over the river, I made a resolution that if McClellan drove him back I would send the Proclamation after him. The battle of Antietam was fought Wednesday, and until Saturday I could not find out whether we had gained a victory or lost a battle. It was then too late to issue the Proclamation that day, and the fact is _I fixed it up a little Sunday_, and Monday I let them have it" (Reminiscences of Lincoln, p. 126).

E. H. WOOD.

Mr. E. H. Wood, one of Lincoln's old Springfield neighbors, who visited him at Washington during the war, made the following statement to Mr. Hern-don, in October, 1881:

"I came from Auburn, N. Y.--knew Seward well--knew Lincoln very well--lived for three years just across the alley from his residence. I had many conversations with him on politics and religion as late as 1859 and '60. He was a broad religionist--a Liberal. Lincoln told me Franklin's story. Franklin and a particular friend made an agreement that when the first one died he would come back and tell how things went. Well, Franklin's friend died, but never came back. 'It is a doubtful question,' said Lincoln, 'whether we get anywhere to get back.' Lincoln said, 'There is no hell.' He did not say much about heaven. I met him in Washington and saw no change in him."

I have given the testimony of two of Lincoln's nearest neighbors in Springfield, Isaac Hawley and E. H. Wood. Mr. Hawley _believes_ that Lincoln was a Christian; Mr. Wood _knows_ that he was not. Mr. Hawley never heard Lincoln utter a word to support his belief; Mr. Wood obtained his knowledge from Lincoln himself. Mr. Hawley's belief is of little value compared with Mr. Wood's knowledge. Mr. Hawley never heard Lincoln defend Christianity and probably never heard him oppose it. Lincoln knew that Mr. Hawley was a Christian--that he had no sympathy with his Freethought views. He did not desire to offend or antagonize him, and hence he refrained from introducing a subject that he knew was distasteful to him. Mr. Wood, on the other hand, was a man of broad and Liberal ideas, and Lincoln did not hesitate to express to him his views with freedom.

J. J. THOMPSON, M.D.

Dr. J. J. Thompson, an old resident of Illinois, now in Colorado, in a letter, dated March 18, 1888, writes as follows: "I knew Abraham Lincoln from my boyhood up to the time of his death. I was in his law office many times and met him several times in Washington. He was a Liberal, outspoken, and seemed to feel proud of it."

"This great and good man," concludes Dr. Thompson, "claimed Humanity as his religion."

REV. JAMES SHRIGLEY.

Rev. Jas. Shrigley, of Philadelphia, who was acquainted with President Lincoln in Washington, and who received a hospital chaplaincy from him, says: "President Lincoln was also remarkably tolerant. He was the friend of all, and never, to my knowledge, gave the influence of his great name to encourage sectarianism in any of its names and forms" (Lincoln Memorial Album, p. 335).

HON. JOHN COVODE.

In connection with Mr. Shrigley's appointment, the following anecdote is related. Mr. Shrigley was not orthodox, and when it became known that his name had been sent to the Senate, a Committee of "Young Christians" waited upon the President for the purpose of inducing him to withdraw the nomination. Hon. John Covode, of Pennsylvania, was present during the interview and gave it to the press. It is as follows:

"'We have called, Mr. President, to confer with you in regard to the appointment of Mr. Shrigley, of Philadelphia, as hospital chaplain.'

"The President responded: 'Oh, yes, gentlemen; I have sent his name to the Senate, and he will no doubt be confirmed at an early day.'

"One of the young men replied: 'We have not come to ask for the appointment, but to solicit you to withdraw the nomination.'

"'Ah,' said Lincoln, 'that alters the case; but on what ground do you ask the nomination withdrawn?'

"The answer was, 'Mr. Shrigley is not sound in his theological opinions.'

"The President inquired: 'On what question is the gentleman unsound?'

"Response: 'He does not believe in endless punishment; not only so, sir, but he believes that even the rebels themselves will finally be saved.'

"'Is that so?' inquired the President.

"The members of the committee both responded, 'Yes,' 'Yes.'

"'Well, gentlemen, if that be so, and there is any way under heaven whereby the rebels can be saved, then, for God's sake and their sakes, let the man be appointed'" (L. M. A., pp. 336, 337).

And he was appointed.

JAMES E. MURDOCH.

It is claimed that few public men have made greater use of the Bible than Lincoln. This is true. He was continually quoting Scripture or alluding to Scriptural scenes and stories, sometimes to illustrate or adorn a serious speech, but more frequently to point or emphasize a joke. The venerable actor and elocutionist, James E. Murdoch, who had met Lincoln, both in Springfield and Washington, relates an anecdote of him while at Washington which serves to illustrate this propensity: "One day a detachment of troops was marching along the avenue singing the soul-stirring strain of 'John Brown.' They were walled in on either side by throngs of citizens and strangers, whose voices mingled in the roll of the mighty war-song. In the midst of this exciting scene, a man had clambered into a small tree, on the sidewalk, where he clung, unmindful of the jeers of the passing crowd, called forth by the strange antics he was unconsciously exhibiting in his efforts to overcome the swaying motion of the slight stem which bent beneath his weight. Mr. Lincoln's attention was attracted for a moment, and he paused in the serious conversation in which he was deeply interested and in an abstracted manner, yet with a droll cast of the eye, and a nod of the head in the direction of the man, he repeated, in his dry and peculiar utterance, the following old-fashioned couplet:

'And Zaccheous he did climb a tree,
His Lord and Master for to see.'"

(L. M. A., pp. 349, 350).

Mr. Murdoch states that in connection with this incident Lincoln was charged "with turning sacred subjects into ridicule." He apologizes for, and attempts to palliate this levity, and affects to believe that Lincoln was a Christian. But almost daily Lincoln indulged in jokes at the expense of the Bible and Christianity, many of them ten-fold more sacrilegious in their character than this trifling incident related by Mr. Murdoch. If the scrupulously pious considered this simple jest, uttered in the midst of a mixed crowd, irreverent, what would have been their horror could they have listened to some of his remarks made when alone with a skeptical boon companion? With Christians and with strangers he was generally guarded in his speech, lest he should give offense; but with his unbelieving friends, up to the end of his career, his keenest shafts of wit were not infrequently aimed at the religion of his day. This shows that the popular faith had no more sacredness for Lincoln, the President, in Washington, than it had for Lincoln, the farmer's boy, who mocked and mimicked it in Indiana, or Lincoln, the lawyer, who scoffed at it and argued against it in Illinois.

HON. MAUNSELL B. FIELD.

Mr. Field, who had met nearly all the noted characters of his day, both of Europe and America, in his "Memories of Many Men," has this significant sentence respecting Lincoln:

"Mr. Lincoln was entirely deficient in what the phrenologists call _reverence [veneration]_."

This made it easy for him to emancipate himself from the slavery of priestcraft and become and remain a Freethinker. Professor Beall, one of the ablest of living phrenological writers, says:

"No man can 'enjoy religion,' as the Methodists express it, unless he has well developed veneration and wonder" (The Brain and the Bible, p. 109). "All those who rebel against any form of government which in childhood they were taught to revere, must of necessity do so in opposition to the faculty of veneration. Thus it is obvious that the less one possesses of the conservative restraining faculties, the more easily he becomes a rebel or an Infidel to that which his reason condemns. On the other hand, the profoundly conscientious and reverential man, who sincerely regards unbelief as a sin, of course instinctively antagonizes every skeptical thought, and is thus likely to remain a slave to the religion learned at his mother's knee" (Ibid, p. 228).

Mr. Field also relates the following anecdote of Lincoln: "I was once in Mr. Lincoln's company when a sectarian controversy arose. He himself looked very grave, and made no observation until all the others had finished what they had to say. Then with a twinkle of the eye he remarked that he preferred the Episcopalians to every other sect, because they are equally indifferent to a man's religion and his politics."

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.

The noted author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had several interviews with the President. She wrote an article on him which has been cited in proof of his "deeply religious nature." But if her words prove anything, they prove that he was not an evangelical Christian. They are as follows:

"But Almighty God has granted to him that clearness of vision which he gives to the true-hearted, and enabled him to set his honest foot in that promised land of freedom which is to be the patrimony of all men, black and white; and from henceforth nations shall rise up and call him blessed. _We believe he has never made any religions profession_, but we see evidence that in passing through this dreadful national crisis, he has been forced by the very anguish of the struggle to look upward, where any rational creature must look for support. No man in this agony has suffered more and deeper, albeit with a dry, weary, patient pain, that seemed to some like insensibility. 'Whichever way it ends,' he said to the writer, 'I have the impression that I shan't last long after it's over'" (Every-Day Life of Lincoln, pp. 575, 576).

Mrs. Stowe was herself an orthodox Christian communicant, but her store of good sense was too great to allow her to inflict her religious notions upon the unbelieving President, and, as a consequence, she did not see him rush out of the room with a Bible under his arm to--I was going to say--pray God to deliver him from an intolerable nuisance.

That the mighty burden which pressed upon Lincoln made him a sadder and more serious man at Washington than he had been before is true. Christians are always mistaking sadness for penitence and seriousness for piety, and so they claim that he experienced a change of heart.

HON. JOHN P. USHER.

Christians and Theists are wont to speak of Lincoln's constant and firm reliance upon God. But it is a little remarkable that in the preparation of his greatest work he did not rely upon God. In the supreme moments of his life he forgot God. Dr. Barrows says: "When he wrote his immortal Proclamation, he invoked upon it... 'the gracious favor of Almighty God.'"

When he wrote his immortal Proclamation he had no thought of God. Judge Usher, a member of his Cabinet, tells us how God came to be invoked: "In the preparation of the final Proclamation of Emancipation, of January 1, 1863, Mr. Lincoln manifested great solicitude. He had his original draft printed and furnished each member of his Cabinet with a copy, with the request that each should examine, criticise, and suggest any amendments that occurred to them. At the next meeting of the Cabinet Mr. Chase said: 'This paper is of the utmost importance--greater than any state paper ever made by this Government. A paper of so much importance, and involving the liberties of so many people, ought, I think, to make some reference to Deity. I do not observe anything of the kind in it.' Mr. Lincoln said: 'No; I overlooked it. Some reference to Deity must be inserted. Mr. Chase, won't you make a draft of what you think ought to be inserted?' Mr. Chase promised to do so, and at the next meeting presented the following: 'And upon this Act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God'" (Reminiscences of Lincoln, pp. 91, 92).

HON. SALMON P. CHASE.

In the New York _Tribune_ of Feb. 22d, 1893, appeared an article on "How the Emancipation Proclamation was made," written by Mrs. Janet Chase Hoyt, daughter of Salmon P. Chase. In this article Mrs. Hoyt gives the following extract from a letter written to her by her father in 1867: "Looking over old papers, I found many of my memoranda, etc., of the war, and among them my draft of a proclamation of emancipation submitted to Mr. Lincoln the day before his own was issued. He asked all of us for suggestions in regard to its form and I submitted mine in writing, and among other sentences the close as it now stands, which he adopted from my draft with a modification. It may be interesting to you to see precisely what I said, and I copy it. You must remember that in the original draft there was no reference whatever to Divine or human sanction of the act. What I said was this at the conclusion of my letter: 'Finally, I respectfully suggest that on an occasion of such interest there can be no imputation of affectation against a solemn recognition of responsibility before men and before God, and that some such close as this will be proper: "And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice warranted by the Constitution (and of duty demanded by the circumstances of the country), I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.'" Mr. Lincoln adopted this close, substituting only for the words inclosed in parentheses these words: 'upon military necessity,' which I think was not an improvement.'"

MR. DEFREES.

During his Presidency the clergy petitioned him to recommend in his message to Congress an amendment to the Constitution recognizing the existence of God. In preparing his message it seems that he inserted the request. Referring to this, Mr. Defrees, Superintendent of Public Printing during Lincoln's administration, says: "When I assisted him in reading the proof he struck it out, remarking that he had not made up his mind as to its propriety" (_Westminster Review_, Sept. 1891).

HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

In his "Travels Around the World," Seward records one of Lincoln's sarcastic hits at the doctrine of endless punishment. Speaking of England's jealousy of the United States in certain matters, Seward says:

"That hesitation and refusal recall President Lincoln's story of the intrusion of the Universalists into the town of Springfield. The several orthodox churches agreed that their pastors should preach down the heresy. One of them began his discourse with these emphatic words: 'My Brethren, there is a dangerous doctrine creeping in among us. There are those who are teaching that all men will be saved; but my dear brethren, _we_ hope for better things'" (Travels Around the World, p. 513).

JUDGE AARON GOODRICH.

Judge Goodrich, of Minnesota, Lincoln's minister to Belgium, who was one of the most accomplished scholars in the West, and an author of note, and who was on terms of close intimacy with Lincoln, both before and after he became President, says:

"He [Lincoln] believed in a God, i.e., Nature; but he did not believe in the Christ, nor did he ever affiliate with any church."

FREDERICK DOUGLAS.

Abraham Lincoln believed in a Supreme Being, but he did not believe in the God of Christians. The God of Christians was to him the most hideous monster that the imagination of man had ever conceived. There were two doctrines taught in connection with this deity which he especially abhorred--the doctrine of endless punishment, and the doctrine of vicarious atonement. That the innocent should suffer for the guilty--that God should permit his sinless son to be put to a cruel death to atone for the sins of wicked men--was to him an act of the most infamous injustice. His whole nature rebelled against the idea. Frederick Douglas narrates an incident which, while it has no direct reference to this theological doctrine, yet tends to disclose his abhorrence of the idea. Mr. Douglas was engaged in recruiting colored troops and visited the President for the purpose of securing from him a pledge that colored soldiers would be allowed the same privileges accorded white soldiers. As the Confederate Government had declared that they would be treated as insurgents, he also urged upon him the necessity of retaliating, if colored prisoners were put to death. But to the latter proposition Lincoln would not listen. Mr. Douglas says:

"I shall never forget the benignant expression of his face, the tearful look of his eye and the quiver of his voice, when he deprecated a resort to retaliatory measures. He said he could not take men out and kill them in cold blood for what was done by others. If he could get hold of the persons who were guilty of killing the colored prisoners in cold blood, the case would be different, but _he could not kill the innocent for the guilty_" (Reminiscences of Lincoln, pp. 188, 189).

NICOLAY AND HAY'S "LIFE OF LINCOLN."

Of the numerous biographies of Lincoln that have been published, the authors of three, above all others, were specially qualified and possessed the necessary materials for a reliable biography of him--Herndon, Lamon, and Nicolay and Hay.

As Colonel Lamon's "Life" covers but a part of Lincoln's career, and as Mr. Herndon's "Life" deals more with his private life than with his public history, the biography of Lincoln that is likely to be accepted as the standard authority, is the work written by his private secretaries, Col. John G. Nicolay and Col. John Hay, which originally appeared in the _Century Magazine_. In the chapter on "Lincoln and the Churches," the religious phase of Lincoln's character is presented. In dealing with this question the authors have carefully avoided the rock upon which Lamon's "Life" was wrecked, and at the same time have refrained from repeating the misrepresentations of Holland and Arnold. They do not offend the church by openly declaring that Lincoln was an Infidel; neither do they outrage truth by asserting that he was a Christian. They affirm that during the latter years of his life he recognized a "superior power," but they do not intimate that he recognized Jesus Christ as this power, or any part of it, nor that he accepted the Bible as a special revelation of this power. In the following passage they impliedly deny both his alleged Atheism and his alleged orthodoxy: "We have no purpose of attempting to formulate his creed; we question if he himself ever did so. There have been swift witnesses who, judging from expressions uttered in his callow youth, have called him an Atheist, and others who, with the most laudable intentions, have remembered improbable conversations which they bring forward to prove at once his orthodoxy and their own intimacy with him."

As it is not claimed that Lincoln was an Atheist, especially during the last years of his life, the above can very properly be brought forward in support of the negative of this question. In the last clause it is intended by the authors to administer a sarcastic rebuke to such witnesses as Brooks, Willets and Vinton, as well as deny the truthfulness of their statements.

In regard to Lincoln's youth, the following from Nicolay and Hay's work corroborates Lamon's statements and refutes those of Holland: "We are making no claim of early saintship for him. He was merely a good boy, with sufficient wickedness to prove his humanity.... It is also reported that he sometimes impeded the celerity of harvest operations by making burlesque speeches, or worse than that, comic sermons, from the top of some tempting stump, to the delight of the hired hands and the exasperation of the farmer."

HON. WARREN CHASE.

In 1888, I received a brief letter from Warren Chase pertaining to Lincoln's religious belief. Mr. Chase was acquainted with Lincoln in Washington. His letter has been mislaid, but I recall the principal points in it, which are as follows: 1. Lincoln was not a believer in Christianity; 2. He was much interested in the phenomena of Spiritualism.

HON. A. J. GROVER.

A. J. Grover, a life-long reformer, an old-time Abolitionist, an able advocate of human liberty, and a personal friend and admirer of Lincoln, in a letter written April 13, 1888, sends me the following as his testimony:

"Mr. Lincoln was not a religious man in the church sense. He was an Agnostic. He did not believe in the Bible as the infallible word of God. He believed that Nature is God's word, given to all men in a universal language which is equally accessible to all, if all are equally intelligent. That this great lesson, God's word in his works, is infinite, and that men have only learned a very little of it, and have yet the most to learn. That the religions of all ages and peoples are only very feeble and imperfect attempts to solve the great problems involved in nature and her laws. Mr. Lincoln heartily disliked the narrow and silly pretensions of the church and priesthood who now falsely claim him, as they do Washington, Franklin and others.

"I knew Mr. Lincoln from the Douglas campaign in Illinois in 1858 until his death, and I never heard him on any occasion use a single pious expression in the sense of the church--not a word that indicated that he believed in the church theology. But I have heard him use many expressions that indicated that he did not know much, or pretend to know much, and had no settled convictions concerning the great questions that theology deals so flippantly with, and pretends to know all about. And I know to my own knowledge that the claim the church now sets up that he was a Christian is false--as false as it is in regard to Washington."

Writing to me again under date of Jan. 12, 1889, Mr. Grover says: "I knew Mr. Lincoln in Illinois and in Washington. I was in the War office, for a time, in a department which had charge of the President's books, so-called. I met him in passing between the White House and the buildings then occupied by the War Department, almost every day. I often had to go to Mr. Stanton's office, and have often seen Mr. Lincoln there. I frequently had to go to the White House to see him. It was known to all of his acquaintances that he was a Liberal or nationalist."

JUDGE JAMES M. NELSON.

The last, and in some respects the most important, of our Washington witnesses is Judge James M. Nelson. Judge Nelson for many years has been a resident of New York, but he formerly lived in Kentucky and Illinois, Lincoln's native and adopted states. He is a son of Thomas Pope Nelson, a distinguished member of Congress from Kentucky, and the first United States Minister to Turkey. His great grandfather was Thomas Nelson, Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Virginia. He was long and intimately acquainted with Lincoln both in Illinois and Washington. About the close of 1886, or early in 1887, Judge Nelson published his "Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln" in the Louisville, Ky., _Times_. In reference to Lincoln's religious opinions he says: "In religion, Mr. Lincoln was about of the same belief as Bob Ingersoll, and there is no account of his ever having changed. He went to church a few times with his family while he was President, but so far as I have been able to find out he remained an unbeliever." "Mr. Lincoln in his younger days wrote a book," says Judge Nelson, "in which he endeavored to prove the fallacy of the plan of salvation and the divinity of Christ."

I have yet another passage from Judge Nelson's "Reminiscences" to present, a passage which, more than anything else in this volume, perhaps, is calculated to provoke the wrath of Christian claimants. To lend an air of plausibility to their claims these claimants are continually citing expressions of a seemingly semi-pious character occasionally to be met with in his speeches and state papers. These expressions, in a measure accounted for by Mr. Herndon, Colonel Lamon, and others, are still further explained by a revelation from his own lips. Judge Nelson says: "I asked him once about his fervent Thanksgiving Message and twitted him with being an unbeliever in what was published. 'Oh,' said he, 'that is some of Seward's nonsense, and it pleases the fools.'"