"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 God and his justice and overruling providence increased with him. He was always full of natural religion. He believed in God 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. Mitchell, 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: