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.