The Soul of Abraham Lincoln

by William E. Barton

Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated sixteenth president of the United States, on Monday, March 4, 1861. His journey to Washington had served to impress him even more deeply than before with a sense of the solemnity of his task. He still was earnestly hoping, and if we may judge from his speeches along the route, even expecting, that war would be averted;[22] but the possibility of war was always apparent and its probability was growing daily more certain.

Several incidents are related tending to show the solemnity of Lincoln's feeling at this time. Some of them are plainly apocryphal, but others are deeply significant. The following was related by Rev. Dr. Miner, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Springfield, who was intimately acquainted with the Lincoln family and who visited them in the White House. This story he declared was related to him by Mrs. Lincoln on the occasion of his visit to the White House and was published while Mrs. Lincoln was still living. It appears to rest upon a sound basis of fact:

"Here I relate an incident which occurred on the 4th of March, 1861, as told me by Mrs. Lincoln. Said she:

"'Mr. Lincoln wrote the conclusion of his inaugural address the morning it was delivered. The family being present, he read it to them. He then said he wished to be left alone for a short time. The family retired to an adjoining room, but not so far distant but that the voice of prayer could be distinctly heard. There, closeted with God alone, surrounded by the enemies who were ready to take his life, he commended his country's cause and all dear to him to God's providential care, and with a mind calmed by communion with his Father in heaven, and courage equal to the danger, he came forth from that retirement ready for duty.'"—Scribner's Monthly, 1873, p. 343.

Fort Sumter fell April 13, and on the 15th Lincoln issued his call for volunteers, and called Congress in extraordinary session for July 4. On July 21 occurred the battle of Bull Run, and the war settled down to its weary and varying fortunes. On September 22, 1862, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation to take effect January 1, 1863. The battle of Gettysburg occurred July 1-4, 1863, and destroyed the hope of the Southern Army of a successful invasion of the North. Simultaneously with Lee's defeat at Gettysburg, General Grant captured Vicksburg, opening the Mississippi to the Union gunboats. On November 19, 1863, Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg address. On March 4, 1865, he was inaugurated President a second time. On Sunday, April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox. On Friday night, April 14, at 10:20 P.M., Abraham Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theater and died on Saturday morning, April 15, at 7:22. On Thursday, May 4, his body was interred at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield.

During his residence in Washington, Mr. Lincoln habitually attended the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. He was a warm personal friend of the pastor, Rev. Phineas D. Gurley, D.D., whose grandson, Captain Gurley of the War Department, relates that Lincoln sat with Dr. Gurley on the rear porch of the White House during the second battle of Bull Run, and when the strain had become almost unbearable he knelt in prayer and Mr. Lincoln knelt beside him and joined reverently in the petition. Dr. Gurley's testimonies to the religious development of Lincoln's life were conservative, and bear upon their face marks of trustworthiness. There are no extravagant claims; no florid and declamatory theological affirmations,[23] but such as this which Dr. Gurley remembers to have heard Lincoln say to a company of clergymen calling upon him in one of the darkest times in the Civil War:

"My hope of success in this struggle rests on that immutable foundation, the justness and the goodness of God; and when events are very threatening I still hope that in some way all will be well in the end, because our cause is just and God will be on our side."—Scribner's Magazine, 1873, p. 339.

Lincoln sometimes varied this form of expression and said that he was less anxious to proclaim that God was on his side than he was to be sure that he was on God's side.

During this period Lincoln had frequent occasion to meet delegations from religious bodies and to reply to their addresses. We shall have occasion later to consider some of his words to these different religious bodies. He also issued a number of proclamations, calling for days of fasting and prayer and days of thanksgiving, in which he expressed not only the formal sentiment which he might assume represented the mind of the people, but also to a considerable extent what must have been his own religious conviction.

An unbiased reading of these proclamations and addresses compels the reader to recognize in them, not merely the formal courtesy of an official to the representatives of large and influential bodies, but the sincere expression of his own faith. An illustration may be found in his attitude toward the Quakers. No religious body suffered more during the Civil War, and with no religious fellowship did Mr. Lincoln feel a more instinctive sympathy, though he was compelled by the logic of events to pursue courses of action in contravention of their desires and at times of their convictions.

In September, 1862, he received a delegation of Friends, and listened to an address on their behalf by Mrs. Eliza P. Gurney, wife of Joseph John Gurney, a wealthy banker, entreating him on behalf of their peace-loving organization to bring the war to a speedy end. He could not do what they wished, and moreover, he believed that it was not the will of God that the war should end till it had wrought out the purposes of the Divine will. He said: