An incident following the death of Willie has been related on the alleged authority of Rev. Francis Vinton, rector of Trinity Church, New York, who was an acquaintance of Mrs. Lincoln and visited Washington and called at the White House soon after that sad event. As reported, he said to Mr. Lincoln:
"'Your son is alive.'
"'Alive!' exclaimed Mr. Lincoln. 'Surely you mock me.'
"'No, sir; believe me,' replied Dr. Vinton; 'it is a most comforting doctrine of the Church, founded upon the words of Christ Himself.'
"Mr. Lincoln threw his arm around Dr. Vinton's neck, laid his head upon his breast, and sobbed aloud, 'Alive? Alive?'
"Dr. Vinton, greatly moved, said: 'My dear sir, believe this, for it is God's most precious truth. Seek not your son among the dead; he is not there; he lives today in paradise! Think of the full import of the words I have quoted. The Sadducees, when they questioned Jesus, had no other conception than that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead and buried. Mark the reply: "Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him!" Did not the great patriarch mourn his sons as dead? "Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin, also!" But Joseph and Simeon were both living, though he believed it not. Indeed, Joseph being taken from him was the eventual means of the preservation of the whole family. And so God has called your son into His upper kingdom—a kingdom and an existence as real, more real, than your own. It may be that he too, like Joseph, has gone, in God's good providence, to be the salvation of his father's household. It is a part of the Lord's plan for the ultimate happiness of you and yours. Doubt it not.'
"Dr. Vinton [so the narrative proceeds] told Lincoln that he had a sermon upon the subject. Mr. Lincoln asked him to send it to him as early as possible, and thanked him repeatedly for his cheering and hopeful words. When Lincoln received the sermon he read it over and over, and had a copy made for his own private use. A member of the family said that Mr. Lincoln's views in relation to spiritual things seemed changed from that hour."—Carpenter, pp. 117-19.
Such an incident cannot be wholly false; nor is it quite conceivable that it is wholly true. That Lincoln talked with Dr. Vinton concerning his recent sorrow, and was comforted by his assurance of immortality is not improbable, nor that he accepted Dr. Vinton's sermon and had it copied; but the scene as finally described for the public has every appearance of being much colored.
In 1883 Captain Oldroyd published a collection of Lincoln anecdotes which had long been making, most of them good and many of them excellent, but some of them resting on very dubitable authority. Among those of this class was one that has been widely quoted, perhaps most widely of any in his book:[51]
"Shortly before his death an Illinois clergyman asked Lincoln, 'Do you love Jesus?' Mr. Lincoln solemnly replied: 'When I left Springfield I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes, I do love Jesus.'
"Reticent as he was, and shy of discoursing much of his own mental exercises, these few utterances now have a value with those who knew him which his dying words scarcely have possessed."—Lincoln Memorial Album, p. 105.
Where Captain Oldroyd obtained this incident is now not known; probably it came to him as a newspaper clipping. It bears no marks that commend it to our confidence. We are not informed who this Illinois clergyman was; there may not have been any such clergyman. If there was,—
"E'en ministers they hae been kenned
In holy rapture,
A rousing whid at times to vend,
And nail 't wi' Scripture."
Mr. Lincoln made many references to God, but very few to Jesus, and then not by name, but by some title, as "the Saviour of the World." The word "love" was one which he almost never used. That he should have said to a man unnamed "I do love Jesus" is highly improbable; and the account of his conversation as given here is not probable. We gain nothing by reliance on such unsupported allegations.