It is my opinion that Lincoln did not believe in endless punishment, and also that he did not accept the supernatural birth of Christ. The evidence on which these opinions rest has already been indicated. But I do not regard him as a Universalist or a Unitarian. The basis of his religious belief was Calvinism of the most rigid sort. It could accept some incidental features of other systems, but at heart it was Calvinistic.
I have talked with Rev. Jasper Douthit, of Shelbyville, concerning Unitarianism in central Illinois. He quotes Jenkin Lloyd Jones as saying of his Shelbyville church, that "Unitarianism attempted to locate in the Capitol City of Illinois, but struck the dome of the State House, glanced off, and stuck in the mud at Shelbyville." In some sense the movement of Mr. Douthit is the present survival of the attempt before the Civil War to domesticate Unitarianism in Springfield and vicinity. I have clipped from the Christian Register a communication which, without pretending to technical knowledge of the organific principle of the several sects, goes near to the heart of this question:
"To the editor of the Christian Register:—
"Apropos of 'Lincoln Day,' may I ask for definite information as to Mr. Lincoln's religious belief? The author of that little pamphlet, 'What do Unitarians Believe?' implies that he is to be numbered among Unitarians, and quotes from the author of Six Months at the White House to prove his assertion. Now I don't know who the author of Six Months at the White House is, and care less. His testimony is 'second hand' viewed in any light you please. He may have been a Unitarian himself, though I hardly think he would have used the word 'Saviour,' in speaking of Mr. Lincoln's words, unless Lincoln himself had used it. At any rate, the only direct testimony bearing on Mr. Lincoln's religious views is found in his own writings, and I want to quote from his Fast Day proclamation of March 30, 1863, as throwing some light on the subject.
"He says: 'Whereas, it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures, and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
"'And, insomuch as we know that by His Divine laws, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of Civil War, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity.
"'We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.'
"If this isn't Calvinism pure and simple, then I don't know what Calvinism is.
"Now, Mr. Editor, if you can show me any reference in Mr. Lincoln's own words that point as strongly toward 'Unitarianism' and those truths which it claims as peculiarly its own, I shall be glad to see it.
"Charles B. Toleman."
A number of Lincoln's old neighbors, contributing to the Irwin article in denial of the alleged infidelity of Lincoln, affirm that he was a Universalist. In their denial of his infidelity they were correct; and also in their detection of the fallacy of Herndon in which he counted every opinion to be infidel that did not conform to the severe orthodoxy with which he was familiar. As between Herndon and these writers, they were correct. Lincoln's "infidelity" consisted in good part of his denial of eternal punishment. But that did not make him an infidel; neither did it constitute him technically a Universalist. The substratum of his belief was the old-time predestinarianism which he heard in his youth and never outgrew. How he could make this blend with his wide departures from conventional orthodoxy in other points, those can best understand who have heard the kind of preaching on which Lincoln grew up. Its effect is not easily obliterated.
Was Abraham Lincoln a Methodist?
This question would seem to require no answer, yet it is one that should receive an answer, for claims have been made, and are still current, which imply that Lincoln was actually converted in the Methodist Church, whose doctrine he accepted because Calvinism was repugnant to him; and that while he continued to attend the Presbyterian Church, he was essentially a Methodist.
Lincoln had a very high regard for the Methodist Church. It was rent asunder during the Civil War, and the Northern branch of the church which had long been vigorously anti-slavery was warmly loyal. On May 18, 1864, in a letter of reply to a deputation of ministers from that body, he said, "God bless the Methodist Church—bless all the churches, and blessed be God who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches."
Reference has been made to the fact that Methodism did not at any time appear greatly to influence the Lincoln family in matters of theology, and that the early environment of the family from the birth of Lincoln was Baptist. I am inclined to think that the Hanks family had Methodist antecedents. Thomas and Nancy Lincoln were married by a Methodist preacher, Rev. Jesse Head. He is known to have been a foe of slavery, and there is some reason to think that the Lincoln family derived some part of its love of freedom from him.
From time to time Lincoln met Methodist preachers who deeply impressed him. One of these was Rev. Peter Akers, whom he heard in 1837, when Lincoln was twenty-eight years of age.
"He and a group of associates went out to hear him at a camp-meeting six miles west of Springfield, at the 'Salem Church.' The Rev. Peter Akers was a vigorous and fearless man. He spoke of certain prophecies, and predicted 'the downfall of castes, the end of tyrannies, and the crushing out of slavery.' On the way home they were earnestly discussing the sermon. Lincoln is alleged to have said: 'It was the most instructive sermon, and he is the most impressive preacher, I have ever heard. It is wonderful that God has given such power to men. I firmly believe his interpretation of prophecy, so far as I understand it, and especially about the breaking down of civil and religious tyrannies; and, odd as it may seem, I was deeply impressed that I should be somehow strangely mixed up with them."—Tarbell, Life of Lincoln, I, 237.