two notable interviews touching the religious opinions of mr. lincoln deserve record here. one is by rev. charles chiniquy, some time priest in the roman catholic church, and afterward a strong protestant. he had been a client of mr. lincoln's in illinois, and mr. lincoln trusted and believed in him. he visited mr. lincoln in the white house, and there, as before mr. lincoln's departure for springfield, he warned him that there were plots against the life of the president.
the other is by hon. l. e. chittenden, who was chosen by mr. lincoln as register of the treasury, and who was an honest and incorruptible man.
father chiniquy visited mr. lincoln in the white house in august, 1861, june, 1862, and june, 1864, for the purpose of warning mr. lincoln of plots, which father chiniquy believed to be inspired by jesuits, against the life of mr. lincoln. on the last of these occasions, june 9, 1864, in the course of an extended interview, he reported mr. lincoln as saying:
"'you are not the first to warn me against the dangers of assassination. my ambassadors in italy, france, and england, as well as professor morse, have, many times, warned me against the plots of murderers whom they have detected in those different countries. but i see no other safeguard against these murderers, but to be always ready to die, as christ advises it. as we must all die sooner or later, it makes very little difference to me whether i die from a dagger plunged through the heart or from an inflammation of the lungs. let me tell you that i have, lately, read a message in the old testament which has made a profound, and, i hope, a salutary impression on me. here is that passage.'
"the president took his bible, opened it at the third[pg 189] chapter of deuteronomy, and read from the 22d to the 27th verse:
"'"22. ye shall not fear them: for the lord your god he shall fight for you.
"'"23. and i besought the lord at that time, saying,
"'"24. o lord god, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what god is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?
"'"25. i pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond jordan, that goodly mountain, and lebanon.
"'"26. but the lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the lord said unto me, let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.
"'"27. get thee up into the top of pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes; for thou shalt not go over this jordan."'
"after the president had read these words with great solemnity, he added:
"'my dear father chiniquy, let me tell you that i have read these strange and beautiful words several times, these last five or six weeks. the more i read them, the more it seems to me that god has written them for me as well as for moses.
"'has he not taken me from my poor log cabin, by the hand, as he did moses, in the reeds of the nile, to put me at the head of the greatest and most blessed of modern nations just as he put that prophet at the head of the most blessed nation of ancient times? has not god granted me a privilege, which was not granted to any living man, when i broke the fetters of 4,000,000 of men, and made them free? has not our god given me the most glorious victories over my enemies? are not the armies of the confederacy so reduced to a handful of men, when compared to what they were two years ago, that the day is fast approaching when they will have to surrender?
"'now, i see the end of this terrible conflict, with the same joy of moses, when at the end of his trying forty years in the wilderness; and i pray my god to grant me to see the days of peace and untold prosperity, which will follow this cruel war, as moses asked god to see the other side of jordan, and[pg 190] enter the promised land. but, do you know, that i hear in my soul, as the voice of god, giving me the rebuke which was given to moses?
"'yes! every time that my soul goes to god to ask the favor of seeing the other side of jordan, and eating the fruits of that peace, after which i am longing with such an unspeakable desire, do you know that there is a still but solemn voice which tells me that i will see those things only from a long distance, and that i will be among the dead when the nation, which god granted me to lead through those awful trials, will cross the jordan, and dwell in that land of promise, where peace, industry, happiness, and liberty will make everyone happy; and why so? because he has already given me favors which he never gave, i dare say, to any man in these latter days.
"'why did god almighty refuse to moses the favor of crossing the jordan, and entering the promised land? it was on account of the nation's sins! that law of divine retribution and justice, by which one must suffer for another, is surely a terrible mystery. but it is a fact which no man who has any intelligence and knowledge can deny. moses, who knew that law, though he probably did not understand it better than we do, calmly says to his people: "god was wroth with me for your sakes."
"'but, though we do not understand that mysterious and terrible law, we find it written in letters of tears and blood wherever we go. we do not read a single page of history without finding undeniable traces of its existence.
"'where is the mother who has not shed real tears and suffered real tortures, for her children's sake?
"'who is the good king, the worthy emperor, the gifted chieftain, who has not suffered unspeakable mental agonies, or even death, for his people's sake?
"'is not our christian religion the highest expression of the wisdom, mercy, and love of god! but what is christianity if not the very incarnation of that eternal law of divine justice in our humanity?
"'when i look on moses, alone, silently dying on the mount pisgah, i see that law, in one of its most sublime human manifestations, and i am filled with admiration and awe.
"'but when i consider that law of justice, and expiation[pg 191] in the death of the just, the divine son of mary, on the mount of calvary, i remain mute in my adoration. the spectacle of the crucified one which is before my eyes is more than sublime, it is divine! moses died for his people's sake, but christ died for the whole world's sake! both died to fulfill the same eternal law of the divine justice, though in a different measure.
"'now, would it not be the greatest of honors and privileges bestowed upon me, if god in his infinite love, mercy, and wisdom would put me between his faithful servant, moses, and his eternal son, jesus, that i might die as they did, for my nation's sake!
"'my god alone knows what i have already suffered for my dear country's sake. but my fear is that the justice of god is not yet paid. when i look upon the rivers of tears and blood drawn by the lashes of the merciless masters from the veins of the very heart of those millions of defenseless slaves, these two hundred years; when i remember the agonies, the cries, the unspeakable tortures of those unfortunate people to which i have, to some extent, connived with so many others a part of my life, i fear that we are still far from the complete expiation. for the judgments of god are true and righteous.
"'it seems to me that the lord wants today, as he wanted in the days of moses, another victim—a victim which he has himself chosen, anointed and prepared for the sacrifice, by raising it above the rest of his people. i cannot conceal from you that my impression is that i am the victim. so many plots have already been made against my life, that it is a real miracle that they have all failed. but can we expect that god will make a perpetual miracle to save my life? i believe not.
"'but just as the lord heard no murmur from the lips of moses, when he told him that he had to die before crossing the jordan, for the sins of his people, so i hope and pray that he will hear no murmur from me when i fall for my nation's sake.
"'the only two favors i ask of the lord are, first, that i may die for the sacred cause in which i am engaged, and when i am the standard bearer of the rights and privileges of my country.
[pg 192]
"'the second favor i ask from god is that my dear son, robert, when i am gone, will be one of those who lift up that flag of liberty which will cover my tomb, and carry it with honor and fidelity to the end of his life, as his father did, surrounded by the millions who will be called with him to fight and die for the defense and honor of our country.'
"'never had i heard such sublime words,' says father chiniquy. 'never had i seen a human face so solemn and so prophet-like as the face of the president when uttering these things. every sentence had come to me as a hymn from heaven, reverberated by the echoes of the mountains of pisgah and calvary. i was beside myself. bathed in tears, i tried to say something, but i could not utter a word. i knew the hour to leave had come. i asked from the president permission to fall on my knees and pray with him that his life might be spared; and he knelt with me. but i prayed more with my tears and sobs than with my words. then i pressed his hand on my lips and bathed it with tears, and with a heart filled with an unspeakable desolation, i bade him adieu.'"—fifty years in the church of rome, pp. 706-10.
hon. l. e. chittenden, register of the treasury under lincoln, gives this testimony to lincoln's religious character:
"in the presidential campaign of 1864 there were sullen whisperings that mr. lincoln had no religious opinions nor any interest in churches or christian institutions. they faded away with other libels, never to be renewed until after his death. one of his biographers, who calls himself the 'friend and partner for twenty years' of the deceased president, has since published what he calls a history of his life, in which he revives the worst of these rumors, with additions which, if true, would destroy much of the world's respect for mr. lincoln. he asserts that his 'friend and partner' was 'an infidel verging towards atheism.' others have disseminated these charges in lectures and fugitive sketches so industriously that they have produced upon strangers some impression of their truth. the excuse alleged is, their desire to present mr. lincoln to the world 'just as he was.' their real purpose is to present him just as they would have him to be, as much as possible like themselves.
[pg 193]
"it is a trait of the infidel to parade his unbelief before the public, and he thinks something gained to himself when he can show that others are equally deficient in moral qualities. but these writers have attempted too much. their principal charge of infidelity, tinged with atheism, is so completely at variance with all our knowledge of his opinions that its origin must be attributed to malice or to a defective mental constitution.
"his sincerity and candor were conspicuous qualities of mr. lincoln's mind. deception was a vice in which he had neither experience nor skill. all who were admitted to his intimacy will agree that he was incapable of professing opinions which he did not entertain. when we find him at the moment of leaving his home for washington, surrounded by his neighbors of a quarter of a century, taking washington for his exemplar, whose success he ascribed 'to the aid of that divine providence upon which he at all times relied,' and publicly declaring that he, himself, 'placed his whole trust in the same almighty being, and the prayers of christian men and women'; when, not once or twice, but on all proper, and more than a score of subsequent occasions, he avowed his faith in an omnipotent ruler, who will judge the world in righteousness—in the bible as the inspired record of his history and his law; when with equal constancy he thanked almighty god for, and declared his interest in, christian institutions and influences as the appointed means for his effective service, we may assert that we know that he was neither an atheist nor an infidel, but, on the contrary, a sincere believer in the fundamental doctrines of the christian faith. in fact, he believed so confidently that the almighty was making use of the war, of himself, and other instrumentalities in working out some great design for the benefit of humanity, and his belief that he himself was directed by the same omniscient power was expressed with such frankness and frequency, that it attracted attention, and was criticized by some as verging towards superstition. his public life was a continuous service of god and his fellow-man, controlled and guided by the golden rule, in which there was no hiatus of unbelief or incredulity.
"here i might well stop, and submit that these charges do not deserve any further consideration. but i know how false[pg 194] they are, and i may be excused if i record one of my sources of knowledge.
"the emphatic statement made by the president to mr. fessenden, that he was called to the presidency by a power higher than human authority, i have already mentioned. his calm serenity at times when others were so anxious, his confidence that his own judgment was directed by the almighty, so impressed me that, when i next had the opportunity, at some risk of giving offense, i ventured to ask him directly how far he believed the almighty actually directed our national affairs. there was a considerable pause before he spoke, and when he did speak, what he said was more in the nature of a monologue than an answer to my inquiry:
"'that the almighty does make use of human agencies, and directly intervenes in human affairs, is,' he said, 'one of the plainest evidences of his direction, so many instances when i have been controlled by some other power than my own will, that i cannot doubt that this power comes from above. i frequently see my way clear to a decision when i am conscious that i have no sufficient facts upon which to found it. but i cannot recall one instance in which i have followed my own judgment, founded upon such a decision, where the results were unsatisfactory; whereas, in almost every instance where i have yielded to the views of others, i have had occasion to regret it. i am satisfied that when the almighty wants me to do or not to do a particular thing, he finds a way of letting me know it. i am confident that it is his design to restore the union. he will do it in his own good time. we should obey and not oppose his will.'
"'you speak with such confidence,' i said, 'that i would like to know how your knowledge that god acts directly upon human affairs compares in certainty with your knowledge of a fact apparent to the senses—for example, the fact that we are at this moment here in this room.'
"'one is as certain as the other,' he answered, 'although the conclusions are reached by different processes. i know by my senses that the movements of the world are those of an infinitely powerful machine, which runs for ages without a variation. a man who can put two ideas together knows that such a machine requires an infinitely powerful maker and governor: man's nature is such that he cannot take in the[pg 195] machine and keep out the maker. this maker is god—infinite in wisdom as well as in power. would we be any more certain if we saw him?'
"'i am not controverting your position,' i said. 'your confidence interests me beyond expression. i wish i knew how to acquire it. even now, must it not all depend on our faith in the bible?'
"'no. there is the element of personal experience,' he said. 'if it did, the character of the bible is easily established, at least to my satisfaction. we have to believe many things which we do not comprehend. the bible is the only one that claims to be god's book—to comprise his law—his history. it contains an immense amount of evidence of its own authenticity. it describes a governor omnipotent enough to operate this great machine, and declares that he made it. it states other facts which we do not fully comprehend, but which we cannot account for. what shall we do with them?
"'now let us treat the bible fairly. if we had a witness on the stand whose general story we knew was true, we would believe him when he asserted facts of which we had no other evidence. we ought to treat the bible with equal fairness. i decided a long time ago that it was less difficult to believe that the bible was what it claimed to be than to disbelieve it. it is a good book for us to obey—it contains the ten commandments, the golden rule, and many other rules which ought to be followed. no man was ever the worse for living according to the directions of the bible.'
"'if your views are correct, the almighty is on our side, and we ought to win without so many losses——'
"he promptly interrupted me and said, 'we have no right to criticize or complain. he is on our side, and so is the bible, and so are churches and christian societies and organizations—all of them, so far as i know, almost without an exception. it makes me strong and more confident to know that all the christians in the loyal states are praying for our success, that all their influences are working to the same end. thousands of them are fighting for us, and no one will say that an officer or a private is less brave because he is a praying soldier. at first, when we had such long spells of bad luck, i used to lose heart sometimes. now i seem to know that providence has protected and will protect us against any fatal defeat.[pg 196] all we have to do is to trust the almighty and keep right on obeying his orders and executing his will.'
"i could not press inquiry further. i knew that mr. lincoln was no hypocrite. there was an air of such sincerity in his manner of speaking, and especially in his references to the almighty, that no one could have doubted his faith unless the doubter believed him dishonest. it scarcely needed his repeated statements that 'whatever shall appear to be god's will, that will i do,' his special gratitude to god for victories, or his numerous expressions of his firm faith that god willed our final triumph, to convince the american people that he was not and could not be an atheist or an infidel.
"he has written of the bible, that 'this great book of god is the best gift which god has ever given to man,' and that 'all things desirable for man to know are contained in it.' his singular familiarity with its contents is even stronger evidence of the high place it held in his judgment. his second inaugural address shows how sensibly he appreciated the force and beauty of its passages, and constitutes an admirable application of its truths, only possible as the result of familiar use and thorough study.
"further comment cannot be necessary. abraham lincoln accepted the bible as the inspired word of god—he believed and faithfully endeavored to live according to the fundamental principles and doctrines of the christian faith. to doubt either proposition is to be untrue to his memory, a disloyalty of which no american should be guilty."—chittenden: recollections of president lincoln and his administration, pp. 446-51.
these two incidents call for no extended comment. that in each of them the literary style is more like that of the narrator than it is like the style of mr. lincoln is evident, and there is other apparent evidence that the incidents were colored by the imagination of the two men who related them. but neither of them was a lie. and, when we make due deductions, each contains a basis of fact in accord with what we might have expected lincoln to say.
for instance, the assurance which he expressed to chittenden that god had called him to his work as president, and that[pg 197] he was fulfilling divine destiny, is fully in accord with the strong conviction of predestination which he had received in his youth, and which was so marked that his partners took it as a mark of selfish superiority. he did feel, and felt so strongly that he sometimes seemed to be oblivious to other and correlative truths, that god had called him to a great task, and that he would live till it was accomplished, plots or no plots. but he had a gloomy foreboding that he would not live much longer. his conviction of predestination had in it a compelling sense of destiny and almost of doom, a conviction of divinity shaping his ends, even though he rough-hewed them.
