Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United
States, is perhaps the most studied and written about of all
American presidents. Despite all of the study and attention
paid to this figure, he still remains somewhat of an enigma,
especially in regard to his religious beliefs. Its easy to see that
he spoke of God in his speeches, there can be no question of
this. Lincoln studied the Bible nearly all of his life and had
much of memorized. He used references to the Bible in his
speeches, mostly during the Civil War, which has caused many people
to believe that he was a devout Christian, however, as is often the
case, its not that simple.
Ultimately Abe Lincoln was not a religious man. He was
never a member of any church, and he denied the divine inspiration
of the Bible, the existence of a personal God, and the validity of
the story of Jesus. Despite this though Lincoln was very
respectful of religion and people's religious beliefs. This
was out of necessity to a degree because the subject of his lack of
faith was a very big political issue throughout his career, and
nearly cost him his first presidential election.
As the Civil War progressed Lincoln used religious references
increasingly in his speeches proving once again that war and
religion go hand in hand. What Lincoln sought to do was to
gain strong support from as many people as possible in the fight
against the Southern States. After Lee marched into the North
and was able to successfully attack the Northern position there was
real fear and worry among the citizens and Lincoln was doing his job
as a leader to comfort and inspire the people. The Civil War
was hardly a time for open debate on religion or a time to tell
people that God is not real.
Many, many false quotes have been generated in the name of
Lincoln of every type and in promotion of every cause. Lincoln
is perhaps one of the hardest people in history to quote because of
this. In fact some quotes that are claimed to have come from
him have even made it into Encyclopedias and school texts books only
to later be refuted and proven to be false.
Much has been made about Lincoln's Christian beliefs because he
died shortly after the Civil War at a time when he was THE American
hero, and at the same time that America was undergoing a huge rise
in Christianity, largely because of the war. Because of this
Lincoln was made into a religious hero. In fact he was
compared to Christ and Moses themselves, some preachers even called
him a new prophet of God, and some called him a saint. Most
people today still believe that he was a Christian, there are even
stories about things that he said in church or about his activity in
church even though Lincoln himself wrote that he never went to
church, and there was much ado in his own time about his lack of
religious participation. Shortly after his death, and after
several proclamations of Lincoln's Christianity, several of
Lincoln's friends and co-workers wrote letters refuting Lincoln's
religious beliefs. His funeral was also non-religious.
Despite the fact the Lincoln felt that he could not put an end to
slavery when he took office because it was supported by the
Constitution (Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer and very conscious of
legality), he did seek to put a gradual and peaceful end to the
institution of slavery. Upon taking office he proposed to use
federal money to buy slaves from their owners and then grant them
freedom. This offer was, however, rejected by
Southerners. At the time that Lincoln took office slavery was
an extremely heated subject in the United States. Much of the
conflict of opinion though had little to do with the evil of
slavery, and had more to do with economics and politics. It
was becoming difficult to ensure an equal number of slave and free
states in the Union with new states joining the Union at a rate rate
during that time, and often in odd numbers. The Southern
States were afraid of becoming a political minority which could take
away their power in Congress and their ability to set agendas that
benefited themselves. In the North many businessmen liked the
ability to buy cheap raw material from the South which was possible
because of slavery, and so many Northern politicians pandered to
Southern slave owners not only to gain the support of the Southern
States, but also of Northern businessmen as well.
In fact, when Lincoln ran for the presidency for his first term
he was, and had to be, very firm that he would uphold the
institution of slavery. He barely won the election only taking
39% of the popular vote. Many feel that he won because he was
opposed by three other major candidates, two Democrats and a
Constitutional Unionist. By far Lincoln, and the Republican
party were the least favorable towards the issue of
slavery. The issue was downplayed by the Republicans
during the campaign process however in order to try and remain
moderate. The other candidates however spoke openly in support of
the issue. Lincoln won the election without carrying any
Southern States, and shortly after his election, the Southern States
announced secession.
Here are a few more quotes from Lincoln:
"It will not do to investigate
the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to
Infidelity."
"What is to be, will be, and no
prayers of ours can arrest the decree."
"The only person who is a worse
liar than a faith healer is his patient."
"When the Know-Nothings get
control, it [the Declaration of Independence]
will read: "All men are created equal except negroes,
foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this I should
prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of
loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be
taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."
"There was the strangest
combination of church influence against me. Baker is a Campbellite;
the therefore, as I suppose with few exceptions, got all of that
Church. My wife had some relations in the Presbyterian churches, and
some in the Episcopal churches; and therefore, wherever it would
tell, I was set down as either one or the other, while it was
everywhere contended that no Christian ought to vote for me because
I belonged to no Church, and was suspected of being a Deist and had
talked of fighting a duel."
"In
giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free."
"And then
there will be some black men who can remember that with silent
tongue and clinched teeth and steady eye and well-poised bayonet
they have helped mankind on to this great consummation; while I fear
there will be some white ones unable to forget that with malignant
heart and deceitful speech they strove to hinder it." |