(February 12, 1809–April 15, 1865), was the 16th President of the United States, 1861–65, responsible for preserving the Union through the Civil War; supported the 13th Amendment prohibiting slavery, ratified 1865; appointed Ulysses S. Grant as Commander in Chief of the Union forces, 1864; delivered the Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863; issued the Emancipation Proclamation, 1863; U.S. Senate candidate of the newly formed Republican Party, 1858, gaining national attention through his debates against pro-choice incumbent, Stephen A. Douglas; U.S. Representative, 1847–49, having defeated the Methodist Circuit rider, Peter Cartwright; member of the Illinois State Legislature, 1834–42; married Mary Todd, 1842; admitted to bar, 1836; Postmaster of New Salem, Illinois, 1833–36; appointed Deputy County Surveyor, 1833; Captain during the Black Hawk War, 1832; piloted flatboat trips to New Orleans, 1828–31; raised in a log cabin, cleared land, split rails, and earned the reputation of being “Honest Abe.”
Only one week after being inaugurated as President, the southern states formed the Confederacy, and within a month the Civil War had begun, with the Confederate Army firing on Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861. The Civil War ended four years later, April 9, 1865, with the surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia. By the conclusion of the war, over a half million men had died, which is more than the combined casualties of all other American wars to date. Five days later, on April 14, 1865, after he had freed millions of slaves, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth.
On March 9, 1832, in his “Communication to the People of Sangamo County,” Abraham Lincoln stated:
That every man may receive at least a moderate education, and thereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object of vital importance, even on this account alone, to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction derived from all being able to read the Scriptures, and other works both of a religious and moral nature for themselves.2288
At age 28, Abraham Lincoln wrote to his friend, Joshua F. Speed, who was a slaveholder:
I also acknowledge your rights and my obligations, under the Constitution, in regards to your slaves. I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down and caught and carried back to their stripes and unrewarded toils; I bite my lip and keep quiet.
In 1841, you and I had together a tedious low-water trip on a steamboat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio, there were on board ten or a dozen slaves shackled together with irons.
That sight was a continual torment to me; I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave border. It is hardly fair for you to assume that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continually exercises, the power of making me miserable.2289
In a speech on January 27, 1837, Abraham Lincoln forewarned:
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.2290
In 1846, when Lincoln was running for Congress from the seventh district of Illinois, a rumor began to spread that he was not a Christian. In response to this, Lincoln made a public statement, published in the Illinois Gazette, August 15, 1846, which read:
That I am not a member of any Christian Church, is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any denomination of Christians in particular. …
I do not think I could, myself, be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at religion.2291
In 1851, during the last illness of his father, Abraham Lincoln wrote his step-brother, encouraging him:
I sincerely hope father may recover his health; but at all events tell him to remember to call upon and confide in our great and good and merciful Maker, who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of a sparrow and numbers the hairs of our head, and He will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him.2292
On August 24, 1855, in a letter to Joshua F. Speed, Abraham Lincoln wrote:
How can anyone who abhors the oppression of Negroes be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except Negroes.”
When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics.” When it comes to this, I shall 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.2293
In the closing remarks of a debate with Judge Douglas, 1858, Abraham Lincoln asserted:
That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles—right and wrong—throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle.2294
On July 10, 1858, in Chicago, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech in a debate with Stephen A. Douglas:
It is said in one of the admonitions of our Lord, “As your Father in Heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect.” The Saviour, I suppose, did not expect that any human being could be perfect as the Father in Heaven; but He said, “As your Father in Heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect.” He set that up as a standard, and He who did most toward reaching that standard attained the highest degree of moral perfection.2295
On September 11, 1858, Abraham Lincoln delivered a speech at Edwardsville, Illinois:
What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, our army and our navy. These are not our reliance against tyranny. All of those may be turned against us without making us weaker for the struggle.
Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere.
Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them.
Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.2296
On April 6, 1859, Lincoln wrote a letter to H.L. Pierce and others, insisting:
This is a world of compensation; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God, cannot long retain it.2297
On February 11, 1861, newly elected President Abraham Lincoln delivered a Farewell Speech to his home state in Springfield, Illinois, as he left for Washington, D.C.:
I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. …
Unless the great God who assisted him shall be with me and aid me, I must fail: but if the same omniscient mind and mighty arm that directed and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall not fail—I shall succeed.
Let us all pray that the God of our fathers may not forsake us now. To him I commend you all. Permit me to ask that with equal sincerity and faith you will invoke his wisdom and guidance for me.2298
On February 22, 1861, in a speech at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, President Lincoln declared:
The Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. … I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.2299
On February 23, 1861, in a letter to William Dodge, President Abraham Lincoln stated:
With the support of the people and the assistance of the Almighty, I shall undertake to perform it. … Freedom is the natural condition of the human race, in which the Almighty intended men to live. Those who fight the purpose of the Almighty will not succeed. They always have been, they always will be, beaten.2300
On Monday, March 4, 1861, in his First Inaugural Address, President Abraham Lincoln commented on his disagreement with the 1857 Supreme Court case of Dred Scott v. Sanford, wherein Chief Justice Roger B. Taney decided that slaves were not persons or citizens, but were the property of the owner, the same as their body, horse, cattle, etc., and the owner had the freedom of choice to decide what they wanted to do with their own property:
I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court. … At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made … the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of the eminent tribunal. …
If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgement of this great tribunal of the American people. …
Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty.2301
On July 4, 1861, in a Special Session Message to Congress, President Lincoln concluded:
Having thus chosen our course, without guile and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God and go forward without fear and with manly hearts.2302
In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln addressed the New Jersey State Senate:
I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made. And I shall be most happy, indeed, if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty … for perpetuating the object of that struggle.2303
President Abraham Lincoln once told Noah Brooks, his intended secretary:
I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for that day.2304
On Monday, August 12, 1861, after the Union army was defeated at the Battle of Bull Run, President Abraham issued a Proclamation declaring a National Day of Humiliation, Prayer, and Fasting:
Whereas a joint committee of both Houses of Congress has waited on the President of the United States and requested him to “recommend a day of public humiliation, prayer, and fasting to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnities and the offering of fervent supplications to Almighty God for the safety and welfare of these States, His blessings on their arms, and a speedy restoration of peace;” and
Whereas it is fit and becoming in all people, at all times, to acknowledge and revere the Supreme Government of God; to bow in humble submission to His chastisement; to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions in the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and to pray, with all fervency and contrition, for the pardon of their past offenses, and for a blessing upon their present and prospective action; and
Whereas when our own beloved country, once, by the blessings of God, united, prosperous and happy, is now afflicted with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him and to pray for His mercy—to pray that we may be spared further punishment, though most justly deserved; that our arms may be blessed and made effectual for the reestablishment of law, order, and peace throughout the wide extent of our country; and that the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing by the labors and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored in its original excellence:
Therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do appoint the last Thursday in September next as a day of humiliation, prayer, and fasting for all the people of the nation. And I do earnestly recommend to all the people, and especially to all ministers and teachers of religion of all denominations and to all heads of families, to observe and keep that day according to their several creeds and modes of worship in all humility and with all religious solemnity, to the end that the united prayer of the nation may ascend to the Throne of Grace and bring down plentiful blessings upon our country.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed, this 12th day of August, A.D. 1861, and in the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-sixth.
Abraham Lincoln.
By the President:
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.2305
On December 3, 1861, in his First Annual Message, President Lincoln stated:
In the midst of unprecedented political troubles we have cause of great gratitude to God for unusual good health and most abundant harvests. … With a reliance on Providence all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which events have devolved upon us.2306
On February 19, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Proclamation:
It is recommended to the people of the United States that they assemble in their customary places of meeting for public solemnities on the 22nd day of February instant and celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the Father of his Country [George Washington] by causing to be read to them his immortal Farewell Address.
Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at Washington, the 19th day of February, A.D. 1862, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-sixth. Abraham Lincoln.
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.2307
On March 6, 1862, in a message to Congress concerning the abolishment of slavery, President Abraham Lincoln concluded:
In full view of my great responsibility to my God and to my country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject.2308
On April 10, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the National Proclamation from Washington, D.C.:
It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe signal victories to the land and naval forces engaged in suppressing an internal rebellion, and at the same time to avert from our country the dangers of foreign intervention and invasion.
It is therefore recommended to the people of the United States that at their next weekly assemblages in their accustomed places of public worship which shall occur after notice of this proclamation shall have been received they especially acknowledge and render thanks to our Heavenly Father for these inestimable blessings, that they then and there implore spiritual consolation in behalf of all who have been brought into affliction by the casualties and calamities of sedition and civil war, and that they reverently invoke the Divine Guidance for our national counsels, to the end that they may speedily result in the restoration of peace, harmony, and unity throughout our borders and hasten the establishment of fraternal relations among all the countries of the earth.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 10th day of April, A.D. 1862, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-sixth. Abraham Lincoln.
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.2309
On May 15, 1862, in closing a speech to the 12th Indiana Regiment, Lincoln said:
For the part which you and the brave army of which you are a part have, under Providence, performed in this great struggle, I tender more thanks—greatest thanks that can possibly due—and especially to this regiment, which has been the subject of good report, The thanks of the nation will follow you and may God’s blessing rest upon you now and forever.2310
On May 19, 1862, in regards to an order issued by Major-General David Hunter, President Lincoln recommended to Congress:
Resolved, That the United States ought to cooperate with any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change in system. …
This proposal makes common sense for a common object, casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. The change it contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven, not rendering or wrecking anything. Will you embrace it? So much good has not been done by one effort in all past time as, in the Providence of God, it is now your high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it.2311
On Wednesday, May 22, 1862, to the House of Representatives, President Lincoln wrote:
In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 20th instant, requesting information in regard to the indemnity obtained by the consul-general of the United States of Alexandria, Egypt, for the maltreatment of Faris-El-Hakim, an agent in the employ of the American missionaries in that country, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied.2312
On May 23, 1862, President Lincoln restored the lands in California that had been taken from the missions after the Mexican Secularization Act:
Now know ye … pursuant to the provisions of the Act of Congress … I give and grant unto the said Joseph G. Alemony, Bishop of Monterrey … “in trust for the religious purposes and uses to which the same have been respectively appropriated” the tracts of land embraced and described in the foregoing survey. … Given under my hand … this 23rd day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 62.2313
In June of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln spoke to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, James Wilson, in regard to God’s direction:
I trust that as He shall further open the way, I will be ready to walk therein, relying on His help and trusting in His goodness and wisdom.2314
On July 12, 1862, during the Civil War, new wording was written to include chaplains of the Hebrew faith, following a complaint concerning the lack of chaplains to serve Jewish soldiers. The previous law had read: “The chaplain so appointed must be a regular ordained minister of a Christian denomination.”2315
In delivering an address on colonization to a Negro deputation at Washington, August 14, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln pronounced:
It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.2316
On Saturday, September 13, 1862, to Rev. William W. Patterson, Rev. John Dempster, and representatives of the Methodist, Baptist, and Congregational denominations from Chicago, who presented a petition supporting the emancipation of the slaves, President Abraham Lincoln stated:
The subject presented in the memorial is one upon which I have thought much for weeks past, and I may even say for months. I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and that by religious men, who are equally certain that they represent the divine will, I am sure that either the one or the other class is mistaken in that belief, and perhaps in some respects both.
I hope it will not be irreverent for me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal His will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed He will reveal it directly to me; for, unless I am more deceived in myself than I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this matter. And if I can learn what it is I will do it!
These are not, however, the days of miracles, and I suppose it will be granted that I am not to expect a direct revelation. I must study the plain, physical facts of the case, ascertain what is possible and learn what appears to be wise and right.
The Subject is difficult and good men do not agree. … And the same is true of religious people. Why, the rebel soldiers are praying with a great deal more earnestness, I fear, than our own troops, and expecting God to favor their side; for one of our soldiers who had been taken prisoner told Senator Wilson a few days since that he met with nothing so discouraging as the evident sincerity of those he was among in their prayers. …
In their minds, no doubt their cause is just. But we will talk over the merits of the case. … I can assure you that the subject is on my mind, by day and night, more than any other. Whatever shall appear to be God’s will, I will do. I trust that in the freedom with which I have canvassed your views I have not in any respect injured your feelings.
I can assure you that the subject is on my mind, by day and night, more than any other. Whatever shall appear to be God’s will I will do.2317
In September of 1862, after the Union lost the Second Battle of Bull Run, August 29–30, 1862, President Lincoln wrote his Meditation on the Divine Will:
The Will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God can not be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party—and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose.
I am almost ready to say this is probably true—that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By His mere quiet power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.2318
Following the second defeat at Bull Run, President Lincoln commented to the woman who had been his son Willie’s nurse:
I have done the best I could. I have asked God to guide me, and now I must leave the result with him.2319
On September 22, 1862, as reported by Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Portland Chase, President Abraham Lincoln commented to his Cabinet after the massive Confederate Army lost to the Union troops at the Battle at Antietam, just prior to the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation:
The time for the annunciation of the emancipation policy can no longer be delayed. Public sentiment will sustain it, many of my warmest friends and supporters demand it, and I have promised God that I will do it.2320
When asked by Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Portland Chase, if his understanding of the last statement was clear, President Abraham Lincoln replied:
I made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee were driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves.2321
On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln, in direct disregard to the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott v. Sanford decision, proceeded to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, to go into effect January 1, 1863, granting the right to life, freedom and citizenship to all persons irregardless of race, origin, circumstance, etc. This courageous position of valuing all human life had been embraced by the Congress on June 9, 1862, when they prohibited legalized slavery in the free territories. The Emancipation Proclamation stated:
On the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free … 2322
On September 24, 1862, in a meeting two days after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, President Lincoln stated:
What I did, I did after a very full deliberation, and under a very heavy and solemn sense of responsibility. I can only trust in God I have made no mistake.2323
On October 6, 1862, President Lincoln confided with Eliza Gurney and three other Quakers:
We are indeed going through a great trial—a fiery trial. In the very responsible position in which I happen to be placed, being a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father, as I am, and as we all are, to work out His great purposes, I have desired that all my works and acts may be according to His will, and that it might be so, I have sought His aid; but if, after endeavoring to do my best in the light which He affords me, I find my efforts fail, I must believe that for some purpose unknown to me, He wills it otherwise.
If I had my way, this war would never have been commenced. If I had been allowed my way, this war would have ended before this. But we find it still continues; and we must believe that He permits it for some wise purpose of His own, mysterious and unknown to us; and though with our limited understandings we may not be able to comprehend it, yet we cannot but believe, that He who made the world still governs it.2324
On November 15, 1862, from his Executive Mansion in Washington, President Lincoln issued a General Order Respecting the Observance of the Sabbath Day in the Army and Navy:
The President, Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service. The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine Will demand that Sunday labor in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity.
The discipline and character of the national forces should not suffer nor the cause they defend be imperiled by the profanation of the day or name of the Most High. “At this time of public distress,” adopting the words of Washington in 1776, “men may find enough to do in the service of God and their country without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.” The first general order issued by the Father of his Country after the Declaration of Independence indicates the spirit in which our institutions were founded and should ever be defended: “The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.”
Abraham Lincoln.2325
On November 15, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln spoke with Reverend Byron Sunderland, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Washington, D.C., where he had attended:
The Ways of God are mysterious and profound beyond all comprehension—“Who by searching can find Him out?” Now, judging after the manner of men, taking counsel of our sympathies and feelings, if it had been left to us to determine it, we would have had no war. And, going further back to the occasion of it, we would have had no slavery. And, tracing it still further back, we would have had no evil.
There is the mystery of the universe that no man can solve, and it is at that point that the human understanding backs down. And there is nothing left but for the heart of man to take up faith and believe and trust where it cannot reason.
Now, I believe we all are agents and instruments of Divine Providence. On both sides we are working our the will of God. Yet, how strange the spectacle! Here is one half of the nation prostrated in prayer that God will help them to destroy the Union and build up a government upon the corner stone of human bondage.
And here is the other half equally earnest in their prayers and efforts to defeat a purpose which they regard as so repugnant to their ideas of human nature and the rights of society, as well as liberty and independence. They want slavery; we want freedom. They want a servile class; we want to make equality practical as far as possible. And they are Christians and we are Christians.
They and we are praying and fighting for results exactly the opposite. What must God think of such a posture of affairs? There is but one solution—self-deception. Somewhere there is a fearful heresy in our religion, and I cannot think it lies in the love of liberty and in the aspirations of the human soul.
What I am to do in the present emergency time will determine. I hold myself in my present position and with the authority vested in me as an instrument of Providence. I have my own views and purposes, I have my convictions of duty, and my notions of what is right to be done. But I am conscious every moment that all I am and all I have is subject to the control of a Higher Power, and that Power can use me or not use me in any manner, and at any time, as His wisdom and might may be pleasing to Him.
Nevertheless, I am no fatalist. I believe in the supremacy of the human conscience, and that men are responsible beings; that God has a right to hold them, and will hold them, to a strict personal account for the deeds done in the body. But, sirs, I do not mean to give you a lecture upon the doctrines of the Christian religion. These are simply with me the convictions and realities of great and vital truths, the power and demonstration of which I see now in the light of this our national struggle as I have never seen before.
God only knows the issue of this business. He has destroyed nations from the map of history for their sins. Nevertheless, my hopes prevail generally above my fears for our Republic. The times are dark, the spirits of ruin are abroad in all their power, and the mercy of God alone can save us.2326
On December 1, 1862, President Lincoln concluded his Second Annual Message to Congress:
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save—or meanly lose—the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just—a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.2327
When a guest told Lincoln that in their State they say that the welfare of the nation depended on God and Abraham Lincoln, the President replied:
My friend, you are half right.2328
On February 20, 1862, tragedy struck the Lincoln’s as their son, William Wallace “Willie” Lincoln, died at the age of 12 years old. “Many noticed that he was seen more frequently with a Bible in his hand and that he spent more time in prayer. … From this time on, Lincoln regularly attended the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church on Sundays—often even going to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting—until his untimely death three years later.”2329 Dr. Phineas Gurley, who was Lincoln’s pastor at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, affirmed that “the death of Willie Lincoln in 1862 and the visit to the Gettysburg battlefield in 1863 finally led Lincoln to personal faith in Christ.”2330
In 1862, in the grief after his son Willie’s death, President Abraham Lincoln recalled of his mother:
I had a good Christian mother, and I remember her prayers. They have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.2331
In April of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln was visited by Rev. N.W. Miner, pastor of the First Baptist church in Springfield Illinois, and his wife, shortly after Willie died. The Union army has recently been defeated at Shiloh, adding to the President’s burden. In response to their comments about the people praying for him, President Abraham Lincoln stated:
If I were not sustained by the prayers of God’s people, I could not endure the constant pressure. I should have given up hope for success. …
You know I am not of a very hopeful temperament. I can take hold of a thing and hold on a good while. By trusting God for help, and believing that our cause is just and right, I firmly believe we shall conquer in the end. …
It has pleased Almighty God to place me in my present position, and looking to Him for wisdom and divine guidance, I must work our my destiny as best I can.2332
On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect:
Whereas on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of the Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: “That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free. … ”
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion against authority and government of the United State … do, on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three … publicly proclaim … the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana … , Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia. …
And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, shall recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in all cases where allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. …
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgement of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh. Abraham Lincoln.
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.2333
On Monday, March 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a Proclamation appointing a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer:
Whereas, the Senate of the United States devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation; and
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 law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisement 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.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request and fully concurring in the view of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer.
And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessing no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 30th day of March, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. Abraham Lincoln.
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.2334
In June of 1863, just weeks before the Battle of Gettysburg, (July 1–3), a college president asked Lincoln if he thought the country would survive. President Lincoln replied:
I do not doubt that our country will finally come through safe and undivided. But do not misunderstand me. … I do not rely on the patriotism of our people … the bravery and devotion of the boys in blue … (or) the loyalty and skill of our generals. …
But the God of our fathers, who raised up this country to be the refuge and asylum of the oppressed and downtrodden of all nations, will not let it perish now. I may not live to see it … I do not expect to see it, but God will bring us through safe.2335
On July 4, 1863, at 10 a.m., President Lincoln sent an announcement from Washington to the War Department:
The President announces to the country that news from the Army of the Potomac up to 10 o’clock p.m. of the 3d is such as to cover that army with the highest honor, to promise a great success to the cause of the Union, and to claim the condolence of all for the many gallant fallen; and that for this he especially desires that on this day He whose Will, not ours, should ever be done be everywhere remembered and ever reverenced with profoundest gratitude.2336
On July 15, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving, Praise and Prayer:
It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the supplications and prayers of an afflicted people and to vouchsafe to the Army and the Navy of the United States victories on land and on the sea so signal and so effective as to furnish reasonable grounds for augmented confidence that the Union of these States will be maintained, their Constitution preserved, and their peace and prosperity permanently restored. But these victories have been accorded not without sacrifices of life, limb, health, and liberty, incurred by brave, loyal, and patriotic citizens. Domestic affliction in every part of the country follows in the train of these fearful bereavements. It is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of the Almighty Father and the power of His hand equally in these triumphs and in these sorrows.
Now, therefore, be it known that I do set apart Thursday, the 6th day of August next, to be observed as a day for national thanksgiving, praise, and prayer, and I invite the people of the United States to assemble on that occasion in their customary places of worship and in the forms approved by their own consciences render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the nation’s behalf and invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to subdue the anger which has produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel rebellion, to change the hearts of the insurgents, to guide the counsels of the Government with wisdom adequate to so great a national emergency, and to visit with tender care and consolation throughout the length and breadth of our land all those who, though the vicissitudes of marches, voyages, battles, and sieges, have been brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate, and finally to lead the whole nation through the paths of repentance and submission to the divine will back to the perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 15th day of July, A.D.. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-eighth. Abraham Lincoln.
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.2337
On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a formal Proclamation, passed by an Act of Congress, initiating the first annual National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise:
The year that is drawing to its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful Providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp of the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.
I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or suffers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 3rd day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth. Abraham Lincoln.
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.2338
On October 24, 1863, Abraham Lincoln said in a speech to the Presbyterians of Baltimore:
I saw upon taking my position here I was going to have an administration, if an administration at all, of extraordinary difficulty. It was without exception a time of the greatest difficulty this country ever saw. I was early brought to a lively reflection that nothing in my powers whatever, or others, to rely upon would succeed without direct assistance of the Almighty.
I have often wished that I was a more devout man than I am. Nevertheless, amid the greatest difficulties of my Administration, when I could not see any other resort, I would place my whole reliance in God, knowing that all would go well, and that He would decide for the right.2339
When a friend informed President Abraham Lincoln that the Nomination Convention in Cleveland, Ohio did not draw the large numbers of Lincoln supporters expected, but rather only about 400, Lincoln reached for a Bible on his desk and read from it:
And everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became captain over them; and there were with him about four hundred men.2340
As General Lee led his army of 76,000 men into Pennsylvania, panic took hold of Washington, D.C. In the midst, President Lincoln remained strangely confident. He later related to a general wounded at Gettysburg:
When everyone seemed panic-stricken … I went to my room … and got down on my knees before Almighty God and prayed. … Soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had taken the whole business into His own hands. … 2341
On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address. The Battle of Gettysburg, consisting of three intense days of fighting, (July 1, 2, and 3, 1863), resulted in over 50,000 deaths. This battle was the beginning of the end for the valiant Confederate Army. Lincoln’s ten-sentence speech of 267 words has become world renowned and is engraved in stone in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.:
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.2342
On December 3, 1863, in his Third Annual Message to Congress, President Abraham Lincoln stated:
Another year of health and of sufficiently abundant harvests has passed. For these, and especially for the improved condition of our national affairs, our renewed and profoundest gratitude to God is due. …
The supplemental treaty between the United States and Great Britain for the suppression of the African slave trade, made on the 17th day of February last, has been duly ratified and carried into execution. It is believed that so far as American ports and American citizens are concerned that inhuman and odious traffic has been brought to an end. …
It is hoped that the effect of [Indian] treaties will result in the establishment of permanent friendly relations with such of these tribes as have been brought into frequent and bloody collision with our outlying settlements and emigrants. Sound policy and our imperative duty to these wards of the Government demand our anxious and constant attention to their material well-being, to their progress in the arts of civilization, and, above all, to that moral training which under the blessing of Divine Providence will confer upon them the elevated and sanctifying influences, hopes and consolations, of the Christian faith.2343
On December 8, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon to the participants of the Confederate insurrection:
Whereas it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States and to reinaugurate loyal state governments within and for their respective States:
Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves and in property cases where rights of third parties shall have intervened, and upon the condition that every such person shall take and subscribe an oath and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath inviolate, and which oath shall be registered for permanent preservation and shall be of the tenor and effect following, to wit:
“I, ____ ____, do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States thereunder, and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves … and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all proclamations of the President made during the existing rebellion having reference to slaves. … So help me God.”2344
On December 23, 1863, President Lincoln related to John Hay:
Common-looking people are the best in the world; that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.2345
In encouraging hospital staff to allow ministers to pray and read Scriptures with the soldiers, President Abraham Lincoln stated:
If there were more praying and less swearing, it would be far better for our country, and we all need to be prayed for, officers as well as privates; and if I were near death, I think I should like to hear prayer.2346
In 1863, during the Civil War, President Lincoln overheard someone remark that they hoped “the Lord was on the Union’s side.” Lincoln gave a straightforward reply:
I am not at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.2347
In speaking to a minister of the Christian Commission, an organization that ministered to the soldiers during the Civil War, President Lincoln said:
If it were not for my firm belief in an overruling Providence, it would be difficult for me, in the midst of such complications of affairs, to keep my reason on its seat. But I am confident that the Almighty has His plans, and will work them out; and, whether we see it or not, they will be the best for us.2348
In the spring of 1864, President Lincoln remarked:
When the war began, three years ago, neither party, nor any man, expected it would last till now. Each looked for the end, in some way, long ere today. … But here we are; the war has not ended. … So true is it that man proposes, but God disposes.2349
On May 9, 1864, from his Executive Mansion in Washington, President Abraham Lincoln wrote:
To the Friends of the Union and Liberty:
Enough is known of the army operations within the last five days to claim our especial gratitude to God, while what remains undone demands our most sincere prayers to and reliance upon Him, without whom all human efforts are in vain. I recommend that all patriots, at their homes, in their places of public worship, and wherever they may be, unite in common thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God.2350
On July 7, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Humiliation and Prayer:
Whereas the Senate and House of Representatives at their last session adopted a concurrent resolution, which was approved on the 2d day of July instant and which was in the words following, namely:
That the President of the United States be requested to appoint a day for humiliation and prayer by the people of the United States; that he request his constitutional advisers at the head of the Executive Departments to unite with him as Chief Magistrate of the nation, at the city of Washington, and the members of Congress, and all magistrates, all civil, military, and naval officers, all soldiers, sailors, and marines, with all loyal and law-abiding people, to convene at their usual places of worship, or wherever they may be, to confess and to repent of their manifold sins; to implore the compassion and forgiveness of the Almighty, that, if consistent with His will, the existing rebellion may be speedily suppressed and the supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States may be established throughout all the States; to implore Him, as the Supreme Ruler of the World, not to destroy us as a people, nor suffer us to be destroyed by the hostility or connivance of other nations or by obstinate adhesion to our own counsels, which may be in conflict with His eternal purposes, and to implore Him to enlighten the mind of the nation to know and do His will, humbly believing that it is in accordance with His will that our place should be maintained as a united people among the family of nations; to implore Him to grant to our armed defenders and the masses of the people that courage, power of resistance, and endurance necessary to secure that result; to implore Him in His infinite goodness to soften the hearts, enlighten the minds, and quicken the consciences of those in rebellion, that they may lay down their arms and speedily return to their allegiance to the United States, that they may not be utterly destroyed, that the effusion of blood may be stayed, and that unity and fraternity may be restored and peace established throughout all our borders:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, cordially concurring with the Congress of the United States in the penitential and pious sentiments expressed in the aforesaid resolution and heartily approving of the devotional design and purpose thereof, do hereby appoint the first Thursday of August next to be observed by the people of the United States as a day of national humiliation and prayer.
I do hereby further invite and request the heads of the Executive Departments of this Government, together with all legislators, all judges and magistrates, and all other persons exercising authority in the land, whether civil, military, or naval, and all soldiers, seamen, and marines in the national service, and all the other loyal and law-abiding people of the United States, to assemble in their preferred places of public worship on that day, and there and then to render to the Almighty and Merciful Ruler of the Universe such homages and such confessions and to offer to Him such supplications as the Congress of the United States have in their aforesaid resolution so solemnly, so earnestly, and so reverently recommended.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 7th day of July, A.D. 1864, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. Abraham Lincoln.
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.2351
In the summer of 1864, an old friend of Lincoln’s, Joshua F. Speed, observed the President reading a Bible, and remarked: “I am glad to see you so profitably engaged … if you have recovered from your skepticism; I am sorry to say that I have not.” President Lincoln then placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder, and replied:
You are wrong, Speed. Take all that you can of this Book upon reason, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier man.2352
On September 3, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving:
The signal success that Divine Providence has recently vouchsafed to the operations of the United States fleet and army in the harbor of Mobile, and the reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort Morgan, and the glorious achievements of the army under Major-General Sherman in the State of Georgia, resulting in the capture of the city of Atlanta, call for devout acknowledgement to the Supreme Being, in whose hands are the destinies of nations.
It is therefore requested that on next Sunday, in all places of public worship in the United States, thanksgiving be offered to Him for His mercy in preserving our national existence against the insurgent rebels who so long have been waging a cruel war against the Government of the United States for its overthrow; and also that prayer be made for the divine protection to our brave soldiers and their leaders in the field, who have so often and so gallantly periled their lives in battling with the enemy, and for blessing and comfort from the Father of Mercies to the sick, wounded, and prisoners, and to the orphans and widows of those who have fallen in the service of their country; and that He will continue to uphold the Government of the United States against all the efforts of public enemies and secret foes.2353
As reported in the Washington Chronicle, September 5, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln addressed the Committee of Colored People from Baltimore, acknowledging the elegant Bible they had presented him:
In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for this Book we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it. To you I return my most sincere thanks for the elegant copy of the great Book of God which you present.2354
On October 20, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Second Annual National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise:
It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with His guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household.
It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while He has opened to us new sources of wealth and has crowned the labor of our workingmen in every department of industry with abundant rewards.
Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe.
And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of Events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 20th day of October, A.D. 1864, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. Abraham Lincoln.
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.2355
On November 21, 1864, President Lincoln sent a letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby of Boston, who had lost five sons in the Civil War:
Dear Madam, I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.2356
In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln recorded:
I believe in national humiliation, fasting, and prayer, in keeping a day holy to the Lord, devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to such a solemn occasion. …
I believe in Him whose will, not ours, should be done. I believe the people of the United States, in the forms approved by their own consciences, should render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the nation’s behalf, and invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to subdue anger. …
I believe in His eternal truth and justice. I believe the will of God prevails; without Him all human reliance is vain; without the assistance of that Divine Being I cannot succeed; with that assistance I cannot fail. I believe I am a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father; I desire that all my works and acts may be according to His will; and that it may be so, I give thanks to the Almighty and seek His aid. I believe in praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe.2357
On Saturday, March 4, 1865, in his Second Inaugural Address, just 45 days before his assassination, President Abraham Lincoln stated:
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. …
Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged.
The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.”
If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God will that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmen’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.2358
On March 17, 1865, President Lincoln addressed the Indiana Regiment:
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.2359
In 1865, President Lincoln made his last speech to a crowd in front of the White House:
The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace, whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He from whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared and will be duly promulgated.2360
In answering a question from L.E. Chittenden, Register of the Treasury, President Abraham Lincoln is reported to have stated:
That the Almighty does make use of human agencies, and directly intervenes in human affairs, is one of the plainest statements of the Bible. I have had so many 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 have no sufficient facts upon which to found it. But I cannot recall one instance in which I have followed my own judgement, 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.2361
Recorded in the work, Recollections of President Lincoln, and his Administration, written by Lincoln’s Register of the Treasury L.E. Chittenden, President Lincoln stated:
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 history that claims to be God’s Book—to comprise His laws, His history. It contains an immense amount of evidence as to its authenticity. …
Now let us treat the Bible fairly. If we had a witness on the stand whose general story was true, we would believe him even when he asserted the facts of which we have no other evidence. We ought to treat the Bible with equal fairness. I decided long ago that it was less difficult to believe that the Bible was what it claimed to be than to disbelieve it.2362
President Abraham Lincoln stated:
Here without contemplating consequences, before High Heaven, and in the face of the world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love. … Let none falter, who thinks he is right, and we may succeed.2363
I have always taken Counsel of Him, and referred to Him my plans, and have never adopted a course of proceeding without being assured, as far as I could be, of His approbation.2364
Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day. No, no, man was made for immortality.2365
Whenever any church will inscribe over its altar as a qualification for membership the Savior’s statement of the substance of the law and gospel, “Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,” that church will I join with all my heart and soul.2366
No man is poor who has had a godly mother.2367
All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother … I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.2368
Abraham Lincoln is attributed to have stated:
A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started. He is going to sit where you are sitting, and when you are gone, attend to those things you think are important. You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they will be carried out depends on him.
He will assume control of your cities, states, and nations. He is going to move in and take over your churches, schools, universities, and corporations. All your books are going to be judged by him. The fate of humanity is in his hands.
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.2369
The only assurance of our nation’s safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion.2370
In 1865, shortly before Lee’s surrender, Abraham Lincoln began his second term. In visiting with State Senator James Scovel of New Jersey, he shared:
Young man, if God gives me four years more to rule this country, I believe it will become what it ought to be—what its Divine Author intended it to be—no longer one vast plantation for breeding human beings for the purpose of lust and bondage. But it will become a new Valley of Jehoshaphat, where all the nations of the earth will assemble together under one flag, worshipping a common God, and they will celebrate the resurrection of human freedom.2371
In 1865, not long before he was assassinated, a clergyman from Illinois asked Lincoln, “Do you love Jesus?” President Abraham Lincoln told him how being at Gettysburg had affected him in that regard:
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.2372
On April 14, 1865, just five days after the Civil War had ended, Abraham Lincoln went to Ford’s theatre with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. She recalled his last words as they sat there:
He said he wanted to visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footprints of the Saviour. He was saying there was no city he so much desired to see as Jerusalem. And with the words half spoken on his tongue, the bullet of the assassin entered the brain, and the soul of the great and good President was carried by the angels to the New Jerusalem above.2373
On April 15, 1865, Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, communicated news of President Lincoln’s death to the Department of the Navy in General Order No. 51:
The Department announces with profound sorrow to the officers and men of the Navy and Marine Corps the death of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States. Stricken down by the hand of an assassin on the evening of the 14th instant, when surrounded by his family and friends, he lingered a few hours after receiving the fatal wound, and died at 7 o’clock 22 minutes this morning.
A grateful people had given their willing confidence to the patriot and statesman under whose wise and successful administration the nation was just emerging from the civil strife which for four years has afflicted the land when this terrible calamity fell upon the country. To him our gratitude was justly due, for to him, under God, more than to any other person, are we indebted for the successful vindication of the integrity of the Union and the maintenance of the power of the Republic.2374
On April 17, 1865, at noon, the members of the Thirty-ninth Congress then in Washington, D.C., met in the Senate reception room of the Capitol and passed the action:
The members of the Senate and House of Representatives now assembled in Washington, humbly confessing their dependence upon Almighty God, who rules all that is done for human good, make haste at this informal meeting to express the emotions with which they have been filled by the appalling tragedy which has deprived the nation of its head and covered the land with mourning; and in further declaration of their sentiments unanimously resolve:
That in testimony of their veneration and affection for the illustrious dead, who has been permitted, under Providence, to do so much for his country and for liberty, they will unite in the funeral services and by an appropriate committee will accompany his remains to their place of burial in the State from which he was taken for the national service.2375
On Wednesday, April 19, 1865, the pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Rev. Phineas D. Gurley, D.D., who had prayed with Lincoln at his deathbed, delivered the sermon at the funeral of President in the East Room of the White House:
He saw his duty as the Chief Magistrate of a great and imperiled people, and he determined to do his duty, and his whole duty, seeking the guidance and leaning on the arm of Him of whom it is written, “He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.”
Yes, he leaned upon His arm. He recognized and received the truth that the “Kingdom is the Lord’s, and He is the Governor among the nations.” He remembered that “God is in history,” and he felt that nowhere had His hand and His mercy been so marvelously conspicuous as in the history of this nation.
He hoped and prayed that the same Hand would continue to guide us, and that the same mercy continue to abound to us in the time of our greatest need.
I speak what I know, and testify what I have often heard him say, when I affirm that that guidance and mercy were the props upon which he humbly and habitually leaned; they were the best hope he had for himself and for his country.
Hence, when he was leaving his home in Illinois … he said to the old and tried friends who gathered tearfully around him to bade him farewell, “I leave you with this request: pray for me.” They did pray for him; and millions of other people prayed for him; nor did they pray in vain.
Their prayer was heard, and the answer appears in all his subsequent history; it shines forth with Heavenly radiance in the whole course and tenor of his administration. …
Never shall I forget the emphasis and the deep emotion with which he said in this very room, to a company of clergymen and others, who called to pay him their respects in the darkest days of our civil conflict:
“Gentlemen, my hope of success in this great and terrible struggle rests on that immutable foundation, the justice and goodness of God. And when events are threatening, and prospects very dark, I still hope that, in some way which man cannot see, all will be well in the end, because our cause is just, and God is on our side.”
He is dead; but the God in whom he trusted lives, and He can guide and strengthen his successor, as He guided and strengthened him.2376
In a Memorial Address for President Lincoln, April 24, 1865, Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the House of Representatives stated:
Nor should I forget to mention here that the last act of Congress ever signed by him was one requiring that the motto, in which he sincerely believed, “In God We Trust,” should hereafter be inscribed upon all our national coin.2377
In describing President Abraham Lincoln, Count Leo Tolstoi, the Russian novelist and playwright, declared him:
A Christ in miniature.2378
In 1896, President William McKinley gave his assessment of President Abraham Lincoln:
The purposes of God, working through the ages, were, perhaps, more clearly revealed to him than to any other. … He was the greatest man of his time, especially approved of God for the work He gave him to do.2379
Abraham Lincoln’s own words are inscribed into the walls of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.:
That this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.2380
At the opposite end, on the north wall, his Second Inaugural Address alludes to “God,” the “Bible,” “providence,” “the Almighty,” and “divine attributes.” It then continues:
As was said 3000 years ago, so it still must be said, “The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”2381