the family of the president of the united states ought to be permitted a reasonable degree of privacy, but this has never yet been accorded them. in the case of the family of president lincoln the rudeness of the public was shameful. it is not our present purpose to intrude into the domestic life of mr. and mrs. lincoln, and if we shall ever do so hereafter it will be, let us hope, with more of consideration than some critics have shown.
after the death of mr. lincoln, a number of books and articles appeared which gave close and intimate glimpses of the life of president and mrs. lincoln during the four years which they spent in the white house. we shall examine two or three of these only in so far as they relate to mr. lincoln's religious life.
for four years mrs. lincoln had with her in the white house as dressmaker and attendant mrs. elizabeth keckley, an intelligent colored woman. in 1868 mrs. keckley published a book entitled behind the scenes.[50] it related many intimate details of life in the lincoln household, with much about mrs. lincoln's extravagances of expenditure and infirmities of temper, and some things about mr. lincoln. it is a most informing book, though one containing many details which had been as well unprinted. its general truthfulness is attested by its internal evidence. of lincoln's anxiety when battles were in progress, and of the relief which he sought in[pg 204] agonized prayer, she tells, and with apparent truthfulness. of one battle she relates:
"one day he came into the room where i was fitting a dress for mrs. lincoln. his step was slow and heavy, and his face sad. like a tired child he threw himself upon the sofa, and shaded his eyes with his hands. he was a complete picture of dejection. mrs. lincoln, observing his troubled look, asked:
"'where have you been?'
"'to the war department,' was the brief, almost sullen answer.
"'any news?'
"'yes, plenty of news, but no good news. it is dark, dark everywhere.'
"he reached forth one of his long arms and took a small bible from a stand near the head of the sofa, opened the pages of the holy book, and soon was absorbed in reading them. a quarter of an hour passed, and on glancing at the sofa the face of the president seemed more cheerful. the dejected look was gone, and the countenance was lighted up with new resolution and hope. the change was so marked that i could not but wonder at it, and wonder led to the desire to know what book of the bible afforded so much comfort to the reader. making the search for a missing article an excuse, i walked gently around the sofa, and, looking into the open book, i discovered that mr. lincoln was reading that divine comforter, job. he read with christian eagerness, and the courage and the hope that he derived from the inspired pages made him a new man."—behind the scenes, p. 118.
mrs. keckley helped prepare the body of willie for burial. she relates:
"when willie died, as he lay on the bed, mr. lincoln came to the bed, lifted the cover from the face of his child, gazed at it long and earnestly, murmuring: 'my poor boy, he was too good for this earth. god has called him home. i know that he is much better off in heaven, but then we loved him so. it is hard, hard to have him die!'"—behind the scenes, p. 103.
[pg 205]
"mrs. rebecca r. pomeroy, a christian woman from chelsea, massachusetts, who had come to nurse the lincoln children in their sickness, speaks of lincoln's great affliction and sadness. on the morning of the funeral she assured him that many christians were praying for him. with eyes suffused with tears, he replied: 'i am glad to hear that. i want them to pray for me. i need their prayers.' mrs. pomeroy expressed her sympathy with him as they were going out to the burial. thanking her gently, he said, 'i will try to go to god with my sorrows.' she asked him a few days after if he could not trust god. with deep religious feeling, he replied: 'i think i can, and i will try. i wish i had that childlike faith you speak of, and i trust he will give it to me.' then the memory of his mother filled his mind with tenderest recollections, and he said: 'i had a good christian mother, and her prayers have followed me thus far through life.'"—lincoln scrapbook, library of congress, p. 54.
mrs. pomeroy was a baptist, and had recently buried her husband. she volunteered for service as a nurse in the soldiers' hospitals in washington, and in the serious illness of mr. lincoln's two sons she was installed as nurse in the white house and remained these several months.
she relates that she frequently saw him reading his mother's bible, and that he found especial comfort in the psalms.
mrs. pomeroy relates:
"on july 9, 1863, while sitting at the dinner table he could not eat, for he seemed so full of trouble as he said, 'the battle of port hudson is now going on, and many lives will be sacrificed on both sides, but i have done the best i could, trusting in god, for if they gain this important point, we are lost; and, on the other hand, if we could only gain it we shall have gained much; and i think we shall, for we have a great deal to thank god for, for we have vicksburg and gettysburg already.' mrs. pomeroy said, 'mr. lincoln, prayer will do what nothing else will; can you not pray?' 'yes, i will,' he replied, and while the tears were dropping from his face he said, 'pray for me,' and picked up a bible and went to his room. 'could all the people of the nation have overheard[pg 206] the earnest petition that went up from that inner chamber as it reached the ears of the nurse, they would have fallen upon their knees with tearful and reverential sympathy.' that night he received a dispatch announcing a union victory. he went directly to mrs. pomeroy's room, his face beaming with joy, saying: 'good news! good news! port hudson is ours! the victory is ours, and god is good.' when the lady replied, 'nothing like prayer in times of trouble,' mr. lincoln said, 'yes, o yes—praise—prayer and praise go together.' mrs. pomeroy in relating this incident, said, 'i do believe he was a true christian, though he had very little confidence in himself.'"
most valuable, and also most familiar, of these intimate glimpses into the life of mr. lincoln during his years in the white house is the book of frank b. carpenter called, six months in the white house: the inner life of abraham lincoln. the book was the work of the artist who painted the large picture of the signing of the emancipation proclamation. for six months in 1864 he lived in the white house where a room was fitted up for his use, and mr. lincoln and all the members of the cabinet sat to him repeatedly. it is hardly necessary to quote this book, which is widely scattered, and everywhere available. it is enough to remind ourselves that the picture it gives us of mr. lincoln in those solemn days after the war had settled down to a clear issue of slavery or freedom, and had become in the mind of the nation and the world not a political but a moral issue, is one of dignity and heroism and of definite christian character.
an incident following the death of willie has been related on the alleged authority of rev. francis vinton, rector of trinity church, new york, who was an acquaintance of mrs. lincoln and visited washington and called at the white house soon after that sad event. as reported, he said to mr. lincoln:
"'your son is alive.'
"'alive!' exclaimed mr. lincoln. 'surely you mock me.'
"'no, sir; believe me,' replied dr. vinton; 'it is a most[pg 207] comforting doctrine of the church, founded upon the words of christ himself.'
"mr. lincoln threw his arm around dr. vinton's neck, laid his head upon his breast, and sobbed aloud, 'alive? alive?'
"dr. vinton, greatly moved, said: 'my dear sir, believe this, for it is god's most precious truth. seek not your son among the dead; he is not there; he lives today in paradise! think of the full import of the words i have quoted. the sadducees, when they questioned jesus, had no other conception than that abraham, isaac, and jacob were dead and buried. mark the reply: "now that the dead are raised, even moses showed at the bush when he called the lord the god of abraham, the god of isaac, and the god of jacob. for he is not the god of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto him!" did not the great patriarch mourn his sons as dead? "joseph is not, and simeon is not, and ye will take benjamin, also!" but joseph and simeon were both living, though he believed it not. indeed, joseph being taken from him was the eventual means of the preservation of the whole family. and so god has called your son into his upper kingdom—a kingdom and an existence as real, more real, than your own. it may be that he too, like joseph, has gone, in god's good providence, to be the salvation of his father's household. it is a part of the lord's plan for the ultimate happiness of you and yours. doubt it not.'
"dr. vinton [so the narrative proceeds] told lincoln that he had a sermon upon the subject. mr. lincoln asked him to send it to him as early as possible, and thanked him repeatedly for his cheering and hopeful words. when lincoln received the sermon he read it over and over, and had a copy made for his own private use. a member of the family said that mr. lincoln's views in relation to spiritual things seemed changed from that hour."—carpenter, pp. 117-19.
such an incident cannot be wholly false; nor is it quite conceivable that it is wholly true. that lincoln talked with dr. vinton concerning his recent sorrow, and was comforted by his assurance of immortality is not improbable, nor that he accepted dr. vinton's sermon and had it copied; but the scene[pg 208] as finally described for the public has every appearance of being much colored.
in 1883 captain oldroyd published a collection of lincoln anecdotes which had long been making, most of them good and many of them excellent, but some of them resting on very dubitable authority. among those of this class was one that has been widely quoted, perhaps most widely of any in his book:[51]
"shortly before his death an illinois clergyman asked lincoln, 'do you love jesus?' mr. lincoln solemnly replied: 'when i left springfield i asked the people to pray for me. i was not a christian. when i buried my son, the severest trial of my life, i was not a christian. but when i went to gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, i then and there consecrated myself to christ. yes, i do love jesus.'
"reticent as he was, and shy of discoursing much of his own mental exercises, these few utterances now have a value with those who knew him which his dying words scarcely have possessed."—lincoln memorial album, p. 105.
where captain oldroyd obtained this incident is now not known; probably it came to him as a newspaper clipping. it bears no marks that commend it to our confidence. we are not informed who this illinois clergyman was; there may not have been any such clergyman. if there was,—
[pg 209]
"e'en ministers they hae been kenned
in holy rapture,
a rousing whid at times to vend,
and nail 't wi' scripture."
mr. lincoln made many references to god, but very few to jesus, and then not by name, but by some title, as "the saviour of the world." the word "love" was one which he almost never used. that he should have said to a man unnamed "i do love jesus" is highly improbable; and the account of his conversation as given here is not probable. we gain nothing by reliance on such unsupported allegations.
