Lincoln and Other Abolition Era Leaders
The two Grimke sisters were condemned from Congregationalist and Quaker pulpits alike for their views and their actions that were well outside those then acceptable for women. They attracted thousands to their lectures because few people in the free states knew the violent details of slavery as they did. They also drew substantial attention because they were among the first women to speak in public to large American audiences.
The Grimke sisters opened the way for other important women abolitionists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Coffin Mott. Mott, founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. In 1837 she helped form the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women. (5) Both of these women were very critical of traditional religion. Stanton Published the very irreverent “The Women’s Bible” (1898). Mott became a Hicksite Quaker of a distinctly secularist bent. She dismissed the irrational and cruel in the Bible as “idolatry” and was quite appreciative of the Unitarian positions rejecting much of classical Christian theology. Stanton described Mott as, “a woman emancipated from all faith in man-made creeds, from all fear of denunciation. Nothing was too sacred for her to question as to rightfulness in principle and practice. ‘Truth for authority, not authority for truth,’ was not only the motto of her life but it was a fixed mental habit.” (6) Stanton and Mott were centrally important to the subsequent founding of the women’s rights movement and they received staunch support from William Lloyd Garrison in those efforts.
Abraham Lincoln is known as The Great Emancipator. He is justly regarded as one of more important Presidents in American history. It is well known that he was never a member of any church. His life and religious beliefs were accurately reported in a biography by his friend Colonel Ward H. Lamon (1872)-Life of Abraham Lincoln. In this biography, it is universally accepted among his friends in Springfield, Illinois that he was not a believer. He read and admired Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason. He apparently was writing a similar book of his own. The premises of this book were that, “First, that the Bible is not God's revelation.” and “Second, that Jesus was not the son of God.” Lincoln showed this book to a Mr. Samuel Hill, who was also an unbeliever. Mr. Hill destroyed it because he feared that it would ruin the political career of his friend. (7)
One biography that misrepresented Lincoln as classically religious explain his lack of membership in any church with this: “It is true that he was not a church member, but there were special reasons for this. The church with which he was naturally affiliated was the Presbyterian. The most eloquent preacher of that denomination was the Reverend Dr. Palmer of New Orleans, who was an aggressive champion of slavery as a divine institution.” (8) Since it is accepted that Lincoln was against slavery this is assumed to explain why Lincoln never joined a church. This may easily have been a good incremental reason for not joining a church, but the primary reason was that Lincoln was a passionate unbeliever.
There is also a very suspect series of religious quotes and references from a biography titled Life of Abraham Lincoln by Josiah Gilbert Holland. Many of the assertions in this book have been debunked by subsequent researchers. There is one quote from a Mr. Newton Bateman given after Lincoln’s assassination that is used by religionists to document Mr. Lincoln’s supposed Christianity. In it, Bateman claims that Lincoln reveled his belief in Jesus only to him and not to his many other friends because, “I am obliged to appear different to them; but I think more upon these subjects than upon others, and I have done so for years; and I am willing that you should know it.”
The profound incoherence of this claim is obvious for numerous reasons. The supposed quote in the Holland book starts with, “Mr. Bateman, I am not a Christian...” This is a blatant contradiction to the asserted quote later, “..Christ teaches it, and Christ is God.” This questionable uncorroborated and self-serving hearsay evidence is the only evidence that Lincoln said anything religious up to that time. There is the explicit assertion that the strong leader that keep our nation together was somehow afraid to tell his many friends that he had become a Christian.
It is generally thought that it would have served his political interest to publicly assert his Christianity if this were true. His opponents made much of his atheism and 21 of 23 local preachers were against him for that reason. Later with national political concerns it became a political necessity to start using the Deistic language of others such as Jefferson and Franklin before him. This allows Christians to think the President is not “against” them. Machievelli recommended in "The Prince" that the prince should lead his people to think he is righteous. Lincoln was an excellent politician and this was a necessary part of political leadership.
The motto “In God We Trust” was added during his administration. The Coral Ridge Ministries asserts that “His last act consisted of issuing an edict that every U.S. coin would be printed with the words: ‘In God We Trust.’” (9) This act was actually instigated and lobbied for by Salmon P. Chase the Treasury Secretary in 1861 and passed by an act of Congress. Lincoln was in no position to oppose this act. Of course, to the Coral Ridge Ministries this fake “evidence” is used to prove that Lincoln, the unbeliever, was really a Christian.
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History of American Government
Foundational Documents of the United States
