Abraham Lincoln Religion in Politics

[Amalia]

Hey Lincolnians,

I come to you for insight. I am currently working on a project about our dear Lincoln. I am trying to write something about his religious beliefs in the public sphere. I have already mentioned in a previous project all his philosophical and private thoughts on the matter. But now I really wanna focus all my attention on his religious thoughts in the scope of his political career including his presidency of course.
What I wish to be able to point out is how well (or ill, depending on the results of the research and the point of view) he dealt with religious radicals among his cabinet members or campaign opponents. For instance, I was thinking about investigating into the Coinage Act of 1864 where Salmon P. Chase made HIS first big move as Secretary of Treasury.

I hope I have been clear enough. I wish you guys could help me elaborate a sort of plan or scheme for all this. It would be very interesting and helpful to hear all your thoughts about it.

[L Verge]

(03-17-2018 12:44 PM)Amalia Wrote:  Hey Lincolnians,

I come to you for insight. I am currently working on a project about our dear Lincoln. I am trying to write something about his religious beliefs in the public sphere. I have already mentioned in a previous project all his philosophical and private thoughts on the matter. But now I really wanna focus all my attention on his religious thoughts in the scope of his political career including his presidency of course.
What I wish to be able to point out is how well (or ill, depending on the results of the research and the point of view) he dealt with religious radicals among his cabinet members or campaign opponents. For instance, I was thinking about investigating into the Coinage Act of 1864 where Salmon P. Chase made HIS first big move as Secretary of Treasury.

I hope I have been clear enough. I wish you guys could help me elaborate a sort of plan or scheme for all this. It would be very interesting and helpful to hear all your thoughts about it.

What a great theme for a history project! I wish I were expert enough to help with this, but I know that there are several of our members who are and I hope they will step up to the podium. The first one that comes to mind is Ed Steers, who not only is a Lincoln expert, but also has a side hobby related to religious history. How about this as a starter link, in case you have not already found it: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/262986...w=fulltext -- or this: http://fordham.universitypressscholarshi...-chapter-2

[L Verge]

I am switching back to this interesting thread in the hopes that we can give good assistance to someone who might genuinely appreciate it. Who among us can offer sources of information to Amalia?

[Gene C]

Salmon Chase seems to be Lincoln's biggest cabinet critic; Lincoln moved to slow, he was indecisive, he tolerated incompetence among his generals, and he was to slow in freeing the slaves with his actions not going far enough. Chase was very ambitious politically, and he burned a lot of bridges with political contacts. Most of these differences were based upon Chase's opinion that he would make a better President than Lincoln, and for the most part religion did not enter in to this side of his thinking. For Chase, freeing the slaves had as much to do with the constitution and the intent of it's framers as it did moral & religious values.
(a good resource is 'Salmon Chase' by John Niven and 'Team of Rivals' by Doris Kearns Goodwin)

I am not sure there was much friction with religious radicals among Lincoln's Cabinet.

[ELCore]

I enjoyed this book: The Inspired Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: How Faith Shaped an American President — and Changed the Course of a Nation, by Philip L. Ostergard (2008). His Lincoln quotations are only from the Collected Works. Ronald White praised the book in a blurb. I can't recall it mentioning any cabinet members or cabinet-level politics, and I don't know anything about those subjects, either. ISBN-10: 1-4143-1342-X. ISBN-13: 978-1-4143-1342-9.

[Gene C]

This internet article from "Abe Lincoln's Classroom", Abraham Lincoln and the Bible, may be of some assistance to you, especially the references at the end.
http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/...the-bible/

Many of those can be found at Internet Archive - https://archive.org/

and the "Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association" - https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala?page=home

Have fun!

[Ed Steers]

(03-17-2018 12:44 PM)Amalia Wrote:  Hey Lincolnians,

I come to you for insight. I am currently working on a project about our dear Lincoln. I am trying to write something about his religious beliefs in the public sphere. I have already mentioned in a previous project all his philosophical and private thoughts on the matter. But now I really wanna focus all my attention on his religious thoughts in the scope of his political career including his presidency of course.
What I wish to be able to point out is how well (or ill, depending on the results of the research and the point of view) he dealt with religious radicals among his cabinet members or campaign opponents. For instance, I was thinking about investigating into the Coinage Act of 1864 where Salmon P. Chase made HIS first big move as Secretary of Treasury.

I hope I have been clear enough. I wish you guys could help me elaborate a sort of plan or scheme for all this. It would be very interesting and helpful to hear all your thoughts about it.

---

Concerning Lincoln’s religious belief, be careful where you tread. Folks have been trying for 150 years to “Christianize” Lincoln with midnight baptisms and “born again” conversions. Read Herndon, Lamon, and Mary Lincoln to get a feel for Lincoln’s beliefs. I wrote an extensive article for the Lincoln Herald titled “Was Mistah Abe Babsized?” vol. 101, no 4 (Winter 1999). It should be available online through the Lincoln Herald. When asked, Lincoln said: “When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That is my religion.” That should satisfy most folks – but not all.

[L Verge]

Found this while reading Anita's reference to Lincoln's watch in another thread: http://www.kentucky.com/living/religion/...89674.html I don't know that this short article will be of much use, but the book that is being touted here might. I'm trying to steer you towards things that address Lincoln's religious beliefs and their effect on his political practices (not his personal practices) since that is how I am interpreting your post.

[kerry]

One of Herndon's informants suggested that Lincoln, knowing that he had a reputation as an infidel, began to tell religious leaders he was seeking God, and they all competed to convert him in Springfield. He thus got support from a lot of different sects, and the implication was he had no intention of joining any of them. Whether or not that is true, I do think Lincoln realized he could get a lot of support simply by being respectful towards a wide variety of religious practices, and did quite a bit of that during the war. He at least allowed Pomeroy and various Quakers to feel like he was with them, along with a few preachers. He spoke of Sumner as though he was a religious figure (calling him a bishop and the lord almighty), and he wasn't a big fan of that attitude, but he seems to have worked well with him. I think that's true of Lincoln with radicals of any type - he worked well with them, even if people position them as enemies. He used talent where he found it. I think Lincoln's use of religion in the public sphere had less to do with his own and more to do with how he reacted to that of others. He also enjoyed using religious arguments against slavery and religious wording in his speeches, and did so effectively.

[ELCore]

From Collected Works, Volume VII, page 542, "Reply to Loyal Colored People of Baltimore upon Presentation of a Bible":

Quote:In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it 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 very elegant copy of the great Book of God which you present.

Originally in Washington Daily Morning Chronicle, September 8, 1864.

[David Lockmiller]

(03-21-2018 07:53 PM)ELCore Wrote:  From Collected Works, Volume VII, page 542, "Reply to Loyal Colored People of Baltimore upon Presentation of a Bible":

Quote:In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it 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 very elegant copy of the great Book of God which you present.

Originally in Washington Daily Morning Chronicle, September 8, 1864.

"Sojourner Truth," the slave preacher whom Mrs. Stowe has described as embodying all the elements of an African prophetess or sibyl, when over eighty years old, left her home, at Battlecreek, Michigan, with the unalterable purpose of seeing the Emancipator of her race before her death. She reached Washington the last of October, 1864.

He then arose, gave me his hand, made a bow, and said: "I am pleased to see you."

"I said to him: 'Mr. President, when you first took your seat I feared you would be torn to pieces, for I likened you unto Daniel, who was thrown into the lions' den; and if the lions did not tear you into pieces, I knew that it would be God that had saved you; and I said if He spared me I would see you before four years expired, and He has done so, and now I am here to see you for myself.'

"He then congratulated me on my having been spared. Then, I said: 'I appreciate you, for you are the best President who has ever taken the seat.' He replied thus: 'I expect you have reference to my having emancipated the slaves in my proclamation.' . . . I then said: 'I thank God that your were the instrument selected by Him and the people to do it.'

"He then showed me the Bible presented to him by the colored people of Baltimore, of which you have heard. I have seen it for myself, and it is beautiful beyond description. After I had looked it over, I said to him: 'This is beautiful indeed; the colored people have given this to the Head of the Government, and that Government once sanctioned laws that would not permit its people to learn enough to enable them to read this Book.'

He took my little book, and with the hand that signed the death-warrant of slavery, he wrote as follows: -- "For Aunty Sojourner Truth, Oct. 29, 1864. A. Lincoln.'

("Six Months at the White House," F. B. Carpenter -- pages 201 - 203.)

[ELCore]

(03-22-2018 02:29 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  "Sojourner Truth," the slave preacher whom Mrs. Stowe has described as embodying all the elements of an African prophetess or sibyl, when over eighty years old, left her home, at Battlecreek, Michigan, with the unalterable purpose of seeing the Emancipator of her race before her death. She reached Washington the last of October, 1864....

I hadn't heard that story. Thanks.

[Amalia]

Hi Lincolnians,

The alerts went straight to the spam box so I figured nobody answered! It was such a heartwarming surprise when I saw that the threat had received so many interesting replies!
I have read the majority of the works you have suggested when I was working on his personal thoughts on the matter of religion. Indeed, they had been very useful.
I have just finished writing a thesis proposal on what I really wish to work about. My professor has not read it yet. I thought I should share it with you. You know, maybe it could make things more clear and in perspective. I really feel like you could bring so much to my poor work and plan.

I wanted to attach the file but it's too large so I don't really know how to share it with you. I'm all ears if you have any suggestions.

Again, Thank you so much for your help!
I'll have a close look at all the links you've sent again!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Amal kindly sent me her thesis proposal. Please CLICK HERE.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[RJNorton]

Hi Amal. Please send it to me via file attachment using email, and I will try to add it to your post. Thanks.

P.S. I just received it. I added it to Amal's post above.

[L Verge]

It will be interesting to see your mentoring professor's comments on this, but I personally feel that you have succinctly stated your objectives and what you hope to prove.

I also breathed a sigh of relief in that you emphatically state that the purpose is to show definite political outcomes resulting from Lincoln's religious (or non-religious) convictions. I was concerned as I read the comments that we had previously made to you that we were not really helping you in developing the political angle; we were still personalizing his tenets rather than politicizing them.

P.S. Old school teacher me did catch a few typos - one near the end had a capital T on "the" instead of lower case, and the other had to do with a singular noun that carried a plural verb, or vice versa. Will check back over it and be more specific.

Found it under 2. "great amount of research HAVE - should be HAS

---

This article is 18 years old, but it might help with broad ideas. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/19/us/be...hough.html Note the title of Professor Guelzo's book, which is now almost two decades old. Have you consulted it?

Professor Guelzo is still in the teaching field at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, and you might be able to contact him for thoughts. Roger and I have also been in touch with possibly the best Lincoln authority, Harold Holzer. He is aware of your project, but is swamped with work right now (still works for a living). I hope that he will respond at some point, however. I have thoughts on some other contacts too.

Do you have a deadline for completion?