Slavery, Lincoln and Religion

As a boy in Kentucky, Lincoln witnessed numerous religious revivals. Headstrong, he refused to join his parents in a Baptist revival, rebelling against the emotionalism and thundering certainty. But religion stayed with him. It was still an age in which the imagined presence of God was so common as to make a denial of His existence too lonely to presume. It seemed natural and reasonable to believe in a Creator. And believing in God, Lincoln wrestled with the question of His purpose.

In the United States around this time the nation's largest Christian denomination, the Methodists, were divided concerning God's purpose and slavery. Some Methodists saw slavery as a sin and wanted the clergy to speak out and denounced the clergy for being aligned with slave owners. By the time that Lincoln was in his mid-thirties and practicing law in Illinois, the Methodists were having their divisive national meeting. The Methodists split over the issue, and other denominations joined in the split, those supporting slavery predominately Southern. With the Holy Bible as the guide to be searched for right and wrong, those supporting slavery were able to point with satisfaction that nowhere did the word of God include an admonishment against owning a slave or slaves.

In his inauguration address in early 1861, Lincoln spoke of having no intention, directly or indirectly, to interfere with "the institution of slavery where it exists." He said he believed he had no lawful right to do so and that he had "no inclination to do so." Into the war, circumstances changed. His son, William, died at the age of eleven in February 1962, less than one year into the war. According to the PBS documentary "God in America," Lincoln found consolation in a sermon by a Presbyterian minister, Phineas Gurley, at his son's funeral.

The Reverend Gurley: What we need in the hour of trial, and what we should seek by earnest prayer, is confidence in Him who sees the end from the beginning and doeth all things well. Let us acknowledge his hand and hear his voice and inquire after his will and seek his holy spirit as our counselor and guide, and all, in the end, will be well.

Lincoln extended the message to the agony of the war, saying,

What we need in the hour of trial, and what we should seek by earnest prayer, is confidence in him who sees the end from the beginning and doeth all things well.

According to the PBS documentary, Lincoln wondered about the will of God in the crisis that was the war between the states.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: In great contests, each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. I am almost ready to say that 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.

Lincoln asked, "Out of this affliction what good might come." As great a mind as Lincoln had, he decided that God's purpose in creating confusion among men and a terribly painful and bloody war was the emancipation of slaves. That this was Lincoln's idea is claimed by the PBS documentary and the work of the historian Andrew C. White Jr.

Lincoln had been under pressure from Northerners who wanted to turn the war into an abolitionist crusade. With his military's success at Antietam in September, 1962, Lincoln decided to do it, in accordance perhaps with his belief in God's purpose rather than with political considerations rising from what was perceived as a turning point military victory. On September 22, Lincoln announced his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation -- to be effective beginning January 1, 1863.

Although the fighting at Antietam was considered a turning point in the war, another great battle was fought in the summer of 1963, at Gettysburg. Following that battle, Lincoln delivered his short and now famous Gettysburg Address. In it he summarized the war. Lincoln's address in his handwriting is extant, with no mention of God. But the notes of four reporters hearing Lincoln deliver his address are said to have included the words "under God," and these words are included in a display of the address at the Lincoln Memorial.