A fireside chat with Abraham Lincoln on the eve of emancipation

A fireside chat with Abraham Lincoln on the eve of emancipation April 15, 2015

The former party of Lincoln marked the 150th anniversary of his assassination with an infelicitously worded tweet:

Screen shot 2015-04-15 at 6.05.22 PM

Um, er, that is, what they meant to say was that …

Let me remember our greatest president by linking back to an excerpt from the journal of Baptist missionary and abolitionist Nathaniel Brown, who was part of a delegation of abolitionist ministers who met with President Lincoln in the White House on New Year’s Eve, 1862.

Brown was a fascinating character in his own right — a thrice-widowered missionary to the Congo who returned to the states in the 1850s to become the editor of an abolitionist newspaper. After the war, he married a thrice-widowed former missionary to Japan, learned Japanese, and served another 20 years or so as a missionary in that country.

I love Brown’s account of this meeting with Lincoln because it offers an up-close, personal glimpse of the man. The earnest clergymen present weren’t sure quite what to make of Lincoln, who seems to have crushed and dismissed their arguments while still agreeing with their conclusions.

Here’s a taste of Brown’s account of that conversation:

“You come to me as God’s ministers, and you are positive that you know exactly what God’s will is. You tell me that slavery is a sin; but other’s of God’s ministers say the opposite – which am I to believe? You assume that you only have the knowledge of God’s will.”

“No, Mr. President,” said Dr. Cheever, “we only refer to God’s word, which speaks plainly on this point. The Golden Rule is sufficient.”

The President said to Dr. Cheever, that he presumed he was the writer of the memorial. Mr. Goodell said that the other members of the Committee had a part in it.

“Well, Dr. Cheever, I must say that you are a very illogical reasoner, at least, that is my opinion – ha! ha! ha!” The President seemed to have a habit, whenever he said anything sharp or sarcastic, of finishing it up with a sort of forced, mechanical laugh – a pretty good imitation, too, of a right hearty, spontaneous laugh – to show that he was in good humor. This made his sarcasm appear not at all offensive, but rather as good natured pleasantry, and Dr. Cheever could not but thank him for his frankness. Several times his laugh was so earnest, that, mingled with his wit, it succeeded in bringing the whole Committee into a tolerably sympathetic he-haw.

The President said all his convictions and feelings were against slavery. “But,”? said he, “I am not so certain that God’s views and feelings in respect to it are the same as mine. If his feelings were like mine, how could he have permitted it to remain so long? I am obliged to believe that God may not, after all, look upon it in the same light as I do.”

 


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