Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Some Humors of American History
Lincoln has suffered much from having jokes ascribed to him which he never perpetrated and the most cruel one I have ever heard was by Robert Ingersoll, the high priest of Agnosticism in his really great oration on Abra ham Lincoln. The proclamation of Sept. 22, 1862 needed a supplement to be issued January 1, 1863 and Robert Ingersoll related the circumstance somewhat in this wise: Lincoln read to his Cabinet the draft he had determined on and at the conclusion of the reading, Secretary Chase, a very religious man, said, 'it is all right, Mr. President, except that in my judgment there ought to be something about God in it.' 'oh, no, ' said Lincoln, 'that would spoil Ingersoll, for the sake of raising a laugh, gave his audience a wickedly wrong impression. Of course, Lincoln not only made no such remark but he could not have made it. No one who studies his character can fail to be impressed with his sincere theism and the whole story of the proclamation as I have told it shows his reliance on a superior power. There was no cant about Lincoln's religion and his end ing of the January lst proclamation in accordance with Chase's suggestion was a sincere expression. And upon this act, he wrote, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
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