A " lose " Bible belonging to Abraham Lincoln that ’s nowon displayat the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum inSpringfield , Illinois may molt new light on his religious beliefs ( or miss therefrom ) , which scholars continue to consider .
The Ladies of the Citizens Volunteer Hospital of Philadelphia gave the 18 - Syrian pound record to Lincoln in 1864 when he bring down the metropolis to parent money for soldiers ' medical caution . According toSmithsonian.com , after Lincoln ’s assassination in April 1865 , Mary Todd Lincoln gave the Bible to the Reverend Noyes W. Miner , a tight friend and neighbor of the Lincolns who help transport Lincoln ’s physical structure from Chicago to Springfield and read at his funeral .
Historians were unaware of the Bible ’s existence until recently . Miner family member passed down the Bible for 150 years before donate it for public view , a decision they made after visiting the museum last yr and being moved by the staff ’s devotion to the story of the clergyman and his intimacy in Lincoln ’s lifetime , reports theChicago Tribune .
Lincoln , who was raised as a Baptist but was never actually baptized , is one of only two presidents with no formal religious tie-up — the other wasThomas Jefferson .
Though Lincoln did n’t cover his skepticism in his early aliveness and political career , some historian consider that the deaths of his two boy and the fighting to end slavery elicited feeling in the likeliness of a divine design . Allen Guelzo , author ofAbraham Lincoln : Redeemer President , toldHistory.comthat Lincoln even distinguish his Cabinet that he intended to write out the Emancipation Proclamation because he had consecrate to God that if the Union Army won against the Confederates in Maryland ( which happened at the Battle of Antietam in 1862 ) , he would do so .
Mary Todd Lincoln , whose own spirituality has been well documented through her fondness for séances ( which her husbandmay have attendedat least occasionally ) , insisted that Lincoln was deeply spiritual . It ’s also potential that Mary ’s apparently kitschy gift to the clergyman was an effort to shew Lincoln ’s Christian credibleness .
[ h / tSmithsonian ]
