Spirits and Abraham Lincoln: Letters to President Lincoln Concerning Spiritualism

The Second Great Awakening laid the foundations of the development of present-day religious beliefs and establishments, moral views, and democratic ideals in the United States. Beginning back in late eighteenth century and lasting until the middle of the nineteenth century,1 this Protestant awakening sought to reach out the un-churched and bring people to a much more personal and vivid experience of Christianity. Starting on the Southern frontier and soon spreading to the Northeast, the Second Great Awakening has also been associated as a response against the growing liberalism in religion - skepticism, deism, and rational Christianity.2 Although the movement is well-known to be

According to Hinks, Methodists were usually more willing to place “the powerful God of Christianity… on the side of social and political justice.” One religious message that Walker conveys through this Appeal that supports this claim, was

A second reason for the religious prevalence in Colonial America was the evil that people faced. “The providence of God was ‘wonder-working’ in making manifest the reach of his sovereignty; such acts of ‘special providence’ represented God’s clearer and more explicit than usual intervention into the affairs of man. But he was not alone in having supernatural power. The events

As many religious leaders before and after him, Edwards's source of inspiration and guidance is the Bible. His understanding of this cornerstone of New England society enables him to reinforce a persuasive dissertation with biblical quotes and passages; however, not all the quotes cited by

Some have said that Abraham Lincoln's beliefs are a mystery. He himself has never proclaimed his beliefs but a lot can be determined by his actions and words. Through observation, there have been quite a lot of conclusions to his faith. Some conclusions are: skepticism, deism, Christianity, theism, fatalism, and even atheism. It's an on-going debate for the conclusion to his faith although we won't be able to ever prove exactly what his beliefs were since he never made a profession, there are many facts leading to his belief in a personal savior.

In Americas history, religion has played a major role in society. In Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural, Lincoln uses religion in an effort to reunite the North and South and to justify slavery and its end. Likewise, in the Declaration of Independence, religion is used to unite the colonies and justify the Declaration to Britain and the American people. The religious beliefs of early America are not respected and are used as common ground to unite the people and legitimize actions.

Spirituality plays a very important role in African American culture. As we know, traditional healing practices and spirituality are closely related. This deep spirituality comes from their motherland African culture but was reinforce during the rough periods of slavery and enforced discrimination. Spirituality makes people of believing that only God is responsible for health, illness, and healing. Thus, spiritual beliefs provide comfort and are an effective way for remaining healthy, coping, and healing (Johnson, Elbert-Avila, Tulsky, 1992). Giger, Davidhizar, and Turner (1992) recalled that a number of African Americans still linking good health with luck or success and disease or illness with bad luck, fate,

Oates, Stephen B. Abraham Lincoln the Man behind the Myths. New York: Harper & Row, 1984. Print.

The second article is titled, “The Great Awakening is a Welcome Religious Revival,” by an Assembly of Pastors of Churches in New England. The Assembly of Pastors describe the revival of religion, “the work of God.”7 Just like the ideas of Jonathan Edwards, the pastors concluded that the unusual behavior of the people of the New England colonies must be inspired from God. “With respect to numbers of those who have been under the impressions of the present day, we must declare there is good ground to conclude they are become real Christians.”8 These sheer number of people that were open to the Holy Spirit couldn’t be easily explained, and had the pastors confused not knowing what to really do. They did however did see a danger to this movement. Ideas that the devil could have a part in it, saying, “who can wonder, if as such a time as this, Satan should

A more recent myth that has developed is the theory that Abraham Lincoln was homosexual. This myth came to light in 1999 when Larry Kramer, the founding member of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, made the statement that Lincoln was homosexual and backed up his statement with diary excerpts from Lincoln’s bunkmate’s Diary. The excerpts read: He often kisses me when I tease him, often to shut me up… He would grab me in his long arms and hug and hug… our Abe is like a school girl” (Steers 126). Kramer also made a claim stating that John Wilkes Booth may have killed Lincoln because Booth was “virulently homophobic” (Steers 125). The theory that Lincoln was gay was taken even further when Dr. C.A. Tripp, Ph.D. released his book titled The Intimate

The Great Awakening of the 1730s significantly altered the social structure of early Americal colonial society. The laity’s internal subjectivity and passional experiences were validated in regards to religious sentiments. This novel type of engagement of the laity is significant, as previously voiceless social and racial classes were given the authority to proclaim and propagate their interpretations of biblical scripture. The New Lights’ emphasis on the transformative power of the Holy Spirit severed social norms and exalted and justified the personal experiences of commoners against that of the old order. Moreover, the revivals challenged the prevailing social and religious elite by questioning the sincerity of their religious convictions. The conservative religious rationalism was challenged by a novel and enthusiastic expression of faith characterized by personal experience and individual sensory experience. The New Lights, or the revivalist leaders, deplored the abundance of inequality between rich landowners in relation to poor and indebted frontier farmers. I interpret the revival as an intellectual severance from the old order, or the Old Light’s doctrine’s of salvation. Jonathan Edwards, the revival’s prominent contributor, launched an attack against the rationalism and conservatism of the old religious order and emphasized a New Birth, characterized by passional and experiential conversion. My analysis of the Great Awakening brings forth evidence that the New

As his life began, Robert Matthews seemed to have had the makings of a radical, religious man. In 1788, he was born into the religious New England Scottish town of Colia, where his family belonged to a Scottish Presbyterian sect known as the Anti-Burgher Secession Church. As a young boy, he began with odd visions and dreams that he claimed where to be from God, “In 1835, an enterprising Manhattan journalist disclosed that, as a boy, Robert Matthews had his own conversations with supernatural spirits and impressed his friends with feats of clairvoyance (56).”

The critics of the followers of the “Kingdom of Matthias” reflect a variety of ideologies that characterized the societal changes of the 19th century Northern region of the United States. The Kingdom of Matthias was a spiritual cult founded and primarily administered by Robert Mathews, an American religious figure and former businessman whose spiritual activities inspired his followers to refer to him as Matthias the Prophet. The Kingdom of Matthias received a great deal of publicity and national media attention in the US during its time, and has thereafter become an issue of historical consideration whose analysis reflects interesting characteristics of the changing American society of the 19th century. The critics of the Kingdom of Matthias

While there is much to be said about Mary Todd Lincoln, she is hardly mentioned because most of the focus is on her husband. Her sanity has been questioned several times by historians. While she did struggle with some emotional and mental health issues, she was not crazy. To prove this, it is important to understand her childhood and upbringing, as well as any conditions she suffered from. Next it is crucial to examine her life at the White House, especially since it was during such a tense period in American history. Finally, one must consider the case against her that was presented by her own son who deemed her crazy and sent her to Bellevue Place, a mental hospital. I will dive into all these topics and sum it all up in my concluding paragraph.

Abraham Lincoln is by far our most revered president in the history of the United States. He had a strong moral vision of where his country must go to preserve and enlarge the rights of all her people, but he was also a good man with a strong sense of character and a great discipline in the art of law; and he sought to continue the great and mighty legacy of the Constitution. He believed that the Founding Fathers had drawn up the Constitution without the mention of slavery because they felt that it would later die of a natural death. He would soon learn that that would not be the case.