Francis B. Carpenter, Six Months at the White House

[193] in pencil which lay before him. At length he turned to Mr. Bateman, with a face full of sadness, and said: “Here are twenty-three ministers, of different denominations, and all of them are against me but three; and here are a great many prominent members of the churches, a very large majority are against me. Mr. Bateman, I am not a Christian,--God knows I would be one,--but I have carefully read the Bible, and I do not so understand this book;” and he drew forth a pocket New Testament. “These men well know,” he continued, “that I am for freedom in the Territories, freedom everywhere as free as the Constitution and the laws will permit, and that my opponents are for slavery. They know this, and yet, with this book in their hands, in the light of which human bondage cannot live a moment, they are going to vote against me; I do not understand it at all.”

Here Mr. Lincoln paused,--paused for long minutes,--his features surcharged with emotion. Then he rose and walked up and down the reception-room in the effort to retain or regain his selfpossession. Stopping at last, he said, with a trembling voice and his cheeks wet with tears: “I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that his hand is in it. If He has a place and work for me — and I think He has — I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but Truth is everything. I know I am right, because I know that liberty is right, for ”