ntain making a
false god for the people to worship. Yet Aaron got his commission, you
know."

LINCOLN AND THE MINISTERS.

At the time of Lincoln's nomination, at Chicago, Mr. Newton Bateman,
Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Illinois, occupied
a room adjoining and opening into the Executive Chamber at Springfield.
Frequently this door was open during Mr. Lincoln's receptions, and
throughout the seven months or more of his occupation he saw him nearly
every day. Often, when Mr. Lincoln was tired, he closed the door against
all intruders, and called Mr. Bateman into his room for a quiet talk. On
one of these occasions, Mr. Lincoln took up a book containing canvass
of the city of Springfield, in which he lived, showing the candidate
for whom each citizen had declared it his intention to vote in the
approaching election. Mr. Lincoln's friends had, doubtless at his own
request, placed the result of the canvass in his hands. This was towards
the close of October, and only a few days before election. Calling Mr.
Bateman to a seat by his side, having previously locked all the doors,
he said:

"Let us look over this book; I wish particularly to see how the
ministers if Springfield are going to vote." The leaves were turned, one
by one, and as the names were examined Mr. Lincoln frequently asked if
this one and that one was not a minister, or an elder, or a member of
such and such a church, and sadly expressed his surprise on receiving an
affirmative answer. In that manner he went through the book, and then he
closed it, and sat silently for some minutes regarding a memorandum 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 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