Today is Sunday, and U. S. President-elect Abraham Lincoln, en route to Washington, D.C., for his inauguration, attends church services in Buffalo, New York. The New York Herald reports on the event:
“Mr. Fillmore called at ten A.M. with a carriage for Mr. Lincoln and both attended divine service at the Unitarian church. Dr. Hosmer, the pastor, invoked the blessings of heaven upon the incoming Administration in a most impressive manner, in his opening prayer. All of the congregation were moved to tears. From the church the ex-President and the President-elect rode back to the hotel and were joined by Mrs. Lincoln when the party was driven to Mr. Fillmore’s private residence to partake of a lunch.”
The Unitarian congregation stands in stark contrast to Abraham Lincoln’s Primitive Baptist roots; few Primitive Baptists of the day would dare set foot in (what they would consider to be) such a heretical church. So far removed from his Baptist upbringing is Lincoln, that even in the twenty-first century, the president’s faith roots are rarely mentioned by historians.
Source: Victor Searcher, Lincoln’s Journey to Greatness, p. 120; for more information, visit The Lincoln Institute “Lincoln and New York” site (link)
