During his Presidency the clergy petitioned him to recommend in his message to Congress an amendment to the Constitution recognizing the existence of God. In preparing his message it seems that he inserted the request. Referring to this, Mr. Defrees, Superintendent of Public Printing during Lincoln's administration, says: "When I assisted him in reading the proof he struck it out, remarking that he had not made up his mind as to its propriety" (_Westminster Review_, Sept. 1891). HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. In his "Travels Around the World," Seward records one of Lincoln's sarcastic hits at the doctrine of endless punishment. Speaking of England's jealousy of the United States in certain matters, Seward says: "That hesitation and refusal recall President Lincoln's story of the intrusion of the Universalists into the town of Springfield. The several orthodox churches agreed that their pastors should preach down the heresy. One of them began his discourse with these emphatic words: 'My Brethren, there is a dangerous doctrine creeping in among us. There are those who are teaching that all men will be saved; but my dear brethren, _we_ hope for better things'" (Travels Around the World, p. 513). JUDGE AARON GOODRICH. Judge Goodrich, of Minnesota, Lincoln's minister to Belgium, who was one of the most accomplished scholars in the West, and an author of note, and who was on terms of close intimacy with Lincoln, both before and after he became President, says: "He [Lincoln] believed in a God, i.e., Nature; but he did not believe in the Christ, nor did he ever affiliate with any church." FREDERICK DOUGLAS. Abraham Lincoln believed in a Supreme Being, but he did not believe in the God of Christians. The God of Christians was to him the most hideous monster that the imagination of man had ever conceived. There were two doctrines taught in connection with this deity which he especially abhorred--the doctrine of endless punishment, and the doctrine of vicarious atonement. That the innocent should suffer for the guilty--that God should permit his sinless son to be put to a cruel death to atone for the sins of wicked men--was to him an act of the most infamous injustice. His whole nature rebelled against the idea. Frederick Douglas narrates an incident which, while it has no direct reference to this theological doctrine, yet tends to disclose his abhorrence of the idea. Mr. Douglas was engaged in recruiting colored troops and visited the President for the purpose of securing from him a pledge that colored soldiers would be allowed the same privileges accorded white soldiers. As the Confederate Government had declared that they would be treated as insurgents, he also urged upon him the necessity of retaliating, if colored prisoners were put to death. But to the latter proposition Lincoln would not listen. Mr. Douglas says: