A Letter Went to Lincoln from a woman in Memphis

by George Apperson

THE BATTLE WAS OVER in an hour and twenty minutes. Memphis fell on the morning of 6 June 1862, in a contest between ironclads and rams on the Mississippi. One Confederate vessel escaped downstream; the rest were captured or destroyed. Local strategists had planned blockades of cotton bales in the streets and a bloody struggle, but at the end, a single Federal officer and three of his men came ashore to accept the surrender of the city from the mayor, who admitted, "we have no force to oppose the raising of the flags you have directed to be raised over the Customhouse and the Post Office." Not one man from the seventy-two companies from Memphis who volunteered for the Confederate cause was present to defend the city.

Union generals were caught by surprise although U. S. Grant and William T. Sherman were planning their moves. One Union officer, positioned to march immediately to the Bluff City, was General Lew Wallace who arrived without consulting his superior, General Grant, citing the threat posed by Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest and his cavalry.

Wallace first took action against two newspapers, the Avalanche and the Memphis Appeal, and Memphis churches were next on his agenda. Both newspapers and the First Methodist and Second Presbyterian Churches were deemed guilty of treasonable attitudes and actions by Wallace. The Appeal had challenged Union forces to a confrontation, "Let the brutal minions of a beastly despotism come on! The slaughter pens are ready, and Yankee blood shall flow as free as festal wine." The sins of the churches were less blatant but perhaps more dangerous. First Methodist was the church of Governor Isham Harris who led Tennessee out of the Union. His nephew was the minister. Memphis Presbytery had deposed the minister of Second Church, Dr. Robert Grundy, for his unwillingness to support the Southern cause openly, finding "irreconcilable differences" between him and his congregation. Second Presbyterian had an additional offense charged against it; the trustees voted to donate their bell to a drive to collect metal for conversion into Confederate canon.

Samuel Sawyer, a New School Presbyterian, was installed "with a file of soldiers," as preacher at Second Church, a stronghold of conservative Old School Calvinism. They viewed the New School persuasion with suspicion and contempt.

Sanctioned by the War Department, some denominations had seized church property from their fellow Christians in the Confederacy. A notorious case involved the Methodists. Edwin Stanton, secretary of war, issued an order in November 1863, instructing generals in Missouri, Tennessee, and the Gulf departments to surrender all property of Methodists deemed disloyal, to northern Bishop E. R. Ames. It was brought to Lincoln's attention by "Honest" John Hogan, an energetic Methodist layleader, and the order modified.

No President in American History, before or since, became so deeply involved in church affairs as did Abraham Lincoln. An early case drew national attention. Samuel B. McPheeters, a Presbyterian minister in St. Louis and his wife, were ordered exiled by the military for their Confederate sympathy. Prompted by Attorney General Edward Bates, Lincoln intervened, to the dismay of General Samuel Curtis and Union loyalists in St. Louis. Lincoln wrote to Curtis, "the U. S. government must not, as by this order, undertake to run the churches. When an individual, in a church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest, he must be checked; but let the churches as such take care of themselves."

Presbyterians in the north refused to accept Lincoln's moderation. The General Assembly of 1864 debated the case ten days, standing with the lower courts against Dr. McPheeters. A few distinguished leaders disagreed. Dr. Charles Hodge described the General Assembly's action as, "an injustice which has few, if any, parallels in the history of our church," and Dr. Henry J. Van Dyke condemned the decision, saying, "The Assembly not only sanctioned but participated in the proscription of a Christian minister . . . a story of persecution for opinion's sake."

Dr. James Stedman, minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Memphis, was forbidden in January 1864 to preach on pain of imprisonment if he persisted. The order by General Stephen Hurlbut, had no reasons assigned. Efforts in the next three months to discover the cause met with no response. Mrs. J. M. McCombs, whose husband belonged to the church for some twenty years, took matters in hand and wrote directly to President Lincoln. Exasperated with the Union commander in Memphis, General C. C. Washburn, for his fumbling in returning the Second Church building to its owners as he had ordered, Lincoln obviously took action. Dr. Stedman returned to his pulpit and remained in Memphis for the remainder of his career.

First Church had a magnificent new building and the largest Presbyterian congregation in the area. In 1861, the last year for which statistics are available until after the Civil War, the membership was 385, with thirty-five African Americans in full communion. These members, most of whom if not all, were slaves, continued worshiping in the church until 1883.

Memphis provides a nice example of the ideological contest between Lincoln and the military authority. They wanted to crush the rebellion by any means available; Lincoln knew that there were humane and constitutional issues not to be ignored except at the peril of life and liberty. He proposed that a careful distinction be maintained between the authority of church and state.

His assassination on 14 April 1865 was a major tragedy in the history of the Republic, allowing destructive impulses he had struggled to restrain to go unchecked in the dark days of Reconstruction. Slavery was replaced by racism and segregation became fixed in numerous southern public and private institutions. Some southern denominations, including the Presbyterians, became the last strongholds of segregation.

What might have been the course of our national experience had the guiding hand of President Lincoln been spared for a few years longer?

Articles in AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS by the author:

"Presbyterians and Radical Republicans: President Lincoln, Dr. McPheeters and Civil War in Missouri," Vol. 72, No. 4 (Winter 1995.)

"Lincoln, the Churches and Memphis Presbyterians," Vol. 72, No. 2 (Summer, 1994.)

Memphis Mar. 16/1864

To his Excellency Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States

I am well aware that in the multiplicity of cares and anxieties which press upon your Excellency's mind, little time is left to be devoted to individual petitions, yet the urgency of the case to which I desire to call attention, induces me to pray your Excellency to hear the feeble voice of a woman on behalf of an innocent & unoffending Minister of the Gospel. I refer to the Rev^d Dr. J. O. Stedman, pastor of the 1^St Presbⁿ Church of this city, who for many years has ministered faithfully & acceptably to a large congregation, and won the warmest & most devoted love of his people. Dr. Stedman, though a Southern man by birth and feeling, has, since the occupation of this city by Federal Authorities, maintained a course of Christian integrity and discretion, which would bear close investigation. He has carefully refrained from introducing the subject of the War, or of politics into his pulpit, praying always for all in authority, and endeavoring as a Christian to obey the Scripture injunction to "be subject to the higher powers" Some three months since, through the agency of some secret foe, /as is supposed,/ he was forbidden by the military authorities to preach, and has also been threatened with imprisonment, in the event of a refusal to obey this order, which order however, he has strictly complied with. Various applications have been made to the authorities for a repeal of this order, and of late, one to the present Commandant of this Post /Gen^l Buckland/ but all efforts have proven unsuccessful' Gen^l Buckland assigning as his reason for refusal, his inability to transcend the orders of a former Commandant, /Gen^l Hurlburt,/ by whom the order was first given. The only resource therefore in such a case, is an appeal to the “chief Magistrate” of the land, and I feel more especially encouraged to present my petition, since the just and equitable decision of yr. Excellency in the case of the Rev^d D^r McPheeters of St. Louis. Oh Sir, is it not a fearful responsibility which one assumes who shuts the mouth of one of God's ministering servants, & forbids him to preach the Gospel of Christ; and will not such a one be called to render an account of these things, at the last great day? - I do implore your Excellency then, to hear the request which I make, and to restore to his congregation, the ministrations of their beloved pastor, Dr. Stedman. I might add to what is already stated, that hundreds of the officers & soldiers in the Federal army, have constantly attended upon the services of this church, under the ministrations of Dr. S- with apparent and avowed satisfaction & benefit - and shall the course of this Christian minister be let or hindered, by a secret and designing foe? In conclusion, I may state that though a warmly attached personal friend of Dr. Stedman, I am not a member of his Church; yet having an earnest desire that one of the most effective means of good in our midst, should not be set aside in these days when impiety so greatly abounds, and knowing also that I do but utter the wishes of all the congregation in behalf of their minister, I am constrained to make this appeal-; trusting that it will meet with your Excellency's attention, and praying pardon for this trespass upon your Excellency's time, praying also that God may give you wisdom to guide your Excellency aright in all things pertaining to the interests of this great country, and more especially in those things which are for the promotion of His cause and Kingdom in the earth - I am most respectfully
Mrs. J. M. McCombs
If it please your Excellency, I should not wish my name to be made public; yet I would present the name of the "Hon. E. P. Ferry, Tax-Commissioner for the State of Tennessee," for a reference to my standing & integrity.

[National Archives, Washington, D. C.]