Article | First Things

 

Another clergyman who knew the Lincoln family confirmed Brooks' account of Lincoln's orthodox Christianity and added a piquant detail: his last words to Mary Lincoln that night at Ford's Theater, which the clergyman heard from Mrs. Lincoln herself. Lincoln had reportedly said that, as soon as his presidency was over, “we will visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Savior.” There was, he told his wife (according to the clergyman), “no city on earth he so much desired to see as Jerusalem.” Then the bullet hit him. The thought that Lincoln's last word was “Jerusalem” was greatly reassuring to his devout countrymen

Article | First Things