Did Abraham Lincoln oppose Catholicism

Answer 1

There is no evidence that Abraham Lincoln, either as a private citizen or as US president opposed Catholicism. In the 1858 debates with Senator Stephen A. Douglas, whose second wife was a Catholic, the Illinois Republican Party opposed Catholicism . This gave radicals another reason to oppose Douglas. As US president Lincoln did help to allow a gathering in Washington DC raise funds for a Catholic church. The expert answer of Donna Halper saw my error about Douglas himself and rightly corrected it.

Answer 2

Further to what my colleague Chuck wrote about Lincoln and Douglas, Senator Stephen A. Douglas was not born into Catholicism, nor does he seem to have converted to that faith. However, his second wife was Catholic and their children were baptized as Catholic. This is an important fact that Abraham Lincoln knew about, yet he never made an issue of it, nor used it against Douglas-- he certainly could have, given the anti-Catholic prejudices of that time. In fact, we have in Lincoln's writings (especially an 1855 letter to Joshua Speed) his stated opposition to political organizations such as the "Know-Nothing" party, which stood for being anti-Catholic (among other things). He said he did not want to live in a country that did not welcome all faiths, which included Catholics. It is also worth noting that Mr. Lincoln was a great friend to another discriminated against religion-- Jews. It was President Lincoln who defended the right of Jewish clergy to be military chaplains, and he also spoke out against Anti-Semitism on a number of occasions.