A few days before Illinois's Seventh Congressional District election, Whig-Party candidate Lincoln distributes a flyer denying that he is "an open scoffer at Christianity." Lincoln explains, "That I am not a member of any Christian Church, is true; but I have . . . never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion . . . Leaving the higher matter of eternal consequences, between him and his Maker, I still do not think any man has the right thus to insult the feelings, and injure the morals, of the community in which he may live."Handbill Replying to Charges of Infidelity, 31 July 1846, CW, 1:382-83; The Illinois Gazette (Lacon), 15 August 1846, 2:3-5; The Tazewell Whig (Tremont, IL), 22 August 1846, 1:5.