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CARL  SCHURZ'S 
Afcraham  Lincoln 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S 

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and  Other  Papers 


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ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

BY 

CARL   SCHURZ 

THE   GETTYSBURG   SPEECH 

AND   OTHER   PAPERS 

BY 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


rOGETHER  WITH  TESTIMONIES  BY  EMERSON,  WHITTIER 

HOLMIS,  AND  LOWELL,  AND  A  BIOGRAPHICAL 

SKETCH  OF  CARL  SCHURZ 


BOSTON   NEW  YORK   CHICAGO 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,    187I,    BY  JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL 

COPYRIGHT,    iSSS   AND    1S99,    BY   HOUGHTON,    MIFFLIN    *    CO. 

COPYRIGHT,    1S9I,    BY    CARL    SCHURZ    AND    HOUGHTON,    MIFFLIN    *    CO. 

COPYRIGHT,    1S99,    BY   MABEL    LOWELL    BURNETT 

COPYRIGHT,    I913,    BY    MOORFIELD   STOREY,    EXECUTOR 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

AN  ESSAY 

BY 

CARL  SCHURZ 

TOGETHER  WITH  TESTIMONIES   BY  EMERSON 
WHITTIER,  HOLMES,  AND  LOWELL 

AND  A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH  OF 
CARL  SCHURZ 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Biographical  Sketch  of  Carl  Schurz  .        .        .        .5 

Chronological  List  of  Events  in  the  Life  of  Abraham 

Lincoln 9 

Abraham  Lincoln.     By  Carl  Schurz 11 

Abraham  Lincoln.    Remarks  at  the  Funeral  Services 
held  in   Concord,  April  19,  1865.     By  Ralph  Waldo 

Emerson 71 

The  Emancipation  Group.     By  John  Greenleaf  Whittier    84 
For  the  Services  in  Memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Bos- 
ton, June  1,  1865.     By  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes        .     86 
Extract  from  the  Ode  recited  at  the  Harvard  Commem- 
oration, July  21,  1865.    By  James  Russell  Lowell      88 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH  OF  CARL 
SCHURZ. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  one  of  the  best 
studies  of  an  American  statesman  and  the  best  brief 
summary  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  career  came  from  the 
hand  of  one  born  out  of  the  country  ;  for  the  fact 
points  two  ways,  —  it  indicates  the  hospitality  of 
America,  and  it  intimates  how  great  a  contribution 
the  rest  of  the  world  is  constantly  making  to  the 
development  of  American  life.  We  sometimes  think 
and  speak  as  if  Americans  and  American  institutions 
all  sprang  from  the  colonization  which  took  jjlace 
from  England  in  the  seventeenth  century,  forgetting 
that  the  nineteenth  century  has  seen  a  far  more  exten- 
sive and  more  varied  migi-ation  from  all  Europe. 

Carl  Schurz  was  born  March  2, 1829,  near  Cologne, 
Prussia,  and  was  a  student  in  the  University  of  Bonn 
in  1848,  when  the  revolutionary  movement  in  Ger- 
many drew  to  itself  many  enthusiastic  young  men 
who  thought  they  saw  the  opportunity  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  republican  principles.  The  movement 
was  quickly  suppressed  by  the  existing  government, 
and  led  to  the  exile  of  some  of  the  most  promising 
men  of  intellectual  powers.  Many  came  to  this  coun- 
try  and  found  positions  in  colleges  and  universities. 
One  of  the  conspicuous  men  was  Francis  Lieber,  who 
continued  his  academic  life  and  was  long  a  force  as 
a  political  thinker  and  writer.  Another  was  Carl 
Schurz,  who,  with  more  of  the  qualities  of  a  public 


6  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH. 

man,  began  at  once,  on  coming  to  this  country  in 
1852,  to  prepare  himself  for  active  life.  He  knew 
little  or  no  English  when  he  landed,  but  in  three 
years  he  had  so  mastered  the  study  of  law  that  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Jefferson,  Wisconsin.  He 
found  himself  amongst  his  former  countrymen  in  the 
Northwest,  and  at  once  threw  himself  ardently  into 
politics  in  sympathy  with  the  movement  against  the 
extension  of  slavery. 

So  rapidly  did  he  come  to  the  front  that  he  was 
candidate  for  the  office  of  Lieutenant-Governor  of 
Wisconsin  in  1857,  and  came  within  two  hundred 
votes  of  an  election.  In  the  great  debate  between 
Lincoln  and  Douglas  in  1858,  he  joined  himself  to 
Lincoln  and  took  an  active  part  in  that  political  cam- 
paign. That  was  the  beginning  of  his  friendship  with 
Lincoln  ;  and  though  as  chairman  of  the  Wiscon- 
sin delegation  to  the  convention  in  1860,  he  persist- 
ently'- advocated  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Seward,  he 
accepted  heartily  the  choice  of  Lincoln,  and  from  that 
time  till  the  election  was  incessantly  working  for  him 
and  addressing  political  meetings. 

Mr.  Lincoln  set  so  high  a  value  on  Mr.  Schurz's 
worth  that  he  appointed  him  Minister  to  Spain.  At 
the  time,  he  was  actively  engaged  in  organizing  the 
first  cavalry  regiment  of  volunteers ;  and  when  after 
a  few  months  at  Madrid  he  returned  to  lay  before  the 
administration  the  result  of  his  observation  of  the 
political  attitude  of  European  governments,  he  was 
appointed  Brigadier-General,  and  a  few  months  later 
Major-General,  and  served  in  the  field  till  the  end  of 
the  war. 

His  clear  intelligence  of  public  affairs  was  recog- 
nized in  his   appointment   by  President  Johnson  as 


CARL  SCHURZ.  7 

special  commissioner  to  repoi"t  on  the  condition  of  the 
seaboard  and  Gulf  States.  His  report  had  great 
weight  with  Congress  in  its  subsequent  legislation, 
but  Mr.  Schurz  made  his  political  judgment  still  more 
effective  in  the  years  of  reconstruction  by  his  writings 
as  a  journalist.  Successively  a  special  correspondent 
of  The  Neio  York  Tribune  and  editor  of  the  Detroit 
Post,  he  became  in  1867  part  owner  and  editor  of  the 
Westllche  Post  of  St.  Louis.  So  strong  a  power  did 
lie  now  become  that  in  1869  he  was  elected  United 
States  senator  from  Missouri. 

He  was,  however,  a  man  who  held  firmly  to  what 
1)6  conceived  to  be  political  principles  when  they  came 
into  conflict  with  party  policy,  and  he  threw  himself 
into  the  movement  known  as  the  Liberal  Republican 
party  in  1872.  In  1876  he  returned  to  the  support  of 
the  Republican  party,  and  President  Hayes  invited 
him  into  his  cabinet  as  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  His 
administration  of  that  office  afforded  a  fresh  illustra- 
tion of  his  application  of  political  principles  to  con- 
duct. He  had  identified  himself  with  the  movement 
for  the  reform  of  the  civil  service,  and  being  now  in  a 
position  where  he  could  put  his  belief  into  practice,  he 
made  the  department  a  witness  to  the  efficacy  of  the 
merit  system,  and  gave  a  striking  object  lesson  of  the 
possibility  of  carrying  on  the  government  on  this  basis. 

At  the  close  of  Mr.  Hayes's  administration  Mr. 
Schurz  abandoned  official  life,  and  returned  to  jour- 
nalism, giving  also  a  few  years  to  business,  but  he  did 
not  abandon  the  public  service.  An  independent  in 
politics,  he  continued  to  give  his  powerful  influence, 
in  speech  and  in  writing,  on  all  the  great  political 
questions,  maintaining  a  devotion  to  high  ideals,  so 
that  it  is  doubtful  if  any  private  citizen  in  the  last 


8  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 

twenty  years  has  been  listened  to  more  attentively. 
When  the  seventieth  anniversary  of  his  birthday 
came,  there  was  a  large  popular  expression  of  grati- 
tude and  admiration. 

One  source  of  Mr.  Schurz's  influence  may  be  traced 
to  the  singular  ability  with  which  he  has  made  him- 
self at  home  in  American  political  history.  Another 
German,  Dr.  Von  Hoist,  has  also  shown  this  remark- 
able faculty,  but  Dr.  Von  Hoist  has  been  especially 
a  political  philosopher ;  Mr.  Schurz  has  been  a  politi- 
cal historian,  and  his  "  Henry  Clay,"  in  the  American 
Statesmen  series,  displays  an  intimate  familiarity  with 
the  ins  and  outs  of  politics.  He  has  written  it  from 
an  American,  not  a  German-American  point  of  view ; 
and  it  is  this  identification  of  himself  with  his  adopted 
country,  illustrated  also  by  his  idiomatic  use  of  the 
English  language,  while  yet  retaining  the  power  of 
speaking  freely  in  his  mother  tongue  to  his  former 
countrymen,  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  his  moral  influ- 
ence. He  brought  an  ardent  love  of  free  institutions 
with  him  when  he  came  to  this  country,  and  he  has 
always  lived  enveloped  with  this  atmosphere  while 
having  a  firm  hold  of  the  soil  of  American  life. 

Slight  as  the  sketch  is  which  follows,  it  has  a 
double  value.  It  is  a  fine,  discriminating  analysis  of 
Lincoln's  greatness,  couched  in  a  strong,  lucid  style, 
and  it  reflects  a  habit  of  mind  which  political  stu- 
dents may  wisely  cultivate  :  the  habit,  that  is,  of  re- 
ferring political  careers  to  standards  of  righteousness 
and  not  of  expediency.  Such  a  habit  is  of  untold 
worth  in  a  democratic  country  like  America,  where 
the  disposition,  inherent  in  the  political  consciousness, 
of  accepting  the  judgment  of  the  majority  is  liable 
to  be  misled  into  a  too  hasty  following  of  the  crowd 
which  is  making  the  loudest  xioise. 


Z^HRONOLOGICAL    LIST    OF    EVENTS    IN 
THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


Born  in  a  log-cabin  near   Hodgensville,  now  Larue  County, 

Kentucky February  12,  1809 

His  father  moves  with  his  family  into  the  wilderness  near  Gen- 

tryville,  Indiana 1816 

His  mother  dies,  at  the  age  of  35        .         .         .         •         •         .     1818 

His  father's  second  marriage 1819 

Walks  nine  miles  a  day,  going  to  and  returning  from  school     .     182.6 
Makes  a  trip  to  New  Orleans  and  back,  at  work  on  a  flat-boat       1828 
Drives  in  an  ox-cart  with  his  father  and  stepmother  to  a  clear- 
ing on  the  Sangamon  River,  near  Decatur,  Illinois      .         .     1829 
Splits  rails,  to  surround  the  clearing  with  a  fence  .         .         .         1829 
Makes  another  flat-boat  trip  to  New  Orleans  and  back,  on  which 
trip  he  first  sees  negroes  shackled  together  in  chains,  and 
forms  his  opinions  concerning  slavery           .         ,         .    May,  1831 
Begins  work  in  a  store  at  New  Salem,  Illinois         .         .  August,  1831 
Enlists  in  the  Black  Hawk  War ;  elected  a  captain  of  volun- 
teers     1832 

Announces  himself  a  Whig  candidate  for  the  Legislature,  and 

is  defeated 1832 

Storekeeper,  Postmaster,  and  Surveyor 1833 

Elected  to  the  Illinois  Legislature 1834 

Reelected  to  the  Legislature 1835  to  1842 

Studies  law  at  Springfield 1837 

Is  a  Presidential  elector  on  the  Whig  national  ticket  .         .     1840 

Marries  Mary  Todd November  4,  1842 

Canvasses  Illinois  for  Henry  Clay 1844 

Elected  to  Congress 1846 

Supports  General  Taylor  for  President 1S4S 

Engages  in  law  practice 1849-1854 

Debates  with  Douglas  at  Peoria  and  Springfield  .  .  .  1855 
Aids  in  organizing  the  Republican  party  .  .  .  1855-1856 
Joint  debates  in  Illinois  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas      .         .         .     1858 


10  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Makes  political  speeches  in  Ohio 1859 

Visits  New  York,  and  speaks  at  Cooper  Union        .        Fehruary,  1860 
Attends  Republican  State  Convention  at  Decatur ;  declared  to 

be  the  choice  of  Illinois  for  the  Presidency         .         .    May,  1860 
Nominated  at  Chicago  as  the  Republican  candidate  for  Presi- 
dent   May  16,  1860 

Elected  President  over  J.  C  Breckenridge,  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 

and  John  Bell November,  1860 

Inaugurated  President March  4,  1861 

Issues  first  order  for  troops  to  put  down  the  Rebellion,  April  15,  1861 

Urges  MeClellan  to  advance April,  1862 

Appeals  for  the  support  of  border  States  to  the  Union  cause, 

March  to  July,  1862 

Calls  for  300,000  more  troops July,  1862 

Issues  Emancipation  Proclamation  .         .         .       January  1,  1863 

Thanks  Grant  for  capture  of  Vicksburg     ....    July,  1863 
His  address  at  Gettysburg       ....  November  19,  186^3 

Calls  for  500,000  volunteers July,  1864 

Renominated  and  reelected  President 1864 

Thanks  Sherman  for  capture  of  Atlanta    .         .         .  September,  1864 

His  second  inauguration March  4,  1865 

Assassinated April  14,  1865 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

By  carl   SCHURZ. 

No  American  can  study  the  character  and  career  of 
Abraham  Lincohi  without  being  carried  away  by  sen- 
timental  emotions.  We  are  always  inclined  to  ideal- 
ize that  which  we  love,  —  a  state  of  mind  very  unfa- 
vorable to  the  exercise  of  sober  critical  judgment.  It 
is  therefore  not  surprising  that  most  of  those  who  have 
written  or  spoken  on  that  extraordinary  man,  even 
while  conscientiously  endeavoring  to  draw  a  life-like 
portraiture  of  his  being,  and  to  form  a  just  estimate 
of  his  public  conduct,  should  have  drifted  into  more 
or  less  indiscriminating  eulogy,  painting  his  great  fea- 
tures in  the  most  glowing  colors,  and  covering  with 
tender  shadings  whatever  might  look  like  a  blemish. 

But  his  standing  before  posterity  will  not  be  exalted 
by  mere  praise  of  his  virtues  and  abilities,  nor  by  any 
concealment  of  his  limitations  and  faults.  The  stature 
of  the  great  man,  one  of  whose  peculiar  charms  con- 
sisted in  his  being  so  unlike  all  other  great  men,  will 
rather  lose  than  gain  by  the  idealization  which  so 
easily  runs  into  the  commonplace.  For  it  was  dis- 
tinctly the  weird  mixture  of  qualities  and  forces  in 
him,  of  the  lofty  with  the  common,  the  ideal  with  the 
uncouth,  of  that  which  he  had  become  with  that  which 
he  had  not  ceased  to  be,  that  made  him  so  fascinating 
a  character  among  his  fellow  men,  gave  him  his  singu- 
lar power  over  their  minds  and  hearts,  and  fitted  him 
to  be  the  greatest  leader  in  '■•lie  greatest  crisis  of  our 
national  life. 


12  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

His  was  indeed  a  marvellous  growth.  The  states- 
man  or  the  military  hero  born  and  reared  in  a  log 
cabin  is  a  familiar  figure  in  American  history  ;  but 
we  may  search  in  vain  among  our  celebrities  for  one 
whose  origin  and  early  life  equalled  Abraham  Lin- 
coln's in  wretchedness.  He  first  saw  the  light  in 
a  miserable  hovel  in  Kentucky,  on  a  farm  consisting 
of  a  few  barren  acres  in  a  dreary  neighborhood ;  his 
father  a  typical  "  poor  Southern  white,"  shiftless  and 
impiovident,  without  ambition  for  himself  or  his  chil- 
dren, constantly  looking  for  a  new  piece  of  land  on 
which  he  might  make  a  living  without  much  work ; 
his  mother,  in  her  j'outh  handsome  and  bright,  grown 
prematurely  coarse  in  feature  and  soured  in  mind  by 
daily  toil  and  care  ;  the  whole  household  squalid, 
cheerless,  and  utterly  void  of  elevating  inspirations. 
Only  when  the  family  had  "  moved  "  into  the  malari- 
ous backwoods  of  Indiana,  the  mother  had  died,  and 
a  stepmother,  a  woman  of  thrift  and  energy,  had  taken 
chai-ge  of  the  children,  the  shaggy-headed,  ragged, 
barefooted,  forlorn  boy,  then  seven  years  old,  "  began 
to  feel  like  a  human  being."  Hard  work  was  his 
early  lot.  When  a  mere  boy  he  had  to  help  in  sup- 
porting the  family,  either  on  his  father's  clearing,  or 
hired  out  to  other  farmers  to  plough,  or  dig  ditches, 
or  chop  wood,  or  drive  ox  teams  ;  occasionally  also  to 
"  tend  the  baby  "  when  the  farmer's  wife  was  other- 
wise engaged.  He  could  regard  it  as  an  advancement 
to  a  higher  sphere  of  activity  when  he  obtained  work 
in  a  "  cross-roads  store,"  where  he  amused  the  cus- 
tomers by  his  talk  over  the  counter  ;  for  he  soon 
distinguished  himself  among  the  backwoods  folk  as 
Due  who  had  something  to  say  worth  listening  to.  To 
mn  that  distinction,  he    had   to    draw  mainly  upon 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  13 

his  wits ;  for  while  his  thirst  for  knowledge  was 
great,  his  opportunities  for  satisfying  that  thirst  were 
woefully  slender. 

In  the  log  schoolhouse,  which  he  could  visit  but 
little,  he  was  taught  only  reading,  writing,  and  ele- 
mentary arithmetic.  Among  the  people  of  the  settle- 
ment, bush  farmers  and  small  tradesmen,  he  found 
none  of  uncommon  intelligence  or  education  ;  but 
some  of  them  had  a  few  books,  which  he  bori-owed 
eagerly.  Thus  he  read  and  re-read  ^Esop's  Fables, 
learning  to  tell  stories  with  a  point  and  to  argue  by 
parables ;  he  read  Robinson  Crusoe,  The  Pilgrim's 
Progress,  a  short  histoi-y  of  the  United  States,  and 
Weems's  Life  of  Washington.  To  the  town  con- 
stable's he  went  to  read  the  Revised  Statutes  of  Indi- 
ana. Every  printed  page  that  fell  into  his  hands  he 
would  greedily  devour,  and  his  family  and  friends 
watched  him  with  wonder,  as  the  uncouth  boy,  after 
his  daily  work,  crouched  in  a  corner  of  the  log  cabin 
or  outside  under  a  tree,  absorbed  in  a  book  while 
munching  his  supper  of  corn  bread.  In  this  manner 
he  began  to  gather  some  knowledge,  and  sometimes 
he  would  astonish  the  girls  with  such  startling  re- 
marks as  that  the  earth  was  moving  around  the  sun, 
and  not  the  sun  around  the  earth,  and  they  marvelled 
where  "Abe"  could  have  got  such  queer  notionSo 
Soon  he  also  felt  the  impulse  to  write,  not  only  mak- 
ing extracts  from  books  he  wished  to  remember,  bi? 
also  composing  little  essays  of  his  own.  First  h(. 
sketched  these  with  charcoal  on  a  wooden  shovel 
scraped  white  with  a  drawing-knife,  or  on  basswood 
shingles.  Then  he  transferred  them  to  paper,  which 
was  a  scarce  commodity  in  the  Lincoln  household,: 
taking  care  to  cut  his  expressions  close,  so  that  they 


14  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

might  not  cover  too  much  space,  —  a  style-forming 
method  greatly  to  be  commended.  Seeing  boys  put 
a  burning  coal  on  the  back  of  a  wood  turtle,  he  was 
moved  to  write  on  cruelty  to  animals.  Seeing  men 
intoxicated  with  whiskey,  he  wrote  on  temperance. 
In  verse-making,  too,  he  tried  himself,  and  in  satire 
on  persons  offensive  to  him  or  others, — satire  the 
rustic  wit  of  which  was  not  always  fit  for  ears  polite. 
Also  political  thoughts  he  put  upon  paper,  and  some 
of  his  pieces  were  even  deemed  good  enough  for  pub- 
lication in  the  county  weekly. 

Thus  he  won  a  neighborhood  reputation  as  a  clever 
young  man,  which  he  increased  by  his  performances 
as  a  speaker,  not  seldom  drawing  upon  himself  the 
dissatisfaction  of  his  employers  by  mounting  a  stump 
in  the  field,  and  keeping  the  farm  hands  from  their 
work  by  little  speeches  in  a  jocose  and  sometimes  also 
a  serious  vein.  At  the  rude  social  frolics  of  the  settle- 
ment he  became  an  important  person,  telling  funny 
stories,  mimicking  the  itinerant  preachers  who  had 
happened  to  pass  by,  and  making  his  mark  at  wres- 
tling matches,  too  ;  for  at  the  age  of  seventeen  he  had 
attained  his  full  height,  six  feet  four  inches  in  his 
stockings,  if  he  had  any,  and  a  terribly  muscular  clod- 
hopper he  was.  But  he  was  known  never  to  use  his 
extraordinary  strength  to  the  injury  or  humiliation  of 
others ;  rather  to  do  them  a  kindly  turn,  or  to  enforce 
justice  and  fair  dealing  between  them.  All  this  made 
him  a  favorite  in  backwoods  society,  although  in  some 
things  he  appeared  a  little  odd  to  his  friends.  Far 
more  than  any  of  them,  he  was  given,  not  only  to  read- 
ing, but  to  fits  of  abstraction,  to  quiet  musing  with 
himself,  and  also  to  strange  spells  of  melanclioly,  from 
ivhich  he  often  would  pass  in  a  moment  to  rollicking 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  15 

outbursts  of  droll  humor.  But  on  the  whole  he  was 
one  of  the  people  among  whom  he  lived  ;  in  appear- 
ance perhaps  even  a  little  more  uncouth  than  most  of 
them,  —  a  very  tall,  rawboned  youth,  with  large  fea- 
tures, dark,  shrivelled  skin,  and  rebellious  hair  ;  his 
arms  and  legs  long,  out  of  proportion ;  clad  in  deer- 
skin trousers,  which  from  frequent  exposure  to  the 
rain  had  shrunk  so  as  to  sit  tightly  on  his  limbs, 
leaving  several  inches  of  bluish  shin  exposed  between 
their  lower  end  and  the  heavy  tan-colored  shoes  ;  the 
nether  garment  held  usually  by  only  one  suspender, 
that  was  strung  over  a  coarse  home-made  shirt ;  the 
head  covered  in  winter  with  a  coonskin  cap,  in  sum- 
mer with  a  rough  straw  hat  of  uncertain  shape,  with- 
out a  band. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  he  felt  himself  much  superior 
to  his  surroundings,  although  he  confessed  to  a  yearn- 
ing for  some  knowledge  of  the  world  outside  of  the 
circle  in  which  he  lived.  This  wish  was  gratified  ; 
but  how  ?  At  the  age  of  nineteen  he  went  down  the 
Mississippi  to  New  Orleans  as  a  flatboat  hand,  tem- 
porarily joining  a  trade  many  members  of  which  at 
that  time  still  took  pride  in  being  called  "  half  horse 
and  half  alligator."  After  his  return  he  worked  and 
lived  in  the  old  way  until  the  spring  of  1830,  when 
his  father  "  moved  again,"  this  time  to  Illinois  ;  and 
on  the  journey  of  fifteen  days  "  Abe  "  had  to  drive 
the  ox  wagon  which  carried  the  household  goods. 
Another  log  cabin  was  built,  and  then,  fencing  a  field, 
Abraham  Lincoln  split  those  historic  rails  which  were 
destined  to  play  so  picturesque  a  part  in  the  presiden- 
tial campaign  twenty-eight  years  later. 

Having  come  of  age,  Lincoln  left  the  family,  anrl 
"struck  out    for  himself."     He   had    to    "take  jobs 


16  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

whenever  he  could  get  them."  The  first  of  these 
carried  him  again  as  a  flatboat  hand  to  New  Orleans. 
There  something  happened  that  made  a  lasting  im- 
pression upon  his  soul :  he  witnessed  a  slave  auction. 
"His  heart  bled,"  wrote  one  of  his  companions; 
"  said  nothing  much  ;  was  silent ;  looked  bad.  I  can 
say,  knowing  it,  that  it  was  on  this  trip  that  he  formed 
his  opinion  on  slavery.  It  run  its  iron  in  him  then 
and  there.  May,  1831.  I  have  heard  him  say  so 
often."  Then  he  lived  several  years  at  New  Salem, 
in  Illinois,  a  small  mushroom  village,  with  a  mill, 
some  "  stores  "  and  whiskey  shops,  that  rose  quickly, 
and  soon  disappeared  again.  It  was  a  desolate,  dis- 
jointed, half-working,  and  half-loitering  life,  without 
any  other  aim  than  to  gain  food  and  shelter  from  day 
to  day.  He  served  as  pilot  on  a  steamboat  trip,  then 
as  clerk  in  a  store  and  a  mill ;  business  failing,  he 
was  adrift  for  some  time.  Being  compelled  to  measure 
his  strength  with  the  chief  bully  of  the  neighborhood, 
and  overcoming  him,  he  became  a  noted  person  in 
that  muscular  community,  and  won  the  esteem  and 
friendship  of  the  ruling  gang  of  ruffians  to  such  a 
degree  that,  when  the  Black  Hawk  war  ^  broke  out, 
they  elected  him,  a  young  man  of  twenty-three,  captain 
of  a  volunteer  company,  composed  mainly  of  roughs 
of  their  kind.  He  took  the  field,  and  his  most  note- 
worthy deed  of  valor  consisted,  not  in  killing  an 
Indian,  but  in  protecting  against  his  own  men,  at  the 

1  Black  Hawk  was  a  chief  of  the  Indian  tribe  of  Sacs.  The 
Sacs  and  Foxes  made  a  treaty  in  1830,  by  which  their  lands  in 
Illinois  were  ceded  to  the  United  States,  and  the  Indians  were 
to  remove  beyond  the  Mississippi.  Black  Hawk  refused  sub- 
mission, and  in  1832  appeared  with  a  thousand  men  ;  but  a 
force  was  raised  in  Illinois  which  destroyed,  dispersed,  or  made 
captive  the  whole  body.  —  Ed. 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  17 

peril  of  his  own  life,  the  life  of  an  old  savaj^e  who 
had  strayed  into  his  camp. 

The  Black  Hawk  war  over,  he  turned  to  politics. 
The  s^ep  from  the  captaincy  of  a  volunteer  company 
to  a  candidacy  for  a  seat  in  the  legislature  seemed 
a  natural  one.  But  his  popularity,  although  great 
in  New  Salem,  had  not  spread  far  enough  over  the 
district,  and  he  was  defeated.  Then  the  wretched 
hand-to-mouth  struggle  began  again.  He  "  set  up  in 
store  business "  with  a  dissolute  partner,  who  drank 
wliiskey  while  Lincoln  was  reading  books.  The  result 
was  a  disastrous  failure  and  a  load  of  debt.  There- 
upon he  became  a  deputy  surveyor,  and  was  appointed 
postmaster  of  New  Salem,  the  business  of  the  post- 
oftice, being  so  small  that  he  could  carry  the  incoming 
and  outgoing  mail  in  his  hat.  All  this  could  not  lift 
him  from  poverty,  and  his  surveying  instruments  and 
horse  and  saddle  were  sold  by  the  sheriff  for  debt. 

But  while  all  this  misery  was  upon  him,  his  ambi- 
tion rose  to  higher  aims.  He  walked  many  miles  to 
borrow  from  a  schoolmaster  a  grammar  with  which 
to  improve  his  language.  A  lawyer  lent  him  a  copy 
of  Blackstone,  and  he  began  to  study  law.  People 
would  look  wonderingly  at  the  grotesque  figure  lying 
in  the  grass,  "  with  his  feet  up  a  tree,"  or  sitting  on 
a  fence,  as,  absorbed  in  a  book,  he  learned  to  construct 
correct  sentences  and  made  himself  a  jurist.  At  once 
he  gained  a  little  practice,  pettifogging  before  a  jus- 
tice of  the  peace  for  friends,  without  expecting  a  fee. 
Judicial  functions,  too,  were  thrust  upon  him,  but 
only  at  horse-races  or  wrestling  matches,  where  his 
acknowledged  honesty  and  fairness  gav'^e  his  verdicts 
undisputed  authority.  His  popularity  grew  apace, 
and  soon  he  could  be  a  candidate  for  the  legislature 


18  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

again.  Although  he  called  himself  a  Whig,  an  ardent 
admirer  of  Henry  Clay,  his  clever  stump  speeches 
won  him  the  election  in  the  strongly  Democratic 
district.  Then  for  the  first  time,  perhaps,  he  thought 
seriously  of  his  outward  appearance.  So  far  he  had 
been  content  with  a  garb  of  "  Kentucky  jeans,"  not 
seldom  ragged,  usually  patched,  and  always  shabby. 
Now  he  borrowed  some  money  from  a  friend  to  buy 
a  new  suit  of  clothes  —  "store  clothes"  —  fit  for  a 
Sangamon  County  statesman  ;  and  thus  adorned  he 
set  out  for  the  state  capital,  Vandalia,  to  take  his 
seat  among  the  lawmakers. 

His  legislative  career,  which  stretched  over  several 
sessions,  for  he  was  thrice  reelected,  in  1836,  1838, 
and  1840,  was  not  remarkably  brilliant.  He  did, 
indeed,  not  lack  ambition.  He  dreamed  even  of 
making  himself  "  the  De  Witt  Clinton  of  Illinois," 
and  he  actually  distinguished  himself  by  zealous  and 
effective  work  in  those  "  log-rolling "  operations  by 
which  the  young  State  received  "  a  general  S3'stem  of 
internal  improvements "  in  the  shape  of  railroads, 
canals,  and  banks,  —  a  reckless  policy,  buixlening  the 
State  with  debt,  and  producing  the  usual  crop  of 
political  demoralization,  but  a  policy  characteristic  of 
the  time  and  the  impatiently  enterprising  spirit  of  the 
Western  people.  Lincoln,  no  doubt  with  the  best 
intentions,  but  with  little  knowledge  of  the  subject, 
simply  followed  the  popular  current.  The  achieve- 
ment in  which,  perhaps,  he  gloried  most  was  the 
removal  of  the  state  government  from  Vandalia  to 
Springfield,  —  one  of  those  triumphs  of  political  man- 
agement which  are  apt  to  be  the  pride  of  the  small 
politician's  statesmanship.  One  thing,  however,  he  did 
iu  which  his  true  nature  asserted  itself,  and  whicli  gave 


SCHURZ'S  ESS  A  Y.  19 

distinct  promise  of  the  future  pursuit  o£  high  aims. 
Against  an  overwhelming  preponderance  of  sentiment 
in  the  legislature,  followed  by  only  one  other  member, 
he  recorded  his  protest  against  a  proslavery  resolu- 
tion, —  that  protest  declaring  '"'  the  institution  of 
slavery  to  be  founded  on  both  injustice  and  bad 
policy."  This  was  not  only  the  irrepressible  voice  of 
his  conscience ;  it  was  true  moral  valor,  too ;  for  at 
that  time,  in  many  parts  of  the  West,  an  abolitionist 
was  regarded  as  little  better  than  a  horse-thief,  and 
even  "  Abe  Lincoln  "  would  hardly  have  been  forgiven 
his  anti-slavery  principles,  had  he  not  been  known 
as  such  an  "  uncommon  good  fellow."  But  here,  in 
obedience  to  the  great  conviction  of  his  life,  he  mani- 
fested his  courage  to  stand  alone,  —  that  courage 
which  is  the  first  requisite  of  leadership  in  a  great 
cause. 

Together  with  his  reputation  and  influence  as  a 
politician  grew  his  law  practice,  especially  after  he 
had  removed  from  New  Salem  to  Springfield,  and 
associated  himself  with  a  practitioner  of  good  stand- 
ing.  He  had  nov^^  at  last  won  a  fixed  position  in 
society.  He  became  a  successful  lawyer,  less,  indeed, 
by  his  learning  as  a  jurist  than  by  his  effectiveness  as 
an  advocate  and  by  the  striking  uprightness  of  his 
character ;  and  it  may  truly  be  said  that  his  vivid 
sense  of  truth  and  justice  had  much  to  do  with  his 
effectiveness  as  an  advocate.  He  would  refuse  to  act 
as  the  attorney  even  of  personal  friends  when  he  saw 
the  right  on  the  other  side.  He  would  abandon  cases, 
even  during  trial,  when  the  testimony  convinced  him 
that  his  client  was  in  the  wrong.  He  would  dissuade 
those  who  sought  his  service  from  pursuing  an  obtain- 
able   advantage    when   their   claims   seemed    to  him 


20  A  BRA  RAM  LINCOLN. 

unfair.  Presenting  his  very  first  case  in  the  United 
States  Circuit  Court,  tlie  only  question  being  one 
uf  authority,  he  declared  that,  upon  careful  examina- 
tion, he  found  all  the  authorities  on  the  other  side, 
and  none  on  his.  Persons  accused  of  crime,  when  he 
thought  them  guilty,  he  would  not  defend  at  all,  or, 
attempting  their  defence,  he  was  unable  to  put  forth 
his  powers.  One  notable  exception  is  on  record,  when 
his  personal  sympathies  had  been  strongly  aroused. 
But  when  he  felt  himself  to  be  the  protector  of  inno- 
cence, the  defender  of  justice,  or  the  prosecutor  of 
wrong,  he  frequently  disclosed  such  unexpected  re- 
sources  of  reasoning,  such  depth  of  feeling,  and  rose  to 
such  fervor  of  appeal  as  to  astonish  and  overwhelm  his 
hearers  and  make  him  fairly  irresistible.  Even  an  ordi- 
nary law  argument,  coming  from  him,  seldom  failed  to 
produce  the  impression  that  he  was  profoundly  con- 
vinced of  the  soundness  of  his  position.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  the  mere  appearance  of  so  conscientious 
an  attorney  in  any  case  should  have  carried,  not  only 
to  juries,  but  even  to  judges,  almost  a  presumption  of 
right  on  his  side,  and  that  the  people  began  to  call 
him,  sincerely  meaning  it,  "honest  Abe  Lincoln." 

In  the  mean  time  he  liad  piivate  sorrows  and  ti-ials 
of  a  painfully  afflicting  nature.  He  had  loved  and 
been  loved  by  a  fair  and  estimable  girl,  Ann  Rutledge, 
who  died  in  the  flower  of  her  youth  and  beauty,  and 
he  mourned  her  loss  with  such  intensity  of  grief  that 
his  friends  feared  for  his  reason.  Recovering  from 
his  morbid  depression,  he  bestowed  what  he  thought 
a  new  affection  upon  another  lady,  who  refused  him. 
And  finally,  moderately  prosperous  in  his  worldly 
affairs,  and  having  prospects  of  political  distinction 
before  him,  he  paid  his  addresses  to  Mary  Todd,  of 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  21 

Kentucky,  and  was  accepted.  But  then  tormenting 
doubts  of  the  genuineness  of  his  own  affection  for  her, 
of  the  compatibility  of  their  characters,  and  of  their 
future  happiness  came  ui)on  him.  His  distress  was  so 
great  that  he  felt  himself  in  danger  of  suicide,  and 
feared  to  carry  a  pocket-knife  with  him ;  and  he  gave 
mortal  offence  to  his  bride  by  not  appearing  on  the 
appointed  wedding  day.  Now  the  torturing  conscious* 
ness"^»f  the  wrong  he  had  done  her  grew  unendurable 
He  won  back  her  affection,  ended  the  agony  by  marry- 
ing her,  and  became  a  faithful  and  patient  husband 
and  a  good  father.  But  it  was  no  secret,  to  those  who 
knew  the  family  well,  that  his  domestic  life  was  full 
of  trials.  The  erratic  temper  of  his  wife  not  seldom 
put  the  gentleness  of  his  nature  to  the  severest  tests  ; 
and  these  troubles  and  struggles,  which  accompanied 
him  through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  his  life  from  the 
modest  home  in  Springfield  to  the  White  House  at 
Washington,  adding  untold  private  heartburnings  to 
his  public  cares,  and  sometimes  precipitating  upon 
him  incredible  embarrassments  in  the  discharge  of  his 
public  duties,  form  one  of  the  most  pathetic  features 
of  his  career. 

He  continued  to  "  ride  the  circuit,"  read  books 
while  travelling  in  his  buggy,  told  funny  stories  to  his 
fellow  lawyers  in  the  tavern,  chatted  familiarly  with 
his  neighbors  around  the  stove  in  the  store  and  at  the 
post-office,  had  his  hours  of  melancholy  brooding  as 
of  old,  and  became  more  and  more  widely  known  and 
trusted  and  beloved  among  the  people  of  his  State  for 
his  ability  as  a  lawyer  and  politician,  for  the  upright 
ness  of  his  character  and  the  ever-flowing  spring  oi 
sympathetic  kindness  in  his  heart.  His  main  ambi- 
tion was  confessedly  that  of  political  distinction ;  but 


22  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

hardly  any  one  would  at  that  time  have  seen  in  him 
the  man  destined  to  lead  the  nation  through  the  great- 
est crisis  of  the  centur3^ 

His  time  had  not  yet  come  when,  in  1846,  he  was 
elected  to  Congress.  In  a  clever  speech  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  he  denounced  President  Polk  for 
having  unjustly  forced  war  upon  Mexico,  and  he 
amused  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  by  a  witty  nt- 
tack  upon  General  Cass.  More  important  was  the 
expression  he  gave  to  his  anti-slavery  impulses  by 
offering  a  bill  looking  to  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  by  his  repeated  votes 
for  the  famous  Wilmot  Proviso,  intended  to  exclude 
slavery  from  the  Territories  acquired  from  Mexico. 
But  when,  at  the  expii-ation  of  his  term,  in  March, 
1849,  he  left  his  seat,  he  gloomily  despaired  of  ever 
seeing  the  day  when  the  cause  nearest  to  his  heart 
would  be  rightly  grasped  by  the  people,  and  when  he 
would  be  able  to  render  any  service  to  his  countr}^  in 
solving  the  great  problem.  Nor  had  his  career  as  a 
member  of  Congress  in  any  sense  been  such  as  to 
gratify  his  ambition.  Indeed,  if  he  ever  had  any  be- 
lief in  a  great  destiny  for  himself,  it  must  have  been 
weak  at  that  period;  for  he  actually  sought  to  obtain 
from  the  new  Whig  President,  General  Taylor,  the 
place  of  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office, 
willing  to  bury  himself  in  one  of  the  administrative 
bureaus  of  the  government.  Fortunately  for  the  coun- 
try, he  failed  ;  and  no  less  fortunately,  when,  later, 
the  territorial  governorship  of  Oregon  was  offered  to 
him,  Mrs.  Lincoln's  protest  induced  him  to  decline 
it.  Returning  to  Springfield,  he  gave  himself  with 
renewed  zest  to  his  law  practice,  acquiesced  in  the 
Compromise  of  1850  with  reluctance    and  a  mentai 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  23 

reservation,  supported  in  the  presidential  campaign  of 
1852  the  Whig  candidate  in  some  spiritless  speeches, 
and  took  but  a  languid  interest  in  the  politics  of  the 
day".     But  just  then  his  time  was  drawing  near. 

The  peace  promised,  and  apparently  inaugurated, 
by  the  Compromise  of  1850  was  rudely  broken  by 
the  introduction  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  in  1854. 
The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  opening  the 
Terrffories  of  the  United  States,  the  heritage  of  com- 
ing generations,  to  the  invasion  of  slavery,  suddenly 
revealed  the  whole  significance  of  the  slavery  question 
to  the  peojDle  of  the  free  States,  and  thrust  itself  into 
the  politics  of  the  country  as  the  paramount  issue. 
Something  like  an  electric  shock  flashed  through  the 
North.  Men  who  but  a  short  time  before  had  been 
absorbed  by  their  business  pursuits,  and  deprecated 
all  political  agitation,  were  startled  out  of  their  secu- 
rity by  a  sudden  alarm,  and  excitedly  took  sides. 
That  restless  trouble  of  conscience  about  slavery, 
which  even  in  times  of  apparent  repose  had  secretly 
disturbed  the  souls  of  Northern  people,  broke  forth 
in  an  utterance  louder  than  ever.  The  bonds  of  ac- 
customed party  allegiance  gave  way.  Anti-slavery 
Democrats  and  anti-slavery  Whigs  felt  themselves 
drawn  together  by  a  common  overpowering  sentiment, 
and  soon  they  bega,n  to  rally  in  a  new  organization. 
The  Kepublican  party  sprang  into  being  to  meet 
the  overruling  call  of  the  hour.  Then  Abraham 
Lincoln's  time  was  come.  He  rapidly  advanced  to  a 
position  of  conspicuous  championship  in  the  struggle. 
This,  however,  was  not  owing  to  his  virtues  and  abili- 
ties alone.  Indeed,  the  slavery  question  stirred  his 
soul  in  its  profoundest  depths  ;  it  was,  as  one  of  his 
intimate  friends   said,   "  the  only  one   on  which  he 


24  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

would  become  excited  ;  "  it  called  forth  all  his  facul 
ties  and  energies.  Yet  there  were  many  others  who, 
having  long  and  arduously  fought  the  anti-slavery 
battle  in  the  popular  assembly,  or  in  the  press,  or  in 
the  halls  of  Congress,  far  surpassed  him  in  prestige, 
and  compared  with  whom  he  was  still  an  obscure  and 
untried  man.  His  reputation,  although  highly  honor- 
able and  well  earned,  had  so  far  been  essentially  loeaL 
As  a  stump-speaker  in  Whig  canvasses  outside  of  his 
State,  he  had  attracted  comparatively  little  attention  ; 
but  in  Illinois  he  had  been  recognized  as  one  of  the 
foremost  men  of  the  Whig  party.  Among  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  Nebraska  bill  he  occupied  in  his  State  so. 
important  a  position,  that  in  1854  he  was  the  choice 
of  a  large  majority  of  the  "  Anti-Nebraska  men  "  in 
the  legislature  for  a  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  wliich  then  became  vacant ;  and  when  he,  an 
old  Whig,  could  not  obtain  the  votes  of  the  Anti- 
Nebraska  Democrats  necessary  to  make  a  majority, 
he  generously  urged  his  friends  to  transfer  their  votes 
to  Lyman  Trumbull,  who  was  then  elected.  Two 
years  later,  in  the  first  national  convention  of  the  Re- 
publican party,  the  delegation  from  Illinois  brought 
him  forward  as  a  candidate  for  the  vice-presidency, 
and  he  received  respectable  support.  Still,  the  name 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  widely  known  beyond 
the  boundaries  of  his  own  State.  But  now  it  was  this 
local  prominence  in  Illinois  that  put  him  in  a  position 
of  peculiar  advantage  on  the  battlefield  of  national 
jjolitics.  In  the  assault  on  the  Missouri  Compromise 
which  broke  down  all  legal  barriers  to  the  spread  of 
slavery,  Stephen  Arnold  Douglas  was  the  ostensible 
leader  and  central  figure  ;  and  Douglas  was  a  senator 
from    Illinois,    Lincoln's    State.      Douglas's    national 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  25 

theatre  of  action  was  the  Senate,  but  in  his  constitu- 
ency in  Illinois  were  the  roots  of  his  official  position 
and  power.  What  he  did  in  the  Senate  he  had  to 
justify  before  the  people  of  Illinois,  in  order  to  main- 
tain himself  in  place  ;  and  in  Illinois  all  eyes  turned 
to  Lincoln  as  Douglas's  natural  antagonist. 

As  very  young  men  they  had  come  to  Illinois,  Lin- 
coln fi^Mn  Indiana,  Douglas  from  Vermont,  and  had 
gi'own  up  together  in  public  life,  Douglas  as  a  Demo- 
crat, Lincoln  as  a  Whig.  They  had  met  first  in  Van- 
dalia,  in  1834,  when  Lincoln  was  in  the  legislature 
and  Douglas  in  the  lobby  ;  and  again  in  1836,  both 
as  members  of  the  legislature.  Douglas,  a  very  able 
politician,  of  the  agile,  combative,  audacious,  "  push- 
ing "  sort,  rose  in  political  distinction  with  remarkable 
rapidity.  In  quick  succession  he  became  a  membei' 
of  the  legislature,  a  State's  attorney.  Secretary  of 
State,  a  judge  on  the  supreme  bench  of  Illinois,  three 
times  a  representative  in  Congress,  and  a  senator  of 
the  United  States  when  only  thirty-nine  years  old. 
In  the  national  Democratic  convention  of  1852,  he 
appeared  even  as  an  aspirant  to  the  nomination  for 
the  presidency,  as  the  favorite  of  "young  America," 
and  received  a  respectable  vote.  He  had  far  out- 
stripped Lincoln  in  what  is  commonly  called  political 
success  and  in  reputation.  But  it  had  frequently 
happened  that  in  political  campaigns  Lincoln  felt  him- 
self impelled,  or  was  selected  by  his  Whig  friends, 
to  answer  Douglas's  speeches ;  and  thus  the  two 
were  looked  upon,  in  a  large  part  of  the  State  at  least, 
as  the  representative  combatants  of  their  respective 
parties  in  the  debates  before  popular  meetings.  As 
soon,  therefore,  as,  after  the  passage  of  his  Kansas- 
Nebraska  bill,  Douglas  returned  to  Illinois  to  defend 


26  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

his  cause  before  his  constituents,  Lincoln,  obeying  not 
only  his  own  impulse,  but  also  general  expectation, 
stepped  forward  as  his  principal  opponent.  Thus  the 
struggle  about  the  principles  involved  in  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  bill,  or,  in  a  broader  sense,  the  struggle  be- 
tween freedom  and  slavery,  assumed  in  Illinois  the 
outward  form  of  a  personal  contest  between  Lincoln 
and  Douglas  ;  and  as  it  continued  and  became  more 
animated,  that  personal  contest  in  Illinois  was  watchea 
with  constantly  increasing  interest  by  the  whole  coun 
try.  When,  in  1858,  Douglas's  senatorial  term  bein^ 
about  to  expire,  Lincoln  was  formally  designated  by 
the  ReiDublican  convention  of  Illinois  as  their  candi- 
date for  the  Senate,  to  take  Douglas's  place,  and  the 
two  contestants  agreed  to  debate  the  questions  at  issue 
face  to  face  in  a  series  of  public  meetings,  the  eyes  of 
the  whole  American  jieople  were  turned  eagerly  to  that 
one  point ;  and  the  spectacle  reminded  one  of  those 
lays  of  ancient  times  telling  of  two  armies,  in  battle 
array,  standing  still  to  see  their  two  principal  cham- 
pions fight  out  the  contested  cause  between  the  lines 
in  single  combat. 

Lincoln  had  then  reached  the  full  maturity  of  his 
powers.  His  equipment  as  a  statesman  did  not  em 
brace  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of  public  affairs. 
What  he  had  studied  he  had  indeed  made  his  own, 
with  the  eager  craving  and  that  zealous  tenacity  char- 
acteristic of  superior  minds  learning  under  difficulties 
But  his  narrow  opportunities  and  the  unsteady  life  ht 
had  led  during  his  younger  years  had  not  permitted 
the  accumulation  of  Large  stores  in  his  mind.  It  is 
true,  in  political  campaigns  he  had  occasionally  spoken 
on  the  ostensible  issues  between  the  Whigs  and  the 
Democrats,  the  tariff,  internal  improvements,  banks, 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  27 

and  so  on,  but  only  in  a  perfunctory  manner.  Had 
he  ever  given  much  serious  thought  and  study  to  these 
subjeqts,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  a  mind  so  prolific 
of  original  conceits  as  his  would  certainly  have  pro- 
duced sonie  utterance  upon  them  worth  remembering. 
His  soul  had  evidently  never  been  deeply  stirred  by 
such  topics.  But  when  his  moral  nature  was  aroused, 
his  brain  developed  an  untiring  activity  until  it  had 
mastered  all  the  knowledge  within  reach.  As  soon 
as  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  had  thrust 
the  slavery  question  into  politics  as  the  paramount 
issue,  Lincoln  plunged  into  an  arduous  study  of  all  its 
legal,  historical,  and  moral  aspects,  and  then  his  mind 
became  a  complete  arsenal  of  argument.  His  rich 
natural  gifts,  trained  by  long  and  varied  practice,  had 
made  him  an  orator  of  rare  persuasiveness.  In  his 
immature  days,  he  had  pleased  himself  for  a  short 
period  with  that  inflated,  high-flown  style  which, 
among  the  uncultivated,  passes  for  "  beautiful  speak- 
ing." His  inborn  truthfulness  and  his  artistic  instinct 
soon  overcame  that  aberration,  and  revealed  to  him 
the  noble  beauty  and  strength  of  simplicity.  He 
possessed  an  uncommon  power  of  clear  and  compact 
statement,  which  might  have  reminded  those  who  knew 
the  story  of  his  early  youth  of  the  efforts  of  the  poor 
boy,  when  he  copied  his  compositions  from  the  scraped 
wooden  shovel,  carefully  to  trim  his  expressions  in 
order  to  save  paper.  His  language  had  the  energy  of 
honest  directness,  and  he  was  a  master  of  logical  lucid- 
ity. He  loved  to  point  and  enliven  his  reasoning  by 
humorous  illustrations,  usually  anecdotes  of  \\'estern 
life,  of  which  he  had  an  inexhaustible  store  at  his 
command.  These  anecdotes  had  not  seldom  a  flavor 
of  rustic  robustness  about  them,  but  he  used  them  with 


28  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

great  effect,  while  amusing  the  audience,  to  give  life 
to  an  abstraction,  to  explode  an  absurdity,  to  clinch  an 
argument,  to  drive  home  an  admonition.  The  natural 
kindliness  of  his  tone,  softening  prejudice  and  dis- 
arming partisan  rancor,  would  often  open  to  his  rea- 
soning a  way  into  minds  most  unwilling  to  receive  it. 
Yet  his  greatest  ]X)wer  consisted  in  the  charm  of 
his  individuality.  That  charm  did  not,  in  the  ordi- 
nary  way,  appeal  to  the  ear  or  to  the  eye.  His  voice 
was  not  melodious ;  rather  shrill  and  piercing,  espe- 
cially when  it  rose  to  its  high  treble  in  moments  of 
great  animation.  His  figure  was  unhandsome,  and 
the  action  of  his  unwieldy  limbs  awkward.  He  com- 
Bianded  none  of  the  outward  graces  of  oratory  as  they 
are  commonly  understood.  His  charm  was  of  a  dif- 
ferent kind.  It  flowed  from  the  rare  depth  and  gen- 
uineness of  his  convictions  and  his  sympathetic  feel- 
ings. Sympathy  was  the  strongest  element  in  his 
nature.  One  of  his  biographers,  who  knew  him  before 
he  became  President,  says :  "  Lincoln's  compassion 
might  be  stirred  deeply  by  an  object  pi-esent,  but 
never  by  an  object  absent  and  unseen.  In  the  former 
case  he  would  most  likely  extend  relief,  Avitli  little 
inquiry  into  the  merits  of  the  case,  because,  as  he 
expressed  it  himself,  it  '  took  a  pain  out  of  his  own 
heart.' "  Only  half  of  this  is  correct.  It  is  certainly 
true  that  he  could  not  witness  any  individual  distress 
or  oppression,  or  any  kind  of  suffering,  without  feel 
ing  a  pang  of  pain  himself,  and  that  by  relieving  as 
much  as  he  could  the  suffering  of  others  he  put  an 
end  to  his  own.  This  compassionate  impulse  to  help 
he  felt  not  only  for  human  beings,  but  for  every  liv- 
ing creature.  As  in  his  boyhood  he  angrily  reproved 
the  boys  who  tormented  a  wood  turtle  by  putting  a 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  29 

burning  coal  on  its  back,  so,  we  are  told,  he  would, 
when  a  mature  man,  on  a  journey,  dismount  from  his 
buggy  and  wade  waist-deep  in  mire  to  rescue  a  pig 
struggling  in  a  swamp.  Indeed,  appeals  to  his  com- 
passion were  so  irresistible  to  him,  and  he  felt  it  so 
difficult  to  refuse  anything  when  his  refusal  could  give 
•pain,  thjttvhe  himself  sometimes  spoke  of  his  inability 
to  say  "  no  "  as  a  positive  weakness.  But  that  cer- 
tainly does  not  prove  that  his  compassionate  feeling 
was  confined  to  individual  cases  of  suffering  witnessed 
with  his  own  eyes.  As  the  boy  was  moved  by  the  as- 
pect of  the  tortured  wood  turtle  to  compose  an  essay 
against  cruelty  to  animals  in  general,  so  the  aspect  of 
other  cases  of  suffering  and  wrong  wrought  up  his 
moral  nature,  and  set  his  mind  to  work  against  cruelty, 
injustice,  and  oppression  in  general. 

As  his  sympathy  went  forth  to  others,  it  attracted 
others  to  him.  Especially  those  whom  he  called  the 
"  plain  people  "  felt  themselves  drawn  to  him  by  the 
instinctive  feeling  that  he  understood,  esteemed,  and 
appreciated  them.  He  had  grown  up  among  the 
poor,  the  lowly,  the  ignorant.  He  never  ceased  to  re- 
member the  good  souls  he  had  met  among  them,  and 
the  many  kindnesses  they  had  done  him.  Although 
in  his  mental  development  he  had  risen  far  above 
them,  he  never  looked  down  upon  them.  How  they 
felt  and  how  they  ■  reasoned  he  knew,  for  so  he  had 
once  felt  and  reasoned  himself.  How  they  could  be 
moved  he  knew,  for  so  he  had  once  been  moved  him- 
self, and  he  practised  moving  others.  His  mind  was 
much  larger  than  theirs,  but  it  thoroughly  compre- 
hended theirs  ;  and  while  he  thought  much  farther 
than  they,  their  thoughts  were  ever  present  to  him- 
Nor  had  the  visible  distance  between  them  grown  as 


BO  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

wide  as  his  rise  in  the  world  would  seem  to  have 
warranted.  Much  of  his  backwoods  speech  and  man- 
ners  still  clung  to  him.  Although  he  had  become 
"  Mr.  Lincoln  "  to  his  later  acquaintances,  he  was 
still  "  Abe  "  to  the  "  Nats  "  and  "  Billys  "  and 
"  Daves  "  of  his  youth  ;  and  their  familiarity  neither 
appeared  unnatural  to  them,  nor  was  it  in  the  least 
awkward  to  him.  He  still  told  and  enjoyed  stoiies 
similar  to  those  he  had  told  and  enjoyed  in  the  In- 
diana settlement  and  at  New  Salem.  His  wants 
remained  as  modest  as  they  had  ever  been  ;  his  do- 
mestic habits  had  by  no  means  completely  accom- 
modated themselves  to  those  of  his  more  high-born 
wife  ;  and  though  the  "  Kentucky  jeans  "'  apparel  had 
long-  been  dropped,  his  clothes  of  better  material  and 
better  make  would  sit  ill  sorted  on  his  gigantic  limbs. 
His  cotton  umbrella,  without  a  handle,  and  tied  to- 
gether with  a  coarse  string  to  keep  it  from  flapping, 
which  he  carried  on  his  circuit  rides,  is  said  to  be  re- 
membered still  by  some  of  his  surviving  neighbors. 
This  rusticity  of  habit  was  utterly  free  from  that 
affected  contempt  of  refinement  and  comfort  which 
self-made  men  sometimes  carry  into  their  more  afflu- 
ent circumstances.  To  Abraham  Lincoln  it  was  en- 
tirely natural,  and  all  those  who  came  into  contact 
with  him  knew  it  to  be  so.  In  his  ways  of  thinking 
and  feeling  he  had  become  a  gentleman  in  the  highest 
sense,  but  the  refining  process  had  polished  but  little 
the  outward  form.  The  plain  people,  tlierefore.  still 
considered  "  honest  Abe  Lincoln  "  one  of  themselves: 
and  when  they  felt,  which  they  no  doubt  frequently 
did,  that  his  thoughts  and  aspirations  moved  in  a 
sphere  above  their  own,  they  were  all  the  more  ]>roud 
of  him,  without  any  diminution  of  fellow  feehng.     It 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  31 

^as  this  relation  of  mutual  sympathy  and  understand- 
ing between  Lincoln  and  the  plain  people  that  gave 
him  his  peculiar  power  as  a  public  man,  and  singu« 
larly  fitted  him,  as  we  shall  see,  for  that  leadership 
which  was  preeminently  required  in  the  great  crisis 
then  cofhing  on,  —  the  leadershijD  which  indeed  thinks 
and  moves  ahead  of  the  masses,  but  always  remains 
within  sight  and  sympathetic  touch  of  them. 

He  entered  upon  the  campaign  of  1858  better 
equipped  than  he  had  ever  been  before.  He  not 
only  instinctively  felt,  but  he  had  convinced  himself 
by  arduous  study,  that  in  this  struggle  against  tlie 
spread  of  slavery  he  had  right,  justice,  philosophy,  the 
enlightened  opinion  of  mankind,  history,  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  good  policy  on  his  side.  It  was  observed 
that  after  he  began  to  discuss  the  slavery  question  his 
speeches  were  pitched  in  a  much  loftier  key  than  his 
former  oratorical  efforts.  While  he  remained  fond  of 
telling  funny  stories  in  private  conversation,  they  dis- 
appeared more  and  more  from  his  public  discourse. 
He  would  still  now  and  then  point  his  argument  with 
expressions  of  inimitable  quaintness,  and  flash  out 
rays  of  kintlly  humor  and  witty  irony  ;  but  his  general 
tone  was  serious,  and  rose  sometimes  to  genuine  so- 
lemnity. His  masterly  skill  in  dialectical  thrust  and 
parry,  his  wealth  of  knowledge,  his  power  of  reason, 
ing,  and  elevation  of  sentiment,  disclosed  in  language 
of  rare  precision,  strength,  and  beauty,  not  seldom 
astonished  his  old  friends. 

Neither  of  the  two  champions  could  have  found  a 
more  formidable  antagonist  than  each  now  met  in  the 
other.  Douglas  was  by  far  the  most  conspicuous 
member  of  his  party.  His  admirers  had  dubbed  him 
**  the  little  giant,"  contrasting  in  that  nickname  the 


32  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

greatness  of  his  mind  with  the  smailness  of  his  body. 
But  though  of  low  stature,  his  broad-shouldered  figure 
appeared  uncommonly  sturdy,  and  there  was  some- 
thing lion-like  in  the  squareness  of  his  brow  and  jaw, 
and  in  the  defiant  shake  of  his  long  hair.  His  loud 
and  persistent  advocacy  of  territorial  expansion,  in 
the  name  &f  patriotism  and  "  manifest  destiny,''  had 
given  him  an  enthusiastic  following  among  the  young 
and  ardent.  Great  natural  parts,  a  highly  combative 
temperament,  and  long  training  had  made  him  a  de» 
bater  unsurpassed  in  a  Senate  filled  with  able  men. 
He  could  be  as  forceful  in  his  appeals  to  patriotic  feel- 
ings as  he  was  fierce  in  denunciation  and  thoroughly 
skilled  in  all  the  baser  tricks  of  parliamentary  pugil 
ism.  While  genial  and  rollicking  in  his  social  inter- 
course, —  the  idol  of  the  "  boys,"  —  he  felt  himself 
one  of  the  most  renowned  statesmen  of  his  time,  and 
would  frequently  meet  his  opponents  with  an  over- 
bearing haughtiness,  as  persons  more  to  be  pitied  than 
to  be  feared.  In  his  speech  opening  the  campaign  of 
1858,  he  spoke  of  Lincoln,  whom  the  Republicans 
had  dared  to  advance  as  their  candidate  for  "  his " 
I3lace  in  the  Senate,  with  an  air  of  patronizing  if  not 
contemptuous  condescension,  as  "  a  kind,  amiable,  and 
intelligent  gentleman  and  a  good  citizen."  The  little 
giant  would  have  been  pleased  to  pass  off  his  antago- 
nist as  a  tall  dwarf.  He  knew  Lincoln  too  well,  how- 
ever,  to  indulge  himself  seriously  in  such  a  delusion. 
But  the  political  situation  was  at  that  moment  in  a 
curious  tangle,  and  Douglas  could  expect  to  derive 
from  the  confusion  great  advantage  over  his  opponent. 
By  the  rejjeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  opening 
the  Territories  to  the  ingress  of  slavery,  Douglas  had 
pleased  the  South,  but   greatly    alarmed  the  Nortk- 


SCHURZS  ESSAY.  33 

He  had  sought  to  conciliate  Northern  sentiment  by 
appending  to  his  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  the  declaration 
that  its'intent  was  "  not  to  legislate  slavery  into  any 
State  or  Territory,  nor  to  exclude  it  therefrom,  but  to 
leave  the  people  thereof  perfectly  free  to  form  and 
regulate  their  institutions  in  their  own  way,  subject 
only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States."  This 
he  called  "  the  great  principle  of  popular  sovereignty." 
When  asked  whether,  under  this  act,  the  people  of  a 
Territory,  before  its  admission  as  a  State,  would  have 
the  right  to  exclude  slavery,  he  answered,  "That 
is  a  question  for  the  courts  to  decide."  Then  came 
the  famous  "Dred  Scott  decision,"  in  which  the  Su- 
preme Court  held  substantially  that  the  right  to  hold 
slaves  as  property  existed  in  the  Territories  by  virtue 
of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  that  this  right  could 
not  be  denied  by  any  act  of  a  territorial  government. 
This,  of  course,  denied  the  right  of  the  people  of  any 
Territory  to  exclude  slavery  while  they  were  in  a  terri- 
torial condition,  and  it  alarmed  the  Northern  people 
still  more.  Douglas  recognized  the  binding  force  of 
the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  at  the  same  time 
maintaining,  most  illogically,  that  his  great  principle 
of  popular  sovereignty  remained  in  force  nevertheless. 
Meanwhile,  the  pro-slavery  people  of  western  Missouri, 
the  so-called  "  border  ruffians,"  had  invaded  Kansas, 
set  up  a  constitutional  convention,  made  a  constitution 
of  an  extreme  pro-slavery  type,  the  "  Lecompton  Con- 
stitution," refused  to  submit  it  fairly  to  a  vote  of  the 
people  of  Kansas,  and  then  referred  it  to  Congress  for 
acceptance,  — •  seeking  thus  to  accomplish  the  admission 
of  Kansas  as  a  slave  State.  Had  Douglas  supported 
such  a  scheme,  he  would  have  lost  all  foothold  in  the 
North.     In  the  name  of  popular  sovereignty  he  loudlv 


S4  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 

declared  his  opposition  to  the  acceptance  of  any  consti- 
tution  not  sanctioned  by  a  formal  popular  vote.  He 
"  did  not  care,''  he  said,  "  whether  slavery  be  voted  up 
or  down,"  but  there  must  be  a  fair  vote  of  the  people. 
Thus  he  drew  upon  himself  the  hostility  of  the  Buch- 
anan  administration,  which  was  controlled  by  the  pro- 
slavery  interest,  but  he  saved  his  Northern  follow= 
ing.  More  than  this,  not  only  did  his  Democratic 
admirers  now  call  him  "  the  ti*ue  champion  of  free- 
dom," but  even  some  Republicans  of  large  influence, 
prominent  among  them  Horace  Greeley,  sympathizing 
with  Douglas  in  his  fight  against  the  Lecompton  Con- 
stitution, and  hoping  to  detach  him  permanently  from 
the  pro-slavery  interest  and  to  force  a  lasting  breach 
in  the  Democratic  party,  seriously  advised  the  Kepubli- 
cans  of  Illinois  to  give  up  their  opposition  to  Douglas, 
and  to  help  reelect  him  to  the  Senate.  Lincoln  was 
not  of  that  opinion.  He  believed  that  great  popular 
movements  can  succeed  only  when  guided  by  their 
faithful  friends,  and  that  the  anti-slavery  cause  could 
not  safely  be  intrusted  to  the  keeping  of  one  who 
"did  not  care  whether  slavery  be  voted  up  or  down." 
This  opinion  prevailed  in  Illinois  ;  but  the  influences 
within  the  Republican  party,  over  which  it  prevailed, 
yielded  only  a  reluctant  acquiescence,  if  they  acqui- 
esced at  all,  after  having  materially  strengthened 
Douglas's  position.  Such  was  the  situation  of  things 
when  the  campaign  of  1858  between  Lincoln  and 
Douglas  began. 

Lincoln  opened  the  campaign  on  his  side,  at  th. 
convention  which  nominated  him  as  the  Repul)licaii 
candidate  for  the  senatorr.hij),  with  a  memorable  say- 
ing which  sounded  like  a  shout  from  the  watch-tower 
of  history :   "  A  house  divided  against    itself  cannot 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  35 

stand.  I  believe  this  government  cannot  enclu-'^  j»er- 
manently  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect 
the  Union  to  be  dissolved.  I  do  not  expect  the  house 
to  fall,  but  I  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It 
will  become  all  cme  thing  or  all  the  other.  Either  the 
opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of 
it,  and  place^it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the 
belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction  % 
or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward,  till  it  shall 
become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  —  old  as  well  as 
new,  North  as  well  as  South."  Then  he  proceeded  to 
point  out  that  the  Nebraska  doctrine  combined  with 
the  Dred  Scott  decision  worked  in  the  direction  or 
making  the  nation  "  all  slave."  Here  was  the  ^  irre- 
pressible conflict  "  spoken  of  by  Seward  a  short  time 
later,  in  a  speech  made  famous  mainly  by  that  phrase. 
If  there  was  any  new  discovery  in  it,  the  right  of  pri- 
ority was  Lincoln's.  This  utterance  pi'oved  not  only 
his  statesmanlike  conception  of  the  issue,  but  also,  in 
his  situation  as  a  candidate,  the  firmness  of  his  moral 
courage.  The  friends  to  whom  he  had  read  the 
draught  of  this  speech  before  he  delivered  it  warned 
him  anxiously  that  its  delivery  might  be  fatal  to  his 
success  in  the  election.  This  was  shrewd  advice, 
in  the  ordinary  sense.  While  a  slaveholder  could 
threaten  disunion  with  impunity,  the  mere  suggestion 
that  the  existence  of  slavery  was  incompatible  with 
^reedom  in  the  Union  would  hazard  the  political 
'chances  of  any  public  man  in  the  North.  But  Lin- 
'^oln  was  inflexible.  "  It  is  true,"  said  he,  "  and  I 
will  deliver  it  as  written.  ...  I  would  rather  be  de- 
feated with  these  expressions  in  my  speech  held  up 
and  discussed  before  the  people  than  be  victorious 
ivithout  them."     The  statesman  was  ri^ht  in  his  far* 


36  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

seeing  jiuliijment  and  his  conscientious  statement  of 
the  truth,  but  the  practical  politicians  were  also  right 
in  their  prediction  of  the  immediate  effect.  Douglas 
instantly  seized  upon  the  declaration  that  a  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot  stand  as  the  main  objec- 
tive point  of  his  attack,  interpreting  it  as  an  incite- 
ment to  a  "  relentless  sectional  war,"  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  persistent  reiteration  of  this  charge 
served  to  frighten  not  a  few  timid  souls. 

Lincoln  constantly  endeavored  to  bring  the  moral 
and  philosophical  side  of  the  subject  to  the  fore- 
ground. "  Slavery  is  wrong  "  was  the  keynote  of  all 
his  speeches.  To  Douglas's  glittering  sophism  that 
the  right  of  the  people  of  a  Territory  to  have  slavery 
or  not,  as  they  might  desire,  was  in  accordance  with 
the  principle  of  true  popular  sovereignty,  he  made  the 
pointed  answer :  "  Then  true  popular  sovereignty, 
according  to  Senator  Douglas,  means  that,  when  one 
man  makes  another  man  his  slave,  no  third  man  shall 
be  allowed  to  object."  To  Douglas's  argument  that 
the  principle  which  demanded  that  the  people  of  a 
Territory  should  be  permitted  to  choose  whether  they 
would  have  slavery  or  not  "  originated  when  God  made 
man,  and  placed  good  and  evil  before  him,  allowing 
him  to  choose  upon  his  own  responsibility,"  Lincoln 
solemnly  replied  :  "  No ;  God  did  not  place  good  and 
evil  before  man,  telling  him  to  make  his  choice.  On 
the  contrary,  God  did  tell  him  there  was  one  tree  of 
the  fruit  of  which  he  should  not  eat,  upon  pain  of 
death."  He  did  not,  however,  place  himself  on  the 
most  advanced  ground  taken  by  the  radical  anti-sla- 
very men.  He  admitted  that,  under  the  Constitution, 
"the  Southern  people  were  entitled  to  a  congressional 
fugitive  slave  law,"  although  he  did  not  approve  the 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  57 

fugitive  slave  law  then  existing.  He  declaracl  also 
that,  if  "slaveiy  were  kept  out  of  the  Territories  dur- 
jng  their  territorial  existence,  as  it  should  be,  and  if 
then  the  people  of  any  Territory,  having  a  fair  chance 
and  a  clear  field,  should  do  such  an  extraordinary 
thing  as  to^  adojst  a  slave  constitution,  uninfluenced 
by  the  actual  presence  of  the  institution  among  them, 
he  saw  no  alternative  but  to  admit  such  a  Territory 
into  the  Union.  He  declared  further  that,  while  he 
should  be  exceedingly  glad  to  see  slavery  abolished 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  he  would,  as  a  member 
of  Congress,  with  his  present  views,  not  endeavor 
to  bring  on  that  abolition  except  on  condition  that 
emancipation  be  gradual,  that  it  be  approved  by  the 
decision  of  a  majority  of  voters  in  the  District,  and 
that  compensation  be  made  to  unwilling  owners.  On 
every  available  occasion,  he  pronounced  himself  in 
favor  of  the  deportation  and  colonization  of  the 
blacks,  of  course  with  their  consent.  He  repeatedly 
disavowed  any  wish  on  his  part  to  have  social  and  po- 
litical equality  established  between  whites  and  blacks. 
On  this  point  he  summed  up  his  views  in  a  reply  to 
Douglas's  assertion  that  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, in  speaking  of  all  men  as  being  created  equal, 
did  not  include  the  negroes,  saying :  "  I  do  not  under- 
stand the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  mean  that 
all  men  were  created  equal  in  all  respects.  They  are 
not  equal  in  color.  But  I  believe  that  it  does  mean 
to  declare  that  all  men  are  equal  in  some  respects  ; 
they  are  equal  in  their  right  to  life,  libert}',  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness." 

With  regard  to  some  of  these  subjects  Lincoln 
modified  his  position  at  a  later  period,  and  it  has  been 
suggested  that  he  would  have  professed  more  advanced 


88  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

principles  in  his  debates  with  Douglas,  had  he  not 
feared  thereby  to  lose  votes.  This  view  can  hardly 
be  sustained.  Lincoln  had  the  courage  of  his  opin- 
ions, but  he  was  not  a  radical.  The  man  who  risked 
his  election  by  delivering,  against  the  urgent  protest 
of  his  friends,  the  speech  about  "  the  house  divided 
against  itself  "  would  not  have  shrunk  from  the  ex- 
pression of  more  extreme  views,  had  he  really  enter= 
tained  them.  It  is  only  fair  to  assume  that  he  said 
what  at  the  time  he  really  thought,  and  that  if,  subse- 
quently, his  opinions  changed,  it  was  owing  to  new 
conceptions  of  good  policy  and  of  duty  brought  forth 
by  an  entirely  new  set  of  circumstances  and  exigen- 
cies. It  is  characteristic  that  he  continued  to  adhere 
to  the  impracticable  colonization  plan  even  after  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  had  already  been  issued. 
But  in  this  contest  Lincoln  proved  himself  not 
only  a  debater,  but  also  a  political  strategist  of  the 
first  order.  The  "  kind,  amiable,  and  intelligent 
gentleman,"  as  Douglas  had  been  pleased  to  call 
him,  was  by  no  means  as  harmless  as  a  dove.  He  pos- 
sessed an  uncommon  share  of  that  worldly  shrewdness 
which  not  seldom  goes  with  genuine  simplicity  of 
character ;  and  the  political  experience  gathered  in 
the  legislature  and  in  Congress  and  in  many  election 
\^ampaigns,  added  to  his  keen  intuitions,  had  made 
him  as  far-sighted  a  judge  of  the  probable  effects  of 
a  public  man's  sayings  or  doings  upon  the  popular 
mind,  and  as  accurate  a  calculator  in  estimating  polit- 
ical chances  and  forecasting  results,  as  could  be  found 
among  the  party  managers  in  Illinois.  And  now  he 
perceived  keenly  the  ugly  dilemma  in  which  Douglas 
found  himself,  between  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  which 
declared  the  ri^ht  to  hold  slaves  to  exist  in  the  Terri- 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  89 

tories  by  virtue  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  his 
"•  great  })rinciple  of  popuhir  sovereignty,"  according 
to  which  the  people  of  a  Territory,  if  they  saw  lit, 
were  to  have  the  right  to  exclude  slavery  therefrom. 
Douglas  was  twisting  and  squirming  to  the  best  of 
his  abilitys^o  avoid  the  admission  that  the  two  were 
i-acompatible.  The  question  then  presented  itself  if 
it  would  be  good  policy  for  Lincoln  to  force  Douglas 
ti)  a  clear  expression  of  his  opinion  as  to  whether,  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  notwithstanding,  "  the  people  of 
a  Territory  could  in  any  lawful  way  exclude  slavery 
from  its  limits  prior  to  the  formation  of  a  state  con- 
stitution." Lincoln  foresaw  and  predicted  what  Doug- 
las would  answer :  that  slavery  could  not  exist  in 
a  Territory  unless  the  people  desired  it  and  gave  it 
protection  by  territorial  legislation.  In  an  impro- 
vised caucus  the  policy  of  pressing  the  interrogatory 
on  Douglas  was  discussed.  Lincoln's  friends  unani- 
mously advised  against  it,  because  the  answer  fore- 
seen would  sufficiently  commend  Douglas  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Illinois  to  insure  his  reelection  to  the  Senate. 
But  Lincoln  persisted.  "  I  am  after  larger  game," 
said  he.  "  If  Douglas  so  answers,  he  can  never  be 
President,  and  the  battle  of  1860  is  worth  a  hundred 
of  this."  The  interrogatory  was  pressed  upon  Doug- 
las, and  Douglas  did  answer  that,  no  matter  what 
the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  might  be  on  the 
abstract  question,  the  people  of  a  Tei^ritory  had  the 
lawful  means  to  introduce  or  exclude  slavery  by  terri- 
torial legislation  friendly  or  unfriendly  to  the  institu- 
tion. Lincoln  found  it  easy  to  show  the  absurdity  of 
the  proposition  that,  if  slavery  were  admitted  to  exist 
of  right  in  the  Territories  by  virtue  of  the  supreme 
law,  the  Federal  Constitution,  it  could   be  kept  out 


40  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

or  expelled  by  an  inferior  law,  one  made  by  a  terri- 
torial legislature.  Again  the  judgment  of  the  poli- 
ticians, having  only  the  nearest  object  in  view,  proved 
correct :  Douglas  was  reelected  to  the  Senate.  But 
Lincoln's  judgment  proved  correct  also:  Douglas,  by 
resorting  to  the  expedient  of  his  "  unfriendly  legisla- 
tion doctrine,"  forfeited  his  last  chance  of  becoming 
President  of  the  United  States.  He  might  .have 
hoped  to  win,  by  sufficient  atonement,  his  pardon 
from  the  South  for  his  opposition  to  the  Lecomptoi^ 
Constitution  ;  but  that  he  taught  the  people  of  the 
Territories  a  trick  by  which  they  could  defeat  what 
the  pro-slavery  men  considered  a  constitutional  right, 
and  that  he  called  that  trick  lawful,  —  this  the  slave 
power  would  never  forgive.  The  breach  between  the 
Southern  and  the  Northern  democracy  was  thence- 
forth irremediable  and  fatal. 

The  presidential  election  of  1860  approached.  The 
struggle  in  Kansas,  and  the  debates  in  Congress 
which  accompanied  it,  and  which  not  unfrequently 
provoked  violent  outbursts,  continually  stirred  the 
popular  excitement.  Within  the  Democratic  party 
raged  the  war  of  factions.  The  national  Democratic 
convention  met  at  Charleston  on  the  23d  of  April, 
1860.  After  a  struggle  of  ten  days  between  the  ad- 
herents and  the  opponents  of  Douglas,  during  which 
the  delegates  from  the  cotton  States  had  withdrawn, 
the  convention  adjourned  without  having  nominated 
any  candidates,  to  meet  again  in  Baltimore  on  the 
18th  of  .June.  There  was  no  prospect,  however,  of 
reconciling  the  hostile  elements.  It  appeared  very 
probable  that  the  Baltimore  convention  would  nomi- 
nate Douglas,  while  the  seceding  Southern  Democrats 
would  set  up  a  candidate  of  their  own,  'representing 
axtrenie  pro-slavery  principles. 


SCH'URZ'S  ESSAY.  4t 

Meanwhile,  the  national  Republican  convention  as- 
sembled at  Chicago  on  the  16th  of  May,  full  of  enthu- 
siasm and  hope.  The  situation  was  easily  understood. 
Tiie  Democrats  would  have  the  South.  In  order  to 
succeed  in  the  election,  the  Republicans  had  to  win, 
in  addition  to  the  States  carried  by  Fremont  in  1856, 
those  that  were  classed  as  "  doubtful,"  —  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Indiana,  or  Illinois  in  the  place 
of  either  New  Jersey  or  Indiana.  The  most  eminent 
Republican  statesmen  and  leaders  of  the  time  thought 
of  for  the  presidency  were  Seward  and  Chase,  both 
regarded  as  belonging  to  the  more  advanced  order  of 
anti-slavery  men.  Of  the  two,  Seward  had  the  largest 
following,  mainly  from  New  York,  New  England,  and 
the  Northwest.  Cautious  politicians  doubted  seri- 
ously whether  Seward,  to  whom  some  phrases  in  liis 
speeches  had  undeservedly  given  the  reputation  of  a 
reckless  radical,  would  be  able  to  command  the  whole 
Republican  vote  in  the  doubtful  States.  Besides, 
during  his  long  public  career  lie  had  n:)ade  enemies. 
It  was  evident  that  those  who  thought  Sewai'd's  nomi- 
nation too  hazardous  an  experiment  would  consider 
Chase  unavailable  for  the  same  reason.  They  would 
then  look  round  for  an  "  available  "  man  ;  and 
among  the  "  available "  men  Abraham  Lincoln  wa.s 
easily  discovered  to  stand  foremost.  His  great  debate 
with  Douglas  had  given  him  a  national  reputation. 
The  people  of  the  East  being  eager  to  see  the  hero  or 
so  dramatic  a  contest,  he  had  been  induced  to  visit 
several  Eastern  cities,  and  had  astonished  and  de- 
lighted large  and  distinguished  audiences  with  speeches 
of  singular  power  and  originality.  An  addi-ess  deliv- 
ered by  him  in  the  Cooper  Institute  in  New  York, 
fbefore  an  audience  containinir  a  larsfe  number  of  im- 


42  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

portant  persons,  was  then,  and  has  ever  since  been, 
especially  praised  as  one  o£  the  most  logical  and  con- 
vincing political  speeches  ever  made  in  this  country. 
The  people  of  the  West  had  grown  proud  of  him  as 
a  distinctively  Western  great  man,  and  his  popularity 
at  home  had  some  peculiar  features  which  could  be 
exi^ected  to  exercise  a  potent  charm.  Nor  was  Lin- 
coln's name  as  that  of  an  available  candidate  left  tc 
the  chance  of  accidental  discovery.  It  is  indeed  not 
probable  that  he  thought  of  himself  as  a  presidential 
possibility,  during  his  contest  with  Douglas  for  the 
senatorship.  As  late  as  April,  1859,  he  had  written 
to  a  friend  who  had  approached  him  on  the  subject 
that  he  did  not  think  himself  fit  for  the  ])residency. 
The  vice-presidency  was  then  the  limit  of  his  ambi- 
tion. But  some  of  his  friends  in  Illinois  took  the 
matter  seriously  in  hand,  and  Lincoln,  after  some 
hesitation,  then  formally  authorized  "  the  use  of  his 
name."  The  matter  was  managed  with  such  energy 
and  excellent  judgment  that  in  the  convention  he 
had  not  only  the  v/hole  vote  of  Illinois  to  start  with, 
but  won  votes  on  all  sides  without  offending  any 
rival.  A  lai-ge  majority  of  the  opponents  of  Seward 
went  over  to  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  gave  him  the 
nomination  on  the  third  ballot.  As  had  been  fore- 
seen, Douglas  was  nominated  by  one  wing  of  the 
Democratic  party  at  Baltimore,  while  the  extreme 
pro-slavery  wing  put  Breckinridge  into  tlie  field  as 
its  candidate.  After  a  campaign  conducted  with  the 
energy  of  genuine  enthusiasm  on  the  anti-slavery 
side,  the  united  Republicans  defeated  the  divided 
Democrats,  and  Lincoln  was  elected  President  by  a 
majority  of  fifty-seven  votes  in  the  electoral  colleges. 
The  result  of  the  election  had  hardly  been  declared 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  43 

when  the  disunion  movement  in  the  South,  long 
threatened  and  carefully  planned  and  j^repared,  broke 
out  in  the  shape  of  open  revolt,  and  nearly  a  month 
before  Lincoln  could  bo  inaugurated  as  President  of 
the  United  States,  seven  Southern  States  had  adopted 
ordinances  of  secession,  formed  an  independent  con- 
federacy, framed  a  constitution  for  it,  and  elected 
Jefferson  Davis  its  pi*esident,  expecting  the  other 
slaveholding  States  soon  to  join  them.  On  the  11th 
of  February,  1861,  Lincoln  left  Springfield  for  Wash- 
ington ;  having,  with  characteristic  simplicity,  asked 
his  law  partner  not  to  change  the  sign  of  the  firm 
"  Lincoln  and  Herndon  "  during  the  four  years'  una- 
voidable absence  of  the  senior  partner,  and  having 
taken  an  affectionate  and  touching  leave  of  his  neigh- 
bors. 

The  situation  which  confronted  the  new  President 
was  appalling  :  the  larger  part  of  the  South  in  open 
rebellion,  the  rest  of  the  slaveholding  States  wavering, 
preparing  to  follow  ;  the  revolt  guided  by  determined, 
daring,  and  skilful  leaders ;  the  Southern  people, 
apparently  full  of  enthusiasm  and  military  spirit, 
rushing  to  arms,  some  of  the  forts  and  arsenals  already 
in  their  possession  ;  the  government  of  the  Union, 
before  the  accession  of  the  new  President,  in  the 
hands  of  men  some  of  whom  actively  sympathized 
with  the  revolt,  while  others  were  hampered  by  their 
traditional  doctrines  in  dealing  with  it,  and  really 
gave  it  aid  and  comfort  by  their  irresolute  attitude  : 
all  the  departments  full  of  "  Southern  sympathizers  ' 
and  honeycombed  with  disloyalty;  the  treasury  empty, 
and  the  public  credit  at  the  lowest  ebb ;  the  arsenals 
ill  supplied  with  arms,  if  not  emptied  by  treacherous 
practices  ;  the  regular  army  of  insignificant  strength, 


44  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

dispersed  over  an  immense  surface,  and  dejjrived  by 
defection  of  some  of  its  best  officers ;  the  navy  small 
and  antiquated.  But  that  was  not  all.  The  threat  of 
disunion  had  so  often  been  resorted  to  by  the  slave 
power  in  years  gone  by  that  most  Northern  people 
had  ceased  to  believe  in  its  seriousness.  But  when 
disunion  actually  appeared  as  a  stern  reality,  some- 
thing like  a  chill  swept  through  the  whole  Northern 
country.  A  cry  for  union  and  peace  at  any  price 
rose  on  all  sides.  Democratic  partisanship  reiterated 
this  cry  with  vociferous  vehemence,  and  even  many 
liepublicans  gi-ew  afraid  of  the  victory  they  had  just 
achieved  at  the  ballot-box,  and  spoke  of  compromise. 
The  country  fairly  i-esounded  with  the  noise  of  "  anti- 
coercion  meetings."  Expressions  of  firm  resolution 
from  determined  anti-slavery  men  were  indeed  not 
wanting,  but  they  were  for  a  while  almost  drowned  by 
a  bewildering  (confusion  of  discordant  voices.  Even 
this  was  not  all.  Potent  influences  in  Europe,  with 
an  ill-concealed  desire  for  the  permanent  disruption  of 
the  American  Union,  eagerly  espoused  the  cause  of 
the  Southern  seceders,  and  the  two  principal  maritime 
powers  of  the  Old  World  seemed  only  to  be  waiting 
for  a  favorable  opportunity  to  lend  them  a  helping 
hand. 

This  was  the  state  of  things  to  be  mastered  by 
"  honest  Abe  Lincoln  "  when  he  took  his  seat  in  the 
presidential  chair,  —  "honest  Abe  Lincoln,"  who  was 
so  good  natured  that  he  could  not  say  "■  no  ;  "  the 
greatest  achievement  in  whose  life  had  been  a  debate 
on  tlie  slavery  question  ;  who  had  never  been  in  any 
position  of  power ;  who  was  without  the  slightest  ex- 
perience of  high  executive  duties,  and  who  had  only 
ft  speaking  acquaintance  with  the    men   upon  whose 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  45 

counsel  and  cooperation  he  was  to  depend.  Nor  was 
his  accession  to  power  under  such  circumstanceg 
greeted  with  general  confidence  even  by  the  members 
of  his  party.  While  he  had  indeed  won  much  popu- 
larity, many  Republicans,  especially  among  those  who 
had  advocated  Seward's  nomination  for  the  presi= 
dency,  with  a  feeling  little  short  of  dismay,  saw  the 
simple  "  Illinois  lawyer "  take  the  reins  of  govern 
ment.  The  oi'ators  and  journals  of  the  opposition 
were  ridiculing  and  lampooning  him  without  measure. 
Many  people  actually  wondered  how  such  a  man  could 
dare  to  undertake  a  task  which,  as  he  himself  had 
said  to  his  neighbors  in  his  parting  speech,  was  "  more! 
difPxCult  than  that  of  Washington  himself  had  been.'' 
But  Lincoln  brought  to  that  task,  aside  from  othet 
uncommon  qualities,  the  first  requisite,  —  an  intuitive 
comprehension  of  its  nature.  While  he  did  not  in- 
dulge in  the  delusion  that  the  Union  could  be  main- 
tained or  restored  without  a  conflict  of  arms,  he  could 
indeed  not  foresee  all  the  problems  he  would  have  to 
solve.  He  instinctively  understood,  however,  by  what 
means  that  conflict  would  have  to  be  conducted  by 
the  government  of  a  democracy.  He  knew  that  the 
impending  war,  whether  great  or  small,  would  not  be 
like  a  foreign  war,  exciting  a  united  national  enthu- 
siasm, but  a  civil  war,  likely  to  fan  to  uncommon 
heat  the  animosities  of  party  even  in  the  localities 
controlled  by  the  government ;  that  this  war  would 
have  to  be  carried  on,  not  by  means  of  a  read^z-madt 
machinery,  ruled  by  an  undisputed,  absolute  will,  but 
by  means  to  be  furnished  by  the  voluntary  action 
of  the  people :  —  armies  to  be  formed  by  voluntary 
enlistment ;  large  sums  of  money  to  be  raised  by  the 
people,  through  their  representatives,  voluntarily  tax- 


46  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

ing  themselves  ;  trusts  of  extraordinary  power  to  be 
voluntarily  granted  ;  and  war  measures,  not  seldom 
restricting  the  rights  and  liberties  to  which  the  citizen 
ivas  accustomed,  to  be  voluntarily  accepted  and  sub- 
mitted to  by  the  people,  or  at  least  a  large  majority  of 
them  ;  —  and  that  this  would  have  to  be  kept  up,  not 
merely  during  a  short  period  of  enthusiastic  excite- 
ment, but  possibly  through  weary  years  of  alternating 
success  and  disaster,  hope  and  despondency.  He 
knew  that  in  order  to  steer  this  government  by  public 
opinion  successfully  through  all  the  confusion  created 
by  the  prejudices  and  doubts  and  differences  of  sen- 
timent distracting  the  popular  mind,  and  so  to  propi- 
tiate, inspire,  mould,  organize,  unite,  and  guide  the 
popular  will  that  it  might  give  forth  all  the  means  re- 
quired for  the  performance  of  his  great  task,  he  would 
have  to  take  into  account  all  the  influences  strongly 
affecting  the  current  of  popular  thought  and  feeling, 
and  to  direct  while  appearing  to  obey. 

This  was  the  kind  of  leadershij)  he  intuitively 
conceived  to  be  needed  when  a  free  people  were  to  be 
led  forward  en  masse  to  overcome  a  great  common  dan- 
ger under  circumstances  of  appalling  difficulty,  —  the 
leadership  which  does  not  dash  ahead  with  brilliant 
daring,  no  matter  who  follows,  but  which  is  intent 
upon  rallying  all  the  available  forces,  gathering  in 
the  stragglers,  closing  up  the  column,  so  that  the  front 
may  advance  well  supported.  For  this  leadership 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  admirably  fitted,  —  better  than 
any  other  American  statesman  of  his  day  ;  for  he 
understood  the  plain  peojjle,  with  all  their  loves  and 
hates,  their  prejudices  and  their  noble  impulses,  their 
weaknesses  and  their  strength,  as  he  understood  him- 
self, and  his  sympathetic  nature  was  apt  to  draw  their 
sympathy  to  him. 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  47 

His  inaugural  address  ^  foreshadowed  his  official 
course  in  characteristic  manner.  Although  yielding 
nothing  in  point  of  principle,  it  was  by  no  means  a 
flaming  anti-slavery  manifesto,  such  as  would  have 
pleased  the  more  ardent  Republicans,  It  was  rather 
the  entreaty  of  a  sorrowing  father  speaking  to  his 
wayward  children.  In  the  kindliest  language  he 
pointed  out  to  the  secessionists  how  ill-advised  their 
attempt  at  disunion  was,  and  why,  for  their  own  sakes, 
they  should  desist.  Almost  plaintively  he  told  them 
that,  while  it  was  not  their  duty  to  destroy  the  Union, 
it  was  his  sworn  duty  to  preserve  it ;  that  the  least  he 
could  do,  under  the  obligations  of  his  oath,  was  to 
possess  and  hold  the  property  of  the  United  States  ; 
that  he  hoped  to  do  this  peaceably  ;  that  he  abhorred 
war  for  any  purpose,  and  that  they  would  have  none 
unless  they  themselves  were  the  aggressors.  It  was  a 
masterpiece  of  persuasiveness  ;  and  while  Lincoln  had 
accepted  many  valuable  amendments  suggested  by 
Seward,  it  was  essentially  his  own.  Probably  Lincoln 
himself  did  not  expect  his  inaugural  address  to  have 
any  effect  upon  the  secessionists,  for  he  must  have 
known  them  to  be  resolved  upon  disunion  at  any  cost. 
But  it  was  an  appeal  to  the  wavering  minds  in  the 
North,  and  upon  them  it  made  a  profound  impression. 
Every  candid  man,  however  timid  and  halting,  had  to 
admit  that  the  President  was  bound  by  his  oath  to  do 
his  duty  ;  that  under  that  oath  he  could  do  no  less 
than  he  said  he  would  do;  that  if  the  secessionists 
resisted  such  an  appeal  as  the  President  had  made, 
they  were  bent  upon  mischief,  and  that  the  govern- 
ment must  be  supported  against  them.  The  partisan 
sympathy  with  the  Southern  insurrection  which  still 
^  Printed  in  Number  32,  Riverside  Literature  series 


48  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

existed  in  tlie  North  did  indeed  not  disappear,  but  it 
diminished  perceptibly  under  the  influence  of  such 
reasoning.  Those  who  still  resisted  it  did  so  at  the 
risk  of  appearing  unpatriotic. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  Lincoln  at 
once  succeeded  in  pleasing  everybody,  even  among  his 
friends,  —  even  among  those  nearest  to  him.  In  select- 
ing his  cabinet,  which  he  did  substantially  before  he 
left  Springfield  for  Washington,  he  thought  it  wise  to 
call  to  his  assistance  the  strong  men  of  his  party,  espe- 
cially those  who  had  given  evidence  of  the  support 
they  commanded  as  his  competitors  in  the  Chicago 
convention.  In  them  he  found  at  the  same  time  repre- 
sentatives of  the  different  shades  of  opinion  within 
the  party,  and  of  the  different  elements  —  former 
Whigs  and  former  Democrats  —  from  which  the  party 
had  recruited  itself.  This  was  sound  policy  under  the 
circumstances.  It  might  indeed  have  been  foreseen 
that  among  the  members  of  a  cabinet  so  composed, 
troublesome  disagreements  and  rivalries  would  break 
out.  But  it  was  better  for  the  President  to  have  these 
strong  and  ambitious  men  near  him  as  his  coopera- 
tors  than  to  have  them  as  his  critics  in  Congress, 
where  their  differences  might  have  been  composed  in 
a  common  opposition  to  him.  As  members  of  his 
cabinet  he  could  hope  to  control  them,  and  to  keep 
them  busily  employed  in  the  service  of  a  common  pur- 
pose, if  he  had  the  strength  to  do  so.  Whether  he 
did  possess  this  strength  was  soon  tested  by  a  singu- 
larly rude  trial. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  foremost  members 
of  his  cabinet,  Sewai-d  and  Chase,  the  most  eminenf 
Republican  statesmen,  had  felt  themselves  wronged 
by  their   party   when    in    its    national   convention   it 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  49 

preferred  to  them  for  the  presidency  a  man  whom, 
not  unnaturally,  they  thouglit  greatly  their  inferior  in 
ability  and  experience  as  well  as  in  service.  The  sore- 
ness of  that  disappointment  was  intensified  when  they 
saw  this  Western  man  in  the  White  House,  with  so 
much  of  rustic  manner  and  speech  as  still  clung  to 
him,  meeting  his  fellow  citizens,  high  and  low,  on  a 
footing  of  equality,  with  the  simplicity  of  his  good 
nature  unburdened  by  any  conventional  dignity  of 
deportment,  and  dealing  with  the  great  business  of 
state  in  an  easy-going,  unmethodical,  and  apparently 
somewhat  irreverent  way.  They  did  not  understand 
such  a  man.  Especially  Seward,  who,  as  Secretary  of 
State,  considered  himself  next  to  the  Chief  Executive, 
and  who  quickly  accustomed  himself  to  giving  or- 
ders and  making  arrangements  upon  his  own  motion, 
thought  it  necessary  that  he  should  rescue  the  direc- 
tion of  public  affairs  from  hands  so  unskilled,  and 
take  full  charge  of  them  himself.  At  the  end  of  the 
first  month  of  the  administration  he  submitted  a 
"  memorandum  "  to  President  Lincoln,  which  has  been 
first  brought  to  light  by  Nicolay  and  Hay,^  and  is  one 
of  their  most  valuable  contributions  to  the  history  of 
those  days.  In  that  paper  Seward  actually  told  the 
President  that,  at  the  end  of  a  month's  administration, 
the  government  was  still  without  a  policy,  either  do- 
mestic or  foreign ;  that  the  slavery  question  should  be 
eliminated  from  the  struggle  about  the  Union  ;  that 
the  matter  of  the  maintenance  of  the  forts  and  other 
possessions  in  the  South  shoidd  be  decided  with  tha< 
view ;  that  explanations  should  be  demanded  categor' 
ically  from   the   governments  of   Spain   and   France, 

1  In  their  Life  of  Lincoln,  in  ten  volumes,  published  by  The 
Century  Company,  New  York. 


\ 
50  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'. 

which  were  then  preparing,  one  for  the  annexation  of 
San  Domingo,  and  both  for  the  invasion  of  Mexico  •, 
that  if  no  satisfactory  explanations  were  received  war 
should  be  declared  against  Spain  and  France  by  the 
United  States  ;  that  explanations  should  also  be  sought 
from  Russia  and  Great  Britain,  and  a  vigorous  conti- 
nental spirit  of  independence  against  European  inter- 
vention be  aroused  all  over  the  American  continent ; 
that  this  policy  should  be  incessantly  pursued  and  di- 
rected by  somebody  ;  that  either  the  President  should 
devote  himself  entirely  to  it,  or  devolve  the  direction 
on  some  member  of  his  cabinet,  whereupon  all  debate 
on  this  policy  must  end. 

This  could  be  understood  only  as  a  formal  demand 
that  the  President  should  acknowledge  his  own  incom- 
petency to  perform  his  duties,  content  himself  with 
the  amusement  of  distributing  post  offices,  and  resign 
his  power  as  to  all  important  affairs  into  the  hands  of 
his  Secretary  of  State.  It  seems  to-day  incomprehen- 
sible how  a  statesman  of  Seward's  calibi-e  could  at 
that  period  conceive  a  plan  of  policy  in  which  the 
slavery  question  had  no  place ;  a  polic}'  which  rested 
upon  the  utterly  delusive  assumption  that  the  seces- 
sionists, who  had  already  formed  their  Southern  Con- 
federacy, and  were  with  stern  resolution  preparing  to 
fight  for  its  independence,  could  be  hoodwinked  back 
into  the  Union  by  some  sentimental  demonstration 
against  Eui-opean  interference ;  a  policy  which,  at 
that  critical  moment,  would  have  involved  the  Union 
in  a  foreign  war,  thus  inviting  foreign  intervention 
in  favor  of  the  Southern  Confederacy,  and  increasing- 
tenfold  its  chances  in  the  struggle  for  independence. 
But  it  is  equally  incomprehensible  how  Seward  could 
^ail    to    see    that    this    demand    of    an    unconditional 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  61 

surrender  was  a  mortal  insult  to  the  head  of  the  gov- 
ernment, and  that  by  putting  his  proposition  on  paper 
he  delivered  himself  into  the  hands  of  the  very  man 
he  had  insulted ;  for  had  Lincoln,  as  most  Presidents 
would  have  done,  instantly  dismissed  Seward,  and 
pul)lished  the  true  reason  for  that  dismissal,  it  would 
inevitably  have  been  the  end  of  Seward's  career.  But 
Lincoln  did  what  not  many  of  the  noblest  and  great- 
est men  in  history  would  have  been  noble  and  great 
enough  to  do.  He  considered  that  Seward,  if  rightly 
controlled,  was  still  capable  of  rendering  great  service 
to  his  country  in  the  place  in  which  he  was.  He 
ignored  the  insult,  but  firmly  established  his  superior- 
ity. In  his  reply,  which  he  forthwith  dispatched,  he 
told  Seward  that  the  administration  had  a  domestic 
policy  as  laid  down  in  the  inaugural  address  with 
Seward's  approval ;  that  it  had  a  foreign  policy  as 
traced  in  Seward's  dispatches  with  the  President's 
approval ;  that  if  any  policy  was  to  be  m.aintained  or 
changed,  he,  the  President,  was  to  direct  that  on  his 
responsibility  ;  and  that  in  performing  that  duty  the 
President  had  a  right  to  the  advice  of  his  secretaries. 
Seward's  fantastic  schemes  of  foreign  war  and  conti- 
nental policies  Lincoln  brushed  aside  by  passing  them 
over  in  silence.  Nothing  more  was  said,  Seward 
must  have  felt  that  he  was  at  the  mercy  of  a  superior 
man  ;  that  his  offensive  proposition  had  been  gener« 
ously  pardoned  as  a  temporary  aberration  of  a  great 
mind,  and  that  he  could  atone  for  it  only  by  devoted 
personal  loyalty.  This  he  did.  He  was  thoroughly 
subdued,  and  thenceforth  submitted  to  Lincoln  his 
dispatches  for  revision  and  amendment  without  a 
murmur.  The  war  with  European  nations  was  no 
longer  thought  of ;  the  slavery  question  found  in  due 


52  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

time  its  proper  place  in  the  struggle  for  the  Union ; 
and  when,  at  a  later  period,  the  dismissal  of  Seward 
was  demanded  by  dissatisfied  senators  who  attributed 
to  him  the  shortcomings  of  the  administration,  Lin- 
coln stood  stoutly  by  his  faithful  Secretary  of  State. 

Chase,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  a  man  of 
superb  presence,  of  eminent  ability  and  ardent  pa- 
triotism, of  great  natural  dignity  and  a  certain  out- 
ward coldness  of  manner,  which  made  him  appear 
more  difficult  of  approach  than  he  really  was,  did  not 
permit  his  disappointment  to  burst  out  in  such  ex- 
travagant demonstrations.  But  Lincoln's  ways  were 
so  essentially  different  from  his  that  they  never  be- 
came quite  intelligible,  and  certainly  not  congenial  to 
him.  It  might,  perhaps,  have  been  better  had  there 
been,  at  the  beginning  of  the  administration,  some 
decided  clash  between  Lincoln  and  Chase,  as  there 
was  between  Lincoln  and  Seward,  to  bring  on  a  full 
mutual  explanation,  and  to  make  Chase  appreciate 
the  real  seriousness  of  Lincoln's  nature.  But  as  it 
was,  their  relations  always  remained  somewhat  formal, 
and  Chase  never  felt  quite  at  ease  under  a  chief 
whom  he  could  not  understand,  and  whose  character 
and  powers  he  never  learned  to  esteem  at  their  true 
value.  At  the  same  time,  he  devoted  himself  zealously 
to  the  duties  of  his  department,  and  did  the  countiy 
arduous  service  under  circumstances  of  extreme  difli- 
culty.  Nobody  recognized  this  more  heartily  than 
Lincoln  himself,  and  they  managed  to  work  together 
until  near  the  end  of  Lincoln's  first  presidential  term, 
when  Chase,  after  some  disagreements  concerning  ap- 
pointments  to  office,  resigned  from  the  treasury  ;  and 
after  Taney's  death,  the  President  made  him  Chief 
JusticCc 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  53 

The  rest  of  the  cabinet  consisted  of  men  of  less 
eminence,  who  subordinated  themselves  more  easily. 
In  January,  1862,  Lincoln  found  it  necessary  to  bow 
Cameron  out  of  the  war  office,  and  to  put  in  his  place 
Edwin  ]\I.  Stanton,  a  man  of  intensely  practical  mind, 
vehement  impulses,  fierce  positiveness,  ruthless  energy, 
immense  working  power,  lofty  patriotism,  and  severest 
devotion  to  duty.  He  accepted  the  war  office,  not  as 
a  partisan,  for  he  had  never  been  a  Republican,  but 
only  to  do  all  he  could  in  "  helping  to  save  the  coun. 
try."  The  manner  in  which  Lincoln  succeeded  ifl 
taming  this  lion  to  his  will,  by  frankly  recognizing 
his  great  qualities,  by  giving  him  the  most  generous 
confidence,  by  aiding  him  in  his  work  to  the  full  of 
his  power,  by  kindly  concession  or  affectionate  per- 
suasiveness in  cases  of  differing  opinions,  or,  when  it 
was  necessary,  by  firm  assertions  of  superior  authority, 
bears  the  highest  testimony  to  his  skill  in  the  manage- 
ment of  men.  Stanton,  who  had  entered  the  service 
with  rather  a  mean  opinion  of  Lincoln's  character 
and  capacity,  became  one  of  his  warmest,  most  de- 
voted, and  most  admiring  friends,  and  with  none  of 
his  secretaries  was  Lincoln's  intercourse  more  intimate. 
To  take  advice  with  candid  readiness,  and  to  weigh  it 
without  any  pride  of  his  own  opinion,  was  one  of  Lin- 
coln's preeminent  virtues  ;  but  he  had  not  long  pre- 
sided over  his  cabinet  council  when  his  was  felt  by 
all  its  members  to  be  the  ruling  mind. 

The  cautious  policy  foreshadowed  in  his  inaugural 
address,  and  pursued  during  the  first  period  of  the 
civil  war,  was  far  from  satisfying  all  his  party  friends. 
The  ardent  spirits  among  the  Union  men  thought 
that  the  whole  North  should  at  once  be  called  to  arms, 
to  crush  the  rebellion  by  one  powerful  blow.     The 


54  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

ardent  spirits  among  the  anti-slavery  men  insisted 
that,  shivery  having  brought  forth  the  rebellion,  this 
povsrerful  blow  should  at  once  be  aimed  at  slavery. 
Both  complained  that  the  administration  was  spiritless, 
undecided,  and  lamentably  slow  in  its  proceedings. 
Lincoln  reasoned  otherwise.  The  ways  of  thinking 
and  feeling  of  the  masses,  of  the  plain  people,  were 
constantly  present  to  his  mind.  The  masses,  the  plain 
people,  had  to  furnish  the  men  for  the  fighting,  if 
fighting  was  to  be  done.  He  believed  that  the  i^lain. 
people  would  be  ready  to  fight  when  it  clearly  ap- 
peared necessary,  and  that  they  would  feel  that  neces- 
sity when  they  felt  themselves  attacked.  He  there- 
fore waited  until  the  enemies  of  the  Union  struck  the 
first  blow.  As  soon  as,  on  the  12th  of  April,  1861, 
the  first  gun  was  fired  in  Charleston  harbor  on  the 
Union  flag  upon  Fort  Sumter,  the  call  was  sounded, 
and  the  Northern  people  rushed  to  arms. 

Lincoln  knew  that  the  plain  people  were  now  in- 
deed ready  to  fight  in  defence  of  the  Union,  but  not 
yet  ready  to  fight  for  the  destruction  of  slavery.  He 
declared  openly  that  he  had  a  right  to  summon  the 
people  to  fight  for  the  Union,  but  not  to  summon 
them  to  fight  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  as  a  primary 
object ;  and  this  declaration  gave  him  numberless  sol- 
diers for  the  Union  who  at  that  period  would  have 
hesitated  to  do  battle  against  the  institution  of  slavery. 
For  a  time  he  succeeded  in  rendering  harmless  the 
cry  of  the  partisan  opposition  that  the  Republican 
administration  was  perverting  the  war  for  the  Union 
into  an  "abolition  war."  But  when  he  went  so  far 
as  to  countermand  the  acts  of  some  generals  in  the 
field,  looking  to  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  in  the 
districts  covered  by  their  commands,  loud  complaints 


SCHURZS  ESSAY.  55 

arose  from  earnest  anti-slavery  men,  who  accused  the 
President  of  turning  his  back  upon  the  anti-slavery 
cause.  Many  of  these  anti-slavery  men  will  now, 
after  a  calm  retrospect,  be  willing-  to  admit  that  it 
would  have  been  a  hazardous  policy  to  endanger,  by 
precipitating  a  demonstrative  fight  against  slavery, 
the  success  of  the  struggle  for  the  Union. 

Lincoln's  views  and  feelings  concerning  slavery 
had  not  changed.  Those  who  conversed  with  him  in- 
timately upon  the  subject  at  that  period  know  that  he 
did  not  expect  slavery  long  to  survive  the  triumph  of 
the  Union,  even  if  it  were  not  immediately  destroyed 
by  the  war.  In  this  he  was  right.  Had  the  Union 
armies  achieved  a  decisive  victory  in  an  early  period 
of  the  conflict,  and  had  the  seceded  States  been  re- 
ceived back  with  slavery,  the  "  slave  power  "  would 
then  have  been  a  defeated  power,  —  defeated  in  an 
attempt  to  carry  out  its  most  effective  threat.  It 
would  have  lost  its  prestige.  Its  menaces  would  have 
been  hollow  sound,  and  ceased  to  make  any  one  afraid. 
It  could  no  longer  have  hoped  to  expand,  to  maintain 
an  equilibrium  in  any  branch  of  Congress,  and  to  con- 
trol the  government.  The  victorious  free  States  would 
have  largely  overbalanced  it.  It  would  no  longer 
have  been  able  to  withstand  the  onset  of  a  hostile  age. 
It  could  no  longer  have  ruled,  —  and  slavery  had  to 
rule  in  order  to  live.  It  would  have  lingered  for  a 
while,  but  it  would  surely  have  been  "  in  the  course 
of  ultimate  extinction."  A  prolonged  war  precipi- 
tated the  destruction  of  slavery;  a  short  war  might 
only  have  prolonged  its  death  struggle.  Lincoln  saw 
this  clearly ;  but  he  saw  also  that,  in  a  protracted 
ieath  struggle,  it  might  still  have  kept  disloyal  senti- 
ments alive,  bred  distracting  commotions,  and  caused 


56  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

o^reat  mischief '  to  the  country.     He  therefore  hoped 
that  slavery  would  not  survive  the  war. 

But  the  question  how  he  could  rightfully  employ 
his  power  to  bring  on  its  speedy  destruction  was  to 
him  not  a  qiiestion  of  mere  sentiment.  He  himself 
set  forth  his  reasoning  upon  it,  at  a  later  period,  in 
cue  of  his  inimitable  letters.  "  I  am  naturally  anti- 
slavery,"  said  he.  "  If  slavery  is  not  wrong,  nothing 
is  wrong.  I  cannot  remember  the  time  when  I  did 
not  so  think  and  feel.  And  yet  I  have  never  under- 
stood that  the  presidency  conferred  upon  me  an  unre- 
stricted right  to  act  upon  that  judgment  and  feeling. 
It  was  in  the  oath  I  took  that  I  would,  to  the  best  of 
my  ability,  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States.  I  could  not  take  the  office 
without  taking  the  oath.  Nor  was  it  my  view  that  I 
might  take  an  oath  to  get  power,  and  break  the  oath 
in  using  that  power.  I  understood,  too,  that,  in  ordi- 
nary civil  administration,  this  oath  even  forbade  me 
practically  to  indulge  my  private  abstract  judgment 
on  the  moral  question  of  slavery.  I  did  understand, 
however,  also,  that  my  oath  imposed  upon  me  the 
duty  of  preserving,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  by  every 
indispensable  means,  that  government,  that  nation,  of 
which  the  Constitution  was  the  organic  law.  I  could 
not  feel  that,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  I  had  even 
tried  to  preserve  the  Constitution  if,  to  save  slavery, 
or  any  minor  matter,  I  should  permit  the  wi-eck  of 
government,  country,  and  Constitution  all  together." 
In  other  words,  if  the  salvation  of  the  government,  the 
Constitution,  and  the  Union  demanded  the  destruction 
of  slavery,  he  felt  it  to  be  not  only  his  right,  but  his 
sworn  duty  to  destroy  it.  Its  destruction  became  a 
necessity  of  the  war  for  the  Union. 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  57 

As  the  war  dragged  on  and  disaster  followed  dis* 
aster,  the  sense  of  that  necessity  steadily  grew  upon 
him.  Early  in  1862,  as  some  of  his  friends  well  re- 
member, he  saw,  what  Seward  seemed  not  to  see,  that 
to  give  the  war  for  the  Union  an  anti-slavery  charac- 
ter was  the  surest  means  to  prevent  the  recognition  of 
the  Southern  Confederacy  as  an  independent  nation 
by  European  powers ;  that,  slavery  being  abhorred 
by  the  moral  sense  of  civilized  mankind,  no  Euro= 
pean  government  would  dare  to  offer  so  gross  an 
insult  to  the  public  opinion  of  its  people  as  openly  to 
favor  the  creation  of  a  state  founded  upon  slavery  to 
the  prejudice  of  an  existing  nation  fighting  against 
slavery.  He  saw  also  that  slavery  untouched  was  to 
the  rebellion  an  element  of  power,  and  that  in  order 
to  overcome-  that  power  it  was  necessary  to  turn  it 
into  an  element  of  weakness.  Still,  he  felt  no  assur- 
ance that  the  plain  people  were  prepared  for  so  radical 
a  measure  as  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  by  act 
cf  the  government,  and  he  anxiously  considered  that, 
if  they  were  not,  this  great  step  might,  by  exciting  dis- 
sension at  the  Noi^th,  injure  the  cause  of  the  Union  in 
one  quarter  more  than  it  would  help  it  in  another. 
He  heartily  welcomed  an  effort  made  in  New  York  to 
mould  and  stimulate  public  sentiment  on  the  slavery 
question  by  public  meetings  boldly  pronouncing  for 
emancipation.  At  the  same  time  he  himself  cau« 
tiously  advanced  with  a  recommendation,  expressed  in 
a  special  message  to  Congress,  that  the  United  States 
should  cooperate  with  any  State  which  might  adopt 
the  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery,  giving  such  State 
pecuniary  aid  to  compensate  the  former  owners  of 
emancipated  slaves.  The  discussion  was  started,  and 
spread  rapidly.     Congress  adopted  the  resolution  re 


58  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

commended,  and  soon  went  a  step  farther  in  passing 
a  bill  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
The  plain  people  began  to  look  at  emancipation  on  a 
larger  scale,  as  a  thing  to  be  considered  seriously  by 
patriotic  citizens  ;  and  soon  Lincoln  thought  that  the 
time  was  ripe,  and  that  the  edict  of  freedom  could  be 
ventui-ed  upon  without  danger  of  serious  confusion  in 
the  Union  ranks. 

The  failure  of  McClellan's  movement  upon  Rich 
mond  increased  immensely  the  prestige  of  the  enemy. 
The  need  of  some  great  act  to  stimulate  the  vitality 
of  the  Union  cavise  seemed  to  grow  daily  moi-e  press, 
ing.  On  July  21,  1862,  Lincoln  surprised  his  cabinet 
with  the  draught  of  a  proclamation  declaring  free  the 
slaves  in  all  the  States  that  should  be  still  in  rebel- 
lion against  the  United  States  on  the  1st  of  January, 
1863.  As  to  the  matter  itself  he  announced  that  he 
had  fully  made  up  his  mind  ;  he  invited  advice  only 
concerning  the  form  and  the  time  of  publication. 
Seward  suggested  that  the  proclamation,  if  then 
brought  out,  amidst  disaster  and  distress,  would  sound 
like  the  last  shriek  of  a  perishing  cause.  Lincoln 
accepted  the  suggestion,  and  the  proclamation  was 
postponed.  Another  defeat  followed,  the  second  at 
Bull  Run.  But  when,  after  that  battle,  the  Confed-= 
erate  army,  under  Lee,  crossed  the  Potomac  and  in= 
vaded  Maryland,  Lincoln  vowed  in  his  heart  that,  if 
the  Union  army  were  now  blessed  with  success,  the 
decree  of  freedom  should  surely  be  issued.  The  vic- 
tory of  Antietam  was  won  on  September  17,  and  the 
preliminary  Emancipation  Proclamation  came  forth 
on  the  22d.  It  was  Lincoln's  own  resolution  and  act ; 
but  practically  it  bound  the  nation,  and  permitted  no 
Btep  backward.     In  spite  of  its  limitations,  it  was  the 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  59 

actual  abolition  of  slavery.  Thus  he  wrote  his  name 
upon  the  books  of  history  with  the  title  dearest  to  his 
heart,  —  the  liberator  of  the  slave. 

It  is  true,  the  great  proclamation,  which  stamped 
the  war  as  one  for  "  union  and  freedom,"  did  not  at 
once  mark  the  turning  of  the  tide  on  the  field  of  mili- 
tary operations.  There  were  more  disasters,  —  Fred- 
ericksburg and  Chancellors ville.  But  with  Gettys- 
burg and  Vicksburg  the  whole  aspect  of  the  war 
changed.  Step  by  step,  now  more  slowly,  then  more 
rapidly,  but  with  increasing  steadiuess,  the  flag  of 
the  Union  advanced  from  field  to  field  toward  the 
final  consummation.  The  decree  of  emancipation  was 
naturally  followed  by  the  enlistment  of  emancipated 
negroes  in  the  Union  armies.  This  measure  had  a 
farther  reaching  effect  than  merely  giving  the  Union 
armies  an  increased  supply  of  men.  The  laboring 
force  of  the  rebellion  was  hopelessly  disorganized. 
The  war  became  like  a  problem  of  arithmetic.  As 
the  Union  armies  pushed  forward,  the  area  from 
which  the  Southei-n  Confederacy  could  draw  recruits 
and  supplies  constantly  grew  smaller,  while  the  area 
from  which  the  Union  recruited  its  strength  con- 
stantly grew  larger  :  and  everywhere,  even  within  the 
Southern  lines,  the  Union  had  its  allies.  The  fate  of 
the  rebellion  was  then  virtually  decided  ;  but  it  still 
required  much  bloody  work  to  convince  the  brave 
warriors  who  fought  for  it  that  they  were  really 
beaten. 

Neither  did  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  ^  forth- 
with command  universal  assent  among  the  people  who 
were  loyal  to  the  Union.     There  were  even  signs  of  a 

1  The  text  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  will  be  found 
in  Number  32,  Riverside  Literature  series. 


60  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

reaction  against  the  administration  in  the  fall  elec* 
iions  of  1862,  seemingly  justifying  the  opinion,  enters 
tained  by  many,  that  the  President  had  really  antici- 
pated the  development  of  popular  feeling.  The  cry 
that  the  v/ar  for  the  Union  had  been  turned  into  an 
"  abolition  war  "  was  raised  again  by  the  opposition 
and  more  loudly  than  ever.  But  the  good  sense  an« 
patriotic  instincts  of  the  plain  people  gradually  mar- 
shalled themselves  on  Lincoln's  side,  and  he  lost  no 
opportunity  to  help  on  tliis  process  by  personal  argu- 
ment and  admonition.  There  never  has  been  a  Presi- 
dent in  such  constant  and  active  contact  with  the 
public  opinion  of  the  country,  as  there  never  has  been 
a  President  who,  while  at  the  head  of  the  government, 
remained  so  near  to  the  people.  Beyond  the  circle  of 
those  who  had  long  known  him,  the  feeling  steadily 
grew  that  the  man  in  the  White  House  was  ''  honest 
Abe  Lincoln  "  still,  and  that  every  citizen  might  ap~ 
proach  him  with  complaint,  expostulation,  or  advice, 
without  danger  of  meeting  a  rebuff  from  power-proud 
authority  or  humiliating  condescension  ;  and  this 
privilege  was  used  by  so  many  and  with  such  unspar- 
ing freedom  that  only  superhuman  patience  could 
have  endured  it  all.  There  are  men  now  living  who 
would  to-day  read  with  amazement,  if  not  regret,  what 
they  then  ventured  to  say  or  write  to  him.  But  Lin- 
coln repelled  no  one  whom  he  believed  to  speak  to 
him  in  good  faith  and  with  patriotic  i)urpose.  No 
good  advice  would  go  vmheeded.  No  candid  criticism 
woukl  offend  him.  No  honest  opposition,  while  it 
might  pain  him,  would  produce  a  lasting  alienation  of 
feeling  between  him  and  the  opponent.  It  may  truly 
be  said  that  few  men  in  power  have  ever  been  ex- 
posed to  more  daring  attempts  to  direct  their  course, 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  61 

to  severer  censure  of  their  acts,  and  to  more  cruel 
misrepresentation  of  their  motives.  And  all  this  he 
met  with  that  good-natured  humor  peculiarly  his  own, 
and  with  untiring  effort  to  see  the  right  and  to  im- 
press it  upon  those  who  differed  from  him.  The  con- 
versations he  had  and  the  correspondence  he  carried 
on  upon  matters  of  public  interest,  not  only  with  men 
in  official  position,  but  with  private  citizens,  were  al- 
most unceasing,  and  in  a  large  number  of  public  let- 
ters, written  ostensibly  to  meetings,  or  committees,  or 
persons  of  importance,  he  addressed  himself  directly 
to  the  popular  mind.  Most  of  these  letters  stand 
among  the  finest  monuments  of  our  political  litera- 
ttu'e.  Thus  he  presented  the  singular  spectacle  of  a 
President  who,  in  the  midst  of  a  great  civil  war,  with 
unprecedented  duties  weighing  upon  him,  was  con- 
stantly in  person  debating  the  great  features  of  his 
policy  with  the  people. 

While  in  this  manner  he  exercised  an  ever-increas- 
ing influence  upon  the  popular  understanding,  his 
sympathetic  nature  endeared  him  more  and  more  to 
the  popular  heart.  In  vain  did  journals  and  speakers 
of  the  opposition  represent  him  as  a  light-minded 
trifler,  who  amused  himself  with  frivolous  story-tell- 
ing and  coarse  jokes,  while  the  blood  of  the  people 
was  flowing  in  streams.  The  people  knew  that  the 
man  at  the  head  of  affairs,  on  whose  haggard  face  the 
twinkle  of  humor  so  frequently  changed  into  an  ex- 
pression of  profoundest  sadness,  was  more  than  any 
other  deeply  distressed  by  the  suffering  he  witnessed ; 
that  he  felt  the  pain  of  every  wound  that  was  inflicted 
on  the  battlefield,  and  the  anguish  of  every  woman  or 
child  who  had  lost  husband  or  father  ;  that  whenever 
he  could  he  was  eajrer  to  alleviate  sori-ow,  and  that 


62  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

his  mercy  was  never  imjjlorecl  in  vain.  They  lookerl 
to  him  as  one  who  was  with  them  and  of  them  in  aJl 
their  hopes  and  fears,  their  joys  and  sorrows,  —  who 
laughed  with  them  and  wept  with  them  ;  and  as  his 
heart  was  theirs,  so  their  hearts  turned  to  him.  Plis 
popularity  was  far  different  from  that  of  Washington, 
who  was  revered  with  awe,  or  that  of  Jackson,  the 
unconquerable  hero,  for  whom  party  enthusiasm  never 
grew  weary  of  shouting.  To  Abraham  Lincoln  the 
people  became  bound  by  a  genuine  sentimental  attach- 
ment. It  was  not  a  matter  of  respect,  or  confidence, 
or  party  pride,  for  this  feeling  spread  far  beyond 
the  boundary  lines  of  his  party  ;  it  was  an  affair  of 
the  heart,  independent  of  mere  reasoning.  When  the 
soldiers  in  the  field  or  their  folks  at  home  spoke  of 
"  Father  Abraham,"  there  was  no  cant  in  it.  They 
felt  that  their  President  was  really  caring  for  them  as 
a  father  would,  and  that  they  could  go  to  him,  every 
one  of  them,  as  they  would  go  to  a  father,  and  talk  to 
him  of  what  ti'oubled  them,  sure  to  find  a  willing  ear 
and  tender  sympathy.  Thus,  their  President,  and  his 
cause,  and  his  endeavors,  and  his  success  gradually 
became  to  them  almost  matters  of  family  concern. 
And  this  popularity  carried  him  triumphantly  through 
the  presidential  election  of  1864,  in  spite  of  an  oppo- 
sition within  his  own  party  which  at  first  seemed  very 
formidable. 

Many  of  the  radical  anti-slavery  men  were  never 
quite  satisfied  with  Lincoln's  ways  of  meeting  the 
problems  of  the  time.  They  were  very  earnest  and 
mostly  very  able  men,  who  had  positive  ideas  as  to 
"  how  this  rebellion  should  be  put  down."  They 
would  not  recognize  the  necessity  of  measuring  the 
steps  of  the  government  according  to  the  progress  of 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  63 

opinion  among  the  plain  people.  They  criticised 
Lincoln's  cautious  management  as  irresolute,  halting, 
lacking  in  definite  purpose  and  in  energy ;  he  should 
not  have  delayed  emancipation  so  long ;  he  should  not 
have  confided  important  commands  to  men  of  doubt- 
ful views  as  to  slavery ;  he  should  have  authorized 
military  commanders  to  set  the  slaves  free  as  they 
went  on ;  he  dealt  too  leniently  with  unsuccessful 
generals  ;  he  should  have  put  down  all  factious  oppo- 
sition with  a  strong  hand  instead  of  trying  to  pacify 
it ;  he  should  have  given  the  people  accomplished 
facts  instead  of  arguing  with  them,  and  so  on.  It  is 
true,  these  criticisms  were  not  always  entirely  im- 
founded.  Lincoln's  policy  had,  with  the  virtues  of 
democratic  government,  some  of  its  weaknesses,  which 
in  the  presence  of  pressing  exigencies  were  apt  to 
deprive  governmental  action  of  the  necessary  vigor  ; 
and  his  kindness  of  heart,  his  disposition  always  to 
respect  the  feelings  of  others,  frequently  made  him 
recoil  from  anything  like  severity,  even  when  severity 
was  urgently  called  for.  But  many  of  his  radical 
critics  have  since  then  revised  their  judgment  suffi- 
ciently to  admit  that  Lincoln's  policy  was,  on  the 
whole,  the  wisest  and  safest ;  that  a  policy  of  heroic 
methods,  while  it  has  sometimes  accomplished  great 
results,  could  in  a  democracy  like  ours  be  maintained 
only  by  constant  success  ;  that  it  would  have  quickly 
broken  down  under  the  weight  of  disaster  ;  that  it 
might  have  been  successful  from  the  start,  had  the 
Union,  at  the  beginning  of  the  conflict,  had  its  Grants 
and  Shermans  and  Sheridans,  its  Farraguts  and  Por- 
ters, fully  matured  at  the  head  of  its  forces  ;  but  tiiat, 
as  the  great  commanders  had  to  be  evolved  slowly 
from  the  developments  of  the  war,  constant  success 


64  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

could  not  be  counted  upon,  and  it  was  Lest  to  follow 
a  policy  which  was  in  friendly  contact  with  the  popu- 
lar force,  and  therefore  more  fit  to  stand  the  trial 
of  misfortune  on  the  battlefield.  But  at  that  period 
they  thought  differently,  and  their  dissatisfaction  with 
Lincoln's  doings  was  greatly  increased  by  the  ste^^s  he 
took  toward  the  reconstruction  of  rebel  States  then 
partially  in  possession  of  the  Union  forces. 

In  December,  1863,  Lincoln  issued  an  amnesty 
proclamation,  offering  pardon  to  all  implicated  in  the 
rebellion,  with  certain  specified  exceptions,  on  condi- 
tion of  their  taking  and  maintaining  an  oath  to  sup- 
port the  Constitution  and  obey  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  and  the  proclamations  of  the  President  witli 
regard  to  slaves  ;  and  also  promising  that  when,  in 
any  of  the  rebel  States,  a  number  of  citizens  equal  to 
one  tenth  of  the  voters  in  1860  should  reestablish  a 
state  government  in  conformity  with  the  oath  above 
mentioned,  such  should  be  recognized  by  the  Execu- 
tive as  the  true  government  of  the  State.  The  pro- 
clamation seemed  at  first  to  be  received  with  general 
favor.  But  soon  another  scheme  of  reconstruction, 
much  more  stringent  in  its  provisions,  was  put  for- 
ward in  the  House  of  Representatives  by  Henry 
Winter  Davis.  Benjamin  Wade  championed  it  in 
the  Senate.  It  passed  in  the  closing  moments  of  the 
session  in  July,  1864,  and  Lincoln,  instead  of  making 
it  a  law  by  his  signature,  embodied  the  text  of  it  in 
a  proclamation  as  a  plan  of  reconstruction  worthy  of 
being  earnestly  considered.  The  differences  of  opin- 
ion concerning  this  subject  had  only  intensified  the 
feeling  against  Lincoln  which  had  long  been  nursed 
among  the  radicals,  and  some  of  them  openly  declared 
then*  purpose  of  resisting  his  reelection  to  the  presi- 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  65 

dency.  Similar  sentiments  wei-e  manifested  by  tiie 
advanced  anti-slavery  men  of  Missouri,  who,  in  their 
hot  faction-fight  with  the  ^  conservatives "  of  that 
State,  had  not  received  from  Lincoln  the  active  sup- 
port they  demanded.  Still  another  class  of  Union 
men,  mainly  in  the  East,  gravely  shook  their  heads 
when  considering  the  question  whether  Lincoln  should 
he  reelected.  They  w^ere  those  who  cherished  in  their 
minds  an  ideal  of  statesmanship  and  of  personal  bear- 
ing in  high  office  with  which,  in  their  opinion,  Lin- 
coln's individuality  was  much  out  of  accord.  They 
were  shocked  when  they  heard  him  cap  an  argument 
upon  grave  affairs  of  state  with  a  story  about  "  a  man 
out  in  Sangamon  County,"  —  a  story,  to  be  sure, 
strikingly  clinching  his  point,  but  sadly  lacking  in 
dignity.  They  could  not  understand  the  man  wdio 
was  capable,  in  opening  a  cabinet  meeting,  of  reading 
to  his  secretaries  a  funny  chapter  from  a  recent  book 
of  Artemus  Ward,  with  which  in  an  unoccupied  mo- 
ment he  had  relieved  his  care-burdened  mind,  and  who 
then  solemnly  informed  the  executive  council  that  he 
had  vowed  in  his  heart  to  issue  a  proclamation  eman- 
cipating the  slaves  as  soon  as  God  blessed  the  Union 
arms  with  another  victory.  They  were  alarmed  at  the 
weakness  of  a  President  who  would  indeed  resist  the 
urgent  remonstrances  of  statesmen  against  his  policy, 
but  could  not  resist  the  prayer  of  an  old  woman  for 
the  pardon  of  a  soldier  who  was  sentenced  to  be 
shot  for  desertion.  Such  men,  mostly  sincere  and 
ardent  patriots,  not  only  wished,  but  earnestly  set  to 
work,  to  prevent  Lincoln's  renomination.  Not  a  few 
of  them  actually  believed,  in  1863,  that,  if  the  na- 
tional convention  of  the  Union  party  were  held  then, 
Lincoln  would  not  be  supported  by  the  delegation  o$ 


66  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

a  single  State.  But  when  the  convention  met  at 
Baltimore,  in  June,  1864,  the  voice  of  the  people  was 
heard.  On  the  first  ballot  Lincoln  received  the  votes 
of  the  delegations  from  all  the  States  except  Missouri ; 
and  even  the  Missourians  turned  over  their  votes  to 
him  before  the  result  of  the  ballot  was  declared. 

But  even  after  his  renomination,  the  opposition  to 
Lincoln  within  the  ranks  of  the  Union  party  did  not 
subside.  A  convention,  called  by  the  dissatisfied  radi- 
cals in  Missouri,  and  favored  by  men  of  a  similar  way 
of  thinking  in  other  States,  had  been  held  already 
in  May,  and  had  nominated  as  its  candidate  for  the 
presidency  General  Fremont.  He,  indeed,  did  not 
attract  a  strong  following,  but  opposition  movements 
from  different  quarters  appeared  more  formidable. 
Henry  Winter  Davis  and  Benjamin  Wade  assailed. 
Lincoln  in  a  flaming  manifesto.  Other  Union  men, 
of  undoubted  patriotism  and  high  standing,  persuaded 
themselves,  and  sought  to  persuade  tlie  people,  that 
Lincoln's  renomination  was  ill  advised  and  dangerous 
to  the  Union  cause.  As  the  Democrats  had  put  oft" 
their  convention  until  the  29th  of  August,  the  Union 
party  had,  during  the  larger  part  of  the  summer, 
no  opposing  candidate  and  platform  to  attack,  and 
the  political  campaign  languished.  Neither  were  the 
tidings  from  the  theatre  of  war  of  a  cheering  charac- 
ter. The  terrible  losses  suffered  by  Grant's  army  in 
the  battles  of  the  Wilderness  spread  general  gloom. 
Sherman  seemed  for  a  while  to  be  in  a  precarious 
position  before  Atlanta.  The  opposition  to  Lincoln 
within  the  Union  party  grew  louder  in  its  comjjlaints 
and  discouraging  predictions.  Earnest  demands  were 
heard  that  his  candidacy  should  be  withdrawn.  Lin- 
coln himself,  not  knowing   how  strongly  the  masses 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  67 

were  attached  to  him,  was  haunted  by  dai-k  forebod- 
ings of  defeat.  Then  the  scene  suddenly  changed  as 
if  by  magic.  The  Democrats,  in  their  national  con- 
vention, declared  the  war  a  failure,  demanded,  sub- 
stantially, peace  at  any  price,  and  nominated  on  such 
a  platform  General  McClellan  as  their  candidate„ 
Their  convention  had  hai-dly  adjourned  when  the 
capture  of  Atlanta  gave  a  new  aspect  to  the  military- 
situation.  It  was  like  a  sun-ray  bursting  through  a 
dark  cloud.  The  rank  and  file  of  the  Union  party 
rose  with  rapidly  growing  enthusiasm.  The  song 
"  We  are  coming.  Father  Abraham,  three  hundred 
thousand  strong,"  resounded  all  over  the  land.  Long 
before  the  decisive  day  arrived,  the  result  was  beyond 
doubt,  and  Lincoln  was  reelected  President  by  over- 
whelming majorities.  The  election  over,  even  his 
sevei-est  critics  found  themselves  forced  to  admit  that 
Lincoln  was  the  only  possible  candidate  for  the  Union 
party  in  1864,  and  that  neither  political  combinations 
nor  campaign  speeches,  nor  even  victories  in  the  field, 
were  needed  to  insure  his  success.  The  plain  people 
had  all  the  while  been  satisfied  witli  Abraham  Lincoln  : 
they  confided  in  him  ;  they  loved  him  ;  they  felt  them- 
selves near  to  him  ;  they  saw  personified  in  him  the 
cause  of  Union  and  freedom  ;  and  they  went  to  the 
ballot-box  for  him  in  their  strength. 

The  hour  of  triumph  called  out  the  characteristic 
impulses  of  his  nature.  The  opposition  within  the 
Union  party  had  stung  him  to  the  quick.  Now  he 
had  his  opponents  before  him,  baffled  and  humiliated. 
Not  a  moment  did  he  lose  to  stretch  out  the  hand  of 
friendship  to  all.  "  Now  that  the  election  is  over," 
he  said,  in  i-esponse  to  a  serenade,  "  may  not  all,  hav- 
ing a  common  interest,  reunite  in  a  common  effort  to 


68  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

save  our  common  country  ?  For  my  own  part,  I  have 
striven,  and  will  strive,  to  place  no  obstacle  in  the 
way.  So  long  as  I  have  been  here  I  have  not  willingly 
planted  a  thorn  in  any  man's  bosom.  While  I  am 
deeply  sensible  to  the  high  compliment  of  a  reelec- 
tion, it  adds  nothing  to  my  satisfaction  that  any  other 
man  may  be  pained  or  disappointed  by  the  result. 
May  I  ask  those  who  were  with  me  to  join  with  me  in 
the  same  spirit  toward  those  who  were  against  me  ?  " 
This  was  Abraham  Lincoln's  character  as  tested  in 
the  furnace  of  prosperity. 

Tlie  war  was  virtually  decided,  but  not  yet  ended. 
Sherman  was  irresistibly  carrying  the  Union  flag 
through  the  South.  Grant  had  his  iron  hand  upon  the 
ramparts  of  Richmond.  The  days  of  the  Confederacy 
were  evidently  numbered.  Only  the  last  blow  re- 
mained to  be  struck.  Then  Lincoln's  second  inaugu- 
ration came,  and  with  it  his  second  inaugural  address. 
Lincoln's  famous  "  Gettysburg  speech "  ^  has  been 
much  and  justly  admired.  But  far  greater,  as  well  as 
far  more  characteristic,  was  that  inaugural  in  which  he 
poured  out  the  whole  devotion  and  tenderness  of  his 
great  soul.  It  had  all  the  solemnity  of  a  father's  last 
admonition  and  blessing  to  his  children  before  he  lay 
down  to  die.  These  were  its  closing  words :  "  Fondly 
do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that  this  mighty 
scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet  if  God 
wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  up  by 
the  bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unre- 
quited toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of 
blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another 
drawn   with  the   sword,  as  was  said  three   thousand 

*  Both  the  second  inangiirnl  address  and  the  Gettysburg 
Bpeech  are  printed  in  No.  32,  Riverside  Literature  series. 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  69 

years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  '  The  judgnieiits  of 
the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether.'  With 
malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness 
in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us 
strive  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in  ;  to  bind  up  the 
nation's  wounds  ;  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne 
the  battle,  and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphan;  to  do 
all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  lasting 
peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  nations." 

This  was  like  a  sacred  poem.  No  American  Pre- 
sident  had  ever  spoken  words  like  these  to  the  Ameri- 
can jjeople.  America  never  had  a  President  who 
found  such  words  in  the  depth  of  his  heart. 

Now  followed  the  closing  scenes  of  the  war.  The 
Southern  armies  fought  bravely  to  the  last,  but  all  in 
vain.  Richmond  fell.  Lincoln  himself  entered  the 
city  on  foot,  accompanied  only  by  a  few  officers  and  a 
squad  of  sailors  who  had  rowed  him  ashore  from  the 
flotilla  in  the  James  River,  a  negro  picked  up  on  the 
way  serving  as  a  guide.  Never  had  the  world  seen 
a  more  modest  conqueror  and  a  more  characteristic 
triumphal  procession,  —  no  army  with  banners  and 
drums,  only  a  throng  of  those  who  had  been  slaves, 
hastily  run  together,  escorting  the  victorious  chief 
into  the  capital  of  the  vanquished  foe.  We  are  told 
that  they  pressed  around  him,  kissed  his  hands  and  his 
garments,  and  shouted  and  danced  for  joy,  while  tears 
ran  down  the  President's  care-fuiTOwed  cheeks. 

A  few  days  more  brought  the  surrender  of  Lee's 
army,  and  peace  was  assured.  The  people  of  the 
North  were  wild  with  joy.  Everywhere  festive  guns 
were  booming,  bells  pealing,  the  churches  ringing  with 
thanksgivings,  and  jubilant  multitudes  thi'onging  the 
thoronahfares,  when   suddenly  the  news  flashed   over 


70  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

the  land  that  Abraham  Lincohi  had  been  murdered. 
The  people  were  stunned  by  the  blow.  Then  a  wail 
j)f  sorrow  went  up  such  as  America  had  never  heard 
before.  Thousands  of  Northern  households  grieved 
as  if  they  had  lost  their  dearest  member.  Many  a 
Southern  man  cried  out  in  his  heart  that  his  people 
had  been  robbed  of  their  best  friend  in  their  humilia- 
tion and  distress,  when  Abraham  Lincoln  was  struck 
down.  It  was  as  if  the  tender  affection  which  his 
countrymen  bore  him  had  inspii'ed  all  nations  with 
a  common  sentiment.  All  civilized  mankind  stood 
mourning  around  the  coffin  of  the  dead  President. 
Many  of  those,  here  and  abroad,  who  not  long  before 
had  ridiculed  and  reviled  him  were  among  the  first  to 
hasten  on  with  their  flowers  of  eulogy,  and  in  that 
universal  chorus  of  lamentation  and  praise  there  was 
not  a  voice  that  did  not  tremble  with  genuine  emotion. 
Never  since  Washington's  death  had  there  been  such 
unanimity  of  judgment  as  to  a  man's  virtues  and  great- 
ness ;  and  even  Washington's  death,  although  his 
name  was  held  in  greater  reverence,  did  not  touch  so 
sympathetic  a  chord  in  the  people's  hearts. 

Nor  can  it  be  said  that  this  was  owing  to  the  tragic 
character  of  Lincoln's  end.  It  is  true,  the  death  of 
this  gentlest  and  most  merciful  of  rulei-s  by  the  hand 
of  a  mad  fanatic  was  well  apt  to  exalt  him  beyond  h'u 
merits  in  the  estimation  of  those  who  loved  him,  and 
to  make  his  renown  the  object  of  peculiarly  tender 
solicitude.  But  it  is  also  true  that  the  verdict  pro- 
nounced upon  him  in  those  days  has  been  affected 
little  by  time,  and  that  historical  inquiry  has  served 
rather  to  increase  than  to  lessen  the  appreciation  of 
his  virtues,  his  abilities,  his  services.  Giving  the  full- 
est measure  of  credit  to  his  great  ministers,  —  to  Sew 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  71 

arJ  for  Ins  conduct  of  foreign  affairs,  to  Chase  for  the 
management  of  the  finances  under  terrible  difficulties, 
to  Stanton  for  the  performance  of  his  tremendous  task 
as  war  secretary,  —  and  readily  acknowledging  that 
without  the  skill  and  fortitude  of  the  great  command- 
ers, and  the  heroism  of  the  soldiers  and  sailors  under 
them,  success  could  not  have  been  achieved,  the  histo 
1  ian  still  finds  that  Lincoln's  judgment  and  will  were 
by  no  means  governed  by  those  around  him ;  that  tiie 
most  important  steps  were  owing  to  his  initiative; 
that  his  was  the  deciding  and  directing  mind  ;  and 
that  it  was  preeminently  he  whose  sagacity  and  wh<»se 
character  enlisted  for  the  administration  in  its  strug- 
gles the  countenance,  the  sympathy,  and  the  support 
of  the  people.  It  is  found,  even,  that  his  judgment 
on  military  matters  was  astonishingly  acute,  and  that 
the  advice  and  instructions  he  gave  to  the  generals 
commanding  in  the  field  would  not  seldom  have  done 
honor  to  the  ablest  of  them.  History,  therefore,  with- 
out overlooking  or  palliating  or  excusing  any  of  his 
shortcomings  or  mistakes,  continues  to  place  him  fore- 
most among  the  saviours  of  the  Union  and  the  libera- 
tors of  the  slave.  More  than  that,  it  awards  to  him 
the  merit  of  having  accomplished  what  but  few  polit- 
ical philosophers  would  have  recognized  as  possible,  — • 
of  leading  the  republic  through  four  years  of  furious 
civil  conflict  without  any  serious  detriment  to  its  free 
institutions. 

He  was,  indeed,  while  President,  violently  de- 
nounced by  the  opposition  as  a  tyrant  and  a  usurper, 
for  having  gone  beyond  his  constitutional  powers  in 
authorizing  or  permitting  the  temporary  suppression 
of  newspapers,  and  in  wantonly  suspending  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  and  resorting  to  arbitrary  arrestSi 


72  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Nobody  should  be  blamed  who,  when  such  things  are 
done,  in  good  faith  and  from  patriotic  motives  pro- 
tests against  them.  In  a  republic,  arbitrary  stretches 
of  power,  even  when  demanded  by  necessity,  shoulc^ 
never  be  permitted  to  pass  without  a  protest  on  the 
one  hand,  and  without  an  apology  on  the  other.  It 
is  well  they  did  not  so  pass  during  our  civil  war.  That 
arbitrary  measures  were  resorted  to,  is  true.  That 
they  were  resorted  to  most  sparingly,  and  only  when 
the  government  thought  them  absolutely  required  by 
the  safety  of  the  republic,  will  now  hardly  be  denied. 
But  certain  it  is  that  the  history  of  the  world  does 
not  furnish  a  single  example  of  a  government  passing 
tlnxHigh  so  tremendous  a  crisis  as  our  civil  war  was 
with  so  small  a  record  of  arbiti'ary  acts,  and  so  little 
interference  with  the  ordinary  course  of  law  outside  the 
field  of  military  operations.  No  American  President 
ever  wielded  such  power  as  that  which  was  thrust  into 
Lincoln's  hands.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  no  American 
President  ever  will  have  to  be  intrusted  with  such 
power  again.  But  no  man  was  ever  intrusted  with  it 
to  whom  its  seductions  wei-e  less  dangerous  than  they 
proved  to  be  to  Abraham  Lincoln.  With  scrupulous 
care  he  endeavored,  even  under  the  most  trying  cir- 
cumstances, to  remain  strictly  within  the  constitutional 
limitations  of  his  authority  ;  and  whenever  the  bound- 
ary became  indistinct,  or  when  the  dangers  of  the  situ- 
ation forced  him  to  cross  it,  he  was  equally  careful  to 
mark  his  acts  as  exceptional  measures,  justifiable  only 
by  the  imperative  necessities  of  the  civil  war,  so  that 
they  might  not  pass  into  history  as  precedents  for 
similar  acts  in  time  of  peace.  It  is  an  unquestiona- 
ble fact  that  during  the  reconstruction  period  which 
followed  tlie  war,  more  things  were  done  capable  of 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  73 

serving  as  dangerous  precedents  than  during  the  war 
itself.  Thus  it  may  truly  be  said  of  him  not  only  that 
under  his  guidance  the  republic  was  saved  from  dis- 
ruption and  the  country  was  purified  of  the  blot  of 
slavery,  but  that,  during  the  stormiest  and  most  peril- 
ous crisis  in  our  history,  he  so  conducted  the  govern- 
ment and  so  wielded  his  almost  dictatorial  power  as 
to  leave  essentially  intact  our  free  institutions  in  all 
things  that  concern  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  cit- 
izen. He  understood  well  the  nature  of  the  problem. 
In  his  first  message  to  Congress  he  defined  it  in 
admirably  pointed  language :  "  Must  a  government 
be  of  necessity  too  strong  for  the  liberties  of  its  own 
people,  or  too  weak  to  maintain  its  own  existence? 
Is  there  in  all  republics  this  inherent  weakness  ? " 
This  question  he  answered  in  the  name  of  the  great 
American  republic,  as  no  man  could  have  answered 
it  better,  with  a  triumphant  "'  No." 

It  has  been  said  that  Abraham  Lincoln  died  at  the 
right  moment  for  his  fame.  However  that  may  be, 
he  had,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  certainly  not  ex- 
hausted his  usefulness  to  his  country.  He  was  proba- 
bly the  only  man  who  could  have  guided  the  nation 
through  the  perplexities  of  the  reconstruction  period 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  prevent  in  the  work  of  peace 
the  revival  of  the  passions  of  the  war.  He  would 
indeed  not  have  escaped  serious  controversy  as  to 
details  of  policy ;  but  he  could  have  weathered  it  far 
better  than  any  other  statesman  of  his  time,  for  his 
prestige  with  the  active  politicians  had  been  inimenselv 
strengthened  by  his  triumphant  reelection  ;  and  wliat 
is  more  important,  he  would  have  been  supported  by 
the  confidence  of  the  victorious  Northern  people  that 
he  would  do  all  to  s(>eure  the  safety  of  the  Union  and 


74  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

the  rights  of  the  emancipated  negro,  and  at  the  same 
time  by  the  confidence  of  the  defeated  Southern  peo- 
ple that  nothing  would  be  done  by  him  from  motives 
of  vindictiveness,  or  of  unreasonable  fanaticism,  or  of 
a  selfish  party  spirit.  "  With  malice  toward  none, 
with  charity  for  all,"  the  foremost  of  the  victors  would 
have  personified  in  himself  the  genius  of  reconcilia- 
tion. 

He  might  have  rendered  the  country  a  great  ser- 
vice in  another  direction.  A  few  days  after  the  fall 
of  Richmond,  he  pointed  out  to  a  friend  the  crowd  of 
office-seekers  besieging  his  door.  "  Look  at  that," 
said  he.  "  Now  we  have  conquered  the  rebellion,  but 
here  you  see  something  that  may  become  more  danger- 
ous to  this  republic  than  the  rebellion  itself."  It  is 
true,  Lincoln  as  Pi-esident  did  not  profess  what  we 
now  call  civil  service  reform  principles.  He  used  the 
patronage  of  the  government  in  many  cases  avowedly 
to  rewai'd  party  work,  in  many  others  to  form  combi- 
nations and  to  produce  political  effects  advantageous 
to  the  Union  cause,  and  in  still  others  simply  to 
put  the  right  man  into  the  right  place.  But  in  his 
endeavors  to  strengthen  the  Union  cause,  and  in  his 
search  for  able  and  useful  men  for  public  duties,  he 
frequently  went  beyond  the  limits  of  his  party,  and 
gradually  accustomed  himself  to  the  thought  that, 
while  party  service  had  its  value,  considerations  of 
the  public  interest  were,  as  to  appointments  to  office, 
of  far  greater  consequence.  Moreover,  there  had 
been  such  a  mingling  of  different  political  elements 
in  support  of  the  Union  during  the  civil  war  that 
Lincoln,  standing  at  the  head  of  that  temporarily 
united  motley  mass,  hardly  felt  himself,  in  the  narrow 
sense  of  the  term,  a 'party  man.     And  as  he  became 


SCHURZ'S  ESSAY.  lb 

strongly  impressed  with  the  clangers  brought  upon  the 
republic  by  the  use  of  public  offices  as  party  spoils,  it 
is  by  no  means  improbable  that  had  he  survived  the 
all-absorbing  crisis  and  found  time  to  turn  to  other 
objects,  one  of  the  most  important  reforms  of  later 
days  would  have  been  pioneered  by  his  powerful  au= 
thority.  This  was  not  to  be.  But  the  measure  of  his 
achievements  was  full  enough  for  immortality. 

To  the  younger  generation  Abraham  Lincoln  has 
already  become  a  half-mythical  figure,  which,  in  the 
haze  of  historic  distance,  grows  to  more  and  more 
heroic  proportions,  but  also  loses  in  distinctness  of 
outline  and  feature.  This  is  indeed  the  common  lot 
of  popular  heroes ;  but  the  Lincoln  legend  will  be 
more  than  ordinarily  apt  to  become  fanciful,  as  his 
individuality,  assembling  seemingly  incongruous  qual- 
ities and  forces  in  a  character  at  the  same  time  grand 
and  most  lovable,  was  so  unique,  and  his  career  so 
abounding  in  startling  contrasts.  As  the  state  of 
society  in  which  Abraham  Lincoln  grew  up  passes 
away,  the  world  will  read  with  increasing  wonder  of 
the  man  who,  not  only  of  the  humblest  origin,  but 
remaining  the  simplest  and  most  unpretending  of  citi- 
zens, was  raised  to  a  position  of  power  unprecedented 
in  our  history  ;  who  was  the  gentlest  and  most  peace- 
loving  of  mortals,  unable  to  see  any  creature  suffer 
without  a  pang  in  his  own  bi'east,  and  suddenly  found 
himself  called  to  conduct  the  greatest  and  bloodiest  of 
our  wars ;  who  wielded  the  power  of  government  when 
otern  resolution  and  relentless  force  were  the  order  of 
iJie  day,  and  then  won  and  ruled  the  popular  mind 
and  heart  by  the  tender  sympathies  of  his  nature  ; 
who  was  a  cautious  conservative  by  temperament  and 
mental  habit,  and  led  the  most  sudden  and  sweejiing 


76  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

social  revolution  of  our  time  ;  who,  preserving  his 
homely  speech  and  rustic  manner  even  in  the  most 
conspicuous  position  of  that  period,  drew  upon  him- 
self the  scoffs  of  polite  society,  and  then  thrilled  tlie 
soul  of  mankind  with  utterances  of  wonderful  beauty 
and  grandeur  ;  who,  in  his  heart  the  best  friend  of 
the  defeated  South,  was  murdered  because  a  crazy 
fanatic  took  him  for  its  most  cruel  enemy ;  who,  while 
in  power,  was  beyond  measure  lampoonsd  and  ma= 
ligned  by  sectional  passion  and  an  excited  party  spirit, 
and  around  whose  bier  friend  and  foe  gathered  to 
praise  him  —  which  they  have  since  never  ceased  to 
do  —  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  Americans  and  the  best 
of  men. 


,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

REMARKS  AT  THE  FUNERAL  SERVICES  HELD  IN  CON- 
CORD,  APRIL  19,  1865. 

BY    RALPH    WALDO    EMERSON. 

We  meet  under  the  gloom  of  a  calamity  which 
darkens  down  over  the  minds  of  good  men  in  all  civil 
society,  as  the  fearful  tidings  travel  over  sea,  over 
land,  from  countiy  to  country,  like  the  shadow  of  an 
uncalculated  eclipse  over  the  planet.  Old  as  history 
is,  and  manifold  as  are  its  tragedies,  I  doubt  if  any 
death  has  caused  so  much  pain  to  mankind  as  this 
has  caused,  or  will  cause,  on  its  announcement ;  and 
this,  not  so  much  because  nations  are  by  modern  arts 
brought  so  closely  together,  as  because  of  the  mysteri- 
ous hopes  and  fears  which,  in  the  present  day,  are  con- 
nected with  the  name  and  institutions  of  America. 

In  this  country,  on  Saturday,  every  one  was  struck 
dumb,  and  saw  at  first  only  deep  below  deep,  as  he 
meditated  on  the  ghastly  blow.  And  perhaps,  at  this 
hour,  when  the  coffin  which  contains  the  dust  of  the 
President  sets  forward  on  its  long  march  through 
mourning  States,  on  its  way  to  his  home  in  Illinois, 
we  might  well  be  silent,  and  suffer  the  awful  voices  of 
the  time  to  thunder  to  us.  Yes,  but  that  fii'st  despair 
was  brief  :  the  man  was  not  so  to  be  mourned.  He 
was  the  most  active  and  hopeful  of  men  ;  and  his 
work  had  not  perished :  but  acclamations  of  praise 
tor  the   task   he   had   accomplished  burst  out  into  a 


78  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

song  of  triumph,  which  even  tears  for  his  death  can- 
not keep  down. 

The  President  stood  before  lis  as  a  man  of  the  peo. 
pie.  He  was  thoroughly  American,  had  never  crossed 
the  sea,  had  never  been  spoiled  b}^  English  insularity 
or  French  dissipation;  a  quite  native,  aboriginal  man, 
as  an  acorn  from  the  oak ;  no  aping  of  foreigners,  no 
frivolous  accomplishments,  Kentuckian  born,  working 
on  a  farm,  a  flatboat-man,  a  captain  in  the  Black 
Hawk  war,  a  country  lawyer,  a  representative  in  the 
rural  legislature  of  Illinois  ;  —  on  such  modest  foun- 
datious  the  broad  structure  of  his  fame  was  laid. 
How  slowly,  and  yet  by  happily  prepared  steps,  he 
came  to  his  place.  All  of  us  remember  —  it  is  only 
a  history  of  five  or  six  years  —  the  surprise  and  the 
disappointment  of  the  country  at  his  first  nomination 
by  the  convention  at  Chicago.  Mr.  Seward,  then  in 
the  culmination  of  his  good  fame,  was  the  favorite  of 
the  Eastern  States.  And  when  the  new  and  compara- 
tively unknown  name  of  Lincoln  was  announced 
(notwithstanding  the  report  of  the  acclamations  of 
that  convention),  we  heard  the  result  coldly  and 
sadly  It  seemed  too  rash,  on  a  purely  local  reputa= 
tion,  to  build  so  grave  a  trust  in  such  anxious  times  ; 
and  men  naturally  talked  of  the  chances  in  politics 
as  incalculable.  But  it  turned  out  not  to  be  chancCo 
The  profound  good  opinion  which  the  people  of  Illi- 
nois and  of  the  West  had  conceived  of  him,  and  which 
they  had  imparted  to  their  colleagues,  that  they  also 
might  justify  themselves  to  their  constituents  at  home, 
was  not  rash,  though  they  did  not  begin  to  know  the 
riches  of  his  worth. 

A  plain  man  of  the  people,  an  extraordinary  for- 
tune  attended  him.     He  offered  no  shining  qualities 


EMERSON'S  REMARKS.  79 

at  the  first  encounter  ;  he  did  not  offend  by  superior- 
ity. He  had  a  face  and  manner  whicli  disarmed  sus- 
picion, which  iusj)ired  confidence,  which  confirmed 
good  wilh  He  was  a  man  without  vices.  He  had 
a  strong  sense  of  duty,  which  it  was  very  easy  for 
him  to  obey.  Then  he  had  what  farmers  call  a 
long  head  ;  was  excellent  in  working  out  the  sum  for 
himself ;  in  arguing  his  case  and  convincing  you 
fairly  and  firmly.  Then  it  turned  out  that  he  was  a 
great  worker ;  had  prodigious  faculty  of  performance  ; 
worked  easily.  A  good  worker  is  so  rare  ;  everybody 
has  some  disabling  quality.  In  a  host  of  young  men 
that  start  together  and  promise  so  many  brilliant 
leaders  for  the  next  age,  each  fails  on  trial ;  one  by 
bad  health,  one  by  conceit,  or  by  love  of  pleasure,  or 
lethargy,  or  an  ugly  temper,  —  each  has  some  dis- 
qualifying fault  that  throws  him  out  of  the  career. 
But  this  man  was  sound  to  the  core,  cheerful,  persist- 
ent, all  right  for  labor,  and  liked  nothing  so  well. 

Then  he  had  a  vast  good  natui^e,  which  made  him 
tolerant  and  accessible  to  all ;  fair  minded,  leaning  to 
the  claim  of  the  petitioner  ;  affable,  and  not  sensible 
to  the  affliction  which  the  innumei'able  visits  paid  to 
him  when  President  would  have  brought  to  any  one 
else.  And  how  this  good  nature  became  a  noble 
humanity,  in  many  a  tragic  case  which  the  events  of 
the  war  brought  to  him,  every  one  will  remember  ; 
and  with  what  increasing  tenderness  he  dealt  when  a 
whole  race  was  thrown  on  his  compassion.  The  poor 
negro  said  of  him,  on  an  impressive  occasion,  "  Massa 
Linkum  am  eberywhere." 

Then  his  broad  good  humor,  running  easily  into 
jocular  talk,  in  which  he  delighted  and  in  which  he 
excelled,  was  a  rich  gift  to  this  wise  man.     It  enabled 


80  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

him  to  keep  his  secret ;  to  meet  every  kind  of  man 
and  every  rank  in  society ;  to  take  off  the  edge  of  the 
severest  decisions ;  to  mask  his  own  purpose  and 
sound  his  companion ;  and  to  catch  with  true  instinct 
the  temper  of  every  company  he  addressed.  And, 
more  than  all,  it  is  to  a  man  of  severe  labor,  in 
anxious  and  exhausting  crises,  the  natural  restorative, 
good  as  sleep,  and  is  the  protection  of  the  overdriven 
brain  against  rancor  and  insanity. 

He  is  the  author  of  a  multitude  of  good  sayings,  so 
disguised  as  pleasantries  that  it  is  certain  they  had  no 
reputation  at  first  but  as  jests ;  and  only  later,  by  the 
very  acceptance  and  adoption  they  find  in  the  mouths 
of  millions,  turn  out  to  be  the  wisdom  of  the  lioui-.  I 
am  sure  if  this  man  had  ruled  in  a  period  of  Jess  facil- 
ity of  printing,  he  would  have  become  mythological 
in  a  very  few  yeai'S,  like  ^sop  or  Pilpay,  or  one  of 
the  Seven  Wise  Masters,  by  his  fables  and  proverbs. 
But  the  weight  and  penetration  of  many  passages 
in  his  letters,  messages,  and  speeches,  hidden  now  by 
the  very  closeness  of  their  application  to  tlie  moment, 
are  destined  hereafter  to  wide  fame.  What  ])regnant 
definitions  ;  what  unerring  common  sense  ;  what  fore  ■ 
siglit ;  and,  on  great  occasion,  what  lofty,  and  more 
than  national,  what  humane  tone !  His  brief  speech 
at  Gettysburg  will  not  easily  be  surpassed  by  words 
on  any  recorded  occasion.  This,  and  one  other  Amer- 
ican s}ieech,  that  of  John  Brown  to  the  court  that 
tried  him,  and  a  part  of  Kossuth's  speech  at  Birming- 
ham, can  only  be  compared  with  each  other,  and  with 
no  fourth. 

His  occupying  the  chair  of  State  was  a  triumph  of 
the  good  sense  of  mankind,  and  of  the  public  con- 
Bcienoe.     This  middle-class  country  had  got  a  middle^ 


EMERSON'S  REMARKS.  81 

class  President,  at  last.  Yes,  in  manners  and  sympa» 
thies,  but  not  in  powers,  for  his  powers  were  superior. 
This  man  grew  according  to  the  need.  His  mind 
mastered  the  problem  of  the  day ;  and  as  the  pro- 
blem grew,  so  did  his  comprehension  of  it.  Rarely 
was  man  so  fitted  to  the  event.  In  the  midst  of  fears 
and  jealousies,  in  the  Babel  of  counsels  and  parties, 
this  man  wrought  incessantly  with  all  his  might  and 
all  his  honesty,  laboring  to  find  what  the  people 
wanted,  and  how  to  obtain  that.  It  cannot  be  said 
there  is  any  exaggeration  of  his  worth.  If  ever  a 
man  was  fairly  tested,  he  was.  There  was  no  lack  of 
resistance,  nor  of  slander,  nor  of  ridicule.  The  times 
have  allowed  no  state  secrets  ;  the  nation  has  been  in 
such  ferment,  such  multitudes  had  to  be  trusted,  that 
no  secret  could  be  kept.  Every  doou  was  ajar,  and 
we  know  all  that  befell. 

Then,  what  an  occasion  was  the  whirlwind  of  the 
war.  Here  was  place  for  no  holiday  magistrate,  no 
fair-weather  sailor  ;  the  new  pilot  was  hurried  to  the 
helm  in  a  tornado.  In  four  years,  —  four  years  of 
battle-days,  —  his  endurance,  his  fertility  of  resources, 
his  magnanimity,  were  sorely  tried  and  never  found 
wanting.  There,  by  his  courage,  his  justice,  his  even 
temper,  his  fertile  counsel,  his  humanity,  he  stood  a 
heroic  figure  in  the  centre  of  a  heroic  epoch.  He  is 
the  true  history  of  the  American  people  in  his  time. 
Step  by  step  he  walked  before  them  ;  slow  with  their 
slowness,  quickening  his  march  by  theirs,  the  true 
representative  of  this  continent ;  an  entirely  publi( 
man  ;  father  of  his  country,  the  pulse  of  twenty  mil 
lions  throbbing  in  his  heart,  the  thought  of  their 
rrinds  articulated  by  his  tongue. 

'^dam  Smith  remai-ks  that  the  axe,  which  in  Ho'- 


82  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

braken's  portraits  of  British  kings  and  worthies  is 
engraved  under  those  who  have  suffered  at  the  block, 
adds  a  certain  lofty  charm  to  the  picture.  And  who 
does  not  see,  even  in  this  tragedy  so  recent,  how  fast 
the  terror  and  ruin  of  the  massacre  are  already  burn- 
ing into  glory  around  the  victim  ?  Far  happier  this 
fate  than  to  have  lived  to  be  wished  away ;  to  have 
watched  the  decay  of  his  own  faculties ;  to  have  seen 
■ —  perhaps  even  he  —  the  proverbial  ingratitude  of 
statesmen ;  to  have  seen  mean  men  preferred.  Had 
he  not  lived  long  enough  to  keep  the  greatest  prom.ise 
that  ever  man  made  to  his  fellow  men, —  the  jjractical 
abolition  of  slavery  ?  He  had  seen  Tennessee,  Mis- 
souri, and  Maryland  emancipate  their  slaves.  He  had 
seen  Savannah,  Charleston,  and  Richmond  surren- 
dered ;  had  seen  the  main  army  of  the  rebellion  lay 
down  its  arms.  He  had  conquered  the  public  opinion 
of  Canada,  England,  and  France.  Only  Washington 
can  compare  with  him  in  fortune. 

And  what  if  it  should  turn  out,  in  the  unfolding 
of  the  web,  that  he  had  reached  the  term  ;  that  this 
heroic  deliverer  could  no  longer  serve  us  ;  that  the 
rebellion  had  touched  its  natural  conclusion,  and  what 
remained  to  be  done  required  new  and  uncommitted 
hands,  —  a  new  spirit  born  out  of  the  ashes  of  the 
war  ;  and  that  Heaven,  wishing  to  show  the  world  a 
completed  benefactor,  shall  make  him  serve  his  coun- 
try even  more  by  his  death  than  by  his  life  ?  Nations, 
like  kings,  are  not  good  by  facility  and  complaisance. 
"  The  kindness  of  kings  consists  in  justice  and 
strength."  Easy  good  nature  has  been  the  dangerous 
foible  of  the  Republic,  and  it  was  necessary  that  its 
enemies  should  outrage  it,  and  drive  us  to  unwonted 
ttrmness,  to  secure  the  salvation  of  this  country  in  the 
next  ajres. 


EMERSON'S  REMARKS.  83 

The  ancients  believed  in  a  serene  and  beautiful 
Genius  which  ruled  in  the  affairs  of  nations ;  which, 
with  a  slow  but  stern  justice,  carried  forward  the  for- 
tunes of  certain  chosen  houses,  weeding  out  single 
offenders  or  offending  families,  and  securing  at  last 
the  firm  prosperity  of  the  favorites  of  Heaven.  It 
was  too  narrow  a  view  of  the  Eternal  Nemesis.  There 
is  a  serene  Providence  which  rules  the  fate  of  nations, 
which  makes  little  account  of  time,  little  of  one 
generation  or  race,  makes  no  account  of  disasters, 
conquers  alike  by  what  is  called  defeat  or  by  what 
is  called  victory,  thrusts  aside  enemy  and  obstruction, 
crushes  everything  immoral  as  inhuman,  and  obtains 
the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  best  race  by  the  sacrifice 
of  everything  which  resists  the  moral  laws  of  the 
world.  It  makes  its  own  instruments,  creates  the 
man  for  the  time,  trains  him  in  poverty,  inspires  his 
genius,  and  arms  him  for  his  task.  It  has  given  every 
race  its  own  talent,  and  ordains  that  only  that  race 
which  combines  perfectly  with  the  virtues  of  all  shaU 
endure. 


THE  EMANCIPATION  GROUP.' 

BY   JOHN    GEEENLEAF   WHITTIER. 

Moses  Kimball,  a  citizen  of  Boston,  presented  to 
the  city  a  duplicate  of  the  Freedman's  Memorial 
Statue  erected  in  Lincoln  Square,  Washington,  after 
a  design  by  Thomas  Ball.  The  group,  which  stands 
in  Park  Square,  represents  the  figure  of  a  slave,  from 
whose  limbs  the  broken  fetters  have  fallen,  kneeling 
in  gratitude  at  the  feet  of  Lincoln.  The  verses  which 
follow  were  written  for  the  unveiling  of  the  statue, 
December  9,  1879. 

Amidst  thy  sacred  effigies 

Of  old  renown  give  place, 
O  city,  Freedom-loved  !  to  his 

Whose  hand  unchained  a  race. 

Take  the  worn  frame,  that  rested  not 

Save  in  a  martyr's  grave  ; 
The  care-lined  face,  that  none  forgot. 

Bent  to  the  kneeling  slave. 

Let  man  be  free  !     The  mighty  word 

He  spake  was  not  his  own  ; 
An  impulse  from  the  Highest  stirred 

These  chiselled  lips  alone. 

The  cloudy  sign,  the  fiery  guide, 
Along  his  pathway  ran, 


THE  EMANCIPATION  GROUP.  85 

And  Nature,  through  his  voice,  denied 
The  ownership  of  man. 

We  rest  in  peace  where  these  sad  eyes 

Saw  peril,  strife,  and  pain ; 
His  was  the  nation's  sacrifice, 

And  ours  the  priceless  gain. 

O  symbol  of  God's  will  on  earth 

As  it  is  done  above  ! 
Bear  witness  to  the  cost  and  worth 

Of  justice  and  of  love. 

Stand  in  thy  place  and  testify 

To  coming  ages  long. 
That  truth  is  stronger  than  a  lie, 

And  righteousness  than  wrong. 


FOR  THE  SERVICES  IN  MEMORY  OP 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

CITY  OF  BOSTON,  JUNE  1,  1865. 
BY   OLIVER  WENDELL   HOLMES. 

CHORAL  :  "  Luther'' s  Judgment  Hymn.''^ 

O  Thou  of  soul  and  sense  and  breath 

The  ever-present  Giver, 
Unto  thy  mighty  Angel,  Death, 

All  flesh  thou  dost  deliver  ; 
What  most  we  cherish  we  resign, 
For  life  and  death  alike  are  thine, 

Who  reignest  Lord  forever ! 

Our  hearts  lie  buried  in  the  dust 

With  him  so  true  and  tender, 
The  patriot's  stay,  the  people's  trust, 

The  shield  of  the  offender  ; 
Yet  every  murmuring  voice  is  still. 
As,  bowing  to  thy  sovereign  will, 

Our  best-loved  we  surrender. 

Dear  Lord,  with  pitying  eye  behold 

This  martyr  generation, 
Which  thou,  through  trials  manifold, 

Art  showing  thy  salvation  ! 
Oh,  let  the  blood  by  murder  spilt 
Wash  out  thy  stricken  children's  guilt, 

And  sanctify  our  nation  1 


IN  MEMORY  OF  LINCOLN.  87 

Be  thou  thy  orphaned  Israel's  friend, 

Forsake  thy  people  never, 
In  One  our  broken  Many  blend 

That  none  again  may  sever ! 
Hear  us,  O  Father,  while  we  raise 
With  trembling  lips  our  song  of  praise, 

And  bless  thy  name  forever  1 


EXTKACT   FKOM   ODE 

RECITED  AT  THE  HARVARD  COMMEMORATION, 
JULY  21,  1865. 

BY  JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL. 


V. 

Whither  leads  the  path 
To  ampler  fates  that  leads  ? 
Not  down  through  flowery  meads, 

To  reap  an  aftermath 
Of  youth's  vainglorious  weeds  ; 
But  up  the  steep,  amid  the  wrath 
And  shock  of  deadly-hostile  creeds, 
Where  the  world's  best  hope  and  stay 
By  battle's  flashes  gropes  a  desperate  way, 
And  every  turf  the  fierce  foot  clings  to  bleeds. 
Peace  hath  her  not  ignoble  wreath, 
Ere  yet  the  sharp,  decisive  word 
Light  the  black  lips  of  cannon,  and  the  sword 

Dreams  in  its  easeful  sheath  ; 
But  some  day  the  live  coal  behind  the  thought, 
Whether  from  Baal's  stone  obscene, 
Or  from  the  shrine  serene 
Of  God's  pure  altar  brought, 
Bursts  up  in  flame ;  tlie  war  of  tongue  and  pen 
Learns  with  what  deadly  purpose  it  was  fraught. 
And,  helpless  in  the  fiery  passion  caught, 


LOWELL'S   ODE.  89 

Shakes  all  tlie  pillared  state  with  shock  of  men : 
Some  day  the  soft  Ideal  that  we  wooed 
Confronts  us  fiercely,  foe-beset,  pursued, 
And  cries  reproachful :  "  Was  it,  then,  my  praise. 
And  not  myself  was  loved  ?     Prove  now  thy  truth; 
I  claim  of  thee  the  promise  of  thy  youth  ; 
Give  me  thy  life,  or  cower  in  empty  phrase, 
The  victim  of  thy  genius,  not  its  mate  ! " 
Life  may  be  given  in  many  ways, 
And  loyalty  to  Truth  be  sealed 
As  bravely  in  the  closet  as  the  field, 

So  bountiful  is  Fate  ; 

But  then  to  stand  beside  her, 

When  craven  churls  deride  her. 
To  front  a  lie  in  arms  and  not  to  yield, 

This  shows,  methinks,  God's  plan 

And  measure  of  a  stalwart  man. 

Limbed  like  the  old  heroic  breeds. 
Who  stands  self -poised  on  manhood's  solid  earth, 
Not  forced  to  frame  excuses  for  his  birth. 
Fed  from  within  with  all  the  strength  he  needs. 

VI. 

Such  was  he,  our  Martyr-Chief, 

Whom  late  the  Nation  he  had  led, 
With  ashes  on  her  head. 
Wept  with  the  passion  of  an  angry  grief : 
Forgive  me,  if  from  present  things  I  turn 
To  speak  what  in  my  heart  will  beat  and  burn. 
And  hang  my  wreath  on  his  world-honored  urn. 

Nature,  they  say,  doth  dote. 

And  cannot  make  a  man 

Save  on  some  worn-out  plan. 

Repeating  us  by  rote  : 


90  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

For  him  her  Old- World  moulds  aside  she  threw, 
And,  choosing  sweet  clay  from  the  breast 
Of  the  unexhausted  West, 
With  stuff  untainted  shaped  a  hero  new, 
Wise,  steadfast  in  the  strength  of  God,  and  true. 

How  beautiful  to  see 
Once  more  a  shepherd  of  mankind  indeed. 
Who  loved  his  charge,  but  never  loved  to  lead ; 
One  whose  meek  flock  the  people  joyed  to  be, 
Not  lured  by  any  cheat  of  birth. 
But  by  his  clear-grained  human  worth, 
And  brave  old  wisdom  of  sincerity  ! 
They  knew  that  outward  grace  is  dust ; 
They  could  not  choose  but  trust 
In  that  sure-footed  mind's  unfaltering  skill, 

And  supple-tempered  will 
That  bent  like   perfect  steel  to  spring  again   ancj 
thrust. 
His  was  no  lonely  mountain-peak  of  mind. 
Thrusting  to  thin  air  o'er  our  cloudy  bars, 
A  sea-mark  now,  now  lost  in  vapors  blind  ; 
Broad  prairie  rather,  genial,  level-lined. 
Fruitful  and  friendly  for  all  human-kind. 
Yet  also  nigh  to  heaven  and  loved  of  loftiest  stars. 

Nothing  of  Europe  here. 
Or,  then,  of  Europe  fronting  mornward  still, 
Ere  any  names  of  Serf  and  Peer 
Could  Nature's  equal  scheme  deface 

And  thwart  her  genial  will ; 
Here  was  a  type  of  the  true  elder  race. 
And  one  of  Plutarch's  men  talked  with  us  face  to 
face. 
I  praise  him  not ;  it  were  too  late  ; 
And  some  innative  weakness  there  must  be 


LOWELL'S   ODE.  91 

In  him  who  condescends  to  victory 
Such  as  the  Present  gives,  and  cannot  wait, 
Safe  in  himself  as  in  a  fate. 
So  always  firmly  he  : 
He  knew  to  bide  his  time, 
And  can  his  fame  abide, 
Still  pationt  in  his  simple  faith  sublime, 
Till  the  wise  years  decide. 
Great  captains,  with  their  guns  and  drums, 
Disturb  our  judgment  for  the  hour. 
But  at  last  silence  comes ; 
These  all  are  gone,  and,  standing  like  a  tower, 
Our  children  shall  behold  his  fame. 

The  kindly-earnest,  brave,  foreseeing  man, 
Sagacious,  patient,  dreading  praise,  not  blame, 
New  birth  of  our  new  soil,  the  first  American. 


THE   GETTYSBURG   SPEECH 

AND   OTHER   PAPERS 

BY 

ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

AND 

AN  ESSAY  ON  LINCOLN 

BY 

JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL 
WITH  PREFACE  AND  NOTES 


CONTENTS. 


FAQS 

Abraham  Lincoln  :  an  Essay  by  James  Russell  Lowell  .  7 

Mr  Lincoln's  Speeches,  Papers,  and  Letters 

I.  The  Gettysburg  Speech 37 

II.  The  First  Inaugural  Address 40 

III.  Letter  to  Horace  Greeley 53 

IV.  Reply  to  a  Commifctee 54 

V.  The  Emancipation  Proclamation 59 

VI.  Account  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation          .         .  62 

VII.  Letter  to  Dissatisfied  Friends  ......  65 

VIII.  Proclamation  appointing  a  National  Fast  Day     .         .  71 
IX.  Announcement  of  News  from  Gettysburg        .         .         .73 

X.  Letter  to  A.  G.  Hodges 74 

XL  The  Second  Inaugural  Address 77 

XII.  Speech  in  Independence  Hall 80 

XIII.  Last  Public  Address 82 

O  Captain  !    my  Captain.     By  Walt  Whitman          .        .  89 

Appendix 

Address  at  Cooper  Union 91 

Lincoln's  Birthday  Programmes 124 


COPYRIGHT,    187I,    BY  JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL 

COPYRIGHT,    1888,    BY    HOUGHTON,   MIFFLIN   &   CO. 

copyright,    1899,    BY   MABEL  LOWELL    BURNETT 

copyright,    1913,    BY    MOORFIELD   storey,    EXECUTOR 

ALL    rights    RESERVED 


PREFACE. 


It  is  still  too  early  to  know  Abraham  Lincoln,  but 
it  is  none  too  soon  to  use  such  knowledge  as  we  have 
for  adding  to  our  conception  of  him,  and  for  shaping 
our  praise  and  honor.  He  lived  so  openly  among  men, 
and  he  was  surrounded  by  such  a  mass  of  eager,  posi- 
tive men  and  women  in  a  time  when  the  mind  of  man 
was  especially  alert,  he  was  so  much  the  object  of  criti- 
cism and  of  eulogy,  and  above  all  he  was  himself  a 
man  of  such  varied  attitude  toward  other  men,  that 
we  are  likely  for  years  to  come  to  have  an  increasing 
volume  of  testimony  concerning  him. 

Meanwhile  there  is  slowly  taking  form  in  the 
general  apprehension  of  men  a  figure  so  notable,  so 
individual,  so  powerful,  that  men  everywhere  are  rec- 
ognizing the  fact,  that  however  other  Americans  may 
be  regarded,  there  is  one  man  who  holds  the  interest, 
the  profound  respect,  and  the  afPection  of  the  people 
as  none  other  has  yet  done.  Franklin  has  been  widely 
influential,  but  he  has  not  appealed  to  the  highest 
spirit.  He  does  not  invite  reverence,  and  only  he  is 
truly  great  to  whom  we  look  up.  Washington  has  a 
place  by  himself,  so  aloof  from  other  men,  that  with 
all  our  efforts  we  cannot  perfectly  succeed  in  human- 
izing him,  but  are  content  to  leave  him  heroic.  Jack- 
son is  the  idol  of  a  part}^ ;  but  Lincoln,  appearuig  at  a 
critical  period,  and  showing  himself  a  great  leader,  is 


4  PREFACE. 

so  humane,  he  comes  so  close  to  the  eye,  his  homely 
nature  seems  so  familiar,  that  every  one  makes  him  a 
personal  i^cquaintance.  He  had  detractors  during  his 
lifetime;  there  are  a  few  now  who  are  repelled  by 
some  characteristics  of  the  man,  but  his  death  did 
much  to  hallow  his  memory  and  the  emphatic  testi- 
mony of  ooets  and  statesmen,  who  are  quick  to  recogw 
nize  their  jeers  and  their  superiors,  has  been  accumii. 
lating  an  3xpression  of  feeling  which  represents  the 
common  sentiment  that  has  never  been  absent  from 
the  minds  of  plain  people. 

Every  year  the  anniversary  ct  l^mcoln's  birth  is 
likely  to  have  increased  honor :  lis  nearness  to  Wash- 
ington's birthday  is  likely  to  cause  a  joint  celebration 
of  the  two  great  AmericanSo  Both  then  and  at  other 
times,  Lincoln's  career  will  loe  studied,  and  this  pam- 
phlet is  pui  forth  as  a  modest  aid  to  those  who  desire 
some  brief  handbook.  It  contains  as  an  introduction 
the  importauii  essay  bynames  Eusseli  Lowell,  who  was 
one  of  the  earliest,  and  he  has  been  the  most  persistent, 
of  American  scholars  to  recognize  the  greatness  and 
the  peculiar  power  of  Lincoln,  Lowell's  own  sympa- 
thy with  the  soil  quickened  his  apprehension  of  sons 
of  the  soil.  As  a  tail-piece,  so  to  speak,  it  has  the 
threnody  by  Walt  Whitman,  one  of  the  notable  bits 
of  verse  called  out  by  Lincoln's  death,  and  so  rhyth- 
mical, so  charged  with  feeling,  that  one  scarcely  ob 
serves  the  almost  random  use  of  rhyme,  —  it  all  seems 
rhymed  ;  nor  does  one  resent  what  on  close  inspection 
might  seem  an  arrogant  assumption  of  the  poet's  indi- 
vidual grief,  for  every  one  wiii  feel  that  he  is  himself 
a  solitary  mourner  for  the  dead  captain. 

The  body  of  the  pamphlet  is  occupied  with  a  few  of 
ytie  most  striking  speeches,  messages,  and  letters  of  the 


PREFACE.  5 

President.  It  would  be  easy  to  increase  the  number, 
but  these  will  be  found  significant  of  Lincoln's  char- 
acter and  political  policy.  Introductions  and  notes 
have  been  added  wherever  it  seemed  desirable  to  make 
the*  matter  clearer.  But  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  our 
schools  will  take  the  opportunity  afforded  by  the  great 
mass  of  material  easily  accessible  to  acquaint  them= 
selves  in  detail  with  Lincoln's  life. 

In  order  to  aid  teachers  and  scholars  in  this  work, 
we  have  added  to  the  pamphlet  some  pages  which  give 
suggestions  for  the  celebration  of  Lincoln's  birthday, 
a  brief  chronology  of  the  leading  events  in  his  life, 
and  a  sketch  of  the  material  which  is  at  the  service  of 
every  one  for  carrying  on  a  study  of  this  most  inter- 
esting and  important  subject.  No  one  can  ajiply  him- 
self carefully  to  an  inquiry  into  Lincoln's  life  in  its 
whole  course  without  acquainting  himself  with  the 
most  vital  principles  of  American  national  life.  He 
must  study  the  democratic  social  order,  the  slavery 
conflict,  and  the  war  for  the  Union.  It  is  greatly  to  be 
hoped  that  the  growing  interest  in  American  histoiy, 
and  the  increasing  attention  paid  to  the  investigating 
rather  than  the  mere  memorizing  method  of  study, 
will  tend  to  give  a  conspicuous  place  to  the  biography 
of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

BY  JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL. 


There  have  been  many  painful  crises  since  the  im« 
patient  vanity  of  South  Carolina  hurried  ten  prosper- 
ous Commonwealths  into  a  crime  whose  assured  retri- 
bution was  to  leave  them  either  at  the  mercy  of  the 
nation  they  had  wronged,  or  of  the  anarchy  they  had 
summoned  but  could  not  control,  when  no  thoughtful 
American  opened  his  morning  paper  without  dreading 
to  find  that  he  had  no  longer  a  country  to  love  and 
honor.  Whatever  the  result  of  the  convulsion  whose 
first  shocks  were  beginning  to  be  felt,  there  would  still 
be  enough  square  miles  of  earth  for  elbow-room ;  but 
that  ineffable  sentiment  made  up  of  memory  and 
hope,  of  instinct  and  tradition,  which  swells  every 
man's  heart  and  shapes  his  thought,  though  perhaps 
never  present  to  his  consciousness,  would  be  gone 
from  it,  leaving  it  common  earth  and  nothing  mora 
Men  might  gather  rich  crops  from  it,  but  that  ideal 
harvest  of  priceless  associations  would  be  reaped  no 
longer ;  that  fine  virtue  which  sent  up  messages  of 
courage  and  security  from  every  sod  of  it  would  h;iv 
evaporated  beyond  recall.     "We  should  be  irrevocrsi  ' 

^  This  paper  was  published  by  Mr.  Lowell  orig-inallv  in  the  Nwf_ 
American  Review  for  January,  1864.  When  he  reprinted  it  in  his  v«d- 
\ime,  My  Study  Windows,  he  added  the  final  paragraph. 


8  ABRAHAM  LINCOL]^. 

cut  off  from  our  past,  and  be  forced  to  splice  the 
ragged  ends  of  our  lives  upon  whatever  new  conditions 
chance  might  leave  dangling  for  us. 

We  confess  that  we  had  our  doubts  at  first  whether 
the  patriotism  of  our  people  were  not  too  narrowly 
provincial  to  embrace  the  proportions  of  national 
peril.  We  felt  an  only  too  natural  distrust  of  im- 
mense public  meetings  and  enthusiastic  cheers. 

That  a  reaction  should  follow  the  holiday  enthusl=. 
asm  with  which  the  war  was  entered-on,  that  it  should 
follow  soon,  and  that  the  slackening  of  public  spirifc 
should  be  proportionate  to  the  previous  over-tension, 
might  well  be  foreseen  by  all  who  had  studied  human 
nature  or  history.  Men  acting  gregariously  are  al- 
ways in  extremes ;  as  they  are  one  moment  capable  of 
higher  courage,  so  they  are  liable,  the  next,  to  baser 
depression,  and  it  is  often  a  matter  of  chance  whether 
numbers  shall  multiply  confidence  or  discouragement. 
Nor  does  deception  lead  more  surely  to  distrust  of 
men,  than  self-deception  to  suspicion  of  principles. 
The  only  faith  that  wears  well  and  holds  its  color  in 
all  weathers  is  that  which  is  woven  of  conviction  and 
set  with  the  sharp  mordant  of  experience.  Enthusi- 
a,sm  is  good  material  for  the  orator,  but  the  statesman 
needs  something  more  durable  to  work  in,  —  must  be 
able  to  rely  on  the  deliberate  reason  and  consequent 
tlrmness  of  the  people,  without  which  that  presence  of 
mind,  no  less  essential  in  times  of  moral  than  of  ma- 
terial peril,  will  be  wanting  at  the  critical  moment. 
Would  this  fervor  of  the  Free  States  hold  out  ?  Was 
it  kindled  by  a  just  feeling  of  the  value  of  constitu- 
tional liberty  ?  Had  it  body  enough  to  withstand  the 
inevitable  dampening  of  checks,  reverses,  delays? 
Had  our  population  intelligence  enough  to  comprehend 


LOWELVS  ESSAY.  9 

that  the  choice  was  between  order  and  anarchy,  be- 
tween the  equilibrium  of  a  government  by  law  and 
the  tussle  of  misrule  by  proniuicianilento  ?  Could  a 
war  be  maintained  without  the  ordinary  stimulus  of 
hatred  and  plunder,  and  with  the  impersonal  loyalty 
of  principle  ?  These  were  serious  questions,  and  with 
no  precedent  to  aid  in  answering  them. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war  there  was,  indeed,  oc- 
casion for  the  most  anxious  apprehension.  A  Presi- 
dent known  to  be  infected  with  the  political  heresies, 
and  suspected  of  sympathy  with  the  treason,  of  the 
Southern  conspirators,  had  just  surrendered  the  reins, 
we  will  not  say  of  power,  but  of  chaos,  to  a  successor 
known  only  as  the  representative  of  a  party  whose 
leaders,  with  long  training  in  opposition,  had  none  in 
the  conduct  of  affairs  ;  an  empty  treasury  was  called 
on  to  supply  resources  beyond  precedent  in  the  history 
of  finance  ;  the  trees  were  yet  growing  and  the  iron 
unmined  with  which  a  navy  was  to  be  built  and  ar- 
mored ;  officers  without  discipline  were  to  make  a 
mob  into  an  array ;  and,  above  all,  the  public  opinion 
of  Europe,  echoed  and  reinforced  with  every  vague 
hint  and  every  specious  argument  of  despondency  by 
a  powerful  faction  at  home,  was  either  contemptuously 
sceptical  or  actively  hostile.  It  would  be  hard  to 
over-estimate  the  force  of  this  latter  element  of  disin- 
tegration and  discouragement  among  a  people  where 
every  citizen  at  home,  and  every  soldier  in  the  field, 
is  a  reader  of  newspapers.  The  pedlers  of  rumor  in 
the  North  were  the  most  effective  allies  of  the  rebel- 
lion. A  nation  can  be  liable  to  no  more  insidious 
treachery  than  that  of  the  telegraph,  sending  hourly 
its  electric  thrill  of  panic  along  the  remotest  nerves 
of  the  community,  till  the  excited  imagination  makes 


10  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

every  real    danger   loom    heightened  with    its  unreal 
double. 

And  even  if  we  look  only  at  more  palpable  difficul- 
ties, the  problem  to  be  solved  by  our  civil  war  was  so 
vast,  both  in  its  immediate  relations  and  its  future 
consequences  ;  the  conditions  of  its  solution  were  sc 
intricate  and  so  greatly  dependent  on  incalculable  and 
uncontrollable  contingencies  ;  so  many  of  the  data, 
whether  for  hope  or  fear,  were,  from  their  novelty, 
incapable  of  arrangement  under  any  of  the  categories 
of  historical  precedent,  that  there  were  moments  of 
crisis  when  the  firmest  believer  in  the  strength  and 
sufficiency  of  the  democratic  theory  of  government 
might  well  hold  his  breath  in  vague  apprehension  of 
disaster.  Our  teachers  of  political  philosophy,  sol- 
emnly arguing  from  the  precedent  of  some  petty  Gre- 
cian, Italian,  or  Fbmish  city,  whose  long  pei'iods  of 
aristocracy  were  broken  now  and  then  by  awkward 
parentheses  of  mob,  had  always  taught  us  that  democ- 
racies were  incapable  of  the  sentiment  of  loyalty,  of 
concentrated  and  prolonged  effort,  of  far-reaching 
conceptions  ;  were  absorbed  in  material  interests  ;  im- 
patient of  regular,  and  much  more  of  exceptional  re- 
straint ;  had  no  natural  nucleus  of  gravitation,  nor  any 
forces  but  centrifugal ;  were  always  on  the  verge  of 
civil  war,  and  slunk  at  last  into  the  natural  almshouse 
of  bankrupt  popular  government,  a  military  despotism. 
Here  was  indeed  a  dreary  outlook  for  persons  who 
knew  democracy,  not  by  rubbing  shoulders  with  it 
lifelong,  but  merely  from  books,  and  America  only 
by  the  report  of  some  fellow-Briton,  who,  having 
eaten  a  bad  dinner  or  lost  a  carpet-bag  here,  had 
written  to  TTie  Times  demanding  redress,  and  drawing 
a  mournful  inference  of  democratic  instability.     Nor 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  11 

were  men  wanting-  among  ourselves  who  had  so 
steeped  their  brains  in  London  literature  as  to  m^- 
take  Cockney  ism  for  European  culture,  and  contempt 
of  their  country  for  cosmopolitan  breadth  of  view,  and 
who,  owing  all  they  had  and  all  they  were  to  demo' 
ci-acy,  thought  it  had  an  air  of  high-breeding  to  join  m 
the  shallow  epicedium  that  our  bubble  had  burst. 

But  beside  any  disheartening  influences  which  might 
affect  the  timid  or  the  despondent,  there  were  reasons 
enough  of  settled  gravity  against  any  over-confidence 
of  hope.  A  war  —  which,  whether  we  consider  the 
expanse  of  the  territory  at  stake,  the  hosts  brought 
into  the  field,  or  the  reach  of  the  principles  involved, 
may  fairly  be  reckoned  the  most  momentous  of  mod- 
ern times  —  was  to  be  waged  by  a  people  divided  at 
home,  unnerved  by  fifty  years  of  peace,  under  a  chief 
magistrate  without  experience  and  without  rei3utation, 
whose  every  measure  was  sure  to  be  cunningly  ham- 
pered by  a  jealous  and  unscrupulous  minority,  and 
who,  while  dealing  with  unheard-of  complications  at 
home,  must  soothe  a  hostile  neutrality  abroad,  waiting 
only  a  pretext  to  become  war.  All  this  was  to  be 
done  without  warning  and  without  preparation,  while 
at  the  same  time  a  social  revolution  was  to  be  accom- 
plished in  the  political  condition  of  four  millions  o£ 
people,  by  softening  the  prejudices,  allaying  the  fears, 
and  gradually  obtaining  the  cooperation,  of  their  un- 
willing liberators.  Surely,  if  ever  there  were  an 
occasion  when  the  heightened  imagination  of  the  his- 
torian might  see  Destiny  visible  intervening  in  human 
affairs,  here  was  a  knot  wortliy  of  her  shears.  Never, 
perhaps,  was  any  system  of  government  tried  by  so 
continuous  and  searching  a  strain  as  ours  during  the 
last  three  years;  never  has  any  shown  itself  stronger; 


12  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

and  never  could  that  strength  be  so  directly  traced  to 
the  virtue  and  intelligence  of  the  people,  —  to  that 
general  enlightenment  and  prompt  efficiency  of  public 
opinion  possible  only  under  the  influence  of  a  jjolitical 
framework  like  our  own.  We  find  it  hard  to  luider- 
stand  how  even  a  foreigner  should  be  blind  to  the 
grandeur  of  the  combat  of  ideas  that  has  been  going 
on  here,  —  to  the  heroic  energy,  persistency,  and  self- 
reliance  of  a  nation  proving  that  it  knows  how  much 
dearer  greatness  is  than  mere  power  ;  and  we  own  that 
it  is  impossible  for  us  to  conceive  the  mental  and 
moral  condition  of  the  American  who  does  not  feel 
his  spirit  braced  and  heightened  by  being  even  a 
spectator  of  such  qualities  and  achievements.  That  a 
steady  purpose  and  a  definite  aim  have  been  given  to 
the  jarring  foi-ces  which,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
spent  themselves  in  the  discussion  of  schemes  which 
could  only  become  operative,  if  at  all,  after  the  war 
was  over ;  that  a  popular  excitement  has  been  slowly 
intensified  into  an  earnest  national  will ;  that  a  some- 
v/hat  impracticable  moral  sentiment  has  been  made 
the  unconscious  instrument  of  a  practical  moral  end ; 
that  the  treason  of  covert  enemies,  the  jealousy  of 
rivals,  the  unwise  zeal  of  friends,  have  been  made  not 
only  useless  for  mischief,  but  even  useful  for  good ; 
that  the  conscientious  sensitiveness  of  England  to  the 
Iiorrors  of  civil  conflict  has  been  prevented  from  com- 
plicating a  domestic  with  a  foreign  war  ;  —  ail  these 
results,  any  one  of  which  might  suffice  to  prove  great- 
ness in  a  ruler,  have  been  mainly  due  to  the  good 
sense,  the  good-humor,  the  sagacity,  the  large-minded- 
ness,  and  the  unselfish  honesty  of  the  unknown  man 
whom  a  blind  fortune,  as  it  seemed,  had  lifted  from 
the  crowd  to  the  most  dansrerous  and  difficult  eminence 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  13 

of  modern  times.  It  is  by  presence  of  mind  in 
untried  emergencies  that  the  native  metal  of  a  man  is 
tested  ;  it  is  by  the  sagacity  to  see,  and  the  fearless 
honesty  to  admit,  whatever  of  truth  there  may  be  in 
an  adverse  opinion,  in  order  more  convincingly  tc 
expose  the  fallacy  that  lurks  behind  it,  that  a  reasoned' 
at  length  gains  for  his  mere  statement  of  a  fact  th^ 
force  of  argument ;  it  is  by  a  wise  forecast  whick 
allows  hostile  combinations  to  go  so  far  as  by  the  in» 
evitable  reaction  to  become  elements  of  his  own  power, 
that  a  politician  proves  his  genius  for  state-craft ;  and 
especially  it  is  by  so  gently  guiding  public  sentiment 
that  he  seems  to  follow  it,  by  so  yielding  doubtful 
points  that  he  can  be  firm  without  seeming  obstinate 
in  essential  ones,  and  thus  gain  the  advantages  of  com- 
promise without  the  weakness  of  concession ;  by  so  in-^ 
stinctively  comprehending  the  temper  and  prejudices 
of  a  people  as  to  make  them  gradually  conscious  of 
the  superior  wisdom  of  his  freedom  from  temper  and 
prejudice,  —  it  is  by  qualities  such  as  these  that  a 
magistrate  shows  himself  worthy  to  be  chief  in  a 
commonwealth  of  freemen.  And  it  is  for  qualities 
such  as  these  that  we  firmly  believe  History  will  rank 
Mr.  Lincoln  among  the  most  prudent  of  statesmen 
and  the  most  successful  of  rulers.  If  we  wish  to 
appreciate  him,  we  have  only  to  conceive  the  inevita^ 
ble  chaos  in  which  we  should  now  be  weltering,  had 
a  weak  man  or  an  unwise  one  been  chosen  in  his 
stead. 

"  Bare  is  back,"  says  the  Norse  proverb,  "  without 
brother  behind  it " ;  and  this  is,  by  analogy,  true  of 
an  elective  magistracy.  The  hereditary  ruler  in  any 
critical  emergency  may  reckon  on  the  inexhaustible 
resources  of  prestige^  of  sentiment,  of  superstition,  of 


14  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

dependent  interest,  while  the  new  man  must  slowly 
and  painfully  create  all  these  out  of  the  unwilling 
material  around  him,  by  superiority  of  character,  by 
patient  singleness  of  purpose,  by  sagacious  presenti- 
ment of  popular  tendencies  and  instinctive  sympathy 
with  the  national  character.  Mr.  Lincoln's  task  was 
one  of  peculiar  and  exceptional  difficulty.  Long 
habit  had  accustomed  the  American  people  to  the 
notion  of  a  party  in  power,  and  of  a  President  as  its 
creature  and  organ,  while  the  more  vital  fact,  that  the 
executive  for  the  time  being  represents  the  abstract 
idea  of  government  as  a  permanent  principle  superior 
to  all  party  and  all  private  interest,  had  gradually 
become  unfamiliar.  They  had  so  long  seen  the  pub- 
lic policy  more  or  less  directed  by  views  of  party,  and 
often  even  of  personal  advantage,  as  to  be  ready  to  sus- 
pect tho  motives  of  a  chief  magistrate  compelled,  for 
the  first  time  in  our  history,  to  feel  himself  the  head 
and  hand  of  a  great  nation,  and  to  act  upon  the  fun- 
damental maxim,  laid  down  by  all  publicists,  that  the 
first  duty  of  a  government  is  to  defend  and  maintain 
its  own  existence.  Accordingly,  a  powerful  weapon 
seemed  to  be  put  into  the  hands  of  the  opposition  by 
the  necessity  under  which  the  administration  found 
?tself  of  applying  this  old  truth  to  new  relations.  Nor 
"were  the  opposition  his  only  nor  his  most  dangerous 
Opponents. 

The  Republicans  had  carried  the  country  upon  an 
issue  in  which  ethics  were  more  directly  and  visibly 
mingled  with  politics  than  usual.  Their  leaders  were 
trained  to  a  method  of  oratory  which  relied  for  its  ef- 
fect rather  on  the  moral  sense  than  the  understanding. 
Their  arguments  were  drawn,  not  so  much  from  experi- 
ence as  from  general  principles  of  right  and  wrong. 


LOWELUS  ESSAY.  15 

When  the  war  came,  their  system  continued  to  be  ap- 
plicable and  effective,  for  here  again  the  reason  of  the 
people  was  to  be  reached  and  kindled  through  their 
sentiments.  It  was  one  of  those' periods  of  excitement, 
gathering,  contagious,  imiversal,  which,  while  they 
last,  exalt  and  clarify  the  mindj  of  men,  giving  to  the 
mere  words  country,  human  rights,  democracy,  a 
meaning  and  a  force  beyond  that  of  sober  and  logical 
argument.  They  were  convictions,  maintained  and  de- 
fended by  the  supreme  logic  of  passion.  That  pene- 
trating fire  ran  in  and  roused  those  primary  instincts 
that  make  their  lair  in  the  dens  and  caverns  of  the 
mind.  What  is  called  the  great  popular  heart  was 
awakened,  that  indefinable  something  which  may  be, 
according  to  circumstances,  the  highest  reason  or  the 
most  brutish  unreason.  But  enthusiasm,  once  cold, 
can  never  be  warmed  over  into  anything  better  than 
cant,  —  and  phrases,  when  once  the  inspiration  that 
filled  them  with  beneficent  power  has  ebbed  away, 
retain  only  that  semblance  of  meaning  which  enables 
them  to  supplant  reason  in  hasty  minds.  Among  the 
lessons  taught  by  the  French  Revolution  there  is  none 
sadder  or  more  striking  than  this,  that  you  may  make 
everything  else  out  of  the  passions  of  men  except  a 
political  system  that  will  work,  and  that  thei^e  is  noth= 
ing  so  pitilessly  and  unconsciously  cruel  as  sincerity 
formulated  into  dogma.  It  is  always  demoralizing  to 
extend  the  domain  of  sentiment  over  questions  where 
it  has  no  legitimate  jurisdiction  ;  and  perhaps  the  se- 
verest strain  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  resisting  a  ten- 
dency of  his  own  supporters  which  chimed  with  his 
own  private  desires  while  wholly  opposed  to  his  con- 
victions of  what  would  be  wise  policy. 

The  change  which  three  years  have  brought  about 


16  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

is  too  remarkable  to  be  passed  over  without  comment, 
too  weighty  in  its  lesson  not  to  be  laid  to  heart. 
Never  did  a  President  enter  upon  office  with  less 
means  at  his  command,  outside  his  own  strength  of 
heart  and  steadiness  of  understanding,  for  inspiring 
confidence  in  the  people,  and  so  winning  it  for  himself, 
than  Mr.  Lincoln.  Ail  that  was  known  of  him  wa3 
that  he  was  a  good  stump-speaker,  nominated  for  hi3 
availability^  —  that  is,  because  he  had  no  history,  — = 
and  chosen  by  a  party  with  whose  more  extreme  opin= 
ions  he  was  not  in  sympathy.  It  might  well  be  feared 
that  a  man  past  fifty,  against  whom  the  ingenuity  of 
hostile  partisans  could  rake  up  no  accusation,  must  be 
lacking  in  manliness  of  character,  in  decision  of  prin- 
ciple, in  strength  of  will ;  that  a  man  who  was  at  best 
only  the  representative  of  a  party,  and  who  yet  did 
not  fairly  represent  even  that,  would  fail  of  political, 
much  more  of  popular,  support.  And  certainly  no 
one  ever  entered  upon  office  with  so  few  resources  of 
power  in  the  past,  and  so  many  materials  of  weakness 
in  the  present,  as  Mr.  Lincoln.  Even  in  that  half  of 
the  Union  which  acknowledged  him  as  President, 
there  v/as  a  large,  and  at  that  time  dangerous  minor- 
ity, that  hardly  admitted  his  claim  to  the  office,  andl 
even  in  the  party  that  elected  him  there  was  also  a 
large  minority  that  suspected  him  of  being  secretly  g 
communicant  with  the  church  of  Laodieea.^  All  thai 
he  did  was  sure  to  be  virulently  attacked  as  ultra  b;; 
one  side ;  all  that  he  left  undone,  to  be  stigmatized  as 
proof  of  lukewarmness  and  backsliding  by  the  other 
Meanwhile  he  was  to  carry  on  a  truly  colossal  war  by 
means  of  both ;  he  was  to  disengage  the  country  from 
diplomatic  entanglements  of  unprecedented  peril  un 
1  See  the  Book  of  Revelation,  chapter  3,  verse  15. 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  17 

disturbed  by  the  help  or  the  hinderance  of  either,  and 
to  win  from  the  crowning  dangers  of  his  administra- 
tion, in  the  confidence  of  the  people,  the  means  of  his 
safety  and  their  own.  He  has  contrived  to  do  it,  and 
perhaps  none  of  our  Presidents  since  Washington  has 
stood  so  firm  in  the  confidence  of  the  people  as  he 
does  after  three  years  of  stormy  administration. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  policy  was  a  tentative  one,  and 
rightly  so.  He  laid  down  no  programme  which  must 
compel  him  to  be  either  inconsistent  or  unwise,  no 
cast-iron  theorem  to  which  circumstances  must  be 
fitted  as  they  rose,  or  else  be  useless  to  his  ends.  He 
seemed  to  have  chosen  Mazarin's  motto,  Xe  temj)s  et 
mo{.^  The  wio?',  to  be  sure,  was  not  very  prominent 
at  first  ;  but  it  has  grown  more  and  more  so,  till  the 
world  is  beginning  to  be  pei'suaded  that  it  stands  for  a 
character  of  marked  individuality  and  capacity  for  af- 
fairs. Time  was  his  prime-minister,  and,  we  began  to 
think,  at  one  period,  his  general-in-chief  also.  At  first 
he  was  so  slow  that  he  tired  out  all  those  who  see  no 
evidence  of  progress  but  in  blowing  up  the  engine  ; 
then  he  was  so  fast,  that  he  took  the  breath  away  from 
those  who  think  there  is  no  getting  on  safely  while 
there  is  a  spark  of  fire  under  the  boilers.  God  is  the 
only  being  who  has  time  enough  ;  but  a  prudent  man, 
who  knows  how  to  seize  occasion,  can  commonly  make 
a  shift  to  find  as  much  as  he  needs.  Mr,  Lincoln,  as 
it  seems  to  us  in  reviewing  his  career,  though  we  have 
sometimes  in  our  impatience  thought  otherwise,  has 
always  waited,  as  a  wise  man  should,  till  the  right  mo- 
ment brought  np  all  his  reserves.  Sempe?'  nocnit  dif- 
fcrre  paratis^  is  a  sound  axiom,  but  the  reaUy  effica- 

^  Time  and  I.  Cardinal  Mazarin  was  prime-minister  of  Louis  XIV. 
of  France.     Time,  Mazarin  said,  was  his  prime-minister. 

It  is  always  bad  for  those  who  are  ready  to  put  off  action. 


18  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

cious  man  will  also  be  sure  to  know  when  he  is  not 
ready,  and  be  firm  against  all  persuasion  and  reproach 
till  he  is. 

One  would  be  apt  to  think,  from  some  of  the  criti- 
cisms made  on  Mr.  Lincoln's  course  by  those  who 
mainly  agree  with  him  in  principle,  that  the  chief  ob- 
ject of  a  statesman  should  be  rather  to  proclaim  his 
adhesion  to  certain  doctrines,  than  to  achieve  their 
triumph  by  quietly  accomplishing  his  ends.  In  our 
opinion,  there  is  no  more  unsafe  politician  than  a  con- 
scientiously rigid  doctrinaire^  nothing  more  sure  to 
end  in  disaster  than  a  theoretic  scheme  of  policy  that 
admits  of  no  pliability  for  contingencies.  True,  there 
is  a  popular  image  of  an  impossible  He,  in  whose  plas- 
tic hands  the  submissive  destinies  of  mankind  become 
as  wax,  and  to  whose  commanding  necessity  the  tough- 
est facts  yield  with  the  graceful  pliancy  of  fiction ;  but 
in  real  life  we  commonly  find  that  the  men  who  con- 
trol circumstances,  as  it  is  called,  are  those  who  have 
learned  to  allow  for  the  influence  of  their  eddies,  and 
have  the  nerve  to  turn  them  to  account  at  the  happy- 
instant.  Mr.  Lincoln's  perilous  task  has  been  to  carry 
a  rather  shaky  raft  through  the  rapids,  making  fast 
the  unrulier  logs  as  he  could  snatch  opportunity,  and 
the  country  is  to  be  congratulated  that  he  did  not 
think  it  his  duty  to  run  straight  at  all  hazards,  but 
cautiously  to  assure  himself  with  his  setting-pole  where 
the  main  current  was,  and  keep  steadily  to  that.  He 
is  still  in  wild  water,  but  we  have  faith  that  his  skill 
and  sureness  of  eye  will  bring  him  out  right  at  last. 

A  curious,  and,  as  we  think,  not  inapt  parallel, 
might  be  drawn  between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  one  of  the 
most  striking  figures  in  modern  history,  —  Henry  IV. 
of  France.     The  career  of  the  latter  may  be  more  pic- 


LOWELL'S   ESSAY.  19 

turesque,  as  that  of  a  daring-  captain  always  is  ;  but  in 
all  its  vicissitudes  there  is  nothing-  more  romantic  than 
that  sudden  change,  as  by  a  rub  of  Aladdin's  lanij), 
from  the  attorney's  office  in  a  country  town  of  Illinois 
to  the  helm  of  a  great  nation  in  times  like  these.  The 
analogy  between  the  characters  and  circumstances  of 
the  two  men  is  in  many  respects  singularly  close. 
Succeeding-  to  a  rebellion  rather  than  a  crown,  Henry's 
chief  material  dependence  was  the  Huguenot  party, 
whose  doctrines  sat  upon  him  with  a  looseness  dis= 
tasteful  certainly,  if  not  suspicious,  to  the  more  fanati- 
cal among  them.  King  only  in  name  over  the  greater 
part  of  France,  and  with  his  capital  barred  against 
him,  it  yet  gradually  became  clear  to  the  more  far-see- 
ing even  of  the  Catholic  party  that  he  was  the  only 
centre  of  order  and  legitimate  authority  round  which 
France  could  reorganize  itself.  While  preachers  who 
held  the  divine  right  of  kings  made  the  churches  of 
Paris  ring  with  declamations  in  favor  of  democracy 
rather  than  submit  to  the  heretic  dog  of  a  B^arnois,-' 
• —  much  as  our  soi-disant  Democrats  have  lately  beeffi 
preaching  the  divine  right  of  slavery,  and  denouncing 
the  heresies  of  the  Decla,ration  of  Independence,  — 
Henry  bore  both  parties  in  hand  till  he  was  convinced 
that  only  one  course  of  action  could  possibly  combine 
his  own  interests  and  those  of  France.  Meanwhile 
the  Protestants  believed  somewhat  doubtfully  that  he 
was  theirs,  the  Catholics  hoped  somewhat  doubtfully 
that  he  would  be  theirs,  and  Henry  himself  turned 
aside  remonstrance,  advice,  and  curiosity  alike  with  a 
jest  or  a  proverb  (if  a  little  hir/h,  he  liked  them  none 
the    worse),   joking   continually  as  his  manner  was. 

^  One  of  Henry's  titles  was  Prince  of  Be'arn,  that  being  the  old 
province  of  France  from  which  he  came. 


20  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

We  have  seen  Mr.  Lincoln  contemptuously  eomparecl 
to  Sancho  Panza  by  persons  incapable  of  appreciating 
one  of  the  deepest  pieces  of  wisdom  in  the  profoundest 
romance  ever  written ;  namely,  that,  while  Don  Quix* 
ote  was  incomparable  in  theoretic  and  ideal  statesmao. 
ship,  Sancho,  with  his  stock  of  pi-overbs,  the    ready 
money  of  human  experience,  made  the  best  possiblo 
practical  governor.    Henry  IV.  was  as  full  of  wise  saws 
and  modern  instances  as  Mr.  Lincoln,  but  beneath  all 
this  was  the  thoughtful,  practical,  humane,  and  thor- 
oughly earnest  man,  around  whom  the  fragments  of 
France    were  to   gather  themselves  till  she  took  her 
place  again  as  a  planet  of  the  first  magnitude  in  the 
European  system.     In  one  respect  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
more  fortunate  than  Henry.    However  some  may  think 
him  wanting  in  zeal,  the  most  fanatical  can  find  no 
^,aint  of  apostasy  in  any  measure  of  his,  nor  can  the 
lost  bitter  charge  him  with  being  influenced  by  mo- 
ives  of  personal  interest.     The  leading  distinction  be- 
tween the  policies  of  the  two  is  one  of  circumstances. 
Henry  went  over  to  the  nation  ;  Mr.  Lincoln  has  stead- 
ily drawn  the  nation  over  to  him.     One  left  a  united 
France  :  the  other,  we  hope  and  believe,  will  leave  a 
reunited  America.     We  leave  our  readers  to  trace  the 
further  points  of  difference  and  resemblance  for  them- 
selves, merely  suggesting  a  general  similarity  whicb 
bas  often  occurred  to  us.     One  only  point  of  melan= 
3holy  interest  we  will  allow  ourselves  to  touch  upon 
That  Mr.  Lincoln  is  not  handsome  nor  elegant,  wt 
learn  from  certain  English  tourists  who  would  considei' 
similar   revelations    in    regard  to  Queen  Victoria  as 
thoroughly  American  in  their  want  of  hienseance.     It 
is  no  concern  of  ours,  nor  does  it  affect  his  fitness  for 
the  high  place  he   so    worthily  occupies ;    but   he    is 


LOWELL' 3  ESSAY,  21 

certainly  as  fortunate  as  Henry  in  the  matter  of  good 
looks,  if  we  may  trust  contemporary  evidence.  Mr, 
Lincoln  has  also  been  reproached  with  Americanism 
by  some  not  unf i-iendly  British  critics ;  but,  with  all 
deference,  we  cannot  say  that  we  like  him  any  the 
worse  for  it,  or  see  in  it  any  reason  why  he  should 
govern  Americans  the  less  wisely. 

People  of  more  sensitive  organizations  may  be 
shocked,  but  we  are  glad  that  in  this  our  true  war  of 
independence,  which  is  to  free  us  forever  from  the  Old 
World,  we  have  had  at  the  head  of  our  affairs  a  man 
whom  America  made,  as  God  made  Adtim,  out  of  the 
very  earth,  unancestried,  unprivileged,  unknown,  to 
show  us  how  much  truth,  how  much  magnanimity,  and 
how  much  statecraft  await  the  call  of  opportunity  in 
simple  manhood  when  it  believes  in  the  justice  of  God 
and  the  worth  of  man.  Conventionalities  are  all  very 
well  in  their  proper  place,  but  they  shrivel  at  the  touch 
of  nature  like  stubble  in  the  fire.  The  genius  that 
sways  a  nation  by  its  arbitrary  will  seems  less  august 
to  us  than  that  which  multiplies  and  reinforces  itself  in 
the  instincts  and  convictions  of  an  entire  people.  Au- 
tocracy may  have  something  in  it  more  melodramatic 
than  this,  but  falls  far  short  of  it  in  human  value  and 
interest. 

Experience  would  have  bred  in  us  a  rooted  distrust 
of  improvised  statesmanship,  even  if  we  did  not  believe 
politics  to  be  a  science,  which,  if  it  cannot  always  com- 
mand men  of  special  aptitude  and  great  powers,  at 
least  demauds  the  long  and  steady  application  of  tho 
best  powers  of  such  men  as  it  can  command  to  mastei' 
even  its  first  principles.  It  is  curious,  that,  in  a  coun- 
try which  boasts  of  its  intelligence  the  theory  should 
be  so  generally  held  that  the   most   complicated  of 


2'2  ABRAHAM  LINCOLR. 

human  contrivances,  and  one  which  every  day  be* 
comes  more  complicated,  can  be  worked  at  sight  by 
any  man  able  to  talk  for  an  hour  or  two  without  stop- 
ping to  think. 

Mr.  Lincoln  is  sometimes  claimed  as  an  example  of 
a  ready-made  ruler.  But  no  case  could  well  be  less  in 
point ;  for,  besides  that  he  was  a  man  of  such  fair- 
mindedness  as  is  always  the  raw  material  of  wisdom^ 
he  had  in  his  profession  a  training  precisely  the  oppo= 
site  of  that  to  which  a  partisan  is  subjected.  His  ex- 
perience as  a  lawyer  compelled  him  not  only  to  see 
that  there  is  a  principle  underlying  every  phenomenon 
in  human  affairs,  but  that  there  are  always  two  sides 
to  every  question,  both  of  which  must  be  fully  under- 
stood in  order  to  understand  either,  and  that  it  is  of 
greater  advantage  to  an  advocate  to  appreciate  the 
strength  than  the  weakness  of  his  antagonist's  position. 
Nothing  is  more  remarkable  than  the  unerring  tact  with 
which,  in  his  debate  with  Mr.  Douglas,  he  went  straight 
to  the  reason  of  the  question  ;  nor  have  we  ever  had  a 
more  striking  lesson  in  political  tactics  than  the  fact, 
that  opposed  to  a  man  exceptionally  adroit  in  using 
popular  prejudice  and  bigotry  to  his  purpose,  exception- 
ally unscrupulous  in  appealing  to  those  baser  motives 
that  turn  a  meeting  of  citizens  into  a  mob  of  barba= 
rians,  he  should  yet  have  won  his  case  before  a  jury  of 
the  people.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  as  far  as  possible  from 
an  impromptu  politician.  His  wisdom  was  made  up  of 
a  knowledge  of  things  as  well  as  of  men  ;  his  sagacity 
resulted  from  a  clear  perception  and  honest  acknowl= 
edgment  of  difficulties,  which  enabled  him  to  see  that 
the  only  durable  triumph  of  political  opinion  is  based, 
not  on  any  abstract  right,  but  upon  so  much  of  justice, 
the  highest  attainable  at  any  given  moment  in  human 


LOWELL'S   ESSAY.  23 

affairs,  as  may  be  had  in  tlie  balance  of  mutual  conces- 
sion. Doubtless  he  had  an  ideal,  bat  it  was  the  ideal 
of  a  practical  statesman,  —  to  aim  at  the  best,  and  to 
take  the  next  best,  if  he  is  lucky  enough  to  get  even 
that.  His  slow,  but  singularly  masculine,  intelligence 
caught  him  that  precedent  is  only  another  name  for 
embodied  experience,  and  that  it  counts  for  even  more 
in  the  guidance  of  communities  of  men  than  in  that  of 
the  individual  life.  He  was  not  a  man  who  held  it 
good  public  economy  to  pull  down  on  the  mere  chance 
of  rebuilding  bettei*.  Mr.  Lincoln's  faith  in  God  was 
qualified  by  a  very  well-founded  distrust  of  the  wisdom 
of  man.  Perhaps  it  was  his  want  of  self-confidence 
that  more  than  anything  else  won  him  the  unlimited 
confi.deuce  of  the  people,  for  they  felt  that  there  would 
be  no  need  of  retreat  from  any  position  he  had  delib- 
eratel}'  taken.  The  cautious,  but  steady,  advance  of 
his  policy  during  the  war  was  like  that  of  a  Roman 
army.  He  left  behind  him  a  firm  road  on  which  pub- 
lic confidence  could  follow  ;  he  took  America  with  him 
where  he  went ;  what  he  gained  he  occupied,  and  his 
advanced  posts  became  colonies.  The  very  homeliness 
of  his  genius  was  its  distinction.  His  kingship  was 
conspicuous  by  its  workday  homespun.  Never  was 
ruler  so  absolute  as  he,  nor  so  little  conscious  of  itj 
for  he  was  the  incarnate  common-sense  of  the  people^ 
With  all  that  tenderness  of  nature  whose  sweet  sadnesc 
touched  whoever  saw  him  with  something  of  its  own 
pathos,  there  was  no  trace  of  sentimentalism  in  his 
speech  or  action.  He  seems  to  have  had  but  one  rnl-^ 
of  conduct,  always  that  of  practical  and  successful  p  >i 
itics,  to  let  himself  be  guided  by  events,  when  the?}/ 
were  sure  to  bring  him  out  wliere  he  wished  to  go, 
though  by  what  seemed  to  unpractical  minds,  whicli 


24  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

let  go  the  possible  to  grasp  at  the  desirable,  a  longer 
road. 

Undoubtedly  the  highest  function  of  statesmanship 
is  by  degrees  to  accommodate  the  conduct  of  commu» 
nities  to  ethical  laws,  and  to  subordinate  the  conflict^ 
lug  self-interests  of  the  day  to  higher  and  more  perma- 
jaent  concerns.  But  it  is  on  the  understanding,  and 
mot  on  the  sentiment,  of  a  nation  that  all  safe  legisla- 
tion must  be  based.  Voltaire's  saying,  that  "  a  consid- 
eration of  petty  circumstances  is  the  tomb  of  great 
things,"  may  be  true  of  nidividual  men,  but  it  cer- 
tainly is  not  true  of  governments.  It  is  by  a  multi- 
tude of  such  considerations,  each  in  itself  trifling,  but 
all  together  weighty,  that  the  framers  of  policy  can 
qlone  divine  what  is  practicable  and  therefore  wise. 
J?he  imputation  of  inconsistency  is  one  to  which  every 
sound  politician  and  every  honest  thinker  must  sooner 
or  later  subject  hiuiself.  The  foolish  and  the  dead 
alone  never  change  their  opinion.  The  course  of  a 
great  statesman  resembles  that  of  navigable  rivers, 
avoiding  immovable  obstacles  with  noble  bends  of  eon- 
cession,  seeking  the  broad  levels  of  opinion  on  which 
men  soonest  settle  and  longest  dwell,  following  and 
marking  the  almost  imperceptible  slopes  of  national 
tendency,  yet  always  aiming  at  direct  advances,  always 
recruited  from  sources  nearer  heaven,  and  sometimes 
bursting  open  paths  of  progress  and  fruitful  human  com 
merce  through  what  seem  the  eternal  barriers  of  both. 
It  is  loyalty  to  great  ends,  even  though  forced  to  com- 
bine the  small  and  opposing  motives  of  selfish  men  to 
accomplish  them  ;  it  is  the  anchored  cling  to  solid  prin- 
ciples of  duty  and  action,  which  knows  how  to  swing 
with  the  tide,  but  is  never  carried  away  by  it, —  that 
we  demand  in  public  men,  and  not  sameness  of  policy, 


LOWELL'S   ESSAY.  25 

or  a  conscientious  persistency  in  what  is  impracticable. 
For  the  impracticable,  however  theoretically  enticing, 
is  always  politically  unwise,  sound  statesmanship  being 
the  application  of  that  prudence  to  the  public  business 
which  is  the  safest  guide  in  that  of  private  men. 

No  doubt  slavery  was  the  most  delicate  and  embar- 
rassing question  with  which  Mr.  Lincoln  was  called 
on  to  deal,  and  it  was  one  which  no  man  in  his  posi- 
tion, whatever  his  opinions,  could  evade  ;  for,  though 
he  might  withstand  the  clamor  of  partisans,  he  must 
sooner  or  later  yield  to  the  persi'stent  importunacy  of 
circumstances,  which  thrust  the  problem  upon  him  at 
every  turn  and  in  every  shape. 

It  has  been  brought  against  us  as  an  accusation 
abroad,  and  repeated  here  by  people  who  measure  their 
country  rather  by  what  is  thought  of  it  than  by  what 
it  is,  that  our  war  has  not  been  distinctly  and  avow- 
edly for  the  extinction  of  slavery,  but  a  war  rather  for 
the  preservation  of  our  national  power  and  greatness, 
in  which  the  emancipation  of  the  negro  has  been  forced 
upon  us  by  circumstances  and  accepted  as  a  necessity. 
We  are  very  far  from  denying  this;  nay,  we  admit 
that  it  is  so  far  true  that  we  were  slow  to  renounce  our 
constitutional  obligations  even  toward  those  who  had 
absolved  us  by  their  own  act  from  the  letter  ot  our 
duty.  We  are  speaking  of  the  government  which,  le« 
gaily  installed  for  the  whole  country,  was  bound,  so 
long  as  it  was  possible,  not  to  overstep  the  limits  o£ 
orderly  prescription,  and  could  not,  without  abnega- 
ting its  own  very  nature,  take  the  lead  in  making  re- 
bellion an  excuse  for  revolution.  Thei^e  were,  no  doubt, 
many  ardent  and  sincere  persons  who  seemed  to  think 
this  as  simple  a  thing  to  do  as  to  lead  off  a  Virginia 
reel.     They  forgot,  what  should  be  forgotten  least  of 


26  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 

all  in  a  system  like  ours,  that  the  administration  fo3? 
the  time  being  represents  not  only  the  majority  which 
elects  it,  but  the  minority  as  well, —  a  minority  in  this 
case  powerful,  and  so  little  ready  for  emancipation 
that  it  was  opposed  even  to  war.  Mr.  Lintel ;l  iiad  ^aot 
been  chosen  as  general  agent  of  an  anti-slavery  society^ 
?out  President  of  the  United  States,  to  perform  certain 
functions  exactly  defined  by  law.  Whatever  were  his 
wishes,  it  was  no  less  duty  than  policy  to  mark  out  for 
himself  a  line  of  action  that  would  not  further  distract 
the  country,  by  raising  before  their  time  questions 
which  plainly  would  soon  enough  compel  attention, 
and  for  which  every  day  was  making  the  answer  more 
easy. 

Meanwhile  he  must  solve  the  riddle  of  this  new 
Sphinx,  or  be  devoured.  Though  Mr.  Lincoln's  23olicy 
in  this  critical  affair  has  not  been  such  as  to  satisfy 
those  who  demand  an  heroic  treatment  for  even  the 
most  trifling  occasion,  and  who  will  not  cut  their  coat 
according  to  their  cloth,  unless  they  can  borrow  tho 
scissors  of  Atropos,^  it  has  been  at  least  not  unworthy 
of  the  long-headed  king  of  Ithaca.^  Mr.  Lincoln  Had 
the  choice  of  Bassanio  ^  offered  him.  Which  ot  the 
three  caskets  held  the  prize  that  was  to  redeem  the 
fortunes  of  the  country  ?  There  was  the  golden  one 
whose  showy  spaciousness  might  have  tempted  a  vaic 
man  ;  the  silver  of  compromise,  which  might  have  de- 
cided the  choice  of  a  merely  acute  one :  and  the 
leaden,  —  dull  and  homely-looking,  as  prudence  al- 
ways is,  —  yet  with  something  about  it  sure  to  attract 
the  eye   of    practical  wisdom.     Mr.   Lincoln  dallied 

^  One  of  the  three  Fates. 

^  Odysseus,  or  Ulysses,  the  hero  of  Homer's  Odyssey. 

^  See  Shakespeare's  Merchant  of  Venice. 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  27 

mith  his  decision  perhaps  longer  than  seemed  needful 
to  those  on  whom  its  awful  responsibility  was  not  to 
rest,  but  when  he  made  it,  it  was  worthy  of  his  cau- 
tious but  sure-footed  understanding.  The  moral  of 
the  Sphinx-riddle,  and  it  is  a  deep  one,  lies  in  the 
childish  simplicity  of  the  solution.  Those  who  fail  in 
guessing  it,  fail  becar.se  they  are  over-ingenious,  and 
cast  about  for  an  answer  that  shall  suit  their  own  no- 
tion of  the  gravit}^  of  the  occasion  and  of  their  own 
dignity,  i-ather  than  the  occasion  itself. 

In  a  matter  which  must  be  finally  settled  by  public 
opinion,  and  in  regard  to  which  the  ferment  of  preju- 
dice and  passion  on  both  sides  has  not  yet  subsided  to 
that  equilibrium  of  compromise  from  which  alone  a 
sound  public  oi^inion  can  result,  it  is  proper  enough 
for  the  private  citizen  to  press  his  own  convictions 
with  all  possible  force  of  argument  and  jDcrsuasion ; 
but  the  popular  magistrate,  whose  judgment  must  be- 
come action,  and  whose  action  involves  the  whole 
country,  is  bound  to  wait  till  the  sentiment  of  the 
people  is  so  far  advanced  toward  his  own  point  of 
view,  that  what  he  does  shall  find  suppoi't  in  it,  in- 
stead of  nierel}^  confusing  it  with  new  elements  of  di- 
vision. It  was  not  unnatural  that  men  earnestly 
devoted  to  the  saving  of  their  country,  and  profoundly 
convinced  that  slavery  was  its  only  real  enemy,  should 
demand  a  decided  policy  round  which  all  patriots 
might  I'ally,  —  and  this  might  have  been  the  wisest 
course  for  an  absolute  ruler.  But  in  the  then  unset- 
tled state  of  the  public  mind,  with  a  large  party  de- 
crying even  resistance  to  the  slaveholders'  rebellion  as 
not  only  unwise,  but  even  unlawful ;  with  a  majority, 
perhaps,  even  of  the  would-be  loyal  so  long  accus- 
tomed to  regard  the   Constitution  as  a  deed  of  gift 


28  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

conveying  to  the  South  their  own  judgment  as  to  pel. 
icy  and  instinct  as  to  right,  that  they  were  in  doubt  at 
first  wliether  their  loyalty  were  due  to  the  country  or 
to  slavery ;  and  with  a  respectable  body  of  honest  and 
influential  men  who  still  believed  in  the  possibility  of 
conciliation,  —  Mr.  Lincoln  judged  wisely,  that,  in 
laying  down  a  policy  in  deference  to  one  party,  he 
should  be  giving  to  the  other  the  very  fulcrum  for 
which  their  disloyalty  had  been  waiting. 

It  behooved  a  clear-headed  man  in  his  position  not 
to  yield  so  far  to  an  honest  indignation  against  the 
brokers  of  treason  in  the  North  as  to  lose  sight  of  the 
materials  for  misleading  which  were  their  stock  in 
Jrade,  and  to  forget  that  it  is  not  the  falsehood  of 
sophistry  which  is  to  be  feared,  but  the  grain  of  truth 
mingled  with  it  to  make  it  specious,  —  that  it  is  not 
the  knavery  of  the  leaders  so  much  as  the  honesty  of 
the  followers  they  may  seduce,  that  gives  them  power 
for  evil.  It  was  especially  his  duty  to  do  nothing 
which  might  help  the  people  to  forget  the  true  cause 
of  the  war  in  fruitless  disputes  about  its  inevitable 
consequences. 

The  doctrine  of  State  rights  can  be  so  handled  by 
an  adroit  demagogue  as  easily  to  confound  the  distinc- 
tion between  liberty  and  lawlessness  in  the  minds  of 
ignorant  persons,  accustomed  always  to  be  influenced 
by  the  sound  of  certain  words,  rather  than  to  reflect 
upon  the  principles  which  give  them  meaning.  For, 
though  Secession  involves  the  manifest  absurdity  of 
denying  to  a  State  the  right  of  making  war  against  any 
foreign  power  wliile  permitting  it  against  the  United 
States ;  though  it  supposes  a  compact  of  mutual  con. 
cessions  and  guaranties  among  States  without  any  an 
biter  in  case  of  dissension  ;  though  it  contradicts  com 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  29 

IDon-sense  iu  assuming  that  the  men  who  framed  our 
government  did  not  know  what  they  meant  when  they 
substituted  Union  for  Confederation ;  though  it  falsi^ 
fics  history,  whicli  shows  that  the  main  opposition  to 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  was  based  on  the  ar- 
gument that  it  did  not  allow  that  independence  in  the 
several  States  which  alone  would  justify  them  in  seced- 
ing ;  —  yet,  as  slavery  was  universally  admitted  to  be 
a  reserved  right,  an  inference  could  be  drawn  from 
any  direct  attack  ui3on  it  (though  only  in  self-defence) 
to  a  natural  right  of  resistance,  logical  enough  to  sat^ 
isfy  minds  untrained  to  detect  fallacy,  as  the  majority 
of  men  always  are,  and  now  too  umch  disturbed  by 
the  disorder  of  the  times,  to  consider  that  the  ordei 
of  events  had  any  legitimate  bearing  on  the  argument. 
Though  Mr.  Lincoln  was  too  sagacious  to  give  the 
Northern  allies  of  the  Rebels  the  occasion  they  desired 
„nd  even  strove  to  provoke,  yet  from  the  beginning  of 
the  war  the  most  persistent  efforts  have  been  made  to 
ronfuse  the  public  mind  as  to  its  origin  and  motives, 
and  to  drag  the  people  of  the  loyal  States  down  from 
the  national  position  they  had  instinctively  taken  to 
the  old  level  of  party  squabbles  and  antipathies.  The 
wholly  unprovoked  rebellion  of  an  oligarchy  proclaim- 
ing negro  slavery  the  corner-stone  of  free  institutional 
and  in  the  first  flush  of  over-hasty  confidence  ventur- 
ing  to  parade  the  logical  sequence  of  their  leading 
dogma,  "  that  slavery  is  right  in  principle,  and  baa 
Toothing  to  do  with  difference  of  complexion,"  has 
been  represented  as  a  legitimate  and  gallant  attempt 
to  maintain  the  true  principles  of  democracy.  The 
rightful  endeavor  of  an  established  government,  the 
least  onerous  that  ever  existed,  to  defend  itself  againsr 
4  treacherous  attack  on  its  very  existence,  has  been 


30  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

cunningly  made  to  seem  the  wicked  effort  of  a  fanati" 
cal  clique  to  force  its  doctrines  on  an  oppressed  popu- 
lation. 

Even  so  long  ago  as  when  Mr.  Lincoln,  not  yet  con-' 
vinced  of  the  danger  and  magnitude  of  the  crisis,  was 
^ideavoring  to  persuade  himself  of  Union  majorities  at 
liie  South,  and  to  carry  on  a  war  that  was  half  peace 
in  the  hope  of  a  peace  that  would  have  been  all  war,  — 
while  he  was  still  enforcing  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
under  some  theory  that  Secession,  however  it  might 
absolve  States  from  their  obligations,  could  not  es- 
cheat them  of  their  claims  under  the  Constitution,  and 
that  slaveholders  in  rebellion  had  alone  among  mortals 
the  privilege  of  having  their  cake  and  eating  it  at  the 
same  time,  —  the  enemies  of  free  government  were 
striving  to  persuade  the  people  that  the  war  was  an 
Abolition  crusade.  To  rebel  without  reason  was  pro- 
claimed as  one  of  the  rights  of  man,  while  it  was  care- 
fully kept  out  of  sight  that  to  suppress  rebellion  is  the 
first  duty  of  government.  All  the  evils  that  have 
come  ujDon  the  country  have  been  attributed  to  the 
Abolitionists,  though  it  is  hard  to  see  how  any  party 
can  become  permanently  powerful  except  in  one  of 
fcwo  ways,  —  either  by  the  greater  truth  of  its  princi- 
ples, or  the  extravagance  of  the  party  opposed  to  it- 
To  fancy  the  ship  of  state,  riding  safe  at  her  constitu= 
tional  moorings,  suddenly  engulfed  by  a  huge  kraken 
of  Abolitionism,  rising  from  unknown  depths  and 
grasping  it  with  slimy  tentacles,  is  to  look  at  the  nat- 
ural history  of  the  matter  with  the  eyes  of  Pontop- 
pidan.i  To  believe  that  the  leaders  in  the  Southern 
treason  feared  any  danger  from  Abolitionism,  would 
be  to  deny  them  ordinary  intelligence,  though  there 
1  A  Danisn  antiquary  and  theologian. 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  31 

can  be  little  doubt  that  they  made  use  of  it  to  stir  the 
passions  and  excite  the  fears  of  their  deluded  accom- 
plices. They  rebelled,  not  because  they  thought  slav- 
ery weak,  but  because  they  believed  it  strong  enough, 
not  to  overthrow  the  government,  but  to  get  posses- 
sion of  it ;  for  it  becomes  daily  clearer  that  they  used 
rebellion  only  as  a  means  of  revolution,  and  if  they 
got  revolution,  though  not  in  the  shape  they  looked 
for,  is  tlie  American  people  to  save  them  from  its  con- 
sequences at  the  cost  of  its  own  existence  ?  The  elec- 
tion of  Mr.  Lincoln,  which  it  was  clearly  in  their 
power  to  prevent  had  they  wished,  was  the  occasion 
merely,  and  not  the  cause,  of  their  revolt.  Abolition^ 
ism,  till  within  a  year  or  two,  was  the  despised  heresy 
of  a  few  earnest  persons,  without  political  weight 
enough  to  carry  the  election  of  a  parish  constable  ; 
and  their  cardinal  principle  was  disunion,  because 
they  were  convinced  that  within  the  Union  the  posi- 
tion of  slavery  was  impregnable.  In  spite  of  the 
proverb,  great  effects  do  not  follow  from  small  causes, 
—  that  is,  disproportionately  small,  —  but  from  ade- 
quate causes  acting  under  certain  required  conditions. 
To  contrast  the  size  of  the  oak  with  that  of  the  parent 
acorn,  as  if  the  poor  seed  had  paid  all  costs  from  its 
slender  strong-box,  may  serve  for  a  child's  wonder  5 
but  the  real  miracle  lies  in  that  divine  league  which 
bound  all  the  forces  of  nature  to  the  service  of  the 
tiny  germ  in  fidfilling  its  destiny.  Everything  has 
been  at  work  for  the  past  ten  years  in  the  cause  of 
anti-slavery,  but  Garrison  and  Phillips  have  been  far 
less  successful  propagandists  than  the  slaveholders 
themselves,  with  the  constantly  growing  arrogance  of 
their  pretensions  and  encroachments.  They  have 
fofced  the  question  upon  the  attention  of  every  voter 


S2  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

in  the  Free  States,  by  defiantly  putting  freedom  and 
democracy  on  the  defensive.  But,  even  after  the 
Kansas  outrages,  there  was  no  wide-spread  desire  on 
the  part  of  the  North  to  commit  aggressions,  though 
there  was  a  growing  determination  to  resist  them. 
The  popular  unanimity  in  favor  of  the  war  three  year& 
ago  was  but  in  small  measure  the  result  of  anti-sl?very 
sentiment,  far  less  of  any  zeal  for  abolition.  But 
every  month  of  the  war,  every  movement  of  the  allies 
of  slavery -in  the  Free  States,  has  been  making  Aboli- 
tionists by  the  thousand.  The  masses  of  any  people, 
however  intelligent,  are  very  little  moved  by  abstract 
principles  of  humanity  and  justice,  until  those  prin- 
ciples are  interpreted  for  them  by  the  stinging  com- 
mentary of  some  infringement  upon  their  own  rights, 
and  then  their  instincts  and  passions,  once  aroused, 
do  indeed  derive  an  incalculable  reinforcement  of 
impulse  and  intensity  from  those  higher  ideas,  those 
sublime  traditions,  which  have  no  motive  political 
force  till  they  are  allied  with  a  sense  of  immediate 
personal  wrong  or  imminent  peril.  Then  at  last  the 
stars  in  their  courses  begin  to  fight  against  Sisera. 
Had  any  one  doubted  before  that  the  rights  of  human 
nature  are  unitary,  that  oppression  is  of  one  hue  the 
world  over,  no  matter  what  the  color  of  the  oppressed^ 
—  had  any  one  failed  to  see  what  the  real  essence  oi.' 
the  contest  was,  —  the  efforts  of  the  advocates  of  slav 
ery  among  ourselves  to  throw  discredit  upon  the  fun 
damental  axioms  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  the  radical  doctrines  of  Christianity,  could  not 
fail  to  sharpen  his  eyes. 

While  every  day  was  bringing  the  people  nearer  to 
the  conclusion  which  all  thinking  men  saw  to  be  inev 
itable  fi'om  the  beginning,  it  was  wise  in  Mr.  Lincoiu 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  33 

to  leave  the  shaping  of  his  policy  to  events.  In  this 
country,  where  the  rough  and  ready  understanding  of 
the  people  is  sure  at  last  to  be  the  controlling  power, 
a  profound  common-sense  is  the  best  genius  for  states- 
manship. Hitherto  the  wisdom  of  the  President's 
measures  has  been  justified  by  the  fact  that  they  have 
always  resulted  in  more  firmly  uniting  public  opinion. 
One  of  the  things  particularly  admirable  in  the  public 
utterances  of  President  Lincoln  is  a  certain  tone  of 
familiar  dignity,  which,  while  it  is  perhaps  the  most 
difficult  attainment  of  mere  style,  is  also  no  doubtful 
indication  of  personal  character.  There  must  be 
something  essentially  noble  in  an  elective  ruler  who 
can  descend  to  the  level  of  confidential  ease  without 
losing  respect,  something  very  manly  in  one  who  can 
break  through  the  etiquette  of  his  conventional  rank 
and  trust  himself  to  the  reason  and  intelligence  of 
those  who  have  elected  him.  No  higher  compliment 
was  ever  paid  to  a  nation  than  the  simple  confidence, 
the  fireside  plainness,  with  which  Mr.  Lincoln  always 
addresses  himself  to  the  reason  of  the  American  people. 
This  was,  indeed,  a  true  democrat,  who  grounded  him- 
self on  the  assumption  that  a  democracy  can  think. 
"  Come,  let  us  reason  together  about  this  matter,"  has 
been  the  tone  of  all  his  addresses  to  the  people  ;  and 
accordingly  we  have  never  had  a  chief  magistrate 
who  so  won  to  himself  the  love  and  at  the  same  time 
the  judgment  of  his  countrymen.  To  us,  that  sim- 
ple confidence  of  his  in  the  right-mindedness  of  his 
f  ellovz-men  is  very  touching,  and  its  success  is  as  strong 
an  argument  as  we  have  ever  seen  in  favor  of  the 
theory  that  men  can  govern  themselves.  He  never  ap- 
peals to  any  vulgar  sentiment,  he  never  alludes  to 
the  humbleness  of  his  origin  ;  it  probably  never  oo- 


84  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

curred  to  liim,  indeed,  that  there  was  anything  higher 
to  start  from  than  manhood ;  and  he  put  himself  on  a 
level  with  those  he  addressed,  not  by  going  down  to 
them,  but  only  by  taking  it  for  granted  that  they  had 
brains  and  would  come  up  to  a  common  ground  of 
reasoji.  In  an  article  lately  printed  in  The  Nation^ 
Mr.  Bayard  Taylor  mentions  the  striking  fact,  that 
m  the  foulest  dens  of  the  Five  Points  he  found  the 
portrait  of  Lincoln.  The  wretched  population  that 
makes  its  hive  there  threw  all  its  votes  and  more 
against  him,  and  yet  paid  this  instinctive  tribute  to 
the  sweet  humanity  of  his  nature.  There  ignorance 
sold  its  vote  and  took  its  money,  but  all  that  was  left 
of  manhood  in  them  recognized  its  saint  and  martyr. 

Mr.  Lincoln  is  not  in  the  habit  of  saying,  "  This  is 
my  opinion,  or  my  theory,"  but  "  This  is  the  conclu- 
sion to  which,  in  my  judgment,  the  time  has  come, 
and  to  which,  accordingly,  the  sooner  we  come  the 
better  for  us."  His  policy  has  been  the  policy  of 
public  opinion  based  on  adequate  discussion  and  on  a 
timely  recognition  of  the  influence  of  passing  events 
in  shaping  the  features  of  events  to  come. 

One  secret  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  i-emarkable  success  in 
captivating  the  popular  mind  is  undoubtedly  an  un- 
consciousness of  self  which  enables  him,  though  under 
the  necessity  of  constantly  using  the  capital  /,  to  do 
it  without  any  suggestion  of  egotism.  There  is  no 
single  vowel  which  men's  mouths  can  pronounce  with 
such  difference  of  effect.  That  which  one  shall  hide 
away,  as  it  were,  behind  the  substance  of  his  dis- 
course, or,  if  he  bring  it  to  the  front,  shall  use  merely 
to  give  an  agreeable  accent  of  individuality  to  what 
he  says,  another  shall  make  an  offensive  challenge  to 
the  self-satisfaction  of  all  his  hearers,  and  an  unwai> 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  35 

ranted  intrusion  upon  each  man's  sense  of  personal 
importance,  irritating  every  pore  of  his  vanity,  like  a 
dry  northeast  wind,  to  a  goose-flesh  of  opposition  and 
hostility.  Mr.  Lincoln  has  never  studied  Quinti- 
lian ;  ^  but  he  has,  in  the  earnest  simplicity  and  un- 
affected Americanism  of  his  own  character,  one  art  . 
of  oratory  worth  all  the  rest.  He  forgets  himself  so 
entirely  in  his  object  as  to  give  his  I  the  sympathetic 
and  persuasive  effect  of  We  with  the  great  bcdy  of 
his  countrymen.  Homely,  dispassionate,  showing  all 
the  rough-edged  process  of  his  thought  as  it  goes 
along,  yet  arriving  at  his  conclusions  with  an  honest 
kind  of  overy-day  logic,  he  is  so  eminently  our  repre- 
sentative man,  that,  when  he  speaks,  it  seems  as  if  the 
people  were  listening  to  their  own  thinking  aloud. 
The  dignity  of  his  thought  owes  nothing  to  any  cere- 
monial garb  of  words,  but  to  the  manly  movement 
that  comes  of  settled  purpose  and  an  energy  of  reason 
that  knows  not  what  rhetoric  means.  There  has  been 
nothing  of  Cleon,  still  less  of  Strepsiades  ^  striving  to 
imderbid  him  in  demagogism,  to  be  found  in  the  pub- 
lic uttei-ances  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  has  always  ad- 
dressed the  intelligence  of  men,  never  their  prejudice, 
their  passion,  or  their  ignorance. 


On  the  day  of  his  death,  this  simple  Western  attor- 
ney, who  according  to  one  party  was  a  vulgar  joker, 
and  whom  the  doctrinaires  among  his  own  supporters 
accused  of  wanting  every  element  of  statesmanship, 
was  the  most  absolute  ruler  in  Christendom,  and  this 

1  A  famons  Latin  writer  on  the  Art  of  Oratory. 

'^  Two  Ath^inian  demagogues,  satirized  by  the  dramatist  Aristo- 
phanes. 


S6  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

solely  by  the  hold  his  good-humored  sagacity  had  laid 
ou  the  hearts  and  understandings  of  his  countrymen. 
Nor  was  tliis  ail,  for  it  appeared  that  he  had  drawn 
the  great  majority,  not  only  of  his  fellow-citizens,  but 
of  mankind  also,  to  his  side.  So  strong  and  so  per- 
suasive is  honest  manliness  without  a  single  quality  of 
romance  or  unreal  sentiment  to  help  it !  A  civilian 
during  times  of  the  most  captivating  military  achieve- 
ment, awkward,  with  no  skill  in  the  lower  technicali- 
ties of  manners,  he  left  behind  him  a  fame  beyond 
that  of  any  conqueror,  the  memory  of  a  grace  higher 
than  that  of  outward  person,  and  of  a  gentlemanliness 
deeper  than  mere  breeding.  Never  before  that  star- 
tled April  morning  did  such  multitudes  of  men  shed 
tears  for  the  death  of  one  they  had  never  seen,  as  if 
■with  him  a  friendly  presence  had  been  taken  away  from 
their  lives,  leaving  them  colder  and  darker.  Never 
was  funeral  panegyric  so  eloquent  as  the  silent  look  of 
sympathy  which  strangers  exchanged  when  they  met 
on  that  day.  Their  common  manhood  had  lost  a 
kinsman. 


1. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  SPEECH 

AT  THE  DEDICATION  OF   THE  NATIONAL    CEMETERY,  GETTYS 
BURG,    PENNSYLVANIA,  NOVEMBER    19,   1863. 

The  great  battles  fought  at  Gettysburg,  Pennsylvania,  in  July, 
1863,  made  that  sjjot  historic  ground.  It  was  early  perceived 
that  the  battles  were  critical,  and  they  are  now  looked  upon  by 
many  as  the  turning-point  of  the  war  for  the  Union.  The 
ground  where  the  fiercest  conflict  raged  was  taken  for  a  national 
cemetery,  and  the  dedication  of  the  place  was  made  an  occasion 
of  gi-eat  solemnity.  The  orator  of  the  day  was  Edward  Everett, 
who  was  regarded  as  the  most  finished  public  speaker  in  the 
country.  Mr.  Everett  made  a  long  and  eloquent  address,  and 
was  followed  by  the  President  in  a  little  speech  which  instan- 
taneously affected  the  country,  whether  people  were  educated  or 
unlettered,  as  a  great  speech.  The  impression  created  has  deep- 
ened with  time.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  in  his  essay  on  Elo' 
quence  says  :  "  I  believe  it  to  be  true  that  when  any  orator  at  th© 
bar  or  the  Senate  rises  in  his  thought,  he  descends  in  his  lan- 
guage, that  is,  when  he  rises  to  any  height  of  thought  or  passioii, 
he  comes  down  to  a  language  level  with  the  ear  of  all  his  au- 
dience. It  is  the  merit  of  John  Brown  and  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
• —  one  at  Charlestown,  one  at  Gettysburg  —  in  the  two  best 
specimens  of  eloquence  we  have  had  in  this  country." 

It  is  worth  while  to  listen  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  own  account  of  the 
education  which  prepared  him  for  public  speaking.  Before  he 
was  nominated  for  the  presidency  he  had  attracted  the  notice  of 
people  by  a  remarkable  contest  in  debate  with  a  famous  Illinois 
statesman,  Stephen  Arnold  Douglas.  As  a  consequence  Mr. 
Lincoln  received  a  great  many  invitations  to  speak  in  the  East- 
ern States,  and  made,  among  others,  a  notable  speech  at  the 
Cooper  Union,  New  York.  Shortly  after,  he  spoke  also  at  New 
Haven,  and  the  Rev.  J.  P.  Gulliver  in  a  paper  in  the  Npw  York 


38  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Independent,  Sept.  1,  18G4,  thus  reports  a  conversation  which  he 
held  with  him  when  traveling  in  the  same  railroad  car  :  — 

"  *  Ah,  that  reminds  me,'  he  said,  '  of  a  most  extraordinary 
circumstance,  which  occurred  in  New  Haven,  the  other  day. 
They  told  me  that  the  Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  Yale  College  — ■ 
a  very  learned  man,  is  n't  he  ?  '  '  Yes,  sir,  and  a  very  fine  critic, 
too.'  '  Well,  I  suppose  so  ;  he  ought  to  be,  at  any  rate  —  They 
told  me  that  he  came  to  hear  me  and  took  notes  of  my  speech, 
and  gave  a  lecture  on  it  to  liis  class  the  next  day  ;  and,  not  satis- 
fied with  that,  he  followed  me  up  to  Meriden  the  next  evening, 
and  heard  me  again  for  the  same  purpose.  Now,  if  this  is  so,  ii 
is  to  my  mind  very  extraordinary.  I  have  been  sufficiently  as- 
tonished at  my  success  in  the  West.  It  has  been  most  unex- 
pected. But  I  had  no  thought  of  any  marked  success  at  the  East, 
and  least  of  all  that  I  should  draw  out  such  commendations  from 
literary  and  learned  men  ! ' 

" '  That  suggests,  Mr.  Lincoln,  an  inquiry  which  has  several 
times  been  upon  my  lips  during  this  conversation.  I  want  very 
much  to  know  how  you  got  this  unusual  power  of  "  putting 
things."  It  must  have  been  a  matter  of  education.  No  man 
has  it  by  nature  alone.     What  has  your  education  been  ?  ' 

"  'Well,  as  to  education,  the  newspapers  are  correct.  I  never 
went  to  school  more  than  six  months  in  my  life.  But,  as  you 
say,  this  must  be  a  product  of  culture  in  some  form.  I  have 
been  putting  the  question  you  ask  me  to  myself  while  you  have 
been  talking.  I  say  this,  that  among  my  earliest  recollections,  I 
remember  how,  when  a  mere  child,  I  used  to  get  irritated  when 
anybody  talked  to  me  in  a  way  I  could  not  understand.  I  don't 
think  I  ever  got  angry  at  anything  else  in  my  life.  But  that  al- 
ways disturbed  my  temper,  and  has  ever  since.  I  can  remember 
going  to  my  little  bedroom,  after  hearing  the  neighbors  talk  of 
an  evening  with  my  father,  and  spending  no  small  part  of  the 
pight  walking  up  and  down,  and  trying  to  make  out  what  was 
the  exact  meaning  of  some  of  their,  to  me,  dark  sayings.  I  could 
not  sleep,  though  I  often  tried  to,  when  I  got  on  such  a  hunt  af- 
ter an  idea,  until  I  had  caught  it  ;  and  when  I  thought  I  had  got 
it,  I  was  not  satisfied  until  I  had  repeated  it  over  and  over,  until 
I  had  put  it  in  language  plain  enough,  as  I  thought,  for  any  boy 
I  knew  to  comprehend.  This  was  a  kind  of  passion  with  me, 
and  it  has  stuck  by  me,  for  I  am  never  easy  now,  when  I  am 
handling  a  thought,  till  I  have  bounded  it  north  and  bounded  it 


GETTYSBURG   SPEECH.  39 

aoutli  and  bounded  it  east  and  bounded  it  west.  Perhaps  that 
accounts  for  the  characteristic  you  observe  in  my  speeches, 
tliough  I  never  put  the  two  things  together  before.' "  But  to  the 
speech  itself. 

FouESCORE  and  seven  years  ago,  our  fathers  brought 
tcvili  on  this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  lib- 
erty, and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men 
are  created  equal.  Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great 
civil  war,  testing  whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation 
so  conceived  and  so  dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We 
are  met  on  a  great  battlefield  of  that  war.  We  have 
come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field  as  a  final  rest- 
ing-place for  those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that 
nation  might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper 
that  we  should  do  this.  But  in  a  larger  sense  we  can- 
not dedicate,  we  cannot  consecrate,  we  cannot  hallow 
this  ground.  The  brave  men,  living  and  dead,  who 
struggled  here,  have  consecrated  it  far  above  our  poor 
power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world  will  little  note, 
nor  long  remember,  what  we  say  here,  but  it  can  never 
forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living, 
rather  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  unfinished  work 
which  they  who  fought  here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  ad- 
vanced. It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to 
the  great  task  remaining  before  us,  —  that  from  these 
honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause 
for  which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion, 
—that  we  here  highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not 
have  died  in  vain,  —  that  this  nation,  under  God,  shuU 
have  a  new  birth  of  freedom,  —  and  that  government 
of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  peoi:>le,  shall  not 
perish  from  the  earth. 


40  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN: 


n. 


THE  FIRST  INAUGUEAL  ADDRESS. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  Mr.  Lincoln  took  the  oatli  of 
office  as  President  of  the  TJnited  States,  and  then  from  the  east 
portico  of  the  Capitol  delivered  to  an  immense  throng  his  in» 
augural  address.  He  had  written  it  before  coming  to  Washing- 
ton,  and  had  asked  criticism  upon  it  from  a  few  prominent  men, 
among  them  William  H.  Seward,  who  was  looked,  upon  by  most 
as  the  great  Republican  statesman  of  the  day.  The  criticism  of 
these  men  was  considered  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  in  some  instances 
used  to  modify  his  address.  The  most  interesting  change  was 
due  to  Mr.  Seward's  advice  that  "  some  words  of  affection,  some 
of  calm  and  cheerful  confidence  ^.hould  be  added."  To  make  his 
meaning  clear,  Mr.  Seward  drew  up  a  paragraph  for  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's use  if  he  chose  to  take  it.  Mr.  Lincoln  liked  the  thought, 
but  liis  style  differed  from  Mr.  Seward's,  and  he  rewrote  the 
paragraph  in  his  own  words.  For  the  sake  of  comparison,  Mr. 
Seward's  paragraph  is  given  in  a  foot-note  at  the  proper  place. 
He  wrote  full,  sonorous  English,  Mr.  Lincoln  terse,  nervous,  di- 
rect speech,  and  the  contrast  between  the  two  is  very  striking. 

Fellow-citizens  of  the  United  States  :  In 
compliance  with  a  custom  as  old  as  the  Government  it- 
self, I  appear  before  you  to  address  you  briefly,  and  to 
take  in  your  presence  the  oath  prescribed  by  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  to  be  taken  by  the  Presi- 
dent "  before  he  enters  on  the  execution  of  his  office." 

I  do  not  consider  it  necessary  at  present  for  me  tc 
discuss  those  matters  of  administration  about  which 
there  is  no  special  anxiety  or  excitement. 

Apprehension  seems  to  exist  among  the  people  of 
the  Southern  States  that  by  the  accession  of  a  Repub- 
lican Administration  their  property  and  their  peace 
and  personal  security  are  to  be  endangered.     There 


THE   FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  41 

has  never  been  any  reasonable  cause  for  such  appre- 
hension. Indeed,  the  most  ample  evidence  to  the  con- 
trary has  all  the  while  existed  and  been  open  to  their 
inspection.  It  is  found  in  nearly  all  the  published 
speeches  of  him  who  now  addresses  you.  I  do  but 
quote  from  one  of  those  speeches  when  I  declare  that 
"  I  have  no  purpose,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  interfere 
',vith  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  States  where  it 
exists.  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I 
have  no  inclination  to  do  so."  Those  who  nominated 
and  elected  me  did  so  with  full  knowledge  that  I  had 
made  this  and  many  similar  declarations,  and  had 
never  recanted  them.  And,  more  than  this,  thej' 
placed  in  the  platform  for  my  acceptance,  and  as  a 
law  to  themselves  and  to  me,  the  clear  and  emphatic 
resolution  which  I  now  read : 

"  Resolved,  that  the  maintenance  inviolate  of  the 
rights  of  the  States,  and  especially  the  right  of  each 
State  to  order  and  control  its  own  domestic  institu* 
tions  according  to  its  own  judgment  exclusively,  is  es- 
sential to  that  balance  of  power  on  which  the  perfec- 
tion and  endurance  of  our  political  fabric  depend,  and 
we  denounce  the  lawless  invasion  by  armed  force  of 
the  soil  of  any  State  or  Territory,  no  matter  under 
what  pretext,  as  among  the  gravest  of  crimes." 

I  now  reiterate  these  sentiments  ;  and,  in  doing  so, 
I  only  press  upon  the  public  attention  the  most  con- 
clusive evidence  of  which  the  case  is  susceptible,  that 
the  property,  peace,  and  security  of  no  section  are  to 
be  in  any  wise  endangered  by  the  now  incoming  Ad- 
ministration. I  add,  too,  that  all  the  protection  which, 
consistentlj"-  with  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  can 
be  given,  will  be  cheerfully  given  to  all  the  States 
when  lawfully  demanded,  for  whatever  cause  ^—  as 
cheerfully  to  one  section,  as  to  another. 


42  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

There  is  much  controversy  about  the  delivering  up 
of  fugitives  from  service  or  labor.  The  clause  I  now 
read  is  as  plainly  written  in  the  Constitution  as  any 
other  of  its  provisions  : 

"  No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State, 
under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall  in 
consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  dis° 
charged  from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  deliv= 
ered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or 
labor  may  be  due." 

It  is  scarcely  questioned  that  this  provision  was  in- 
tended by  those  who  made  it  for  the  reclaiming  of 
what  we  call  fugitive  slaves  ;  and  the  intention  of  the 
lawgiver  is  the  law.  All  members  of  Congress  swear 
their  support  to  the  whole  Constitution  —  to  this  jjro- 
vision  as  much  as  to  any  other.  To  the  proposition, 
then,  that  slaves,  whose  cases  come  within  the  terms 
of  tliis  clause,  "  shall  be  delivered  up  "  their  oaths  are 
unanimous.  Now,  if  they  would  make  the  effort  in 
good  temper,  couid  they  not,  with  nearly  equal  unanim- 
ity, fi-ame  and  pass  a  law  by  means  of  which  to  keep 
good  that  unanimous  oath? 

There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  whether  this 
clause  should  be  enforced  by  national  or  by  State  au- 
thority ;  but  surely  that  difference  is  not  a  very  mate- 
rial one.  If  the  slave  is  to  be  surrendered,  it  can  be 
of  but  little  consequence  to  him,  or  to  others,  by  which 
authority  it  is  done.  And  should  any  one,  in  any 
case,  be  content  that  his  oath  shall  go  unkept,  on  a 
merely  unsubstantial  controversy  as  to  how  it  shall  be 
kept  ? 

Again,  in  any  law  upon  this  subject,  ought  not  all 
the  safeguards  of  liberty  known  in  civilized  and  hu- 
mane jurisprudence  to  be  introduced  so  that  a  free 


THE   FIRST   INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  43 

man  be  not,  in  any  case,  surrendered  as  a  slave  ?  And 
might  it  not  be  well  at  the  same  time  to  jsrovide  by 
law  for  the  enforcement  of  that  clause  in  the  Consti- 
tution which  guarantees  that  "  the  citizen  of  each 
State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities 
of  citizens  in  the  several  States  "  ? 

I  take  the  official  oath  to-day  with  no  mental  reser« 
vations  and  with  no  purpose  to  construe  the  Constitu- 
tion or  laws  by  any  hypercritical  rules.  And  while  1 
do  not  choose  now  to  specify  particular  acts  of  Con- 
gi-ess  as  proper  to  be  enforced,  I  do  suggest  that  it 
will  be  much  safer  for  all,  both  in  official  and  private 
stations,  to  conform  to  and  abide  by  all  those  acts 
which  stand  unrepealed,  than  to  violate  any  of  them 
trusting  to  find  impunity  in  having  them  held  to  be 
unconstitutional. 

It  is  seventy-two  years  since  the  first  inauguration 
of  a  President  under  our  National  Constitution.  Dur- 
ing that  period  fifteen  different  and  greatly  distin- 
guished citizens  have,  in  succession,  administered  the 
Executive  branch  of  the  Government.  They  have 
conducted  it  through  many  perils,  and  generally  with 
great  success.  Yet,  with  all  this  scope  of  precedent, 
I  now  enter  upon  the  same  task  for  the  brief  constitu- 
tional term  of  four  years,  under  great  and  peculiai* 
difficulty.  A  disruption  of  the  Federal  Union,  hereto- 
fore only  menaced,  is  now  foi-midably  attempted. 

I  hold  that,  in  contemplation  of  universal  law,  and 
of  the  Constitution,  the  union  of  these  States  is  per= 
petual.  Perpetuity  is  implied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the 
fundamental  law  of  all  national  governments.  It  is 
safe  to  assert  that  no  government  proper  ever  had  a 
provision  in  its  organic  law  for  its  own  termination. 
Continue  to  execute  all  the  express  provisions  or  our 


44  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

National  Constitution,  and  the  Union  will  endure  for. 
ever  —  it  being  impossible  to  destroy  it  except  by  some 
action  not  provided  for  in  the  instrument  itself. 

Again,  if  the  United  States  be  not  a  government 
proper,  but  an  association  of  States  iu  the  nature  of 
contract  merely,  can  it,  as  a  contract,  be  peaceably  un- 
made  by  less  than  all  the  parties  who  made  it  ?  One 
party  to  a  contract  may  violate  it  —  break  it,  so  to 
speak,  but  does  it  not  require  all  to  lawfully  rescind 
it? 

Descending  from  these  general  principles,  we  find 
the  proposition  that,  in  legal  contemplation,  the  Union 
is  perpetual,  confirmed  by  the  history  of  the  Union 
itself.  The  Union  is  much  older  than  the  Constitu- 
tion. It  was  formed,  in  fact,  by  the  Articles  of  Asso- 
ciation in  1774.  It  was  matured  and  continued  by 
tiie  Declaration  of  Independence  in  1776.  It  was 
further  matured,  and  the  faith  of  all  the  then  thirteen 
States  expressly  plighted  and  engaged  that  it  should 
be  perpetual,  by  the  Articles  of  Confederation  in  1778. 
And  finally,  in  1787,  one  of  the  declared  objects  for 
ordaining  and  establishing  the  Constitution  was,  "  to 
form  a  more  perfect  Unions 

But  if  destruction  of  the  Union  by  one,  or  by  a  part 
only,  of  the  States  be  lawfully  possible,  the  Union  is 
less  perfect  than  before  the  Constitution,  having  lost 
the  vital  element  of  perpetuity. 

It  follows  from  these  views,  that  no  State,  upon  its 
own  mere  motion,  can  lawfully  get  out  of  the  Union , 
that  resolves  and  ordinances  to  that  effect  are  legally 
void  •,  and  that  acts  of  violence,  within  any  State  or 
States,  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  are 
insurrectionary  or  revolutionary,  according  to  circum- 
stances. 


THE  FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  45 

I  therefore  consider  that,  in  view  of  the  Constitu- 
tion and  the  laws,  the  Union  is  unbroken  ;  and  to  the 
extent  of  my  ability,  I  shall  take  care,  as  the  Constitu- 
tion itself  expressly  enjoins  upon  me,  that  the  laws  of 
the  Union  be  faithfully  executed  in  all  the  States. 
Doing-  this  I  deem  to  be  only  a  simple  duty  on  my 
part ;  and  I  shall  perform  it,  so  far  as  practicable,  un- 
less my  rightful  masters,  the  American  people,  shall 
withhold  the  requisite  means,  or  in  some  authoritative 
manner  direct  the  contrary.  I  trust  this  will  not  be 
regarded  as  a  menace,  but  only  as  the  declared  pur- 
pose of  the  Union  that  it  will  constitutionally  defenc{ 
and  maintain  itself. 

In  doing  this  there  needs  to  be  no  bloodshed  or  vio- 
lence ;  and  there  shall  be  none,  unless  it  be  forced 
upon  the  national  authority.  The  power  confided  to 
me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and  possess  the  prop- 
erty and  places  belonging  to  the  Government,  and  to 
collect  the  duties  and  imposts  ;  but  beyond  what  may 
be  necessary  for  these  objects,  there  will  be  no  inva- 
sion, no  using  of  force  against  or  among  the  people 
anywhere.  Where  hostility  to  the  United  States,  in 
any  interior  locality,  shall  be  so  great  and  universal 
as  to  prevent  competent  resident  citizens  from  holding 
the  Federal  offices,  there  will  be  no  attempt  to  force 
obnoxious  strangers  among  the  people  for  that  object. 
While  the  strict  legal  right  may  exist  in  the  Govern- 
ment to  enforce  the  exercise  of  these  offices,  the  at- 
tempt to  do  so  would  be  so  irritating,  and  so  nearly 
impracticable  withal,  that  I  deem  it  better  to  forego 
for  the  time  the  uses  of  such  offices. 

The  mails,  unless  repelled,  will  continue  to  be  fur- 
nished in  all  parts  of  the  Union.  So  far  as  possible, 
the  people  everywhere  shall  have  that  sense  of  perfect 


46  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

security  whieli  is  most  favorable  to  calm  thovight  and 
reflection.  The  course  here  indicated  will  be  followed 
unless  current  events  and  experience  shall  show  a  mod- 
ification or  change  to  be  proper,  and  in  every  case  and 
exigency  my  best  discretion  will  be  exercised  accord- 
ing to  circumstances  actually  existing,  and  with  a  view 
and  a  hope  of  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  national 
troubles,  and  the  restoration  of  fraternal  sympathies 
and  affections. 

That  there  are  persons  in  one  section  or  another  who 
seek  to  destroy  the  Union  at  all  events,  and  are  glad 
of  any  pretext  to  do  it,  I  will  neither  affirm  nor  deny ; 
but  if  there  be  such,  I  need  address  no  word  to  them. 
To  those,  however,  who  really  love  the  Union,  may  I 
not  speak  ? 

Before  entering  upon  so  grave  a  matter  as  the  de- 
struction of  our  national  fabric,  with  all  its  benefits, 
its  memories,  and  its  hopes,  would  it  not  be  wise  to  as- 
certain precisely  why  we  do  it  ?  Will  you  hazard  so 
desperate  a  step  while  there  is  any  possibility  that  any 
portion  of  the  ills  you  fly  from  have  no  real  exist- 
ence ?  Will  you,  while  the  certain  ills  you  fly  to  are 
greater  than  all  the  real  ones  you  fly  from  —  will  you 
risk  the  commission  of  so  fearful  a  mistake  ? 

All  profess  to  be  content  in  the  Union,  if  all  consti^ 
tutional  rights  can  be  maintained.  Is  it  true,  theHj 
that  any  right,  plainly  written  in  the  Constitutionj 
has  been  denied  ?  I  think  not.  Happily  the  human 
mind  is  so  constituted  that  no  party  can  reach  to  the 
audacity  of  doing  this.  Think,  if  you  can,  of  a  single 
instance  in  which  a  plainly  written  provision  of  the 
Constitution  has  ever  been  denied.  If,  by  the  mere 
force  of  numbers,  a  majority  should  deprive  a  minor- 
ity of  any  clearly  written  constitutional  right,  it  mighti 


THE  FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.         47 

in  a  moral  point  of  view,  justify  revolution  —  certainly 
would,  if  such  right  were  a  vital  one.  But  such  is  not 
oin'  case.  All  the  vital  rights  of  minorities  and  of  in- 
dividuals are  so  plainly  assured  to  them  by  affirma- 
tions and  negations,  guarantees  and  prohibitions,  in  the 
Constitution,  that  controversies  never  arise  concerning 
them.  But  no  organic  law  can  ever  be  framed  with 
a  provision  specifically  applicable  to  every  question 
which  may  occur  in  practical  administration.  No  fore- 
sight can  anticipate,  nor  any  document  of  reasonable 
length  contain,  express  provisions  for  all  possible 
questions.  Shall  fugitives  from  labor  be  surrendered 
by  national  or  by  State  authority  ?  The  Constitution 
does  not  expressly  say.  Hay  Congress  prohibit  slav- 
ery in  the  Territories  ?  The  Constitution  does  not  ex. 
pressly  say.  Must  Congress  protect  slavery  in  the 
Tei  ritories  ?     The  Constitution  does  not  expressly  say. 

From  questions  of  this  class  spring  all  our  constitu- 
tional conti-oversies,  and  we  divide  upon  them  into  ma- 
jorities and  minorities.  If  the  minority  will  not  acqui- 
esce, the  majority  must,  or  the  Government  must  cease. 
There  is  no  other  alternative  ;  for  continuing  the  Gov- 
ernment is  acquiescence  on  one  side  or  the  other.  If  a 
minority  in  such  case  will  secede  rather  than  acquiesce, 
thej'^  make  a  precedent  which  in  turn  will  divide  and 
ruin  them  ;  for  a  minority  of  their  own  will  secede 
from  them  whenever  a  majority  refuses  to  be  con^ 
trolled  by  such  minority.  For  instance,  why  may  not 
any  portion  of  a  new  confederacy,  a  year  or  two  hence, 
arbitrarily  secede  again,  precisely  as  portions  of  the 
present  Union  now  claim  to  secede  from  it  ?  All  who 
Dherish  disunion  sentiments  are  now  being  educated  to 
the  exact  temper  of  doing  this. 

Is  there  such  perfect  identity  of  interests  among  the 


48  AUKAHAM  LINCOLN. 

States  to  compose  a  new  Union  as  to  produce  harmony 
only,  and  prevent  renewed  secession  ? 

Plainly,  the  central  idea  of  secession  is  the  essence 
of  anarchy.  A  majority  held  in  restraint  by  constitu- 
tional checks  and  limitations,  and  always  changing 
easily  with  deliberate  changes  of  popular  opinions  and 
sentiments,  is  the  only  true  sovereign  of  a  free  people., 
Whoever  rejects  it  does,  of  necessity,  fly  to  anarchy  or 
to  despotism.  Unanimity  is  impossible ;  the  rule  of  a 
minority,  as  a  permanent  arrangement,  is  wholly  in- 
admissible ;  so  that,  rejecting  the  majority  principle, 
anarchy  or  despotism  in  some  form  is  all  that  is  left. 

I  do  not  forget  the  position,  assumed  by  some,  that 
constitutional  questions  are  to  be  decided  by  the  Su- 
preme Coui-t ;  nor  do  1  deny  that  such  decisions  must 
be  binding,  in  any  case,  upon  the  parties  to  a  suit,  as 
to  the  object  of  that  suit,  while  they  are  also  entitled 
to  very  high  respect  and  consideration  in  all  parallel 
cases  by  all  other  departments  of  the  Government. 
And  while  it  is  obviously  possible  that  such  decision 
may  be  erroneous  in  any  given  case,  still  the  evil  effect 
following  it,  being  limited  to  that  particular  case,  with 
the  chance  that  it  may  be  overruled,  and  never  be- 
come a  precedent  for  other  cases,  can  better  be  borne 
than  could  the  evils  of  a  different  practice.  At  the 
same  time,  the  candid  citizen  must  confess  that  if  the 
policy  of  the  Government,  upon  vital  questions  affect- 
ing the  whole  people,  is  to  be  irrevocably  fixed  by  de- 
cisions of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  instant  they  are 
made  in  ordinary  litigation  between  parties  in  per- 
sonal actions,  the  people  will  have  ceased  to  be  their 
own  rulers,  having  to  that  extent  practically  resigned 
their  government  into  the  hands  of  that  eminent  tribu« 
nal.     Nor  is  there  in  this  view  any  assault  upon  the 


THE  FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  49 

court  or  the  judges.  It  is  a  duty  from  which  they 
may  not  shrink  to  decide  cases  pi-operly  brought  be- 
fore them,  and  it  is  no  fault  of  theirs  if  others  seek  to 
turn  their  decisions  to  political  purposes. 

One  section  of  our  country  believes  Slavery  is  right, 
and  ought  to  be  extended,  while  the  other  believes  it 
is  wrong,  and  ought  not  to  be  extended.  This  is  the 
only  subscantial  dispute.  The  fugitive-slave  clause  of 
the  Constitution,  and  the  law  for  the  suppression  of  the 
foreign  slave-trade,  are  each  as  well  enforced,  perhaps, 
as  any  law  can  ever  be  in  a  community  where  the  moral 
sense  of  the  people  imperfectly  supports  the  law  itself. 
The  great  body  of  the  people  abide  by  the  dry  legal 
obligation  in  both  cases,  and  a  few  break  over  in  each. 
This,  I  think,  cannot  be  perfectly  cured  ;  and  it  would 
be  worse  in  both  cases  after  the  separation  of  the  sec- 
tions, than  before.  The  foreign  slave-trade,  now  im- 
perfectly suppressed,  would  be  ultimately  revived  with- 
out restriction  in  one  section  ;  while  fugitive  slaves, 
now  only  partially  surrendered,  would  not  be  surren- 
dered at  all  by  the  other. 

Physically  speaking,  we  cannot  separate.  We  can- 
not remove  our  respective  sections  from  each  other, 
nor  build  an  impassable  wall  between  them.  A  hus- 
band and  wife  may  be  divorced,  and  go  out  of  the 
presence  and  beyond  the  reach  of  each  other ;  but  the 
different  parts  of  our  country  cannot  do  this.  They 
cannot  but  remain  face  to  face,  and  intercourse,  either 
amicable  or  hostile,  must  continue  between  them.  Is 
it  possible,  then,  to  make  that  intercourse  more  ad- 
vantageous or  more  satisfactoi'y  after  separation  than 
he  fore  ?  Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier  than  friends 
-•an  make  laws  ?  Can  treaties  be  more  faithfully  en- 
forced between  aliens  than  laws  can  among  friends  ? 


,^0  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

Suppose  you  go  to  war,  you  cannot  fight  always ;  and 
when,  after  much  loss  on  both  sides,  and  no  gain  on 
either,  you  cease  fighting,  the  identical  old  questions 
as  to  terms  of  intercourse  are  again  upon  you. 

This  country,  with  its  institutions,  belongs  to  the 
people  who  inhabit  it.  "Whenever  they  shall  grow 
wear}"^  of  the  existing  Government  they  can  exercise 
their  constitutional  right  of  amending  it,  or  their  rev-- 
olutionary  right  to  dismember  or  overthrow  it.  I 
cannot  be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  many  worthy  and 
patriotic  citizens  are  desirous  of  having  the  National 
Constitution  amended.  While  I  make  no  recommenda- 
tion of  amendments,  I  fully  recognize  the  rightful  au- 
thority of  the  people  over  the  whole  subject,  to  be  ex- 
ercised in  either  of  the  modes  prescribed  in  the  instru- 
ment itself ;  and  I  should,  under  existing  circumstan- 
ces, favor  rather  than  oppose  a  fair  opportunity  being 
afforded  the  people  to  act  upon  it.  I  will  venture  to 
add,  that  to  me  the  convention  mode  seems  preferable, 
in  that  it  allows  amendments  to  originate  with  the 
people  themselves,  instead  of  only  permitting  them  to 
take  or  reject  propositions  originated  by  others,  not 
especially  chosen  for  the  purpose,  and  which  might  not 
be  precisely  such  as  they  would  wish  to  either  acce])t 
or  refuse.  I  understand  a  proposed  amendment  to 
the  Constitution  —  which  amendment,  however,  I  have 
not  seen  —  has  passed  Congress,  to  the  effect  that  the 
Federal  Government  shall  never  interfere  with  the  do= 
mestic  institutions  of  the  States,  including  that  of  per- 
sons held  to  service.  To  avoid  misconstruction  of 
what  I  have  said,  I  depart  from  my  purpose,  not  to 
speak  of  particular  amendments,  so  far  as  to  say  that, 
holding  such  a  provision  to  now  be  implied  constitu- 
tional law,  I  have  no  objections  to  its  being  made  ex- 
press and  irrevocable. 


THE  FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  51 

The  Cliief  Magistrate  derives  all  his  authority  from 
the  peojile,  and  they  have  conferred  none  upon  him  to 
fix  terms  for  the  separation  of  the  States.  The  people 
themselves  can  do  this  also  if  they  choose  ;  but  the 
Executive,  as  such,  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  His  duty 
is  to  administer  the  present  Government,  as  it  came  to 
his  hands,  and  to  transmit  it,  unimpaired  by  him,  to 
his  successor. 

Why  should  there  not  be  a  patient  confidence  in  the 
ultimate  justice  of  the  people?  Is  there  any  better  or 
equal  hope  in  the  world  ?  In  our  present  differences 
is  either  party  without  faith  of  being  in  the  right  ?  If 
the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  with  his  eternal  truth 
aad  justice,  be  on  your  side  of  the  North,  or  on  yours 
of  the  South,  that  truth  and  that  justice  will  surely 
prevail  by  the  judgment  of  this  great  tribunal  of  the 
American  people. 

By  the  frame  of  the  Government  under  which  we 
live,  this  same  people  have  wisely  given  their  public 
servants  but  little  power  for  mischief  ;  and  have,  with 
equal  wisdom,  provided  for  the  return  of  that  little  to 
their  own  hands  at  very  short  intervals.  While  the 
people  retain  their  virtue  and  vigilance,  no  adminis- 
tration, by  any  extreme  of  wickedness  or  folly,  can 
very  seriously  injure  the  Government  in  the  short 
space  of  four  years. 

My  countrymen,  one  and  all,  think  calmly  and  well 
upon  this  whole  subject.  Nothing  valuable  can  be 
lost  by  taking  time.  If  there  be  an  object  to  hurry 
any  of  you,  in  hot  haste,  to  a  step  which  you  would 
never  take  deliberately,  that  object  will  be  frustrated 
by  taking  time  ;  but  no  good  object  can  be  frustrated 
by  it.  Such  of  you  as  are  now  dissatisfied,  still  have 
the  old  Constitution  unimpaired,  and,  on  the  sensitive 


52  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

point,  the  laws  of  your  own  framing  under  it ;  while 
the  new  Administration  will  have  no  immediate  power, 
if  it  would,  to  change  either.  If  it  were  admitted  that 
yon  who  are  dissatisfied  hold  the  right  side  in  the  dis- 
pute, there  still  is  no  single  good  reason  for  precipi« 
tate  action.  Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity,  and 
a  firm  reliance  on  Him  who  has  never  yet  forsakea 
this  favored  land,  are  still  competent  to  adjust,  in  the 
best  way,  all  our  present  difficulty. 

In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  feUow-countrymeiij 
and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war. 
The  Government  will  not  assail  you.  You  can  havg 
no  conflict,  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors. 
You  have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to  destroy  the 
government,  while  /shall  have  the  most  solemn  one 
to  "  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  it."  ^ 

I  am  loth  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but 
friends.  We  must  not  be  ei^emies.  Though  passion 
may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of  af- 
fection. The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching 
from  every  battlefield  and  patriot  grave,  to  every  liv- 
ing heart  and  hearth-stone,  all  over  this  broad  land, 

^  The  original  draft,  after  the  words  "  preserve,  protect,  and  de- 
fend it,"  concluded  as  follows,  addressing  itself  to  "my  dissatisfied 
fellow-countrymen  "  ;  "  You  can  forbear  the  assault  upon  it,  I  cannot 
shrink  from  the  defense  of  it.  With  you,  and  not  with  me,  is  the  sol= 
emn  question  of  '  Shall  it  be  peace  or  a  sword  ? '" 

Mr.  Seward  submitted  two  separate  drafts  for  a  closing  paragraph. 
The  second  of  these,  containing  the  thought  adopted  by  Mr.  Lincoln, 
was  as  follows :  — 

"  I  close.  We  are  not,  we  must  not  be,  aliens  or  enemies,  but  fel- 
low-countrymen and  brethren.  Although  passion  has  strained  our 
bonds  of  affection  too  hardly,  they  must  not,  I  am  sure  they  will  not, 
be  broken.  The  mystic  chords  which,  proceeding  from  so  many  bat- 
tlefields and  so  many  patriot  graves,  pass  through  all  the  hearts  and 
al)  hearths  in  ims  broad  continent  of  ours,  will  yet  again  h^nnonize  in 
their  ancient  music  when  breathed  upon  by  the  guardian  angel  of  the 
nation." 


LETTER    TO  HORACE   GREELEY.  63 

mil  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again 
touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of 
our  nature. 


III. 

LETTER  TO  HORACE  GREELEY. 

The  Administration,  during  the  early  months  of  the  War  for 
the  Union,  was  greatly  perplexed  as  to  the  proper  mode  of 
dealing  with  slavery,  especially  in  the  districts  occupied  by  the 
Union  forces.  In  the  summer  of  1862,  when  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  earnestly  contemplating  his  Proclamation  of  Emancipation, 
Horace  Greeley,  the  leading  Republican  editor,  published  in  hia 
paper,  the  New  York  Tribune,  a  severe  article  in  the  form  of  a 
letter  addressed  to  the  President,  taking  him  to  task  for  failing 
to  meet  the  just  expectations  of  twenty  millions  of  loyal  people. 
Thereupon  Mr.  Lincoln  sent  him  the  following  letter  :  — 

ExECUTrvE  Mansion,  Washington, 

August  22,  1862. 

Hon.  Horace  Greeley.  —  Dear  Sir :  I  have  just 
read  yours  of  the  19th,  addressed  to  myself  throug^i 
the  JVew  York  Tribune.  If  there  be  in  it  any  state- 
ments or  assumptions  of  fact  which  I  may  know  to  be 
erroneous,  I  do  not  now  and  here  controvert  them.  If 
there  be  in  it  any  inferences  which  I  may  believe  to  be 
falsely  drawn,  I  do  not  now  and  here  argue  against 
them.  If  there  be  perceptible  in  it  an  impatient  and 
dictatorial  tone,  I  waive  it  in  deference  to  an  old 
friend,  whose  heart  I  have  always  supposed  to  be  right. 

As  to  the  policy  I  "  seem  to  be  pursuing,"  as  you 
say,  I  have  not  meant  to  leave  any  one  in  doubt. 

I  would  save  the  Union.  I  would  save  it  in  the 
shortest  way  under  the  Constitution.  The  sooner  the 
National   authority  can  be  restored,  the  nearer  the 


54  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Union  will  be  "  The  Union  as  it  was."  If  there  "be 
those  who  woul  i  not  save  the  Union  unless  they  could 
at  the  same  time  destroy  Slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with 
them.  My  paramount  object  in  this  struggle  is  to  save 
the  Union  and  is  not  either  to  save  or  destroy  Slavery. 
If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  aiiy  slave,  I 
would  do  it ;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the 
slaves,  I  would  do  it ;  and  if  I  could  do  it  by  freeing 
some  and  leaving  others  alone,  I  woidd  also  do  that. 
What  I  do  about  Slavery  and  the  colored  race,  I  do 
because  I  believe  it  helps  to  save  this  Union ;  and 
what  I  forbear,  I  forbear  because  I  do  not  believe  it 
would  help  to  save  the  Union.  I  shall  do  less^  when- 
ever I  shall  believe  what  I  am  doing  hurts  the  cause; 
and  I  shall  do  7?^ore,  whenever  I  shall  believe  doing 
more  will  help  the  cause.  I  shall  try  to  correct  errors 
when  shown  to  be  errors ;  and  I  shall  adopt  new  views 
so  fast  as  they  shall  appear  to  be  true  views.  I  have 
here  stated  my  purpose  according  to  my  view  of  offi- 
cial duty,  and  I  intend  no  modification  of  my  oft-ex- 
pressed personal  wish  that  all  men,  everywhere,  could 
be  free.  Yours,  A.  Lincoln. 


IV.      • 

REPLY  TO   A  COMMITTEE. 

While  the  President  was  considering  seriously  the  proposal  to 
Issue  a  proclamation  of  emancipation,  he  was  naturally  urged 
by  many  to  take  such  a  step  and  by  many  not  to  take  it.  The 
following  reply  to  a  committee  from  the  religious  denomina- 
tions of  Chicago,  which  waited  on  him  September  13,  18G2, 
urging  him  to  issue  the  proclamation,  is  a  good  example  of  how 
the  President  was  iu  the  habit  of  thinking  aloud  and  statiutf 


REPLY   TO  A    COMMITTEE.  55 

both  sides  of  a  question,  even  when  he  had  practically  made  up 
his  I  liud. 

The  subject  presented  in  the  memorial  is  one  upon 
wLiih  I  Lave  thought  much  for  weeks  past,  and  I  may 
3ven  say  for  months.  I  am  apjjroached  with  the  most 
ippoiite  opinions  and  advice,  and  that  by  religious 
men  who  are  equally  certain  that  they  represent  the 
iivina  will.  I  am  sure  that  either  the  one  or  the  other 
class  is  mistaken  in  that  belief,  and  perhaps  in  some 
respei'ts  both.  I  hope  it  will  not  be  irreverent  for  me 
to  saf  that  if  it  is  probable  that  God  would  reveal  his 
will  to  others  on  a  point  so  connected  with  my  duty, 
it  might  be  supposed  He  would  reveal  it  directly  to 
me  ;  for,  unless  I  am  more  deceived  in  myself  than  I 
often  am,  it  is  my  earnest  desire  to  know  the  will  of 
Providence  in  this  matter.  And  if  I  can  learn  what 
it  is,  I  will  do  it.  These  are  not,  however,  the  days 
of  jiiiracles,  and  I  suppose  it  \\\\\  be  granted  that  I 
am  not  to  expect  a  direct  revelation.  I  must  study 
the  plain  physical  facts  of  the  case,  ascertain  what  is 
possible,  and  learn  what  appears  to  be  wise  and  right. 

The  subject  is  difficult,  and  good  men  do  not 
agree.  For  instance,  the  other  day  four  gentlemen 
of  standing  and  intelligence  from  New  York  called 
as  a  delegation  on  business  connected  with  the  war ; 
but,  before  leaving,  two  of  them  earnestly  beset  me  to 
proclaim  general  emancipation,  upon  which  the  other, 
two  at  once  attacked  them.  You  know  also  that  the 
last  session  of  Congress  had  a  decided  majority  of 
anti-slavery  men,  yet  they  could  not  unite  on  this 
policy.  And  the  same  is  true  of  the  religious  people. 
Why,  the  rebel  soldiers  are  praying  with  a  great  deal 
more  earnestness,  I  fear,  than  our  own  troops,  and 
expecting  God  to  favor  their  side ;  for  one  of  our  sol* 


56  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

diers  who  had  been  taken  prisoner  told  Senator  Wil. 
son  a  few  days  since  that  he  met  with  nothing  so 
discouraging  as  the  evident  sincerity  of  those  he  was 
among  in  their  prayers.  But  we  will  talk  over  the 
merits  of  the  case. 

What  good  would  a  proclamation  of  emancij^ation 
from  me  do,  especially  as  we  are  now  situated  ?  I  do 
not  want  to  issue  a  document  that  the  whole  world 
will  see  must  necessarily  be  inopeiative,  like  the 
Pope's  bull  against  the  comet.  Would  my  word  free 
the  slaves,  when  I  cannot  even  enforce  the  Constitu- 
tion in  the  rebel  States  ?  Is  there  a  single  court,  or 
magistrate,  or  individual  that  would  be  influenced  by 
it  there  ?  And  what  i-eason  is  there  to  think  it  would 
have  any  greater  effect  upon  the  slaves  than  the  late 
law  of  Congress,  which  I  approved,  and  which  offers 
protection  and  freedom  to  the  slaves  of  rabel  masters 
who  come  within  our  lines?  Yet  I  cannot  learn  that 
that  law  has  caused  a  single  slave  to  come  ovei  to  u?. 
And  suppose  they  could  be  induced  by  a  proolamatiou 
of  freedom  from  me  to  throw  themselves  upon  us, 
what  should  we  do  with  them  ?  How  can  we  feed 
and  care  for  such  a  nuiltitude  ?  General  Butler  wrote 
me  a  few  days  since  that  he  was  issuing  more  rations 
to  the  slaves  who  have  rushed  to  him  than  to  ali  the 
white  troops  under  his  command.  They  eat,  and  that 
is  all ;  though  it  is  true  General  Butler  is  feeding  the 
whites  also  by  the  thousand,  for  it  nearly  amounts 
to  a  famine  there.  If,  now,  the  pressure  of  the  war 
should  call  off  our  forces  from  New  Orleans  to  defend 
some  other  point,  what  is  to  prevent  the  masters  from 
reducing  the  blacks  to  slavery  again?  For  I  am  told 
that  whenever  the  rebels  take  any  black  prisoners, 
free    or    slave,   they  immediately    auction    them    off. 


REPLY   TO  A    COMMITTEE.  5T 

Tbey  did  so  with  those  they  took  from  a  boat  that 
was  aground  in  the  Tennessee  River  a  few  days  ago. 
And  then  I  am  very  ungenerously  attacked  for  it ! 
For  instance,  when,  after  the  late  battles  at  and  near 
Bull  Run,  an  expedition  went  out  from  Washington 
under  a  flag  of  truce  to  bury  the  dead  and  bring  in 
the  wounded,  and  the  rebels  seized  the  blacks  who 
went  along  to  help,  and  sent  them  into  slaver}', 
Horace  Greeley  said  in  his  paper  that  the  goveru- 
iiient  would  probably  do  nothing  about  it.  What 
could  I  do  ? 

Now,  then,  tell  me,  if  you  please,  what  possible 
residt  of  good  would  follow  the  issuing  of  such  a  pro- 
clamation as  you  desire  ?  Understand,  I  raise  no  ob- 
jections  against  it  on  legal  or  constitutional  grounds : 
for,  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  in 
time  of  war  I  suppose  I  have  a  right  to  take  any 
measure  which  may  best  subdue  the  enemy  ;  nor  do  I . 
ui'ge  objections  of  a  moral  nature,  in  view  of  possible 
consequences  of  insurrection  and  massa(ne  at  the 
South.  I  view  this  matter  as  a  practical  war  mea- 
sure, to  be  decided  on  according  to  the  advantages  or 
disadvantages  it  may  offer  to  the  suppression  of  the 
rebellion. 

I  admit  that  slavery  is  the  root  of  the  rebellion,  or 
at  least  its  sine  qua  non.  The  ambition  of  politicians 
may  have  instigated  them  to  act,  but  they  would  have 
been  impotent  without  slavery  as  their  instrument. 
I  will  also  concede  that  emancipation  would  help  us 
in  Europe,  and  convince  them  that  we  are*  incited  by 
something  more  than  ambition.  I  grant,  further,  that 
it  would  help  somewhat  at  the  North,  though  not  so 
much,  I  fear,  as  you  and  those  you  represent  imagine. 
Still,  some  additional  strength  would  be  added  in  that 


58  -  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

way  to  the  war,  and  then,  unquestionably,  it  would 
weaken  the  rebels  by  drawing  off  their  laborers,  which 
is  of  great  importance  ;  but  I  am  not  so  sure  we  could 
do  much  with  the  blacks.  I!:  we  were  to  arm  them, 
I  fear  that  in  a  few  weeks  the  arms  would  be  in  the 
hands  of  the  rebels  ;  and,  indeed,  thus  far  we  have 
not  had  arms  enough  to  equip  our  white  troops.  I 
will  mention  another  thing,  though  it  meet  only  your 
scorn  and  contempt.  There  are  fifty  thousand  bayo- 
nets in  the  Union  amnies  from  the  border  slave  States. 
It  would  be  a  serious  matter  if,  in  consequence  of  a 
proclamation  such  as  you  desire,  they  should  go  over 
to  the  rebels.  I  do  not  think  they  all  would  —  not  so 
many,  indeed,  as  a  year  ago,  or  as  six  months  ago  — 
not  so  many  to-day  as  yesterday.  Every  day  increases 
their  Union  feeling.  They  are  also  getting  their  pride 
enlisted,  and  want  to  beat  the  rebels.  Let  me  say  one 
thing  more  :  I  think  you  should  admit  that  we  already 
have  an  important  principle  to  rally  and  unite  the 
people,  in  the  fact  that  constitutional  government  is 
at  stake.  This  is  a  fundamental  idea  going  down 
about  as  deep  as  anything. 

Do  not  misunderstand  me  because  I  have  mentioned 
these  objections.  They  indicate  the  difficulties  that 
have  thus  far  prevented  my  action  in  some  such  way 
as  you  desire.  I  have  not  decided  against  a  proclama- 
tion of  liberty  to  the  slaves,  but  hold  the  matter  under 
advisement ;  and  I  can  assure  you  that  the  subject  is 
on  my  mind,  by  day  and  night,  more  than  any  other. 
Whatever  shall  appear  to  be  God's  will,  I  will  do. 
I  trust  that  in  the  freedom  with  which  I  have  can- 
vassed  your  views  I  have  not  in  any  respect  injured 
your  feelings. 


THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION.      59 


THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION. 

Some  time  before  the  letter  to  Mr.  Greeley  was  written,  Lhj« 
C!>lii  had  drawn  up  a  Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  and  was  only 
waiting  for  a  suitable  hour  when  to  publish  it.  He  waited  mitil 
after  the  battle  of  Antietam,  and  then,  on  the  22d  of  Septem- 
ber, 1862,  issued  his  provisional  proclamation  in  which  he  sol- 
emnly declared  tJiat  on  the  first  day  of  January  following  "  all 
persons  held  as  slaves  ^vithin  any  State,  or  any  designated  pari; 
of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against 
the  United  States,  shall  he  then,  thenceforward  and  forever  free." 
The  aunouncemeiit  drew  forth  only  bitter  response  from  the 
Confederacy,  and  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1803,  the  Presi- 
dent issued  the  final  proclamation  which  is  here  given.  The 
parts  of  the  South  excepted  in  the  proclamation  were  those  which 
were  loyal  or  were  occupied  by  Union  troops. 

Whereas,  on  the  twenty-second  day  of  September, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  sixty-two,  a  proclamation  was  issued  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  containing,  among  other 


"  That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three, 
all  persons  held  as  slaves  v/ithin  any  State,  or  desig- 
nated part  of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be 
in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then- 
thenceforward  and  forever  free,  and  the  Executive 
Government  of  the  United  States,  including  the  mil- 
itary and  naval  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  and 
maintain  the  freedom  of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no 
act  or  acts  to  repress  such  persons,  or  any  of  them,  in 
any  efforts  they  may  make  for  their  actual  freedom. 

"  That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  Janu- 


60  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

ary  aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate  the  States 
and  parts  of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the  people  thereof 
respectively  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the 
United  States  ;  and  the  fact  that  any  State,  or  the  peo- 
ple thereof,  shall  on  that  day  be  in  good  faith  repre- 
sented in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  by  mem- 
bers chosen  thereto  at  elections  wherein  a  majority  of 
the  qualified  voters  of  such  State  shall  have  partici- 
pated shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong  countervailing 
testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence  that  such 
State  and  the  people  thereof  are  not  then  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States  ; "  — 

JVow,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested 
as  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the 
United  States,  in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion 
against  the  authority  of,  and  government  of  the 
United  States,  and  as  a  fit  and  necessary  war  measure 
for  suppressing  said  rebellion,  do,  on  this  first  day  of 
January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  in  accordance  with  my 
purpose  so  to  do,  publicly  proclaimed  for  the  full  pe- 
riod of  one  hundred  days  from  the  day  first  above- 
mentioned,  order,  and  designate,  as  the  States  and 
parts  of  States  wherein  the  people  thereof  respectively 
are  this  day  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  the 
following,  to  wit :  Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana  except 
the  parishes  of  St.  Bernard,  Plaquemines,  Jefferson, 
St.  John,  St.  Charles,  St.  James.  Ascension,  Assump- 
tion, Terre  Bonne,  Lafourche,  St.  Mary,  St.  Martin, 
and  Orleans,  including  the  city  of  New  Orkans,  Mis- 
sissippi, Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia,  South  Carolina, 
North  Carolina,  and  Virginia,  except  the  forty-eight 
counties  designated  as  West  Virginia,  and  also  the 
counties  of  Berkeley,  Accomac,  Northampton,  Eliza- 


THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION.       61 

beth  City,  York,  Princess  Ann  and  Norfolk,  including 
the  cities  of  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth,  and  which  ex- 
cepted parts  are,  for  the  present,  left  precisely  as  if 
this  proclamation  were  not  issued. 

And  by  virtue  of  the  power  and  for  the  purpose 
aforesaid,  I  do  order  and  declare  that  all  persons  held 
as  slaves  within  said  designated  States  and  parts  of 
States  are,  and  henceforward  shall  be  free  ;  and  that 
the  Executive  Government  of  the  United  States,  in- 
cluding the  military  and  naval  authorities  thereof,  will 
recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  said  persons. 

And  I  hereby  enjoin  upon  the  people  so  declared  to 
be  free,  to  abstain  from  all  violence,  unless  in  neces- 
sary self-defense,  and  I  recommend  to  them,  that  in 
all  cases,  when  allowed,  they  labor  faithfully  for  rea- 
sonable wages. 

And  I  further  declare  and  make  known  that  such 
persons  of  suitable  condition  will  be  received  into  the 
armed  service  of  the  United  States  to  garriaon  forts, 
positions,  stations,  and  other  places,  and  to  man  ves- 
sels of  all  sorts  in  said  service. 

And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act 
of  justice,  warranted  by  the  Constitution,  upon  mil- 
itary necessity,  I  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of 
mankind  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God. 

In  Testimony  whereof^  I  have  hereunto  set  my  name 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington,  this  first  day  of 
January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  of  the  Independence  of 
the  United  States  of  America  the  eighty-seventh. 

Abeaham  Lincoln. 

By  the  President  : 
"William  H.  Sewakd,  Secretary  of  State. 


62  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


VI. 

ACCOUNT  OF  THF  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION. 

Mr.  Frank  B.  Carpenter  painted  a  large  historical  picture  oi 
the  signing  of  the  proclamation,  which  is  now  in  the  capitol  at 
Wasliington.  While  working  on  it,  he  saw  nnicli  of  the  Presi- 
dent, who  gave  him  the  following  account  in  conversation.  Mr. 
Carpenter  printed  the  account  in  his  Six  Months  at  the  White 
House. 

"  It  had  got  to  be,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "  midsummer, 
1862.  Things  had  gone  on  from  bad  to  worse  until 
I  felt  that  we  had  reached  the  end  of  our  rope  on  the 
plan  of  operations  we  had  been  pursuing ;  that  we  had 
about  played  our  last  card,  and  must  change  our  tac- 
tics or  lose  the  game.  I  now  determined  upon  the 
adoption  of  the  emancipation  policy ;  and  without  con- 
sultation with  or  the  knowledge  of  the  Cabinet,  I 
prepared  the  original  draft  of  the  proclamation,  and, 
after  much  anxious  thought,  called  a  Cabinet  meet- 
ing upon  the  subject.  This  was  the  last  of  July  or 
the  first  part  of  the  month  of  August,  1862.  [The 
exact  date  was  July  22,  1862.]  .  .  .  All  were  present 
excepting  Mr.  Blair,  the  Postmaster-Genei-ai,  who  was 
absent  at  the  opening  of  the  discussion,  but  came 
in  subsequently.  I  said  to  the  (Cabinet  that  I  had 
resolved  upon  this  step,  and  had  not  called  them  to- 
gether to  ask  their  advice,  but  to  lay  the  sidiject- 
matter  of  a  proclamation  before  them,  suggestions  as 
to  which  would  be  in  order  after  they  had  heard  it 
read.  Mr.  Lovejoy  v/as  in  error  when  he  informed 
you  that  it  excitod   no  comment   excepting  on   the 


THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION.      63 

part  of  Secretary  Seward.  Various  suggestions  were 
offered.  Secretary  Chase  wished  the  language  stronger 
in  reference  to  the  arming  of  the  blacks. 

"  Mr.  Blair,  after  he  came  in,  deprecated  the  policy 
on  the  ground  that  it  would  cost  the  administration 
the  fall  elections.  Nothing,  however,  was  offered  that 
I  had  not  already  fully  anticipated  and  settled  in  my 
own  mind  until  Secretary  Seward  spoke.  He  said  in 
substance :  '  Mr.  President,  I  approve  of  the  procla- 
mation, but  I  question  the  expediency  of  its  issue  at 
this  juncture.  The  depression  of  the  public  mind, 
consequent  upon  our  repeated  reverses,  is  so  great 
that  I  fear  the  effect  of  so  important  a  step.  It  may 
be  viewed  as  the  last  measure  of  an  exhausted  gov- 
ernment, a  cry  for  help  ;  the  government  stretching 
forth  its  hands  to  Ethiopia,  instead  of  Ethiopia 
stretching  forth  her  hands  to  the  government.'  His 
idea,"  said  the  President,  "  was  that  it  would  be  con- 
sidered our  last  shriek  on  the  retreat.  [This  was  his 
precise  expression.]  'Now,'  continued  Mr.  Seward, 
*  while  I  approve  the  measure,  I  suggest,  sir,  that  you 
postpone  its  issue  until  you  can  give  it  to  the  country 
supported  by  military  success,  instead  of  issuing  it, 
as  would  be  the  case  now,  upon  the  greatest  disasters 
of  the  war.'  "  Mr.  Lincoln  continued  :  "  The  wisdom 
of  the  view  of  the  Secretary  of  State  struck  me  with 
very  great  force.  It  was  an  aspect  of  the  case  that, 
in  all  my  thought  upon  the  subject,  I  had  entirely 
overlooked.  The  result  was,  that  I  put  tlie  draft  of 
the  proclamation  aside,  as  you  do  your  sketch  for  a 
picture,  waiting  for  a  victory. 

"  From  time  to  time  I  added  or  changed  a  line, 
touching  it  up  here  and  there,  anxiously  watching  the 
progress  of  events.      Well,  the  next  news  we  had 


64  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Mas  of  Pope's  disaster  at  Bull  Run.  Things  lookea 
t^iarker  than  ever.  Finally  came  the  week  of  the  bat- 
tle of  Antietam.  I  determined  to  wait  no  longer. 
The  news  came,  I  think,  on  Wednesday,  that  the 
Advantage  was  on  our  side.  I  was  then  staying  at 
the  Soldier's  Home  (three  miles  out  of  Washington). 
Here  I  finished  writing  the  second  draft  of  the  ]n'e- 
liminary  proclamation,  came  up  on  Saturday,  called 
the  Cabinet  together  to  hear  it,  and  it  was  published 
on  the  following  Monday." 


LETTER   TO  DISSATISFIED  FRIENDS.        05 


VII. 

LETTER   TO  DISSATISFIED  FRIENDS. 

Tlie  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  was  received  with  great 
jitisfaction  by  some,  with  discontent  by  others.  The  people  of 
the  North  were  by  no  means  unanimous  as  yet  upon  the  subject 
of  the  abolition  of  Slavery,  and  the  criticism  made  upon  the  Pres- 
ident's course  indicates  his  wide  acquaintance  with  public  senti- 
ment, by  which  he  was  enabled  to  act  in  crises,  neither  too  soon 
nor  too  late.  In  the  early  fall  of  1863  he  was  invited  to  meet 
his  old  neighbors  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  and  the  following  letter 
was  addressed  to  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Invitation  : — 

Executive  Mansion,  Washington, 
August  20,  1863. 

My  Dear  Sir,  —  Your  letter  inviting  me  to  attend 
a  mass  meeting  of  unconditional  Union  men,  to  be  held 
at  the  capital  of  Illinois  on  the  3d  day  of  September, 
has  been  received.  It  would  be  very  agreeable  to  me 
thus  to  meet  my  old  friends  at  my  own  home  ;  but  I 
cannot  just  now  be  absent  from  this  city  so  long  as  a 
visit  there  would  require. 

The  meeting  is  to  be  of  all  those  who  maintain  un- 
conditional devotion  to  the  Union  ;  and  I  am  sure  that 
my  old  political  friends  will  thank  me  for  tendering, 
as  I  do,  the  nation's  gratitude  to  those  other  noble 
men  whom  no  partisan  malice  or  partisan  hope  can 
make  false  to  the  nation's  life.  There  are  those  who 
are  dissatisfied  with  me.  To  such  I  w^ould  say :  You 
desire  peace,  and  you  blame  me  that  we  do  not  have 
it.  But  how  can  we  attain  it  ?  There  are  but  three 
conceivable  ways  :  First,  to  suppress  the  rebellion  by 
force  of  arms.     This  I  am  trying  to  do.     Are  you  for 


66  '   ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

it  ?  If  you  are,  so  far  we  are  agreed.  If  you  are  not 
for  it,  a  second  way  is  to  give  up  the  Union,  I  am 
against  this.  If  you  are,  you  should  say  so,  plainly. 
If  you  are  not  for  force,  nor  yet  for  dissolution,  there 
only  remains  some  imaginable  compromise. 

I  do  not  believe  that  any  compromise  embracing 
the  maintenance  of  the  Union  is  now  possible.  All 
that  I  learn  leads  to  a  directly  opposite  belief.  The 
strength  of  the  rebellion  is  its  military  —  its  army. 
That  army  dominates  all  the  country  and  all  the  peo- 
ple within  its  range.  Any  offer  of  any  terms  made 
by  any  man  or  men  within  that  range  in  opposition  to 
that  army,  is  simply  nothing  for  the  present,  because 
such  man  or  men  have  no  power  whatever  to  enforce 
their  side  of  a  compromise,  if  one  were  made  with 
them.  To  illustrate :  Suppose  refugees  from  the 
South  and  peace  men  of  the  North  get  together  in  con- 
vention, and  frame  and  proclaim  a  compromise  em- 
bracing the  restoration  of  the  Union.  In  what  way 
can  that  compromise  be  used  to  keep  Gen.  Lee's  army 
out  of  Pennsylvania  ?  Gen.  Meade's  army  can  keep 
Lee's  army  out  of  Pennsylvania,  and  I  think  can  ulti- 
mately drive  it  out  of  existence.  But  no  paper  com- 
promise to  which  the  controllers  of  Gen.  Lee's  army 
are  not  agreed,  can  at  all  affect  that  army.  In  an  ef= 
fort  at  such  compromise  we  would  waste  time,  which 
the  enemy  would  improve  to  our  disadvantage,  and 
that  would  be  all.  A  compromise,  to  be  effective, 
must  be  made  either  with  those  who  control  the  Rebel 
army,  or  with  the  people,  first  liberated  from  the  dom 
ination  of  that  army  by  the  success  of  our  army.  Now, 
allow  me  to  assure  you  that  no  word  or  intimation 
from  the  Rebel  army,  or  from  any  of  the  men  control- 
ling it,  in  relation  to  any  peace  compromises,  has  ever 


LETTER    TO  DISSATISFIED  FRIENDS.        67 

come  to  my  knowledge  or  belief.  All  charges  and  in- 
timations to  the  contrary  are  deceptive  and  ground- 
less. And  I  promise  you  that  if  any  such  proposition 
shall  hereafter  come,  it  shall  not  be  rejected  and  kept 
secret  from  you.  I  freely  acknowledge  myself  to  be 
the  servant  of  the  people,  according  to  the  bond  of 
service,  the  United  States  Constitution ;  and  that,  as 
such,  I  am  responsible  to  them. 

But,  to  be  plain.  You  are  dissatisfied  with  me 
about  the  negro.  Quite  likely  there  is  a  difference  of 
opinion  between  you  and  myself  upon  that  subject.  I 
certainly  wish  that  ail  men  could  be  free,  while  you,  I 
suppose,  do  not.  Yet  I  have  neither  adopted  nor  pro- 
posed any  measure  which  is  not  consistent  with  even 
your  view,  provided  you  are  for  the  Union.  I  sug- 
gested compensated  emancipation,  to  which  you  re- 
plied that  you  wished  not  to  be  taxed  to  buy  negroes. 
But  I  have  not  asked  you  to  be  taxed  to  buy  negroes, 
except  in  such  way  as  to  save  you  from  greater  taxa- 
tion, to  save  the  Union  exclusively  by  other  means. 

You  dislike  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and 
perhaps  would  have  it  retracted.  You  say  it  is  uncon- 
stitutional. I  think  differently.  I  think  that  the 
Constitution  invests  its  Commander-in-chief  with  the 
laws  of  war  in  the  time  of  war.  The  most  that  can  be 
said,  if  so  much,  is,  that  the  slaves  are  property.  Is 
there,  has  there  ever  been,  any  question  that  by  the 
law  of  war,  property,  both  of  enemies  and  friends,  may 
be  taken  when  needed  ?  And  is  it  not  needed  when- 
ever taking  it  helps  us  or  hurts  the  enemy  ?  Armies, 
the  world  over,  destroy  enemies'  property  when  they 
cannot  use  it ;  and  even  destroy  their  own  to  keep  it 
from  the  enemy.  Civilized  belligerents  do  all  in  their 
povrer  to  help  themselves  or  hurt   the  enemy,  except  a 


68  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

few  things  regarded  as  barbarous  or  cruel.  Among 
the  exceptions  are  the  massacre  of  vanquished  foes 
and  non-combatants,  male  and  female.  But  the  proc- 
lamation, as  law,  is  valid  or  is  not  valid.  If  it  is  not 
valid,  it  needs  no  retraction.  If  it  is  valid,  it  cannot 
be  retracted,  any  more  than  the  dead  can  be  brought 
to  life.  Some  of  you  profess  to  think  that  its  retrac- 
tion would  operate  favorably  for  the  Union.  Why 
better  after  the  retraction  than  before  the  issue? 
There  was  more  than  a  year  and  a  half  of  trial  to  sup- 
press the  rebellion  before  the  proclamation  was  issued, 
the  last  one  hundred  days  of  which  passed  under  an 
explicit  notice,  that  it  was  coming  unless  averted  by 
those  in  revolt  returning  to  their  allegiance.  The 
war  has  certainly  progressed  as  favorably  for  us  since 
the  issue  of  the  proclamation  as  before.  I  know  as 
fully  as  one  can  know  the  opinions  of  others,  that  some 
of  the  commanders  of  our  armies  in  the  field,  who  have 
given  us  our  most  important  victories,  believe  the 
emancipation  policy  and  the  aid  of  colored  troops  con- 
stitute the  heaviest  blows  yet  dealt  to  the  rebellion, 
and  that  at  least  one  of  those  important  successes 
could  not  have  been  achieved  when  it  was  but  for  the 
aid  of  black  soldiers.  Among  the  commanders  hold- 
ing these  views  are  some  who  have  never  had  any 
affinity  with  what  is  called  abolitionism,  or  with  "  re- 
publican party  politics,"  but  who  hold  them  purely 
as  military  opinions.  I  submit  their  opinions  as  being 
entitled  to  some  weight  against  the  objections  often 
urged  that  emancipation  and  arming  the  blacks  are 
unwise  as  military  measures,  and  were  not  adopted  as 
such  in  good  faith. 

You   say  that  you   will  not  fight   to  free  negroes. 
Some  of  them  seem   to  be  willing  to  fight  for  you  — 


LETTER    TO  DISSATISFIED  FRIENDS.        69 

but  no  matter.  Fight  you,  then,  exclusively  to  save 
the  Union.  I  issued  the  proclamation  on  purpose  to 
aid  you  in  saving  the  Union.  Whenever  you  shall 
have  conquered  all  resistance  to  the  Union,  if  I  shall 
urge  you  to  continue  fig-hting,  it  will  be  an  apt  time 
then  for  you  to  declare  that  you  will  not  fight  to  fret 
negroes.  I  thought  that,  in  your  struggle  for  the 
Union,  to  whatever  extent  the  negroes  should  cease 
helping  the  enemy,  to  that  extent  it  weakened  the 
enemy  in  his  resistance  to  you.  Do  you  think  differ- 
ently ?  I  thought  that  whatever  negroes  can  be  got 
to  do  as  soldiers  leaves  just  so  much  less  for  white 
soldiers  to  do  in  saving  the  Union.  Does  it  appear 
otherwise  to  you?  But  negroes,  like  other  people, 
act  upon  motives.  Why  should  they  do  anything  for 
us  if  we  will  do  nothing  for  them  ?  If  they  stake  their 
lives  for  us,  they  must  be  prompted  by  the  strongest 
motive,  even  the  promise  of  freedom.  And  the  prom- 
ise, being  made,  must  be  kept. 

The  signs  look  better.  The  Father  of  Waters  again 
goes  unvexed  to  the  sea.  Thanks  to  the  great  North- 
west for  it.  Nor  yet  wholly  to  them.  Three  hundred 
miles  up  they  met  New  England,  Empire,  Keystone, 
and  Jersey,  hewing  their  way  right  and  left.  The 
sunny  South,  too,  in  more  colors  than  one,  also  lent  a 
hand.  On  the  spot,  their  part  of  the  history  was  jotted 
down  in  black  and  white.  The  job  was  a  great  Na- 
tional one,  and  let  none  be  banned  who  bore  an  honor= 
able  part  in  it ;  and  while  those  who  have  cleared  the 
great  river  may  well  be  proud,  even  that  is  not  alL 
It  is  hard  to  say  that  anything  has  been  more  bravely 
and  better  done  than  at  Antietam,  Murfreesboro, 
Gettysburg,  and  on  many  fields  of  less  note.  Nor 
must  Uncle  Sam's  web-feet  be  forgotten.     At  all  the 


70  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

waters'  margins  they  have  been  present :  not  only  on 
the  deep  sea,  the  broad  bay  and  the  rapid  river,  but 
also  up  the  narrow,  muddy  bayou  ;  and  wherever  the 
ground  was  a  little  damp,  they  have  been  and  made 
their  tracks.  Tlianks  to  all.  For  the  great  Republic 
»-=  for  the  principles  by  which  it  lives  and  keeps  alive 
=■  for  man's  vast  future  —  thanks  to  all.  Peace  does 
not  appear  so  far  distant  as  it  did.  I  hope  it  will 
come  soon,  and  come  to  stay  :  and  so  come  as  to  be 
worth  the  keeping  in  all  future  time.  It  will  then 
have  been  proved  that  among  freemen  there  can  be 
no  successful  appeal  from  the  ballot  to  the  bullet,  and 
that  they  who  take  such  appeal  are  sure  to  lose  their 
case  and  pay  the  cost.  And  then  thei'e  will  be  some 
black  men  who  can  remember  that,  with  silent  tongue, 
and  clenched  teeth,  and  steady  eye,  and  well-poised 
bayonet,  they  have  helped  mankind  on  to  this  great 
consummation ;  while  I  fear  that  there  will  be  some 
white  men  unable, to  forget  that,  with  malignant  heart 
and  deceitful  speech,  they  have  striven  to  hinder  it. 

Still,  let  us  not  be  over-sanguine  of  a  s^Deedy  final 
triumph.     Let  us  be  quite  sober.     Let  us  diligently 
apply  the  means,  never  doubting  that  a  just  God,  in 
H.is  own  good  time,  will  give  us  the  rightful  result. 
Yours,  very  truly,  A.  Lincoln, 

James  C.  Conkling,  Esq. 


A  NATIONAL  FAST  DAY.  71 


VIII. 

]  ROCLAMATIOX  APPOINTING   A   NATIONAL  FAST  DAY. 

BY   THE    PRESIDENT    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES    OF 
AMERICA  : 

A  Proclamation. 

Whereas,  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  de- 
voutly recognizing  the  supreme  authority  and  just 
government  of  Almighty  God  in  all  the  affairs  of 
men  and  of  nations,  has  by  a  resolution  requested 
the  President  to  designate  and  set  apart  a  day  for 
national  prayer  and  luuniliation. 

And  whereas,  it  is  the  duty  of  nations  as  well  as 
of  men  to  own  their  dependence  upon  the  overrul- 
ing power  of  God  ;  to  confess  their  sins  and  trans- 
gressions in  humble  sorrow,  yet  with  assured  hope 
that  genuine  repentance  will  lead  to  mercy  and  par- 
don ;  and  to  recognize  the  sublime  truth,  announced 
in  the  Holy  Scrijjtures  and  proven  by  all  history, 
that  those  nations  only  are  blessed  whose  God  is  the 
Lord. 

And  insomuch  as  we  know  that  by  his  divine  law- 
nations,  like  individuals,  are  subjected  to  punishments 
and  chastisements  in  this  world,  may  we  not  justly 
fear  that  the  awful  calamity  of  civil  war  which  now 
desolates  the  land  may  be  but  a  punishment  inflicted 
upon  us  for  our  presumptuous  sins,  to  the  needful 
end  of  our  national  reformation  as  a  whole  people  ? 
We  have  been  the  recipients  of  the  choicest  boun- 
ties of  Heaven.     We  have  been  preserved,  these  man^ 


72  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

years,  in  peace  and  prosperity.  We  have  grown  in 
numbers,  wealth,  and  power  as  no  other  nation  has 
ever  grown  ;  but  we  have  forgotten  God.  We  have 
forgotten  the  gracious  hand  which  preserved  us  in 
peace,  and  multiplied  and  enriched  and  strengthened 
us,  and  we  have  vainly  imagined,  in  the  deceitfidness 
of  our  hearts,  that  all  these  blessings  were  produced 
by  some  superior  wisdom  and  virtue  of  our  own. 
Intoxicated  with  unbroken  success,  we  have  become 
too  self-sufficient  to  feel  the  necessity  of  redeeming 
and  preserving  grace,  too  proud  to  pray  to  the  God 
tliat  made  us : 

It  behooves  us,  then,  to  humble  ourselves  before 
the  offended  Power,  Co  confess  our  national  sins,  and 
to  pray  for  clemency  and  forgiveness  : 

Now,  therefore,  in  compliance  with  the  request,  and 
fully  concurring  in  the  views  of  the  Senate,  I  do  by 
this  my  proclamation  designate  and  set  apart  Thurs- 
day, the  30th  day  of  April,  1863,  as  a  day  of  national 
humiliation,  fasting,  and  prayer.  And  I  do  hereby 
request  all  the  people  to  abstain  on  that  day  fron^ 
their  ordinary  secular  pursuits,  and  to  unite  at  their 
"-everal  places  of  public  worship  and  their  respective 
homes  in  keeping  the  day  holy  to  the  Lord,  and  de- 
voted to  the  humble  discharge  of  the  religious  duties 
proper  to  that  solemn  occasion.  All  this  being  done 
in  sincerity  and  truth,  let  us  then  rest  humbly  in  the 
hope  authorized  by  the  divine  teachings,  that  the 
united  cry  of  the  nation  will  be  heard  on  high,  and 
answered  with  blessings  no  less  than  the  pardon  of 
our  national  sins,  and  the  restoration  of  our  now 
divided  and  suffering  country  to  its  former  happy 
condition  of  unity  and  peace. 

In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand, 


NEWS  FROM  GETTYSBUHG.  73 

and   caused    the    seal    of    the    United    States    to    be 
affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Wasliington,  this  thir- 
tieth day  of  March,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
[l.  S.]       one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three, 
and    of    the    independence    of    the    United 
States  the  eighty-seventh. 

Abraham  Lincoln. 

By  the  Prksident  : 
William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State. 


IX. 

ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  NEWS  FROM  GETTYSBURG. 

Washington,  July  4,  10.30  a.  m. 
The  President  announces  to  the  country  that  news 
from  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  up  to  10  P.  m.  of 
the  3d,  is  such  as  to  cover  that  army  with  the  highest 
honor,  to  promise  a  great  success  to  the  cause  of  the 
Union,  and  to  claim  the  condolence  of  all  for  the 
many  gallant  fallen  ;  and  that  for  this  he  especially 
desires  that  on  this  day  He  whose  will,  not  ours, 
should  ever  be  done  be  everywhere  remembered  and 
reverenced  with  profoundest  gratitude. 

A.  Lincoln. 


14  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


X. 

LETTER  TO  A.   G.   HODGES. 

Executive  MA^■SION,  Washington; 
April  4,  18G4. 

A.  G.  Hodges,  Esq.,  Frankfort,  Kentucky, 

.My  deat'  Si7\  — You  ask  me  to  put  in  writing  tiie 
substance  of  what  I  verbally  said  the  other  day  in 
your  presence,  to  Governor  Bramlette  and  Senator 
Dixon.     It  was  about  as  follows  :  — 

"  I  am  naturally  anti-slavery.  If  slavery  is  not 
wrong,  nothing  is  wrong.  I  cannot  remember  when 
I  did  not  so  think  and  feel,  and  yet  I  have  never 
understood  that  the  presidency  conferred  upon  me  an 
unrestricted  right  to  act  officially  upon  this  judgment 
and  feeling.  It  was  ii^  the  oath  I  took  that  I  would, 
to  the  best  of  my  ability,  preserve,  ])rotect,  and  defend 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  could  not 
take  the  office  without  taking  the  oath.  Nor  was  it 
my  view  that  I  might  take  an  oath  to  get  power,  and 
break  the  oath  in  using  the  power.  I  understood, 
too,  that  in  oidinary  civil  administration  this  oath 
even  forbade  me  to  practically  indulge  my  primary 
abstract  judgment  on  the  moral  question  of  slavery. 
I  had  publicly  declared  this  many  times  and  in  many 
ways,  and  I  aver  that,  to  this  day,  I  have  done  no 
official  act  in  mere  deference  to  my  abstract  judgment 
and  feeling  on  slavery.  I  did  understand,  however, 
that  my  oath  to  preserve  the  Constitution  to  the  best 
of  my  ability  imposed  upon  me  the  duty  of  preserving, 
by  every  indispensable  means,  that  government,  that 


LETTER   TO  A.   G.  HODGES.  75 

nation,  of  which  that  Constitution  was  the  oigaiiio 
hiw.  Was  it  possible  to  lose  the  nation  and  yet  pre- 
serve the  Constitution  ?  By  general  law  life  and 
limb  must  be  protected,  yet  often  a  limb  must  be 
amputated  to  save  a  life  ;  but  a  life  is  never  wisely- 
given  to  save  a  limb.  I  felt  that  measures  otherwise 
unconstitutional  might  become  lawful  by  becoming 
mdispensable  to  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution 
through  the  preservation  of  the  nation.  Kight  or 
wrong,  I  assumed  this  ground,  and  now  avow  it.  I 
could  not  feel  that,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  I  had 
even  tried  to  preserve  the  Constitution,  if,  to  save 
slavery  or  any  minor  matter,  I  should  permit  the 
wreck  of  government,  country,  and  Constitution  all 
together.  When,  early  in  the  war,  General  Fremont 
attempted  military  emancipation,  I  forbade  it,  because 
I  did  not  then  think  it  an  indispensable  necessity. 
When,  a  little  later.  General  Cameron,  then  Secre- 
tary of  War,  suggested  the  arming  of  the  blacks,  I 
objected,  because  I  did  not  yet  think  it  an  indispen- 
sable necessity.  When,  still  later.  General  Hunter 
attempted  military  emancipation,  I  again  forbade  it, 
because  I  did  not  yet  think  the  indispensable  neces- 
sity had  come.  When,  in  March  and  May  and  July, 
1862,  I  made  earnest  and  successive  appeals  to  the 
border  States  to  favor  compensated  emancipation,  I 
believed  the  indispensable  necessity  fc  r  military  eman- 
cipation and  arming  the  blacks  would  come  unless 
averted  by  that  measure.  They  declined  the  propo- 
sition, and  I  was,  in  my  best  judgment,  driven  to  the 
alternative  of  either  surrendering  the  Union,  and 
with  it  the  Constitution,  or  of  laying  strong  hand  upon 
the  colored  element.  1  chose  the  latter.  In  choosing 
it  I  hoped  for  gi-eater  gain  than  loss  ;  but  of  this  ] 


76  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

was  not  entirely  confident.  More  than  a  year  of  trial 
now  shows  no  loss  by  it  in  our  foreign  relations,  none 
in  our  home  popular  sentiment,  none  in  our  white 
military  force,  —  no  loss  by  it  anyhow  or  anywhere. 
On  the  contrary,  it  shows  a  gain  of  quite  a  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  soldiers,  seamen,  and  laborers. 
These  are  paljiable  facts,  about  which,  as  facts,  there 
can  be  no  cavilling.  We  have  the  men  ;  and  we  could 
not  have  had  them  without  the  measure. 

"  And  now  let  any  Union  man  who  complains  of 
the  measure  test  himself  by  writing  down  in  one  line 
that  he  is  for  subduing  the  rebellion  by  force  of  arms  ; 
and  in  the  next,  that  he  is  for  taking  these  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  men  from  the  Union  side,  and 
placing  them  where  they  would  be  but  for  the  mea- 
sure he  condemns.  If  he  cannot  face  his  case  so 
stated,  it  is  only  because  he  cannot  face  the  truth." 

I  add  a  word  which  was  not  in  the  verbal  conver- 
sation. In  telling  this  tale  I  attempt  no  compliment 
to  my  own  sagacity.  I  claim  not  to  have  controlled 
events,  but  confess  plainly  that  events  have  controlled 
me.  Now,  at  the  end  of  three  years'  struggle,  the 
nation's  condition  is  not  what  either  party,  or  any 
man,  devised  or  expected.  God  alone  can  claim  it. 
Whither  it  is  tending  seems  plain.  If  God  now  wills 
the  removal  of  a  great  wrong,  and  wills  also  that  we 
of  the  North,  as  well  as  you  of  the  South,  shall  pay 
fairly  for  our  complicity  in  that  wrong,  impartial  his- 
tory will  find  therein  new  cause  to  attest  and  revere 
the  justice  and  goodness  of  God. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln. 


THE  SECOND  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.         77 


XI. 


THE  SECOND  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

Linuoln  was  reelected  President,  and  delivered  his  seeocol! 
inaugural  on  the  4th  of  March,  1865,  only  a  few  weeks  before 
ho  was  assassinated.  The  words  in  the  closing  paragraph  were, 
so  to  speak,  his  legacy  to  his  countrymen.  By  a  natural  im- 
pulse, they  were  hung  out  on  banners  and  on  the  signs  of  mourn- 
ing which  throughout  the  Union  marked  the  grief  of  the  people 
at  the  loss  of  their  great  leader. 

Fellow-Countrymen  :  At  this  second  appearing 
to  take  the  oath  of  the  Presidential  office,  there  is 
less  occasion  for  an  extended  address  than  there  was 
at  the  first.  Then,  a  statement,  somewhat  in  detail, 
of  a  course  to  be  pursued,  seemed  fitting-  and  proper. 
Now,  at  the  expiration  of  four  years,  during  which 
public  declarations  have  been  constantly  called  forth 
on  every  point  and  phase  of  the  great  contest  which 
still  absorbs  the  attention  and  engrosses  the  energies 
of  the  nation,  little  that  is  nev/  could  be  presented. 
The  progress  of  our  arms,  upon  which  all  else  chiefly 
depends,  is  as  well  known  to  the  public  as  to  myself  5 
and  it  is,  I  trust,  reasonably  satisfactory  and  encour- 
aging  to  all.  With  high  hope  for  the  future,  no  pre 
diction  in  regard  to  it  is  ventured. 

On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years 
ago,  all  thoughts  were  anxiously  directed  to  an  impend, 
ing  civil  war.  All  dreaded  it ;  all  sought  to  avert  it. 
While  the  inaugural  address  was  being  delivered  from 
this    place,   devoted   altogether  to  saving  the   Union 


78  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

without  war,  insurgent  agents  were  in  the  city  seeking 
to  destroy/  it  without  war  —  seeking  to  dissolve  the 
Union,  and  divide  effects,  by  negotiation.  Both  par 
ties  deprecated  war  ;  but  one  of  them  would  77iakc  war 
rather  than  let  the  nation  survive  ;  and  the  other 
would  accejit  war  rather  than  let  it  i^erish.  And  the 
war  came. 

One-eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored 
slaves,  not  distributed  generally  over  the  Union,  but 
localized  in  the  southern  part  of  it.  These  slaves  con- 
stituted a  peculiar  and  powerful  interest.  All  knew 
that  this  interest  was,  somehow,  the  cause  of  the  war. 
To  strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  extend  this  interest 
was  the  object  for  which  the  insurgents  would  rend  the 
Union,  even  by  war;  while  the  Government  claimed 
no  right  to  do  more  than  to  restrict  the  territorial  en- 
largement of  it.  Neither  party  expected  for  the  war 
the  magnitude  or  the  duration  which  it  has  ah-eady  at- 
tained. Neither  anticipated  that  the  cause  of  the  con- 
flict might  cease  with,  or  even  before,  the  conflict  itseif 
should  cease.  Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph,  and 
a  result  less  fundamental  and  astounding.  Both  read 
the  same  Bible,  and  pray  to  the  same  God ;  and  each 
invokes  His  aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem 
strange  that  any  men  should  dare  to  ask  a  just  God's 
assistance  in  wringing  their  bread  from  the  sweat  of 
other  men's  faces  :  but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be 
not  judged.  The  prayers  of  both  could  not  be  an- 
swered ;  that  of  neither  has  been  answered  fully.  The 
Almighty  has*  His  own  purposes.  "  Woe  unto  the 
world  because  of  offenses  1  for  it  must  needs  be  that 
offenses  come  ;  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  of- 
fense cometh."  If  we  shall  suppose  American  Slav- 
ery is  one  of  those  offenses  which,  in  the  providence  of 


THE  SECOND  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.         79 

God,  must  needs  come,  but  which,  having  continued 
through  His  appointed  time,  He  now  wills  to  remove, 
and  that  He  gives  to  both  North  and  South  this  terri- 
ble war,  as  the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom  the  offense 
came,  shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure  from 
those  divine  attributes  which  the  believers  in  a  living 
God  always  ascribe  to  Him  ?  Fondly  do  we  hoj^e,,  fer- 
vently do  we  pray,  that  this  mighty  scourge  of  war 
may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it 
continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be 
sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the 
lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn  with  the  sword, 
as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must 
be  said,  "  The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and 
righteous  altogether." 

With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with 
firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right, 
let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in  ;  to  bind 
up  the  nation's  wounds;  to  care  for  him  who  shall 
have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow,  and  his  or- 
phan ;  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just 
and  a  lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all 
nations. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


XII. 

SPEECH  IN   INDEPENDENCE  HALL. 

On  Washington's  birthday,  1861,  when  Lincoln  was  on  his  wsu^ 
CO  Washington  to  be  inaugurated  as  the  great  successor  to  the 
gieat  first  President,  it  was  arranged  that  he  should  raise  a  new 
flag  at  Independence  Hall  in  Philadelphia.  He  did  so,  and  on 
the  occasion  made  the  following  speech.  It  was  in  this  hall  that 
his  body  lay  when  it  was  on  its  way  to  Springfield  after  his  as* 
sassinatiou. 

I  AM  filled  with  deep  emotion  at  finding  myself 
standing  in  this  place,  where  were  collected  together 
the  wisdom,  the  patriotism,  the  devotion  to  principle 
from  which  sprang  the  institutions  under  which  we 
Jive.  You  have  kindly  suggested  to  me  that  in  my 
hands  is  the  task  of  restoring  peace  to  our  distracted 
country.  I  can  say  in  return,  sirs,  that  all  the  politi- 
cal sentiments  I  entertain  have  been  drawn,  so  far  as 
I  have  been  able  to  draw  them,  from  the  sentiments 
which  originated  in  and  were  given  to  the  world  from 
this  hall.  I  have  never  had  a  feeling,  politically,  that 
did  not  spring  from  the  sentiments  embodied  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  I  have  often  pondered 
over  the  dangers  which  were  incurred  by  the  men  who 
assembled  here  and  framed  and  adopted  that  Declara- 
tion. I  have  pondered  over  the  toils  that  were  en- 
dured by  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  army  who 
achieved  that  independence.  I  have  often  inquired  of 
myself  what  great  principle  or  idea  it  was  that  kept 
this   Confederacy   so  long  together.      It  was  not  the 


SPEECH  IN  INDEPENDENCE  HALL.  %\ 

mere  matter  of  separation  of  the  colonies  from  the 
motherland,  but  that  sentiment  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  which  gave  liberty,  not  alone  to  the 
people  of  this  country,  but  hope  to  all  the  world,  for 
all  future  time.  It  was  thai:  which  gave  promise  that 
in  due  time  the  weight  would  be  lifted  from  the  shoul- 
ders of  all  men  and  that  all  should  have  an  equal 
chance.  This  is  the  sentiment  embodied  in  the  De 
claration  of  Independence.  Now,  my  friends,  can  this 
country  be  saved  on  that  basis?  If  it  can,  I  will  con- 
sider myself  one  of  the  happiest  men  in  the  world  if  I 
^an  help  to  save  it.  If  it  cannot  be  saved  upon  that 
principle,  it  will  be  truly  awful.  But  if  this  country 
cannot  be  saved  without  giving  up  that  principle,  I 
was  about  to  say  I  would  rather  be  assassinated  on 
this  spot  than  surrender  it.  Now,  in  my  view  of  the 
present  aspect  of  affairs,  there  is  no  need  of  bloodshed 
and  war.  There  is  no  necessity  for  it.  I  am  not  in 
favor  of  such  a  course  ;  and  I  may  say  in  advance 
that  there  will  be  no  bloodshed  unless  it  be  forced 
upon  the  Government.  'The  Government  will  not  use 
force,  unless  force  is  used  against  it. 

My  friends,  this  is  wholly  an  unprepared  speech, 
I  did  not  expect  to  be  called  on  to  say  a  word  when  I 
came  here.  I  supposed  it  was  merely  to  do  something 
towards  raising  a  flag  —  I  may,  therefore,  'have  said 
something  indiscreet.  [Cries  of  "  No,  No."]  But  I 
have  said  nothing  but  what  I  am  willing  to  live  by, 
and,  if  it  be  the  pleasure  of  Almighty  God,  die  by. 


82  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

XIII. 

LAST  PUBLIC  ADDRESS. 

This  address,  given  in  Washington  April  11, 1865,  is  espeeiallj 
interesting  as  outlining  the  President's  policy  of  reconstruction. 

We  meet  this  evening  not  in  sorrow,  but  in  glad- 
ness of  heart.  The  evacuation  of  Petersburg  and 
Richmond,  and  the  surrender  of  the  principal  insur- 
gent army,  give  hope  of  a  righteous  and  speedy  peace, 
whose  joyous  expression  cannot  be  restrained.  In  the 
midst  of  this,  however.  He  from  whom  all  blessings 
flow  must  not  be  forgotten.  A  call  for  a  national 
thanksgiving  is  being  prepared,  and  will  be  duly  pro- 
mulgated. Nor  mv_st  those  whose  harder  part  give  us 
the  cause  of  rejoicing  be  overlooked.  Their  honois 
must  not  be  parcelled  out  with  others.  I  myself  was 
liear  the  front,  and  had  the  high  pleasure  of  trans- 
mitting much  of  the  good  news  to  you  ;  but  no  part 
of  the  honor  for  plan  or  execution  is  mine.  To  Gen- 
eral Grant,  his  skilful  officers  and  brave  men,  all 
belongs.  The  gallant  navy  stood  ready,  but  was  not 
in  reach  to  take  active  part. 

By  these  recent  successes  the  reinauguration  of  the 
national  authority,  —  reconstruction,  —  which  has  had 
a  large  share  of  thought  from  the  first,  is  pressed 
much  more  closely  upon  our  attention.  It  is  fraught 
with  great  difficulty.  Unlike  a  case  of  war  between 
independent  nations,  there  is  no  authorized  organ  for 
us  to  treat  with,  —  no  one  man  has  authority  to  give 
up  the  rebellion  for  any  other  man.     We  simply  must 


LAST  PUBLIC  ADDRESS.  83 

begin  with  and  mould  from  disorganized  and  discord- 
ant elements.  Nor  is  it  a  small  additional  embarrass- 
ment that  we,  the  loyal  people,  differ  among  ourselves 
as  to  the  mode,  manner,  and  measure  of  reconstruc- 
tion. As  a  general  rule,  I  abstain  from  reading  the 
reports  of  attacks  upon  myself,  wishing  not  to  be  pro- 
voked by  that  to  which  I  cannot  properly  offer  an 
answer.  In  spite  of  this  precaution,  however,  it  comes 
to  my  knowledge  that  I  am  much  censured  for  some 
supposed  agency  in  setting  up  and  seeking  to  sustain 
the  new  State  government  of  Louisiana. 

In  this  I  have  done  just  so  much  as,  and  no  more 
than,  the  public  knows.  In  the  annual  message  of 
December,  1863,  and  in  the  accompanying  proclama- 
tion, I  presented  a  pian  of  reconstruction,  as  the 
phrase  goes,  which  I  promised,  if  adopted  by  any 
State,  should  be  acceptable  to  and  sustained  by  the 
executive  government  of  the  nation.  I  distinctly 
stated  that  this  was  not  the  only  plan  which  might 
possibly  be  acceptable,  and  I  also  distinctly  protested 
that  the  executive  claimed  no  right  to  say  when  or 
whether  members  should  be  admitted  to  seats  in  Con- 
gress from  such  States.  This  plan  was  in  advance 
submitted  to  the  then  Cabinet,  and  distinctly  ap- 
proved by  every  member  of  it.  One  of  them  sug- 
gested that  I  should  then  and  in  that  connection 
apply  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  to  the  there- 
tofore excepted  parts  of  Virginia  and  Louisiana ; 
that  I  should  drop  the  suggestion  about  apprenticeship 
for  freed  people,  and  that  I  should  omit  the  protest 
against  my  own  power  in  regard  to  the  admission  of 
members  to  Congress.  But  even  he  approved  every 
part  and  parcel  of  the  plan  which  has  since  been 
employed  or  touched  by  the  action  of  Louisiana, 


84  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  new  constitution  of  Louisiana,  declaring  eman. 
cipation  for  the  whole  State,  practically  applies  the 
proclamation  to  the  part  previously  excepted.  It 
does  not  adopt  apprenticeship  for  freed  people,  and  it 
is  silent,  as  it  could  not  well  be  otherwise,  about  the 
admission  of  members  to  Congress.  So  that,  as  it 
applies  to  Louisiana,  every  member  of  the  Cabinet 
fully  approved  the  plan.  The  message  went  to  Con- 
gress, and  I  received  many  commendations  of  the 
plan,  written  and  verbal,  and  not  a  single  objection 
to  it  from  any  professed  emancipationist  came  to  my 
knowledge  until  after  the  news  reached  Washington 
that  the  people  of  Louisiana  had  begun  to  move  in 
accordance  with  it.  From  about  July,  1862,  I  had 
corresponded  with  different  persons  sujDposed  to  be 
interested  in  seeking  a  reconstruction  of  a  State  gov- 
ernment for  Louisiana.  When  the  message  of  1863, 
with  the  plan  before  mentioned,  reached  New  Orleans, 
General  Banks  wrote  me  that  he  was  confident  that 
the  people,  with  his  military  cooperation,  would  recon- 
struct substantially  on  that  plan.  I  wrote  to  him  and 
some  of  them  to  try  it.  They  tried  it,  and  the  result 
is  known.  Such  has  been  my  only  agency  in  getting 
up  the  Louisiana  government. 

As  to  sustaining  it,  my  promise  is  out,  as  before 
stated.  But  as  bad  promises  are  better  broken  than 
kept,  I  shall  treat  this  as  a  bad  promise,  and  break  it 
whenever  I  shall  be  convinced  that  keeping  it  is  ad- 
verse to  the  public  interest ;  but  I  have  not  yet  been 
so  convinced.  I  have  been  shown  a  letter  on  tliis 
subject,  supposed  to  be  an  able  one,  in  which  the 
writer  expresses  regret  that  my  mind  has  not  seemed 
to  be  definitely  fixed  on  the  question  whether  the  ac- 
ceded States,  so  called,  are  in  the  Union  or  out  of  it, 


LAST  PUBLIC  ADDRESS.  85 

It  would  perhaps  add  astonishment  to  his  regret  were 
he  to  learn  that  since  I  have  found  professed  Union 
men  endeavoring  to  make  that  question,  I  have  pur- 
posely forborne  any  public  expression  upon  it.  As 
appears  to  me,  that  question  has  not  been,  nor  yet 
is,  a  practically  material  one,  and  that  any  discussion 
of  it,  while  it  thus  remains  practically  immaterial, 
could  have  no  effect  other  than  the  mischievous  one 
of  dividing  our  friends.  As  yet,  whatever  it  may 
hereafter  become,  that  question  is  bad  as  the  basis 
of  a  controversy,  and  good  for  nothing  at  all  —  a 
merely  pernicious  abstraction. 

We  all  agree  that  the  seceded  States,  so  called,  are 
out  of  their  proper  practical  relation  with  the  Union, 
and  that  the  sole  object  of  the  government,  civil  and 
military,  in  regard  to  those  States  is  to  again  get 
them  into  that  proper  practical  relation.  I  believe 
that  it  is  not  only  possible,  but  in  fact  easier,  to  do 
this  without  deciding  or  even  considering  whether 
these  States  have  ever  been  out  of  the  Union,  than 
with  it.  Finding  themselves  safely  at  home,  it  would 
be  utterly  immaterial  whether  they  had  ever  been 
abroad.  Let  us  all  join  in  doing  the  acts  necessary 
to  restoring  the  proper  practical  relations  between 
these  States  and  the  Union,  and  each  forever  after 
innocently  indulge  his  own  opinion  whether  in  doing 
the  acts  he  brought  the  States  from  without  into  the 
Union,  or  only  gave  them  proper  assistance,  they 
never  having  been  out  of  it.  The  amount  of  constitu- 
ency, so  to  speak,  on  which  the  new  Louisiana  gov- 
ernment rests  would  be  more  satisfactory  to  all  if  it 
contained  50,000,  or  30,000,  or  even  20,000,  instead  of 
only  about  12,000,  as  it  does.  It  is  also  unsatisfac- 
tory to  some  that  the  elective  franchise  is  not  given 


86  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

to  the  colored  man.  I  would  myself  prefer  that  it 
were  now  conferred  on  the  very  intelligent,  and  on 
those  who  serve  our  cause  as  soldiers. 

Still,  the  question  is  not  whether  the  Louisiana 
government,  as  it  stands,  is  quite  all  that  is  desirable. 
The  question  is,  will  it  be  wiser  to  take  it  as  it  is  and 
help  to  improve  it,  or  to  reject  and  disperse  it  ?  Can 
Louisiana  be  brought  into  proper  practical  relations 
with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding 
her  new  State  government?  Some  twelve  thousand 
voters  in  the  heretofore  slave  State  of  Louisiana  have 
sworn  allegiance  to  the  Union,  assumed  to  be  the 
rightful  political  power  of  the  State,  held  elections, 
organized  a  State  government,  adopted  a  free-State 
constitution,  giving  the  benefit  of  public  schools  equally 
to  black  and  wiiite,  and  empowering  the  legislature  to 
confer  the  elective  franchise  upon  the  colored  man. 
Their  legislature  has  already  voted  to  ratify  the  con- 
stitutional amendment  recently  passed  by  Congress, 
abolishing  slavery  throughout  the  nation.  These 
12,000  persons  are  thus  fully  committed  to  the  Union 
and  to  perpetual  freedom  in  the  State  —  committed  to 
the  very  things,  and  nearly  all  the  things,  the  nation 
wants  —  and  they  ask  the  nation's  recognition  and  its 
assistance  to  make  good  their  committal. 

Now,  if  we  reject  and  spurn  them,  we  do  our  utmost 
to  disorganize  and  disperse  them.  We,  in  effect,  say 
to  the  white  man :  You  are  worthless  or  worse ;  we 
will  neither  help  you,  nor  be  helped  by  you.  To 
the  blacks  we  say  :  This  cup  of  liberty  which  these, 
your  old  masters,  hold  to  j^our  lips  we  will  dasli  from 
you,  and  leave  you  to  the  chances  of  gathering  the 
spilled  and  scattered  contents  in  some  vague  and  un- 
defined   when,  where,  and  how.     If  this  course,  dis- 


LAST  PUBLIC  ADDRECS.  SI 

couraging  and  paralyzing  both  white  and  black,  has 
any  tendenc}^  to  bring  Louisiana  into  proper  practical 
relations  with  the  Union,  I  have  so  far  been  unable 
to  perceive  it.  If,  ou  the  contrary,  we  recognize  and 
sustain  the  new  government  of  Louisiana,  tlie  con- 
verse of  all  this  is  made  tiae.  We  encourage  the 
hearts  and  nerve  the  arms  of  ihe  12,000  to  adhere  to 
their  work,  and  argue  for  it,  and  proselyte  foi  it,  and 
fight  for  it,  and  feed  it,  and  grow  it,  and  ripen  it  to  a 
complete  success.  The  colored  man,  too,  in  seeing  all 
imited  for  him,  is  inspired  with  vigilance,  and  energy, 
and  daring,  to  the  same  end.  Gi'ant  that  he  desires  the 
elective  franchise,  will  he  not  attain  it  sooner  by  sav- 
ing the  already  advanced  steps  toward  it  than  by  run- 
ning backward  over  them  ?  Concede  that  the  new 
government  of  Louisiana  is  only  to  what  it  should  h& 
as  the  egg  is  to  the  fowl,  we  shall  sooner  have  the 
fowl  by  hatching  the  egg  than  by  smashing  it. 

Again,  if  we  reject  Louisiana,  we  also  reject  one 
vote  in  favor  of  the  proposed  amendment  to  the  na- 
tional Constitution.  To  meet  this  ^proposition,  it  has 
been  argued  that  no  more  than  three  fourths  of  those 
States  which  have  not  attempted  secession  are  neces- 
sary to  validly  ratify  the  amendment.  I  do  not  com- 
mit myself  against  this  further  than  to  say  that  such 
a  ratification  would  be  questionable,  and  sure  to  be 
persistently  questioned,  while  a  ratification  by  three 
fourths  of  all  the  States  would  be  unquestioned  and 
unquestionable.  I  repeat  the  question  :  Can  Louisi- 
ana be  brought  into  proper  practical  relation  with  the 
Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding  lier  new 
State  government  ?  What  has  been  said  of  Louisi- 
ana will  apply  generally  to  other  States.  And  yet  so 
great  peculiarities  pertain  to  each  State,  and  such  im- 


88  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

portant  and  sudden  changes  occur  in  the  same  State, 
and  withal  so  new  and  unprecedented  is  the  whole 
case,  that  no  exclusive  and  inflexible  plan  can  safely 
be  prescribed  as  to  details  and  collaterals.  Such  ex- 
clusive and  inflexible  plan  would  surely  become  a  new 
entanglement.  Important  principles  may  and  must 
be  inflexible.  In  the  present  situation,  as  the  phrase 
goes,  it  may  be  my  duty  to  make  some  new  announce- 
ment to  the  people  of  the  South.  I  am  considering, 
and  shall  not  fail  to  act  when  satisfied  that  action  will 
be  proper. 


O  CAPTAIN!   MY  CAPTAIN  I 

BY  WALT  WHITMAN. 


O  Captain  I  my  Captain !  our  fearful  trip  is  done ; 
The  sliip  has  weathered  every  wrack,  the  prize  we  sought  is  wor  ; 
The  port  is  near,  the  bells  I  hear,  the  people  all  exulting, 
While  follow  eyes  the  steady  keel,  the  vessel  grim  and  daring : 
But  O  heart !  heart !  heart ! 

O  the  bleeding  drops  of  red. 

Where  on  the  deck  my  Captain  lies, 
Fallen  cold  and  dead. 


O  Captain !  my  Captain !  rise  up  and  hear  the  bells ; 

Rise  up  —  for  you  the  flag  is  flung,  for  you  the  bugle  trills ; 

For  you  bouquets  and  ribboned  wreaths,  for  you  the  shores  a-crowd< 

ing; 
For  you  they  call,  the  swaying  mass,  their  eager  faces  turning; 
Here  Captain  !  dear  father  ! 

This  arm  beneath  your  head ; 

It  is  some  dream  that  on  the  deck 
You  've  fallen  cold  and  dead. 


My  Captain  does  not  answer,  his  lips  are  pale  and  still ; 
My  father  does  not  feel  my  arm,  he  has  no  pulse  nor  will ; 
The  ship  is  anchored  safe  and  sound,  its  voyage  closed  and  done; 
From  fearful  trip  the  victor  ship  comes  in  with  object  won ; 
Exult,  O  shores  !  and  ring,  O  bells ! 
But  I,  with  mournful  tread, 
Walk  the  deck  my  Captain  lies 
Fallen  cold  and  dead. 


APPENDIX 


LINCOLN'S   ADDRESS 
AT   COOPER   UNION 

L   INTRODUCTION 

On  Feliruary  9,  1860,  Mr.  Cliarles  C.  Nott  wrote  to 
Lincoln  from  69  Wall  Street,  New  York,  inviting  him, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Young  Men's  Central  Republi- 
can Union,  to  deliver  one  of  a  series  of  lectures  that,  as 
he  said,  had  been  contrived  to  call  out  the  city's  better 
but  busier  citizens,  "  the  kind  who  never  attend  political 
meetings."  A  large  part  of  the  audience,  he  added,  would 
consist  of  ladies.  He  also  assured  Lincoln  that,  though  he 
was  not  personally  known  in  New  York,  his  contest  with 
Judge  Douglas  had  awakened  the  warmest  sympathy  and 
admiration  among  his  Republican  brethren  in  that  city. 

Lincoln  went  East  in  response  to  this  invitation,  which 
had  somehow  got  mixed  in  his  mind  with  an  earlier  one, 
under  the  impression  that  he  was  to  speak  in  Plymouth 
Church,  Brooklyn.  After  his  arrival  in  New  York  he 
learned  that  the  place  was  to  be  the  Cooper  Institute,  and 
that  the  audience  would  probably  include  several  men 
M'hom  he  felt  were  much  more  suited  to  be  his  tutors  than 
his  pupils.  One  of  his  friends  had  warned  him  not  to  make 
jokes,  tell  stories,  or  employ  the  arts  of  the  Western 
stump  speaker  before  an  Eastern  audience,  but  to  rely 
upon  that  power  of  logical  analysis  of  which  he  was  such 
an  irresistible  master.  Moved  by  this  advice  and  doubt- 
less somewhat  put  upon  his  guard  by  the  formidable  char- 
acter of  his  prospective  audience,  he  is  .said  to  have  spent 
the  time,  some  three  days,  between  his  arrival  and  his 
ordeal,  in  severe  preparation. 

The  night  of  February  27  was  snowy,  and   the  Cooper 


92  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

Institute  was,  in  consequence,  not  full.  The  audience  was 
intelligent,  respectable,  and  non-partisan.  It  included,  how- 
ever, a  number  of  the  most  distinguished  citizens  of  New 
York,  among  them  ex-Governor  John  A.  King,  James  W. 
Nye,  James  A.  Briggs,  Cephas  Brainerd,  Charles  C.  Nott, 
and  Horace  Greeley.  David  D.  Field,  escorted  the  speaker 
to  the  platform,  and  he  was  introduced  by  William  Culleu 
Bryant. 

Though  these  men  had  never  met  Lincoln,  they  of 
course  knew  of  his  successful  fight  against  Douglas.  For 
two  years  his  name  had  been  constantly  in  the  newspapers. 
They  had  come  together  to  learn  by  what  species  of  elo- 
quence Lincoln  had  contrived  to  attract  so  large  a  share 
of  public  attention. 

To  these  polished  citizens  of  the  metropolis,  before  he 
rose,  he  seemed  awed  and  ill  at  ease.  They  regarded  his 
clothes  with  marked  disapproval.  His  costume,  one  of 
them  informs  us,  was  the  most  unbecoming  that  a  fiend's 
ingenuity  could  have  devised,  its  most  conspicuous  points 
being  a  black  frock  coat,  too  short  for  him  in  the  body, 
skirt,  and  arras,  and  a  rolling  collar  that  was  so  low  that 
it  disclosed  his  long,  thin,  and  shriveled  throat.  Among 
the  adjectives  with  which  they  sought  to  describe  his  ap- 
pearance before  the  lecture  were  "  plain,"  "  ungainly," 
"  unadorned,"  ''uncultivated,"  "  awkward,"  and  "  rustic." 

When  he  rose  to  speak,  however,  all  this  was  quickly 
forgotten.  His  gigantic  frame,  his  deep-set  eyes,  the  pallor 
of  his  face,  and  the  story  of  hardship  and  struggle  written 
in  the  deep  furrows  of  his  rugged  features  were  impressive. 
As  he  proceeded  with  his  address  he  seemed  to  be  trans- 
formed. His  eyes  kindled,  his  voice  rang,  his  face  shone 
until  it  seemed  to  light  up  the  whole  assembly.  For  an 
hour  and  a  half  he  held  his  audience  spellbound.  They 
had  come  expecting  the  turgid  rhetoric,  the  bad  grammar, 
The  and  the  rude  wit  of  the  frontier.   Instead  they 

Union'"  found  a  man  whose  delivery  and  style  were 
Address  severely  simple.  The  first  half  of  his  address  did 
not  contain  a  single  illustrative  figure.  In  the  entire  speech 
there  was  neither  anecdote  nor  witticism.   As  Nicolay  and 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  93 

Hay  truly  write,  it  was  the  exposition  of  the  historian  and 
the  argument  of  the  statesman  about  a  principle  of  legis- 
lation, in  language  as  restrained  as  that  of  a  brief.  "  Yet 
such,"  they  continue,  "  was  the  apt  choice  of  words,  the 
simple  strength  of  propositions,  the  fairness  of  every  point 
he  assumed  and  the  force  of  every  conclusion  he  drew, 
that  his  listeners  followed  him  with  the  interest  and 
delight  a  child  feels  in  its  easy  mastery  of  a  plain  sum  in 
arithmetic." 

"  That  night,"  says  Joseph  H.  Choate,  later  ambassador 
to  Great  Britain  and  himself  one  of  the  greatest  of  Ameri- 
can orators,  ''  the  great  hall,  and  the  next  day  the  whole 
city  rang  with  delighted  applause  and  congratulations." 
Horace  Greeley  said  it  was  the  wisest  speech  that  any 
Kepublican  had  yet  made,  and  that,  although  he  had 
heard  several  of  Webster's  best  addresses,  he  had  never 
listened  to  a  better  one,  ''Mr.  Lincoln,"  said  his  paper, 
The  Tribxine,  on  the  following  morning,  "  is  one  of  na- 
lure's  orators,  using  his  rare  powers  solely  to  elucidate 
and  convince,  though  tlieir  inevitable  effect  is  to  delight 
and  electrify  as  well.  We  present  herewith  a  very  full  and 
accurate  report  of  this  speech  ;  yet  the  tones,  the  gestures, 
the  kindling  eye,  and  the  mirth-provoking  look  defy  the 
reporter's  skill.  The  vast  assemblage  frequently  rang  with 
cheers  and  shouts  of  applause,  which  were  prolonged  and 
intensified  at  the  close.  No  man  ever  before  made  such  an 
impression  on  his  first  appeal  to  a  New  York  audience." 

A  pamphlet  reprint  of  the  speech  was  at  once  an- 
nounced; and  in  September,  as  a  campaign  document,  a 
careful  edition  was  published,  with  notes  by  Charles  C. 
Nott  and  Cephas  Brainerd,  two  members  of  the  committee 
i;nder  whose  auspices  the  speech  had  been  delivered.  In 
their  preface  they  show  a  keen  appreciation  of  its  value 
as  revealed  by  close  literary  analysis.  "No  one,"  they  say, 
"  who  has  not  actually  attempted  to  verify  its  details  can 
vinderstand  the  patient  research  and  historical  labor  which 
it  embodies.  The  history  of  our  early  politics  is  scattered 
through  numerous  journals,  statutes,  pamphlets,  and  let- 
ters ;   and  these  are  defective  in  completeness  and  accuracy 


94  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

of  statement,  and  in  indices  and  tables  of  contents.  Neither 
can  any  one  who  has  not  traveled  over  this  grouiid  apjire- 
ciate  the  accuracy  of  every  trivial  detail,  or  the  self-deny- 
ing impartiality  with  which  Mr.  Lincoln  has  turned  from 
the  testimony  of  the  fathers  on  the  general  question  of 
slavery,  to  present  the  single  question  which  he  discusses. 
From  the  first  line  to  the  last,  from  his  premises  to  his 
conclusion,  he  tiavels  with  a  swift,  unerring  directness 
which  no  logician  ever  excelled,  an  argument  complete  and 
full  without  the  affectation  of  learning,  and  without  the 
stiffness  which  usually  accompanies  dates  and  details.  A 
single  easy  sentence  of  plain  Anglo-Saxon  words  contains 
a  chapter  of  history  that,  in  some  instances,  has  taken  days 
of  labor  to  verify,  and  which  must  have  cost  the  author 
months  of  investigation  to  acquire.  Commencing  with  this 
address  as  a  political  pamphlet,  the  reader  will  leave  it  as 
an  historical  work  —  brief,  complete,  profound,  impartial, 
truthful  —  which  will  survive  the  time  and  the  occasion 
that  called  it  forth  and  be  esteemed  hereafter  no  less  for 
its  intrinsic  worth  than  for  its  unpretending  modesty." 

After  the  speech  Mr.  Hiram  Barney  and  Mr.  Charles 
C.  Nott  took  Lincoln  to  the  Atheneeum  for  supper,  and 
five  or  six  Republican  members  of  the  club,  who  chanced 
to  be' in  the  building,  joined  the  party.  The  conversation 
turned  to  the  prospects  of  the  Republicans  in  the  coming 
elections,  but  so  little  was  Lincoln's  real  standing  then 
comprehended  in  New  York  that  one  of  the  gentlemen, 
who  had  not  heard  the  evening's  address,  asked  :  "  Mr. 
Lincoln,  what  candidate  do  you  really  think  would  be  most 
likely  to  carry  Illinois?  "  Lincoln  replied:  "  Illinois  is  a 
peculiar  State,  in  three  parts.  In  northern  Illinois,  Mr. 
Seward  would  have  a  larger  majority  than  I  could  get. 
In  middle  Illinois,  I  think  I  couUi  call  out  a  larger  vote 
than  Mr.  Seward.  In  southern  Illinois,  it  would  make  no 
difference  who  was  the  candidate."  When  the  party  broke 
lip,  Mr.  Nott  went  with  Lincoln  to  show  him  the  way  to 
the  Astor  House.  They  started  on  foot,  but  finally  boarded 
a  street  car,  because  Lincoln  walked  with  difficulty  on  ac- 
count of  the  tightness  of  his  boots,  which  were  new.    Mr. 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN  95 

Nott  did  not  go  all  the  way  ;  instead,  when  the  car  reached 
his  own  street,  he  left  the  future  President  its  sole  occu- 
pant. 

Here,  too,  we  must  leave  him.  To  t,race  the  remainder 
of  his  career  in  a  book  of  this  size  is  alike  impossible  and 
unnecessary.  It  is  impossible  because  it  would  be  equiva- 
lent to  writing  the  whole  history  of  the  great  political  cam- 
paign and  the  great  Civil  War  which  followed.  It  is  un- 
necessary because  every  American  schoolboy  knows  the 
story.  Suffice  it  to  say  that,  when  Lincoln  next  came  to 
New  York,  he  rode  at  noonday  in  a  carriage  drawn  by  four 
white  horses  through  lanes  of  shouting  people.  From  that 
proud  moment  down  to  the  moment  of  his  tragic  end  his 
history  is  the  history  of  the  United  States.  His  place  since 
then  was  accurately  described  by  Stanton  when,  standing 
by  Lincoln's  bedside  just  after  the  great  Emancipator  had 
breathed  his  last,  he  said  :    "  Now  he  is  with  the  ages  ! " 

11.  Books  for  the  Study  of  Lincoln" 
The  literature  which  has  grown  up  around  the  name  and 
fame  of  Lincoln  is  so  extensive  that  no  one  human  being 
is  likely  ever  to  read  it  all.  In  1906,  Daniel  Fish  pub- 
lished a  Lincoln  Bibliography  that  filled  234  printed 
quarto  pages  and  included  1080  titles.  Fortunately,  it  is 
not  necessary  to  read  many  of  these,  in  order  to  gain  a 
reasonable  knowledge  of  the  subject.  The  following  are 
recommended  as  being,  perhaps,  the  books  most  likely  to 
be  useful  to  a  student :  — 

E^iERSON,  Ralph  Waldo  :  Abraham  Lincoln.  Remarks 
at  the  funeral  services  held  in  Concord,  Mass.,  April  19, 
1865.  In  Riverside  Literature  Series  No.  133,  with 
Schurz's  Abraham  Lincoln,  etc.  Houghton  Mifflin  Co., 
1899. 
Hill,  Frederick  Trevor  :  Lincoln  the  Laicyer.    The 

Century  Co.,  1906,  pp.  xviii  +  332. 
Lowell,  James  Russell  :  Abraham,  Lincoln.  In  River- 
side Literature  Series  No.  133,  with  Schurz's  Abraham 
Lincoln,  etc.   Ilouditon  Mi.Tan  Co.  1899. 


96  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

MoORES,  Charles  W:  Tlte  Life  of  Ahraliavi  Lincoln  for 
Boys  and  Girls.  In  Riverside  Literature  Series  IS^o.  185. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co.  1909.  132  pp. 

Morse,  JoHisr  T.,  Jr.  :  Abraham  Lincoln.  A  biography 
in  two  volumes.  American  Statesmen  Series,  vol.  i, 
pp.  387;   vol.  II,  pp.  373.   Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1893. 

NicoLAY  AND  Hay  :  Abraliuin  Lincoln:  A  History. 
By  John  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  Lincoln's  Secre- 
taries. The  Century  Co.,  1890.  Ten  volumes.  The 
standard  Life  of  Lincoln. 

NicoLAY  and  Hay  :  Comjjlete  Works  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  Edited  by  John  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay, 
with  a  general  introduction  by  Richard  "Watson  Gilder; 
special  articles  by  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Henry  Wat- 
terson,  Frank  T.  Black,  AVilJiam  jMcKinley,  Phillips 
Brooks,  Robert  G.  Ligersoll,  George  Bancroft,  Charles 
Sumner,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  and  James  A.  Garfield; 
poems  by  Richard  Henry  Stoddard,  S.  Weir  ]\Iitchell, 
Edwin  Markham,  Paul  Laurence  Dunbar,  John  James 
Piatt,  William  Cullen  Bryant,  Maurice  Thompson, 
George  Henry  Boker,  Walt  Whitman,  and  Tom  Taylor; 
an  anthology  ;  a  bibliography  ;  and  a  chronological  in- 
dex. Twelve  volumes.  The  Tandy-Thomas  Co.  A  beau- 
tiful edition.   Indispensable  to  the  student. 

EiCE,  Allen  Thorndike  :  Beminiscences  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  by  DistinguisJied  Men  of  his  Time.  Eighth 
edition,  pp.  xl  +  649.  North  American  Review  Co.  A 
mine  of  information,  from  which  several  later  writers 
have  taken  much. 

Rothschild,  Alonzo  :  Lincoln,  Master  of  Men.  Hough- 
ton Mifflin  Co.,  1906,  pp.  531. 

ScnvRZ,  Caul:  Abraham  Lincoln.  An  Essay.  In  River- 
side Literature  Series  Xo.  133.  Houghton  Mifflin  Co., 
1899,  pp.  117. 

Tarbell,  Ida  M.  :  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
Two  volumes.  Doubleday  &  IMcCliire,  1900.  Vol.  i,  pp. 
xiv4-426;  vol.  ii,  pp.  xi  +  459.  This  work  is  readable 
and  contains  some  matter  not  found  inNicolay  and  Hay. 


ADDRESS 

Delivered  at  Cooper  tlNiON,  New  York, 
February  27,  1860,  by  Abraham  Lincoln 

3fr.  President  and  Felloio  Citizens  of  Neio  York  : 

1.  The  facts  with  which  I  shall  deal  this  evening  are 
mainly  old  and  familiar;  nor  is  there  anything  new  in 
the  general  use  I  shall  make  of  them.  If  there  shall 
be  any  novelty,  it  will  be  in  the  mode  of  presenting 
the  facts,  and  the  inferences  and  observations  follow- 
ing that  presentation.  In  his  speech  last  autumh  at 
Columbus,  Ohio,  as  reported  in  the  New  York  Times^ 
Senator  Douglas  said :  "  Our  fathers,  when  they 
framed  the  government  under  which  we  live,  under- 
stood this  question  just  as  well,  and  even  better,  than 
we  do  now." 

2.  I  fully  indorse  this,  and  I  adopt  it  as  a  text  for 
this  discourse.  I  so  adopt  it  because  it  furnishes  a 
precise  and  an  agreed  starting-point  for  a  discussion 
between  Republicans  and  that  wing  of  the  Democracy 
headed  by  Senator  Douglas.  It  simply  leaves  the  in- 
quiry :  What  was  the  understanding  those  fathers  had 
of  the  question  mentioned  ? 

3.  What  is  the  frame  of  government  under  which 
we  live?  The  answer  must  be,  "  The  Constitution  of 
the  United  States."  That  Constitution  consists  of  the 
original,  framed  in  1787,  and  under  which  the  present 
government  first  went  into  operation,  and  twelve  sub- 
sequently  framed  amendments,  the  first  ten  of  which 
were  fiamed  in  1789, 


98  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

4.  Who  were  our  fathers  that  framed  the  Constitu- 
tion ?  I  suppose  the  "  thirty-nine "  who  signed  the 
original  instrument  may  be  fairly  called  our  fathers 
who  framed  that  part  of  the  present  government.  It 
is  almost  exactly  true  to  say  they  framed  it,  and  it  is 
altogether  true  to  say  they  fairly  represented  the  opin- 
ion and  sentiment  of  the  whole  nation  at  that  time. 
llieir  names,  being  familiar  to  nearly  all,  and  acces- 
sible to  quite  all,  need  not  now  be  repeated. 

5.  I  take  these  "thirty-nine,"  for  the  present,  as 
being  "  our  fathers  who  framed  the  government  under 
which  we  live."  What  is  the  question  which,  according 
to  the  text,  those  fathers  understood  "  just  as  well,  and 
even  better,  than  we  do  now  "  ? 

6.  It  is  this  :  Does  the  proper  division  of  local  from 
Federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution, 
forbid  our  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slav- 
ery in  our  Federal  Territories? 

7.  Upon  this.  Senator  Douglas  holds  the  affirmative, 
and  Republicans  the  negative.  This  affirmation  and 
denial  form  an  issue  ;  and  this  issue — this  question 
—  is  precisely  what  the  text  declares  our  fathers  un- 
derstood "  better  than  we."  Let  us  now  inquire  whether 
the  "^  thirty-nine,"  or  any  of  them,  ever  acted  upon 
this  question  ;  and  if  they  did,  how  they  acted  upon 
it  —  how  they  expressed  that  better  understanding. 
In  1784,  three  years  before  the  Constitution,  the 
United  States  then  owning  the  Northwestern  Territory, 
and  no  other,  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  had 
before  them  the  question  of  prohibiting  slavery  in  that 
Territory  ;  and  four  of  the  "  thirty-nine  "  who  after- 
ward framed  the  Constitution  were  in  that  Congress, 
and  voted  on  that  question.  Of  these,  Roger  Sher- 
man, Thomas   Mifflin,  and    Hugh  Williamson  voted 


ADDRESS   AT   COOPER   UNION  99 

for  the  prohibition,  thus  showing  that,  in  their  under- 
standing, no  line  dividing  local  from  Federal  authority, 
nor  anything  else,  properly  forbade  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment to  control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal  territory. 
The  other  of  the  four,  James  McHenry,  voted  against 
the  prohibition,  showing  that  for  some  cause  he  thought 
it  improper  to  vote  for  it. 

8.  In  1787,  still  before  the  Constitution,  but  while 
the  convention  was  in  session  framing  it,  and  while 
the  Northwestern  Territory  still  was  the  only  Terri- 
tory owned  by  the  United  States,  the  same  question  of 
prohibiting  slavery  in  the  Territory  again  came  before 
the  Congress  of  the  Confederation;  and  two  more  of 
the  "  thirty-nine  "  who  afterward  signed  the  Constitu- 
tion were  in  that  Congress,  and  voted  on  the  question. 
They  were  William  Blount  and  William  Few  ;  and 
they  both  voted  for  the  prohibition  —  thus  showing 
that  in  their  understanding  no  line  dividing  local  from 
Federal  authority,  nor  anything  else,  properly  foi'bade 
the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in 
Federal  territory.  This  time  the  prohibition  became 
a  law,  being  part  of  what  is  now  well  known  as  the 
Ordinance  of  '87. 

9.  The  question  of  Federal  control  of  slavery  in  the 
Territories  seems  not  to  have  been  directly  before  the 
convention  which  framed  the  original  Constitution  ; 
and  hence  it  is  not  recorded  that  the  "  thirty-nine," 
or  any  of  them,  while  engaged  on  that  instrument, 
expressed  any  opinion  on  that  precise  question. 

10.  In  1789,  by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under 
the  Constitution,  an  act  was  passed  to  enforce  the 
Ordinance  of  '87,  including  the  prohibition  of  slavery 
in  the  Northwestern  Territory.  The  bill  for  this  act 
was  reported  by  one  of  the  ""  thirty-nine  "  —  Thomas 


100  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

Fitzsimnions,  then  a  member  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives from  Pennsylvania.  It  went  through  all  its 
stages  without  a  word  of  opposition,  and  finally  passed 
botii  branches  without  ayes  and  nays,  which  is  equiv- 
alent to  a  unanimous  passage.  In  this  Congress  there 
were  sixteen  of  the  thirty-nine  fathers  who  framed 
the  original  Constitution.  They  were  John  Langdon, 
Nicholas  Gilman,  William  S.  Johnson,  Roger  Sher- 
man, Robert  Morris,  Thomas  Fitzsimmons,  William 
Few,  Abraham  Baldwin,  Rufus  King,  William  Pater- 
son,  George  Clymer,  Richard  Bassett,  George  Read, 
Pierce  Butler,  Daniel  Carroll,  and  James  Madison. 

11.  This  shows  that,  in  their  understanding,  no 
line  dividing  local  from  Federal  authority,  nor  any- 
thing in  the  Constitution,  properly  forbade  Congress 
to  prohibit  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territory  ;  else  both 
their  fidelity  to  correct  principle,  and  their  oath  to 
support  the  Constitution,  would  have  constrained 
them  to  oppose  the  prohibition. 

12.  Again,  George  Washington,  another  of  the 
"thirty-nine,"  was  then  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  as  such  approved  and  signed  the  bill,  thus 
completing  its  validity  as  a  law,  and  thus  showing 
that,  in  his  understanding,  no  line  dividing  local  from 
Federal  authority,  nor  anything  in  the  Constitution, 
forbade  the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to 
slavery  in  Federal  territory. 

13.  No  great  while  after  the  adoption  of  the  orig- 
inal Constitution,  North  Carolina  ceded  to  the  Fed- 
eral Government  the  country  now  constituting  the 
State  of  Tennessee;  and  a  few  years  later  Qeorgia 
ceded  that  which  now  constitutes  the  States  of  Missis- 
sippi and  Alabama.  In  both  deeds  of  cession  it  was 
made  a  condition  by  the  ceding  States  that  the  Fed- 


'ADDRESS  AT   COOPER  UNION  101 

eral  Government  should  not  prohibit  slavery  in  the 
ceded  country.  Besides  this,  slavery  was  then  actually 
in  the  ceded  country.  Under  these  circumstances. 
Congress,  on  taking-  charge  of  these  countries,  did 
not  absolutely  prohibit  slavery  within  them.  But  they 
did  interfere  with  it  —  take  control  of  it  —  even  there, 
to  a  certain  extent.  In  1798,  Congi-ess  organized  the 
Territory  of  Mississippi.  In  the  act  of  organization 
they  prohibited  the  bringing  of  slaves  into  the  Terri- 
tory from  any  place  without  the  United  States,  by 
fine,  and  giving  freedom  to  slaves  so  brought.  This 
act  passed  both  branches  of  Congress  without  3^eas 
and  nays.  In  that  Congress  were  three  of  the  "  thirty - 
nine "  who  framed  the  original  Constitution.  They 
were  John  Langdon,  George  Read,  and  Abraham 
Baldwin.  They  all  probably  voted  for  it.  Certainly 
they  would  have  placed  their  opposition  to  it  upon 
record  if,  in  their  understanding,  any  line  dividing 
local  from  Federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the  Con- 
stitution_,  properly  forbade  the  Federal  Government 
to  control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal  territory. 

14.  In  1803,  the  Federal  Government  purchased 
the  Louisiana  country.  Our  former  territorial  acqui- 
sitions came  from  certain  of  our  own  States  ;  but  this 
Louisiana  country  was  acquired  from  a  foreign  nation. 
In  1804,  Congress  gave  a  territorial  organization  to 
that  part  of  it  which  now  constitutes  the  State  of 
Louisiana.  New  Orleans,  lying  within  that  part,  was 
an  old  and  comparatively  large  city.  There  were  other 
considerable  towns  and  settlements,  and  slavery  was 
extensively  and  thoroughly  intermingled  with  the  peo- 
ple. Congress  did  not,  in  the  Territorial  Act,  prohibit 
slavery  ;  but  they  did  interfere  with  it  —  take  control 
of  it  —  in  a  more  marked  and  extensive  way  than 


102  '  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

they  did  in  the  case  of  Mississippi.  The  substance  o£ 
the  provision  therein  made  in  relation  to  slaves  was  :  — 

1st.  That  no  slave  should  be  imported  into  the  Ter- 
ritory from  foreign  parts. 

2il.  That  no  slave  should  be  carried  into  it  who  had 
been  imported  into  the  United  States  since  the  first 
day  of  May,  1798. 

3d.  That  no  slave  should  be  carried  into  it,  except 
by  the  owner,  and  for  his  own  use  as  a  settler ;  the 
penalty  in  all  the  nases  being  a  fine  upon  the  violator 
of  the  law,  and  freedom  to  the  slave. 

15.  This  act  also  was  passed  without  ayes  or  nays. 
In  the  Congress  which  passed  it  there  were  two  of  tht; 
"  thirty-nine."  They  were  Abraham  Baldwin  and  Jona- 
than Dayton.  As  stated  in  the  case  of  Mississippi,  it 
is  probable  they  both  voted  for  it.  They  would  not 
have  allowed  it  to  pass  without  recording  their  oppo- 
sition to  it  if,  in  their  understanding,  it  violated  either 
the  line  properly  dividing  local  from  Federal  author- 
ity, or  any  provision  of  the  Constitution. 

16.  In  1819-20  came  and  passed  the  Missouri  ques- 
tion. Many  votes  were  taken,  by  yeas  and  nays,  in 
both  branches  of  Congress,  upon  the  various  phases 
of  the  general  question.  Two  of  the  "thirty-nine'' 
—  Ruf us  King  and  Charles  Pinckney  —  were  mem- 
bers of  that  Congress.  Mr.  King  steadily  voted  for 
slavery  prohibition  and  against  all  compromises,  while 
Mr.  Pinckney  as  steadily  voted  against  slavery  pro 
hihition  and  against  all  compromises.  By  this,  Mr. 
King  showed  that,  in  his  understanding,  no  line  divid- 
ing local  from  Federal  authority,  nor  anything  in  the 
Constitution,  was  violated  by  Congress  prohibiting 
•lavery  in  Federal  territory ;  while  Mr.  Pinckney,  by 
his  votes,4  showed  that,  in  his  understanding,  there 


ADDRESS   AT   COOPER    UNION  103 

was  some  sufficient  reason  for  opposing  such  prohibi- 
tion in  that  case, 

17.  The  cases  I  have  mentioned  are  the  only  acts 
of  the  "  thirty-nine,"  or  of  any  of  them,  upon  the  direct 
issue,  which  I  have  been  able  to  discover. 

18.  To  enumerate  the  persons  who  thus  acted  as 
being  four  in  1784,  two  in  1787,  seventeen  in  1789, 
three  in  1798,  two  in  1804,  and  two  in  1819-20,  there 
would  be  thirty  of  them.  But  this  would  be  counting 
John  Langdon,  Roger  Sherman,  William  Few,  Rufus 
King,  and  George  Read  each  twice,  and  Abraham 
Baldwin  three  times.  The  true  number  of  those  of  the 
"  thirty-nine  "  whom  I  have  shovm  to  have  acted  upon 
the  question  which,  by  the  text,  they  understood  bet- 
ter than  we,  is  twenty-three,  leaving  sixteen  not  shown 
to  have  acted  upon  it  in  any  way. 

19.  Here,  then,  we  have  twenty-three  out  of  onr 
thirty-nine  fathers  "  who  framed  the  government  under 
which  we  live,"  who  have,  upon  their  official  respon- 
sibility and  their  corporal  oaths,  acted  upon  the  very 
question  which  the  text  affirms  they  "  understood  just 
as  well,  and  even  better,  than  we  do  now  " ;  and  twenty- 
one  of  them  —  a  clear  majority  of  the  whole  "thirty- 
nine  "  —  so  acting  upon  it  as  to  make  them  guilty  of 
gross  political  impropriety  and  wilful  perjury  if,  in 
their  understanding,  any  proper  division  between  local 
and  Fedei'al  authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution 
they  had  made  themselves,  and  sworn  to  support,  for- 
bade the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery 
in  the  Federal  Territories.  Thus  the  twenty-one  acted  ; 
and,  as  actions  speak  louder  than  words,  so  actions 
under  such  responsibility  speak  still  louder. 

20.  Two  of  the  twenty-three  voted  against  congres- 
sional prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories, 


104  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

in  the  instances  in  which  they  acted  upon  the  question. 
But  for  what  reasons  they  so  voted  is  not  known.  They 
may  have  done  so  because  they  thought  a  proper  divi- 
sion of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  some  provision 
or  principle  of  the  Constitution,  stood  in  the  way;  or 
they  may,  without  any  such  question,  have  voted  against 
the  prohibition  on  what  appeared  to  them  to  be  suffi- 
cient grounds  of  expediency.  No  one  who  has  sworn 
to  support  the  Constitution  can  conscientiously  vote 
for  what  he  understands  to  be  an  unconstitutional 
measure,  however  expedient  he  may  think  it ;  but  one 
may  and  ought  to  vote  against  a  measure  which  he 
deems  constitutional  if,  at  the  same  time,  he  deems  it 
inexpedient.  It,  therefore,  would  be  unsafe  to  set  down 
even  the  two  who  voted  against  the  prohibition  as  hav- 
ing done  so  because,  in  their  understanding,  any  proper 
division  of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  anything 
in  the  Constitution,  forbade  the  Federal  Government 
to  control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal  territory. 

21.  The  remaining  sixteen  of  the  "  thirty-nine,"  so 
far  as  I  have  discovered,  have  left  no  record  of  their 
understanding  upon  the  direct  question  of  Federal  con- 
trol of  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories.  But  there 
is  much  reason  to  believe  that  their  understanding 
upon  that  question  would  not  have  appeared  different 
from  that  of  their  twenty-three  compeers,  had  it  been 
manifested  at  all. 

22.  For  the  purpose  of  adhering  rigidly  to  the  text, 
I  have  purposely  omitted  whatever  understanding 
may  have  been  manifested  by  any  person,  however 
distinguished,  other  than  the  thirty-nine  fathers  who 
framed  the  original  Constitution ;  and,  for  the  same 
reason,  I  have  also  omitted  whatever  understanding 
may    have    been  manifested   by  any  of  the  "thirty- 


ADDRESS   AT   COOPER   UNION  105 

nine"  even  on  any  other  phase  of  the  general  question 
of  slavery.  If  we  should  look  into  their  acts  and  dec- 
larations on  those  other  phases,  as  the  foreign  slave- 
trade,  and  the  morality  and  policy  of  slavery  gener- 
ally, it  would  appear  to  us  that,  on  the  direct  question 
of  Federal  control  of  slavery  in  Federal  Territories, 
the  sixteen,  if  they  had  acted  at  all,  would  probably 
have  acted  just  as  the  twenty-three  did.  Among  that 
sixteen  were  several  of  the  most  noted  anti-slavery 
men  of  those  times,  —  as  Dr.  Franklin,  Alexander 
Hamilton,  and  Gouverneur  Morris,  —  while  there  was 
not  one  now  known  to  have  been  otherwise,  unless  it 
may  be  John  Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina. 

The  sum  of  the  whole  is  that  of  our  thirty-nine 
fathers  who  framed  the  original  Constitution,  twenty- 
one  —  a  clear  majority  of  the  whole  —  certainly  un- 
derstood that  no  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal 
authority,  nor  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade 
the  Federal  Government  to  control  slavery  in  the  Fed- 
eral Territories  ;  while  all  the  rest  had  probably  the 
same  understanding.  Such,  unquestionably,  was  the 
understanding  of  our  fathers  who  framed  the  original 
Constitution  ;  and  the  text  affirms  that  they  under- 
stood the  question  "  better  than  we." 

23,  But,  so  far,  I  have  been  considering  the  under- 
standing of  the  question  manifested  by  the  framers 
of  the  original  Constitution.  In  and  by  the  original 
instrument,  a  mode  was  provided  for  amending  it ; 
and,  as  I  have  already  stated,  the  present  frame  of 
"the  government  under  which  we  live"  consists  of 
that  original,  and  twelve  amendatory  articles  framed 
and  adopted  since.  Those  who  now  insist  that  Federal 
control  of  slavery  in  Federal  Territories  violates  the 
Constitution,  point  us  to  the  provisions  which  they  sup* 


lOG  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

pose  it  thus  violates  ;  and,  as  I  understand,  they  all  fix 
upon  provisions  in  these  amendatory  articles,  and  not 
in  the  original  instrument.  The  Supreme  Court,  in 
the  Dred  Scott  case,  plant  themselves  upon  the  Fifth 
Amendment,  which  provides  that  no  person  shall  be 
deprived  of  "  life,  liberty,  or  property  without  due 
process  of  law "  ;  while  Senator  Douglas  and  his 
peculiar  adherents  plant  themselves  upon  the  Tenth 
Amendment,  pi'oviding  that  "  the  powers  not  delegated 
to  the  United  States  by  the  Constitution"  "are  re- 
served to  the  States  respectively,  or  to  the  people." 

24.  Now,  it  so  happens  that  these  amendments 
were  framed  by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under 
the  Constitution  —  the  identical  Congress  which  passed 
the  act,  already  mentioned,  enforcing  the  prohibition 
of  slavery  in  the  Northwestern  Territory.  Not  only 
was  it  the  same  Congress,  but  they  were  the  identical, 
same  individual  men  wlio,  at  the  same  session,  and  at 
the  same  time  within  the  session,  had  under  consider- 
ation, and  in  progress  toward  maturity,  these  consti- 
tutional amendments,  and  this  act  prohibiting  slavery 
in  all  the  territory  the  nation  then  owned.  The  con- 
stitutional amendments  were  introduced  before,  and 
passed  after,  the  act  enforcing  the  Ordinance  of  '87; 
so  that,  during  the  whole  pendency  of  the  act  to  en- 
force the  Ordinance,  the  constitutional  amendments 
were  also  pending. 

25.  The  seventy-six  members  of  that  Congress,  in- 
cluding sixteen  of  the  framers  of  the  original  Consti- 
tution, as  before  stated,  were  preeminently  our  fathers 
who  framed  that  part  of  "the  government  under 
which  we  live  "  which  is  now  claimed  as  forbidding 
the  Federal  Government  to  control  slavery  in  the 
Federal  Territories. 


ADDRESS   AT   COOPER    UNION  107 

26.  Is  it  not  a  little  presumptuous  in  any  one  at 
this  d:iy  to  affirm  that  the  two  things  which  that  Con- 
gress deliberately  framed,  and  carried  to  maturity  at 
the  same  time,  are  absolutely  inconsistent  with  each 
other?  And  does  not  such  affirmation  become  impu- 
dently absurd  when  coupled  with  the  other  affirmation, 
from  the  same  mouth,  that  those  who  did  the  two 
things  alleged  to  be  inconsistent,  understood  whether 
they  really  were  inconsistent  better  than  we  —  better 
than  he  who  affirms  that  they  are  inconsistent? 

27.  It  is  surely  safe  to  assume  that  the  thirty-nine 
framers  of  the  original  Constitution,  and  the  seventy- 
six  members  of  the  Congress  which  framed  the  amend- 
ments thereto,  taken  together,  do  certainly  include 
those  who  may  be  fairly  called  "  our  fathei'S  who 
framed  the  government  under  which  we  live."  And 
so  assuming,  I  defy  any  man  to  show  that  any  one  of 
them  ever,  in  his  whole  life,  declared  that,  in  his  un- 
derstanding, any  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal 
authority,  or  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade 
the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in 
the  Federal  Territories.  I  go  a  step  further.  I  defy 
any  one  to  show  that  any  living  man  in  the  whole 
world  ever  did,  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century  (and  I  migiit  almost  say  prior  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  last  half  of  the  present  century),  declare 
that,  in  his  understanding,  any  proper  division  of 
local  from  Federal  authority,  or  any  part  of  the  Con- 
stitution, forbade  the  Federal  Government  to  control 
as  to  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories.  To  those  who 
now  so  declare  I  give  not  only  "our  fathers  who 
framed  the  government  under  which  we  live,"  but 
with  them  all  other  living  men  within  the  century  in 
which  it  was  frauied,  among  whom  to  search,  and  they 


108  ABRAHAJM    LINCOLN 

shall  not  be  able  to  find  the  evidence  of  a  single  man 
agreeing  with  them. 

28.  Now,  and  here,  let  me  guard  a  little  against  being- 
misunderstood.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  we  are  bound  to 
follow  implicitly  in  whatever  our  fathers  did.  To  do 
so  would  be  to  discard  all  the  lights  of  current  expe- 
rience —  to  reject  all  progress,  all  improvement.  What 
1  do  say  is  that  if  we  would  supplant  the  opinions  and 
policy  of  our  fathers  in  any  case,  we  should  do  so  upon 
evidence  so  conclusive,  and  argument  so  clear,  that 
even  their  great  authority,  fairly  considered  and 
weighed,  cannot  stand  ;  and  most  surely  not  in  a  case 
whereof  we  ourselves  declare  they  understood  the 
question  better  than  we. 

29.  If  any  man  at  this  day  sincerely  believes  that  a 
proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  any 
part  of  the  Constitution,  forbids  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territo- 
ries, he  is  right  to  say  so,  and  to  enforce  his  position 
by  all  truthful  evidence  and  fair  argument  which  he 
can.  But  he  has  no  right  to  mislead  others,  who  have 
less  access  to  history,  and  less  leisure  to  study  it,  into 
the  false  belief  that  "  our  fathers  who  framed  the 
government  under  which  we  live  "  were  of  the  same 
opinion  —  thus  substituting  falsehood  and  deception 
for  truthful  evidence  and  fair  argument.  If  any  man 
at  this  day  sincerely  believes  "our  fathers  who  framed 
the  government  under  which  we  live"  used  and  a])- 
plied  principles,  in  other  cases,  which  ought  to  have 
led  them  to  understand  that  a  ])roper  division  of  local 
from  Federal  authority,  or  some  part  of  the  Consti- 
tution, forbids  the  Federal  Government  to  control  as 
to  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories,  he  is  right  to 
say  so.  But  he  should,  at  the  same  time,  brave  the 


ADDRESS   AT   COOPER   UNION  109 

responsibility  of  declaring  that,  in  his  opinion,  he 
understands  their  principles  better  than  they  did 
themselves ;  and  especially  should  he  not  shirk  that 
responsibility  by  asserting  that  they  "  understood  the 
question  just  as  well,  and  even  better,  than  we  do  now." 

30.  But  enough!  Let  all  who  believe  that  "our 
fathers  who  framed  the  government  under  which  we 
live  understood  this  question  just  as  well,  and  even 
better,  than  we  do  now,"  speak  as  they  spoke,  and 
act  as  they  acted  upon  it.  This  is  all  Republicans 
ask  —  all  Republicans  desire  —  in  relation  to  slavery. 
As  those  fathers  marked  it,  so  let  it  be  again  niaiked, 
as  an  evil  not  to  be  extended,  but  to  be  tolerated  and 
protected  only  because  of  and  so  far  as  its  actunl 
presence  among  us  makes  that  toleration  and  protec- 
tion a  necessity.  Let  all  the  guaranties  those  fathers 
gave  it  be  not  grudgingly,  but  fully  and  fairly,  main- 
tained. For  this  Republicans  contend,  and  with  this, 
so  far  as  I  know  or  believe,  they  will  be  content. 

31.  And  now,  if  they  would  listen,  —  as  I  suppose 
they  will  not,  —  I  would  address  a  few  words  to  the 
Southern  people. 

32.  I  would  say  to  them :  You  consider  yourselves  a 
reasonable  and  a  just  people;  and  I  consider  that  in 
the  general  qualities  of  reason  and  justice  you  are 
not  inferior  to  any  other  people.  Still,  when  you 
speak  of  us  Republicans,  you  do  so  only  to  denounce  us 
as  reptiles,  or,  at  the  best,  as  no  better  than  outlaws. 
You  will  grant  a  hearing  to  pirates  or  murderers,  but 
nothing  like  it  to  "  Black  Republicans."  In  all  your 
contentions  with  one  another,  each  of  you  deems  an  un- 
conditional condemnation  of  "  Black  Republicanism" 
as  the  first  thing  to  be  attended  to.  Indeed,  such  cou' 
demnation  of  us   seems  to  be  an  indispensable  pre- 


110  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

requisite  —  license,  so  to  speak  —  among  you  to  be 
admitted  or  permitted  to  speak  at  all.  Now  can  you 
or  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  pause  and  to  consider 
whether  this  is  quite  just  to  us,  or  even  to  yourselves  ? 
Bring  forward  your  charges  and  specifications,  and 
then  be  patient  long  enough  to  hear  us  deny  or  justify. 
33.  You  say  we  are  sectional.  We  deny  it.  That 
makes  an  issue  ;  and  the  burden  of  proof  is  upon  you. 
You  produce  your  proof;  and  what  is  it?  Why,  that 
our  party  has  no  existence  in  your  section  —  gets  no 
votes  in  your  section.  The  fact  is  substantially  true ; 
but  does  it  prove  the  issue?  If  it  does,  then  in  case 
we  should,  without  change  of  principle,  begin  to  get 
votes  in  your  section,  we  should  therebj^  cease  to  be 
sectional.  You  cannot  escape  this  conclusion  ;  and  j^et, 
are  you  willing  to  abide  by  it?  If  you  are,  you  will 
probably  soon  find  that  we  have  ceased  to  be  sectional, 
for  we  shall  get  votes  in  your  section  this  very  year. 
You  will  then  begin  to  discover,  as  the  truth  plainly 
is,  that  your  proof  does  not  touch  the  issue.  The  fact 
that  we  get  no  votes  in  your  section  is  a  fact  of  your 
making,  and  not  of  ours.  And  if  there  be  fault  in  that 
fact,  that  fault  is  primarily  yours,  and  remains  so 
until  you  show  that  we  repel  you  by  some  wrong  piin- 
ciple  or  practice.  If  we  do  repel  you  by  any  wrong 
principle  or  practice,  the  fault  is  ours;  but  this  brings 
yon  to  where  you  ought  to  have  started  —  to  a  discus- 
sion of  the  right  or  wrong  of  our  principle.  If  our 
principle,  put  in  practice,  would  wrong  your  section 
for  the  benefit  of  ours,  or  for  any  other  object,  then 
our  principle,  and  we  with  it,  are  sectional,  and  are 
justly  opposed  and  denounced  as  such.  Meet  us,  then, 
on  the  question  of  whether  our  principle,  put  in  prac- 
tice, would  wrong  your  section  ;  and  so  meet  us  as  if 


ADDRESS   AT   COOPER   UNION  111 

it  were  possible  that  sometliing  may  be  said  on  our 
side.  Do  you  accept  the  challenge  ?  No !  Then  yon 
really  believe  that  the  principle  which  "  our  fathers 
who  framed  the  government  under  which  we  live" 
thought  so  clearly  I'ight  as  to  adopt  it,  and  indorse  it 
again  and  again,  upon  their  official  oaths,  is  in  fact 
so  clearly  wrong  as  to  demand  your  condemnation 
without  a  moment's  consideration. 

34.  Some  of  you  delight  to  flaunt  in  our  faces  the 
warning  against  sectional  parties  given  by  Washing- 
ton in  his  Farewell  Address.  Less  than  eight  years 
before  Washington  gave  that  warning,  he  had,  as 
President  of  the  United  States,  approved  and  signed 
an  act  of  Congress  enforcing  the  prohibition  of  slavery 
in  the  Northwestern  Territory,  which  act  embodied 
the  policy  of  the  Government  upon  that  subject  up  to 
and  at  the  very  moment  he  penned  that  warning ;  and 
about  one  year  after  he  penned  it,  he  wrote  Lafayette 
that  he  considei-ed  that  jsrohibition  a  wise  measure, 
expressing  in  the  same  connection  his  hope  that  we 
should  at  some  time  have  a  confederacy  of  free  States. 

35.  Bearing  this  in  mind,  and  seeing  that  section- 
alism has  since  arisen  upon  this  same  subject,  is  that 
wariwng  a  weapon  in  your  hands  against  us,  or  in  our 
hands  against  you  ?  Could  Washington  himself  speak, 
would  he  cast  the  blame  of  that  sectionalism  upon  us, 
who  sustain  his  policy,  or  upon  you,  who  repudiate 
it?  We  respect  that  warning  of  Washington,  and  we 
commend  it  to  you,  together  with  his  example  point- 
ing to  the  right  application  of  it. 

36.  But  you  say  you  are  conservative — eminently 
conservative —  while  we  are  revolutionary,  destructive, 
or  something  of  the  sort.  What  is  conservatism?  Is 
it  not  adherence  to  the  old  and  tried,  against  the  new 


112  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

and  untried  ?  We  stick  to,  contend  for,  the  identical 
old  policy  on  the  point  in  controversy  which  was 
adopted  by  "our  fathers  who  framed  the  government 
under  which  we  live  "  ;  while  you  with  one  accord  re- 
ject, and  scout,  and  spit  upon  that  old  policy,  and  in- 
sist upon  substituting  something  new.  True,  you  dis- 
agree among  yourselves  as  to  what  that  substitute 
shall  be.  You  are  divided  on  new  propositions  and 
plans,  but  you  are  unanimous  in  rejecting  and  de- 
nouncing the  old  policy  of  the  fathers.  Some  of 
you  are  for  reviving  the  foreign  slave-trade  ;  some 
for  a  congressional  slave  code  for  the  Territories  •, 
some  for  Congress  forbidding  the  Territories  to  pro- 
hibit slavery  within  their  limits  ;  some  for  maintain- 
ing slavery  in  the  Territories  through  the  judiciary; 
some  for  the  "  gur-reat  pur-rinciple  "  that  "  if  one  man 
would  enslave  another,  no  third  man  should  object," 
fantastically  called  "  popular  sovereignty  " ;  but  never 
a  man  among  you  is  in  favor  of  Federal  prohibition 
of  slavery  in  Federal  Territories,  according  to  the 
practice  of  "  our  fathers  who  framed  the  government 
under  which  we  live."  Not  one  of  all  your  various 
plans  can  show  a  precedent  or  an  advocate  in  the  cen- 
tury within  which  our  government  originated.  Con- 
sider, then,  whether  your  claim  of  conservatism  for 
yourselves,  and  your  charge  of  destructiveness  against 
us,  are  based  on  the  most  clear  and  stable  foundations. 
37.  Again,  you  say  we  have  made  the  slavery  ques- 
tion more  prominent  than  it  formerly  was.  We  deny 
it.  We  admit  that  it  is  more  prominent,  but  we  deny 
that  we  made  it  so.  It  was  not  we,  but  you,  who  dis- 
carded the  old  policy  of  the  fathers.  We  resisted,  and 
still  resist,  your  innovation  ;  and  thence  comes  the 
greater  prominence  of  the  question.   Would  you  have 


ADDRESS   AT   COOPER  UNION  113 

that  question  reduced  to  its  former  proportions?  Go 
back  to  that  old  policy.  What  has  been  will  be  again, 
under  the  same  conditions.  If  you  would  have  the 
peace  of  the  old  times,  readopt  the  precepts  and  pol- 
icy of  the  old  times. 

38.  You  charge  that  we  stir  up  insurrections  among 
your  slaves.  We  deny  it ;  and  what  is  your  proof  ? 
Harper's  Ferry  !  John  Brown ! !  John  Brown  was  no 
Republican ;  and  you  have  failed  to  implicate  a  single 
Republican  in  his  Harper's  Ferry  enterprise.  If  any 
member  of  our  party  is  guilty  in  that  matter,  you 
know  it,  or  you  do  not  know  it.  If  you  do  know  it, 
you  are  inexcusable  for  not  designating  the  man  and 
proving  the  fact.  If  you  do  not  know  it,  you  are  inex- 
cusable for  asserting  it,  and  especially  for  persisting 
in  the  assertion  after  you  have  tried  and  failed  to 
make  the  proof.  You  need  not  be  told  that  persisting 
in  a  charge  which  one  does  not  know  to  be  true,  is 
simply  malicious  slander. 

39.  Some  of  you  admit  that  no  Republican  design- 
edly aided  or  encoui-aged  the  Harper's  Ferry  affair, 
but  still  insist  that  our  doctrines  and  declarations 
necessarily  lead  to  such  results.  We  do  not  believe  it. 
We  know  we  hold  no  doctrine,  and  make  no  declara- 
tion, which  were  not  held  to  and  made  by  "  our  fathers 
who  framed  the  government  under  which  we  live.'* 
You  never  dealt  fairly  by  us  in  relation  to  this  affair. 
When  it  occurred,  some  important  State  elections 
were  near  at  hand,  and  you  were  in  evident  glee  with 
the  belief  that,  by  charging  the  blame  upon  us,  you 
could  get  an  advantage  of  us  in  those  elections.  The 
elections  came,  and  your  expectations  were  not  quite 
fulfilled.  Every  Republican  man  knew  that,  as  to  him- 
self at  least,  your  charge  was  a  slander,  and  he  was 


114  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

not  much  inclined  by  it  to  cast  liis  vote  in  your  favor. 
Republican  doctrines  and  declarations  are  accompa- 
nied with  a  continual  protest  against  any  interference 
whatever  with  your  slaves,  or  with  you  about  your 
slaves.  Surely,  this  does  not  encourage  them  to  re- 
volt. True,  we  do,  in  common  with  "  our  fathers  who 
framed  the  government  under  which  we  live,"  declare 
our  belief  that  slavery  is  wrong ;  but  the  slaves  do 
not  hear  us  declare  even  this.  For  anything  we  say  or 
do,  the  slaves  would  scarcely  know  there  is  a  Repub- 
lican party.  I  believe  they  would  not,  in  fact,  gener- 
ally know  it  but  for  your  misrepresentations  of  us  in 
their  hearing.  In  your  political  contests  among  your- 
selves, each  faction  charges  the  other  with  sympathy 
with  Black  Republicanism  ;  and  then,  to  give  point 
to  the  charge,  defines  Black  Republicanism  to  simi)ly 
be  insurrection,  blood,  and  thunder  among  the  slaves. 

40.  Slave  insurrections  are  no  more  common  now 
than  they  were  before  the  Republican  party  was  or- 
ganized. What  induced  the  Southampton  insurrec- 
tion, twenty-eight  years  ago,  in  which  at  least  three 
times  as  many  lives  were  lost  as  at  Harper's  Ferry  ? 
You  can  scarcely  stretch  your  very  elastic  fancy  to 
the  conclusion  that  Southampton  was  "  got  up  by 
Black  Republicanism."  In  the  present  state  of  things 
in  the  United  States,  I  do  not  think  a  general,  or  even 
a  very  extensive,  slave  insurrection  is  possible.  The 
indispensable  concert  of  action  cannot  be  obtained. 
The  slaves  have  no  means  of  rapid  communication ; 
nor  can  incendiary  freemen,  black  or  white,  supply  it. 
The  explosive  materials  are  everywhere  in  parcels ; 
but  there  neither  ai-e,  nor  can  be  supplied,  the  indis- 
pensable connecting  trains. 

41.  Much  is  said  by  Southern    people    about  the 


ADDRESS   AT    COOPER   UNION  115 

affection  of  slaves  for  their  masters  and  mistresses ; 
and  a  part  of  it,  at  least,  is  true.  A  plot  for  an  upris- 
ing could  scarcely  be  devised  and  communicated  to 
twenty  individuals  before  some  one  of  them,  to  save 
the  life  of  a  favorite  master  or  mistress,  would  divulge 
it.  This  is  the  rule ;  and  the  slave  revolution  in 
Hayti  was  not  an  exception  to  it,  but  a  case  occur- 
ring under  peculiar  circumstances.  The  Gunpowder 
Plot  of  British  history,  though  not  connected  with 
slaves,  was  more  in  point.  In  that  case,  only  about 
twenty  were  admitted  to  the  secret ;  and  yet  one  of 
them,  in  his  anxiety  to  save  a  friend,  betrayed  the 
plot  to  that  friend,  and,  by  consequence,  averted  the 
calamity.  Occasional  poisonings  from  the  kitchen, 
and  open  or  stealthy  assassinations  in  the  field,  and 
local  revolts  extending  to  a  score  or  so,  will  continue 
to  occur  as  the  natural  results  of  slavery  ;  but  no  gen- 
eral insurrection  of  slaves,  as  I  think,  can  happen  in 
this  country  for  a  long  time.  Whoever  much  fears,  or 
much  hopes,  for  such  an  event,  will  be  alike  disap- 
pointed. 

42.  In  the  language  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  uttered  many 
years  ago,  "  It  is  still  in  our  power  to  direct  the  proc- 
ess of  emancipation  and  deportation  peaceably,  and 
in  such  slow  degrees,  as  that  the  evil  will  wear  off 
insensibly  ;  and  their  places  be,  pari  passtt,  filled  up 
by  free  white  laborers.  If,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  left 
to  force  itself  on,  human  nature  must  shudder  at  the 
prospect  held  up." 

43.  Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  mean  to  say,  nor  do  I, 
that  the  power  of  emancipation  is  in  the  Federal 
Government.  He  spoke  of  Virginia ;  and,  as  to  the 
power  of  emancipation,  I  speak  of  the  slaveholding 
States  only.  The  Federal  Government,  however,  as 


116  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

we  insist,  has  the  power  of  restraining  the  extension 
of  the  institution — the  power  to  insure  that  a  slave 
insurrection  shall  never  occur  on  any  American  soil 
which  is  now  free  from  slavery. 

44.  John  Brown's  effort  was  peculiar.  It  was  not  a 
slave  insurrection.  It  was  an  attempt  by  white  men 
to  get  up  a  revolt  among  slaves,  in  which  the  slaves 
refused  to  participate.  In  fact,  it  was  so  absurd  that, 
the  slaves,  with  all  their  ignorance,  saw  plainly  enough 
it  could  not  succeed.  That  affair,  in  its  philosophy, 
corresponds  with  the  many  attempts,  related  in  his- 
tory, at  the  assassination  of  kings  and  emperors.  An 
enthusiast  broods  over  the  oppression  of  a  people  till 
he  fancies  himself  commissioned  by  Heaven  to  liberate 
them.  He  ventures  the  attempt,  which  ends  in  little 
less  than  his  own  execution.  Orsini's  attempt  on  Louis 
Napoleon,  and  John  Brown's  attempt  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  were,  in  their  philosophy,  precisely  the  same. 
The  eagerness  to  cast  blame  on  old  England  in  the 
one  case,  and  on  New  England  in  the  other,  does  not 
disprove  the  sameness  of  the  two  things. 

i5.  And  how  much  would  it  avail  yon,  if  you  could, 
by  the  use  of  John  Brown,  Helper's  book,  and  the 
like,  break  up  the  Republican  organization?  Human 
action  can  be  modified  to  some  extent,  but  human 
nature  cannot  be  changed.  There  is  a  judgment  and 
a  feeling  against  slavery  in  this  nation,  which  cast  at 
least  a  million  and  a  half  of  votes.  You  cannot  de- 
stroy that  judgment  and  feeling  —  that  sentiment  — 
by  breaking  up  the  political  organization  which  rallies 
around  it.  You  can  scarcely  scatter  and  disperse  an 
army  which  has  been  formed  into  order  in  the  face  of 
your  heaviest  fire ;  but  if  you  could,  how  much  would 
you  gain  by  forcing  the  sentiment  which  created  it 


ADDRESS   AT   COOPER   UNION  117 

out  of  the  peaceful  channel  of  the  ballot-box  into  some 
other  channel  ?  What  would  that  other  channel  prob- 
ably be  ?  Would  the  number  of  John  Browns  be  less- 
ened or  enlarged  by  the  operation? 

46.  But  you  will  break  up  the  Union  rather  than 
submit  to  a  denial  of  your  constitutional  rights. 

47.  That  has  a  somewhat  reckless  sound  ;  but  it 
would  be  palliated,  if  not  fully  justified,  were  we  pro- 
posing, by  the  mere  force  of  numbers,  to  deprive  you 
of  some  right  plainly  written  down  in  the  Constitu- 
tion. But  we  are  proposing  no  such  thing. 

48.  When  you  make  these  declarations  you  have 
a  specific  and  well-understood  allusion  to  an  assumed 
constitutional  right  of  yours  to  take  slaves  into  the 
Federal  Territories,  and  to  hold  them  there  as  prop- 
erty. But  no  such  right  is  specifically  written  in  the 
Constitution.  That  instrument  is  literally  silent  about 
any  such  right.  We,  on  the  contrary,  deny  that  such  a 
right  has  any  existence  in  the  Constitution,  even  by 
implication. 

49.  Your  purpose,  then,  plainly  stated,  is  that  you 
will  destroy  the  government,  unless  you  be  allowed  to 
construe  and  force  the  Constitution  as  you  please,  on 
all  points  in  dispute  between  you  and  us.  You  will 
rule  or  ruin  in  all  events. 

50.  This,  plainly  stated,  is  your  language.  Perhaps 
you  will  say  the  Supreme  Court  has  decided  the  dis- 
puted constitutional  question  in  your  favor.  Not  quite 
so.  But  waiving  the  lawyer's  distinction  between  dic- 
tum and  decision,  the  Court  has  decided  the  question 
for  you  in  a  sort  of  way.  The  Court  has  substantially 
said,  it  is  your  constitutional  right  to  take  slaves  into 
the  Federal  Territories,  and  to  hold  them  there  as 
property.  When  I  say  the  decision  was  made  in  a 


118  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

sort  of  way,  I  mean  it  was  made  in  a  divided  court, 
by  a  bare  majority  of  the  judges,  and  they  not  quite 
agreeing  with  one  another  in  the  reasons  for  making 
it ;  that  it  is  so  made  as  that  its  avowed  supporters 
disagree  with  one  another  about  its  meaning,  and 
that  it  was  mainly  based  upon  a  mistaken  statement 
of  fact  —  the  statement  in  the  opinion  that  "  the  right 
of  property  in  a  slave  is  distinctly  and  expressly  af- 
firmed in  the  Constitution." 

51.  An  inspection  of  the  Constitution  will  show 
that  the  right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  not  "  distinctly 
and  expressly  affirmed"  in  it.  Bear  in  mind,  the 
judges  do  not  pledge  their  judicial  opinion  that  such 
right  is  impliedly  affirmed  in  the  Constitution  ;  but 
they  pledge  their  veracity  that  it  is  "  distinctly  and 
expressly  "  affirmed  there  —  "distinctly,"  that  is,  not 
mingled  with  anything  else  —  "expressly,"  that  is,  in 
words  meaning  just  that,  without  the  aid  of  any  infer- 
ence, and  susceptible  of  no  other  meaning. 

62.  If  they  had  only  pledged  their  judicial  opinion 
that  such  right  is  affirmed  in  the  instrument  by  im- 
plication, it  would  be  open  to  others  to  show  that 
neither  the  word  "slave"  nor  "slavery"  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Constitution,  nor  the  word  "  property  " 
even,  in  any  connection  with  language  alluding  to 
the  things  slave,  or  slavery ;  and  that,  wherever  in 
that  instrument  the  slave  is  alluded  to,  he  is  called  a 
"  person  "  ;  and  wherever  his  master's  legal  right  in 
relation  to  him  is  alluded  to,  it  is  spoken  of  as  "  ser- 
vice or  labor  which  may  be  due  "  —  as  a  debt  payable 
in  service  or  labor.  Also  it  would  be  open  to  show, 
by  contemporaneous  history,  that  this  mode  of  allud- 
ing to  slaves  and  slavery,  instead  of  speaking  of  them, 
was  employed  on  purpose  to  exclude  from  the  Con- 


ADDRESS   AT   COOPER   UNION  119 

stitution  the  idea   that  there   could  be  property  in 
man. 

53.  To  show  all  this  is  easy  and  certain. 

54.  When  this  obvious  mistake  of  the  judges  shall 
be  brought  to  their  notice,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  ex- 
pect that  they  will  withdraw  the  mistaken  statement, 
and  reconsider  the  conclusion  based  upon  it  ? 

55.  And  then  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  "  our 
fathers  who  framed  the  government  under  which  we 
live  "  — the  men  who  made  the  Constitution  —  de- 
cided this  same  constitutional  question  in  our  favor 
long  ago :  decided  it  without  division  among  them- 
selves when  making  the  decision  ;  without  division 
among  themselves  about  the  meaning  of  it  after  it 
was  made,  and,  so  far  as  any  evidence  is  left, 
without  basing  it  upon  any  mistaken  statement  of 
facts. 

56.  Under  all  these  circumstances,  do  you  really 
feel  yourselves  justified  to  break  up  this  government 
unless  such  a  court  decision  as  yours  is  shall  be  at 
once  submitted  to  as  a  conclusive  and  final  rule  of 
political  action  ?  But  you  will  not  abide  the  election 
of  a  Republican  President !  In  that  supposed  event, 
you  say,  you  will  destroy  the  Union ;  and  then,  you 
say,  the  great  crime  of  having  destroyed  it  will  be 
upon  us  !  That  is  cool.  A  highwayman  holds  a  pistol 
to  my  ear,  and  mutters  through  his  teeth,  "Stand  and 
deliver,  or  I  shall  kill  you,  and  then  you  will  be  a 
murderer ! " 

57.  To  be  sure,  what  a  robber  demanded  of  me  — 
my  money  —  was  my  own  ;  and  I  had  a  clear  right  to 
keep  it ;  bat  it  was  no  more  my  own  than  my  vote  is 
my  own ;  and  the  threat  of  death  to  me,  to  extort  my 
money,  and  the  threat  of  destruction  to  the  Union,  to 


120  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

extort  my   vote,   can   scarcely   be   distinguished   in 
principle. 

58.  A  few  words  now  to  the  Republicans.  It  is  ex- 
ceedingly desirable  that  all  parts  of  this  great  Con- 
federacy shall  be  at  peace,  and  in  harmony  one  with 
another.  Let  us  Republicans  do  our  part  to  have  it 
so.  Even  though  much  provoked,  let  us  do  nothing 
through  passion  and  ill  temper.  Even  though  tLe 
Southern  people  will  not  so  much  as  listen  to  us, 
let  us  calmly  consider  their  demands,  and  yield  to 
them  if,  in  our  deliberate  view  of  our  duty,  we  possi- 
bly can.  Judging  by  all  they  say  and  do,  and  by  the 
subject  and  nature  of  their  controversy  with  us,  let  us 
determine,  if  we  can,  what  will  satisfy  them. 

59.  Will  they  be  satisfied  if  the  Territories  be  un- 
conditionally surrendered  to  them  ?  We  know  they 
will  not.  In  all  their  present  complaints  against  us, 
the  Territories  are  scarcely  mentioned.  Invasions  and 
insurrections  are  the  rage  now.  Will  it  satisfy  them 
if,  in  the  future,  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  invasions 
and  insurrections  ?  We  know  it  will  not.  We  so  know, 
because  we  know  we  ne^^er  had  anything  to  do  with 
invasions  and  insurrections  ;  and  yet  this  total  abstain- 
ing does  not  exempt  us  from  the  charge  and  the  de- 
nunciation. 

60.  The  question  recurs.  What  will  satisfy  them? 
Simply  this :  we  must  not  only  let  them  alone,  but  we 
must  somehow  convince  them  that  we  do  let  them 
alone.  This,  we  know  by  experience,  is  no  easy  task. 
We  have  been  so  trying  to  convince  them  from  the 
very  beginning  of  our  organization,  but  with  no  suc- 
cess. In  all  our  platforms  and  speeches  we  have  con- 
stantly protested  our  purpose  to  let  them  alone  ;  but 
^this  has  had  no  tendency  to  convince  them.  Alike  un- 


,      ADDRESS   AT   COOPER   UNION  121 

availing  to  convince  tliein  is  the  fact  that  they  have 
never  detected  a  man  of  us  in  any  attempt  to  disturb 
them. 

61.  These  natural  and  apparently  adequate  means 
all  failing-,  what  will  convince  them  ?  This,  and  this 
only :  cease  to  call  slavery  wrong,  and  join  them  in 
calling  it  right.  And  this  must  be  done  thoroughly 
—  done  in  acts  as  well  as  in  words.  Silence  will  not 
be  tolerated  —  we  must  place  ourselves  avowedly  with 
them.  Senator  Douglas's  new  sedition  law  must  be 
enacted  and  enforced,  suppressing  all  declarations  that 
slavery  is  wrong,  whether  made  in  politics,  in  presses, 
in  pulpits,  or  in  private.  We  must  arrest  and  return 
their  fugitive  slaves  with  greedy  pleasure.  We  must 
pull  down  our  free  State  constitutions.  The  whole  at- 
mosphere must  be  disinfected  from  all  taint  of  opjiosi- 
tion  to  slavery,  before  they  v/ill  cease  to  believe  that 
all  their  troubles  proceed  from  us. 

62.  I  am  quite  aware  they  do  not  state  their  case 
precisely  in  this  way.  Most  of  them  would  probably 
say  to  us,  "  Let  us  alone ;  do  nothing  to  us,  and  say 
what  you  please  about  slavery."  But  we  do  let  them 
alone,  —  have  never  disturbed  them,  —  so  that,  after 
all,  it  is  what  we  say  which  dissatisfies  them.  They 
will  continue  to  accuse  us  of  doing,  until  we  cease 
saying. 

63.  I  am  also  aware  they  have  not  as  yet  in  terms 
demanded  the  overthrow  of  our  free  State  constitu- 
tions. Yet  those  constitutions  declare  the  wrong  of 
slavery  with  more  solemn  emphasis  than  do  all  other 
sayings  against  it;  and  when  all  these  other  sayingi* 
shall  have  been  silenced,  the  overthrow  of  these  con- 
stitutions will  be  demanded,  and  nothing  be  left  to 
resist  the  demand.  It  is  nothing  to  the  contrary  that 


122  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

they  do  not  demand  the  whole  of  this  just  now. 
Demanding  what  they  do,  and  for  the  reason  they  do, 
they  can  voluntarily  stop  nowhere  short  of  this  con- 
summation. Holding,  as  they  do,  that  slavery  is  mor- 
ally right  and  socially  elevating,  they  cannot  cease 
to  demand  a  full  national  recognition  of  it  as  a  legal 
right  and  a  social  blessing. 

64.  Nor  can  we  justifiably  withhold  this  on  any 
ground  save  our  conviction  that  slavery  is  wrong.  If 
slavery  is  right,  all  words,  acts,  laws,  and  constitutions 
against  it  are  themselves  wrong,  and  should  be  silenced 
and  swept  away.  If  it  is  right,  we  cannot  justly  object 
to  its  nationality  —  its  universality ;  if  it  is  wrong, 
they  cannot  justly  insist  upon  its  extension  —  its  en- 
largement. All  they  ask  we  could  readily  grant,  if  we 
thought  slavery  right ;  all  we  ask  they  could  as  readily 
grant,  if  they  thought  it  wrong.  Their  thinking  it 
right  and  our  thinking  it  wrong  is  the  precise  fact 
upon  which  depends  the  whole  controversy.  Think- 
ing it  right,  as  they  do,  they  are  not  to  blame  for  de- 
siring its  full  recognition  as  being  right ;  but  thinking 
it  wrong,  as  we  do,  can  we  yield  to  them  ?  Can  we  cast 
our  votes  with  their  view,  and  against  our  own  ?  In 
view  of  our  moral,  social,  and  political  responsibilities, 
can  we  do  this  ? 

65.  Wrong  as  we  think  slavery  is,  we  can  yet  afford 
to  let  it  alone  where  it  is,  because  that  much  is  due 
CO  the  necessity  arising  from  its  actual  presence  in  the 
nation;  but  can  we,  while  our  votes  will  prevent  it, 
allow  it  to  spread  into  the  national  Territories,  and  to 
overrun  us  here  in  these  free  States?  If  our  sense  of 
duty  forbids  this,  then  let  us  stand  by  our  duty  fear- 
lessly and  effectively.  Let  us  be  diverted  by  none  of 
those  sophistical  contrivances  wherewith  we  are  so 


ADDRESS   AT   COOPER   UNION  123 

industriously  plied  and  belabored  —  contrivances  such 
as  groping  for  some  middle  ground  between  the  right 
and  the  wrong:  vain  as  the  search  for  a  man  who 
should  be  neither  a  living  man  nor  a  dead  man ;  such 
as  a  policy  of  "  don't  care"  on  a  question  about  which 
all  true  men  do  care  ;  such  as  Union  appeals  beseech- 
ing true  Union  men  to  yield  to  Disunionists,  reversing 
the  divine  rule,  and  calling,  not  the  sinners,  but  the 
righteous  to  repentance  ;  such  as  invocations  to  Wash- 
ington, imploring  men  to  unsay  what  Washington  said 
and  undo  what  Washington  did. 

66.  Neither  let  us  be  slandered  from  our  duty  by 
false  accusations  against  us,  nor  frightened  from  it 
by  menaces  of  destruction  to  the  government,  nor  of 
dungeons  to  ourselves.  Let  us  have  faith  that  right 
makes  might,  and  in  that  faith  let  us  to  the  end  dare 
to  do  our  duty  as  we  understand  it. 


PROGRAMMES. 


[These  programmes  are  merely  in  the  way  of  suggestiono 
Teachers  may  find  it  more  convenient  to  combine  numbers? 
from  different  programmes  into  a  new  one.] 

No.  I. 

1.  Essay  :  Describing  the  scenes  which  take  place  at  the 
inauguration  of  the  President. 

2.  Recitation :  Lincoln's  second  Inaugural. 

3.  Song :  America. 

4.  A  list  of  the  Presidents  of  the  United  States,  with  the 
age  of  each  upon  inauguration. 

5.  Anecdotes :  Descriptive  of  Lincoln  in  connection  with 
his  cabinet. 

6.  Reading:  That  portion  of  Lowell's  Commemoration 
Ode  descriptive  of  Lincoln. 

No.  II. 

1.  Description  of  the  interior  of  Independence  Hall,  Phil» 
adelphia. 

2.  Account  of  the  signing  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde. 
pendence. 

3.  Declamation  :  Lincoln's  speech  in  Independence  HalL 

4.  Recitation  :   The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic. 

5.  Comparison  of  Washington  and  Lincoln. 

6.  Opinions  by  distinguished  men  of  Lincoln's  character 
and  power  given  in  brief  by  several  pupils. 

7.  Recitation:   0  Captain,  my  Captain. 


PROGRAMMES.  125 


No.  III. 


1.  Essay  :   Descriptive  of  the  battle  of  Gettysburg. 

2.  Dedaination  :  Lincoln's  speech  at  Gettysburg. 

3.  Estimates  of  the  speech  by  eminent  men. 

4.  Anecdotes  about  Lincoln,  chosen  by  six  pupilso 

5.  Account  of  the  eagle,  Old  Abe. 

6.  Heading :  Selections  from  Emerson's  address. 

No.  IV. 

1.  Historical  essay  on  the  rise  of  the  conflict  with  slavery. 

2.  Reading  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation. 

3.  Recitation  of  Whittier's  The  Jubilee  Singers. 

4.  Reading  of  Lincoln's  letter  to  Horace  Greeley. 

5.  Essay  on   the    constitutional    amendment    abolishing 
slavery,  giving  a  history  of  its  passage. 

6.  Recitation  of  Bryapt's  Threnody. 

No.  V. 


1.  Essay:  Lincoln's  Parentage  and  Childhood,  drawn 
from  Chapter  I.  of  Holland's  Life  of  Lincoln. 

2.  Essay :  Lincoln's  Early  Life  and  Marriage,  selected 
from  Ward  H.  Lamon's  Life  of  Lincoln. 

3.  Essay :  Lincoln's  Manhood,  as  drawn  from  Lamon's 
Life,  to  his  election  to  the  Presidency. 

4.  Reading :  From  Lincoln's  Speech  on  accepting  nom^ 
ination  to  the  U.  S.  Senate,  Springfield,  111.,  June  17, 
1858.     Found  in  Raymond's  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  52  et  seq. 

5.  Essay :  Descriptive  of  Lincoln's  Famous  Debate  with 
S.  A.  Douglas,  drawn  from  Chapter  11.  Raymond's  Life 
vf  Lincoln. 

6.  Reading  :  Selections  from  Lincoln's  Speech  in  Cooper 
Institute,  New  York,  February  27,  1860.  In  Ray- 
mond's Life,  p.  85. 


126  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

7.  Heading :  Selections  from  R.  W-  Emerson's  Lecture 
on  Abraham  Lincoln. 

8.  Heading :  Estimate  of  Lincoln's  Character,  Chapter 
XIII.  Charles  G.  Leland's  Life  of  Lincoln  in  the  New 
Flutarch  Series. 

No.  VI. 

THE    PRESIDENT. 

1.  Reading  :  From  first  Inaugural,  March  4,  1861. 

2.  Essay :  A  Sketch  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Presidential  Life, 
drawn  from  any  standard  Life. 

3.  Reading :  Descriptive  of  Lincoln's  Tastes,  from 
Six  Months  at  the  White  House,  Section  XVI. 

4.  Reading:  Herndon's  Analysis  of  Lincoln's  Charac- 
ter.    Six  Months  at  the  White  House,  Section  LXXIX. 

5.  Essay:  Lincoln's  Home  Life  as  drawn  from  Six 
Months  at  the  White  House. 

6.  Reading:  Anecdotes  about  Lincoln.  The  last  forty 
pages  of  Raymond's  Life  are  devoted  to  Anecdotes  and 
Reminiscences. 

7.  Declamation:  Exordium  to  Edward  Everett's ^c?c?ress 
at  Gettysburg. 

8.  Recitation :  Selections  from  Bayard  Taylor's  Gettys- 
'burg  Ode. 

9.  Declamation :  Lincoln's  Address  at  Gettysburg. 

10.  Reading :  Selections  from  Lincoln's  second  Inaugu- 
ral. 

No.  VII. 

THE.  EMANCIPATOR. 

1.  An  Essay  descriptive  of  the  progress  of  the  War  to  the 
Autumn  of  1862. 

2.  Reading  from  Holland's  Life  of  Lincoln,  descriptive 
of  the  President's  preparation  and  presentation  of  the 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  reduced  from  pp.  390-395. 

3.  Reading  :  The  Proclamation  itself. 


PROGRAMMES.  127 

-*.  Beading :  From  Whittier,  The  Proclamation. 

5.  Singing :  America. 

6.  Readings  selected  from  R.  W.  Emerson's  The  EnianA 
cipation  Proclamation. 

I.  Reading:  The  Emancipation  Proclamation,  W.  S. 
Robinson,  "  Warrington,"  from  Pe?i  Portraits. 

8.  Reading :   The  Death  of  Slavery,  Bryant. 

9.  Reading :  The  Proclamation,  as  culled  from  tlie 
first  part  of  Chapter  XII.  of  Frederick  Douglass'  Life 
and  Times. 

10.  Reading  :  Laus  Deo,  John  G.  Whittier. 

II.  Singing :  Hymn,  after  the  Emancipation  Proclama 
tion,  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes. 

No.    VIII. 

THE     MARTYR. 

1.  Essay :    Descriptive  of  the  Assassination. 

2.  Recitation  :  Death  of  Lincoln,  Bryant. 

Z.  Reading :  From  Recollections  of  Abraham  Lincoln.. 
Noah  Brooks,  Harper's  Monthly,  vol.  xxxi.,  p.  222,  July^ 
1865. 

4.  Recitation :  Abraham  Lincoln,  Alice  Gary. 

5.  Reading  :  Easy  Chair,  Harjjer's  Monthly,  Vol, 
xxxi.  p.  126,  June,  1865. 

6.  Declamation :  From  Abraham  Lincoln ;  an  Hora- 
tian  Ode,  R.  H.  Stoddard. 

7.  Reading:  Mr.  Lowell's  Essay. 

8.  Recitation  :  Our  Good  President,  Phoebe  Cary. 

9.  Recitation'.  Second  Review  of  the  Grand  Army 
Bret  Harte. 

10.  Reading :  From  Commemoration  Ode,  J.  R.  Lowell. 

11.  Song :  For  the  Services  in  Memory  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmea. 


CHRONOLOGICAL    LIST    OF    EVENTS    IN 
THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


Born  in  a  log-cabin  near   Hodgensville,  now  Lame  County, 

Kentucky February  12,  1809 

His  father  moves  with  his  family  into  the  wilderness  near  Gen- 
try ville,  Indiana 1816 

His  mother  dies,  at  the  age  of  35 1818 

His  father's  second  marriage 1819 

Walks  nine  miles  a  day,  going  to  and  returning  from  school     .     1826 
Makes  a  trip  to  New  Orleans  and  back,  at  work  on  a  flat-boat       1828 
Drives  in  an  ox-cart  with  his  father  and  stepmother  to  a  clear- 
ing on  the  Sangamon  River,  near  Decatur,  Illinois      .         .     1829 
Splits  rails,  to  surround  the  clearing  with  a  fence  .         .         .         1829 
Makes  another  flat-boat  trip  to  New  Orleans  and  back,  on  which 
trip  he  first  sees  negroes  shackled  together  in  chains,  and 
forms  his  opinions  concerning  slavery           .         .         .    May,  1831 
Begins  work  in  a  store  at  New  Salem,  Illinois         .         .  August,  1831 
Enlists  in  the  Black  Hawk  War ;  elected  a  captain  of  volun- 
teers      1832 

Announces  himself  a  Whig  candidate  for  the  Legislature,  and 

is  defeated 1833 

Storekeeper,  Postmaster,  and  Surveyor 1833 

Elected  to  the  Illinois  Legislature 1834 

Reelected  to  the  Legislature 1835  to  1842 

Studies  law  at  Springfield 1837 

Is  a  Presidential  elector  on  the  WTiig  national  ticket  .         .     1840 

Marries  Mary  Todd November  4,  1842 

Canvasses  Illinois  for  Henry  Clay 1844 

Elected  to  Congress 1S46 

Supports  General  Taylor  for  President 1848 

Engages  in  law  practice 1849-1854 

Debates  with  Douglas  at  Peoria  and  Springfield  .  .  .  1855 
Aids  in  organizing  the  Republican  party  .  .  .  1855-1856 
Joint  debates  in  Illinois  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas      .         .         .     1858 


CHRONOLOGICAL   LIST.  129 

Makes  political  speeches  in  Ohio 1859 

Visits  New  York,  and  speaks  at  Cooper  Union        .        February,  1860 
Attends  Republican  State  Convention  at  Decatur ;  declared  to 

be  the  choice  of  Illinois  for  the  Presidency         .         .    May,  1860 
Nominated  at  Chicago  as  the  Republican  candidate  for  Presi- 
dent   May  16,  1860 

Elected  President  over  J.  C-  Breckenridge,  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 

and  John  BeU       ......  November,  1860 

Inaugurated  President March  4,  1861 

Issues  first  order  for  troops  to  put  down  the  Rebellion,  April  15,  1861 

Urges  McClellan  to  advance April,  1862 

Appeals  for  the  support  of  border  States  to  the  Union  cause, 

March  to  July,  1862 

Calls  for  300,000  more  troops July,  1862 

Issues  Emancipation  Proclamation  .         .         .       January  1,  1863 

Thanks  Grant  for  capture  of  Vicksburg     ....    July,  1863 
His  address  at  Gettysburg       ....  November  19,  1863 

Calls  for  500,000  volunteers July,  1864 

Renominated  and  reelected  President 1864 

Thanks  Sherman  for  capture  of  Atlanta  .         .         .  September,  1864 

His  second  inauguration March  4,  1865 

i^sassinated April  14,  1865