No. 131.
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ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES-No. 131
WORDS OF
Abraham Lincoln
EDITED BY
0. "W. French
Piincipal Hyde Park High School, Chicago
NEW YORK
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By MAYNARD, MERRILL & C(X
PEEFACE
The object of this little collection of the ^' Words of
Abraliam Lincoln" is twofold — to lead to a better apprecia-
tion of the strength and beauty of his character and to inspire
a deeper and more abiding love for the country for whose
preservation he gave his life.
ISTo man has ever lived in America whose life has been more
closely identified with the common people, and who yet has
been more grandly influential in shaping the affairs of the
nation. In the most critical period of her existence he saved
her from calamity and ruin. His hand removed the foul
stain of slavery, and made the Stars and Stripes in very truth
the flag of the free.
It seems a marvel, even here in America, that a poor,
ignorant boy could aspire to the highest honor within the
gift of the people ; but more marvelous still, that a country
lawyer could grapple with the tremendous problems which
had baffled the wisdom and skill of America's greatest states-
men for almost half a century, and solve them successfully^
Wholly unskilled in war, he conducted the greatest war of
modern times and brought it to a successful issue. With
unerring judgment he found the correct solution of the most
involved problems of law, finance, and diplomacy.
It is inconceivable that a man's life could suddenly expand
from the narrow round of private life to comprehend all the
varied and tremendous responsibilities of this high position
without previous preparation. Daniel Webster, on the night
before his "Reply to Hayne," when asked why he was not
making preparation for this the greatest event of his life,
replied, that for twenty years he had been preparing for it ;
5
fr
6 PREFACE
that all the thought and activity of a lifetime had been so
directed as to fit him for this supreme moment. And the
same is true in regard to Lincoln. A mere glance at his
life will show that every line of development, as if directed
by a master hand, led straight on to the Presidential chair.
Unquestionably his whole previous life was a preparation for
his last four years, and when the crisis came he needed no
further preparation : he was ready.
It will be a mistake to attempt to teach the following
selections as literature. They are not all masterpieces ; and
some of them can hardly be called contributions to literature.
But they have a deeper significance and a higher mission.
They are the exponents of a character and the mirror of
a life. They should be studied to reveal the soul of the man
who wrote them, and to teach lessons of purity, simplicity,
devotion to duty, and high fidelity. In them, too, should be
read a chapter of the nation's history, the culmination of its
former life, the foundation of its future and grander activities.
And, above, all they should conduce to form a higher and
purer type of patriotism, of which their author was a shining
example.
INTEODUCTION
The life of Abraliam Lincoln covers the most irbportant period
in American history. From the foundation of the Republic for-
eign critics had been wont to predict its downfall, and even its
friends feared that it might not stand the test of internal dis-
sensions. The violent passions and bitter hostility which arose
out of the conflict over the slavery issue finally brought on the
great War of the Rebellion, which was destined to test to the utter-
most the stability of American institutions. To Abraham Lincoln,
more than to any other man in this crisis, is due the preservation
of the Government and the establishment of the American Com-
monwealth upon a firmer basis than ever before.
He was emphatically a man of the people. He was born in
poverty and ignorance, and his early life was spent in the cabin
of the pioneer. An ordinary man could scarce have raised him-
self, in such circumstances, above the dead level of ignorance
and poverty into which he had been born. But Lincoln was
possessed of a burning thirst for knowledge, and the education
which his circumstances denied him he obtained by his own un-
aided efforts. He wai^ determined to rise above the intellectual
level of his associates, and how well he succeeded his whole life
shows. His earnest and self-denying efforts finally gained him
admission to the bar. He practiced as a lawyer for a number
of years, early gaining a reputation for incorruptible honesty and
wise judgment. Wherever he was known he was trusted and
loved.
His tastes, however, led him to seek political preferment, and
he was several times elected to the State Legislature, and once to
Congress.
Upon the organization of the Republican party he became one
of its leaders, and in 1860 was its nominee for the Presidency,
7
8 INTRODUCTION
Bitter dissensions in the Democratic party brought about its de-
feat, and Lincoln was elected.
The secession of the Southern States followed, and when he
was inaugurated as President he was confronted with a divided
country and a Consiitution defied.
The war which fo lowed was one of the most extensive and
disastrous in history. Magnificent armies, made up of the finest
soldiers in the world, contended with each other for four years for
the supremacy of the American continent.
The immediate cause of the war was the attempt of the South
to extend slavery into the newly settled States of the West. But
in reality the war was a decisive conflict between two great and
opposing principles of government — Nationalism and States*
rights.
The North contended that the nation was supreme ; that the
union existing between the States was so close and vital that no
one State could secede from the rest.
On the other hand, the South maintained that the State was
sovereign, and that the union between the States was in the nature
of a confederacy, which might at any time be dissolved, and from
which any State had the riglit to withdraw.
The issue of the war decided forever that the United States was
a nation and not a confederacy, and also that hereafter slavery
should not exist on American soil.
The central figure of this, the darkest period of American his-
tory, was Abraham Lincoln. Towards him every eye was turned,
in him every hope rested ; and he never failed. His coolness,
courage, and judgment never deserted him. For every emergency
he was ready, and in the end he gained the victory and laid down
his life ui)on the altar of his country.
His literary works were mainly in the form of speeches and
state papers, many of which are models of simple style and vigor-
ous thought. His education was exceedingly limited, yet few
have excelled him in the clear and pointed expression of noble
ideas.
CHROISrOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE LEADING EyEKTS
IK Li:n^colk's Life
He was born in Hardin County, Ky., Feb. 12, 1809,
Eemoved to Indiana 1816.
Removed to Macon County, HI., 1830.
Became a clerk in a country store at New Salem, 1831.
Commenced studying law, 1832.
Elected to Legislature, 1834, 1836, 1838, 1840.
Admitted to the Bar, 1836.
Married Mary Todd, Nov. 4, 1842.
Elected to Congress as a Whig, 1847.
Republican party organized in Illinois, May 29, 1856.
Nominated for the Senate by Republican party, 1858.
Lincoln-Douglas debates, Aug. 21 — Oct. 15, 1858.
Nominated for President, May 16, 1860.
Elected President, Nov. 7, 1860.
Inaugurated, March 4, 1861.
Issued Emancipation Proclamation, Jan. 1, 1863.
Re-elected, November 1864.
Assassinated, April 14, 1865.
Books for Eeferekce
There is no collection of the works of Lincoln. His letters,
speeclies, proclamations, etc. , are scattered tlirough a wide range
of publications. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were published
in Cincinnati in 1859, but the book is now out of print. His
messages to Congress and proclamations may be found in the Con-
gressional Record, 1860-1865. McPherson's "■ Political History of
the Rebellion " contains many of his official letters and orders
that cannot be found elsewhere.
There are scores of biographies and some exceedingly interest-
ing volumes of recollections, a few of which are mentioned below.
Nicolay and Hay's Life is a magnificent work in 10 vols., con-
taining a complete history of the period. Arnold's Life is a
standard work, interesting and reliable. '' The E very-day Life
of Lincoln," by Francis F. Browne, gives a better insight into his
personality than perhaps any other. Herndon, Lincoln's law-
partner, has written an extended sketch of his life previous to
1860, which contains much new matter. Other biographies may
be found in the ' ' American Statesmen Series" and in the ''Ameri-
can Reformers Series." "Abraham Lincoln's Pen and Voice,"
by Van Buren, contains a partial collection of his most notable
works. Chittenden's ''Recollections of President Lincoln and his
Administration " is exceedingly interesting, and sheds much light
upon the inner workings of his administration. "Inside the
White House," by Stoddard, is of interest, because it gives a good
picture of the President's daily life.
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
Early History
In speaking of his boyhood Lincoln once remarked :
My early history is perfectly characterized by a single line
of Gray's Elegy :
" The sbort and simple annals of the poor."
At the request of a friend he wrote the following simple sketch
of his early life :
I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Ya. My
parents were born in Virginia, of undistinguishable families
— second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who
died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks,
some of whom now reside in Adams and others in Macon
Counties, HI.
My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from
Rockingham County, Ya., to Kentucky, about 1781 or '82,
where, a year or two later, he was killed by Indians, not in
battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm
in the forest. His ancestors, who were Quakers, went to
Yirginia from Berks County, Pa. An effort to identify them
with the New England family of the same name ended in
nothing more than a similarity of Christian names in both
families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham,
and the like.
My father, at the death of his father, was but six years
of age, and he grew up literally without education. He
removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer County,
11
13 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
Ind., in my eighth year. We reached our new home about
the time the State came into the Union. It was a wild region,
with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods.
There I grew up. There were some schools, so called, but no
qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond " readinV'
' ' writin', " and ' ' cipherin' " to the Rule of Three. If a straggler
supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the
neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. Tliere was
absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education.
Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still,
somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rale of Three,
but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little
advance I now have upon this store of education I have
picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.
I was raised to farm-work, which I continued till I was
twenty-two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois, and passed
the first year in Macon County. Then I got to New Salem, at
that time in Sangamon, now in Menard, County, where I
remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came the
Black Hawk War,^ and I was elected a captain of volunteers
— a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had
since. I went through the campaign, ran for the Legislature
the same year (1832), and was beaten — the only time I have
ever been beaten by the people.^ The next and three succeed-
ing biennial elections I was elected to the Legislature. I was
not a candidate afterwards. During this legislative period
I had studied law, and removed to Springfield to practice it.
In 1846 I was once elected to the Lower House of Congress,
but was not a candidate for re-election.^ From 1849 to 1854,
both inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever-
before. Always a Whig in politics, and generally on the
Whig electoral tickets,* making active canvasses. I was losing
1. An interesting: account of his j)articipation in tliis war may be found in
"The Every-day Life of Lincohi,"" by Francis F. Browne.
2. Lincohi was a candidate for U. S. Senator in 1858 and was beaten.
Does not this fact contradict the above statement ?
3. Why was he not a candidate for re-election ?
4. ^Vhat were the principles of the Whig Party, and by what party was it
opposed ?
TUE WORDS OF LINCOLN 13
interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Com-
promise aroused me again. What I have done since then is
pretty well known.
If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it
may be said, I am, in height, six feet four inches nearly ;
lean in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred and
eighty pounds ; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and
gray eyes. No other marks or brands recollected.
Yours very truly, A. Lincoln
Addresses at Springfield
On the 27th of January, 1837, he gave an address before the
Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield upon the ** Perpetuation
of Our Political Institutions." The address was a remarkable
one. It began as follows :
In the great journal of things happening under the sun,
we, the American people, find our account running under
date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. We find
ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion
of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil,
and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the gov-
ernment of a system of political institutions conducing more
essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any
of which the history of former times tells us.
We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves
the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled
not in the acquirement or establishment of them ; they are a
legacy bequeathed to us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic
but now lamented and departed race of ancestors.
Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess
themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land,
and to rear upon its hills and valleys a political edifice of
liberty and equal rights : 'tis ours only to transmit these — the
former unprofaned by the foot of the invader, the latter
undecayed by the lapse of time. This our duty to ourselves
and to our posterity, and love for our species in general, im-
peratively requires us to perform.
14 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
How then shall we perform it ? At what point shall we
expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we
fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic mili-
tary giant to step across the ocean and crush us at a blow ?
Never. All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined,
with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their
military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not,
by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track upon
the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years/
At what point then is the approach of danger to be ex-
pected ? I answer, if it ever reaches us, it must spring
up among us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction
be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As
a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die
by suicide. . . .
Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher
to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution never to
violate in the least particular the laws of the country, and
never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots
of ^'seventy-six" did to the support of the Declaration of
Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and laws
let every American pledge his life, his property, and his
sacred honor ; let every man remember that to violate the
law is to trample upon the blood of his father, and to tear
the charter of his own and his children's liberties. Let rever-
ence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to
the lisping babe that prattles on her lap. Let it be taught
in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges. Let it be written
in primers, in spelling-books, and in almanacs. Let it be
preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and
enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become
the political religion of the nation.
In 1839 he delivered another remarkable address in Springfield,
in the course of which occurs the following passage : ^
1. Is not this statement exaggerated ?
2. Tliis remarkable passage was quoted by Bishop Simpson in his oration
at Lincoln's funeral.
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 15
Many free countries have lost their liberties, and ours
may lose hers ; but if she shall, be it my proudest boast, not
that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her.
In referring to the bitter hostility and corruption of the slave
power, he said :
Broken by it I too may be ; bow to it I never will. The
probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter
us from a cause that we deem to be just. It shall not deter
me. If I ever feel the soul within me elevate and expand to
those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its almighty Archi-
tect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country deserted
by all the world beside, and I, standing lip boldly and alone,
hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. And here, with-
out contemplating consequences, before high Heaven and in
the face of the whole world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just
cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and
my love. And who that thinks with me will not fearlessly
adopt the oath I take ? Let none falter who thinks he is right,
and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so.
We shall have the proud consolation of saying to our con-
science and to the departed shade of our country's freedom,
that the cause approved by our judgments and adored by our
hearts in disaster, in chains, in torture, and in death, we never
failed in defending.
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
April 21, 1858, the Democratic State Convention met at Spring-
field, and after heartily indorsing the course of Senator Douglas,
announced him as the candidate of the party for another Sena-
torial term.^
The career of Douglas was intimately connected with that of
Lincoln. They were rivals in their profession and in politics, and
finally were rival candidates for the Presidency. Stephen A.
Douglas was a native of Vermont. In 1833 he emigrated to Illi-
nois, at the age of twenty, feeble, friendless, and almost penni-
1. How are Senators elected ? What was the reason for this unusual pro-
cedure ? Would a change in the method of electing Senators be desirable ?
16 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
less, seeking bread and a career in the great West. In liis adopted
State he rapidly rose to distinction. Success greeted his every
effort, and glory and renown came at his bidding.
At the age of twenty -one he was admitted to the bar, where he
made such rapid progress that a year later he stood at the head
of his profession in Lis district. At the age of twenty-three he
was a member of the State Legislature ; at twenty-seven he was
appointed Secretary of State in Illinois ; at twenty-eight he be-
came Judge in the Supreme Court. At thirty he was a Member
of Congress. At thirty-two United States Senator, and recognized
as the leader of the Democratic party. At forty- three he was a
candidate for nomination to the Presidency. At forty- six he was
nominated, but was defeated by an irreconcilable division in his
party. In his forty-eighth year he died, in the prime of life, yet
with a well-rounded career behind him.
In Congress he had become distinguished as the author of the
Kansas-Nebraska bill,^ and had succeeded in securing its passage
by his brilliant oratory and plausible arguments.
This legislation concentrated the opposition to slavery in the
North, and was one of the causes of the formation of the Repub-
lican party. In this political movement Lincoln was one of the
leaders.
On June 16, 1858, the Republican State Convention met at
Springfield and unanimously declared that ** Abraham Lincoln is
our first and only choice for United States Senator to fill the
vacancy about to be created by the expiration of Judge Douglas'
term of oflfice."
- Lincoln was invited to address the convention, and responded in
an able and eloquent speech.
The opening paragraph excited much hostile criticism. It
sounded the key-note of the conflict which was destined to be
waged more and more bitterly until the pet institution of the
South should be swept out of existence. It was as follows :
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention : ^ If we
could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we
could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now
1. What were the provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska bill ? What was the
Missouri Compromise ?
2. Compare the opening paragraph of Webster's " Reply to Hayue."
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 17
far into the fifth year since a policy ^ was initiated with the
avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to
slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy that
agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented.
In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been
reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot
stand.'' I believe this government cannot endure permanently
half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dis-
solved, I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will
cease to be divided. It will become all one 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. ^
In the ensuing campaign Lincoln proposed to Douglas that they
enter into a series of joint debates upon the great questions of the
day. The offer was accepted, and they agreed to meet in joint
discussion in seven different places, viz., Ottawa, Freeport, Jones-
boro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton. The first de-
bate was held August 21, and the last October 15.
These debates were widely read, and attracted the attention of
the whole country. They rank among the greatest forensic dis-
cussions in the history of the world. A few short extracts from
Lincoln's speeches follow.
My declarations upon this subject of negro slavery may be
misrepresented, but cannot be misunderstood. I have said
that I do not understand the Declaration ^ to mean that all men
were created equal in all respects. They are not our equal in
color ; but I suppose that it does mean to declare that all men
are equal in some respects : they are equal in their right to
*'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Certainly the negro is not our equal in color — perhaps not
1. What was this policy ?
2. Before dehveriiig this speech Lincoln read it to a number of his
friends. At its conclusion one of them remarked : "Lincoln, deliver that
speech as you read it and it will make you President." Did it ? If so, wliy ?
3. What declaration is referred to ? When was it formulated, and under
wiiat circumstances ? (It should be read in the class.)
18 THE AVORDS OF LINCOLN
in many other respects ; still, in the right to put into his mouth
the bread tliat his own hands have earned he is the equal of
every other man, white or black. In pointing out that more
has been given you, you cannot be justified in taking aw^ay the
little which has been given him. All I ask for the negro is
that, if you do not like him, you let him alone. If God gave
him but little, that little let him enjoy.
When our government was established we had the institu-
tion of slavery among us.^ We w^ere in a certain sense com-
pelled to tolerate its existence.^ It was a sort of necessity. We
had gone through our struggle and secured our own independ-
ence. The framers of the Constitution found the institution
of slavery amongst their other institutions at the time. They
found that by an effort to eradicate it they might lose much of
what they had already gained. They w^ere obliged to bow to
the necessity. They gave power to Congress to abolish the
slave-trade at the end of twenty years. They also prohibited
it in the Territories where it did not exist. ^ They did wdiat
they could, and yielded to necessity for the rest. I also yield
to all which follows from this necessity.^ What I would most
desire would be the separation of the white and black races.
Henry Clay once said of a class of men who would repress all
tendencies to liberty and ultimate emancipation, that they
must, if they w^ould do this, go back to the era of our independ-
ence and muzzle the cannon wiiich thunders its annual joyous
return ; they must blow out the moral lights around us ; they
must penetrate the human soul and eradicate there the love of
liberty ; and then, and not until then, could they perpetuate
slavery in this country! To my thinking, Judge Douglas is, by
his example and vast influence, doing that very thing in this
community when he says that the negro has nothing in the
Declaration of Independence. Henry Clay plainly understood
the contrary. Judge Douglas is going back to the era of our
1. When was slavery first introduced int9 America ? What causes tended
to develop it in the South ?
2. Why ?
3. Does this prohibition occur in the Constitution ? If not, where is it
found ?
4. What is the significance of this statement ?
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 19
Revolution, and to the extent of his ability muzzling the can-
non which thunders its annual joyous return.
When he invites any people, willing to have slavery, to es-
tablish it, he is blowing out the moral lights around us. When
he says he ' ' cares not whether slavery is voted up or voted
down "—that it is a sacred right of self-government — he is in
my judgment penetrating the human soul, and eradicating the
light of reason and the love of liberty in this American people.
And now I will only say that when, by all these means and
appliances, Judge Douglas shall succeed in bringing public
sentiment to an exact accordance with his own views — when
these vast assemblages shall echo back all these sentiments —
then it needs only the formality of the second Dred Scott decis-
ion,^ which he indorses in advance, to make slavery alike
lawful in all the States — old as well as new, North as well as
South.
That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue
in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas
and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between
these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world.
They are the two principles that have stood face to face from
the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle.
The one is the common right of humanity, and the other is the
divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever
shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, ' ' You
work and toil and earn bread, and I will eat it." No matter in
what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who
seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the
fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for
enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.
The Cooper Institute Speech
After his debates with Mr. Douglas the attention of the coun-
try was attracted towards Mr. Lincoln. The people of the East
desired to see and hear the man who had vanquished the most
1. What was this famous decision ?
20 THE WORDS OF LIITCOLN
elirewd debater and tlie most skillful and adroit politician in Con-
gress. Therefore an invitation was extended to liim to give a
political address in New York on tlie 27tli of February, 1859,
wliicb lie accepted. He was introduced to the audience by the
illustrious poet William Cullen Bryant, and was greeted by an
audience which taxed the capacity of the great hall to the utter-
most.
The address was in the main historical, tracing in a masterly
manner the political history of the country in its relation to slav-
ery, and discussing the great questions at issue in a fair and
friendly spirit. It was afterwards published in pamphlet form,
with the following introductory statement by the publishers :
*'No one who has not actually attempted to verify its details
can understand the patient research and the historical labor
which it embodies. The history of our earlier politics is scattered
through numerous journals, statutes, pamphlets, and letters ; and
these are defective in completeness and accuracy of statement,
and in indexes and tables of contents. Neither can any one who
has not traveled over this precise ground appreciate the accuracy
of every trivial detail, or the self-denying 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 travels with a swift unerring direct-
ness which no logician ever excelled. ... A single easy simple
sentence of plain Anglo-Saxon words contains a chapter of history
that, in some instances, must have taken days of labor to verify,
and must have cost the author months of investigation to ac-
quire."
In this address he formulated the doctrines which were des-
tined to be incorporated into the platform of the Republican
party. He said :
A few words now to Republicans : It is exceedingly desir-
able that all parts of this great Confederacy 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 the
Southern people will not so much as listen to us, let us cuUuly
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 21
consider their demands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate
view of our duty, we possibly can.
Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it
alone where it is, because that much is due to 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 Na-
tional Territories, and to overrun us here in these Free States ?
If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty,
fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those
sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so 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,
beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, rever-sing
the divine rule and calling not the sinners but the righteous
to repentance, — such as invocations of Washington, imploring
men to unsay what Washington said, and undo what Washing-
ton did. 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.^
The Presidential Campaign
The Republican nominating convention was held in Chicago in
an immense building called the *' Wigwam," May 16, 1860. Dele-
gates were present from, all the Free States, Delaware, Kentucky,
Missouri, and Virginia, but the Gulf States were not represented.
The leading candidates for the nomination were William H. Sew-
ard, of New York ; Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois ; Salmon P.
Chase, of Ohio ; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania ; and Edward
Bates, of Missouri. But it was soon evident that the contest
would be between Seward and Lincoln.
1. What was the condition of the South at the time this address was de-
livered ?
22 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
On tlie first ballot Seward received 173^ votes to 102 for Lin-
coln. On tlie second ballot Seward received 184, and Lincoln 181.
On the third ballot Lincoln received a majority, and his nomina-
tion was made unanimous.
This nomination was received with intense enthusiasm, not only
in Chicago and Illinois, but throughout the Northwest.
Arnold, in his *' Life of Lincoln," says :
* * This Presidential campaign has had no parallel. The enthu-
siasm of the people was like a great conflagration, like a prairie
fire before a wild tornado. A little more than twenty years had
passed since Orrin Lovejoy, brother of Elijah Lovejoy,^ on the
bank of the Mississippi, kneeling on the turf not then green over
the grave of the brother who had been killed for his fidelity to
freedom, had sworn eternal war against slavery.
'* From that time on, he and his associate abolitionists had gone
forth preaching their crusade against oppression, with hearts of
fire and tongues of lightning, and now the consummation was to
be realized of a President elected on the distinct ground of oppo-
sition to the extension of slavery. For years the hatred of that
institution had been growing and gathering force. Whittier,
Bryant, Lowell, Longfellow, and others had written the lyrics of
liberty ; the graphic pen of Mrs. Stowe in ' Uncle Tom's Cabin '
had painted the cruelties of the overseer and slaveholder, but the
acts of the slaveholders themselves did more to promote the
growth of antislavery than all other causes.
* ' The persecutions of the abolitionists in the South ; the harsh-
ness and cruelty attending the execution of the fugitive-slave
laws ; the brutality of Brooks in knocking down, on the floor of
the Senate, Charles Sumner, for words spoken in debate, — these
and many other outrages had fired the hearts of the people of the
Free States against this barbarous institution.
" Beecher, Phillips, Channing, Sumner, and Seward with their
eloquence ; Chase with his logic ; Lincoln with his appeals to the
principles of the Declaration of Inde])endence and to the opinions
of the founders of the Republic, his clear statements, his apt illus-
trations ; above all, his Avise moderation — all had swelled the voice
of the people, which found expression through the ballot-box, and
1. Elijah Lovejoy was shot by a mob at Alton ou account of his abolition
sentiments.
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 23
wliicli declared that slavery should go no farther. It was now
proclaimed that ' the further spread of slavery should be arrested,
and it should be placed where the public mind should rest in the
belief of its ultimate extinction.' "
There were four candidates : Lincoln, of the Republican party ;
Douglas and Breckenridge, of opposing wings of the Democratic
party ; and Bell, of the American party. Their votes were as
follows :
Lincoln received a popular vote of 1,866,452 and an electoral
vote of 180. Douglas received 1,375,157 popular votes and 12
electoral votes. Breckenridge received 847,953 popular votes and
72 electoral votes. Bell received 590,631 poj^ular votes and 39
electoral votes.
Lincoln's Letter accepting the Nomination
Springfield, III., May 23, 1860.
Sm : I accept the nomination tendered me by the conven-
tion over which you presided, of which I am formally apprised
in a letter of yourself and others acting as a committee of the
convention for that purpose.
The declaration of principles and sentiments which accom-
panies your letter meets my approval, and it shall be my care
not to violate it or disregard it in any part. Imploring the
assistance of Divine Providence, and with due regard to the
views and feelings of all who were represented in the conven-
tion, to the rights of all the States and Territories and people
of the nation, to the inviolability of the Constitution, and the
perpetual union, harmony, and prosperity of all, I am most
happy to co-operate for the practical success of the principles
declared by the convention.
Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen,
Abraham Lincoln
The Journey to Washington
On February 11, 1861, he started for Washington. At the sta-
tion he was surrounded by his friends, who had assembled to bid
him farewell. Just before the train started he addressed the fol-
lowing touching speech to them from the platform of the car :
24 THE WORDS OF LINCOLK
Friends : No one who has never been placed in a like posi-
tion can understand my feeling at this hour, nor the oppres-
sive sadness I feel at this parting.
For more than a quarter of a century I have lived among
you, and during all that time I have received nothing but
kindness at your hands. Here I have lived from my youth,
until now I am an old man. Here the most sacred ties of
earth were assumed. Here all my children were born ; and
here one of them lies buried. To you, dear friends, I owe all
that I have, all that I am. All the strange, chequered past
seems to crowd now upon my mind.
To-day I leave you. I go to assume a task more difficult
than that which devolved upon Washiugton. ^ Unless the great
God who assisted him shall be with and aid me, I must fail ;
but if the same omniscient mind and almighty arm that di-
rected and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall
not fail — I shall succeed.
Let us all pray that the God of our fathers may not forsake
us now. To Him I commend you all. Permit me to ask, that,
with equal security and faith, you will invoke His wisdom and
guidance for me. With these few w^ords I must leave you,
for how long I know not. Friends, one and all, I must now
bid you an affectionate farewell."
His journey to Washington had been so arranged that he would
pass through many of the larger cities of the North. In each one
he was cordially greeted, and his words were listened to atten-
tively. At Philadelphia he had been invited to make an address
in Independence Hall, '* The Cradle of American Liberty."^ He
said :
You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the
task of restoring peace to the present distracted condition of
our country. I can say in return, sir, that all the political
sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been
able to draw them^ from the sentiments which originated in,
1. Why was it more difficult ? What were some of the difficulties which
confronted liim ?
2. Why so called?
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 25
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 Declaration
of 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 mere matter of the separation of the
colonies from the mother country, but that sentiment in the
Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to
the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world for all
future time. It was that which gave promise that in due
time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all
men. This is a sentiment embodied in the Declaration of In-
dependence. ISTow, my friends, can the country be saved on
this basis ? If it can, I shall consider myself one of the happi-
est men in the world if I can help save it. If it cannot be
saved upon that principle, it w^ould 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.
First Inaugural Address
March 4, 1861
Fellow-citizens of the United States : In compliance with
a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear before you
to address you briefly, and to take, in your presence, the oath
prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken
by the President before he enters on the execution of his
office.
I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to discuss
those matters of administration about w^hich there is no spe-
cial anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems to exist
among the people of the Southern States that, by the accession
of a republican administration, their property and their peace
and personal security are to be endangered. There ha3 never
26 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed,
the most ample evidence to the contrary 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, w^hen I de-
clare that *' I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to inter-
fere with the institution of slavery in the States w^here 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 the full knowledge that I had made this and
made many similar declarations, and had never recanted
them. *****
I now reiterate these sentiments ; and in doing so I only
press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence
of w^hich the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and
security of no section are to be in anywise endangered by the
now incoming administration,
I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently 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. *****
It is seventy-tw^o years since the first inauguration of a
President under our National Constitution. During that
period fifteen different and very distinguished citizens have
in succession administered the executive branch of the Gov-
ernment. They have conducted it through many perils, and
generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope for prece-
dent, I now enter upon the same task, for the brief constitu-
tional term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulties.
A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only men-
aced, is now formidably attempted. I hold that in the con-
templation of universal law and of the Constitution the union
of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not ex-
pressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments.
It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a pro-
vision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to
execute all the express provisions of onr I^atioual Constitution,
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 27
and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to de-
stroy it except by some action not provided for in the instru-
ment itself.
Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but
an association of States in the nature of a contract merely, can
it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade 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 per-
petual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself.
The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was
formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was
matured and continued in the 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 the Confederation, in 1778 ;
and finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining
and establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect
Union. But if the 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 ele-
ment 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, accord-
ing to circumstances.
I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and
the laws, the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my
ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly
enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faithfully
executed in all the States. Doing this, which I deem to be
only a simple duty on my part, I shall perfectly perform it, so
far as is practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American
28 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
people, shall withhold the requisition, or in some authoritative
manner direct the contrary.
I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as
the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally
defend and maintain itself.
In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence, and
there shall be none unless it is forced upon the national
authority.
The power confided to me will he used to liold^ occupy^ and
possess the property and places belonging to the Government,
and collect the duties and imposts ; but beyond what may be
necessary for these objects there will be no invasion, no using
of force against or among the people anywhere. *****
Physically speaking, we cannot separate ; we cannot remove
our respective sections from each other, nor build an im-
passable w^all between them. A husband 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 advantageous
or more satisfactory after the separation than before ? Can
aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws ?
Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than
laws can among friends ? 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 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 weary of the
existing government, they can exercise their constitutional
right of amending, or their revolutionary 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 recom-
mendation of amendment, I fully recognize the full authority
of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 29
either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself, and
I should, under existing circumstances, favor, than rather
oppose, a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act
upon it. * * * * *
Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ulti-
mate 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 and 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, the American people. By the frame of the govern-
ment 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 administration, by any
extreme 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. JSTothing 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 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 you who are dissatisfied hold the
right side in the dispute, there is still no single reason for
precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and
a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this
favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way,
all our present difficulties.
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not
30 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The govern-
ment will not assail you.
You can have no conflict without being yourselves the
aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy
the government, while I shall have the most solemn one
to "preserve, protect, and defend" it.
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We
must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it
must not break, our bonds of affection.
The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-
field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone
all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the
Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the
better angels of our nature.
Extract from Lincoln's First Message^ to Congress
A special session of Congress convened July 4, 1861, in obedi-
ence to the summons of the President. His message portrayed
the situation of affairs, and described the steps already taken by
the government to meet the emergency. In it the President
referred to the difficulties and perplexities with which he was
confronted, and made suggestions in regard to methods of over-
coming them, as follows :
It may be affirmed, without extravagance, that the free
institutions we enjoy have developed the powers and improved
the condition of our whole people beyond any example in the
world. Of this we now have a striking and an impressive
illustration.
So large an army as the government now has on foot was
never before known, — without a soldier in it but who had taken
his place there of his own free choice. But more than this :
there are many single regiments whose members, one and
another, possess full practical knowledge of all the arts,
sciences, professions, and whatever else, whether useful or
1. Who was the first President to send a writleji messajre to Congress?
It was at first the custom for the President to address Congress, upon its
assembling, in person.
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 31
elegant/ is known in the world; and there is scarcely one
from which there could not be selected a President, a Cabinet,
a Congress, and perhaps a court, abundantly competent to
administer the government itself.
Nor do I say that this is not true also in the army of our
late friends, now our adversaries, in this contest ; but if it is
so, so much better the reason why the government, which
has conferred such benefits on both them and us, should not
be broken up.
Whoever, in any section, proposes to abandon such a gov-
ernment, would do w^ell to consider in deference to what
principle it is that he does it, what better he is likely to get
in its stead, w'hether the substitute will give or be intended
to give so much of good to the people. There are some
foreshadowings upon this question.
Our adversaries have adopted some declaration of inde-
pendence, in which, unlike the good old one penned by
Jefferson, they omit the w^ords ''all men are created equal."
Why ? They have adopted a temporary national constitution,
in the preamble ^ of which, unlike our good old one signed by
Washington, they omit "We, the people,'' and substitute
"We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent States."
Why ? Why this deliberate pressing out of view the rights of
men and the authority of the people ?
This is essentially a people's contest. On the side of the
Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the world that form
and substance of government whose leading object is to
elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial weights from
all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all, to
afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race
of life.
Yielding to partial and temporary departures from neces-
sity, this is the leading object of the government for whose
existence we contend.^
1. Distinguish between useful and elegant. W^hat word could be more
correctly used as the antithesis of useful f
2. Derivation and meaning ?
U. Which of the words in this sentence are of Latin origin ? If Anglo-
32 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
I am most happy to believe that the plain people understand
and appreciate this. It is worthy of note that, while in this,
the government's hour of trial large numbers of those in the
army and navy who have been favored with the offices have
resigned and proven false to the hand which pampered them,
not one common soldier or common sailor is known to have
deserted his flag.
Great honor is due to those officers wlio remained true,
despite the example of their treacherous associates ; but the
greatest honor and most important fact of all is the unanimous
firmness of the common soldiers and the common sailors.
To the last man, so far as known, they have successfully
resisted the traitorous efforts of those whose commands but
an hour before they obeyed as absolute law. This is the
patriotic instinct of plain people. They understand, without
an argument, that the destroying the government which was
made by Washington means no good to them.
Our popular government has often been called an experi-
ment. Two points in it our people have already settled —
the successful establishing and the successful administering
of it. One still remains — its successful maintenance against
a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it.
It is now for them to demonstrate to the world that those
who can fairly carry an election can also suppress a rebel-
lion ; that ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors
of bullets ; and that when ballots have fairly and consti-
tutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back
to bullets ; that there can be no successful appeal except
to ballots themselves at succeeding elections. Such will be
a great lesson of peace, teaching men that what they cannot
. take by an election, neither can they take it by war ; teaching
all the folly of being beginners of a war.
Lest there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid ^ men
Saxon words were substituted for the Latin words, how would the sentence
differ in force and smoothness ?
1. Derived from a Latin word meaning "white.'' What is its present
meaning, and how deiived ? Cf. Candidate.
TIIK WORDS OF LINCOLN 33
as to what is going to be the course of the government
towards the Soutliern States after the rebellion shall have
been suppressed, the Executive deems it proper to say, it will
be his purpose then, as ever, to be guided by the Constitution
and the laws ; and that he will probably have no different
understanding of the powers and duties of the Federal Gov-
ernment relatively to the rights of the States and the people,
under the Constitution, than that expressed in the inaugural
address.
He desires to preserve the government, that it may be
administered for all as it was administered by the men who
made it.
Loyal citizens everywhere have the right to claim this of
their government, and the government has no right to with-
hold or neglect it. It is not perceived that, in giving it, there
is any coercion, any conquest, or any subjugation,* in any just
sense of those terms.
The Constitution provides, and all the States have accepted
the provision, that "the United States shall guarantee to
every State in this Union a republican form of government."
But if a State may lawfully go out of the Union, having done
so, it may also discard the republican form of government ;
so that to prevent its going it is an indispensable means to
the end of maintaining the guarantee mentioned ; and when
an end is lawful and obligatory, the indispensable means to
it are also lawful and obligatory. It was with the deepest
regret that the Executive found the duty of employing the
war power in defence of the government forced upon him.
He could but perform this duty or surrender the existence
of the government.
No compromise by public servants could in this case be
a cure ; not that compromises are not often proper, but that
no popular government can long survive a marked precedent,
that those who carry an election can only save the gov-
ernment from immediate destruction by giving up the main
1. To what is allusion here made ?
34 THE WORDS OF LINCOLK
point upon which the people gave the election. The people
themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their
own deliberate decisions.
As a private citizen the Executive ^ could not have consented
that these institutions shall perish ; much less could he in
betrayal of so vast and so sacred a trust as these free people
had confided to him. He felt that he had no moral right
to shrink, nor even to count the chances of his own life, in
what might follow. In full view of his great responsibility
he has so far done what he has deemed his duty. You will
now, according to your own judgment, do yours. He sincerely
hopes that your views and your action may so accord with
his as to assure all faithful citizens, who have been disturbed
in their rights, of a certain and speedy restoration to them
under the Constitution and the laws. And having thus chosen
our course, without guile and with a pure purpose, let us
renew our trust in God and go forward without fear and with
manly hearts.
Extract from Message of December 1862
Tke Necessity of National Union
A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people,
and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of cer-
tain duration. ' ' One generation passeth away and another
generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever."
That portion of the earth's surface which is owned and in-
habited by the people of the United States is well adapted to
be the home of one national family, and it is not well adapted
for two or more. Its vast extent and variety of climate and
productions are of advantage in this age for one people, what-
ever they may have been in former ages. Steam, telegraphs,
and intelligence have brought these to be an advantageous
combination for one united people.
There is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a national
boundary upon which to divide. Trace through, from East to
1. Wliy does he spenk of himself in the third peison ?
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 35
West, upon the line between the free and slave country, and
we shall find a little more than one thh'd of its length are
rivers easy to be crossed, and populated, or soon to be popu-
lated, thickly on both sides ; while nearly all its remaining
length are merely surveyors' lines, over which people may walk
back and forth without any consciousness of their presence.
No part of this line can be made any more difficult to pass by
writing it down on paper or parchment as a national boundary.
The fact of separation, if it comes, gives up on the part of
the seceding section the fugitive-slave clause, along with all
other constitutional obligations upon the section seceded from,
while I should expect no treaty stipulations would ever be
made to take its place.
But there is another difficulty. The great interior region,
bounded east by the Alleghanies, north by the British domin-
ions, west by the Rocky Mountains, and south by the line
along which the culture of corn and cotton meets, and which
includes part of Virginia, part of Tennessee, all of Kentucky,
Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, "Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Kan-
sas, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Territories of Dakota, Nebraska,
and a part of Colorado, already has above ten million people,
and will have fifty million within fifty years, if not prevented
by any political folly or mistake.
It contains more than one third of the territory owned by
the United States, certainly more than one million square miles.
One half as populous as Massachusetts already is, it would
have more than seventy-five million people. A glance at the
map shows that, territorially speaking, it is the great body of
the Republic. The other ports are but marginal borders to it,
the magnificent region sloping west from the Rocky Mountains
to the Pacific being the deepest and also the richest in unde-
veloped resources.
In the production of provisions, grains, grasses, and all
which proceeds from them, this great interior region is natu-
rally one of the most important in the world. Ascertain from
statistics the small proportion of the region which has as yet
been brought into cultivation, and also the large and rapidly-
36 THE WORDS OP LINCOLK
increasing amount of its products, and we shall be over-
whelmed with the magnitude of the prospects presented.
And yet this region has no sea-coast, touches no ocean any-
where. As part of one nation, its people may find, and may
forever find, their way to Europe by New York, to South
America and Africa by New Orleans, and to Asia by San
Francisco. But separate our common country into two na-
tions, as designed by the present rebellion, and every man of
this great interior region is thereby cut off from some one or
more of these outlets, not perhaps by a physical barrier, but
by embarrassing and onerous trade regulations. *****
I do not forget the gravity which should characterize a
paper addressed to the Congress of the nation by the Chief
Magistrate of the nation. ISTor do I forget that some of you are
my seniors, nor that many of you have more experience than
I in the conduct of public affairs. Yet I trust that, in view of
the great responsibility resting upon me, you will perceive no
want of respect to yourselves in any undue earnestness I may
seem to display. *****
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy
present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we
must rise with the occasion. As our case is entirely new, so
we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall our-
selves, and then we shall save our country.
Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Con-
gress and this administration will be remembered in spite of
ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare
one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass
will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest genera-
tion. We say we are for the Union. The world will not for-
get that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The
world knows we do know how to save it. We— even we here
— hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving free-
dom to the slave we assure freedom to the free — honorable
alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly
save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means
may succeed, this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful,
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 37
generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will for-
ever applaud, and God must forever bless.
Recommendation to Congress, March 6, 1862, in Regard to
a Gradual and Compensated Emancipation^
I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your hon-
orable bodies, which shall be substantially as follows :
Resolved^ That the United States ought to co-operate with
any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery,
giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in
its discretion, to compensate for the inconvenience, both pub-
lic and private, produced by such change of system.*
If the proposition in the resolution does not meet the ap-
proval of Congress and the country, there is the end ; but if it
does command such approval, I deem it important that the
States and people immediately interested should be at once
distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to con-
sider whether to accept or reject it.
The Federal would find its highest interest in such a meas-
ure as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation.
The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope
that this government will ultimately be forced to acknowledge
the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and
that all the slave States north of such part will then say, " The
Union for which we have struggled being already gone, we
now choose to go with the southern section. "
To deprive them of this hope substantially ends the rebel-
lion ; and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives
them of it, as to all of the States initiating it. The point is
not that all the States tolerating slavery woilld very soon, if at
all, initiate emancipation, but that while the offer is equally
made to all, the more northern shall, by such initiation, make
it certain to the more southern that in no event will the former
ever join the latter in their proposed confederacy. I say
1. Compare this method of emancipation with that adopted by England
and Russia.
%. Penvation and original meaning.
38 THE AA^ORDS OF LINCOLN
*' initiation," because in my judgment gradual, and not sud-
den, emancipation is better for all. In the mere financial or
pecuniary view, any member of Congress with the census tables
and treasury reports before him can readily see for himself
how very soon the current expenditures of this war would pur-
chase at a fair valuation all the slaves in any named State.
Such a proposition on the part of the general government sets
up no claim of a right by Federal authority to interfere with
slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, the absolute
control of the subject in each case to the State and its people
immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly
free choice with them.
In the annual message last December I thought fit to say,
"The Union must be preserved ; and hence all indispensable
means must be employed." I said this not hastily, but delib-
erately. War has been made, and continues to be an indispen-
sable means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of
the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and
it would at once cease. If, however, resistance continues, the
war must also continue ; and it is impossible to foresee all the
incidents that may attend and all the riiin which may follow
it. Such as may seem indispensable, or may obviously prom-
ise great efficiency toward ending the trouble must and will
come. The proposition now made, though an offer only, I hope
it may be esteemed no offense to ask whether the pecuniary
consideration tendered would not be of more value to the
States and private persons concerned than are the institution
and property in it in the present state of affairs.
While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution
would be merely initiatory, and not within itself a practical
measure, it is recommended in the hope that it would soon
lead to important practical results. In full view of my great
responsibility to my God and to my country, I earnestly beg
the attention of Congress and the people to the subject.^
Abraham Lincoln
1. Lincoln was fully pledged to this metliod of emancipation, and he ex-
hausted every effort to carry it into effect, but without success. The South-
THE WOEDS OF LINCOLN 39
Lincoln's Policy
In tlie following letter, written in April 1864, Lincoln clearly
states the causes which led to the emancipation of the slaves.
When he became President he believed he had no right to inter-
fere with slavery in the States in which it then existed. He was
earnestly importuned by many zealous abolitionists to free the
slaves at once ; but such an act would have been unconstitutional
and revolutionary, unless sanctioned by military necessity. This
he clearly recognized, and although his sympathies were with the
slaves, he could not be induced to take the step until he became
convinced that the preservation of the Union demanded it.
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 govern-
ment, that nation, of which that Constitution was the organic
law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve 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 indispen-
sable to the preservation of the Constitution through the preser-
vation of the nation. Eight 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 pre-
serve slavery or any minor matter, I should permit the wreck
of government, country, and Constitution altogether.
When, early in the war. General Fremont attempted mili-
tary emancipation,^ I forbade it, because I did not then think
it an indispensable necessity.
When, a little later. General Cameron, then Secretary of War,
suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected, because I did
not yet think it an indispensable necessity.
ern States would listen to no friendly overtures, and it is perhaps better for
the country that they did not. Slavery had become so firmly established
upon American soil that to be destroyed it must be rooted out with violence.
The President finally came to recognize this fact, and ceased his efforts for
compensated emancipation.
1, In Missouri. Wliat were the Qircurostances ?
40 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
When, still later, General Hunter attempted military eman-
cipation, I forbade it, because I did not yet think the indis-
pensable necessity had come.
When in March, and May, and July, 1862, I made earnest
and successive appeals to the border States to favor compen-
sated emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for
military emancipation and arming the blacks would come, un-
less averted by that measure.
They declined the proposition, and I was, in my best judg-
ment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the
Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying strong hand
upon the colored element. I chose the latter. In choosing it
I hoped for greater gain than loss, but of this I was not en-
tirely 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 palpable
facts, about which, as facts, there can be no caviling. We
have the men, and we could not have had them without the
measure.
And now let any Union man, who complains of this measure,
test himself by writing down in one line that he is for subdu-
ing the rebellion by force of arms, and in the next that he is
for taking three hundred and thirty thousand men from the
Union side, and placing them where they would be best for
the measure which he condemns. If he cannot face his case
so stated, it is only because he cannot face the truth.
In telling this tale I attempt no compliment to my own
sagacity ; I aim 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
th^t w^ Qf the North} as well as you of the South, shall pay
THE AVOKDS OF LINCOLN 41
fairly for our complicity in that great wrong, impartial history
will find therein new causes to attest and revere the justice
and goodness of God.
Lincoln himself gave the following account of the events which
led to the issuing of the proclamation :
It had got to be 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 U\g-
tics or lose the game. I now determined upon the adoption of
the emancipation policy, and without consultation with or the
knowledge of the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the
proclamation, and, after much anxious thought, called a Cabi-
net meeting on the subject. This was the last of July or the
first part of the month of August 1862. I said to the Cabinet
that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them
together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of
the proclamation before them, suggestions as to which would
be in order after they had heard it read.
Various suggestions were offered. Secretary Chase wished
the language stronger in reference to the arming of the blacks.
Mr. Blair 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 proclamation, 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
government, a cry for help ; the government stretching forth
its hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her
hands to the government."
His idea was that it would be considered our last shriek on
the retreat. ^' Now," continued Mr. Seward, " while I approve
of the measure, I suggest, sir, that you postpone its issue until
you can give it to the country supported by military success,
42 THE WORDS OP LINCOLN
instead of issuing it, as would be the case now, upon the
greatest disasters of the war."
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 the draft of the proclamation aside,
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 was of
Pope's disaster at Bull Run. Things looked darker than ever.
Finally came the week of the battle of Antietam. I deter-
mined to wait no longer. The news came, I think, on Wednes-
day, that the advantage was on our side. I was then staying
at the Soldiers' Home. Here I finished writing the second
draft of the preliminary proclamation ; came up on Saturday ;
called the Cabinet together to hear it, and it was published the
following Monday.
Preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation
Sept, 22, 1862.
I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of Amer-
ica, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof,
do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore,
the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restor-
ing the constitutional relation between the United States and
each of the States, and the people thereof, in which States that
relation is or may be suspended or disturbed.
That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress,
to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure ten-
dering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all
slave States so-called, the people whereof may not then be in
rebellion against the United States, and which States may then
have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt,
immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within their
respective limits ; and that the effort to colonize persons of
African descent, with their consent, upon this continent or
THE WORDS OF LIN^COLN 43
elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the govern-
ments existing there, will be continued.
That on the tirst day of January, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as
slaves within any State, or designated 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 Department of the United States, including the
military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and main-
tain 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 January, by proc-
lamation aforesaid, 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 people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith
represented in the Congress of the United States, by members
chosen thereto at election wherein a majority of the qualified
voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence
of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evi-
dence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in
rebellion against the United States.
Abraham Lincoln
Speech at a Serenade in Honor of the Emancipation Proc-
lamation
Sept. 24, 1862
Fellow-citizens : I appear before you to do little more
than to acknowledge the courtesy you pay me, and to thank
you for it. I have not been distinctly informed why it is on
this occasion you appear to do me this honor, though I suppose
it is because of the proclamation. I was about to say, I sup-
pose I understand it. What I did I did after very full deliber-
ation, and under a very heavy and solemn sense of responsi-
bility. I can only trust in God I have made no mistake. I
44 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
shall make no attempt on this occasion to sustain what I have
done or said by any comment. It is now for the country and
the world to pass judgment upon it, and, may be, take action
upon it. I will say no more upon this subject. In my position
I am environed with difficulties. Yet they are scarcely so
great as the difficulties of those who, upon the battlefield, are
endeavoring to purchase with their blood and their lives the
future happiness and prosperity of the country. Let us never
forget them. On the fourteenth and seventeenth days of the
present month there have been battles bravely, skillfully, and
successfully fought. We do not yet know the particulars.
Let us be sure that in giving praise to particular individuals
we do no injustice to others. I only ask you at the conclusion
of these few remarks to give three hearty cheers to all good
and brave officers and men who fought these successful battles.
Final Proclamation of Emancipation
January 1, 1863.
Whereas, on the 22d day of September, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclama-
tion was issued by the President of the United States, contain-
ing, among other things, the following, to wit :
*' 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 within any State, or designated 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 military 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
make for their actual freedom.
That the Executive will, on the first day of January afore-
said, 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 i)eo2)le thereof, shall on that day be in good faith
THE WORDS OP LINCOLN 45
represented in the Congress of the United States by members
chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of tlie qualified
voters of such State shall have participated shall, in the ab-
sence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclu-
sive evidence that such State and the people thereof are not
then in rebellion against the United States ; " —
JSl'oiVj therefore^ I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Com-
mander-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
w^ar 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 period of one hun-
dred days from the day first above mentioned, order, and des-
ignate, 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 ; Louisi-
ana, except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jeffer-
son, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption,
Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, in-
cluding the city of New Orleans ; Mississippi ; Alabama ; Flor-
ida ; Georgia ; South Carolina ; North Carolijia ; and Virginia,
except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia,
and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton,
Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including
the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth, and which excepted
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, \
do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within
said designated States and parts of States are, and hencefor-
w^ard shall be, free ; and that the Executive Government of the
United States, including the military and naval authorities
thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said per-
sons.
46 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free,
to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense ;
and I recommend to them that in all cases, when allowed,
they labor faithfully for reasonable 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 garrison forts, positions, stations, and
other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice,
W'arranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I in-
voke the considerate judgment of mankind and tlie 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.
Abraham Lincoln
By the President :
William H. Seward, Secretary of State,
Lincoln's Speech at the Dedication of the National Ceme-
tery at Gettysburg
November 15, 1863
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth
upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, 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 battle-field of that war. We
have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-
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 cannot dedicate, we cannot
consecrate, w^e cannot hallow this ground. The brave men,
living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 47
above our 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 dedi-
cated here to the unfinished work which they who fought hero
have thus far so nobly advanced. 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, shall have a new birth of
freedom, and that government of the people, by the people,
and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
The Gettysburg address, though short, ranks as one of the great-
est American classics, and as such it was recognized both at home
and abroad. The Westminster Revieio said of it :
" It has but one equal — in that pronounced upon those who fell
in the first year of the Peloponnesian war ; and in one respect it is
superior to that great speech. It is not only more natural, fuller
of feeling, more touching and pathetic, but we know with absolute
certainty that it was really delivered. Nature here takes prece-
dence of art — even though X be the art of Thucydides."
Proclamation
April 10, 1863
It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe signal victories to
the land and naval forces engaged in suppressing an internal
rebellion, and at the same time to avert from our country the
dangers of foreign intervention and invasion.^
It is therefore recommended to the people of the United
States, that at their next weekly assemblages in their accus-
tomed places of public worship, which shall occur after the
notice of this proclamation shall have been received, they
especially acknowledge and render thanks to our Heavenly
Father for these inestimable blessings ; that they then and
there implore spiritual consolation in behalf of all those who
have been brought into affliction by the casualties and calami-
1. To what is reference here made ?
48 THE WOKOS OF LINCOLN
ties of sedition and civil war; and that they reverently invoke
the divine guidance for our national councils, to the end that
they may speedily result in the restoration of peace, harmony,
and unity throughout our borders, and hasten the establish-
ment of fraternal relations among all the countries of the
earth.
Proclamation
Executive Mansion,
Washington, November 16, 1862.
The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy,
desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by
the officers and men in the military and naval service. The
importance for man and beast of 'the prescribed weekly rest,
the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming
deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a
due regard for the Divine will, demand that Sunday labor in
the army and navy be reduced to the measure of strict neces-
sity.
The discipline and character of the national forces should
not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperilled, by the
profanation of the day or the name of the Most High. " At
the time of public distress,'' adopting the words of Washing-
ton, in 1776, " men may find enough to do in the service of
God and their country, without abandoning themselves to vice
and immorality."
The first general order issued by the "Father of his country,"
after the Declaration of Independence, indicates the spirit in
which our institutions were founded, and should ever be de-
fended :
* ' The general hopes and trusts that every officer and man
will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier,
defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country."
A. Lincoln
THE WORDS OF LINCOLT^ 49
Proclamation
July 15, 1863^
It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the supplications
and prayers of our afflicted people, and to vouchsafe to the
army and navy of the United States, on the land and on the
sea, victories so signal and so effective as to furnish reasonable
grounds for augmented confidence that the Union of these
States will be maintained, their Constitution preserved, and
their peace and prosperity permanently secured ; but these
victories have been accorded not without sacrifice of life, limb,
and liberty, incurred by brave, patriotic, and loyal citizens.
Domestic affliction in every part of the country follows in the
train of these fearful bereavements.
It is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of
the Almighty Father, and the power of His hand, equally in
these triumphs and these sorrows.
Now, therefore, be it known that I do set apart Thursday,
tlie 6th day of August next, to be observed as a day for national
thanksgiving, praise, and prayer ; and I invite the people of
the United States to assemble on that occasion in their custom-
ary places of worship, and, in the form approved by their own
conscience, render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for
the wonderful things He has done in the nation's behalf, and
invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to subdue the anger
which has produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel
rebellion, to change the hearts of the insurgents, to guide the
councils of the government with wisdom adequate to so great
a national emergency, and to visit with tender care and conso-
lation, throughout the length and breadth of our land, all
those who, through the vicissitudes of marches, voyages,
battles, and sieges, have been brought to suffer in mind, body,
or estate, and, finally, to lead the whole nation, through paths
of repentance ^ and submission to the Divine will, back to the
perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace.
I. What occasion called forth this proclamation ?
2 Why does he summon the nation to repentance ? To what extent was
the North responsible for the evil of slavery ?
60 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
Proclamation
October 3, 1863
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled
with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.
To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that
man is prone to forget the source from which they came,
others have been added which are of so extraordinary a
nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even
the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever- watchful
providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unparalleled magnitude and
severity, which has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke
the aggressions of foreign States, peace has been preserved
with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have
been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed every-
where except in the theater of military conflict, while that
theater has been greatly contracting by the advancing armies
and navies of the Union.
The needful diversion of wealth and strength from the
fields of peaceful industry to the national defense has not
arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship.
The axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements; and
the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals,
have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Popu-
lation has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that
has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battle-field ;
and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented
strength and vigor, is permitted to expect a continuance of
years, with large increase of freedom.
No human council hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand
worked out, these great things. They are the gracious gifts
of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger
for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be
solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with
one heart and voice, by the whole American people. I do,
therefore, invite my fellow-citizens, in every part of the
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 5L
United States, and also those who are at sea, and those
who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe
the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving
and prayer to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the
heavens ; and I recommend to them that while offering up
the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliver-
ances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for
our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His
tender care all those who have become widows, orphans,
mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which
we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the in-
terposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the
nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the
Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony,
tranquillity, and union.
Lincoln's Description of Grant to a Friend
March 1864
Well, I hardly know what to think of him. He is the
quietest little fellow you ever saw. Why, he makes the least
fuss of any man you ever knew. I believe two or three times
he has been in this room a minute or so before I knew he
was here. It's about so all around. The only evidence you
have that he's in any place is that he makes things "git."
Wherever he is he makes things move.
Grant is the first general I have had. He's a general.
I'll tell you what I mean : You know how it's been with all
the rest. As soon as I put a man in command of the army,
he'd come to me with a plan of a campaign, and about as
much as say, " Now, I don't believe I can do it, but if you say
so, I'll try it on," and so put the responsibility of success or
failure upon me. They all w^anted me to be the general.
Now, it isn't so with Grant. He hasn't told me what his
plans are. I don't know and I don't want to know. I'm
glad to find a man that can go ahead without me. You see,
when any of the rest set out on a campaign, they'd look over
matters and pick out some one thing they were in want of
52 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
and they knew I couldn't give tliem, and tell me they couldn't
hope to win unless they had it ; and it was the most generally
cavalry.
Now when Grant took hold, I was waiting to see what his
pet impossibility would be, and I reckoned it would be cavalry,
as a matter of course, for we hadn't horses enough to mount
what w^e had. There were fifteen thousand, or thereabouts,
up near Harper's Ferry, and no horses to put them on.
Well, the other day Grant sends to me about those very
men, just as I expected; but what he wanted to know was
whether he should make infantry of them or discharge them.
He doesn't ask impossibilities of me, and he's the first general
I've had that didn't.^
Second Inaugural Address
March 4, 1865
Fellow-countrymen : At this second appearing to take the
oath of the Presidential ofiice there is less occasion for an ex-
tended address than there was at the first. Then a statement
somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed very fit-
ting 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 new could be presented.
The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly de-
pends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I
trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With
high hope for the future, prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all
thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war.
All dreaded it ; all sought to avert it. While the inaugural ad-
dress was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether
to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the
1. Tliis is a prood example of Lincolirs colloquial style. AVhat are some of
its elements and peculiarities ? It is evidently not polished, but is it strong ?
Do you lind in it anytbing indicative of the character of the man ?
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 53
city seeking to destroy it without war — seeking to dissolve the
Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties depre-
cated war : but one of them would make war rather than let
the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather
than let it perish. And war came. One eighth of the whole
populatipn were colored slaves, not distributed generally over
the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These
slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew
that this interest was someliow the cause of the w^ar. 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 re-
strict the territorial enlargement of it.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the
duration which it has already attained. ISTeither anticipated
that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before,
the conflict itself 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 man should dare to ask a just
God's assistance in wringing his bread fi'om the sweat of
other men's faces ; but let us judge not, that we be not judged.
The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither
has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own pur-
poses.
*' Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs
be that offenses come ; but woe to that man by whom the
offense cometh."
If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of these
offenses, w^hich in the providence of God must needs come, but
w^hich, having continued through His appointed time. He now
wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South
this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense
came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine
attributes w^hich the believers in a living God always ascribe
to Him?
54 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN
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 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
with another drawn with the sword, as was said three thou-
sand years ago so still it must be said, " The judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firm-
ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive
on to finish the work we are in ; to care for him who shall have
borne the battle, and for his widow and orphans ; to bind up the
nation's wounds ; to do all which may achieve and cherish a
just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Origin of the Greenback
A letter written "by Lincoln to Colonel E. D. Taylor, of Ghicago,
December, 1861
My dear Colonel : I have long determined to make public
the origin of the greenback, ^ and tell the world that it is one
of Dick Taylor's creations. .
You have always been friendly to me, and when troublous
times fell upon us, and my shoulders, though broad and will-
ing, were weak, and myself surrounded by such circumstances
and such people that I knew not whom to trust, then I said in
my extremity, * ' I will send for Colonel Taylor ; he will know
what to do."
I think it was in January, 1862, on or about the 16th, that
I did so.
You came, and I said to you, *^What can we do?" Said
you, ''Why, issue Treasury notes bearing no interest, printed
1. At the beginning of the war the funds in the National Treasury were
nearly exhausted. Expenses exceeded the revenues and increased day by
day, until it was found that some extraordinary measure must be adopted
or the nation would become bankrupt. In this emergency Lincoln, and
Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, determined upon the issue of a paper
currency, which should be recognized as legal tender, and used in payment
of the expenses of the war. This plan succeeded beyond the most sanguine
hopes, and contributed in no small degree to the success of the National
cause.
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 55
on the best banking paper. Issue enough to pay off the army
expenses, and declare it legal tender."
Chase thought it a hazardous thing, but we finally accom-
plished it, and gave to the people of this Republic the greatest
blessing they ever had — their own paper to pay their own
debts.
It is due to you, the father of the present greenback, that the
people should know it, and I take great pleasure in making it
known. How many times have I laughed at you telling me
plainly that I was too lazy to be anything but a lawyer.
Yours truly,
A. Lincoln, President,
Capital and Labor
Extract from the First Annual Message
Upon the assembling of Congress in December, 1861, Lincoln
presented his first annual message. The following passage dis-
cusses the relationship between labor and capital, and was sug-
gested by the growing tendency to legislate in favor of the latter.
The economical problems of society and government are the most
complicated and difficult of all those with which a nation is com-
pelled to deal. In view of the increasing importance of these
questions this passage is significant.
It is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument
should be made in favor of popular institutions; but there is
one point, not so hackneyed ^ as most others, to which I ask a
brief attention. It is the effort to put capitaP on an equal
footing with, if not above, labor in the structure of government.
It is assumed that labor is available only in connection with
capital, that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capi-
tal, somehow, by the use of it, induces him to labor. This
assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital
shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work, by their
own consent, or shall buy them and drive them to it without
their consent.
1. Derived from a word which means a horse. What is its present
meaning, and how derived ?
8, Derivation and meaning ?
56 THE WOKDS OF LINCOLN
Having proceeded so far, it is naturally concluded that all
laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves.^ And
further, it is assumed that w^hoever is once a hired laborer is
fixed in that condition for life.
Now, there is no such relation between capital and labor
assumed; nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed
for life in the condition of a laborer. Both these assumptions
are false, and all inferences from them are groundless. Labor
is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the
fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not.
first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves
much the higher consideration.
Capital has its rights, w^hich are as w^orthy of protection as
any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably
always will be, a relation between labor and capital, producing
mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor
of a community exists within that relation. A few men own
capital, and those few avoid labor themselves, and, with their
capital, hire or buy another few to labor for them.
A large majority belong to neither class — neither work for
others nor have others working for them.^ In most of the
Southern States a majority of the whole people of all colors
are neither slaves nor masters; while in the North a large
majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men, with their fami-
lies, w^ork for themselves, on their farms, in their houses, and
in their shops, taking the w^hole product to themselves, and
asking no favors of capital on the one hand, nor of hired
laborers or slaves on the other.
It is not forgotten that a considerable number of persons
mingle their own labor with capital — that is, they labor with
their own hands, and also buy or hire others to labor for them;
but this is only a mixed, not a distinct, class. No principle
stated is disturbed by the existence of this mixed class.
Again, as has already been said, there is not, of necessity,
any such thing as a free hired laborer being fixed to that con-
1. W^hat is the derivation of the word ?
'4. Is this statement true now ?
THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 57
dition for life. Many independent men everywhere in these
States, a few years back in their lives, were hired laborers.
The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages
awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or laud for
himself; then labors on his own account another while, and at
length hires another new beginner to help him.
This is the just and generous and prosperous system, which
opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy
and progress and improvement of condition to all.
No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those
w^lio toil up from poverty — none less inclined to take, or toucli,
aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware
of surrendering a political power which they already possess,
and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door
of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabili-
ties and burdens upon them until all of liberty shall be lost.
The struggle of to-day is not altogether for to-day — it is for
a vast future also. With a reliance upon Providence all the
more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which
events have devolved upon us.
RUSKIN'S WORKS
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
THE AUTHORIZED (BRANTWOOD) EDITION
With special introduction to each volume of prose works by
Prof. Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard College.
GEORGE ALLEN begs to announce that Ruskin's Works will
hereafter be published in America by Messrs. CHARLES E.
MERRILL & CO. (Maynard, Merrill, & Co. successors), of New York,
who will issue the only authorized editions. London^ Augu^t^ 1890
M«:
We have the pleasure of announcing that the Brantwood Edition of
Ruskitf s Works, in 21 volumes, is now ready. This is the only edition
published in this country with Mr. Ruskin's consent and from the sale of
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in accordance with his suggestions. Each vohuiie of the prose works con-
tains a special introduction by Prof. Charles Eliot Norton, of Harvard
College, Mr. Ruskin's most intimate friend and most acute and sympathetic
critic. The two volumes of poetry written between the ages of seven and
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The chronological arrangement of the poems — the author's age at the time
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The attention of the public is called to the fact that, by virtue of this
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The New York Evening Post says :— Its authenticity is vouched for by
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opaque. In simple elegance this new edition deserves, indeed, to be "ap-
proved by him,"" and, with the aid of Professor Norton's introductions, it will
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American disciples of the great art-critic who has taught our generation so
sound a gospel.
The Critic says :— It is a long-delayed but highly appreciated compliment
to America that Mr. Ruskin has at length permitted his innumerable admir-
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With copious extracts from tlie leading authors, English and Ameri-
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WORD LESSOIIS: A Complete Speller.
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Word Lessons recognizes work already done in the reader, and
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6
7
Byron's Prophecy of Dante,
(CaDtosI. and II.)
Milton's L' Allegro, and II Pen-
seroso.
liord Bacon's Essays, Civil and
Moral. (Selected.)
Byron's Prisoner of Chillon,
3Ioore'8 Fire Worshippers.
(Lalla Rookh. Selected.)
Goldsmith's Deserted Village.
Scott's Marniion. (Selections
from Canto VI.)
8 Scott's Lay of the !Last Minstrel.
(Introduction and Canto I.)
9 Burns'sCotter'sSaturday Night,
and other Poems
10 Crabbe's The Village.
11 Campbells Pleasures of Hope.
(Abridgment of Part I.)
1-3 Macaulay's Essay on Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress.
13 Macaulay's Armada, and other
Poems.
14 Shakespeare's Merchant of Ve-
nice. (Selections from Acts I.,
III., and IV.)
15 Goldsmith's Traveller.
16 Hogg's Queen's Wake, andKil-
meny.
17 Coleridge's Ancient Mariner.
18 Addison's Sir Roger de Cover-
ley.
19 Gray's Elegy in a Country
Churchyard.
20 Scott'sLady of the liake. (Canto
I.)
21 Shakespeare's As You Like It,
etc. (Selections.)
22 Shakespeare's King John, and
Richard II. (Selections.)
23 Shakespeare's Henry IV., Hen-
ry v., Henry VI. (Selections.)
24 Shakespeare'sHenry VIII., and
Julius Caesar. (Selections.)
25 Wordsivorth's Excursion. (Bk.I.)
26 Pope's Essay on Criticism.
27 Spenser'sFaerieQueene. (Cantos
I. and II.)
28 Cowper's Task. (Book I.)
29 Milton's Comus.
30 Tennyson's Enoch Arden, The
Lotus Eaters, Ulysses, and
Tlthonus.
31 Irving's Sketch Book. (Selec-
tions.)
32 Dickens's Christmas Carol,
(Condensed.)
33 Carlyle's Hero as a Prophet.
34 Macaulay's Warren Hastings.
(Condensed.)
35 Goldsmith's Vicar of Wake-
field. (Condensed.)
36 Tennyson's The Two Voices,
and A Dream of Fair Women.
37 Memory Quotations.
38 Cavalier Poets.
39 Dryden's Alexander's Feast,
and MacFlecknoe.
40 Keats's The Eve of St. Agnes.
41 Irving.'s Legend of Sleepy Hol-
lovr.
42 Lamb's Tales from Shake-
speare.
43 Le Row's How to Teach Read-
ing.
44 Webster's Bunker Hill Ora-
tions.
45 The Academy Orthofepist. A
Manual of Pronunciation.
46 Milton's Lycidas, and Hymn
on the Nativity.
47 Bryant's Thanatopsis, and other
Poems.
48 Ruskin's Modern Painters.
(Selections.)
49 The Shakespeare Speaker,
60 Thackeray's Roundabout Pa-
pers.
51 Webster's Oration on Adams
and Jefterson.
52 Brown's Rab and his Friends.
53 Morris's Life and Death of
Jason.
54 Burke's Speech on American
Taxation.
55 Pope's Rape of the Lock.
56 Tennyson's Elaine.
57 Tennyson's In Memoriam.
58 Church's Story of the ^neid.
59 Church's Story of the Iliad.
60 Swift's Gulliver's Voyage to
Lilliput.
61 Macaulay's Essay on Lord Ba-
con. (Condensed.)
62 The Alcestis of Euripides. Eng-
lish Version by Rev. R. Potter.M. A.
(Additional numbers on next page.)
^\,2X>0').08H .OS^idC^
English Classic Series-co,itinued.
63 The Antigone of Sophocles.
English Version by Thos. Franck-
lin, D.D.
64 Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
(Selected Poems.)
65 Robert Browning. (Selected
Poems.)
66 Addison's Spectator. ^Selec'ns.)
67 Scenes from George Eliot's
Adam Bede.
68 Matthew^ Arnold's Culture and
Anarchy.
69 DeQuincey's Joan of Arc.
70 Carlyle's Essay on Burns.
71 Byron's Childe Harold's Pil-
grimage.
73 Poe's Raven, and other Pc^ms.
73 & 74 Macaulay's Lord Clive.
(Double Number.)
75 Webster's Reply to Hayne.
76 & 77 3Iacaulay's Lays of An-
cient Rome. (Double Number.)
78 American Patriotic Selections:
Declaration of Independence,
Washington's Farewell Ad-
dress, Lincoln's Gettysburg
Speech, etc.
79 & 80 Scott's Lady of the Lake.
(Condensed.)
81 & S2 Scott's Marmion. (Con-
densed.)
83 & 84 Pope's Essay on Man.
85 Shelley's Skylark, Adonais, and
other Poems.
86 Dickens's Cricket on the
Hearth.
87 Spencer's Philosophy of Style.
88 Lamb's Essays of Elia.
89 Cowper's Task, Book IL
90 Wordsworth's Selected Poems.
91 Tennyson's The Holy Grail, and
Sir Galahad.
92 Addison's Cato.
93 Irving's Westminster Abbey,
and Christmas Sketches.
94 & 95 Macaulay's Earl of Chat-
ham. Second Essay.
96 Early English Ballads^
97 Skelton, Wyatt, and^" Surrey*
(Selected Poems.)
98 Edwin Arnold. (Selected Poems.)
99 Caxton and Daniel. (Selections.)
100 Fuller and Hooker. (Selections.)
101 Marlowe's Jew of Malta. (Con-
densed.)
103-103 Macaulay's Essay on Mil-
ton.
104-105 Macaulay's Essay on Ad-
dison.
106 Macaulay's Essay on Bos-
Avell's Johnson.
107 Maudeville's Travels and Wy-
clift'e's Bible. (Selections.)
108-109 Macaulay's Essay on Fred-
erick the Great.
110-111 Milton's Samson Agoais-
tes. '
112-113-114 Franklin's Autobk*^''-
raphy.
115-116 Herodotus's Stories of
Croesus, Cyrus, and Babylon.
117 Irving's Alhambra.
118 Burke's Present Discontents.
119 Burke's Speech on Concilia-
tion Avith American Colonies.
IfJO Macaulay's Essav on Byron.
131-122 Motley's Peter the 'Great.
123 Emerson's American Scholar.
124 Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum.
125-126 Longfellow's Evangeline.
127 Andersen's Danish Fairy Tales.
(Selected.)
128 Tennyson's The Coming of
Arthur, and The Passing of
Arthur.
129 Lowell's The Vision of Sir
Launfal, and other Poems.
130 Whittier's Songs of Labor, and
other Poems.
131 Words of Abraham Lincoln.
132 Grimm's German Fairy Tales.
(Selected.)
Slnffle fiu^nberSf 32 to 64 pages ;
tnniling price, 12 cents per copy.
Double mitnhers f 75 to 128 pages;
mailing price, 24: cents per copy.
In Preparation a large number
of Selections from Standard Writ-
ings for Supplementary Reading
in Lower Grades, including
^sop's Fables. (Selected.)
Arabian Nights. (Selected.)
The Nurnberg Stove. By Ouida.
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