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Abraham  Lincoln 

Selections  from  His 

Speeches  and  Writings 


EDITED   BY 


J.  G.  DE  ROLLHAC  HAMILTON 

KEN'AN    PROFESSOR    OF    HISTORY    AND    GOVERNMENT 
THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   NORTH   CAROLINA 


SCOTT,  FORESMAN  AND  COMPANY 

CHICAGO  NEW  YORK 


Copyright  1922 

BY 

Scott,  Fobesman  and  Company 


PREFACE 

A  close  student  of  Lincoln  for  many  years  past,  I 
have  in  the  preparation  of  this  volume  made  use  of  all 
the  standard  works  on  the  subject,  and  have,  in  addi- 
tion, read  several  hundred  short  articles  which  touch 
his  life,  character,  personality,  and  writings.  As  a 
result  my  obligations  are  so  varied  that  it  is  an  utter 
impossibility  to  acknowledge  them  all  individually  in 
any  reasonable  limits  of  space. 

I  wish,  however,  to  acknowledge  my  deep  indebted- 
ness for  permission  to  use  certain  of  the  selections  to 
Messrs.  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  publishers  of  the  Consti- 
tutional Edition  of  Lincoln's  Writings  and  of  The  Writ- 
ings of  Carl  Schurs;  to  the  Century  Company  for  simi- 
lar permission  to  use  Abraham  Lincoln's  Complete 
Works  (edited  by  Nicolay  and  Hay)  ;  to  Messrs.  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons  for  permission  to  include  a  selection 
from  Mary  R.  S.  Andrews's  The  Perfect  Tribute,  and 
to  the  Macmillan  Company  for  an  extract  from  Ida  M. 
Tarbell's  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

I  am  under  heavy  obligations  to  my  wife  for  invalu- 
able assistance  in  making  the  selections,  in  the  editorial 
work,  and  in  the  preparation  of  the  manuscript. 

J.  G.  de  R.  H. 

Chapel  Hill,  N.  C. 

December,  1921 


CONTEXTS 

PAGE 

Preface    3 

Bibliographical    Note    10 

IXTRODrCTIOX    11 

Chroxology 25 

I.  Growth  axd  Traixixg 29 

Lincoln's   Autobiography   of   1860 29 

Announcement  of  Candidacy  for  Legislature 40 

Address  to  the  People  of  Sangamon  County -tl 

Political  Views  in  1836.  •  - 47 

Letter  to  Robert  Allen 48 

Protest   Against   Slavery 50 

Letter  to  Mrs.  O.  H,  Browning 51 

Letter  to  VC.  G.  Anderson 55 

Letter  to  Miss  Mary  Speed 56 

Letter  to   Williamson  Durley 59 

Letter  to  William  H.  Herndon G2 

Letter  to  John  M.  Clayton 63 

Notes   for  a   Law  Lecture 64 

Letter  to  John   D.  Johnston 66 

Letter  to  John   D.  Johnston 68 

Letter  to  John  D.  Johnston 69 

II.  FiGHTIXG    THE    ExTEXSIOX    OF    SLAVERY 73 

The  Nature  and  Objects  of  Government 76 

Letter  to   John   M.   Palmer 80 

The   Peoria   Speech 82 

5 


G  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Letter  to  I.  Codding-  • 131 

Letter  to  George  Robertson 132 

Letter  to  Joshua  F.  Speed 134 

Letter  to  J.   A.   Brittenham UO 

Speech  in   Reply  to  Senator  Douglas  at  Springfield. ..  143 

The  Springfteld  Speech 158 

Letter  to   Henry  Asbury 171 

Lincoln's  Autobiography  of  1858 172 

Definition  of   Democracy 1T2 

Letter  to  J.   N.  Brown 172 

Letter  to  H.  D.  Sharpe 174 

Letter  to  H.  L.  Pierce  and  Others 175 

The   Columbus   Speech 178 

Letter  to  J.  W.  Fell 212 

Lincoln's  Autobiography  of  1859 212 

The  Cooper  Union  Speech 216 

in.     Saving   the    Uxiox 243 

Letter  to  William  S.  Speer 244 

Letter  to  William  H.  Seward 245 

Letter  to  William  H.  Seward 245 

Letter  to  John  A.  Gilmer 246 

Letter  to  Thurlow  Weed 251 

Farewell  Address  at  Springfield 252 

Address  in  Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia 2o2 

First   Inaugural    Address 255 

Seward's  "Some  Thoughts  for  the  President's  Consider- 
ation"     267 


CONTEXTS  7 

PAGE 

Reply  to  Seward 268 

Reply  to  a  Committee  from  the  Virginia  Convention.  .270 

Letter  to  Reverdy  Johnson 273 

Letter  to  Gustavus  V.  Fox 274 

Letter  to  Colonel  Ellsworth's  Parents 275 

Message  to  Congress  in  Special  Session. 276 

Letter  to  General  John  C.  Fremont 295 

Letter  to  O.  H.  Browning 296 

Letter  to  Major  Ramsey 299 

Extract  from  Annual  Message  to  Congress 300 

Letter  to  General  David  Hunter 307 

Letter  to  General  George  B.  McClellan 308 

Special  Message  to  Congress 309 

Letter  to   Henry  J.   Raj-mond 312 

Letter  to  General   George   B.   McClellan 312 

Telegram  to  R.  Yates  and  William  Butler 315 

Proclamation   Revoking  General  Hunter's  Order 315 

Appeal  to  the  Border  State   Representatives 318 

Letter  to  Reverdy  Johnson 321 

Letter  to  Cuthbert  Bullitt 322 

Letter  to  August  Belmont 325 

Letter  to  Horace  Greeley 327 

Reply  to  a  Chicago  Committee 329 

Telegram  to  General  George  B.  McClellan 333 

Letter  to  General  Carl  Schurz 334 

Order  for  Sabbath  Observance 33G' 

Letter  to  General  N.  P.  Banks 337 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Letter  to  General  Carl  Schurz 338 

Extract  from  Annual   Message  to  Congress 310 

Letter  to  William  H.  Seward  and  Salmon  P,  Chase.  .  .  .353 

The  Emancipation   Proclamation Sod 

Letter  to  General  John  A.   McClernand 359 

Reply  to  the  Workingmen  of  Manchester 3C0 

Letter  to  General  Joseph  Hooker 3C3 

Letter  to  General  William   Rosecrans 3!J4- 

Letter  to  Governor  Horatio  Seymour 3!J(i 

Proclamation  for  a  National   Fast  Day 367 

Telegram  to  General  Joseph  Hooker 3()9 

Telegram  to  General  Joseph   Hooker 369 

Telegram  to  General  Joseph  Hooker 370 

Letter  to  General  U.  S.  Grant 370 

Letter  to  James  H.  Hackett 371 

Letter  to  James  C.  Conkling S~-2 

Letter  to  James  C.  Conkling 373 

Letter  to  Salmon  P.  Chase 378 

Proclamation  for  Thanksgiving 379 

Letter  to  James  H.   Hackett 380 

The   Gettysburg  Address 38:3 

Proclamation  of  Amnesty  and  Reconstruction 3F3 

Extract  from  Annual  Message  to  Congress .387 

Letter  to  Salmon  P.  Chase 39 1 

Letter  to  Salmon  P.  Cha^e 391 

Letter  to   Michael   Hahn 395 

Letter  to  A.  G.   Hodges 396 


CONTEXTS  9 

PAGE 

Letter  to  General  U.  S.  Grant 399 

Order  to  General  John  A.  Dix 401 

Memorandum    403 

Letter  to  Mrs.  Bixby 404 

Extract  from  Annual  Message  to  Congress 404 

Second  Inaugural  Address 411 

Letter  to  Thurlow  Weed 414 

Memorandum  on  Terms  of  Peace 416 

Telegram  to  General  U.  S.  Grant 417 

Last  Public  Address 418 

Letter  to  General  Van  Alen 424 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Any  attempt  at  a  complete  Lincoln  bibliography  is 
impossible,  and  of  course,  in  a  work  of  this  sort  is  un- 
necessary. No  man  in  American  history  has  had  so 
much  attention  devoted  to  his  life  as  Lincoln,  and  the 
list  of  books  and  articles  relating  to  him  grows  without 
any  noticeable  diminution.  It  may,  however,  be  help- 
ful to  those  desiring  to  study  him  in  greater  detail  to 
mention  here  a  small  number  of  works  suitable  for  ref- 
erence purposes. 

The  standard  biography  is  Nicolay  and  Hay's  Life  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  in  ten  large  volumes.  This  work 
deals  with  the  history  of  the  period  in  some  detail  and 
is  biased  and  partisan.  Tarbell's  Life  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln is  very  satisfactory  in  every  way.  Herndon's  Life 
of  Lincoln  contains  a  great  deal  of  valuable  and  inter- 
esting material  bearing  on  his  early  life,  as  does  also 
Lamon's  Life  of  Lincoln.  Of  the  shorter  biographies 
Hapgood's  Lincoln,  the  Man  of  the  People,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  the  writer,  stands  easily  first.  Other  valuable 
works  are  Putnam's  Abraham  Lincoln;  Whitney's  Life 
of  Lincoln;  Lord  Charnwood's  Abraham  Lincoln;  Rice's 
Reminiscences  of  Lincoln;  and  Rothschild's  Lincoln, 
Master  of  Men.  Lowell  and  Schurz  wrote  essays  on 
Lincoln  which  are  excellent  interpretations  and  which 
will  prove  very  helpful  to  the  student  of  Lincoln. 

This  list  is  in  no  sense  exhaustive;  rather  it  must  be 
noted  that  others  almost  as  satisfactory  could  be  pre- 
pared without  including  any  of  the  works  mentioned. 

10 


INTRODUCTION 

This  little  volume  of  selections  from  Lincoln's  writ- 
ings is  prepared  with  a  double  purpose.  Primarily  it  is 
intended  to  serve  as  the  basis  for  the  work  of  classes  in 
English  literature,  or  as  collateral  reading  in  American 
history,  but  it  is  hoped  that  it  may  also  interest  those 
who  wish  to  find,  gathered  in  convenient  form,  the  more 
important  and  characteristic  speeches,  letters,  and  state 
papers  of  the  great  President. 

I  confess  to  a  strong  prejudice  against  the  rather 
common  practice  of  including  in  such  a  collection  as  this 
portions  of  a  speech  or  letter,  isolated  from  their  con- 
text. Believing  that  this  tends  to  defective  instruction 
and  careless  study,  and  that  it  is  unjust  both  to  author 
and  reader,  I  have  given  the  full  text  of  all  the  docu- 
ments included,  with  exceptions  in  the  cases  of  one 
speech,  of  one  letter,  and  of  the  annual  messages.  In 
the  case  of  the  latter,  I  have  omitted  the  routine  portions, 
and  the  extracts  given  are  complete  units  in  themselves. 
In  the  running  story  which  accompanies  the  text  there 
are  also  occasional  brief  quotations  for  the  purpose  of 
illustration. 

I  have  endeavored  to  include  in  the  collection  not  only 
the  best  known  of  Lincoln's  writings  but  also  those 
others  which  best  illustrate  his  growth  and  development, 
his  personality,  his  political  ideals,  and  his  relation  to 
important  events  and  movements  in  American  history. 
Thus-,  there  will  be  found  those  papers  and  addresses 
which  are  most  noted  for  the  beauty  and  power  of  their 
language  and  the  logic  and  strength  of  their  thought; 
others    significant    for    their    hard    common    sense;    and 

11 


12  SELECTION'S    FROM    LINCOLN 

still  others  which  are  illuminating  for  the  study  of  the 
man  or  his  period. 

Of  his  great  political  speeches  I  have  included  the 
Peoria,  the  Springfield,  the  Columbus,  and  the  Cooper 
Union  addresses,  which,  as  Colonel  Watterson  says,  con- 
tain his  entire  political  philosophy.  I  have,  however, 
omitted  the  debates  with  Douglas  of  1858.  In  addition, 
I  have  thought  it  well  to  include  a  number  of  minor 
speeches,  not  so  well  knowm,  which  indicate  the  direc- 
tion and  character  of  his  growth,  the  heart  of  the  man, 
or  the  formulation  of  an  opinion  or  policy. 

In  the  case  of  the  letters,  I  have  been  guided  by 
somewhat  the  same  idea.  Every  kind  of  letter  he  wrote 
is  represented  here.  They  have  been  selected  with  even 
more  care  than  the  speeches,  for  the  light  they  throw 
upon  Lincoln's  character  and  personality;  and  they 
range  from  the  humorous  and  keenly  satirical  to  the 
simple  and  wonderfully  impressive  letter  to  Mrs.  Bixby. 

I  believe  that  everything  necessary  to  a  full  under- 
standing of  the  man  and  the  policies  and  principles  for 
which  he  stood  has  been  included. 

Since  the  selections  contain  the  essential  outline  of 
Lincoln's  life  in  his  own  words,  I  have  made  no  attempt 
in  this  introduction  to  tell  again  the  story.  The  running 
interpretation  of  the  documents  will,  I  believe,  furnish 
all  additional  detail  necessary  to  their  full  understand- 
ing. 

Three  great  reasons  make  the  study  of  Lincoln's  writ- 
ings worth  while.  In  the  first  place,  uneven  as  they  are, 
they  contain  masterpieces  of  English  literature  which  in 
themselves,  as  examples  of  effective  reasoning  and  pres- 
entation, fully  repay  study.  A  second  reason  is  to  be 
found  in  the  revelation  they  furnish  of  a  man  who  is 
one  of  the  great  figures  of  world  history.  Knowledge 
of  his  writings  develops  an  intellectual  intimacy  with  a 
man  who  was,  in  his  later  years  at  least,  one  of  the  lofti- 
est souls   of  historv,  but   one   which   nevertheless   never 


INTRODUCTION  13 

lost  its  contact  and  kinship  with  the  minds,  hearts,  and 
souls  of  the  mass  of  men ;  which  never  found  difficulty 
in  its  instinctive  understanding  of  the  thoughts,  hopes, 
and  aspirations  of  the  average  man.  Finally,  these 
papers  throw  the  strongest  possible  light  on  the  political 
events  of  their  period  of  American  history,  and  in  that 
light  the  study  of  history  is  simplified  and  humanized. 
The  power  and  beauty  of  Lincoln's  writings,  partic- 
ularly remarkable  when  the  lack  of  opportunity  for  con- 
ventional training  is  recalled,  constitute  one  of  the  great- 
est personal  achievements  of  his  life.  At  an  early  age 
he  set  himself  to  work  deliberately  to  acquire  mastery 
of  the  power  of  clear  expression.  He  thus  described 
what  he  did: 

"When  a  mere  child  I  used  to  get  irritated  when  any- 
body talked  to  me  in  a  way  I  could  not  understand.  I 
do  not  think  I  ever  got  angry  at  anything  else  in  my 
life;  but  that  always  disturbed  my  temper,  and  has  ever 
since.  I  can  remember  going  to  my  little  bedroom,  after 
hearing  the  neighbors  talk  of  an  evening  with  my  father, 
and  spending  no  small  part  of  the  night  walking  up  and 
down  trying  to  make  out  what  was  the  exact  meaning 
of  some  of  their,  to  me,  dark  sayings. 

"I  could  not  sleep  when  I  got  on  such  a  hunt  for  an 
idea  until  I  had  caught  it;  and  when  I  thought  I  had 
got  it,  I  was  not  satisfied  until  I  had  put  it  in  language 
plain  enough,  as  I  thought,  for  any  boy  to  comprehend. 
This  was  a  kind  of  passion  with  me,  and  it  has  stuck  by 
me;  for  I  am  never  easy  now,  when  I  am  handling  a 
thought,  till  I  have  bounded  it  north,  and  bounded  it 
south,  and  bounded  it  east,  and  bounded  it  west." 

It  was  in  consequence  of  this  rigid  self-training  that 
his  writings  are  all  marked  by  terseness  and  simplicity 
of  statement.  In  all  he  wrote  and  all  he  said,  he  sought 
to  be  persuasive,  and  to  his  mind  that  meant,  above  all 
things,   to   be    clear.      He    dealt    always    with    essentials 


14  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

which  he  knew  thoroughly.  In  preparation  for  a  speech 
he  saturated  himself  with  his  subject,  studying  it  from 
all  sides,  handling  it,  and  living  with  it  night  and  day. 
As  he  phrased  it  once  to  his  law-partner,  Herndon,  when 
deep  in  the  preparation  of  a  case,  "If  I  can  clean  this 
case  of  technicalities  and  get  it  properly  to  the  jury, 
I'll  win  it."  All  his  writings  show  his  purpose  of  strip- 
ping away  the  technicalities  and  getting  the  case  prop- 
erly to  the  jury.  He  was  not  a  quick  thinker;  rather 
he  thought  slowly,  even  with  difficulty,  but  profoundly, 
and  with  the  information  available,  accurately.  Above 
all  else  he  sought  accurate  thinking  as  a  necessary 
preliminary  to  clear  and  persuasive  expression.  Thus, 
when  finally  he  came  to  the  discussion  of  the  question, 
he  could  state  his  propositions  with  perfect  exactness 
and  in  a  very  compact  way. 

This  power  of  compression  enabled  him  to  state  the 
vital  point  of  his  argument  in  a  few  words  or  sentences 
which  impressed  themselves  indelibly  on  the  minds  of  his 
hearers.  A  remarkable  instance  of  this  is  found  in  his 
Springfield  speech  of  1858  where  he  stated  his  final 
conclusion  on  the  slavery  question  in  these  words : 

"A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  I  be- 
lieve this  government  cannot  endure  half  slave  and  half 
free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved — 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." 

Along  with  compactness  and  clarity  of  expression 
went  systematic  building  up  of  his  argument,  readiness 
in  apt  comparisons,  often  lighted  up  with  keen  wit,  and 
relentless  pursuit  of  an  opponent's  errors  in  fact  or 
logic. 

How  and  where  did  Lincoln  learn  how  to  write  is  a 
question  often  asked.  A  clever  and  not  wholly  in- 
adequate   answer    is    that    he    "learned    to    reason    with 


INTRODUCTIOX  15 

Euclid  and  to  feel  and  speak  with  the  authors  of  the 
Bible."  Really  the  whole  truth  is  not  far  to  seek.  His 
purpose  and  his  guide  in  expression  which  greatly  in- 
fluenced his  writing  and  speaking  have  been  described. 
But,  self-taught^  he  had  to  have  models.  As  has  been 
frequently  pointed  out,  he  might,  under  different 
circumstances,  have  been  familiar  with  the  work  of 
Bryant,  Poe,  Hawthorne,  Emerson,  Lowell,  Whittier, 
Holmes,  Longfellow,  and  Thoreau.  There  is  no  reason, 
however,  to  believe  that  he  knew  any  of  them.  His 
models  were  of  a  different  sort.  As  a  hoy,  forming  then 
rapidly  the  man,  he  read  the  Bible,  ^Esop's  Fables, 
Weems's  Life  of  Washington,  The  Pilgrim's  Progress, 
Robinson  Crusoe,  a  small  history  of  the  United  States, 
a  volume  of  Indiana  statutes,  and  Webster's  spelling 
book.  Later  in  life  he  acquired  Blackstone's  Com- 
mentaries and  became  familiar  with  Shakespeare.  These 
were  his  textbooks. 

The  contrast  between  this  small  list  and  the  titles 
now  within  the  reach  and  at  the  command  of  most  young 
people  is  striking;  and  yet  the  contrast  is  one  of  size 
rather  than  of  quality.  Lincoln  could  hardly  have  had 
a  higher  average  of  quality  in  his  library,  and  the  very 
smallness  of  the  collection,  making  every  word  precious, 
served  to  impress  their  form  and  thought  upon  his  mind 
in  a  very  striking  way.  In  other  words  he  not  only, 
like  any  eager  and  intellectually  curious  boy,  devoured 
them;  he  digested  and  assimilated  them  completely. 

All  influenced  him  doubtless.  From  Weems's  remark- 
able work  of  fiction  he  drew  his  first  hero-worship  and 
possibly  his  first  conscious  devotion  to  the  country  his 
hero  had  so  gloriously  made  and  served.  From  the  law 
books  he  acquired,  doubtless,  a  part  of  his  exactness  and 
accuracy  of  statement,  and  possibly  no  small  part  of  his 
power  of  logical  organization  and  thinking.  The  in- 
fluence of  iEsop's  Fables  is  easily  traced  in  his  speeches 
as  well  as  in  the  stories  for  which  he  was  famous.     All 


16  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

of  liis  stories  were  in  a  sense  allegorical.  He  never 
told  one,  at  least  in  his  speeches,  which  did  not  emphasize 
a  point  he  wished  to  make. 

But  of  all  these,  the  Bible  and  Shakespeare  con- 
tributed the  most  to  his  style  and  his  thought.  The 
Bible  began  its  impress  when  he  was  a  mere  child  and 
it  continued  to  make  it  all  his  life,  becoming  more 
marked  in  the  seriousness  of  his  later  years.  He  never 
ceased  to  read  it,  and  in  the  last  year  of  his  life,  he 
wrote  a  close  friend,  "I  am  profitably  engaged  in  read- 
ing the  Bible.  Take  all  of  this  book  upon  reason  that 
you  can  and  the  balance  upon  faith,  and  you  will  live 
and  die  a  better  man."  In  all  his  writings  his  familiarity 
with  it  is  apparent,  not  only  in  his  frequent  quotations 
and  allusions,  but  possibly  more  in  the  form  and  flavor 
of  his  speech  and  the  "high  seriousness"  which  char- 
acterized his  thought.  Shakespeare,  coming  into  his 
hands  later  in  life,  did  not  make  so  deep  an  impression. 

Lincoln's  achievement  thus  described  did  not  come  all 
at  once.  In  many  of  his  early  writings  are  touches  of 
florid  style,  but  he  soon  found  that  because  these  were 
not  natural  they  were  not  effective,  and,  abandoning 
them,  returned  to  his  native  simplicity,  in  which  and 
through  which  in  part  he  was  to  win  fame.  In  American 
political  literature  he  began  a  new  era,  setting  a  stand- 
ard which  influenced  profoundly  not  only  that  narrow 
field  but  the  whole  field  of  American  literature.  He 
began  the  movement  toward  simplicity  that  was  in  time 
to  make  the  high-colored  speeclies  and  essays  of  Amer- 
ican politicians  seem  absurd  in  this  Country  as  well  as 
abroad.  His  service  here  is  one  that  should  not  be 
measured  lightly. 

In  most  of  his  speeches  and  nearly  all  his  letters  he 
was  perfectly  natural.  Popularly  known  as  a  humorist 
with  rather  a  coarse  strain  of  humor,  little  or  none  of 
this  appears  in  his  formal  writings  and  little  more  in  his 
letters.      Nor  was   there   in  his   speeches   any   straining 


INTRODUCTION  17 

for  popular  treatment.  In  his  debates  with  Douglas, 
he  was  urged  to  treat  his  subject  in  this  way,  and  re- 
plied, "The  occasion  is  too  serious,  the  issues  are  too 
grave.  I  do  not  seek  applause,  or  to  arouse  the  people, 
but  to  convince  them." 

In  fact,  his  speeches  are  marked  by  reserve  and 
dignity,  but  they  are  seasoned  with  an  original  and 
homely  flavor  that  carried  them  direct  to  the  mind  and 
heart  of  the  hearer  or  reader.  And  this  was  his  purpose. 
There  is  nothing  to  indicate  any  purpose,  at  least  in  his 
maturer  years,  of  making  "literature."  He  acquired 
through  close  study  of  excellent  models  a  sense  of  form 
that  became  almost  instinctive,  but,  after  all,  beauty  of 
form  was  to  him,  like  clarity,  chiefly  an  agency  to 
persuasion. 

In  his  writings  are  evident  the  deep  conviction  which 
moved  him  and  an  essential  honesty  of  purpose.  He 
was  contemptuous  of  tricks  of  public  speaking  and  scorn- 
ful of  the  "specious  and  fantastic  arguments  by  which 
a  man  may  prove  that  a  horse-chestnut  is  a  chestnut 
horse,"  and  of  "sophistical  contrivances  groping  for 
some  middle  ground  between  right  and  wrong."  Honest 
in  purpose,  he  consistently  practiced  honesty  of  method 
and  expression,  which  made  courts  and  juries  believe  in 
him,  and,  more  important  still,  caught  the  ear  and  atten- 
tion of  that  great  jury,  the  people,  to  which  he  addressed 
himself.  With  all  his  conviction  and  "energy  of  honest 
directness,"  he  was  not  a  person  unable  to  change  an 
opinion.  Taxed  once  with  such  a  change,  he  said,  "Yes, 
I  have,  and  I  don't  think  much  of  a  man  who  isn't  wiser 
today  than  he  was  yesterdav."  In  this  connection 
Lowell  aptly  says,  "The  foolish  and  the  dead  alone 
never  change  their  opinion." 

Another  explanation  of  Lincoln's  power  lies  in  his 
possession  of  a  keen,  profound,  and  sympathetic  knowl- 
edge of  the  human  mind  and  heart.  Part  of  this  was 
sheer  instinct;  more,  perhaps,  was  the  result  of  long  and 


18  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

wide  experience  with  men,  beginning  with  those  of  an 
almost  primitive  society.  He  knew  the  average  man 
well,  both  as  to  his  mind  and  his  heart,  and  to  the 
average  man  most  of  his  arguments  were  directed.  They 
lost  nothing  from  the  fact  that  they  were  always  ad- 
dressed to  the  intelligence  of  men  rather  than  to  their 
prejudices,  passions,  and  ignorance.  They  gain  tre- 
mendously in  the  later  years  in  the  seeming  invitation 
of  them  all  to  come  and  reason  together.  There  is  in 
them  no  pride  of  self  or  pride  of  opinion.  Here  as 
elsewhere,  as  Lowell  says,  Lincoln's  "I"  always  sounds 
like  "we.'* 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  he  failed  in 
conception  of  his  own  powers  and  his  own  place.  Ready 
always  to  sink  all  thought  of  self  in  a  great  cause,  he 
knew  when  to  assume  the  dignity  of  his  place  and  posi- 
tion. The  reply  to  Seward's  famous  "Thoughts  for  the 
President's  Consideration"  is  an  illustration  of  this. 
Upon  occasion,  too,  he  could  be  severe,  as  in  the  letters 
to  McClellan  and  Hooker.  But  in  spite  of  these  cases, 
the  impression  grows  as  study  of  him  continues,  that 
infinite  patience  and  sweetness  of  spirit  were  among  his 
most  characteristic  possessions. 

The  lives  of  few  Americans  have  offered  so  much 
opportunity  for  fascinating  and  profitable  study  as  that 
of  Lincoln.  That  this  is  so  is  proved  by  the  great  flood 
of  Lincoln  literature  which  has  been  poured  out  since 
1865,  and  also  by  the  fact  that  he  is  a  familiar  figure, 
not  only  to  an  extraordinary  number  of  Americans,  but 
also  to  thousands  in  other  lands,  who  have  come  to  know 
him  as  they  know  no  other  American. 

But  it  is  well  to  note  that,  partly  on  account  of  the 
circumstances  of  his  death,  and  partly  on  account  of  the 
peculiar  relation  he  bore  to  tlie  nation,  a  semi-mythical 
Lincoln  has  grown  up  in  the  popular  mind.  In  this 
misrepresentation  Lincoln  has  suffered.  A  man  de- 
ified   is    apt    in    time   to   be   robbed   of    all   that   makes 


IXTRODUCTIOX  19 

him  akin  to  mere  mortals,  and  in  that  very  kinship, 
that  identification  with  the  mass  of  Americans,  lies  a 
large  part  of  Lincoln's  greatness.  He  gains  nothing  in 
the  ascription  to  him  in  this  way  of  wisdom  more  than 
human,  of  goodness  that  might  well  be  called  divine.  To 
no  one  more  than  Lincoln  himself  would  such  a  false 
portraiture  have  been  unwelcome;  to  no  one  would  it 
have  seemed  more  misplaced.  An  American  to  the  core, 
he  found  his  greatest  fame  in  representing  the  people 
from  whom  he  was  sprung.  Their  virtues,  their  ideals, 
were  his,  and,  none  the  less,  their  faults.  He  was  not, 
perhaps,  the  wisest  nor  the  best  man  America  has  pro- 
duced, but  he  was  beyond  all  doubt  the  most  humanly 
representative.  It  is  no  error  to  call  him,  as  did  Lowell, 
the  first  American.  It  was  this  very  fact,  this  identifica- 
tion with  the  spirit  of  the  nation,  the  likeness  of  his 
great  human  heart  to  the  heart  of  the  whole  people, 
which  gave  him  his  peculiar  greatness,  which  enabled 
him  to  fill,  as  no  other  man  in  our  history  could  have 
filled,  the  presidential  office  in  the  period  of  greatest 
national  stress. 

Much  space  and  energy,  not  to  mention  ingenuity, 
have  been  spent  in  the  effort  to  prove  Lincoln  marked 
from  his  youth  as  a  child  of  Destiny.  All  the  truth 
points  to  the  contrary.  Hundreds  of  Americans  of 
equally  humble  origin  and  small  opportunity  have  dis- 
played the  equal  of  the  ability  displayed  by  Lincoln 
before  his  inauguration.  Those  well  qualified  to  judge 
found  in  him  no  evidences  of  greatness.  Stanton  was 
associated  with  him  in  1857  in  a  lawsuit  and  regarded 
him  as  "a  low,  cunning  clown."  Later  he  was  to  call 
him  "the  original  gorilla,"  and  wonder  w^hy  Du  Chaillu 
had  gone  all  the  way  to  Africa.  He  wrote  Buchanan  in 
1861  of  Lincoln's  "painful  imbecility,"  and  even  after 
he  became  a  member  of  Lincoln's  cabinet  is  said  to  have 
informed  a  visitor,  who  presented  some  order  from  the 
President,  that  Lincoln  was  a  "d — d  fool."      Lincoln's 


20  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

comment,  thoroughly  characteristic,  exhibits  what  may 
justly  be  considered  a  part  of  his  greatness;  namely  his 
power  of  humorous  comprehension.  "If  Stanton,"  said 
he,  "said  I  was  a  d — d  fool,  then  I  must  be  one,  for 
he  is  nearly  always  right  and  generally  says  what  he 
means.  I  must  step  over  and  see  him."  Nor  was  the 
irascible  and  conceited  Stanton  alone  in  criticism;  it 
was  widespread.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  as  late  as 
1873,  said  that  Lincoln,  when  he  entered  upon  his  duties 
as  President,  displayed  "moral,  intellectual,  and  execu- 
tive incompetency."  This  feeling  is  also  expressed  by 
the  younger  Charles  Francis  Adams  in  his  biography  of 
his  father:  "Seen  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  it 
is  assumed  that  Lincoln  in  I860  was  also  the  Lincoln  of 
1861.  Historically  speaking,  there  can  be  no  greater 
error.  The  President,  who  has  since  become  a  species 
of  legend,  was  in  March,  1861,  an  absolutely  unknown, 
and  by  no  means  promising  political  quantity." 

Two  sane  and  contemporary  views  of  Lincoln  furnish 
a  good  guide  for  the  study  of  his  life.  John  Lothrop 
Motley  wrote  his  mother,  "I  venerate  Abraham  Lincoln 
exactly  because  he  is  the  true,  honest  type  of  American 
democracy.  There  is  nothing  of  the  shabby-genteel,  the 
would-be-but-couldn't-be  fine  gentleman ;  he  is  the  great 
American  Demos,  honest,  shrewd,  homely,  but  through 
blunders  struggling  onward  toward  what  he  believes  the 
right."     Ward  Lamon,  Lincoln's  intimate  friend,  wrote : 

"With  all  my  affection,  admiration,  love,  and  venera- 
tion for  Mr.  Lincoln,  I  have  never  been  one  of  those 
who  believed  him  immaculate  and  incapable  of  making 
mistakes.  He  was  human  and  in  the  nature  of  things 
was  liable  to  err,  yet  he  erred  less  often  than  other  men. 
He  had  amiable  weaknesses,  some  of  which  only  the 
more  ennobled  him. 

"It  is  no  compliment  to  his  memory  to  smother  from 
the  closest  scrutinv  anv  of  the  acts  of  his  life  and  trans- 


INTRODUCTION  21 

figure  him  by  fulsome  deification,  so  that  his  most  inti- 
mate friends  cannot  recognize  the  Abraham  Lincoln  of 
former  davs.  The  truth  of  history  requires  that  he 
should  be  placed  on  the  reqord  now  that  he  is  dead,  as 
he  stood  before  the  people  while  living.  Whatever  mis- 
takes he  made  were  made  through  the  purest  of  motives. 
All  his  faults,  all  his  amiable  weaknesses,  and  all  his 
virtues  should  be  written  on  the  same  pages,  so  that  the 
world  may  know  the  true  man  as  his  friends  knew  him." 
It  is  fairly  evident  that  Lincoln  did  not  exhibit,  prior 
to  1861,  the  greatness  that  was  later  beyond  dispute. 
The  debates  with  Douglas  were  those  of  a  clever,  one 
may  almost  say  supreme,  politician,  but  they  went  no 
further.  Lincoln  at  this  time  was  essentially  the  poli- 
tician, albeit  one  of  conviction,  and  while  he  did  not 
play  with  principles,  he  frequently  juggled  with  men. 
The  debates,  it  is  true,  were  sincere,  but  sincerity,  if 
rare,  is  not  greatness.  The  war  made  Lincoln  great, 
not  because  it  made  him  anew,  but  because  it  gave  his 
nature  opportunity  for  expansion,  and,  still  more,  be- 
cause of  the  discipline  it  gave  his  character.  All  his 
qualities,  save  his  honesty,  needed  the  purification,  which 
the  furnace  of  war  was  to  effect,  to  develop  the  new 
Lincoln,  far  different  from  the  old  and  yet  always  the 
same.  The  new  Lincoln  had  the  same  keen,  almost 
intuitive,  knowledge  of  men,  but  was  softened  by  a 
deeper  and  tenderer  sympathy.  The  beautiful  letter  to 
Mrs.  Bixby,  for  example,  so  natural  from  the  Lincoln  of 
1864,  could  not  have  been  penned  by  the  Lincoln  of 
1861.  And  so  we  find  the  same  qualities  of  leadership, 
guided  now  by  a  new  tact,  and  the  same  devotion  to  a 
cause,  strengthened  now  by  a  loftier  purpose  and  a 
willingness  to  endure  personal  sacrifice — if  need  be,  to 
offer  himself  upon  the  altar  of  his  country.  This  change 
is  clearly  to  be  seen  in  a  contrast  of  the  closing  words  of 
his  two  inaugural  addresses.  The  Lincoln  of  1861  could 
say  with  feeling: 


22  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

"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  chords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every  battle- 
field and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and  hearth- 
stone 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." 

But  only  the  Lincoln  of  1864  could  say  with  the  depth 
and  feeling  developed  under  the  stern  discipline  of  war: 

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

"With  malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for  all;  with 
firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right, 
let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in;  to  bind  up 
the  nation's  wounds ;  to  care  for  him  who  sliall  have 
borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow,  and  his  orphan — 


INTRODUCTIOX  23 

to    do  all  which  may   achieve   and   cherish   a   just   and 
lasting  peace  among  ourselves,   and   with   all  nations." 

The  study  of  his  life  and  words  leads  to  the  conviction 
that  in  his  heart,  rather  than  in  his  brain,  is  to  be  found 
the  secret  of  this  development.  Indeed  there  is  to  be 
found  the  explanation  of  his  real  relation  to  the  nation's 
history,  and  the  place  he  holds  in  the  affections  of  his 
countrymen.  Regardless  of  war  with  the  Southern 
states,  to  him  all  Americans,  North,  South,  East,  and 
West,  were  his  kindred  and  fellow-countrymen.  His 
heart  held  room  for  all  and  felt  with  all.  Maurice 
Thompson,  a  Confederate  soldier,  has  aptly  given  ex- 
pression to  this  thought,  saying: 

"He  was  the  Southern  mother,  leaning  forth 

At  dead  of  night  to  hear  the  cannon  roar. 

Beseeching  God  to  turn  the  cruel  North 

And  break  it  that  her  son  might  come  once  more ; 

He  was  New  England's  maiden,  pale  and  pure. 

Whose  gallant  lover  fell  on  Shiloh's  plain. 

He  was  the  mangled  body  of  the  dead ; 

He,  writhing,  did  endure 

Wounds   and  disfigurement  and   racking  pain, 

Gangrene  and  amputation,  all  things  dread." 

It  is  fitting  that  the  man  who  occupies  Lincoln's  place 
in  American  history  and  in  the  affections  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  should  not  have  sprung  from  one  stock  or  one 
section.  Born  in  the  South  of  Southern  and  Northern 
ancestry,  reared  in  the  West  and  filled  with  the  essen- 
tials of  Western  political  democracy  and  nationalism, 
he  had  something  of  each  of  these  three  great  sections 
into  which  the  country  was  then  divided  and  was  in 
personality  representative  of  each,  though  less  so  of 
the  North  than  of  the  South  and  West.  This  kinship 
is  eloquently  expressed  by  Henry  Grady: 

"From   the    union    of   these    Northern    and    Southern 


24  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

colonists,  from  the  straightening  of  their  purposes  and 
the  crossing  of  their  blood,  slowly  perfecting  through  a 
century,  came  he  who  stands  as  the  first  American,  the 
first  who  comprehended  within  himself  all  the  strength 
and  gentleness,  all  the  majesty  and  grace  of  this  re- 
public— Abraham   Lincoln. 

"He  was  the  sum  of  Puritan  and  Cavalier,  for  in  his 
ardent  nature  were  fused  the  virtues  of  both,  and  in  the 
depths  of  his  great  soul  the  faults  of  both  were  lost. 
He  was  greater  than  Puritan,  greater  than  Cavalier,  in 
that  he  was  American,  and  that  in  his  homely  form 
were  first  gathered  the  vast  and  thrilling  forces  of  his 
ideal  government — charging  it  with  such  tremendous 
meaning  and  so  elevating  it  above  human  suffering  that 
martyrdom,  though  infamously  aimed,  came  as  a  fitting 
crown  to  a  life  consecrated  from  the  cradle  to  human 
liberty." 

Lincoln  is  not  only  the  miracle  of  the  great  man,  a 
miracle  which  constantly  puzzles  the  world  afresh ;  he  is 
the  best  example  of  the  American  miracle.  American  to 
the  core,  he  owed  little  or  nothing  to  the  Old  World 
directly,  nothing  beyond  the  common  heritage  of  Ameri- 
cans.    Lowell  might  well  say: 

"People  of  sensitive  organizations  may  well  be 
shocked,  but  we  are  glad  that  in  this  our  true  war  of  in- 
dependence, which  is  to  free  us  forever  from  the  Old 
World,  we  have  at  the  head  of  affairs  a  man  whom 
America  made,  as  God  made  Adam  out  of  the  very  earth, 
unancestried,  unprivileged,  unknown,  to  show  us  how 
much  truth,  how  much  magnanimity,  and  how  much 
statecraft  wait  the  call  of  opportunity  in  simple  man- 
hood when  it  believes  in  the  justice  of  God  and  the 
worth  of  Man." 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  LINCOLN'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 

1809     February    12,    born    near    Hodgensville,    Hardin 

(now  La  Rue)  County,  Kentucky. 
1816      His  family  moved  to  Gentry ville,  Indiana. 

1818  His  mother,  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln,  died. 

1819  His   father  remarried. 
1826     Attended  school. 

1828  Made  trip  to  New  Orleans  on  a  flatboat. 

1829  Moved   to   a   clearing  on    Sangamon    River,   near 

Decatur,  Illinois. 

1831  Made  second  trip  to  New  Orleans  on  a  flatboat. 

1832  Captain  in  the  Black  Hawk  War. 
Unsuccessful  candidate  for  legislature. 

1833  Storekeeper,  postmaster,  and  surveyor. 

1834  Elected  to  legislature. 

1836  Reelected  to  legislature. 

Whig  candidate  for  presidential  elector. 

1837  Studied  law  and  admitted  to  bar. 

1838  Reelected  to  legislature. 

1840     Whig  candidate  for  presidential  elector. 
1842     Married  Mary  Todd. 

1844     Canvassed  state  as  a  Whig  candidate  for  presi- 
dential elector. 
1846     Elected  to  Congress. 
1849     Retired  from  Congress. 

1854  Elected  to  legislature. 
October  16,  The  Peoria  Speech. 

1855  Candidate  for  United  States  Senator. 

1858      Nominated   for  Senate  by   Republican   party. 
June  16,  The  Springfield  Speech. 
The  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates: 
August  21,  Ottawa. 
25 


26  SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX 

August  27,  Freeport. 
September  15,  Jonesboro. 
September  18,  Charleston. 
October  7,  Galesburg. 
October  13,  Quincy. 
October  15,  Alton. 

1859  September  16,  The  Columbus  Speech. 

1860  February  27,  The  Cooper  Union  Speech. 
May  18,  Nominated  for  President. 
November  6,  Elected  President. 

1861  March  4,   Inaugurated  President. 
April   13,  Fall  of  Fort  Sumter. 
April   15,  Call  for  troops. 

1862  September  22,  Preliminary  Emancipation  Procla- 

mation. 

1863  January  1,  Emancipation  Proclamation. 
November  19,  The  Gettysburg  Address. 
December  8,  The  Amnesty   Proclamation. 
December  8,  Gave  outline  of  plan  of  reconstruc- 
tion. 

186t     June  8,  Renominated  for  President. 

November  8,  Reelected  President. 
1 865      March   4,  The  second  inauguration. 

April  14,  Mortally  wounded. 

April  15,  Died. 


SELECTIONS  FROM  THE  AVRITINGS 
OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


"First  pure,  then  peaceable,  gentle,  and  easy  to  be  entreated, 
full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits,  without  partiality  and  without 
hypocrisy." 


COPYRIGHT  BROWN,   ROBERTSON  A   CO.,  INC. 

THE    BOY    LINCOLN 


I 

GROWTH  AND  TRAINING 

The  important  facts  of  Lincoln's  life  up  to  the  time  of  his 
nomination  for  the  Presidency  are  interestingly  told  in  the  fol- 
lowing autobiographical  sketch,  written  at  the  request  of  a 
friend  for  use  in  the  campaign  of  1860.  The  sketch  is  an  excel- 
lent example  of  his  terse,  compressed  style  of  narration,  giving 
every  essential  fact,  and  yet  using  scarcely  an  unnecessary 
word.  This  facility  of  narration  is  noticeable  in  his  later 
speeches  and  was  very  effective. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

[Written  for  the  Campaign  of  1860] 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  February  12,  1809,  then 
in  Hardin,  now  in  the  more  recently  formed  county  of 
La  Rue,  Kentucky.  His  father,  Thomas,  and  grand- 
father, Abraham,  were  born  in  Rockingham  County, 
Virginia,  whither  their  ancestors  had  come  from  Berks 
County,  Pennsylvania.  His  lineage  has  been  traced  no 
farther  back  than  this.*  The  family  were  originally 
Quakers,  though  in  later  times  they  have  fallen  away 
from  the  peculiar  habits  of  that  people.  The  grand- 
father, Abraham,  had  four  brothers — Isaac,  Jacob,  John, 
and  Thomas.  So  far  as  known,  the  descendants  of 
Jacob  and  John  are  still  in  Virginia.  Isaac  went  to  a 
place  near  where  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and  Tennes- 
see join;  and  his  descendants  are  in  that  region. 
Thomas  came  to  Kentucky,  and  after  many  years  died 
there,  whence  his  descendants  went  to  Missouri.     Abra- 

*  After  Lincoln's  death,  research  into  his  family  history  estab- 
lished the  fact  that  he  was  descended  from  Samuel  Lincoln,  who 
came  to  New  England  in  1657. 

29 


30  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

Iiani,  grandfather  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  came  to 
Kentuck}',  and  was  killed  by  Indians  about  the  year 
1784.  He  left  a  widow,  three  sons,  and  two  daughters. 
The  eldest  son,  JNIordecai,  remained  in  Kentucky  till  late 
in  life,  when  he  removed  to  Hancock  County,  Illinois, 
where  soon  after  he  died,  and  where  several  of  his 
descendants  still  remain.  The  second  son,  Josiah,  re- 
moved at  an  early  day  to  a  place  on  Blue  River,  now 
within  Hancock  County,  Indiana,  but  no  recent  infor- 
mation of  him  or  his  family  has  been  obtained.  The 
eldest  sister,  Mary,  married  Ralph  CrUme,  and  some  of 
her  descendants  are  now  known  to  be  in  Breckinridge 
County,  Kentucky.  The  second  sister,  Nancy,  married 
William  Brumfield,  and  her  family  are  not  known  to 
have  left  Kentucky,  but  there  is  no  recent  information 
from  them.  Thomas,  the  youngest  son,  and  father  of 
the  present  subject,  by  the  early  death  of  his  father, 
and  very  narrow  circumstances  of  his  mother,  even  in 
childhood  was  a  wandering  laboring-boy,  and  grew  up 
literally  without  education.  He  never  did  more  in  the 
way  of  writing  than  to  bunglingly  write  his  own  name. 
Before  he  was  grown  he  passed  one  year  as  a  hired  hand 
with  his  Uncle  Isaac  on  Watauga,  a  branch  of  the 
Holston  River.  Getting  back  into  Kentucky,  and  hav- 
ing reached  this  twenty-eighth  year,  he  married  Nancy 
Hanks — mother  of  the  present  subject — in  the  year 
1806.  She  also  was  born  in  Virginia,  and  relatives  of 
hers  of  the  name  of  Hanks,  and  of  other  names,  now 
reside  in  Coles,  in  Macon,  and  in  Adams  Counties,  Illi- 
nois, and  also  in  Iowa.  The  present  subject  has  no 
brother  or  sister  of  the  whole  or  half  blood.  He  had  a 
sister,  older  than  himself,  who  was  grown  and  married, 
but  died  many  years  ago,  leaving  no  child ;  also  a 
brother,  younger  than  himself,  who  died  in  infancy. 
Before  leaving  Kentucky,  he  and  his  sister  were  sent, 
for  short  periods,  to  A  B  C  schools,  the  first  kept  by 
Zachariah  Riney,  and  the  second  by  Caleb  Hazel. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  31 

At  this  time  his  father  resided  on  Knob  Creek,  on 
the  road  from  Bardstown,  Kentucky,  to  Nashville,  Ten- 
nessee, at  a  point  three  or  three  and  a  half  miles  south 
or  southwest  of  Atherton's  Ferry,  on  the  Rolling  Fork. 
From  this  place  he  removed  to  what  is  now  Spencer 
County,  Indiana,  in  the  autumn  of  1816,  Abraham 
then  being  in  his  eighth  year.  This  removal  was  partly 
on  account  of  slavery,  but  chiefly  on  account  of  the  dif- 
ficulty in  land  titles  in  Kentucky.  He  settled  in  an 
unbroken  forest,  and  the  clearing  away  of  surplus  wood 
was  the  great  task  ahead.  Abraham,  though  very 
young,  was  large  of  his  age,  and  had  an  ax  put  into 
his  hands  at  once;  and  from  that  till  within  his  twenty- 
third  year  he  was  almost  constantly  handling  that  most 
useful  instrument  —  less,  of  course,  in  plowing  and 
harvesting  seasons.  At  this  place  Abraham  took  an  early 
start  as  a  hunter,  which  was  never  much  improved 
afterwards.  A  few  days  before  the  completion  of  his 
eighth  year,  in  the  absence  of  his  father,  a  flock  of  wild 
turkeys  approached  the  new  log  cabin,  and  Abraham 
with  a  rifle-gun,  standing  inside,  shot  through  a  crack 
and  killed  one  of  them.  He  has  never  since  pulled  a 
trigger  on  any  larger  game.  In  the  autumn  of  1818 
his  mother  died;  and  a  year  afterwards  his  father 
married  Mrs.  Sally  Johnston,  at  Elizabethtown,  Ken- 
tucky, a  widow  with  three  children  of  her  first  mar- 
riage. She  proved  a  good  and  kind  mother  to  Abra- 
ham, and  is  still  living  in  Coles  County,  Illinois.  There 
were  no  children  of  this  second  marriage.  His  father's 
residence  continued  at  the  same  place  in  Indiana  till 
1830.     While  here  Abraham  went  to  A  B  C  schools  by 

littles,    kept    successively    by    Andrew    Crawford,    

Sweeney,  and  Azel  W.  Dorsey.  He  does  not  remem- 
ber any  other.  The  family  of  Mr.  Dorsey  now  re- 
sides in  Schuyler  County,  Illinois.  Abraham  now 
thinks  that  the  aggregate  of  all  his  schooling  did  not 
amount   to   one   year.     He   was    never   in   a    college    or 


32  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

academy  as  a  student,  and  never  inside  of  a  college  or 
academy  building  till  since  he  had  a  law  license.  What 
he  has  in  the  way  of  education  he  has  picked  up. 
After  he  was  twenty-three  and  had  separated  from  his 
father,  he  studied  English  grammar — imperfectly,  of 
course,  but  so  as  to  speak  and  write  as  well  as  he  now 
does.  He  studied  and  nearly  mastered  the  six  books 
of  Euclid  since  he  was  a  member  of  Congress.  He 
regrets  his  want  of  education,  and  does  what  he  can  to 
supply  the  want.  In  his  tenth  year  he  was  kicked  by  a 
horse,  and  apparently  killed  for  a  time.  When  he  was 
nineteen,  still  residing  in  Indiana,  he  made  his  first 
trip  upon  a  flatboat  to  New  Orleans.  He  was  a  hired 
hand  merely,  and  he  and  a  son  of  the  owner,  without 
other  assistance,  made  the  trip.  The  nature  of  part 
of  the  "cargo-load,"  as  it  was  called,  made  it  necessary 
for  them  to  linger  and  trade  along  the  sugar-coast;  and 
one  night  they  were  attacked  by  seven  negroes  with  in- 
tent to  kill  and  rob  them.  They  were  hurt  some  in  the 
melee,  but  succeeded  in  driving  the  negroes  from  the 
boat,  and  then  "cut  cable,"  "weighed  anchor,"  and  left. 
March  1,  1830,  Abraham  having  just  completed  his 
twenty-first  year,  his  father  and  family,  with  the  fami- 
lies of  the  two  daughters  and  sons-in-law  of  his  step- 
mother, left  the  old  homestead  in  Indiana  and  came  to 
Illinois.  Their  mode  of  conveyance  was  wagons  drawn 
by  ox-teams,  and  Abraham  drove  one  of  the  teams. 
They  reached  the  county  of  Macon,  and  stopped  there 
some  time  within  the  same  month  of  March.  His  father 
and  family  settled  a  new  place  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Sangamon  River,  at  the  junction  of  the  timberland  and 
prairie,  about  ten  miles  westerly  from  Decatur.  Here 
they  built  a  log  cabin,  into  which  they  removed,  and 
made  sufficient  of  rails  to  fence  ten  acres  of  ground, 
fenced  and  broke  the  ground,  and  raised  a  crop  of 
sown  corn  upon  it  the  same  year.  These  are,  or  are 
supposed  to  be,  the  rails  about  which  so  much  is  being 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  33 

said  just  now,  though  these  are  far  from  being  the 
first   or   only   rails    ever   made   by   Abraham. 

The  sons-in-law  were  temporarily  settled  in  other 
places  in  the  county.  In  the  autumn  all  hands  were 
greatly  afflicted  with  ague  and  fever,  to  which  they  had 
not  been  used,  and  by  which  they  were  greatly  dis- 
couraged, so  much  so  that  they  determined  on  leaving 
the  county.  They  remained,  however,  through  the 
succeeding  winter,  which  was  the  winter  of  the  cele- 
brated "deep  snow"  of  Illinois.  During  that  winter 
Abraham,  together  with  his  stepmother's  son,  John  D. 
Johnston,  and  John  Hanks,  yet  residing  in  Macon 
County,  hired  themselves  to  Denton  Offutt  to  take  a 
flatboat  from  Beardstown,  Illinois,  to  New  Orleans; 
and  for  that  purpose  were  to  join  him — Offutt — at 
Springfield,  Illinois,  so  soon  as  the  snow  should  go  off. 
When  it  did  go  off,  which  was  about  the  first  of  March, 
1831,  the  county  was  so  flooded  as  to  make  traveling  by 
land  impracticable,  to  obviate,  which  difficulty  they 
purchased  a  large  canoe,  and  came  down  the  Sangamon 
River  in  it.  This  is  the  time  and  manner  of  Abraham's 
first  entrance  into  Sangamon  County.  They  found 
Offutt  at  Springfield,  but  learned  from  him  that  he  had 
failed  in  getting  a  boat  at  Beardstown.  This  led  to 
their  hiring  themselves  to  him  for  twelve  dollars  per 
month  each,  and  getting  the  timber  out  of  the  trees  and 
building  a  boat  at  Old  Sangamon  town  on  the  San- 
gamon River,  seven  miles  northwest  of  Springfield, 
which  boat  they  took  to  New  Orleans,  substantially 
upon  the  old  contract. 

During  this  boat-enterprise  acquaintance  with  Offutt, 
who  was  previously  an  entire  stranger,  he  conceived  a 
liking  for  Abraham,  and  believing  he  could  turn  him  to 
account,  he  contracted  with  him  to  act  as  clerk  for  him, 
on  his  return  from  New  Orleans,  in  charge  of  a  store 
and  mill  at  New  Salem,  then  in  Sangamon,  now  in 
Menard  County.      Hanks  had  not  gone  to  New  Orleans, 


34  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

but  having  a  family,  and  being  likely  to  be  detained 
from  home  longer  than  at  first  expected,  had  turned 
back  from  St.  Louis.  He  is  the  same  John  Hanks  who 
now  engineers  the  "rail  enterprise"  at  Decatur,  and  is 
a  first  cousin  to  Abraham's  mother.  Abraham's  father, 
with  his  own  family  and  others  mentioned,  had,  in  pur- 
suance of  their  intention,  removed  from  Macon  to  Coles 
County.  John  D.  Johnston,  the  stepmother's  son, 
went  to  them,  and  Abraham  stopped  indefinitely  and 
for  the  first  time,  as  it  were,  by  himself  at  New  Salem, 
before  mentioned.  This  was  in  July,  1831.  Here  he 
rapidly  made  acquaintances  and  friends.  In  less  than 
a  year  Offutt's  business  was  failing — had  almost  failed 
— when  the  Black  Hawk  War  of  1832  broke  out.  Abra- 
ham joined  a  volunteer  company,  and,  to  his  own  sur- 
prise, was  elected  captain  of  it.  He  says  he  has  not 
since  had  any  success  in  life  which  gave  him  so  much 
satisfaction.  He  went  to  the  campaign,  served  near 
three  months,  met  the  ordinary  hardships  of  such  an 
expedition,  but  was  in  no  battle.  He  now  owns,  in 
Iowa,  the  land  upon  which  his  own  warrants  for  the 
service  *  were  located.  Returning  from  the  campaign, 
and  encouraged  by  his  great  popularity  among  his  im- 
mediate neighbors,  he  the  same  year  ran  for  the  legis- 
lature, and  was  beaten — his  own  precinct,  however, 
casting  its  votes  277  for  and  7  against  him — and  that, 
too,  while  he  was  an  avowed  Clay  man,  and  the  pre- 
cinct the  autumn  afterwards  giving  a  majority  of  115 
to  General  Jackson  over  Mr.  Clay.  This  was  the  only 
time  Abraham  was  ever  beaten  on  a  direct  vote  of  the 
people.  He  was  now  without  means  and  out  of  busi- 
ness, but  was  anxious  to  remain  with  his  friends  who 
had  treated  him  with  so  much  generosity,  especially  as 
he  had  nothing  elsewhere  to  go  to.  He  studied  what 
he  should  do — thought  of  learning  the  blacksmith  trade 

•  Military    service    was    paid    for    in    warrants    on    the    public 
lands. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  35 

— thought  of  trying  to  study  law — rather  thought  he 
could  not  succeed  at  that  without  a  better  education. 
Before  long,  strangely  enough,  a  man  offered  to  sell, 
and  did  sell  to  Abraham  and  another  as  poor  as  himself, 
an  old  stock  of  goods,  upon  credit.  They  opened  as 
merchants;  and  he  says  that  was  the  store.  Of  course 
they  did  nothing  but  get  deeper  and  deeper  in  debt.  He 
was  appointed  postmaster  at  New  Salem — the  office 
being  too  insignificant  to  make  his  politics  an  objection. 
The  store  winked  out.  The  surveyor  of  Sangamon 
offered  to  depute  to  Abraham  that  portion  of  his  work 
which  was  within  his  part  of  the  county.  He  accepted, 
procured  a  compass  and  chain,  studied  Flint  and  Gibson 
a  little,  and  went  at  it.  This  procured  bread,  and  kept 
soul  and  body  together.  The  election  of  1834  came, 
and  he  was  then  elected  to  the  legislature  by  the  high- 
est vote  cast  for  any  candidate.  Major  John  T.  Stuart, 
then  in  full  practice  of  the  law,  was  also  elected.  Dur- 
ing the  canvass,  in  a  private  conversation  he  encour- 
aged Abraham  [to]  study  law.  After  the  election  he 
borrowed  books  of  Stuart,  took  them  home  with  him, 
and  went  at  it  in  good  earnest.  He  studied  with  no- 
body. He  still  mixed  in  the  surveying  to  pay  board 
and  clothing  bills,  ^^^len  the  legislature  met,  the  law 
books  were  dropped,  but  were  taken  up  again  at  the  end 
of  the  session.  He  was  reelected  in  1836,  1838,  and 
1840.  In  the  autumn  of  1836  he  obtained  a  law 
license,  and  on  April  15,  1837,  removed  to  Springfield, 
and  commenced  the  practice — his  old  friend  Stuart  tak- 
ing him  into  partnership.  March  3,  1837,  by  a  protest 
entered  upon  the  "Illinois  House  Journal"  of  that 
date,  at  pages  817  and  818,  Abraham,  with  Dan  Stone, 
another  representative  of  Sangamon,  briefly  defined  his 
position  on  the  slavery  question;  and  so  far  as  it  goes, 
it  was  then  the  same  that  it  is  now.  The  protest  is  as 
follows : 


36         SELECTIONS  FROM  LIXCOLX 

"Resolutions  upon  the  subject  of  domestic  slavery 
having  passed  both  brandies  of  the  General  Assembly 
at  its  present  session,  the  undersigned  hereby  protest 
against  the  passage  of  the  same. 

"They  believe  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is 
founded  on  both  injustice  and  bad  policy,  but  that  the 
promulgation  of  Abolition  doctrines  tends  rather  to 
increase  than  abate  its  evils. 

"They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
has  no  power  under  the  Constitution  to  interfere  with 
the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  different  states. 

"They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
has  the  power,  under  the  Constitution,  to  abolish  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  but  that  the  power  ought 
not  to  be  exercised  unless  at  the  request  of  the  people 
of  the  District. 

"The  difference  between  these  opinions  and  those 
contained  in  the  above  resolutions  is  their  reason  for 
entering  this  protest. 

"Dax    Stone, 
"A.    Lincoln, 

"Representatives  from  the  County  of  Sangamon." 

In  1838  and  1840,  Mr.  Lincoln's  party  voted  for  him 
as  Speaker,  but  being  in  the  minority  he  was  not  elected. 
After  1840  he  declined  a  reelection  to  the  legislature. 
He  was  on  the  Harrison  electoral  ticket  in  1840,  and 
on  that  of  Clay  in  1844,  and  spent  much  time  and  labor 
in  both  those  canvasses.  In  November,  1842,  he  was 
married  to  IMary,  daughter  of  Robert  S.  Todd,  of  Lex- 
ington, Kentucky.  They  have  three  living  children,  all 
sons,  one  born  in  1843,  one  in  1850,  and  one  in  1853. 
They  lost  one,  who  was  born  in  1846. 

In  1846  he  was  elected  to  the  lower  House  of  Con- 
gress, and  served  one  term  only,  commencing  in  Decem- 
ber, 1847,  and  ending  with  the  inauguration  of  General 
Taylor,  in  March,  1849.     All  the  battles  of  the  Mexi- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  37 

can  war  had  been  fought  before  Mr.  Lincoln  took  his 
seat  in  Congress,  but  the  American  army  was  still  in 
Mexico,  and  the  treaty  of  peace  was  not  fully  and  for- 
mally ratified  until  the  June  afterward.  Much  has  been 
said  of  his  course  in  Congress  in  regard  to  this  war. 
A  careful  examination  of  the  Journal  and  Congres- 
sional Globe  shows  that  he  voted  for  all  the  supply 
measures  that  came  up,  and  for  all  the  measures  in 
any  way  favorable  to  the  officers,  soldiers,  and  their 
families,  who  conducted  the  war  through;  with  the  ex- 
ception that  some  of  these  measures  passed  without 
yeas  and  nays,  leaving  no  record  as  to  how  particular 
men  voted.  The  Journal  and  Globe  also  show  him 
voting  that  the  war  was  unnecessarily  and  unconsti- 
tutionally begun  by  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
This  is  the  language  of  Mr.  Ashmun's  amendment,  for 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  and  nearly  or  quite  all  other  Whigs* 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  voted. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  reasons  for  the  opinion  expressed  by 
this  vote  were  briefly  that  the  President  had  sent  Gen- 
eral Taylor  into  an  inhabited  part  of  the  country  be- 
longing to  Mexico,  and  not  to  the  United  States,  and 
thereby  had  provoked  the  first  act  of  hostility,  in  fact 
the  commencement  of  the  war;  that  the  place,  being  the 
country  bordering  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande, 
was  inhabited  by  native  Mexicans,  born  there  under  the 
Mexican  government,  and  had  never  submitted  to,  nor 
been  conquered  by,  Texas  or  the  United  States,  nor 
transferred  to  either  by  treaty ;  that  although  Texas 
claimed  the  Rio  Grande  as  her  boundary,  Mexico  had 
never  recognized  it,  and  neither  Texas  nor  the  United 
States   had   ever   enforced  it;   that   there   was   a   broad 

•  The  two  major  political  parties  in  the  United  States  at  this 
time  were  the  Whigs  and  Democrats.  The  former,  though  dis- 
tinctly a  party  of  opportunism,  favored  a  protective  tariff, 
internal  improvements,  a  national  bank,  and  in  general  the 
extension  of  the  powers  of  the  general  government.  The  latter, 
dominated  by  its  Southern  wing,  was  the  party  of  loose  con- 
struction and  states  rights.  Lincoln  was  a  member  of  the  "Whig 
party,  or,  as  he  would  have  phrased  it,  "a  Henry  Clay  W^hig." 


38  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

desert  between  that  and  the  countrj^  over  which  Texas 
had  actual  control;  that  the  country  where  hostilities 
commenced,  having  once  belonged  to  Mexico,  must  re- 
main so  until  it  was  somehow  legally  transferred,  which 
had  never  been  done. 

Mr.  Lincoln  thought  the  act  of  sending  an  armed 
force  among  the  Mexicans  was  unnecessary,  inasmuch 
as  Mexico  was  in  no  way  molesting  or  menacing  the 
United  States  or  the  people  thereof;  and  that  it  was 
unconstitutional,  because  the  power  of  levying  war 
is  vested  in  Congress,  and  not  in  the  President.  He 
thought  the  principal  motive  for  the  act  was  to  divert 
public  attention  from  the  surrender  of  "Fifty-four, 
forty,  or  fight"  *  to  Great  Britain,  on  the  Oregon  boun- 
dary question. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  a  candidate  for  reelection. 
This  was  determined  upon  and  declared  before  he 
went  to  Washington,  in  accordance  with  an  understand- 
ing among  Whig  friends,  by  w^hich  Colonel  Hardin  and 
Colonel  Baker  had  each  previously  served  a  single  term 
in  this  same  district. 

In  1848,  during  his  term  in  Congress,  he  advocated 
General  Taylor's  nomination  for  the  presidency,  in 
opposition  to  all  others,  and  also  took  an  active  part  for 
his  election  after  his  nomination,  speaking  a  few  times 
in  ISIaryland,  near  Washington,  several  times  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  canvassing  quite  fully  his  own  district 
in  Illinois,  which  was  followed  by  a  majority  in  the 
district  of  over  1500  for  General  Taylor. 

Upon  his  return  from  Congress  he  went  to  the  prac- 
tice of  the  law  with  greater  earnestness  than  ever  be- 
fore.    In  1852  he  was  upon  the  Scott  electoral  ticket, 

•The  Democrats  in  the  campaign  of  1844  had  as  rallying 
cries  •  "The  re-annexation  of  Texas  and  the  re-occupation  of 
Oregon"  and  "Fifty-four,  forty,  or  fight."  The  latter  referred 
to  the  dispute  of  the  United  States  with  Great  Britain  over  the 
Oregon  boundary ;  Great  Britain  claiming  forty-nine  degrees, 
north  latitude,  as  the  line,  while  the  United  States  claimed  fifty- 
four  degrees  and  forty  minutes,  north  latitude.  The  British 
contention  was  finally  accepted. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  39 

and  did  something  in  the  way  of  canvassing,  but  owing 
to  the  hopelessness  of  the  cause  in  Illinois,  he  did  less 
than  in  previous  presidential  canvasses. 

In  1854  his  profession  had  almost  superseded  the 
thought  of  politics  in  his  mind,  when  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise*  aroused  him  as  he  had  never  been 
before. 

In  the  autumn  of  that  year  he  took  the  stump  with  no 
broader  practical  aim  or  object  than  to  secure,  if  pos- 
sible, the  reelection  of  Hon.  Richard  Yates  to  Congress. 
His  speeches  at  once  attracted  a  more  marked  attention 
than  they  had  ever  before  done.  As  the  canvass  pro- 
ceeded he  was  drawn  to  different  parts  of  the  state  out- 
side of  Mr.  Yates's  district.  He  did  not  abandon  the 
law,  but  gave  his  attention  by  turns  to  that  and  politics. 
The  state  agricultural  fair  was  at  Springfield  that  year, 
and  Douglas  f  was  announced  to  speak  there. 

In  the  canvass  of  1856  Mr.  Lincoln  made  over  fifty 
speeches,  no  one  of  which,  so  far  as  he  remembers,  was 
put  in  print.  One  of  them  was  made  at  Galena,  but 
Mr.  Lincoln  has  no  recollection  of  it  being  printed ;  nor 
does  he  remember  whether  in  that  speech  he  said  any- 
thing about  a  Supreme  Court  decision.  He  may  have 
spoken  upon  that  subject,  and  some  of  the  newspapers 
may  have  reported  him  as  saying  what  is  now  ascribed 
to  him;  but  he  thinks  he  could  not  have  expressed  him- 
self as  represented. 

The  period  of  Lincoln's  life  which  ended  in  1854  was  largely 

given  to  intense  and  successful  efforts  to  lift  himself  from  the 

humble  circumstances  in  which  he  had  been  born,  to  the  making 

of  a  living,  and  to  the  study  and  reflection,  vitalized  by  human 

contacts,   which   made    the    finished    man.     The   indications    of 

intellectual  and  moral  growth  furnished  by  the  selections  which 

follow    are   interesting    and    significant    in    any    study    of    his 

development. 

*  See  page  73. 

t  Stephen  Arnold  Doug-las.  United  States  senator  from  Illinois, 
and  Lincoln's  almost  life-long  rival. 


40        SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

Lincoln  was  an  aspirant  for  political  office  at  a  compara- 
tively early  age.  This  was,  however,  by  no  means  unusual. 
Every  young  man  in  the  West  in  that  day  thought  of  himself 
as  a  possible  holder  of  office,  not  a  remarkable  thing  in  a 
society  where  every  boy  was  taught  that  the  Presidency  was 
open  to  him,  and  at  a  time  when  Andrew  Jackson  had  furnished 
conclusive  evidence  of  the  fact.  Two  years  after  he  moved  to 
Illinois,  and  only  eight  months  after  he  became  a  resident  of 
Sangamon  County,  he  announced  his  candidacy  for  the  legis- 
lature of  the  state  on  a  conventional  National  Republican 
platform.  The  National  Republicans  in  that  year,  it  will  be 
recalled,  supported  Henry  Clay  for  President,  and  four  years 
later   furnished  the  bulk  of  the  newly  organized  Whig  party. 

The  two  papers,  which  are  his  first  recorded  political 
utterances,  are  characteristic  of  the  later  Lincoln  in  their 
simple  directness.  It  may,  however,  be  noted  that  never  again 
did  he  call  himself  "humble  Abraham  Lincoln."  Growing  self- 
confidence  destroyed  that  feeling.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  find 
many  later  allusions  such  as,  "I  was  born  and  have  ever 
remained  in  the  most  humble  walks  of  life.  I  have  no  wealthy 
or  popular  relations  or  friends  to  recommend  me."  He  was 
never  remotely  ashamed  of  the  facts  thus  stated,  but  he  would 
not  make  capital  of  them  in  api>eals  to  the  people. 


ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  CANDIDACY  FOR    THE 
LEG  I  SLA  TURE 

[Written   about  March  1,   1832] 

Fellow-Citizens:  I  presume  you  all  know  who  I 
am.  I  am  humble  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  have  been  so- 
licited by  many  friends  to  become  a  candidate  for  the 
Legislature.  My  politics  are  short  and  sweet,  like  the 
old  woman's  dance.  I  am  in  favor  of  a  national  bank. 
I  am  in  favor  of  the  internal  improvement  system,  and 
a  high  protective  tariff.  These  are  my  sentiments  and 
political  principles.  If  elected,  I  shall  be  thankful;  if 
not^  it  will  be  all  the  same. 

A.  Lincoln 


SELECTION'S    FROM    LINCOLN  41 

ADDRESS  TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF  SANGAMOy  COUNTY 

[March  9,  1832] 

Fellow-Citizens:  Having  become  a  candidate  for 
the  honorable  office  of  one  of  your  representatives  in  the 
next  General  Assembly  of  this  state,  in  accordance  with 
an  established  custom  and  the  principles  of  true  Repub- 
licanism, it  becomes  my  duty  to  make  known  to  you — the 
people  whom  I  propose  to  represent — my  sentiments 
with  regard  to  local  affairs. 

Time  and  experience  have  verified  to  a  demonstration, 
the  public  utility  of  internal  improvements.  That  the 
poorest  and  most  thinly  populated  countries  would  be 
greatly  benefited  by  the  opening  of  good  roads,  and  in 
the  clearing  of  navigable  streams  within  their  limits,  is 
what  no  person  will  deny.  Yet  it  is  folly  to  undertake 
works  of  this  or  any  other  kind,  without  first  knowing 
that  we  are  able  to  finish  them — as  half-finished  work 
generally  proves  to  be  labor  lost.  There  cannot  justly 
be  any  objection  to  having  railroads  and  canals,  any  more 
than  to  other  good  things,  provided  they  cost  nothing. 
The  only  objection  is  to  paying  for  them;  and  the  objec- 
tion arises  from  the  want  of  ability  to  pay. 

With  respect  to  the  county  of  Sangamon,  some  more 
easy  means  of  communication  than  it  now  possesses  for 
the  purpose  of  facilitating  the  task  of  exporting  the 
surplus  products  of  its  fertile  soil,  and  importing  neces- 
sary articles  from  abroad,  are  indispensably  necessary. 
A  meeting  has  been  held  of  the  citizens  of  Jacksonville, 
and  the  adjacent  country,  for  the  purpose  of  deliberating 
and  inquiring  into  the  expediency  of  constructing  a  rail- 
road from  some  eligible  point  on  the  Illinois  river, 
through  the  town  of  Jacksonville,  in  Morgan  County,  to 
the  town  of  Springfield  in  Sangamon  County.  This  is, 
indeed,  a  very  desirable  object.  No  other  improvement 
that  reason  will  justify  us  in  hoping  for,  can  equal  in 
utility  the  railroad.     It  is  a  never-failing  source  of  com- 


42  SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX 

munication,  between  places  of  business  remotely  situated 
from  each  other.  Upon  the  railroad  the  regular  progress 
of  commercial  intercourse  is  not  interrupted  by  either 
high  or  low  water,  or  freezing  weather,  which  are  the 
principal  difficulties  that  render  our  future  hopes  of 
water  communication  precarious  and  uncertain. 

Yet,  however  desirable  an  object  the  construction  of  a 
railroad  through  our  country  may  be ;  however  high  our 
imaginations  may  be  heated  at  thoughts  of  it — there  is 
always  a  heart-appalling  shock  accompanying  the  amount 
of  its  cost,  which  forces  us  to  shrink  from  our  pleasing 
anticipations.  The  probable  cost  of  this  contemplated 
railroad  is  estimated  at  $290,000 — the  bare  statement  of 
which,  in  my  opinion,  is  sufficient  to  justify  the  belief 
that  the  improvement  of  the  Sangamon  river  is  an  object 
much  better  suited  to  our  infant  resources. 

Respecting  this  view,  I  think  I  may  say,  without  the 
fear  of  being  contradicted,  that  its  navigation  may  be 
rendered  completely  practicable,  as  high  as  the  mouth 
of  the  South  Fork,  or  probably  higher,  to  vessels  of  from 
25  to  30  tons  burthen,  for  at  least  one-half  of  all  common 
years,  and  to  vessels  of  much  greater  burthen  a  part  of 
that  time.  From  my  peculiar  circumstances,  it  is  prob- 
able that  for  the  last  twelve  months  I  have  given  as 
particular  attention  to  the  stages  of  the  water  in  this  river 
as  any  other  person  in  the  country.  In  the  month  of 
March,  1831,  in  company  with  others,  I  commenced  the 
building  of  a  flatboat  on  the  Sangamon,  and  finished  and 
took  her  out  in  the  course  of  the  spring.  Since  that  time 
I  have  been  concerned  in  the  mill  at  New  Salem.  These 
circumstances  are  sufficient  evidence  that  I  have  not  been 
very  inattentive  to  the  stages  of  the  water.  The  time  at 
which  we  crossed  the  milldam,  being  in  the  last  days  of 
April,  the  water  was  lower  than  it  had  been  since  the 
breaking  of  winter  in  February,  or  than  it  was  for  sev- 
eral weeks  after.  The  principal  difficulties  we  en- 
countered in  descending  the  river  were  from  the  drifted 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  43 

timber,  which  obstructions  all  know  are  not  difficult  to 
be  removed.  Knowing  almost  precisely  the  height  of 
water  at  that  time,  I  believe  I  am  safe  in  saying  that 
it  has  as  often  been  higher  as  lower  since. 

From  this  view  of  the  subject  it  appears  that  my 
calculations  with  regard  to  the  navigation  of  the 
Sangamon  cannot  but  be  founded  in  reason;  but  what- 
ever may  be  its  natural  advantages,  certain  it  is,  that  it 
never  can  be  practically  useful  to  any  great  extent  with- 
out being  greatly  improved  by  art.  The  drifted  timber, 
as  I  have  before  mentioned,  is  the  most  formidable 
barrier  to  this  object.  Of  all  parts  of  this  river,  none 
will  require  so  much  labor  in  proportion  to  make  it 
navigable  as  the  last  thirty  or  thirty-five  miles ;  and  going 
with  the  meanderings  of  the  channel,  when  we  are  this 
distance  above  its  mouth,  we  are  only  between  twelve 
and  eighteen  miles  above  Beardstown  in  something  near 
a  straight  direction,  and  this  route  is  upon  such  low 
ground  as  to  retain  water  in  many  places  during  the  sea- 
son, and  in  all  parts  such  as  to  draw  two-thirds  or  three- 
fourths  of  the  river  water  at  all  high  stages. 

This  route  is  on  prairie  land  the  whole  distance — so 
that  it  appears  to  me,  by  removing  the  turf,  a  sufficient 
width,  and  damming  up  the  old  channel,  the  whole  river 
in  a  short  time  would  wash  its  way  through,  thereby 
curtailing  the  distance,  and  increasing  the  velocity  of 
the  current  very  considerably,  while  there  would  be  no 
timber  upon  the  banks  to  obstruct  its  navigation  in 
future ;  and  being  nearly  straight,  the  timber  which  might 
float  in  at  the  head  would  be  apt  to  go  clear  through. 
There  are  also  many  places  above  this  where  the  river, 
in  its  zigzag  course,  forms  such  complete  peninsulas  as 
to  be  easier  cut  at  the  necks  than  to  remove  the  obstruc- 
tions from  the  bends — which,  if  done,  would  also  lessen 
the  distance. 

What  the  cost  of  this  work  would  be,  I  am  unable  to 
say.     It  is  probable,  however,  that  it  would  not  be  greater 


44  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

than  is  common  to  streams  of  the  same  length.  Finally, 
I  believe  the  improvement  of  the  Sangamon  river  to  be 
vastly  important  and  highly  desirable  to  the  people  of 
the  county  ;  and  if  elected,  any  measure  in  the  legislature 
having  this  for  its  object,  which  may  appear  judicious, 
will  meet  my  approbation  and  receive  my  support. 

It  appears  that  the  practice  of  loaning  money  at 
exorbitant  rates  of  interest  has  already  been  opened  as 
a  field  for  discussion ;  so  I  suppose  I  may  enter  upon 
it  without  claiming  the  honor,  or  risking  the  danger, 
which  may  await  its  first  explorer.  It  seems  as  though 
we  are  never  to  have  an  end  to  this  baneful  and  corroding 
system,  acting  almost  as  prejudicially  to  the  general 
interests  of  the  community  as  a  direct  tax  of  several 
thousand  dollars  annually  laid  on  each  county,  for  the 
benefit  of  a  few  individuals  only,  unless  there  be  a  law 
made  fixing  a  limit  to  the  limits  of  usury.  A  law  for 
this  purpose,  I  am  of  opinion^  may  be  made  without 
materially  injuring  any  class  of  people.  In  cases  of 
extreme  necessity  there  could  always  be  means  found  to 
cheat  the  law,  while  in  all  other  cases  it  would  have  its 
intended  effect.  I  would  favor  the  passage  of  a  law 
upon  this  subject  which  might  not  be  very  easily  evaded. 
Let  it  be  such  that  the  labor  and  difficulty  of  evading  it 
could  only  be  justified  in  cases  of  greatest  necessity. 

Upon  the  subject  of  education,  not  presuming  to  dic- 
tate any  plan  or  system  respecting  it,  I  can  only  say 
that  I  view  it  as  the  most  important  subject  which  we 
as  a  people  can  be  engaged  in.  That  every  man  may 
receive,  at  least,  a  moderate  education,  and  thereby  be 
enabled  to  read  the  history  of  his  own  and  other  coun- 
tries, by  which  he  may  duly  appreciate  the  value  of  our 
free  institutions,  appears  to  be  an  object  of  vital  im- 
portance, even  on  this  account  alone,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  advantages  and  satisfaction  to  be  derived  from  all 
being  able  to  read  the  scriptures  and  other  works,  both 
of  a  religious  and  moral  nature,  for  themselves.     For  my 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  45 

part,  I  desire  to  see  the  time  when  education,  and  by  its 
means,  morality,  sobriety,  enterprise,  and  industry,  shall 
become  much  more  general  than  at  present,  and  should 
be  gratified  to  have  it  in  my  power  to  contribute  some- 
thing to  the  advancement  of  any  measure  which  might 
have  a  tendency  to  accelerate  that  happy  period. 

With  regard  to  existing  laws,  some  alterations  are 
thought  to  be  necessary.  ]\Iany  respectable  men  have 
suggested  that  our  estray  laws,  the  law  respecting  the 
Issuing  of  executions,  the  road  law,  and  some  others,  are 
deficient  in  their  present  form,  and  require  alterations. 
But  considering  the  great  probability  that  the  framers  of 
those  laws  were  wiser  than  myself,  I  should  prefer  not 
meddling  with  them  unless  they  were  first  attacked  by 
others ;  in  which  case  I  should  feel  it  both  a  privilege 
and  a  duty  to  take  that  stand  which,  in  my  view,  might 
tend  most  to  the  advancement  of  justice. 

But,  fellow  citizens,  I  shall  conclude.  Considering  the 
great  degree  of  modesty  which  should  always  attend 
youth,  it  is  probable  I  have  already  been  more  presuming 
than  becomes  me.  However,  upon  the  subjects  of  which 
I  have  treated,  I  have  spoken  as  I  have  thought.  I  may 
be  wrong  in  regard  to  any  or  all  of  them ;  but,  holding  it 
a  sound  maxim  that  it  is  better  only  sometimes  to  be 
right  than  at  all  times  to  be  wrong,  so  soon  as  I  discover 
my  opinions  to  be  erroneous  I  shall  be  ready  to  renounce 
them. 

Every  man  is  said  to  have  his  peculiar  ambition. 
Whether  it  be  true  or  not,  I  can  say,  for  one,  that  I  have 
no  other  so  great  as  that  of  being  truly  esteemed  of  my 
fellow  men  by  rendering  myself  worthy  of  their  esteem. 
How  far  I  shall  succeed  in  gratifying  this  ambition  is 
yet  to  be  developed.  I  am  young  and  unknown  to  many 
of  you.  I  was  born  and  have  ever  remained  in  the  most 
humble  walks  of  life.  I  have  no  wealthy  or  popular 
relations  or  friends  to  recommend  me.  My  case  is  thrown 
exclusively  upon  the  independent  voters  of  the  county. 


46  SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX 

and  if  elected,  they  will  have  conferred  a  favor  upon 
me  for  which  I  shall  be  unremitting  in  my  labors  to 
compensate.  But  if  the  good  people  in  their  wisdom 
shall  see  fit  to  keep  me  in  the  background,  I  have  been 
too  familiar  with  disappointments  to  be  very  much 
chagrined. 

Your  friend  and  fellow-citizen, 

A.   Lincoln 

Immediately  after  these  announcements,  the  Black  Hawk 
War  broke  out;  Lincoln  volunteered  and,  to  his  great  surprise, 
was  elected  captain  of  his  company,  "a  success,"  as  he  wrote 
years  later,  "that  gave  me  more  pleasure  than  any  I  have  had 
since."  He  saw  no  fighting,  but  gained  confidence  in  himself, 
learned  how  to  handle  men,  and  greatly  \videned  the  circle  of 
his  friends.  When  his  company  was  mustered  out,  he  reen- 
listed  as  a  private,  but  in  July  he  was  back  in  New  Salem, 
stumping  the  county.  He  displayed  there  the  qualities  of  a 
shrewd  stump  speaker  and  debater  which  were  later  to  assist 
powerfully  in  winning  him  fame.  An  interesting  description 
of  his  appearance  in  this  campaign  is  given  by  his  friend,  Judge 
S.  T.  Logan:  "He  was  a  very  tall,  gawky,  and  awkward- 
looking  fellow  then;  his  pantaloons  didn't  meet  his  shoes  by 
six  inches.  But  after  he  began  speaking,  I  became  very  much 
interested  in  him."  This  description,  in  essence,  remained  true 
of  him  later.  He  always  seemed  awkward  and  ill-at-ease  when 
he  went  on  the  platform,  but  when  he  began  to  speak,  as  a 
rule  both  he  and  his   audience   forgot  all  about  it. 

Defeated  for  election,  but  with  a  most  gratifying  vote  in 
his  own  precinct,  Lincoln  tried  keeping  a  store.  It  was  a 
disastrous  experience,  the  store,  as  he  said,  "winking  out"  in 
less  than  a  year,  his  partner  being  dissipated  and  he  himself 
engaged  in  reading  whatever  books  he  could  lay  hands  on.  In 
this  period  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Shakespeare,  Burns, 
and  Gibbon,  and  a  little  later,  that  of  Paine  and  Voltaire.  He 
also  found  a  copy  of  Blackstone's  Commentaries  in  a  barrel  of 
rubbish.  He  literally  devoured  it,  finding  in  it  at  last  the 
determination  of  his  later  career.  During  this  time  he  learned 
also  the  rudiments  of  surveying  and  secured  welcome  employ- 
ment in  that  way.     He  was  postmaster  of  Xew  Salem,  carrying 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINX'OLX  47 

tlie  mail  in  his  hat  and  reading  every  newspaper  Avhich  came 
before  it  could  be  called   for. 

In  1834  he  was  elected  to  the  legislature,  where  he  took  no 
active  part  but  spent  his  time  studying  the  methods  of  legisla- 
tion and  the  game  of  practical  politics  in  which  he  was  to 
become  in  time  so  supreme  a  master.  Here  for  the  first  time 
he  met  his  lifetime  rival,  Stephen  Arnold  Douglas,  lately  come 
from  Vermont  and  preparing  for  the  brilliant  career  so  soon 
to  be  his.  Lincoln's  first  comment  on  him  is  striking.  He 
described  him  as  "the  least  man  I  ever  saw,"  alluding,  of 
course,  to   his   size. 

During  this  time  he  was  continuing  the  reading  of  law,  and 
even  practicing  before  local  magistrates.  In  1836  he  was  again 
a  successful  candidate  for  the  legislature.  His  announcement 
is  notable  for  his  advocacy  of  woman's  suffrage. 


POLITICAL   VIEWS  IN  1836 

New  Salem,  June  13,   1836 

To  THE  Editor  of  the  Journal:  In  your  paper  of 
last  Saturday  I  see  a  communication,  over  the  signature 
of  "Many  Voters/'  in  which,  the  candidates  who  are 
announced  in  the  Journal  are  called  upon  to  "show  their 
hands."     Agreed.      Here's  mine. 

I  go  for  all  sharing  the  privileges  of  the  government 
who  assist  in  bearing  its  burdens.  Consequently,  I  go 
for  admitting  all  whites  to  the  right  of  suffrage  who  pay 
taxes  or  bear  arms  (by  no  means  excluding  females). 

If  elected,  I  shall  consider  the  whole  people  of 
Sangamon  my  constitutents,  as  well  those  that  oppose  as 
those  that  support  me. 

While  acting  as  their  representative,  I  shall  be  gov- 
erned by  their  will  on  all  subjects  upon  which  I  have 
the  means  of  knowing  what  their  will  is ;  and  upon  all 
others  I  shall  do  what  my  own  judgment  teaches  me  will 
best  advance  their  interests.  Whether  elected  or  not,  I 
go  for  distributing  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public 
lands  to  the  several  states,  to  enable  our  state,  in  common 


48        SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

with  others,  to  dig  canals  and  construct  railroads  without 
borrowing  money  and  paying  the  interest  on  it. 

If  alive  on  the  first  Monday  in  November,  I  shall  vote 
for  Hugh  L.  White  for  President.* 
V^ery  respectfully, 

A.  Lincoln 

During  this  campaign  he  wrote  a  letter  which  is  an  excellent 
example  of  his  honesty  in  a  political  campaign.  It  should  not, 
however,  be  overlooked  that  this  was  also   good   politics. 

TO  ROBERT  ALLEN 

New  Salem,  June  21,  1836 

Dear  Colonel:     I  am  told  that  during  my  absence 

last   week   you    passed   through   this    place,   and    stated 

publicly  that  you  were  in  possession  of  a  fact  or  facts 

which,  if  known  to  the   public,   would  entirely   destroy 

the   prospects   of    N.   W.    Edwards    and   myself   at  the 

ensuing   election;    but    that,    through    favor    to    us,    you 

should   forbear   to  divulge   them.      No   one   has   needed 

favors  more  than  I,  and,  generally,  few  have  been  less 

unwilling  to  accept  them;  but  in  this  case  favor  to  me 

would  be  injustice  to  the  public,  and  therefore   I  must 

beg  your  pardon  for  declining  it.     That  I  once  had  the 

confidence    of    the   people    of    Sangamon,    is    sufficiently 

evident;  and  if  I  have  since  done  anything,  either  by 

design  or  misadventure,  which  if  known  would  subject 

me  to  a  forfeiture  of  that  confidence,  he  that  knows  of 

that  thing,  and  conceals  it,  is  a  traitor  to  his  country's 

interest. 

I  find  myself  wholly  unable  to  form  any  conjecture  of 

what  fact  or  facts,  real  or  supposed,  you  spoke;  but  my 

opinion  of  your  veracity  will  not  permit  me  for  a  moment 

to  doubt  that  you  at  least  believed  what  j^ou  said.  I  am 

flattered  with  the  personal  regard  you  manifested  for  me ; 

•  Hugh  L.  White,  Senator  from  Tennessee,  was  one  of  the  four 
candidates  for  whom   the  Whigs  voted  in   1836. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  49 

but  I  do  hope  that,  on  more  mature  reflection,  you  will 
view  the  public  interest  as  a  paramount  consideration, 
and  therefore  determine  to  let  the  worst  come.  I  here 
assure  you  that  the  candid  statement  of  facts  on  your 
part^  however  low  it  may  sink  me,  shall  never  break  the 
tie  of  personal  friendship  between  us.  I  wish  an  answer 
to  this,  and  you  are  at  liberty  to  publish  both,  if  you 
choose.  Very  respectfully, 

A.   LiNCOLX 

Lincoln  was  finding  himself  in  this  campaign.  It  was  here 
that  he  showed  himself  able  to  retaliate  against  an  opponent. 
One  Forquer,  who  resided  in  Springfield,  though  not  a  candi- 
date, entered  the  canvass  against  Lincoln  to  "take  him  down." 
He  devoted  himself  to  scornful  derision  of  Lincoln's  dress, 
manners,  and  general  personal  appearance.  Forquer  had  him- 
self been  a  Whig,  but  having  become  a  Democrat  he  had  been 
rewarded  by  a  lucrative  office.  He  lived  in  what  was  probably 
the  finest  house  in  Springfield,  which  was  equipped  with  a 
lightning  rod,  then  a  new  thing  in  Illinois.  At  the  conclusion 
of  his  speech,  Lincoln  replied  and  thus  closed:  "The  gentle- 
man has  seen  fit  to  allude  to  my  being  a  young  man,  but  he 
forgets  that  I  am  older  in  years  than  I  am  in  the  tricks  and 
trades  of  a  politician.  I  desire  to  live,  and  I  desire  place  and 
distinction,  but  I  would  rather  die  now  than,  like  the  gentle- 
man, live  to  see  the  day  that  I  would  change  my  politics  for 
an  office  worth  three  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  then  feel 
compelled  to  erect  a  lightning  rod  over  my  house  to  protect  a 
guilty  conscience  from  an  offended  God." 

In  the  legislature  Lincoln  was  one  of  the  "Long  Nine,"*  who 
secured  the  removal  of  the  capital  from  Vandalia  to  Spring- 
field and  carried  through  a  law  for  a  system  of  canals  and 
railways  costing  twelve  million  dollars.  He  was  carried  away 
with  the  internal  improvements  idea  and  was  planning  to  be 
the  "DeWitt  Clinton  of  Illinois."t 

This  session  furnished  Lincoln  the  opportunity  to  express 
for  the  first  time  his  feeling  on  the  subject  of  slavery.     The 

*  All  nine  of  these  members  were  very  tall. 

t  DeWitt  Clinton,  of  New  York,  was  the  person  most  respon- 
sible for  the  Erie  Canal,  as  well  as  other  internal  improvements. 


50  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

abolition  movement  was  now  well  under  way,  and  Illinois  was 
full  of  pro-slaver}'  sentiment.  The  legislature  passed  the  fol- 
lowing resolutions: 

"Resolved  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Illinois: 

"That  we  highly  disapprove  of  the  formation  of  Abolition 
Societies,  and  of  the  doctrines  promulgated  by  them. 

"That  the  right  of  property  in  slaves  is  sacred  to  the  slave- 
holding  states  by  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  that  they  can- 
not be  deprived  of  that  right  without  their  consent. 

"That  the  General  Government  cannot  abolish  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  against  the  consent  of  the  citizens  of  said 
District,  without  a  manifest  breach  of  good  faith. 

"That  the  Governor  be  requested  to  transmit  to  the  States  of 
Virginia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  New  York,  and  Connecticut  a 
copy  of  the  foregving  report  and  resolutions." 

Lincoln  had  seen  slavery  from  his  boyhood  in  Kentucky. 
He  had  seen  a  harsher  type  on  a  trip  down  the  Mississippi  to 
New  Orleans.  His  dislike  for  the  institution  was  characteristic 
of  the  class  from  which  he  was  sprung,  and  in  him  it  had 
become  intensified.  These  resolutions  excited  his  opposition 
chiefly  because  they  contained  no  condemnation  of  slavery  and 
possibly  because  of  the  phrase,  "the  right  of  property  in  slaves 
is  sacred."  He  voted  against  them  and  persuaded  another 
Sangamon  County  representative  to  sign  with  him  this  protest. 


PROTEST  AGAINST   SLAVERY 
[March   3,   183T] 

The  following  protest  was  presented  to  the  House 
March  3,  1837,  which  was  read  and  ordered  to  be  spread 
on  the  journals,  to  wit: 

Resolutions  upon  the  subject  of  domestic  slavery  hav- 
ing passed  both  branches  of  the  General  Assembly  at  its 
present  session,  the  undersigned  hereby  protest  against 
the  passage  of  the  same. 

They  believe  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded 
on  both  injustice  and  bad  policy,  but  that  the  promul- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    I.IXCOLX  51 

gation  of  abolition  doctrines  tends  rather  to  increase  than 
abate  its  evils. 

They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
has  no  power  under  the  Constitution  to  interfere  with 
the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  different  states. 

They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
has  the  power^  under  the  Constitution,  to  abolish  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  but  that  the  power  ought  not 
to  be  exercised,  unless  at  the  request  of  the  people  of 
the  District. 

The  difference  between  these  opinions  and  those  con- 
tained in  the  said  resolutions  is  their  reason  for  entering 
this  protest. 

Dax  Stone, 
A.  Lincoln, 
Representatives  from  the  County  of  Sangamon. 

In  March,  1836,  Lincoln  had  been  admitted  to  the  bar,  and 
in  1837  he  moved  to  Springfield.  Before  this  time  he  had 
become  engaged  to  Anne  Rutledge,  whom  he  tenderly  loved 
but  who  died  \vithin  a  short  time.  Her  death  had  a  most 
powerful  influence  upon  him,  and  his  friends  almost  despaired 
of  his  reason.  It  apparently  destroyed  in  him  any  capacity 
for  a  later  romance.  The  following  letter  is  descriptive  of  his 
second  love  affair.  It  lacks  the  taste  characteristic  of  most 
of  his  writings,  but  the  life  of  an  almost  frontier  community 
lacked  many  of  the  refinements,  and  the  wonder  is  that  Lincoln 
had  as  much  instinctive  good  taste  as  he  did.  The  letter  shows 
one  side  of  Lincoln  at  this  period,  and  for  that  reason  it  is 
included. 

TO  MRS.  O.  H.  BROWXiyO 

Springfield,  April  1,  1838 
Dear  Madam  :  Without  apologizing  for  being  egotis- 
tical, I  shall  make  the  history  of  so  much  of  my  life  as 
has  elapsed  since  I  saw  you  the  subject  of  this  letter. 
And,  by  the  way,  I  now  discover  that  in  order  to  give  a 
full   and   intelligible  account  of  the   things   I   have   done 


52  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

and  suttered  since  1  saw  you,  I  shall  necessarily  have  to 
relate  some  that  happened  before. 

It  was,  then,  in  the  autumn  of  18.S6  that  a  married 
lady  of  my  acquaintance,  and  who  was  a  great  friend  of 
mine,  being  about  to  pay  a  visit  to  her  father  and  other 
relatives  residing  in  Kentucky,  proposed  to  me  that  on 
her  return  she  would  bring  a  sister  of  hers  with  her  on 
condition  that  I  would  engage  to  become  her  brother-in- 
law  with  all  convenient  dispatch.  I,  of  course,  accepted 
the  proposal,  for  you  know  I  could  not  have  done  other- 
wise had  I  really  been  averse  to  it ;  but  privately,  be- 
tween you  and  me,  I  was  most  confoundedly  well  pleased 
with  the  project.  I  had  seen  the  said  sister  some  three 
years  before,  thought  her  intelligent  and  agreeable,  and 
saw  no  good  objection  to  plodding  life  through,  hand-in- 
hand  with  her.  Time  passed  on,  the  lady  took  her 
journey,  and  in  due  time  returned,  sister  in  companj^ 
sure  enough.  This  astonished  me  a  little,  for  it  appeared 
to  me  that  her  coming  so  readily  showed  that  she  was  a 
trifle  too  willing,  but  on  reflection  it  occurred  to  me  that 
she  might  have  been  prevailed  on  by  her  married  sister 
to  come,  without  anything  concerning  me  having  been 
mentioned  to  her,  and  so  I  concluded  that  if  no  other 
objection  presented  itself,  I  would  consent  to  waive  this. 
All  this  occurred  to  me  on  hearing  of  her  arrival  in  the 
neighborhood — for,  be  it  remembered,  I  had  not  yet  seen 
her,  except  about  three  years  previous,  as  above  men- 
tioned. In  a  few  days  we  had  an  interview,  and,  al- 
though I  had  seen  her  before,  she  did  not  look  as  my 
imagination  had  pictured  her.  I  knew  she  was  over-size, 
but  she  now  appeared  a  fair  match  for  Falstaff.  I  knew 
she  was  called  an  "old  maid,"  and  I  felt  no.  doubt  of  the 
truth  of  at  least  half  of  the  appellation,  but  now,  when 
I  beheld  her,  I  could  not  for  my  life  avoid  thinking  of 
my  mother;  and  this,  not  from  withered  features — for 
her  skin  was  too  full  of  fat  to  permit  of  its  contracting 
into    wrinkles — but    from    her    want    of    teeth,    weather- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  53 

beaten  appearance  in  general,  and  from  a  kind  of  notion 
that  ran  in  my  head  that  nothing  could  have  commenced 
at  the  size  of  infancy  and  reached  her  present  bulk  in 
less  than  thirty-five  or  forty  years  ;  and,  in  short,  I  was 
not  at  all  pleased  with  her.  But  what  could  I  do?  I 
had  told  her  sister  that  I  would  take  her  for  better  or 
for  worse,  and  I  made  a  point  of  honor  and  conscience 
in  all  things  to  stick  to  my  word,  especially  if  others 
liad  been  induced  to  act  on  it,  which  in  this  case  I  had 
no  doubt  they  had,  for  I  was  now  fairly  convinced  that 
no  other  man  on  earth  would  have  her,  and  hence  the 
conclusion  that  they  were  bent  on  holding  me  to  my 
bargain.  "Well,"  thought  I,  "I  have  said  it,  and,  be  the 
consequences  what  they  may,  it  shall  not  be  my  fault  if 
I  fail  to  do  it."  At  once  I  determined  to  consider  her 
my  wife,  and  this  done,  all  my  powers  of  discovery  were 
put  to  work  in  search  of  perfections  in  her  which  might 
be  fairly  set  off  against  her  defects.  I  tried  to  imagine 
her  handsome,  which,  but  for  her  unfortunate  corpulency, 
was  actually  true.  Exclusive  of  this,  no  woman  that  I 
have  ever  seen  has  a  finer  face.  I  also  tried  to  convince 
myself  that  the  mind  was  much  more  to  be  valued  than 
the  person,  and  in  this  she  was  not  inferior,  as  I  could 
discover,  to  any  with  whom  I  had  been  acquainted. 

Shortly  after  this,  without  attempting  to  come  to  any 
positive  understanding  with  her,  I  set  out  for  Vandalia, 
when  and  where  you  first  saw  me.  During  my  stay  there 
I  had  letters  from  her  which  did  not  change  my  opinion 
of  either  her  intellect  or  intention,  but^  on  the  contrary, 
confirmed  it  in  both. 

All  this  while,  although  I  was  fixed  "firm  as  the  surge- 
repelling  rock"  in  my  resolution,  I  found  I  was  con- 
tinually repenting  the  rashness  which  had  led  me  to 
make  it.  Through  life  I  have  been  in  no  bondage,  either 
real  or  imaginary,  from  the  thralldom  of  which  I  so  much 
desired  to  be  free.  After  my  return  home  I  saw  nothing 
to  change  my  opinion  of  her  in  any  particular.     She  was 


54  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

the  same,  and  so  was  I.  I  now  spent  my  time  in  plan- 
ning how  I  might  get  along  in  life  after  my  contemplated 
change  of  circumstances  should  have  taken  place,  and 
how  I  might  procrastinate  the  evil  day  for  a  time,  which 
I  really  dreaded  as  much,  perhaps  more,  than  an  Irish- 
man  does   the  halter. 

After  all  my  sufferings  upon  this  deeply  interesting 
subject,  here  I  am,  wholly,  unexpectedly,  completely  out 
of  the  "scrape,"  and  I  now  want  to  know  if  you  can 
guess  how  I  got  out  of  it — out,  clear,  in  every  sense  of 
the  term — no  violation  of  word,  honor,  or  conscience.  I 
don't  believe  you  can  guess,  and  so  I  might  as  well  tell 
you  at  once.  As  the  lawyer  says,  it  was  done  in  the 
manner  following,  to  wit :  After  I  had  delayed  the 
matter  as  long  as  I  thought  I  could  in  honor  do  (which, 
by  the  way,  had  brought  me  round  into  the  last  fall),  I 
concluded  I  might  as  well  bring  it  to  a  consummation 
without  further  delay,  and  so  I  mustered  my  resolution 
and  made  the  proposal  to  her  direct ;  but,  shocking  to 
relate,  she  answered  No.  At  first  I  supposed  she  did 
it  through  an  affectation  of  modesty,  which  I  thought 
but  ill  became  her  under  the  peculiar  circumstances  of 
the  case,  but  on  my  renewal  of  the  charge  I  found  she 
repelled  it  with  greater  firmness  than  before.  I  tried 
it  again  and  again,  but  with  the  same  success,  or  rather 
with  the  same  want  of  success. 

I  finally  was  forced  to  give  it  up,  at  which  I  very 
unexpectedly  found  myself  mortified  almost  beyond  en- 
durance. I  was  mortified,  it  seemed  to  me,  in  a  hundred 
different  ways.  My  vanity  was  deeply  wounded  by  the 
reflection  that  I  had  so  long  been  too  stupid  to  discover 
her  intentions,  and  at  the  same  time  never  doubting  that 
I  understood  them  perfectly ;  and  also  that  she,  whom  I 
had  taught  myself  to  believe  nobody  else  would  have, 
had  actually  rejected  me  with  all  my  fancied  greatness. 
And,  to  cap  the  whole,  I  then  for  the  first  time  began 
to  suspect  that   I   was  really  a   little   in  love   with   her. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  55 

But  let  it  all  go !  I'll  try  and  outlive  it.  Others  have 
been  made  fools  of  by  the  girls,  but  this  can  never  in 
truth  be  said  of  me.  I  most  emphatically,  in  this  in- 
stance, made  a  fool  of  myself.  I  have  now  come  to  the 
conclusion  never  again  to  think  of  marrying,  and  for 
this  reason — I  can  never  be  satisfied  with  anyone  who 
would  be  blockhead  enough  to  have  me. 

When  you  receive  this,  write  me  a  long  yarn  about 
something  to  amuse  me.  Give  my  respects  to  Mr. 
Browning. 

Your  sincere  friend, 

A.  LixcoLX 

In  Springfield  Lincoln  entered  upon  the  practice  of  law, 
and  in  1838  and  1840  was  again  elected  to  the  legislature,  being 
the  minority  candidate  for  speaker  at  both  sessions.  He  was 
actively  in  politics  and  exceedingly  ambitious,  and  in  1840  was 
a  Whig  candidate  for  elector. 

No  man  in  the  "West  at  this  time  could  engage  in  the  rough 
and  tumble  game  of  politics  without  personal  difficulties. 
Lincoln  had  his,  but  his  rather  singular  patience,  good  humor, 
and  gentleness  all  tended  to  soften  down  the  difficulties  and 
prevent  serious  quarrels.  But  he  would  not  yield  when  he 
was  sure  that  he  was  right.  The  following  letter  evidently 
related  to  one  of  these  difficulties: 

TO  W.  G.  ANDERSON* 

Lawrenceville,  111.,  October  31,  1840 

Dear  Sir:     Your  note  of  yesterday  is  received.      In 

the  difficulty  between  us  of  which  you  speak,  you  say  you 

think  I  was  the  aggressor.     I  do  not  think  I  was.     You 

say  my  "words   imported   insult."      I   meant   them   as   a 

fair  set-off  to  your  own  statements,  and  not  otherwise; 

and  in  that  light  alone   I  now  wish  you  to  understand 

them.    You  ask  for  my  present  "feelings  on  the  subject." 

I  entertain  no  unkind  feelings  to  you,  and  none  of  any 

•  "W.  G.  Anderson  represented  Lawrence  County  in  the  Illinois 
legislature  at  the  sessions  of  1832,  1842,  and  1844. 


56  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

sort  upon  the   subject,  except   a  sincere   regret  that   I 
permitted  myself  to  get  into  such  an  altercation. 

Yours,  etc., 

A.  Lincoln 

The  following  letter,  written  to  the  sister  of  an  intimate 
friend,  is  characteristic  of  Lincoln  at  this  period  of  his  life. 
It  is  also  interesting  for  its  allusion  to  the  most  horrible 
feature  of  slavery. 

TO  MISS  MARY  SPEED 

Bloomington,  111.,  September  27,  1841 
Miss  Mary  Speed,  Louisville,  Ky. 

My  Friend:  Having  resolved  to  write  to  some  of 
your  mother's  family,  and  not  having  the  express  per- 
mission of  any  one  of  them  to  do  so,  I  have  had  some 
little  difficulty  in  determining  on  which  to  inflict  the  task 
of  reading  what  I  now  feel  must  be  a  most  dull  and  silly 
letter;  but  when  I  remembered  that  you  and  I  were 
something  of  cronies  while  I  was  at  Farmington,  and 
that  while  there  I  was  under  the  necessity  of  shutting 
you  up  in  a  room  to  prevent  your  committing  an  assault 
and  battery  upon  me,  I  instantly  decided  that  you  should 
be  the  devoted  one.  I  assume  that  you  have  not  heard 
from  Joshua  and  myself  since  we  left,  because  I  think  it 
doubtful  whether  he  has  written. 

You  remember  there  was  some  uneasiness  about 
Joshua's  health  when  we  left.  That  little  indisposition 
of  his  turned  out  to  be  nothing  serious,  and  it  was  pretty 
nearly  forgotten  when  we  reached  Springfield. 

We  got  on  board  the  steamboat  Lebanon  in  the  locks 
of  the  canal,  about  twelve  o'clock  m.  of  the  day  we  left, 
and  reached  St.  Louis  the  next  Monday  at  8  p.  m.  Noth- 
ing of  interest  happened  during  the  passage,  except  the 
vexatious  delays  occasioned  by  the  sandbars  we  thought 
interesting. 

By  the  way,  a  fine  example  was  presented  on  board 


SELECTIOXS    FROM    LINXOLX  57 

the  boat  for  contemplating  the  effect  of  condition  upon 
human  happiness.  A  gentleman  had  purchased  twelve 
negroes  in  diiferent  parts  of  Kentucky,  and  was  taking 
them  to  a  farm  in  the  South.  They  were  chained  six 
and  six  together.  A  small  iron  clevis  was  around  the 
left  wrist  of  each,  and  this  was  fastened  to  the  main 
chain  by  a  shorter  one,  at  a  convenient  distance  from 
the  others,  so  that  the  negroes  were  strung  together  pre- 
cisely like  so  many  fish  upon  a  trot-line.  In  this  condition 
they  were  being  separated  forever  from  the  scenes  of 
their  childhood,  their  friends,  their  fathers  and  mothers, 
and  brothers  and  sisters,  and  many  of  them  from  their 
wives  and  children,  and  going  into  perpetual  slavery, 
where  the  lash  of  the  master  is  proverbially  more  ruth- 
less and  unrelenting  than  any  other  where;  and  yet  amid 
all  these  distressing  circumstances,  as  we  would  think 
them,  they  were  the  most  cheerful  and  apparently  happy 
creatures  on  board.  One,  whose  offense  for  which  he 
had  been  sold  was  an  over-fondness  for  his  wife,  played 
the  fiddle  almost  continually,  and  the  others  danced, 
sang,  cracked  jokes,  and  played  various  games  with  cards 
from  day  to  day.  How  true  it  is  that  "God  tempers  the 
wind  to  the  shorn  lamb,"  *  or  in  other  words,  that  He 
renders  the  worst  of  human  conditions  tolerable,  while 
He  permits  the  best  to  be  nothing  better  than  tolerable. 
To  return  to  the  narrative.  When  we  reached  Spring- 
field, I  stayed  but  one  day,  when  I  started  on  this  tedious 
circuit  where  I  now  am. 

Do  you  remember  my  going  to  the  city,  while  I  was 
in  Kentucky,  to  have  a  tooth  extracted,  and  making  a 
failure  of  it?  Well,  that  same  old  tooth  got  to  paining 
me  so  much  that  about  a  week  since  I  had  it  torn  out, 
bringing  with  it  a  bit  of  the  jawbone,  the  consequence 
of  which  is  that  my  mouth  is  now  so  sore  that  I  can 
neither  talk  nor  eat. 

•  Sterne.  Sentimental  Journey. 


58  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

I  am  literally  "subsisting  on  savory  remembrances" — 
that  is,  being  unable  to  eat,  I  am  living  upon  the  remem- 
brance of  the  delicious  dishes  of  peaches  and  cream  we 
used  to  have  at  your  house.  When  we  left,  Miss  Fanny 
Henning  was  owing  you  a  visit,  as  I  understood.  Has 
she  paid  it  yet?  If  she  has,  are  you  not  convinced  that 
she  is  one  of  the  sweetest  girls  in  the  world?  There  is 
but  one  thing  about  her,  so  far  as  I  could  perceive,  that 
I  would  have  otherwise  than  as  it  is — that  is,  something 
of  a  tendency  to  melancholy.  This,  let  it  be  observed, 
is  a  misfortune,  not  a  fault. 

Give  her  an  assurance  of  my  very  highest  regard  when 
you  see  her.  Is  little  Siss  Eliza  Davis  at  your  house 
yet?     If  she  is,  kiss  her  "o'er  and  o'er  again"  for  me. 

Tell  your  mother  that  I  have  not  got  her  "present" 
[an  "Oxford"  Bible]  with  me,  but  I  intend  to  read  it 
regularly  when  I  return  home.  I  doubt  not  that  it  is 
really,  as  she  says,  the  best  cure  for  the  blues,  could  one 
but  take  it  according  to  the  truth.  Give  my  respects  to 
all  your  sisters  (including  Aunt  Emma)  and  brothers. 
Tell  Mrs.  Peay,  of  whose  happy  face  I  shall  long  retain 
a  pleasant  remembrance,  that  I  have  been  trying  to 
think  of  a  name  for  her  homestead,  but  as  yet  cannot 
satisfy  myself  with  one.  I  shall  be  very  happy  to  re- 
ceive a  line  from  you  soon  after  you  receive  this,  and  in 
case  you  choose  to  favor  me  with  one,  address  it  to 
Charleston,  Coles  County,  111.,  as  I  shall  be  there  about 
the  time  to  receive  it. 

Your  sincere  friend, 

A.  Lincoln 

The  next  few  years  saw  Lincoln,  after  an  unlucky  engage- 
ment, married  to  Mary  Todd;  in  partnership  in  law,  first  with 
Judge  Logan  and  later  with  William  H.  Herndon;  and  con- 
tinuing his  active  work  in  politics.  In  1844-  he  was  a  Whig 
candidate  for  elector  and  as  such  made  speeches  in  various 
parts  of  Illinois  and  also  in  Indiana.  In  1843  he  was  a  candi- 
date for  Congress  but  was  defeated  by  John  J.  Hardin.     It  is 


MARY    TODD    LINCOLN 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  59 

probable  that  it  was  then  agreed  that  Edward  D.  Baker  should 
be  elected  two  years  later,  to  l)e  followed  in  184-6  by  Lincoln. 
In  the  meantime  anti-slavery  sentiment,  long-delayed,  was 
growing  in  Illinois,  and  in  ISi^  the  Liberty  party,  which 
nominated  James  G.  Birney  for  President,  gained  considerable 
strength  in  the  state,  though  not  enough  to  influence  the  result. 
Two  brothers,  Williamson  and  Madison  Durley,  were  promi- 
nent leaders  in  the  party,  and  in  1845  Lincoln,  keenly  interested 
in  the  course  of  state  politics,  and  himself  a  prospective  candi- 
date for  Congress,  wrote  to  Williamson  Durley  this  letter, 
notable   for  its   practical  logic. 

TO  WILLI AMSOy  DURLEY 

Springfield,  October  3,  1845 
Dear  Sir  :  When  I  saw  you  at  home,  it  was  agreed 
that  I  should  write  to  you  and  your  brother,  Madison. 
Until  I  then  saw  you  I  was  not  aware  of  your  being 
what  is  generally  called  an  abolitionist,  or,  as  you  call 
yourself,  a  Liberty  man,  though  I  well  knew  there  were 
many  such  in  your  country. 

I  was  glad  to  hear  that  you  intended  to  attempt  to  bring 
about,  at  the  next  election  in  Putnam,  a  union  of  the 
Whigs  proper  and  such  of  the  Liberty  men  as  are  Whigs 
in  principle  on  all  questions  save  only  that  of  slavery. 
So  far  as  I  can  perceive,  by  such  union  neither  party 
need  yield  anything  on  the  point  in  difference  betw^een 
them.  If  the  Whig  abolitionists  of  Xew  York  had  voted 
with  us  last  fall,  Mr.  Clay  would  now  be  President,  Whig 
principles  in  the  ascendant,  and  Texas  not  annexed; 
whereas,  by  the  division,  all  that  either  had  at  stake  in 
the  contest  was  lost.  And,  indeed,  it  was  extremely 
probable  beforehand  that  such  would  be  the  result.  As 
I  have  always  understood,  the  Liberty  men  deprecated 
the  annexation  of  Texas  extremely ;  and  this  being  so, 
why  they  should  refuse  to  cast  their  votes  [so]  as  to 
prevent  it,  even  to  me  seemed  wonderful.  What  was 
their  process  of  reasoning,  I  can  only  judge  from  what 
a  single  one  of  them  told  me.      It  was  this:      "We  are 


60  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

not  to  do  evil  that  good  may  come."  This  general 
proposition  is  doubtless  correct;  but  did  it  apply?  If  by 
your  votes  you  could  have  prevented  the  extension,  etc., 
of  slavery,  would  it  not  have  been  good,  and  not  evil,  so 
to  have  used  your  votes,  even  though  it  involved  the  cast- 
ing of  them  for  a  slaveholder.^  By  the  fruit  the  tree  is 
to  be  known.  An  evil  tree  cannot  bring  forth  good  fruit. 
If  the  fruit  of  electing  Mr.  Clay  would  have  been  to 
prevent  the  extension  of  slavery,  could  the  act  of  elect- 
ing have  been  evil.'' 

But  I  will  not  argue  further.  I  perhaps  ought  to  say 
that  individually  I  never  was  much  interested  in  the 
Texas  question.  I  never  could  see  much  good  to  come 
of  annexation,  inasmuch  as  they  were  already  a  free 
republican  people  on  our  own  model.  On  the  other  hand, 
I  never  could  very  clearly  see  how  the  annexation  would 
augment  the  evil  of  slavery.  It  always  seemed  to  me 
that  slaves  would  be  taken  there  in  about  equal  numbers, 
with  or  without  annexation.  And  if  more  were  taken 
because  of  annexation,  still  there  would  be  just  so  many 
the  fewer  left  where  they  were  taken  from.  It  is  pos- 
sibly true,  to  some  extent,  that  with  annexation,  some 
slaves  may  be  sent  to  Texas  and  continued  in  slavery 
that  otherwise  might  have  been  liberated.  To  whatever 
extent  this  may  be  true,  I  think  annexation  an  evil.  I 
hold  it  to  be  a  paramount  duty  of  us  in  the  free  states, 
due  to  the  union  of  the  states,  and  perhaps  to  liberty 
itself  (paradox  though  it  may  seem),  to  let  the  slavery 
of  the  other  states  alone ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  I 
hold  it  to  be  equally  clear  that  we  should  never  know- 
ingly lend  ourselves,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  prevent 
that  slavery  from  dying  a  natural  death — to  find  new 
places  for  it  to  live  in,  when  it  can  no  longer  exist  in 
the  old.  Of  course  I  am  not  now  considering  what  would 
be  our  duty  in  cases  of  insurrection  among  the  slaves. 
To  recur  to  the  Texas  question,  I  understand  the  Liberty 
men  to  have  viewed  annexation  as  a  much  greater  evil 


SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN        61 

than  ever  I  did,  and  I  would  like  to  convince  you,  if  I 
could,  that  they  could  have  prevented  it,  if  they  had 
chosen. 

I  intend  this  letter  for  you  and  Madison  together,  and 
if  you  and  he,  or  either,  shall  think  fit  to  drop  me  a  line, 
I  shall  be  pleased. 

Yours  with  respect, 

A.   Lincoln 


In  1846  Lincoln  was  at  last  elected  to  Congress.  The 
Mexican  "War  had  already  been  fought,  but  he  was  violently 
opposed  to  the  policy  of  the  administration,  and  his  speeches 
were  largely  devoted  to  attacks  upon  President  Polk  as  the 
responsible  aggressor  against  Mexico.  He  sought  in  every  way 
to  prove  the  administration  guilty  of  falsehood  in  relation  to 
the  war,  and  thereby  greatly  antagonized  his  district.  During 
his  term  he  favored  and  voted  for  the  AVilmot  Proviso,  which 
was  intended  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  new  territory  acquired 
from  Mexico.  He  voted  against  a  resolution  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  because  it  did  not 
require  the  assent  of  Virginia  and  Maryland,  which  he  thought 
necessary  from  a  moral  standpoint,  and  because  there  was  no 
provision  for  compensation.  He  also  voted  against  a  resolution 
looking  to  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  in  the  District 
because  he  did  not  like  the  form  of  the  resolution.  Later,  he 
offered   an   elaborate   substitute. 

In  this  short  experience  he  showed  no  greater  capacities  than 
the  average  run  of  new  members.  He  was  a  clever  Western 
politician,  so  far  as  one  could  see,  and  that  was  all.  A  close 
study  of  his  activities,  however,  does  reveal  the  fact  that  he 
did  not  mind  unpopularity,  if  he  was  convinced  that  he  was 
right  and  that  he  had  a  fairly  consistent  record  of  supporting 
his  convictions. 

It  was  sound  experience  for  him,  in  that  it  brought  him  in 
contact  with  the  workings  of  government  at  Washington  and 
with  the  men  who  conducted  it.  He  made  a  number  of  warm 
friends,  among  them  Alexander  H.  Stephens  of  Georgia,  later 
Vice  President  of  the  Confederacy.  Lincoln's  first  allusion. to 
him  in  his  letters  is  most  interesting. 


62  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

TO  WILLIAM  H.  HERN  DON 

Washington,  February  2,  1848 
Dear  William:     I  just  take  my  pen  to  say  that  Mr. 
Stephens,    of    Georgia,    a    little,    slim,    pale-faced,    con- 
sumptive man,  with  a  voice  like  Logan's,  has  just  con- 
cluded the  very  best  speech  of  an  hour's  length  I  ever 
heard.     My  old  withered  dry  eyes  are  full  of  tears  A^et. 
If  he  writes  it  out  anything  like  he  delivered  it,  our 
people  shall  see  a  good  many  copies  of  it. 
Yours  truly, 
•  A.   Lincoln 

Lincoln  had  no  desire  to  leave  Congress.  Not  only  was  he 
ambitious  and  firm  in  the  belief  that  there  lay  his  road  to 
distinction,  but  he  also  liked  the  life  and  work  of  a  member  of 
Congress.  He  had  secured  recognition  from  his  party  and 
acquired  a  degree  of  leadership  that  was  very  gratifying  to  him. 
But  he  could  not  ask  for  reelection  without  a  breach  of  faith 
with  his  district,  in  which  he  had  preached  rotation  in  office 
and  thereby  secured  election.  In  January,  1848,  he  wrote,  "I 
made  the  declaration  that  I  would  not  be  a  candidate  again 
more  from  a  wish  to  deal  fairly  with  others,  to  keep  peace 
among  our  friends,  and  to  keep  the  district  from  going  to  the 
enemy,  than  from  any  cause  personal  to  myself;  so  that  if  it 
should  happen  that  nobody  else  wishes  to  be  elected,  I  could 
not  refuse  the  people  the  right  of  sending  me  again.  But  to 
enter  myself  as  a  competitor  of  others,  or  to  authorize  anyone 
so  to  enter  me,  is  what  my  word  and  honor  forbid." 

Accordingly  he  retired  at  the  expiration  of  his  term,  without 
the  prospect  of  any  office  in  which  he  might  continue  in  active 
political  life.  He  was  a  tardy  applicant  for  the  post  of  com- 
missioner of  the  land  office,  refraining  in  order  not  to  injure 
the  chances  of  a  friend,  but  he  failed  to  secure  the  appoint- 
ment. There  was,  however,  a  strong  disposition  among  the 
AVhigs  to  reward  him  for  his  activity,  and  in  the  summer  of 
1849  he  was  offered  by  President  Taylor  the  governorship  of 
Oregon  Territory.  Many  of  his  friends  urged  him  to  accept 
and  he  was  tempted  to  do  so,  since  Oregon  had  the  lure  of  the 
unknown  and  because  it  was  clear  that  it  would  soon  be  ad- 
mitted  to   statehood,   when   he  would   have   little   difficultv   in 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  63 

securing  an  election  to  the  United  States  Senate.  He  had 
never  aspired  higher  than  the  Senate,  and  he  was  frankly 
tempted  by  the  prospect.  But  his  wife,  fortunately  for  his 
future,  was  opposed  and  he  declined. 

He  was  keenly  interested  in  the  success  of  the  Taylor  admin- 
istration. The  following  letter,  inspired  by  that  feeling,  is 
interesting  for  its  reflection  of  his  admiration  for  Jackson's 
decisiveness   and    readiness    to   assume    responsibility: 

TO  JOHN  M.  CLAYTON 

Springfield,  HI.,  July  28,  1849 
Hon.  J.  M.  Clayton,  Sec'y  of  State. 

Dear  Sir:  It  is  with  some  hesitation  I  presume  to 
address  you  this  letter — and  yet  I  wish  not  only  you,  but 
the  whole  cabinet,  and  the  President,  too,  would  consider 
the  subject  matter  of  it — my  being  among  the  people, 
while  you  and  they  are  not,  will  excuse  the  apparent 
presumption.  It  is  understood  that  the  President  at  first 
adopted,  as  a  general  rule,  to  throw  the  responsibility 
of  the  appointments  upon  the  respective  Departments ; 
and  that  such  rule  is  adhered  to  and  practiced  upon. 
This  course  I  at  first  thought  proper;  and,  of  course,  I 
am  not  now  complaining  of  it.  Still  I  am  disappointed 
with  the  effect  of  it  upon  the  public  mind.  It  is  fixing 
for  the  President  the  unjust  and  ruinous  character  of 
being  a  mere  man  of  straw.  This  must  be  arrested,  or  it 
will  damn  us  all  inevitably.  It  is  said  Gen.  Taylor  and 
his  officers  held  a  council  of  war  at  Palo  Alto  (I  believe)  ; 
and  that  he  then  fought  the  battle  against  unanimous 
opinion  of  those  officers — this  fact  (no  matter  whether 
rightfully  or  wrongfully)  gives  him  more  popularity 
than  ten  thousand  submissions,  however  really  wise  and 
magnanimous  those  submissions  may  be.  The  appoint- 
ments need  be  no  better  than  they  have  been,  but  the 
public  must  be  brought  to  understand  that  they  are  the 
President's  appointments.  He  must  occasionally  say,  or 
seem  to  say,  "by  the  Eternal,"   "I   take   the   responsi- 


64  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

bility."  Those  phrases  were  the  "Samson's  locks"  of 
Gen.  Jackson,  and  we  dare  not  disregard  the  lessons  of 
experience.  Your  Ob't  Sev't, 

A.   Lincoln 

With  no  political  future  apparently  before  him,  and  with 
urgent  need  of  a  growing  income,  Lincoln  now  quietly  took 
leave  of  politics  and  devoted  himself  almost  exclusively  to  the 
practice  of  law.  In  this  connection  some  notes  of  his  for  a 
law  lecture,  written  about  this  time,  throw  light  on  the  pro- 
fessional ideas. and  ideals  of  the  man. 

NOTES  FOR  A   LAW  LECTURE 
[Written  about  July  1,  1851] 

I  am  not  an  accomplished  lawyer.  I  find  quite  as 
much  material  for  a  lecture  in  those  points  wherein  I 
have  failed  as  in  those  wherein  I  have  been  moderately 
successful.  The  leading  rule  for  the  lawyer,  as  for  the 
man  of  every  other  calling,  is  diligence.  Leave  nothing 
for  tomorrow  which  can  be  done  today.  Never  let  your 
correspondence  fall  behind.  Whatever  piece  of  business 
you  have  in  hand,  before  stopping,  do  all  the  labor  per- 
taining to  it  which  can  then  be  done.  When  you  bring 
a  common  law-suit,  if  you  have  the  facts  for  doing  so, 
write  the  declaration  at  once.  If  a  law  point  be  involved, 
examine  the  books,  and  note  the  authority  you  rely  on 
upon  the  declaration  itself,  where  you  are  sure  to  find  it 
when  wanted.  The  same  of  defenses  and  pleas.  In 
business  not  likely  to  be  litigated — ordinary  collection 
cases,  foreclosures,  partitions,  and  the  like — make  all 
examinations  of  titles,  and  note  them  and  even  draft 
orders  and  decrees  in  advance.  This  course  has  a  triple 
advantage ;  it  avoids  omissions  and  neglect,  saves  your 
labor  when  once  done,  performs  the  labor  out  of  court 
when  you  have  leisure,  rather  than  in  court  when  you 
have  not. 

Extemporaneous    speaking    should    be    practiced    and 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  65 

cultivated.  It  is  the  lawyer's  avenue  to  the  public.  How- 
ever able  and  faithful  he  may  be  in  other  respects, 
people  are  slow  to  bring  him  business  if  he  cannot  make 
a  speech.  And  yet  there  is  not  a  more  fatal  error  to 
young  lawyers  than  relying  too  much  on  speech-making. 
If  anyone,  upon  his  rare  powers  of  speaking,  shall  claim 
an  exemption  from  the  drudgery  of  the  law,  his  case  is 
a  failure  in  advance. 

Discourage  litigation.  Persuade  your  neighbors  to 
compromise  whenever  you  can.  Point  out  to  them  how 
the  nominal  winner  is  often  a  real  loser — in  fees,  ex- 
penses, and  waste  of  time.  As  a  peacemaker  the  lawyer 
has  a  su|3€rior  opportunity  of  being  a  good  man.  There 
will  still  be  business  enough. 

Never  stir  up  litigation.  A  worse  man  can  scarcely 
be  found  than  one  who  does  this.  Who  can  be  more 
nearly  a  fiend  than  he  who  habitually  overhauls  the 
register  of  deeds  in  search  of  defects  in  titles,  whereon 
to  stir  up  strife,  and  put  money  in  his  pocket  .^  A  moral 
tone  ought  to  be  infused  into  the  j^rofession  which  should 
drive  such  men  out  of  it. 

The  matter  of  fees  is  important,  far  beyond  the  mere 
question  of  bread  and  butter  involved.  Properly  at- 
tended to,  fuller  justice  is  done  to  both  lawyer  and  client. 
An  exorbitant  fee  should  never  be  claimed.  As  a  general 
rule  never  take  your  whole  fee.  in  advance,  nor  any  more 
than  a  small  retainer.  When  fully  paid  beforehand,  you 
are  more  than  a  common  mortal  if  yon  can  feel  the  same 
interest  in  the  case,  as  if  something  was  still  in  prospect 
for  you,  as  well  as  for  your  client.  And  when  you  lack 
interest  in  the  case,  the  job  will  very  likely  lack  skill  and 
diligence  in  the  performance.  Settle  the  amount  of  fee 
and  take  a  note  in  advance.  Then  you  will  feel  that  you 
are  working  for  something,  and  you  are  sure  to  do  your 
work  faithfully  and  well.  Never  sell  a  fee  note — at  least 
not  before  the  consideration  service  is  performed.  It  leads 
to  negligence  and  dishonesty — negligence  by  losing  in- 


66  SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX 

terest  in  the  case,  and  dishonesty  in  refusing  to  refund 
when  you  have  allowed  the  consideration  to  fail. 

There  is  a  vague  popular  belief  that  lawyers  are  neces- 
sarily dishonest.  I  say  vague,  because  when  we  consider 
to  what  extent  confidence  and  honors  are  reposed  in  and 
conferred  upon  lawyers  by  the  people,  it  appears  im- 
probable that  their  impression  of  dishonesty  is  very  dis- 
tinct and  vivid.  Yet  the  impression  is  common,  almost 
universal.  Let  no  young  man  choosing  the  law  for  a 
calling  for  a  moment  yield  to  the  popular  belief — resolve 
to  be  honest  at  all  events;  and  if  in  your  own  judgment 
you  cannot  be  an  honest  lawyer,  resolve  to  be  honest 
without  being  a  lawyer.  Choose  some  other  occupation, 
rather  than  one  in  the  choosing  of  which  you  do,  in 
advance,  consent  to  be  a  knave. 

His  financial  needs  were  greatly  increased  by  his  growing 
family  and  by  the  necessity  of  assisting  his  father  and  step- 
mother, who  now,  after  years  of  moving  from  place  to  place, 
were  settled  at  Goose  Nest  Prairie,  Illinois.  Thomas  Lincoln 
died  in  1851,  and  Lincoln's  care  for  his  step-mother  continued 
until  his  death.  One  of  her  sons  by  her  first  marriage  was 
John  D.  Johnston.  He  was  an  amiable  but  shiftless  n'er-do-well 
who  constantly  appealed  to  Lincoln  for  aid.  Three  letters  to 
him,  written  in  1851,  show  the  sound  common  sense  of  Lincoln 
as  well  as  his  kindly  nature. 


TO  JOHN  D.  JOHNSTON 

January  2,  1851 
Dear  Johnston:  Your  request  for  eighty  dollars  I  do 
not  think  best  to  comply  with  now.  At  the  various  times 
when  I  have  helped  you  a  little  you  have  said  to  me, 
"We  can  get  along  very  well  now" ;  but  in  a  very  short 
time  I  find  you  in  the  same  difficulty  again.  Now  this 
can  only  happen  by  some  defect  in  your  conduct.  What 
that  defect  is,  I  think  I  know.  You  are  not  lazy,  and 
still  you  are  an  idler,  I  doubt  whether,  since  I  saw  you, 
you  have  done  a  good  whole  day's  work  in  any  one  day. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  Q'J 

You  do  not  very  much  dislike  to  work^  and  still  you  do 
not  work  much,  merely  because  it  does  not  seem  to  you 
that  you  could  get  much  for  it.  This  habit  of  uselessly 
wasting  time  is  the  w^hole  difficulty ;  it  is  vastly  important 
to  you,  and  still  more  so  to  your  children,  that  you  should 
break  the  habit.  It  is  more  important  to  them,  because 
they  have  longer  to  live,  and  can  keep  out  of  an  idle 
habit  before  they  are  in  it,  easier  than  they  can  get  out 
after  they  are  in. 

You  are  now  in  need  of  some  money ;  and  what  I  pro- 
pose is,  that  you  shall  go  to  work,  "tooth  and  nail,"  for 
somebody  who  will  give  you  money  for  it.  Let  father 
and  your  boys  take  charge  of  your  things  at  home,  pre- 
pare for  a  crop,  and  make  the  crop,  and  you  go  to  work 
for  the  best  money  wages,  or  in  discharge  of  any  debt 
you  owe,  that  you  can  get;  and  to  secure  you  a  fair 
reward  for  your  labor,  I  now  promise  you,  that  for  every 
dollar  that  you  will,  between  this  and  the  first  of  May, 
get  for  your  own  labor,  either  in  money  or  as  your  own 
indebtedness,  I  will  then  give  you  one  other  dollar.  By 
this,  if  you  hire  yourself  at  ten  dollars  a  month,  from 
me  you  will  get  ten  more,  making  twenty  dollars  a 
month  for  your  work.  In  this  I  do  not  mean  you  shall 
go  off  to  St.  Louis,  or  the  lead  mines,  or  the  gold  mines 
in  California,  but  I  mean  for  you  to  go  at  it  for  the  best 
wages  you  can  get  close  to  home  in  Coles  County.  Now, 
if  you  will  do  this,  you  will  soon  be  out  of  debt,  and, 
what  is  better,  you  will  have  a  habit  that  will  keep  you 
from  getting  in  debt  again.  But  if  I  should  now  clear 
you  out  of  debt,  next  year  you  would  be  just  as  deep  in 
as  ever.  You  say  you  would  almost  give  your  place  in 
heaven  for  seventy  or  eighty  dollars.  Then  you  value 
your  place  in  heaven  very  cheap,  for  I  am  sure  you  can, 
with  the  offer  I  make,  get  the  seventy  or  eighty  dollars  for 
four  or  five  months'  work.  You  say  if  I  will  furnish  you 
the  money  you  will  deed  me  the  land,  and,  if  you  don't  pay 
the  money  back,  you  will  deliver  possession.     Nonsense  I 


68  SELECTIONS    FROM   LINCOLN 

If  you  can't  now  live  with  the  land,  how  will  you  then 
live  without  it?  You  have  always  been  kind  to  me,  and 
I  do  not  mean  to  be  unkind  to  you.  On  the  contrary,  if 
you  will  but  follow  my  advice,  you  will  find  it  worth 
more  than  eighty  times  eighty  dollars  to  you. 
Affectionately  your  brother, 

A.  Lincoln 

TO  JOHN  D.  J  OH XS  TON 

Shelby ville,  November  4,  1851 
Dear  Brother:  When  I  came  into  Charleston  day 
before  yesterday,  I  learned  that  you  are  anxious  to  sell 
the  land  where  you  live  and  move  to  Missouri.  I  have 
been  thinking  of  this  ever  since,  and  cannot  but  think 
such  a  notion  utterly  foolish.  What  can  you  do  in 
Missouri  better  than  here.^  Is  the  land  any  richer?  Can 
you  there,  any  more  than  here,  raise  corn  and  wheat  and 
oats  without  work?  Will  anybody  there,  any  more  than 
here,  do  your  work  for  you?  If  you  intend  to  go  to  work, 
there  is  no  better  place  than  right  where  you  are ;  if 
you  do  not  intend  to  go  to  work,  you  cannot  get  along 
anywhere.  Squirming  and  crawling  about  from  place  to 
place  can  do  no  good.  You  have  raised  no  crop  this 
year;  and  what  you  really  want  is  to  sell  the  land,  get 
the  money,  and  spend  it.  Part  with  the  land  you  have, 
and,  my  life  upon  it,  you  will  never  after  own  a  spot  big 
enough  to  bury  you  in.  Half  you  will  get  for  the  land 
you  will  spend  in  moving  to  Missouri,  and  the  other  half 
you  will  eat,  drink,  and  wear  out,  and  no  foot  of  land 
will  be  bought.  Now,  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  have  no  hand 
in  such  a  piece  of  foolery.  I  feel  that  it  is  so  even  on 
your  own  account,  and  particularly  on  mother's  account. 
The  eastern  forty  acres  I  intend  to  keep  for  mother 
while  she  lives ;  if  you  will  not  cultivate  it,  it  will  rent 
for  enough  to  support  her — at  least,  it  will  rent  for 
something.  Her  dower  in  the  other  two  forties  she  can 
let  vou  have,  and  no  thanks  to  me.     Now,  do  not  mis- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  69 

understand  this  letter;  I  do  not  write  it  in  any  unkind- 
ness.  I  write  it  in  order,  if  possible,  to  get  you  to  face 
the  truth,  which  truth  is,  you  are  destitute  because  you 
have  idled  away  all  your  time.  Your  thousand  pretenses 
for  not  getting  along  better  are  all  nonsense ;  they 
deceive  nobody  but  yourself.  Go  to  work  is  the  only 
cure  for  your  case. 

A  word  to  mother.  Chapman  tells  me  he  wants  you 
to  go  and  live  with  him.  If  I  were  you  I  would  try  it 
awhile.  If  you  get  tired  of  it  (as  I  think  you  will  not), 
you  can  return  to  your  own  home.  Chapman  feels  very 
kindly  to  you,  and  I  have  no  doubt  he  will  make  your 
situation  very  pleasant. 

Sincerely  your  son, 

A.   Lincoln 

TO  JOHX  D.  JOHySTON 

Springfield,  November  2.5,  1851 
John  D.  Johnston. 

Dear  Brother:  Your  letter  of  the  22d  is  just  re- 
ceived. Your  proposal  about  selling  the  east  forty  acres 
of  land  is  all  that  I  want  or  could  want  for  myself;  but 
I  am  not  satisfied  with  it  on  mother's  account — I  want 
her  to  have  her  living,  and  I  feel  that  it  is  my  duty,  to 
some  extent,  to  see  that  she  is  not  wronged.  She  had  a 
right  of  dower  (that  is,  the  use  of  one-third  for  life)  in 
the  other  two  forties  !  but,  it  seems,  she  has  already  let 
you  take  that,  hook  and  line.  She  now  has  the  use  of 
the  whole  east  forty,  as  long  as  she  lives;  and  if  it  be 
sold,  of  course,  she  is  entitled  to  the  interest  on  all  the 
money  it  brings,  as  long  as  she  lives ;  but  you  propose 
to  sell  it  for  three  hundred  dollars,  take  one  hundred 
away  with  you,  and  leave  her  two  hundred  at  8  per  cent, 
making  her  the  enormous  sum  of  16  dollars  a  year.  Now, 
if  you  are  satisfied  with  treating  her  in  that  way,  I  am 
not.  It  is  true,  that  you  are  to  have  that  forty  for  two 
hundred   dollars,   at  your   mother's    death ;   but  vou   are 


70  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

not  to  have  it  before.     I  am  confident  that  land  can  be 
made  to  produce  for  mother  at  least  $30  a  year,  and  I 
cannot,  to  oblige  any  living  person,  consent  that  she  shall 
be  put  on  an  allowance  of  sixteen  dollars  a  year. 
Yours,  etc., 

A.   Lincoln 

In  the  years  between  1849  and  1854,  Lincoln's  practice  grew 
rapidly,  but  since  he  cared  little  for  money,  his  fees  were  so 
small  as  to  excite  the  displeasure  of  his  brethren  of  the  bar 
and  even  to  bring  a  protest  from  the  presiding  judge.  His 
only  political  activity  was  as  candidate  for  presidential  elector 
in  1852.  He  was  never  effective  where  his  heart  was  not,  and 
the  Whig  platform  of  185:2,  which  had  no  fighting  issue,  excited 
in  him  no  particular  interest.  He  had  thrown  himself  with 
renewed  enthusiasm  into  fresh  study  of  the  law  and  was  bidding 
fair,  if  nothing  should  prevent,  to  become  possibly  a  great 
lawyer.  Interestingly  enough,  he  was  now  studying  and  master- 
ing Euclidean  geometry,  which  gave  him  probably,  even  at  this 
mature  age,  a  power  of  closer  reasoning.  Although  increas- 
ingly a  student  he  did  not  withdraw  from  contact  with  the 
people.  In  fact  he  became  during  this  period  the  idol  of  the 
Eighth  Judicial  Circuit  in  Illinois  and  increasingly  well-known 
to  the  entire  state.  Here  were  formed  the  personal  associa- 
tions which  did  so  much  to  make  Lincoln,  with  all  his  handi- 
caps, the   Republican  nominee   for  President  in   1860. 

The  Compromise  of  1850  had  apparently  settled  the  slavery 
question,  for  that  generation  at  least,  and  while  Lincoln  was 
firm  in  the  conviction  that  "nothing  is  really  ever  settled  until 
it  is  settled  right,"  and  while  his  dislike  of  slavery  had  not 
lessened,  he  had,  as  a  practical  matter,  dismissed  the  question 
from  his  mind,  when  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill, 
with  its  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  reopened  the 
whole  question  in  a  new  form,  and  ushered  in  a  new  period  in 
his  life. 


II 

FIGHTING  THE  EXTENSION  OF 
SLAVERY 


II 

FIGHTING  THE  EXTENSION  OF  SLAVERY 

In  this  second  period  of  his  life,  Lincoln  devoted  practically 
all  his  time  and  thought  to  opposing  the  extension  of  slavery 
into  the  territories  of  the  United  States.  With  slavery  where 
it  already  existed  he  did  not  quarrel.  Believing  that  it  was  a 
great  evil,  he  nevertheless  was  convinced  that  under  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  it  was  entitled  to  protection. 
But  quite  different  was  his  attitude  as  regarded  its  spread. 
It  was  to  him  more  than  a  political  question,  and  he  never 
overlooked  its  possibilities  in  that  respect;  it  was  a  moral 
question  of  the  highest  importance,  and  to  the  contest  he  gave 
all  the  strength  that  he  had.  In  the  contest  he  grew  and 
developed  more  rapidly  than  he  had  ever  done. 

By  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  providing  for  the  government  of 
the  Northwest  Territor\%  it  was  provided  that  "there  shall  be 
neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  the  said  Territory, 
otherwise  than  in  punishment  of  crimes,  whereof  the  party 
shall  have  been  duly  convicted."  As  a  result,  the  states  of 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  ^Michigan,  and  Wisconsin  were  free  of 
slavery-.  In  1803  the  United  States  purchased  Louisiana,  in 
part  of  which  slavery  already  existed.  Louisiana  was  admitted 
as  a  slave  state  in  1812,  and  in  1818  the  people  of  Missouri 
petitioned  Congress  to  be  admitted  as  a  slave  state.  In  the 
North  great  opposition  developed,  and  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives and  Senate  were  at  a  deadlock,  the  former  insisting 
upon  admission  only  upon  the  condition  of  the  gradual  emanci- 
pation of  slaves,  and  the  latter  insisting  that  it  should  be  a 
slave  state.  Finally,  upon  the  suggestion  of  Senator  Thomas 
of  Illinois,  Missouri  was  admitted  as  a  slave  state,  byt  in  all 
the  rest  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  north  of  36°  30',  which 
was  the  southern  boundary  of  Missouri,  slavery  was  forever 
prohibited.     This     not    only    determined    the    status    of    the 

73 


74  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

northern  portion  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  but  it  was  a 
recognition  of  the  right  of  Congress  to  deal  with  slavery  in  the 
territories.  Under  it  there  was  little  question  of  slavery'  ex- 
tension until  the  Mexican  "War. 

As  a  result  of  the  Mexican  War,  the  slavery  question  was 
reopened  in  Congress.  California  was  particularly  adapted 
for  slavery,  and  there  was  an  immediate  demand  from  the 
South  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  line  be  extended  to  the 
Pacific.  The  North  still  advocated  the  principle  of  the  Wilmot 
Proviso  that  slavery-  should  not  extend  to  the  new  territory. 
At  the  same  time  there  was  a  strong  Northern  demand  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  or  at  least  of  the  slave-trade,  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  while  the  South,  which  was  losing  two 
thousand  slaves  a  year  through  the  operations  of  the  Under- 
ground Railway,  demanded  a  more  eflFective  law  for  the  return 
of  fugitive  slaves.  In  addition  there  were  other  questions,  all 
connected,  directly  or  indirectly,  with  slavery,  which  were 
agitated  in  Congress,  such  as  the  western  boundary  of  Texas, 
and  whether  Utah  and   New  Mexico  should  be  free  or  slave. 

The  discovery  of  gold  in  California  in  1848  carried  a  flood 
of  settlers  there,  and,  without  waiting  for  the  establishment  of 
a  territorial  government,  they  drew  up  a  state  constitution 
which  prohibited  slaver}%  and  in  1849  applied  for  admission 
to  the  Union.  Admission  would  of  course  prevent  the  exten- 
sion of  the  Compromise  line  to  the  Pacific,  and  the  South 
opposed  admission  for  this  reason.  The  dispute  grew  so 
angry  that  there  was  serious  danger  of  disunion,  when  Henry 
Clay,  who  had  returned  to  the  Senate  for  the  purpose,  proposed 
a  series  of  compromise  measures,  which  were  finally  adopted 
and  which,  together,  form  tlie  Compromise  of  1850.  Under 
these  acts  California  was  admitted  as  a  free  state,  New  Mexico 
was  given  territory  claimed  by  Texas,  and  in  return  debts 
of  the  state  of  Texas  to  the  amount  of  $10,000,000  were  assumed 
by  the  Ignited  States,  while  Utah  and  New  Mexico  were 
given  territorial  government  with  the  provision  that  when 
either  should  be  admitted  as  a  state  "the  said  territory  .  .  . 
shall  be  admitted  into  the  Union,  with  or  without  slaver}%  as 
their  constitution  may  provide  at  the  time  of  admission." 
This  was  a  recognition  of  the  principle  of  "popular  sov- 
ereignty" which  General  Lewis  Cass  of  Michigan  had  sug- 
gested as  a  way  of  settlement.    In  addition  the  slave-trade  was 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  75 

abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  a  new  and  more 
stringent  fugitive  slave  law  was  passed. 

Both  political  parties  accepted  the  compromise  and  agreed 
not  to  discuss  slavery  further.  National  discussion  did  for  a 
short  time  largely  cease.  But  the  new  fugitive  slave  law  was 
very  unpopular  in  the  North,  and  in  ever\'  free  state,  except 
two,  laws  were  passed  to  interfere  with  its  operation.  In 
addition  its  execution  was  frequently  interrupted  by  mobs, 
backed  by  public  sentiment.  This  angered  the  South,  which 
felt  that  the  North  was  unwilling  to  grant  the  protection 
guaranteed  by  the  Constitution. 

With  the  development  of  overland  trade  to  California 
M'hich  began  in  1849,  came  a  demand  for  the  organization  of 
the  territory  west  of  the  Missouri  River,  which  now  was 
being  slowly  settled.  In  June,  1854,  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
who  was  chairman  of  the  committee  on  the  territories  in  the 
Senate,  introduced  a  bill  for  the  organization  of  the  Nebraska 
Territory-,  with  the  provision  that  the  people  of  the  territory 
should  decide  whether  or  not  it  should  have  slaverj'.  This 
fresh  application  of  "popular  sovereignty,"  or,  as  it  was 
popularly  called,  "squatter  sovereignty,"  was  at  once  opposed 
as  contrary  to  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Douglas  contended 
that  the  Compromise  of  1850  had  set  aside  the  earlier  com- 
promise, and  later  included  in  the  bill  a  specific  provision  for 
the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  At  the  same  time 
provision  was  made  in  the  bill  for  two  territories  instead  of 
one:  Kansas,  which  was  clearly  intended  to  be  slave,  and 
Nebraska,  which  was  to  be  free,  thus  maintaining  the  tradi- 
tional balance  between   slave  and   free  states. 

This  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  with  its  "popular  sovereignty" 
plan,  represented  the  ideas  of  many  people  in  the  "West  who 
in  their  adoration  of  democratic,  popular  government,  thought 
that  the  people  most  nearly  concerned  should  decide  political 
questions.  These  people  saw  here  a  local  question,  like  that  of 
schools;  they  failed  utterly  to  see  that  any  question  which 
involved  a  policy  toward  slavery  was  necessarily  national  in 
its  scope.  They  also  failed  to  see  that  it  involved  any  moral 
question. 

The  bill  was  passed,  in  spite  of  sharp  opposition  in  the 
North.  A  large  part  of  the  Democratic  party,  the  Anti- 
Nebraska  men,  refused  to  support  it,   and  so  unpopular  was 


76  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

the  bill  Ihat  Douglas  said  that  his  way  home  from  Washington 
was  lighted  all  the  distance  "by  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  burning 
in  eflBgy."  "When  he  reached  Chicago  he  attempted  to  defend 
his  course  in  a  public  speech  and  was  hissed  from  the  plat- 
form. But  each  day  he  roused  more  enthusiasm  and  won  back 
friends.  This  was  the  situation  in  Illinois  and  the  nation  when 
Lincoln  came  actively  back  into  politics. 

The  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  inevitably  brought 
Lincoln  into  politics.  To  him  the  issue  involved  was  moral 
rather  than  political,  and  it  was  in  the  discussion  of  such 
questions  that  his  powers  and  abilities  lay.  He  threw  him- 
self into  a  close  study  of  the  whole  question.  The  following 
notes  show  the  trend  of  his  thought.  They  are  chiefly  inter- 
esting because  they  contain  the  germ  of  many  of  the  argu- 
ments which  he  was  to  use  later  in  a  more  developed   form. 


THE    NATURE    AND    OBJECTS    OF    GOVERNMENT, 
WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE   TO  SLAVERY 

{About  July  1,  1854] 

[Fragmentary  Notes] 

Government  is  a  combination  of  the  people  of  a  coun- 
try to  effect  certain  objects  by  joint  effort.  The  best 
framed  and  best  administered  governments  are  neces- 
sarily expensive;  while  by  errors  in  frame  and  maladmin- 
istration most  of  them  are  more  onerous  than  they  need 
be,  and  some  of  tliem  very  oppressive.  Why,  then, 
should  we  have  government.''  Why  not  each  individual 
take  to  liimself  the  whole  fruit  of  his  labor,  without 
having  any  of  it  taxed  away,  in  services,  corn,  or  money  ? 
Why  not  take  just  so  much  land  as  he  can  cultivate  with 
his  own  hands,  without  buying  it  of  anyone? 

The  legitimate  object  of  government  is  "to  do  for  the 
people  what  needs  to  be  done,  but  which  they  cannot,  by 
individual  effort,  do  at  all,  or  do  so  well,  for  themselves." 
There  are  many  such  things — some  of  them  exist  inde- 
pendently of  the  injustice  in  the  world.  Making  and 
maintaining  roads,  bridges,  and  the  like ;  providing  for 


SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN         77 

the  helpless  young  and   afflicted ;   common   schools ;    and 
disposing  of  deceased  men's  property,  are  instances. 

But  a  far  larger  class  of  objects  springs  from  the 
injustice  of  men.  If  one  people  will  make  war  upon 
another,  it  is  a  necessity  with  that  other  to  unite  and 
cooperate  for  defense.  Hence  the  military  department. 
If  some  men  will  kill,  or  beat,  or  constrain  others,  or 
despoil  them  of  property,  by  force,  fraud,  or  non-com- 
pliance with  contracts,  it  is  a  common  object  with  peace- 
ful and  just  men  to  prevent  it.  Hence  the  criminal  and 
civil  departments. 

The  legitimate  object  of  government  is  to  do  for  a 
community  of  people  whatever  they  need  to  have  done, 
but  cannot  do  at  all,  or  cannot  so  well  do,  for  themselves, 
in  their  separate  and  individual  capacities.  In  all  that 
the  people  can  individually  do  as  well  for  themselves, 
government  ought  not  to  interfere.  The  desirable  things 
which  the  individuals  of  a  people  cannot  do,  or  cannot 
well  do,  for  themselves,  fall  into  two  classes :  those  which 
have  relation  to  wrongs,  and  those  which  have  not.  Each 
of  these  branches  off  into  an  infinite  variety  of  sub- 
divisions. 

The  first — that  in  relation  to  wrongs — embraces  all 
crimes,  misdemeanors,  and  non-performance  of  contracts. 
The  other  embraces  all  which,  in  its  nature,  and  without 
wrong  requires  combined  action,  as  public  roads  and 
highways,  public  schools,  charities,  pauperism,  orphan- 
age, estates  of  the  deceased,  and  the  machinery  of  gov- 
ernment itself. 

From  this  it  appears  that  if  all  men  were  just,  there 
still  would  be  some,  though  not  so  much,  need  of  govern- 
ment. 

Equality  in  society  alike  beats  inequality,  whether  the 
latter  be  of  the  British  aristocratic  sort  or  of  the  domestic 
slavery  sort. 

We  know  Southern  men  declare  that  their  slaves  are 


78  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

better  off  than  hired  laborers  amongst  us.  How  little 
they  know  whereof  they  speak !  There  is  no  permanent 
class  of  hired  laborers  amongst  us.  Twenty-five  years 
ago  I  was  a  hired  laborer.  The  hired  laborer  of  yester- 
day labors  on  his  own  account  today,  and  will  hire  others 
to  labor  for  him  tomorrow. 

Advancement — improvement  in  conditionals  the  order 
of  things  in  a  societ}^  of  equals.  As  labor  is  the  com- 
mon burden  of  our  race,  so  the  effort  of  some  to  shift 
their  share  of  the  burden  on  to  the  shoulders  of  others 
is  the  great  durable  curse  of  the  race.  Originally  a  curse 
for  transgression  upon  the  whole  race,  when,  as  by 
slavery,  it  is  concentrated  on  a  part  only,  it  becomes  the 
double-refined  curse  of  God  upon  his  creatures. 

Free  labor  has  the  inspiration  of  hope;  pure  slavery 
has  no  hope.  The  power  of  hope  upon  human  exertion 
and  happiness  is  wonderful.  The  slave-master  himself 
has  a  conception  of  it,  and  hence  the  system  of  tasks 
among  slaves.  The  slave  whom  you  cannot  drive  with 
the  lash  to  break  seventy-five  pounds  of  hemp  in  a  day, 
if  you  will  task  him  to  break  a  hundred,  and  promise  him 
pay  for  all  he  does  over,  he  will  break  you  a  hundred  and 
fifty.  You  have  substituted  hope  for  the  rod.  And  yet 
perhaps  it  does  not  occur  to  you  that,  to  the  extent  of 
your  gain  in  the  case,  you  have  given  up  the  slave  system 
and  adopted  the  free  system  of  labor. 


If  A  can  prove,  however  conclusively,  that  he  may  of 
right  enslave  B,  why  may  not  B  snatch  the  same  argu- 
ment and  prove  equally  that  he  may  enslave  A.-*  You 
say  A  is  white  and  B  is  black.  It  is  color,  then;  the 
lighter  having  the  right  to  enslave  the  darker?  Take 
care.  By  this  rule  you  are  to  be  slave  to  the  first  man 
you  meet  with  a  fairer  skin  than  your  own. 

You  do  not  mean  color  exactly  ?  You  mean  the  whites 
are  intellectually  the  superiors  of  the  blacks,  and  there- 
fore have  the  right  to  enslave  them?     Take  care  again. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  79 

By  this  rule  you  are  to  be  slave  to  the  first  man  you  meet 
with  an  intellect  superior  to  your  own. 

But,  say  you,  it  is  a  question  of  interest,  and  if  you 
make  it  your  interest  you  have  the  right  to  enslave  an- 
other. Very  well.  And  if  he  can  make  it  his  interest 
he  has  the  right  to  enslave  you. 


The  ant  who  has  toiled  and  dragged  a  crumb  to  his 
nest  will  furiously  defend  the  fruit  of  his  labor  against 
whatever  robber  assails  him.  So  plain  that  the  most 
dumb  and  stupid  slave  that  ever  toiled  for  a  master  does 
constantly  know  that  he  is  wronged.  So  plain  that  no 
one,  high  or  low,  ever  does  mistake  it,  except  in  a  plainly 
selfish  way;  for  although  volume  upon  volume  is  written 
to  prove  slavery  a  very  good  thing,  we  never  hear  of 
the  man  who  wishes  to  take  the  good  of  it  by  being  a 
slave  himself. 

Most  governments  have  been  based,  practically,  on  the 
denial  of  the  equal  rights  of  men,  as  I  have,  in  part, 
stated  them;  ours  began  by  affirming  these  rights.  They 
said  some  men  are  too  ignorant  and  vicious  to  share  in 
government.  Possibly  so,  said  we;  and,  by  your  system, 
you  would  always  keep  them  ignorant  and  vicious.  We 
proposed  to  give  all  a  chance ;  and  we  expected  the  weak 
to  grow  stronger,  the  ignorant  wiser,  and  all  better  and 
happier  together. 

We  made  the  experiment,  and  the  fruit  is  before  us. 
Look  at  it,  think  of  it.  Look  at  it  in  its  aggregate 
grandeur,  of  extent,  of  country,  and  numbers  of  popula- 
tion— of  ship  and  steamboat,  and  railroad. 

Lincoln  did  not  content  himself  with  study.  He  went  on 
the  stump  in  behalf  of  a  friend  who  was  a  candidate  for  Con- 
gress, stating  that  he  would  only  speak  in  opposition  to  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  act.  He  also  began  to  write  letters  with 
the  view  of  organization  of  public  opinion  against  it.  The 
following  is  a  good  example  of  these: 


80  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

TO  JOHX  M.  PALMER 

Springfield,  September  7,  1854 
Hon.  J.  M.  Palmer. 

Dear  Sir:  You  know  how  anxious  I  am  that  this 
Nebraska  measure  shall  be  rebuked  and  condemned 
everywhere.  Of  course  I  hope  something  from  your  posi- 
tion, yet  I  do  not  expect  you  to  do  anything  which  may 
be  wrong  in  your  own  judgment;  nor  would  I  have  you 
do  anything  personally  injurious  to  yourself.  You  are. 
and  always  have  been,  honestly  and  sincerely,  a  demo- 
crat; and  I  know  how  painful  it  must  be  to  an  honest, 
sincere  man  to  be  urged  by  his  party  to  the  support  of 
a  measure,  which  in  his  conscience  he  believes  to  be 
wrong.  You  have  had  a  severe  struggle  with  yourself, 
and  you  have  determined  not  to  swallow  the  wrong.  Is 
it  not  just  to  yourself  that  you  should,  in  a  few  public 
speeches,  state  your  reasons,  and  thus  justify  yourself? 
I  wish  you  would ;  and  yet  I  say,  "Don't  do  it,  if  you 
think  it  will  injure  you." — You  may  have  given  your 
word  to  vote  for  Major  Harris;*  and  if  so,  of  course 
you  will  stick  to  it. — But  allow  me  to  suggest  that  you 
should  avoid  speaking  of  this,  for  it  probably  would 
induce  some  of  your  friends,  in  like  manner,  to  cast  their 
votes. — You  understand. — And  now  let  me  beg  your 
pardon  for  obtruding  this  letter  upon  you,  to  whom  I 
have  ever  been  opposed  in  politics. — Had  your  party 
omitted  to  make  Nebraska  a  test  of  party  fidelity,  you 
probably  would  have  been  the  Democratic  candidate  for 
Congress  in  the  district. — You  deserved  it,  and  I  believe 
it  would  have  been  given  you. — In  that  case  I  should 
have  been  quite  happy  that  Nebraska  was  to  be  rebuked 
at  all  events. — I  still  should  have  voted  for  the  Whig 
candidate;  but  I  should  have  made  no  speeches,  written 
no  letters ;  and  you  would  have  been  elected  by  at  least 
a  thousand  majority.     Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

•  Thomas  L.  Harris,  the  Democratic  candidate  for  Congress. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  81 

The  State  Fair,  held  in  October  at  Springfield,  always 
attracted  huge  crowds,  and  Douglas  arranged  to  speak  there 
on  October  3,  in  defense  of  his  policy.  Lincoln,  who  was 
now  a  candidate  for  the  legislature,  was  promptly  called  upon 
to  answer  him  and  did  so  on  the  next  day.  His  speech  was 
very  successful.     Of  it  the  Springfield  Journal  said: 

"The  Anti-Nebraska  speech  of  Mr.  Lincoln  was  the  pro- 
foundest,  in  our  opinion,  that  he  has  made  in  his  whole  life. 
He  felt  upon  his  soul  the  truths  burn  which  he  uttered,  and  all 
])resent  felt  that  he  was  true  to  his  own  soul.  His  feelings 
once  or  twice  swelled  within  and  came  near  stifling  utterance. 
He  quivered  with  emotion.  The  whole  house  was  still  as  death. 
He  attacked  the  Nebraska  bill  with  unusual  warmth  and 
energy;  and  all  felt  that  a  man  of  strength  was  its  enemy  and 
that  he  intended  to  blast  it  if  he  could  by  strong  and  manly 
efforts.  He  was  most  successful,  and  the  house  approved  the 
glorious  triumph  of  truth  by  loud  and  continued  huzzas." 

Douglas  replied  the  following  day  and  these  speeches  may 
be  said  to  be  the  beginning  of  the  series  of  debates  which  was 
to  last  almost  without  interruption  until  1860.  Lincoln's  speech 
was  not  published,  but  when  he  spoke  at  Peoria  twelve  days 
later  in  reply  to  Douglas  he  used  substantially  the  same  argu- 
ments, lacking,  possibly,  the  fire  of  the  Springfield  speech. 

The  Peoria  address  is  also  notable  because  it  contains  the 
germ  of  many  arguments  and  illustrations  that  he  was  to  use 
during  the  next  six  years.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  was 
written  when  Lincoln  was  in  the  process  of  finding  himself, 
it  is  far  superior  to  his  speeches  in  the  much  more  famous 
debates  with  Douglas  in  1858.  It  is  more  imaginative,  has 
greater  elevation  of  thought,  and  is  franker  and  more  convinc- 
ing. It  is  a  fine  example  of  brief,  direct,  and  terse  statement. 
His  major  plea  was  for  the  vindication  and  restoration  of  the 
policy  of  the  fathers  of  the  republic  toward  slavery,  but  here, 
too,  is  made  clearly  the  chief  point  of  all  his  speeches  of  this 
period — that  slavery  was  fundamentally  wrong;  that  while  it 
could  not  be  disturbed  where  it  already  existed,  it  must  be 
confined  there  and  not  allowed  to  spread  at  all  into  free  terri- 
tory. It  is  notable  also  for  its  spirit  of  fairness  toward  the 
Southern  people. 


82  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

THE  PEORIA  SPEECH 

[October    16,   1854] 

I  do  not  rise  to  speak  now,  if  I  can  stipulate  with  the 
audience  to  meet  me  here  at  half-past  six  or  at  seven 
o'clock.  It  is  now  several  minutes  past  five,  and  Judge 
Douglas  has  spoken  over  three  hours.  If  you  hear  me 
at  all,  I  wish  you  to  hear  me  through.  It  will  take  me 
as  long  as  it  has  taken  him.  That  will  carry  us  beyond 
eight  o'clock  at  night.  Now,  everyone  of  you  who  can 
remain  that  long  can  just  as  well  get  his  supper,  meet 
me  at  seven,  and  remain  an  hour  or  two  later.  The  Judge 
has  already  informed  you  that  he  is  to  have  an  hour  to 
reply  to  me.  I  doubt  not  but  you  have  been  a  little  sur- 
prised to  learn  that  I  have  consented  to  give  one  of  his 
high  reputation  and  known  ability  this  advantage  of  me. 
Indeed,  my  consenting  to  it,  though  reluctant,  was  not 
wholly  unselfish,  for  I  suspected,  if  it  were  understood 
that  the  Judge  was  entirely  done,  you  Democrats  would 
leave  and  not  hear  me;  but  by  giving  him  the  close  I 
felt  confident  you  would  stay  for  the  fun  of  hearing  him 
skin  me. 

[The  audience  signified  their  assent  to  the  arrange- 
ment, and  adjourned  to  seven  o'clock  p.  m.,  at  which  time 
they  reassembled,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  spoke  substantially 
as  follows:] 

The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  the 
propriety  of  its  restoration,  constitute  the  subject  of 
what  I  am  about  to  say.  As  I  desire  to  present  my  own 
connected  view  of  this  subject,  my  remarks  will  not  be 
specifically  an  answer  to  Judge  Douglas ;  yet,  as  I  pro- 
ceed, the  main  points  he  has  presented  will  arise,  and 
will  receive  such  respectful  attention  as  I  may  be  able 
to  give  them.  I  wish  further  to  say  that  I  do  not  propose 
to  question  the  patriotism  or  to  assail  the  motives  of  any 
man  or  class  of  men,  but  rather  to  confine  myself  strictly 
to  the  naked  merits  of  the  question.  I  also  wish  to  be 
no  less  than  national  in  all  the  positions  I  may  take,  and 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  83 

whenever  I  take  ground  which  others  have  thought,  or 
may  think,  narrow,  sectional,  and  dangerous  to  the 
union,  I  hope  to  give  a  reason  which  will  appear  suffi- 
cient, at  least  to  some,  why  I  think  differently. 

And  as  this  subject  is  no  other  than  part  and  parcel 
of  the  larger  general  question  of  domestic  slavery,  I  wish 
to  make  and  keep  the  distinction  between  the  existing 
institution  and  the  extension  of  it,  so  broad  and  so  clear 
that  no  honest  man  can  misunderstand  me,  and  no  dis- 
honest one  successfully  misrepresent  me. 

In  order  to  a  clear  understanding  of  what  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  is,  a  short  history  of  the  preceding 
kindred  subjects  will  perhaps  be  proper. 

When  we  established  our  independence,  we  did  not 
own  or  claim  the  country  to  which  this  compromise  ap- 
plies. Indeed,  strictly  speaking,  the  Confederacy  then 
owned  no  country  at  all;  the  states  respectively  owned 
the  country  within  their  limits,  and  some  of  them  owned 
territory  beyond  their  strict  state  limits.  Virginia  thus 
owned  the  Northwestern  Territory — the  country  out  of 
which  the  principal  part  of  Ohio,  all  Indiana,  all  Illinois, 
all  Michigan,  and  all  Wisconsin  have  since  been  formed. 
She  also  owned  (perhaps  within  her  then  limits)  what 
has  since  been  formed  into  the  State  of  Kentucky.  North 
Carolina  thus  owned  what  is  now  the  State  of  Tennessee; 
and  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  owned,  in  separate 
parts,  what  are  now  Mississippi  and  Alabama.  Con- 
necticut, I  think,  owned  the  little  remaining  part  of  Ohio, 
being  the  same  where  they  now  send  Giddings  to  Con- 
gress, and  beat  all  creation  in  making  cheese. 

These  territories,  together  with  the  states  themselves, 
constitute  all  the  country  over  which  the  Confederacy 
then  claimed  any  sort  of  jurisdiction.  We  were  then 
living  under  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  which  were 
superseded  by  the  Constitution  several  years  afterwards. 
The  question  of  ceding  the  territories  to  the  General 
Government  was  set  on  foot.     Mr.  Jefferson,  the  author 


84  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  otherwise  a 
chief  actor  in  the  Revolution  ;  then  a  delegate  in  Con- 
gress; afterwards,  twice  President;  who  was,  is,  and 
perhaps  will  continue  to  be,  the  most  distinguished  poli- 
tician of  our  history ;  a  Virginian  by  birth  and  continued 
residence,  and  withal  a  slaveholder — conceived  the  idea 
of  taking  that  occasion  to  prevent  slavery  ever  going  into 
the  Northwestern  Territor3\  He  prevailed  on  the  Vir- 
ginia legislature  to  adopt  his  views,  and  to  cede  the 
Territory,  making  the  prohibition  of  slaver^'-  therein  a 
condition  of  the  deed.*  Congress  accepted  the  cession 
with  the  condition;  and  the  first  ordinance  (which  the 
acts  of  Congress  were  then  called)  for  the  government 
of  the  Territory  provided  that  slavery  should  never  be 
permitted  therein.  This  is  the  famed  "Ordinance  of 
'87,"  so  often  spoken  of. 

Thenceforward  for  sixty-one  years,  and  until,  in  1848, 
the  last  scrap  of  this  Territory  came  into  the  Union  as 
the  State  of  Wisconsin,  all  parties  acted  in  quiet  obedi- 
ence to  this  ordinance.  It  is  now  what  Jefferson  foresaw 
and  intended — the  happy  home  of  teeming  millions  of 
free,  white,  prosperous  people,  and  no  slave  among  them. 

Thus,  with  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, the  policy  of  prohibiting  slavery  in  new  terri- 
tory originated.  Thus,  away  back  to  the  Constitution, 
in  the  pure,  fresh,  free  breath  of  the  Revolution,  the 
State  of  Virginia  and  the  National  Congress  put  that 
policy  into  practice.  Thus,  through  more  than  sixty  of 
the  best  years  of  the  republic,  did  that  policy  steadily 
work  to  its  great  and  beneficent  end.  And  thus,  in  those 
five  states,  and  in  five  millions  of  free,  enterprising 
people,  we  have  before  us  the  rich  fruits  of  this  policy. 

But  now  new  light  breaks  upon  us.  Now  Congress 
declares  this  ought  never  to  have  been,  and  the  like  of  it 
must  never  be  again.  The  sacred  right  of  self-govern- 
ment is  grossly  violated  by  it.     We  even  find  some  men 

•  This  was  an  error  which  Lincoln  later  corrected. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  85 

who  drew  their  first  breath — and  every  other  breath  of 
their  lives — under  this  very  restriction^  now  live  in  dread 
of  absolute  suffocation  if  they  should  be  restricted  in  the 
"sacred  right"  of  taking  slaves  to  Nebraska.  That  per- 
fect liberty  they  sigh  for — the  liberty  of  making  slaves 
of  other  people — Jefferson  never  thought  of,  their  own 
fathers  never  thought  of,  they  never  thought  of  them- 
selves, a  year  ago.  How  fortunate  for  them  they  did  not 
sooner  become  sensible  of  their  great  misery !  Oh,  how 
difficult  it  is  to  treat  with  respect  such  assaults  upon  all 
we  have  ever  really  held  sacred  ! 

But  to  return  to  history.  In  1803  we  purchased  what 
was  then  called  Louisiana,  of  France.  It  included  the 
present  states  of  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Missouri,  and 
Iowa;  also  the  territory  of  ^Minnesota,  and  the  present 
bone  of  contention,  Kansas  and  Nebraska.  Slavery  al- 
ready existed  among  the  French  at  New  Orleans,  and  to 
some  extent  at  St.  Louis.  In  1812  Louisiana  came  into 
the  Union  as  a  slave  state  without  controversy.  In  1818 
or  '19,  Missouri  showed  signs  of  a  wish  to  come  in  with 
slavery.  This  was  resisted  by  Northern  members  of 
Congress ;  and  ^hus  began  the  first  great  slavery  agitation 
in  the  nation.  This  controversy  lasted  several  months, 
and  became  very  angry  and  exciting — the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives voting  for  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in 
Missouri,  and  the  Senate  voting  as  steadily  against  it. 
Threats  of  the  breaking  up  of  the  Union  were  freely 
made,  and  the  ablest  public  men  of  the  day  became  seri- 
ously alarmed.  At  length  a  compromise  was  made,  in 
which,  as  in  all  compromises,  both  sides  yielded  some- 
thing. It  was  a  law  passed  on  the  6th  of  March,  1820, 
providing  that  Missouri  might  come  into  the  Union  with 
slavery,  but  that  in  all  the  remaining  part  of  the  terri- 
tory purchased  of  France,  which  lies  north  of  thirty- 
six  degrees  and  thirty  minutes  north  latitude,  slavery 
should  never  be  permitted.  This  provision  of  law  is  the 
"Missouri  Compromise."     In  excluding  slavery  north  of 


86  SELECTIONS    PROM    LINXOLN 

the  line,  the  same  language  is  employed  as  in  the  ordi- 
nance of  1787.  It  directly  applied  to  Iowa,  Minnesota, 
and  to  the  present  bone  of  contention,  Kansas  and 
Nebraska.  Whether  there  should  or  should  not  be  slavery 
south  of  that  line,  nothing  was  said  in  the  law.  But 
Arkansas  constituted  the  principal  remaining  part  south 
of  the  line;  and  it  has  since  been  admitted  as  a  slave 
state,  without  serious  controversy.  More  recently,  Iowa, 
north  of  the  line,  came  in  as  a  free  state  without  con- 
troversy. Still  later,  Minnesota,  north  of  the  line,  had 
a  territorial  organization  without  controversy,  Texas, 
principally  south  of  the  line,  and  west  of  Arkansas, 
though  originally  within  the  purchase  from  France,  had, 
in  1819,  been  traded  off  to  Spain  in  our  treat}"  for  the 
acquisition  of  Florida.  It  had  thus  become  a  part  of 
Mexico.  Mexico  revolutionized  and  became  independent 
of  Spain.  American  citizens  began  settling  rapidly  with 
their  slaves  in  the  southern  part  of  Texas,  Soon  they 
revolutionized  against  Mexico,  and  established  an  inde- 
pendent government  of  their  own,  adopting  a  constitution 
with  slavery^  strongly  resembling  the  constitutions  of  our 
slave  states.  By  still  another  rapid  move,  Texas,  claim- 
ing a  boundary  much  further  west  than  when  we  parted 
with  her  in  1819,  was  brought  back  to  the  United  States, 
and  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state.  Then 
there  was  little  or  no  settlement  in  the  northern  part  of 
Texas,  a  considerable  portion  of  which  lay  north  of  the 
Missouri  line;  and  in  the  resolutions  admitting  her  into 
the  Union,  the  Missouri  restriction  was  expressly  ex- 
tended westward  across  her  territory.  This  was  in  1845, 
only  nine  years   ago. 

Thus  originated  the  Missouri  Compromise;  and  thus 
has  it  been  respected  down  to  1845.  And  even  four 
years  later,  in  1849,  our  distinguished  senator,  in  a 
public  address,  held  the  following  language  in  relation 
to  it: 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  87 

"The  Missouri  Compromise  has  been  in  practical  oper- 
ation for  about  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  has  received 
the  sanction  and  approbation  of  men  of  all  parties  in 
everj'  section  of  the  Union.  It  has  allaj-ed  all  sectional 
jealousies  and  irritations  growing  out  of  this  vexed  ques- 
tion, and  harmonized  and  tranquilized  the  whole  country. 
It  has  given  to  Henry  Clay,  as  its  prominent  champion, 
the  proud  sobriquet  of  the  'Great  Pacificator,'  and  by 
that  title,  and  for  that  service,  his  political  friends  had 
repeatedly  appealed  to  the  people  to  rally  under  his 
standard  as  a  presidential  candidate,  as  the  man  who 
had  exhibited  the  patriotism  and  power  to  suppress  an 
unholy  and  treasonable  agitation,  and  preserve  the 
Union.  He  was  not  aware  that  any  man  or  any  party, 
from  any  section  of  the  Union,  had  ever  urged  as  an 
objection  to  Mr.  Clay  that  he  was  the  great  champion 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  On  the  contrary,  the  effort 
was  made  by  the  opponents  of  Mr.  Clay  to  prove  that 
he  was  not  entitled  to  the  exclusive  merit  of  that  great 
patriotic  measure;  and  that  the  honor  was  equally  due 
to  others,  as  well  as  to  him  for  securing  its  adoption — 
that  it  had  its  origin  in  the  hearts  of  all  patriotic  men 
who  desired  to  preserve  and  perpetuate  the  blessings  of 
our  glorious  Union — an  origin  akin  to  that  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  conceived  in  the  same 
spirit  of  fraternal  affection,  and  calculated  to  remove 
forever  the  only  danger  which  seemed  to  threaten,  at 
some  distant  day,  to  sever  the  social  bond  of  union.  All 
the  evidences  of  public  opinion  at  that  day  seemed  to  in- 
dicate that  this  Compromise  had  been  canonized  in  the 
hearts  of  the  American  people,  as  a  sacred  thing  which 
no  ruthless  hand  would  ever  be  reckless  enough  to  dis- 
turb." 

I  do  not  read  this  extract  to  involve  Judge  Douglas  in 
an  inconsistency.  If  he  afterwards  thought  he  had  been 
wrong,  it  was  right  for  him  to  change.      I  bring  this  for- 


88  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

ward  merely  to  show  the  high  estimate  placed  on  the 
Missouri  Compromise  by  all  parties  up  to  so  late  as  the 
year  1849. 

But  going  back  a  little  in  point  of  time.  Our  war 
with  Mexico  broke  out  in  1846.  When  Congress  was 
about  adjourning  that  session,  President  Polk  asked  them 
to  place  two  millions  of  dollars  under  his  control,  to  be 
used  by  him  in  the  recess,  if  found  practicable  and  expe- 
dient, in  negotiating  a  treaty  of  peace  M'ith  Mexico,  and 
acquiring  some  part  of  her  territory.  A  bill  was  duly 
gotten  up  for  the  purpose,  and  was  progressing  swim- 
mingly in  the  House  of  Representatives,  when  a  member 
by  the  name  of  David  Wilmot,  a  Democrat  from  Pennsyl- 
vania, moved  as  an  amendment,  "Provided,  that  in  any 
territory  thus  acquired  there  shall  never  be  slavery." 

This  is  the  origin  of  the  far-famed  Wilmot  proviso.  It 
created  a  great  flutter;  but  it  stuck  Tike  wax,  was  voted 
into  the  bill,  and  the  bill  passed  with  it  through  the 
House.  The  Senate,  however,  adjourned  without  final 
action  on  it,  and  so  both  appropriation  and  proviso  were 
lost  for  the  time.  The  war  continued,  and  at  the  next 
session,  the  President  renewed  his  request  for  the  appro- 
priation, enlarging  the  amount,  I  think,  to  three  millions. 
Again  came  the  proviso,  and  defeated  the  measure.  Con- 
gress adjourned  again,  and  the  war  went  on.  In  Decem- 
ber, 1847,  the  new  Congress  assembled.  I  was  in  the 
lower  House  that  term.  The  Wilmot  proviso,  or  the 
principle  of  it,  was  constantly  coming  up  in  some  shape 
or  other,  and  I  think  I  may  venture  to  say  I  voted  for  it 
at  least  forty  times  during  the  short  time  I  was  there. 
The  Senate,  however,  held  it  in  check,  and  it  never  be- 
came a  law.  In  the  spring  of  1848  a  treaty  of  peace 
was  made  with  Mexico,  by  which  we  obtained  that  por- 
tion of  her  country  which  now  constitutes  the  Territories 
of  New  Mexico  and  Utah,  and  the  present  State  of  Cali- 
fornia. By  this  treaty  the  Wilmot  proviso  was  defeated, 
in  so  far  as   it  was   intended   to  be   a  condition   of  the 


I 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  89 

acquisition  of  territory.  Its  friends,  however,  were  still 
determined  to  find  some  way  to  restrain  slavery  from 
getting  into  the  new  country.  This  new  acquisition  lay 
directly  west  of  our  old  purchase  from  France,  and  ex- 
tended west  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  was  so  situated 
that  if  the  Missouri  line  should  be  extended  straight 
west,  the  new  country  would  be  divided  by  such  extended 
line,  leaving  some  north  and  some  south  of  it.  On  Judge 
Douglas's  motion,  a  bill,  or  provision  of  a  bill,  passed 
the  Senate  to  so  extend  the  Missouri  line.  The  proviso 
men  in  the  House,  including  myself,  voted  it  down,  be- 
cause, by  implication,  it  gave  up  the  southern  part  to 
slavery,  while  we  were  bent  on  having  it  all  free. 

In  the  fall  of  1848  the  gold  mines  were  discovered  in 
California.  This  attracted  people  to  it  with  unprece- 
dented rapidity,  so  that  on,  or  soon  after,  the  meeting  of 
the  new  Congress  in  December,  1849,  she  already  had  a 
population  of  nearly  a  hundred  thousand,  had  called  a 
convention,  formed  a  State  Constitution  excluding  slav- 
ery, and  was  knocking  for  admission  into  the  Union. 
The  proviso  men,  of  course,  were  for  letting  her  in,  but 
the  Senate,  always  true  to  the  other  side,  would  not 
consent  to  her  admission,  and  there  California  stood, 
kept  out  of  the  Union  because  she  would  not  let  slavery 
into  her  borders.  Under  all  the  circumstances,  perhaps, 
this  was  not  wrong.  There  were  other  points  of  dispute 
connected  with  the  general  question  of  slavery,  which 
equally  needed  adjustment.  The  South  clamored  for  a 
more  efficient  fugitive-slave  law.  The  North  clamored 
for  the  abolition  of  a  peculiar  species  of  slave-trade  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  in  connection  with  which,  in 
view  from  the  windows  of  the  Capitol,  a  sort  of  negro 
livery  stable,  where  droves  of  negroes  were  collected, 
temporarily  kept,  and  finally  taken  to  Southern  markets, 
precisely  like  droves  of  horses,  had  been  openly  main- 
tained for  fifty  years.  Utah  and  New  Mexico  needed 
territorial  government ;   and   whether   slavery   should   or 


90  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

should  not  be  prohibited  within  them  was  another  ques- 
tion. The  indefinite  western  boundary  of  Texas  was  to 
be  settled.  She  was  a  slave  state,  and  consequently  the 
farther  west  the  slavery  men  could  push  the  boundary, 
the  more  slave  country-  could  be  secured ;  and  the  farther 
east  the  slavery  opponents  could  thrust  the  boundary 
back,  the  less  slave  ground  was  secured.  Thus  this  was 
just  as  clearly  a  slavery  question  as  any  of  the  others. 

These  points  all  needed  adjustment,  and  they  were 
held  up,  perhaps  wisely,  to  make  them  help  adjust  one 
another.  The  Union  now,  as  in  1820,  was  thought  to 
be  in  danger,  and  devotion  to  the  Union  rightfully  in- 
clined men  to  yield  somewhat  in  points,  where  nothing 
else  could  have  so  inclined  them.  A  compromise  was 
finally  effected.  The  South  got  their  new  fugitive-slave 
law,  and  tlie  North  got  California  (by  far  the  best  part 
of  our  acquisition  from  Mexico)  as  a  free  state.  The 
South  got  a  provision  that  New  Mexico  and  Utah,  when 
admitted  as  states,  may  come  in  with  or  without  slavery 
as  they  may  then  choose ;  and  the  North  got  the  slave- 
trade  abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  The  North 
got  the  western  boundary  of  Texas  thrown  farther  back 
eastward  than  the  South  desired ;  but,  in  turn,  they  gave 
Texas  ten  millions  of  dollars  with  which  to  pay  her  old 
debts.      This  is  the  compromise  of  1850. 

Preceding  the  presidential  election  of  1852,  each  of 
the  great  political  parties,  Democrats  and  Whigs,  met  in 
convention  and  adopted  resolutions  indorsing  the  com- 
promise of  '50,  as  a  "finality,"  a  final  settlement,  so  far 
as  these  parties  could  make  it  so,  of  all  slavery  agitation. 
Previous  to  this,  in  1851,  the  Illinois  legislature  had  in- 
dorsed it. 

During  this  long  period  of  time,  Nebraska  had  re- 
mained substantially  an  uninhabited  country,  but  now 
emigration  to  and  settlement  within  it  began  to  take 
place.  It  is  about  one-third  as  large  as  the  present 
United  States,  and  its  importance,  so  long  overlooked, 


I 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  91 

begins  to  come  to  view.  The  restriction  of  slavery  by 
the  Missouri  Compromise  directly  applies  to  it — in  fact 
was  first  made,  and  has  since  been  maintained,  expressly 
for  it.  In  1853,  a  bill  to  give  it  a  territorial  govern- 
ment passed  the  House  of  Representatives,  and,  in  the 
hands  of  Judge  Douglas,  failed  of  passing  only  for  want 
of  time.  This  bill  contained  no  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  Indeed,  when  it  was  assailed  because  it 
did  not  contain  such  repeal.  Judge  Douglas  de- 
fended it  in  its  existing  form.  On  January  4, 
185-i,  Judge  Douglas  introduces  a  new  bill  to 
give  Nebraska  territorial  government.  He  accom- 
panies this  bill  with  a  report,  in  which  last  he 
expressly  recommends  that  the  Missouri  Compromise 
shall  neither  be  affirmed  nor  repealed.  Before  long  the 
bill  is  so  modified  as  to  make  two  territories  instead  of 
one,  calling  the  southern  one  Kansas. 

Also,  about  a  month  after  the  introduction  of  the  bill, 
on  the  Judge's  own  motion  it  is  so  amended  as  to  declare 
the  Missouri  Compromise  inoperative  and  void;  and, 
substantially,  that  the  people  who  go  and  settle  there 
may  establish  slavery,  or  exclude  it,  as  they  may  see  fit. 
In  this  shape  the  bill  passed  both  branches  of  Congress 
and  became  a  law. 

This  is  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  The 
foregoing  history  may  not  be  precisely  accurate  in  every 
particular,  but  I  am  sure  it  is  sufficiently  so  for  all  the 
use  I  shall  attempt  to  make  of  it,  and  in  it  we  have 
before  us  the  chief  material  enabling  us  to  judge  cor- 
rectly whether  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  is 
right  or  wrong.  I  think,  and  shall  try  to  show,  that  it  is 
wrong — wrong  in  its  direct  effect,  letting  slavery  into 
Kansas  and  Nebraska,  and  wrong  in  its  prospective  prin- 
ciple, allowing  it  to  spread  to  every  other  part  of  the 
wide  world  where  men  can  be  found  inclined  to  take  it. 

This  declared  indifference,  but,  as  I  must  think,  covert 
real  zeal,  for  the  spread  of  slavery,  I  cannot  but  hate. 


92  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

I  hate  it  because  of  the  monstrous  injustice  of  slavery 
itself.  I  hate  it  because  it  deprives  our  republican 
example  of  its  just  influence  in  the  world;  enables  the 
enemies  of  free  institutions  with  plausibility  to  taunt  us 
as  hypocrites;  causes  the  real  friends  of  freedom  to 
doubt  our  sincerity;  and  especially  because  it  forces  so 
many  good  men  among  ourselves  into  an  open  war  with 
the  very  fundamental  principles  of  civil  liberty,  criticiz- 
ing the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  insisting  that 
there  is  no  right  principle  of  action  but  self-interest. 

Before  proceeding  let  me  say  that  I  think  I  have  no 
prejudice  against  the  Southern  people.  They  are  just 
what  we  would  be  in  their  situation.  If  slaver}^  did  not 
now  exist  among  them,  they  would  not  introduce  it.  If 
it  did  now  exist  among  us,  we  should  not  instantly  give  it 
up.  This  I  believe  of  the  masses  North  and  South. 
Doubtless  there  are  individuals  on  both  sides  who  would 
not  hold  slaves  under  any  circumstances,  and  others  who 
would  gladly  introduce  slavery  anew  if  it  were  out  of 
existence.  We  know  that  some  Southern  men  do  free 
their  slaves,  go  North  and  become  tiptop  abolitionists, 
while  some  Northern  ones  go  South  and  become  most 
cruel  slave  masters. 

When  Southern  people  tell  us  they  are  no  more  re- 
sponsible for  the  origin  of  slavery  than  we  are,  I 
acknowledge  the  fact.  \Mien  it  is  said  that  the  institu- 
tion exists,  and  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  get  rid  of  it  in 
any  satisfactory  way,  I  can  understand  and  appreciate 
the  saying.  I  surely  will  not  blame  them  for  not  doing 
what  I  should  not  know  how  to  do  myself.  If  all  earthly 
power  were  given  me,  I  should  not  know  what  to  do  as  to 
the  existing  institution.  My  first  impulse  would  be  to 
free  all  the  slaves,  and  send  them  to  Liberia,  to  their 
own  native  land.  But  a  moment's  reflection  would  con- 
vince me  that  whatever  of  high  hope  (as  I  think  there  is) 
there  may  be  in  this  in  the  long  run,  its  sudden  execution 
is  impossible.      If  they  were  all  landed  there  in  a  day. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  93 

they  would  all  perish  in  the  next  ten  days ;  and  there  are 
not  surplus  shipping  and  surplus  money  enough  to  carry 
them  there  in  many  times  ten  days.  What  then  ?  Free 
them  all,  and  keep  them  among  us  as  underlings?  Is  it 
quite  certain  that  this  betters  their  condition?  I  think 
I  would  not  hold  one  in  slavery  at  any  rate,  yet  the  point 
is  not  clear  enough  for  me  to  denounce  people  upon. 
What  next?  Free  them,  and  make  them  politically  and 
socially  our  equals  ?  My  own  feelings  will  not  admit  of 
this,  and  if  mine  would,  we  well  know  that  those  of  the 
great  mass  of  whites  will  not.  Whether  this  feeling 
accords  with  justice  and  sound  judgment  is  not  the  sole 
question,  if  indeed  it  is  any  part  of  it.  A  universal 
feeling,  whether  well  or  ill  founded,  cannot  be  safely 
disregarded.  We  cannot  then  make  them  equals.  It 
does  seem  to  me  that  systems  of  gradual  emancipation 
might  be  adopted,  but  for  their  tardiness  in  this  I  will 
not  undertake  to  judge  our  brethren  of  the  South. 

When  they  remind  us  of  their  constitutional  rights,  I 
acknowledge  them — not  grudgingly,  but  fully  and  fairly ; 
and  I  would  give  them  any  legislation  for  the  reclaiming 
of  their  fugitives  which  should  not  in  its  stringency  be 
more  likely  to  carry  a  free  man  into  slavery  than  our 
ordinary  criminal  laws  are  to  hang  an  innocent  one. 

But  all  this,  to  my  judgment,  furnishes  no  more  excuse 
for  permitting  slavery  to  go  into  our  own  free  territory 
than  it  would  for  reviving  the  African  slave  trade  by 
law.  The  law  which  forbids  the  bringing  of  slaves  from 
Africa,  and  that  which  has  so  long  forbidden  the  taking 
of  them  into  Nebraska,  can  hardly  be  distinguished  on 
any  moral  principle,  and  the  repeal  of  the  former  could 
find  quite  as  plausible  excuses  as  that  of  the  latter. 

The  arguments  by  which  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  is  sought  to  be  justified  are  these:  First, 
That  the  Nebraska  country  needed  a  territorial  govern- 
ment; Second,  That  in  various  ways  the  public  had 
repudiated  that  compromise  and  demanded  the   repeal, 


94  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

and  therefore  should  not  now  complain  of  it;  and, 
Lastly,  That  the  repeal  establishes  a  principle  which  is 
intrinsically  right. 

I  will  attempt  an  answer  to  each  of  them  in  its  turn. 
First,  then.  If  that  country  was  in  need  of  a  territorial 
organization,  could  it  not  have  had  it  as  well  without  as 
with  a  repeal.'^  Iowa  and  Minnesota,  to  both  of  which 
the  Missouri  restriction  applied,  had,  without  its  repeal, 
each  in  succession,  territorial  organizations.  And  even 
the  year  before,  a  bill  for  Nebraska  itself  was  within  an 
ace  of  passing  without  the  repealing  clause,  and  this  in 
the  hands  of  the  same  men  who  are  now  the  champions  of 
repeal.  Why  no  necessity  then  for  repeal?  But  still 
later,  when  this  ver^*  bill  was  first  brought  in,  it  con- 
tained no  repeal.  But,  say  they,  because  the  people  had 
demanded,  or  rather  commanded,  the  repeal,  the  repeal 
was  to  accompany  the  organization  whenever  that  should 
occur. 

Now,  I  deny  that  the  public  ever  demanded  any  such 
thing — ever  repudiated  the  Missouri  Compromise,  ever 
commanded  its  repeal.  I  deny  it,  and  call  for  the  proof. 
It  is  not  contended,  I  believe,  that  any  such  command 
has  ever  been  given  in  express  terms.  It  is  only  said 
that  it  was  done  in  principle.  The  support  of  the  Wil- 
mot  proviso  is  the  first  fact  mentioned  to  prove  that  the 
Missouri  restriction  was  repudiated  in  principle,  and  the 
second  is  the  refusal  to  extend  the  Missouri  line  over  the 
country  acquired  from  Mexico.  These  are  near  enough 
alike  to  be  treated  together.  The  one  was  to  exclude  the 
chances  of  slavery  from  the  whole  new  acquisition  by 
the  lump,  and  the  other  was  to  reject  a  division  of  it,  by 
which  one-half  was  to  be  given  up  to  those  chances. 
Now,  whether  this  was  a  repudiation  of  the  Missouri 
line  in  principle  depends  upon  whether  the  Missouri  law 
contained  any  principle  requiring  the  line  to  be  extended 
over  the  country  acquired  from  Mexico.  I  contend  it 
did  not.      I  insist  that  it  contained  no  general  principle, 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  95 

but  that  it  was,  in  every  sense,  specific.  That  its  terms 
limit  it  to  the  country  purchased  from  France  is  unde- 
nied  and  undeniable.  It  could  have  no  principle  beyond 
the  intention  of  those  who  made  it.  They  did  not  intend 
to  extend  the  line  to  country  which  they  did  not  own. 
If  they  intended  to  extend  it  in  the  event  of  acquiring 
additional  territory,  why  did  they  not  say  so.^  It  was 
just  as  eas}^  to  say  that  "in  all  the  country  west  of  the 
Mississippi  which  we  now  own,  or  may  hereafter  acquire, 
there  shall  never  be  slavery,"  as  to  say  what  they  did 
say ;  and  they  would  have  said  it  if  they  had  meant  it. 
An  intention  to  extend  the  law  is  not  only  not  mentioned 
in  the  law,  but  is  not  mentioned  in  any  contemporaneous 
histor}^.  Both  the  law  itself,  and  the  history  of  the 
times,  are  a  blank  as  to  any  principle  of  extension;  and 
by  neither  the  known  rules  of  construing  statutes  and 
contracts,  nor  by  common  sense,  can  any  such  principle 
be  inferred. 

Another  fact  showing  the  specific  character  of  the 
Missouri  law — showing  that  it  intended  no  more  than  it 
expressed,  showing  that  the  line  was  not  intended  as  a 
universal  dividing  line  between  free  and  slave  territory, 
present  and  prospective,  north  of  which  slavery  could 
never  go — is  the  fact  that  by  that  very  law  Missouri 
came  in  as  a  slave  state,  north  of  the  line.  If  that  law 
contained  any  prospective  principle,  the  whole  law  must 
be  looked  to  in  order  to  ascertain  what  the  principle  was. 
And  by  this  rule  the  South  could  fairly  contend  that 
inasmuch  as  they  got  one  slave  state  north  of  the  line  at 
the  inception  of  the  law,  they  have  the  right  to  have 
another  given  them  north  of  it  occasionally,  now  and 
then,  in  the  indefinite  westward  extension  of  the  line. 
This  demonstrates  the  absurdity  of  attempting  to  deduce 
a  prospective  principle  from  the  Missouri  Compromise 
line. 

When  we  voted  for  the  Wilmot  proviso  we  were  voting 
to  keep   slavery  out  of  the  whole   Mexican   acquisition, 


96  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

and  little  did  we  think  we  were  thereby  voting  to  let  it 
into  Nebraska,  lying  several  hundred  miles  distant. 
When  we  voted  against  extending  the  Missouri  line, 
little  did  we  think  we  were  voting  to  destroy  the  old 
line,  then  of  near  thirty  years'  standing. 

To  argue  that  we  thus  repudiated  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise is  no  less  absurd  than  it  would  be  to  argue  that 
because  we  have  so  far  forborne  to  acquire  Cuba,  we 
have  thereby,  in  principle,  repudiated  our  former  acqui- 
sitions and  determined  to  throw  them  out  of  the  Union. 
No  less  absurd  than  it  would  be  to  say  that  because  I 
may  have  refused  to  build  an  addition  to  my  house,  I 
thereby  have  decided  to  destro}'  the  existing  house ! 
And  if  I  catch  you  setting  fire  to  my  house,  you  will  turn 
upon  me  and  say  I  instructed  you  to  do  it! 

The  most  conclusive  argument,  however,  that  while 
for  the  Wilmot  proviso,  and  while  voting  against  the 
extension  of  the  Missouri  line,  we  never  thought  of  dis- 
turbing the  original  Missouri  Compromise,  is  found  in 
the  fact  that  there  was  then,  and  still  is,  an  unorganized 
tract  of  fine  country,  nearly  as  large  as  the  State  of  Mis- 
souri, lying  immediately  west  of  Arkansas  and  south  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise  line,  and  that  we  never  at- 
tempted to  prohibit  slavery  as  to  it.  I  wish  particular 
attention  to  this.  It  adjoins  the  original  Missouri  Com- 
promise line  by  its  northern  boundary,  and  consequently 
is  part  of  the  country  into  which  by  implication  slavery 
was  permitted  to  go  by  that  compromise.  There  it  has 
lain  open  ever  since,  and  there  it  still  lies,  and  yet  no 
effort  has  been  made  at  any  time  to  wrest  it  from  the 
South.  In  all  our  struggles  to  prohibit  slavery  within 
our  Mexican  acquisitions,  we  never  so  much  as  lifted  a 
finger  to  prohibit  it  as  to  this  tract.  Is  not  this  entirely 
conclusive  that  at  all  times  we  have  held  the  Missouri 
Compromise  as  a  sacred  thing,  even  when  against  our- 
selves as  well  as  when  for  us? 

Senator   Douglas    sometimes    says    the    Missouri    line 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  97 

itself  was  in  principle  only  an  extension  of  the  line  of 
the  ordinance  of  '87 — that  is  to  say,  an  extension  of  the 
Ohio  River.  I  think  this  is  weak  enough  on  its  face. 
I  \vdll  remark,  however,  that,  as  a  glance  at  the  map 
will  show,  the  Missouri  line  is  a  long  way  farther  south 
than  the  Ohio,  and  that  if  our  senator  in  proposing  his 
extension  had  stuck  to  the  principle  of  jogging  south- 
ward, perhaps  it  might  not  have  been  voted  down  so 
readily. 

But  next  it  is  said  that  the  compromises  of  '50,  and  the 
ratification  of  them  by  both  political  parties  in  '52, 
established  a  new  principle  which  required  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise.  This  again  I  deny.  I  deny 
it,  and  demand  the  proof.  I  have  already  stated  fully 
what  the  compromises  of  '50  are.  That  particular  part 
of  those  measures  from  which  the  virtual  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise  is  sought  to  be  inferred  (for  it  is 
admitted  they  contain  nothing  about  it  in  express  terms) 
is  the  provision  in  the  Utah  and  New  Mexico  laws  which 
permits  them  when  they  seek  admission  into  the  Union 
as  states  to  come  in  with  or  without  slavery,  as  they 
shall  then  see  fit.  Now  I  insist  this  provision  was  made 
for  Utah  and  New  Mexico,  and  for  no  other  place  what- 
ever. It  had  no  more  direct  reference  to  Nebraska  than 
it  had  to  the  territories  of  the  moon.  But,  say  they,  it 
had  reference  to  Nebraska  in  principle.  Let  us  see. 
The  North  consented  to  this  provision,  not  because  they 
considered  it  right  in  itself,  but  because  they  were  com- 
pensated— paid  for  it. 

They  at  the  same  time  got  California  into  the  Union 
as  a  free  state.  This  was  far  the  best  part  of  all  they 
had  struggled  for  by  the  Wilmot  proviso.  They  also 
got  the  area  of  slavery  somewhat  narrowed  in  the  settle- 
ment of  the  boundary  of  Texas.  Also  they  got  the  slave- 
trade  abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

For  all  these  desirable  objects  the  North  could  afford 
to  yield  something;  and  they  did  yield  to  the  South  the 


98  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

Utah  and  New  Mexico  provision.  I  do  not  mean  that 
the  whole  North,  or  even  a  majority,  yielded,  when  the 
law  passed;  but  enough  yielded,  when  added  to  the  vote 
of  the  Southj  to  carry  the  measure.  Nor  can  it  be  pre- 
tended that  the  principle  of  this  arrangement  requires 
us  to  permit  the  same  provision  to  be  applied  to  Ne- 
braska, without  any  equivalent  at  all.  Give  us  an- 
other free  state;  press  the  boundary  of  Texas  still  far- 
ther back;  give  us  another  step  toward  the  destruction 
of  slavery  in  the  District,  and  you  present  us  a  similar 
case.  But  ask  us  not  to  repeat,  for  nothing,  what  you 
paid  for  in  the  first  instance.  If  you  wish  the  thing 
again,  pay  again.  That  is  the  principle  of  the  com- 
promises of  '50,  if,  indeed,  they  had  any  principles 
beyond  their  specific  terms — it  was  the  system  of  equiv- 
alents. 

Again,  if  Congress,  at  that  time,  intended  that  all 
future  territories  should,  when  admitted  as  states, 
come  in  with  or  without  slavery,  at  their  own  option, 
why  did  it  not  say  so  ?  With  such  a  universal  provision, 
all  know  the  bills  could  not  have  passed.  Did  they, 
then — could  they — establish  a  principle  contrary  to  their 
own  intention.^  Still  further,  if  they  intended  to  estab- 
lish the  principle  that,  whenever  Congress  had  control, 
it  should  be  left  to  the  people  to  do  as  they  thought  fit 
with  slavery,  why  did  they  not  authorize  the  people  of 
the  District  of  Columbia,  at  their  option,  to  abolish 
slavery  within  their  limits? 

I  personally  know  that  this  has  not  been  left  undone 
because  it  was  unthought  of.  It  was  frequently  spoken 
of  by  members  of  Congress,  and  by  citizens  of  Washing- 
ton, six  years  ago;  and  I  heard  no  one  express  a  doubt 
that  a  system  of  gradual  emancipation,  with  compensa- 
tion to  owners,  would  meet  the  approbation  of  a  large 
majority  of  the  white  people  of  the  District.  But  with- 
out the  action  of  Congress  they  could  say  nothing;  and 
Congress   said   "No."      In   the  measures   of    1850,   Con- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  99 

gress  had  the  subject  of  slavery  in  the  District  expressly 
on  hand.  If  they  were  then  establishing  the  principle 
of  allowing  the  people  to  do  as  they  please  with  slavery, 
why  did  they  not  apply  the  principle  to  that  people? 

Again,  it  is  claimed  that  by  the  resolutions  of  the 
Illinois  legislature,  passed  in  1851,  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise  was  demanded.  This  I  deny  also. 
Whatever  may  be  worked  out  by  a  criticism  of  the 
language  of  those  resolutions,  the  people  have  never 
understood  them  as  being  any  more  than  an  indorsement 
of  the  compromises  of  1850,  and  a  release  of  our  sena- 
tors from  voting  for  the  Wilmot  proviso.  The  whole 
people  are  living  witnesses  that  this  only  was  their 
view.  Finally,  it  is  asked,  "If  we  did  not  mean  to 
apply  the  Utah  and  New  Mexico  provision  to  all  future 
territories,  what  did  we  mean  when  we,  in  1852,  in- 
dorsed the  compromises  of  1850?" 

For  myself  I  can  answer  this  question  most  easily. 
I  meant  not  to  ask  a  repeal  or  modification  of  the  fugi- 
tive-slave law.  I  meant  not  to  ask  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  I  meant  not  to 
resist  the  admission  of  Utah  and  New  Mexico,  even 
should  they  ask  to  come  in  as  slave  states.  I  meant 
nothing  about  additional  territories,  because,  as  I  under- 
stood, we  then  had  no  territory  whose  character  as  to 
slavery  was  not  already  settled.  As  to  Nebraska,  I 
regarded  its  character  as  being  fixed  by  the  Missouri 
Compromise  for  thirty  years — as  unalterably  fixed  as 
that  of  my  own  home  in  Illinois.  As  to  new  acquisitions, 
I  said,  "Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof." 
When  we  make  new  acquisitions,  we  will,  as  heretofore, 
try  to  manage  them  somehow.  That  is  my  answer ;  that 
is  what  I  meant  and  said ;  and  I  appeal  to  the  people  to 
say  each  for  himself,  whether  that  is  not  also  the  uni- 
versal meaning  of  the  free  states. 

And  now,  in  turn,  let  me  ask  a  few  questions.  If,  by 
any  or  all  these  matters,  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com- 


100  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

promise  was  commanded,  why  was  not  the  command 
sooner  obeyed?  Wh}'^  was  the  repeal  omitted  in  the 
Nebraska  bill  of  1853?  Why  was  it  omitted  in  the 
original  bill  of  1854?  Why  in  the  accompanying  report 
was  such  a  repeal  characterized  as  a  departure  from  the 
course  pursued  in  1850?  and  its  continued  omission 
recommended  ? 

I  am  aware  Judge  Douglas  now  argues  that  the  sub- 
sequent express  repeal  is  no  substantial  alteration  of 
the  bill.  This  argument  seems  wonderful  to  me.  It  is 
as  if  one  should  argue  that  white  and  black  are  not  dif- 
ferent. He  admits,  however,  that  there  is  a  literal 
change  in  the  bill,  and  that  he  made  the  change  in  defer- 
ence to  other  senators  who  would  not  support  the  bill 
without.  This  proves  that  those  other  senators  thought 
the  change  a  substantial  one,  and  that  the  Judge  thought 
their  opinions  worth  deferring  to.  His  own  opinions, 
therefore,  seem  not  to  rest  on  a  very  firm  basis,  even  in 
his  own  mind;  and  I  suppose  the  world  believes,  and 
will  continue  to  believe,  that  precisely  on  the  substance 
of  that  change  this  whole  agitation  has  arisen. 

I  conclude,  then,  that  the  public  never  demanded  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

I  now  come  to  consider  whether  the  repeal,  with  its 
avowed  principles,  is  intrinsically  right.  I  insist  that 
it  is  not.  Take  the  particular  case.  A  controversy  had 
arisen  between  the  advocates  and  opponents  of  slavery, 
in  relation  to  its  establishment  within  the  country  we  had 
purchased  of  France.  The  southern,  and  then  best,  part 
of  the  purchase  was  already  in  as  a  slave  state.  The 
controversy  was  settled  by  also  letting  Missouri  in  as  a 
slave  state;  but  with  the  agreement  that  within  all  the 
remaining  part  of  the  purchase,  north  of  a  certain  line, 
there  should  never  be  slavery.  As  to  what  was  to  be 
done  with  the  remaining  part  south  of  the  line,  nothing 
was  said  ;  but  perhaps  the  fair  implication  was,  it  should 
come  in  with  slaverv  if  it  should  so  choose.     The  south- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  IQI 

ern  part,  except  a  portion  heretofore  mentioned,  after- 
ward did  come  in  with  slavery,  as  the  State  of  Arkansas. 
All  these  many  years,  since  1820,  the  northern  part  had 
remained  a  wilderness.  At  length  settlements  began  in 
it  also.  In  due  course  Iowa  came  in  as  a  free  state,  and 
Minnesota  was  given  a  territorial  government,  without 
removing  the  slavery  restriction.  Finally,  the  sole  re- 
maining part  north  of  the  line — Kansas  and  Nebraska — 
was  to  be  organized ;  and  it  is  proposed,  and  carried,  to 
blot  out  the  old  dividing  line  of  thirty-four  years'  stand- 
ing, and  to  open  the  whole  of  that  country  to  the  intro- 
duction of  slavery.  Now  this,  to  my  mind,  is  manifestly 
unjust.  After  an  angry  and  dangerous  controversy,  the 
parties  made  friends  by  dividing  the  bone  of  contention. 
The  one  party  first  appropriates  her  own  share,  beyond 
all  power  to  be  disturbed  in  the  possession  of  it,  and 
then  seizes  the  share  of  the  other  party.  It  is  as  if  two 
starving  men  had  divided  their  only  loaf;  the  one  had 
hastily  swallowed  his  half,  and  then  grabbed  the  other's 
half  just  as  he  was  putting  it  to  his  mouth. 

Let  me  here  drop  the  main  argument,  to  notice  what  I 
consider  rather  an  inferior  matter.  It  is  argued  that 
slavery  will  not  go  to  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  in  any 
event.  This  is  a  palliation,  a  lullaby.  I  have  some 
hope  that  it  will  not ;  but  let  us  not  be  too  confident.  As 
to  climate,  a  glance  at  the  map  shows  that  there  are  five 
slave  States — Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky, 
and  Missouri,  and  also  the  District  of  Columbia,  all 
north  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line.  The  census 
returns  of  1850  show  that  within  these  there  are  eight 
hundred  and  sixty-seven  thousand  two  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-six slaves,  being  more  than  one-fourth  of  all  the 
slaves  in  the  nation. 

It  is  not  climate,  then,  that  will  keep  slavery  out  of 
these  territories.  Is  there  anything  in  the  peculiar 
nature  of  the  country?  Missouri  adjoins  these  terri- 
tories  by  her   entire   western   boundary,   and    slavery   is 


102  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

already  within  every  one  of  her  western  counties.  I 
have  even  heard  it  said  that  there  are  more  slaves  in 
proportion  to  whites  in  the  northwestern  county  of  Mis- 
souri, than  -within  any  other  county  in  the  state.  Slav- 
ery pressed  entirely  up  to  the  old  western  boundary  of 
the  state,  and  when  rather  recently  a  part  of  that  boun- 
dary at  the  northwest  was  moved  out  a  little  farther 
west,  slavery  followed  on  quite  up  to  the  new  line. 
Now  when  the  restriction  is  removed,  what  is  to  prevent 
it  from  going  still  farther?  Climate  will  not,  no 
peculiarity  of  the  country  will,  nothing  in  nature  will. 
Will  the  disposition  of  the  people  prevent  it?  Those 
nearest  the  scene  are  all  in  favor  of  the  extension.  The 
Yankees  who  are  opposed  to  it  may  be  most  numerous ; 
but,  in  military  phrase,  the  battlefield  is  too  far  from 
their  base  of  operations. 

But  it  is  said^  there  now  is  no  law  in  Nebraska  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  and  that,  in  such  case,  taking  a  slave 
there  operates  his  freedom.  That  is  good  book-law,  but 
is  not  the  rule  of  actual  practice.  Wherever  slavery  is, 
it  has  been  first  introduced  without  law.  The  oldest 
laws  we  find  concerning  it  are  not  laws  introducing  it 
but  regulating  it  as  an  already  existing  thing.  A  white 
man  takes  his  slave  to  Nebraska  now.  Who  will  inform 
the  negro  that  he  is  free?  Who  will  take  him  before 
court  to  test  the  question  of  his  freedom?  In  ignorance 
of  his  legal  emancipation  he  is  kept  chopping,  splitting, 
and  plowing.  Others  are  brought,  and  move  on  in  the 
same  track.  At  last,  if  ever  the  time  for  voting  comes 
on  the  question  of  slavery,  the  institution  already,  in 
fact,  exists  in  the  country,  and  cannot  well  be  removed. 
The  fact  of  its  presence,  and  the  difficulty  of  its  removal, 
will  carry  the  vote  in  its  favor.  Keep  it  but  until  a 
vote  is  taken,  and  a  vote  in  favor  of  it  cannot  be  got  in 
any  population  of  forty  thousand  on  earth,  who  have 
been  drawn  together  by  the  ordinary  motives  of  emigra- 
tion and  settlement.      To  get  slaves   into   the  territory 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  103 

simultaneously  with  the  whites  in  the  incipient  stages  of 
settlement  is  the  precise  stake  played  for  and  won  in 
this  Nebraska  measure. 

The  question  is  asked  us:  "If  slaves  will  go  in  not- 
withstanding the  general  principle  of  law  liberates  them, 
why  would  they  not  equally  go  in  against  positive  statute 
law — go  in  even  if  the  Missouri  restriction  were  main- 
tained?" I  answer,  because  it  takes  a  much  bolder 
man  to  venture  in  with  his  property  in  the  latter  case 
than  in  the  former;  because  the  positive  congressional 
enactment  is  known  to  and  respected  by  all,  or  nearly 
all,  whereas  the  negative  principle  that  no  law  is  free 
law  is  not  much  known  except  among  lawyers.  We 
have  some  experience  of  this  practical  difference.  In 
spite  of  the  ordinance  of  '87,  a  few  negroes  were  brought 
into  Illinois,  and  held  in  a  state  of  quasi-slavery,  not 
enough,  however,  to  carry  a  vote  of  the  people  in  favor 
of  the  institution  when  they  came  to  form  a  constitu- 
tion. But  into  the  adjoining  Missouri  country,  where 
there  was  no  ordinance  of  '87 — was  no  restriction,  they 
were  carried  ten  times,  nay  a  hundred  times,  as  fast, 
and  actually  made  a  slave  state.  This  is  fact — naked 
fact. 

Another  lullaby  argument  is  that  taking  slaves  to  new 
countries  does  not  increase  their  number,  does  not  make 
anyone  slave  who  would  otherwise  be  free.  There  is 
some  truth  in  this,  and  I  am  glad  of  it;  but  it  is  not 
wholly  true.  The  African  slave-trade  is  not  yet  effectu- 
ally suppressed;  and  if  we  make  a  reasonable  deduction 
for  the  white  people  among  us  who  are  foreigners  and 
the  descendants  of  foreigners  arriving  here  since  1808, 
we  shall  find  the  increase  of  the  black  population  out- 
running that  of  the  white  to  an  extent  unaccountable, 
except  by  supposing  that  some  of  them  too,  have  been 
coming  from  Africa.  If  this  be  so,  the  opening  of  new 
countries  to  the  institution  increases  the  demand  for  and 
augments  the  price  of  slaves,  and  so  does,  in  fact,  make 


104  SELECTIONS    FROM    EIXCOLN 

slaves  of  freemen,  by  causing  them  to  be  brought  from 
Africa  and  sold  into  bondage. 

But  however  this  may  be,  we  know  the  opening  of  new 
countries  to  slavery  tends  to  the  perpetuation  of  the 
institution,  and  so  does  keep  men  in  slavery  who  would 
otherwise  be  free.  This  result  we  do  not  feel  like  favor- 
ing, and  we  are  under  no  legal  obligation  to  suppress  our 
feelings  in  this  respect. 

Equal  justice  to  the  South,  it  is  said,  requires  us  to 
consent  to  the  extension  of  slavery  to  new  countries. 
That  is  to  say,  inasmuch  as  you  do  not  object  to  my 
taking  my  hog  to  Nebraska,  therefore  I  must  not  object 
to  your  taking  your  slave.  Now,  I  admit  that  this  is 
perfectly  logical,  if  there  is  no  difference  between  hogs 
and  negroes.  But  while  you  thus  require  me  to  deny 
the  humanity  of  the  negro,  I  wish  to  ask  whether  j^ou  of 
the  South,  yourselves,  have  ever  been  willing  to  do  as 
much.-^  It  is  kindly  provided  that  of  all  those  who 
come  into  the  w^orld,  only  a  small  percentage  are  natural 
tyrants.  That  percentage  is  no  larger  in  the  slave 
States  than  in  the  free.  The  great  majority.  South  as 
well  as  North,  have  human  sympathies,  of  which  they 
can  no  more  divest  themselves  than  they  can  of  their 
sensibility  to  physical  pain.  These  sympathies  in  the 
bosoms  of  the  Southern  people  manifest  in  many  ways 
their  sense  of  the  wrong  of  slavery,  and  their  conscious- 
ness that  after  all,  there  is  humanity  in  the  negro.  If 
they  deny  this,  let  me  address  them  a  few  plain  ques- 
tions. In  1820  you  joined  the  North  almost  unanim- 
ously in  declaring  the  African  slave-trade  piracy,  and  in 
annexing  to  it  the  punishment  of  death.  Why  did  you 
do  this.''  If  you  did  not  feel  that  it  was  wrong,  why  did 
you  join  in  providing  that  men  should  be  hung  for  it? 
The  practice  was  no  more  than  bringing  wild  negroes 
from  Africa  to  such  as  would  buy  them.  But  you  never 
thought  of  hanging  men  for  catching  and  selling  wild 
horses,  wild  buffaloes,  or  wild  bears. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  105 

Again,  you  have  among  you  a  sneaking  individual  of 
the  class  of  native  tyrants  known  as  the  slave-dealer. 
He  watches  your  necessities,  and  crawls  up  to  buy  your 
slave  at  a  speculating  price.  If  you  cannot  help  it,  you 
sell  to  him ;  but  if  you  can  help  it,  you  drive  him  from 
your  door.  You  despise  him  utterly ;  you  do  not  recog- 
nize him  as  a  friend,  or  even  as  an  honest  man.  Your 
children  must  not  play  with  his ;  they  may  rollic  freely 
with  the  little  negroes,  but  not  with  the  slave-dealer's 
children.  If  you  are  obliged  to  deal  with  him,  you  try 
to  get  through  the  job  without  so  much  as  touching  him. 
It  is  common  with  you  to  join  hands  with  the  men  you 
meet;  but  with  the  slave-dealer  you  avoid  the  ceremony 
— instinctively  shrinking  from  the  snaky  contact.  If  he 
grows  rich  and  retires  from  business,  you  still  remember 
him,  and  still  keep  up  the  ban  of  non-intercourse  upon 
him  and  his  family.  Now,  why  is  this  ?  You  do  not 
so  treat  the  man  who  deals  in  cotton,  corn,  or  tobacco. 

And  yet  again.  There  are  in  the  United  States 
and  territories,  including  the  District  of  Columbia^ 
433,643  free  blacks.  At  five  hundred  dollars  per  head, 
they  are  worth  over  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars. 
How  comes  this  vast  amount  of  property  to  be  running 
about  without  owners?  We  do  not  see  free  horses  or 
free  cattle  running  at  large.  How  is  this?  All  these 
free  blacks  are  the  descendants  of  slaves,  or  have  been 
slaves  themselves ;  and  they  would  be  slaves  now  but  for 
something  that  has  operated  on  their  white  owners,  in- 
ducing them  at  vast  pecuniary  sacrifice  to  liberate  them. 
What  is  that  something?  Is  there  any  mistaking  it? 
In  all  these  cases  it  is  your  sense  of  justice  and  human 
sympathy  continually  telling  you  that  the  poor  negro 
has  some  natural  right  to  himself — that  those  who  deny 
it  and  make  mere  merchandise  of  him  deserve  kickings, 
contempt,  and  death. 

And  now  why  will  you  ask  us  to  deny  the  humanity  of 
the  slave,  and  estimate  him  as  only  the  equal  of  the  hog? 


106  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

Why  ask  us  to  do  what  you  will  not  do  yourselves  ? 
Why  ask  us  to  do  for  nothing  what  two  hundred  millions 
of  dollars  could  not  induce  you  to  do? 

But  one  great  argument  in  support  of  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise  is  still  to  come.  That  argument 
is  "the  sacred  right  of  self-government."  It  seems  our 
distinguished  senator  has  found  great  difficulty  in  get- 
ting his  antagonists,  even  in  the  Senate,  to  meet  him 
fairly  on  this  argument.     Some  poet  has  said — 

"Fools  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to  tread."  * 
At  a  hazard  of  being  thought  one  of  the  fools  of  this 
quotation,  I  meet  that  argument  —  I  rush  in  —  I  take 
that  bull  by  the  horns.  I  trust  I  understand  and  truly 
estimate  the  right  of  self-government.  My  faith  in  the 
proposition  that  each  man  should  do  precisely  as  he 
pleases  with  all  which  is  exclusively  his  own  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  the  sense  of  justice  there  is  in  me.  I  ex- 
tend the  principle  to  communities  of  men  as  well  as  to 
individuals.  I  so  extend  it  because  it  is  politically  wise, 
as  well  as  naturally  just:  politicallv  wise  in  saving  us 
from  broils  about  matters  which  do  not  concern  us. 
Here,  or  at  Washington,  I  would  not  trouble  myself  with 
the  oyster  laws  of  Virginia,  or  the  cranberry  laws  of 
Indiana.  The  doctrine  of  self-government  is  right — 
absolutely  and  eternally  right — but  it  has  no  just  appli- 
cation as  here  attempted.  Or  perhaps  I  should  rather 
say  that  whether  it  has  such  application  depends  upon 
whether  a  negro  is  not  or  is  a  man.  If  he  is  not  a  man, 
in  that  case  he  who  is  a  man  may  as  a  matter  of  self- 
government  do  just  what  he  pleases  with  him.  But  if 
the  negro  is  a  man,  is  it  not  to  that  extent  a  total  de- 
struction of  self-government  to  say  that  he  too  shall  not 
govern  himself.''  When  the  white  man  governs  himself, 
that  is  self-government;  but  when  he  governs  himself 
and  also  governs  another  man,  that  is  more  than  self- 
government — that  is  despotism.  If  the  negro  is  a  man, 
*  Alexander  Pope  in  Essay  on  Criticism. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX  107 

wh}'  then  my  ancient  faith  teaches  me  that  "all  men  are 
created  equal,"  and  that  there  can  be  no  moral  right  in 
connection  with  one  man's  making  a  slave  of  another. 

Judge  Douglas  frequently,  with  bitter  irony  and  sar- 
casm, paraphrases  our  argument  by  saying:  "The  white 
people  of  Nebraska  are  good  enough  to  govern  them- 
selves, but  they  are  not  good  enough  to  govern  a  few 
miserable  negroes  !" 

Well!  I  doubt  not  that  the  people  of  Nebraska  are 
and  will  continue  to  be  as  good  as  the  average  of  people 
elsewhere.  I  do  not  say  the  contrary.  What  I  do  say 
is  that  no  man  is  good  enough  to  govern  another  man 
without  that  other's  consent.  I  say  this  is  the  leading 
principle,  the  sheet  anchor  of  American  republicanism. 
Our  Declaration  of  Independence  says: 

"We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident:  That  all 
men  are  created  equal;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their 
Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights;  that  among 
these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 
That  to  secure  these  rights,  governments  are  instituted 
among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent 
of  the  governed." 

I  have  quoted  so  much  at  this  time  merely  to  show 
that,  according  to  our  ancient  faith,  the  just  powers  of 
governments  are  derived  from  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned. Now  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  is  pro 
tanto,*  a  total  violation  of  this  principle.  The  master 
not  only  governs  the  slave  without  his  consent,  but  he 
governs  him  by  a  set  of  rules  altogether  different  from 
those  which  he  prescribes  for  himself.  Allow  all  the 
governed  an  equal  voice  in  the  government,  and  that,  and 
that  only,  is  self-government. 

Let  it  not  be  said  I  am  contending  for  the  establish- 
ment of  political  and  social  equality  between  the  whites 
and   blacks.      I   have   already   said  the  contrary.      I   am 

•  By  so  much. 


108  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

not  combating  the  argument  of  necessity,  arising  from 
the  fact  that  the  blacks  are  already  among  us ;  but  I  am 
combating  what  is  set  up  as  moral  argument  for  allow- 
ing them  to  be  taken  where  they  have  never  yet  been — 
arguing  against  the  extension  of  a  bad  thing,  which, 
where  it  already  exists,  we  must  of  necessity  manage  as 
we  best  can. 

In  support  of  his  application  of  the  doctrine  of  self- 
government,  Senator  Douglas  has  sought  to  bring  to  his 
aid  the  opinions  and  examples  of  our  Revolutionary 
fathers.  I  am  glad  he  has  done  this.  I  love  the  senti- 
ments of  those  old-time  men,  and  shall  be  most  happy 
to  abide  by  their  opinions.  He  shows  us  that  when  it 
was  in  contemplation  for  the  colonies  to  break  off  from 
Great  Britain,  and  set  up  a  new  government  for  them- 
selves, several  of  the  states  instructed  their  delegates  to 
go  for  the  measure,  provided  each  state  should  be  allowed 
to  regulate  its  domestic  concerns  in  its  own  way.  I  do 
not  quote;  but  this  in  substance.  This  was  right;  I 
see  nothing  objectionable  in  it.  I  also  think  it  probable 
that  it  had  some  reference  to  the  existence  of  slavery 
among  them.  I  will  not  deny  that  it  had.  But  had  it 
any  reference  to  the  carrying  of  slavery  into  new  coun- 
tries.^ That  is  the  question,  and  we  will  let  the  fathers 
themselves  answer  it. 

This  same  generation  of  men,  and  mostly  the  same 
individuals  of  the  generation  who  declared  this  principle, 
who  declared  independence,  who  fought  the  War  of  the 
Revolution  through,  who  afterward  made  the  Constitu- 
tion under  which  we  still  live- — these  same  men  passed 
the  Ordinance  of  '87,  declaring  that  slavery  should 
never  go  to  the  Northwest  Territory.  I  have  no  doubt 
Judge  Douglas  thinks  they  were  very  inconsistent  in 
this.  It  is  a  question  of  discrimination  between  them 
and  him.  But  there  is  not  an  inch  of  ground  left  for  his 
claiming  that  their  opinions,  their  example,  their  author- 
ity, are  on  his  side  in  the  controversy. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  109 

Again^  is  not  Nebraska,  while  a  territory,  a  part  of 
us?  Do  we  not  own  the  country?  And  if  we  sur- 
render the  control  of  it,  do  we  not  surrender  the  right  of 
self-government?  It  i.o  part  of  ourselves.  If  you  say 
we  shall  not  control  it,  because  it  is  only  part,  the  same 
is  true  of  every  other  part;  and  when  all  the  parts  are 
gone,  what  has  become  of  the  whole?  What  is  then 
left  of  us?  What  use  for  the  general  government,  when 
there  is  nothing  left  for  it  to  govern? 

But  you  say  this  question  should  be  left  to  the  people 
of  Nebraska,  because  they  are  more  particularly  in- 
terested. If  this  be  the  rule,  you  must  leave  it  to  each 
individual  to  say  for  himself  whether  he  will  have  slaves. 
What  better  moral  right  have  thirty-one  citizens  of 
Nebraska  to  say  that  the  thirty-second  shall  not  hold 
slaves  than  the  people  of  the  thirty-one  states  have  to 
sav  that  slaverv  shall  not  go  into  the  thirtv-second  state 
at*  all? 

But  if  it  is  a  sacred  right  for  the  people  of  Nebraska 
to  take  and  hold  slaves  there,  it  is  equally  their  sacred 
right  to  buy  them  where  they  can  buy  them  cheapest; 
and  that,  undoubtedly,  will  be  on  the  coast  of  Africa, 
provided  you  will  consent  not  to  hang  them  for  going 
there  to  buy  them.  You  must  remove  this  restriction, 
too,  from  the  sacred  right  of  self-government.  I  am 
aware,  you  say,  that  taking  slaves  from  the  states  to 
Nebraska  does  not  make  slaves  of  freemen ;  but  the 
African  slave-trader  can  say  just  as  much.  He  does 
not  catch  free  negroes  and  bring  them  here.  He  finds 
them  already  slaves  in  the  hands  of  their  black  captors, 
and  he  honestly  buys  them  at  the  rate  of  a  red  cotton 
handkerchief  a  head.  This  is  very  cheap,  and  it  is  a 
great  abridgment  of  the  sacred  right  of  self-government 
to  hang  men  for  engaging  in  this  profitable  trade. 

Another  important  objection  to  this  application  of  the 
right  of  self-government  is  that  it  enables  the  first  few 
to  deprive  the  succeeding  many  of  a  free  exercise  of  the 


110  SELECTIOXS    FROM    LINCOLN 

right  of  self-government.  The  first  few  may  get  slavery 
in,  and  the  subsequent  many  cannot  easily  get  it  out. 
How  common  is  the  remark  now  in  the  slave  states,  "If 
we  M'ere  only  clear  of  our  slaves,  how  much  better  it 
would  be  for  us."  They  are  actually  deprived  of  the 
privilege  of  governing  themselves  as  they  would,  by  the 
action  of  a  very  few  in  the  beginning.  The  same  thing 
was  true  of  the  whole  nation  at  the  time  our  Constitution 
was  formed. 

Whether  slaver^'  shall  go  into  Nebraska,  or  other  new 
territories,  is  not  a  matter  of  exclusive  concern  to  the 
people  who  may  go  there.  The  whole  nation  is  inter- 
ested that  the  best  use  shall  be  made  of  these  territories. 
We  want  them  for  homes  of  free  white  people.  This 
they  cannot  be,  to  any  considerable  extent,  if  slavery 
shall  be  planted  within  them.  Slave  states  are  places 
for  poor  white  people  to  remove  from,  not  to  remove  to. 
New  free  states  are  the  places  for  poor  people  to  go  to, 
and  better  their  condition.  For  this  use  the  nation  needs 
these  territories. 

Still  further:  there  are  constitutional  relations  be- 
tween the  slave  and  free  states  which  are  degrading  to 
the  latter.  We  are  under  legal  obligations  to  catch  and 
return  their  runaw^ay  slaves  to  them :  a  sort  of  dirty, 
disagreeable  job,  which,  I  believe,  as  a  general  rule,  the 
slaveholders  will  not  perform  for  one  another.  Then 
again,  in  the  control  of  the  government— the  manage- 
ment of  the  partnership  affairs — they  have  greatly  the 
advantage  of  us.  By  the  Constitution  each  state  has 
two  senators,  each  has  a  number  of  representatives  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  its  people,  and  each  has  a 
number  of  presidential  electors  equal  to  the  whole  num- 
ber of  its  senators  and  representatives  together.  But 
in  ascertaining  the  number  of  the  people  for  this  pur- 
pose, five  slaves  were  counted  as  being  equal  to  three 
whites.  The  slaves  do  not  vote;  they  are  only  counted, 
and  so  used  to  swell  the  influence  of  the  white  people's 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  m 


votes.  The  practical  effect  of  this  is  more  aptly  shown 
by  a  comparison  of  the  states  of  South  Carolina  and 
Maine.  South  Carolina  has  six  representatives,  and  so  has 
Maine;  South  Carolina  has  eight  presidential  electors, 
and  so  has  Maine.  This  is  precise  equality  so  far;  and,  of 
course  they  are  equal  in  senators,  each  having  two. 
Thus  in  the  control  of  the  government  the  two  states 
are  equals  precisely.  But  how  are  they  in  the  number 
of  their  white  people?  Maine  has  581,813,  while  South 
Carolina  has  274, 567;  Maine  has  twice  as  many  as 
South  Carolina,  and  32,679  over.  Thus,  each  white  man 
in  South  Carolina  is  more  than  the  double  of  any  man  in 
Maine.  This  is  all  because  South  Carolina,  besides  her 
free  people,  has  384,984  slaves.  The  South  Carolinian 
has  precisely  the  same  advantage  over  the  white  man  in 
every  other  free  state  as  well  as  in  Maine.  He  is  more 
than  the  double  of  any  one  of  us  in  this  crowd.  The 
same  advantage,  but  not  to  the  same  extent,  is  held  by 
all  the  citizens  of  the  slave  states  over  those  of  the 
free ;  and  it  is  an  absolute  truth,  without  an  exception, 
that  there  is  no  voter  in  any  slave  state,  but  who  has 
more  legal  power  in  the  government  than  any  voter  in 
any  free  state.  There  is  no  instance  of  exact  equality ; 
and  the  disadvantage  is  against  us  the  whole  chapter 
through.  This  principle,  in  the  aggregate,  gives  the 
slave  states  in  the  present  Congress  twenty  additional 
representatives,  being  seven  more  than  the  whole  major- 
ity by  which  they  passed  the  Nebraska  Bill. 

Now  all  this  is  manifestly  unfair ;  yet  I  do  not  men- 
tion it  to  complain  of  it,  in  so  far  as  it  is  already  settled. 
It  is  in  the  Constitution,  and  I  do  not  for  that  cause,  or 
any  other  cause,  propose  to  destroy,  or  alter,  or  disre- 
gard the  Constitution.  I  stand  to  it,  fairly,  fully,  and 
firmly. 

But  when  I  am  told  I  must  leave  it  altogether  to  other 
people  to  say  whether  new  partners  are  to  be  bred  up 
and  brought  into  the  firm,  on  the  same  degrading  terms 


112  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

against  me,  I  respectfully  demur.  I  insist  that  whether 
I  shall  be  a  whole  man,  or  only  the  half  of  one,  in  com- 
parison with  others,  is  a  question  in  which  I  am  some- 
what concerned,  and  one  which  no  other  man  can  have  a 
sacred  right  of  deciding  for  me.  If  I  am  wrong  in  this 
— if  it  really  be  a  sacred  right  of  self-government  in  the 
man  who  shall  go  to  Nebraska  to  decide  whether  he  will 
be  the  equal  of  me  or  the  double  of  me,  then,  after  he 
shall  have  exercised  that  right,  and  thereby  shall  have 
reduced  me  to  a  still  smaller  fraction  of  a  man  than  I 
already  am,  I  should  like  for  some  gentleman,  deeply 
skilled  in  the  mysteries  of  sacred  rights,  to  provide  him- 
self with  a  microscope,  and  peep  about,  and  find  out,  if 
he  can,  what  has  become  of  my  sacred  rights.  They 
will  surely  be  too  small  for  detection  with  the  naked 
eye. 

Finally,  I  insist  that  if  there  is  anything  which  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  whole  people  to  never  intrust  to  any 
hands  but  their  own,  that  thing  is  the  preservation  and 
perpetuity  of  their  own  liberties  and  institutions.  And 
if  they  shall  think,  as  I  do,  that  the  extension  of  slavery 
endangers  them  more  than  any  or  all  other  causes,  how 
recreant  to  themselves  if  they  submit  the  question,  and 
with  it  the  fate  of  their  country,  to  a  mere  handful  of 
men  bent  only  on  self-interest.  If  this  question  of 
slavery  extension  were  an  insignificant  one — one  having 
no  power  to  do  harm — it  might  be  shuffled  aside  in  this 
way;  and  being,  as  it  is,  the  great  Behemoth  *  of  danger, 
shall  the  strong  grip  of  the  nation  be  loosened  upon  him, 
to  intrust  him  to  the  hands  of  such  feeble  keepers? 

I  have  done  with  this  mighty  argument  of  self-gov- 
ernment.    Go,  sacred  thing!     Go  in  peace. 

But  Nebraska  is  urged  as  a  great  Union-saving 
measure.  Well,  I  too  go  for  saving  the  Union.  Much 
as  I  hate  slavery,  I  would  consent  to  the  extension  of  it 
rather  than   see   the   Union   dissolved,  just   as    I    would 

♦  Job.  xl,  15. 


iS^2&5i*.t 


SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN  ly.j 

consent  to  any  great  evil  to  avoid  a  greater  one.      But 
when  I  go  to  Union-saving,  I  must  believe,  at  least,  that 
the  means  I  employ  have  some   adaptation  to  the  end. 
To  my  mind,  Nebraska  has  no  such  adaptation. 
"It  hath  no  relish  of  salvation  in  it."* 

It  is  an  aggravation,  rather,  of  the  only  one  thing 
which  ever  endangers  the  Union.  When  it  came  upon 
us,  all  was  peace  and  quiet.  The  nation  was  looking 
to  the  forming  of  new  bonds  of  union,  and  a  long  course 
of  peace  and  prosperity  seemed  to  lie  before  us.  In 
the  whole  range  of  possibility,  there  scarcely  appears  to 
me  to  have  been  anything  out  of  which  the  slavery  agita- 
tion could  have  been  revived,  except  the  very  project  of 
repealing  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Every  inch  of  ter- 
ritory we  owned  already  had  a  definite  settlement  of  the 
slavery  question,  by  which  all  parties  were  pledged  to 
abide.  Indeed,  there  was  no  uninhabited  country  on  the 
continent  which  we  could  acquire,  if  we  except  some 
extreme  northern  regions  which  are  wholly  out  of  the 
question. 

In  this  state  of  affairs  the  Genius  of  Discord  himself 
could  scarcely  have  invented  a  way  of  again  setting  us 
by  the  ears  but  by  turning  back  and  destroying  the  peace 
measures  of  the  past.  The  counsels  of  that  Genius  seem 
to  have  prevailed.  The  Missouri  Compromise  was  re- 
pealed; and  here  we  are  in  the  midst  of  a  new  slavery 
agitation,  such,  I  think,  as  we  have  never  seen  before. 
Who  is  responsible  for  this?  Is  it  those  who  resist  the 
measure,  or  those  who  causelessly  brought  it  forward 
and  pressed  it  through,  having  reason  to  know,  and  in 
fact  knowing,  it  must  and  would  be  resisted  ?  It  could 
not  but  be  expected  by  its  author  that  it  would  be  looked 
upon  as  a  measure  for  the  extension  of  slavery,  aggra- 
vated by  a  gross  breach  of  faith. 

Argue  as  you  will  and  long  as  you  will,  this  is  the 
naked   front  and    aspect   of   the   measure.      And   in   this 

*  Hamlet,  Act  III,  Scene  iil.     Not  an  exact  quotation. 


114  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

aspect  it  could  not  but  produce  agitation.  Slavery  is 
founded  in  the  selfishness  of  man's  nature — opposition 
to  it  in  his  love  of  justice.  These  principles  are  an 
eternal  antagonism,  and  when  brought  into  collision  so 
fiercely  as  slavery  extension  brings  them,  shocks  and 
throes  and  convulsions  must  ceaselessly  follow.  Repeal 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  repeal  all  compromises,  repeal 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  repeal  all  past  history, 
you  still  cannot  repeal  human  nature.  It  still  will  be 
the  abundance  of  man's  heart  that  slavery  extension  is 
wrong,  and  out  of  the  abundance  of  his  heart  his  mouth 
will  continue  to  speak.* 

The  structure,  too,  of  the  Nebraska  bill  is  very  pe- 
culiar. The  people  are  to  decide  the  question  of  slavery 
for  themselves ;  but  when  they  are  to  decide  or  how 
they  are  to  decide,  or  whether,  when  the  question  is  once 
decided,  it  is  to  remain  so  or  is  to  be  subject  to  an  in- 
definite succession  of  new  trials,  the  law  does  not  say. 
Is  it  to  be  decided  by  the  first  dozen  settlers  who  arrive 
there,  or  is  it  to  await  the  arrival  of  a  hundred?  Is  it  to 
be  decided  by  a  vote  of  the  people  or  a  vote  of  the  legis- 
lature, or  indeed,  by  a  vote  of  any  sort?  To  these  ques- 
tions the  law  gives  no  answer.  There  is  a  mystery 
about  this;  for  when  a  member  proposed  to  give  the 
legislature  express  authority  to  exclude  slavery,  it  was 
hooted  down  by  the  friends  of  the  bill.  This  fact  is 
worth  remembering.  Some  Yankees  in  the  East  are 
sending  emigrants  to  Nebraska  to  exclude  slavery  from 
it;  and,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  they  expect  the  question 
to  be  decided  by  voting  in  some  way  or  other.  But  the 
Missourians  are  awake,  too.  They  are  within  a  stone's 
throw  of  the  contested  ground.  They  hold  meetings  and 
pass  resolutions,  in  which  not  the  slightest  allusion  to 
voting  is  made.  They  resolve  that  slavery  already 
exists  in  the  territory ;  that  more  shall  go  there ;  that 
they,  remaining  in   Missouri,  will  protect  it,   and   that 

•  See  Matthew,  xii,  34  ;  Luke,  vi,   4  j. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  115 

Abolitionists  shall .  be  hung  or  driven  away.  Through 
all  this  bowie-knives  and  six-shooters  are  seen  plainly 
enough^  but  never  a  glimpse  of  the  ballot-box. 

And  really,  what  is  the  result  of  all  this.'*  Each  party 
within  having  numerous  and  determined  backers  without, 
is  it  not  probable  that  the  contest  will  come  to  blows 
and  bloodshed.^  Could  there  be  a  more  apt  invention  to 
bring  about  collision  and  violence  on  the  slavery  ques- 
tion than  this  Nebraska  project  is.^  I  do  not  charge  or 
believe  that  such  was  intended  by  Congress;  but  if 
they  had  literally  formed  a  ring  and  placed  champions 
within  it  to  fight  out  the  controversy,  the  fight  could  be 
no  more  likely  to  come  off  than  it  is.  And  if  this  fight 
should  begin,  is  it  likely  to  take  a  very  peaceful,  Union- 
saving  turn?  Will  not  the  first  drop  of  blood  so  shed 
be  the  real  knell  of  the  Union? 

The  Missouri  Compromise  ought  to  be  restored.  For 
the  sake  of  the  Union,  it  ought  to  be  restored.  We  ought 
to  elect  a  House  of  Representatives  which  will  vote  its 
restoration.  If  by  any  means  we  omit  to  do  this,  what 
follows  ?  Slavery  may  or  may  not  be  established  in 
Nebraska.  But  whether  it  be  or  not,  we  shall  have 
repudiated — discarded  from  the  councils  of  the  nation — 
the  spirit  of  compromise;  for  who,  after  this,  will  ever 
trust  in  a  national  compromise  ?  The  spirit  of  mutual 
concession — that  spirit  which  first  gave  us  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  which  has  thrice  saved  the  Union — we  shall 
have  strangled  and  cast  from  us  forever.  And  what 
shall  we  have  in  lieu  of  it?  The  South,  flushed  with 
triumph  and  tempted  to  excess;  the  North,  betrayed  as 
they  believe,  brooding  on  wrong  and  burning  for  revenge. 
One  side  will  provoke,  the  other  resent.  The  one  will 
taunt,  the  other  defy;  one  aggresses,  the  other  retaliates. 
Already  a  few  in  the  North  defy  all  constitutional  re- 
straints, resist  the  execution  of  the  fugitive-slave  law, 
and  even  menace  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  states 
where  it  exists.    Alreadv  a   few  in  the  South  claim  the 


116  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

constitutional  right  to  take  and  to  hold  slaves  in  the  free 
states — demand  the  revival  of  the  slave-trade — and  de- 
mand a  treaty  with  Great  Britain  by  which  fugitive 
slaves  may  be  reclaimed  from  Canada.  As  yet  they 
are  but  few  on  either  side.  It  is  a  grave  question  for 
lovers  of  the  Union,  whether  the  final  destruction  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  and  with  it  the  spirit  of  all  com- 
promise, will  or  will  not  embolden  and  embitter  each  of 
these,  and  fatally  increase  the  number  of  both. 

But  restore  the  compromise,  and  what  then?  We 
thereby  restore  the  national  faith,  the  national  con- 
fidence, the  national  feeling  of  brotherhood.  We  thereby 
reinstate  the  spirit  of  concession  and  compromise,  that 
spirit  which  has  never  failed  us  in  past  perils,  and 
which  may  be  safely  trusted  for  all  the  future.  The 
South  ought  to  join  in  doing  this.  The  peace  of  the 
nation  is  as  dear  to  them  as  to  us.  In  memories  of  the 
past  and  hopes  of  the  future,  they  share  as  largely  as 
we.  It  would  be  on  their  part  a  great  act — great  in  its 
spirit,  and  great  in  its  effect.  It  would  be  worth  to  the 
nation  a  hundred  years'  purchase  of  peace  and  prosper- 
ity. And  what  of  sacrifice  would  they  make?  They 
only  surrender  to  us  what  they  gave  us  for  a  considera- 
tion long,  long  ago;  what  they  have  not  now  asked  for, 
struggled  or  cared  for;  what  has  been  thrust  upon  them 
not  less  to  their  astonishment  than  to  ours. 

But  it  is  said  we  cannot  restore  it;  that  though  we 
elect  every  member  of  the  lower  House,  the  Senate  is 
still  against  us.  It  is  quite  true  that  of  the  senators  who 
passed  the  Nebraska  bill,  a  majority  of  the  whole  Senate 
will  retain  their  seats  in  spite  of  the  elections  of  this 
and  the  next  year.  But  if  at  these  elections  their  sev- 
eral constituencies  shall  clearly  express  their  will  against 
Nebraska,  will  these  Senators  disregard  their  will  ? 
Will  they  neither  obey  nor  make  room  for  those  who 
will? 

But  even   if  we    fail  to   technicallv   restore   the   com- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  117 

promise,  it  is  still  a  great  point  to  carry  a  popular  vote 
in  favor  of  the  restoration.  The  moral  weight  of  such  a 
vote  cannot  be  estimated  too  highly.  The  authors  of 
Nebraska  are  not  at  all  satisfied  with  the  destruction 
of  the  compromise — an  indorsement  of  this  principle  they 
proclaitQ  to  be  the  great  object.  With  them,  Nebraska 
alone  is  a  small  matter — to  establish  a  principle  for 
future  use  is  what  they  particularly  desire. 

The  future  use  is  to  be  the  planting  of  slavery  wher- 
ever in  the  wide  world  local  and  unorganized  opposition 
cannot  prevent  it.  Now,  if  you  wish  to  give  them  this 
indorsement,  if  you  wish  to  establish  this  principle,  do 
so.  I  shall  regret  it,  but  it  is  your  right.  On  the  con- 
trary, if  you  are  opposed  to  the  principle — intend  to 
give  it  no  such  indorsement — let  no  wheedling,  no 
sophistry,  divert  you  from  throwing  a  direct  vote  against 
it. 

Some  men,  mostly  Whigs,  who  condemn  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  nevertheless  hesitate  to  go  for 
its  restoration,  lest  they  be  thrown  in  company  with  the 
Abolitionists.  Will  they  allow,  me,  as  an  old  Whig,  to 
tell  them,  good-humoredly,  that  I  think  this  is  very  silly  ? 
Stand  with  anybody  that  stands  right.  Stand  with  him 
while  he  is  right,  and  part  with  him  when  he  goes  wrong. 
Stand  with  the  Abolitionist  in  restoring  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  and  stand  against  him  when  he  attempts  to 
repeal  the  fugitive-slave  law.  In  the  latter  case  you 
stand  with  the  Southern  disunionist.  What  of  that? 
You  are  still  right.  In  both  cases  you  are  right.  In 
both  cases  you  expose  the  dangerous  extremes.  In  both 
you  stand  on  middle  ground,  and  hold  the  ship  level  and 
steady.  In  both  you  are  national,  and  nothing  less  than 
national.  This  is  the  good  old  Whig  ground.  To  desert 
such  ground  because  of  any  company,  is  to  be  less  than 
a  Whig — less  than  a  man — less  than  an  American. 

I  particularly  object  to  the  new  position  which  the 
avowed  principle  of  this   Nebraska  law  gives  to  slavery 


113  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

in  the  body  politic.  I  object  to  it  because  it  assumes 
that  there  can  be  moral  right  in  the  enslaving  of  one 
man  by  another.  I  object  to  it  as  a  dangerous  dalliance 
for  a  free  people — a  sad  evidence  that,  feeling  pros- 
perity, we  forget  right;  that  liberty,  as  a  principle,  we 
have  ceased  to  revere.  I  object  to  it  because  the  fathers 
of  the  republic  eschewed  and  rejected  it.  The  argument 
of  "necessity"  was  the  only  argument  they  ever  admitted 
in  favor  of  slavery;  and  so  far,  and  so  far  only,  as  it 
carried  them  did  it  ever  go.  They  found  the  institution 
existing  among  us,  which  they  could  not  help,  and  they 
cast  blame  upon  the  British  king  for  having  permitted 
its  introduction.  Before  the  Constitution  they  prohibited 
its  introduction  into  the  Northwestern  Territory,  the 
only  country  we  owned  then  free  from  it.  At  the  fram- 
ing and  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  they  forbore  to  so 
much  as  mention  the  word  "slave"  or  "slavery"  in  the 
whole  instrument.  In  the  provision  for  the  recovery  of 
fugitives,  the  slave  is  spoken  of  as  a  "person  held  in 
service  or  labor."  In  that  prohibiting  the  abolition  of 
the  African  slave-trade  for  twenty  years,  that  trade  is 
spoken  of  as  "the  migration  or  importation  of  such  per- 
sons as  any  of  the  states  now  existing  shall  think  proper 
to  admit,"  etc.  These  are  the  only  provisions  alluding 
to  slavery.  Thus  the  thing  is  hid  away  in  the  Constitu- 
tion, just  as  an  afflicted  man  hides  away  a  wen  or  cancer 
which  he  dares  not  cut  out  at  once,  lest  he  bleed  to  death 
— with  the  promise,  nevertheless,  that  the  cutting  may 
begin  at  a  certain  time.  Less  than  this  our  fathers  could 
not  do,  and  more  they  would  not  do.  Necessity  drove 
them  so  far,  and  further  they  would  not  go.  But  this 
is  not  all.  The  earliest  Congress  under  the  Constitution 
took  the  same  view  of  slavery.  They  hedged  and 
hemmed  it  in  to  the  narrowest  limits  of  necessity. 

In  ITQ^  they  prohibited  an  outgoing  slave-trade — that 
is  the  taking  of  slaves  from  the  United  States  to  sell. 
In    1798   they   prohibited   the   bringing  of   slaves   from 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  119 

Africa  into  the  Mississippi  Territory,  this  territory  then 
comprising  what  are  now  the  states  of  Mississippi  and 
Alabama.  This  was  ten  years  before  they  had  the 
authority  to  do  the  same  thing  as  to  the  states  existing 
at  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  In  1800  they  pro- 
hibited American  citizens  from  trading  in  slaves  between 
foreign  countries,  as,  for  instance,  from  Africa  to  Brazil. 
In  1803  they  passed  a  law  in  aid  of  one  or  two  slave- 
state  laws,  in  restraint  of  the  internal  slave-trade.  In 
1807,  in  apparent  hot  haste,  they  passed  the  law,  nearly 
a  year  in  advance — to  take  effect  the  first  day  of  1808, 
the  very  first  day  the  Constitution  would  permit — pro- 
hibiting the  African  slave-trade  by  heavy  pecuniary  and 
corporal  penalties.  In  1820,  finding  these  provisions  in- 
effectual, they  declared  the  slave-trade  piracy,  and 
affixed  to  it  the  extreme  penalty  of  death.  While  all  this 
was  passing  in  the  General  Government,  five  or  six  of 
the  original  slave  states  had  adopted  systems?  of  gradual 
emancipation,  by  which  the  institution  was  rapidly  be- 
coming extinct  within  their  limits.  Thus  we  see  that 
the  plain,  unmistakable  spirit  of  that  age  toward  slavery 
was  hostility  to  the  principle  and  toleration  only  by 
necessity. 

But  now  it  is  to  be  transformed  into  a  "sacred  right." 
Nebraska  brings  it  forth,  places  it  on  the  highroad  to 
extension  and  perpetuity,  and  with  a  pat  on  its  back  says 
to  it,  "Go,  and  God  speed  you."  Henceforth  it  is  to  be 
the  chief  jewel  of  the  nation — the  very  figurehead  of 
the  Ship  of  State.  Little  by  little,  but  steadily  as  man's 
march  to  the  grave,  we  have  been  giving  up  the  old  for 
the  new  faith.  Near  eighty  years  ago  we  began  by 
declaring  that  all  men  are  created  equal;  but  now  from 
that  beginning  we  have  run  down  to  the  other  declara- 
tion, that  for  some  men  to  enslave  others  is  a  "sacred 
right  of  self-government."  These  principles  cannot 
stand  together.  They  are  as  opposite  as  God  and 
Mammon;  and  whoever  holds  to  the  one  must  despise 


]20  SELECTIOXwS    FROM    LINCOLN 

the  other.  When  Pettit,^  in  connection  with  his  support 
of  the  Nebraska  bill,  called  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence "a  self-evident  lie/'  he  only  did  what  con- 
sistency and  candor  require  all  other  Nebraska  men  to 
do.  Of  the  forty-odd  Nebraska  senators  who  sat  present 
and  heard  him,  no  one  rebuked  him.  Nor  am  I  apprised 
that  any  Nebraska  newspaper,  or  any  Nebraska  orator, 
in  the  whole  nation  has  ever  yet  rebuked  him.  If  this 
had  been  said  among  Marion's  men.  Southerners  though 
they  were,  what  would  have  become  of  the  man  who 
said  it.^  If  this  had  been  said  to  the  men  who  captured 
Andre,  the  man  who  said  it  would  probably  have  been 
hung  sooner  than  Andre  was.  If  it  had  been  said  in  old 
Independence  Hall  seventy-eight  years  ago,  the  very 
doorkeeper  would  have  throttled  the  man  and  thrust  him 
into  the  street.  Let  no  one  be  deceived.  The  spirit  of 
seventy-six  and  the  spirit  of  Nebraska  are  utter  an- 
tagonisms ;  and  the  former  is  being  rapidly  displaced  by 
the  latter. 

Fellow-countrymen,  Americans,  South  as  well  as 
North,  shall  we  make  no  effort  to  arrest  this  ?  Already 
the  liberal  party  throughout  the  w^orld  express  the  appre- 
hension "that  the  one  retrograde  institution  in  America 
is  undermining  the  principles  of  progress,  and  fatally 
violating  the  noblest  political  system  the  world  ever 
saw."  This  is  not  the  taunt  of  enemies,  but  the  warning 
of  friends.  Is  it  quite  safe  to  disregard  it — to  despise 
it.''  Is  there  no  danger  to  liberty  itself  in  discarding  the 
earliest  practice  and  first  precept  of  our  ancient  faith  ? 
In  our  greedy  chase  to  make  profit  of  the  negro,  let  us 
beware  lest  we  "cancel  and  tear  in  pieces"  even  the 
white  man's  charter  of  freedom. 

Our  republican  robe  is  soiled  and  trailed  in  the  dust. 
Let  us  re-purify  it.  Let  us  turn  and  wash  it  white  in  the 
spirit,  if  not  the  blood,  of  the  Revolution.  Let  us  turn 
slavery  from  its  claims  of  "moral  right"  back  upon  its 

♦  John  Pettit,  senator  from  Indiana. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    EIXCOLX  121 

existing  legal  rights  and  its  arguments  of  "necessity." 
Let  us  return  it  to  the  position  our  fathers  gave  it,  and 
there  let  it  rest  in  peace.  Let  us  readopt  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and  with  it  the  practices  and  policy 
which  harmonize  with  it.  Let  North  and  South — let  all 
Americans — let  all  lovers  of  liberty  everywhere  join  in 
the  great  and  good  work.  If  we  do  this,  we  shall  not 
only  have  saved  the  Union,  but  we  shall  have  so  saved  it 
as  to  make  and  to  keep  it  forever  worthy  of  the  saving. 
We  shall  have  so  saved  it  that  the  succeeding  millions 
of  free,  happy  people,  the  world  over,  shall  rise  up  and 
call  us  blessed  to  the  latest  generations. 

At  Springfield,  twelve  days  ago,  where  I  had  spoken 
substantially  as  I  have  here.  Judge  Douglas  replied  to 
me;  and  as  he  is  to  reply  to  me  here,  I  shall  attempt  to 
anticipate  him  by  noticing  some  of  the  points  he  made 
there.  He  commenced  by  stating  I  had  assumed  all  the 
way  through  that  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill 
would  have  the  effect  of  extending  slavery.  He  denied 
that  this  was  intended,  or  that  this  effect  would  follow. 

I  will  not  reopen  the  argument  upon  this  point.  That 
such  was  the  intention  the  world  believed  at  the  start, 
and  will  continue  to  believe.  This  was  the  countenance 
of  the  thing,  and  both  friends  and  enemies  instantly 
recognized  it  as  such.  That  countenance  cannot  now  be 
changed  by  argument.  You  can  as  easily  argue  the  color 
out  of  the  negro's  skin.  Like  the  "bloody  hand,"  * 
though  you  may  wash  it  and  wash  it,  the  red  witness  of 
guilt  still  sticks  and  stares  horribly  at  you. 

Next  he  says  that  congressional  intervention  never 
prevented  slavery  anywhere ;  that  it  did  not  prevent  it 
in  the  Northwestern  Territory,  nor  in  Illinois ;  that,  in 
fact,  Illinois  came  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state;  that 
the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill  expelled  it  from  Illi- 
nois, from  several  old  states,  from  everywhere. 

Now  this  is  mere  quibbling  all  the  way  through.     If 

*  Macbeth,  Act  II,  Scene  ii. 


122  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

the  ordinance  of  '87  did  not  keep  slavery  out  of  the 
Northwest  Territory,  how  happens  it  that  the  north- 
west shore  of  the  Ohio  River  is  entirely  free  from  it, 
while  the  southeast  shore,  less  than  a  mile  distant,  along 
nearly  the  whole  length  of  the  river,  is  entirely  covered 
with   it  ? 

If  that  ordinance  did  not  keep  it  out  of  Illinois,  what 
was  it  that  made  the  difference  between  Illinois  and 
Missouri?  They  lie  side  by  side,  the  Mississippi  River 
only  dividing  them,  while  their  early  settlements  were 
within  the  same  latitude.  Between  1810  and  1820,  the 
number  of  slaves  in  Missouri  increased  7,211,  while  in 
Illinois,  in  the  same  ten  years  they  decreased  51.  This 
appears  by  the  census  returns.  During  nearly  all  of 
that  ten  years  both  were  territories,  not  states.  During 
this  time  the  ordinance  forbade  slavery  to  go  into  Illi- 
nois, and  nothing  forbade  it  to  go  into  Missouri.  It  did 
go  into  Missouri,  and  did  not  go  into  Illinois.  That  is 
the  fact.  Can  anyone  doubt  as  to  the  reason  of  it?  But 
he  says  Illinois  came  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state. 
Silence,  perhaps,  would  be  the  best  answer  to  this  flat 
contradiction  of  the  known  history  of  the  country.  What 
are  the  facts  upon  which  this  bold  assertion  is  based? 
When  we  first  acquired  the  country,  as  far  back  as  1787, 
there  were  some  slaves  within  it  held  by  the  French  in- 
habitants of  Kaskaskia.  The  territorial  legislation  ad- 
mitted a  few  negroes  from  the  slave  states  as  indentured 
servants.  One  year  after  the  adoption  of  the  first  state 
constitution,  the  whole  number  of  them  was — what  do 
you  think?  Just  one  hundred  and  seventeen,  while  the 
aggregate  free  population  was  55,094 — about  four  hun- 
dred and  seventy  to  one.  Upon  this  state  of  facts  the 
people  framed  their  constitution  prohibiting  the  further 
introduction  of  slavery,  with  a  sort  of  guarantee  to  the 
owners  of  the  few  indentured  servants,  giving  freedom 
to  their  children  to  be  born  thereafter,  and  making  no 
mention  whatever  of  any  supposed  slave  for  life.     Out 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  123 

of  this  small  matter  the  Judge  manufactures  his  argu- 
ment that  Illinois  came  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state. 
Let  the  facts  be  the  answer  to  the  argument. 

The  principles  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  he  says,  expelled 
slavery  from  Illinois.  The  principle  of  that  bill  first 
planted  it  here — that  is,  it  first  came  because  there  was 
no  law  to  prevent  it,  first  came  before  we  owned  the 
country;  and  finding  it  here,  and  having  the  ordinance 
of  '87  to  prevent  its  increasing,  our  people  struggled 
along,  and  finally  got  rid  of  it  as  best  they  could. 

But  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill  abolished 
slavery  in  several  of  the  old  states.  Well,  it  is  true  that 
several  of  the  old  states,  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  last 
century,  did  adopt  systems  of  gradual  emancipation  by 
which  the  institution  has  finally  become  extinct  within 
their  limits ;  but  it  may  or  may  not  be  true  that  the 
principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill  was  the  cause  that  led  to 
the  adoption  of  these  measures.  It  is  now  more  than 
fifty  years  since  the  last  of  these  states  adopted  its 
system  of  emancipation. 

If  the  Nebraska  bill  is  the  real  author  of  these 
benevolent  works,  it  is  rather  deporable  that  it  has  for 
so  long  a  time  ceased  working  altogether.  Is  there  not 
some  reason  to  suspect  that  it  was  the  principle  of  the 
Revolution,  and  not  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill, 
that  led  to  emancipation  in  these  old  states  ?  Leave  it 
to  the  people  of  these  old  emancipating  states,  and  I 
am  quite  certain  they  will  decide  that  neither  that  nor 
any  other  good  thing  ever  did  or  ever  will  come  of  the 
Nebraska  bill. 

In  the  course  of  my  main  argument,  Judge  Douglas 
interrupted  me  to  say  that  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska 
bill  was  very  old;  that  it  originated  when  God  made 
man,  and  placed  good  and  evil  before  him,  allowing  him 
to  choose  for  himself,  being  responsible  for  the  choice 
he  should  make.  At  the  time  I  thought  this  was  merely 
playful,  and  I  answered  it  accordingly.     But  in  his  reply 


124  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

to  me  he  renewed  it  as  a  serious  argument.  In  serious- 
ness, then,  the  facts  of  this  proposition  are  not  true  as 
stated.  God  did  not  place  good  and  evil  before  man, 
telling  him  to  make  his  choice.  On  the  contrary,  he  did 
tell  him  there  was  one  tree  of  tlie  fruit  of  which  he 
should  not  eat,  upon  pain  of  certain  death.  I  should 
scarcely  wish  so  strong  a  prohibition  against  slavery  in 
Nebraska. 

But  this  argument  strikes  me  as  not  a  little  remark- 
able in  another  particular — in  its  strong  resemblance 
to  the  old  argument  for  the  "divine  right  of  kings."  By 
the  latter,  the  king  is  to  do  just  as  he  pleases  with  his 
white  subjects,  being  responsible  to  God  alone.  By  the 
former,  the  white  man  is  to  do  just  as  he  pleases  with 
his  black  slaves,  being  responsible  to  God  alone. 
The  two  things  are  precisely  alike,  and  it  is  but  natu- 
ral that  they  should  find  similar  arguments  to  sustain 
them. 

I  had  argued  that  the  application  of  the  principle  of 
self-government,  as  contended  for,  would  require  the 
revival  of  the  African  slave-trade ;  that  no  argument 
could  be  made  in  favor  of  a  man's  right  to  take  slaves  to 
Nebraska  which  could  not  be  equally  well  made  in  favor 
of  his  right  to  bring  them  from  the  coast  of  Africa.  The 
Judge  replied  that  the  Constitution  requires  the  sup- 
pression of  the  foreign  slave-trade,  but  does  not  require 
the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  territories.  That  is  a 
mistake  in  point  of  fact.  The  Constitution  does  not 
require  the  action  of  Congress  in  either  case,  and  it  does 
authorize  it  in  both.  And  so  there  is  still  no  difference 
between  the  cases. 

In  regard  to  what  I  have  said  of  the  advantage  the 
slave  states  have  over  the  free  in  the  matter  of  represen- 
tation, the  Judge  replied  that  we  in  the  free  states  count 
five  free  negroes  as  five  white  people,  while  in  the  slave 
states  they  count  five  slaves  three  whites  only,  and  that 
the  advantage,  at  last,  was  on  the  side  of  the  free  states. 


SELECTIONS  FEOM  LINCOLN  125 

Now,  in  the  slave  states  they  count  free  negroes  just 
as  we  do;  and  it  so  happens  that,  besides  their  slaves, 
they  have  as  many  free  negroes  as  we  have,  and  thirty 
thousand  over.  Thus,  their  free  negroes  more  than  bal- 
ance ours ;  and  their  advantage  over  us,  in  consequence 
of  their  slaves,  still  remains  as  I  stated  it. 

In  reply  to  my  argument  that  the  compromise  measures 
of  1850  were  a  system  of  equivalents,  and  that  the  pro- 
visions of  no  one  of  them  could  fairly  be  carried  to  other 
subjects,  without  its  corresponding  equivalent  being 
carried  with  it,  the  Judge  denied  outright  that  these 
measures  had  any  connection  with  or  dependence  upon 
each  other.  This  is  mere  desperation.  If  they  had  no 
connection,  why  are  they  always  spoken  of  in  connection  } 
Why  has  he  so  spoken  of  them  a  thousand  times  ?  Why 
has  he  constantly  called  them  a  series  of  measures? 
Why  does  everybody  call  them  a  compromise  ?  Why  was 
California  kept  out  of  the  Union  six  or  seven  months, 
if  it  was  not  because  of  its  connection  with  the  other 
measures  }  Webster's  leading  definition  of  the  verb  "to 
compromise"  is  "to  adjust  and  settle  a  difference,  by 
mutual  agreement,  with  concessions  of  claims  by  the 
parties."  This  conveys  precisely  the  popular  under- 
standing of  the  word  "compromise." 

We  knew,  before  the  Judge  told  us,  that  these  measures 
passed  separately,  and  in  distinct  bills,  and  that  no  two 
of  them  were  passed  by  the  votes  of  precisely  the  same 
members.  But  we  also  know,  and  so  does  he  know,  that 
no  one  of  them  could  have  passed  both  branches  of  Con- 
gress but  for  the  understanding  that  the  others  were  to 
pass  also.  Upon  this  understanding,  each  got  votes 
which  it  could  have  got  in  no  other  way.  It  is  this  fact 
which  gives  to  the  measures  their  true  character;  and 
it  is  the  universal  knowledge  of  this  fact  that  has  given 
them  the  name  of  "compromises,"  so  expressive  of  that 
true  character. 

I  had  asked  "if,  in  carrying  the  L'tah  and  New  Mexico 


126  SELECTIONS    FROM    LI>'COLX 

laws  to  Nebraska,  you  could  clear  away  other  objection, 
how  could  you  leaye  Nebraska  'perfectly  free'  to  intro- 
duce slavery  before  she  forms  a  constitution  during  her 
territorial  government,  while  the  Utah  and  New  Mexico 
laws  only  authorize  it  when  they  form  constitutions  and 
are  admitted  into  the  Union  ?"  To  this  Judge  Douglas 
answered  that  the  Utah  and  New  Mexico  laws  also 
authorized  it  before ;  and  to  prove  this  he  read  from  one 
of  their  laws,  as  follows :  "That  the  legislative  power 
of  said  territory  shall  extend  to  all  rightful  subjects  of 
legislation,  consistent  with  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  and  the  provisions  of  this  act." 

Now  it  is  perceived  from  the  reading  of  this  that  there 
is  nothing  express  upon  the  subject^  but  that  the 
authority  is  sought  to  be  implied  merely  for  the  general 
provision  of  "all  rightful  subjects  of  legislation."  In 
reply  to  this  I  insist,  as  a  legal  rule  of  construction,  as 
well  as  the  plain,  popular  view  of  the  matter,  that  the 
express  provision  for  Utah  and  New  Mexico  coming  in 
with  slavery,  if  they  choose,  when  they  shall  form  Con- 
stitutions, is  an  exclusion  of  all  implied  authority  on 
the  same  subject;  that  Congress,  having  the  subject  dis- 
tinctly in  their  minds  when  they  made  the  express  pro- 
vision, they  therein  expressed  their  whole  meaning  on 
that  subject. 

The  Judge  rather  insinuated  that  I  had  found  it  con- 
venient to  forget  the  Washington  territorial  law  passed 
in  1853.  This  was  a  division  of  Oregon  organizing  the 
northern  part  as  the  Territory  of  Washington.  He 
asserted  that  by  this  act  the  ordinance  of  '87,  theretofore 
existing  in  Oregon,  was  repealed;  that  nearly  all  the 
members  of  Congress  voted  for  it,  beginning  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  with  Charles  Allen  of  Massachusetts, 
and  ending  with  Richard  Yates  of  Illinois ;  and  that  he 
could  not  understand  how  those  who  now  oppose  the 
Nebraska  bill  so  voted  there,  unless  it  was  because  it 
was  then  too  soon  after  both  the  great  political  parties 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  127 

had  ratified  the  compromises  of  1850,  and  the  ratification 
therefore  was  too  fresh  to  be  then  repudiated. 

Now  I  have  seen  the  Washington  act  before,  and  I 
have  carefully  examined  it  since;  and  I  aver  that  there 
is  no  repeal  of  the  ordinance  of  '87,  or  of  any  prohibition 
of  slavery,  in  it.  In  express  terms,  there  is  absolutely 
nothing  in  the  whole  law  upon  the  subject — in  fact, 
nothing  to  lead  a  reader  to  think  of  the  subject.  To  my 
judgment  it  is  equally  free  from  everything  from  which 
repeal  can  be  legally  implied ;  but  however  this  may  be, 
are  men  now  to  be  entrapped  by  a  legal  implication, 
extracted  from  covert  language,  introduced  perhaps  for 
the  very  purpose  of  entrapping  them?  I  sincerely  wish 
every  man  could  read  this  law  quite  through,  carefully 
watching  every  sentence  and  every  line  for  a  repeal  of 
the  ordinance  of  '87,  or  anything  equivalent  to  it. 

Another  point  on  the  Washington  act.  If  it  was  in- 
tended to  be  modeled  after  the  Utah  and  New  Mexico 
acts,  as  Judge  Douglas  insists,  why  was  it  not  inserted 
in  it,  as  in  them,  that  Washington  was  to  come  in  with 
or  without  slavery  as  she  may  choose  at  the  adoption 
of  her  constitution  ?  It  has  no  such  provision  in  it ;  and 
I  defy  the  ingenuity  of  man  to  give  a  reason  for  the 
omission,  other  than  that  it  was  not  intended  to  follow 
the  Utah  and  New  Mexico  laws  in  regard  to  the  question 
of  slavery. 

The  Washington  act  not  only  differs  vitally  from  the 
Utah  and  New  Mexico  acts,  but  the  Nebraska  act  differs 
vitally  from  both.  By  the  later  act  the  people  are  left 
"perfectly  free"  to  regulate  their  own  domestic  concerns, 
etc. ;  but  in  all  the  former,  all  their  laws  are  to  be  sub- 
mitted to  Congress,  and  if  disapproved  are  to  be  null. 
The  Washington  act  goes  even  further;  it  absolutely 
prohibits  the  territorial  legislature,  by  very  strong  and 
guarded  language,  from  establishing  banks  or  borrowing 
money  on  the  faith  of  the  territory.  Is  this  the  sacred 
right  of  self-government  we  hear  vaunted  so  much.^     No, 


128  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

sir;  the  Nebraska  bill  finds  no  model  in  the  acts  of  '50 
or  the  Washington  act.  It  finds  no  model  in  any  law 
from  Adam  till  today.  As  Phillips  says  of  Napoleon, 
the  Nebraska  act  is  "grand^  gloomy,  and  peculiar, 
wrapped  in  the  solitude  of  its  own  originality,  without  a 
model  and  without  a  shadow  upon  the  earth." 

In  the  course  of  his  reply  Senator  Douglas  remarked 
in  substance  that  he  had  always  considered  this  govern- 
ment was  made  for  the  white  people  and  not  for  the 
negroes.  Why,  in  point  of  mere  fact,  I  think  so  too. 
But  in  this  remark  of  the  Judge  there  is  a  significance 
which  I  think  is  the  key  to  the  great  mistake  (if  there 
is  any  such  mistake)  which  he  has  made  in  this  Nebraska 
measure.  It  shows  that  the  Judge  has  no  very  vivid  im- 
pression that  the  negro  is  human,  and  consequently  has 
no  idea  that  there  can  be  any  moral  question  in  legislat- 
ing about  him.  In  his  view  the  question  of  whether  a 
new  country  shall  be  slave  or  free,  is  a  matter  of  as  utter 
indifference  as  it  is  whetlier  his  neighbor  shall  plant  his 
farm  with  tobacco  or  stock  it  with  horned  cattle.  Now, 
whether  this  view  is  right  or  wrong,  it  is  very  certain  that 
the  great  mass  of  mankind  take  a  totally  different  view. 
They  consider  slavery  a  great  moral  wrong,  and  their 
feeling  against  it  is  not  evanescent,  but  eternal.  It  lies 
at  the  very  foundation  of  their  sense  of  justice,  and  it 
cannot  be  trifled  with.  It  is  a  great  and  durable  element 
of  popular  action,  and  I  think  no  statesman  can  safely 
disregard  it. 

Our  senator  also  objects  that  those  who  oppose  him  in 
this  matter  do  not  entirely  agree  with  one  another.  He 
reminds  me  that  in  my  firm  adherence  to  the  consti- 
tutional rights  of  the  slave  states,  I  differ  widely  from 
others  wlio  are  cooperating  with  me  in  opposing  the 
Nebraska  bill,  and  he  says  it  is  not  quite  fair  to  oppose 
him  in  this  variety  of  ways.  He  should  remember  that 
he  took  us  by  surprise — astounded  us  by  this  measure. 
We  were  thunderstruck  and  stunned,  and  we  reeled  and 


SELECTIONS  FEOM  LINCOLN  129 

fell  in  utter  confusion.  But  we  rose,  each  fighting, 
grasping  whatever  he  could  first  reach — a  scythe,  a 
pitchfork,  a  chopping-ax,  or  a  butcher's  cleaver.  We 
struck  in  the  direction  of  the  sound,  and  we  were  rapidly 
closing  in  upon  him.  He  must  not  think  to  divert  us 
from  our  purpose  by  showing  us  that  our  drill,  our  dress, 
and  our  weapons  are  not  entirely  perfect  and  uniform. 
When  the  storm  shall  be  past  he  shall  find  us  still  Ameri- 
cans, no  less  devoted  to  the  continued  union  and  pros- 
perity of  the  country  than  heretofore. 

Finally,  the  Judge  invokes  against  me  the  memory  of 
Clay  and  Webster.  They  were  great  men,  and  men  of 
great  deeds.  But  where  have  I  assailed  them?  For 
what  is  it  that  their  lifelong  enemy  shall  now  make 
profit  by  assuming  to  defend  them  against  me,  their  life- 
long friend?  I  go  against  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise;  did  they  ever  go  for  it?  They  went  for  the 
compromises  of  1850;  did  I  ever  go  against  them?  They 
were  greatly  devoted  to  the  Union;  to  the  small  measure 
of  my  ability  was  I  ever  less  so?  Clay  and  Webster 
were  dead  before  this  question  arose;  by  what  authority 
shall  our  senator  say  they  would  espouse  his  side  of  it 
if  alive  ?  Mr.  Clay  was  the  leading  spirit  in  making  the 
Missouri  Compromise ;  is  it  very  credible  that  if  now 
alive  he  would  take  the  lead  in  the  breaking  of  it?  The 
truth  is  that  some  support  from  Whigs  is  now  a  necessity 
with  the  Judge,  and  for  this  it  is  that  the  names  of  Clay 
and  Webster  are  invoked.  His  old  friends  have  deserted 
him  in  such  numbers  as  to  leave  too  few  to  live  by.  He 
came  to  his  own,  and  his  own  received  him  not;  and  lo ! 
he  turns  unto  the  Gentiles. 

A  word  now  as  to  the  Judge's  desperate  assumption 
that  the  compromises  of  1850  had  no  connection  with 
one  another;  that  Illinois  came  into  the  Union  as  a  slave 
state,  and  some  other  similar  ones.  This  is  no  other  than 
a  bold  denial  of  the  history  of  the  country.  If  we  do 
not  know  that  the  compromises  of  1850  were  dependent 


130  '      SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

on  each  other;  if  we  do  not  know  that  Illinois  came  into 
the  Union  as  a  free  state — we  do  not  know  anything. 
If  we  do  not  know  these  things,  we  do  not  know  that 
we  ever  had  a  Revolutionary  war  or  such  a  chief  as 
Washington.  To  deny  these  things  is  to  deny  our  na- 
tional axioms — or  dogmas,  at  least —  and  it  puts  an  end 
to  all  argument.  If  a  man  will  stand  up  and  assert,  and 
repeat  and  reassert,  that  two  and  two  do  not  make  four, 
I  know  nothing  in  the  power  of  argument  that  can 
stop  him.  I  think  I  can  answer  the  Judge  so  long  as  he 
sticks  to  the  premises  ;  but  when  he  flies  from  them,  I 
cannot  work  any  argument  into  the  consistency  of  a 
mental  gag  and  actually  close  his  mouth  with  it.  In  such 
a  case  I  can  only  commend  him  to  the  seventy  thousand 
answers  just  in  from  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Indiana.* 

After  the  Peoria  speech  Lincoln  and  Douglas  came  to  an 
agreement  not  to  continue  the  debate.  The  legislative  elections 
resulted  in  a  defeat  for  the  Douglas  adherents,  who  were  in 
a  minority.  The  majority  was  composed  of  Anti-Nebraska 
Democrats,  Free-soilers,  and  Whigs,  the  last  far  outnumber- 
ing the  others.  Of  this  element  Lincoln  became  the  chosen 
candidate  for  the  L^nited  States  Senate  and  was  compelled 
under  the  state  law  to  resign  from  the  legislature.  He  was 
certain  of  the  Whigs  and  Free-soilers,  but  five  Anti-Nebraska 
Democrats  refused  to  vote  for  any  Whig,  and  supported  Ly- 
man Trumbull.  After  nine  ballots,  Lincoln,  in  order  to  secure 
the  election  of  an  opponent  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act,  with- 
drew in  favor  of  Trumbull,  who  was  elected. 

All  through  the  West  the  Anti-Nebraska  men  were  organiz- 
ing under  various  names.  It  soon  developed  that  Republican 
was  a  favorite  name,  due  to  the  fact  that  they  claimed  to  be 
the  followers  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  founder  of  the  original 
Republican  party  and  formulator  of  its  principles.  A  Repub- 
lican state  organization  was  perfected  at  Springfield  in  the 
autumn  of  1854  and  I>incoln  was,  without  his  knowledge,  placed 
on  the  executive  conuuittee.     He  was  not  yet  certain  of  where 

*  These  three  states  were  all  carried  in  the  elections  by  Anti- 
Nebraska  candidates.  The  allusion  is  to  their  combined 
majorities. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  131 

he  stood  politically.  Was  the  Whig  party  dead?  It  seemed  so, 
but  there  was  no  certainty  of  the  fact.  He  suspected  the 
Republicans  of  abolitionist  sympathies  and  tendencies  and  knew 
that  if  this  were  true  he  did  not  belong  in  their  fold.  Even  if  it 
were  not,  it  was  uncertain  if  they  would  gain  sufficient  strength 
to  accomplish  anything.    He  therefore  wrote  this  letter: 

TO  I.  CODDIXG 

Springfield,  November  27,  1854 
I.  Codding,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir:  Your  note  of  the  13th  requesting  my 
attendance  at  the  Republican  State  Central  Committee, 
on  the  17th  instant  at  Chicago,  was,  owing  to  my  absence 
from  home,  received  on  the  evening  of  that  day  (17th) 
only.  While  I  have  pen  in  hand  allow  me  to  say  I  have 
been  perplexed  some  to  understand  why  my  name  was 
placed  on  that  committee.  I  was  not  consulted  on  the 
subject,  nor  was  I  apprised  of  the  appointment  until  I 
discovered  it  by  accident  two  or  three  weeks  afterward. 
I  suppose  my  opposition  tor  the  principle  of  slavery  is  as 
strong  as  that  of  any  member  of  the  Republican  party; 
but  I  have  also  supposed  that  the  extent  to  which  I  feel 
authorized  to  carry  that  opposition,  practically,  was  not 
at  all  satisfactory  to  that  party.  The  leading  men  who 
organized  that  party  were  present  on  the  4th  of  October 
at  the  discussion  between  Douglas  and  myself  at  Spring- 
field, and  had  full  opportunity  to  not  misunderstand  my 
position.  Do  I  misunderstand  them?  Please  write  and 
inform  me. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

In  the  meantime  he  was  reaching  a  more  fixed  opinion  in 
respect  to  the  significance  of  the  slavery  question.  Soon  after 
the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act  he  and  Judge  T.  Lyle 
Dickey  were  on  circuit  together,  sharing  the  same  room.  After 
an  evening  spent  in  discussing  the  question  with  others  they 
went   to   their   room   and   after  undressing  continued   to  argue 


132  SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX 

for  some  time.  When  Judge  Dickey  woke  up,  early  the  next 
morning,  Lincoln  was  sitting  up  in  bed  and  said,  "Dickey,  I  tell 
you  this  nation  cannot  exist  half  slave  and  half  free."  He 
considered  the  idea  further  and  in  the  following  letter  it  is 
again  expressed.  George  Robertson,  to  whom  it  is  addressed, 
was  a  professor  of  law  in  Transylvania  University  who  had 
been  a  member  of  Congress  and  Chief  Justice  of  Kentucky. 


TO  GEORGE  ROBERTSON 

Springfield,  111.,  August  15,  1855 
Hon.  George  Robertson,  Lexington,  Kentucky. 

My  dear  Sir:  The  volume  you  left  for  me  has  been 
received.  I  am  really  grateful  for  the  honor  of  your 
kind  remembrance,  as  well  as  for  the  book.  The  partial 
reading  I  have  already  given  it  has  afforded  me  much 
of  both  pleasure  and  instruction.  It  was  new  to  me  that 
the  exact  question  which  led  to  the  Missouri  Compromise 
had  arisen  before  it  arose  in  regard  to  Missouri,  and  that 
you  had  taken  so  prominent,  a  part  in  it.  Your  short 
but  able  and  patriotic  speech  upon  that  occasion  has  not 
been  improved  upon  since  by  those  holding  the  same 
views,  and  with  all  the  lights  you  then  had,  the  views 
you  took  appear  to  me  as  very  reasonable. 

You  are  not  a  friend  of  slavery  in  the  abstract.  In 
that  speech  you  spoke  of  "the  peaceful  extinction  of 
slavery"  and  used  other  expressions  indicating  your 
belief  that  the  thing  was,  at  some  time,  to  have  an  end. 
Since  then  we  have  had  thirty-six  years  of  experience; 
and  this  experience  has  demonstrated,  I  think,  that  there 
is  no  peaceful  extinction  of  slavery  in  prospect  for  us. 
The  signal  failure  of  Henry  Clay  and  other  good  and 
great  men,  in  184-9,  to  effect  anything  in  favor  of  gradual 
emancipation  in  Kentucky,  together  with  a  thousand 
other  signs,  extinguished  that  hope  utterly.  On  the 
question  of  liberty,  as  a  principle,  we  are  not  what  we 
have  been.  When  we  were  the  political  slaves  of  King 
George,  and  wanted  to  be  free,  we  called  the  maxim  that 


*     SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOEX  133 

"all  men  are  created  equal"  a  self-evident  truth,  but  now 
when  we  have  grown  fat,  and  have  lost  all  dread  of 
being  slaves  ourselves,  we  have  become  so  greedy  to  be 
masters  that  we  call  the  same  maxim  "a  self-evident  lie." 
The  Fourth  of  July  has  not  quite  dwindled  away  ;  it  is 
still  a  great  day — for  burning  fire-crackers  ! 

That  spirit  whicli  desired  the  peaceful  extinction  of 
slavery  has  itself  become  extinct  with  the  occasion  and 
the  men  of  the  Revolution.  Under  the  impulse  of  that 
occasion^  nearly  half  the  states  adopted  systems  of 
emancipation  at  once,  and  it  is  a  significant  fact  that 
not  a  single  state  has  done  the  like  since.  So  far  as 
peaceful,  voluntary  emancipation  is  concerned,  the  con- 
dition of  the  negro  slave  in  America,  scarcely  less  terrible 
to  the  contemplation  of  a  free  mind,  is  now  as  fixed  and 
hopeless  of  change  for  the  better  as  that  of  the  lost  souls 
of  the  finally  impenitent.  The  Autocrat  of  all  the 
Russias  will  resign  his  crown  and  proclaim  his  subjects 
free  Republicans,-  sooner  than  will  our  American 
masters  voluntarily  give  up  their  slaves. 

Our  political  problem  now  is,  "Can  we  as  a  nation 
continue  together  permanently — forever — half  slave,  and 
half  free?"  The  problem  is  too  mighty  for  me — may 
God  in  his  mercy  superintend  the  solution. 

Your  much  obliged  friend,  and  humble  servant, 

A.  Lincoln 

Lincoln's  moderation  at  this  time,  as  seen  in  his  frank 
expression  of  belief  in  the  necessity  of  protecting  slave  prop- 
erty where  it  existed,  made  him  very  unpopular  with  the 
Abolitionists  who  called  him,  "The  Slave  Hound  of  Illinois." 
On  the  other  hand  the  Illinois  WTiigs  were  afraid  of  his  agita- 
tion against  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act.  His  friend,  Joshua 
Speed,  wrote  him,  asking  where  he  stood,  and  received  this 
reply : 

*  The  Czar  of  Russia  proclaimed  the  emancipation  of  the  serfs 
the  day  before  Lincoln  was  inaugurated  President  of  the  United 
States. 


134  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

TO  JOSHUA  F.  SPEED 

Springfield,  August  24,  1855 
Dear  Speed:  You  know  what  a  poor  correspondent 
I  am.  Ever  since  I  received  your  very  agreeable  letter 
of  the  22d  of  May  I  have  been  intending  to  write  you 
an  answer  to  it.  You  suggest  that  in  political  action 
now,  you  and  I  would  differ.  I  suppose  we  would;  not 
quite  as  much,  however,  as  you  may  think.  You  know 
I  dislike  slavery,  and  you  fully  admit  the  abstract  wrong 
of  it.  So  far  there  is  no  cause  of  difference.  But  you 
say  that  sooner  than  yield  your  legal  right  to  the  slave, 
especially  at  the  bidding  of  those  who  are  not  themselves 
interested,  you  would  see  the  Union  dissolved.  I  am 
not  aware  that  anyone  is  bidding  you  yield  that  right; 
very  certainly  I  am  not.  I  leave  that  matter  entirely 
to  yourself.  I  also  acknowledge  your  rights  and  my  obli- 
gations under  the  Constitution  in  regard  to  your  slaves. 
I  confess  I  hate  to  see  the  poor  creatures  hunted  down 
and  caught  and  carried  back  to  their  stripes  and  un- 
requited toil;  but  I  bite  my  lips  and  keep  quiet.  In 
1841,  you  and  I  had  together  a  tedious  low-water  trip 
on  a  steamboat,  from  Louisville  to  St.  Louis.  You  may 
remember,  as  I  well  do,  that  from  Louisville  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio,  there  were  on  board  ten  or  a  dozen 
slaves  shackled  together  with  irons.  That  sight  was  a 
continued  torment  to  me,  and  I  see  something  like  it 
every  time  I  touch  the  Ohio  or  any  other  slave  border. 
It  is  not  fair  for  you  to  assume  that  I  have  no  interest 
in  a  thing  which  has,  and  continually  exercises,  the 
power  of  making  me  miserable.  You  ought  rather  to 
appreciate  how  much  the  great  body  of  the  Northern 
people  do  crucify  their  feelings  in  order  to  maintain 
their  loyalty  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  I  do 
oppose  the  extension  of  slavery,  because  my  judgment 
and  feeling  so  prompt  me,  and  I  am  under  no  obligations 
to  the  contrary.  If  for  this  you  and  I  must  differ,  differ 
we  must.      You  say   if  you   were   President,  you   would 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  135 

send  an  army  and  hang  the  leaders  of  the  Missouri 
outrages  upon  the  Kansas  elections;  still,  if  Kansas 
fairly  votes  herself  a  slave  state  she  must  be  admitted, 
or  the  Union  must  be  dissolved.  But  how  if  she  votes 
herself  a  slave  state  unfairly;  that  is,  by  the  very  means 
for  which  you  say  you  would  hang  men?  Must  she  still 
be  admitted,  or  the  Union  dissolved?  That  will  be  the 
phase  of  the  question  when  it  first  becomes  a  practical 
one.  In  your  assumption  that  there  may  be  a  fair  de- 
cision of  the  slavery  question  in  Kansas,  I  plainly  see 
you  and  I  would  differ  about  the  Nebraska  law.  I  look 
upon  that  enactment,  not  as  a  law,  but  as  a  violence  from 
the  beginning.  It  was  conceived  in  violence,  is  main- 
tained in  violence,  and  is  being  executed  in  violence.  I 
say  it  was  conceived  in  violence,  because  the  destruction 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  under  the  circumstances, 
was  nothing  less  than  violence.  It  was  passed  in  violence, 
because  it  could  not  have  passed  at  all  but  for  the  votes 
of  many  members  in  violence  of  the  known  will  of  their 
constituents.  It  is  maintained  in  violence,  because  the 
elections  since  clearly  demand  its  repeal,  and  the  demand 
is  openly  disregarded. 

You  say  men  ought  to  be  hung  for  the  way  they  are 
executing  the  law;  I  say  that  the  way  it  is  being  executed 
is  quite  as  good  as  any  of  its  antecedents.  It  is  being 
executed  in  the  precise  way  which  was  intended  from  the 
first,  else  why  does  no  Nebraska  man  express  astonish- 
ment or  condemnation?  Poor  Reeder  *  is  the  only  public 
man  who  has  been  silly  enough  to  believe  that  anything 
like  fairness  was  ever  intended,  and  he  has  been  bravely 
undeceived. 

That  Kansas  will  form  a  slave  constitution,  and  with 
it  will  ask  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union,  I  take  to  be 

•  Andrew  H.  Reeder  was  the  first  territorial  governor  of 
Kansas,  by  the  appointment  of  President  Pierce.  He  opposed 
the  course  of  the  Administration  in  respect  to  Kansas  affairs 
and  resigned,  becoming  a  member  of  the  free-state  party  in 
Kansas. 


136  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

already  a  settled  question,  and  so  settled  b\'^  the  very 
means  you  so  pointedly  condemn.  By  every  principle 
of  law  ever  held  by  any  court  North  or  South,  every 
negro  taken  to  Kansas  is  free ;  yet  in  utter  disregard  of 
this — in  the  spirit  of  violence  merely — that  beautiful 
Legislature  gravely  passes  a  law  to  hang  any  man  who 
shall  venture  to  inform  a  negro  of  his  legal  rights. 
This  is  the  subject  and  real  object  of  the  law.  If,  like 
Haman,  they  should  hang  upon  the  gallows  of  their 
own  building,  I  shall  not  be  among  the  mourners  for  their 
fate.  In  my  humble  sphere,  I  shall  advocate  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Missouri  Compromise  so  long  as  Kansas 
remains  a  territory,  and  when,  by  all  these  foul  means, 
it  seeks  to  come  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state,  I  shall 
oppose  it.  I  am  very  loath  in  any  case  to  withhold  my 
assent  to  the  enjoyment  of  property  acquired  or  located 
in  good  faith ;  but  I  do  not  admit  that  good  faith  in 
taking  a  negro  to  Kansas  to  be  held  in  slavery  is  a 
probability  with  any  man.  Any  man  who  has  sense 
enough  to  be  the  controller  of  his  own  property  has  too 
much  sense  to  misunderstand  the  outrageous  character 
of  the  whole  Nebraska  business.  But  I  digress.  In  my 
opposition  to  the  admission  of  Kansas,  I  shall  have  some 
company,  but  we  may  be  beaten.  If  we  are,  I  shall  not, 
on  that  account,  attempt  to  dissolve  the  Union.  I  think 
it  probable,  however,  we  shall  be  beaten.  Standing  as 
a  unit  among  yourselves,  you  can,  directly  and  indirectly, 
bribe  enough  of  our  men  to  carry  the  day,  as  you  could 
on  the  open  proposition  to  establish  a  monarchy.  Get 
hold  of  some  man  in  the  North  whose  position  and  ability 
are  such  that  he  can  make  the  support  of  your  measure, 
whatever  it  may  be,  a  Democratic-party  necessity,  and 
the  thing  is  done.  Apropos  of  this,  let  me  tell  you  an 
anecdote.  Douglas  introduced  the  Nebraska  bill  in 
January.  In  February  afterward,  there  was  a  called 
session  of  the  Illinois  legislature.  Of  the  one  hundred 
members  composing  the  two  branches  of  that  body,  about 


SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN  137 

seventy  were  Democrats.  These  latter  held  a  caucus, 
in  which  the  Nebraska  bill  was  talked  of,  if  not  formally 
discussed.  It  was  thereby  discovered  that  just  three, 
and  no  more,  were  in  favor  of  the  measure.  In  a  day 
ot"  two  Douglas's  orders  came  on  to  have  resolutions 
passed  approving  the  bill;  and  they  were  passed  by  large 
majorities  !  !  !  The  truth  of  this  is  vouched  for  by  a 
bolting  Democratic  member.  The  masses,  too,  Demo- 
cratic as  well  as  Whig,  were  even  nearer  unanimous 
against  it;  but  as  soon  as  the  party  necessity  of  support- 
ing it  became  apparent,  the  way  the  Democrats  began 
to  see  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  it  was  perfectly 
astonishing. 

You  say  that  if  Kansas  fairly  votes  herself  a  free 
state,  as  a  Christian  you  will  rejoice  at  it.  All  decent 
slaveholders  talk  that  way,  and  I  do  not  doubt  their 
candor.  But  they  never  vote  that  way.  Although  in  a 
private  letter  or  conversation  you  will  express  your 
preference  that  Kansas  should  be  free,  you  would  vote 
for  no  man  for  Congress  who  would  say  the  same  thing 
publicly.  No  such  man  could  be  elected  from  any  dis- 
trict in  a  slave  state.  You  think  Stringfellow*  and  com- 
pany ought  to  be  hung;  and  yet  at  the  next  presidential 
election  you  will  vote  for  the  exact  type  and  representa- 
tive of  Stringfellow.  The  slave  breeders  and  slave 
traders  are  a  small,  odious,  and  detested  class  among 
you;  and  yet  in  politics  they  dictate  the  course  of  all 
of  you,  and  are  as  completely  your  masters  as  you  are 
the  master  of  your  own  negroes.  You  inquire  where  I 
now  stand.  That  is  a  disputed  point.  I  think  I  am  a 
Whig;  but  others  say  there  are  no  Whigs,  and  that  I  am 
an  Abolitionist.  When  I  was  at  Washington,  I  voted  for 
the  Wilmot  Proviso  as  good  as  forty  times;  and  I  never 
heard  of  anvone  attempting  to  un-Whig  me  for  that. 
I  now  do  no  more  than  oppose  the  extension  of  slavery. 

*  B.  F.  stringfellow,  of  Missouri,  an  active  pro-slavery  par- 
tisan in  Kansas. 


138  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

I  am  not  a  Know-Nothing  ;*  that  is  certain.  How  could 
I  be?  How  can  anyone  who  abhors  the  oppression  of 
negroes  be  in  favor  of  degrading  classes  of  white  people? 
Our  progress  in  degeneracy  appears  to  me  to  be  pretty 
rapid.  As  a  nation,  we  began  by  declaring  that  "all  men 
are  created  equal."  We  now  practically  read  it,  "all 
men  are  created  equal  except  negroes."  When  the  Know- 
Xothings  get  control,  it  will  read,  "all  men  are  created 
equal  except  negroes  and  foreigners  and  Catholics." 
When  it  comes  to  this,  I  shall  prefer  emigrating  to  some 
country  where  they  make  no  pretense  of  loving  liberty — 
to  Russia,  for  instance,  where  despotism  can  be  taken 
pure,  and  without  the  base  alloy  of  hypocrisy. 

Mary  w^ill  probably  pass  a  day  or  two  in  Louisville  in 
October,  My  kindest  regards  to  Mrs,  Speed,  On  the 
leading  subject  of  this  letter  I  have  more  of  her  sym- 
pathy than  I  have  of  yours ;  and  yet  let  me  say  I  am  your 
friend  forever, 

A,  Lincoln' 

When  the  summer  of  1856  came,  Lincoln  was  all  but  con- 
vinced that  he  belonged  in  the  Republican  party.  His  partner, 
William  H.  Herndon,  had  already  joined,  and  had  had  Lincoln 
appointed  a  delegate  to  the  state  convention.  When  the  con- 
vention met,  it  was  found  that,  owing  to  the  variety  of  political 
opinions  of  the  members,  it  was  apparently  impossible  to  unite 
on  a  statement  of  principles.  Lincoln  suggested,  "Let  us  in 
building  our  new  party,  make  our  corner  stone  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  Let  us  build  on  this  rock,  and  the  gates  of 
hell  shall  not  prevail  against  us."  The  suggestion  was  approved 
and  adopted  in  a  resolution  which  embodies  Lincoln's  view  of 
the  slavery  situation. 

"Re'Solved,  That  we  hold,  in  accordance  with  the  opinions  and 
practices  of  all  the  great  statesmen  of  all  parties  for  the  first 
sixty  years  of  the  administration  of  the  government,  that  under 
the    Constitution,   Congress   possesses    full    power   to    prohibit 

*  A  secret  political  party  based  upon  opposition  to  the  partici- 
pation of  those  of  foreign  birth  in  the  affairs  of  government 
It  was  also  generally  hostile  to  Catholics. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  139 

slavery  in  the  territories;  and  that,  while  we  will  maintain  all 
constitutional  rights  of  the  South,  we  also  hold  that  justice, 
humanity,  the  principles  of  freedom,  as  expressed  in  our  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  and  our  national  Constitution,  and  the 
purity  and  perpetuity  of  our  government  require  that  that 
power  should  be  exerted  to  prevent  the  extension  of  slavery 
into  territories  heretofore  free." 

At  the  time  of  the  meeting  of  the  convention  the  country  was 
in  a  fury  of  excitement  over  the  situation  in  Kansas  and  the 
Brooks  assault  upon  Sumner.  Some  of  Lincoln's  more  con- 
servative friends  had  tried  to  keep  him  away  from  the  con- 
vention, but  he  and  the  Whig  party  had  come  to  the  parting  of 
the  ways,  and  in  the  convention  he  publicly  gave  his  adherence  to 
the  new  party  in  a  speech  which,  made  to  an  audience  composed 
of  men  who  differed  on  almost  every  public  question  except 
tlie  extension  of  slavery,  was  one  of  the  most  fiery  in  his  career. 

This  is  known  as  the  "Lost  Speech,"  because  all  the  reporters 
except  one  forgot  to  take  any  notes  of  it.  From  the  notes  of 
that  one,  written  up  many  years  later,  we  get  a  clear  idea  of 
its  character  and  power.  It  has  more  fire  and  passion  than  any 
other  of  his  addresses  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  record 
is  not  wholly  accurate.  In  it  appears  the  second  great  point 
made  in  his  speeches  of  this  period,  namely,  that  the  progress 
of  the  world  and  of  democracy  demanded  the  preservation  of 
the  L^nion,  and  while  the  North  would  not  fight  on  the  slavery 
issue,  it  would  for  the  fnion.  The  close  of  the  speech  is 
notable  for  that  and  for  its  intense  excitement: 

"The  conclusion  of  all  is,  that  we  must  restore  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  AVe  must  resolve  that  Kansas  shall  be  free.  We 
must  reinstate  the  birthday  promise  of  the  Republic ;  we  must 
affirm  the  Declaration  of  Independence;  we  must  make  good  in 
essence  as  well  as  in  form  Madison's  avowal  that  'the  word 
slai'e  ought  not  to  appear  in  the  Constitution';  and  we  must 
even  go  further,  and  decree  that  only  local  law,  and  not  that 
time-honored  instrument,  shall  shelter  a  slave-holder.  We  must 
make  this  a  land  of  liberty  in  fact,  as  it  is  in  name.  But  in 
seeking  to  attain  these  results — so  indispensable  if  the  liberty 
which  is  our  pride  and  boast  shall  endure — we  will  be  loyal  to 
the  Constitution  and  to  the  'flag  of  our  Union,'  and  no  matter 
what  our  grievance — even   though    Kansas   shall  come  in   as    a 


140  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

slave  state — ^and  no  matter  what  theirs — even  if  we  shall  restore 
the  Compromise — we  will  say  to  the  Southern  disiinioniiits,  ir< 
won't  go  out  of  the  Union,  and  you  shan't!  !  ! 

"But  let  us,  meanwhile,  appeal  to  the  sense  and  patriotism 
of  the  people,  and  not  to  their  prejudices;  let  us  spread  the 
floods  of  enthusiasm  here  aroused  all  over  these  vast  prairies 
so  suggestive  of  freedom.  .  .  .  There  is  both  a  power  and  a 
magic  in  popular  opinion.  To  that  let  us  now  appeal;  and 
while,  in  all  probability,  no  resort  to  force  will  be  needed,  our 
moderation  and  forbearance  will  stand  us  in  good  stead  when, 
if  ever,  we  must  make  an  appeal  to  battle  and  to  the  God  of 
hosts!   !" 

When  the  first  National  Republican  Convention  met,  Lin- 
coln received  one  hundred  and  ten  votes  for  Vice  President, 
but,  fortunately  for  his  future,  was  not  nominated.  In  the  cam- 
paign he  headed  the  Republican  electoral  ticket  and  took  a 
very  active  part  in  the  canvass,  making  more  than  fifty  speeches 
in  Illinois  and  the  adjoining  states.  He  was  convinced  that, 
while  the  people  in  the  country  could  be  brought  to  see  the 
evils  and  dangers  of  slavery  extension,  they  were  still  con- 
servative and  would  not  give  their  confidence  and  support  to  a 
party  tainted  with  abolition  or  radicalism.  His  speeches, 
therefore,  were  cool  and  restrained  throughout  the  campaign. 
This  was  not  mere  self-restraint  for  a  political  end.  It  well 
represented  his  own  view  of  the  matter. 

There  were  three  parties  in  the  field,  the  Democrats  having 
nominated  James  Buchanan,  the  Republicans,  John  C.  Fremont, 
and  the  remnant  of  the  Whigs  and  Know-Xothings,  ex-Presi- 
dent Millard  Fillmore.  As  an  old  Whig,  Lincoln's  influence 
with  the  doubtful  Whigs  was  considerable.  He  was  actively 
engaged  in  correspondence  with  many  of  these  during  the  cam- 
paign, the  letter  which  follows  being  typical: 

TO  J.  A.  BRITTEN  HAM 

[Confidential] 

Springfield,  September  17,  1856 
J.  A.  Brittenham,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir:  I  understand  you  are  a  Fillmore  man. 
Let  us  prove  to  you  that  every  vote  withheld  from  Fre- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  141 

moiit,  and  given  to  Fillmore,  in  this  state,  actually  lessens 
Fillmore's  chance  of  being  President. 

Suppose  Buchanan  gets  all  the  slave  states,  and  Penn- 
sylvania, and  any  other  one  state  besides;  then  he  is 
elected,  no  matter  who  gets  all  the  rest. 

But  suppose  Fillmore  gets  the  two  slave  states  of 
Maryland  and  Kentucky;  then  Buchanan  is  not  elected. 
Fillmore  goes  into  the  House  of  Representatives,*  and 
may  be  made  President  by  a  compromise. 

But  suppose  again  Fillmore's  friends  throw  away  a 
few  thousand  votes  on  him,  in  Indiana  and  Illinois;  it 
will  inevitably  give  these  states  to  Buchanan,  which  will 
more  than  compensate  him  for  the  loss  of  Maryland  and 
Kentucky,  will  elect  him,  and  leave  Fillmore  no  chance 
in  the  H.  R.  or  out  of  it. 

This  is  as  plain  as  the  adding  up  of  the  weights  of 
three  small  hogs.  As  Mr.  Fillmore  has  no  possible 
chance  to  carry  Illinois  for  himself,  it  is  plainly  his 
interest  to  let  Fremont  take  it,  and  then  keep  it  out  of 
the  hands  of  Buchanan.  Be  not  deceived.  Buchanan 
is  the  hard  horse  to  beat  in  this  race.  Let  him  have 
Illinois,  and  nothing  can  beat  him;  and  he  ivill  get 
Illinois,  if  men  persist  in  throwing  away  votes  upon  Mr. 
Fillmore.  Does  some  one  persuade  you  that  Mr.  Fill- 
more can  carry  Illinois  ?  Nonsense !  There  are  over 
seventy  newspapers  in  Illinois  opposing  Buchanan,  only 
three  or  four  of  which  support  Mr.  Fillmore,  see  the 
rest  going  for  Fremont.  Are  not  these  newspapers  a 
fair  index  of  the  proportion  of  the  voters?  If  not,  tell 
me  why.  Again,  if  these  three  or  four  Fillmore  news- 
papers, two  at  least,  are  supported,  in  part,  by  the 
Buchanan  men,  as  I  understand,  do  not  they  know  where 
the  shoe  pinches?     They  know  the  Fillmore  movement 

*  If  no  candidate  for  President  receives  a  majority  of  the 
electoral  vote,  the  election  is  thrown  into  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, where  each  state  casts  one  vote  and  a  majority  of 
all  the  states  is  necessary  to   an  election. 


142  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

helps  them,  and  therefore  they  help  it.     Do  think  the'^^e 

things  over,  and  then  act   according  to  your  judgment 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

Buchanan's  election  neither  surprised  nor  discouraged  Lin- 
coln. He  was  fully  accustomed  to  defeat.  He  devoted  him- 
self to  holding  in  line  those  who  were  wavering.  Immediately 
after  the  inauguration  he  was  given  a  new  line  of  argument. 
The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  its  decision  in  the 
Dred  Scott  case,  declared  that  a  negro,  descended  from  slave 
parents,  could  not  be  a  citizen  of  the  L^nited  States,  and  that 
neither  Congress  nor  a  territorial  government  could  prohibit 
slavery  in  a  territory,  and  that  therefore  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise was  null  and  void.  The  eflFect  of  the  decision  in  the 
North  was  to  produce  a  violent  uproar,  filled  with  denunciation 
of  the  Court.  Douglas,  on  the  invitation  of  the  United  States 
grand  jury,  came  to  Springfield  on  June  1-2,  and  spoke  in 
defense  of  the  decision,  which  he  indorsed,  declaring,  however, 
that  a  territory  was  still  able,  by  refraining  from  legislation 
friendly  to  slavery,  to  prevent  its  entrance.  This  was  the  first 
statement  of  what  was  later  called  the  "Freeport  Doctrine." 
He  continued,  "Their  judicial  decisions  will  stand  in  all  future 
time,  a  proud  monument  to  their  greatness,  the  admiration  of 
the  good  and  wise,  and  a  rebuke  to  the  partisans  of  faction  and 
lawless  violence.  If  unfortunately  any  considerable  portion  of 
the  people  of  the  L'nited  States  shall  so  far  forget  their  obli- 
gations to  society  as  to  allow  the  partisan  leaders  to  array  them 
in  violent  resistance  to  the  final  decision  of  the  highest  tribunal 
on  earth,  it  will  become  the  duty  of  all  the  friends  of  order 
and  constitutional  government,  without  reference  to  past 
political  differences,  to  organize  themselves  and  marshal  their 
forces  under  the  glorious  banner  of  the  Union,  in  vindication 
of  the  Constitution  and  supremacy  of  the  laws  over  the  advo- 
cates of  faction  and  the  champions  of  violence." 

Two  weeks  later  Lincoln  answered  him  in  an  address  to  the 
people  of  Springfield,  notable  for  its  discussion  of  the  decision. 
It  is  one  of  the  cleverest  of  Lincoln's  stump  speeches,  abound- 
ing in  wit  and  satire.  In  spite  of  its  seriousness  it  is  full  of 
good-natured  ridicule,  notably  in  that  part  in  which  he  discusses 
Douglas's   interpretation   of  the  Declaration   of   Independence. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  143 

SPEECH    IN    REPLY    TO    SENATOR    DOUGLAS,    AT 
SPRINGFIELD,  ILL.,  JUNE  26,  1857 

Fellow-Citizexs:  I  am  here  tonight,  partly  by  the 
invitation  of  some  of  you,  and  partly  by  my  own  incli- 
nation. Two  weeks  ago  Judge  Douglas  spoke  here  on 
the  several  subjects  of  Kansas,  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
and  Utah.  I  listened  to  the  speech  at  the  time,  and 
have  the  report  of  it  since.  It  was  intended  to  controvert 
opinions  which  I  think  just,  and  to  assail  (politically, 
not  personally)  those  men  who,  in  common  with  me, 
entertain  those  opinions.  For  this  reason  I  wished 
then,  and  still  wish,  to  make  some  answer  to  it,  which 
I  now  take  the  opportunity  of  doing. 

I  begin  with  Utah.  If  it  prove  to  be  true,  as  is  prob- 
able, that  the  people  of  Utah  are  in  open  rebellion* 
against  the  United  States,  then  Judge  Douglas  is  in 
favor  of  repealing  their  territorial  organization,  and  at- 
taching them  to  the  adjoining  states  for  judicial  pur- 
poses. I  say,  too,  if  they  are  in  rebellion,  they  ought 
to  be  somehow  coerced  to  obedience ;  and  I  am  not  now 
prepared  to  admit  or  deny  that  the  Judge's  mode  of 
coercing  them  is  not  as  good  as  any.  The  Republicans 
can  fall  in  with  it  without  taking  back  anything  they 
have  ever  said.  To  be  sure,  it  would  be  a  considerable 
backing  down  by  Judge  Douglas  from  his  much-vaunted 
doctrine  of  self-government  for  the  territories ;  but  this 
is  only  additional  proof  of  what  was  very  plain  from 
the  beginning,  that  that  doctrine  was  a  mere  deceitful 
pretense  for  the  benefit  of  slavery.  Those  who  could 
not  see  that  much  in  the  Nebraska  act  itself,  which 
forced  governors  and  secretaries  and  judges  on  the 
people  of  the  territories  without  their  choice  or  con- 
sent, could  not  be  made  to  see,  though  one  should  rise 
from  the  dead. 

*  In  1857  a  rebellion  occurred  in  Utah,  brought  on  by  the 
removal  of  Brigham  Young  from  the  office  of  territorial  gov- 
ernor.    The  regular  army  soon  suppressed  it  without  bloodshed. 


144  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

But  in  all  this,  it  is  very  plain  the  Judge  evades  the 
only  question  the  Republicans  have  ever  pressed  upon 
the  Democracy  in  regard  to  Utah.  That  question  the 
Judge  well  knew  to  be  this:  "If  the  people  of  Utah 
shall  peacefully  form  a  state  constitution  tolerating 
polygamy,  will  the  Democracy  admit  them  into  the 
Union?"  There  is  nothing  in  the  United  States  Consti- 
tution or  law  against  polygamy ;  and  why  is  it  not  a 
part  of  the  Judge's  "sacred  right  of  self-government" 
for  the  people  to  have  it,  or  rather  to  keep  it,  if  they 
choose?  These  questions,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  Judge 
never  answers.  It  might  involve  the  Democracy  to 
answer  them  either  way,  and  they  go  unanswered. 

KANSAS 

As  to  Kansas.  The  substance  of  the  Judge's  speech 
on  Kansas  is  an  effort  to  put  the  free-state  men  in  the 
wrong  for  not  voting  at  the  election  of  delegates  to  the 
constitutional  convention.  He  says:  "There  is  every 
reason  to  hope  and  believe  that  the  law  will  be  fairly 
interpreted  and  impartially  executed,  so  as  to  insure  to 
every  bona  fide  inhabitant  the  free  and  quiet  exercise 
of  the  elective  franchise." 

It  appears  extraordinary  that  Judge  Douglas  should 
make  such  a  statement.  He  knows  that,  by  the  law,  no 
one  can  vote  who  has  not  been  registered;  and  he  knows 
that  the  free-state  men  place  their  refusal  to  vote  on 
the  ground  that  but  few  of  them  have  been  registered. 
It  is  possible  that  this  is  not  true,  but  Judge  Douglas 
knows  it  is  asserted  to  be  true  in  letters,  newspapers, 
and  public  speeches,  and  borne  by  every  mail  and  blown 
by  every  breeze  to  the  eyes  and  ears  of  the  world.  He 
knows  it  is  boldly  declared  that  the  people  of  many 
whole  counties,  and  many  whole  neighborhoods  in  others, 
are  left  unregistered ;  yet  he  does  not  venture  to  con- 
tradict the  declaration ;  or  to  point  out  how  they  can 
vote   without  being  registered;   but  he  just  slips   along, 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  145 

not  seeming  to  know  there  is  any  such  question  of  fact, 
and  complacently  declares :  "There  is  every  reason  to 
hope  and  believe  that  the  law  will  be  fairly  and  im- 
partially executed,  so  as  to  insure  to  every  bona  fide 
inhabitant  the  free  and  quiet  exercise  of  the  elective 
franchise." 

I  readily  agree  that  if  all  had  a  chance  to  vote,  they 
ought  to  have  voted.  If,  on  the  contrary,  as  they  allege, 
and  Judge  Douglas  ventures  not  to  particularly  contra- 
dict, few  only  of  the  free-state  men  had  a  chance  to 
vote,  they  were  perfectly  right  in  staying  from  the  polls 
in  a  body. 

By  the  way,  since  the  Judge  spoke,  the  Kansas  elec- 
tion has  come  off.  The  Judge  expressed  his  confidence 
that  all  the  Democrats  in  Kansas  would  do  their  duty — 
including  "free-state  Democrats,"  of  course.  The  re- 
turns received  here  as  yet  are  very  incomplete;  but  so 
far  as  they  go,  they  indicate  that  only  about  one-sixth 
of  the  registered  voters  have  really  voted;  and  this,  too, 
when  not  more,  perhaps,  than  one-half  of  the  rightful 
voters  have  been  registered,  thus  showing  the  thing  to 
have  been  altogether  the  most  exquisite  farce  ever  en- 
acted. I  am  watching  with  considerable  interest  to 
ascertain  what  figure  "the  free-state  Democrats"  cut  in 
the  concern.  Of  course  they  voted — all  Democrats  do 
their  duty — and  of  course  they  did  not  vote  for  slave- 
state  candidates.  "We  soon  shall  know  how  many  dele- 
gates they  elected,  how  many  candidates  they  had 
pledged  to  a  free  state,  and  how  many  votes  were  cast 
for  them. 

Allow  me  to  barely  whisper  my  suspicion  that  there 
were  no  such  things  in  Kansas  as  "free-state  Democrats" 
— that  they  were  altogether  mythical,  good  only  to  figure 
in  newspapers  and  speeches  in  the  free  states.  If  there 
should  prove  to  be  one  real  living  free-state  Democrat 
in  Kansas,  I  suggest  that  it  might  be  well  to  catch  him, 
and  stuff  and  preserve  his  skin  as  an  interesting  speci- 


146  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

men    of    that    soon-to-be-extinct    variety    of    the    genus 
Democrat. 

THE   DRED   SCOTT   DECISION 

And  now  as  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  That  decision 
declares  two  propositions — first,  that  a  negro  cannot  sue 
in  the  United  States  courts ;  and  secondly,  that  Congress 
cannot  prohibit  slavery  in  the  territories.  It  was  made 
by  a  divided  court — dividing  differently  on  the  different 
points.  Judge  Douglas  does  not  discuss  the  merits  of 
the  decision,  and  in  that  respect  I  shall  follow  his 
example,  believing  I  could  no  more  improve  on  McLean  * 
and  Curtis  f  than  he  could  on  Taney.  J 

He  denounces  all  who  question  the  correctness  of  that 
decision,  as  offering  violent  resistance  to  it.  But  who 
resists  it.^  Who  has,  in  spite  of  the  decision,  declared 
Dred  Scott  free,  and  resisted  the  authority  of  his  master 
over  him.'' 

Judicial  decisions  have  two  uses — first,  to  absolutely 
determine  the  case  decided;  and  secondly,  to  indicate 
to  the  public  how  other  similar  cases  will  be  decided 
when  they  arise.  For  the  latter  use,  they  are  called 
"precedents"   and   "authorities." 

We  believe  as  much  as  Judge  Douglas  (perhaps  more) 
in  obedience  to,  and  respect  for,  the  judicial  department 
of  government.  We  think  its  decisions  on  constitutional 
questions,  when  fully  settled,  should  control  not  only 
the  particular  cases  decided,  but  the  general  policy  of 
the  country,  subject  to  be  disturbed  only  by  amendments 
to  the  Constitution  as  provided  in  that  instrument  itself. 
More  than  this  would  be  revolution.     But  we  think  the 

•  John  McLean,  of  Ohio,  the  Republican  member  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  who  wrote  a  dissenting  opinion  in  the  Dred  Scott 


t  Benjamin  R.  Curtis,  of  Massachusetts,  a  Whig  member  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  who  wrote  a  most  powerful  dissenting 
opinion   in   the  Dred    Scott  case. 

t  Roger  B.  Taney,  of  Maryland,  Chief  Justice  of  the  United 
States,  who  wrote  the  opinion  of  the  Court  in  the  Dred  Scott  case. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  147 

Dred  Scott  decision  is  erroneous.  We  know  the  court  that 
made  it  has  often  overruled  its  own  decisions,  and  we 
shall  do  what  we  can  to  have  it  overrule  this.  We  offer 
no  resistance  to  it. 

Judicial  decisions  are  of  greater  or  less  authority  as 
precedents  according  to  circumstances.  That  this  should 
be  so  accords  both  with  common  sense  and  the  customary 
understanding  of  the  legal  profession. 

If  this  important  decision  had  been  made  by  the 
unanimous  concurrence  of  the  judges,  and  without  any 
apparent  partisan  bias,  and  in  accordance  with  legal 
public  expectation  and  with  the  steady  practice  of  the 
departments  throughout  our  history,  and  had  been  in  no 
part  based  on  assumed  historical  facts  which  are  not 
really  true;  or,  if  wanting  in  some  of  these,  it  had  been 
before  the  court  more  than  once,  and  had  there  been 
affirmed  and  reaffirmed  through  a  course  of  years,  it  then 
might  be,  perhaps  would  be,  factious,  nay,  even  revo- 
lutionary, not  to  acquiesce  in  it  as  a  precedent. 

But  when,  as  is  true,  we  find  it  wanting  in  all  these 
claims  to  the  public  confidence,  it  is  not  resistance,  it 
is  not  factious,  it  is  not  even  disrespectful,  to  treat  it 
as  not  having  yet  quite  established  a  settled  doctrine 
for  the  country.  But  Judge  Douglas  considers  this  view 
awful.     Hear  him: 

"The  courts  are  the  tribunals  prescribed  by  the  Con- 
stitution and  created  by  the  authority  of  the  people  to 
determine,  expound,  and  enforce  the  law.  Hence,  who- 
ever resists  the  final  decision  of  the  highest  judicial 
tribunal  aims  a  deadly  blow  at  our  whole  republican 
system  of  government — a  blow  which,  if  successful, 
would  place  all  our  rights  and  liberties  at  the  mercy  of 
passion,  anarchy,  and  violence.  I  repeat,  therefore,  that 
if  resistance  to  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  in  a  matter  like  the  points  decided 
in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  clearly  within  their  jurisdiction 


148  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

as  defined  by  the  Constitution,  shall  be  forced  upon  the 
country  as  a  political  issue,  it  will  become  a  distinct  and 
naked  issue  between  the  friends  and  enemies  of  the 
Constitution — the  friends  and  the  enemies  of  the 
supremacy  of  the  laws." 

Why,  this  same  Supreme  Court  once  decided  a  na- 
tional bank  to  be  constitutional;  but  General  Jackson, 
as  President  of  the  United  States,  disregarded  the  de- 
cision, and  vetoed  a  bill  for  a  recharter,  partly  on  con- 
stitutional ground,  declaring  that  each  public  functionary 
must  support  the  Constitution,  "as  he  understands  it." 
But  hear  the  General's  own  words.  Here  they  are,  taken 
from  his  veto  message: 

"It  is  maintained  by  the  advocates  of  the  bank,  that 
its  constitutionality,  in  all  its  features,  ought  to  be  con- 
sidered as  settled  by  precedent,  and  by  the  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court.  To  this  conclusion  I  cannot  assent. 
Mere  precedent  is  a  dangerous  source  of  authority,  and 
should  not  be  regarded  as  deciding  questions  of  consti- 
tutional power,  except  where  the  acquiescence  of  the 
people  and  the  states  can  be  considered  as  well  settled. 
So  far  from  this  being  the  case  on  this  subject,  an  argu- 
ment against  the  bank  might  be  based  on  precedent. 
One  Congress,  in  1791,  decided  in  favor  of  a  bank; 
another,  in  1811,  decided  against  it.  One  Congress,  in 
1815,  decided  against  a  bank;  another,  in  1816,  decided 
in  its  favor.  Prior  to  the  present  Congress,  therefore, 
the  precedents  drawn  from  that  source  were  equal.  If 
we  resort  to  the  states,  the  expressions  of  legislative, 
judicial,  and  executive  opinions  against  the  bank  have 
been  probably  to  those  in  its  favor  as  four  to  one.  There 
is  nothing  in  precedent,  therefore,  which,  if  its  authority 
were  admitted,  ouglit  to  weigh  in  favor  of  the  act  before 
me." 

I  drop  the  quotations  merely  to  remark  that  all  there 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  149 

ever  was  in  the  way  of  precedent  up  to  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  on  the  points  therein  decided,  had  been  against 
that  decision.     But  hear  General  Jackson  further: 

"If  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  covered  the 
whole  ground  of  this  act,  it  ought  not  to  control  the 
coordinate  authorities  of  this  government.  The  Con- 
gress, the  Executive,  and  the  court  must,  each  for  itself, 
be  guided  by  its  own  opinion  of  the  Constitution.  Each 
public  officer  who  takes  an  oath  to  support  the  Consti- 
tution swears  that  he  will  support  it  as  he  understands 
it,  and  not  as  it  is  understood  by  others." 

Again  and  again  have  I  heard  Judge  Douglas  de- 
nounce that  bank  decision  and  applaud  General  Jackson 
for  disregarding  it.  It  would  be  interesting  for  him  to 
look  over  his  recent  speech,  and  see  how  exactly  his 
fierce  philippics  against  us  for  resisting  Supreme  Court 
decisions  fall  upon  his  own  head.  It  will  call  to  mind 
a  long  and  fierce  political  war  in  this  country,  upon  an 
issue  which,  in  his  own  language,  and,  of  course,  in  his 
own  changeless  estimation,  was  "a  distinct  issue  between 
the  friends  and  the  enemies  of  the  Constitution,"  and  in 
which  war  he  fought  in  the  ranks  of  die  enemies  of  the 
Constitution. 

I  have  said,  in  substance,  that  the  Dred  Scott  de- 
cision was  in  part  based  on  assumed  historical  facts 
which  were  not  really  true,  and  I  ought  not  to  leave  the 
subject  without  giving  some  reasons  for  saying  this;  I 
therefore  give  an  instance  or  two,  which  I  think  fully 
sustain  me.  Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  delivering  the 
opinion  of  the  majority  of  the  court,  insists  at  great 
length  that  negroes  were  no  part  of  the  people  who 
made,  or  for  whom  was  made,  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, or  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

On  the  contrary.  Judge  Curtis,  in  his  dissenting 
opinion,  shows  that  in  five  of  the  then  thirteen  states — 
to  wit,  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  New  York,  New 


150  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

Jersey,  and  North  Carolina — free  negroes  were  voters, 
and  in  proportion  to  their  numbers  had  the  same  part  in 
making  the  Constitution  that  the  white  people  had.  He 
shows  this  with  so  much  particularity  as  to  leave  no 
doubt  of  its  truth ;  and  as  a  sort  of  conclusion  on  that 
point,  holds  the  following  language : 

"The  Constitution  was  ordained  and  established  by 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  through  the  action,  in 
each  state,  of  those  persons  who  were  qualified  by  its 
laws  to  act  thereon  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  all  other 
citizens  of  the  state.  In  some  of  the  states,  as  we  have 
seen^  colored  persons  were  among  those  qualified  by  law 
to  act  on  the  subject.  These  colored  persons  were  not 
only  included  in  the  body  of  'the  people  of  the  United 
States'  by  whom  the  Constitution  was  ordained  and 
established  ;  but  in  at  least  five  of  the  states  they  had 
the  power  to  act,  and  doubtless  did  act,  by  their  suffrages, 
upon  the  question  of  its  adoption." 

Again,  Chief  Justice  Taney  says: 

"It  is  difficult  at  this  day  to  realize  the  state  of  public 
opinion,  in  relatio^i  to  that  unfortunate  race,  which  pre- 
vailed in  the  civilized  and  enlightened  portions  of  the 
world  at  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  when  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
framed  and  adopted." 

And  again,  after  quoting  from  the  Declaration,  he 
says : 

"The  general  words  above  quoted  would  seem  to  in- 
clude the  whole  human  family,  and  if  they  were  used  in 
a  similar  instrument  at  this  day,  would  be  so  under- 
stood." 

In  these  the  Chief  Justice  does  not  directly  assert,  but 
plainly  assumes,  as  a  fact,  that  the  public  estimate  of 
the  black  man  is  more  favorable  now  than  it  was  in  the 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  151 

days  of  the  Revolution.  This  assumption  is  a  mistake. 
In  some  trifling  particulars  the  condition  of  that  race 
has  been  ameliorated;  but  as  a  whole,  in  this  country, 
the  change  between  then  and  now  is  decidedly  the  other 
way;  and  their  ultimate  destiny  has  never  appeared  so 
hopeless  as  in  the  last  three  or  four  years.  In  two  of 
the  five  states — New  Jersey  and  North  Carolina — that 
then  gave  the  free  negro  the  right  of  voting,  which  right 
has  since  been  taken  away,  and  in  a  third — New  York — 
it  has  been  greatly  abridged;  while  it  has  not  been  ex- 
tended, so  far  as  I  know,  to  a  single  additional  state, 
though  the  number  of  the  states  has  more  than  doubled. 
In  those  days,  as  I  understand,  masters  could,  at  their 
own  pleasure,  emancipate  their  slaves;  but  since  then 
such  legal  restraints  have  been  made  upon  emancipation 
as  to  amount  almost  to  prohibition.  In  those  days  legis- 
latures held  the  unquestioned  power  to  abolish  slavery 
in  their  respective  states,  but  now  it  is  becoming  quite 
fashionable  for  state  constitutions  to  withhold  that  power 
from  the  legislatures.  In  those  days,  by  common  con- 
sent, the  spread  of  the  black  man's  bondage  to  the  new 
countries  was  prohibited,  but  now  Congress  decides  that 
it  will  not  continue  the  prohibition,  and  the  Supreme 
Court  decides  that  it  could  not  if  it  would.  In  those 
days  our  Declaration  of  Independence  was  held  sacred 
by  all,  and  thought  to  include  all;  but  now,  to  aid  in 
making  the  bondage  of  the  negro  universal  and  eternal, 
it  is  assailed  and  sneered  at  and  construed,  and  hawked 
at,  and  torn,  till,  if  its  framers  could  rise  from  their 
graves,  they  could  not  at  all  recognize  it.  All  the  powers 
of  earth  seem  rapidly  combining  against  him.  Mammon 
is  after  him,  ambition  follows,  philosophy  follows,  and 
the  theology  of  the  day  is  fast  joining  the  cry.  They 
have  him  in  his  prison-house;  they  have  searched  his 
person,  and  left  no  prying  instrument  with  him.  One 
after  another  they  have  closed  the  heavy  iron  doors 
upon  him;  and  now  they  have  him,  as  it  were,  bolted  in 


152  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

with  a  lock  of  a  hundred  keys,  which  can  never  be 
unlocked  without  the  concurrence  of  every  key — the  keys 
in  the  hands  of  a  hundred  different  men,  and  they  scat- 
tered to  a  hundred  different  and  distant  places ;  and  they 
stand  musing  as  to  what  invention,  in  all  the  dominions 
of  mind  and  matter,  can  be  produced  to  make  the  im- 
possibility of  his  escape  more  complete  than  it  is. 

It  is  grossly  incorrect  to  say  or  assume  that  the  public 
estimate  of  the  negro  is  more  favorable  now  than  it  was 
at  the  origin  of  the  government. 

Three  years  and  a  half  ago,  Judge  Douglas  brought 
forward  his  famous  Nebraska  bill.  The  country  was  at 
once  in  a  blaze.  He  scorned  all  opposition,  and  carried 
it  through  Congress.  Since  then  he  has  seen  himself 
superseded  in  a  presidential  nomination  by  one  indorsing 
the  general  doctrine  of  his  measure,  but  at  the  same  time 
standing  clear  of  the  odium  of  its  untimely  agitation  and 
its  gross  breach  of  national  faith;  and  he  has  seen  that 
successful  rival  constitutionally  elected,  not  by  the 
strength  of  friends,  but  by  the  division  of  adversaries, 
being  in  a  popular  minority  of  nearly  four  hundred 
thousand  votes.  He  has  seen  his  chief  aids  in  his  own 
state.  Shields*  and  Richardson, f  politically  speaking, 
successively  tried,  convicted,  and  executed  for  an  offense 
not  their  own,  but  his.  And  now  he  sees  his  own  case 
stinding  next  on  the  docket  for  trial. 

There  is  a  natural  disgust  in  the  minds  of  nearly  all 
white  people  at  the  idea  of  an  indiscriminate  amalga- 
mation of  the  white  and  black  races;  and  Judge  Douglas 
evidently  is  basing  his  chief  hope  upon  the  chances  of 

*  James  Shields,  senator  from  Illinois,  1849-1855  ;  senator  from 
Minnesota,  1857-1859.  He  was  later  senator  from  Missouri.  So 
far  as  can  be  discovered  he  is  ihe  only  man  who  has  been  senator 
from  three  states.  He  was  defeated  by  Lyman  Trumbull  be- 
cause of  his  advocacy  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska   Bill. 

t  William  A.  Richardson,  member  of  Congress  from  Illinois, 
1847-1856.  Later  he  succeeded  Doug-las  in  the  Senate.  He  was 
forced  to  resign  from  Congress  because  of  the  unpopularity  of 
his  support  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska   Bill. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX  153 

his  being  able  to  appropriate  the  benefit  of  this  disgust 
to  himself.  If  he  can,  by  much  drumming  and  repeating, 
fasten  the  odium  of  that  idea  upon  his  adversaries,  he 
thinks  he  can  struggle  through  the  storm.  He  therefore 
clings  to  this  hope,  as  a  drowning  man  to  the  last  plank. 
He  makes  an  occasion  for  lugging  it  in  from  the  opposi- 
tion to  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  He  finds  the  Repub- 
licans insisting  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
includes  all  men,  black  as  well  as  white,  and  forthwith 
he  boldly  denies  that  it  includes  negroes  at  all,  and 
proceeds  to  argue  gravely  that  all  who  contend  it  does, 
do  so  only  because  they  want  to  vote,  and  eat,  and  sleep, 
and  marry  with  negroes !  He  will  have  it  that  they 
cannot  be  consistent  else.  Now  I  protest  against  the 
counterfeit  logic  which  concludes  that,  because  I  do  not 
want  a  black  woman  for  a  slave  I  must  necessarily  want 
her  for  a  wife.  I  need  not  have  her  for  either.  I  can 
just  leave  her  alone.  In  some  respects  she  certainly  is 
not  my  equal;  but  in  her  natural  right  to  eat  the  bread 
she  earns  with  her  own  hands  without  asking  leave  of 
anyone  else,  she  is  my  equal,  and  the  equal  of  all  others. 

Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  the  opinion  in  the  Dred  Scott 
case,  admits  that  the  language  of  the  Declaration  is 
broad  enough  to  include  the  whole  human  family,  but  he 
and  Judge  Douglas  argue  that  the  authors  of  that  instru- 
ment did  not  intend  to  include  negroes,  by  the  fact  that 
they  did  not  at  once  actually  place  them  on  an  equality 
with  the  whites.  Now  this  grave  argument  comes  to  just 
nothing  at  all,  by  the  other  fact  that  they  did  not  at 
once,  or  ever  afterward,  actually  place  all  white  people 
on  an  equality  with  one  another.  And  this  is  the  staple 
argument  of  both  the  Chief  Justice  and  the  Senator  for 
doing  this  obvious  violence  to  the  plain,  unmistakable 
language  of  the  Declaration. 

I  think  the  authors  of  that  notable  instrument  intended 
to  include  all  men,  but  they  did  not  intend  to  declare 
all  men   equal  in   all  respects.      They   did   not  mean  to 


154  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

say  all  M-ere  equal  in  color,  size,  intellect,  moral  develop- 
ments, or  social  capacity.  They  defined  with  tolerable 
distinctness  in  what  respects  they  did  consider  all  men 
created  equal — equal  with  "certain  inalienable  rights, 
among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness." This  they  said,  and  this  they  meant.  They  did 
not  mean  to  assert  the  obvious  untruth  that  all  were  then 
actually  enjoying  that  equality,  nor  yet  that  they  were 
about  to  confer  it  immediately  upon  them.  In  fact,  they 
had  no  power  to  confer  such  a  boon.  They  meant  simply 
to  declare  the  right,  so  that  enforcement  of  it  might 
follow  as  fast  as  circumstances  should  permit. 

They  meant  to  set  up  a  standard  maxim  for  free 
society,  which  should  be  familiar  to  all,  and  revered  by 
all;  constantly  looked  to,  constantly  labored  for,  and 
even  though  never  perfectly  attained,  constantly  ap- 
proximated, and  thereby  constantly  spreading  and  deep- 
ening its  influence  and  augmenting  the  happiness  and 
value  of  life  to  all  people  of  all  colors  everywhere.  The 
assertion  that  "All  men  are  created  equal"  was  of  no 
practical  use  in  effecting  our  separation  from  Great 
Britain;  and  it  was  placed  in  the  Declaration  not  for 
that,  but  for  future  use.  Its  authors  meant  it  to  be — 
as,  thank  God,  it  is  now  proving  itself — a  stumbling- 
block  to  all  those  who  in  after  times  might  seek  to  turn 
a  free  people  back  into  the  hateful  paths  of  despotism. 
They  knew  the  proneness  of  prosperity  to  breed  tyrants, 
and  they  meant  when  such  should  reappear  in  this  fair 
land  and  commence  their  vocation,  they  should  find  left 
for  them  at  least  one  hard  nut  to  crack. 

I  have  now  briefly  expressed  my  view  of  the  meaning 
and  object  of  that  part  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence which  declares  that   "all  men   are  created  equal." 

Now  let  us  hear  Judge  Douglas's  view  of  the  same 
subject,  as  I  find  it  in  the  printed  report  of  his  late 
speech.     Here  it  is: 


SELECTIOXS    FROM    LIXCOLX  I55 

"Xo  man  can  vindicate  the  character,  motives,  and 
conduct  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, except  upon  the  hypothesis  that  they  referred  to 
the  white  race  alone,  and  not  to  the  African,  when  they 
declared  all  men  to  have  been  created  equal;  that  they 
were  speaking  of  British  subjects  on  this  continent  being 
equal  to  British  subjects  born  and  residing  in  Great 
Britain;  that  they  were  entitled  to  the  same  inalienable 
rights,  and  among  them  were  enumerated  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  The  Declaration  was 
adopted  for  the  purpose  of  justifying  the  colonists  in 
the  eyes  of  the  civilized  world  in  withdrawing  their 
allegiance  from  the  British  crown,  and  dissolving  their 
connection  with  the  mother  country." 

My  good  friends,  read  that  carefully  over  some  leisure 
hour,  and  ponder  well  upon  it ;  see  what  a  mere  wreck 
— mangled  ruin — it  makes  of  our  once  glorious  Decla- 
ration. 

"They  were  speaking  of  British  subjects  on  this  con- 
tinent being  equal  to  British  subjects  born  and  residing 
in  Great  Britain."  Why,  according  to  this,  not  only 
negroes  but  white  people  outside  of  Great  Britain  and 
America  were  not  spoken  of  in  that  instrument.  The 
English,  Irish,  and  Scotch,  along  with  white  Americans, 
were  included,  to  be  sure,  but  the  French,  Germans,  and 
other  white  people  of  the  world  are  all  gone  to  pot  along 
with  the  Judge's  inferior  races  ! 

I  had  thought  the  Declaration  promised  something 
better  than  the  condition  of  British  subjects;  but  no,  it 
only  meant  that  we  should  be  equal  to  them  in  their  own 
oppressed  and  unequal  condition.  According  to  that,  it 
gave  no  promise  that,  having  kicked  off  the  king  and 
lords  of  Great  Britain,  we  should  not  at  once  be  saddled 
with  a  king  and  lords  of  our  own. 

I  had  thought  the  Declaration  contemplated  the 
progressive    improvement    in    the    condition    of    all    men 


156  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

everywhere;  but  no^  it  merely  "was  adopted  for  the  pur- 
pose of  justifying  the  colonists  in  the  eyes  of  the 
civilized  world  in  withdrawing  their  allegiance  from  the 
British  crown,  and  dissolving  their  connection  with  the 
mother  country."  Why,  that  object  having  been  effected 
some  eighty  years  ago,  the  Declaration  is  of  no  practical 
use  now — mere  rubbish — old  wadding  left  to  rot  on  the 
battlefield  after  the  victory  is  won. 

I  understand  you  are  preparing  to  celebrate  the 
"Fourth"  tomorrow  week.  What  for?  The  doings  of 
that  day  had  no  reference  to  the  present;  and  quite  half 
of  you  are  not  even  descendants  of  those  who  were 
referred  to  at  that  day.  But  I  suppose  you  will  cele- 
brate, and  will  even  go  so  far  as  to  read  the  Declaration. 
Suppose,  after  you  read  it  once  in  the  old-fashioned  way, 
you  read  it  once  more  with  Judge  Douglas's  version.  It 
will  then  run  thus:  "We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self- 
evident,  that  all  British  subjects  who  were  on  this  con- 
tinent eighty-one  years  ago,  were  created  equal  to  all 
British  subjects  born  and  then  residing  in  Great 
Britain." 

And  now  I  appeal  to  all — to  Democrats  as  well  as 
others — are  you  really  willing  that  the  Declaration  shall 
thus  be  frittered  away  } — thus  left  no  more,  at  most,  than 
an  interesting  memorial  of  the  dead  past.'^ — thus  shorn 
of  its  vitality  and  practical  value,  and  left  without  the 
germ  or  even  the  suggestion  of  the  individual  rights  of 
man  in  it.'' 


I  have  said  that  the  separation  of  the  races  is  the 
only  perfect  preventive  of  amalgamation.  I  have  no  right 
to  say  all  the  members  of  the  Republican  party  are  in 
favor  of  this,  nor  to  say  that  as  a  party  they  are  in 
favor  of  it.  There  is  nothing  in  their  platform  directly 
on  the  subject.  But  I  can  say  a  very  large  proportion 
of  its  members  are  for  it,  and  that  the  chief  plank  in  their 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  157 

platform — opposition  to  the  spread  of  slavery — is  most 
favorable  to  that  separation. 

Such  separation,  if  ever  effected  at  all,  must  be  effected 
by  colonization;*  and  no  political  party,  as  such,  is 
now  doing  anything  directly  for  colonization.  Party 
operations  at  present  only  favor  or  retard  colonization 
incidentally.  The  enterprise  is  a  difficult  one;  but  "where 
there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way,"  and  what  colonization 
needs  most  is  a  hearty  will.  Will  springs  from  the  two 
elements  of  moral  sense  and  self-interest.  Let  us  be 
brought  to  believe  it  is  morally  right,  and  at  the  same 
time  favorable  to,  or  at  least  not  against,  our  interest 
to  transfer  the  African  to  his  native  clime,  and  we  shall 
find  a  way  to  do  it,  however  great  the  task  may  be.  The 
children  of  Israel,  to  such  numbers  as  to  include  four 
hundred  thousand  fighting  men,  went  out  of  Egyptian 
bondage  in  a  body. 

How  differently  the  respective  courses  of  the  Demo- 
cratic and  Republican  parties  incidentally  bear  on  the 
question  of  forming  a  will — a  public  sentiment — for 
colonization,  is  easy  to  see.  The  Republicans  inculcate, 
with  whatever  of  ability  they  can,  that  the  negro  is  a 
man,  that  his  bondage  is  cruelly  wrong,  and  that  the  field 
of  his  oppression  ought  not  to  be  enlarged.  The  Demo- 
crats deny  his  manhood;  deny,  or  dwarf  to  insignificance, 
the  wrong  of  his  bondage ;  so  far  as  possible,  crush  all 
sympathy  for  him,  and  cultivate  and  excite  hatred  and 
disgust  against  him;  compliment  themselves  as  Union-' 
savers  for  doing  so;  and  call  the  indefinite  outspreading 
of  his  bondage  "a  sacred  right  of  self-government." 

The  plainest  print  cannot  be  read  through  a  gold  eagle; 

and  it  will  be  ever  hard  to  find  many  men  who  will  send 

a  slave  to  Liberia,  and  pay  his  passage,  while  they  can 

send  him  to  a  new  country — Kansas,  for  instance — and 

sell  him  for  $1500  and  the  rise. 

*  Lincoln's  belief  in  colonization  of  the  negro  as  a  practical 
solution  of  the  question  never  faltered.  It  was  a  major  policy 
of  his  during  the   war  in   connection   with  emancipation. 


158  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

Douglas's  term  in  the  Senate  was  to  expire  in  1859,  and  it 
was  fairly  clear  that  Lincoln  would  be  the  Republican  candi- 
date against  him.  But  early  in  1858,  Douglas  broke  with  the 
Buchanan  administration  on  the  question  of  the  so-called 
Lecompton  Constitution  of  Kansas,  by  which  the  administra- 
tion sought  to  have  the  state  admitted  with  slavery.  Douglas 
did  not  believe  that  the  constitution  had  been  fairly  adopted, 
and  by  his  opposition  he  was  able  to  defeat  its  acceptance  by 
Congress.  Many  Republicans  in  the  East,  notably  Horace 
Greeley,  Samuel  Bowles,  Henry  Wilson,  Schuyler  Colfax,  N.  P. 
Banks,  and  Anson  Burlingame  favored  Republican  support 
of  Douglas  in  his  fight  for  reelection.  This  greatly  discour- 
aged Lincoln  but  without  reason.  For  when  the  Republican 
convention  met  in  Springfield  in  June,  1858,  it  unanimously 
declared  him  its  choice  for  the  Senate. 

On  the  evening  after  his  nomination  Lincoln  appeared  before 
the  convention  with  a  speech  which  had  been  prepared  more 
carefully  than  any  he  had  made  thus  far,  and  which,  contrary 
to  custom,  he  read  from  the  manuscript.  He  had  read  it  to  a 
group  of  party  friends  who  had  severely  criticised  it  as  too 
radical  in  its  fundamental  statement,  contained  in  the  first 
paragraph,  and  too  sectional.  It  was  radical  for  its  time,  but 
it  was  also  clever  politics  to  say  it,  for  the  time  was  ripe.  It 
was  a  clever  speech  also  in  the  way  it  forced  Douglas,  in  the 
contest  which  followed,  to  fight  on  ground  that  he  had  not 
chosen  and  that  he  did  not  like,  to  discuss  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
act,  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and  the  character  of  slavery.  It 
is  probably  the  most  partisan  of  all  his  addresses. 

THE  SPRINGFIELD  SPEECH 

[June  16',  1858] 
Mr.  President,  axd  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  far  into  the  fifth  year  since  a  policy 
was  initiated  with  the  avowed  object  and  confident 
promise  of  ]nitting  an  end  to  slavery  agitation.*  Under 
the  operation  of  that  policy,  that  agitation  has  not  only 

*  The  reference  is  to  the  adoption  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act 
with   popular   sovereignty. 


LINCOLN    AND    HIS    SON    TAD 


SELECTIONS    FROxM    LINCOLN  I59 

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  per- 
manently half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the 
Union  to  be  dissolved — I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall 
— but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will 
become  all  one  thing,  or  all  the  other.  Either  the  oppo- 
nents 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. 

Have  we  no  tendency  to  the  latter  condition.'* 
Let  any  one  who  doubts  carefully  contemplate  that 
now  almost  complete  legal  combination — piece  of  machin- 
ery, so  to  speak — compounded  of  the  Nebraska  doctrine 
and  the  Dred  Scott  decision.!  Let  him  consider  not  only 
what  work  the  machinery  is  adapted  to  do,  and  how 
well  adapted;  but  also  let  him  study  the  history  of  its 
construction,  and  trace,  if  he  can,  or  rather  fail,  if  he 
can,  to  trace  the  evidences  of  design  and  concert  of  action 
among  its  chief  architects,  from  the  beginning. 

The  new  year  of  1854  found  slavery  excluded  from 
more  than  half  the  states  by  state  constitutions,  and 
from  most  of  the  national  territory  by  Congressional 
prohibition. I  Four  days  later  commenced  the  struggle 
which  ended  in  repealing  that  Congressional  prohibi- 
tion.** 

♦Matthew,  xii,   25;  Mark,  iii,   25. 

t  The  Nebraska  doctrine  upheld  the  right  of  the  people  of  a 
territory  to  decide,  when  it  was  admitted  as  a  state,  whether 
it  should  be  free  or  slave.  According  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
neither  Congress  nor  the  people  of  a  territory  could  exclude 
slavery  from  a  territory.  Lincoln  contended  that  this  would 
make  slavery   in  the   state  a  certainty. 

t  There  were  at  this  time  sixteen  free  and  fifteen  slave  states. 
By  the  Missouri  Compromise  slavery  had  been  forbidden  in  most 
of  the  territory  of  the  United  States. 

♦♦  By  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act. 


160  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

This  opened  all  the  national  territory  to  slavery,  and 
was  the  first  point  gained. 

But,  so  far,  Congress  only  had  acted,  and  an  indorse- 
ment by  the  people,  real  or  apparent,  was  indispensable, 
to  save  the  point  already  gained,  and  give  chance  for 
more. 

This  necessity  had  not  been  overlooked,  but  had  been 
provided  for,  as  well  as  might  be,  in  the  notable  argument 
of  "squatter  sovereignty,"  otherwise  called  "sacred  right 
of  self-government,"  which  latter  phrase,  though  expres- 
sive of  the  only  rightful  basis  of  any  government,  was 
so  perverted  in  this  attempted  use  of  it  as  to  amount  to 
just  this:  That  if  any  07ie  man  choose  to  enslave  another, 
no  third  man  shall  be  allowed  to  object.  That  argument 
was  incorporated  into  the  Nebraska  bill  itself,  in  the 
language  which  follows:  "It  being  the  true  intent  and 
meaning  of  this  act  not  to  legislate  slavery  into  any 
territory  or  state,  nor  to  exclude  it  therefrom;  but  to 
leave  the  people  thereof  perfectly  free  to  form  and  regu- 
late their  domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way,  subject 
only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States."  Then 
opened  the  roar  of  loose  declamation  in  favor  of  "squatter 
sovereignty"  and  "sacred  right  of  self-government." 
"But,"  said  opposition  members,  "let  us  amend  the  bill 
so  as  to  expressly  declare  that  the  people  of  the  territory 
may  exclude  slavery."  "Xot  we,"  said  the  friends  of 
the  measure;  and  down  they  voted  the  amendment. 

While  the  Nebraska  bill  was  passing  through  Congress, 
a  law  case  involving  the  question  of  a  negro's  freedom, 
by  reason  of  his  owner  having  voluntarily  taken  him  first 
into  a  free  state  and  then  into  a  territory  covered  by  the 
congressional  prohibition,  and  lield  him  as  a  slave  for  a 
long  time  in  each,  was  passing  through  the  United  States 
Circuit  Court  for  the  District  of  Missouri;  and  both 
Nebraska  bill  and  lawsuit  were  brought  to  a  decision  in 
the  same  montli  of  May,  185L  The  negro's  name  was 
I) red    Scott,    which    name    now    designates    the    decision 


I 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  161 

finally  made  in  the  case.  Before  the  then  next  presi- 
dential election,  the  law  case  came  to  and  was  argued 
in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States;  but  the 
decision  of  it  was  deferred  until  after  the  election.  Still, 
before  the  election.  Senator  Trumbull,  on  the  floor  of  the 
Senate,  requested  the  leading  advocate  of  the  Nebraska 
bill  to  state  his  opinion  whether  the  people  of  a  territory- 
can  constitutionally  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits ; 
and  the  latter  answered:  "That  is  a  question  for  the 
Supreme  Court." 

The  election  came.  Mr.  Buchanan  was  elected,  and 
the  indorsement,  such  as  it  was,  secured.  That  was  the 
second  point  gained.  The  indorsement,  however,  fell 
short  of  a  clear  popular  majority  by  nearly  four  hundred 
thousand  votes,  and  so,  perhaps,  was  not  overwhelmingly 
reliable  and  satisfactory.  The  outgoing  President,  in  his 
last  annual  message,  as  impressively  as  possible  echoed 
back  upon  the  people  the  weight  and  authority  of  the 
indorsement!  The  Supreme  Court  met  again;  did  not 
announce  their  decision,  but  ordered  a  reargument.  The 
presidential  inauguration  came,  and  still  no  decision  of 
the  court;  but  the  incoming  President  in  his  inaugural 
address  fervently  exhorted  the  people  to  abide  by  the 
forthcoming  decision,  whatever  it  might  be.  Then,  in  a 
few  days,  came  the  decision.* 

The  reputed  author  of  the  Nebraska  bill  finds  an  early 
occasion  to  make  a  speech  at  this  capital  indorsing  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  and  vehemently  denouncing  all  oppo- 
sition to  it.  The  new  President,  too,  seizes  the  early 
occasion  of  the  Silliman  letterf  to  indorse  and  strongly 
construe  that  decision,  and  to  express  his  astonishment 
that  any  different  view  had  ever  been  entertained ! 

•The   decision   was  handed  down   on   March   6.    1857. 

t  Soon  after  the  inauguration  of  President  Buclianan,  a  com- 
mittee of  citizens  of  Connecticut,  lieaded  by  Professor  Benjamin 
Silliman  of  Yale,  sent  a  memorial  to  him,  asking  for  comment 
on  the  Dred  Scott  decision  and  the  state  of  affairs  in  Kansas. 
He  replied,  declaring  that  slavery  existed  legally  in  Kansas, 
and  added,  "How  it  could  have  ever  been  seriously  doubted  is  a 
mystery." 


162  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

At  length  a  squabble  springs  up  between  the  President 
and  the  author  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  on  the  mere  question 
of  fact^  whether  the  Lecompton  constitution  was  or  was 
not,  in  any  just  sense,  made  by  the  people  of  Kansas; 
and  in  that  quarrel,  the  latter  declares  that  all  he  wants 
is  a  fair  vote  for  the  people,  and  that  he  cares  not  whether 
slavery  be  voted  down  or  voted  up.  I  do  not  understand 
his  declaration  that  he  cares  not  whether  slavery  be  voted 
down  or  up,  to  be  intended  by  him  other  than  as  an  apt 
definition  of  the  policy  he  would  impress  upon  the  public 
mind — the  principle  for  which  he  declares  he  has  suffered 
so  much,  and  is  ready  to  suffer  to  the  end.  And  well  may 
he  cling  to  that  principle.  If  he  has  any  parental  feeling, 
well  may  he  cling  to  it.  That  principle  is  the  only  shred 
left  of  his  original  Nebraska  doctrine.  Under  the  Dred 
Scott  decision,  "squatter  sovereignty"  squatted  out  of 
existence,  tumbled  down  like  temporary  scaffolding;  like 
the  mold  at  the  foundry,  it  served  through  one  blast,  and 
fell  back  into  loose  sand — helped  to  carry  an  election, 
and  then  was  kicked  to  the  winds.  His  late  joint  struggle 
with  the  Republicans  against  the  Lecompton  constitution, 
involves  nothing  of  the  original  Nebraska  doctrine.  That 
struggle  was  made  on  a  point — the  right  of  a  people  to 
make  their  own  constitution — upon  which  he  and  the 
Republicans  have  never  differed. 

The  several  points  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  in  con- 
nection with  Senator  Douglas's  "care  not"  policy,  con- 
stitute the  piece  of  machinery  in  its  present  state  of 
advancement.  This  was  the  third  point  gained.  The 
working  points  of  that  machinery  are : 

(1)  That  no  negro  slave,  imported  as  such  from 
Africa,  and  no  descendant  of  such  slave,  can  ever  be  a 
citizen  of  any  state,  in  the  sense  of  that  term  as  used 
in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  This  point  is 
made  in  order  to  deprive  the  negro,  in  every  possible 
event,  of  the  benefit  of  that  provision  of  the  United  States 
Constitution   which   declares    that   "the   citizens   of   each 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  163 

state  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immunities 
of  citizens  in  the  several  states." 

(2)  That,  "subject  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,"  neither  Congress  nor  a  territorial  legislature 
can  exclude  slavery  from  any  United  States  territory. 
This  point  is  made  in  order  that  individual  men  may  fill 
up  the  territories  with  slaves,  without  danger  of  losing 
them  as  property,  and  thus  enhance  the  chances  of  per- 
manency to  the  institution  through  all  the  future. 

(3)  That  whether  the  holding  a  negro  in  actual 
slavery  in  a  free  state  makes  him  free  as  against  the 
holder,  the  United  States  courts  will  not  decide,  but  will 
leave  to  be  decided  by  the  courts  of  any  slave  state  the 
negro  may  be  forced  into  by  the  master.  This  point  is 
made,  not  to  be  pressed  immediately;  but,  if  acquiesced 
in  for  a  while,  and  apparently  indorsed  by  the  people  at 
an  election,  then  to  sustain  the  logical  conclusion  that 
what  Dred  Scott's  master  might  lawfully  do  with  Dred 
Scott,  in  the  free  state  of  Illinois,  every  other  master 
may  lawfully  do  with  any  other  one,  or  one  thousand 
slaves,  in  Illinois,  or  in  any  other  free  state. 

Auxiliary  to  all  this,  and  working  hand  in  hand  with 
it,  the  Nebraska  doctrine,  or  what  is  left  of  it,  is  to 
educate  and  mold  public  opinion,  at  least  Northern  public 
opinion,  not  to  care  whether  slavery  is  voted  down  or 
voted  up.  This  shows  exactly  where  we  now  are;  and 
partially,  also,  whither  we  are  tending. 

It  will  throw  additional  light  on  the  latter,  to  go  back 
and  run  the  mind  over  the  string  of  historical  facts 
already  stated.  Several  things  will  now  appear  less  dark 
and  mysterious  than  they  did  when  they  were  transpiring. 
The  people  were  to  be  left  "perfectly  free,"  "subject 
only  to  the  Constitution."  What  the  Constitution  had  to 
do  with  it  outsiders  could  not  then  see.  Plainh-  enough 
now,  it  was  an  exactly  fitted  niche  for  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  to  afterward  come  in,  and  declare  the  perfect 
freedom  of  the  people  to  be  just  no  freedom  at  all.     Why 


154  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

was  the  amendment,  expressly  declaring  the  right  of  the 
people,  voted  down?  Plainly  enough  now,  the  adoption 
of  it  would  have  spoiled  the  niche  for  the  Dred  Scott 
decision.  Why  was  the  court  decision  held  up?  Why 
even  a  Senator's  individual  opinion  withheld  till  after 
the  presidential  election?  Plainly  enough  now,  the 
speaking  out  then  would  have  damaged  the  perfectly  free 
argument  upon  which  the  election  was  to  be  carried.  Why 
the  outgoing  President's  felicitation  on  the  indorsement? 
Why  the  delay  of  a  reargument?  Why  the  incoming 
President's  advance  exhortation  in  favor  of  the  decision? 
These  things  look  like  the  cautious  patting  and  petting 
of  a  spirited  horse  preparatory  to  mounting  him,  when 
it  is  dreaded  that  he  may  give  the  rider  a  fall.  And  why 
the  hasty  after-indorsement  of  the  decision  by  the  Presi- 
dent and  others  ? 

We  cannot  absolutely  know  that  all  these  exact  adapta- 
tions are  the  result  of  preconcert.  But  when  we  see  a 
lot  of  framed  timbers,  different  portions  of  which  we 
know  have  been  gotten  out  at  different  times  and  places 
and  by  different  workmen — Stephen,  Franklin,  Roger, 
and  James,*  for  instance — and  we  see  those  timbers 
joined  together,  and  see  they  exactly  make  the  frame  of 
a  house  or  a  mill,  all  the  tenons  and  mortises  exactly 
fitting,  and  all  the  lengths  and  proportions  of  the  different 
pieces  exactly  adapted  to  their  respective  places,  and  not 
a  piece  too  many  or  too  few,  not  omitting  even  scaffold- 
ing— or,  if  a  single  piece  be  lacking,  we  see  the  place  in 
the  frame  exactly  fitted  and  prepared  yet  to  bring  such 
piece  in — in  such  a  case  we  find  it  impossible  not  to 
believe  that  Stephen  and  Franklin  and  Roger  and  James 
all  understood  one  another  from  the  beginning,  and  all 

*  Stephen,  Franklin.  Roger,  and  James.  Senator  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  former  President  Franklin  Pierce,  Chief  Justice  Roger 
B.  Taney,  and  President  James  Buclianan  are  here  alluded  to. 
Lincoln's  charge,  though  doubtless  sincere,  was  entirely  un- 
justified and  unworthy  of  him  even  in  the  midst  of  partisan  heat. 
It  has  never  been  sustained  and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  it 
true.  He  is  also  unjust  to  Douglas  in  his  whole  treatment  of 
his  position   on  the  Lecompton  Constitution. 


SELECTIONS    FR03I    LINCOLN  155 

worked  upon  a  common  plan  or  draft  drawn  up  before 
the  first  blow^  was  struck. 

It  should  not  be  overlooked  that^  by  the  Nebraska 
bill,  the  people  of  a  state  as  well  as  territory  were  to  be 
left  "perfectly  free/'  "subject  only  to  the  Constitution." 
Why  mention  a  state.'*  They  were  legislating  for  terri- 
tories, and  not  for  or  about  states.  Certainly  the  people 
of  a  state  are  and  ought  to  be  subject  to  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States ;  but  why  is  mention  of  this  lugged 
into  this  merely  territorial  law.''  Why  are  the  people 
of  a  territory  and  the  people  of  a  state  therein  lumped 
together,  and  their  relation  to  the  Constitution  therein 
treated  as  being  precisely  the  same.^  While  the  opinion 
of  the  court  by  Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  the  Dred  Scott 
case,  and  the  separate  opinions  of  all  the  concurring 
judges,  expressly  declare  that  the  Constitution  of  the 
L'nitcd  States  neither  permits  Congress  nor  a  territorial 
legislature  to  exclude  slavery  from  any  United  States 
territory,  they  all  omit  to  declare  whether  or  not  the 
same  Constitution  permits  a  state,  or  the  people  of  a 
state,  to  exclude  it.  Possibly,  this  is  a  mere  omission; 
but  who  can  be  quite  sure,  if  McLean  or  Curtis  had 
sought  to  get  into  the  opinion  a  declaration  of  unlimited 
power  in  the  people  of  a  state  to  exclude  slavery  from 
their  limits,  just  as  Chase*  and  Macef  sought  to  get 
such  declaration,  in  behalf  of  the  people  of  a  territory, 
into  the  Nebraska  bill — I  ask,  who  can  be  quite  sure  that 
it  would  not  have  been  voted  down  in  the  one  case  as  it 
had  been  in  the  other.'*  The  nearest  approach  to  the 
point  of  declaring  the  power  of  a  state  over  slavery  is 
made  by  Judge  Nelson. 1  He  approaches  it  more  than 
once,  using  the  precise  idea,  and  almost  the  language,  too, 

*  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Senator  from  Ohio,  who  led  the  opposition 
to  tlie  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill.  He  was  later  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  in  Lincoln's  cabinet,  and  in  1S64  was  appointed  by- 
Lincoln   Chief  Justice   of   the   Supreme   Court   to   succeed    Taney. 

t  Daniel  Mace,  a  Democratic  Senator  from  Indiana,  who  was 
one  of  the  leading  opponents  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska    Bill. 

t  Samuel  Nelson,  of  New  York,  one  of  the  Justices  of  the 
Supreme    Court, 


166  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

of  the  Nebraska  act.  On  one  occasion  his  exact  language 
is  "except  in  cases  where  the  power  is  restrained  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  law  of  the  state  is 
supreme  over  the  subject  of  slavery  within  its  jurisdic- 
tion." In  what  cases  the  power  of  the  state  is  so  restrained 
by  the  United  States  Constitution  is  left  an  open  question, 
precisely  as  the  same  question,  as  to  the  restraint  on  the 
power  of  the  territories,  was  left  open  in  the  Nebraska 
act.  Put  this  and  that  together,  and  we  have  another 
nice  little  niche,  which  we  may,  erelong,  see  filled  with 
another  Supreme  Court  decision,  declaring  that  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  does  not  permit  a  state  to 
exclude  slavery  from  its  limits.  And  this  may  especially 
be  expected  if  the  doctrine  of  "care  not  whether  slavery 
be  voted  down  or  voted  up"  shall  gain  upon  the  public 
mind  sufficiently  to  give  promise  that  such  a  decision  can 
be  maintained  when  made. 

Such  a  decision  is  all  that  slavery  now  lacks  of  being 
alike  lawful  in  all  the  states.  Welcome,  or  unwelcome, 
such  decision  is  probably  coming,  and  will  soon  be  upon 
us,  unless  the  power  of  the  present  political  dynasty  shall 
be  met  and  overthrown.  We  shall  lie  down  pleasantly 
dreaming  that  the  people  of  Missouri  are  on  the  verge  of 
making  their  state  free,  and  we  shall  awake  to  the  reality 
instead  that  the  Supreme  Court  has  made  Illinois  a  slave 
state.  To  meet  and  overthrow  the  power  of  that  dynasty 
is  the  work  now  before  all  those  who  would  prevent 
that  consummation.  That  is  what  we  have  to  do.  How 
can  we  best  do  it? 

There  are  those  who  denounce  us  openly  to  their  own 

friends,  and  yet  whisper  us  softly  that  Senator  Douglas 

is  the   aptest  instrument*  there  is   with  which  to  effect 

that  object.      They   wish  us   to   infer  all  this   from   the 

fact  that  he  now  has   a  little  quarrel  with  the  present 

head  of  the   dynasty;   and  that  he  has   regularly  voted 

*  The  reference  was  to  the  Eastern  Republicans  like  Horace 
Greeley,  who  favored  support  of  Douglas  on  the  ground  of  his 
opposition  to  the  Lecompton  Constitution. 


SELECTIOXS    FROM    LINCOLN  167 

with  us  on  a  single  point,  upon  which  he  and  we  have 
never  differed.  They  remind  us  that  he  is  a  great  man, 
and  that  the  largest  of  us  are  very  small  ones.  Let  this 
be  granted.  But  "a  living  dog  is  better  than  a  dead 
lion."*  Judge  Douglas,  if  not  a  dead  lion  for  this  work, 
is  at  least  a  caged  and  toothless  one.  How  can  he  oppose 
the  advances  of  slavery.^  He  don't  care  anything  about 
it.  His  avowed  mission  is  impressing  the  "public  heart" 
to  care  nothing  about  it.  A  leading  Douglas  Democratic 
newspaper  thinks  Douglas's  superior  talent  will  be  needed 
to  resist  the  revival  of  the  African  slave-trade.  Does 
Douglas  believe  an  effort  to  revive  that  trade  is  approach- 
ing.^ He  has  not  said  so.  Does  he  really  think  so?  But 
if  it  is,  how  can  he  resist  it?  For  years  he  has  labored 
to  prove  it  a  sacred  right  of  white  men  to  take  negro 
slaves  into  the  new^  territories.  Can  he  possibly  show 
that  it  is  less  a  sacred  right  to  buy  them  where  they  can 
be  bought  cheapest?  And  unquestionably  they  can  be 
bought  cheaper  in  Africa  than  in  Virginia.  He  has  done 
all  in  his  power  to  reduce  the  whole  question  of  slavery 
to  one  of  a  mere  right  of  property;  and,  as  such,  how 
can  he  oppose  the  foreign  slave-trade — how  can  he  refuse 
that  trade  in  that  "property"  shall  be  "perfectly  free" — 
unless  he  does  it  as  a  protection  to  the  home  production? 
And  as  the  home  producers  will  probably  not  ask 
the  protection,  he  will  be  wholly  without  a  ground  of 
opposition. 

Senator  Douglas  holds,  we  know,  that  a  man  may 
rightfully  be  wiser  today  than  he  was  yesterday — that  he 
may  rightfully  change  when  he  finds  himself  wrong.  But 
can  we,  for  that  reason,  run  ahead,  and  infer  that  he  will 
make  any  particular  change,  of  which  he  himself  has 
given  no  intimation?  Can  we  safely  base  our  action  upon 
any  such  vague  inference?  Now,  as  ever,  I  wish  not  to 
misrepresent  Judge  Douglas's  position,  question  his 
motives,  or  do  aught  that  can  be  personally  offensive  to 

•  Ecclesiastes,  ix,   4. 


168  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

liim,  Wlienever,  if  ever,  he  and  we  can  come  together 
on  principle  so  that  our  great  cause  may  have  assistance 
from  his  great  ability,  I  hope  to  have  interposed  no 
adventitious  obstacle.  But  clearly  he  is  not  now  with  us — 
he  does  not  pretend  to  be — he  does  not  promise  ever  to  be. 
Our  cause,  then,  must  be  intrusted  to,  and  conducted 
by,  its  own  undoubted  friends — those  whose  hands  are 
free,  whose  hearts  are  in  the  work,  who  do  care  for  the 
result.  Two  years  ago  the  Republicans  of  the  nation 
mustered  over  thirteen  hundred  thousand  strong.  We 
did  this  under  the  single  impulse  of  resistance  to  a 
common  danger,  with  every  external  circumstance  against 
us.  Of  strange,  discordant,  and  even  hostile  elements, 
we  gathered  from  the  four  winds,  and  formed  and  fought 
the  battle  through,  under  the  constant  hot  fire  of  a  dis- 
ciplined, proud,  and  pampered  enemy.  Did  we  brave  all 
then  to  falter  now — now,  when  that  same  enemy  is 
wavering,  dissevered,  and  belligerent?  The  result  is 
not  doubtful.  We  shall  not  fail — if  we  stand  firm,  we 
shall  not  fail.  Wise  counsels  may  accelerate  or  mistakes 
delay  it^  but,  sooner  or  later,  the  victory  is  sure  to  come. 

Lincoln,  almost  unknown  to  the  world  outside  of  Illinois, 
now  faced  one  of  the  ablest  and  certainly  the  most  brilliant 
political  leaders  of  the  day.  Douglas  had  had  almost  phenomenal 
success  in  political  life.  He  had  been  a  member  of  the  legis- 
lature at  twenty-three,  a  judge  of  the  state  supreme  court  at 
twenty-eight,  a  member  of  Congress  at  thirty,  senator  at  thirty- 
four,  and  a  prominent  candidate  for  the  presidency  at  thirty- 
nine.  He  was  possessed  of  marvelous  magnetism  and  charm 
of  personality,  was  fearless,  resourceful,  and  eloquent  in  debate, 
and  from  long-continued  and  unbroken  success  was  full  of  self- 
confidence.    Lincoln  himself  compared  them  thus: 

"His  name  fills  the  nation,  and  is  not  unknown  even  in 
foreign  lands.  I  affect  no  contempt  for  the  high  eminence  he 
has  reached.  So  reached  that  the  oppressed  of  my  species 
might  have  shared  with  me  in  the  elevation,  I  would  rather 
stand  on  that  eminence  than  wear  the  richest  crown  that  ever 
pressed  a  monarch's  brow. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  169 

"With  me  the  race  of  ambition  h^as  been  a  failure — a  flat 
failure.  With  him  it  has  been  one  of  splendid  success.  Senator 
Douglas  is  of  world-wide  renown.  All  the  anxious  politicians 
of  his  party,  or  who  have  been  of  his  party  for  years  past,  have 
been  looking  upon  him  as  certainly,  at  no  distant  day,  to  be 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  ...  On  the  contrary 
nobody  has  ever  expected  me  to  be  President.  .  .  .  We 
ha%'e  to  fight  this  battle  upon  principle  and  upon  principle 
alone." 

In  the  last  sentence  is  found  the  source  of  all  the  confidence 
that  Lincoln  could  muster  in  the  struggle.  He  was  convinced 
after  hard  study  that  in  this  struggle  against  the  spread  of 
slavery  he  had  right,  justice,  history,  the  Constitution,  good 
politics,  and  the  enlightened  opinion  of  mankind  on  his  side. 
On  that  he  had  to  rest  his  case. 

Most  people  thought  that  the  victory  would  be  an  easy  one 
for  Douglas.  Lincoln  was  popular,  and  his  ability  was  known 
and  respected,  but  he  was  nowhere  regarded  as  a  man  of 
destiny.  Douglas  probably  underestimated  him  as  an  opponent 
less  than  even  most  of  Lincoln's  friends.  He  well  knew  that 
he  was  more  diflBcult  to  meet  on  the  stump  in  Illinois  than 
were  Seward,  Chase,  and  Sumner  on  the  floor  of  the  United 
States  Senate.  He  said  when  he  heard  of  Lincoln's  nomina- 
tion: "I  shall  have  my  hands  full.  He  is  the  strongest  man 
of  his  party — full  of  wit,  facts,  dates — and  the  best  stump 
speaker,  with  his  droll  ways  and  dry  jokes,  in  the  West.  He 
is  as  honest  as  he  is  shrewd;  and  if  I  beat  him  my  victory  will 
be  hardly  won." 

Upon  his  return  from  Washington  in  July,  Douglas  in  a 
speech  in  Chicago,  replied  to  Lincoln,  condemning  his  acceptance 
speech  as  sectional  and  his  house-divided  doctrine  as  calculated 
to  lead  to  civil  war.  He  further  condemned  his  attitude  on  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  as  an  assault  upon  the  Supreme  Court, 
and  accused  him  of  being  an  abolitionist.  His  speech  went 
well  with  his  crowd,  and  Lincoln's  reply  the  next  night  was  a 
distinct  failure.  Each  made  other  addresses  with  the  tide 
clearly  turning  to  Douglas,  and  then  Lincoln  challenged  him 
to  a  joint  debate.  From  the  standpoint  of  his  friends  it  was 
a  rash  and  unwise  decision;  but  it  was  excellent  strategy.  At 
a  stroke,  it  placed  the  two  upon  a  common  level,  greatly  to 
Lincoln's  advantage,  and  emphasized  his  power.     He  had  less 


170  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

to  lose  than  Douglas  and  infinitely  more  to  win.  As  events 
proved,  it  had  large  effetts  upon  the  future,  but  it  is  well  to 
emphasize  here  the  fact  that  Lincoln,  with  all  his  power,  was 
seeking  to  defeat  Douglas  for  the  Senate  and  to  replace  him 
there. 

Douglas  accepted  the  challenge  with  secret  reluctance,  and 
seven  debates  were  arranged  and  held.  They  were  at  Ottawa 
on  August  21;  Freeport,  August  27;  Jonesboro,  September  15; 
Charleston,  September  18;  Galesburg,  October  7;  Quincy, 
October  13;  and  Alton,  October  15.  In  this  way  almost  every 
part  of  the  state  was  touched. 

In  the  debates  Lincoln  showed  himself  a  master  politician 
and  an  able  and  shrewd  debater,  but  the  speeches  are  not  in 
the  class  with  such  speeches  as,  for  instance,  his  acceptance 
speech.  He  was  not  at  his  best  in  the  debates.  Disapproving 
of  Douglas  and  actively  disliking  him,  he  was  not  as  a  rule  as 
courteous  as  his  opponent,  nor  are  his  speeches  as  clean-cut, 
logical,  and  convincing  as  others  before  and  after.  Nor  was 
he  as  frank  as  usual.  It  has  been  the  fashion  years  later  to 
say  that  Lincoln  overwhelmed  Douglas  in  the  debates,  but  this 
was  not  thought  at  the  time.  Lincoln's  great  victory  was  indi- 
cated in  the  amazement  of  the  world  that  he  had  been  able  to 
hold  his  own  with  Douglas  at  all  and  that  he  had  come  so  close 
to  defeating  him.  That  was  what  made  him  known  to  the 
whole  country. 

One  thing  connected  with  the  debate  that  bore  fruit  later 
needs  comment  here.  At  Freeport  Lincoln  insisted  upon  ask- 
ing Douglas  the  question:  "Can  the  people  of  a  United  States 
territory  in  any  lawful  way,  against  the  wish  of  any  citizen 
of  the  L"^nited  States,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits  prior  to 
the  formation  of  a  State  Constitution?"  He  knew  in  advance 
what  would  be  Douglas's  answer,  for  the  latter  had  already 
stated  it  repeatedly,  but  with  public  attention  outside  the  state 
directed  as  it  was  to  the  debate,  it  seemed  a  good  time  to 
secure  a  reiteration  of  his  opinion.  Douglas  answered  it  sub- 
stantially as  he  had  stated  his  position  in  1857: 

"Mr.  Lincoln  knew  that  I  had  answered  that  question  over 
and  over  again.  He  heard  me  argue  the  Nebraska  bill  on  that 
principle  all  over  the  state  in  1854,  in  1855,  and  in  1856,  and 
he  has  no  excuse  for  pretending  to  be  in  doubt  as  to  my  posi- 
tion on  that  question.     It  matters  not  what  way  the  Supreme 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  I7] 

Court  may  hereafter  decide  as  to  the  abstract  question  whether 
slavery  may  or  may  not  go  into  a  territory  under  the  Consti- 
tution, the  people  have  the  lawful  means  4:o  introduce  it  or 
exclude  it  as  they  please,  for  the  reason  that  slaver}^  cannot 
exist  a  day  or  an  hour  anywhere  unless  it  is  supported  by  local 
regulations.  Those  police  regulations  can  only  be  established 
by  the  local  legislature,  and  if  the  people  are  opposed  to 
slavery  they  will  elect  representatives  to  that  body  who  wall  by 
unfriendly  legislation  eflFectually  prevent  the  introduction  of  it 
into  their  midst.  If,  on  the  contrary,  they  are  for  it,  their 
legislation  will  favor  its  extension.  Hence,  no  matter  what 
the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  may  be  on  that  abstract 
question,  still  the  right  of  the  people  to  make  a  slave  territory 
or  a  free  territory  is  perfect  and  complete  under  the  Nebraska 
bill.  I  hope  Mr,  Lincoln  deems  my  answer  satisfactory  on  that 
point." 

The  following  letter  of  Lincoln,  written  shortly  before  the 
Freeport  debate,  indicates  Lincoln's  ideas  of  Douglas's  position: 


TO  HENR  Y  AS  BURY 

Springfield,  July  31,   1858 
Henry  Asbury,  Esq. 

My  dear  Sir:  Yours  of  the  28th  is  received.  The 
points  you  propose  to  press  upon  Douglas  he  will  be 
very  hard  to  get  up  to^  but  I  think  you  labor  under  a 
mistake  when  you  say  no  one  cares  how  he  answers.  This 
implies  that  it  is  equal  with  him  whether  he  is  injured 
here  or  at  the  South.  That  is  a  mistake.  He  cares 
nothing  for  the  South;  he  knows  he  is  already  dead  there. 
He  only  leans  Southward  more  to  keep  the  Buchanan 
party  from  growing  in  Illinois.  You  shall  have  hard 
work  to  get  him  directly  to  the  point  whether  a  territorial 
legislature  has  or  has  not  the  power  to  exclude  slavery. 
But  if  you  succeed  in  bringing  him  to  it — though  he  will 
be  compelled  to  say  it  possesses  no  such  power — he  will 
instantly  take  ground  that  slavery  cannot  actually  exist 
in  the  territories  unless  the  people  desire  it,  and  so  give 


172  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

it  protection  by  territorial  legislation.  If  this  offends 
the  South,  he  will  let  it  offend  them,  as  at  all  events  he 
means  to  hold  on  to  his  chances  in  Illinois.  You  will 
soon  learn  by  the  papers  that  both  the  Judge  and  myself 
are  to  be  in  Quincy  on  the  13th  of  October,  when  and 
where  I  expect  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 
Three  other  documents  of  this  period  throw  light  on  Lincoln. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
[Written   for  Dictionary   of  Congress,  June,    1858] 
Born,  February  12,  1809,  in  Hardin  County,  Kentucky. 
Profession,  a  lawyer. 
Education  defective. 

Have  been  a  captain  of  volunteers  in  Black  Hawk  War. 
Postmaster  at  a  very  small  office. 

Four  times  a  member  of  the  Illinois  legislature,  and 
was  a  member  of  the  lower  house  of  Congress. 

Yours,  etc., 

A.  Lincoln 

DEFINITION  OF  DEMOCRACY 

[August  1   (?),  1858] 

As  I  would  not  be  a  slave,  so  I  would  not  be  a  master. 
This  expresses  my  idea  of  a  democracy.  Whatever  differs 
from  this,  to  the  extent  of  the  difference,  is  no  democracy. 

A.  Lincoln 

TO  J.  N.  BROWN 

Springfield,  October  18,  1858 
My  dear  Sir:     I  do  not  perceive  how  I  can  express 
myself  more  plainly  than  I  have  done  in  the  foregoing 
extracts.*     In  four  of  them  I  have  expressly  disclaimed 

•  Lincoln  had  enclosed  him  newspaper  clippings  containing 
extracts  from  his  speeches. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  17;j 

all  intentions  to  bring  about  social  and  political  equality 
between  the  white  and  black  races,  and,  in  all  the  rest, 
I  have  done  the  same  thing  by  clear  implication. 

I  have  made  it  equally  plain  that  I  think  the  negro 
is  included  in  the  "men"  used  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence. 

I  believe  the  declaration  that  "all  men  are  created 
equal"  is  the  great  fundamental  principle  upon  which 
our  free  institutions  rest ;  that  negro  slavery  is  violative 
of  that  principle ;  but  that,  by  our  form  of  government, 
that  principle  has  not  been  made  one  of  legal  obligation  ; 
that  by  our  form  of  government,  the  states  which  have 
slavery  are  to  retain  it,  or  surrender  it  at  their  own 
pleasure ;  and  that  all  others — individuals,  free  states, 
and  national  government — are  constitutionally  bound  to 
leave  them  alone  about  it. 

I  believe  our  government  was  thus  framed  because  of 
the  necessity  springing  from  the  actual  presence  of 
slavery,  when  it  was  framed. 

That  such  necessity  does  not  exist  in  the  territories, 
where  slavery  is  not  present. 

In  his  Mendenhall  speech  Mr.  Clay  says: 

"Xow,  as  an  abstract  principle,  there  is  no  doubt  of 
the  truth  of  that  declaration  (all  men  are  created  equal) 
and  it  is  desirable,  in  the  original  construction  of  society, 
and  in  organized  societies,  to  keep  it  in  view  as  a  great 
fundamental  principle." 

Again,  in  the  same  speech  Mr.  Clay  says: 

"If  a  state  of  nature  existed,  and  we  were  about  to 
lay  the  foundation  of  society,  no  man  would  be  more 
strongly  opposed  than  I  would  to  incorporate  the  institu- 
tions of  slavery  among  its  elements." 

Exactly  so.  In  our  new  free  territories,  a  state  of 
nature  does  exist.  In  them  Congress  lays  the  foundations 
of  society;  and,  in  laying  those  foundations,  I  say,  with 


174  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

Mr.  Cla)^,  it  is  desirable  that  the  declaration  of  the 
equality  of  all  men  shall  be  kept  in  view,  as  a  great 
fundamental  principle;  and  that  Congress,  which  lays 
the  foundations  of  society,  should,  like  Mr.  Clay,  be 
strongly  opposed  to  the  incorporation  of  slavery  among 
its  elements. 

But  it  does  not  follow  that  social  and  political  equality 
between  white  and  black  must  be  incorporated,  because 
slavery  must  not.     The  declaration  does  not  so  require. 

Yours  as  ever, 

A.  Lincoln 

The  election  was  close,  but  Douglas  had  a  safe  majority  in 
the  legislature  and  was  elected.  In  spite  of  the  strength  he 
had  shown,  Lincoln  was  hurt  by  his  defeat.  He  wrote  a  friend 
that  he  was  "like  the  boy  that  stumped  his  toe.  It  hurt  too  bad 
to  laugh,  and  he  was  too  big  to  cry."  Again  he  wrote  that  he 
would  rather  have  a  full  term  in  the  Senate  than  to  be  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States.  But  against  his  defeat  he  could  set 
the  fact  that  he  had  won  great  reputation  and  that  he  had  much 
advanced  the  Republican  cause.     He  was  now  a  national  figure. 

This  letter  indicates  his  attitude  after  the  election. 

TO  H.  D.  SHABPE 

Springfield,  December  8,  1858 
H.  D.  Sharpe,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir  :  Your  very  kind  letter  of  November  9th  was 
duly  received.  I  do  not  know  that  you  expected  or 
desired  an  answer;  but  glancing  over  the  contents  of 
yours  again,  I  am  prompted  to  say  that,  while  I  desired 
the  result  of  the  late  canvass  to  have  been  different,  I  still 
regard  it  as  an  exceedingly  small  matter.  I  think  we 
have  fairly  entered  upon  a  durable  struggle  as  to  whether 
this  nation  is  to  ultimately  become  all  slave  or  all  free, 
and  though  I  fall  early  in  the  contest,  it  is  nothing  if  I 
shall  have  contributed,  in  the  least  degree,  to  the  final 
rightful  result.  Respectfully  yours, 

A.  Lincoln 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  I75 

One  of  the  first  indications  of  the  reputation  gained  by  Lin- 
coln in  the  debates  was  the  fiood  of  letters  and  invitations  which 
poured  in  on  him.  He  declined  most  of  these  because  his  law 
practice  had  suffered  severely  in  the  four  years  since  1854  and 
he  felt  compelled  to  make  money.  One  of  these  invitations  he 
thus  declined: 


TO  H.  L.  PIERCE  AND  OTHERS 

Spiingfield,  IlL,  April  6,  1859 

Gentlemen:  Your  kind  note  inviting  me  to  attend 
a  festival  in  Boston,  on  the  28th  instant,  in  honor  of  the 
birthday  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  was  duly  received.  My 
engagements  are  such  that  I  cannot  attend. 

Bearing  in  mind  that  about  seventy  years  ago  two 
great  political  parties  were  first  formed  in  this  country, 
that  Thomas  Jefferson  was  the  head  of  one  of  them  and 
Boston  the  headquarters  of  the  other,  it  is  both  curious 
and  interesting  that  those  supposed  to  descend  politically 
from  the  party  opposed  to  Jefferson  should  now  be 
celebrating  his  birthday  in  their  own  original  seat  of 
empire,*  while  those  claiming  political  descent  from  him 
have  nearly  ceased  to  breathe  his  name  everywhere. 

Remembering,  too,  that  the  Jefferson  party  was  formed 
upon  its  supposed  superior  devotion  to  the  personal 
rights  of  men,  holding  the  rights  of  property  to  be 
secondary  only,  and  greatly  inferior,  and  assuming  that 
the  so-called  Democracy  of  today  are  the  Jefferson,  and 
their  opponents  the  anti-Jefferson  party,  it  will  be  equally 
interesting  to  note  how  completely  the  two  have  changed 
hands  as  to  the  principle  upon  which  they  were  originally 
supposed  to  be  divided.  The  Democracy  of  today  hold 
the  liberty  of  one  man  to  be  absolutely  nothing,  when 
in  conflict  with  another  man's  right  of  property ; 
Republicans,  on  the  contrary,  are  for  both  the  man  and 
the  dollar,  but  in  case  of  conflict  the  man  before  the 
dollar. 

*  Boston   had   been   a   center   of   Federalism. 


176  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

I  remember  being  once  much  amused  at  seeing  two 
partially  intoxicated  men  engaged  in  a  fight  with  their 
greatcoats  on,  which  fight,  after  a  long  and  rather  harm- 
less contest,  ended  in  each  having  fought  himself  out  of 
his  own  coat  and  into  that  of  the  other.  If  the  two  leading 
parties  of  this  day  are  really  identical  with  the  two  in 
the  days  of  Jefferson  and  Adams,  they  have  performed 
the  same  feat  as  the  two  drunken  men. 

But,  soberlj^,  it  is  now  no  child's  play  to  save  the 
principles  of  Jefferson  from  total  overthrow  in  this 
nation.  One  would  state  with  great  confidence  that  he 
could  convince  any  sane  child  that  the  simpler  proposi- 
tions of  Euclid  are  true;  but  nevertheless  he  would  fail, 
utterly,  with  one  who  should  deny  the  definitions  and 
axioms.  The  principles  of  Jefferson  are  the  definitions 
and  axioms  of  free  society.  And  yet  they  are  denied 
and  evaded,  with  no  small  show  of  success.  One  dashingly 
calls  them  "glittering  generalities."  Another  bluntly 
calls  them  "self-evident  lies."  And  others  insidiously 
argue  that  they  apply  to  "superior  races."  These 
expressions,  differing  in  form,  are  identical  in  object 
and  effect — the  supplanting  the  principles  of  free  govern- 
ment, and  restoring  those  of  classification,  caste,  and 
legitimacy.  They  would  delight  a  convocation  of  crowned 
heads  plotting  against  the  people.  They  are  the  van- 
guard, the  miners  and  sappers  of  returning  despotism. 
We  must  repulse  them  or  they  will  subjugate  us.  This 
is  a  world  of  compensation;  and  he  who  would  be  no 
slave  must  consent  to  have  no  slave.  Those  who  deny 
freedom  to  others  deserve  it  not  for  themselves,  and, 
under  a  just  God,  cannot  long  retain  it.  All  honor  to 
Jefferson — to  the  man  who,  in  the  concrete  pressure  of 
a  struggle  for  national  independence  by  a  single  people, 
had  the  coolness,  forecast,  and  capacity  to  introduce  into 
.1  merely  revolutionary  document  an  abstract  truth, 
applicable  to  all  men  and  all  times,  and  so  to  embalm 
it  there  that  today  and  in  all  coming  days  it  shall  be  a 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  177 

rebuke  and  a  stumbling-block  to  the  very  harbingers  of 
reappearing  tyranny  and  oppression. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

A.  Lincoln 

Two  of  the  calls  he  felt  compelled  to  answer  favorably. 
During  the  state  campaign  of  1859  in  Ohio,  Douglas  made 
several  speeches,  and  Lincoln  was  invited  to  reply.  He  spoke 
at  Columbus  and  Cincinnati  in  September.  The  Cincinnati 
speech  was  a  very  clever  stump  speech,  marked  by  its  good 
humor  and  genial  wit.  On  account  of  its  being  made  just 
across  the  river  from  Kentucky  he  addressed  much  of  his 
speech  to  the  Kentuckians.  After  expressing  the  firm  pur- 
pose of  the  Republicans  to  beat  Douglas  and  the  Southern 
Democrats,  he  said: 

"When  we  do  as  we  say — beat  you — ^you  perhaps  want  to 
know  what  we  will  do  with  you. 

"I  will  tell  you,  so  far  as  I  am  authorized  to  speak  for  the 
opposition,  what  we  mean  to  do  to  you.  We  mean  to  treat 
you,  as  near  as  we  possibly  can,  as  Washington,  Jefferson,  and 
Madison  treated  you.  We  mean  to  leave  you  alone,  and  in  no 
way  interfere  with  your  institutions;  to  abide  by  all  and  every 
compromise  of  the  Constitution,  and  in  a  word,  coming  back  to 
the  original  proposition,  to  treat  you,  so  far  as  degenerated 
men  (if  we  have  degenerated)  may,  according  to  the  examples 
of  those  noble  fathers — Washington,  Jefferson,  and  Madison. 
We  mean  to  remember  that  you  are  as  good  as  we;  that  there 
is  no  difference  between  us  other  than  the  difference  of  cir- 
cumstances. We  mean  to  recognize  and  bear  in  mind  always 
that  you  have  as  good  hearts  in  your  bosoms  as  other  people,  or 
as  we  claim  to  have,  and  treat  you  accordingly.  We  mean  to 
marry  your  girls,  when  we  have  a  chance — the  white  ones,  I 
mean — and  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  I  once  did 
have  a  chance  in  that  way." 

The  Columbus  speech  ranks  as  one  of  Lincoln's  great  polit- 
ical addresses,  linking  up  his  former  position  with  the  finished 
position  of  the  Cooper  Union  speech  of  1860.  In  it  he  defines 
once  more  his  position  toward  the  negro.  Douglas  and  the 
Democrats  were  accusing  him  persistently  of  preaching  social 
and  political  equality,  and  here  he  replies. 


178  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

THE  COLUMBUS  SPEECH 
[September  16,  1859] 

Fellow-Citizens  of  the  State  of  Ohio:  I  cannot 
fail  to  remember  that  I  appear  for  the  first  time  before 
an  audience  in  this  now  great  state — an  audience  that  is 
accustomed  to  hear  such  speakers  as  Corwin,*  and  Chase, 
and  Wade^t  and  many  other  renowned  men;  and  remem- 
bering this,  I  feel  that  it  will  be  well  for  you,  as  for 
me,  that  you  should  not  raise  your  expectations  to  that 
standard  to  which  you  would  have  been  justified  in 
raising  them  had  one  of  these  distinguished  men  appeared 
before  you.  You  would  perhaps  be  only  preparing  a 
disappointment  for  yourselves,  and,  as  a  consequence  of 
your  disappointment,  mortification  to  me.  I  hope,  there- 
fore, that  you  will  commence  with  very  moderate  expec- 
tations ;  and,  perhaps,  if  you  will  give  me  your  attention, 
I  shall  be  able  to  interest  you  to  a  moderate  degree. 

Appearing  here  for  the  first  time  in  my  life,  I  have 
been  somewhat  embarrassed  for  a  topic  by  way  of  intro- 
duction to  my  speech ;  but  I  have  been  relieved  from  that 
embarrassment  by  an  introduction  which  the  Ohio 
Statesman  newspaper  gave  me  this  morning.  In  this 
newspaper  I  have  read  an  article  in  which,  among  other 
statements,  I  find  the  following: 

"In  debating  with  Senator  Douglas  during  the  memor- 
able contest  last  fall,  Mr.  Lincoln  declared  in  favor  of 
negro  suffrage,  and  attempted  to  defend  that  vile  concep- 
tion against  the  Little  Giant." 

I  mention  this  now,  at  the  opening  of  my  remarks, 
for  the  purpose  of  making  three  comments  upon  it.  The 
first  I  have  already  announced — it  furnished  me  an 
introductory  topic ;  the  second  is  to  show  that  the  gentle- 
man is  mistaken;  thirdly,  to  give  him  an  opportunity  to 
correct  it. 

♦  Thomas  Corwin.   of  Ohio, 
t  Benjamin  F.  Wade,  of  Ohio, 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  179 

In  the  first  place,  in  regard  to  this  matter  being  a 
mistake,  I  have  found  that  it  is  not  entirely  safe,  when 
one  is  misrepresented  under  his  very  nose,  to  allow  the 
misrepresentation  to  go  uncontradicted.  I  therefore 
propose,  here  at  the  outset,  not  only  to  say  that  this  is 
a  misrepresentation,  but  to  show  conclusively  that  it  is 
so;  and  you  will  bear  with  me  while  I  read  a  couple  of 
extracts  from  that  very  "memorable"  debate  with  Judge 
Douglas  last  year,  to  which  this  newspaper  refers.  In 
the  first  pitched  battle  which  Senator  Douglas  and  myself 
had,  at  the  town  of  Ottawa,  I  used  the  language  which 
I  will  now  read.  Having  been  previously  reading  an 
extract,  I  continued  as  follows: 

"Now,  gentlemen,  I  don't  want  to  read  at  any  greater 
length,  but  this  is  the  true  complexion  of  all  I  have  ever 
said  in  regard  to  the  institution  of  slavery  and  the  black 
race.  This  is  the  whole  of  it,  and  anything  that  argues 
me  into  his  idea  of  perfect  social  and  political  equality 
with  the  negro  is  but  a  specious  and  fantastic  arrange- 
ment of  words,  by  which  a  man  can  prove  a  horse-chestnut 
to  be  a  chestnut  horse.  I  will  say  here,  while  upon  this 
subject,  that  I  have  no  purpose  either  directly  or  indi- 
rectly to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the 
states  where  it  exists.  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful  right 
to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination  to  do  so.  I  have  no 
purpose  to  introduce  political  and  social  equality  between 
the  white  and  the  black  races.  There  is  a  physical 
difference  between  the  two  which,  in  my  judgment,  will 
probably  forever  forbid  their  living  together  upon  the 
footing  of  perfect  equality,  and  inasmuch  as  it  becomes  a 
necessity  that  there  must  be  a  difference,  I,  as  well  as 
Judge  Douglas,  am  in  favor  of  the  race  to  which  I  belong 
having  the  superior  position.  I  have  never  said  anything 
to  the  contrary,  but  I  hold  that,  notwithstanding  all  this, 
there  is  no  reason  in  the  world  why  the  negro  is  not 
entitled    to    all    the    natural    rights    enumerated    in    the 


180  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

Declaration  of  Independence,  the  right  to  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  I  hold  that  he  is  as  much 
entitled  to  these  as  the  white  man.  I  agree  with  Judge 
Douglas,  he  is  not  my  equal  in  many  respects — certainly 
not  in  color,  perhaps  not  in  moral  or  intellectual  endow- 
ments. But  in  the  right  to  eat  the  bread,  without  leave 
of  anybody  else,  which  his  own  hand  earns,  he  is  my 
equal,  and  the  equal  of  Judge  Douglas,  and  the  equal  of 
every  living  man." 

Upon  a  subsequent  occasion,  when  the  reason  for 
making  a  statement  like  this  occurred,  I  said : 

"While  I  was  at  the  hotel  today  an  elderly  gentleman 
called  upon  me  to  know  whether  I  was  really  in  favor  of 
producing  a  perfect  equality  between  the  negroes  and 
white  people.  While  I  had  not  proposed  to  myself  on 
this  occasion  to  say  much  on  that  subject,  yet  as  the 
question  was  asked  me  I  thought  I  would  occupy  perhaps 
five  minutes  in  saying  something  in  regard  to  it.  I  will 
say,  then,  that  I  am  not,  nor  ever  have  been,  in  favor 
of  bringing  about  in  any  way  the  social  and  political 
equality  of  the  white  and  the  black  races — that  I  am 
not,  nor  ever  have  been,  in  favor  of  making  voters  or 
jurors  of  negroes,  nor  of  qualifying  them  to  hold  office, 
nor  to  intermarry  with  white  people ;  and  I  will  say  in 
addition  to  this,  that  there  is  a  pln^sical  difference 
between  the  white  and  the  black  races,  which,  I  believe, 
will  forever  forbid  the  two  races  living  together  on  terms 
of  social  and  political  equality.  And  inasmuch  as  they 
cannot  so  live,  while  they  do  remain  together  there  must 
be  the  position  of  superior  and  inferior,  and  I,  as  much 
as  an}^  other  man,  am  in  favor  of  having  the  superior 
position  assigned  to  the  white  race,  I  say  upon  this  occa- 
sion I  do  not  perceive  that  because  the  white  man  is  to 
have  the  superior  position,  the  negro  should  be  denied 
everything.  I  do  not  understand  that  because  I  do  not 
want  a  negro  woman  for  a  slave,  I  must  necessarily  want 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  ISl 

her  for  a  wife.  My  understanding  is  that  I  can  just  let 
her  alone.  I  am  now  in  my  fiftieth  year;  and  I  certainly 
never  have  had  a  black  woman  for  either  a  slave  or  a 
wife.  So  it  seems  to  me  quite  possible  for  us  to  get 
along  without  making  either  slaves  or  wives  of  negroes. 
I  will  add  to  this,  that  I  have  never  seen  to  my  knowledge 
a  man,  woman,  or  child,  who  was  in  favor  of  producing  a 
perfect  equality,  social  and  political,  between  negroes  and 
white  men.  I  recollect  of  but  one  distinguished  instance 
that  I  ever  heard  of  so  frequently  as  to  be  entirely  satis- 
fied of  its  correctness — and  that  is  the  case  of  Judge 
Douglas's  old  friend,  Colonel  Richard  M.  Johnson.  I 
will  also  add  to  the  remarks  I  have  made  (for  I  am  not 
going  to  enter  at  large  upon  this  subject),  that  I  have 
never  had  the  least  apprehension  that  I  or  my  friends 
would  marry  negroes,  if  there  were  no  law  to  keep  them 
from  it;  but  as  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  seem  to 
be  in  great  apprehension  that  they  might,  if  there  were 
no  law  to  keep  them  from  it,  I  give  him  the  most  solemn 
pledge  that  I  will  to  the  very  last  stand  by  the  law  of 
the  state,  which  forbids  the  marrying  of  white  people 
with  negroes." 

There,  my  friends,  you  have  briefly  what  I  have,  upon 
former  occasions,  said  upon  the  subject  to  which  this 
newspaper,  to  the  extent  of  its  ability,  has  drawn  the 
public  attention.  In  it  you  not  only  perceive,  as  a  prob- 
ability, that  in  that  contest  I  did  not  at  any  time  say  I 
was  in  favor  of  negro  s-uffrage;  but  the  absolute  proof 
that  twice — once  substantially  and  once  expressly — I 
declared  against  it.  Having  shown  you  this,  there  remains 
but  a  word  of  comment  upon  that  newspaper  article.  It 
is  this:  that  I  presume  the  editor  of  that  paper  is  an 
honest  and  truth-loving  man,  and  that  he  will  be  greatly 
obliged  to  me  for  furnishing  him  thus  early  an  opportu- 
nity to  correct  the  misrepresentation  he  has  made,  before 
it  has  run  so  long  that  malicious  people  can  call  him  a 
liar. 


182  SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX 

The  giant  himself  has  been  here  recently.  I  have  seen 
a  brief  report  of  his  speech.  If  it  were  otherwise 
unpleasant  to  me  to  introduce  the  subject  of  the  negro 
as  a  topic  for  discussion,  I  might  be  somewhat  relieved 
by  the  fact  that  he  dealt  exclusively  in  that  subject  while 
he  was  here.  I  shall,  therefore,  without  much  hesitation 
or  diffidence,  enter  upon  this  subject. 

The  American  people,  on  the  first  day  of  January, 
1854,  found  the  African  slave-trade  prohibited  by  a  law 
of  Congress.  In  a  majority  of  the  states  of  this  Union, 
they  found  African  slavery,  or  any  other  sort  of  slavery, 
prohibited  by  state  constitutions.  They  also  found  a  law 
existing,  supposed  to  be  valid,  by  which  slavery  was 
excluded  from  almost  all  the  territory  the  United  States 
then  owned.  This  was  the  condition  of  the  country,  with 
reference  to  the  institution  of  slavery,  on  the  first  of 
January,  1854.  A  few  days  after  that,  a  bill  was  intro- 
duced into  Congress,  which  ran  through  its  regular 
course  in  the  two  branches  of  the  national  legislature, 
and  finally  passed  into  a  law  in  the  month  of  May,  by 
which  the  act  of  Congress  prohibiting  slavery  from  going 
into  the  territories  of  the  United  States  was  repealed. 
In  connection  with  the  law  itself,  and,  in  fact,  in  the 
terms  of  the  law,  the  then  existing  prohibition  was  not 
only  repealed,  but  there  was  a  declaration  of  a  purpose 
on  the  part  of  Congress  never  thereafter  to  exercise  any 
power  that  they  might  have,  real  or  supposed,  to  prohibit 
the  extension  or  spread  of  slavery.  This  was  a  very 
great  change;  for  the  law  thus  repealed  was  of  more 
than  thirty  years'  standing.  Following  rapidly  upon  the 
heels  of  this  action  of  Congress,  a  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  is  made,  by  which  it  is  declared  that  Congress,  if 
it  desires  to  proliibit  tlie  spread  of  slavery  into  the  terri- 
tories, has  no  constitutional  power  to  do  so.  Not  only  so, 
but  that  decision  lays  down  principles,  which,  if  pushed 
to  their  logical  conclusion — I  say  pushed  to  their  logical 
conclusion — would  decide  that  the  constitutions  of  free 


SELECTIOXS    FROM    LINXOLX  183 

states,  forbidding  slavery,  are  themselves  unconstitu- 
tional. Mark  me,  I  do  not  say  the  judges  said  this,  and 
let  no  man  say  I  affirm  the  judges  used  these  words;  but 
I  only  say  it  is  my  opinion  that  what  they  did  say,  if 
pressed  to  its  logical  conclusion,  will  inevitably  result 
thus. 

Looking  at  these  things,  the  Republican  party,  as  I 
understand  its  principles  and  policy,  believes  that  there 
is  great  danger  of  the  institution  of  slavery  being  spread 
out  and  extended,  until  it  is  ultimately  made  alike  lawful 
in  all  the  states  of  this  Union;  so  believing,  to  prevent 
that  incidental  and  ultimate  consummation  is  the  original 
and  chief  purpose  of  the  Republican  organization.  I 
say  "chief  purpose"  of  the  Republican  organization;  for 
it  is  certainly  true  that  if  the  national  house  shall  fall 
into  the  hands  of  the  Republicans,  they  will  have  to  attend 
to  all  the  other  matters  of  national  housekeeping  as  well 
as  this.  The  chief  and  real  purpose  of  the  Republican 
party  is  eminently  conservative.  It  proposes  nothing 
save  and  except  to  restore  this  government  to  its  original 
tone  in  regard  to  this  element  of  slavery,  and  there  to 
maintain  it,  looking  for  no  further  change  in  reference 
to  it  than  that  which  the  original  framers  of  the  govern- 
ment themselves  expected  and  looked  forward  to. 

The  chief  danger  to  this  purpose  of  the  Republican 
party  is  not  just  now  the  revival  of  the  African  slave- 
trade,  or  the  passage  of  a  congressional  slave-code,  or 
the  declaring  of  a  second  Dred  Scott  decision,  making 
slavery  lawful  in  all  the  states.  These  are  not  pressing 
us  just  now.  They  are  not  quite  ready  yet.  The  authors 
of  these  measures  know  that  we  are  too  strong  for  them; 
but  they  will  be  upon  us  in  due  time,  and  we  will  be 
grappling  with  them  hand  to  hand,  if  they  are  not  now 
headed  off.  They  are  not  now  the  chief  danger  to  the 
purpose  of  the  Republican  organization;  but  the  most 
imminent  danger  that  now  threatens  that  purpose  is  that 
insidious    Douglas    popular    sovereignty.       This    is    the 


184  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

miner  and  sapper.  While  it  does  not  propose  to  revive 
the  African  slave-trade,  nor  to  pass  a  slave-code,  nor  to 
make  a  second  Dred  Scott  decision,  it  is  preparing  us  for 
the  onslaught  and  charge  of  these  ultimate  enemies  when 
they  shall  be  ready  to  come  on,  and  the  word  of  com- 
mand for  them  to  advance  shall  be  given.  I  say  this 
Douglas  popular  sovereignty — for  there  is  a  broad  dis- 
tinction, as  I  now  understand  it,  between  that  article  and 
a  genuine  popular  sovereignty. 

I  believe  there  is  a  genuine  popular  sovereignty.  I 
think  a  definition  of  genuine  popular  sovereignty,  in  the 
abstract,  would  be  about  this :  That  each  man  shall  do 
precisely  as  he  pleases  with  himself,  and  with  all  those 
things  which  exclusively  concern  him.  Applied  to  govern- 
ment, this  principle  would  be,  that  a  general  government 
shall  do  all  those  things  which  pertain  to  it,  and  all  the 
local  governments  shall  do  precisely  as  they  please  in 
respect  to  those  matters  which  exclusively  concern  them. 
I  understand  that  this  government  of  the  United  States, 
under  which  we  live,  is  based  upon  this  principle;  and 
I  am  misunderstood  if  it  is  supposed  that  I  have  any  war 
to  make  upon  that  principle. 

Now,  what  is  Judge  Douglas's  popular  sovereignty? 
It  is,  as  a  principle,  no  other  than  that  if  one  man  chooses 
to  make  a  slave  of  another  man,  neither  that  other  man 
nor  anybody  else  has  a  right  to  object.  Applied  in 
government,  as  he  seeks  to  apply  it,  it  is  this:  If,  in  a 
new  territory  into  which  a  few  people  are  beginning 
to  enter  for  the  purpose  of  making  their  homes,  they 
choose  to  either  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits  or  to 
establish  it  there,  however  one  or  the  other  may  affect 
the  persons  to  be  enslaved,  or  the  infinitely  greater  num- 
ber of  persons  who  are  afterward  to  inhabit  that  territory, 
or  the  other  members  of  the  families  of  communities,  of 
which  they  are  but  an  incipient  member,  or  the  general 
head  of  the  family  of  states  as  parent  of  all — however 
their  action  may  affect  one  or  the  other  of  these,  there  is 


i 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  185 

no  power  or  right  to  interfere.  That  is  Douglas's  popular 
sovereignty  applied. 

He  has  a  good  deal  of  trouble  with  popular  sovereignty. 
His  explanations  explanatory  of  explanations  explained 
are  interminable.  The  most  lengthy  and^  as  I  suppose, 
the  most  maturely  considered  of  his  long  series  of 
explanations  is  his  great  essay  in  Harper's  Magazine* 
I  will  not  attempt  to  enter  on  any  very  thorough  investi- 
gation of  his  argument  as  there  made  and  presented.  I 
will  nevertheless  occupy  a  good  portion  of  your  time  here 
in  drawing  your  attention  to  certain  points  in  it.  Such 
of  you  as  may  have  read  this  document  will  have  per- 
ceived that  the  Judge,  early  in  the  document,  quotes  from 
two  persons  as  belonging  to  the  Republican  party,  with- 
out naming  them,  but  who  can  readily  be  recognized  as 
being  Governor  Seward,|  of  New  York,  and  myself.  It 
is  true  that  exactly  fifteen  months  ago  this  day,  I  believe, 
I  for  the  first  time  expressed  a  sentiment  upon  this  sub- 
ject, and  in  such  a  manner  that  it  should  get  into  print, 
that  the  public  might  see  it  beyond  the  circle  of  my 
hearers,  and  my  expression  of  it  at  that  time  is  the  quota- 
tion that  Judge  Douglas  makes.  He  has  not  made  the 
quotation  with  accuracy,  but  justice  to  him  requires  me 
to  say  that  it  is  sufficiently  accurate  not  to  change  its 
sense. 

The  sense  of  that  quotation  condensed  is  this — that 
this  slavery  element  is  a  durable  element  of  discord 
among  us,  and  that  we  shall  probably  not  have  perfect 
peace  in  this  country  with  it  until  it  either  masters  the 
free  principle  in  our  government,  or  is  so  far  mastered 
by  the  free  principle  as  for  the  public  mind  to  rest  in 
the  belief  that  it  is  going  to  its  end.     That  sentiment 

*  Doug-las  publisherl  in  Harper's  Monthly  of  September,  1859, 
an  article  entitled  "The  Dividing  Line  Between  Federal  and 
Local  Authority.      Popular  Sovereignty  in  the  Territories." 

t  William  H.  Seward,  former  Governor  of  New  York  and,  at 
the  time  of  Lincoln's  speech,  United  States  Senator.  He  had 
made  a  speech  in  which  he  spoke  of  the  "irrepressible  conflict" 
between  slavery  and  freedom,  which  excited  great  hostility  in 
the   South. 


186  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

which  I  now  express  in  this  way  was,  at  no  great  distance 
of  time,  perhaps  in  different  language,  and  in  connection 
with  some  collateral  ideas,  expressed  by  Governor 
Seward,  Judge  Douglas  has  been  so  much  annoyed  by 
the  expression  of  that  sentiment  that  he  has  constantly, 
I  believe,  in  almost  all  his  speeches  since  it  was  uttered, 
been  referring  to  it.  I  find  he  alluded  to  it  in  his  speech 
here,  as  well  as  in  the  copyright  essay.  I  do  not  now 
enter  upon  this  for  the  purpose  of  making  an  elaborate 
argument  to  show  that  we  were  right  in  the  expression 
of  that  sentiment.  I  only  ask  your  attention  to  this 
matter  for  the  purpose  of  making  one  or  two  points 
upon  it. 

If  you  wuU  read  the  copyright  essay,  you  will  discover 
that  Judge  Douglas  himself  says  a  controversy  between 
the  American  colonies  and  the  government  of  Great 
Britain  began  on  the  slavery  question  in  1699,  and  con- 
tinued from  that  time  until  the  Revolution;  and,  while 
he  did  not  say  so,  we  all  know  that  it  has  continued  with 
more  or  less  violence  ever  since  the  Revolution. 

Then  we  need  not  appeal  to  history,  to  the  declaration 
of  the  framers  of  the  government,  but  we  know  from 
Judge  Douglas  himself  that  slavery  began  to  be  an 
element  of  discord  among  the  white  people  of  this  country 
as  far  back  as  1699,  or  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  ago, 
or  five  generations  of  men — counting  thirty  years  to  a 
generation.  Now  it  would  seem  to  me  that  it  might  have 
occurred  to  Judge  Douglas,  or  to  anybody  who  had  turned 
his  attention  to  these  facts,  that  there  was  something  in 
the  nature  of  that  thing,  slavery,  somewhat  durable  for 
mischief  and  discord. 

There  is  another  point  I  desire  to  make  in  regard  to 
this  matter  before  I  leave  it.  From  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution  down  to  1820  is  the  precise  period  of  our 
history  when  we  had  comparative  peace  upon  this  ques- 
tion— the  precise  period  of  time  when  we  came  nearer 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  187 

to  having  peace  about  it  than  any  other  time  of  that 
entire  one  hundred  and  sixty  years,  in  which  he  says  it 
began,  or  of  the  eighty  years  of  our  own  Constitution. 
Then  it  would  be  worth  our  while  to  stop  and  examine 
into  the  probable  reason  of  our  coming  nearer  to  having 
peace  then  than  at  any  other  time.  This  was  the  precise 
period  of  time  in  which  our  fathers  adopted,  and  during 
which  they  followed,  a  policy  restricting  the  spread  of 
slavery,  and  the  whole  Union  was  acquiescing  in  it.  The 
whole  country  looked  forward  to  the  ultimate  extinction 
of  the  institution.  It  was  when  a  policy  had  been 
adopted,  and  was  prevailing,  which  led  all  just  and  right- 
minded  men  to  suppose  that  slavery  was  gradually  coming 
to  an  end,  and  that  they  might  be  quiet  about  it,  watching 
it  as  it  expired.  I  think  Judge  Douglas  might  have 
perceived  that  too,  and,  whether  he  did  or  not,  it  is  worth 
the  attention  of  right-minded  men,  here  and  elsewhere,  to 
consider  whether  that  is  not  the  truth  of  the  case.  If  he 
had  looked  at  these  two  facts,  that  this  matter  has  been 
an  element  of  discord  for  one  hundred  and  sixty  j'^ears 
among  this  people,  and  that  the  only  comparative  peace 
we  have  had  about  it  was  when  that  policy  prevailed  in 
this  government,  which  he  now  wars  upon,  he  might  then, 
perhaps,  have  been  brought  to  a  more  just  appreciation 
of  what  I  said  fifteen  months  ago — that  "a  house  di- 
vided against  itself  cannot  stand.  I  believe  this  gov- 
ernment cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half 
free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved 
— 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  will  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course 
of  ultimate  extinction,  or  its  advocates  will  push  it 
forward,  until  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the 
states,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South." 


188  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

That  was  my  sentiment  at  that  time.  In  connection 
with  it,  I  said : 

"We  are  now  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  oper- 
ation of  that  policy,  that  agitation  has  not  only  not 
ceased,  but  has  constantly  augmented." 

I  now  say  to  you  here  that  we  are  advanced  still  farther 
into  the  sixth  year  since  that  policy  of  Judge  Douglas — 
that  popular  sovereignty  of  his  for  quieting  the  slavery 
question — was  made  the  national  policy.  Fifteen  months 
more  have  been  added  since  I  uttered  that  sentiment,  and 
I  call  upon  you,  and  all  other  right-minded  men,  to  say 
whether  those  fifteen  months  have  belied  or  corroborated 
my  words. 

While  I  am  here  upon  this  subject,  I  cannot  but  express 
gratitude  that  the  true  view  of  this  element  of  discord 
among  us — as  I  believe  it  is — is  attracting  more  and  more 
attention.  I  do  not  believe  that  Governor  Seward  uttered 
that  sentiment  because  I  had  done  so  before,  but  because 
he  reflected  upon  this  subject,  and  saw  the  truth  of  it. 
Nor  do  I  believe,  because  Governor  Seward  or  I  uttered 
it,  that  Mr.  Hickman,*  of  Pennsylvania,  in  different 
language,  since  that  time,  has  declared  his  belief  in  the 
utter  antagonism  which  exists  between  the  principles  of 
liberty  and  slavery.  You  see  we  are  multiplying.  Now, 
while  I  am  speaking  of  Hickman,  let  me  say  I  know 
but  little  about  him.  I  have  never  seen  him,  and  know 
scarcely  anything  about  the  man ;  but  I  will  say  this  much 
about  him:  Of  all  the  anti-Lecompton  Democracy  that 
have  been  brought  to  my  notice,  he  alone  has  the  true, 
genuine  ring  of  the  metal.  And  now,  without  indorsing 
anything  else  he  has  said,  I  will  ask  this  audience  to 
give  three  clieers  for  Hickman.  \The  audience  responded 
•with  three  rousing  cheers  for  Hickman.^ 

*  John  Hickman,   a  member  of  Congress   from   Pennoylvania. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  189 

Another  point  in  the  copyright  essay  to  which  I  would 
ask  your  attention  is  rather  a  feature  to  be  extracted  from 
the  whole  thing,  than  from  any  express  declaration  of  it 
at  any  point.  It  is  a  general  feature  of  that  document, 
and  indeed,  of  all  of  Judge  Douglas's  discussions  of  this 
question,  that  the  territories  of  the  United  States  and  the 
states  of  this  Union  are  exactly  alike — that  there  is  no 
difference  between  them  at  all — that  the  Constitution 
applies  to  the  territories  precisely  as  it  does  to  the  states 
— and  that  the  United  States  Government,  under  the 
Constitution,  may  not  do  in  a  state  what  it  may  not  do  in 
a  territory,  and  what  it  must  do  in  a  state,  it  must  do  in 
a  territory.  Gentlemen,  is  that  a  true  view  of  the  case? 
It  is  necessary  for  this  squatter  sovereignty;  but  is  it 
true  ? 

Let  us  consider.  What  does  it  depend  upon?  It 
depends  altogether  upon  the  proposition  that  the  states 
must,  without  the  interference  of  the  General  Govern- 
ment, do  all  those  things  that  pertain  exclusively  to  them- 
selves— that  are  local  in  their  nature,  that  have  no  con- 
nection with  the  General  Government.  After  Judge 
Douglas  has  established  'this  proposition,  which  nobody 
disputes  or  ever  has  disputed,  he  proceeds  to  assume, 
without  proving  it,  that  slavery  is  one  of  those  little, 
unimportant,  triviaL matters,  which  are  of  just  about  as 
much  consequence  as  the  question  would  be  to  me  whether 
my  neighbor  should  raise  horned  cattle  or  plant  tobacco ; 
that  there  is  no  moral  question  about  it,  but  that  it  is 
altogether  a  matter  of  dollars  and  cents ;  that  when  a  new 
territory  is  opened  for  settlement,  the  first  man  who  goes 
into  it  may  plant  there  a  thing  which,  like  the  Canada 
thistle,  or  some  other  of  those  pests  of  the  soil,  cannot 
be  dug  out  by  the  millions  of  men  who  will  come  there- 
after ;  that  it  is  one  of  those  little  things  that  is  so  trivial 
in  its  nature  that  it  has  no  effect  upon  anybody  save  the 
few  men  who  first  plant  upon  the  soil;  that  it  is  not  a 
thing  which  in  any  way  affects  the  family  of  coramuni- 


190  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

ties  composing  these  states,  nor  any  way  endangers  the 
(ieneral  Government.  Judge  Douglas  ignores  altogether 
the  ver}'  well-known  fact  that  we  have  never  had  a  serious 
menace  to  our  political  existence,  except  it  sprang  from 
tliis  thing,  which  he  chooses  to  regard  as  only  upon  a 
par  with  onions  and  potatoes. 

Turn  it,  and  contemjjlate  it  in  another  view.  He  says 
that,  according  to  his  popular  sovereignty,  the  General 
Government  may  give  to  the  territories  governors,  judges, 
marshals,  secretaries,  and  all  the  other  chief  men  to 
govern  them,  but  they  must  not  touch  upon  this  other 
question.  Why  ?  The  question  of  who  shall  be  governor 
of  a  territory  for  a  year  or  two,  and  pass  away,  without 
his  track  being  left  upon  the  soil,  or  an  act  which  he  did 
for  good  or  for  evil  being  left  behind,  is  a  question  of 
vast  national  magnitude.  It  is  so  much  opposed  in  its 
nature  to  locality  that  the  nation  itself  must  decide  it ; 
while  this  other  matter  of  planting  slavery  upon  a  soil — 
a  thing  which,  once  planted,  cannot  be  eradicated  by  the 
succeeding  millions  who  have  as  much  right  there  as  the 
first  comers,  or  if  eradicated,  not  without  infinite  difficulty 
and  a  long  struggle — he  considers  the  power  to  prohibit 
it  as  one  of  these  little,  local,  trivial  things  that  the  nation 
ought  not  to  say  a  word  about;  that  it  affects  nobody 
save  the  few  men  who  are  there. 

Take  these  two  things  and  consider  them  together, 
present  the  question  of  planting  a  state  with  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  by  the  side  of  a  question  of  who  shall  be 
governor  of  Kansas  for  a  year  or  two,  and  is  there  a 
man  here — is  there  a  man  on  earth — who  would  not  say 
the  governor  question  is  the  little  one,  and  the  slavery 
question  is  the  great  one.^  I  ask  any  honest  Democrat  if 
the  small,  the  local,  and  the  trivial  and  temporary  ques- 
tion is  not.  Who  shall  be  governor? — while  the  durable, 
the  important,  and  the  mischievous  one  is.  Shall  this  soil 
be  planted  with  slavery? 

This  is  an  idea,  I  sup})ose,  wliich  has  arisen  in  Judge 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  191 

Douglas's  mind  from  his  peculiar  structure.  I  suppose 
the  institution  of  slavery  really  looks  small  to  him.  He 
is  so  put  up  by  nature  that  a  lash  upon  his  back  would 
hurt  him^  but  a  lash  upon  anybody  else's  back  does  not 
hurt  him.  That  is  the  build  of  the  man^  and  consequently 
he  looks  upon  the  matter  of  slavery  in  this  unimportant 
light. 

Judge  Douglas  ought  to  remember,  when  he  is  endeav- 
oring to  force  this  policy  upon  the  American  people, 
that  while  he  is  put  up  in  that  way,  a  good  many  are  not. 
He  ought  to  remember  that  there  was  once  in  this  country 
a  man  by  the  name  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  supposed  to  be 
a  Democrat — a  man  whose  principles  and  policy  are  not 
very  prevalent  amongst  Democrats  today,  it  is  true;  but 
that  man  did  not  take  exactly  this  view  of  the  insignifi- 
cance of  the  element  of  slavery  which  our  friend  Judge 
Douglas  does.  In  contemplation  of  this  thing,  we  all 
know  he  was  led  to  exclaim,  "I  tremble  for  my  country 
when  I  remember  that  God  is  just !"  We  know  how  he 
looked  upon  it  when  he  thus  expressed  himself.  There 
was  danger  to  this  country,  danger  of  the  avenging  justice 
of  God,  in  that  little,  unimportant  popular-sovereignty 
question  of  Judge  Douglas.  He  supposed  there  was  a 
question  of  God's  eternal  justice  wrapped  up  in  the 
enslaving  of  any  race  of  men,  or  any  man,  and  that  those 
who  did  so  braved  the  arm  of  Jehovah — that  when  a 
nation  thus  dared  the  Almighty,  every  friend  of  that 
nation  had  cause  to  dread  His  wrath.  Choose  ye  between 
Jefferson  and  Douglas  as  to  what  is  the  true  view  of 
this  element  among  us. 

There  is  another  little  difficulty  about  this  matter  of 
treating  the  territories  and  states  alike  in  all  things,  to 
which  I  ask  your  attention,  and  I  shall  leave  this  branch 
of  the  case.  If  there  is  no  difference  between  them,  why 
not  make  the  territories  states  at  once.''  What  is  the 
reason  that  Kansas  was  not  fit  to  come  into  the  Union 
when  it  was  organized  into  a  territory,  in  Judge  Douglas's 


192  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

view?  Can  any  of  you  tell  any  reason  why  it  should  not 
have  come  into  the  Union  at  once?  They  are  fit,  as  he 
thinks,  to  decide  upon  the  slavery  question — the  largest 
and  most  important  with  which  they  could  possibly  deal; 
what  could  they  do  by  coming  into  the  Union  that  they 
are  not  fit  to  do,  according  to  his  view,  by  staying  out 
of  it?  Oh,  they  are  not  fit  to  sit  in  Congress  and  decide 
upon  the  rates  of  postage,  or  questions  of  ad  valorem  or 
specific  duties  on  foreign  goods,  or  live-oak  timber  con- 
tracts; they  are  not  fit  to  decide  these  vastly  important 
matters,  which  are  national  in  their  import,  but  they  are 
fit,  "from  the  jump,"  to  decide  this  little  negro  question. 
But,  gentlemen,  the  case  is  too  plain;  I  occupy  too  much 
time  on  this  head,  and  I  pass  on. 

Near  the  close  of  the  copyright  essay,  the  Judge,  I 
think,  comes  very  near  kicking  his  own  fat  into  the  fire. 
I  did  not  think  when  I  commenced  these  remarks  that  I 
would  read  from  that  article,  but  I  now  believe  I  will : 

"This  exposition  of  the  history  of  these  measures 
shows  conclusively  that  the  authors  of  the  compromise 
measures  of  1850,  and  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act  of 
1854,  as  well  as  the  members  of  the  Continental  Congress 
in  1774,  and  the  founders  of  our  system  of  government 
subsequent  to  the  Revolution,  regarded  the  people  of  the 
territories  and  colonies  as  political  communities  which 
were  entitled  to  a  free  and  exclusive  power  of  legislation 
in  their  provincial  legislatures,  where  their  representation 
could  alone  be  preserved,  in  all  cases  of  taxation  and 
internal  polity." 

When  the  Judge  saw  that  putting  in  the  word  "slavery" 
would  contradict  his  own  history,  he  put  in  what  he  knew 
would  pass  as  synonymous  with  it — "internal  polity." 
Whenever  we  find  that  in  one  of  his  speeches,  the  substi- 
tute is  used  in  this  manner;  and  I  can  tell  you  the  reason. 
It  would  be  too  bald  a  contradiction  to  sav  slavery,  but 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX  193 

"internal  polity"  is  a  general  phrase  which  would  pass  in 
some  quarters,  and  which  he  hopes  will  pass  with  the 
reading  community,  for  the  same  thing. 

"This  right  pertains  to  the  people  collectively,  as  a 
law-abiding  and  peaceful  community,  and  not  to  the 
isolated  individuals  who  may  wander  upon  the  public 
domain  in  violation  of  law.  It  can  only  be  exercised 
where  there  are  inhabitants  sufficient  to  constitute  a 
government,  and  capable  of  performing  its  various  func- 
tions and  duties,  a  fact  to  be  ascertained  and  deter- 
mined by "     Whom  do  you  think?     Judge  Douglas 

says,  "By  Congress." 

"Whether  the  number  shall  be  fixed  at  ten,  fifteen, 
or  twenty  thousand  inhabitants  does  not  affect  the 
principle." 

Now  I  have  only  a  few  comments  to  make.  Popular 
sovereignty,  by  his  own  words,  does  not  pertain  to  the 
few  persons  who  wander  upon  the  public  domain  in  viola- 
tion of  law.  We  have  his  words  for  that.  When  it  does 
pertain  to  them  is  when  they  are  sufficient  to  be  formed 
into  an  organized  political  community,  and  he  fixes  the 
minimum  for  that  at  10,000,  and  the  maximum  at  20,000. 
Xow  I  would  like  to  know  what  is  to  be  done  with  the 
9,000.'  Are  they  all  to  be  treated,  until  they  are  large 
enough  to  be  organized  into  a  political  community,  as 
wanderers  upon  the  public  land  in  violation  of  law  ?  And 
if  so  treated  and  driven  out,  at  what  point  of  time  would 
there  ever  be  ten  thousand?  If  they  were  not. driven  out, 
but  remained  there  as  trespassers  upon  the  public  land 
in  violation  of  the  law,  can  they  establish  slavery  there  ? 
No;  the  Judge  says  popular  sovereignty  don't  pertain 
to  them  then.  Can  they  exclude  it  then?  No;  popular 
sovereignty  don't  pertain  to  them  then.  I  would  like  to 
know,  in  the  case  covered  by  the  essay,  what  condition 
•the  people  of  the  territory  are  in  before  they  reach  the 
number  of  ten  tliousand. 


194  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

But  the  main  point  I  wish  to  ask  attention  to  is  that 
the  question  as  to  when  they  shall  have  reached  a  sufficient 
number  to  be  formed  into  a  regular  organized  community 
is  to  be  decided  "by  Congress."  Judge  Douglas  says  so. 
Well,  gentlemen,  that  is  about  all  we  want.  No;  that  is 
all  the  Southerners  want.  That  is  what  all  those  who  are 
for  slavery  want.  They  do  not  want  Congress  to  pro- 
liibit  slavery  from  coming  into  the  new  territories,  and 
they  do  not  want  popular  sovereignty  to  hinder  it;  and 
as  Congress  is  to  say  when  thev  are  ready  to  be  organized, 
all  that  the  South  has  to  do  is  to  get  Congress  to  hold  off. 
Let  Congress  hold  off  until  they  are  ready  to  be  admitted 
as  a  state,  and  the  South  has  all  it  wants  in  taking  slavery 
into  and  planting  it  in  all  the  territories  that  we  now 
have,  or  hereafter  may  have.  In  a  word,  the  whole  thing, 
at  a  dash  of  the  pen,  is  at  last  put  in  the  power  of 
Congress ;  for  if  they  do  not  have  this  popular  sovereignty 
until  Congress  organizes  them,  I  ask  if  it  at  last  does 
not  come  from  Congress?  If,  at  last,  it  amounts  to  any- 
thing at  all.  Congress  gives  it  to  them.  I  submit  this 
rather  for  your  reflection  than  for  comment.  After  all 
that  is  said,  at  last,  by  a  dash  of  the  pen,  everything  that 
has  gone  before  is  undone,  and  he  jouts  the  whole  question 
under  the  control  of  Congress.  After  fighting  through 
more  than  three  hours,  if  you  will  undertake  to  read  it, 
he  at  last  places  the  whole  matter  under  the  control  of 
that  power  which  he  had  been  contending  against,  and 
arrives  at  a  result  directly  contrary  to  what  he  had  been 
laboring  to  do.  He  at  last  leaves  the  whole  matter  to 
the  control  of  Congress. 

There  are  two  main  objects,  as  I  understand  it,  of  this 
Harper's  Magazine  essay.  One  was  to  show,  if  possible, 
that  the  men  of  our  Revolutionary  times  were  in  favor 
of  his  popular  sovereignty ;  and  the  other  was  to  show 
that  the  Dred  Scott  decision  had  not  entirely  squelched 
out  this  popular  sovereignty.  I  do  not  propose,  in  regard 
to  this  argument  drawn  from  the  history  of  former  times, 


SELECTIOXS    FROM    LINXOLX  ]-)\ 

to  enter  into  a  detailed  examination  of  the  historical 
statements  he  has  made.  I  have  the  impression  that  they 
are  inaccurate  in  a  great  many  instances ;  sometimes  in 
positive  statement,  but  very  much  more  inaccurate  by  the 
suppression  of  statements  that  really  belong  to  the 
history.  But  I  do  not  propose  to  affirm  that  this  is  so 
to  any  very  great  extent,  or  to  enter  into  a  very  minute 
examination  of  his  historical  statement.  I  avoid  doing 
so  upon  this  principle — that  if  it  were  important  for  me 
to  pass  out  of  this  lot  in  the  least  period  of  time  possible, 
and  I  came  to  that  fence  and  saw  by  a  calculation  of  my 
own  strength  and  agility  that  I  could  clear  it  at  a  bound, 
it  would  be  folly  for  me  to  stop  and  consider  whether  I 
could  or  could  not  crawl  through  a  crack.  So  I  say  of, 
the  whole  history  contained  in  his  essay,  where  he 
endeavored  to  link  the  men  of  the  Revolution  to  popular 
sovereignty.  It  only  requires  an  effort  to  leap  out  of  it — 
a  single  bound  to  be  entirely  successful.  If  you  read  it 
over,  you  will  find  that  he  quotes  here  and  there  from 
documents  of  the  Revolutionary  times,  tending  to  show 
that  the  people  of  the  colonies  were  desirous  of  regulat- 
ing their  own  concerns  in  their  own  way ;  that  the  British 
Government  should  not  interfere;  that  at  one  time  they 
struggled  with  the  British  Government  to  be  permitted 
to  exclude  the  African  slave-trade;  if  not  directly,  to  be 
permitted  to  exclude  it  indirectly  by  taxation  sufficient 
to  discourage  and  destroy  it.  From  these  and  many 
things  of  this  sort.  Judge  Douglas  argues  that  they  were 
in  favor  of  the  people  of  our  own  territories  excluding 
slavery  if  they  wanted  to,  or  planting  it  there  if  they 
wanted  to,  doing  just  as  they  pleased  from  the  time  they 
settled  upon  the  territory.  Now,  however  his  history 
may  apply,  and  whatever  of  his  argument  there  may  be 
that  is  sound  and  accurate  or  unsound  and  inaccurate, 
if  we  can  find  out  what  these  men  did  themselves  do 
upon  this  very  question  of  slavery  in  the  territories,  does 
it  not  end  the  whole  thing?     If,  after  all  this  labor  and 


196  sr:LECTioxs  from  linxoln 

effort  to  show  that  the  men  of  the  Revolution  were  in 
favor  of  his  popular  sovereignty  and  his  mode  of  dealing 
with  slavery  in  the  territories,  we  can  show  that  these 
very  men  took  hold  of  that  subject,  and  dealt  with  it, 
we  can  see  for  ourselves  how  they  dealt  with  it.  It  is 
not  a  matter  of  argument  or  inference,  but  we  know  what 
they  thought  about  it. 

It  is  precisely  upon  that  part  of  the  history  of  the 
country  that  one  important  omission  is  made  by  Judge 
Douglas.  He  selects  parts  of  the  history  of  the  United 
States  upon  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  treats  it  as  the 
whole,  omitting  from  his  historical  sketch  the  legislation 
of  Congress  in  regard  to  the  admission  of  Missouri,  by 
which  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  established,  and 
slavery  excluded  from  a  country  half  as  large  as  the 
present  United  States.  All  this  is  left  out  of  his  history, 
and  in  no  wise  alluded  to  by  him,  so  far  as  I  can  remem- 
ber, save  once,  when  he  makes  a  remark,  that  upon  his 
principle  the  Supreme  Court  was  authorized  to  pronounce 
a  decision  that  the  act  called  the  Missouri  Compromise 
was  unconstitutional.  All  that  history  has  been  left  out. 
But  this  part  of  the  history  of  the  country  was  not  made 
by  the  men  of  the  Revolution. 

There  was  another  part  of  our  political  history  made 
by  the  very  men  who  were  the  actors  in  the  Revolution, 
which  has  taken  the  name  of  the  Ordinance  of  '87.  Let 
me  bring  that  history  to  your  attention.  In  1784-,  I 
believe,  this  same  Mr.  Jefferson  drew  up  an  ordinance 
for  the  government  of  the  country  upon  which  we  now 
stand;  or  rather  a  frame  or  draft  of  an  ordinance  for 
the  government  of  this  country,  here  in  Ohio,  our  neigh- 
bors in  Indiana,  us  who  live  in  Illinois,  and  our  neighbors 
in  Wisconsin  and  Michigan.  In  that  ordinance,  drawn 
up  not  only  for  the  government  of  that  territory,  but  for 
the  territories  south  of  the  Ohio  River,  Mr,  Jefferson 
expressly  provided  for  the  prohibition  of  slavery.  Judge 
Douglas  says,  and  perhaps  he  is  right,  that  that  provision 


SELECTIONS  FEOM  LINCOLN  197 

was  lost  from  that  ordinance.  I  believe  that  is  true. 
When  the  vote  was  taken  upon  it,  a  majority  of  all 
present  in  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  voted  for 
it;  but  there  were  so  many  absentees  that  those  voting 
for  it  did  not  make  the  clear  majority  necessary,  and  it 
was  lost.  But  three  years  after  that  the  Congress  of  the 
Confederation  were  together  again,  and  they  adopted 
a  new  ordinance  for  the  government  of  this  Northwest 
Territory,  not  contemplating  territory  south  of  the  river, 
for  the  states  owning  that  territory  had  hithero  refrained 
from  giving  it  to  the  General  Government;  hence  they 
made  the  ordinance  to  apply  only  to  what  the  government 
owned.  In  that,  the  provision  excluding  slavery  was  • 
inserted  and  passed  unanimously,  or  at  any  rate  it  passed 
and  became  a  part  of  the  law  of  the  land.  Under  that 
ordinance  we  live.  First,  here,  in  Ohio,  you  were  a 
territory,  then  an  enabling  act  was  passed,  authorizing 
you  to  form  a  constitution  and  state  government,  provided 
it  was  Republican,  and  not  in  conflict  with  the  ordinance 
of  '87.  When  you  framed  your  constitution  and  presented 
it  for  admission,  I  think  you  will  find  the  legislation  upon 
the  subject  will  show  that,  "whereas  you  had  formed  a 
constitution  that  was  Republican,  and  not  in  conflict  with 
the  ordinance  of  '87,"  therefore  you  were  admitted  upon 
equal  footing  with  the  original  states.  The  same  process 
in  a  few  years  was  gone  through  Avith  Indiana,  and  so 
with  Illinois,  and  the  same  substantially  with  Michigan 
and  Wisconsin. 

Not  only  did  that  ordinance  prevail,  but  it  was  con- 
stantly looked  to  whenever  a  step  was  taken  by  a  new 
territory  to  become  a  state.  Congress  always  turned  their 
attention  to  it,  and  in  all  their  movements  upon  this 
subject  they  traced  their  course  by  that  ordinance  of  '87. 
When  they  admitted  new  states  they  advertised  them  of 
this  ordinance  as  a  part  of  the  legislation  of  the  country. 
They  did  so  because  they  had  traced  the  ordinance  of  '87 
throughout  the  history  of  this  country.      Begin  with  the 


198  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

raen  of  the  Revolution,  and  go  down  for  sixty  entire 
years,  and  until  the  last  scrap  of  that  territory  comes 
into  the  Union  in  the  form  of  the  state  of  Wisconsin, 
everything  was  made  to  conform  to  the  ordinance  of  '87, 
excluding  slavery  from  that  vast  extent  of  country. 

I  omitted  to  mention  in  the  right  place  that  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  was  in  process  of  being  framed 
when  that  ordinance  was  made  by  the  Congress  of  the 
Confederation;  and  one  of  the  first  acts  of  Congress 
itself,  under  the  new  Constitution  itself,  was  to  give  force 
to  that  ordinance  by  putting  power  to  carry  it  out  into 
the  hands  of  new  officers  under  the  Constitution,  in  the 
place  of  the  old  ones,  who  had  been  legislated  out  of 
existence  by  the  change  in  the  government  from  the  Con- 
federation to  the  Constitution.  Not  only  so,  but  I  believe 
Indiana  once  or  twice,  if  not  Ohio,  petitioned  the  General 
Government  for  the  privilege  of  suspending  that  provision 
and  allowing  them  to  have  slaves.  A  report  made  by 
Mr.  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  himself  a  slaveholder,  was 
directly  against  it,  and  the  action  was  to  refuse  them  the 
privilege  of  violating  the  ordinance  of  '87. 

This  period  of  history,  which  I  have  run  over  briefly, 
is,  I  presume,  as  familiar  to  most  of  the  assembly  as  any 
other  part  of  the  history  of  our  country.  I  suppose  that 
few  of  my  hearers  are  not  as  familiar  with  that  part  of 
history  as  I  am,  and  I  only  mention  it  to  recall  your 
attention  to  it  at  this  time.  And  hence  I  ask  how 
extraordinary  a  thing  it  is  that  a  man  who  has  occupied 
a  position  upon  the  floor  of  the  Senate  of  the  United 
StTtes,  who  is  now  in  his  third  term,  and  who  looks  to 
see  the  government  of  this  whole  country  fall  into  his 
own  hands,  pretending  to  give  a  truthful  and  accurate 
history  of  the  slavery  question  in  this  country,  should  so 
entirely  ignore  the  whole  of  that  portion  of  our  history — 
the  most  important  of  all.  Is  it  not  a  most  extraordinary 
spectacle,  that  a  man  should  stand  up  and  ask  for  any 
confidence  in  his   statements,   who  sets   out  as   he  does 


SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN  199 

with  })ortions  of  history,  calling  upon  the  people  to  believe 
th;it  it  is  a  true  and  fair  representation,  when  the  leading 
part  and  controlling  feature  of  the  whole  history  is 
carefully  suppressed? 

But  the  mere  leaving  out  is  not  the  most  remarkable 
feature  of  this  most  remarkable  essay.  His  proposition 
is  to  establish  that  the  leading  men  of  the  Revolution 
were  for  his  great  principle  of  non-intervention  by  the 
government  in  the  question  of  slavery  in  the  territories ; 
while  histor}^  shows  that  they  decided  in  the  cases  actually 
brought  before  them  in  exactly  the  contrary  way,  and  he 
knows  it.  Not  only  did  they  so  decide  at  that  time,  but 
they  stuck  to  it  during  sixty  years,  through  thick  and 
thin,  as  long  as  there  was  one  of  the  Revolutionary  heroes 
upon  the  stage  of  political  action.  Through  their  whole 
course,  from  first  to  last,  they  clung  to  freedom.  And 
now  he  asks  the  community  to  believe  that  the  men  of 
llie  Revolution  were  in  favor  of  his  great  principle,  when 
we  have  the  naked  history  that  they  themselves  dealt  with 
this  very  subject-matter  of  his  principle,  and  utterly 
repudiated  his  principle,  acting  upon  a  precisely  contrary 
ground.  It  is  as  impudent  and  absurd  as  if  a  prosecuting 
attorney  should  stand  up  before  a  jury,  and  ask  them  to 
convict  A  as  the  murderer  of  B,  while  B  was  walking 
alive  before  them. 

I  say  again,  if  Judge  Douglas  asserts  that  the  men 
of  the  Revolution  acted  upon  principles  by  which,  to  be 
consistent  with  themselves,  they  ought  to  have  adopted 
his  popular  sovereignty,  then,  upon  a  consideration  of  his 
own  argument,  he  had  a  right  to  make  you  believe  that 
they  understood  the  principles  of  government,  but  mis- 
applied them — that  he  has  arisen  to  enlighten  the  world 
as  to  the  just  application  of  this  principle.  He  has  a 
right  to  try  to  persuade  you  that  he  understands  their 
principles  better  than  they  did,  and  therefore  he  will 
apply  them  now,  not  as  they  did,  but  as  they  ought  to 
have  done.     He  has  a  right  to  go  before  the  community, 


200  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

and  try  to  convince  them  of  this;  but  he  has  no  right  to 
attempt  to  impose  upon  anyone  the  belief  that  these 
men  themselves  approved  of  his  great  principle.  There 
are  two  ways  of  establishing  a  proposition.  One  is  by 
trying  to  demonstrate  it  upon  reason,  and  the  other  is 
to  show  that  great  men  in  former  times  have  thought  so 
and  so,  and  thus  to  pass  it  by  the  weight  of  pure 
authority.  Now  if  Judge  Douglas  will  demonstrate 
somehow  that  this  is  popular  sovereignty — the  right  of 
one  man  to  make  a  slave  of  another,  without  any  right 
in  that  other,  or  anyone  else,  to  object — demonstrate  it 
as  Euclid  demonstrated  propositions — there  is  no  objec- 
tion. But  when  he  comes  forward,  seeking  to  carry  a 
principle  by  bringing  to  it  the  authority  of  men  who 
themselves  utterly  repudiated  that  principle,  I  ask  that 
he  shall  not  be  permitted  to  do  it. 

I  see,  in  the  Judge's  speech  here,  a  short  sentence  in 
these  words:  "Our  fathers,  when  they  formed  this 
government  under  which  we  live,  understood  this  question 
just  as  well  and  even  better  than  we  do  now."  That  is 
true ;  I  stick  to  that.  I  will  stand  by  Judge  Douglas  in 
that  to  the  bitter  end.  And  now.  Judge  Douglas,  come 
and  stand  by  me,  and  truthfully  show  how  they  acted, 
understanding  it  better  than  we  do.  All  I  ask  of  you. 
Judge  Douglas,  is  to  stick  to  the  proposition  that  the 
men  of  the  Revolution  understood  this  subject  better 
than  we  do  now,  and  with  that  better  understanding 
they  acted  better  than  you  are  trying  to  act  now, 

I  wish  to  say  something  now  in  regard  to  the  Dred 
Scott  decision,  as  dealt  with  by  Judge  Douglas.  In  that 
"memorable  debate"  between  Judge  Douglas  and  myself, 
last  year,  the  Judge  thought  fit  to  commence  a  process 
of  catechizing  me,  and  at  P  reeport  I  answered  his  ques- 
tions, and  propounded  some  to  him.  Among  others 
propounded  to  him  was  one  that  I  have  here  now.  The 
substance,  as  I  remember  it,  is:  "Can  the  people  of  a 
United  States  territorv,  under  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  201 

in  any  lawful  way^  against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of  the 
United  States_,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits,  prior  to 
the  formation  of  a  state  constitution?"  He  answered 
that  they  could  lawfully  exclude  slavery  from  the  United 
States  territories,  notwithstanding  the  Dred  Scott  deci- 
sion. There  was  something  about  that  answer  that  has 
probably  been  a  trouble  to  the  Judge  ever  since. 

The  Dred  Scott  decision  expressly  gives  every  citizen 
of  the  United  States  a  right  to  carry  his  slaves  into  the 
United  States  territories.  And  now  there  was  some 
inconsistency  in  saying  that  the  decision  was  right,  and 
saying,  too,  that  the  people  of  the  territory  could  lawfully 
drive  slavery  out  again.  When  all  the  trash,  the  words, 
the  collateral  matter,  was  cleared  away  from  it — all  the 
chaff  was  fanned  out  of  it — it  was  a  bare  absurdity:  no 
less  than  that  a  thing  may  be  lawfully  driven  away  from 
where  it  has  a  lawful  right  to  be.  Clear  it  of  all  the 
verbiage,  and  that  is  the  naked  truth  of  his  proposition — 
that  a  thing  may  be  lawfully  driven  from  the  place  where 
it  has  a  lawful  right  to  stay.  Well,  it  was  because  the 
Judge  couldn't  help  seeing  this  that  he  has  had  so  much 
trouble  with  it;  and  what  I  want  to  ask  your  especial 
attention  to,  just  now,  is  to  remind  you,  if  you  have  not 
noticed  the  fact,  that  the  Judge  does  not  any  longer  say 
that  the  people  can  exclude  slavery.  He  does  not  say 
so  in  the  copyright  essay;  he  did  not  say  so  in  the  speech 
that  he  made  here;  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  since  his 
reelection  to  the  Senate,  he  has  never  said,  as  he  did  at 
Freeport,  that  the  people  of  the  territories  can  exclude 
slavery.  He  desired  that  you,  who  wish  the  territories 
to  remain  free,  should  believe  that  he  stands  by  that 
position,  but  he  does  not  say  it  himself:  He  escapes,  to 
some  extent,  the  absurd  position  I  have  stated  by  chang- 
ing his  language  entirely.  What  he  says  now  is  something 
different  in  language,  and  we  will  consider  whether  it  is 
not  different  in  sense  too.  It  is  now  that  the  Dred  Scott 
decision^  or  rather  the  Constitution  under  that  decision. 


202  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

does   not   carry   slavery   into   the   territories   beyond   the 

power  of  the  people  of  the  territories  to  control  it  as 

other  property.      He  does  not  say  the  people  can  drive 

it  out,  but  they  can  control  it  as  other  property.     The 

language   is   different;    we   should   consider   whether   the 

sense  is  different.     Driving  a  horse  out  of  this  lot  is  too 

plain  a  proposition  to  be  mistaken  about  it;  it  is  putting 

him  on  the  other  side  of  the  fence.     Or  it  might  be  a 

sort  of  exclusion  of  him  from  the  lot  if  you  were  to  kill 

him  and  let  the  worms  devour  him;  but  neither  of  these 

things  is  the  same  as  "controlling  him  as  other  property." 

That  would  be  to  feed  him,  to  pamper  him,  to  ride  him, 

to  use  and  abuse  him,  to  make  the  most  money  out  of 

him,  "as  other  property";  but,  please  you,  what  do  the 

men  who  are  in  favor  of  slavery  want  more  than  this  ? 

What  do  they  really  want,  other  than  that  slavery,  being 

in  the  territories,  shall  be  controlled  as  other  property? 

If  they  want  anything  else,  I  do  not  comprehend  it. 

I   ask  your   attention   to  this,  first,   for  the   purpose    of 

pointing  out  the  change  of  ground  the  Judge  has  made; 

and,  in  the  second  place,  the  importance  of  the  change — 

that  that  change  is   not  such  as  to  give  you  gentlemen 

who  want  his  popular  sovereignty  the  power  to  exclude 

the  institution  or  drive  it  out  at  all.     I  know  the  Judge 

sometimes  squints  at  the  argument  that  in  controlling  it 

as    other   property    by   unfriendly   legislation    they    may 

control  it  to  death,  as  you  might  in  the  case  of  a  horse,- 

perhaps,  feed  him  so  lightly  and  ride  him  so  much  that 

he  would  die.     But  when  you  come  to  legislative  control, 

there  is  something  more  to  be  attended  to.      I  have  no 

doubt,  myself,  that  if  the  territories  should  undertake  to 

control  slave  property  as  other  property — that  is,  control 

it  in  such  a  way  that  it  would  be  the  most  valuable  as 

property,  and   make  it  bear  its  just  proportion  in   the 

way    of    burdens    as    property — really    deal    with    it    as 

property — the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  will 

say,  "God  speed  you,  and  amen."     But  I  undertake  to 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  203 

give  the  opinion,  at  least,  that  if  the  territories  attempt 
by  any  direct  legislation  to  drive  the  man  with  his  slave 
out  of  the  territory,  or  to  decide  that  his  slave  is  free 
because  of  his  being  taken  in  there,  or  to  tax  him  to  such 
an  extent  that  he  cannot  keep  him  there,  the  Supreme 
Court  will  unhesitatingly  decide  all  such  legislation 
unconstitutional,  as  long  as  that  Supreme  Court  is  con- 
structed as  the  Dred  Scott  Supreme  Court  is.  The  first 
two  things  they  have  already  decided,  except  that  there 
is  a  little  quibble  among  lawyers  between  the  words  dicta 
and  decision.*  They  have  already  decided  that  a  negro 
cannot  be  made  free  by  territorial  legislation. 

What  is  that  Dred  Scott  decision?  Judge  Douglas 
labors  to  show  that  it  is  one  thing,  while  I  think  it  is 
altogether  different.  It  is  a  long  opinion,  but  it  is  all 
embodied  in  this  short  statement: 

"The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  forbids 
Congress  to  deprive  a  man  of  his  property  without  due 
process  of  law;  the  right  of  property  in  slaves  is  distinctly 
and  expressly  affirmed  in  that  Constitution  ;  therefore,  if 
Congress  shall  undertake  to  say  that  a  man's  slave  is  no 
longer  his  slave  when  he  crosses  a  certain  line  into  a 
territory,  that  is  depriving  him  of  his  property  without 
due  process  of  law,  and  is  unconstitutional." 

There  is  the  whole  Dred  Scott  decision.  They  add 
that  if  Congress  cannot  do  so  itself,  Congress  cannot 
confer  any  power  to  do  so,  and  hence  any  effort  by  the 
territorial  legislature  to  do  either  of  these  things  is 
absolutely  decided  against.  It  is  a  foregone  conclusion 
by  that  court. 

Now,  as  to  this  indirect  mode  by  "unfriendly  legisla- 
tion," all  lawyers  here  will  readih'  understand  that  such 

*  A  decision  of  a  court  is  its  finding  upon  a  question  of  law 
or  fact  arising-  in  a  case.  A  dictuyn  is  a  judicial  opinion  ex- 
pressed by  judges  on  points  that  do  not  necessarily  arise  in  the 
case,  and  are  not  involved  in  it.  A  dictum  does  not  have  the 
binding  force  upon  subsequent  or  inferior  courts  that  is  accorded 
to    a    decision. 


204  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

a  proposition  cannot  be  tolerated  for  a  moment,  because 
a  legislature  cannot  indirectly  do  that  which  it  cannot 
accomplish  directly.  Then  I  say  any  legislation  to 
control  this  property,  as  property,  for  its  benefit  as 
property,  would  be  hailed  by  this  Dred  Scott  Supreme 
Court,  and  fully  sustained;  but  any  legislation  driving 
slave  property  out,  or  destroying  it  as  property,  directly 
or  indirectly,  will  most  assuredly  by  that  court  be  held 
unconstitutional. 

Judge  Douglas  says  that  if  the  Constitution  carries 
slavery  into  the  territories,  beyond  the  power  of  the 
people  of  the  territories  to  control  it  as  other  property, 
then  it  follows  logically  that  everyone  who  swears  to 
support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  must  give 
that  support  to  that  property  which  it  needs.  And  if 
the  Constitution  carries  slavery  into  the  territories  beyond 
the  power  of  the  people  to  control  it  as  other  property, 
then  it  also  carries  it  into  the  states,  because  the  Consti- 
tution is  the  supreme  law  of  the  land.  Now,  gentlemen, 
if  it  were  not  for  my  excessive  modesty  I  would  say  that 
I  told  that  very  thing  to  Judge  Douglas  quite  a  year  ago. 
This  argument  is  here  in  print,  and  if  it  were  not  for  my 
modesty,  as  I  said,  I  might  call  your  attention  to  it.  If 
you  read  it,  you  will  find  that  I  not  only  made  that  argu- 
ment, but  made  it  better  than  he  has  made  it  since. 

There  is,  however^  this  difference.  I  say  now,  and 
said  then,  there  is  no  sort  of  question  that  the  Supreme 
Court  has  decided  that  it  is  the  right  of  the  slaveholder 
to  take  his  slave  and  hold  him  in  the  territory ;  and,  saying 
this.  Judge  Douglas  himself  admits  the  conclusion.  He 
says  if  that  is  so,  this  consequence  will  follow;  and 
because  this  consequence  would  follow,  his  argument  is, 
the  decision  cannot  therefore  be  that  way — "that  would 
spoil  my  popular  sovereignty,  and  it  cannot  be  possible 
that  this  great  principle  has  been  squelched  out  in  this 
extraordinary  way.  It  might  be,  if  it  were  not  for  the 
extraordinary  consequences  of  spoiling  my  humbug." 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  205 

Another  feature  of  the  Judge's  argument  about  the 
Dred  Scott  case  is  an  effort  to  show  that  that  decision 
deals  altogether  in  declarations  of  negatives  ;  that  the 
Constitution  does  not  affirm  anything  as  expounded  by  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  but  it  onh'  declares  a  want  of  power, 
a  total  absence  of  power,  in  reference  to  the  territories. 
It  seems  to  be  his  purpose  to  make  the  whole  of  that 
decision  to  result  in  a  mere  negative  declaration  of  a  want 
of  power  in  Congress  to  do  anything  in  relation  to  this 
matter  in  the  territories.  I  know  the  opinion  of  the  judges 
states  that  there  is  a  total  absence  of  power;  but  that  is, 
unfortunately,  not  all  it  states;  for  the  judges  add  that 
the  right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  distinctly  and  expressly 
affirmed  in  the  Constitution.  It  does  not  stop  at  saying 
that  the  right  of  j^roperty  in  a  slave  is  recognized  in  the 
Constitution,  is  declared  to  exist  somewhere  in  the 
Constitution,  but  says  it  is  affirmed  in  the  Constitution. 
Its  language  is  equivalent  to  saying  that  it  is  embodied 
and  so  woven  in  that  instrument  that  it  cannot  be  detached 
without  breaking  the  Constitution  itself.  In  a  word,  it 
is  part  of  the  Constitution. 

Douglas  is  singularly  unfortunate  in  his  eifort  to  make 
out  that  decision  to  be  altogether  negative,  when  the 
express  language  at  the  vital  part  is  that  this  is  distinctly 
affirmed  in  the  Constitution.  I  think  myself,  and  I  repeat 
it  here,  that  this  decision  does  not  merely  carry  slavery 
into  the  territories,  but  by  its  logical  conclusion  it  carries 
it  into  the  states  in  which  we  live.  One  provision  of  that 
Constitution  is  that  it  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land — I  do  not  quote  the  language — any  constitution  or 
law  of  ^ny  state  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  This 
Dred  Scott  decision  says  that  the  right  of  property  in  a 
slave  is  affirmed  in  that  Constitution  which  is  the  supreme 
law  of  the  land,  any  state  constitution  or  law  notwith- 
standing. Then  I  say  that  to  destroy  a  thing  which  is 
distinctly  affirmed  and  supported  by  the  supreme  law  of 
the  land,  even  bv  a  state  constitution  or  law,  is  a  violation 


206  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

of  that  supreme  law,  and  there  is  no  escape  from  it.  In 
my  judgment  there  is  no  avoiding  tliat  result,  save  that 
the  American  people  shall  see  that  state  constitutions 
are  better  construed  than  our  Constitution  is  construed 
in  that  decision.  They  must  take  care  that  it  is  more 
faithfully  and  truly  carried  out  than  it  is  there  ex- 
pounded. 

I  must  hasten  to  a  conclusion.  Near  the  beginning 
of  my  remarks  I  said  that  this  insidious  Douglas  popular 
sovereignty  is  the  measure  that  now  threatens  the  purpose 
of  the  Republican  party  to  prevent  slavery  from  being 
nationalized  in  the  United  States.  I  propose  to  ask  your 
attention  for  a  little  while  to  some  propositions  in 
affirmance  of  that  statement.  Take  it  just  as  it  stands, 
and  apply  it  as  a  principle ;  extend  and  apply  that  prin- 
ciple elsewhere,  and  consider  where  it  will  lead  you.  I 
now  put  this  proposition,  that  Judge  Douglas's  popular 
sovereignty  applied  will  reopen  the  African  slave-trade; 
and  I  will  demonstrate  it  by  any  variety  of  ways  in 
which  you  can  turn  the  subject  or  look  at  it. 

The  Judge  says  that  the  people  of  the  territories  have 
the  right,  by  his  principle,  to  have  slaves  if  they  want 
them.  Then  I  say  that  the  people  in  Georgia  have  the 
right  to  buy  slaves  in  Africa  if  they  want  them,  and  I 
defy  any  man  on  earth  to  show  any  distinction  between 
the  two  things — to  show  that  the  one  is  either  more 
wicked  or  more  unlawful ;  to  show,  on  original  principles, 
that  one  is  better  or  worse  than  the  other;  or  to  show 
by  the  Constitution  that  one  differs  a  whit  from  the 
other.  He  will  tell  me,  doubtless,  that  there  is  no  con- 
stitutional provision  against  people  taking  slaves  into 
the  new  territories,  and  I  tell  him  that  there  is  equally 
no  constitutional  provision  against  buying  slaves  in 
Africa.  He  will  tell  you  that  a  people  in  the  exercise 
of  popular  sovereignty  ought  to  do  as  they  please  about 
that  thing,  and  have  slaves  if  they  want  them;  and  T  tell 
you  that  the  people  of  Georgia  are  as  much  entitled  to 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  207 

popular  sovereignty,  and  to  buy  slaves  in  Africa,  if  they 
want  them,  as  the  people  of  the  territory  are  to  have 
slaves  if  they  want  them.  I  ask  any  man,  dealing  honestly 
with  himself,  to  point  out  a  distinction. 

I  have  recently  seen  a  letter  of  Judge  Douglas's,  in 
which,  without  stating  that  to  be  the  object,  he  doubtless 
endeavors  to  make  a  distinction  between  the  two.  He 
says  he  is  unalterably  opposed  to  the  repeal  of  the  laws 
against  the  African  slave-trade.  And  why?  He  then 
seeks  to  give  a  reason  that  would  not  apply  to  his  popular 
sovereignty  in  the  territories.  What  is  that  reason? 
"The  abolition  of  the  African  slave-trade  is  a  compromise 
of  the  Constitution."  I  deny  it.  There  is  no  truth  in 
the  proj^osition  that  the  abolition  of  the  African  slave- 
trade  is  a  compromise  of  the  Constitution.  No  man  can 
put  his  finger  on  anything  in  the  Constitution,  or  on  the 
line  of  history^  which  shows  it.  It  is  a  mere  barren 
assertion,  made  simply  for  the  purpose  of  getting  up  a 
distinction  between  the  revival  of  the  African  slave-trade 
and  his  "great  principle." 

At  the  time  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
adopted  it  was  expected  that  the  slave-trade  would  be 
abolished.  I  should  assert,  and  insist  upon  that,  if  Judge 
Douglas  denied  it.  But  I  know  that  it  was  equally 
expected  that  slavery  would  be  excluded  from  the  terri- 
tories, and  I  can  show  by  history  that  in  regard  to  these 
two  things  public  opinion  was  exactly  alike,  while  in 
regard  to  positive  action,  there  was  more  done  in  the 
ordinance  of  '87  to  resist  the  spread  of  slavery  than 
was  ever  done  to  abolish  the  foreign  slave-trade.  Lest  I 
be  misunderstood,  I  say  again  that  at  the  time  of  the 
formation  of  the  Constitution,  public  expectation  was 
that  the  slave-trade  would  be  abolished,  but  no  more  so 
than  that  the  spread  of  slavery  in  the  territories  should 
be  restrained.  They  stand  alike,  except  that  in  the 
ordinance  of  '87  there  was  a  mark  left  by  public  opinion, 
showing  that  it  was  more  committed  against  the  spread 


208  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

of  slavery  in  the  territories  than  against  the  foreign 
slave-trade. 

Compromise!  What  word  of  compromise  was  there 
about  it?  Why,  the  public  sense  was  then  in  favor  of 
the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade;  but  there  was  at  the 
time  a  very  great  commercial  interest  involved  in  it,,  and 
extensive  capital  in  that  branch  of  trade.  There  were 
doubtless  the  incipient  stages  of  improvement  in  the 
South  in  the  way  of  farming,  dependent  on  the  slave- 
trade,  and  they  made  a  proposition  to  Congress  to  abolish 
the  trade  after  allowing  it  twenty  years,  a  sufficient  time 
for  the  capital  and  commerce  engaged  in  it  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  other  channels.  They  made  no  provision  that 
it  should  be  abolished  in  twenty  years ;  I  do  not  doubt 
that  they  expected  it  would  be ;  but  they  made  no  bargain 
about  it.  The  public  sentiment  left  no  doubt  in  the 
minds  of  any  that  it  would  be  done  away.  I  repeat,  there 
is  nothing  in  the  history  of  those  times  in  favor  of  that 
matter  being  a  compromise  of  the  Constitution.  It  was 
the  public  expectation  at  the  time,  manifested  in  a  thou- 
sand ways,  that  the  spread  of  slavery  should  also  be 
restricted. 

Then  I  say  if  this  principle  is  established,  that  there 

is  no  wrong  in  slavery,  and  whoever  wants  it  has  a  right 

to  have  it;  that  it  is  a  matter  of  dollars   and   cents;  a 

sort  of  question  as  to  how  they  shall  deal  with  brutes ; 

that  between  us  and  the  negro  here  there  is  no  sort  of 

question,  but  that  at  the  South  the  question  is  between 

the  negro  and  the  crocodile  ;*  that  it  is  a  mere  matter 

of   policy ;    that   there   is    a   perfect   right,   according   to 

interest,  to  do  just   as   you  please — when  this   is   done. 

where  this  doctrine  prevails,  the  miners  and  sappers  will 

•After  his  election  in  1858.  Douglas  made  a  tour  through  a 
part  of  the  South,  possibly  with  a  view  to  undoing  any  damage 
that  he  had  done  his  popularity  there  during  the  debate  with 
Lincoln.  In  a  speech  at  Memphis  he  said  that  on  the  I^ouisiana 
sugar  plantations,  it  was  "not  a  cjuestion  between  the  white  man 
and  the  negro,  but  between  the  negro  and  the  crocodile.  Between 
the  negro  and  the  crocodile.  I  take  the  side  of  the  negro  ;  but 
between  the  negro  and  the  white  man.  I  go  for  the  white  man." 


SELECTIONS  FKOM  LINCOLN  209 

have  formed  public  opinion  for  the  slave-trade.  They 
will  be  readv  for  Jeff  Davis  and  Stephens,*  and  other 
leaders  of  that  company,  to  sound  the  bugle  for  the 
revival  of  the  slave-trade,  for  the  second  Dred  Scott 
decision,  for  the  flood  of  slavery  to  be  poured  over  the 
free  states,  while  we  shall  be  here  tied  down  and  helpless, 
and  run  over  like  sheep. 

It  is  to  be  a  part  and  parcel  of  this  same  idea  to  say 
to  men  who  want  to  adhere  to  the  Democratic  party, 
who  have  always  belonged  to  that  party,  and  are  only 
looking  about  for  some  excuse  to  stick  to  it,  but  never- 
theless hate  slavery,  that  Douglas's  popular  sovereignty 
is  as  good  a  way  as  any  to  oppose  slavery.  They  allow 
themselves  to  be  persuaded  easily,  in  accordance  with 
their  previous  dispositions,  into  this  belief,  that  it  is 
about  as  good  a  way  of  opposing  slavery  as  any,  and  we 
can  do  that  without  straining  our  old  party  ties  or  break- 
ing up  old  political  associations.  We  can  do  so  without 
being  called  negro-worshipers.  We  can  do  that  without 
being  subjected  to  the  gibes  and  sneers  that  are  so  readily 
thrown  out  in  place  of  argument  where  no  argument  can 
be  found.  So  let  us  stick  to  this  popular  sovereignty — 
this  insidious  popular  sovereignty.  Now  let  me  call  your 
attention  to  one  thing  that  has  really  happened,  which 
shows  this  gradual  and  steady  debauching  of  public 
opinion,  this  course  of  preparation  for  the  revival  of 
the  slave-trade,  for  the  territorial  slave-code,  and  the 
new  Dred  Scott  decision  that  is  to  carry  slavery  into 
the  free  states.  Did  you  ever,  five  years  ago,  hear  of 
anybody  in  the  world  saying  that  the  negro  had  no  share 
in  the  Declaration  of  National  Independence;  that  it  did 
not  mean  negroes  at  all,  and  when  "all  men"  were  spoken 
of,  negroes  were  not  included.^ 

I  am  satisfied  that  five  years  ago  that  proposition  was 

•  Jefferson  Davis,  of  Mississippi,  who  was  at  this  time  the 
Southern  leader  in  the  Senate,  and  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  of 
Georgia,  who  had  served  in  Congress  with  Lincoln.  They  were 
later  the  President  and  Vice  President  of  the  Confederacy. 


210  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

not  put  upon  paper  by  any  living  being  anywhere.  I 
have  been  unable  at  any  time  to  find  a  man  in  an  audience 
who  would  declare  that  he  had  ever  known  of  anybody 
saying  so  five  years  ago.  But  last  year  there  was  not  a 
"Douglas  popular  sovereignty"  man  in  Illinois  who  did 
not  say  it.  Is  there  one  in  Ohio  but  declares  his  firm 
belief  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  did  not  mean 
negroes  at  all.'*  I  do  not  know  how  this  is;  I  have  not 
been  here  much ;  but  I  presume  you  are  very  much  alike 
everywhere.  Then  I  suppose  that  all  now  express  the 
belief  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  never  did 
mean  negroes.  I  call  upon  one  of  them  to  say  that  he 
said  it  five  years  ago. 

If  you  think  that  now,  and  did  not  think  it  then,  the 
next  thing  that  strikes  me  is  to  remark  that  there  has 
been  a  change  wrought  in  you,  and  a  very  significant 
change  it  is,  being  no  less  than  changing  the  negro,  in 
your  estimation,  from  the  rank  of  a  man  to  that  of  a 
brute.  They  are  taking  him  down,  and  placing  him,  when 
spoken  of,  among  reptiles  and  crocodiles,  as  Judge 
Douglas  himself  expresses  it. 

Is  not  this  change  wrought  in  your  minds  a  very 
important  change.'*  Public  opinion  in  this  country  is 
everything.  In  a  nation  like  ours  this  popular  sovereignty 
and  squatter  sovereignty  have  already  wrought  a  change 
in  the  public  mind  to  the  extent  I  have  stated.  There  is 
no  man  in  this  crowd  who  contradicts  it. 

Now,  if  you  are  opposed  to  slavery  honestly,  as  much 
as  anybody,  I  ask  you  to  note  that  fact,  and  the  like  of 
which  is  to  follow,  to  be  plastered  on,  layer  after  layer, 
until  very  soon  you  are  prepared  to  deal  with  the  negro 
everywhere  as  with  the  brute.  If  public  sentiment  has 
not  been  debauched  already  to  this  point,  a  new  turn  of 
the  screw  in  that  direction  is  all  that  is  wanting;  and 
this  is  constantly  being  done  by  the  teachers  of  this 
insidious  popular  sovereignty.  You  need  but  one  or  two 
turns  further  until  your  minds,  now  ripening  under  these 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  211 

teachings^  will  be  ready  for  all  these  things,  and  you 
will  receive  and  support,  or  submit  to,  the  slave-trade 
revived  with  all  its  horrors,  a  slave-code  enforced  in  our 
territories,  and  a  new  Dred  Scott  decision  to  bring 
slavery  up  into  the  very  heart  of  the  free  North.*  This, 
I  must  say,  is  but  carrying  out  those  words  prophetically 
spoken  by  Mr.  Clay  many,  many  years  ago — I  believe 
more  than  thirty  years — when  he  told  an  audience  that 
if  they  would  rejDress  all  tendencies  to  liberty  and  ulti- 
mate emancipation,  they  must  go  back  to  the  era  of  our 
independence  and  muzzle  the  cannon  which  thundered 
its  annual  joyous  return  on  the  Fourth  of  July;  they 
must  blow  out  the  moral  lights  around  us ;  they  must 
penetrate  the  human  soul,  and  eradicate  the  love  of 
liberty;  but  until  they  did  these  things,  and  others 
eloquently  enumerated  by  him,  they  could  not  repress  all 
tendencies  to  ultimate  emancipation. 

I  ask  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  a  preeminent  degree 
these  popular  sovereigns  are  at  this  work:  blowing  out 
the  moral  lights  around  us ;  teaching  that  the  negro  is 
no  longer  a  man^  but  a  brute;  that  the  Declaration  has 
nothing  to  do  with  him ;  that  he  ranks  with  the  crocodile 
and  the  reptile ;  that  man,  with  body  and  soul,  is  a 
matter  of  dollars  and  cents.  I  suggest  to  this  portion 
of  the  Ohio  Republicans,  or  Democrats,  if  there  be  any 
present,  the  serious  consideration  of  this  fact,  that  there 
is  now  going  on  among  you  a  steady  process  of  debauch- 
ing public  opinion  on  this  subject.  With  this,  my  friends, 
I  bid  you  adieu. 

In  the  winter  of  1858  J.  W.  Fell,  of  Bloomington,  Illinois, 
realizing  the  curiosity  prevailing  in  the  East  about  Lincoln, 
asked  him  to  publish  a  sketch  of  himself.  In  1859  he  renewed 
the  suggestion  and  Lincoln   replied: 

*  Lincoln  insisted  that  if  the  principle  of  the  Dred  Scott  de- 
cision was  accepted,  it  would  logically  lead  to  a  decision  declar- 
ingr  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  guaranteed  the 
right  of  a  slaveholder  to  take  his  slaves  to  free  states  as  well. 


212  SELECTIONS    FROM    EIXCOI.X 

TO  J.  W.  FELL 

Springfield,  December  20,  1859 
J.  W.  Fell,  Esq. 

My  dear  Sir:  Herewith  is  a  little  sketch,  as  voii 
requested.  There  is  not  much  of  it,  for  the  reason,  I 
suppose,  that  there  is  not  much  of  me.  If  anything  be 
made  out  of  it,  I  wish  it  to  be  modest,  and  not  to  go 
beyond  the  material.  If  it  were  thought  necessary  to 
incorporate  anything  from  any  of  my  speeches,  I  suppose 
there  would  be  no  objection.  Of  cours^  it  must  not  appeal* 
to  have  been  written  by  myself. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

I  was  born  February  12,  1809,  in  Hardin  County, 
Kentucky.  My  parents  were  both  born  in  Virginia,  of 
undistinguished  families — sepond  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  ]\Iacon  County, 
Illinois.  My  paternal  grandfather,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
emigrated  from  Rockingham  County,  Virginia,  to  Ken- 
tucky about  1781  or  1782,  where  a  year  or  two  later  he 
was  killed  by  the  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  Virginia  from 
Berks  County,  Pennsylvania.  An  effort  to  identify  them 
with  the  New  England  family  of  the  same  name  ended 
in  nothing  more  definite  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, 
Indiana,  in  mv  eighth  vear.     We  reached  our  new  home 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  213 

about  the  time  the  state  came  into  the  Union.  It  was  a 
Mild  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  "readin',  writin',  and  cipherin',"  to 
the  rule  of  three.  If  a  straggler  supposed  to  understand 
1-atin  happened  to  sojourn  in  the  neighborhood,  he  was 
looked  upon  as  a  wizard.  There  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  rule  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, 
Macon  County.  Then  I  got  to  Xew  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  the  campaign,  was  elated,  ran  for  the 
legislature  the  same  year  (1832),  and  was  beaten — the 
only  time  I  ever  have  been  beaten  by  the  people.  The 
next  and  three  succeeding  biennial  elections  I  was  elected 
to  the  legislature.  I  was  not  a  candidate  afterward. 
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.  Was  not 
a  candidate  for  reelection.  From  1849  to  1854,  both 
inclusive,  practiced  law  more  assiduously  than  ever 
before.  Always  a  Whig  in  politics ;  and  generally  on  the 
W  hig  electoral  tickets,  making  active  canvasses.  I  was 
losing  interest  in  politics  when  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  aroused  me  again.  What  I  have  done  since 
that  is  pretty  well  known. 


214 


SELT^CTIOXS    FROM    LINCOLN 


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  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

In  the  winter  of  1859  Lincoln  spoke  five  times  in  Kansas, 
and  in  February,  ISCO,  he  made  his  famous  speech  in  Cooper 
Union.  He  had  been  invited,  in  the  fall  of  1859,  by  Henry 
"Ward  Beecher  and  the  Young  Men's  Republican  Union  to 
speak  in  Brooklyn  at  the  Plymouth  Church  and  had  accepted. 
When  he  reached  New  York  he  found  that  he  was  to  speak  in 
Cooper  Union,  Avhich  had  only  recently  been  opened.  He  was 
nervous  for  fear  that  his  speech  was  not  adapted  to  the  sort  of 
audience  he  would  face  there,  and  he  spent  two  days  in  the 
most  careful  revision  and  preparation  of  his  address.  Quite  the 
best  description  of  the  occasion  is  that  of  Joseph  Choate: 

"He  appeared  in  every  sense  of  the  word  like  one  of  the 
plain  people  among  whom  he  loved  to  be  counted.  At  first 
sight  there  was  nothing  impressive  or  imposing  about  him — 
except  that  his  great  stature  singled  him  out  from  the  crowd; 
his  clothes  hung  awkwardly  on  his  giant  frame,  his  face  was  of 
a  dark  pallor,  without  the  slightest  tinge  of  color;  his  seamed 
and  rugged  features  bore  the  furrows  of  hardship  and  strug- 
gle; his  deep-set  eyes  looked  sad  and  anxious;  his  counte- 
nance in  repose  gave  little  evidence  of  that  brain  power  which 
raised  him  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  station  among  his 
countrj-men;  as  he  talked  to  me  before  the  meeting,  he  seemed 
ill  at  ease,  with  that  sort  of  apprehension  which  a  young  man 
might  feel  before  presenting  himself  to  a  new  and  strange 
audience,  whose  critical  disposition  he  dreaded.  It  was  a 
great  audience,  including  all  the  noted  men — all  the  learned 
and  cultured — of  his  party  in  New  York:  editors,  clergj^men, 
statesmen,  lawyers,  merchants,  critics.  They  were  all  very 
curious  to  hear  him.  His  fame  as  a  powerful  speaker  had  pre- 
ceded him,  and  exaggerated  rumor  of  his  wit — the  worst  fore- 
runner of    an  orator — had  reached  the  East.     When  Mr.  Bryant  * 

*  "William  Cullen  Bryant,  the  distinguished  poet  and  author, 
then  editor  of  the  EveJiing  Post. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX  215 

presented  him,  on  tlie  high  platform  of  the  Cooper  Insti- 
tute, a  vast  sea  of  eager  upturned  faces  greeted  him,  full  of 
intense  curiosity  to  see  what  this  rude  child  of  the  people  was 
like.  He  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  When  he  spoke  he  was 
transformed;  his  eye  kindled,  his  voice  rang,  his  face  shone 
and  seemed  to  light  up  the  whole  assembly.  For  an  hour  and 
a  half  he  held  his  audience  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand.  His 
style  of  speech  and  manner  of  delivery  were  severely  simple. 
What  Lowell  called  'the  grand  simplicities  of  the  Bible,'  with 
which  he  was  so  familiar,  were  reflected  in  his  discourse. 
With  no  attempt  at  ornament  or  rhetoric,  without  parade  or 
pretense,  he  spoke  straight  to  the  point.  If  any  came  ex- 
pecting the  turgid  eloquence  or  the  ribaldry  of  the  frontier, 
they  must  have  been  startled  at  the  earnest  and  sincere  purity 
of  his  utterances.  It  was  marvelous  to  see  how  this  untutored 
man,  by  mere  self-discipline  and  the  chastening  of  his  own 
spirit,  had  outgrown  all  meretricious  arts,  and  found  his  own 
way  to  the  grandeur  and  strength  of  absolute  simplicity. 

"He  spoke  upon  the  theme  which  he  had  mastered  so 
thoroughly.  He  demonstrated  by  copious  historical  proofs 
and  masterly  logic  that  the  fathers  who  created  the  Constitu- 
tion in  order  to  form  a  more  perfect  union,  to  establish  justice, 
anc  to  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  themselves  and  their 
posterity,  intended  to  empower  the  Federal  Government  to 
exclude  slavery  from  the  territories.  In  the  kindliest  spirit, 
he  protested  against  the  avowed  threat  of  the  Southern  States 
to  destroy  the  Union  if,  in  order  to  secure  freedom  in  these 
vast  regions  out  of  which  future  states  were  to  be  carved,  a 
Republican  President  were  elected.  He  closed  with  an  appeal 
to  his  audience,  spoken  with  all  the  fire  of  his  aroused  and 
kindling  conscience,  with  a  full  outpouring  of  his  love  of 
justice  and  liberty,  to  maintain  their  political  purpose  on  that 
lofty  and  unassailable  issue  of  right  and  M-rong  which  alone 
could  justify  it,  and  not  to  be  intimidated  from  their  high 
resolve  and  sacred  duty  by  any  threats  of  destruction  to  the 
government  or  of  ruin  to  themselves.  He  concluded  with 
this  telling  sentence,  which  drove  the  whole  argument  home  to 
all  our  hearts:  '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.'  That  night  the  great  hall,  and  the  next 
day   the   whole   city,   rang   with    delighted    applause    and    con- 


216  SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX 

gratulations,    and   he    who   had    come    as    a    stranger    departed 
with  the  laurels   of  a  great  triumph." 

The  speech  made  a  profound  impression.  It  was  jiublished 
in  pamphlet  form  and  widely  printed  in  the  newspapers.  Even 
Greeley's  Tribune,  not  particularly  friendly  to  Lincoln,  said  of 
it,  "No  man  ever  before  made  such  an  impression  on  his  first 
appeal  to  a  New  York  audience."  The  speech  brought  Lincoln 
before  the  East  in  a  new  way  and  made  him  a  presidential 
possibility.  For  it  must  be  remembered,  as  James  Ford 
Rhodes  says,  "Before  Lincoln  made  his  Cooper  Institute 
speech,  the  mention  of  his  name  as  a  possible  nominee  for 
President  would  have  been  considered  as  a  joke  anywhere  ex- 
cept in  Illinois,  Indiana,  Ohio,  and   Iowa." 

The  Cooper  Union  speech  is  Lincoln's  last  great  political 
address  and  is  his  best.  His  thesis  was  that  the  men  who 
framed  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  believed  that 
slavery  was  an  evil,  that  it  should  not  be  extended,  and  that 
the  federal  government  had  power  to  prohibit  it  in  the  terri- 
tories. In  his  proof  of  this  he  showed  close  investigation  of 
the  historical  sources,  a  fine  literary  style,  power  as  an  orator, 
and  power  of  the  clearest  and  most  logical  reasoning.  It  has 
none  of  the  things  that  jar  as  they  are  read  in  the  debates  with 
Douglas,  but  was  pitched  on  the  highest  plane  Lincoln  had  yet 
reached.  The  statesman  was  beginning  to  emerge  from  the 
chrysalis  of  the  politician.  It  was  a  fitting  climax  to  the 
period  of  the  struggle  against  slavery  extension. 

THE  COOPER  UNION  SPEECH 

[February   27,    1860] 

Mr.  President  and  Fellow  Citizens  of  New  York: 
The  facts  with  which  I  shall  deal  this  evening  are  mainl\ 
old  and  familiar ;  nor  is  there  anytliing  new  in  the  general 
use  I  shall  make  of  them.  If  there  shall  be  any  novelty, 
it  will  be  in  the  mode  of  presenting  the  facts,  and  the 
inferences  and  observations  following  that  presentation. 
In  his  speech  last  autumn  at  Cohmibus,  Ohio,  as  reported 
in  the  New  York  Times,  Senator  Douglas  said: 


SELECTIONS  FROM  LIXCOLX  217 

"Our  fathers,  when  thev  framed  the  government  under 
which  we  live,  understood  this  question  just  as  well,  and 
even  better,  than  we  do  now." 

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

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

Who  were  our  fathers  that  framed  the  Constitution.^ 
I  suppose  the  "thirty-nine"  who  signed  the  original 
instrument  may  be  fairly  called  our  fathers  who  framed 
that  part  of  the  present  government.  It  is  almost  exactly 
true  to  say  they  framed  it,  and  it  is  altogether  true  to  say 
they  fairly  represented  the  opinion  and  sentiment  of  the 
whole  nation  at  that  time.  Their  names,  being  familiar 
to  nearly  all,  and  accessible  to  quite  all,  need  not  now 
be  repeated. 

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

It  is  this :  Does  the  proper  division  of  local  from 
federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution,  forbid 
our  federal  government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  our 
federal  territories  ? 

Upon  this,  Senator  Douglas  holds  the  affirmative,  and 
Republicans  the  negative.  This  affirmation  and  denial 
form  an  issue;  and  this  issue — this  question — is  precisely 


218  SELECTIONS    FROM    LIN'COLN 

what  the  text  declares  our  fathers  understood  "better 
than  we."  Let  us  now  inquire  whether  the  "thirty-nine," 
or  any  of  them,  ever  acted  upon  this  question  ;  and  if  they 
did,  how  they  acted  upon  it — how  they  expressed  that 
better  understanding.  In  178i,  three  years  before  the 
Constitution,  the  United  States  then  owning  the  North- 
M'estern  Territory^  and  no  other,  the  Congress  of  the 
Confederation  had  before  them  the  question  of  prohibit- 
ing slavery  in  that  territory;^  and  four  of  the  "thirty- 
nine"  who  afterward  framed  the  Constitution  were  in 
that  Congress,  and  voted  on  that  question.  Of  these, 
Roger  Sherman,  Thomas  ]Mifflin,  and  Hugh  Williamson 
voted  for  the  prohibition,  thus  showing  that,  in  their 
understanding,  no  line  dividing  local  from  federal 
authority,  nor  anything  else,  properly  forbade  the  federal 
government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  federal  territory'. 
The  other  of  the  four,  James  McHenry,  voted  against 
the  prohibition,  showing  that  for  sdme  cause  he  thought 
it  improper  to  vote  for  it. 

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

The  question  of  federal  control  of  slavery  in  the  terri- 

*  Jefferson's  proposed  ordinance  of  1784  for  the  government 
of  the  Northwest  Territory  prohibited  slavery.  It  failed,  but 
t^e  ordinance  of  17 S7   was  modeled  on   it. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  219 

tories  seems  not  to  have  been  directly  before  the  conven- 
tion which  framed  the  original  Constitution;  and  hence 
it  is  not  recorded  that  the  "thirty-nine/'  or  any  of  them, 
while  engaged  on  that  instrument,  expressed  any  opinion 
on  that  precise  question. 

In  1789,  by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under  the 
Constitution,  an  act  was  passed  to  enforce  the  Ordinance 
of  '87,  including  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  North- 
western Territory.  The  bill  for  this  act  was  reported 
by  one  of  the  "thirty-nine" — Thomas  Fitzsimmons,  then 
a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  from  Penn- 
sylvania. It  went  through  all  its  stages  without  a  word 
of  opposition,  and  finally  passed  both  branches  without 
ayes  and  nays,*  which  is  equivalent  to  a  unanimous 
passage.  In  this  Congress  there  were  sixteen  of  the 
thirty-nine  fathers  who  framed  the  original  Constitution. 
They  were  John  Langdon,  Nicholas  Oilman,  William  S. 
Johnson,  Roger  Sherman,  Robert  Morris,  Thomas  Fitz- 
simmons, William  Few,  Abraham  Baldwin,  Rufus  King, 
William  Paterson,  George  Clymer,  Richard  Bassett, 
Oeorge  Read,  Pierce  Butler,  Daniel  Carroll,  and  James 
Madison. 

This  shows  that,  in  their  understanding,  no  line  dividing 
local  from  federal  authority,  nor  anything  in  the  Consti- 
tution, properly  forbade  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery  in 
the  federal  territory;  else  both  their  fidelity  to  correct 
principle,  and  their  oath  to  support  the  Constitution 
would  have  constrained  them  to  oppose  the  prohibition. 

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

No  great  while  after  the  adoption  of  the  original  Con- 

*  A  roll-call  vote. 


220  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

stitution,  North  Carolina  ceded  to  the  federal  government 
the  country  now  constituting  the  state  of  Tennessee;  and 
a  few  years  later  Georgia  ceded  that  which  now  consti- 
tutes the  states  of  Mississippi  and  Al  )bama.  In  both 
deeds  of  cession  it  was  made  a  condition  by  the  ceding 
states  that  the  federal  government  should  not  prohibit 
slavery  in  the  ceded  country.*  Besides  this,  slavery  was 
then  actually  in  the  ceded  country.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, Congress,  on  taking  charge  of  these  countries, 
did  not  absolutely  prohibit  slavery  within  them.  But 
they  did  interfere  with  it — take  control  of  it — even  there, 
to  a  certain  extent.  In  1798  Congress  organized  the 
territory  of  Mississippi.  In  the  act  of  organization  they 
prohibited  the  bringing  of  slaves  into  the  territory  from 
any  place  without  the  United  States,  by  fine,  and  giving 
freedom  to  slaves  so  brought.  This  act  passed  both 
branches  of  Congress  without  yeas  and  nays.  In  that 
Congress  were  three  of  the  "thirty-nine"  who  framed  the 
original  Constitution.  They  were  John  Langdon,  George 
Read,  and  Abraham  Baldwin.  They  all  probably  voted 
for  it.  Certainly  they  would  have  placed  their  opposition 
to  it  upon  record  if,  in  their  understanding,  any  line 
dividing  local  from  federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the 
Constitution,  properly  forbade  the  federal  government 
to  control  as  to  slavery  in  federal  territory. 

In  1803  the  federal  government  purchased  the 
Louisiana  country.  Our  former  territorial  acquisitions 
came  from  certain  of  our  own  states ;  but  this  Louisiana 
country  was  acquired  from  a  foreign  nation.  In  1804 
Congress  gave  a  territorial  organization  to  that  part  of 
it  which  now  constitutes  the  state  of  Louisiana.  New 
Orleans,  lying  within  that  part,  was  an  old  and  com- 
paratively large  city.  There  were  other  considerable 
towns  and  settlements,  and  slavery  was  extensively  and 
thoroughly  intermingled  with  the  people.  Congress  did 
not,  in  the  Territorial  Act,  prohibit  slavery;  but  they 

'■^-  This  indicated  the  prevailing  recognition  of  the  power  of 
Congress    over    slavery    in    the   territories. 


SELECTION'S    FROM    LINXOLX  221 

did  interfere  with  it — take  control  of  it — in  a  more 
marked  and  extensive  way  than  they  did  in  the  case  of 
Mississippi.  The  substance  of  the  provision  therein 
made  in  relation  to  slaves  was: 

1st.  That  no  slave  should  be  imported  into  the  terri- 
tory from  foreign  parts. 

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

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

This  act  also  was  passed  without  ayes  or  nays.  In  the 
Congress  which  passed  it  there  were  two  of  the  "thirty- 
nine."  They  were  Abraham  Baldwin  and  Jonathan 
Dayton.  As  stated  in  the  case  of  Mississippi,  it  is  prob- 
able they  both  voted  for  it.  They  would  not  have  allowed 
it  to  pass  without  recording  their  opposition  to  it  if,  in 
their  understanding,  it  violated  either  the  line  properly 
dividing  local  from  federal  authority,  or  any  provision 
of  the  constitution. 

In  1819-20  came  and  passed  the  Missouri  question. 
Many  votes  were  taken,  by  yeas  and  nays,  in  both 
branches  of  Congress,  upon  the  various  phases  of  the 
general  question.  Two  of  the  "thirty-nine" — Rufus  King 
and  Charles  Pinckney — were  members  of  that  Congress. 
Mr.  King  steadily  voted  for  slavery  prohibition  and 
against  all  compromises,  while  Mr.  Pinckney  as  steadily 
voted  against  slavery  prohibition  and  against  all  com- 
promises. By  this,  Mr.  King  showed  that,  in  his  under- 
standing, no  line  dividing  local  from  federal  authority, 
nor  anything  in  the  Constitution,  was  violated  by 
Congress  prohibiting  slavery  in  federal  territory;  while 
Mr.  Pinckney,  by  his  votes,  showed  that,  in  his  under- 
standing, there  was  some  sufficient  reason  for  opposing 
such  prohibition  in  that  case. 


222  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

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

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

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

Two  of  the  twenty-three  voted  against  congressional 

prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  federal  territories,  in  the 

instances  in  which  they  acted  upon  the  question.     But 

for   what   reasons   they   so   voted    is   not   known.      They 

may  have  done  so  because  they  thought  a  proper  division 

*  It  was  an  ancient  custom  to  take  a  particularly  binding  oath 
with  the  hand  upon  the  "corporal-cloth."  or  cloth  covering  the 
altar  at  the  celebration  of  the  Communion.  In  time  the  term 
"corporal  oath"  was  applied  to  any  oath  taken  with  the  hand 
upon   a   sacred   object. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  223 

of  local  from  federal  authority,  or  some  provision  or 
principle  of  the  Constitution,  stood  in  the  way;  or  they 
may,  without  any  such  question,  have  voted  against  the 
prohibition  on  what  appeared  to  them  to  be  sufficient 
grounds  of  expediency.  No  one  who  has  sworn  to  support 
the  Constitution  can  conscientiously  vote  for  what  he 
understands  to  be  an  unconstitutional  measure,  however 
expedient  he  may  think  it ;  but  one  may  and  ought  to  vote 
against  a  measure  which  he  deems  constitutional  if,  at 
the  same  time,  he  deems  it  inexpedient.  It,  therefore, 
would  be  unsafe  to  set  down  even  the  two  who  voted 
against  the  prohibition  as  having  done  so  because,  in 
their  understanding,  any  proper  division  of  local  from 
federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution,  forbade 
the  federal  government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  federal 
territory. 

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

For  the  purpose  of  adhering  rigidly  to  the  text,  I 
have  purposely  omitted  whatever  understanding  may 
have  been  manifested  by  any  person,  however  distin- 
guished, other  than  the  thirty-nine  fathers  who  framed 
the  original  Constitution;  and,  for  the  same  reason,  I 
have  also  omitted  whatever  understanding  may  have  been 
manifested  by  any  of  the  "thirty-nine"  even  on  any 
other  phase  of  the  general  question  of  slavery.  If  we 
should  look  into  their  acts  and  declarations  on  those 
other  phases,  as  the  foreign  slave-trade,  and  the  morality 
and  policy  of  slavery  generally,  it  would  appear  to  us 
that  on  the  direct  question  of  federal  control  of  slavery 
in  federal  territories,  the  sixteen,  if  they  had  acted  at 
all,  would  probably  have  acted  just  as  the  twenty-three 


224  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

did.  Among  that  sixteen  were  several  of  the  most  noted 
anti-slavery  men  of  those  times — as  Dr.  Franklin,  Alex- 
ander Hamilton,  and  Gouverneur  Morris — while  there 
was  not  one  now  known  to  have  been  otherwise,  unless 
it  may  be  John  Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina. 

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

But,  so  far,  I  have  been  considering  the  understanding 
of  the  question  manifested  by  the  framers  of  the  original 
Constitution.  In  and  by  the  original  instrument,  a  mode 
was  provided  for  amending  it;  and,  as  I  have  already 
stated,  the  present  frame  of  "the  government  under  which 
we  live"  consists  of  that  original,  and  twelve  amendatory 
articles  framed  and  adopted  since.  Those  who  now  insist 
that  federal  control  of  slavery  in  federal  territories  vio- 
lates the  Constitution,  point  us  to  the  provisions  which 
they  suppose  it  thus  violates ;  and,  as  I  understand,  they 
all  fix  upon  provisions  in  these  amendatory  articles,  and 
not  in  the  original  instrument.  The  Supreme  Court,  in  the 
Dred  Scott  case,  plant  themselves  upon  the  Fifth  Amend- 
ment, which  provides  that  no  person  shall  be  deprived 
of  "life,  liberty,  or  property  without  due  process  of  law" ; 
while  Senator  Douglas  and  his  peculiar  adherents  plant 
themselves  upon  the  Tenth  Amendment,  providing  that 
"the  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the 
Constitution"  "are  reserved  to  the  states  respectively, 
or  to  the  people." 

Now,  it  so  happens  that  these  amendments  were  framed 
by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under  the  Constitution — 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  225 

the  identical  Congress  which  passed  the  act,  already 
mentioned,  enforcing  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the 
NorthM'estern  Territory.  Not  only  was  it  the  same 
Congress,  but  they  were  the  identical,  same  individual 
men  who,  at  the  same  session,  and  at  the  same  time 
within  the  session,  had  under  consideration,  and  in 
progress  toward  maturity,  these  constitutional  amend- 
ments, and  this  act  prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the  territory 
the  nation  then  owned.  The  constitutional  amendments 
were  introduced  before,  and  passed  after,  the  act  enforc- 
ing the  Ordinance  of  '87;  so  that,  during  the  whole 
pendency  of  the  act  to  enforce  the  ordinance,  the  consti- 
tutional amendments  were  also  pending. 

The  seventy-six  members  of  that  Congress,  including 
sixteen  of  the  framers  of  the  original  Constitution,  as 
before  stated,  were  preeminently  our  fathers  who  framed 
that  part  of  "the  government  under  which  we  live"  which 
is  now  claimed  as  forbidding  the  federal  government  to 
control  slavery  in  the  federal  territories. 

Is  it  not  a  little  presumptuous  in  anyone  at  this  day 
to  affirm  that  the  two  things  which  that  Congress  de- 
liberately framed,  and  carried  to  maturity  at  the  same 
time,  are  absolutely  inconsistent  with  each  other  .'^  And 
does  not  such  affirmation  become  impudently  absurd  when 
coupled  with  the  other  affirmation,  from  the  same  mouth. 
that  those  who  did  the  two  things  alleged  to  be  incon- 
sistent, understood  whether  they  really  were  inconsistent 
better  than  we — better  than  he  who  affirms  that  they  are 
inconsistent } 

It  is  surely  safe  to  assume  that  the  thirty-nine  framers 
of  the  original  Constitution,  and  the  seventy-six  members 
of  the  Congress  which  framed  the  amendments  thereto, 
taken  together,  do  certainly  include  those  who  may  be 
fairly  called  "our  fathers  who  framed  the  government 
under  which  we  live."  And  so  assuming,  I  defy  any  man 
to  show  that  any  one  of  them  ever,  in  his  whole  life, 
declared  that,  in  his  understanding,  any  proper  division 


226 


SELECTIONS    ERO.M    EIXCOLN 


of  local  from  ftderal  authority,  or  any  part  of  the  Con- 
stitution, forbade  the  federal  government  to  control  as 
to  slavery  in  the  federal  territories.  I  go  a  step  further. 
I  defy  anyone  to  show  that  any  living  man  in  the  whole 
world  ever  did,  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century  (and  I  might  almost  say  prior  to  the  beginning 
of  the  last  half  of  the  present  century),  declare  that,  in 
his  understanding,  any  proper  division  of  local  from 
federal  authority,  or  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade 
the  federal  government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  fed- 
eral territories.  To  those  who  now  so  declare  I  give  not 
only  "our  fathers  who  framed  the  government  under 
which  we  live,"  but  with  them  all  other  living  men  within 
the  century  in  which  it  was  framed,  among  M'hom  to 
search,  and  they  shall  not  be  able  to  find  the  evidence 
of  a  single  man  agreeing  with  them. 

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

If  any  man  at  this  day  sincerely  believes  that  a  proper 
division  of  local  from  federal  authority,  or  any  part  of 
the  Constitution,  forbids  the  federal  government  to  con- 
trol as  to  slavery  in  the  federal  territories,  he  is  right 
to  say  so,  and  to  enforce  his  position  by  all  truthful 
evidence  and  fair  argument  which  he  can.  But  he  has 
no  right  to  mislead  others  who  have  less  access  to  his- 
tory, and  less  leisure  to  study  it,  into  the  false  belief 
that    "our    fathers    who    framed    the    government    under 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  227 

which  we  live"  were  of  the  same  opinion — thus  substi- 
tuting falsehood  and  deception  for  truthful  evidence  and 
fair  argument.  If  any  man  at  this  day  sincerely  believes 
"our  fathers  who  framed  the  government  under  which 
w^e  live"  used  and  applied  principles,  in  other  cases, 
which  ought  to  have  led  them  to  understand  that  a  proper 
division  of  local  from  federal  authority,  or  some  part  of 
the  Constitution,  forbids  the  federal  government  to  con- 
trol as  to  slavery  in  the  federal  territories,  he  is  right 
to  say  so.  But  he  should,  at  the  same  time,  brave  the 
responsibility  of  declaring  that,  in  his  opinion,  he  under- 
stands their  principles  better  than  they  did  themselves  ; 
and  especially  should  he  not  shirk  that  responsibility  by 
asserting  that  they  "understood  the  question  just  as  well, 
and  even  better,  than  we  do  now." 

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

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

I  would  say  to  them:  You  consider  yourselves  a 
reasonable  and  a  just  people;  and  I  consider  that  in  the 
general  qualities  of  reason  and  justice  you  are  not  in- 
ferior to  any  other  people.  Still,  wlien  you  speak  of 
us  Republicans,  you  do  so  only  to  denounce  us  as  reptiles, 
or,   at   the   best,   as   no   better   than   outlaws.      You   will 


228 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 


grant  a  hearing  to  pirates  or  murderers,  but  nothing  like 
it  to  "Black  Republicans."  *  In  all  your  contentions 
with  one  another,  each  of  you  deems  an  unconditional 
condemnation  of  "Black  Republicanism"  as  the  first 
thing  to  be  attended  to.  Indeed,  such  condemnation  of 
us  seems  to  be  an  indispensable  prerequisite — license,  so 
to  speak — among  you  to  be  admitted  or  permitted  to 
speak  at  all.  Now  can  you  or  not  be  prevailed  upon  to 
pause  and  to  consider  whether  this  is  quite  just  to  us, 
or  even  to  yourselves?  Bring  forward  your  charges  and 
specifications,  and  then  be  patient  long  enough  to  hear 
us  deny  or  justify. 

You  say  we  are  sectional.  We  deny  it.  That  makes 
an  issue;  and  the  burden  of  proof  is  upon  you.f  You 
produce  your  proof;  and  what  is  it?  Why,  that  our 
party  has  no  existence  in  your  section — gets  no  votes  in 
your  section.  The  fact  is  substantially  true;  but  does 
it  prove  the  issue?  If  it  does,  then  in  case  we  should, 
without  change  of  principle,  begin  to  get  votes  in  your 
section,  we  should  thereby  cease  to  be  sectional.  You 
cannot  escape  this  conclusion;  and  yet,  are  you  willing 
to  abide  by  it?  If  you  are,  you  will  probably  soon  find 
that  we  have  ceased  to  be  sectional,  for  we  shall  get 
votes  in  your  section  this  very  year.  You  will  then  begin 
to  discover,  as  the  truth  plainly  is,  that  your  proof  does 
not  touch  the  issue.  The  fact  that  we  get  no  votes  in 
your  section  is  a  fact  of  your  making,  and  not  of  ours. 
And  if  there  be  fault  in  that  fact,  that  fault  is  primarily 
yours,  and  remains  so  until  you  show  that  we  repel  you 
by  some  wrong  principle  or  practice.  If  we  do  repel 
you  by  any  wrong  principle  or  practice,  the  fault  is 
ours ;  but  this  brings  you  to  where  you  ought  to  have 
started — to  a  discussion  of  the  right  or  wrong'  of  our 

*  A  term  of  reproach  employed  in  the  country  by  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  new  party. 

t  Under  the  law  a  person  is  innocent  until  he  is  proved  guilty. 
The  accuser  thus  has  upon  him  what  is  called  the  burden  of 
proof,  that  is,   the  necessity  of  proving-  the  guilt  of  the  accused. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  229 

principle.  If  our  principle,  put  in  practice,  would  wrong 
your  section  for  the  benefit  of  ours,  or  for  any  other 
object,  then  our  principle,  and  we  with  it,  are  sectional, 
and  are  justly  opposed  and  denounced  as  such.  Meet 
us,  then,  on  the  question  of  whether  our  principle,  put 
in  practice,  would  wrong  your  section;  and  so  meet  us 
as  if  it  were  possible  that  something  may  be  said  on 
our  side.  Do  you  accept'  the  challenge?  No!  Then 
you  really  believe  that  the  principle  which  "our  fathers 
who  framed  the  government  under  which  we  live" 
thought  so  clearly  right  as  to  adopt  it,  and  indorse  it 
again  and  again,  upon  their  official  oaths,  is  in  fact  so 
clearly  wrong  as  to  demand  your  condemnation  without 
a  moment's  consideration. 

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

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

But    you    say    you    are    conservative — eminentlv    con- 


I 


230  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

servative — while  we  are  revolutionary,  destructive,  or 
something  of  the  sort.  What  is  conservatism?  Is  it 
not  adherence  to  the  old  and  tried,  against  the  new  and 
untried?  We  stick  to,  contend  for,  the  identical  old 
policy  on  the  point  in  controversy  which  was  adopted 
by  "our  fathers  who  framed  the  government  under  which 
we  live";  while  you  with  one  accord  reject,  and  scout, 
and  spit  upon  that  old  policy,  and  insist  upon  substi- 
tuting something  new.  True,  you  disagree  among  your- 
selves as  to  what  that  substitute  shall  be.  You  are 
divided  oh  new  propositions  and  plans,  but  you  are 
unanimous  in  rejecting  and  denouncing  the  old  policy 
of  the  fathers.  Some  of  you  are  for  reviving  the  foreign 
slave-trade ;  some  for  a  congressional  slave-code  for  the 
territories;  some  for  Congress  forbidding  the  territories 
to  prohibit  slavery  within  their  limits  ;  some  for  main- 
taining slavery  in  the  territories  through  the  judiciary; 
some  for  the  "gur-reat  pur-rinciple"  that  "if  one  man 
would  enslave  another,  no  third  man  should  object," 
fantastically  called  "popular  sovereignty";  but  never  a 
man  among  you  is  in  favor  of  federal  prohibition  of 
slavery  in  federal  territories,  according  to  the  practice 
of  "our  fathers  who  framed  the  government  under  which 
we  live."  Not  one  of  all  your  various  plans  can  show  a 
precedent  or  an  advocate  in  the  century  within  which 
our  government  originated.  Consider,  then,  whether 
your  claim  of  conservatism  for  yourselves,  and  your 
charge  of  destructiveness  against  us,  are  based  on  the 
most  clear  and  stable  foundations. 

Again,  you  say  we  have  made  the  slavery  question 
more  prominent  than  it  formerly  was.  We  deny  it.  We 
admit  that  it  is  more  prominent,  but  we  deny  that  we 
made  it  so.  It  was  not  we,  but  you,  who  discarded  the 
old  policy  of  the  fathers.  We  resisted,  and  still  resist, 
your  innovation ;  and  thence  comes  the  greater  promi- 
nence of  the  question.  Would  you  have  that  question 
reduced  to  its  former  proportions  ?     Go  back  to  that  old 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  231 

policy.  What  has  been  will  be  again,  under  the  same 
conditions.  If  you  would  have  the  peace  of  the  old 
times,  readopt  the  precepts  and  policy  of  the  old  times. 

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

Some  of  you  admit  that  no  Republican  designedly 
aided  or  encouraged  the  Harpers  Ferry  affair,  but  still 
insist  that  our  doctrines  and  declarations  necessarily 
lead  to  such  results.  We  do  not  believe  it.  We  know 
we  hold  no  doctrine,  and  make  no  declaration,  which 
were  not  held  to  and  made  by  "our  fathers  who  framed 
the  government  under  which  we  live."  You  never  dealt 
fairly  by  us  in  relation  to  this  affair.  When  it  occurred, 
some  important  state  elections  were  near  at  hand,  and 
you  were  in  evident  glee  with  the  belief  that,  by  charging 
the  blame  upon  us,  you  could  get  an  advantage  of  us  in 
those  elections.  The  elections  came,  and  your  expectations 
were  not  quite  fulfilled.  Every  Republican  man  knew 
that,  as  to  himself  at  least,  your  charge  was  a  slander, 
and  he  was  not  much  inclined  by  it  to  cast  his  vote  in 
your  favor.  Republican  doctrines  and  declarations  are 
accompanied  with  a  continual  protest  against  any  inter- 
ference with  your  slaves,  or  with  you  about  your  slaves. 

*  The  John  Brown  raid  on  Harpers  Ferry  had  occurred  four 
months  before  this  speech.  He  was  supported  by  Abolitionists 
in  the  North,  but  no  Republican  was  proved  to  be  involved  in 
the  plot. 


232  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

Surely,  tliis  does  not  encourage  them  to  revolt.  True, 
we  do,  in  common  with  "our  fathers  w^ho  framed  the 
government  under  which  we  live,"  declare  our  belief 
that  slavery  is  wrong;  but  the  slaves  do  not  hear  us 
declare  even  this.  For  anything  we  say  or  do,  the 
slaves  would  scarcely  know  there  is  a  Republican  party. 
I  believe  they  would  not,  in  fact,  generally  know  it  but 
for  your  misrepresentations  of  us  in  their  hearing.  In 
your  political  contests  among  yourselves,  each  faction 
charges  the  other  with  sympathy  with  Black  Repub- 
licanism; and  then,  to  give  point  to  the  charge,  defines 
Black  Republicanism  to  simply  be  insurrection,  blood, 
and  thunder  among  the  slaves. 

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

Much  is  said  by  Southern  people  about  the  affection 
of  slaves  for  their  masters  and  mistresses  ;  and  a  part 
of  it,  at  least,  is  true.  A  plot  for  an  uprising  could 
scarcely  be  devised  and  communicated  to  twenty  indi- 
viduals before  some  one  of  them,  to  save  the  life  of  a 
favorite  master  or  mistress,  would  divulge  it.     This  is 

*  The  Southampton  insurrection,  led  by  Nat  Turner,  occurred 
in  Southampton,  Virginia,  in  1831,  and  caused  the  death  of  more 
than  sixty  persons,  nearly  all  of  whom  were  women  and  children. 
The  South  regarded  it  as  a  direct  result  of  abolitionist  teachings. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  233 

the  rule;  and  the  slave  revolution  in  Haiti*  was  not 
an  exception  to  it,  but  a  case  occurring  under  peculiar 
circumstances.  The  gunpowder  plot  of  British  history,! 
though  not  connected  with  slaves,  was  more  in  point. 
In  that  case,  only  about  twenty  were  admitted  to  the 
secret;  and  yet  one  of  them,  in  his  anxiety  to  save  a 
friend,  betrayed  the  plot  to  that  friend,  and,  by  conse- 
quence, averted  the  calamity.  Occasional  poisonings 
from  the  kitchen,  and  open  or  stealthy  assassinations  in 
the  field,  and  local  revolts  extending  to  a  score  or  so, 
will  continue  to  occur  as  the  natural  results  of  slavery; 
but  no  general  insurrection  of  slaves,  as  I  think,  can 
happen  in  this  country  for  a  long  time.  Whoever  much 
fears,  or  much  hopes,  for  such  an  event,  will  be  alike 
disappointed. 

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

Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  mean  to  say,  nor  do  I,  that  the 
power  of  emancipation  is  in  the  federal  government.  He 
spoke  of  Virginia ;  and,  as  to  the  power  of  emancipation, 
I  speak  of  the  slaveholding  states  only.  The  federal 
government,  however,  as  we  insist,  has*  the  power  of 
restraining  the  extension  of  the  institution — the  power 
to  insure  that  a  slave  insurrection  shall  never  occur 
on  any  American  soil  which  is  now  free  from  slavery. 

John  Brown's  effort  was  peculiar.  It  was  not  a  slave 
insurrection.  It  was  an  attempt  by  white  men  to  get 
up  a  revolt  among  slaves,  in  which  the  slaves  refused 

*  The  insurrection,  which  began  in  1791,  and  resulted  in  the 
overthrow  of  French  power.    It  was  led  by  Toussaint  L'(Juverture. 

t  The  famous  Gunpowder  Plot  occurred  in  England  in  1604, 
when  it  was  planned  to  blow  up  the  Parliament  while  the  king 
was    present. 

t  With  equal   step,  that  is,  in  a  like  degree. 


234  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

to  participate.  In  fact,  it  was  so  absurd  that  the  slaves, 
with  all  their  ignorance,  saw  plainly  enough  it  could 
not  succeed.  That  affair,  in  its  philosophy,  corresponds 
with  the  many  attempts,  related  in  history,  at  the  assassi- 
nation of  kings  and  emperors.  An  enthusiast  broods 
over  the  oppression  of  a  people  till  he  fancies  himself 
commissioned  by  Heaven  to  liberate  them.  He  ventures 
the  attempt,  which  ends  in  little  else  than  his  own 
execution.  Orsini's  attempt  on  Louis  Napoleon,*  and 
John  Brown's  attempt  at  Harpers  Ferry,  were,  in  their 
philosophy,  precisely  the  same.  The  eagerness  to  cast 
blame  on  old  England  in  the  one  case,  and  on  New 
England  in  the  other,  does  not  disprove  the  sameness 
of  the  two  things. 

And  how  much  would  it  avail  you,  if  you  could,  by 
the  use  of  John  Brown,  Helper's  book,f  and  the  like, 
break  up  the  Republican  organization?  Human  action 
can  be  modified  to  some  extent,  but  human  nature  cannot 
be  changed.  There  is  a  judgment  and  a  feeling  against 
slavery  in  this  nation,  which  cast  at  least  a  million  and 
a  half  of  votes.  You  cannot  destroy  that  judgment  and 
feeling — that  sentiment — by  breaking  up  the  political 
organization  which  rallies  around  it.  You  can  scarcely 
scatter  and  disperse  an  army  which  has  been  formed 
into  order  in  the  face  of  your  heaviest  fire;  but  if  you 
could,  how  much  would  you  gain  by  forcing  the  sentiment 
which  created  it  out  of  the  peaceful  channel  of  the  ballot 
box  into  some  other  channel?  What  would  that  other 
channel  probably  be?  Would  the  number  of  John 
Browns  be  lessened  or  enlarged  by  the  operation? 

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

•  Orsini  was  an  Italian  fanatic  who  plotted  the  assassination 
of  Napoleon  III  of  France  in  1858.  He  lived  in  England  and 
was  acquitted  by  an  English  jury.  He  was  later  executed  in 
France. 

t  Hinton  Rowan  Helper,  a  North  Carolinian,  had  written  in 
1857  The  Impending  Crisis  in  the  South,  designed  to  show  the 
economic  ills  of  the  South  due  to  slavery  by  a  contrast  with  the 
free   states. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX  235 

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

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

Your  23urpose,  then,  jDlainly  stated,  is  that  you  will 
destroy  the  government,  unless  you  be  allowed  to  con- 
strue and  force  the  Constitution  as  you  please,  on  all 
points  in  dispute  between  you  and  us.  You  will  rule  or 
ruin  in  all  events. 

This,  plainly  stated,  is  your  language.  Perhaps  you 
will  say  the  Supreme  Court  has  decided  the  disputed 
constitutional  question  in  your  favor.  Not  quite  so. 
But  waiving  the  lawyer's  distinction  between  dictum  and 
decision,  the  court  has  decided  the  question  for  you  in  a 
sort  of  way.  The  court  has  substantially  said  it  is  your 
constitutional  right  to  take  slaves  into  the  federal  terri- 
tories, and  to  hold  them  there  as  property.  When  I 
say  the  decision  was  made  in  a  sort  of  way,  I  mean  it 
was  made  in  a  divided  court,  by  a  bare  majority  of  the 
judges,  and  they  not  quite  agreeing  with  one  another  in 
the  reasons  for  making  it;  that  it  is  so  made  as  that 
its  avowed  supporters  disagree  with  one  another  about 
its  meaning,  and  that  it  was  mainly  based  upon  a  mis- 
taken statement  of  fact — the  statement  in  the  opinion 
that  "the  right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  distinctly  and 
expressly  affirmed  in  the  Constitution." 

An  inspection  of  the  Constitution  will  show  that  the 
right  of  property  in  a   slave  is  not  "distinctlv  and  ex- 


236  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

pressly  affirmed"  in  it.  Bear  in  mind,  the  judges  do 
not  pledge  their  judicial  opinion  that  such  right  is 
impliedly  affirmed  in  the  Constitution;  but  they  pledge 
their  veracity  that  it  is  "distinctly  and  expressly" 
affirmed  there — "distinctly,"  that  is,  not  mingled  with 
anything  else — "expressly,"  that  is,  in  words  meaning 
just  that,  without  the  aid  of  any  inference,  and  susceptible 
of  no  other  meaning. 

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

To  show  all  this  is  easy  and  certain. 

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

And  then  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  "our  fathers 
who  framed  the  government  under  which  we  live" — the 
men  who  made  the  Constitution — decided  this  same  con- 
stitutional question  in  our  favor  long  ago:  decided  it 
without  division  among  tliemselves  when  making  the 
decision;  without  division  among  themselves  about  the 
meaning  of  it   after   it  was   made,    and,   so    far   as   any 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  237 

evidence  is  left,  without  basing  it  upon  any  mistaken 
statement  of  facts. 

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

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

A  few  words  now  to  Republicans.  It  is  exceedingly 
desirable  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  calmly  consider  their 
demands,  and  yield  to  them  if,  in  our  deliberate  view 
of  our  duty,  we  possibly  can.  Judging  by  all  they  say 
and  do,  and  by  the  subject  and  nature  of  their  con- 
troversy with  us,  let  us  determine,  if  we  can,  what  will 
satisfy  them. 

Will  they  be  satisfied  if  the  territories  be  uncondi- 
tionally surrendered  to  them?  We  know  they  will  not. 
In  all  their  present  complaints  against  us,  the  territories 
are  scarcely  mentioned.  Invasions  and  insurrections  are 
the  rage  now.     Will  it  satisfy   them  if,  in  the   future, 


238  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

we  have  nothing  to  do  with  invasions  and  insurrections? 
We  know  it  will  not.  We  so  know,  because  we  know  we 
never  had  anything  to  do  with  invasions  and  insurrec- 
tions; and  yet  this  total  abstaining  does  not  exempt  us 
from  the  charge  and  the  denunciation. 

The  question  recurs,  What  will  satisfy  them?  Simply 
this :  we  must  not  only  let  them  alone,  but  we  must  some- 
how convince  them  that  we  do  let  them  alone.  This, 
we  know  by  experience,  is  no  easy  task.  We  have  been 
so  trying  to  convince  them  from  the  very  beginning  of 
our  organization,  but  with  no  success.  In  all  our  plat- 
forms and  speeches  we  have  constantly  protested  our 
purpose  to  let  them  alone;  but  this  has  had  no  tendency 
to  convince  them.  Alike  unavailing  to  convince  them  is 
the  fact  that  they  have  never  detected  a  man  of  us  in 
any  attempt  to  disturb  them. 

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

I  am  quite  aware  they  do  not  state  their  case  precisely 

in  this  way.     Most  of  them  would  probably  say  to  us, 

"Let  us  alone ;  do  nothing  to  us,  and  say  what  you  please 

•  Senator  Douglas  had  introduced  in  the  Senate  a  resolution 
instructing  the  report  by  the  judiciary  committee  of  a  bill  to 
protect  each  state  and  territory  against  conspiracies  or  cornbi- 
nations  made  in  other  states  with  the  purpose  of  molesting  the 
government,    inhabitants,    property,   and   institutions. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  239 

about  slavery."  But  we  do  let  them  alone — have  never 
disturbed  them — so  that,  after  all,  it  is  what  we  say 
which  dissatisfies  them.  They  will  continue  to  accuse 
us  of  doing,  until  we  cease  saying. 

I  am  also  aware  they  have  not  as  yet  in  terms  de- 
manded the  overthrow  of  our  free-state  constitutions. 
Yet  those  constitutions  declare  the  wrong  of  slavery 
with  more  solemn  emphasis  than  do  all  other  sayings 
against  it;  and  when  all  these  other  sayings  shall  have 
been  silenced,  the  overthrow  of  these  constitutions  will 
be  demanded,  and  nothing  be  left  to  resist  the  demand. 
It  is  nothing  to  the  contrary  that  they  do  not  demand 
the  whole  of  this  just  now.  Demanding  what  they  do, 
and  for  the  reason  they  do,  they  can  voluntarily  stop 
nowhere  short  of  this  consummation.  Holding,  as  they 
do,  that  slavery  is  morally  right  and  socially  elevating, 
they  cannot  cease  to  demand  a  full  national  recognition 
of  it  as  a  legal  right  and  a  social  blessing. 

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

Wrong  as  we  think  slavery  is,  we  can  yet  afford  to 
let  it  alone  where  it  is,  because  that  much  is  due  to  the 


240  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

necessity  arising  from  its  actual  presence  in  the  nation; 
but  can  we,  while  our  votes  will  prevent  it,  allow  it  to 
spread  into  the  national  territories,  and  to  overrun  us 
here  in  these  free  states? 

If  our  sense  of  duty  forbids  this,  then  let  us  stand  by 
our  duty  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,  reversing  the 
divine  rule,  and  calling,  not  the  sinners,  but  the  righteous 
to  repentance;!  such  as  invocations  to  Washington,  im- 
ploring men  to  unsay  what  Washington  said  and  undo 
what  Washington  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. J 

After  the  Cooper  Union  speech  Lincoln  stayed  in  New 
York  for  almost  a  week,  enjoying  heartily  the  association  with 
the  leading  men  of  the  community  which  came  to  him.  He 
then  went  to  New  Hampshire,  where  he  spoke  at  Concord, 
Manchester,  Exeter,  and  Dover  and  made  a  great  impression. 
In  Connecticut  he  spoke  at  Hartford,  New  Haven,  Woon- 
socket,  and  Norwich.  When  he  returned  to  Illinois  he  was 
at  last  an  important  national  figure. 

•  Douglas  had  said  he  did  not  care  whether  slavery  was  voted 
up  or  voted  down. 

t  Matthew,   ix,    13;    Mark,    ii,    17;    Luke,    v,    32. 

t  This  is  one  of  the  nnest  and  most  effective  of  Lincoln's 
phrases. 


Ill 

SAVING  THE  UNION 


Ill 

SAVING  THE   UNION 

In  Illinois  there  had  been  scattered  suggestions  of  Lincoln 
as  a  presidential  candidate  ever  since  1856.  His  debates  with 
Douglas  stimulated  these,  and  after  his  Cooper  Union  speech  a 
definite  movement  to  secure  his  nomination  began.  Lincoln 
was  at  first  uninterested,  not  from  lack  of  ambition,  but  from 
lack  of  hope.  But  as  the  movement  grew,  he  found  himself  in 
the  field.  Regardless  of  whether  or  not  he  should  be  nomi- 
nated, he  felt  that  he  must  have  the  support  of  his  own  state. 
As  he  wrote  Norman  B.  Judd,  "I  am  not  in  a  position  where 
it  would  hurt  much  for  me  to  not  be  nominated  on  the  national 
ticket,  but  I  am  where  it  would  hurt  some  for  me  to  not  get  the 
Illinois  delegates." 

Nomination  seemed  really  a  hopeless  thing.  The  East,  in 
spite  of  the  Cooper  L'nion  speech,  scarcely  knew  him.  In 
various  lists  of  possible  nominees  his  name  was  not  even  men- 
tioned, and  where  it  occurred,  it  was  usually  down  toward  the 
bottom  of  the  list.  But  on  :May  18,  1861,  the  Republican 
convention  at  Chicago  nominated  him  on  the  third  ballot  over 
William  H.  Seward,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Edward  Bates,  and 
Simon  Cameron.  The  Democratic  party  in  convention  at 
Charleston  split  into  two  parts,  the  Cotton  States  refusing  to 
accept  Douglas  or  his  platform  because  of  the  distrust  they  had 
formed  of  him  on  account  of  his  Freeport  interpretation  of  the 
Dred  Scott  decision.*  The  Northern  Democrats  nominated 
•Douglas,  and  the  Southern  wing  nominated  John  C.  Breckin- 
ridge, the  Vice  President  of  the  Ignited  States.  The  remnant 
of  the  Whigs  nominated  John  Bell  of  Tennessee. 

The  campaign  was  actively  carried  on,  but  Lincoln  took  no 
part  in  it  other  than  meeting  the  visitors  who  thronged  to 
Springfield  to  see  him.  Constantly  pressed  to  restate  his 
opinions  on  the  issues  of  the  campaign  he  would  reply  in  a  form 

•  See  page  170. 

243 


244  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

letter  through  a  secretary  to  those  he  did  not  know.  To  those 
with  whom  he  was  acquainted  he  wrote  personally.  The  fol- 
lowing is  a  typical  letter  of  this  kind: 

TO  WILLIAM  S.  SPEER 

[Confidential] 

Springfield,  111.,  October  23,   1860 
William  S.  Speer,  Esq. 

My  dear  Sir:  Yours  of  the  13th  was  duly  received. 
I  appreciate  your  motive  when  you  suggest  the  propriety 
of  my  writing  for  the  public  something  disclaiming  all 
intention  to  interfere  with  slaves  or  slavery  in  the 
states;  but  in  my  judgment  it  would  do  no  good.  I  have 
already  done  this  many,  many  times;  and  it  is  in  print, 
and  open  to  all  who  will  read.  Those  who  will  not  read 
or  heed  what  I  have  already  publicly  said  would  not 
read  or  heed  a  repetition  of  it.  "If  they  hear  not  Moses 
and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded  though 
one  rose  from  the  dead."  * 

Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

Lincoln  watched  the  progress  of  the  campaign  with  the 
normal  interest  of  a  candidate.  He  did  not  at  all  believe  the 
assurance  which  had  been  given  by  Southern  leaders  since  1856 
that  the  election  of  a  sectional  President  would  be  followed  by 
the  secession  of  the  Southern  states,  so  as  yet  he  did  not 
realize  that  the  task  of  his  presidency  would  be  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  L'nion  of  the  states.  Xor  did  the  North  have  any 
conception  of  what  would  be  the  result  of  his  election.  He  . 
was  growing  in  the  estimation  of  the  country,  but  the  vast 
majority,  even  of  the  Republicans,  thought  his  nomination  had 
been  one  purely  of  expediency  and  that  there  were  men  in  the 
party  far  better  qualified  to  be  President. 

The  election  resulted  in  the  choice  of  Lincoln,  the  electoral 
vote  standing:  Lincoln,  180;  Breckinridge,  7:2;  Bell,  39;  and 
Douglas,    12.     The    popular    vote    stood:     Lincoln,    1,857,610; 

•  Luke  xvi,    31. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  245 

Douglas,  1,391,574;  Breckinridge,  850,082;  and  Bell,  646,124. 
He  thus  had  against  him  nearly  a  million  majority  of  the 
voters,  and  in  ten  states  he  had  received  not  a  single  vote. 

Soon  after  his  election  he  began  to  make  up  his  cabinet. 
The  most  interesting  letter  on  the  subject  was  to  William  H. 
Seward. 

TO  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD 

Springfield,  111.,  December  8,  1860 
My  dear  Sir:     With  your  permission   I   shall  at  the 
proper  time  nominate  you  to  the  Senate  for  confirmation 
as  Secretary  of  State  for  the  United  States.     Please  let 
me  hear  from  you  at  your  own  earliest  convenience. 
Your  friend  and  obedient  serv^ant, 

A.  Lincoln 

TO  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD 

[Private  and  Confidential] 

My  dear  Sir:  In  addition  to  the  accompanying  and 
more  formal  note  inviting  you  to  take  charge  of  the 
State  Department,  I  deem  it  proper  to  address  you  this. 
Rumors  have  got  into  the  newspapers  to  the  effect  that 
the  department  named  above  would  be  tendered  you  as 
a  compliment,  and  with  the  expectation  that  you  would 
decline  it.  I  beg  you  to  be  assured  that  I  have  said 
nothing  to  justify  these  rumors.  On  the  contrary,  it 
has  been  my  purpose,  from  the  day  of  the  nomination  at 
Chicago,  to  assign  you,  by  your  leave,  this  place  in  the 
administration.  I  have  delayed  so  long  to  communicate 
that  purpose  in  deference  to  what  appeared  to  me  a 
proper  caution  in  the  case.  Nothing  has  been  developed 
to  change  my  view  in  the  premises  ;  and  I  now  offer  you 
the  place  in  the  hope  that  you  will  accept  it,  and  with 
the  belief  that  your  position  in  the  public  eye,  your 
integrity,  ability,  learning,  and  great  experience,  all 
combine  to  render  it  an  appointment  preeminently  fit  to 
be  made. 


246  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

One  word  more.     In  regard  to  the  patronage  sought 
with  so  much  eagerness  and  jealousy,  I  have  prescribed 
for  myself  the  maxim,  "Justice  to  all" ;  and  I  earnestly 
beseech  your  cooperation  in  keeping  the  maxim  good. 
Your  friend  and  obedient  servant^ 

A.  Lincoln 
Ho^.  William  H.  Seward,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Lincoln  was  anxious  to  select  a  Southern  man  for  a  place 
in  the  cabinet,  and  considered  a  number  of  names.  Among 
these  was  that  of  John  A.  Gilmer,  a  leading  North  Carolina 
Whig,  who  was  a  member  of  Congress,  He  asked  him  to 
come  to  Springfield  for  an  interview,  bvt  Gilmer  did  not  care 
to  commit  himself  thus  far  and  wrote  asking  information  as  to 
Lincoln's  position  on  a  number  of  questions.  Lincoln  thus 
replied: 

TO  JOHN  A.  GILMER 

[Strictly  confidential] 

Springfield,  111.,  December  15,  1860 
Hon.  John  A.  Gilmer. 

My  dear  Sir:  Yours  of  the  10th  is  received.  I  am 
greatly  disinclined  to  write  a  letter  on  the  subject  em- 
braced in  yours ;  and  I  would  not  do  so,  even  privately 
as  I  do,  were  it  not  that  I  fear  you  might  misconstrue 
my  silence.  Is  it  desired  that  I  shall  shift  the  ground 
upon  which  I  have  been  elected.''  I  cannot  do  it.  You 
need  only  to  acquaint  yourself  with  that  ground,  and 
press  it  on  the  attention  of  the  South.  It  is  all  in  print 
and  easy  of  access.  May  I  be  pardoned  if  I  ask  whether 
even  you  have  ever  attempted  to  procure  the  reading  of 
the  Republican  platform,  or  my  speeches,  by  the  Southern 
people?  If  not,  what  reason  have  I  to  expect  that  any 
additional  production  of  mine  would  meet  a  better  fate.'' 
It  would  make  me  appear  as  if  I  repented  for  the  crime 
of  having  been  elected,  and  was  anxious  to  apologize  and 
beg  forgiveness.  To  so  represent  me  would  be  the  prin- 
cipal use  made  of  any  letter  I  might  now  thrust  upon 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  247 

the  public.  My  old  record  cannot  be  so  used;  and  that 
is  precisely  the  reason  that  some  new  declaration  is  so 
much  sought. 

Now,  my  dear  sir,  be  assured  that  I  am  not  question- 
ing your  candor;  I  am  only  pointing  out  that  while  a 
new  letter  would  hurt  the  cause  which  I  think  a  just 
one,  you  can  quite  as  well  effect  every  patriotic  object 
with  the  old  record.  Carefully  read  pages  18,  19,  74, 
75,  88,  89,  and  267  of  the  volume  of  joint  debates  be- 
tween Senator  Douglas  and  myself,  with  the  Republican 
platform  adopted  at  Chicago,  and  all  your  questions  will 
be  substantially  answered.  I  have  no  thought  of  recom- 
mending the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  nor  the  slave-trade  among  the  slave  states, 
even  on  the  conditions  indicated ;  and  i'f  I  were  to  make 
such  recommendation,,  it  is  quite  clear  Congress  would 
not  follow  it. 

As  to  employing  slaves  in  arsenals  and  dock-yards,  it 
is  a  thing  I  never  thought  of  in  my  life,  to  my  recol- 
lection, till  I  saw  your  letter;  and  I  may  say  of  it 
precisely  as  I  have  said  of  the  two  points  above. 

As  to  the  use  of  patronage  in  the  slave  states,  where 
there  are  few  or  no  Republicans,  I  do  not  expect  to 
inquire  for  the  politics  of  the  appointee,  or  whether  he 
does  or  does  not  own  slaves.  I  intend  in  that  matter  to 
accommodate  the  people  in  the  several  localities,  if  they 
themselves  will  allow  me  to  accommodate  them.  In  one 
word,  I  never  have  been,  am  not  now,  and  probably 
never  shall  be  in  a  mood  of  harassing  the  people  either 
North  or  South. 

On  the  territorial  question  I  am  inflexible,  as  you  see 
my  position  in  the  book.  On  that  there  is  a  difference 
between  you  and  us ;  and  it  is  the  only  substantial  differ- 
ence. You  think  slavery  is  right  and  ought  to  be  ex- 
tended;  we  think  it  is  wrong  and  ought  to  be  restricted. 
For  this  neither  has  any  just  occasion  to  be  angry  with 
the  other. 


248  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

As  to  the  state  laws,  mentioned  in  your  sixth  question, 
I  really  know  very  little  of  them.  I  never  have  read  one. 
If  any  of  them  are  in  conflict  with  the  fugitive-slave 
clause,  or  any  other  part  of  the  Constitution,  I  certainly 
shall  be  glad  of  their  repeal ;  but  I  could  hardly  be 
justified,  as  a  citizen  of  Illinois,  or  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  to  recommend  the  repeal  of  a  statute  of 
Vermont  or  South  Carolina.* 

With  the  assurance  of  my  highest  regards,  I  subscribe 
myself. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

A.  Lincoln 

P.  S. — The  documents  referred  to  I  suppose  you  will 
readily  find  in  Washington.  A.  L. 

It  became  evident  soon  after  the  results  of  the  election 
were  known  that  the  Southern  leaders  had  been  entirely  in 
earnest  in  their  announcement  of  the  intention  of  the  Southern 
states  to  withdraw  from  the  Union.  South  Carolina  still  chose 
her  presidential  electors  through  the  legislature,  which  met  on 
election  day  for  that  purpose.  Instead  of  adjourning  as  usual 
the  legislature  had  remained  in  session,  and  as  soon  as  Lin- 
coln's election  was  certain,  had  called  a  convention  of  the 
people  to  meet  in  December.  On  December  20  this  convention 
passed  an  ordinance  of  secession,  which  was  in  form  merely 
the  repeal  of  the  ordinance  of  1788  by  which  the  state  had  rati- 
fied the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  entered  the 
L'nion.  Her  example  was  followed  by  iSIississippi,  Florida, 
Alabama,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  and  Texas.  In  February,  1861, 
delegates  from  these  states,  meeting  in  Montgomery,  Alabama, 
formed  a  new  government,  called  the  Confederate  States  of 
America,  and  elected  Jefferson  Davis  President,  and  Alexander 
H.  Stephens  Vice  President. 

Under  the  view  of  the  Constitution  and  the  nature  of  the 

*  In  this  reference  to  the  personal  liberty  laws  of  the  Northern 
states,  passed  to  hinder  the  execution  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law. 
Lincoln  ignored  a  deep-seated  cause  of  the  Southern  belief  that 
the  North  was  not  willing-  to  grant  thpm  their  constitutional 
rights.  He  does  this  by  a  clever  application  of  state  rights 
doctrine  which,  clever  as  it  was,  was  more  worthy  of  the  poli- 
tician than  the  statesman. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  249 

Union  which  generally  prevailed  in  the  South  at  this  time,  the 
withdrawal  of  these  states  was  an  exercise  of  an  undoubted 
right  When  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
adopted,  almost  all  the  states  which  ratified  it  had  already  a 
longer  history  of  separate  existence  than  the  time  which  had 
elapsed  from  then  until  1861.  Each  had  its  own  laws  and 
institutions;  each  was  intolerant  of  outside  power.  They  had 
come  together  in  the  Revolution  under  the  pressure  of  a  com- 
mon need,  but  they  had  refused  even  then  to  consent  to  any 
stronger  tie  than  was  to  be  found  in  the  weak  Articles  of 
Confederation,  by  which  each  state  retained  its  "sovereignty, 
freedom,  and  independence,  and  every  power,  jurisdiction,  and 
right"  not  expressly  delegated  to  the  United  States.  The 
weakness  of  the  government  under  the  Articles  became  appar- 
ent, and  a  convention,  composed  of  delegates  from  the  states, 
adopted  the  Constitution,  which  was  ratified  by  the  states, 
North  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island  declining  at  first  to  ratify 
and  remaining  as  separate  states  for  a  time.  If  the  Constitu- 
tion had  forbidden  withdrawal,  it  is  not  likely  that  any  of  the 
states  would  have  ratified  it.  As  it  was.  New  York,  Rhode 
Island,  and  Virginia,  at  the  time  of  ratification,  stated  their 
right  to  withdraw,  Virginia  declaring  "that  the  powers  granted 
under  the  Constitution,  being  truly  derived  from  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  may  be  resumed  by  them  whenever  the 
same  shall  be  perverted  to  their  injury  or  oppression,"  No- 
body questioned  the  right.     As  Mr.  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  says, 

"When  the  Constitution  was  adopted  by  the  votes  of  the 
states  in  convention  at  Philadelphia,  and  accepted  by  the  votes 
of  the  states  in  popular  convention,  it  is  safe  to  say  there  was 
not  a  man  in  the  countrj^,  from  Washington  and  Hamilton  on 
the  one  side,  to  George  Clinton  and  George  Mason  on  the 
other,  who  regarded  the  new  system  as  anvthing  but  an  experi- 
ment entered  upon  by  the  states  and  from  which  each  and 
every  state  had  the  right  peaceably  to  withdraw,  a  right  which 
was  very  likely  to  be  exercised." 

Secession,  as  a  possibility,  had  been  accepted  from  the 
beginning.  New  England,  with  Massachusetts  as  a  leader,  had 
often  threatened  it.  But  as  time  passed,  the  political  theory 
of  the  North  began  to  change,  and  an  increasing  number  of 
the  people  denied  the  right.     The  rise  of  manufacturing,  the 


250  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

increasing  flood  of  immigration,  the  absence  of  slavery  as  a 
peculiar  institution  which  had  to  be  protected  against  the 
hostility  of  a  majority,  all  contributed  to  allow  the  growth  of 
national  feeling.  Not  the  least  important  element  in  the 
development  of  national  feeling  was  the  rise  of  the  West. 
Every  western  state  had  been  made  by  the  Union  and  had 
little  or  no  history  apart  from  it.  The  North  and  the  South 
talked  of  secession  and  such  states  as  Massachusetts  and  Vir- 
ginia were  proudly  conscious  of  their  noble  history  as  indi- 
vidual entities,  but  the  great  West,  with  its  face  to  the  future, 
thought  only  in  terms  of  the  Union  and  claimed  the  glories  of 
all  the  states  as  the  common  heritage  of  all  Americans. 

When  the  Cotton  states  seceded,  public  opinion  in  the 
North  was  divided  in  opinion  as  to  the  proper  course  to  pur- 
sue. Many  people  favored  peaceable  separation,  General 
Scott  phrasing  a  common  opinion  when  he  said,  "Let  the  way- 
ward sisters  depart  in  peace."  Horace  Greeley  held  this  view 
also. 

South  Carolina,  and  later  the  Confederacy,  through  com- 
missioners, sought  to  negotiate  with  the  Buchanan  administra- 
tion for  the  surrender  of  Fort  Sumter  in  Charleston  harbor 
Mnd  of  Fort  Pickens  below  Pensacola.  All  these  attempts 
failed,  as  Buchanan  declined  to  receive  them  officially  or  un- 
officially. In  his  annual  message,  President  Buchanan  denied 
the  right  of  secession,  but  declared  that  Congress  had  not 
given  the  President  the  power  to  enforce  the  laws  against  state 
action  and  that  there  was  no  power  under  the  Constitution  for 
the  coercion  of  a  state.  Both  North  and  South  then  settled 
down  to  wait  for  something  to  happen.  Buchanan  has  been 
harshly  criticized  for  his  failure  to  act,  but  the  division  of 
sentiment  alluded  to  would  have  probably  prevented  his  receiv- 
ing the  support  of  the  country  in  any  active  measure.  It  is 
well  to  remember,  too,  that  Lincoln  followed  for  a  month 
substantially  the  same   policy   of  waiting. 

The  truth  of  the  whole  matter  was  that  the  country  looked 
to  compromise  for  a  settlement,  and  several  attempts  at  com- 
promise were  made.  To  any  compromise  that  involved  the 
surrender  of  the  fundamental  Republican  doctrine  of  oppo- 
sition to  the  extension  of  slavery,  Lincoln  was  steadfast! \ 
opposed  and  made  known  his  opposition.  The  following  let- 
ter sets  forth  this  position: 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  251 

TO  THURLOW  WEED 

Springfield,  111.,  December  17,  1860 
Thurlow  Weed,  Esq. 

My  dear  Sir:  Yours  of  the  11th  was  received  two 
days  ago.  Should  the  convocation  of  governors  of  which 
you  speak  seem  desirous  to  know  my  views  on  the  present 
aspect  of  things^  tell  them  you  judge  from  my  speeches 
that  I  will  be  inflexible  on  the  territorial  question;  that 
I  probably  think  either  the  Missouri  line  extended,  or 
Douglas's  and  Eli  Thayer's  popular  sovereignty,  would 
lose  us  everything  we  gain  by  the  election;  that  filibus- 
tering for  all  south  of  us  and  making  slave  states  of  it 
would  follow,  in  spite  of  us,  in  either  case;  also  that  I 
probably  think  all  opposition,  real  and  apparent,  to  the 
fugitive-slave  clause  of  the  Constitution  ought  to  be 
withdrawn. 

I  believe  you  can  pretend  to  find  but  little,  if  anything, 
in  my  speeches  about  secession.  But  my  opinion  is  that 
no  state  can  in  any  wa}^  lawfully  get  out  of  the  Union 
without  the  consent  of  the  others;  and  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  President  and  other  government  functionaries 
to  run  the  machine  as  it  is. 

Truly  yours, 

A.  Lincoln 

By  his  letters  of  this  period  it  is  clear  that  these  were 
Lincoln's  views  on  the  immediate  issues  before  the  country: 

Slavery  is  wrong  and  must  not  be  extended. 

No  proposition  for  the  extension  of  slavery  must  be  even 
entertained. 

No  state  can  in  any  way  lawfully  get  out  of  the  Union, 
without  the  consent  of  the  others.  It  is  the  duty  of  the 
President  and  the  other  government  functionaries  to  run  the 
machine  as  it  is. 

If  the  Southern  forts  still  in  the  possession  of  the  United 
States   fall,  they  must  be  retaken. 

With  these  views  settled  in  his  mind  he  came  to  the  presi- 
dencv. 


252  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

When  the  time  came  to  start  for  Washington,  Lincoln  bade 
farewell  to  his  Springfield  friends,  many  of  whom  he  was  not 
to  see  again,  in  these  simple  words: 


FAREWELL  ADDRESS  AT  SPRINGFIELD 

[February  11,  1861] 

My  Friends:  No  one,  not  in  my  situation,  can  appre- 
ciate my  feeling  of  sadness  at  this  parting.  To  this  place, 
and  the  kindness  of  these  people,  I  owe  everything. 
Here  I  have  lived  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  have 
passed  from  a  young  to  an  old  man.  Here  my  children 
have  been  born,  and  one  is  buried.  I  now  leave,  not 
knowing  when  or  whether  ever  I  may  return,  with  a 
task  before  me  greater  than  that  which  rested  upon 
Washington.  Without  the  assistance  of  that  Divine 
Being  who  ever  attended  him,  I  cannot  succeed.  With 
that  assistance,  I  cannot  fail.  Trusting  in  Him  who 
can  go  with  me,  and  remain  with  you,  and  be  everywhere 
for  good,  let  us  confidently  hope  that  all  will  yet  be  well. 
To  His  care  commending  you,  as  I  hope  in  your  prayers 
you  will  commend  me,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell. 

On  the  way  to  Washington  he  made  short  addresses  at 
Indianapolis,  Cincinnati,  Columbus,  Pittsburgh,  Cleveland,  Buf- 
falo, Albany,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Harrisburg.  The 
most  notable  of  these  was  the  address  delivered  in  Independ- 
ence Hall  on  February  22. 

ADDRESS  IN  INDEPENDENCE  HALL, 
PHILADELPHIA 

[February  22,  1861] 

Mr.  Cuyler:  I  am  filled  with  deep  emotion  at  find- 
ing myself  standing  in  this  place,  where  were  collected 
together  the  wisdom,  the  patriotism,  the  devotion  to 
principle,  from  which  sprang  the  institutions  under 
which  we  live.     You  have  kindly  suggested  to  me  that 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  253 

in  my  hands  is  the  task  of  restoring  peace  to  our  dis- 
tracted 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  and  were  given  to  the  world  from 
this  hall.  I  have  never  had  a  feeling,  politically,  that 
did  not  spring  from  the  sentiments  embodied  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  I  have  often  pondered 
over  the  dangers  which  were  incurred  by  the  men  who 
assembled  here  and  framed  and  adopted  that  Declara- 
tion. I  have  pondered  over  the  toils  that  were  endured 
by  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  army  who  achieved 
that  independence.  I  have  often  inquired  of  myself 
what  great  principle  or  idea  it  was  that  kept  this  Con- 
federacy so  long  together.  It  was  not  the  mere  matter 
of  separation  of  the  colonies  from  the  motherland,  but 
that  sentiment  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  which 
gave  liberty  not  alone  to  the  people  of  this  country,  but 
hope  to  all  the  world,  for  all  future  time.  It  was  that 
which  gave  promise  that  in  due  time  the  weights  would 
be  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  all  men,  and  that  all 
should  have  an  equal  chance.  This  is  the  sentiment  em- 
bodied in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Now,  my 
friends,  can  this  country  be  saved  on  that  basis?  If  it 
can,  I  will  consider  myself  one  of  the  happiest  men  in 
the  world  if  I  can  help  to  save  it.  If  it  cannot  be  saved 
upon  that  principle,  it  will  be  truly  awful.  But  if  this 
country  cannot  be  saved  without  giving  up  that  principle, 
I  was  about  to  say  I  would  rather  be  assassinated  on  this 
spot  than  surrender  it.  Now,  in  my  view  of  the  present 
aspect  of  affairs,  there  is  no  need  of  bloodshed  and  war. 
There  is  no  necessity  for  it.  I  am  not  in  favor  of  such 
a  course;  and  I  may  say  in  advance  that  there  will  be 
no  bloodshed  unless  it  is  forced  upon  the  government. 
The  government  will  not  use  force,  unless  force  is  used 
against  it. 

My  friends,  this  is  wholly  an  unprepared  speech.      I 


254  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

did  not  expect  to  be  called  on  to  say  a  word  when  I 
came  here.  I  supposed  I  was  merely  to  do  something 
toward  raising  a  flag.  I  may,  therefore,  have  said  some- 
thing indiscreet.  But  I  have  said  nothing  but  what  I 
am  willing  to  live  by,  and,  if  it  be  the  pleasure  of 
Almighty  God,  to  die  by. 

Lincoln  was  inaugurated  on  March  4,  1861,  in  accordance 
with  custom,  upon  the  east  portico  of  the  Capitol.  Among 
those  present  were  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  one  of  his  unsuccess- 
ful opponents,  who  held  his  hat  while  he  delivered  his  inaugural 
address,  Roger  B.  Taney,  who  as  Chief  Justice  of  the  United 
States  administered  the  oath  of  office,  former  President  Frank- 
lin Pierce,  and  the  outgoing  President,  James  Buchanan,  the 
"Stephen,  Roger,  Franklin,  and  James"  of  his  Springfield 
speech.* 

The  inaugural  had  been  prepared  in  Springfield  in  January 
and  had  later  been  submitted  to  Seward  for  comment.  The 
latter  made  certain  suggestions  which  Lincoln  accepted.  It 
made,  at  the  time  of  its  delivery,  no  profound  impression. 
Many  Republicans  were  disappointed,  and  Lincoln's  political 
opponents  found  little  in  it  to  approve.  The  New  York  Herald 
said  of  it,  "It  is  not  a  crude  performance,  it  abounds  in  traits 
of  craft  and  cunning,  it  is  neither  candid  nor  statesmanlike, 
nor  does  it  possess  any  essential  of  dignity  or  patriotism.  It 
would  have  caused  a  Washington  to  mourn,  and  would  have 
inspired  Jefferson,  Madison,  or  Jackson,  with  contempt."  As 
time  passed,  however,  men  began  to  see  under  its  calm  pleading 
language  a  firm  determination  to  preserve  the  L^nion  at  any 
hazard.  Even  at  the  time  its  evident  sincerity  struck  deeply 
those  who  heard  it  delivered.  Horace  Greeley  said,  "The  man 
evidently  believed  with  all  his  soul  that  if  he  could  but  con- 
vince the  South  that  he  would  arrest  and  return  her  fugitive 
slaves,  and  offered  slavery  every  support  required  by  comity 
or  by  the  letter  of  the  Constitution,  he  would  avert  her  hos- 
tility—dissolve the  Confederacy,  and  restore  throughout  the 
I'liion  the  sway  of  the  federal  authority." 

Today  the  inaugural  ranks  high  among  Lincoln's  addressee 
for  the  literary  excellence  of  its  simple,  direct,  and  dignified 
words. 

♦  See  page  1fi4 


-ROM   THE   PAINTING,   COPYRIGHT  BY-  J.    L.    G.    FERRIS,    AND   CURTIS  AND   CAMERON. 

RAISING     THE     FLAG    AT     IXDEPEXDEN'CE     HALL,     1861 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  255 

FIRST  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS 

[March  4,  1861] 

Fellow  Citizens  of  the  United  States:  In  com- 
pliance 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  which  there 
is  no  special  anxiety  or  excitement. 

Apprehension  seems  to  exist  among  the  people  of  the 
Southern  states  that  by 'the  accession  of  a  Republican 
administration  their  property  and  their  peace  and  per- 
sonal security  are  to  be  endangered.  There  has  never 
been  any  reasonable  cause  for  such  apprehension.  In- 
deed, 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  when  I  declare  that  "I  have  no  purpose, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  interfere  with  the  institution 
of  slavery  in  the  states  where  it  exists.  I  believe  I  have 
no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination  to 
do  so."  Those  who  nominated  and  elected  me  did  so 
with  full  knowledge  that  I  had  made  this  and  many 
similar  declarations,  and  had  never  recanted  them.  And, 
more  than  this,  they  placed  in  the  platform  for  my 
acceptance,  and  as  a  law  to  themselves  and  to  me,  the 
clear  and  emphatic  resolution  which  I  now  read: 

"Resolved,  That  the  maintenance  inviolate  of  the  rights 
of  the  states,  and  especially  the  right  of  each  state  to 
order  and  control  its  own  domestic  institutions  according 
to  its  own  judgment  exclusively,  is  essential  to  that 
balance  of  power  on  which  the  perfection  and  endurance 


256  SELKCTIOXS    FROM    l.IXCOLN 

of  our  political  fabric  depend,  and  we  denounce  the  law- 
less invasion  by  armed  force  of  the  soil  of  any  state  or 
territory,  no  matter  under  what  pretext,  as  among  the 
gravest  of  crimes." 

I  now  reiterate  these  sentiments ;  and,  in  doing  so,  I 
only  press  upon  the  public  attention  the  most  conclusive 
evidence  of  which  the  case  is  susceptible,  that  the  prop- 
erty, peace^  and  security  of  no  section  are  to  be  in  any 
wise  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  de- 
manded, for  whatever  cause — as  cheerfully  to  one  sec- 
tion as  to  another. 

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

"Xo  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  state,  under 
the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall  in  conse- 
quence of  any  law  or  regulation  therein  be  discharged 
from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on 
claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may 
be  due." 

It  is  scarcely  questioned  that  this  provision  was  in- 
tended by  those  who  made  it  for  the  reclaiming  of  what 
we  call  fugitive  slaves ;  and  the  intention  of  the  law- 
giver is  the  law.  All  members  of  Congress  swear  their 
support  to  the  whole  Constitution — to  this  provision  as 
much  as  to  any  other.  To  the  proposition,  then,  that 
slaves  whose  cases  come  within  the  terms  of  this  clause 
"shall  be  delivered  up,"  their  oaths  are  unanimous. 
Now,  if  they  would  make  the  effort  in  good  temper, 
could  they  not   with   nearly   equal  unanimity   frame  and 


SELKCTIOXS    FROM    LINX^OLX  257 

pass  a  law  by  means  of  which  to  keep  good  that  unani- 
mous oath? 

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

Again,  in  any  law  upon  this  subject,  ought  not  all  the 
safeguards  of  liberty  known  in  civilized  and  humane 
jurisprudence  to  be  introduced,  so  that  a  free  man  be 
not,  in  any  case,  surrendered  as  a  slave?  And  might 
it  not  be  well  at  the  same  time  to  provide  by  law  for 
the  enforcement  of  that  clause  in  the  Constitution  which 
guarantees  that  "the  citizen  of  each  state  shall  be  en- 
titled to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the ' 
several  states"  ? 

I  take  the  official  oath  today  with  no  mental  reserva- 
tions, and  with  no  purpose  to  construe  the  Constitution 
or  laws  by  any  hypercritical  rules.  And  while  I  do  not 
choose  now  to  specify  particular  acts  of  Congress  as 
proper  to  be  enforced,  I  do  suggest  that  it  will  be  much 
safer  for  all,  both  in  official  and  private  stations,  to 
conform  to  and  abide  by  all  those  acts  which  stand  un- 
repealed, than  to  violate  any  of  them,  trusting  to  find 
impunity  in  having  them  held  to  be  unconstitutional. 

It  is  seventy-two  years  since  the  first  inauguration  of 
a  president  under  our  national  Constitution.  During 
that  period  fifteen  different  and  greatly  distinguished 
citizens  have,  in  succession,  administered  the  executive 
branch  of  the  government.  They  have  conducted  it 
through  many  perils,  and  generally  with  great  success. 
Yet.  with  all  this  scope  of  precedent.  I  now  enter  upon 
the  same  task  for  the  brief  constitutional  term  of  four 


258  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

years  under  great  and  peculiar  difficulty.  A  disruption 
of  the  federal  Union,  heretofore  only  menaced,*  is  now 
formidably  attempted. 

I  hold  that,  in  contemplation  of  universal  law  and  of 
the  Constitution,  the  union  of  these  states  is  perpetual. 
Perpetuity  is  implied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the  funda- 
mental law  of  all  national  governments.  It  is  safe  to 
assert  that  no  government  proper  ever  had  a  provision 
in  its  organic  law  for  its  own  termination.  Continue  to 
execute  all  the  express  provisions  of  our  national  Con- 
stitution, and  the  Union  will  endure  forever — it  being 
impossible  to  destroy  it  except  by  some  action  not  pro- 
vided for  in  the  instrument  itself. 

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

Descending  from  these  general  principles,  we  find  the 
proposition  that  in  legal  contemplation  the  Union  is 
perpetual  confirmed  by  the  history  of  the  Union  itself. 
The  Union  is  much  older  than  the  Constitution.  It  was 
formed,  in  fact,  by  the  Articles  of  Association  in  l??^. 
It  was  matured  and  continued  by  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  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  onl}^  of  the  states  be  lawfully  possible,  the  Union 

*  The  reference  is  to  the  persistence  of  secession  in  New  Eng- 
land from  1801  to  its  culmination  in  the  Hartford  Convention 
of  1814.  to  nullification  in  South  Carolina  in  1832,  and  to  the 
threat  of  South  Carolina  and  other  Southern  states  at  the  time 
of  the  compromise  of  1850. 


SELECTIOXS    FROM    LINXOLX  959 

is  less  perfect  than  before  the  Constitution,  having  lost 
the  vital  element  of  perpetuity.* 

It  follows  from  these  views  that  no  state  upon  its  own 
mere  motion  can  lawfully  get  out  of  the  Union;  that 
resolves  and  ordinances  to  that  effect  are  legally  void; 
and  that  acts  of  violence,  within  any  state  or  states, 
against  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  are  insur- 
rectionary or  revolutionary,  according  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 
be  faithfully  executed  in  all  the  states.  Doing  this  I 
deem  to  be  only  a  simple  duty  on  my  part;  and  I  shall 
perform  it  so  far  as  practicable,  unless  my  rightful 
masters,  the  American  people,  shall  withhold  the  requisite 
means,  or  in  some  authoritative  manner  direct  the  con- 
trary. 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  needs  to  be  no  bloodshed  or  vio- 
lence; and  there  shall  be  none,  unless  it  be  forced  upon 
the  national  authority.  The  power  confided  to  me  will 
be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and  possess  the  property  and 
places  belonging  to  the  government,  and  to  collect  the 
duties  and  imposts;  but  beyond  what  may  be  necessary 
for  these  objects,  there  will  be  no  invasion,  no  using 
of  force  against  or  among  the  people  anywhere.  Where 
hostility  to  the  United  States,  in  any  interior  locality, 
shall  be  so  great  and  universal  as  to  prevent  competent 

*  Lincoln  here  speaks  as  the  representative  of  the  West,  which 
had  never  held  any  doctrine  of  state  sovereignty.  He  ignores 
opinions  of  tlie  right  of  secession  sucli  as  Hamilton  expressed  at 
the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  A  similar  historical 
view  is  that  of  I^odge  quoted  on  page  249.  Scarcely  anywhere 
prior  to  1860  was  the  right  seriously  questioned  in  the  thirteen 
original  states. 

t  Lincoln  here  states  first  his  doctrine  of  the  indestructibility 
of  the  Union  on  which  he  was  to  fight  the  war  and  plan  recon- 
struction. 


I 


260  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

resident  citizens  from  liolding  the  federal  offices,  there 
will  be  no  attempt  to  force  obnoxious  strangers  among 
the  people  for  that  object.  While  the  strict  legal  right 
may  exist  in  the  government  to  enforce  the  exercise  of 
these  offices,  the  attempt  to  do  so  would  be  so  irritating, 
and  so  nearly  impracticable  withal,  that  I  deem  it  better 
to  forego  for  the  time  the  uses  of  such  offices. 

The  mails,  unless  repelled,  wull  continue  to  be  furnished 
in  all  parts  of  the  Union.  So  far  as  possible,  the  people 
everywhere  shall  have  that  sense  of  perfect  security 
which  is  most  favorable  to  calm  thought  and  reflection. 
The  course  here  indicated  will  be  followed  unless  current 
events  and  experience  shall  show  a  modification  or  change 
to  be  proper,  and  in  every  case  and  exigency  my  best 
discretion  will  be  exercised  according  to  circumstances 
actually  existing,  and  with  a  view  and  a  hope  of  a  peace- 
ful solution  of  the  national  troubles  and  the  restoration  of 
fraternal  sympathies  and  affections. 

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

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

All  profess  to  be  content  in  the  Union  if  all  constitu- 
tional rights  can  be  maintained.  Is  it  true,  then,  that  any 
right,    plainly    written    in    the    Constitution,    has    been 

*  Hamlet,   Act  iii,   Scene   i. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX  261 

denied?  I  think  not.  Happily  the  human  mind  is  so 
constitnted  that  no  party  can  reach  to  the  audacity  of 
doing  this.  Think,  if  you  can,  of  a  single  instance  in 
which  a  plainly  written  provision  of  the  Constitution 
has  ever  been  denied.  If  by  the  mere  force  of  numbers 
a  maj  ority  should  deprive  a  minority  of  any  clearly  writ- 
ten constitutional  right,  it  might,  in  a  moral  point  of 
view,  justify  revolution — certainly  would  if  such  a  right 
were  a  vital  one.  But  such  is  not  our  case.  All  the  vital 
rights  of  minorities  and  of  individuals  are  so  plainly 
assured  to  them  by  affirmations  and  negations,  guaranties 
and  prohibitions,  in  the  Constitution,  that  controversies 
never  arise  concerning  them.  But  no  organic  law  can 
ever  be  framed  with  a  provision  specifically  applicable 
to  every  question  which  may  occur  in  practical  adminis- 
tration. S^o  foresight  can  anticipate,  nor  any  document 
of  reasonable  length  contain,  express  provisions  for  all 
possible  questions.  Shall  fugitives  from  labor  be  sur- 
rendered by  national  or  by  state  authority?  The  Consti- 
tution does  not  expressly  say.  May  Congress  prohibit 
slavery  in  the  territories?  The  Constitution  does  not 
expressly  say.  Must  Congress  protect  slavery  in  the 
territories?     The  Constitution  does  not  expressly  say.* 

From  questions  of  this  class  spring  all  our  constitu- 
tional controversies,  and  we  divide  upon  them  into 
majorities  and  minorities.  If  the  minority  will  not 
acquiesce,  the  majority  must,  or  the  government  must 
cease.  There  is  no  other  alternative;  for  continuing  the 
government  is  acquiescence  on  one  side  or  the  other. 

If  a  minority  in  such  case  will  secede  rather  than 
acquiesce,  they  make  a  precedent  which  in  turn  will  divide 
and  ruin  them;  for  a  minority  of  their  own  will  secede 
from  them  whenever  a  majority  refuses  to  be  controlled 
by  such  minority.  For  instance,  why  may  not  any  portion 
of  a  new  confederacy  a  year  or  two  hence  arbitrarily 

*  Lincoln  fails  to  discuss  here  the  personal  liberty  laws  or 
the  insistent  refusal  of  the  North  to  accept  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  both  grave  causes  of  Southern   dissatisfaction. 


262  SELFXTIOXS    FROM    LINCOLN 

secede  again,  precisely  as  portions  of  the  present  Union 
now  claim  to  secede  from  it?  All  who  cherish  disunion 
sentiments  are  now  being  educated  to  the  exact  temper 
of  doing  this. 

Is  there  such  perfect  identity  of  interests  among  the 
states  to  compose  a  new  Union,  as  to  produce  harmony 
only,  and  prevent  renewed  secession  ? 

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

I  do  not  forget  the  position,  assumed  by  some,  that 
constitutional  questions  are  to  be  decided  by  the  Supreme 
Court;  nor  do  I  deny  that  such  decisions  must  be  binding, 
in  any  case,  upon  the  parties  to  a  suit,  as  to  the  object 
of  that  suit,  while  they  are  also  entitled  to  very  high 
respect  and  consideration  in  all  parallel  cases  by  all  other 
departments  of  the  government.  And  while  it  is  obviously 
possible  that  such  decision  may  be  erroneous  in  any  given 
case,  still  the  evil  effect  following  it,  being  limited  to 
that  particular  case,  with  the  chance  that  it  may  be  over- 
ruled and  never  become  a  precedent  for  other  cases,  can 
better  be  borne  than  could  the  evils  of  a  different  practice. 
At  the  same  time,  the  candid  citizen  must  confess  that 
if  the  policy  of  the  government,  upon  vital  questions 
affecting  the  whole  people,  is  to  be  irrevocably  fixed  by 
decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  instant  they  are 
made,  in  ordinary  litigation  between  parties  in  personal 
actions,  the  people  will  have  ceased  to  be  their  own  rulers, 
having  to  that  extent  practically  resigned  their  govern- 

*  This  is  a  splendid  statement  of  the  fundamental  principle 
on   which  majority  rule  in  government  is  based. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  263 

ment  into  the  hands  of  that  eminent  tribunal.  Nor  is 
there  in  this  view  an}^  assault  upon  the  court  or  the 
judges.  It  is  a  duty  from  which  they  may  not  shrink 
to  decide  cases  properly  brought  before  them,  and  it  is 
no  fault  of  theirs  if  others  seek  to  turn  their  decisions 
to  political  purposes. 

One  section  of  our  country  believes  slavery  is  right, 
and  ought  to  be  extended,  while  the  other  believes  it  is 
M-rong,  and  ought  not  to  be  extended.  This  is  the  only 
substantial  dispute.  The  fugitive-slave  clause  of  the 
Constitution,  and  the  law  for  the  suppression  of  the 
foreign  slave-trade,  are  each  as  well  enforced,  perhaps, 
as  any  law  can  ever  be  in  a  community  where  the  moral 
sense  of  the  people  imperfectly  supports  the  law  itself. 
The  great  body  of  the  people  abide  by  the  dry  legal 
obligation  in  both  cases,  and  a  few  break  over  in  each. 
This,  I  think,  cannot  be  perfectly  cured ;  and  it  would  be 
worse  in  both  cases  after  the  separation  of  the  sections 
than  before.  The  foreign  slave-trade,  now  imperfectly 
suppressed,  would  be  ultimately  revived,  without  restric- 
tion, in  one  section,  while  fugitive  slaves,  now  only 
partially  surrendered,  would  not  be  surrendered  at  all 
by  the  other.* 

Physically  speaking,  we  cannot  separate.  We  cannot 
remove  our  resjDective  sections  from  each  other,  nor  build 
an  impassable  wall  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  separation  than  before.^  Can  aliens  make  treaties 
easier  than   friends   can   make  laws.^      Can  treaties   be 

*  Lincoln  constantly  asserted  that  secession  would  be  followed 
by  the  reopening  of  the  African  slave  trade.  But  the  Confed- 
erate constitution  forbade  its  reopening,  and  there  was  little  or 
no  sentiment  in  the  South  in  favor  of  such  action. 


264  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

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  old 
questions  as  to  terms  of  intercourse  are  again  upon  you. 

This  country,  with  its  institutions,  belongs  to  the 
people  who  inhabit  it.  Whenever  they  shall  grow  weary 
of  the  existing  government,  they  can  exercise  their  con- 
stitutional right  of  amending  it,  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  recommendation  of  amendments,  I  fully 
recognize  the  rightful  authority  of  the  people  over  the 
whole  subject,  to  be  exercised  in  either  of  the  modes 
prescribed  in  the  instrument  itself;  and  I  should,  under 
existing  circumstances,  favor  rather  than  oppose  a  fair 
opportunity  being  afforded  the  people  to  act  upon  it.  I 
will  venture  to  add  that  to  me  the  convention  mode  seems 
preferable,  in  that  it  allows  amendments  to  originate 
with  the  people  themselves,  instead  of  only  permitting 
them  to  take  or  reject  propositions  originated  by  others 
not  especially  chosen  for  the  purpose,  and  which  might 
not  be  precisely  such  as  they  would  wish  to  either  accept 
or  refuse.  I  understand  a  proposed  amendment  to  the 
Constitution — which  amendment,  however,  I  have  not 
seen — has  passed  Congress,  to  the  effect  that  the  federal 
government  shall  never  interfere  with  the  domestic  insti- 
tutions of  the  states,  including  that  of  persons  held  to 
service.  To  avoid  misconstruction  of  what  I  have  said, 
I  depart  from  my  purpose  not  to  speak  of  particular 
amendments  so  far  as  to  say  that,  holding  such  a  provi- 
sion to  now  be  implied  constitutional  law,  I  have  no 
objection  to  its  being  made  express  and  irrevocable. 

The  chief  magistrate  derives  all  his  authority  from  the 
people,  and  they  have  conferred  none  upon  him  to  fix 
terms  for  the  separation  of  the  states.     The  people  them- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  265 

selves  can  do  this  also  if  they  choose;  but  the  Executive, 
as  such,  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  His  duty  is  to  admin- 
ister the  present  government,  as  it  came  to  his  hands,  and 
to  transmit  it,  unimpaired  by  him,  to  his  successor. 

Why  should  there  not  be  a  patient  confidence  in  the 
ultimate  justice  of  the  people.'^  Is  there  any  better  or 
equal  hope  in  the  world  .^  In  our  present  differences  is 
either  party  without  faith  of  being  in  the  right?  If  the 
Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  with  His  eternal  truth  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  of  the  American 
people. 

By  the  frame  of  the  government  under  which  we  live, 
this  same  people  have  wisely  given  their  public  servants 
but  little  power  for  mischief;  and  have,  with  equal  wis- 
dom, 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  of  wickedness  or  folly,  can  very  seriously  injure 
the  government  in  the  short  space  of  four  years. 

My  countrymen,  one  and  all,  think  calmly  and  well 
upon  this  whole  subject.  Nothing  valuable  can  be  lost 
by  taking  time.  If  there  be  an  object  to  hurry  any  of 
you  in  hot  haste  to  a  step  which  you  would  never  take 
deliberately,  that  object  will  be  frustrated  by  taking 
time;  but  no  good  object  can  be  frustrated  by  it.  Such 
of  you  as  are  now  dissatisfied,  still  have  the  old  Consti- 
tution unimpaired,  and,  on  the  sensitive  point,  the  laws 
of  your  own  framing  under  it ;  while  the  new  administra- 
tion 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  still  is  no  single 
good  reason  for  precipitate  action.  Intelligence,  patriot- 
ism, 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  difficulty. 


266 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 


111  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow  countrymen,  and 
not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war.  The 
government  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  chords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every  battle- 
field and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and  hearth- 
stone 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. f 

Immediately  after  his  inauguration  Lincoln  was  over- 
whelmed by  the  throng  of  office  seekers  that  attend  any  new 
administration,  particularly  large  at  this  time  because  a  new 
party  was  coming  into  power.  To  them  he  was  compelled  to 
give  the  major  part  of  his  time,  regardless  of  the  crisis  in  the 
affairs  of  the  nation.  So  far  as  the  South  was  concerned,  he 
submitted  to  the  cabinet  the  question  of  whether  it  was  polit- 
ically ad\isable  to  relieve  Fort  Sumter.  Five  answered  that 
it  was  not.  He  himself  was  quite  uncertain  what  to  do.  He 
thought  it  all-important  to  save  to  the  Union  the  Border  slave 
states  which  had  not  seceded,  and  so  he  did  what  Buchanan 
had  done — let  things  drift  for  the  time  being. 

There  was  much  criticism  like  that  of  General  John  A. 
Dix,  "When  I  left  Washington  Saturday  last  (March  23)  I 
do  not  think  the  administration  had  any  settled  policy.  It  was 
merely  drifting  with  the  current,  at  a  loss  to  know  whether  it 
were  better  to  come  to  anchor  or  set  sail." 
♦Constitution.  Art.    2.   Sec.  1.   8. 

t  Seward  suggested  the  last  paragraph  of  the  address.  He 
wrote  it.  "I  close.  V\'e  are  not.  we  must  not  be,  aliens  or 
enemies,  but  fellow-countrymen  and  brethren.  Although  passion 
may  have  strained  our  bonds  of  affection  too  hardly,  they  must 
not,  I  am  sure  thev  will  not.  be  broken.  The  mystic  chords 
which,  proceeding  from  so  many  battlefields  and  so  many  patriot 
graves,  pass  through  all  the  hearts  and  hearths  in  this  broad 
continent  of  ours,  will  yet  again  harmonize  in  their  ancient  music 
when  breathed  upon  by  the  guardian  angel  of  the  nation." 
Contrast   the   two   statements  of  the   same   idea. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  267 

In  the  meantime  Secretary  Seward,  on  his  own  account,  was 
in  communication  with  the  Confederate  commissioners  through 
Justice  John  A.  Campbell  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  was 
assuring  them  that  it  was  almost  certain  that  Fort  Sumter 
would  be  evacuated.  He  had  accepted  the  post  of  Secretary 
of  State  with  the  firm  conviction  that  he  would  save  the  coun- 
try. As  he  wrote  his  wife  on  the  day  he  accepted  the  appoint- 
ment, "I  will  try  to  save  freedom  and  my  country."  On  an- 
other occasion  he  wrote,  "I  know  that  I  can  save  the  country, 
and  I  know  no  other  man  can."  He  believed  in  all  sincerity 
and  honesty  that  Lincoln  was  unable  to  save  the  situation  and 
on  April  1,  wrote  the  following  remarkable  note: 

"some  thoughts  for  the  president's  COXSIDERATIOX 

"First.  We  are  at  the  end  of  a  month's  administration,  and 
yet  without  a  policy  either  domestic  or  foreign. 

"Second.  This,  however,  is  not  culpable,  and  it  has  even 
been  unavoidable.  The  presence  of  the  Senate,  with  the  need 
to  meet  applications  for  patronage,  have  prevented  attention  to 
other   and   more   grave   matters. 

"Third.  But  further  delay  to  adopt  and  prosecute  our 
policies  for  both  domestic  and  foreign  affairs  would  not  only 
bring  scandal  on  the  administration,  but  danger  upon  the 
country. 

"Fourth.  To  do  this  we  must  dismiss  the  applicants  for 
office.  But  how?  I  suggest  that  we  make  the  local  appoint- 
ments forthwith,  leaving  foreign  or  general  ones  for  ulterior 
and  occasional  action. 

"Fifth.  The  policy  at  home.  I  am  aware  that  my  views  are 
singular,  and  perhaps  not  suflSciently  explained.  My  system  is 
built  upon  this  idea  as  a  ruling  one,  namely,  that  we  must 

"Change  the  question  before  the  'public  from  one  upon 
slavery,  or  about  slavery,  for  a  question  upon  union  or  disunion: 

"In  other  words,  from  what  would  be  regarded  as  a  party 
question,  to  one  of  patriotism  or  union. 

"The  occupation  or  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter,  although 
not  in  fact  a  slavery  or  a  party  question,  is  so  regarded.  Wit- 
ness the  temper  manifested  by  the  Republicans  in  the  free 
states,  and  even  by  the  Union  men  in  the  South. 

"I  would  therefore  terminate  it  as  a  safe  means  for  chang- 
ing the  issue.  I  deem  it  fortunate  that  the  last  administration 
created  the  necessity. 

"For  the  rest,  I  would  simultaneously  defend  and  reenforce 
all   the   ports    in    the    gulf,    and   have   the    navy    recalled   from 


268  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

foreign  stations  to  be  prepared  for  a  blockade.     Put  the  island 
of  Key  West  under  martial  law. 

"This  will  raise  distinctly  the  question  of  union  or  disunion. 
I  would  maintain  every  fort  and  possession  in  the  South. 

For  Foreign  Nations 

"I  would  demand  explanations  from  Spain  and  France, 
categorically,  at  once. 

"I  would  seek  explanations  from  Great  Britain  and  Russia, 
and  send  agents  into  Canada,  Mexico,  and  Central  America  to 
rouse  a  vigorous  continental  spirit  of  independence  on  this 
continent  against  European  intervention.* 

"And,  if  satisfactory  explanations  are  not  received  from 
Spain  and  France,  would  convene  Congress  and  declare  war 
against  them. 

"But  whatever  policy  we  adopt,  there  must  be  energetic 
prosecution  of  it. 

"For  this  purpose  it  must  be  somebody's  business  to  pursue 
and  direct  it  incessantly. 

"Either  the  President  must  do  it  himself,  and  be  all  the 
while  active  in  it,  or 

"Devolve  it  on  some  member  of  his  Cabinet.  Once  adopted, 
debates  on  it  must  end,  and  all  agree  and  abide.  It  is  not  in 
my  especial  province.  But  I  neither  seek  to  evade  nor  to  assume 
responsibility." 

On  the  same  day  Lincoln  replied  with  a  note  which  forever 
set  at  rest  the  doubt  in  Seward's  mind  as  to  who  was  to  be 
President  in  fact.  Seward  was  thoroughly  frank  and  gener- 
ous and  not  a  great  while  later  wrote  his  wife,  "Executive 
force  and  vigor  are  rare  qualities;  the  President  is  the  best 
of  us."  Henceforth  he  gave  Lincoln  the  most  faithful  and 
complete  support. 

The  reply  was  on  the  part  of  Lincoln  a  fine  example  of  self- 
restraint  and  selflessness,  combined  with  a  firm  dignity. 

TO  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD 

Executive  Mansion,  April  1,  1861 
Hon.  W.  H.  Seward. 

My  dear  Sir:     Since  parting  with  you  I  have  been  con- 
sidering your  paper  dated  this  day,  and  entitled  "Some 

*  These  European  nations  had  been  active  in  making  demon- 
strations against  Mexico  in  the  hope  of  forcing  the  payment  of 
debts  due  them.  Seward's  proposed  device  of  uniting  the  coun- 
try by  a  foreigrn  war  was  an  old  trick  of  politico-statesmen. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX  269 

Thoughts  for  the  President's  Consideration."  The  first 
proposition  in  it  is,  "First,  We  are  at  the  end  of  a  month's 
administration,  and  yet  without  a  policy  either  domestic 
or  foreign." 

At  the  beginning  of  that  month,  in  the  inaugural,  I 
said:  "The  power  confided  to  me  will  be  used  to  hold, 
occupy,  and  possess  the  property  and  places  belonging 
to  the  government,  and  to  collect  the  duties  and  imposts." 
This  had  your  distinct  approval  at  the  time;  and,  taken 
in  connection  with  the  order  I  immediately  gave  General 
Scott,  directing  him  to  employ  every  means  in  his  power 
to  strengthen  and  hold  the  forts,  comprises  the  exact 
domestic  policy  you  now  urge,  with  the  single  exception 
that  it  does  not  propose  to  abandon  Fort  Sumter. 

Again,  I  do  not  perceive  how  the  reeniorcement  of 
Fort  Sumter  would  be  done  on  a  slavery  or  a  party  issue, 
while  that  of  Fort  Pickens  would  be  on  a  more  national 
and  patriotic  one. 

The  news  received  yesterday  in  regard  to  St.  Domingo* 
certainly  brings  a  new  item  within  the  range  of  our 
foreign  policy ;  but  up  to  that  time  we  have  been  prepar- 
ing circulars  and  instructions  to  ministers  and  the  like, 
all  in  perfect  harmony,  without  even  a  suggestion  that 
we  had  no  foreign  policy. 

Upon  your  closing  propositions — that  "whatever  policy 
we  adopt,  there  must  be  an  energetic  prosecution  of  it. 

"For  this  purpose  it  must  be  somebody's  business  to 
pursue  and  direct  it  incessantly. 

"Either  the  President  must  do  it  himself,  and  be  all 
the  while  active  in  it,  or 

"Devolve  it  on  some  member  of  his  cabinet.  Once 
adopted,  debates  on  it  must  end,  and  all  agree  and  abide" 
— I  remark  that  if  this  must  be  done,  I  must  do  it.  When 
a  general  line  of  policy  is  adopted,  I  apprehend  there  is 
no  danger  of  its  being  changed  without  good  reason,  or 

•  San  Domingo  had  just  requested  Spain  to  assume  again 
complete  sovereignty  over  her. 


270  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

continuing  to  be  a  subject  of  unnecessary  debate;  still, 
upon  points  arising  in  its  progress  I  wish,  and  suppose 
I  am  entitled  to  have,  the  advice  of  all  the  cabinet. 
Your  obedient  servant, 

A.  Lincoln 

Late  in  March  Lincoln  again  submitted  the  question  of 
Sumter  to  his  cabinet.  This  time  the  vote  stood  five  to  two  in 
favor  of  its  relief.  A  little  later  he  decided  to  attempt  the 
relief  of  both  Sumter  and  Pickens,  with  the  full  knowledge 
that  it  meant  the  opening  of  war,  since  notice  had  been  given 
by  the  Confederate  authorities  that  any  attempt  to  relieve 
Sumter  would  result  in  its  reduction.  Seward  had  promised 
that  notice  of  any  expedition  would  be  given,  and  Lincoln  car- 
ried out  the  pledge.  A  prompt  attack  on  the  fort  forced  its 
fall  on   April   13. 

On  the  same  day  a  committee  from  the  Virginia  convention, 
which  had  been  in  session  since  the  winter,  visited  Lincoln. 
He  had  been  most  anxious  to  secure  Virginia's  support  against 
war,  and  had  gone  so  far  as  to  offer  to  abandon  Sumter  if  the 
convention  would  adjourn  sine  die,  but  the  message  had  never 
been  delivered  to  the  convention.  Now  it  was  too  late  for 
negotiation.     He  replied  to  the  committee  in  these  words: 

REPLY  TO  A  COMMITTEE  FROM  THE 
VIRGINIA  CONVENTION 

[April  13,  1861] 

Hon.  William  Ballard  Preston,  Alexander  H.  H.  Stuart, 

George  W.  Randolph,  Esq. 

Gentlemen:  As  a  committee  of  the  Virginia  Conven- 
tion now  in  session,  you  present  me  a  preamble  and 
resolution  in  these  words: 

"Whereas,  in  the  opinion  of  this  Convention,  the  uncer- 
tainty which  prevails  in  the  public  mind  as  to  the  polic}^ 
which  the  Federal  Executive  intends  to  pursue  toward 
the  seceded  states  is  extremely  injurious  to  the  industrial 
and  commercial  interests  of  the  country,  tends  to  keep 
up  an  excitement  which  is  unfavorable  to  the  adjustment 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  271 

of  pending  difficulties,  and  threatens  a  disturbance  of 
the  public  peace;  therefore 

"Resolved,  that  a  committee  of  three  delegates  be 
appointed  by  this  Convention  to  wait  upon  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  present  to  him  this  preamble  and 
resolution^  and  respectfully  ask  him  to  communicate  to 
this  Convention  the  policy  which  the  Federal  Executive 
intends  to  pursue  in  regard  to  the  Confederate   States. 

"Adopted  by  the  Convention  of  the  State  of  Virginia, 
Richmond,  April  8,  1861." 

In  answer  I  have  to  say  that,  having  at  the  beginning 
of  my  official  term  expressed  my  intended  policy  as 
plainly  as  I  was  able,  it  is  with  deep  regret  and  some 
mortification  I  now  learn  that  there  is  great  and  injurious 
uncertainty  in  the  public  mind  as  to  what  that  policy  is, 
and  what  course  I  intend  to  pursue.  Not  having  as  yet 
seen  occasion  to  change,  it  is  now  my  purpose  to  pursue 
the  course  marked  out  in  the  inaugural  address.  I  com- 
mend a  careful  consideration  of  the  whole  document  as 
the  best  expression  I  can  give  of  my  purposes. 

As  I  then  and  therein  said,  I  now  repeat:  "The  power 
confided  to  me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and  possess 
the  property  and  places  belonging  to  the  government,  and 
to  collect  the  duties  and  imposts ;  but  beyond  what  is 
necessary  for  these  objects,  there  will  be  no  invasion,  no 
using  of  force  against  or  among  the  people  anywhere." 
By  the  words  "property  and  places  belonging  to  the 
government,"  I  chiefly  allude  to  the  military  posts  and 
property  which  were  in  the  possession  of  the  government 
when  it  came  to  my  hands. 

But  if,  as  now  appears  to  be  true,  in  pursuit  of  a  pur- 
pose to  drive  the  United  States  authority  from  these 
places,  an  unprovoked  assault  has  been  made  upon  Fort 
Sumter,  I  shall  hold  myself  at  liberty  to  repossess,  if  I 
can,  like  places  which  had  been  seized  before  the  govern- 
ment was  devolved  upon  me.  And  in  every  event  I  shall, 
to   the  extent  of  my   ability,  repel   force  by   force.      In 


272  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

case  it  proves  true  that  Fort  Sumter  has  been  assaulted, 
as  is  reported,  I  shall  perhaps  cause  the  United  States 
mails  to  be  withdrawn  from  all  the  states  which  claim 
to  have  seceded,  believing  that  the  commencement  of 
actual  war  against  the  government  justifies  and  possibly 
demands  this. 

I  scarcely  need  to  say  that  I  consider  the  military 
posts  and  property  situated  within  the  states  which  claim 
to  have  seceded  as  yet  belonging  to  the  government  of 
the  United  States  as  much  as  they  did  before  the  sup- 
posed secession. 

Whatever  else  I  may  do  for  the  purpose,  I  shall  not 
attempt  to  collect  the  duties  and  imposts  by  any  armed 
invasion  of  any  part  of  the  country ;  not  meaning  by  this, 
however^  that  I  may  not  land  a  force  deemed  necessary 
to  relieve  a  fort  upon  a  border  of  the  country. 

From  the  fact  that  I  have  quoted  a  part  of  the 
inaugural  address,  it  must  not  be  inferred  that  I  repu- 
diate any  other  part,  the  whole  of  which  I  reaffirm, 
except  so  far  as  what  I  now  say  of  the  mails  may  be 
regarded  as  a  modification. 


On  April  15  Lincoln  called  upon  the  governors  of  the  states 
for  75,000  men  to  suppress  what  he  termed  "unlawful  com- 
binations" in  the  seceded  states.  Every  care  was  taken  from 
the  beginning  of  the  war  not  to  make  any  move  against  a 
state  as  such,  for  the  Border  states  and  many  people  in  the 
North,  like  Buchanan,  did  not  believe  that  the  United  States 
had  any  power  to  coerce  a  state. 

With  the  call  for  troops,  uncertainty  ended  in  the  North 
and  South,  and  the  people  rushed  to  arms.  Virginia,  Arkan- 
sas, Tennessee,  and  North  Carolina  seceded.  Missouri  and 
Maryland  were  prevented  from  doing  so  only  by  force.  Ken- 
tucky declared  herself  neutral  in  the  impending  conflict.  The 
struggle  for  the  preservation  of  the  L^nion  had  begun. 

With  the  outbreak  of  actual  war,  Lincoln's  one  aim  became 
the  preservation  of  the  L^nion.  All  else  disappeared  from  view, 
and  to  that  end  he  gave  his  imdivided  attention.     His  letters 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  27:^ 

show  this.  The  people  of  Maryland  at  this  time  objected  to 
the  passage  of  troops  across  the  state  to  Washington  for  the 
invasion  of  Virginia.  The  Sixth  Massachusetts  was  attacked 
by  a  mob  as  it  crossed  Baltimore,  with  resulting  bloodshed  on 
both  sides.  Reverdy  Johnson,  a  distinguished  Maryland  law- 
yer, wrote  Lincoln  a  letter  on  the  subject,  which  brought  this 
reply: 

TO   REVERDY  JOHNSON 
[Confidentiul] 
Executive  Mansion,  April  24,  1861 
Hon.  Reverdy  Johnson. 

My  dear  Sir:  Your  note  of  this  morning  is  just 
received.  I  forbore  to  answer  yours  of  the  22d  because 
of  my  aversion  (which  I  thought  you  understood)  to  get- 
ting on  paper  and  furnishing  new  grounds  for  misunder- 
standing. I  do  say  the  sole  purpose  of  bringing  troops 
here  is  to  defend  this  capital.  I  do  say  I  have  no  purpose 
to  invade  Virginia  with  them  or  any  other  troops,  as  I 
understand  the  word  invasion.  But,  suppose  Virginia 
sends  her  troops,  or  admits  others  through  her  borders, 
to  assail  this  capital,  am  I  not  to  repel  them  even  to  the 
crossing  of  the  Potomac,  if  I  can?  Suppose  Virginia 
erects,  or  permits  to  be  erected,  batteries  on  the  opposite 
shore  to  bombard  the  city,  are  we  to  stand  still  and  see 
it  done?  In  a  word,  if  Virginia  strikes  us,  are  we  not 
to  strike  back,  and  as  effectively  as  we  can  ?  Again,  are 
we  not  to  hold  Fort  Monroe  (for  instance)  if  we  can? 
I  have  no  objection  to  declare  a  thousand  times  that  I 
have  no  purpose  to  invade  Virginia  or  any  other  state, 
but  I  do  not  mean  to  let  them  invade  us  without  striking 
back.  Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

Gustavus  V.  Fox,  later  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
had  planned  the  expedition  to  relieve  Sumter.  This  letter  to 
him  from  the  President  is  interesting  because  of  the  view  it 
gives  of  the  latter's  purpose  in  relieving  Fort  Sumter. 


274  SELECTIONS    FROM    LEVCOLX 

TO  GUSTAVUS  V.  FOX 

Washington,  D.  C,  May  1,  1861 
Captain  G.  V.  Fox. 

My  dear  Sir:  I  sincerely  regret  that  the  failure  of 
the  late  attempt  to  provision  Fort  Sumter  should  be  the 
source  of  any  annoyance  to  you. 

The  practicability  of  your  plan  was  not,  in  fact, 
brought  to  a  test.  By  reason  of  a  gale,  well  known  in 
advance  to  be  possible  and  not  improbable,  the  tugs,  an 
essential  part  of  the  plan,  never  reached  the  ground ; 
while,  by  an  accident  for  which  you  were  in  no  wise 
responsible,  and  possibly  I  to  some  extent  was,  you  were 
deprived  of  a  war  vessel,*  with  her  men,  which  you 
deemed  of  great  importance  to  the  enterprise. 

I  most  cheerfully  and  truly  declare  that  the  failure  of 
the  undertaking  has  not  lowered  you  a  particle,  while 
the  qualities  you  developed  in  the  effort  have  greatly 
heightened  you  in  my  estimation. 

For  a  daring  and  dangerous  enterprise  of  a  similar 
character  you  would  today  be  the  man  of  all  my  acquaint- 
ances whom  I  would  select.  You  and  I  both  anticipated 
that  the  cause  of  the  country  would  be  advanced  by  mak- 
ing the  attempt  to  provision  Fort  Sumter,  even  if  it 
should  fail;  and  it  is  no  small  consolation  now  to  feel 
that  our  anticipation  is  justified  by  the  result. 
Very  truly  your  friend, 

A.  Lincoln 

Colonel  E.  E.  Ellsworth,  who  had  been  a  law  student  in 
Lincoln's  office,  was  killed  in  Alexandria  while  hauling  down 
the  Confederate  flag.  This  letter  to  his  parents  is  the  first 
of  the  many  letters  of  condolence  Lincoln  wrote  during  the 
war.  It  is  particularly  interesting  in  comparison  with  the 
letter  to  Mrs,  Bixby  written  three  years  later. 

*  The  Powhatan  was  detached  from  the  Sumter  expedition 
and  sent  to  Fort  Pickens  without  the  knowledge  of  the  officers 
in  charge  of  the  expedition- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  275 

TO  COLONEL  ELLSWORTH'S  PARENTS 

Washington,  D.  C,  May  25,  1861 

To  the  Father  and  :\Iother  of  Colonel  Elmer  E.  Ells- 
worth. 

My  dear  Sir  and  Madam  :  In  the  untimely  loss  of 
your  noble  son,  our  affliction  here  is  scarcely  less  than 
your  own.  So  much  of  promised  usefulness  to  one's 
country,  and  of  bright  hopes  for  oneself  and  friends, 
have  rarely  been  so  suddenly  dashed  as  in  his  fall.  In 
size,  in  years,  and  in  youthful  appearance  a  boy  only, 
his  power  to  command  men  was  surpassingly  great.  This 
power,  combined  with  a  fine  intellect,  an  indomitable 
energy,  and  a  taste  altogether  military,  constituted  in 
him,  as  seemed  to  me,  the  best  natural  talent  in  that 
department  I  ever  knew. 

And  yet  he  was  singularly  modest  and  deferential  in 
social  intercourse.  My  acquaintance  with  him  began 
less  than  two  years  ago;  yet  through  the  latter  half  of 
the  intervening  period  it  was  as  intimate  as  the  disparity 
of  our  ages  and  my  engrossing  engagements  would  per- 
mit. To  me  he  appeared  to  have  no  indulgences  or 
pastimes;  and  I  never  heard  him  utter  a  profane  or  an 
intemperate  word.  What  was  conclusive  of  his  good 
heart,  he  never  forgot  his  parents.  The  honors  he  labored 
for  so  laudably,  and  for  which  in  the  sad  end  he  so  gal- 
lantly gave  his  life,  he  meant  for  them  no  less  than  for 
himself. 

In  the  hope  that  it  may  be  no  intrusion  upon  the 
sacredness  of  your  sorrow,  I  have  ventured  to  address 
you  this  tribute  to  the  memory  of  my  young  friend  and 
your  brave  and  early  fallen  child. 

May  God  give  you  that  consolation  which  is  beyond 
all  earthly  power. 

Sincerely  your  friend  in  a  common  affliction, 

A.  Lincoln 


276  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

At  the  same  time  that  he  called  for  troops,  Lincoln  sum- 
moned Congress  to  meet  in  special  session  on  July  4.  When  it 
assembled  he  stated  the  existing  situation  in  a  special  mes- 
sage. It  is  an  exceedingly  able  document  and  is  worth  careful 
study  as  one  of  the  strongest  statements  of  the  national  posi- 
tion in  the  war.  It  is,  however,  in  its  spirit  and  in  its  ignoring 
of  undisputed  historical  facts,  a  lawyer's  presentation  and  far 
more  partisan  than  one  is  accustomed  to  find  from  Lincoln. 

MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS  IN  SPECIAL  SESSION 
[July  4,   1861] 

Fellow-Citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives:  Having  been  convened  on  an  extraord- 
dinary  occasion,  as  authorized  by  the  Constitution,  your 
attention  is  not  called  to  any  ordinary  subject  of 
legislation. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  presidential  term, 
four  months  ago,  the  functions  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment were  found  to  be  generally  suspended  within  the 
several  states  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama, 
Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Florida,  excepting  only  those 
of  the  Post  Office  Department. 

Within  these  states  all  the  forts,  arsenals,  dockyards, 
custom-houses,  and  the  like,  including  the  movable  and 
stationary  property  in  and  about  them,  had  been  seized, 
and  were  held  in  open  hostility  to  this  government, 
excepting  only  Forts  Pickens,  Taylor,  and  Jefferson,  on 
and  near  the  Florida  coast,  and  Fort  Sumter,  in  Charles- 
ton Harbor,  South  Carolina.  The  forts  thus  seized  had 
been  put  in  improved  condition,  new  ones  had  been  built, 
and  armed  forces  had  been  organized  and  were  organiz- 
ing, all  avowedly  with  the  same  hostile  purpose. 

The  forts  remaining  in  the  possession  of  the  Federal 
Government  in  and  near  these  states  were  either  besieged 
or  menaced  by  warlike  preparations,  and  especially  Fort 
Sumter  was  nearly  surrounded  by  well-protected  hostile 
batteries,  with  guns  equal  in  quality  to  the  best  of  its 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  277 

own,  and  outnumbering  the  latter  as  perhaps  ten  to  one. 
A  disproportionate  share  of  the  Federal  muskets  and 
rifles  had  somehow  found  their  way  into  these  states,  and 
had  been  seized  to  be  used  against  the  government. 
Accumulations  of  the  public  revenue  lying  within  them 
had  been  seized  for  the  same  object.  The  navy  was 
scattered  in  distant  seas,  leaving  but  a  ver}^  small  part 
of  it  within  immediate  reach  of  the  government.  Officers 
of  the  Federal  army  and  navy  resigned  in  great  numbers; 
and  of  those  resigning  a  large  proportion  had  taken  up 
arms  against  the  government.  Simultaneously,  and  in 
connection  with  all  this,  the  purpose  to  sever  the  Federal 
Union  was  openly  avowed.  In  accordance  with  this  pur- 
pose, an  ordinance  had  been  adopted  in  each  of  these 
states,  declaring  the  states  respectively  to  be  separated 
from  the  National  Union.  A  formula  for  instituting  a 
combined  government  of  these  states  had  been  promul- 
gated; and  this  illegal  organization,  in  the  character  of 
confederate  states,  was  already  invoking  recognition,  aid, 
and  intervention  from  foreign  powers. 

Finding  this  condition  of  things,  and  believing  it  to  be 
an  imperative  duty  upon  the  incoming  Executive  to  pre- 
vent, if  possible,  the  consummation  of  such  attempt  to 
destroy  the  Federal  Union,  a  choice  of  means  to  that  end 
became  indispensable.  This  choice  was  made  and  was 
declared  in  the  inaugural  address.  The  policy  chosen 
looked  to  the  exhaustion  of  all  peaceful  measures  before 
a  resort  to  any  stronger  ones.  It  sought  only  to  hold 
the  public  places  and  property  not  already  wrested  from 
the  government,  and  to  collect  the  revenue,  relying  for 
the  rest  on  time,  discussion,  and  the  ballot-box.  It 
promised  a  continuance  of  the  mails  at  government 
expense,  to  the  very  people  who  were  resisting  the 
government;  and  it  gave  repeated  pledges  against  any 
disturbance  to  any  of  the  people,  or  any  of  their  rights. 
Of  all  that  which  a  President  might  constitutionally  and 
justifiably  do  in   such   a  case,  everything  was   forborne 


278  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

without  which  it  was  believed  possible  to  keep  the  govern- 
ment on  foot. 

On  the  5th  of  March  (the  present  incumbent's  first 
full  day  in  office),  a  letter  of  Major  Anderson,  command- 
ing at  Fort  Sumter,  written  on  the  28th  day  of  February 
and  received  at  the  War  Department  on  the  4th  of 
March,  was  by  that  department  placed  in  his  hands. 
This  letter  expressed  the  professional  opinion  of  the 
writer  that  reenforcements  could  not  be  thrown  into  that 
fort  within  the  time  for  his  relief,  rendered  necessary  by 
the  limited  supply  of  provisions,  and  with  a  view  of 
holding  possession  of  the  same,  with  a  force  of  less  than 
twenty  thousand  good  and  well-disciplined  men.  This 
opinion  was  concurred  in  by  all  the  officers  of  his  com- 
mand, and  their  memoranda  on  the  subject  were  made 
inclosures  of  Major  Anderson's  letter.  The  whole  was 
immediately  laid  before  Lieutenant-General  Scott,  who 
at  once  concurred  with  Major  Anderson  in  opinion.  On 
reflection,  however,  he  took  full  time,  consulting  with 
other  officers,  both  of  the  army  and  the  navy,  and  at  the 
end  of  four  days  came  reluctantly  but  decidedly  to  the 
same  conclusion  as  before.  He  also  stated  at  the  same 
time  that  no  such  sufficient  force  was  then  at  the  control 
of  the  government,  or  could  be  raised  and  brought  to 
the  ground  within  the  time  when  the  provisions  in  the 
fort  would  be  exhausted.  In  a  purely  military  point  of 
view,  this  reduced  the  duty  of  the  administration  in  the 
case  to  the  mere  matter  of  getting  the  garrison  safely 
out  of  the  fort. 

It  is  believed,  however,  that  to  so  abandon  that  posi- 
tion, under  the  circumstances,  would  be  utterly  ruinous ; 
that  the  necessity  under  which  it  was  to  be  done  would 
not  be  fully  understood ;  that  by  many  it  would  be  con- 
strued as  a  part  of  a  voluntary  policy;  that  at  home  it 
would  discourage  friends  of  the  Union,  embolden  its 
adversaries,  and  go  far  to  insure  to  the  latter  a  recogni- 
tion   abroad;    that,    in    fact,    it    would    be    our    national 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  279 

destruction  consummated.  This  could  not  be  allowed. 
Starvation  was  not  yet  upon  the  garrison,  and  ere  it 
would  be  reached,  Fort  Pickens  might  be  reenforced. 
This  last  would  be  a  clear  indication  of  policy,  and  would 
better  enable  the  country  to  accept  the  evacuation  of 
Fort  Sumter  as  a  military  necessity.  An  order  was  at 
once  directed  to  be  sent  for  the  landing  of  the  troops 
from  the  steamship  Brooklyn  into  Fort  Pickens.  This 
order  could  not  go  by  land,  but  must  take  the  longer  and 
slower  route  by  sea.  The  first  return  news  from  the 
order  was  received  just  one  week  before  the  fall  of  Fort 
Sumter.  The  news  itself  was  that  the  officer  commanding 
the  Sabine,  to  which  vessel  the  troops  had  been  trans- 
ferred from  the  Brooklyn,  acting  upon  some  quasi  armi- 
stice of  the  late  administration  (and  of  the  existence  of 
which  the  present  administration,  up  to  the  time  the 
order  was  dispatched,  had  only  too  vague  and  uncertain 
rumors  to  fix  attention),  had  refused  to  land  the  troops. 
To  now  reenforce  Fort  Pickens  before  a  crisis  would  be 
reached  at  Fort  Sumter  was  impossible — rendered  so  by 
the  near  exhaustion  of  provisions  in  the  latter-named 
fort.  In  precaution  against  such  a  conjuncture,  the 
government  had,  a  few  days  before,  commenced  prepar- 
ing an  expedition  as  well  adapted  as  might  be  to  relieve 
Fort  Sumter,  which  expedition  was  intended  to  be  ulti- 
mately used,  or  not,  according  to  circumstances.  The 
strongest  anticipated  case  for  using  it  was  now  presented, 
and  it  was  resolved  to  send  it  forward.  As  had  been 
intended  in  this  contingency,  it  was  also  resolved  to 
notify  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina  that  he  might 
expect  an  attempt  would  be  made  to  provision  the  fort; 
and  that,  if  the  attempt  should  not  be  resisted,  there 
would  be  no  effort  to  throw  in  men,  arms,  or  ammunition, 
without  further  notice,  or  in  case  of  an  attack  upon  the 
fort.  This  notice  was  accordingly  given ;  whereupon  the 
fort  was  attacked  and  bombarded  to  its  fall,  without  even 
awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  provisioning  expedition. 


280  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

It  is  thus  seen  that  the  assault  upon  and  reduction  of 
Fort  Sumter  was  in  no  sense  a  matter  of  self-defense 
on  the  part  of  the  assailants.*  They  well  knew  that  the 
garrison  in  the  fort  could  by  no  possibility  commit 
aggression  upon  them.  They  knew — they  were  expressly 
notified — that  the  giving  of  bread  to  a  few  brave  and 
hungry  men  of  the  garrison  was  all  which  would  on  that 
occasion  be  attempted,  unless  themselves,  by  resisting 
so  much,  should  provoke  more.  They  knew  that  this 
government  desired  to  keep  the  garrison  in  the  fort,  not 
to  assail  them,  but  merely  to  maintain  visible  possession, 
and  thus  to  preserve  the  Union  from  actual  and  imme- 
diate dissolution — trusting,  as  hereinbefore  stated,  to 
time,  discussion,  and  the  ballot-box  for  final  adjustment; 
and  they  assailed  and  reduced  the  fort  for  precisely  the 
reverse  object — to  drive  out  the  visible  authority  of  the 
Federal  Union,  and  thus  force  it  to  immediate  dissolu- 
tion. That  this  was  their  object  the  Executive  well  under- 
stood; and  having  said  to  them  in  the  inaugural  address, 
"You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the 
aggressors,"  he  took  pains  not  only  to  keep  this  declara- 
tion good,  but  also  to  keep  the  case  so  free  from  the  power 
of  ingenious  sophistry  that  the  world  should  not  be  able 
to  misunderstand  it.  By  the  affair  at  Fort  Sumter,  with 
its  surrounding  circumstances,  that  point  was  reached. 
Then  and  thereby  the  assailants  of  the  government  began 
the  conflict  of  arms,  without  a  gun  in  sight  or  in  expect- 
ancy to  return  their  fire,  save  only  the  few  in  the  fort 
sent  to  that  harbor  years  before  for  their  own  protection, 
and  still  ready  to  give  that  protection  in  whatever  was 
lawful.  In  this  act,  discarding  all  else,  they  have  forced 
upon  the  country  the  distinct  issue,  "immediate  dissolution 
or  blood." 

And    this   issue   embraces   more  than   the   fate   of  the 

United  States.     It  presents  to  the  whole  family  of  man 

*  Lincoln  of  course  did  not  see  that  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  South  the  retention  of  Fort  Sumter,  even  without  any  attempt 
to  relieve  it,  was  an  act  of  aggression. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX  281 

the  question  whether  a  constitutional  republic  or  democ- 
i-ac}' — a  government  of  the  people  by  the  same  people — 
can  or  cannot  maintain  its  territorial  integrity  against 
its  own  domestic  foes.  It  presents  the  question  whether 
discontented  individuals^  too  few  in  number  to  control 
administration  according  to  organic  law  in  any  case,  can 
always,  by  the  pretenses  made  in  this  case,  or  on  any 
other  pretenses,  or  arbitrarily  without  any  pretense, 
break  up  their  government,  and  thus  practically  put  an 
end  to  free  government  upon  the  earth.  It  forces  us  to 
ask:  "Is  there,  in  all  republics,  this  inherent  and  fatal 
weakness  ?"  "]\Iust  a  government,  of  necessity,  be  too 
strong  for  the  liberties  of  its  own  people,  or  too  weak 
to  maintain  its  own  existence?" 

So  viewing  the  issue,  no  choice  was  left  but  to  call  out 
the  war  power  of  the  government;  and  so  to  resist  force 
employed  for  its  destruction,  by  force  for  its  preservation. 

The  call  was  made,  and  the  response  of  the  country 
was  most  gratifying,  surpassing  in  unanimity  and  spirit 
the  most  sanguine  expectation.  Yet  none  of  the  states 
commonly  called  slave  states,  except  Delaware,  gave  a 
regiment  through  regular  state  organization.  A  few 
regiments  have  been  organized  within  some  others  of 
those  states  by  individual  enterprise,  and  received  into 
the  government  service.  Of  course  the  seceded  states, 
so  called  (and  to  which  Texas  had  been  joined  about  the 
time  of  the  inauguration),  gave  no  troops  to  the  cause  of 
the  Union.  The  border  states,  so  called,  were  not  uniform 
in  their  action,  some  of  them  being  almost  for  the  Union, 
while  in  others — as  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee, 
and  Arkansas — the  Union  sentiment  was  nearly  repressed 
and  silenced.  The  course  taken  in  Virginia  was  the  most 
remarkable — perhaps  the  most  important.  A  convention 
elected  by  the  people  of  that  state  to  consider  the  very 
question  of  disrupting  the  Federal  Union  was  in  session 
at  the  capital  of  Virginia  when  Fort  Sumter  fell.  To  this 
body  the  people  had  chosen  a  large  majority  of  professed 


282  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

Union  men.  Almost  immediately  after  the  fall  of  Sumter, 
many  members  of  that  majorit}^  went  over  to  the  original 
disunion  minority,  and  with  them  adopted  an  ordinance 
for  withdrawing  the  state  from  the  Union.  Whether 
this  change  was  wrought  by  their  great  approval  of  the 
assault  upon  Sumter  or  their  great  resentment  at  the 
government's  resistance  to  that  assault,  is  not  definitely 
known.  Although  they  submitted  the  ordinance  for  rati- 
fication to  a  vote  of  the  people^  to  be  taken  on  a  day  then 
somewhat  more  than  a  month  distant,  the  convention  and 
the  legislature  (which  was  also  in  session  at  the  same 
time  and  place),  with  leading  men  of  the  state  not  mem- 
bers of  either,  immediately  commenced  acting  as  if  the 
state  were  already  out  of  the  Union.  They  pushed  mili- 
tary preparations  vigorously  forward  all  over  the  state. 
They  seized  the  United  States  armory  at  Harpers  Ferry, 
and  the  navy-yard  at  Gosport,  nfear  Norfolk.  They 
received — perhaps  invited — into  their  state  large  bodies 
of  troops,  with  their  warlike  appointments,  from  the 
so-called  seceded  states.  They  formally  entered  into  a 
treaty  of  temporary  alliance  and  cooperation  with  the 
so-called  "Confederate  States,"  and  sent  members  to 
their  congress  at  Montgomery.  And,  finally,  they  per- 
mitted the  insurrectionary  government  to  be  transferred 
to  their  capital  at  Richmond. 

The  people  of  Virginia  have  thus  allowed  this  giant 
insurrection  to  make  its  nest  within  her  borders ;  and  this 
government  has  no  choice  left  but  to  deal  with  it  where 
it  finds  it.  And  it  has  the  less  regret  as  the  loyal  citizens 
have,  in  due  form,  claimed  its  protection.  Those  loyal 
citizens  this  government  is  bound  to  recognize  and  protect, 
as  being  Virginia. 

In  the  border  states^  so  called — in  fact,  the  Middle 
States — there  are  those  who  favor  a  policy  which  they 
call  "armed  neutrality" ;  that  is,  an  arming  of  those  states 
to  prevent  the  Union  forces  passing  one  way,  or  the  dis- 
union the  other,  over  their  soil.     This  would  be  disunion 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  283 

completed.  Figuratively  speaking,  it  would  be  the  build- 
ing of  an  impassable  wall  along  the  line  of  separation — 
and  yet  not  quite  an  impassable  one,  for  under  the  guise 
of  neutrality  it  would  tie  the  hands  of  Union  men  and 
freely  pass  supplies  from  among  them  to  the  insurrec- 
tionists, which  it  could  not  do  as  an  open  enemy.  At  a 
stroke  it  would  take  all  the  trouble  off  the  hands  of  seces- 
sion, except  only  what  proceeds  from  the  external 
blockade.  It  would  do  for  the  disunionists  that  which, 
of  all  things,  they  most  desire — feed  them  well,  and  give 
them  disunion  without  a  struggle  of  their  own.  It  recog- 
nizes no  fidelity  to  the  Constitution,  no  obligation  to 
maintain  the  Union;  and  while  very  many  who  have 
favored  it  are  doubtless  loyal  citizens,  it  is,  nevertheless, 
very  injurious  in  effect. 

Recurring  to  the  action  of  the  government,  it  may  be 
stated  that  at  first  a  call  was  made  for  75,000  militia, 
and,  rapidly  following  this,  a  proclamation  was  issued 
for  closing  the  ports  of  the  insurrectionary  district 
by  proceedings  in  the  nature  of  blockade.*  So  far  all 
was  believed  to  be  strictly  legal.  At  this  point  the 
insurrectionists  announced  their  purpose  to  enter  upon 
the  practice  of  privateering. 

Other  calls  were  made  for  volunteers  to  serve  for  three 
years,  unless  sooner  discharged,  and  also  for  large  addi- 
tions to  the  regular  army  and  navy.  These  measures, 
whether  strictly  legal  or  not,  were  ventured  upon,  under 
what  appeared  to  be  a  popular  demand  and  a  public 
necessity;  trusting  then,  as  now,  that  Congress  would 
readily  ratify  them.  It  is  believed  that  nothing  has  been 
done  beyond  the  constitutional  competency  of  Congress. 

Soon  after  the  first  call  for  militia,  it  was  considered 
a  duty  to  authorize  the  commanding  general  in  proper 
cases,  according  to  his  discretion,  to  suspend  the  privilege 

♦  Lincoln's  proclamation  of  the  blockade  of  the  Southern  ports 
was  held  by  many  to  be  a  recognition  of  the  separation  of  the 
seceded  states  from  the  Union,  since  the  President  could  not 
blockade  home  ports  without  an  act  of   Congress. 


284  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  *  or,  in  otlier  words,  to  arrest 
and  detain,  without  resort  to  the  ordinary  processes  and 
forms  of  law,  such  individuals  as  he  might  deem  danger- 
ous to  the  public  safety.  This  authority  has  purposely 
been  exercised  but  very  sparingly.  Nevertheless,  the 
legality  and  propriety  of  what  has  been  done  under  it 
are  questioned,  and  the  attention  of  the  country  has  been 
called  to  the  proposition  that  one  who  has  sworn  to  "take 
care  that  the  laws  be  faithfully  executed"  should  not 
himself  violate  them.  Of  course  some  consideration  was 
given  to  the  questions  of  power  and  propriety  before 
this  matter  was  acted  upon.  The  whole  of  the  laws 
which  were  required  to  be  faithfully  executed  were  beina: 
resisted  and  failing  of  execution  in  nearly  one-third  of 
the  states.  Must  they  be  allowed  to  finally  fail  of  execu- 
tion, even  had  it  been  perfectly  clear  that  by  the  use  of 
the  means  necessary  to  their  execution  some  single  law, 
made  in  such  extreme  tenderness  of  the  citizen's  liberty 
that,  practically,  it  relieves  more  of  the  guilty  than  of 
the  innocent,  should  to  a  very  limited  extent  be  violated.'' 
To  state  the  question  more  directly,  are  all  the  laws  but 
one  to  go  unexecuted,  and  the  government  itself  go  to 
pieces,  lest  that  one  be  violated?  Even  in  such  a  case, 
would  not  the  official  oath  be  broken  if  the  government 
should  be  overthrown,  when  it  was  believed  that  dis- 
regarding the  single  law  would  tend  to  preserve  it.^  But 
it  was  not  believed  that  this  question  was  presented.  It 
was  not  believed  that  any  law  was  violated.  The  pro- 
vision of  the  Constitution  that  "the  privilege  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  suspended,  unless  when,  in 
cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  may 
require  it,"  is  equivalent  to  a  provision — is  a  provision — 

*  The  acts  of  the  President  thus  described  marked  the  begin- 
ning- of  the  military  dictatorsliip  which  prevailed  throughout  the 
war,  based  upon  the  war  powers  of  the  President.  They  were 
without  authority  of  law.  Never  in  the  history  of  an  English- 
speaking  people,  from  the  first  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  had  the  sus- 
pension of  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  been  claimed 
as  an  executive  power.  In  the  Constitution  the  provision  for  its 
suspension   appears   in    the    legislative   article. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  285 

that  such  privilege  may  be  suspended  when,  in  case  of 
rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  does  require  it. 
It  was  decided  that  we  have  a  case  of  rebellion,  and  that 
the  public  safety  does  require  the  qualified  suspension 
of  the  privilege  of  the  writ  which  was  authorized  to  be 
made.  Now  it  is  insisted  that  Congress,  and  not  the 
Executive,  is  vested  with  this  power.  But  the  Constitution 
itself  is  silent  as  to  which  or  who  is  to  exercise  the  power ; 
and  as  the  provision  was  plainly  made  for  a  dangerous 
emergency,  it  cannot  be  believed  the  framers  of  the 
instrument  intended  that  in  every  case  the  danger  should 
run  its  course  until  Congress  could  be  called  together, 
the  very  assembling  of  which  might  be  prevented,  as  was 
intended  in  this  case,  by  the  rebellion. 

Xo  more  extended  argument  is  now  offered,  as  an 
opinion  at  some  length  will  probably  be  presented  by  the 
Attorney  General.  Whether  there  shall  be  any  legislation 
upon  the  subject,  and  if  any,  what,  is  submitted  entirely 
to  the  better  judgment  of  Congress. 

The  forbearance  of  this  government  had  been  so 
extraordinary  and  so  long  continued  as  to  lead  some 
foreign  nations  to  shape  their  action  as  if  they  supposed 
the  early  destruction  of  our  National  Union  was  prob- 
able. While  this,  on  discovery,  gave  the  Executive  some 
concern,  he  is  now  happy  to  say  that  the  sovereignty  and 
rights  of  the  United  States  are  now  everywhere  prac- 
tically respected  by  foreign  powers ;  and  a  general 
sympathy  with  the  country  is  manifested  throughout  the 
world. 

The  reports  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury,  War, 
and  the  Navy  will  give  the  information  in  detail  deemed 
necessary  and  convenient  for  your  deliberation  and 
action;  while  the  Executive  and  all  the  departments  will 
stand  ready  to  supply  omissions,  or  to  communicate  new 
facts  considered  important  for  you  to  know. 

It  is  now  recommended  that  you  give  the  legal  means 
for   making  this  contest   a   short   and  decisive  one ;  that 


286  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

you  place  at  the  control  of  the  government  for  the  work 
at  least  four  hundred  thousand  men  and  $400,000,000. 
That  number  of  men  is  about  one-tenth  of  those  of  proper 
ages  within  the  regions  where,  apparently,  all  are  willing 
to  engage ;  and  the  sum  is  less  than  a  twenty-third  part  of 
the  money  value  owned  by  the  men  who  seem  ready  to 
devote  the  whole.  A  debt  of  $600,000,000  now  is  a  less 
sum  per  head  than  was  the  debt  of  our  Revolution  when 
we  came  out  of  that  struggle;  and  the  money  value  in 
the  country  now  bears  even  a  greater  proportion  to  what 
it  was  then  than  does  the  population.  Surely  each  man 
has  as  strong  a  motive  now  to  preserve  our  liberties  as 
each  had  then  to  establish  them. 

A  right  result  at  this  time  will  be  worth  more  to  the 
world  than  ten  times  the  men  and  ten  times  the  money. 
The  evidence  reaching  us  from  the  country  leaves  no 
doubt  that  the  material  for  the  work  is  abundant,  and 
that  it  needs  only  the  hand  of  legislation  to  give  it  legal 
sanction,  and  the  hand  of  the  Executive  to  give  it  practical 
shape  and  efficiency.  One  of  the  greatest  perplexities 
of  the  government  is  to  avoid  receiving  troops  faster  than 
it  can  provide  for  them.  In  a  word,  the  people  will  save 
their  government  if  the  government  itself  will  do  its  part 
only  indifferently  well. 

It  might  seem,  at  first  thought,  to  be  of  little  difference 
whether  the  present  movement  at  the  South  be  called 
"secession"  or  "rebellion."  The  movers,  however,  will 
understand  the  difference.  At  the  beginning  they  knew 
they  could  never  raise  their  treason  to  any  respectable 
magnitude  by  any  name  which  implies  violation  of  law. 
They  knew  their  people  possessed  as  much  of  moral 
sense,  as  much  of  devotion  to  law  and  order,  and  as  much 
pride  in  and  reverence  for  the  history  and  government 
of  their  common  country  as  any  other  civilized  and 
patriotic  people.  They  knew  they  could  make  no  advance- 
ment directly  in  the  teeth  of  these  strong  and  noble 
sentiments.   Accordingly,  they  commenced  by  an  insidious 


SELECTION'S    FROM    LIXCOLN  287 

debauching  of  the  public  mind.  They  invented  an  ingeni- 
ous sophism  which,  if  conceded,  was  followed  by  perfectly 
logical  steps,  through  all  the  incidents,  to  the  complete 
destruction  of  the  Union.  The  sophism  itself  is  that  any 
state  of  the  Union  may  consistently  with  the  National 
Constitution,  and  therefore  lawfully  and  peacefully, 
withdraw  from  the  Union  without  the  consent  of  the 
Union  or  of  any  other  state.  The  little  disguise,  that  the 
supposed  right  is  to  be  exercised  only  for  just  cause, 
themselves  to  be  the  sole  judges  of  its  justice,  is  too  thin 
to  merit  any  notice.* 

With  rebellion  thus  sugar-coated  they  have  been  drug- 
ging the  public  mind  of  their  section  for  more  than  thirty 
3'ears,  until  at  length  they  have  brought  many  good  men 
to  a  willingness  to  take  up  arms  against  the  government 
the  day  after  some  assemblage  of  men  have  enacted  the 
farcical  pretense  of  taking  their  state  out  of  the  Union, 
who  could  have  been  brought  to  no  such  thing  the  day 
before. 

This  sophism  derives  much,  perhaps  the  whole,  of  its 
currency  from  the  assumption  that  there  is  some  omnipo- 
tent and  sacred  supremacy  pertaining  to  a  state — to  each 
state  of  our  Federal  Union.  Our  states  have  neither 
more  nor  less  power  than  that  reserved  to  them  in  the 
Union  by  the  Constitution — no  one  of  them  ev^er  having 
been  a  state  out  of  the  Union. f  The  original  ones  passed 
into  the  Union  even  before  they  cast  off  their  British 
colonial  dependence;  and  the  new  ones  each  came  into 
the  Union  directly  from  a  condition  of  dependence, 
excepting  Texas,  ^nd  even  Texas,  in  its  temporary 
independence,  was  never  designated  a  state.  The  new 
ones  only  took  the  designation  of  states  on  coming  into 
the   Union,  while  that  name  was   first  adopted   for   the 

*  With  due  respect  for  the  influence  of  the  heat  of  war, 
Lincoln  must  be  accused  of  special  pleading  here.  He  was  too 
well  acquainted  with  American  history  and  with  the  feeling  of 
the  country  not  to  be  aware  of  the  absolute  hold  of  the  doctrine 
of  state  sovereignly  upon  the   Southern  people. 

t  North  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island  both  occupied  this  position. 


288  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

old  ones  in  and  by  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
Therein  the  "United  Colonies"  were  declared  to  be  "free 
and  independent  states";  but  even  then  the  object  plainly 
Mas  not  to  declare  their  independence  of  one  another  or 
of  the  Union,  but  directly  the  contrary,  as  their  mutual 
pledge  and  their  mutual  action  before,  at  the  time,  and 
afterward,  abundantly  show.  The  express  plighting  of 
faith  by  each  and  all  of  the  original  thirteen  in  the  Arti- 
cles of  Confederation,  two  years  later,  that  the  Union 
shall  be  perpetual,  is  most  conclusive.  Having  never 
been  states  either  in  substance  or  in  name  outside  of  the 
Union,  whence  this  magical  omnipotence  of  "State 
Rights,"  asserting  a  claim  of  power  to  lawfully  destroy 
the  Union  itself.^  Much  is  said  about  the  "sovereignty" 
of  the  states ;  but  the  w^ord  even  is  not  in  the  National 
Constitution,  nor,  as  is  believed,  in  any  of  the  state  con- 
stitutions. What  is  "sovereignty"  in  the  political  sense 
of  the  term.^  Would  it  be  far  wrong  to  define  it  "a 
political  communit}'  without  a  political  superior"?  Tested 
by  this,  no  one  of  our  states  except  Texas  ever  was  a 
sovereignty.  And  even  Texas  gave  up  the  character  on 
coming  into  the  Union;  by  which  act  she  acknowledged 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  the  laws  and 
treaties  of  the  United  States  made  in  pursuance  of  the 
Constitution,  to  be  for  her  the  supreme  law  of  the  land. 
The  states  have  their  status  in  the  Union,  and  they  have 
no  other  legal  status.  If  they  break  from  this,  they  can 
only  do  so  against  law  and  by  revolution.  The  Union, 
and  not  themselves  separately,  procured  their  independ- 
ence and  their  liberty.  By  conquest  or  purchase  the 
Union  gave  each  of  them  whatever  of  independence  or 
liberty  it  has.  The  Union  is  older  than  any  of  the  states, 
and,  in  fact,  it  created  them  as  states.  Originally  some 
dependent  colonies  made  the  Union,  and,  in  turn,  the 
Union  threw  off  their  old  dependence  for  them,  and  made 
them  states,  such  as  they  are.  Not  one  of  them  ever  had 
a  state  constitution  independent  of  the  Union.    Of  course, 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  289 

it  is  not  forgotten  that  all  the  new  states  framed  their 
constitutions  before  they  entered  the  Union — neverthe- 
less, dej^endent  upon  and  preparatory  to  coming  into 
the  Union.* 

Unquestionably  the  states  have  the  powers  and  rights 
reserved  to  them  in  and  by  the  National  Constitution; 
but  among  these  surely  are  not  included  all  conceivable 
powers,  however  mischievous  or  destructive,  but,  at  most, 
such  only  as  were  known  in  the  world  at  the  time  as 
governmental  powers ;  and  certainly  a  power  to  destroy 
the  government  itself  had  never  been  known  as  a  govern- 
mental, as  a  merely  administrative  power.  This  relative 
matter  of  national  power  and  state  rights,  as  a  principle, 
is  no  other  than  the  principle  of  generality  and  locality. 
Whatever  concerns  the  whole  should  be  confided  to  the 
whole — to  the  General  Government ;  while  whatever  con- 
cerns only  the  state  should  be  left  exclusively  to  the  state. 
This  is  all  there  is  of  the  original  principle  about  it. 
Whether  the  National  Constitution  in  defining  boundaries 
between  the  two  has  applied  the  principle  with  exact 
accuracy,  is  not  to  be  questioned.  We  are  all  bound  by 
that  defining,  without  question. 

What  is  now  combated  is  the  position  that  secession 
is  consistent  with  the  Constitution — is  lawful  and  peace- 
ful. It  is  not  contended  that  there  is  any  express  law 
for  it ;  and  nothing  should  ever  be  implied  as  law  which 
leads  to  unjust  or  absurd  consequences.  The  nation 
purchased  with  money  the  countries  out  of  which  several 
of  these  states  were  formed.  Is  it  just  that  they  shall 
go  off  without  leave  and  without  refunding?  The  nation 
paid  very  large  sums  (in  the  aggregate,  I  believe,  nearly 
a  hundred  millions)  to  relieve  Florida  of  the  aboriginal 
tribes.  Is  it  just  that  she  shall  now  be  off  without  consent 
or  without  making  any  return.^  The  nation  is  now  in 
debt  for  money  applied  to  the  benefit  of  these  so-called 

*  This  is  a  remarkably  able  statement  of  the  theory  of  the 
Union,  comparatively  new  at  that  time. 


290  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

seceding  states  in  common  with  the  rest.  Is  it  just  either 
that  creditors  shall  go  unpaid  or  the  remaining  states 
pay  the  whole?*  A  part  of  the  present  national  debt 
was  contracted  to  pay  the  old  debts  of  Texas. f  Is  it  just 
that  she  shall  leave  and  pay  no  part  of  this  herself? 

Again,  if  one  state  ma}'  secede,  so  may  another;  and 
when  all  shall  have  seceded,  none  is  left  to  pay  the  debts. 
Is  this  quite  just  to  creditors?  Did  we  notify  them  of 
this  sage  view  of  ours  when  we  borrowed  their  money? 
If  we  now  recognize  this  doctrine  by  allowing  the 
seceders  to  go  in  peace,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  we  can 
do  if  others  choose  to  go  or  to  extort  terms  upon  which 
they  will  promise  to  remain. 

The  seceders  insist  that  our  Constitution  admits  of 
secession.  They  have  assumed  to  make  a  national  con- 
stitution of  their  o'vVn,  in  which  of  necessity  they  have 
either  discarded  or  retained  the  right  of  secession  as  they 
insist  it  exists  in  ours.  If  they  have  discarded  it,  they 
thereby  admit  that  on  principle  it  ought  not  to  be  in 
ours.  If  they  have  retained  it  by  their  own  construction 
of  ours,  they  show  that  to  be  consistent  they  must  secede 
from  one  another  whenever  they  shall  find  it  the  easiest 
way  of  settling  their  debts,  or  effecting  any  other  selfish 
or  unjust  object.  The  principle  itself  is  one  of  disinte- 
gration, and  upon  which  no  government  can  possibly 
endure. 

If  all  the  states  save  one  should  assert  the  power  to 
drive  that  one  out  of  the  Union,  it  is  presumed  the  whole 
class  of  seceder  politicians  would  at  once  deny  the  power 
and  denounce  the  act  as  the  greatest  outrage  upon  state 
rights.  But  suppose  that  precisely  the  same  act,  instead 
of  being  called  "driving  the  one  out,"  should  be  called 
"the  seceding  of  the  others  from  that  one,"  it  would  be 
exactly   what   the   seceders   claim   to  do,  unless,  indeed, 

*  The  Southern  states  in  their  attempt  to  negotiate  with  the 
United  States  had  as  one  declared  purpose  the  adjustment  of 
the  national  debt. 

t  Texas  surrendered  her  claims  upon  a  large  part  of  New 
Mexico   in   exchange   for   this   payment. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  291 

they  make  the  point  that  the  one,  because  it  is  a  minority, 
may  rightfully  do  what  the  others,  because  they  are  a 
majority,  may  not  rightfully  do.  These  politicians  are 
subtle  and  profound  on  the  rights  of  minorities.  They 
are  not  partial  to  that  power  which  made  the  Constitution 
and  speaks  from  the  preamble,  calling  itself  "We,  the 
People." 

It  may  well  be  questioned  whether  there  is  today  a 
majority  of  the  legally  qualified  voters  of  any  state, 
except  perhaps  South  Carolina,  in  favor  of  disunion. 
There  is  much  reason  to  believe  that  the  Union  men  are 
the  majority  in  many,  if  not  in  ever}'-  other  one,  of  the 
so-called  seceded  states.  The  contrary  has  not  been 
demonstrated  in  any  one  of  them.  It  is  ventured  to 
affirm  this  even  of  Virginia  and  Tennessee;  for  the  result 
of  an  election  held  in  military  camps,  where  the  bayonets 
are  all  on  one  side  of  the  question  voted  upon,  can  scarcely 
be  considered  as  demonstrating  popular  sentiment.  At 
such  an  election,  all  that  large  class  who  are  at  once 
for  the  Union  and  against  coercion  would  be  coerced  to 
vote  against  the  Union. 

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  impressive  illustration.  So  large  -  an  army  as  the 
government  has  now  on  foot  was  never  before  known, 
without  a  soldier  in  it  but  who  has  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  ele- 
gant, 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  sav  this  is  not  true  also  in  the  armv  of  our  late  friends, 


292  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

now  adversaries  in  this  contest;  but  if  it  is,  so  much 
better  the  reason  why  the  government  which  has  con- 
ferred such  benefits  on  both  them  and  us  should  not  be 
broken  up.  Whoever  in  any  section  proposes  to  abandon 
such  a  government  would  do  well  to  consider  in  deference 
to  what  principle  it  is  that  he  does  it — what  better  he 
is  likely  to  get  in  its  stead — whether  the  substitute  will 
give,  or  be  intended  to  give,  so  much  of  good  to  the 
people.  There  are  some  foreshadowings  on  this  subject. 
Our  adversaries  have  adopted  some  declarations  of  inde- 
pendence in  which,  unlike  the  good  old  one,  penned  by 
Jefferson,  they  omit  the  words  "all  men  are  created 
equal."  Why?  They  have  adopted  a  temporary  na- 
tional 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  w^hose  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  necessity,  this  is  the  leading 
object  of  the  government  for  whose  existence  we  contend. 

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  proved  false 
to  the  hand  which  had  pampered  them,  uot  one  common 
soldier  or  common  sailor  is  known  to  have  deserted  his 
flag. 

Great   honor    is    due   to    those    officers    who    remained 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  293 

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 
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  the  plain 
people.  They  understand,  without  an  argument,  that 
the  destroying  of  the  government  which  was  made  by 
Washington  means  no  good  to  them. 

Our  popular  government  has  often  been  called  an 
experiment.  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  rebellion;  that  ballots  are  the  rightful 
and  peaceful  successors  of  bullets  ;  and  that  when  ballots 
have  fairly  and  constitutionally  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  a  war;  teaching  all 
the  folly  of  being  the  beginners  of  a  war. 

Lest  there  be  some  uneasiness  in  the  minds  of  candid 
men  as  to  what  is  to  be  the  course  of  the  government 
toward  the  Southern  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  probably  will 
have  no  different  understanding  of  the  powers  and  duties 
of  the  Federal  Government  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 


294  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

be  administered  fcir  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  govern- 
ment has  no  right  to  withhold  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  sliall 
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  out  is  an  indispensable  means  to  the  end  of  main- 
taining the  guaranty  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  defense 
of  the  government  forced  upon  him.  He  could  but  per- 
form this  duty  or  surrender  the  existence  of  the  govern- 
ment. 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  government  from  immediate  destruction 
by  giving  up  the  main  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  con- 
sented that  these  institutions  shall  perish;  much  less 
could  he,  in  betrayal  of  so  vast  and  so  sacred  a  trust  as 
the  free  people  have  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   dutv.     You  will  now,  according  to 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  295 

your  own  judgment,  perform  yours.  He  sincerely  hopes 
that  your  views  and  your  actions  may  so  accord  with 
his  as  to  assure  all  faithful  citizens  who  have  been  dis- 
turbed 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  pure  purpose,  let  us  renew  our  trust  in  God,  and 
go  forward  without  fear  and  with  manly  hearts. 

Abraham  Lincoln 

Soon  after  the  opening  of  the  war,  anti-slavery  sentiment 
in  the  North  began  to  grow  very  rapidly.  As  it  grew  stronger, 
suggestions  of  emancipation  increased  in  number.  Lincoln 
saw  clearly  that  emancipation  at  this  time  would  almost  cer- 
tainly result  in  the  loss  to  the  Union  of  Maryland,  Kentucky, 
and  Missouri,  with  the  additional  loss  of  the  support  of  those  in 
the  North  who  were  opposed  to  a  war  of  emancipation.  He 
therefore  set  his  face  against  any  of  the  suggestions.  In 
August,  General  John  C.  Fremont,  who  was  in  command  of  the 
Department  of  the  "West,  proclaimed  the  emancipation  of  all 
slaves  of  Confederate  supporters  in  Missouri.  Lincoln  at  once 
sent  him  this  letter  by  special  messenger: 

TO   GEXERAL  JOHX  C.  FREMONT 

Washington,  D.   C,  September  2,   1861 
Major-General  Fremont. 

My  dear  Sir:  Two  points  in  your  proclamation  of 
August  30  give  me  some  anxiety. 

First.  Should  you  shoot  a  man.  according  to  the 
proclamation,*  the  Confederates  would  very  certainly 
shoot  our  best  men  in  their  hands  in  retaliation ;  and  so, 
man  for  man,  indefinitely.  It  is,  therefore,  my  order 
that  you  allow  no  man  to  be  shot  under  the  proclamation 
without  first  having  my  approbation  or  consent. 

*In  his  emancipation  proclamation.  General  Fremont  an- 
nounced his  intention  of  trying  by  court-martial  all  persons 
found  with  arms  in  their  hands  in  opposition  to  the  Union  cause, 
and  shooting  them  upon  conviction. 


296  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

Second.  I  think  there  is  great  danger  that  the  closing 
paragraph,  in  relation  to  the  confiscation  of  property 
and  the  liberating  slaves  of  traitorous  owners,  will  alarm 
our  Southern  Union  friends  and  turn  them  against  us ; 
perhaps  ruin  our  rather  fair  prospect  for  Kentucky. 
Allow  me,  therefore,  to  ask  that  you  will,  as  of  your 
own  motion,  modify  that  paragraph  so  as  to  conform  to 
the  first  and  fourth  sections  of  the  act  of  Congress  en- 
titled, "An  act  to  confiscate  property  used  for  insurrec- 
tionary purposes,"  approved  August  6,  1861,  and  a  copy 
of  which  act  I  herewith  send  you. 

This  letter  is  written  in  a  spirit  of  caution,  and  not 
of   censure.      I   send   it   by   special   messenger,   in   order 
that  it  may  certainly  and  speedily  reach  you. 
Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

Fremont's  proclamation  had  caused  great  enthusiasm  in  the 
North.  Lincoln's  reply  to  it  caused  an  equal  burst  of  denun- 
ciation. There  was  talk  of  impeachment.  Fremont  became  a 
popular  idol,  which  may  have  been  his  intention  in  issuing  the 
proclamation.  Lowell  wrote:  "How  many  times  are  we  to 
save  Kentucky  and  lose  self-respect?"  Even  Lincoln's  close 
friends  in  many  cases  opposed  his  attitude,  as  is  indicated  by 
this  letter  to  O.  H.  Browning,  who  was  now  filling  the 
vacancy  in  the  Senate  from  Illinois  caused  by  the  death  of 
Stephen  A.  Douglas. 

TO   O.   H.   BROWNING 
[Private  and  Confidential] 

Executive   Mansion, 
Washington,  September  22,  1861 
Hon.    O.    H.   Browning. 

My  dear  Sir:  Yours  of  the  17th  is  just  received; 
and  coming  from  you,  I  confess  it  astonishes  me.  That 
you  should  object  to  my  adhering  to  a  law  which  you 
had  assisted  in  making  and  presenting  to  me  less  than 


SELECnOXS    FROM    LIXCOLX  297 

a  month  before  is  odd  enough.  But  this  is  a  very  small 
part.  Creneral  Fremont's  proclamation  as  to  confiscation 
of  propi^rty  and  the  liberation  of  slaves  is  purely  political 
and  not  within  the  range  of  military  law  or  necessity. 
If  a  commanding  general  finds  a  necessity  to  seize  the 
farm  of  a  private  owner  for  a  pasture,  an  encampment, 
or  a  fortification,  he  has  the  right  to  do  so,  and  to  so 
hold  it  as  long  as  the  necessity  lasts;  and  this  is  within 
military  law,  because  within  military  necessity.  But  to 
say  the  farm  shall  no  longer  belong  to  the  owner,  or 
his  heirs  forever,  and  this  as  well  when  the  farm  is  not 
needed  for  military  purposes  as  when  it  is,  is  purely 
political,  without  the  savor  of  military  law  about  it. 
And  the  same  is  true  of  slaves.  If  the  general  needs 
them,  he  can  seize  them  and  use  them;  but  when  the 
need  is  past,  it  is  not  for  him  to  fix  their  permanent 
future  condition.  That  must  be  settled  according  to  laws 
made  by  lawmakers,  and  not  by  military  proclamations. 
The  proclamation  in  the  point  in  question  is  simply 
"dictatorship."  It  assumes  that  the  general  may  do 
anything  he  pleases — confiscate  the  lands  and  free  the 
slaves  of  loyal  people,  as  well  as  of  disloyal  ones.  And 
going  the  whole  figure,  I  have  no  doubt,  would  be  more 
popular  with  some  thoughtless  people  than  that  which 
has  been  done !  But  I  cannot  assume  this  reckless  posi- 
tion, nor  allow  others  to  assume  it  on  my  responsibility. 
You  speak  of  it  as  being  the  only  means  of  saving  the 
government.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  itself  the  surrender 
of  the  government.  Can  it  be  pretended  that  it  is  any 
longer  the  Government  of  the  United  States — any  gov- 
ernment of  constitution  and  laws — wherein  a  general 
or  a  president  may  make  permanent  rules  of  property 
by  proclamation?  I  do  not  say  Congress  might  not  with 
propriety  pass  a  law  on  the  point,  just  such  as  General 
Fremont  proclaimed.  I  do  not  say  I  might  not,  as  a 
member  of  Congress,  vote  for  it.  What  I  object  to  is, 
that  I,  as  President,  shall  expressly  or  impliedly  seize 


298  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

and  exercise  the  permanent  legislative  functions  of  the 
government. 

So  much  as  to  principle.  Now  as  to  policy.  No  doubt 
the  thing  was  popular  in  some  quarters,  and  would  have 
been  more  so  if  it  had  been  a  general  declaration  of 
emancipation.  The  Kentucky  legislature  would  not  budge 
till  that  proclamation  was  modified;  and  General  Ander- 
son telegraphed  me  that  on  the  news  of  General  Fremont 
having  actually  issued  deeds  of  manumission,  a  whole 
company  of  our  volunteers  threw  down  their  arms  and 
disbanded.  I  was  so  assured  as  to  think  it  probable 
that  the  very  arms  we  had  furnished  Kentucky  would 
be  turned  against  us.  I  think  to  lose  Kentucky  is  nearly 
the  same  as  to  lose  the  whole  game.  Kentucky  gone,  we 
cannot  hold  Missouri,  nor,  as  I  think^  Maryland.  These 
all  against  us,  and  the  job  on  our  hands  is  too  large 
for  us.  We  would  as  well  consent  to  separation  at  once, 
including  the  surrender  of  this  capital.  On  the  con- 
trary, if  you  will  give  up  your  restlessness  for  new 
positions,  and  back  me  manfully  on  the  grounds  upon 
which  you  and  other  kind  friends  gave  me  the  election 
and  have  approved  in  my  public  documents,  we  shall  go 
through  triumphantly.  You  must  not  understand  I  took 
my  course  on  the  proclamation  because  of  Kentucky.  I 
took  the  same  ground  in  a  private  letter  to  General 
Fremont  before  I  heard  from  Kentucky. 

You  think  I  am  inconsistent  because  I  did  not  also 
forbid  General  Fremont  to  shoot  men  under  the  procla- 
mation. I  understand  that  part  to  be  within  military 
law,  but  I  also  think,  and  so  privately  wrote  General 
Fremont,  that  it  is  impolitic  in  this,  that  our  adversaries 
have  the  power,  and  will  certainly  exercise  it,  to  shoot 
as  many  of  our  men  as  we  shoot  of  theirs.  I  did  not 
say  this  in  the  public  letter,  because  it  is  a  subject  I 
prefer  not  to  discuss  in  the  hearing  of  our  enemies. 

There  has  been  no  thought  of  removing  General  Fre- 
mont on   any   ground   connected   with   his    proclamation. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  299 

and  if  there  has  been  any  wish  for  his  removal  on  any 
ground,  our  mutual  friend  Sam.  Glover  can  probably 
tell  you  what  it  was.  I  hope  no  real  necessity  for  it 
exists  on  any  ground. 

Your  friend^  as  ever, 

A.  Lincoln 

In  the  midst  of  the  growang  burden  of  the  war,  Lincoln 
found  solace  in  his  sense  of  humor  which  appeared  not  only 
in  his  famous  anecdotes  but  also  crept  into  his  letters. 

TO   MAJOR   RAMSEY 

Executive  Mansion,  October  17,  1861 
My  dear  Sir:     The  lady  bearer  of  this  says  she  has 
two  sons  who  want  to  work.     Set  them  at  it  if  possible. 
Wanting  to  work  is   so  rare   a   want  that  it  should  be 
encouraged. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

AVhen  Congress  met  in  regular  session  in  December,  1861, 
Lincoln  in  his  message  made  a  preliminary  suggestion  of  a 
plan  very  dear  to  his  heart,  that  of  compensated*  emancipa- 
tion with  the  colonization  of  the  negroes.  Later  this  was  much 
more  developed.  With  all  his  horror  of  slavery,  Lincoln  had 
no  illusions  about  the  negroes  in  the  mass.  He  stated  his 
opinion  on  the  subject  clearly  in  the  debates  with  Douglas  and 
there  is  no  indication  that  he  ever  changed  it.  At  Ottawa  he 
said: 

"I  have  no  purpose  to  introduce  political  and  social  equality 
between  the  white  and  the  black  races.  There  is  a  physical 
diflFerence  between  the  two,  which,  in  my  judgment,  will  prob- 
ably forever  forbid  their  living  together  upon  the  footing  of 
perfect  equality;  and  inasmuch  as  it  becomes  a  necessity  that 
there  must  be  a  diflFerence,  I,  as  well  as  Judge  Douglas,  am  in 
favor  of  the  race  to  which  I  belong  having  the  superior  posi- 
tion. I  have  never  said  anything  to  the  contrary,  but  I  hold 
that,  notwithstanding  all  this,  there  is  no  reason  in  the  world 


300  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

why  the  negro  is  not  entitled  to  all  the  natural  rights  enumer- 
ated in  the  Declaration  of  Independence — the  right  to  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  I  hold  that  he  is  as 
much  entitled  to  these  as  the  white  man.  I  agree  with  Judge 
Douglas  he  is  not  my  equal  in  many  respects — certainly  not  in 
color,  perhaps  not  in  moral  or  intellectual  endowment.  But  in 
the  right  to  eat  the  bread,  without  the  leave  of  anybody  else, 
which  his  own  hand  earns,  he  is  my  equal  and  the  equal  of 
Judge  Douglas,  and  the  equal  of  every  living  man."  At 
Charleston  he  said:  "I  will  say  that  I  am  not,  or  ever  have 
been,  in  favor  of  bringing  about  in  any  way  the  social  and 
political  equality  of  the  white  and  black  races — that  I  am 
not,  nor  ever  have  been,  in  favor  of  making  voters  or  jurors 
of  negroes,  nor  of  qualifying  them  to  hold  office,  nor  to  inter- 
marry with  white  people;  and  I  will  say  in  addition  to  this 
that  there  is  a  physical  difference  between  the  white  and  black 
races  which  I  believe  will  forever  forbid  the  two  races  living 
together  on  terms  of  social  and  political  equality." 

It  was  Lincoln's  hope  by  this  plan  of  colonization,  which  he 
had  first  suggested  in  1857,  to  settle  not  only  the  question  of 
slavery,  but  also  the   race  question  which  he  clearly   foresaw. 

EXTRACT  FROM  ANNUAL  MESSAGE   TO  CONGRESS 
[December  3,  1861] 

Fellow-Citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives:  In  the  midst  of  unprecedented 
political  troubles  we  have  cause  of  great  gratitude  to 
God  for  unusual  good  health  and  most  abundant  harvests. 

Under  and  by  virtue  of  the  act  of  Congress  entitled 
"An  act  to  confiscate  property  used  for  insurrectionary 
purposes,"  approved  August  6,  1861,  the  legal  claims  of 
certain  persons  to  the  labor  and  service  of  certain  other 
persons  have  become  forfeited ;  and  numbers  of  the 
latter,  thus  liberated,  are  already  dependent  on  the 
United  States,  and  must  be  provided  for  in  some  way. 
Besides  this,  it  is  not  impossible  that  some  of  the  states 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  30I 

will  pass  similar  enactments  for  their  own  benefit  re- 
spectively, and  by  operation  of  which  persons  of  the 
same  class  will  be  thrown  upon  them  for  disposal.  In 
such  case  I  recommend  that  Congress  provide  for  ac- 
cepting such  persons  from  such  states,  according  to  some 
mode  of  valuation,  in  lieu,  pro  tanto,*  of  direct  taxes, 
or  upon  some  other  plan  to  be  agreed  on  with  such 
states  respectively,  that  such  persons,  on  such  acceptance 
by  the  General  Government,  be  at  once  deemed  free ; 
and,  that,  in  any  event,  steps  be  taken  for  colonizing 
both  classes  (or  the  one  first  mentioned,  if  the  other 
shall  not  be  brought  into  existence)  at  some  place  or 
places  in  a  climate  congenial  to  them.  It  might  be  well 
to  consider,  too,  whether  the  free  colored  people  already 
in  the  United  States  could  not,  so  far  as  individuals  may 
desire,  be  included  in  such  colonization. 

To  carry  out  the  plan  of  colonization  may  involve  the 
acquiring  of  territory,  and  also  the  appropriation  of 
money  beyond  that  to  be  expended  in  the  territorial 
acquisition.  Having  practiced  the  acquisition  of  terri- 
tory for  nearly  sixty  years,  the  question  of  constitutional 
power  to  do  so  is  no  longer  an  open  one  with  us.  The 
power  was  questioned  at  first  by  ]\Ir.  Jefferson,  who, 
however,  in  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  yielded  his 
scruples  on  the  plea  of  great  expediency.  If  it  be  said 
that  the  only  legitimate  object  of  acquiring  territory  is 
to  furnish  homes  for  white  men,  this  measure  effects  that 
object;  for  the  emigration  of  colored  men  leaves  addi- 
tional room  for  white  men  remaining  or  coming  here. 
Mr.  Jefferson,  however,  placed  the  importance  of  pro- 
curing Louisiana  more  on  political  and  commercial 
grounds  than  on  providing  room  for  population. 

On  this  whole  proposition,  including  the  appropriation 
of  money  with  the  acquisition  of  territory,  does  not  the 
expediency  amount  to  absolute  necessity — that  without 
which  the  government  itself  cannot  be  perpetuated.'* 

*  To  that  extent. 


302  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

The  war  continues.  In  considering  the  policy  to  be 
adopted  for  suppressing  the  insurrection,  I  have  been 
anxious  and  careful  that  the  inevitable  conflict  for  this 
purpose  shall  not  degenerate  into  a  violent  and  remorse- 
less revolutionary  struggle.  I  have,  therefore,  in  every 
case  thought  it  proper  to  keep  the  integrity  of  the  Union 
prominent  as  the  primary  object  of  the  contest  on  our 
part,  leaving  all  questions  wliich  are  not  of  vital  military 
importance  to  the  more  deliberate  action  of  the  legis- 
lature. 

In  the  exercise  of  my  best  discretion  I  have  adhered 
to  the  blockade  of  the  ports  held  by  the  insurgents,  in- 
stead of  putting  in  force,  by  proclamation,  the  law  of 
Congress  enacted  at  the  last  session  for  closing  ports. ^ 

So  also,  obeying  the  dictates  of  prudence  as  well  as 
the  obligations  of  law,  instead  of  transcending  I  have 
adhered  to  the  act  of  Congress  to  confiscate  property 
used  for  insurrectionary  purposes.  If  a  new  law  upon 
the  same  subject  shall  be  proposed,  its  propriety  will 
be  duly  considered.  The  Union  must  be  preserved;  and 
hence  all  indispensable  means  must  be  employed.  We 
should  not  be  in  haste  to  determine  that  radical  and 
extreme  measures,  which  may  reach  the  loyal  as  well 
as  the  disloyal,  are  indispensable. 

The  inaugural  address  at  the  beginning  of  the  admin- 
istration, and  the  message  to  Congress  at  the  late  special 
session,  were  both  mainly  devoted  to  the  domestic  con- 
troversy out  of  which  the  insurrection  and  consequent 
war  have  sprung.  Nothing  now  occurs  to  add  or  subtract, 
to  or  from,  the  principles  or  general  purposes  stated  and 
expressed  in  those  documents. 

The  last  ray  of  hope  for  preserving  the  Union  peace- 
ably expired   at  the   assault  upon  Fort   Sumter;    and   a 

*  As  has  l-een  noted  fsee  page  2^3'»  TJncoln's  action  in  pro- 
claiming a  blockade  of  the  Southern  ports  was  regarded  by  many 
people  in  the  North  as  a  recognition  of  secession  as  a  legal  and 
accomplished  fact.  Accordingly  Congress  passed  a  law  closing 
the  ports,  which  Lincoln  ignored,  as  he  here  explains. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  393 

general  review  of  what  has  occured  since  may  not  be 
unprofitable.  What  was  painfully  uncertain  then  is 
much  better  defined  and  more  distinct  now;  and  the 
progress  of  events  is  plainly  in  the  right  direction.  The 
insurgents  confidently  claimed  a  strong  support  from 
north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line ;  and  the  friends  of 
the  Union  were  not  free  from  apprehension  on  the  point. 
This,  however,  was  soon  settled  definitely,  and  on  the 
right  side.  South  of  the  line,  noble  little  Delaware  led 
off  right  from  the  first.  Maryland  was  made  to  seem 
against  the  Union.  Our  soldiers  were  assaulted,  bridges 
were  burned,  and  railroads  torn  up  -within  her  limits, 
and  we  were  many  days,  at  one  time,  without  the  ability 
to  bring  a  single  regiment  over  her  soil  to  the  capital. 
Xow  her  bridges  and  railroads  are  repaired  and  open  to 
the  government ;  she  already  gives  seven  regiments  to  the 
cause  of  the  Union  and  none  to  the  enemy;  and  her 
people,  at  a  regular  election,  have  sustained  the  Union 
by  a  larger  majority  and  a  larger  aggregate  vote  than 
they  ever  before  gave  to  any  candidate  or  any  question. 
Kentucky,  too,  for  some  time  in  doubt,  is  now  decidedly, 
and,  I  think,  unchangeably,  ranged  on  the  side  of  the 
Union.  Missouri  is  comparatively  quiet,  and,  I  believe, 
cannot  again  be  overrun  by  the  insurrectionists.  These 
three  states  of  Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri, 
neither  of  which  would  promise  a  single  soldier  at  first, 
have  now  an  aggregate  of  not  less  than  forty  thousand 
in  the  field  for  the  Union,  while  of  their  citizens  cer- 
tainly not  more  than  a  third  of  that  number,  and  they 
of  doubtful  whereabouts  and  doubtful  existence,  are  in 
arms  against  it.  After  a  somewhat  bloody  struggle  of 
months,  winter  closes  on  the  Union  people  of  west- 
ern Virginia,  leaving  them  masters  of  their  own 
countrv. 


It  continues  to  develop  that  the  insurrection  is  largely, 
f   not    exclusively,    a    war    upon    the    first    principle    of 


30-i  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

popular  government — the  rights  of  the  people.  Con- 
clusive evidence  of  this  is  found  in  the  most  grave  and 
maturely  considered  public  documents  as  well  as  in  the 
general  tone  of  the  insurgents.  In  those  documents  we 
find  the  abridgment  of  the  existing  right  of  suffrage 
and  the  denial  to  the  people  of  all  right  to  participate  in 
the  selection  of  public  officers  except  the  legislative, 
boldly  advocated,  with  labored  arguments  to  prove  that 
large  control  of  the  people  in  government  is  the  source 
of  all  political  evil.  ^Monarchy  itself  is  sometimes 
hinted  at  as  a  possible  refuge  from  the  power  of  the 
people.* 

In  my  present  position  I  could  scarcely  be  justified 
were  I  to  omit  raising  a  warning  voice  against  this 
approach   of   returning  despotism. 

It  is  not  needed  nor  fitting  here  that  a  general  argu- 
ment should  be  made  in  favor  of  popular  institutions; 
but  there  is  one  point,  with  its  connections,  not  so 
hackneyed  as  most  others,  to  which  I  ask  a  brief  atten- 
tion. It  is  the  effort  to  place  capital  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  capital,  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  buy  them  and 
drive  them  to  it  without  their  consent.  Having  pro- 
ceeded thus  far,  it  is  naturally  concluded  that  all  laborers 
are  either  hired  laborers  or  what  we  call  slaves.  And, 
further,  it  is  assumed  that  whoever  is  once  a  hired 
laborer  is  fixed  in  that  condition  for  life. 

Now,  there  is  no  such  relation  between  capital  and 
labor  as  assumed,  nor  is  there  any  such  thing  as  a  free 
man   being   fixed    for   life    in    the   condition   of    a    hired 

•  Lincoln  was  mistaken  in  this.  The  Confederate  government 
was  as  clearly  popular  as  that  of  the  United  States. 


I 


SELECTION'S    FROM    LINXOLX  ^Qf, 

laborer.  Both  these  assumptions  are  false,  and  all  in- 
ferences 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,  which  are  as  worthy  of  protection 
as  any  other  rights.  Xor  is  it  denied  that  there  is,  and 
probably  always  will  be,  a  relation  between  labor  and 
capital  producing  mutual  benefits.  The  error  is  in  as- 
suming that  the  whole  labor  of  the  community  exists 
within  that  relation.  A  few  men  own  capital,  and  that 
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  Northern  a 
large  majority  are  neither  hirers  nor  hired.  Men  with 
their  families — wives,  sons,  and  daughters — work  for 
themselves,  on  their  farms,  in  their  houses,  and  in  their 
shops^  taking  the  whole  product  to  themselves,  and  ask- 
ing 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  and  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  neces- 
sity, any  such  thing  as  the  free  hired  laborer  being  fixed 
to  that  condition  for  life.  !Many  independent  men  every- 
where in  these  states,  a  fev/  years  back  in  their  lives, 
were  hired  laborers.  The  prudent,  penniless  beginner 
in  the  world  labors  for  wages  a  while,  saves  a  surplus 
with  which  to  buy  tools  or  land  for  himself,  then  labors 
on  his  own  account  another  while,  and  at  length  hires 


306  SELPXTIOXS    FROM    LINXOLX 

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  who  toil 
up  from  poverty — none  less  inclined  to  take  or  touch 
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  disabilities  and  burdens  upon 
them,  till  all  of  liberty  shall  be  lost. 

From  the  first  taking  of  our  national  census  to  the 
last  are  seventy  years;  and  we  find  our  population  at 
the  end  of  the  period  eight  times  as  great  as  it  was  at 
the  beginning.  The  increase  of  those  other  things  which 
men  deem  desirable  has  been  even  greater.  We  thus 
have,  at  one  view,  what  the  popular  principle,  applied 
to  government,  through  the  machinery  of  the  states  and 
the  Union  has  produced  in  a  given  time;  and  also  what, 
if  firmly  maintained,  it  promises  for  the  future.  There 
are  already  among  us  those  who,  if  the  Union  be  pre- 
served, will  live  to  see  it  contain  250,000,000.*  The 
struggle  of  today  is  not  altogether  for  today — it  is  for 
a  vast  future  also.  With  a  reliance  on  Providence  all 
the  more  firm  and  earnest,  let  us  proceed  in  the  great 
task  which  events  have  devolved  upon  us. 

Abraham  Lixcolx 

The  message  was  generally  approved.  The  following  com- 
ment from  Harjyers  Weekly  is  an  interesting  example.  "The 
President  is  an  honest,  plain,  shrewd  magistrate.  He  is  not  a 
brilliant  orator;  he  is  not  a  great  leader." 

All  during  the  war  Lincoln  had,  in  addition  to  his  other 
burdens,  the  necessity  of  soothing  and  healing  the  tender  sen- 
sibilities of  jealous  military  men.  It  was  not  a  pleasant  task, 
as  may  be  judged  from  this  letter: 

*  This  was  of  course  greatly  overestimated. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX  307 

TO  GENERAL  DAVID  HUNTER 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  December  31,  1861 
Major-General   Hunter. 

Dear  Sir:  Yours  of  the  23d  is  received,  and  I  am 
constrained  to  say  it  is  difficult  to  answer  so  ugly  a  letter 
in  good  temper.  I  am,  as  you  intimate,  losing  much  of 
the  great  confidence  I  placed  in  you,  not  from  any  act 
or  omission  of  yours  touching  the  public  service,  up  to 
the  time  you  were  sent  to  Leavenworth,  but  from  the 
flood  of  grumbling  dispatches  and  letters  I  have  seen 
from  you  since.  I  knew  you  were  being  ordered  to 
Leavenworth  at  the  time  it  was  done;  and  I  aver  that 
with  as  tender  a  regard  for  your  honor  and  your  sensi- 
bilities as  I  had  for  my  own,  it  never  occurred  to  me 
that  you  were  being  "humiliated,  insulted,  and  dis- 
graced !"  nor  have  I,  up  to  this  day,  heard  an  intimation 
that  you  have  been  wronged,  coming  from  anyone  but 
yourself.  Xo  one  has  blamed  you  for  the  retrograde 
movement  from  Springfield,  nor  for  the  information  you 
gave  General  Cameron;  and  this  you  could  readily  under- 
stand, if  it  were  not  for  your  unwarranted  assumption 
that  the  ordering  you  to  Leavenworth  must  necessarily 
have  been  done  as  a  punishment  for  some  fault.  I 
thought  then,  and  think  yet,  the  position  assigned  to  you 
is  as  responsible,  and  as  honorable,  as  that  assigned  to 
Buell — I  know  that  General  McClellan  expected  more 
important  results  from  it.  My  impression  is  that  at  the 
time  you  were  assigned  to  the  new  "Western  Department, 
it  had  not  been  determined  to  replace  General  Sherman 
in  Kentucky;  but  of  this  I  am  not  certain,  because  the 
idea  that  a  command  in  Kentucky  was  very  desirable, 
and  one  in  the  farther  West  undesirable,  had  never 
occurred  to  me.  You  constantly  speak  of  being  placed 
in  command  of  only  3,000.  Now  tell  me,  is  this  not 
mere  impatience?  Have  you  not  known  all  the  while 
that  vou  are  to  command  four  or  five  times  that  many? 


308  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

I  have  been,  and  am  sincerely  your  friend ;  and  if,  as 
such^  I  dare  to  make  a  suggestion,  I  would  say  you  are 
adopting  the  best  possible  way  to  ruin  yourself.  "Act 
well  your  part,  there  all  the  honor  lies."  *  He  who- 
does  something  at  the  head  of  one  regiment,  will  eclipse 
him  who  does  nothirig  at  the  head  of  a  hundred. 
Your   friend,    as   ever, 

A.   Lincoln 

In  addition,  he  was  compelled  to  take  part  in  the  framing; 
of  military  plans  and  was  constantly  in  correspondence  with 
General  George  B.  McClellan,  who  commanded  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  and  whom  Lincoln  was  trying  to  induce  to 
become  more  aggressive.  The  following  is  a  characteristic 
letter: 


TO  GENERAL  GEORGE  B.  McCLELLAN 

Executive    Mansion, 
Washington,    February    3,    1862 
Major-General  McClellan. 

My  dear  Sir:  You  and  I  have  distinct  and  different 
plans  for  a  movement  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac — 
yours  to  be  down  the  Chesapeake,  up  the  Rappahannock 
to  Urbana,  and  across  land  to  the  terminus  of  the  rail- 
road on  the  York  River;  mine  to  move  directly  to  a 
point  on  the   railroad  southwest   of   ]Manassas. 

If  you  will  give  me  satisfactory  answers  to  the  fol- 
lowing questions,  I  shall  gladly  yield  my  plan  to  yours. 

First.  Does  not  your  plan  involve  a  greatly  larger 
expenditure  of  time  and  money  than  mine.'' 

Second.  Wherein  is  a  victory  more  certain  by  your 
plan   than   mine  ? 

Third.  Wherein  is  a  victory  more  valuable  by  your 
plan  than  mine? 

"  Pope,  Essay  on  Man,  Ep.  IV,  Line  193. 

"Honor  and  shame  from  no  condition  rise, 
Act  well  your  part,   there  all   the  honor  lies." 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LTXCOI.X  399 

Fourth.  In  fact,  would  it  not  be  less  valuable  in 
this,  that  it  would  break  no  great  line  of  the  enemj^'s 
communications,  while  mine  would? 

Fifth.      In   case   of   disaster,   would   not   a   retreat   be 
more   difficult  by  your  plan  than   mine  ? 
Yours  truly, 

Abraham  Lincoln 


Memorandum  Accompanying  Letter  of  President  Lincoln 
to  General  McClellan,  Dated  February  3,  1862 

First.  Suppose  the  enemy  should  attack  us  in  force 
before  we  reach  the  Occoquan,  what? 

Second.  Suppose  the  enemy  in  force  shall  dispute 
the  crossing  of  the  Occoquan,  what?  In  view  of  this, 
might  it  not  be  safest  for  us  to  cross  the  Occoquan  at 
Colchester,  rather  than  at  the  village  of  Occoquan?  This 
would  cost  the  enemy  two  miles  more  of  travel  to  meet 
us,  but  would,  on  the  contrary,  leave  us  two  miles  farther 
from  our  ultimate  destination. 

Third.  Suppose  we  reach  Maple  Valley  without  an 
attack,  will  we  not  be  attacked  there  in  force  by  the 
enemy  marching  by  the  several  roads  from  Manassas ; 
and  if  so,  what? 

In  March,  1862,  satisfied  that  he  had  public  support  behind 
him,  Lincoln  renewed  his  suggestion  for  compensated  emanci- 
pation in  a  special  message  to  Congress. 

SPECIAL  MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS 
[March  6,  1862] 
Fellow-Citizens    of    the    Senate    and    House    of 
Representatives:      I  recommend  the  adoption  of  a  joint 
resolution  by  your  honorable  bodies,  which  shall  be  sub- 
stantially as   follows : 

Resolved,  That  the  United  States  ought  to  cooperate 
with  any  state  which  may  adopt  gradual  abolishment  of 


310  SELECTIONS  FEOM  LINCOLN 

slavery,  giving  to  such  state  pecuniary  aid,  to  be  used 
by  such  state,  in  its  discretion,  to  compensate  for  the 
inconveniences,  public  and  private,  produced  by  such 
change  of  system. 

If  the  proposition  contained  in  the  resolution  does  not 
meet  the  approval  of  Congress  and  the  country,  there  is 
the  end ;  but  if  it  does  command  such  approval,  I  deem 
it  of  importance  that  the  states  and  people  immediately 
interested  should  be  at  once  distinctly  notified  of  the 
fact,  so  that  they  may  begin  to  consider  whether  to 
accept  or  reject  it.  The  federal  government  would  find 
its  highest  interest  in  such  a  measure,  as  one  of  the  most 
efficient  means  of  self-preservation.  The  leaders  of  the 
existing  insurrection  entertain  the  hope  that  this  gov- 
ernment 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, 
"Tne  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 
rebellion  ;  and  the  initiation  of  emancipation  completely 
deprives  them  of  it  as  to  all  the  states  initiating  it. 
The  point  is  not  that  all  the  states  tolerating  slavery 
would  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 
"initiation"  because,  in  my  judgment,  gradual  and  not 
sudden  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  purchase,  at  fair  valu- 
ation, all  the  slaves  in  any  named  state.  Such  a  proposi- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  general  government  sets  up  no 
claim  of  a  right  by  federal  authority  to  interfere  with 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  311 

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  deliberately.  War  has  been  made,  and 
continues  to  be,  an  indispensable  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  which  may  attend  and  all  the  ruin  which  may 
follow  it.  Such  as  may  seem  indispensable,  or  may 
obviously  promise  great  efficiency,  toward  ending  the 
struggle,  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 
aspect  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 


The  proposition  proved  popular;  Lincoln  received  many 
letters  of  endorsement,  and  newspaper  comment  was  generally 
favorable.  The  following  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  New  York 
Times  shows  how  Lincoln  kept  behind  any  plan  he  was  desir- 
ous of  carrying  through: 


312  SELECTIOxXS    FROM    LINCOLN 

TO  HENRY  J.  RAYMOND 

[Private] 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  March  9,   1862 
Hon.  Henry  J.  Raymond. 

My  dear  Sir:  I  am  grateful  to  the  New  York  jour- 
nals, and  not  less  so  to  the  Times  than  to  others,  for 
their  kind  notices  of  the  late  special  message  to  Con- 
gress. 

Your  paper,  however,  intimates  that  the  proposition, 
though  well  intentioned,  must  fail  on  the  score  of 
expense.  I  do  hope  you  will  reconsider  this.  Have 
you  noticed  the  facts  that  less  than  one-half  day's  cost 
of  this  war  would  pay  for  all  the  slaves  in  Delaware  at 
$400  per  head — that  eighty-seven  days'  cost  of  this 
war  would  pay  for  all  in  Delaware,  jSIaryland,  District 
of  Columbia,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri  at  the  same  price? 
Were  those  states  to  take  the  step,  do  you  doubt  that  it 
would  shorten  the  war  more  than  eighty-seven  days,  and 
thus  be  an  actual  saving  of  expense? 

Please    look    at    these    things    and    consider    whether 
there  should  not  be  another  article  in  the  Times. 
Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

The  difficulties  with  General  McClellan  continued  as  the 
spring  advanced.  Lincoln  was  very  patient,  but  at  times  even 
his  patience  was  strained. 

TO  GENERAL  GEORGE  B.  McCLELLAN 

Washington,  April  9,  1862 
Major-General  McClellan. 

My  dear  Sir:  Your  dispatches,  complaining  that  you 
are  not  properly  sustained,  while  they  do  not  offend  me, 
do  pain  me  very  much. 

Blenker's    division    was    withdrawn    from    vou    before 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  313 

you  left  here,  and  you  knew  the  pressure  under  which 
I  did  it,  and,  as  I  thought,  acquiesced  in  it — certainly 
not  without  reluctance. 

After  you  left  I  ascertained  that  less  than  20,000 
unorganized  men,  without  a  single  field-battery,  were  all 
you  designed  to  be  left  for  the  defense  of  Washington 
and  Manassas  Junction,  and  part  of  this  even  was  to 
go  to  General  Hooker's  old  position;  General  Bank's 
corps,  once  designed  for  Manassas  Junction,  was  divided 
and  tied  up  on  the  line  of  Winchester  and  Strasburg, 
and  could  not  leave  it  without  again  exposing  the  upper 
Potomac  and  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad.  This 
presented  (or  would  present,  when  McDowell  and  Sum- 
ner should  be  gone)  a  great  temptation  to  the  enemy  to 
turn  back  from  the  Rappahannock  and  sack  Washing- 
ton. My  explicit  order  that  Washington  should,  by  the 
judgment  of  all  the  commanders  of  corps,  be  left  entirely 
secure,  had  been  neglected.  It  was  precisely  this  that 
drove  me  to  detain  McDowell. 

I  do  not  forget  that  I  was  satisfied  with  your  arrange- 
ment to  leave  Banks  at  Manassas^  Junction;  but  when 
that  arrangement  was  broken  up  and  nothing  was  sub- 
stituted for  it,  of  course  I  was  not  satisfied.  I  was 
constrained  to   substitute  something   for   it  myself. 

And  now  allow  me  to  ask,  do  you  really  think  I  should 
permit  the  line  from  Richmond  via  Manassas  Junction 
to  this  city  to  be  entirely  open,  except  what  resistance 
could  be  presented  by  less  than  20,000  unorganized 
troops?  This  is  a  question  which  the  country  will  not 
allow  me  to  evade. 

There  is  a  curious  mystery  about  the  number  of  the 
troops  now  with  you.  When  I  telegraphed  you  on  the 
6th,  saying  you  had  over  100,000  with  you,  I  had  just 
obtained  from  the  Secretary  of  War  a  statement,  taken 
as  he  said  from  your  own  returns,  making  108,000  then 
with  you  and  en  route  to  you.  You  now  say  you  will 
have   but   S.^.OOO   when   all  en   route   to   vou    shall   have 


314  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

reached  you.      How  can  this   discrepancy   of  23,000  be 
accounted   for? 

As  to  General  Wool's  command,  I  understand  it  is 
doing  for  you  precisely  what  a  like  number  of  your  own 
would  have  to  do  if  that  command  was  away.  I  sup- 
pose the  whole  force  which  has  gone  forward  to  you  is 
with  you  by  this  time;  and  if  so,  I  think  it  is  the  precise 
time  for  you  to  strike  a  blow.  By  delay  the  enemy  will 
relatively  gain  upon  you — that  is,  he  will  gain  faster  by 
fortifications  and  reenforcements  than  you  can  by 
reenforcements  alone. 

And  once  more  let  me  tell  you  it  is  indispensable  to 
you  that  you  strike  a  blow.  I  am  powerless  to  help 
this.  You  will  do  me  the  justice  to  remember  I  always 
insisted  that  going  down  the  bay  in  search  of  a  field, 
instead  of  fighting  at  or  near  Manassas,  was  only  shift- 
ing and  not  surmounting  a  difficulty;  that  we  would  find 
the  same  enemy  and  the  same  or  equal  entrenchments  at 
either  place.  The  country  will  not  fail  to  note — is  not- 
ing now — that  the  present  hesitation  to  move  upon  an 
entrenched  enemy  is  but  the  story  of  Manassas  repeated. 

I  beg  to  assure  you  that  I  have  never  written  you  or 
spoken  to  you  in  greater  kindness  of  feeling  than  now, 
nor  with  a  fuller  purpose  to  sustain  you,  so  far  as  in 
my  most  anxious  judgment  I  consistently  can;  but  you 
must  act. 

Yours  very   truly, 

A.  Lincoln 


The  pressure  for  military  appointments,  tremendous  at  the 
opening  of  the  war,  was  replaced  in  1862  by  a  similar  one  for 
promotion.  General  John  Pope,  who  was  in  command  of  a 
Union  force  in  Missouri  had  forced  the  Confederates  to  aban- 
don strong  defenses  at  New  Madrid  and  to  surrender  Island 
No.  10.  This  made  much  easier  the  task  of  obtaining  control 
of  the  Mississippi.  Instant  demand  for  the  promotion  of  Gen- 
eral Pope  was  made,  and  Lincoln  thus  rei)lied: 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX  315 

TO  R.  YATES  AND   WILLIAM  BUTLER 

[Telegram] 

Washington,  April  10,  1862 
Hon.  R.  Yates  and  William  Butler,  Springfield,  Illinois: 
I  fully  appreciate  General  Pope's  splendid  achieve- 
ments, with  their  invaluable  results ;  but  you  must  know 
that  major-generalships  in  the  regular  army  are  not  as 
plenty  as  blackberries. 

A.  Lincoln 

In  May,  General  David  Hunter,  a  personal  friend  of  Lin- 
coln's, who  was  commander  of  the  Department  of  the  East,  in 
spite  of  his  intimate  knowledge  of  what  had  befallen  Fremont, 
issued  an  order  declaring,  "Slavery  and  martial  law  in  a  free 
country  are  altogether  incompatible;  the  persons  in  .  .  . 
Georgia,  Florida,  and  South  Carolina,  heretofore  held  as 
slaves,  are  therefore  declared  forever  free." 

Lincoln  first  heard  of  this  through  the  newspapers.  He  at 
once  issued  the  following  proclamation: 

PROCLAMATION  REVOKING  GENERAL  HUNTERS 
ORDER   OF  MILITARY  EMANCIPATION 

[May  19,  1862] 

Whereas  there  appears  in  the  public  prints  what  pur- 
ports to  be  a  proclamation  of  Major-General  Hunter,  in 
the  words  and  figures  following,  to  wit: 

"Headquarters  Department  of  the  South. 
"Hilton  Head,  Port  Royal,  S.  C,  May  9,  1862 
"The  three  states  of  Georgia,  Florida,  and  South 
Carolina,  comprising  the  military  department  of  the 
South,  having  deliberately  declared  themselves  no 
longer  under  the  protection  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  having  taken  up  arms  against  the  said 
United  States,  it  became  a  military  necessity  to  declare 
martial  law.  This  was  accordingly  done  on  the  25th 
day  of  April,  1862.      Slavery  and  martial  law  in  a  free 


I 


316  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

country  are  altogether  incompatible ;  the  persons  in 
these  three  States — Georgia,  Florida,  and  South  Carolina 
— heretofore  held  as  slaves,  are  therefore  declared  for- 
ever free. 

"By  command  of  Major-General  D,  Hunter: 
"(Official.)      Ed.  W.   Smith,  Acting  Assistant  Adjut- 
ant-General." 

And  whereas  the  same  is  producing  some  excitement 
and  misunderstanding:     therefore, 

I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States, 
proclaim  and  declare  that  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  had  no  knowledge,  information,  or  belief  of  an 
intention  on  the  part  of  General  Hunter  to  issue  such  a 
proclamation ;  nor  has  it  yet  any  authentic  information 
that  the  document  is  genuine.  And  further,  that  neither 
General  Hunter,  nor  any  other  commander  or  person, 
has  been  authorized  by  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  to  make  a  proclamation  declaring  the  slaves  of 
any  state  free  ;  and  that  the  supposed  proclamation  now 
in  question,  whether  genuine  or  false,  is  altogether  void 
so  far  as  respects  such  a  declaration. 

I  further  make  known  that,  whether  it  be  competent 
for  me,  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  to 
declare  the  slaves  of  any  state  or  states  free,  and 
whether,  at  any  time,  in  any  case,  it  shall  have  become  a 
necessity  indispensable  to  the  maintenance  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  exercise  such  supposed  power,  are  questions 
which,  under  my  responsibility,  I  reserve  to  myself,  and 
which  I  cannot  feel  justified  in  leaving  to  the  decision 
of  commanders  in  the  field.  These  are  totally  different 
questions  from  those  of  police  regulations  in  armies  and 
camps. 

On  the  sixth  dav  of  March  last,  by  special  message,  I 
recommended  to  Congress  the  adoption  of  a  joint  reso- 
lution, to  be  substantially  as  follows: 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  317 

"Resolved^  That  the  United  States  ought  to  cooperate 
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,  public  and  private,  produced  by  such 
change  of  system." 

The  resolution,  in  the  language  above  quoted,  was 
adopted  by  large  majorities  in  both  branches  of  Con- 
gress, and  now  stands  an  authentic,  definite,  and  solemn 
proposal  of  the  nation  to  the  states  and  people  most 
immediately  interested  in  the  subject-matter.  To  the 
people  of  those  states  I  now  earnestly  appeal.  I  do 
not  argue — I  beseech  you  to  make  arguments  for  your- 
selves. You  cannot,  if  you  would,  be  blind  to  the  signs 
of  the  times.  I  beg  of  you  a  calm  and  enlarged  con- 
sideration of  them,  ranging,  if  it  may  be,  f^r  above 
personal  and  partisan  politics.  This  proposal  makes 
common  cause  for  a  common  object,  casting  no  reproaches 
upon  any.  It  acts  not  the  Pharisee.  The  change  it 
contemplates  would  come  gently  as  the  dews  of  heaven, 
not  rending  or  wrecking  anything.  Will  you  not 
embrace  it?  So  much  good  has  not  been  done,  by  ons 
effort,  in  all  past  time,  as  in  the  providence  of  God  it  is 
now  your  high  privilege  to  do.  May  the  vast  future  not 
have  to  lament  that  you  have  neglected  it. 
In  witness,  etc., 

Abraham  Lincoln 
By  the  President : 

William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State 

To  Lincoln's  sorrow  and  disappointment  the  senators  and 
representatives  from  the  Border  states  paid  no  attention  to 
his  suggestion  for  compensated  emancipation.  In  July  he 
asked  them  to  the  White  House  and  addressed  them  briefly  on 
the  subject. 


318  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

APPEAL  TO   THE  BORDER  STATE 

REPRESENTATIVES  FOR  COMPENSATED 

EMANCIPATION 

[July  12,  1862] 

Gentlemex:  After  the  adjournment  of  Congress, 
now  very  near,  I  shall  have  no  opportunity  of  seeing 
you  for  several  months.  Believing  that  you  of  the  Bor- 
der states  hold  more  power  for  good  than  any  other 
equal  number  of  members,  I  feel  it  a  duty  which  I  can- 
not justifiably  waive  to  make  this  appeal  to  you.  I 
intend  no  reproach  or  complaint  when  I  assure  you  that, 
in  my  opinion,  if  you  all  had  voted  for  the  resolution  in 
the  gradual-emancipation  message  of  last  March,  the 
war  would  now  be  substantially  ended.  And  the  plan 
therein  proposed  is  yet  one  of  the  most  potent  and  swift 
means  of  ending  it.  Let  the  states  which  are  in  rebel- 
lion see  definitely  and  certainly  that  in  no  event  will  the 
states  you  represent  ever  join  their  proposed  con- 
federacy, and  they  cannot  much  longer  maintain  the  con- 
test. But  you  cannot  divest  them  of  their  hope  to  ulti- 
mate!} have  you  with  them  so  long  as  you  show  a  deter- 
mination to  perpetuate  the  institution  within  your  own 
states.  Beat  them  at  elections,  as  you  have  overwhelm- 
ingly done,  and,  nothing  daunted,  they  still  claim  you 
as  their  own.  You  and  I  know  what  the  lever  of  their 
power  is.  Break  that  lever  before  their  faces,  and  they 
can  shake  you  no  more  forever.  Most  of  you  have 
treated  me  with  kindness  and  consideration,  and  I  trust 
you  will  not  now  think  I  improperly  touch  what  is  exclu- 
sively your  own,  when,  for  the  sake  of  the  whole  country, 
I  ask.  Can  you,  for  your  states,  do  better  than  to  take 
the  course  I  urge?  Discarding  punctilio  and  maxims 
adapted  to  more  manageable  times,  and  looking  only  to 
the  unprecedentedly  stern  facts  of  our  case,  can  you  do 
better  in  any  possible  event?  You  jirefer  that  the  con- 
stitutional relation   of  the   states  to  tlie  nition   shall  be 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  319 

practically  restored  without  disturbance  of  the  institu- 
tion; and  if  this  were  done^  my  whole  duty  in  this 
respect,  under  the  Constitution  and  my  oath  of  office, 
would  be  performed.  But  it  is  not  done,  and  we  are 
trying  to  accomplish  it  by  war.  The  incidents  of  the 
war  cannot  be  avoided.  If  the  war  continues  long,  as  it 
must  if  the  object  is  not  sooner  attained,  the  institution 
in  your  states  will  be  extinguished  by  mere  friction  and 
abrasion — by  the  mere  incidents  of  war.  It  will  be 
gone  and  you  will  have  nothing  valuable  in  lieu  of  it. 
Much  of  its  value  is  gone  already.  How  much  better 
for  you  and  for  your  people  to  take  the  step  which  at 
once  shortens  the  war  and  secures  substantial  compensa- 
tion for  that  which  is  sure  to  be  wholly  lost  in  any  other 
event !  How  much  better  to  thus  save  the  money  which 
else  we  sink  forever  in  the  war !  How  much  better  to 
do  it  while  we  can,  lest  the  war  ere  long  render  us 
pecuniarily  unable  to  do  it !  How  much  better  for  you 
as  seller,  and  the  nation  as  buyer,  to  sell  out  and  buy 
out  that  without  which  the  war  could  have  never  been, 
than  to  sink  both  the  thing  to  be  sold  and  the  price  of 
it  in  cutting  one  another's  throats  ! 

I  do  not  speak  of  emancipation  at  once,  but  of  a 
decision  at  once  to  emancipate  gradually.  Room  in 
South  America  for  colonization  can  be  obtained  cheaply 
and  in  abundance,  and  when  numbers  shall  be  large 
enough  to  be  company  and  encouragement  for  one 
another,  the  freed  people  will  not  be  so  reluctant  to  go. 

I  am  pressed  with  a  difficulty  not  yet  mentioned — one 
which  threatens  division  among  those  who,  united,  are 
none  too  strong.  An  instance  of  it  is  known  to  you. 
General  Hunter  is  an  honest  man.  He  was,  and  I  hope, 
still  is,  my  friend.  I  valued  him  none  the  less  for  his 
agreeing  with  me  in  the  general  wish  that  all  men  every- 
where could  be  free.  He  proclaimed  all  men  free  within 
certain  states,  and  I  repudiated  the  proclamation.  He 
expected   more   good    and   less   harm    from   the   measure 


;J20  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

tlian  I  could  believe  would  follow.  Yet,  in  repudiating 
it,  I  gave  dissatisfaction,  if  not  oU'ense,  to  many  whose 
support  the  country  cannot  afford  to  lose.  And  this  is 
not  the  end  of  it.  The  pressure  in  this  direction  is 
still  upan  me,  and  is  increasing.  By  conceding  what 
I  now  ask,  you  can  relieve  me,  and,  much  more,  can 
relieve  the  country,  in  this  important  point.  Upon 
these  considerations  I  have  again  begged  your  attention 
to  the  message  of  March  last.  Before  leaving  the  capi- 
tal, consider  and  discuss  it  among  yourselves.  You  are 
patriots  and  statesmen,  and  as  such  I  pray  you  consider 
this  proposition,  and  at  the  least  commend  it  to  the  con- 
sideration of  your  states  and  people.  As  you  would 
perpetuate  popular  government  for  the  best  people  in 
the  world,  I  beseech  you  that  you  do  in  no  wise  omit 
this.  Our  common  country  is  in  great  peril,  demanding 
the  loftiest  views  and  boldest  action  to  bring  it  speedy 
relief.  Once  relieved,  its  form  of  government  is  saved 
to  the  world,  its  beloved  history  and  cherished  memo- 
ries are  vindicated,  and  its  happy  future  fully  assured 
and  rendered  inconceivably  grand.  To  you,  more  than 
to  any  others,  the  privilege  is  given  to  assure  that  happi- 
ness and  swell  that  grandeur,  and  to  link  your  own 
names  therewith  forever. 


His  audience  was  entirely  friendly  to  him  but  unsjTnpathetic 
toward  his  plan,  possibly  because  they  knew  that  sentiment  at 
home  would  be  opposed.  In  the  meantime  Congress  had  eman- 
cipated the  slaves  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  appropriating 
one  million  dollars  for  the  compensation  of  loyal  owners,  and 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  pay  the  expenses  of  such  of 
the  freedmen  as  wished  to  go  to  Liberia  or  Haiti.  This  was  as 
far  as  Lincoln's  plan  was  ever  successful. 

In  1862  Lincoln  appointed  Colonel  George  F.  Shepley, 
Andrew  Johnson,  and  Edward  Stanley  military  governors  of 
Louisiana,  Tennessee,  and  North  Carolina  respectively,  with 
the  ho})e  of  so  stimulating  L^nion  sentiment  in  those  states 
that   governments  loyal   to   the   United   States  might  be  estab- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  321 

lished.  It  was  the  beginning  of  his  policy  of  reconstruction. 
Almost  immediately  he  received  numerous  protests  against  the 
policy  followed  in  Louisiana.  The  situation  there  was  dis- 
cussed in  several  notable  letters. 


TO  REVERDY  JOHNSON 

[Private] 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,   July   26,   1862 
Hon.  Reverdy  Johnson. 

My  dear  Sir:  Yours  of  the  16th,  by  the  hand  of 
Governor  Shepley,  is  received.  It  seems  the  Union 
feeling  in  Louisiana  is  being  crushed  out  by  the  course 
of  General  Phelps.*  Please  pardon  me  for  believing 
that  is  a  false  pretense.  The  people  of  Louisiana — all 
intelligent  people  everywhere — know  full  well  that  I 
never  had  a  wish  to  touch  the  foundations  of  their 
society,  or  any  right  of  theirs.  With  perfect  knowledge 
of  this  they  forced  a  necessity  upon  me  to  send  armies 
among  them,  and  it  is  their  own  fault,  not  mine,  that 
they  are  annoyed  by  the  presence  of  General  Phelps. 
They  also  know  the  remedy — know  how  to  be  cured  of 
General  Phelps.  Remove  the  necessity  for  his  presence. 
And  might  it  not  be  well  for  them  to  consider  whether 
they  have  not  already  had  time  enough  to  do  this }  If 
they  can  conceive  of  anything  worse  than  General 
Phelps  within  my  power,  would  they  not  better  be  look- 
ing out  for  it?  They  very  well  know  the  way  to  avert 
all  this  is  simply  to  take  their  place  in  the  Union  upon 
the  old  terms.  If  they  will  not  do  this,  should  they  not 
receive  harder  blows  rather  than  lighter  ones  ?  You 
are  ready  to  say  I  apply  to  friends  what  is  due  only  to 
enemies.  I  distrust  the  wisdom  if  not  the  sincerity  of 
friends  who  would  hold  my  hands  while  my  enemies  stab 
me.      This  appeal  of  professed  friends  has  paralyzed  me 

*  General  J.  W.  Phelps  was  actively  engaged  in  recruiting 
negro   troops  in   Louisiana   without   authority  of  law. 


322  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

more  in  this  struggle  than  tany  other  one  thing.  You 
remember  telling  me,  the  day  after  the  Baltimore  mob 
in  April,  1861,  that  it  would  crush  all  Union  feeling  in 
Maryland  for  me  to  attempt  bringing  troops  over  Mary- 
land soil  to  Washington.  I  brought  the  troops  not- 
withstanding, and  yet  there  was  Union  feeling  enough 
left  to  elect  a  legislature  the  next  autumn,  which  in 
turn  elected  a  very  excellent  Union  United  States  sena- 
tor !  *  I  am  a  patient  man — always  willing  to  forgive 
on  the  Christian  terms  of  repentance,  and  also  to  give 
ample  time  for  repentance.  Still,  I  must  save  this  gov- 
ernment, if  possible.  What  I  cannot  do,  of  course  I 
will  not  do,  but  it  may  as  well  be  understood,  once  for 
all,  that  I  shall  not  surrender  this  game  leaving  any 
available  card  unplayed. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 


TO  CUTHBERT  BULLITT 

[Privale] 

Washington,  D.  C,  July  28,  1862 
Cuthbert  Bullitt,  Esq.,  New  Orleans,  La. 

Sir  :  The  copy  of  a  letter  addressed  to  yourself  by 
Mr.  Thomas  J.  Durant  has  been  shown  to  me.  The 
writer  appears  to  be  an  able,  a  dispassionate,  and  an 
entirely  sincere  man.  The  first  part  of  the  letter  is 
devoted  to  an  effort  to  show  that  the  secession  ordinance 
of  Louisiana  was  adopted  against  the  will  of  a  major- 
ity of  the  people.  This  is  probably  true,  and  in  that 
fact  may  be  found  some  instruction.  Why  did  they 
allow  the  ordinance  to  go  into  effect  ?  Why  did  they  not 
assert  themselves?  Why  stand  passive  and  allow  them- 
selves to  be  trodden  down  by  a  minority?  Why  did 
they  not  hold  popular  meetings  and  have  a  convention 
of  their  own  to  express  and  enforce  the  true  sentiment 

•  Revprdv  Johnson  himself. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  323 

of  the  state?  If  preorganization  was  against  them 
then,  why  not  do  this  now  that  the  United  States  army 
is  present  to  protect  them?  The  paralysis — the  dead 
palsy — of  the  government  in  this  whole  struggle  is  that 
this  class  of  men  will  do  nothing  for  the  government, 
nothing  for  themselves,  except  demanding  that  the  gov- 
ernment shall  not  strike  its  open  enemies  lest  they  be 
struck  by  accident. 

Mr.  Durant  complains  that  in  various  ways  the  rela- 
tion of  master  and  slave  is  disturbed  by  the  presence  of 
our  army,  and  he  considers  it  particularly  vexatious  that 
this,  in  part,  is  done  under  cover  of  an  act  of  Congress, 
while  constitutional  guaranties  are  suspended  on  the  plea 
of  military  necessity.  The  truth  is  that  what  is  done 
and  omitted  about  slaves  is  done  and  omitted  on  the 
same  military  necessity.  It  is  a  military  necessity  to 
have  men  and  money;  and  we  can  get  neither  in  suffi- 
cient numbers  or  amounts  if  we  keep  from  or  drive  from 
our  lines  slaves  coming  to  them.  Mr.  Durant  cannot  be 
ignorant  of  the  pressure  in  this  direction,  nor  of  my 
efforts  to  hold  it  within  bounds  till  he  and  such  as  he 
shall  have  time  to  help  themselves. 

I  am  not  posted  to  speak  understandingly  on  all  the 
police  regulations  of  which  Mr.  Durant  complains.  If 
experience  shows  any  one  of  them  to  be  wrong,  let  them 
be  set  right.  I  think  I  can  perceive  in  the  freedom  of 
trade  which  Mr.  Durant  urges  that  he  would  relieve 
both  friends  and  enemies  from  the  pressure  of  the  block- 
ade. By  this  he  would  serve  the  enemy  more  effectively 
than  the  enemy  is  able  to  serve  himself.  I  do  not  say 
or  believe  that  to  serve  the  enemy  is  the  purpose  of  Mr. 
Durant,  or  that  he  is  conscious  of  any  purpose  other 
than  national  and  patriotic  ones.  Still,  if  there  were  a 
class  of  men  who,  having  no  choice  of  sides  in  the  con- 
test, were  anxious  only  to  have  quiet  and  comfort  for 
themselves  while  it  rages,  and  to  fall  in  with  the  victori- 
ous side  at  the  end  of  it  without  loss  to  themselves,  their 


:J24  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

advice  as  to  the  mode  of  conducting  the  contest  would 
be  precisely  such  as  his  is.  He  speaks  of  no  duty— 
apparently  thinks  of  none — resting  upon  Union  men. 
He  even  thinks  it  injurious  to  the  Union  cause  that  they 
should  be  restrained  in  trade  and  passage  without  taking 
sides.  They  are  to  touch  neither  a  sail  nor  a  pump^  but 
to  be  merely  passengers — deadheads  at  that — to  be  car- 
ried snug  and  dry  throughout  the  storm,  and  safely 
landed  right  side  up.  Nay,  more:  even  a  mutineer  is 
to  go  untouched,  lest  these  sacred  passengers  receive  an 
accidental  wound.  Of  course  the  rebellion  will  never  be 
suppressed  in  Louisiana  if  the  professed  Union  men 
there  will  neither  heljD  to  do  it  nor  permit  the  govern- 
ment to  do  it  without  their  help.  Now,  I  think  the 
true  remedy  is  very  different  from  what  is  suggested  by 
Mr.  Durant.  It  does  not  lie  in  rounding  the  rough 
angles  of  the  war,  but  in  removing  the  necessity  for  the 
war.  The  people  of  Louisiana  who  wish  protection  to 
person  and  property,  have  but  to  reach  forth  their  hands 
and  take  it.  Let  them  in  good  faith  reinaugurate  the 
national  authority,  and  set  up  a  state  government  con- 
forming thereto  under  the  Constitution.  They  know 
how  to  do  it,  and  can  have  the  protection  of  the  army 
while  doing  it.  The  army  will  be  withdrawn  as  soon  as 
such  government  can  dispense  with  its  presence,  and 
the  people  of  the  state  can  then,  upon  the  old  constitu- 
tional terms,  govern  themselves  to  their  own  liking. 
This  is  very  simple  and  easy. 

If  they  will  not  do  this,  if  they  prefer  to  hazard  all 
for  the  sake  of  destroying  the  government,  it  is  for  them 
to  consider  whether  it  is  probable  that  I  will  surrender 
the  government  to  save  them  from  losing  all.  If  they 
decline  what  I  suggest,  you  will  scarcely  need  to  ask 
what  I  will  do.  What  would  you  do  in  my  position? 
Would  you  drop  the  war  where  it  is,  or  would  you  prose- 
cute it  in   future  with  elder-stalk  squirts  charged  with 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  325 

rosewater?  Would  you  deal  lighter  blows  rather  than 
heavier  ones  ?  Would  you  give  up  the  contest,  leaving 
any  available  means  unapplied? 

I  am  in  no  boastful  mood.  I  shall  not  do  more  than 
I  can;  and  I  shall  do  all  I  can  to  save  the  government, 
which  is  my  sworn  duty  as  well  as  my  personal  inclina- 
tion. I  shall  do  nothing  in  malice.  What  I  deal  with 
is  too  vast  for  malicious  dealing. 
Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

TO  AUGUST  BELMONT* 

[July  31,  1862] 

Dear  Sir:    You  send  to  Mr.  W an  extract  from  a 

letter  written  at  New  Orleans  the  9th  instant,  which  is 
shown  to  me.  You  do  not  give  the  writer's  name ;  but 
plainly  he  is  a  man  of  ability,  and  probably  of  some 
note.  He  says:  "The  time  has  arrived  when  Mr.  Lin- 
coln must  take  a  decisive  course.  Trying  to  please  every- 
body, he  will  satisfy  nobody.  A  vacillating  policy  in 
matters  of  importance  is  the  very  worst.  Now  is  the 
time^  if  ever,  for  honest  men  who  love  their  country  to 
rally  to  its  support.  Why  will  not  the  North  say  offi- 
cially that  it  wishes  for  the  restoration  of  the  Lnion  as 
it  was  ?" 

And  so,  it  seems,  this  is  the  point  on  which  the  writer 
thinks  I  have  no  policy.  Why  will  he  not  read  and 
understand  what  I  have  said? 

The  substance  of  the  very  declaration  he  desires  is  in 
the  inaugural,  in  each  of  the  two  regular  messages  to 
Congress,  and  in  many,  if  not  all,  the  minor  documents 
issued  by  the  Executive  since  the  Inauguration. 

Broken  eggs  cannot  be  mended ;  but  Louisiana  has 
nothing  to  do  now  but  to  take  her  place  in  the  Union  as 

*A  prominent  New  York  Democrat. 


326  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

it  was,  barring  the  already  broken  eggs.  The  sooner 
she  does  so,  the  smaller  will  be  the  amount  of  that  which 
will  be  past  mending.  This  government  cannot  much 
longer  play  a  game  in  whi-^'i  it  stakes  all,  and  its  ene- 
mies stake  nothing.  Those  enemies  must  understand 
that  they  cannot  experiment  for  ten  years  trying  to  de- 
stroy the  government,  and  if  they  fail,  still  come  back 
into  the  Union  unhurt.  If  they  expect  in  any  contin- 
gency to  ever  have  the  Union  as  it  was,  I  join  with  the 
writer  in  saying,  "Now  is  the  time." 

How  much  better  it  would  have  been  for  the  writer  to 
have  gone  at  this,  under  the  protection  of  the  army  at 
New  Orleans,  than  to  have  sat  down  in  a  closet  writing 
complaining  letters  northward  ! 

Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

In  the  summer  of  1863  the  cause  of  the  Union  was  at  its 
lowest  ebb.  The  military  campaign  in  Virginia,  which  was 
the  only  one  in  which  the  country  was  deeply  interested,  had 
been  a  disastrous  failure.  Dissatisfied  with  the  plan  for  com- 
pensated emancipation,  the  radical  opponents  of  slavery  now 
demanded  immediate  emancipation  by  proclamation.  The 
demand  was  very  strong  and  the  denunciation  of  the  President 
by  his  opponents  increasingly  bitter.  Lincoln  had  hinted  to 
Seward  and  AVelles,  the  day  after  the  conference  with  the 
Border  state  representatives,  that  he  might  emancipate  the 
slaves  as  a  military  measure  by  proclamation,  and  finally  on 
July  22  he  read  to  his  cabinet  a  proclamation  announcing  that 
he  would  on  January  1,  1863,  as  a  measure  of  war,  free  the 
slaves  in  any  states  not  then  recognizing  the  authority  of  the 
United  States.  His  amazed  cabinet  approved,  but  Seward 
suggested  that  if  it  were  issued  at  the  time  it  would  be  con- 
sidered the  "last  shriek"  of  the  Government,  and  that  it  would 
be  better  tactics  to  wait  for  a  military  victory.  Lincoln 
agreed,  and  a  long  wait  for  a  victory  followed. 

On  August  20,  Horace  Greeley  published  in  the  editorial 
columns  of  the  Tribune  an  open  letter  to  President  Lincoln, 
called  "The  Prayer  of  Twenty  Million."     It  began: 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOI^X  ;'27 

"To  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the   L'nited   States: 

"Dear  Sir:  I  do  not  intrude  to  tell  you — for  you  must 
know  already — that  a  great  proportion  of  those  who  triumphed 
in  your  election,  and  of  all  who  desire  the  unqualified  suppres- 
sion of  the  rebellion  now  desolating  our  country,  are  sorely 
disappointed  and  deeply  pained  by  the  policy  you  seem  to  be 
pursuing  with  regard  to  the  slaves  of  rebels.  I  write  you 
only  to  set  succinctly  and  unmistakably  before  you  what  we 
require,  what  we  think  we  have  a  right  to  expect,  and  of  what 
we  complain." 

The  letter  continued  with  a  mixture  of  demands  and  accu- 
sations. Demanding  that  the  President  execute  the  laws,  it 
accused  him  of  being  "strangely  remiss"  in  the  discharge  of 
official  and  imperative  duty  with  regard  to  the  emancipation 
provisions  of  the  confiscation  acts-,  of  being  unduly  influenced 
by  the  counsels,  the  representations,  and  the  menaces  of  certain 
"fossil  politicians"  of  the  Border  states,  and  warned  him  that 
timid  counsels  were  perilous,  and  that  the  Union  cause  was 
suffering  from  mistaken  deference  to  "rebel  slavery."  It 
went  so  far  as  to  say,  "You  never  give  a  direction  to  your 
military  subordinates  which  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
conceived  in  the  interest  of  Slavery  rather  than  that  of  Free- 
dom." It  closed,  "I  entreat  you  to  render  hearty  and  un- 
equivocal obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  land." 

Lincoln's  reply  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  letters  of 
history,  not  only  for  its  dignity  and  restraint,  its  effectiveness 
and  logic,  but  also  for  the  power  of  its  expression  and  its 
revelation  of  his  purpose.  It  is  all  the  more  remarkable  when 
it  is  remembered  that  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  was  all 
the  while  in  his  desk. 


TO  HORACE  GREELEY 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  August  22,   1862 

Hon.  Horace  Greeley. 

Dear    Sir:      I    have    just    read    yours    of    the    19th, 

addressed   to   myself    through   the    New   York    Tribune. 

If  there  be  in  it  any  statements  or  assumptions  of  fact 

which  I  mav  know  to  be  erroneous.  I  do  not.  now  and 


328  SELFXTIOXS    FROM    IJNXOLN 

here^  controvert  them.  If  there  be  in  it  any  inferences 
which  I  may  believe  to  be  falsely  drawn,  I  do  not,  now 
and  here,  argue  against  them.  If  there  be  perceptible 
in  it  an  impatient  and  dictatorial  tone,  I  waive  it  in 
deference  to  an  old  friend,  whose  heart  I  have  always 
supposed  to  be  right. 

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

I  would  save  the  Union.  I  would  save  it  the  shortest 
way  under  the  Constitution.  The  sooner  the  national 
authorit}'  can  be  restored,  the  nearer  the  Union  will  be 
"the  Union  as  it  was."  If  there  be  those  who  would 
not  save;  the  Union  unless  they  could  at  the  same  time 
save  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them.  If  there  be 
those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they  could 
at  the  same  time  destroy  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with 
them.  My  paramount  object  in  this  struggle  is  to  save 
the  Union,  and  is  not  either  to  save  or  to  destroy  slavery. 
If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slave,  I 
would  do  it;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the 
slaves,  I  would  do  it ;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing 
some  and  leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also  do  that. 
What  I  do  about  slavery  and  the  colored  race,  I  do 
because  I  believe  it  helps  to  save  the  Union;  and  what  I 
forbear,  I  forbear  because  I  do  not  believe  it  would  help 
to  save  the  Union.  I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  shall 
believe  what  I  am  doing  hurts  the  cause,  and  I  shall  do 
more  whenever  I  shall  believe  doing  more  will  help  the 
cause.  I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  when  shown  to  be 
errors,  and  I  shall  adopt  new  views  so  fast  as  they  shall 
appear  to  be  true  views.  I  have  here  stated  my  purpose 
according  to  my  view  of  official  duty,  and  I  intend  no 
modification  of  my  oft-expressed  personal  wish  that  all 
men,  everywhere,  could  be  free. 
Yours, 

A.   Lincoln 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  329 

Another  remarkable  document  is  an  address  in  reply  to  a 
demand  for  emancipation. 

REPLY  TO  A  CHICAGO  COMMITTEE  ASKING 
FOB  EMANCIPATION 

[September  13,  1862] 

The  subject  presented  in  the  memorial  is  one  upon 
which  I  have  thought  much  for  weeks  past,  and  I  may 
even  say  for  months.  I  am  approached  with  the  most 
opposite  opinions  and  advice,  and  that  by  religious  men 
who  are  equally  certain  that  they  represent  the  Divine 
Will.  I  am  sure  that  either  the  one  or  the  other  class 
is  mistaken  in  that  belief,  and  perhaps  in  some  respects 
both.  I  hope  it  will  not  be  irreverent  for  me  to  say  that 
if  it  is  probable  that  God  would  reveal  His  will  to  others 
on  a  point  so  connected  with  my  duty,  it  might  be  sup- 
posed He  would  reveal  it  directly  to  me;  for,  unless  I 
am  more  deceived  in  myself  than  I  often  am,  it  is  my 
earnest  desire  to  know  the  will  of  Providence  in  this 
matter.  And  if  I  can  learn  what  it  is,  I  will  do  it. 
These  are  not,  however,  the  days  of  miracles,  and  I 
suppose  it  will  be  granted  that  I  am  not  to  expect  a 
direct  revelation.  I  must  study  the  plain  physical  facts 
of  the  case,  ascertain  what  is  possible,  and  learn  what 
appears  to  be  wise  and  right. 

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


330  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

our  own  troops,  and  expecting  God  to  favor  their  side ; 
for  one  of  our  soldiers  who  had  been  taken  prisoner  told 
Senator  Wilson  a  few  days  since  that  he  met  with  noth- 
ing so  discouraging  as  the  evident  sincerity  of  those  he 
was  among  in  their  prayers.  But  we  will  talk  over  the 
merits  of  the  case. 

What  good  would  a  proclamation  of  emancipation 
from  me  do,  especially  as  we  are  now  situated  ?  I  do 
not  want  to  issue  a  document  that  the  whole  world  will 
see  must  necessarily  be  inoperative,  like  the  Pope's  bull 
against  the  comet.*  Would  my  word  free  the  slaves, 
when  I  cannot  even  enforce  the  Constitution  in  the  rebel 
states.^  Is  there  a  single  court,  or  magistrate,  or  indi- 
vidual that  would  be  influenced  by  it  there?  And  what 
reason  is  there  to  think  it  would  have  any  greater  effect 
upon  the  slaves  than  the  late  law  of  Congress,  which  I 
approved,  and  which  offers  protection  and  freedom  to 
the  slaves  of  rebel  masters  who  come  within  our  lines? 
Yet  I  cannot  learn  that  that  law  has  caused  a  single 
slave  to  come  over  to  us.  And  suppose  they  could  be 
induced  by  a  proclamation  of  freedom  from  me  to  throw 
themselves  upon  us,  what  should  we  do  with  them? 
How  can  we  feed  and  care  for  such  a  multitude  ?  Gen- 
eral Butler  wrote  me  a  few  days  since  that  he  was  issuing 
more  rations  to  the  slaves  who  have  rushed  to  him  than 
to  all  the  white  troops  under  his  command.  They  eat, 
and  that  is  all ;  though  it  is  true  General  Butler  is  feed- 
ing the  whites  also  by  the  thousand,  for  it  nearly  amounts 

♦In  1456  the  Turks  had  taken  Constantinople  and  estabh'shed 
themselves  in  Europe.  A  comet  appeared.  According-  to  a  con- 
temporary historian  Pope  Calixtus  III  "decreed  several  days  of 
prayer  for  the  averting-  of  the  wrath  of  God,  that  wliatever 
calamity  impended  might  be  turned  from  the  Christians  and 
against'the  Turks."  At  the  same  time  the  plea.  "From  the  Turk 
and  the  comet,  good  Lord,  deliver  us."  was  added  to  the  litany. 
This  intercession  of  the  Pope  was  unavailing,  as  the  Turks  still 
hold  Constantinople,  and  the  comet,  known  to  the  modern  world 
as  Halley's,  still  appears  at  intervals.  A  tradition  arose  that 
Calixtus  had  issued  a  bull  'edict)  excommunicating  the  comet. 
but  no  such  tnill  is  to  be  found  among  those  published.  See 
Andrew  D.  White,   Thr  Theories  of  the  Comet. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  33I 

to  a  famine  there.  If,  now,  the  pressure  of  the  war 
should  call  off  our  forces  from  New  Orleans  to  defend 
some  other  point,  what  is  to  prevent  the  masters  from 
reducing  the  blacks  to  slavery  again?  For  I  am  told 
that  whenever  the  rebels  take  any  black  prisoners,  free 
or  slave,  they  immediately  auction  them  off.  They  did 
so  with  those  they  took  from  a  boat  that  was  aground 
in  the  Tennessee  River  a  few  days  ago.  And  then  I 
am  very  ungenerously  attacked  for  it !  For  instance,  when 
after  the  late  battles  at  and  near  Bull  Run,  an  expedi- 
tion went  out  from  Washington  under  a  flag  of  truce 
to  bury  the  dead  and  bring  in  the  wounded,  and  the 
rebels  seized  the  blacks  who  went  along  to  help,  and 
sent  them  into  slavery,  Horace  Greeley  said  in  his  paper 
that  the  government  would  probably  do  nothing  about 
it.     What  could  I  do? 

Now,  then,  tell  me  if  you  please,  what  possible  result 
of  good  would  follow  the  issuing  of  such  a  proclamation 
as  you  desire?  Understand,  I  raise  no  objections  against 
it  on  legal  or  constitutional  grounds;  for,  as  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  in  time  of  war  I  suppose 
I  have  a  right  to  take  any  measure  which  may  best  sub- 
due the  enemy;  nor  do  I  urge  objections  of  a  moral 
nature,  in  view  of  possible  consequences  of  insurrection 
and  massacre  at  the  South.  I  view  this  matter  as  a 
practical  war  measure,  to  be  decided  on  according  to  the 
advantages  or  disadvantages  it  may  offer  to  the  sup- 
pression of  the  rebellion. 

I  admit  that  slavery  is  the  root  of  the  rebellion,  or  at 
least  its  sine  qua  non.^  The  ambition  of  politicians  may 
have  instigated  them  to  act,  but  they  would  have  been 
impotent  without  slavery  as  their  instrument.  I  will 
also  concede  that  emancipation  would  help  us  in  Europe, 
and    convince   them    that    we    are    incited    by    something 

*  Literally,  without  which  not ;  in  other  words,  .something 
absolutely    necessary,    or   an    indispensable    condition. 


332  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

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

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


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  333 

After  the  battle  of  Antietam,  the  preliminary  emancipa- 
tion proclamation  *  was  issued.  It  was  done  with  the  utmost 
hesitation,  for  Lincoln  was  doubtful  of  its  expediency.  A 
day  or  so  later,  in  speaking  of  it,  he  said,  "I  can  only  trust 
in  God  that  I  have  made  no  mistake."  Its  reception  was  not 
such  as  to  encourage  Lincoln,  nor  did  the  military  situation 
help  him.  His  bitter  disappointment  at  McClellan's  failure  to 
crush  Lee  after  Antietam  is  reflected  in  this  message: 

TO  GENERAL  GEORGE  B.  McCLELLAN 

[Telegram] 

War   Department, 

Washington  City,  October  2i,   1862 
Major-General  McClellan: 

I  have  just  read  your  dispatch  about  sore-tongued  and 
fatigued  horses.  Will  you  pardon  me  for  asking  what 
the  horses  of  your  army  have  done  since  the  battle  of 
Antietam  that  fatigues  anything? 

A.   Lincoln 

In  the  meantime  stocks  fell,  recruiting  grew  more  difficult, 
and  when  the  autumn  elections  came,  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Oliio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  all  went  Democratic 
in  state  and  congressional  elections.  On  November  8,  General 
Carl  Schurz,  a  native  of  Germany  and  a  resident  of  Wisconsin, 
whom  Lincoln  had  appointed,  first.  Minister  to  Spain,  and 
later,  a  brigadier  general,  wrote  Lincoln  a  most  interesting 
letter.  Always  candid  in  the  expression  of  his  opinions,  and 
ready  to  give  advice,  he  wrote  stating  that  the  Republican  defeat 
was  not  due  to  the  emancipation  proclamation,  nor  to  the  finan- 
cial policy  of  the  government,  nor  to  a  desire  for  peace  at  any 
price.  It  was  due,  he  argued,  to  the  admission  of  political 
opponents  of  the  administration  into  its  councils,  and  the 
placing  of  its  political  enemies  in  control  of  the  army.  He 
demanded   energ)^   and  success.     His   letter  was  hasty,  preju- 

*  By  this  preliminary  proclamation  of  September  22,  1862, 
Lincoln  announced  that  he  would  on  Januarv  1,  1863,  declare  the 
slaves  free  in  all  the  parts  of  the  Southern  states  then  in  the 
hands  of  the  Confederates,  unless  the  states  had  by  that  time 
returned  to  their  allegiance  to  the  United  States. 


334  SEI.ECTIOXS    FROM    LINCOLN 

diced,  and  opinionated.     Lincoln  replied  with  great   restraint, 
but  evidently  in  much  haste. 


TO  GENERAL  CARL  SCHURZ 
[Private  and  Confidential] 

Executive   Mansion, 
Washington,  November  10,  1862 
Gen.   Schurz. 

My  dear  Sir:  Yours  of  the  8th  was,  today,  read  to 
me  by  Mrs.  Schurz.  We  have  lost  the  elections;  and  it 
is  natural  that  each  of  us  will  believe,  and  say,  it  has 
been  because  his  peculiar  views  was  not  made  suffi- 
ciently prominent.  I  think  I  know  what  it  was,  but  I 
may  be  mistaken.  Three  main  causes  told  the  whole 
story.  1.  The  Democrats  were  left  in  a  majority  by 
our  friends  going  to  the  war.  2.  The  Democrats  observed 
this  and  determined  to  reinstate  themselves  in  power, 
and  3.  Our  newspapers,  by  vilifying  and  disparaging 
the  administration,  furnished  them  all  the  weapons  to 
do  it  with.  Certainly  the  ill-success  of  the  war  had 
much  to  do  with  this. 

You  give  a  different  set  of  reasons.  If  you  had  not 
made  the  following  statements,  I  should  not  have  sus- 
pected them  to  be  true.  "The  defeat  of  the  administra- 
tion is  the  administration's  own  fault."  (Opinion.)  "It 
admitted  its  professed  opponents  to  its  counsels."  (As- 
serted as  a  fact.)  "It  placed  the  Army,  now  a  great 
power  in  this  Republic,  into  the  hands  of  its  enemies." 
(Asserted  as  a  fact.)  "In  all  personal  questions  to  be 
hostile  to  the  party  of  the  government,  seemed  to  be  a 
title  to  consideration."  (Asserted  as  a  fact.)  "If  to 
forget  the  great  rule,  that  if  you  are  true  to  your  friends, 
your  friends  will  be  true  to  you,  and  that  you  make  your 
enemies  stronger  by  placing  them  upon  an  equality  with 
your  friends."  "Is  it  surprising  that  the  opponents  of 
the  administration  should  have  got  into  their  hands  the 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  335 

government  of  the  principal  states,  after  they  have  had 
for  a  long  time  the  principal  management  of  the  war, 
the  great  business  of  the  national  government?" 

I  cannot  dispute  about  the  matter  of  opinion.  On 
the  three  matters  (stated  as  facts)  I  shall  be  glad  to 
have  your  evidence  upon  them  when  I  shall  meet  you. 
The  plain  facts,  as  they  appear  to  me,  are  these.  The 
administration  came  into  power,  very  largely  in  a 
minority  of  the  popular  vote.  Notwithstanding  this,  it 
distributed  to  its  party  friends  as  nearly  all  the  civil 
patronage  as  any  administration  ever  did.  The  war 
came.  The  administration  could  not  even  start  in  this, 
without  assistance  outside  of  its  party.  It  was  mere 
nonsense  to  suppose  a  minority  could  put  down  a 
majority  in  rebellion.  Mr.  Schurz  (now  Gen.  Schurz) 
was  about  here  then,  and  I  do  not  recollect  that  he 
then  considered  all  who  were  not  Republicans  were 
enemies  of  the  government,  and  that  none  of  them  must 
be  appointed  to  military  positions.  He  will  correct  me 
if  I  am  mistaken.  It  so  happened  that  very  few  of  our 
friends  had  a  military  education  or  were  of  the  pro- 
fession of  arms.  It  would  have  been  a  question  whether 
the  war  should  be  conducted  on  military  knowledge,  or 
on  political  affinity,  only  that,  our  own  friends  (I  think 
Mr.  Schurz  included)  seemed  to  think  that  such  a  ques- 
tion was  inadmissible.  Accordingly  I  have  scarcely 
appointed  a  Democrat  to  a  command  who  was  not  urged 
by  many  Republicans  and  opposed  by  none.  It  was  so 
as  to  McClellan.  He  was  first  brought  forward  by  the 
Republican  governor  of  Ohio,  and  claimed  and  con- 
tended for  at  the  same  time  by  the  Republican  governor 
of  Pennsylvania.  I  received  recommendations  from 
the  Republican  delegations  in  Congress,  and  I  believe 
every  one  of  them  recommended  a  majority  of  Demo- 
crats. But,  after  all  many  Republicans  were  appointed  ; 
and  I  mean  no  disparagement  to  them  when  I  say  I  do 
not   see  that   their   superiority   of   success   has    been    so 


336  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

marked   as   to  throw  great  suspicion  on   the  good   faith 
of  those  who  are  not  Republicans. 
Yours    truly, 

A,   Lincoln 

A  military-  order  of  this  period  gives  an  excellent  example  of 
the  deep  reverence  of  attitude  which  is  not  always  attributed 
to  Lincoln. 


ORDER  FOR  SABBATH  OBSERVANCE 

[November  15,  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  necessity. 
The  discipline  and  character  of  the  national  forces 
should  not  suffer,  nor  the  cause  they  defend  be  imperiled, 
by  the  profanation  of  the  day  or  name  of  the  Most 
High.  "At  this  time  of  public  distress" — adopting  the 
words  of  Washington  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  defended.  "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." 

Abraham    Lincoln 
Oficial:     E.  D.  Townsend,  Assistant  Adjutant  General 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  ,337 

In  November  General  N.  P.  Banks  was  placed  in  command 
of  an  expedition  to  go  to  New  Orleans  hy  sea.  He  was  dila- 
tory, and  Lincoln  wrote  him  this  characteristic  letter: 

TO  GENERAL  N.  P.  BANKS 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  November  22,  1862 
My  dear  General  Banks:  Early  last  week  you  left 
me  in  high  hope  with  your  assurance  that  you  would  be 
off  with  your  expedition  at  the  end  of  that  week,  or 
early  in  this.  It  is  now  the  end  of  this,  and  I  have  just 
been  overwhelmed  and  confounded  with  the  sight  of  a 
requisition  made  by  you  which,  I  am  assured,  cannot  be 
filled  and  got  off  within  an  hour  short  of  two  months. 
I  inclose  you  a  copy  of  the  requisition,  in  some  hope  that 
it  is  not  genuine — that  you  have  never  seen  it.  My 
dear  General,  this  expanding  and  piling  up  of  im- 
pedimenta has  been,  so  far,  almost  our  ruin,  and  will 
be  our  final  ruin  if  it  is  not  abandoned.  If  you  had  the 
articles  of  this  requisition  upon  the  wharf,  with  the  neces- 
sary animals  to  make  them  of  any  use,  and  forage  for  the 
animals,  you  could  not  get  vessels  together  in  two  weeks 
to  carry  the  whole,  to  say  nothing  of  your  twenty  thou- 
sand men;  and,  having  the  vessels,  you  could  not  put 
the  cargoes  aboard  in  two  weeks  more.  And,  after  all, 
where  you  are  going  you  have  no  use  for  them.  When 
you  parted  with  me  you  had  no  such  idea  in  your  mind. 
I  know  you  had  not,  or  you  could  not  have  expected  to 
be  off  so  soon  as  you  said.  You  must  get  back  to  some- 
thing like  the  plan  you  had  then,  or  your  expedition  is 
a  failure  before  you  start.  You  must  be  off  before 
Congress  meets.  You  would  be  better  off  anywhere, 
and  especially  where  you  are  going,  for  not  having  a 
thousand  wagons  doing  nothing  but  hauling  forage  to 
feed  the  animals  that  draw  them,  and  taking  at  least 
two  thousand  men  to  care  for  the  wagons  and  animals, 
who    otherwise    might    be    two    thousand    good    soldiers. 


338  SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLN 

Xow,  dear  General,  do  not  think  this  is  an  ill-natured 
letter  ;  it  is  the  very  reverse.  The  simple  publication  of 
this   requisition   would  ruin  you. 

Very  truly  your  friend, 

A.   Lincoln 

Carl  Schurz  was  not  convinced  or  silenced  by  Lincoln's 
reply  to  his  first  letter,  and  on  November  20  he  replied  with 
another,  in  which  he  reiterated  his  former  arguments.  Lin- 
coln's reply  is  remarkably  terse  and  effective. 

TO  GENERAL  CARL  SCHURZ 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  November  24,  1862 
General   Carl  Schurz. 

My  dear  Sir:  I  have  just  received  and  read  your 
letter  of  the  20th.  The  purport  of  it  is  that  we  lost 
the  late  elections  and  the  administration  is  failing  be- 
cause the  war  is  unsuccessful,  and  that  I  must  not  flatter 
myself  that  I  am  not  justly  to  blame  for  it.  I  certainly 
know  that  if  the  war  fails,  the  administration  fails,  and 
that  I  will  be  blamed  for  it,  whether  I  deserve  it  or  not. 
And  I  ought  to  be  blamed  if  I  could  do  better.  You 
think  I  could  do  better ;  therefore  you  blame  me  already. 
I  think  I  could  not  do  better;  therefore  I  blame  you  for 
blaming  me.  I  understand  you  now  to  be  willing  to 
accept  the  help  of  men  who  are  not  Republicans,  pro- 
vided they  have  "heart  in  it."  Agreed.  I  want  no  others. 
But  who  is  to  be  the  judge  of  hearts,  or  of  "heart  in 
it"?  If  I  must  discard  my  own  judgment  and  take 
yours,  I  must  also  take  that  of  others ;  and  by  the  time 
I  should  reject  all  I  should  be  advised  to  reject,  I  should 
have  none  left.  Republicans  or  others — not  even  yourself. 
For  be  assured,  my  dear  sir,  there  are  men  who  have 
"heart  in  it"  that  think  you  are  performing  your  part 
as  poorly  as  you  think  I  am  performing  mine.  I  cer- 
tainly have  been  dissatisfied  with  the  slowness  of  Buell 
and  McClellan;  but  before  I  relieved  them  I  had  great 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  339 

fears  I  should  not  find  successors  to  them  who  would 
do  better;  and  I  am  sorry  to  add  that  I  have  seen  little 
since  to  relieve  those  fears. 

I  do  not  clearly  see  the  prospect  of  any  more  rapid 
movements.  I  fear  we  shall  at  last  find  out  that  the  diffi- 
culty is  in  our  case  rather  than  in  j^articular  generals.  I 
wish  to  disparage  no  one — certainly  not  those  who  sympa- 
thize with  me;  but  I  must  say  I  need  success  more  than  I 
need  sympathy,  and  that  I  have  not  seen  the  so  much 
greater  evidence  of  getting  success  from  my  sympathizers 
than  from  those  who  are  denounced  as  the  contrary.  It 
does  seem  to  me  that  in  the  field  the  two  classes  have 
been  very  much  alike  in  what  they  have  done  and  what 
they  have  failed  to  do.  In  sealing  their  faith  with  their 
blood,  Baker  and  Lyon  and  Bohlen  and  Richardson, 
Republicans,  did  all  that  men  could  do;  but  did  they  any 
more  than  Kearny  and  Stevens  and  Reno  and  Mansfield, 
none  of  whom  were  Republicans,  and  some  at  least  of 
whom  have  been  bitterly  and  repeatedly  denounced  to 
me  as  secession  sympathizers  ?  I  will  not  perform  the 
ungrateful  task  of  comparing  cases  of  failure. 

In  answer  to  your  question,  "Has  it  not  been  publicly 
stated  in  the  newspapers,  and  apparently  proved  as  a 
fact,  that  from  the  commencement  of  the  war  the  enemv 
was  continually  supplied  with  information  by  some  of 
the  confidential  subordinates  of  as  important  an  officer 
as  Adjutant-General  Thomas?"  I  must  say  "No,"  as 
far  as  my  knowledge  extends.  And  I  add  that  if  you 
can  give  any  tangible  evidence  upon  the  subject,  I  will 
thank  you  to  come  to  this  city  and  do  so. 
Very  truly  your  friend, 

A,  Lincoln 

In  his  annual  message  to  Congress  of  1862,  Lincoln  again 
brought  up  the  question  of  compensated  emancipation  in  an 
even  more  advanced  form,  and  again  urged  the  colonization  of 
the  freedmen.  The  message  is  notable  for  the  beauty  and 
elevation  of  its  concluding  paragraph. 


340  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

EXTRACT  FROM  ANNUAL  MESSAGE   TO  CONGRESS 
[December   1,  1862] 

Fellow-Citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of 
'Representatives:  Since  your  last  annual  assembling, 
another  year  of  health  and  bountiful  harvests  has  passed ; 
and  while  it  has  not  pleased  the  Almighty  to  bless  us 
with  a  return  of  peace,  we  can  but  press  on,  guided  by 
the  best  light  He  gives  us,  trusting  that  in  His  own 
good  time  and  wise  way,  all  will  yet  be  well. 

The  correspondence,  touching  foreign  affairs,  which 
has  taken  place  during  the  last  year,  is  herewith  sub- 
mitted, in  virtual  compliance  with  a  request  to  that 
effect  made  by  the  House  of  Representatives  near  the 
close  of  the  last  session  of  Congress. 

If  the  condition  of  our  relations  with  other  nations  is 
less  gratifying  than  it  has  usually  been  at  former 
periods,  it  is  certainly  more  satisfactory  than  a  nation 
so  unhappily  distracted  as  we  are,  might  reasonably  have 
apprehended.  In  the  month  of  June  last,  there  were 
some  grounds  to  expect  that  the  maritime  powers,  which, 
at  the  beginning  of  our  domestic  difficulties,  so  unwisely 
and  unnecessarily,  as  we  think,  recognized  the  insurgents 
as  a  belligerent,  would  soon  recede  from  that  position, 
which  has  proved  only  less  injurious  to  themselves  than 
to  our  own  country.  But  the  temporary  reverses  which 
afterward  befell  the  national  arms,  and  which  were  ex- 
aggerated by  our  own  disloyal  citizens  abroad,  have 
hitherto  delayed  that  act  of  simple  justice. 

On  the  22d  day  of  September  last  a  proclamation  was 
issued  by  the  Executive,  a  copy  of  which  is  herewith 
submitted.  In  accordance  with  the  purpose  expressed 
in  the  second  paragraph  of  that  paper,  I  now  respect- 
fully recall  your  attention  to  what  may  be  called  "com- 
pensated   emancipation." 

A  nation  may  be  said  to  consist  of  its  territory,  its 
people,   and   its   laws.      The   territory   is   the   only   part 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  34I 

which  is  of  certain  durability.  "One  generation  passeth 
away,  and  another  generation  cometh,  but  the  earth 
abideth  forever."  *  It  is  of  the  first  importance  to  duly 
consider  and  estimate  this  ever-enduring  part.  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 
its  variety  of  climate  and  productions  are  of  advantage 
in  this  age  for  one  people,  whatever  they  might  have 
been  in  former  ages.  Steam,  telegraphs,  and  intelligence 
have  brought  these  to  be  an  advantageous  combination 
for  one  united  people. 

In  the  Inaugural  Address  I  briefly  pointed  out  the 
total  inadequacy  of  disunion  as  a  remedy  for  the  differ- 
ences between  the  people  of  the  two  sections.  I  did  so 
in  language  which  I  cannot  improve  and  which,  there- 
fore, I  beg  to  repeat: 

"One  section  of  our  country  believes  slavery  is  right 
and  ought  to  be  extended,  while  the  other  believes  it  is 
wrong  and  ought  not  to  be  extended.  This  is  the  only 
substantial  dispute.  The  fugitive-slave  cause  of  the 
Constitution  and  the  law  for  the  suppression  of  the 
foreign  slave-trade  are  each  as  well  enforced,  perhaps, 
as  any  law  can  ever  be  in  a  community  where  the  moral 
sense  of  the  people  imperfectly  supports  the  law  itself. 
The  great  body  of  the  people  abide  by  the  dry  legal 
obligation  in  both  cases,  and  a  few  break  over  in  each. 
This,  I  think,  cannot  be  perfectly  cured  ;  and  it  would 
be  worse  in  both  cases  after  the  separation  of  the  sec- 
tions than  before.  The  foreign  slave-trade,  now  imper- 
fectly suppressed,  would  be  ultimately  revived  without 
restriction  in  one  section ;  while  fugitive  slaves,  now  onlv 
partially  surrendered,  would  not  be  surrendered  at  all 
by  the  other. 

"Physically  speaking,  we  cannot  separate.  We  cannot 
remove  our  respective  sections  from  each  other,  nor  build 

♦  Ecclesiastes,  i,   4. 


34li  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

an  impassable  wall  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  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 
old  questions  as  to  terms  of  intercourse  are  again  upon 
you." 

There  is  no  line,  straight  or  crooked,  suitable  for  a 
national  boundary  upon  which  to  divide.  Trace  through, 
from  east  to  west,  upon  the  line  between  the  free  and 
slave  country,  and  we  shall  find  a  little  more  than  one- 
third  of  its  length  are  rivers,  easy  to  be  crossed,  and 
populated,  or  soon  to  be  populated,  thickly  upon  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  stipulation  would  be  ever  made  to  take  its  place. 

But  there  is  another  difficulty.  The  great  interior 
region  bounded  east  by  the  Alleghenies,  north  by  the 
British  dominions,  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, 


SELECTIOXS    FRO-M    LINXOLX  343 

Wisconsin,  Illinois^  Missouri,  Kansas,  Iowa,  Minnesota, 
and  the  Territories  of  Dakota,  Nebraska,  and  part  of 
Colorado,  already  has  above  ten  millions  of  people, 
and  will  have  fifty  millions  within  fifty  years,  if  not 
prevented  by  any  political  folly  or  mistake.  It  con- 
tains more  than  one-third  of  the  country  owned  by  the 
United  States — certainly  more  than  pne  million  of 
square  miles.  Once  half  as  populous  as  Massachusetts 
already  is,  it  would  have  more  than  seventy-five  millions 
of  people.  A  glance  at  the  map  shows  that,  territorially 
speaking,  it  is  the  great  body  of  the  republic.  The  other 
parts  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  un- 
developed resources.  In  the  production  of  provisions, 
grains,  grasses,  and  all  which  proceed  from  them,  this 
great  interior  region  is  naturally  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant in  the  world.  Ascertain  from  the  statistics  the 
small  proportion  of  the  region  which  has,  as  yet,  been 
brought  into  cultivation,  and  also  the  large  and  rapidly 
increasing  amount  of  its  products,  and  we  shall  be  over- 
whelmed with  the  magnitude  of  the  prospect  presented. 
And  yet  this  region  has  no  seacoast,  touches  no  ocean 
anywhere.  As  part  of  one  nation,  its  people  now  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  nations,  as  designed  by  the  present 
rebellion,  and  every  man  of  this  great  interior  region 
is  thereby  cut  off  from  some  one  or  more  of  the  out- 
lets— not  perhaps  by  a  physical  barrier,  but  by  em- 
barrassing and  onerous  trade  regulations. 

And  this  is  true,  wherever  a  dividing  or  boundary 
line  may  be  fixed.  Place  it  between  the  now  free  and 
slave  country,  or  place  it  south  of  Kentucky,  or  north 
of  Ohio,  and  still  the  truth  remains  that  none  south  of 
it  can  trade  to  any  port  or  place  north  of  it,  except  upon 
terms  dictated  by  a  government  foreign  to  them.     These 


344  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

outlets,  east,  west,  and  south,  are  indispensable  to  the 
well-being  of  the  people  inhabiting,  and  to  inhabit,  this 
vast  interior  region.  Which  of  the  three  may  be  the 
best,  is  no  proper  question.  All  are  better  than  either; 
and  all  of  right  belong  to  that  people  and  their  suc- 
cessors forever.  True  to  themselves,  they  will  not  ask 
where  a  line  of  separation  shall  be,  but  will  vow  rather 
that  there  shall  be  no  such  line.  Nor  are  the  marginal 
regions  less  interested  in  these  communications  to  and 
through  them  to  the  great  outside  world.  They  too,  and 
each  of  them,  must  have  access  to  this  Egypt  *  of  the 
west,  without  paying  toll  at  the  crossing  of  any  national 
boundary. 

Our  national  strife  springs  not  from  our  permanent 
part,  not  from  the  land  we  inhabit,  not  from  our  national 
homestead.  There  is  no  possible  severing  of  this  but 
would  multiply  and  not  mitigate  evils  among  us.  In  all 
its  adaptations  and  aptitudes  it  demands  union  and 
abhors  separation.  In  fact  it  would  ere  long  force  re- 
union, however  much  of  blood  and  treasure  the  separa- 
tion might  have  cost. 

Our  strife  pertains  to  ourselves — to  the  passing  gen- 
erations of  men;  and  it  cannot  without  convulsion  be 
hushed  forever  with  the  passing  of  one  generation. 

In  this  view  I  recommend  the  adoption  of  the  fol- 
lowing resolution  and  articles  amendatory  to  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States: 

"Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa- 
tives of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress 
assembled  (two-thirds  of  both  houses  concurring).  That 
the  following  articles  be  proposed  to  the  legislatures 
(or  conventions)  of  the  several  states  as  amendments 
to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  all  or  any  of 
which  articles  when  ratified  bv  three-fourths  of  the  said 


♦  EgTt-pt    was     the     granary    of    the     ancient     eastern     world. 
Lincoln  is  of  course  referring  to  the  great  grain-producing  West. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  345 

legislatures  (or  conventions)  to  be  valid  as  part  or  parts 
of  the  said  Constitution,  viz.: 

"Article  — 

"Every  state  wherein  slavery  now  exists  which  shall 
abolish  the  same  therein  at  any  time  or  times  before  the 
first  day  of  January  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thou- 
sand and  nine  hundred,  shall  receive  compensation  from 
the  United  States  as  follows,  to  wit: 

"The  President  of  the  United  States  shall  deliver  to 
every  such  state  bonds  of  the  United  States,  bearing 
interest   at  the   rate  of  —  per   cent  per  annum,  to   an 

amount  equal  to  the  aggregate  sum  of  ,  for  each 

slave  shown  to  have  been  therein  by  the  eighth  census 
of  the  United  States,  said  bonds  to  be  delivered  to  such 
state  by  installments,  or  in  one  parcel  at  the  completion 
of  the  abolishment,  according  as  the  same  shall  have 
been  gradual  or  at  one  time  within  such  state;  and 
interest  shall  begin  to  run  upon  any  such  bond  only 
from  the  proper  time  of  its  delivery  as  aforesaid.  Any 
state  having  received  bonds  as  aforesaid,  and  afterward 
reintroducing  or  tolerating  slavery  therein,  shall  refund 
to  the  United  States  the  bonds  so  received,  or  the  value 
thereof,  and  all  interest  paid  thereon. 

"Article  — 
"All  slaves  who  shall  have  enjoyed  actual  freedom 
by  the  chances  of  the  war  at  any  time  before  the  end 
of  the  rebellion,  shall  be  forever  free;  but  all  owners 
of  such  who  shall  not  have  been  disloyal  shall  be  com- 
pensated for  them  at  the  same  rates  as  are  provided 
for  states  adopting  abolishment  of  slavery,  but  in  such 
way  that  no  slave  shall  be  twice  accounted  for. 

"Article  — 
"Congress  may  appropriate  money  and  otherwise  pro- 
vide for  colonizing  free  colored  persons,  with  their  own 
consent,    at    any    place    or    places    without    the    United 
States." 


346  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

I  beg  indulgence  to  discuss  these  proposed  articles  at 
some  length.  Without  slaver}'  the  rebellion  could  never 
have  existed;  without  slavery  it  could  not  continue. 

Among  the  friends  of  the  Union  there  is  great  diver- 
sity of  sentiment  and  of  policy  in  regard  to  slavery  and 
the  African  race  amongst  us.  Some  would  perpetuate 
slavery;  some  would  abolish  it  suddenly,  and  without 
compensation;  som'e  would  abolish  it  gradually  and  with 
compensation;  some  would  remove  the  freed  people  from 
us,  and  some  would  retain  them  with  us;  and  there  are 
yet  other  minor  diversities.  Because  of  these  diversities 
we  waste  much  strength  in  struggles  among  ourselves. 
By  mutual  concession  we  should  harmonize  and  act  to- 
gether. This  would  be  compromise ;  but  it  would  be 
compromise  among  the  friends,  and  not  with  the  enemies, 
of  the  Union.  These  articles  are  intended  to  embody  a 
plan  of  such  mutual  concessions.  If  the  plan  shall  be 
adopted,  it  is  assumed  that  emancipation  will  follow  at 
least  in  several  of  the  states. 

As  to  the  first  article,  the  main  points  are :  first,  the 
emancipation  ;  secondly,  the  length  of  time  for  consum- 
mating it — thirty-seven  years ;  and,  thirdly,  the  com- 
pensation. 

The  emancipation  will  be  unsatisfactory  to  the  advo- 
cates of  perpetual  slavery;  but  the  length  of  time  should 
greatly  mitigate  their  dissatisfaction.  The  time  spares 
both  races  from  the  evils  of  sudden  derangement — in 
fact,  from  the  necessity  of  any  derangement;  while  most 
of  those  whose  habitual  course  of  thought  will  be  dis- 
turbed by  the  measure  will  have  passed  away  before 
its  consummation.  They  will  never  see  it.  Another 
class  will  hail  the  prospect  of  emancipation,  but  will 
deprecate  the  length  of  time.  They  will  feel  that  it 
gives  too  little  to  the  now  living  slaves.  But  it  really 
gives  them  much.  It  saves  them  from  the  vagrant  desti- 
tution which  must  largely  attend  immediate  emanci- 
pation in  localities  where  their  numbers  are  very  great; 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  347 

and  it  gives  the  inspiring  assurance  that  their  posterity 
shall  be  free  forever.  The  plan  leaves  to  each  state 
choosing  to  act  under  it  to  abolish  slavery  now,  or  at 
the  end  of  the  century,  or  at  any  intermediate  time,  or 
by  degrees  extending  over  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the 
period;  and  it  obliges  no  two  states  to  proceed  alike.  It 
also  provides  for  compensation,  and  generally  the  mode 
of  making  it.  This,  it  would  seem,  must  further  mitigate 
the  dissatisfaction  of  those  who  favor  perpetual  slavery, 
and  especially  of  those  who  are  to  receive  the  compen- 
sation. Doubtless  some  of  those  who  are  to  pay,  and 
not  to  receive,  will  object.  Yet  the  measure  is  both  just 
and  economical.  In  a  certain  sense  the  liberation  of 
slaves  is  the  destruction  of  property — property  acquired 
by  descent  or  by  purchase, the  same  as  any  other  property. 
It  is  no  less  true  for  having  been  often  said,  that  the 
people  of  the  South  are  not  more  responsible  for  the 
original  introduction  of  this  property  than  are  the  people 
of  the  North;  and  when  it  is  remembered  how  unhesi- 
tatingly we  all  use  cotton  and  sugar  and  share  the  profits 
of  dealing  in  them,  it  may  not  be  quite  safe  to  say  that 
the  South  has  been  more  responsible  than  the  North  for 
its  continuance.  If,  then,  for  a  common  object  this 
property  is  to  be  sacrificed,  is  it  not  just  that  it  be  done 
at  a  common  charge? 

And  if,  with  less  money,  or  money  more  easily  paid, 
we  can  preserve  the  benefits  of  the  Union  by  this  means 
than  we  can  by  the  war  alone,  is  it  not  also  economical 
to  do  it?  Let  us  consider  it,  then.  Let  us  ascertain  the 
sum  we  have  expended  in  the  war  since  compensated 
emancipation  was  proposed  last  March,  and  consider 
whether,  if  that  measure  had  been  promptly  accepted 
by  even  some  of  the  slave  states,  the  same  sum  would 
not  have  done  more  to  close  the  war  than  has  been  other- 
wise done.  If  so,  the  measure  would  save  money,  and 
in  that  view  would  be  a  prudent  and  economical  measure. 
Certainly  it  is  not  so  easy  to  pay  something  as  it  is  to 


348  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

pay  nothing;  but  it  is  easier  to  pay  a  large  sum  than 
it  is  to  pay  a  larger  one.  And  it  is  easier  to  pay  any 
sum  when  we  are  able,  than  it  is  to  pay  it  before  we  are 
able.  The  war  requires  large  sums,  and  requires  them 
at  once.  The  aggregate  sum  necessary  for  compensated 
emancipation  of  course  would  be  large.  But  it  would 
require  no  ready  cash,  nor  the  bonds  even,  any  faster 
than  the  emancipation  progresses.  This  might  not,  and 
probably  would  not,  close  before  the  end  of  the  thirty- 
seven  years.  At  that  time  we  shall  probably  have 
100.000,000  of  the  people  to  share  the  burden,  instead  of 
31,000,000  as  now.  And  not  only  so,  but  the  increase 
of  our  population  may  be  expected  to  continue  for  a 
long  time  after  that  period,  as  rapidly  as  before,  because 
our  territory  will  not  have  become  full.  I  do  not  state 
this  inconsiderately.  At  the  same  ratio  of  increase  which 
we  have  maintained,  on  an  average,  from  our  first  na- 
tional census  in  1790  until  that  of  1860,  we  should  in 
1900  have  a  population  of  103,208,415.  And  why  may 
we  not  continue  that  ratio  far  beyond  that  period  ?  Our 
abundant  room — our  broad  national  homestead — is  our 
ample  resource.  Were  our  territory  as  limited  as  are 
the  British  Lsles,  very  certainly  our  population  could 
not  expand  as  stated.  Instead  of  receiving  the  foreign- 
born  as  now,  we  should  be  compelled  to  send  part  of  the 
native-born  away.  But  such  is  not  our  condition.  We 
have  2,963,000  square  miles.  Europe  has  3,800,000, 
with  a  population  averaging  73^  persons  to  the  square 
mile.  Why  may  not  our  country,  at  the  same  time,  aver- 
age as  many.^  Is  it  less  fertile?  Has  it  more  waste 
surface,  by  mountains,  rivers,  lakes,  deserts,  or  other 
causes?  Is  it  inferior  to  Europe  in  any  natural  advan- 
tage? If,  then,  we  are  at  some  time  to  be  as  populous 
as  Europe,  how  soon?  As  to  when  this  may  be,  we  can 
judge  by  the  past  and  the  present;  as  to  when  it  will  be, 
if  ever,  depends  much  on  whether  we  maintain  the  Union. 
Sevei*al  of  our  states  are  already  above  the  average  of 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  349 

Europe — 73^  to  the  square  mile.  Massachusetts  has 
157;  Rhode  Island^  133;  Connecticut^  99;  New  York 
and  Xew  Jersey,  each  80.  Also  two  other  great  states, 
Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  are  not  far  below,  the  former 
having  63  and  the  latter  59.  The  states  already  above 
the  European  average,  except  Xew  York,  have  increased 
in  as  rapid  a  ratio  since  passing  that  point  as  ever 
before,  while  no  one  of  them  is  equal  to  some  other  parts 
of  our  country  in  natural  capacity  for  sustaining  a  dense 
population. 

Taking  the  nation  in  the  aggregate,  we  find  its  popu- 
lation and  ratio  of  increase  for  the  several  decennial 
periods  to  be  as  follows : 

1790 3,929,827 

1800 5,305,937  35.02  per  cent  ratio  of  increase 

1810 7,239,814  36.45 

1820 9,638,131  33.13 

1830 12,866,020  33.49 

1840 17,069,453  32.67 

1850 23,191,876  35.87 

1860 31,443,790  35.58 

This  shows  an  average  decennial  increase  of  34.60 
per  cent  in  population  through  the  seventy  years  from 
our  first  to  our  last  census  yet  taken.  It  is  seen  that 
the  ratio  of  increase  at  no  one  of  these  seven  periods 
is  either  two  per  cent  below  or  two  per  cent  above  the 
average,  thus  showing  how  inflexible,  and  consequently 
how  reliable,  the  law  of  increase  in  our  case  is.  Assum- 
ing that   it   will   continue,   gives   the    following   results : 

1870 42,323,341 

1880 56,967,216 

1 890 76,677,872 

1900 103,208,415 

1910 138,918,526 

1920 186,984,335 


350  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

These  figures  show  that  our  country  may  be  as  populous 
as  Europe  now  is  at  some  point  between  1920  and  1930 
— say  about  1925 — our  territory^  at  73^  persons  to  the 
square  mile,  being  of  capacity  to  contain  217,186,000.* 

And  we  will  reach  this,  too,  if  we  do  not  ourselves 
relinquish  the  chance  by  the  folly  and  evils  of  disunion, 
or  by  long  and  exhausting  war  springing  from  the  only 
great  element  of  national  discord  among  us.  While  it 
cannot  be  foreseen  exactly  how  much  one  huge  example 
of  secession,  breeding  lesser  ones  indefinitely,  would 
retard  population,  civilization,  and  prosperity,  no  one 
can  doubt  that  the  extent  of  it  would  be  very  great  and 
injurious. 

The  proposed  emancipation  would  shorten  the  war, 
perpetuate  peace,  insure  this  increase  of  population,  and 
proportionately  the  wealth  of  the  country.  With  these, 
we  should  pay  all  the  emancipation  would  cost,  together 
with  our  other  debt,  easier  than  we  should  pav  our  other 
debt  without  it.  If  we  had  allowed  our  old  national 
debt  to  run  at  six  per  cent  per  annum,  simple  interest, 
from  the  end  of  our  Revolutionary  struggle  until  today, 
without  paying  anything  on  either  principle  or  interest, 
each  man  of  us  would  owe  less  upon  that  debt  now  than 
each  man  owed  upon  it  then;  and  this  because  our  in- 
crease of  men,  through  the  whole  period,  has  been 
greater  than  six  per  cent — has  run  faster  than  the  in- 
terest upon  the  debt.  Thus,  time  alone  relieves  a  debtor 
nation,  so  long  as  its  population  increases  faster  than 
unpaid  interest  accumulates  on  its  debt. 

This  fact  would  be  no  excuse  for  delaying  payment  of 
what  is  justly  due;  but  it  shows  the  great  importance  of 
time  in  this  connection — the  great  advantage  of  a  policy 
by  which  we  shall  not  have  to  pay,  until  we  number  a 

•  Lincoln  again  overestimated  the  future  growth  of  population 
in  the  United  States.     The  actual  figures  have  been  : 

1870 38.818.449  1900 76.303.387 

1880 50.155.783  1910 91.972.266 

1890 63.069,756  1920 105.683.10S 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  351 

Imndred  millions,  what  b}^  a  different  policy  we  would 
have  to  pav  now,  when  we  number  but  thirty-one  mil- 
lions. In  a  word,  it  shows  that  a  dollar  will  be  much 
harder  to  pay  for  the  war  than  will  be  a  dollar  for 
emancipation  on  the  proposed  plan.  And  then  the  latter 
will  cost  no  blood,  no  precious  life.  It  will  be  a  saving 
of   both. 

As  to  the  second  article,  I  think  it  would  be  imprac- 
ticable to  return  to  bondage  the  class  of  persons  therein 
contemplated.  Some  of  them  doubtless,  in  the  property 
sense,  belong  to  loyal  owners ;  and  hence  provision  is 
made  in  this  article  for  compensating  such. 

The  third  article  relates  to  the  future  of  the  freed 
people.  It  does  not  oblige,  but  merely  authorizes,  Con- 
gress to  aid  in  colonizing  such  as  may  consent.  This 
ought  not  to  be  regarded  as  objectionable,  on  the  one 
hand  or  on  the  other,  insomuch  as  it  comes  to  nothing 
unless  by  the  mutual  consent  of  the  people  to  be  de- 
ported, and  the  American  voters  through  their  repre- 
sentatives in  Congress. 

I  cannot  make  it  better  known  than  it  already  is,  that 
I  strongly  favor  colonization.  And  yet  I  wish  to  say 
there  is  an  objection  urged  against  free  colored  persons 
remaining  in  the  country  which  is  largely  imaginary, 
if  not  sometimes  malicious. 

It  is  insisted  that  their  presence  would  injure  and 
displace  white  labor  and  white  laborers.  If  there  ever 
could  be  a  proper  time  for  mere  catch  arguments,  that 
time  surely  is  not  now.  In  times  like  the  present,  men 
should  utter  nothing  for  which  they  would  not  willingly 
be  responsible  through  time  and  in  eternity.  Is  it  true, 
then,  that  colored  people  can  displace  any  more  white 
labor  by  being  free  than  by  remaining  slaves  ?  If  they 
stay  in  their  old  places,  they  jostle  no  white  laborers; 
if  they  leave  their  old  places,  they  leave  them  open  to 
white  laborers.  Logically,  there  is  neither  more  nor 
less    of    it.      Emancipation,    even    without    deportation. 


352  SELECTIONS    FliUM    I.IXCOLX 

would  probably  enhance  the  wages  of  white  labor,  and 
very  surely  would  not  reduce  them.  Thus,  the  customary 
amount  of  labor  would  still  have  to  be  performed ;  the 
freed  people  would  surely  not  do  more  than  their  old 
proportion  of  it,  and  very  probably  for  a  time  would 
do  less,  leaving  an  increased  part  to  white  laborers, 
bringing  their  labor  into  greater  demand,  and  conse- 
quently enhancing  the  wages  of  it.  With  deportation, 
even  to  a  limited  extent,  enhanced  wages  to  white  labor 
is  mathematically  certain.  Labor  is  like  any  other  com- 
modity in  the  market — increase  the  demand  for  it,  and 
you  increase  the  price  of  it.  Reduce  the  supply  of  black 
labor  by  colonizing  the  black  laborer  out  of  the  country, 
and  by  precisely  so  much  you  increase  the  demand  for, 
and  wages  of,  white  labor. 

But  it  is  dreaded  that  the  freed  people  will  swarm 
forth  and  cover  the  whole  land?  Are  they  not  already 
in  the  land  ?  Will  liberation  make  them  any  more 
numerous?  Equally  distributed  among  the  whites  of 
the  whole  country,  and  there  would  be  but  one  colored 
to  seven  whites.  Could  the  one  in  any  way  greatly 
disturb  the  seven?  There  are  many  communities  now 
having  more  than  one  free  colored  person  to  seven 
whites,  and  this  without  any  apparent  consciousness  of 
evil  from  it.  The  District  of  Columbia,  and  the  states 
of  Maryland  and  Delaware,  are  all  in  this  condition. 
The  District  has  more  than  one  free  colored  to  six 
whites ;  and  yet  in  its  frequent  petitions  to  Congress  I 
believe  it  has  never  presented  the  presence  of  free 
colored  persons  as  one  of  its  grievances.  But  why  should 
emancipation  South  send  the  free  people  North?  People 
of  any  color  seldom  run  unless  there  be  something  to  run 
from.  Heretofore  colored  people,  to  some  extent,  have 
fled  North  from  bondage;  and  now,  perhaps,  from  both 
bondage  and  destitution.  But  if  gradual  emancipation 
and  deportation  be  adopted,  thev  will  have  neither  to 
flee   from.     Their  old  masters  will  give  them  wages   at 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  353 

least  until  new  laborers  can  be  procured ;  and  the  f reed- 
men,  in  turn,  will  gladly  give  their  labor  foj*  the  wages 
till  new  homes  can  be  found  for  them  in  congenial  climes 
and  with  people  of  their  own  blood  and  race.  This 
proposition  can  be  trusted  on  the  mutual  interests  in- 
volved. And,  in  any  event,  cannot  the  North  decide  for 
itself  whether  to  receive  them? 

Again,  as  practice  proves  more  than  theory,  in  any 
case,  has  there  been  any  irruption  of  colored  people 
northward  because  of  the  abolishment  of  slavery  in  this 
District  last  spring.'' 

What  I  have  said  of  the  proportion  of  free  colored 
persons  to  the  whites  in  the  District  is  from  the  census 
of  1860,  having  no  reference  to  persons  called  contra- 
bands, nor  to  those  made  free  by  the  acts  of  Congress 
abolishing  slavery   there. 

The  plan  consisting  of  these  articles  is  recommended, 
not  but  that  a  restoration  of  the  national  authority  would 
be  accepted  without  its  adoption. 

Nor  will  the  war,  nor  proceedings  under  the  proclama- 
tion of  September  22,  1862,  be  stayed  because  of  the 
recommendation  of  this  plan.  Its  timely  adoption,  I 
doubt  not,  would  bring  restoration,  and  thereby  stay 
both. 

And,  notwithstanding  this  plan,  the  recommendation 
that  Congress  provide  by  law  for  compensating  any  state 
which  may  adopt  emancipation  before  this  plan  shall 
have  been  acted  upon,  is  hereby  earnestly  renewed.  Such 
would  be  only  an  advance  part  of  the  plan,  and  the  same 
arguments  apply  to  both. 

This  plan  is  recommended  as  a  means,  not  in  exclusion 
of,  but  additional  to,  all  others  for  restoring  and  pre- 
serving the  national  authority  throughout  the  Union. 
The  subject  is  presented  exclusively  in  its  economical 
aspect.  The  plan  would,  I  am  confident,  secure  peace 
more  speedily,  and  maintain  it  more  permanently,  than 
can  be  done  by  force  alone;  while  all  it  would  cost,  con- 


354  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

sidering  amounts,  and  manner  of  payment,  and  times  of 
payment,  would  be  easier  paid  than  will  be  the  addi- 
tional cost  of  the  war  if  we  rely  solely  upon  force.  It 
is  much — very  much — that  it  would  cost  no  blood  at  all. 

The  plan  is  proposed  as  permanent  constitutional  law. 
It  cannot  become  such  without  the  concurrence  of,  first, 
two-thirds  of  Congress  and,  afterward,  three-fourths  of 
the  states.  The  requisite  three-fourths  of  the  states  will 
necessarily  include  seven  of  the  slave  states.  Their  con- 
currence, if  obtained,  will  give  assurance  of  their  sev- 
erally adopting  emancipation  at  no  very  distant  day 
upon  the  new  constitutional  terms.  This  assurance 
would  end  the  struggle  now,  and  save  the  L'nion  forever. 

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.  Nor  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  rest- 
ing upon  me,  you  will  perceive  no  want  of  respect  to 
yourselves  in  any  undue  earnestness  I  may  seem  to 
display. 

Is  it  doubted,  then,  that  the  plan  I  propose,  if  adopted, 
would  shorten  the  war,  and  thus  lessen  its  expenditure 
of  money  and  of  blood.'*  Is  it  doubted  that  it  would 
restore  the  national  authority  and  national  prosperity, 
and  perpetuate  both  indefinitely?  Is  it  doubted  that 
we  here — Congress  and  Executive — can  secure  its 
adoption  }  Will  not  the  good  people  respond  to  a  united 
and  earnest  appeal  from  us?  Can  we,  can  they,  by  any 
other  means  so  certainly  or  so  speedily  assure  these 
vital  objects?  We  can  succeed  only  by  concert.  It  is 
not  "Can  any  of  us  imagine  better?"  but,  "Can  we  all 
do  better?"  Object  whatsover  is  possible,  still  the  ques- 
tion occurs,  "Can  we  do  better?"  The  dogmas  of  the 
quiet   past  are  inadequate  to  the  stormy  present.      The 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  355 

occasion  is  piled  high  with  difficulty,  and  we  must  rise 
with  the  occasion.  As  our  case  is  new,  so  we  must  think 
anew  and  act  anew.  We  must  disenthrall  ourselves,  and 
then  we  shall  save  our  country. 

Fellow-citizens,  we  cannot  escape  history.  We  of 
this  Congress  and  this  administration  will  be  remem- 
bered 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  generation.  We  say  we 
are  for  the  Union.  The  world  will  not  forget  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 
freedom  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,  generous,  just — a  way  which, 
if  followed,  the  world  will  forever  applaud,  and  God 
must  forever  bless. 

Abraham  Lixcolx 

A  group  of  radical  leaders  in  the  Senate  in  December,  with 
the  full  knowledge  of  Secretary  Chase,  demanded  the  resigna- 
tion of  Secretary  Seward,  whom  Chase  disliked  and  opposed. 
Seward  at  once  placed  his  resignation  in  Lincoln's  hands. 
Lincoln  did  not  want  to  lose  either  officer,  but  he  did  not 
want  to  appear  to  lean  to  either  side.  He  and  his  cabinet, 
Seward  being  absent,  met  the  group  of  senators,  and  Chase 
was  forced  into  a  most  uncomfortable  and  humiliating  position. 
He  offered  to  resign,  holding  the  letter  closely  in  his  hands  as 
he  did  so.  To  his  surprise  Lincoln  held  out  his  hand  and  took 
it.  He  exclaimed  a  few  moments  later  to  one  of  his  secreta- 
ries, "I  can  ride  now,  for  I  have  a  pumpkin  in  each  end  of  the 
sack."  He  then  wrote  the  following  letter,  which  he  sent  to 
both  men: 


356  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

TO   WILLIAM  H.   SEWARD  AND   SALMON  P.   CHASE 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  December  20,  1862 
Hon.  William  H.  Seward  and  Hon.  Salmon  P.  Chase. 

Gentlemen  :  You  have  respectively  tendered  me 
your  resignations  as  Secretary  of  State  and  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States.  I  am  apprised, 
of  the  circumstances  which  may  render  this  course  per- 
sonally desirable  to  each  of  you;  but  after  most  anxious 
consideration  my  deliberate  judgment  is  that  the  public 
interest  does  not  admit  of  it.  I  therefore  have  to  request 
that  you  will  resume  the  duties  of  your  departments 
respectively. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

A.  Lincoln 

On  January  1,  1863,  in  spite  of  a  widespread  belief  that  he 
would  not  do  so,  Lincoln  issued  the  promised  Emancipation 
Proclamation. 

EMANCIPA  TION  PROCLAMA  TION 
[January  1,  1863] 

WTiereas,  on  the  twenty-second  day  of  September,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
sixty-two,  a  proclamation  was  issued  by  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  containing,  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,  thence- 
forward, and  forever  free;  and  the  Executive  Govern- 
ment 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 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  357 

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 
aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate  the  states  and 
parts  of  states,  if  any,  in  which  the  people  thereof 
respectively  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United 
States ;  and  the  fact  that  any  state,  or  the  people  thereof, 
shall  on  that  day  be  in  good  faith  represented  in  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  by  members  chosen  thereto 
at  elections  wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters 
of  such  state  shall  have  participated,  shall  in  the  absence 
of  strong  countervailing  testimony  be  deemed  conclusive 
evidence  that  such  state  and  the  people  thereof  are  not 
then  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States." 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  as 
commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of  the  United 
States,  in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion  against  the 
authority  and  government  of  the  United  States,  and  as 
a  fit  and  necessary  war  measure  for  suppressing  said 
rebellion,  do,  on  this  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three, 
and  in  accordance  with  my  purpose  so  to  do,  publicly 
proclaimed  for  the  full  period  of  100  days  from  the  day 
first  above  mentioned^  order  and  designate  as  the  states 
and  parts  of  states  wherein  the  people  thereof,  re- 
spectively, are  this  day  in  rebellion  against  the  United 
States,  the   following,  to   wit: 

Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana  (except  the  parishes  of 
St.  Bernard,  Plaquemines,  Jefferson,  St.  John,  St. 
Charles,  St.  James,  Ascension,  Assumption,  Terre 
Bonne,  Lafourche,  St.  Mary,  St.  ]\Iartin,  and  Orleans, 
including  the  city  of  New  Orleans),  ^Nlississipi,  Alabama. 
Florida,  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  North  Carolina,  and 
Virginia  (except  the  forty-eight  counties  designated  as 
West  Virginia,  and  also  the  counties  of  Berkeley, 
Accomac,  Northampton,  Elizabeth  City,  York,  Princess 


358  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

Ann,  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,  I  do  order  and  declare  that  all  persons  held 
as  slaves  within  said  designated  states  and  parts  of 
states  are,  and  henceforward  shall  be,  free;  and  that  the 
Executive  Government  of  the  United  States,  including 
the  military  and  naval  authorities  thereof,  will  recognize 
and  maintain  the  freedom  of  said  persons. 

And  I  hereby  enjoin  upon  the  people  so  declared  to 
be  free  to  abstain  from  all  violence,  unless  in  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 
arnied  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,  warranted  by  the  Constitution  upon  military 
necessity,*  I  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of  man- 
kind and  the  gracious   favor  of  Almighty  God. 

In  witness,  etc.  Abraham  Lincoln 

By  the  President:     William  H.   Seward,  Secretary  of 
State.f 
The  opposition   to  emancipation   did  not  cease,   as  the   fol- 
lowing letter  to  his  Springfield   friend,  General  McClernand, 
shows : 

•  Upon  military  necessity.  This  phrase  was  suggested  by 
Secretary  Chase  as  making  clear  the  authority  upon  which  the 
proclamation    rested. 

t  As  a  military  document  this  should  have  been  countersigned 
bv  Secretary  Stanton.  Lincoln  said  Seward's  signing  it  was 
the  result  of  a  compromise.  It  was  probably  done  to  satisfy 
those  who  contended  that  he  had  the  right  to  issue  the  procla- 
mation as  President  as  well  as  in  the  capacity  of  commander- 
in-chief. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  359 

TO   GEXERAL  JOHN  A.  McCLERNAND 
Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  January   8,   1863 
Major-General  McClernand. 

My  dear  Sir:  Your  interesting  communication  by 
the  hand  of  Major  Scates  is  received.  I  never  did  ask 
more,  nor  ever  was  willing  to  accept  less,  than  for  all 
the  states,  and  the  people  thereof,  to  take  and  hold 
their  places  and  their  rights  in  the  Union,  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  For  this  alone  have 
I  felt  authorized  to  struggle,  and  I  seek  neither  more 
nor  less  now.  Still,  to  use  a  coarse  but  an  expressive 
figure,  "broken  eggs  cannot  be  mended."  I  have  issued 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and  I  cannot  retract  it. 
After  the  commencement  of  hostilities,  I  struggled 
nearly  a  year  and  a  half  to  get  along  without  touching 
vhe  "institution"  ;  and  when  finally  I  conditionally  de- 
termined to  touch  it,  I  gave  a  hundred  days'  fair  notice 
of  my  purpose  to  all  the  states  and  people,  within  which 
time  they  could  have  turned  it  wholly  aside  by  simply 
again  becoming  good  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

They  chose  to  disregard  it,  and  I  made  the  peremptory 
proclamation  on  what  appeared  to  me  to  be  a  military 
necessity.  And  being  made,  it  must  stand.  As  to  the 
states  not  included  in  it,  of  course  they  can  have  their 
rights  in  the  Union  as  of  old.  Even  the  people  of  the 
states  included,  if  they  choose,  need  not  to  be  hurt  by  it. 
Let  them  adopt  systems  of  apprenticeship  for  the  colored 
people,  conforming  substantially  to  the  most  approved 
plans  of  gradual  emancipation ;  and  with  the  aid  they 
can  have  from  the  General  Government  they  may  be 
nearly  as  well  off,  in  this  respect,  as  if  the  present 
trouble  had  not  occurred,  and  much  better  off  than  they 
can  possibly  be  if  the  contest  continues  persistently. 

As  to  any  dread  of  my  having  a  "purpose  to  enslave 
or  exterminate  the  whites  of  the  South,"  I  can  scarcely 
believe    that    s^ich    dread    exists.      It    is    too    absurd.      I 


360  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

believe  you  can  be  my  personal  witness  that  no  man  is 
less  to  be  dreaded  for  undue  severity  in  any  case. 

If  the  friends  you  mention  really  wish  to  have  peace 
upon  the  old  terms,  they  should  act  at  once.  Every 
day  makes  the  case  more  difficult. 

They  can  so  act  with  entire  safety,  so  far  as  I  am 
concerned. 

I  think  you  had  better  not  make  this  letter  public; 
but  you  may  rely  confidently  on  my  standing  by  what- 
ever I  have  said  in  it.  Please  write  me  if  anything 
more  comes  to  flight. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

In  the  English  cotton  manufacturing  sections,  the  war,  by 
cutting  oif  the  supply  of  cotton,  had  caused  great  distress. 
Thousands  were  without  employment,  and  suffering  was  wide- 
spread. It  was  among  this  very  group,  however,  that  the 
North  found  its  stanchest  English  friends.  On  account  of 
their  hatred  of  slavery,  they  bitterly  opposed  any  action  on  the 
part  of  the  British  government  favorable  to  the  South.  At 
'Manchester,  one  of  the  centers  of  the  cotton  industry,  a  mass 
meeting  of  six  thousand  workingmen  was  held  on  New  Year's 
Eve  to  celebrate  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  An  ad- 
dress and  resolutions  were  adopted  and  sent  to  Lincoln,  who 
thus  answered  it: 

REPLY  TO  THE  WORKINGMEN  OF  MANCHESTER 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  January  19,  1863 
To  THE  Workingmen  of  Manchester: 

I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the 
address  and  resolutions  which  you  sent  me  on  the  eve 
of  the  New  Year.  When  I  came,  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1861,  through  a  free  and  constitutional  election,  to 
preside  in  the  government  of  the  United  States,  the 
country  was  found  at  the  verge  of  civil  war.  Whatever 
might    have   been   the   cause,   or   whosesoever    the    fault, 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  361 

one  duty  paramount  to  all  others  was  before  me ;  namely, 
to  maintain  and  preserve  at  once  the  Constitution  and 
the  integrity  of  the  Federal  Republic.  A  conscientious 
purpose  to  perform  this  duty  is  the  key  to  all  the  meas- 
ures of  administration  which  have  been^  and  to  all  which 
will  hereafter  be,  pursued.  Under  our  frame  of  govern- 
ment and  my  official  oath,  I  could  not  depart  from  this 
purpose  if  I  would.  It  is  not  always  in  the  power  of 
governments  to  enlarge  or  restrict  the  scope  of  moral 
results  which  follow  the  policies  that  they  may  deem  it 
necessary  for  the  public  safety  from  iime  to  time  to 
adopt. 

I  have  understood  well  that  the  duty  of  self-preserva- 
tion rests  solely  with  the  American  people;  but  I  have 
at  the  same  time  been  aware  that  favor  or  disfavor  of 
foreign  nations  might  have  a  material  influence  in  en- 
larging or  prolonging  the  struggle  with  disloyal  men 
in  which  the  country  is  engaged.  A  fair  examination 
of  history  has  served  to  authorize  a  belief  that  the  past 
actions  and  influences  of  the  United  States  were  gen- 
erally regarded  as  having  been  beneficial  toward  man- 
kind. I  have  therefore  reckoned  upon  the  forbearance 
of  nations.  Circumstances,  to  some  of  which  you  kindly 
allude,  induce  me  especially  to  expect  that  if  justice 
and  good  faith  should  be  practiced  by  the  United  States, 
they  would  encounter  no  hostile  influence  on  the  part 
of  Great  Britain.  It  is  now  a  pleasant  duty  to  acknowl- 
edge the  demonstration  you  have  given  of  your  desire 
that  a  spirit  of  amity  and  peace  toward  this  country 
may  prevail  in  the  councils  of  your  queen,  who  is  re- 
spected and  esteemed  in  your  own  country  only  more 
than  she  is  by  the  kindred  nation  which  has  its  home 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

I  know  and  deeply  deplore  the  sufferings  which  the 
workingmen  at  Manchester,  and  in  all  Europe,  are  called 
to  endure  in  this  crisis.  It  has  been  often  and  studiously 
represented  that  the  attempt  to  overthrow  this  govern- 


362  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

ment,  which  was  built  upon  the  foundation  of  human 
rights,  and  to  substitute  for  it  one  which  should  rest 
exclusively  on  the  basis  of  human  slavery,  was  likely  to 
obtain  the  favor  of  Europe.  Through  the  action  of  our 
disloyal  citizens,  the  workingmen  of  Europe  have  been 
subjected  to  severe  trials,  for  the  purpose  of  forcing 
their  sanction  to  that  attempt.  Under  the  circumstances, 
I  cannot  but  regard  your  decisive  utterances  upon  the 
question  as  an  instance  of  sublime  Christian  heroism, 
which  has  not  been  surpassed  in  any  age  or  in  any  coun- 
fry.  It  is  indeed  an  energetic  and  reinspiring  assurance 
of  the  inherent  power  of  truth,  and  of  the  ultimate  and 
universal  triumph  of  justice,  humanity,  and  freedom. 
I  do  not  doubt  that  the  sentiments  you  have  expressed 
will  be  sustained  by  your  great  nation ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  assuring  you  that  they 
will  excite  admiration,  esteem,  and  the  most  reciprocal 
feelings  of  friendship  among  the  American  people.  I 
hail  this  interchange  of  sentiment,  therefore,  as  an 
augury  that  whatever  else  may  happen,  whatever  mis- 
fortune may  befall  your  country  or  my  own,  the  peace 
and  friendship  which  now  exist  between  the  two  nations 
will  be,  as  it  shall  be  my  desire  to  make  them,  perpetual. 

In  Xovember  Lincoln  removed  General  McCIellan  from 
command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  replacing  him  with 
General  Ambrose  E.  Burnside,  who  was  crushingly  defeated 
at  Fredericksburg  in  December  and  was  unable  thereafter  to 
restore  the  morale  of  his  army.  On  January  25,  Lincoln,  over 
the  protest  of  Secretary  Stanton  and  General  Halleck,  ordered 
General  Joseph  Hooker  to  relieve  General  Burnside.  Hooker 
had  been  a  corps  commander  under  McCIellan  and  Burnside, 
and  had  been  very  open  in  his  scathing  criticism  of  both.  The 
next  day  Lincoln  followed  the  appointment  with  this  remark- 
able letter: 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  363 

TO   GENERAL  JOSEPH  HOOKER 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  D.  C,  January  26,  1863 
Major-General   Hooker. 

General  :  I  have  placed  you  at  the  head  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac.  Of  course  I  have  done  this  upon  what 
appear  to  me  to  be  sufficient  reasons,  and  yet  I  think 
it  best  for  you  to  know  that  there  are  some  things  in 
regard  to  which  I  am  not  quite  satisfied  with  you.  I 
believe  you  to  be  a  brave  and  skillful  soldier,  which  of 
course  I  like.  I  also  believe  you  do  not  mix  politics 
with  your  profession,  in  which  you  are  right.  You  have 
confidence  in  yourself,  which  is  a  valuable  if  not  an 
indispensable  quality.  You  are  ambitious,  which,  within 
reasonable  bounds,  does  good  rather  than  harm;  but  I 
think  that  during  General  Burnside's  command  of  the 
army  you  have  taken  counsel  of  your  ambition  and 
thwarted  him  as  much  as  you  could,  in  which  you  did 
a  great  wrong  to  the  country  and  to  a  most  meritorious 
and  honorable  brother  officer.  I  have  heard,  in  such  a 
way  as  to  believe  it,  of  your  recently  saying  that  both 
the  army  and  the  government  needed  a  dictator.  Of 
course  it  was  not  for  this,  but  in  spite  of  it,  that  I  have 
given  you  the  command.  Only  those  generals  who  gain 
successes  can  set  up  dictators.  What  I  now  ask  of  you 
is  military  success,  and  I  will  risk  the  dictatorship.  The 
government  will  support  you  to  the  utmost  of  its  ability, 
which  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  it  has  done  and  will 
do  for  all  commanders.  I  much  fear  that  the  spirit 
which  you  have  aided  to  infuse  into  the  army,  of  criticiz- 
ing their  commander  and  withholding  confidence  from 
him,  will  now  turn  upon  you.  I  shall  assist  you  as  far 
as  I  can  to  put  it  down.  Neither  you  nor  Napoleon,  if 
he  were  alive  again,  could  get  any  good  out  of  an  army 


364  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

while  such  a  spirit  prevails  in  it;  and  now  beware  of 
rashness.      Beware   of    rashness,    but    with    energy    and 
sleepless  vigilance  go  forward  and  give  us  victories. 
Yours   very   truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

Stanton  and  Halleck  had  wanted  the  command  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  given  to  a  promising  Western  general,  then  in 
command  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  William  S.  Rose- 
crans.  This  letter  of  Lincoln,  notable  for  its  frankness, 
combined  with  tact  and  patience,  indicates  that  Lincoln  was 
wise  in  declining  to  take  their  advice. 

TO   GENERAL    WILLIAM  R0SECRAN8 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,   March    17,    1863 
Major-General  Rosecrans. 

My  dear  Sir:  I  have  just  received  your  telegram 
saying  that  the  "Secretary  of  War  telegraphed  after 
the  Battle  of  Stone  River,  'Anything  you  and  your  com- 
mand want  you  can  have,'  "  and  then  specifying  several 
things  you  have  requested  and  have  not  received. 

The  promise  of  the  Secretary,  as  you  state  it,  is  cer- 
tainly pretty  broad,  nevertheless  it  accords  with  the 
feeling  of  the  whole  government  here  toward  you.  I 
know  not  a  single  enemy  of  yours  here.  Still  the  promise 
must  have  a  reasonable  construction.  We  know  you  will 
not  purposely  make  an  unreasonable  request,  nor  persist 
in  one  after  it  shall  appear  to  be  such.  Now,  as  to  the 
matter  of  a  paymaster,  you  desired  one  to  be  per- 
manently attached  to  your  army,  and,  as  I  understand, 
desired  that  Major  Larned  should  be  the  man.  This 
was  denied  you ;  and  you  seem  to  think  it  was  denied 
partly  to  disoblige  you  and  partly  to  disoblige  Major 
Larned — the  latter,  as  you  suspect,  at  the  instance  of 
Paymaster-General  Andrews.  On  the  contrary,  the  Sec- 
retary of  War  assures  me  the  request  was  refused  on  no 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  365 

personal  ground  whatever^  but  because  to  grant  it  would 
derange,  and  substantially  break  up,  the  whole  pay 
system  as  now  organized,  and  so  organized  on  very  full 
consideration  and  sound  reason,  as  believed.  There  is 
powerful  temptation  in  money ;  and  it  was  and  is  be- 
lieved that  nothing  can  prevent  the  paymasters  speculat- 
ing upon  the  soldiers  but  a  system  by  which  each  is  to 
pay  certain  regiments  so  soon  after  he  has  notice  that 
lie  is  to  pay  those  particular  regiments  that  he  has  no 
time  or  opportunity  to  lay  plans  for  speculating  upon 
them.  This  precaution  is  all  lost  if  paymasters  re- 
spectively are  to  serve  permanently  with  the  same  regi- 
ments^ and  pay  them  over  and  over  during  the  war.  No 
special  application  of  this  has  been  intended  to  be  made 
to  Major  Larned  or  to  your  army.  And  as  to  General 
Andrews,  I  have  in  another  connection  felt  a  little 
aggrieved  at  what  seemed  to  be  his  implicit  following 
the  advice  and  suggestions  of  Major  Larned — so  ready 
are  we  all  to  cry  out  and  ascribe  motives  when  our  own 
toes  are  pinched. 

Now  as  to  your  request  that  your  commission  should 
date  from  December,  1861.  Of  course  you  expected  to 
gain  something  by  this ;  but  you  should  remember  that 
precisely  so  much  as  you  should  gain  by  it  others  would 
lose  by  it.  If  the  thing  you  sought  had  been  exclusively 
ours,  we  would  have  given  it  cheerfully;  but,  being  the 
right  of  other  men,  we  having  a  merely  arbitrary  power 
over  it,  the  taking  it  from  them  and  giving  it  to  you 
became  a  more  delicate  matter  and  more  deserving  of 
consideration.  Truth  to  speak,  I  do  not  appreciate  this 
matter  of  rank  on  paper  as  you  officers  do.  The  world 
will  not  forget  that  you  fought  the  Battle  of  Stone  River, 
and  it  will  never  care  a  fig  whether  you  rank  General 
Grant  on  paper,  or  he  so  ranks  you. 

As  to  the  appointment  of  an  aide  contrary  to  your 
wishes,  I  knew  nothing  of  it  until  I  received  your  dis- 
patch ;  and  the  Secretary  of  War  tells  me  he  has  known 


366  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

nothing  of  it,  but  will  trace  it  out.  The  examination  of 
course  will  extend  to  the  case  of  R.  S.  Thomas,  whom 
you  say  you  wish  appointed. 

xA.nd  now  be  assured  you  wrong  both  yourself  and  us 
when  you  even  suspect  there  is  not  the  best  disposition 
on  the  part  of  us  all  here  to  oblige  you. 
Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

The  attitude  of  the  New  York  state  government  was,  of 
course,  most  important  to  the  Union.  Horatio  Se^Tnour,  a 
War  Democrat,  had  been  elected  governor  in  1S63.  Lincoln 
wrote  him  this  letter  in  the  hope  of  establishing  close  rela- 
tions with  him. 

TO  GOVERNOR  HORATIO  SEYMOUR 
[Private  and  Confidential] 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,    March    23,    1863 
His  Excellency  Governor  Seymour. 

Dear  Sir  :  You  and  I  are  substantially  strangers, 
and  I  write  this  chiefly  that  we  may  become  better 
acquainted.  I,  for  the  time  being,  am  at  the  head  of  a 
nation  which  is  in  great  peril,  and  you  are  at  the  head 
of  the  greatest  state  of  that  nation.  As  to  maintaining 
the  nation's  life  and  integrity,  I  assume  and  believe  there 
cannot  be  a  difference  of  purpose  between  you  and  me. 
If  we  should  differ  as  to  the  means,  it  is  important  that 
such  difference  should  be  as  small  as  possible ;  that  it 
should  not  be  enhanced  by  unjust  suspicions  on  one  side 
or  the  other.  In  the  performance  of  my  duty  the  co- 
operation of  your  state,  as  that  of  others,  is  needed — 
in  fact,  is  indispensable.  This  alone  is  a  sufficient  rea- 
son why  I  should  wish  to  be  at  a  good  understanding 
with  you.  Please  write  me  at  least  as  long  a  letter  as 
this,  of  course  saying  in  it  just  what  you  think  fit. 
Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  367 

The  following  proclamation  is  notable  for  its  expression  of 
deep  and  reverent  feeling,  clothed  in  the  most  appropriate 
language. 


PROCLAMATION  FOR  A  NATIONAL  FAST  DAY 
[March  30,  1863] 

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

And  whereas,  it  is  the  duty  of  nations  as  well  as  of 
men  to  own  their  dependence  upon  the  overruling  power 
of  God;  to .  confess  their  sins  and  transgressions  in 
humble  sorrow,  yet  with  assured  hope  that  genuine 
repentance  will  lead  to  mercy  and  pardon ;  and  to  recog- 
nize the  sublime  truth,  announced  in  the  Holy  Scriptures 
and  proven  by  all  history,  that  those  nations  only  are 
blessed  whose  God  is  the  Lord: 

And  insomuch  as  we  know  that,  by  His  divine  law, 
nations,  like  individuals,  are  subjected  to  punishments 
and  chastisements  in  this  world,  may  we  not  justly  fear 
that  the  awful  calamity  of  civil  war  which  now  desolates 
the  land  may  be  but  a  punishment  inflicted  upon  us  for 
our  presumptuous  sins,  to  the  needful  end  of  our 
national  reformation  as  a  whole  people?  We  have  been 
the  recipients  of  the  choicest  bounties  of  Heaven.  We 
have  been  preserved,  these  many  years,  in  peace  and 
prosperity.  We  have  grown  in  numbers,  wealth,  and 
power  as  no  other  nation  has  ever  grown;  but  we  have 
forgotten  God.  We  have  forgotten  the  gracious  hand 
which  preserved  us  in  peace,  and  multiplied  and  enriched 
and  strengthened  us ;  and  we  have  vainly  imagined,  in 
the  deceitfulness  of  our  hearts,  that  all  these  blessings 
were  produced  by  some  superior  wisdom  and  virtue  of 


368  SELECTIONS    FROM    LIN'COLN 

our  own.  Intoxicated  with  unbroken  success,  we  have 
become  too  self-sufficient  to  feel  the  necessity  of  redeem- 
ing and  preserving  grace,  too  proud  to  pray  to  the  God 
that  made  us : 

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

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

In  witness,  etc. 

Abraham  Lincoln 

By  the  President: 

William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State 


General  Hooker  learned  little  from  Lincoln's  first  letter, 
and  he  showed  little  of  the  quality  desired  by  Lincoln,  who  had 
constantly  to  urge  him  on.  These  two  later  comnmnications 
give  interesting  views  of  Lincoln's  hard  common  sense  and  of 
his  opinions  as  to  the  proper  military  strategy. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  369 

TO  GENERAL  JOSEPH  HOOKER 

[Telegram] 

Washington.  June  5,  1863.  4  p.  M. 
Major  General  Hooker:  Yours  of  today  was 
received  an  hour  ago.  So  much  of  professional  military 
skill  is  requisite  to  answer  it  that  I  have  turned  the  task 
over  to  General  Halleck.  He  promises  to  perform  it 
with  his  utmost  care.  I  have  but  one  idea  which  I 
think  worth  suggesting  to  you,  and  that  is,  in  case  you 
find  Lee  coming  to  the  north  of  the  Rappahannock,  I 
M'ould  by  no  means  cross  to  the  south  of  it.  If  he  should 
leave  a  rear  force  at  Fredericksburg,  tempting  you  to 
fall  upon  it,  it  would  fight  in  entrenchments  and  have 
you  at  disadvantage,  and  so,  man  for  man,  worst  you  at 
that  point,  while  his  main  force  would  in  some  way  be 
getting  an  advantage  of  you  northward.  In  one  word, 
•I  would  not  take  any  risk  of  being  entangled  upon  the 
river,  like  an  ox  jumped  half  over  a  fence  and  liable  to 
be  torn  by  dogs  front  and  rear  without  a  fair  chance  to 
gore  one  way  or  kick  the  other.  If  Lee  would  come  to 
my  side  of  the  river,  I  would  keep  on  the  same  side,  and 
fight  him  or  act  on  the  defense,  according  as  might  be 
my  estimate  of  his  strength  relatively  to  my  own.  But 
these  are  mere  suggestions  which  I  desire  to  be  controlled 
by  the  judgment  of  yourself  and  General  Halleck. 

A.  Lincoln 

TO  GENERAL  JOSEPH  HOOKER 

[Telegram] 

Washington,   June    10,    1863 

Major    General    Hooker:     Your    long   dispatch    of 

today  is  just  received.      If  left  to  me   I   would  not  go 

south   of   the    Rappahannock   upon   Lee's   moving   north 

of  it.      If  vou  had  Richmond  invested  todav,  vou  would 


370  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

not  be  able  to  take  it  in  twenty  days ;  meanwhile  your 
communications,  and  with  them  your  army,  would  be 
ruined.  I  think  Lee's  army,  and  not  Richmond,  is  your 
true  objective  point.  If  he  comes  toward  the  upper 
Potomac,  follow  on  his  flank  and  on  his  inside  track, 
shortening  your  lines  while  he  lengthens  his.  Fight 
him,  too,  when  opportunity  offers.  If  he  stays  where 
he  is,  fret  him  and  fret  him. 

A.  Lincoln 

Another    characteristic    message    to    General    Hooker    follows: 

TO  GENERAL  JOSEPH  HOOKER 

[Telegram] 

Washington,  June  14,  1863 
Major  General  Hooker:  So  far  as  we  can  make 
out  here,  the  enemy  have  Milroy  surrounded  at  Win- 
chester, and  Tyler  at  Martinsburg.  If  they  could  hold 
out  a  fe%v  days,  could  you  help  them?  If  the  head  of 
Lee's  army  is  at  Martinsburg  and  the  tail  of  it  on  the 
plank  road  between  Fredericksburg  and  Chancellorsville, 
the  animal  must  be  very  slim  somewhere.  Could  you 
not  break  him? 

A.  Lincoln 

The  tide  of  the  war  turned  in  July,  1863,  with  the  victories 
at  Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg.  Lincoln's  letter  of  acknowl- 
edgment to  General  U.  S.  Grant  is  characteristic. 

TO  GENERAL  U.  S.  GRANT 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,   July   13,    1863 
Major  General  Grant. 

My  dear  General  :  I  do  not  remember  that  you  and 
I  ever  met  personally.  I  write  this  now  as  a  grateful 
acknowledgment  for  the  almost  inestimable  service  you 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  371 

have  done  the  country.  I  wish  to  say  a  word  further. 
When  you  first  reached  the  vicinity  of  Vicksburg,  I 
thought  you  should  do  what  you  finally  did — march  the 
troops  across  the  neck,  run  the  batteries  with  the  .trans- 
ports, and  thus  go  below;  and  I  never  had  any  faith, 
except  a  general  hope  that  you  knew  better  than  I,  that 
the  Yazoo  Pass  expedition  and  the  like  could  succeed. 
When  you  got  below  and  took  Port  Gibson,  Grand  Gulf, 
and  vicinity,  I  thought  you  should  go  down  the  river  and 
join  General  Banks,  and  when  you  turned  northward, 
east  of  the  Big  Black,  I  feared  it  was  a  mistake.  I 
now  wish  to  make  the  personal  acknowledgment  that 
you  were  right  and  I  was  wrong. 

Yours   very  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 


In  August  he  wrote  a  note  to  James  H.  Hackett,  a  well- 
known  actor,  in  which  he  expressed  his  preferences  among  the 
plays  of  Shakespeare. 


TO  JAMES  H,  HACKETT 

Executive    Mansion, 
Washington,  August   17,   1863 
James  H.  Hackett,  Esq. 

My  dear  Sir:  Months  ago  I  should  have  acknowl- 
edged the  receipt  of  your  book  and  accompanying  kind 
note;  and  I  now  have  to  beg  your  pardon  for  not  having 
done  so. 

For  one  of  my  age  I  have  seen  very  little  of  the 
drama.  The  first  presentation  of  Falstaff  I  ever  saw 
was  yours  here,  last  winter  or  spring.  Perhaps  the  best 
compliment  I  can  pay  is  to  say,  as  I  truly  can,  I  am 
very  anxious  to  see  it  again.  Some  of  Shakespeare's 
plays  I  have  never  read ;  while  others  I  have  gone  over 
perhaps    as    frequently    as    any    unprofessional    reader. 


372  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX 

Among  the  latter  are  "Lear,"  "Richard  III,"  "Henry 
VII I,"  "Hamlet,"  and  especially  "Macbeth."  I  think 
nothing  equals   "Macbeth."     It  is   wonderful. 

Unlike  you  gentlemen  of  the  profession,  I  think  the 
soliloquy  in  "Hamlet"  commencing  "Oh,  my  offense  is 
rank"  surpasses  that  commencing  "To  be  or  not  to  be." 
But  pardon  this  small  attempt  at  criticism.  I  should 
like  to  hear  you  pronounce  the  opening  speech  of 
Richard  III.  Will  you  not  soon  visit  Washington  again? 
If  you  do,  please  call  and  let  me  make  your  personal 
acquaintance. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

In  June,  before  the  victories  at  Vicksbiirg  and  Gettys- 
burg, a  meeting  had  been  held  in  Springfield  to  censure  the 
administration  and  to  discuss  the  possibility  of  seceding  and 
establishing  a  Northwestern  Confederacy.  In  August,  James 
C.  Conkling,  a  close  friend  of  Lincoln's,  invited  him  to  come  to 
Springfield  to  speak  at  a  meeting  of  unconditional  L'nion  men 
to  be  held  in  the  interest  of  "law  and  order  and  constitutional 
government."  Lincoln  replied  with  a  rather  remarkable  argu- 
ment which  he  called  a  "stump  si:>eech."  It  won  instant  ap- 
proval from  the  whole  country. 


TO  JAMES  c.  coyKLiyo 

[Private] 

War  Department, 
Washington  City,  D.  C,  August  17,  1863 
My  dear  Conkling:  I  cannot  leave  here  now. 
Herewith  is  a  letter  instead.  You  are  one  of  the  best 
public  readers.  I  have  but  one  suggestion — read  it  very 
slowly.  And  now  God  bless  you,  and  all  good  Union 
men. 

Yours  as  ever, 

A.  Lincoln 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  373 

TO  JAMES  C.  CON  KLIN  G 

Executive    Mansion, 
Washington,  August  26,   1863 
Hon.  James  C.  Conkling. 

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

The  meeting  is  to  be  of  all  those  who  maintain  uncon- 
ditional devotion  to  the  Union;  and  I  am  sure  my  old 
political  friends  will  thank  me  for  tendering,  as  I  do,  the 
nation's  gratitude  to  those  and  other  noble  men  whom  no 
partisan  malice  or  partisan  hope  can  make  false  to  the 
nation's  life. 

There  are  those  who  are  dissatisfied  with  me.  To 
such  I  would  say:  You  desire  peace,  and  you  blame 
me  that  we  do  not  have  it.  But  how  can  we  attain  it? 
There  are  but  three  conceivable  ways:  First,  to  sup- 
press the  rebellion  by  force  of  arms.  This  I  am  trying 
to  do.  Are  you  for  it?  If  you  are,  so  far  we  are 
agreed.  If  you  are  not  for  it,  a  second  way  is  to  give 
up  the  Union.  I  am  against  this.  Are  you  for  it? 
If  you  are,  you  should  say  so  plainly.  If  you  are  not 
for  force,  nor  yet  for  dissolution,  there  only  remains 
some  imaginable  compromise.  I  do  not  believe  any  com- 
promise embracing  the  maintenance  of  the  Union  is  now 
possible.  All  I  learn  leads  to  a  directly  opposite  belief. 
The  strength  of  the  rebellion  is  its  military,  its  army. 
That  army  dominates  all  the  country  and  all  the  people 
within  its  range.  Any  offer  of  terms  made  by  any  man 
or  men  within  that  range,  in  opposition  to  that  army,  is 
simply  nothing  for  the  present,  because  such  man  or 
men  have  no  power  whatever  to  enforce  their  side  of  a 
compromise  if  one  were  made  with  them. 


374  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

To  illustrate :  Suppose  refugees  from  the  South  and 
peace  men  of  the  North  get  together  in  convention,  and 
frame  and  proclaim  a  compromise  embracing  a  restora- 
tion of  the  Union.  In  what  way  can  that  compromise 
be  used  to  keep  Lee's  army  out  of  Pennsylvania? 
Meade's  army  can  keep  Lee's  army  out  of  Pennsylvania, 
and,  I  think,  can  ultimateh^  drive  it  out  of  existence. 
But  no  paper  compromise  to  which  the  controllers  of 
Lee's  army  are  not  agreed  can  at  all  affect  that  army. 
In  an  effort  at  such  compromise  we  should  waste  time 
which  the  enemy  would  improve  to  our  disadvantage ; 
and  that  would  be  all.  A  compromise,  to  be  effective, 
must  be  made  either  with  those  who  control  the  rebel 
army,  or  with  the  people  first  liberated  from  the  domi- 
nation of  that  army  by  the  success  of  our  own  army. 
Now,  allow  me  to  assure  you  that  no  word  or  intimation 
from  that  rebel  army,  or  from  any  of  the  men  con- 
trolling it,  in  relation  to  any  peace  compromise,  has  ever 
come  to  my  knowledge  or  belief.  All  charges  and 
insinuations  to  the  contrary  are  deceptive  and  ground- 
less. And  I  promise  you  that  if  any  such  proposition 
shall  hereafter  come,  it  shall  not  be  rejected  and  kept  a 
secret  from  you.  I  freely  acknowledge  myself  the 
servant  of  the  people,  according  to  the  bond  of  service — 
the  United  States  Constitution — and  that,  as  such,  I  am 
responsible  to  them. 

But  to  be  plain.  You  are  dissatisfied  with  me  about 
the  negro.  Quite  likely  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion 
between  you  and  myself  upon  that  subject.  I  certainly 
wish  that  all  men  could  be  free,  while  I  suppose  you  do 
not.  Yet,  I  have  neither  adopted  nor  proposed  any 
measure  which  is  not  consistent  with  even  your  view, 
provided  you  are  for  the  Union.  I  suggested  compen- 
sated emancipation,  to  which  you  replied  you  wished  not 
,to  be  taxed  to  buy  negroes.  But  I  had  not  asked  you 
to  be  taxed  to  buy  negroes,  except  in  such  way  as  to 
save  you  from  greater  taxation  to  save  the  Union  exclu- 
sivelv  bv  other  means. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  375 

You  dislike  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and  per- 
haps would  have  it  retracted.  You  say  it  is  unconsti- 
tutional. I  think  differently.  I  think  the  Constitution 
invests  its  commander-in-chief  with  the  law  of  war  in 
time  of  war.  The  most  that  can  be  said — if  so  much — 
is  that  slaves  are  property.  Is  there — has  there  ever 
been — any  question  that,  by  the  law  of  war,  property, 
both  of  enemies  and  friends,  may  be  taken  when  needed.^ 
And  is  it  not  needed  whenever  taking  it  helps  us,  or 
hurts  the  enemy  .^  Armies,  the  world  over,  destroy  ene- 
mies' property  when  they  cannot  use  it ;  and  even  des- 
troy their  own  to  keep  it  from  the  enemy.  Civilized 
belligerents  do  all  in  their  power  to  help  themselves  or 
hurt  the  enemy,  except  a  few  things  regarded  as  bar- 
barous or  cruel.  Among  the  exceptions  are  the  mas- 
sacre of  vanquished  foes  and  noncombatants,  male  and 
female. 

But  the  Proclamation,  as  law,  either  is  valid  or  is  not 
valid.  If  it  is  not  valid,  it  needs  no  retraction.  If  it 
is  valid,  it  cannot  be  retracted  any  more  than  the  dead 
can  be  brought  to  life.  Some  of  you  profess  to  think 
its  retraction  would  operate  favorably  for  the  Union. 
Why  better  after  the  retraction  than  before  the  issue? 
There  was  more  than  a  year  and  a  half  of  trial  to  sup- 
press the  rebellion  before  the  proclamation  issued;  the 
last  one  hundred  days  of  which  passed  under  an  explicit 
notice  that  it  was  coming,  unless  averted  by  those  in 
revolt  returning  to  their  allegiance.  The  war  has  cer- 
tainly progressed  as  favorably  for  us  since  the  issue  of 
the  proclamation  as  before. 

I  know,  as  fully  as  one  can  know  the  opinions  of  others, 
that  some  of  the  commanders  of  our  armies  in  the  field, 
who  have  given  us  our  most  important  successes,  believe 
the  emancipation  policy  and  the  use  of  the  colored  troops 
constitute  the  heaviest  blow  yet  dealt  to  the  rebellion, 
and  that  at  least  one  of  these  important  successes  could 
not  have  been  achieved  when  it  was,  but  for  the  aid  of 
black   soldiers.      Among   the   commanders   holding   these 


376  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

views  are  some  who  have  never  had  any  affinity  with 
what  is  called  abolitionism,  or  with  Republican  party 
politics,  but  who  hold  them  purely  as  military  opinions. 
I  submit  these  opinions  as  being  entitled  to  some  weight 
against  the  objections  often  urged  that  emancipation  and 
arming  the  blacks  are  unwise  as  military  measures,  and 
were  not  adopted  as  such  in  good  faith. 

You  say  you  wall  not  fight  to  free  negroes.  Some  of 
them  seem  willing  to  fight  for  you ;  but  no  matter. 
Fight  you,  then,  exclusively,  to  save  the  Union.  I  issued 
the  Proclamation  on  purpose  to  aid  you  in  saving  the 
L'nion.  Whenever  you  shall  have  conquered  all  resist- 
ance to  the  Union,  if  I  shall  urge  you  to  continue  fight- 
ing, it  will  be  an  apt  time  then  for  you  to  declare  you 
will  not  fight  to  free  negroes. 

I  thought  that  in  your  struggle  for  the  Union,  to 
whatever  extent  the  negroes  should  cease  helping  the 
enemy,  to  that  extent  it  weakened  the  enemy  in  his  resist- 
ance to  you.  Do  you  think  differently.^  I  thought  that 
whatever  negroes  can  be  got  to  do  as  soldiers,  leaves  just 
so  much  less  for  white  soldiers  to  do  in  saving  the 
L'nion.  Does  it  appear  otherwise  to  you?  But  negroes, 
like  other  people,  act  upon  motives.  Why  should  they 
do  anything  for  us  if  we  will  do  nothing  for  them?  If 
they  stake  their  lives  for  us  they  must  be  prompted  by 
the  strongest  motive,  even  the  promise  of  freedom.  And 
the  promise,  being  made,  must  be  kept. 

The  signs  look  better.  The  Father  of  Waters  again 
goes  unvexed  to  the  sea.  Thanks  to  the  great  North- 
west for  it.  Nor  yet  wholly  to  them.  Three  hundred 
miles  up  they  met  New  England,  Empire,  Keystone, 
and  Jersey,  hewing  their  way  right  and  left.  The  sunny 
South,  too,  in  more  colors  than  one.  also  lent  a  hand. 
On  the  spot,  their  part  of  the  history  was  jotted  down 
in  black  and  white.  The  job  was  a  great  national  one, 
and  let  none  be  banned  who  bore  an  honorable  part  in 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  377 

it.  And  while  those  who  have  cleared  the  great  river 
may  well  be  proud,  even  that  is  not  all.  It  is  hard  to 
say  that  anything  has  been  more  bravely  and  well  done 
than  at  Antietam,  Murfreesboro,  Gettysburg,  and  on 
many  fields  of  lesser  note.  Nor  must  Uncle  Sam's 
webfeet  be  forgotten.  At  all  the  watery  margins  they 
have  been  present.  Not  only  on  the  deep  sea,  the  broad 
bay,  and  the  rapid  river,  but  also  up  the  narrow,  muddy 
bayou,  and  wherever  the  ground  was  a  little  damp,  they 
have  been  and  made  their  tracks.  Thanks  to  all:  for 
the  great  republic — for  the  principle  it  lives  by  and 
keeps  alive — for  man's  vast  future — thanks  to  all. 

Peace  does  not  appear  so  distant  as  it  did.  I  hope  it 
will  come  soon,  and  come  to  stay;  and  so  come  as  to  be 
worth  the  keeping  in  all  future  time.  It  will  then  have 
been  proved  that  among  free  men  there  can  be  no  suc- 
cessful appeal  from  the  ballot  to  the  bullet,  and  that 
they  who  take  such  appeal  are  sure  to  lose  their  case 
and  pay  the  cost.  And  then  there  will  be  some  black 
men  who  can  remetnber  that  with  silent  tongue,  and 
clenched  teeth,  and  stead}'  eye,  and  well-poised  bayonet, 
they  have  helped  mankind  on  to  this  great  consummation, 
while  I  fear  there  will  be  some  white  ones  unable  to 
forget  that  with  malignant  heart  and  deceitful  speech 
they  strove  to  hinder  it. 

Still,  let  us  not  be  oversanguine  of  a  speedy  final 
triumph.  Let  us  be  quite  sober.  Let  us  diligently 
apply  the  means,  never  doubting  that  a  just  God,  in  His 
own  good  time,  will  give  us  the  rightful  result. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.   LixcoLX 

Secretary  Chase  had  never  learned  the  lesson  Seward  had 
in  regard  to  Lincoln  and  consequently  was  never  satisfied 
with  his  official  acts.  The  following  is  the  reply  of  Lincoln  to 
one  of  Chase's  radical  suggestions: 


378  SELECTIONS    PROM    LINXOLN 

TO   SALMON  P.   CHASE 

[Draft  of  a  Letter] 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  September  2,   1863 
Hon.  Salmon  P.   Chase. 

My  dear  Sir:  Knowing  your  great  anxiety  that 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation  shall  now  be  applied  to 
certain  parts  of  Virginia  and  Louisiana  which  were 
exempted  from  it  last  January,  I  state  briefly  what 
appear  to  me  to  be  difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  a  step. 
The  original  proclamation  has  no  constitutional  or  legal 
justification,  except  as  a  military  measure.  The  exemp- 
tions were  made  because  the  military  necessity  did  not 
apply  to  the  exempted  localities.  Nor  does  that  neces- 
sity apply  to  them  now  any  more  than  it  did  then.  If 
I  take  the  step,  must  I  not  do  so  without  the  argument 
of  military  necessity,  and  so  without  any  argument 
except  the  one  that  I  think  the  measure  politically  expe- 
dient and  morally  right.''  Would  I  not  thus  give  up  all 
footing  upon  the  Constitution  or  law?  Would  I  not 
thus  be  in  the  boundless  field  of  absolutism?  Could  this 
pass  unnoticed  or  unresisted?  Could  it  fail  to  be  per- 
ceived that  without  any  further  stretch  I  might  do  the 
same  in  Delaware,  Maryland,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and 
Missouri,  and  even  change  any  law  in  any  state?  Would 
not  many  of  our  own  friends  shrink  away  appalled  ? 
Would  it  not  lose  us  the  elections,  and  with  them  the 
very  cause  we  seek  to  advance? 

[A.    Lincoln] 


The  following:  proclamation  is  notable  for  its  establishment 
of  a  precedent  for  a  National  Thanksgiving  Day.  Prior  to 
this,  it  had  been  celebrated  only  after  the  proclamations  of 
governors  of  some  of  the  states: 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  379 

PROCLAMATION  FOR   THANKSGIVING 

[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  we  are  prone  to  forget  the  source  from 
which  they  come,  others  have  been  added,  which  are  of 
so  extraordinary  a  nature  that  they  cannot  fail  to  pene- 
trate and  soften  the  heart  which  is  habitually  insensible 
to  the  ever-watchful  providence  of  Almighty  God. 

In  the  midst  of  a  civil  war  of  unequaled  magnitude 
and  severity,  which  has  sometimes  seemed  to  foreign 
states  to  invite  and  provoke  their  aggressions,  peace  has 
been  preserved  with  all  nations,  order  has  been  main- 
tained, the  laws  have  been  respected  and  obeyed,  and 
harmony  has  prevailed  everywhere,  except  in  the  theater 
of  military  conflict;  while  that  theater  has  been  greatly 
contracted  by  the  advancing  armies  and  navies  of  the 
Union. 

Needful  diversions  of  wealth  and  of  strength  from  the 
fields  of  peaceful  industry  to  the  national  defense  have 
not  arrested  the  plow,  the  shuttle,  or  the  ship ;  the  ax 
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. 
Population  has  steadily  increased,  notwithstanding  the 
waste  that  has  been  made  in  the  camp,  the  siege,  and  the 
battlefield,  and  the  country,  rejoicing  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  augmented  strength  and  vigor,  is  permitted  to 
expect  continuance  of  years  with  large  increase  of 
freedom. 

Xo  human  counsel  hath  devised,  nor  hath  any  mortal 
hand  worked  out  these  great  things.  They  are  the  gra- 
cious 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 


380  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

be  solemnly,  reverently,  and  gratefully  acknowledged  as 
with  one  heart  and  one  voice  by  the  whole  American 
people.  I  do,  therefore,  invite  my  fellow  citizens  in 
every  part  of  the  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  praise  to  our  beneficent 
Father  who  dwelleth  in  the  heavens.  And  I  recommend 
to  them  that,  while  offering  up  the  ascriptions  j  ustly  due 
to  Him  for  such  singular  deliverances  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,  mourn- 
ers, or  sufferers  in  the  lamentable  civil  strife  in  which 
we  are  unavoidably  engaged,  and  fervently  implore  the 
interposition  of  the  Almighty  hand  to  heal  the  wounds 
of  the  nation,  and  to  restore  it,  as  soon  as  may  be  con- 
sistent with  the  Divine  purposes,  to  the  full  enjoyment 
of  peace,  harmony,  tranquility,  and  union. 
In  testimony,  etc. 

A.  Lincoln 
By  the  President: 

William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State 

Hackett  published  the  President's  letter*  and  the  New  York 
Herald  took  occasion  to  make  a  savage  comment  upon  it,  sneer- 
ing at  the  President  and  ridiculing  his  taste.  This  was  imitated 
bv  other  papers.  Thev  hurt  Lincoln  considerablv,  but  he  wrote 
Hackett: 

TO  JAMES  H.  HACKETT 
[Private] 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,    November   2,    1863 
James  H.  Hackett. 

My  dear  Sir:     Yours  of  October  22  is  received,  as 
also  was  in  due  course  that  of  October  3.     I  look  for- 
*See  page  371. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  381 

ward   with   pleasure    to   the    fulfillment    of    the   promise 
made  in  the  former. 

Give  yourself  no  uneasiness  on  the  subject  mentioned 
in  that  of  the  22d. 

My  note  to  you  I  certainly  did  not  expect  to  see  in 
print;  yet  I  have  not  been  much  shocked  by  the  news- 
paper comments  upon  it.  Those  comments  constitute  a 
fair  specimen  of  what  has  occurred  to  me  through  life. 
I  have  endured  a  great  deal  of  ridicule  without  much 
malice ;  and  have  received  a  great  deal  of  kindness,  not 
quite  free  from  ridicule.     I  am  used  to  it. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

Soon  after  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  it  was  determined  to 
set  aside  a  part  of  the  battlefield  for  a  national  cemetery. 
Edward  Everett,  noted  as  a  great  orator,  was  invited  to  make 
the  address,  and  on  November  2,  Lincoln  was  invited  to  "set 
apart  these  grounds  to  their  sacred  use  by  a  few  appropriate 
remarks." 

Lincoln  was  so  oppressed  by -his  duties  during  the  inter- 
vening time  that  he  was  unable  to  finish  his  address  until  he 
was  on  the  way  to  Gettysburg,  when  he  jotted  down  with  a 
pencil  part  of  the  speech.  ^Mary  R.  S.  Andrews  in  "The  Per- 
fect Tribute"  strikingly  describes  the  occasion: 

"At  eleven  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  ...  .  November  19, 
1863,  a  vast,  silent  multitude  billowed  like  waves  of  the  sea  over 
what  had  been  not  long  before  the  battlefield  of  Gettysburg. 
There  were  wounded  soldiers  there  who  had  beaten  their  way 
four  months  before  through  a  singing  fire  across  these  quiet 
fields,  who  had  seen  the  men  die  who  were  buried  here;  there 
were  troops,  grave  and  responsible,  who  must  soon  go  again  into 
battle;  there  were  the  rank  and  file  of  an  everyday  American 
gathering  in  surging  thousands;  and  above  them  all,  on  the 
open-air  platform,  there  were  the  leaders  of  the  land,  the 
pilots  who  today  lifted  a  hand  from  the  wheel  of  the  ship  of 
state  to  salute  the  memory  of  those  gone  down  in  the  storm. 
Most  of  the  men  in  that  group  of  honor  are  now  passed  over 
to  the   majority,   but   their  names   are   not  dead   in   American 


382  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

history — great  ghosts  who  walk  still  in  the  annals  of  their  coun- 
try, their  flesh-and-blood  faces  were  turned  attentively  that 
bright,  still  November  afternoon  toward  the  orator  of  the  day, 
whose  voice  held  the  audience." 

Everett  spoke  for, two  hours,  delivering  a  polished,  able,  and 
impressive  oration  of  the  type  then  admired  in  the  United 
States.  Nearly  all  the  newspapers  gave  extended  editorial 
comment  to  it  the  next  day.  Lincoln  followed  with  the  im- 
mortal words  which  scarcely  affected  the  vast  crowd  except  with 
a  general  feeling  of  disappointment.  Everett  alone  seems  to 
have  seen  the  speech  in  the  light  that  it  has  later  been  viewed. 
When  read,  it  was  received  very  differently  and  in  time  was 
recognized  for  the  masterpiece  that  it  really  is. 

THE    GETTYSBURG  ADDRESS 

[Delivered  at  the  dedication  of  the   National  Cemetery, 
November  19,  1863] 

Four  score  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought 
forth  on  this  continent,  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  Lib- 
erty, and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are 
created  equal. 

Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war;  testing 
whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived  and  so 
dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We  are  met  on  a  great 
battlefield  of  that  war.  We  have  come  to  dedicate  a 
portion  of  that  field  as  a  final  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  can- 
not consecrate — we  cannot  hallow — this  ground.  The 
brave  men,  living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here  have 
consecrated  it,  far  above  our  poor  power  to  add  or  de- 
tract. The  world  will  little  note,  nor  long  remember, 
what  we  say  here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did 
here.  It  is  for  us  the  living,  rather,  to  be  dedicated  here 
to  the  unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought  here  have 
thus  far  so  noblv  advanced.    It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  333 

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,  for  the  people,  shall  not 
perish  from  the  earth. 

From  the  very  beginning:  of  the  war  Lincoln  had  pondered 
over  the  question  of  reconstruction.  As  has  been  seen,  he 
took  steps  in  the  direction  of  reconstruction  in  1862  when  he 
appointed  military  governors  for  several  Southern  states  where 
he  thought  there  was  sufficient  L^nion  sentiment  to  warrant  it. 
Now,  in  a  number  of  the  seceded  states,  notably  Louisiana, 
Arkansas,  and  Tennessee,  the  Union  forces  controlled  enough 
territory  to  make  an  attempt  at  restoration  really  worth  while. 

He  had  two  main  reasons  for  his  anxiety  to  get  reconstruc- 
tion started.  One  was  his  belief  that  the  moral  effect  upon 
the  rest  of  the  South  would  be  great  enough  to  shorten  the 
war.  The  other  was  his  desire  to  get  it  under  way  before  those 
in  the  North  who  desired  to  impose  harsh  terms  could  formu- 
late a  policy  and  gain  any  popular  support. 

On  December  8,  1863,  he  issued  a  proclamation  of  amnesty 
and  reconstruction,  and  on  the  same  day,  outlined  his  plan  in 
his  annual  message  to  Congress. 

PROCLAMATION  OF  AMNESTY  AND 
RECONSTR  UCTION 

[December  8,  1863] 

Whereas,  in  and  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  it  is  provided  that  the  President  "shall  have 
power  to  grant  reprieves  and  pardons  for  offenses 
against  the  United  States,  except  in  cases  of  impeach- 
ment"; and 

Whereas  a  rebellion  now  exists  whereby  the  loyal 
state  governments  of  several  states  have  for  a  long  time 
been  subverted,  and  many  persons  have  committed,  and 
are  now  guilty  of,  treason  against  the  United  States ;  and 


384  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

Whereas,  with  reference  to  said  rebellion  and  treason, 
laws  have  been  enacted  by  Congress,  declaring  for- 
feitures and  confiscation  of  property  and  liberation  of 
slaves,  all  upon  terms  and  conditions  therein  stated,  and 
also  declaring  that  the  President  was  thereby  authorized 
at  any  time  thereafter,  by  proclamation,  to  extend  to 
persons  who  may  have  participated  in  the  existing  rebel- 
lion^ in  any  state  or  part  thereof,  pardon  and  amnesty, 
with  such  exceptions  and  at  such  times  and  on  such 
conditions  as  he  may  deem  expedient  for  the  public  wel- 
fare; and 

Whereas  the  congressional  declaration  for  limited  and 
conditional  pardon  accords  with  well-established  judi- 
cial exposition  of  the  pardoning  power;    and 

Whereas,  with  reference  to  said  rebellion,  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  has  issued  several  proclama- 
tions, with  provisions  in  regard  to  the  liberation  of 
slaves ;    and 

Whereas  it  is  now  desired  by  some  persons  hereto- 
fore engaged  in  said  rebellion  to  resume  their  allegi- 
ance to  the  United  States,  and  to  reinaugurate  loyal  state 
governments  within  and  for  their  respective  states ; 
therefore 

I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States, 
do  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known  to  all  persons 
who  have,  directly  or  by  implication,  participated  in  the 
existing  rebellion,  except  as  hereinafter  excepted,  that  a 
full  pardon  is  hereby  granted  to  them  and  each  of  them, 
with  restoration  of  all  rights  of  property,  except  as  to 
slaves,  and  in  property  cases  where  rights  of  third  par- 
ties shall  have  intervened,  and  upon  the  condition  that 
every  such  person  shall  take  and  subscribe  an  oath,  and 
thenceforward  keep  and  maintain  said  oath  inviolate ; 
and  which  oath  shall  be  registered  for  permanent  preser- 
vation, and  shall  be  of  the  tenor  and  effect  following, 
to  wit: 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  335 

"I,  .  .  .  .,  do  solemnly  swear,  in  presence  of  Almighty 
God,  that  I  will  henceforth  faithfully  support,  protect, 
and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  union  of  the  states  thereunder;  and  that  I  will,  in 
like  manner,  abide  by  and  faithfully  support  all  acts  of 
Congress  passed  during  the  existing  rebellion  with 
reference  to  slaves,  so  long  and  so  far  as  not  repealed, 
modified,  or  held  void  by  Congress,  or  by  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court;  and  that  I  will  in  like  manner,  abide 
by  and  faithfully  support  all  proclamations  of  the  Presi- 
dent made  during  the  existing  rebellion  having  reference 
to  slaves,  so  long  and  so  far  as  not  modified  or  declared 
void  bv  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court.  So  help  me 
God."  * 

The  persons  exempted  from  the  benefits  of  the  fore- 
going provisions  are  all  who  are,  or  shall  have  been 
civil  or  diplomatic  officers  or  agents  of  the  so-called 
Confederate  Government;  all  who  have  left  judicial 
stations  under  the  United  States  to  aid  the  rebellion; 
all  who  are  or  shall  have  been  military  or  naval  officers 
of  said  so-called  Confederate  Government  above  the  rank 
of  colonel  in  the  army  or  of  lieutenant  in  the  navy ;  all 
who  have  left  seats  in  the  United  States  Congress  to  aid 
the  rebellion;  all  who  resigned  commissions  in  the  army 
or  navy  of  the  United  States  and  afterward  aided  the 
rebellion;  and  all  who  have  engaged  in  any  way  in 
treating  colored  persons,  or  white  persons  in  charge  of 
such,  otherwise  than  lawfully  as  prisoners  of  war,  and 
which  persons  may  have  been  found  in  the  United  States 
service  as  soldiers,  seamen,  or  in  any  other  capacity. 

And  I  do  further  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known 
that  whenever  in  any  of  the  states  of  Arkansas,  Texas, 
Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Georgia, 
Florida,  South  Carolina,  and  North  Carolina,  a  number 
of  persons,  not  less  than  one-tenth  in  number  of  the 


386  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

votes  cast  in  such  state  at  the  presidential  election  of 
the  3^ear  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
sixty,  each  having  taken  the  oath  aforesaid  and  not  hav- 
ing since  violated  it,  and  being  a  qualified  voter  by  the 
election  law  of  the  state  existing  immediately  before  the 
so-called  act  of  secession,  and  excluding  all  others,  shall 
reestablish  a  state  government  which  shall  be  republi- 
can, and  in  no  wise  contravening  said  oath,  such  shall  be 
recognized  as  the  true  government  of  the  state,  and  the 
state  shall  receive  thereunder  the  benefits  of  the  con- 
stitutional provision  which  declares  that  "The  United 
States  shall  guarantee  to  every  state  in  this  Union  a 
republican  form  of  government,  and  shall  protect  each 
of  them  against  invasion;  and,  on  application  of  the 
legislature,  or  the  executive  (when  the  legislature  cannot 
be  convened),  against  domestic  violence," 

And  I  do  further  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known, 
that  any  provision  which  may  be  adopted  by  such  state 
government  in  relation  to  the  freed  people  of  such  state, 
which  shall  recognize  and  declare  their  permanent  free- 
dom, provide  for  their  education,  and  which  may  yet  be 
consistent  as  a  temporary  arrangement  with  their  pres- 
ent condition  as  a  laboring,  landless,  and  homeless  class, 
will  not  be  objected  to  by  the  national  Executive. 

And  it  is  suggested  as  not  improper  that,  in  con- 
structing a  loyal  state  government  in  any  state,  the  name 
of  the  state,  the  boundary,  the  subdivisions,  the  consti- 
tution, and  the  general  code  of  laws,  as  before  the  rebel- 
lion, be  maintained,  subject  only  to  the  modifications 
made  necessary  by  the  conditions  hereinbefore  stated, 
and  such  others,  if  any,  not  contravening  said  conditions, 
and  which  may  be  deemed  expedient  by  those  framing 
the  new  state  government. 

To  avoid  misunderstanding,  it  may  be  proper  to  say 
that  this  proclamation,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  state  gov- 
ernments, has  no  reference  to  states  wherein  loyal  state 
governments  have  all  the  while  been  maintained. 

And,  for  the  same  reason,  it  may  be  proper  to  further 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  387 

say,  that  whether  members  sent  to  Congress  from  any 
state  shall  be  admitted  to  seats,  constitutionally  rests 
exclusively  with  the  respective  houses,  and  not  to  any 
extent  with  the  Executive.  And  still  further,  that  this 
proclamation  is  intended  to  present  the  people  of  the 
states  wherein  the  national  authority  has  been  sus- 
pended, and  loyal  state  governments  have  been  sub- 
verted, a  mode  in  and  by  which  the  national  authority 
and  loyal  state  governments  may  be  reestablished  within 
said  states,  or  in  any  of  them;  and  while  the  mode  pre- 
sented is  the  best  the  Executive  can  suggest,  with  his 
present  impressions,  it  must  not  be  understood  that  no 
other  possible  mode  would  be  acceptable. 

Given  under  my  hand,  etc. 

Abraham  Lincoln 
By  the  President: 

William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State 

EXTRACT  FROM  ANNUAL  MESSAGE   TO   CONGRESS 

[December  8,  1863] 

When  Congress  assembled  a  year  ago,  the  war  had 
already  lasted  nearly  twenty  months,  and  there  had  been 
many  conflicts  on  both  land  and  sea  with  varying  results. 
The  rebellion  had  been  pressed  back  into  reduced  limits; 
yet  the  tone  of  public  feeling  and  opinion,  at  home  and 
abroad,  was  not  satisfactory.  With  other  signs,  the 
popular  elections,  then  just  past,  indicated  uneasiness 
among  ourselves,  while,  amid  much  that  was  cold  and 
menacing,  the  kindest  words  coming  from  Europe  were 
uttered  in  accents  of  pity  that  we  were  too  blind  to  sur- 
render a  hopeless  cause.  Our  commerce  was  suffering 
greatly  by  a  few  armed  vessels  built  upon,  and  fur- 
nished from,  foreign  shores,  and  we  were  threatened 
with  such  additions  from  the  same  quarter  as  would 
sweep  our  trade  from  the  sea  and  raise  our  blockade. 
We    had    failed    to    elicit    from    European    governments 


388  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

anything  hopeful  upon  this  subject.  The  preliminary 
emancipation  proclamation,  issued  in  September,  was 
running  its  assigned  period  to  the  beginning  of  the  new- 
year.  A  month  later  the  final  proclamation  came, 
including  the  announcement  that  colored  men  of  suitable 
condition  would  be  received  into  the  war  service. 

The  policy  of  emancipation,  and  of  employing  black 
soldiers,  gave  to  the  future  a  new  aspect,  about  which 
hope,  and  fear,  and  doubt  contended  in  uncertain  con- 
flict. According  to  our  political  system,  as  a  matter  of 
civil  administration,  the  general  government  had  no  law- 
ful power  to  effect  emancipation  in  any  state,  and  for  a 
long  time  it  had  been  hoped  that  the  rebellion  could  be 
suppressed  without  resorting  to  it  as  a  military  measure. 
It  was  all  the  while  deemed  possible  that  the  necessity 
for  it  might  come,  and  that  if  it  should,  the  crisis  of  the 
contest  would  then  be  presented.  It  came,  and,  as  was 
anticipated,  it  was  followed  by  dark  and  doubtful  days. 
Eleven  months  having  now  passed,  we  are  permitted  to 
take  another  review.  The  rebel  borders  are  pressed 
still  further  back,  and,  by  the  complete  opening  of  the 
Mississippi,  the  country  dominated  by  the  rebellion  is 
divided  into  distinct  parts,  with  no  practical  communica- 
tion between  them.  Tennessee  and  Arkansas  have  been 
substantially  cleared  of  insurgent  control,  and  influential 
citizens  in  each,  owners  of  slaves  and  advocates  of  slav- 
ery at  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion,  now  declare  openly 
for  emancipation  in  their  respective  states.  Of  those 
states  not  included  in  the  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
Maryland  and  Missouri,  neither  of  which  three  years 
ago  would  tolerate  any  restraint  upon  the  extension  of 
slavery  into  new  territories,  only  dispute  now  as  to 
the  best  mode  of  removing  it  within  their  own 
limits. 

Of  those  who  were  slaves  at  the  beginning  of  the 
rebellion,  full  one  hundred  thousand  are  now  in  the 
United  States  military  service,  about  one-half  of  which 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  339 

number  actually  bear  arms  in  the  ranks ;  thus  giving 
the  double  advantage  of  taking  so  much  labor  from  the 
insurgent  cause^  and  supplying  the  places  which  other- 
wise must  be  filled  with  so  many  white  men.  So  far  as 
tested,  it  is  difficult  to  say  they  are  not  as  good  soldiers 
as  any.  Xo  servile  insurrection,  or  tendency  to  violence 
or  cruelty  has  marked  the  measures  of  emancipation  and 
arming  the  blacks.  These  measures  have  been  much 
discussed  in  foreign  countries,  and  contemporary  with 
such  discussion  the  tone  of  public  sentiment  there  is 
much  improved.  At  home  the  same  measures  have  been 
fully  discussed,  supported,  criticized,  and  denounced, 
and  the  annual  elections  following  are  highly  encourag- 
ing to  those  whose  official  duty  it  is  to  bear  the  country 
through  this  great  trial.  Thus  we  have  the  new  reckon- 
ing. The  crisis  which  threatened  to  divide  the  friends 
of  the  Union  is  past. 

Looking  now  to  the  present  and  future,  and  with  ref- 
erence to  a  resumption  of  the  national  authority  within 
the  states  wherein  that  authority  has  been  suspended,  I 
have  thought  fit  to  issue  a  proclamation,  a  copy  of  which 
is  herewith  transmitted.  On  examination  of  this  proc- 
lamation it  will  appear,  as  is  believed,  that  nothing  is 
attempted  beyond  what  is  amply  justified  by  the  Con- 
stitution. True,  the  form  of  an  oath  is  given,  but  no 
man  is  coerced  to  take  it.  The  man  is  only  promised  a 
pardon  in  case  he  voluntarily  takes  the  oath.  The  Con- 
stitution authorizes  the  Executive  to  grant  or  withhold 
the  pardon  at  his  own  absolute  discretion ;  and  this 
includes  the  power  to  grant  on  terms,  as  is  fully  estab- 
lished by  judicial  and  other  authorities. 

It  is  also  proffered  that  if,  in  any  of  the  states  named, 
a  state  government  shall  be,  in  the  mode  prescribed,  set 
up,  such  government  shall  be  recognized  and  guaranteed 
by  the  United  States,  and  that  under  it  the  state  shall, 
on  the  constitutional  conditions,  be  protected  against 
invasion  and  domestic  violence.     The  constitutional  obli- 


390  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

gation  of  the  United  States  to  guarantee  to  ev^ery  state 
in  the  Union  a  republican  form  of  government,  and  to 
protect  the  state  in  the  cases  stated,  is  explicit  and  full. 
But  why  tender  the  benefits  of  this  provision  only  to  a 
state  government  set  up  in  this  particular  way?  This 
section  of  the  Constitution  contemplates  a  case  wherein 
the  element  within  a  state  favorable  to  republican  gov- 
ernment in  the  Union  may  be  too  feeble  for  an  opposite 
and  hostile  element  external  to,  or  even  within,  the  state ; 
and  such  are  precisely  the  cases  with  which  we  are  now 
dealing. 

An  attempt  to  guarantee  and  protect  a  revived  state 
government,  constructed  in  whole,  or  in  preponderating 
part,  from  the  very  element  against  whose  hostility  and 
violence  it  is  to  be  protected,  is  simply  absurd.  There 
must  be  a  test  by  which  to  separate  the  opposing  ele- 
ments, so  as  to  build  only  from  the  sound;  and  that  test 
is  a  sufficiently  liberal  one  which  accepts  as  sound  who- 
ever will  make  a  sworn  recantation  of  his  former  un- 
soundness. 

But  if  it  be  proper  to  require,  as  a  test  of  admission 
to  the  political  body,  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  and  to  the  Union  under 
it,  why  also  to  the  laws  and  proclamations  in  regard  to 
slavery?  Those  laws  and  proclamations  were  enacted 
and  put  forth  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  in  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  rebellion.  To  give  them  their  fullest  elTect, 
there  had  to  be  a  pledge  for  their  maintenance.  In  my 
judgment  they  have  aided,  and  will  further  aid,  the 
cause  for  which  they  were  intended.  To  now  abandon 
them  would  be  not  only  to  relinquish  a  lever  of  power, 
but  would  also  be  a  cruel  and  an  astounding  breach  of 
faith.  I  may  add,  at  this  point,  that  while  I  remain  in 
my  present  position  I  shall  not  attempt  to  retract  or 
modify  the  Emancipation  Proclamation;  nor  shall  I 
return  to  slavery  any  person  who  is  free  by  the  terms  of 
that  proclamation,  or  by  any  of  the  acts  of  Congress. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX  391 

For  these  and  other  reasons  it  is  thought  best  that  sup- 
port of  these  measures  shall  be  included  in  the  oath ; 
and  it  is  believed  the  Executive  may  lawfully  claim  it 
in  return  for  pardon  and  restoration  of  forfeited  rights, 
which  he  has  clear  constitutional  power  to  withhold  alto- 
gether, or  grant  upon  the  terms  which  he  shall  deem 
wisest  for  the  public  interest.  It  should  be  observed, 
also,  that  this  part  of  the  oath  is  subject  to  the  modify- 
ing and  abrogating  power  of  legislation  and  supreme 
judicial  decision. 

The  proposed  acquiescence  of  the  national  Executive 
in  any  reasonable  temporary  state  arrangement  for  the 
freed  people  is  made  with  the  view  of  possibly  modify- 
ing the  confusion  and  destitution  which  must  at  best 
attend  all  classes  by  a  total  revolution  of  labor  through- 
out whole  states.  It  is  hoped  that  the  already  deeply 
afflicted  people  in  those  states  may  be  somewhat  more 
ready  to  give  up  the  cause  of  their  affliction,  if,  to  this 
extent,  this  vital  matter  be  left  to  themselves  ;  while  no 
power  of  the  national  Executive  to  prevent  an  abuse  is 
abridged  by  the  proposition. 

The  suggestion  in  the  proclamation  as  to  maintaining 
the  political  framework  of  the  states  on  what  is  called 
reconstruction  is  made  in  the  hope  that  it  may  do  good 
without  danger  of  harm.  It  will  save  labor,  and  avoid 
great  confusion. 

But  why  any  proclamation  now  upon  this  subject.'' 
This  question  is  beset  with  the  conflicting  views  that  the 
step  might  be  delayed  too  long  or  be  taken  too  soon. 
In  some  states  the  elements  for  resumption  seem  ready 
for  action,  but  remain  inactive  apparently  for  want  of  a 
rallying  point — a  plan  of  action.  Why  shall  A  adopt 
the  plan  of  B,  rather  than  B  that  of  A?  And  if  A  and 
B  should  agree,  how  can  they  know  but  that  the  general 
government  here  will  reject  their  plan?  By  the  procla- 
mation a  plan  is  presented  which  may  be  accepted  by 
them  as  a  rallying  point,  and  which  they  are  assured  in 


392  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

advance    will    not    be    rejected    here.      This    may    bring 
them  to  act  sooner  than  they  otherwise  would. 

The  objection  to  a  premature  presentation  of  a  plan 
by  the  national  Executive  consists  in  the  danger  of  com- 
mittals on  points  which  could  be  more  safely  left  to  fur- 
ther developments.  Care  has  been  taken  to  so  shape  the 
document  as  to  avoid  embarrassments  from  this  source. 
Saying  that,  on  certain  terms,  certain  classes  will  be 
pardoned,  with  rights  restored,  it  is  not  said  that  other 
classes,  or  other  terms,  will  never  be  included.  Saying 
that  reconstruction  will  be  accepted  if  presented  in  a 
specified  way,  it  is  not  said  it  will  never  be  accepted  in 
any  other  way. 

The  movements,  by  state  action,  for  emancipation  in 
several  of  the  states  not  included  in  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  are  matters  of  profound  gratulation.  And 
while  I  do  not  repeat  in  detail  what  I  have  heretofore 
so  earnestly  urged  upon  this  subject,  my  general  views 
and  feelings  remain  unchanged ;  and  I  trust  that  Con- 
gress will  omit  no  fair  opportunity  of  aiding  these 
important  steps  to  a  great  consummation. 

In  the  midst  of  other  cares,  however  important,  we 
must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  war  power  is 
still  our  main  reliance.  To  that  power  alone  can  we 
look,  yet  for  a  time,  to  give  confidence  to  the  people  in 
the  contested  regions  that  the  insurgent  power  will  not 
again  overrun  them.  Until  that  confidence  shall  be 
established,  little  can  be  done  anywhere  for  what  is 
called  reconstruction.  Hence  our  chiefest  care  must 
still  be  directed  to  the  army  and  navy,  who  have  thus  far 
borne  their  harder  part  so  nobly  and  well.  And  it  may 
be  esteemed  fortunate  that  in  giving  the  greatest  effi- 
ciency to  these  indispensable  arms,  we  do  also  honorably 
recognize  the  gallant  men,  from  commander  to  sentinel, 
who  compose  them,  and  to  whom,  more  than  to  others, 
the  world  must  stand  indebted  for  the  home  of  freedom 
disenthralled,  regenerated,  enlarged,  and  perpetuated. 

Abraham  I>incolx 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  393 

In  February,  1864,  it  became  necessary  to  call  for  a  new 
draft.*  Lincoln  issued  the  call,  which  was  very  unpopular. 
The  feeling  in  Chicago  was  particularly  intense.  The  city  had 
already  furnished  a  large  number  of  troops  and  there  was  a 
general  desire  to  secure  some  modification  of  the  order.  A  group 
of  prominent  citizens  went  to  Washington  to  attempt  to  bring 
it  about.  Lincoln  heard  the  War  Department  and  the  Chicago 
delegation  present  the  opposing  sides  of  the  question,  and  at 
the  close  burst  out  with  darkened  face  and  angry  voice: 

"Gentlemen,  after  Boston,  Chicago  has  been  the  chief  instru- 
ment in  bringing  this  war  on  the  country.  The  Northwest  has 
opposed  the  South  as  New  England  has  opposed  the  South. 
It  is  you  who  are  largely  responsible  for  making  blood  flow  as 
it  has.  You  called  for  war  until  we  had  it.  You  called  for 
emancipation,  and  I  have  given  it  to  you.  Whatever  you  have 
asked  for  you  have  had.  Now  you  come  here  begging  to  be 
let  off  from  the  call  for  men  which  I  have  made  to  carry  out 
the  war  you  have  demanded.  You  ought  to  be  ashamed  of 
yourselves.  I  have  a  right  to  expect  better  things  of  you.  Go 
home  and  raise  your  6000  extra  men." 

With  the  opening  of  the  year  1864,  the  question  of  the  presi- 
dential election  became  an  important  one.  Secretary  Chase 
never  recovered  from  his  belief  that  he,  and  not  Lincoln,  should 
have  been  nominated  for  President  in  1860.  As  time  passed,  he 
became  very  anxious  to  receive  the  nomination  in  1864.  The 
Republican  platform  of  1860  had  committed  the  party  to  a 
single  presidential  term,  and  in  the  fall  of  1863  most  of  the 
party  leaders  failed  to  agree  with  Lincoln  that  it  was  "unsafe 
to  swap  horses  while  crossing  a  stream."  He  had  against  him 
the  bitter  hostility  of  the  radical  wing  of  the  party  and  also  a 
large  part  of  the  conservative  leaders,  who  doubted  his  ability 
and  were  quietly  seeking  an  abler  man. 

Chase  was  doing  all  he  could  to  win  the  radical  group  and 
finally  "consented"  that  his  name  should  be  submitted  to  the 
party.  In  February,  1864,  Senator  Pomeroy  of  Kansas  sent 
out  a  "confidential"  circular,  calling  for  organization  in  behalf 
of  Chase's  candidacy.  Lincoln  was  aware  of  every  step  taken, 
but  of  course  did  not  mention  the  movement  to  Chase.  When 
the  Pomeroy  circular  appeared.  Chase  wrote  him  that  he  had 

*\s  the  war  progressed,  volunteering  ceased,  and  it  became 
necessary  to  draft  or  conscript  men  for  the  army. 


394  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

known  nothing  of  it  until  he  saw  it  in  the  newspapers,  but 
admitted  that  he  had  consented  to  the  use  of  his  nanie,  and 
cidded  that,  if  Lincoln  felt  this  would  interfere  with  his  use- 
fulness as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  he  would  resign.  Lin- 
coln thus  replied: 

TO  SALMON  P.  CHASE 

Executive  Mansion, 
AVashington,   February   23,    18t)4< 
Hon.  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

My  dear  Sir:     Yours  of  yesterday  in  relation  to  the 
paper   issued   by    Senator    Pomeroy   was    duly   received ; 
and  I  write  this  note  merely  to  say  I  will  answer  a  little 
more  fully  when  I  can  find  time  to  do  so. 
Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

TO  SALMON  P.  CHASE 

Executive    Mansion, 
Washington,  February   29,    186i 
Hon.  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

My  dear  Sir:  I  would  have  taken  time  to  answer 
yours  of  the  2d  sooner,  only  that  I  did  not  suppose  any 
evil  could  result  from  the  delay,  especially  as,  by  a  note, 
I  promptly  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  yours,  and 
promised  a  fuller  answer.  Now,  on  consideration,  I 
find  there  is  really  very  little  to  say.  ^ly  knowledge 
of  Mr.  Pomeroy's  letter  having  been  made  public  came 
to  me  only  the  day  you  wrote,  but  I  had,  in  spite  of 
myself,  known  of  its  existence  several  days  before.  I 
have  not  yet  read  it,  and  I  think  I  shall  not.  I  was  not 
shocked  or  surprised  by  the  appearance  of  the  letter, 
because  I  had  had  knowledge  of  ^Mr.  Pomeroy's  com- 
mittee, and  of  secret  issues  M'hich  I  supposed  came  from 
it,  and  of  secret  agents  who  I  supposed  were  sent  out  by 
it,  for  several  weeks.  I  have  known  just  as  little  of 
these  things   as   my  friends   have   allowed   me   to  know. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  395 

They  bring  the  documents  to  me,  but  I  do  not  read 
them;  they  tell  me  what  they  think  fit  to  tell  me,  but  I 
do  not  inquire  for  more.  I  fulh^  concur  with  you  that 
neither  of  us  can  be  justly  held  responsible  for  what 
our  respective  friends  may  do  without  our  instigation  or 
countenance;  and  I  assure  you,  as  you  have  assured  me, 
that  no  assault  has  been  made  upon  you  by  my  instiga- 
tion or  with  my  countenance.  Whether  you  shall  remain 
at  the  head  of  the  Treasury  .Department  is  a  question 
which  I  will  not  allow  myself  to  consider  from  any 
standpoint  other  than  my  judgment  of  the  public  serv- 
ice, andj  in  that  view,  I  do  not  perceive  occasion  for  a 
change. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

A  few  days  later  the  Republican  members  of  the  Ohio 
legislature  declared  for  Lincoln's  renomination  and,  with  his 
own  state  against  him,  there  was  nothing  for  Chase  to  do  but 
to  withdraw.  Later  in  the  year  he  resigned,  as  he  had  done 
several  times  before,  and.  to  his  surprise,  Lincoln  accepted  the 
resignation.  When  Chief  Justice  Taney  died  in  the  autumn, 
I  incoln,  after  long  consideration,  appointed  Chase  to  succeed 
b.im. 

In  March,  1861-,  reconstruction  under  Lincoln's  plan  had 
proceeded  far  enough  in  Louisiana  for  the  election  of  a  gov- 
ernor. He  was  inaugurated  on  March  4,  and  Lincoln  wrote 
this  letter  of  congratulation,  which  is  chiefly  interesting  for  its 
suggestion  of  limited  negro  suffrage,  intended,  without  doubt, 
to  forestall  radical  opposition. 

TO  MICHAEL  HAHN 

[Private] 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,    March    13,    1864 
Hon.  Michael  Hahn. 

My  dear  Sir:  I  congratulate  you  on  having  fixed 
your  name  in  history  as  the  first  free  state  governor  of 
Louisiana.      Now  you   are   about   to   have   a   convention, 


396  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

which  among  other  things,  will  probably  define  the  elec- 
tive franchise.  I  barely  suggest  for  your  private  con- 
sideration, whether  some  of  the  colored  people  may  not 
be  let  in — as,  for  instance,  the  very  intelligent,  and  espe- 
cially those  who  have  fought  gallantly  in  our  ranks. 
They  would  probably  help,  in  some  trying  time  to  come, 
to  keep  the  jewel  of  liberty  within  the  family  of 
freedom.  But  this  is  only  a  suggestion,  not  to  the  public, 
but  to  you  alone.* 

Yours  truly, 

A.    LiXCOLN 

In  March,  Governor  Thomas  E.  Bramlette  of  Kentucky 
was  in  "Washington  to  confer  about  the  execution  of  the  draft 
in  his  state  and  to  protest  against  the  enrollment  of  negro 
soldiers.  With  Colonel  Albert  Gallatin  Hodges,  a  prominent 
Kentucky  editor,  and  former  Senator  Archibald  Dixon,  he 
called  upon  the  President.  The  following  letter  resulted  from 
that  interview.  It  will  be  noted  that  in  the  concluding  para- 
graph appears  a   foreshadowing  of  his  second  inaugural. 

TO  A.   G.  HODGES 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  April   4,    1864 
A.  G.  Hodges,  Esq., 

Frankfort,  Kentucky 
My  dear  Sir:     You  ask  me  to  put  in  writing  the  sub- 
stance  of  what   I   verbally   said   the   other   day   in  your 
presence,    to    Governor    Bramlette    and    Senator    Dixon. 
It  was  about  as  follows: 

"I  am  naturally  anti-slavery.     If  slavery  is  not  wrong, 

nothing  is  wrong.      I  cannot  remember  when  I  did  not 

so  think  and  feel,  and  yet  I  have  never  understood  that 

the , presidency  conferred  upon  me  an  unrestricted  right 

to  act  officially  upon  this  judgment  and  feeling.     It  was 

in  the  oath  I  took  that  I  would,  to  the  best  of  my  ability, 

•  Negro  suffrage  was  not  granted  by  the  constitution  adopted, 
but  the  legislature  was  empowered  to  grant  it. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  397 

preserve,  protect,  and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  I  could  not  take  the  office  without 
taking  the  oath.  Nor  was  it  my  view  that  I  might  take 
an  oath  to  get  power,  and  break  the  oath  in  using  the 
power.  I  understood,  too,  that  in  ordinary  civil  admin- 
istration this  oath  even  forbade  me  to  practically  indulge 
my  primary  abstract  judgment  on  the  moral  question  of 
slavery.  I  had  publicly  declared  this  many  times,  and 
in  many  ways.  And  I  aver  that,  to  this  day,  I  have 
done  no  official  act  in  mere  deference  to  my  abstract 
judgm'^nt  and  feeling  on  slavery.  I  did  understand, 
however,  that  my  oath  to  preserve  the  Constitution  to 
the  best  of  my  ability  imposed  upon  me  the  duty  of 
preserving,  by  every  indispensable  means,  that  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  ampu- 
tated to  save  a  life;  but  a  life  is  never  wisely  given  to 
save  a  limb.  I  felt  that  measures  otherwise  unconsti- 
tutional might  become  lawful  by  becoming  indispensable 
to  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution  through  the 
preservation  of  the  nation.  Right  or  wrong,  I  assumed 
this  ground,  and  now  avow  it.  I  could  not  feel  that, 
to  the  best  of  my  ability,  I  had  even  tried  to  preserve  the 
Constitution,  if,  to  save  slavery  or  any  minor  matter,  I 
should  permit  the  wreck  of  government,  country,  and 
Constitution  all  together.  When,  early  in  the  war,  Gen- 
eral Fremont  attempted  military  emancipation,  I  for- 
bade 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.  When  still  later.  General  Hunter  attempted 
military  emancipation,  I  again  forbade  it,  because  I  did 
not  yet  think  the  indispensable  necessity  had  come. 
When  in  March  and  May  and  July,  1862,  I  made  earn- 


398  SELECTIONS  FEOM  LINCOLN 

est  and  successive  appeals  to  the  border  states  to  favor 
compensated  emancipation,  I  believed  the  indispensable 
necessity  for  military  emancipation  and  arming  the 
blacks  would  come,  unless  averted  by  that  measure. 
They  declined  the  proposition,  and  I  was,  in  my  best 
judgment,  driven  to  the  alternative  of  either  surrender- 
ing 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  entirely  confident.  More 
than  a  year  of  trial  now  shows  no  loss  by  it  in  our  for- 
eign relations,  none  in  our  home  popular  sentiment,  none 
in  our  white  military  force — no  loss  by  it  anyhow  or 
anywhere.  On  tlie  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  the 
measure  test  himself  by  writing  down  in  one  line  that 
he  is  for  subduing  the  rebellion  by  force  of  arms;  and 
in  the  next,  that  he  is  for  taking  these  hundred  and 
thirty  thousand  men  from  the  Union  side,  and  placing 
them  where  they  would  be  but  for  the  measure  he  con- 
demns. If  he  cannot  face  his  case  so  stated,  it  is  only 
because  he  cannot  face  the  truth." 

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


SELECTIONS    FROM    LIXCOLX  399 

plicity  in  that  wrong,  impartial  history  will  find  therein 
new  cause  to  attest  and  revere  the  justice  and  goodness 
of  God. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

In  February,  General  Grant  was  made  a  lieutenant  general 
and  was  called  to  Washington  to  receive  his  commission. 
While  there  he  was  placed  in  command  of  the  armies  of  the 
Cnited  States.  Lincoln  met  him  for  the  first  time  and  urged 
upon  him  the  capture  of  Richmond  as  a  thing  of  supreme 
importance,  promising  him,  at  the  same  time,  full  support. 
Grant  impressed  Lincoln  with  great  confidence,  which  is  reflected 
in  this  letter: 


TO  GENERAL  U.  S.  GRANT 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  April  30,  1864 
Lieutenant  General  Grant:  Not  expecting  to  see 
you  again  fcefore  the  spring  campaign  opens,  I  wish  to 
express  in  this  way  my  entire  satisfaction  with  what  3'ou 
have  done  up  to  this  time,  so  far  as  I  understand  it. 
The  particulars  of  your  plans  I  neither  know  nor  seek 
to  know.  You  are  vigilant  and  self-reliant;  and,  pleased 
with  this,  I  wish  not  to  obtrude  any  constraints  or 
restraints  upon  you.  While  I  am  very  anxious  that  any 
great  disaster  or  capture  of  our  men  in  great  numbers 
shall  be  avoided,  I  know  these  points  are  less  likely  to 
escape  your  attention  than  they  would  be  mine.  If 
there  is  anything  wanting  which  is  within  my  power  to 
give,  do  not  fail  to  let  me  know  it.  And  now,  with  a 
brave  army  and  a  just  cause,  may  God  sustain  you. 
Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

Beginning  with  the  suspension  of  the  privilege  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  by  the  President  in  1861,  there  was  constant 


4C0  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

and  steadily  growing  interference  by  the  military  authorities, 
acting  under  the  war  power  of  the  President,  with  the  freedom 
of  individuals.  "Not  only  in  Maryland,  and  the  regions  near 
the  seat  of  war,  but  in  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  land,  from 
Maine  to  California,  men  were  seized  without  any  information 
as  to  the  charges  against  them,  and  were  confined  in  forts  and 
prison  camps."*  During  1863  this  military  dictatorship,  in 
which  "all  the  powers  of  government  were  virtually  concen- 
trated in  a  single  department,  and  that  the  department  whose 
energies  were  directed  by  the  will  of  a  single  man,"t  became 
more  stringent  than  ever.  Arbitrary  arrests  were  increasingly 
frequent,  the  trial  of  citizens  not  in  the  military  service  of  the 
country  by  military  commissions,  a  form  of  court  unknown  to 
the  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  ceased  to 
be  any  novelty,  and  newspapers  were  compelled  to  suspend  pub- 
lication because  their  opinions  did  not  coincide  with  those  of 
military  officers.  Civil  liberty  as  guaranteed  under  the  Consti- 
tution no  longer  existed,  for  freedom  of  speech,  of  the  press, 
and  of  the  person  had  disappeared.  Lincoln  had  sunk  every 
other  consideration  in  the  winning  of  the  war,  and  was  justified 
in  his  policy  by  his  legal  advisers,  who  held  that  as  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  army,  exercising  the  war  power,  he  was  prac- 
tically unhampered  by  any  legal  restrictions. 

These  things  were  bitterly  unpopular  at  the  time,  but  with 
the  final  success  of  the  Union  cause  it  became  usual  to  condemn 
those  who  opposed  the  interference  with  constitutional  rights 
by  the  military  power  as  unpatriotic.  A  sounder  and  saner 
view  is  that  of  Carl  Schurz,  who  said: 

"Nobody  should  be  blamed  who,  when  such  things  are  done, 
in  good  faith  and  from  patriotic  motives,  protests  against  them. 
In  a  republic,  arbitrary  stretches  of  power,  even  when  de- 
manded by  necessity,  should  never  be  permitted  to  pass  with- 
out a  protest  on  the  one  hand  and  an  apology  on  the  other. 
It  is  well  they  did  not  so  pass  during  our  civil  war, 

"That  arbitrary  measures  were  resorted  to,  is  true.  .  .  . 
No  American  President  ever  wielded  such  power  as  that  which 
was  thrust  into  Lincoln's  hands.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  no 
American  President  ever  will  have  to  be  intrusted  with  such 
power  again." 

•Dunning,  Essays  on  Civil  War  and  Reconstruction,  page  38. 
t/dki.,  pag-e  21. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  40I 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  examples  of  the  operations  of 
the  military  dictatorship*  occurred  in  May,  186'L  A  new  call 
for  a  draft  was  generally  expected,  and  everyone  knew  that  it 
would  cause  stocks  to  fall,  and  result  in  business  and  financial 
depression.  Certain  stock  speculators  managed  to  imitate 
very  cleverly  the  press  telegrams  from  Washington  with  a 
forged  proclamation  from  the  President  calling  for  troops.  It 
came  very  late  and  the  World  and  Journal  of  Commerce,  not 
doubting  its  authenticity,  published  it.  The  Tribune  would 
have  done  so  had  not  its  edition  already  gone  to  press.  The 
incident  called  forth  the  action  described  in  this  proclamation: 

TO  GENERAL  JOHN  A.  DIX 

Executive  Mansion, 

Washington,  D.  C,  May  18,  1864 
Major  General  Dix,  Commanding  at  New  York: 
Whereas  there  has  been  wickedly  and  traitorously  printed 
and  published  this  morning  in  the  New  York  World  and 
New  York  Journal  of  Commerce,  newspapers  printed 
and  published  in  the  city  of  New  York,  a  false  and 
spurious  proclamation,  purporting  to  be  signed  by  the 
President  and  to  be  countersigned  by  the  Secretary  of 
State,  which  publication  is  of  a  treasonable  nature 
designed  to  give  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemies  of  the 
United  States  and  to  the  rebels  now  at  war  against  the 
government,  and  their  aiders  and  abetters ;  you  are 
therefore  hereby  commanded  forthwith  to  arrest  and 
imprison,  in  any  fort  or  military  prison  in  your  com- 
mand, the  editors,  proprietors,  and  publishers  of  the 
aforesaid  newspapers,  and  all  such  persons  as,  after 
public  notice  has  been  given  of  the  falsehood  of  said 
publication,  print  and  publish  the  same  with  intent  to 
give  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy;  and  you  will  hold 
the  persons  so  arrested  in  close  custody  until  they  can 
be  brought  to  trial  before  a  military  commission  for 
their  offense.  You  will  also  take  possession  by  military 
force,  of  the  printing  establishments  of  the  New  York 
*See  footnote,  page  2S4. 


402  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

World  and  Journal  of  Commerce,  and  hold  the  same 
until  further  orders,  and  prevent  any  further  publica- 
tion therefrom. 

A.  Lincoln 
President  of  the  United  States 
By  the  President: 

William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State 

When  the  presidential  campaign  of  1864  came,  Lincoln  was 
renominated  by  the  National  Union  Convention,  which  met  in 
Baltimore.  Through  his  influence,  Andrew  Johnson  of  Ten- 
nessee was  nominated  for  Vice  President.  This  choice  was 
dictated  by  a  desire  to  show  the  outside  world,  by  the  selection 
of  a  Southerner,  that  the  seceded  states  were  still  a  part  of 
the  Union,  and  a  desire  to  express  to  the  country,  by  the 
nomination  of  a  Democrat,  the  reality  of  the  name  Union  party, 
which  the  Republicans  assumed  in  this  campaign.  It  is  not  at 
all  improbable  that  a  third  reason  influenced  Lincoln.  The 
problem  of  the  reconstruction  of  the  seceded  states  was  in  his 
opinion  of  first  magnitude.  It  is  more  than  probable  that 
Johnson's  known  agreement  with  his  own  views,  and  his  con- 
nection as  military  governor  with  his  plan,  may  have  been  a 
leading  cause  of  the  decision. 

The  radical  elements,  still  dissatisfied  with  Lincoln,  had 
acted  before  the  Baltimore  convention.  At  a  mass  convention 
held  in  Cleveland  they  nominated  John  C.  Fremont  for  Presi- 
dent. The  convention  was  a  farce  and,  instead  of  the  thou- 
sands expected,  only  four  hundred  were  in  attendance.  When 
this  was  mentioned  to  Lincoln,  he  reached  for  the  Bible  which 
was  always  on  his  desk,  and  read  this  verse  from  the  second 
chapter  of  the  First  Book  of  Samuel:  "And  everyone  that  was 
in  distress,  and  everyone  that  was  in  debt,  and  everyone  that 
was  discontented  gathered  themselves  unto  him;  and  he  be- 
came a  captain  over  them;  and  there  were  with  him  about  four 
hundred   men." 

The  Democrats  nominated  General  George  B.  McClellan  on 
a  platform  which  declared, 

"Resolved,  That  this  convention  does  explicitly  declare,  as 
the  sense  of  the  American  people,  that  after  four  years  of 
failure  to  restore  the  Union  by  the  experiment  of  war,  during 
which  under  the  pretense  of  a  military  necessity,  or  war  power 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  403 

higher  than  the  Constitution,  the  Constitution  itself  has  been 
disregarded  in  every  part,  and  public  liberty  and  private  right 
alike  trodden  down  and  the  material  prosperity  of  the  country 
essentially  impaired,  justice,  humanity,  liberty,  and  the  public 
welfare  demand  that  immediate  efforts  be  made  for  a  cessation 
of  hostilities,  with  a  view  to  an  ultimate  convention  of  states, 
or  other  peaceable  means,  to  the  end  that  at  the  earliest  prac- 
ticable moment  peace  may  be  restored  on  the  basis  of  the 
Federal  Union  of  the  states." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  campaign  all  the  signs  pointed  to 
Lincoln's  defeat.  A  serious  Republican  revolt  was  in  progress 
which  might  mean  a  further  split  in  the  party.  He  himself 
thought  that  defeat  could  not  be  avoided,  and  a  week  before 
tBe  Democratic  convention,  he  wrote  this  memorandum  which 
he  showed  folded  up  to  his  cabinet,  getting  all  the  members 
to  sign  it  on  the  back  and  not  mentioning  its  contents.  After 
the  election,  he  showed  it  to  them,  saying,  "At  least,  I  should 
have  done  my  duty  and  have  stood  clear  before  my  own 
conscience." 

MEM0RANDU3I 
[August  23,  1864] 

This  morning,  as  for  some  days  past,  it  seems  exceed- 
ingly probable  that  this  administration  will  not  be 
reelected.  Then  it  will  be  my  duty  to  so  cooperate  with 
the  President-elect  as  to  save  the  Union  between  the 
election  and  the  inauguration ;  as  he  will  have  secured 
his  election  on  such  ground  that  he  cannot  possibly  save 
it  afterward. 

A.  Lincoln 

Fremont  withdrew  in  September  and,  the  military  successes 
of  the  autumn  giving  the  administration  renewed  strength, 
Lincoln  was  reelected  by  a  large  majority. 

The  losses  in  human  life  of  the  war  were  terrific,  and 
Lincoln's  tender  heart  was  wrung  by  the  suffering  of  those 
bereaved.  His  tenderness  and  kindness  of  heart  were  more  apt 
to  be  displayed  in  action  than  in  words,  but  a  few  of  his 
letters  are   full   of  these   qualities,   and  the   one   which   follows 


404  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

abounds  in  them.  It  is  further,  in  its  loftiness  of  spirit,  its 
severe  self-restraint,  and  its  simplicity  of  style,  one  of  the  most 
perfect  of  letters  of  condolence. 

TO  MRS.  BIXBY 

Executive    Mansion, 
Washington,    November    21,    1864 
Mrs.  Bixby,  Boston,  Mass. 

Dear  Madam:  I  have  been  shown  in  the  files  of  the 
War  Department  a  statement  of  the  Adjutant-General 
of  Massachusetts  that  you  are  the  mother  of  five  sons 
who  have  died  gloriously  on  the  field  of  battle.  I  feel 
how  weak  and  fruitless  must  be  any  words  of  mine 
which  should  attempt  to  beguile  you  from  the  grief  of  a 
loss  so  overwhelming.  But  I  cannot  refrain  from  ten- 
dering to  you  the  consolation  that  may  be  found  in  the 
thanks  of  the  republic  they  died  to  save.  I  pray  that 
our  Heavenly  Father  may  assuage  the  anguish  of  your 
bereavement,  and  leave  you  only  the  cherished  memory 
of  the  loved  and  lost,  and  the  solemn  pride  that  must  be 
yours  to  have  laid  so  costly  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of 
freedom. 

Yours  very  sincerely  and  respectfully, 

Abraham  Lincoln 

By  1864,  Lincoln  was  convinced  that  the  time  had  come  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery  by  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution, 
[n  his  annual  message  he  discusses  this  point  and  also  the 
progress  of  his  plan  of  reconstruction  in  Louisiana,  Arkansas, 
and  Tennessee. 

EXTRACT  FROM  ANXUAL  MESSAGE   TO  CONGRESS 
[December  6,  1864] 

Fellow-Citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives: Again  the  blessings  of  health  and  abun- 
dant harvests  claim  our  profoundest  gratitude  to 
Almighty  God. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN  405 

The  war  continues.  Since  the  last  annual  message, 
all  the  important  lines  and  positions  then  occupied  by 
our  forces  have  been  maintained,  and  our  arms  have 
steadily  advanced,  thus  liberating  the  regions  left  in  the 
rear;  so  that  Missouri,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  parts 
of  other  states  have  again  produced  reasonably  fair 
crops. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  in  the  military  opera- 
tions of  the  year  is  General  Sherman's  attempted  march 
of  three  hundred  miles,  directly  through  the  insurgent 
region.  It  tends  to  show  a  great  increase  in  our  rela- 
tive strength,  that  our  general-in-chief  should  feel  able 
to  confront  and  hold  in  check  every  active  force  of  the 
enemy,  and  yet  to  detach  a  well-appointed  large  army 
to  move  on  such  an  expedition.  The  result  not  being 
yet  known,  conjecture  in  regard  to  it  is  not  here 
indulged. 

Important  movements  have  also  occurred  during  the 
year  to  the  effect  of  molding  society  for  durability  in 
the  Union.  Although  short  of  complete  success,  it  is 
much  in  the  right  direction  that  12,000  citizens  in  each 
of  the  states  of  Arkansas  and  Louisiana  have  organized 
loyal  state  governments,  with  free  constitutions,  and  are 
earnestly  struggling  to  maintain  and  administer  them. 
The  movements  in  the  same  direction,  more  extensive 
though  less  definite,  in  Missouri,  Kentucky,  and  Ten- 
nessee, should  not  be  overlooked.  But  Maryland  pre- 
sents the  example  of  complete  success.  Maryland  is 
secure  to  liberty  and  Union  for  all  the  future.  The 
genius  of  rebellion  will  no  more  claim  Maryland.  Like 
another  foul  spirit,  being  driven  out,  it  may  seek  to 
tear  her,  but  it  will  woo  her  no  more.* 

At  the  last  session  of  Congress  a  proposed  amendment 
to  the  Constitution,  abolishing  slavery  throughout  the 
United  States,  passed  the  Senate,  but  failed  for  lack  of 
the  requisite  two-thirds  vote  in  the  House  of  Represen- 

•Mark   ix,    17-26. 


406  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN 

tatives.  Although  the  present  is  the  same  Congress,  and 
nearly  the  same  members,  and  without  questioning  the 
wisdom  or  patriotism  of  those  who  stood  in  opposition, 
I  venture  to  recommend  the  reconsideration  and  passage 
of  the  measure  at  the  present  session.  Of  course  the 
abstract  question  is  not  changed,  but  an  intervening 
election  shows,  almost  certainly,  that  the  next  Congress 
will  pass  the  measure  if  this  does  not.  Hence  there  is 
only  a  question  of  time  as  to  when  the  proposed  amend- 
ment will  go  to  the  states  for  their  action.  And  as  it 
is  to  so  go,  at  all  events,  may  we  not  agree  that  the 
sooner  the  better.^  It  is  not  claimed  that  the  election 
has  imposed  a  duty  on  members  to  change  their  views 
or  their  votes  any  further  than  as  an  additional  element 
to  be  considered,  their  judgment  may  be  affected  by  it. 
It  is  the  voice  of  the  people  now  for  the  first  time  heard 
upon  the  question.  In  a  great  national  crisis  like  ours, 
unanimity  of  action  among  those  seeking  a  common  end 
is  very  desirable — almost  indispensable.  And  yet  no 
approach  to  such  unanimity  is  attainable  unless  some 
deference  shall  be  paid  to  the  will  of  the  majority, 
simply  because  it  is  the  will  of  the  majority.  In  this 
case  the  common  end  is  the  maintenance  of  the  Union, 
and  among  the  means  to  secure  that  end,  such  will, 
through  the  election,  is  most  clearly  declared  in  favor 
of  such  constitutional  amendment. 

The  most  reliable  indication  of  public  purpose  in 
this  country  is  derived  through  our  popular  elections. 
Judging  by  the  recent  canvass  and  its  result,  the  pur- 
pose of  the  people  within  the  loyal  states  to  maintain 
the  integrity  of  the  Union,  was  never  more  firm  nor  more 
nearly  unanimous  than  now.  The  extraordinary  calm- 
ness and  good  order  with  which  the  millions  of  voters 
met  and  mingled  at  the  polls  give  strong  assurance  of 
this.  Not  only  all  those  who  supported  the  Union 
ticket,  so  called,  but  a  great  majority  of  the  opposing 
party  also,  may  be  fairly  claimed  to  entertain,  and  to  be 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLN  407 

actuated  by,  the  same  purpose.  It  is  an  unanswerable 
argument  to  this  effect,  that  no  candidate  for  any  office 
whatever,  high  or  low,  has  ventured  to  seek  votes  on  the 
avowal  that  he  was  for  giving  up  the  Union.  There  has 
been  much  impugning  of  motives,  and  much  heated  con- 
troversy as  to  the  proper  means  and  best  mode  of 
advancing  the  Union  cause;  but  on  the  distinct  issue  of 
Union  or  no  Union  the  politicians  have  shown  their 
instinctive  knowledge  that  there  is  no  diversity  among 
the  people.  In  affording  the  people  the  fair  opportun- 
ity of  showing  one  to  another  and  to  the  world  this  firm- 
ness and  unanimity  of  purpose,  the  election  has  been  of 
vast  value  to  the  national  cause. 

The  election  has  exhibited  another  fact,  not  less  valu- 
able to  be  known — the  fact  that  we  do  not  approach 
exhaustion  in  the  most  important  branch  of  national 
resources — that  of  living  men.  While  it  is  melancholy 
to  reflect  that  the  war  has  filled  so  many  graves,  and 
carried  mourning  to  so  many  hearts,  it  is  some  relief  to 
know  that  compared  with  the  surviving,  the  fallen  have 
been  so  few.  While  corps,  and  divisions,  and  brigades, 
and  regiments  have  formed,  and  fought,  and  dwindled, 
and  gone  out  of  existence,  a  great  majority  of  the  men 
who  composed  them  are  still  living.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  naval  service.  The  election  returns  prove  this. 
So  many  voters  could  not  else  be  found.  The  states 
regularly  holding  elections,  both  now  and  four  years 
ago — to  wit:  California,  Connecticut,  Delaware,  Illi- 
nois, Indiana,  Iowa,  Kentucky,  Maine,  Maryland,  Mas- 
sachusetts, Michigan,  Minnesota,  Missouri,  New  Hamp- 
shire, New  Jersey,  New  York,  Ohio,  Oregon,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Rhode  Island,  Vermont,  West  Virginia,  and  Wis- 
consin— cast  3,982,011  votes  now,  against  3,870,222  cast 
then;  showing  an  aggregate  now  of  3,982,011.  To 
this  is  to  be  added  33,762  cast  now  in  the  new  states  of 
Kansas  and  Nevada,  which  states  did  not  vote  in  1860; 
thus   swelling  the  aggregate  to   4,015,773,  and   the  net 


408  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

increase  during  the  three  years  and  a  half  of  war,  to 
145,551.  A  table  is  appended,  showing  particulars.  To 
this  again  should  be  added  the  number  of  all  soldiers  in 
the  field  from  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  New  Jer- 
sey, Delaware,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  California,  who  by 
the  laws  of  those  states  could  not  vote  away  from  their 
homes,  and  which  number  cannot  be  less  than  90,000. 
Nor  yet  is  this  all.  The  number  in  organized  terri- 
tories is  triple  now  what  it  was  four  years  ago,  while 
thousands,  white  and  black,  join  us  as  the  national  arms 
press  back  the  insurgent  lines.  So  much  is  shown, 
affirmatively  and  negatively,  by  the  election. 

It  is  not  material  to  inquire  how  the  increase  has  been 
produced,  or  to  show  that  it  would  have  been  greater 
but  for  the  war,  which  is  probably  true.  The  important 
fact  remains  demonstrated  that  we  have  more  men  now 
than  we  had  when  the  war  began ;  that  we  are  not 
exhausted,  nor  in  process  of  exhaustion;  that  we  are 
gaining  strength,  and  may,  if  need  be,  maintain  the 
contest  indefinitely.  This  as  to  men.  Material  re- 
sources are  now  more  complete  and  abundant  than  ever. 

The  national  resources,  then,  are  unexhausted,  and,  as 
we  believe,  inexhaustible.  The  public  purpose  to  re- 
establish and  maintain  the  national  authority  is  un- 
changed, and,  as  we  believe  unchangeable.  The  manner 
of  continuing  the  effort  remains  to  choose.  On  careful 
consideration  of  all  the  evidence  accessible,  it  seems  to 
me  that  no  attempt  at  negotiation  with  the  insurgent 
leader  could  result  in  any  good.  He  would  accept  noth- 
ing short  of  severance  of  the  Union — precisely  what  we 
will  not  and  cannot  give.  His  declarations  to  this  effect 
are  explicit  and  oft  repeated.  He  does  not  attempt  to 
deceive  us.  He  affords  us  no  excuse  to  deceive  ourselves. 
He  cannot  voluntarily  reaccept  the  Union ;  we  cannot 
voluntarily  yield  it. 

Between  him  and  us  the  issue  is  distinct,  simple,  and 
inflexible.     It  is  an  issue  which  can  onlv  be  tried  bv  war, 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOLX  409 

and  decided  by  victory.  If  we  yield,  we  are  beaten;  if 
the  Southern  people  fail  him,  he  is  beaten.  Either  way 
it  would  be  the  victory  and  defeat  following  war.  What 
is  true,  however,  of  him  who  heads  the  insurgent  cause, 
is  not  necessarily  true  of  those  who  follow.  Although 
he  cannot  reaccept  the  Union,  they  can.  Some  of  them, 
we  know,  already  desire  peace  and  reunion.  The  number 
of  such  may  increase. 

They,  can  at  any  moment  have  peace  simply  by  laying 
down  their  arms  and  submitting  to  the  national  authority 
under  the  Constitution.  After  so  much  the  government 
could  not,  if  it  would,  maintain  war  against  them.  The 
loyal  people  would  not  sustain  or  allow  it.  If  questions 
should  remain,  we  -would  adjust  them  by  the  peaceful 
means  of  legislation,  conference,  courts,  and  votes, 
operating  only  in  constitutional  and  lawful  channels. 
Some  certain,  and  other  possible,  questions  are,  and 
would  be,  beyond  the  executive  power  to  adjust;  as,  for 
instance,  the  admission  of  members  into  Congress,  and 
whatever  might  require  the  appropriation  of  money. 
The  executive  power  itself  would  be  greatly  diminished 
by  the  cessation  of  actual  war.  Pardons  and  remissions 
of  forfeitures,  however,  would  still  be  within  executive 
control.  In  what  spirit  and  temper  this  control  would 
be  exercised,  can  be  fairly  judged  of  by  the  past. 

A  year  ago  general  pardon  and  amnesty,  upon  speci- 
fied terms,  were  offered  to  all  except  certain  designated 
classes,  and  it  was  at  the  same  time  made  known  that 
the  excepted  classes  were  still  within  contemplation  of 
special  clemency.  During  the  year  many  availed  them- 
selves of  the  general  provision,  and  many  more  would, 
only  that  the  signs  of  bad  faith  in  some  led  to  such 
precautionary  measures  as  rendered  the  practical  process 
less  easy  and  certain.  During  the  same  time,  also, 
special  pardons  have  been  granted  to  individuals  of  the 
excepted  classes,  and  no  voluntary  application  has  been 
denied. 


410  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

Thus,  practically,  the  door  has  been  for  a  full  year 
open  to  all,  exce23t  such  as  were  not  in  condition  to  make 
free  choice — that  is,  such  as  were  in  custody  or  under 
constraint.  It  is  still  so  open  to  all;  but  the  time  may 
come — probably  will  come — when  public  duty  shall  de- 
mand that  it  be  closed;  and  that  in  lieu  more  rigorous 
measures  than  heretofore  shall  be  adopted. 

In  presenting  the  abandonment  of  armed  resistance 
to  the  national  authority  on  the  part  of  the  insurgents 
as  the  only  indispensable  condition  to  ending  the  war 
on  the  part  of  the  government,  I  retract  nothing  hereto- 
fore said  as  to  slavery,  I  repeat  the  declaration  made 
a  year  ago,  that  "while  I  remain  in  my  present  position 
I  shall  not  attempt  to  retract  or  modify  the  Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation,  nor  shall  I  return  to  slavery  any 
person  who  is  free  by  the  terms  of  that  proclamation, 
or  by  any  of  the  acts  of  Congress." 

If  the  people  should,  by  whatever  mode  or  means, 
make  it  an  executive  duty  to  reenslave  such  persons, 
another,  and  not  I,  must  be  their  instrument  to  per- 
form  it. 

In  stating  a  single  condition  of  peace,  I  mean  simply 
to  say  that  the  war  will  cease  on  the  part  of  the  govern- 
ment whenever  it  shall  have  ceased  on  the  part  of  those 
who  began  it. 

Abraham  Lincoln 


When  on  March  4,  1865,  Lincoln  delivered  his  second  in- 
aug:ural  address,  the  end  of  the  war  was  in  sight.  The  marks 
of  the  four  years  in  the  all-consuming  furnace  of  war  had  been 
stamped  upon  his  face  as  upon  his  soul  as  revealed  in  the 
speech  he  was  about  to  make.  Through  all  these  years  he  had 
been  growing  in  patience  and  in  hopefulness;  in  justice  and 
in  understanding;  in  tenderness  and  in  mercy;  in  capacity  and 
in  strength.  With  his  growth  in  greatness  he  had  grown  in 
modesty.  For  whatever  he  may  have  been  in  1861,  now,  after 
the   fiery    furnace    through   which    he   had    passed,   he    was    su- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    LINXOEX  411 

premely  great,  though  not  as  yet  had  his  people  come  to  see 
it.  But  with  it  all  he  was  bowed  with  the  griefs  of  his  people, 
and  his  face  showed  the  truth  of  his  words  at  the  time,  "I 
think  I  shall  never  be  glad  again."  As  Lord  Charnwood  says: 
"This  man  had  stood  alone  in  the  dark.  He  had  done  justice; 
he  had  loved  mercy;  he  had  walked  humbly  with  his  God." 

The  second  inaugural  ranks  with  the  Gettysburg  address  in 
its  simple  yet  wonderfully  felicitous  language  and  style,  its 
deep  feeling,  and  its  "high  seriousness."  It  was  not  generally 
so  regarded  at  the  time,  judging  by  the  comment  of  the  news- 
papers. Like  his  other  addresses,  it  was  to  come  into  its  own 
after  a  time.  One  of  the  most  striking  commentaries  upon 
it  is  that  of  the  London  Spectator  at  a  much  later  day. 

"In  three  or  four  hundred  words  that  burn  with  the  heat  of 
their  compression  he  tells  the  history  of  the  war  and  reads  its 
lesson.  Xo  nobler  thoughts  were  ever  conceived.  No  man 
ever  found  words  more  adequate  to  his  desire.  Here  is  the 
whole  tale  of  the  nation's  shame  and  the  misery  of  her  heroic 
struggles  to  free  herself  therefrom  and  of  her  victory.  Had 
Lincoln  written  a  hundred  times  as  much  more,  he  would  not 
have  said  more  fully  what  he  desired  to  say.  Every  thought 
receives  its  complete  expression,  and  there  is  no  word  employed 
which  does  not  directly  and  manifestly  contribute  to  the  de- 
velopment  of  the   central   thought. 

"AVe  cannot  read  it  without  a  renewed  conviction  that  it  is 
the  noblest  political  document  known  to  history,  and  should 
have  for  the  nation  and  the  statesmen  he  left  behind  him  some- 
thing of  a  sacred  and  almost  prophetic  character." 

SECOND  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS 
[March  4,  1865] 

Fellow  Countrymen:  At  this  second  appearing  to 
take  the  oath  of  the  presidential  office,  there  is  less 
occasion  for  an  extended  address  than  there  was  at  the 
first.  Then  a  statement,  somewhat  in  detail,  of  a  course 
to  be  pursued,  seemed  fitting  and  proper.  Now,  at  the 
expiration  of  four  years,  during  which  public  declara- 
tions have  been  constantly  called  forth  on  every  point 
and  phase  of  the  great   contest  which   still   absorbs   the 


412  SELECTIONS    FROM    LINCOLN 

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  depends,  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,  no  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  address  was  being  delivered  from  this 
place,  devoted  altogether  to  saving  the  Union  without 
war,  insurgent  agents  were  in  the  city  seeking  to  destroy 
it  without  war — seeking  to  dissolve  the  Union,  and 
divide  effects,  by  negotiation.  Both  parties  deprecated 
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  the  war  came. 

One-eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored 
slaves,  not  distributed  generally  over  the  Union,  but 
localized  in  the  southern  part  of  it.  These  slaves  con- 
stituted a  peculiar  and  powerful  interest.  All  knew  that 
this  interest  was,  somehow,  the  cause  of  the  war.  To 
strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  extend  this  interest  was  the 
object  for  which  the  insurgents  would  rend  the  Union, 
even  by  war;  while  the  government  claimed  no  right  to 
do  more  than  to  restrict  the  territorial  enlargement  of  it. 

Neither  party  expected  for  the  war  the  magnitude  or 
the  duration  which  it  has  already  attained.  Neither 
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  men  should  dare  to  ask 


SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN  413 

a  just  God's  assistance  in  wringing  their  bread  from  the 
sweat  of  other  men's  faces;  but  let  us  judge  not,  that 
we  be  not  judged.*  The  prayers  of  both  could  not  be 
answered — that  of  neither  has  been  answered  fully. 

The  Almighty  has  his  own  purposes.  "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."  f  If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery 
is  one  of  those  offenses  which,  in  the  providence  of  God, 
must  needs  come,  but  which,  having  continued  through 
His  appointed  time.  He  now  wills  to  remove,  and  that 
He  gives  to  both  North  and  South  this  terrible  war,  as 
the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom  the  offense  came,  shall  we 
discern  therein  any  departure  from  those  divine  at- 
tributes which  the  believers  in  a  living  God  always 
ascribe  to  Him?  Fondly  do  we  hope — fervently  do  we 
pray — that  this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily 
pass  away.f  Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until 
all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until 
every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid 
by  another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three 
thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  "The  judg- 
ments of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether."** 

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


•  Matthew,   vii.   1. 

t  Matthew,  xviii,  7. 

tThe   unintentional   rime   has  been   frequently  criticised. 
'*  Psalms,  xix,  9. 


414  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

Lincoln's  own  opinion  of  the  address  is  expressed  in  a  note 
to  Thurlow  Weed. 

TO   THURLOW   WEED 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,   March    15,    1865 
Dear  Mr.  Weed: 

Every  one  likes  a  compliment.  Thank  you  for  yours 
on  my  little  notification  speech  and  on  the  recent  in- 
augural address.  I  expect  the  latter  to  wear  as  well  as 
— perhaps  better  than — anything  I  have  produced;  but 
I  believe  it  is  not  immediately  popular.  Men  are  not 
flattered  by  being  shown  that  there  has  been  a  difference 
of  purpose  between  the  Almighty  and  them.  To  deny 
it,  however,  in  this  case,  is  to  deny  that  there  is  a  God 
governing  the  world.  It  is  a  truth  which  I  thought 
needed  to  be  told,  and,  as  whatever  of  humiliation  there 
is  in  it  falls  most  directly  on  myself,  I  thought  others 
might  afford  for  me  to  tell  it. 

Truly  yours, 

A.  Lincoln 

As  has  been  seen,  Lincoln  had  very  definite  views  on  the 
question  of  the  reconstruction  of  the  seceded  states.  These 
were  rather  generally  accepted  after  his  message  of  1863,  but, 
before  the  session  of  Congress  ended,  radical  opposition,  led 
by  Henry  "Winter  Davis  of  Maryland  and  Benjamin  F.  Wade 
of  Ohio,  had  developed,  resulting  in  the  passage  of  a  bill  pre- 
scribing more  severe  terms  of  restoration,  and  ignoring  the 
President  in  the  process  required.  Lincoln  vetoed  it,  and, 
so  far  as  could  be  seen,  he  had  the  backing  of  the  country,  the 
convention  of  1864  making  no  mention  of  the  question,  and  the 
session  of  Congress  which  ended  on  March  4,  1865,  also 
ignoring  it. 

Lincoln  was  not  only  determined  upon  the  acceptance  of 
the  Southern  states  as  still  in  the  Union;  he  was  no  less  deter- 
mined that  there  should  be,  so  far  as  such  a  thing  was  possible. 


SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN  415 

a  genuine  reconciliation  of  the  sections.  He,  almost  alone  of 
public  men  in  the  North,  had  refrained  from  harsh  expressions 
toward  the  South.  An  illustration  of  his  attitude  is  to  be 
seen  in  a  happening  in  one  of  the  Washington  military  hospitals 
during  the  war.  He  started  to  go  into  a  ward  filled  with 
prisoners,  and  the  attendant  said,  "Mr.  President !  You  won't 
want  to  go  in  there;  they  are  only  rebels."  Lincoln  laid  his 
hand  on  the  attendant's  shoulder  and  said,  "You  mean  Con- 
federates," and  went  on  in.  He  allowed  food  to  go  to  Savannah 
in  1865  when  Stanton  refused  the  ships  clearance  for  the 
purpose  and  again  and  again  indicated  the  sort  of  policy  he 
had  in  mind  concerning  the  Southern  people.  When  someone 
in  conversation  said  that  Jefferson  Davis  ought  to  be  hanged, 
he  quoted,  "Let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not  judged,"  and 
repeated,  "Let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not  judged."  R.  M.  T. 
Hunter,  in  company  M-ith  Judge  J.  A.  Campbell  and  Alex- 
ander H.  Stephens,  met  Lincoln  and  Seward  on  February  3, 
1865,  at  the  Hampton  Roads  Conference,  where  they  discussed 
the  possibility  of  peace.  He  felt  clearly  this  attitude  of 
Lincoln  and  said  smilingly,  "Well,  Mr.  Lincoln,  we  have  about 
concluded  that  we  shall  not  be  hanged  as  long  as  you  are 
President,  if  we   behave   ourselves." 

It  was  entirely  true  that  he  wanted  no  policy  of  retribution. 
He  gave  orders  to  facilitate  the  escape  of  Davis  and  his 
cabinet,  and  said,  "No  one  need  expect  I  will  take  any  part  in 
hanging  or  killing  these  men,  even  the  worst  of  them.  Frighten 
them  out  of  the  country,  open  the  gates,  let  down  the  bars, 
scare  them  off.  Enough  lives  have  been  sacrificed;  we  must 
extinguish  our  resentments  if  we  expect  harmony  and  union." 
It  was  clear  that  he  believed  that  the  new  order  of  things 
should  be  established  without  bitterness  and  without  reproaches, 
and,  as  Hapgood  says,  by  treating  the  Confederate  as  if  he 
were  a  beloved  brother  who  had  just  been  convinced  in  an 
argument. 

After  the  fall  of  Richmond,  Lincoln  visited  the  city.  There 
he  met  Judge  John  A.  Campbell,  who  had  been  at  the  Hampton 
Roads  Conference,  and  they  discussed  the  restoration  of  order. 
Lincoln  gave  him  the  following  unsigned  memorandum  on  the 
subject  of  the  terms  of  peace: 


416  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINXOLX 

MEMORANDUM  ON  TERMS  OF  PEACE 
[April  5,  1865] 

As  to  peace,  I  have  said  before,  and  now  repeat,  that 
three  things  are  indispensable: 

1.  The  restoration  of  the  national  authority  through- 
out the  United  States. 

2.  No  receding  by  the  Executive  of  the  United  States 
on  the  slavery  question  from  the  position  assumed 
thereon  in  the  late  annual  message,  and  in  preceding 
documents. 

3.  No  cessation  of  hostilities  short  of  an  end  of  the 
war,  and  the  disbanding  of  all  forces  hostile  to  the 
government.  That  all  propositions  coming  from  those 
now  in  hostility  to  the  government,  not  inconsistent  with 
the  foregoing,  will  be  respectfully  considered  and  passed 
upon  in  a  spirit  of  sincere  liberality. 

I  now  add  that  it  seems  useless  for  me  to  be  more 
specific  with  those  who  will  not  say  that  they  are  ready 
for  the  indispensable  terms,  even  on  conditions  to  be 
named  by  themselves.  If  there  be  any  who  are  ready 
for  these  indispensable  terms,  on  any  conditions  what- 
ever, let  them  say  so,  and  state  their  conditions,  so  that 
the  conditions  can  be  known  and  considered.  It  is 
further  added,  that  the  remission  of  confiscation  being 
within  the  executive  power,  if  the  war  be  now  further 
persisted  in  by  those  opposing  the  government,  the 
making  of  confiscated  property  at  the  least  to  bear  the 
additional  cost  will  be  insisted  on,  but  that  confiscations 
(except  in  case  of  third-party  intervening  interests) 
will  be  remitted  to  the  people  of  any  state  which  shall 
now  promptly  and  in  good  faith  withdraw  its  troops  from 
further  resistance  to  the  government.  What  is  now  said 
as  to  the  remission  of  confiscation  has  no  reference  to 
supposed  property  in  slaves. 


SELECTIONS  FROM  LINXOLN  417 

He  then  sent  General  Grant  the  following  account  of  what 
he  had  done: 

TO  GENERAL  U.  S.  GRANT 

[Telegram] 

Headquarters^  Armies  of  the  United  States, 
City  Point,  April  6,  1865,  12  m. 
Lieutenant  General  Grant,  in  the  Field: 

Secretary  Seward  was  thrown  from  his  carriage  yes- 
terday and  seriously  injured.  This,  with  other  matters, 
will  take  me  to  Washington  soon.  I  was  at  Richmond 
yesterday  and  the  day  before,  when  and  where  Judge 
Campbell,  who  was  with  Messrs.  Hunter  and  Stephens 
in  February,  called  on  me,  and  made  such  representa- 
tions as  induced  me  to  put  in  his  hands  an  informal 
paper,  repeating  the  propositions  in  my  letter  of  in- 
structions to  \Mr.  Seward,  which  you  remember,  and 
adding  that  if  the  war  be  now  further  persisted  in  by 
the  rebels,  confiscated  property  shall  at  the  least  bear 
the  additional  cost,  and  that  confiscation  shall  be  re- 
mitted to  the  people  of  any  state  which  will  now 
promptly  and  in  good  faith  withdraw  its  troops  and 
other  support  from  resistance  to  the  government. 

Judge  Campbell  thought  it  not  impossible  that  the 
rebel  legislature  of  Virginia  would  do  the  latter  if  per- 
mitted ;  and  accordingly  I  addressed  a  private  letter  to 
General  Weitzel  with  permission  to  Judge  Campbell  to 
see  it,  telling  him  (General  Weitzel)  that  if  they  attempt 
this,  to  permit  and  protect  them,  unless  they  attempt 
something  hostile  to  the  United  States,  in  which  case 
to  give  them  notice  and  time  to  leave,  and  to  arrest  any 
remaining  after  such  time. 

I  do  not  think  it  very  probable  that  anything  will 
come  of  this,  but  I  have  thought  best  to  notify  you,  so 
that  if  you  should  see  signs  you  may  understand  them. 


418  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

From  your  recent  despatches  it  seems  that  you  are 
pretty  effectually  withdrawing  the  Virginia  troops  from 
opposition  to  the  government.  Nothing  that  I  have  done, 
cr  probably  shall  do,  is  to  delay,  hinder,  or  interfere 
with  your   work. 

Yours   truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

A  few  days  later  when  preparations  were  being  made  for 
the  assembling  of  the  Virginia  legislature,  so  much  hostile 
opposition  appeared  in  the  North  that  Lincoln  retracted  the 
offer,  saying  that  the  situation  had  been  changed  by  Lee's  sur- 
render, M-hich  had  taken  place  at  Appomattox  on  April  9. 

When  the  news  reached  Washington  of  Lee's  surrender,  a 
large  crowd  went  to  the  White  House  and  called  for  Lincoln. 
He  asked  them  to  come  back  the  next  night  and  promised  that 
he  would  speak  to  them  then.  In  the  meantime  he  prepared 
with  great  care  an  address  which  proved  to  be  his  last  public 
utterance.  He  read  it  from  one  of  the  windows  of  the  White 
House  to  an  immense  crowd  outside,  by  whom  it  was  en- 
thusiastically received.  It  is  notable  for  its  dealing  with  the 
question  of  reconstruction,  "the  binding  up  of  the  nation's 
wounds."  It  was  no  easy  task  that  lay  before  him,  particularly 
in  view  of  the  bitter  hatred  of  him  and  his  policy  on  the  part 
of  the  radical  leaders  in  Congress.  The  following  extract  from 
George  W.  Julian's  Recollections  *  will  indicate  the  extent  of 
this.     Speaking  of  Lincoln's  death  he  wrote: 

"I  spent  most  of  the  afternoon  in  a  political  caucus,  held 
for  the  purpose  of  considering  the  necessity  for  a  new  cabinet 
and  a  line  of  policy  less  conciliatory  than  that  of  Mr.  Lincoln; 
and  while  everybody  was  shocked  at  his  murder,  the  feeling 
was  nearly  universal  that  the  accession  of  Johnson  to  the 
Presidency  would  prove  a  godsend  to  the  country." 

LAST  PUBLIC  ADDRESS 
[April  11,  1865] 

We  meet  this  evening  not  in  sorrow,  but  in  gladness 

of  heart.     The  evacuation  of  Petersburg  and  Richmond, 

and  the  surrender  of  the  principal  insurgent  army  give 

hope   of   a    righteous    and    speedy   peace,    whose  joyous 

♦Julian,  Politica    Recollections,  page  255. 


SELECTIONS  FROM  LINXOLX  419 

expression  cannot  be  restrained.  In  the  midst  of  this, 
however,  He  from  whom  all  blessings  flow  must  not  be 
forgotten.  A  call  for  a  national  thanksgiving  is  being 
prepared,  and  will  be  duly  promulgated.  Nor  must  those 
whose  harder  part  give  us  the  cause  of  rejoicing  be 
overlooked.  Their  honors  must  not  be  parceled  out  with 
others.  I  myself  was  near  the  front^  and  had  the  high 
pleasure  of  transmitting  much  of  the  good  news  to  you; 
but  no  part  of  the  honor  for  plan  or  execution  is  mine. 
To  General  Grant,  his  skillful  officers  and  brave  men, 
all  belongs.  The  gallant  navy  stood  ready,  but  was  not 
in  reach  to  take  active  part.  By  these  recent  successes 
the  reinauguration  of  the  national  authority — recon- 
struction— which  has  had  a  large  share  of  thought  from 
the  first,  is  pressed  much  more  closely  upon  our  atten- 
tion. It  is  fraught  with  great  difficulty.  Unlike  a  case 
of  war  between  independent  nations,  there  is  no  author- 
ized organ  for  us  to  treat  with — no  one  man  has  authority 
to  give  up  the  rebellion  for  any  other  man.  We  simply 
must  begin  with  and  mold  from  disorganized  and  dis- 
cordant elements.  Nor  is  it  a  small  additional  em- 
barrassment that  we,  the  loyal  people,  differ  among 
ourselves  as  to  the  mode,  manner,  and  measure  of 
reconstruction.  As  a  general  rule,  I  abstain  from  read- 
ing the  reports  of  attacks  upon  myself,  wishing  not  to 
be  provoked  by  that  to  which  I  cannot  properly  offer 
an  answer.  In  spite  of  this  precaution,  however,  it 
comes  to  my  knowledge  that  I  am  much  censured  for 
some  supposed  agency  in  setting  up  and  seeking  to 
sustain  the  new  state  government  of  Louisiana.  In 
this  I  have  done  just  so  much  as,  and  no  more  than, 
the  public  knows.  In  the  Annual  Message  of  December, 
1863.  and  in  the  accompanying  proclamation,  I  presented 
a  plan  of  reconstruction,  as  the  phrase  goes,  which  I 
promised,  if  adopted  by  any  state,  should  be  acceptable 
to  and  sustained  by  the  executive  government  of  the 
nation.  I  distinctly  stated  that  this  was  not  the  only 
plan    which    might   possibly    be    acceptable,    and    I    also 


420  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

distinctly  protested  that  the  Executive  claimed  no  right 
to  say  wheji  or  whether  members  should  be  admitted  to 
seats  in  Congress  from  such  states.  This  plan  was  in 
advance  submitted  to  the  then  cabinet,  and  distinctly 
approved  by  every  member  of  it.  One  of  them  sug- 
gested that  I  should  then  and  in  that  connection  apply 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation  to  the  theretofore  ex- 
cepted partis  of  Virginia  and  Louisiana ;  that  I  should 
drop  the  suggestion  about  apprenticeship  for  freed 
people,  and  that  I  should  omit  the  protest  against  my 
own  power  in  regard  to  the  admission  of  members  to 
Congress.  But  even  he  approved  every  part  and  parcel 
of  the  plan  which  has  since  been  employed  or  touched 
by  tbe  action  of  Louisiana. 

The  new  constitution  of  Louisiana,  declaring  emanci- 
pation for  the  whole  state,  practically  applies  the  procla- 
mation to  the  part  previously  excepted.  It  does  not 
adopt  apprenticeship  for  freed  people,  and  it  is  silent, 
as  it  could  not  well  be  otherwise,  about  the  admission 
of  members  to  Congress.  So  that,  as  it  applied  to 
Louisiana,  every  member  of  the  cabinet  fully  approved 
the  plan.  The  message  went  to  Congress,  and  I  re- 
ceived many  commendations  of  the  plan,  written  and 
verbal,  and  not  a  single  objection  to  it  from  any  pro- 
fessed emancipationist  came  to  my  knowledge  until  after 
the  news  reached  Washington  that  the  people  of  Louisiana 
had  begun  to  move  in  accordance  with  it.  From  about 
July,  1862,  I  had  corresponded  with  different  persons 
supposed  to  be  interested  [in]  seeking  a  reconstruction 
of  a  state  government  for  Louisiana.  When  the  message 
of  1863,  with  the  plan  before  mentioned,  reached  New 
Orleans,  General  Banks  wrote  me  that  he  was  confident 
that  the  people,  with  his  military  cooperation,  would 
reconstruct  substantially  on  that  plan.  I  wrote  to  him 
and  some  of  them  to  try  it.  They  tried  it,  and  the 
result  is  known.  Such  has  been  my  only  agency  in  get- 
ting up  the  Louisiana  government.     As  to  sustaining  it, 


SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN  421 

my  promise  is  out,  as  before  stated.  But  as  bad  promises 
are  better  broken  than  kept,  I  shall  treat  this  as  a  bad 
promise,  and  break  it  whenever  I  shall  be  convinced 
that  keeping  it  is  adverse  to  the  public  interest;  but  I 
have  not  yet  been  so  convinced.  I  have  been  shown  a 
letter  on  this  subject,  supposed  to  be  an  able  one,  in 
which  the  writer  expresses  regret  that  my  mind  has  not 
seemed  to  be  definitely  fixed  on  the  question  whether  the 
seceded  states,  so  called,  are  in  the  Union  or  out  of  it. 
It  would  perhaps  add  astonishment  to  his  regret  were 
he  to  learn  that  since  I  have  found  professed  Union 
men  endeavoring  to  make  that  question,  I  have  pur- 
posely forborne  any  public  expression  upon  it.  As 
appears  to  me,  that  question  has  not  been,  nor  yet  is,  a 
practically  material  one,  and  that  any  discussion  of  it, 
while  it  thus  remains  practically  immaterial,  could  have 
no  effect  othei"  than  the  mischievous  one  of  dividing  our 
friends.  As  yet,  whatever  it  may  hereafter  become,  that 
question  is  bad  as  the  basis  of  a  controversy,  and  good 
for  nothing  at  all — a  merely  pernicious  abstraction. 
We  all  agree  that  the  seceded  states,  so  called,  are  out 
of  their  proper  practical  relation  with  the  Union,  and 
that  the  sole  object  of  the  government,  civil  and  military, 
in  regard  to  those  states  is  to  again  get  them  into  that 
proper  practical  relation.  I  believe  that  it  is  not  only 
possible,  but  in  fact  easier,  to  do  this  without  deciding 
or  even  considering  whether  these  states  have  ever  been 
out  of  the  Union,  than  with  it.  Finding  themselves  safely 
at  home,  it  would  be  utterly  immaterial  whether  they 
had  ever  been  abroad.  Let  us  all  join  in  doing  the  acts 
necessary  to  restoring  the  proper  practical  relations  be- 
tween these  states  and  the  Union,  and  each  forever  after 
innocently  indulge  his  own  opinion  whether  in  doing  the 
acts  he  brought  the  states  from  without  into  the  Union, 
or  only  gave  them  proper  assistance,  they  never  having 
been  o.ut  of  it.  The  amount  of  constituency,  so  to  speak, 
on   which   the   new   Louisiana   government   rests,    would 


422  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN 

be  more  satisfactory  to  all  if  it  contained  50,000  or 
30,000,  or  even  20,000,  instead  of  only  about  12,000, 
as  it  does.  It  is  also  unsatisfactory  to  some  that  the 
elective  franchise  is  not  given  to  the  colored  man.  I 
would  myself  prefer  that  it  were  now  conferred  on  the 
very  intelligent,  and  on  those  who  serve  our  cause  as 
soldiers.  Still,  the  question  is  not  whether  the  Louisiana 
government,  as  it  stands,  is  quite  all  that  is  desirable. 
The  question  is.  Will  it  be  wiser  to  take  it  as  it  is  and 
help  to  improve  it,  or  to  reject  and  disperse  it.''  Can 
Louisiana  be  brought  into  proper  practical  relation  with 
the  Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding  her 
new  state  government.^  Some  12,000  voters  in  the 
heretofore  slave  state  of  Louisiana  have  sworn  allegiance 
to  the  Union,  assumed  to  be  the  rightful  political  power 
of  the  state,  held  elections,  organized  a  state  p;overn- 
ment,  adopted  a  free  state  constitution,  giving  the  benefit 
of  public  schools  equally  to  black  and  white,  and  em- 
powering the  legislature  to  confer  the  elective  franchise 
upon  the  colored  man.  Their  legislature  has  already 
voted  to  ratify  the  constitutional  amendment  recently 
passed  by  Congress,  abolishing  slavery  throughout  the 
nation.  These  12,000  persons  are  thus  fully  committed 
to  the  Union  and  to  perpetual  freedom  in  the  state — 
committed  to  the  very  things,  and  nearly  all  the  things, 
the  nation  wants — and  they  ask  the  nation's  recognition 
and  its   assistance  to  make  good  their  committal. 

Now,  if  we  reject  and  spurn  them,  we  do  our  utmost 
to  disorganize  and  disperse  them.  We,  in  effect,  sav 
to  the  white  man :  You  are  worthless,  or  worse ;  we  will 
neither  help  you  nor  be  helped  by  you.  To  the  blacks 
we  say:  This  cup  of  liberty  which  these,  your  old 
masters,  hold  to  your  lips  we  will  dash  from  you,  and 
leave  you  to  the  chances  of  gathering  the  spilled  and 
scattered  contents  in  some  vague  and  undefined  when, 
where,  and  how.  If  this  course,  discouraging  and 
paralyzing  both  white   and   black,  has  any  tendency   to 


SELECTIONS  FROM  LINCOLN  423 

bring  Louisiana  into  proper  practical  relations  with  the 
Union.  I  have  so  far  been  unable  to  perceive  it.  If,  on 
the  contrary,  we  recognize  and  sustain  the  new  govern- 
ment of  Louisiana,  the  converse  of  all  this  is  made  true. 
We  encourage  the  hearts  and  nerve  the  arms  of  the 
12,000  to  adhere  to  their  work,  and  argue  for  it,  and 
proselyte  for  it,  and  fight  for  it,  and  feed  it,  and  grow 
it,  and  ripen  it  to  a  complete  success.  The  colored  man. 
too,  in  seeing  all  united  for  him,  is  inspired  with  vigilance, 
and  energy,  and  daring,  to  the  same  end.  Grant  that 
he  desires  the  elective  franchise,  will  he  not  attain  it 
sooner  by  saving  the  already  advanced  steps  toward  it 
than  by  running  backward  over  them.^  Concede  that 
the  new  government  of  Louisiana  is  only  to  what  it 
should  be  as  the  egg  is  to  the  fowl,  we  shall  sooner 
have  the  fowl  by  hatching  the  egg  than  by  smashing  it. 
Again,  if  we  reject  Louisiana  we  also  reject  one  vote 
in  favor  of  the  proposed  amendment  to  the  national 
Constitution.  To  meet  this  proposition  it  has  been 
argued  that  no  more  than  three-fourths  of  those  states 
which  have  not  attempted  secession  are  necessary  to 
validly  ratify  the  amendment.  I  do  not  commit  myself 
against  this  further  than  to  say  that  such  a  ratification 
would  be  questionable,  and  sure  to  be  persistently  ques- 
tioned, while  a  ratification  by  three-fourths  of  all  the 
states  would  be  unquestioned  and  unquestionable.  I 
repeat  the  question:  Can  Louisiana  be  brought  into 
proper  practical  relation  with  the  Union  sooner  by  sus- 
taining or  by  discarding  her  new  state  government.'' 
What  has  been  said  of  Louisiana  will  apply  generally 
to  other  states.  And  yet  so  great  peculiarities  pertain 
to  each  state,  and  such  important  and  sudden  changes 
occur  in  the  same  state,  and  withal  so  new  and  un- 
precedented is  the  whole  case  that  no  exclusive  and 
inflexible  plan  can  safely  be  prescribed  as  to  details  and 
collaterals.  Such  exclusive  and  inflexible  plan  would 
surely   become    a    new    entanglement.      Important    prin- 


424  SELECTIONS  FROM  LINXOLX 

ciples  may  and  must  be  inflexible.  In  the  present  situ- 
ation, as  the  phrase  goes,  it  may  be  my  duty  to  make 
some  new  announcement  to  the  people  of  the  South.  I 
am  considering,  and  shall  not  fail  to  act  when  satisfied 
that  action  will  be  proper. 

The  last  letter  Lincoln  wrote  was  filled  with  the  same 
thought  of  reconciliation. 

TO  GENERAL  VAN  ALEN 

Executive  ^Mansion, 
Washington,  April  14,  1865 
General  Van  Alen:  I  intend  to  adopt  the  advice 
of  my  friends  and  use  due  precautions.  ...  I  thank 
you  for  the  assurance  you  give  me  that  I  shall  be  sup- 
ported by  conservative  men  like  yourself,  in  the  efforts 
I  may  make  to  restore  the  Union,  so  as  to  make  it,  to 
use  your  language,  a  Union  of  hearts  and  hands  as  well 
as  of  states. 

Yours   truly, 

A.  Lincoln 

On  the  same  night  he  was  shot  in  Ford's  Theater,  and  in 
the  early  morning  of  April  15,  he  was,  in  Stanton's  expressive 
words,  "with  the  ages." 


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