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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2653-0.txt b/2653-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa3f99f --- /dev/null +++ b/2653-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7886 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF +ABRAHAM LINCOLN — VOLUME 1: 1832-1843 *** + + + + +THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +VOLUME ONE + +CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION + + +By Abraham Lincoln + + +Edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley + +With an Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt + +The Essay on Lincoln by Carl Schurz + +The Address on Lincoln by Joseph Choate + + + + +VOLUME 1. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY + + +Immediately after Lincoln’s re-election to the Presidency, in an +off-hand speech, delivered in response to a serenade by some of his +admirers on the evening of November 10, 1864, he spoke as follows: + +“It has long been a grave question whether any government not too strong +for the liberties of its people can be strong enough to maintain its +existence in great emergencies. On this point, the present rebellion +brought our republic to a severe test, and the Presidential election, +occurring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a little +to the strain.... The strife of the election is but human nature +practically applied to the facts in the case. What has occurred in this +case must ever occur in similar cases. Human nature will not change. In +any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall +have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. +Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn +wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.... Now that the +election is over, may not all having a common interest reunite in a +common fort to save our common country? For my own part, I have striven +and shall strive to avoid placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I +have been here, I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man’s bosom. +While I am deeply sensible to the high compliment of a re-election +and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God for having directed my +countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think for their own good, it adds +nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed or +pained by the result.” + +This speech has not attracted much general attention, yet it is in a +peculiar degree both illustrative and typical of the great statesman who +made it, alike in its strong common-sense and in its lofty standard of +morality. Lincoln’s life, Lincoln’s deeds and words, are not only of +consuming interest to the historian, but should be intimately known to +every man engaged in the hard practical work of American political life. +It is difficult to overstate how much it means to a nation to have as +the two foremost figures in its history men like Washington and Lincoln. +It is good for every man in any way concerned in public life to feel +that the highest ambition any American can possibly have will be +gratified just in proportion as he raises himself toward the standards +set by these two men. + +It is a very poor thing, whether for nations or individuals, to advance +the history of great deeds done in the past as an excuse for doing +poorly in the present; but it is an excellent thing to study the history +of the great deeds of the past, and of the great men who did them, with +an earnest desire to profit thereby so as to render better service in +the present. In their essentials, the men of the present day are much +like the men of the past, and the live issues of the present can be +faced to better advantage by men who have in good faith studied how the +leaders of the nation faced the dead issues of the past. Such a study of +Lincoln’s life will enable us to avoid the twin gulfs of immorality and +inefficiency—the gulfs which always lie one on each side of the careers +alike of man and of nation. It helps nothing to have avoided one if +shipwreck is encountered in the other. The fanatic, the well-meaning +moralist of unbalanced mind, the parlor critic who condemns others but +has no power himself to do good and but little power to do ill—all +these were as alien to Lincoln as the vicious and unpatriotic +themselves. His life teaches our people that they must act with wisdom, +because otherwise adherence to right will be mere sound and fury without +substance; and that they must also act high-mindedly, or else what seems +to be wisdom will in the end turn out to be the most destructive kind of +folly. + +Throughout his entire life, and especially after he rose to leadership +in his party, Lincoln was stirred to his depths by the sense of fealty +to a lofty ideal; but throughout his entire life, he also accepted human +nature as it is, and worked with keen, practical good sense to achieve +results with the instruments at hand. It is impossible to conceive of a +man farther removed from baseness, farther removed from corruption, from +mere self-seeking; but it is also impossible to conceive of a man of +more sane and healthy mind—a man less under the influence of that +fantastic and diseased morality (so fantastic and diseased as to be in +reality profoundly immoral) which makes a man in this work-a-day +world refuse to do what is possible because he cannot accomplish the +impossible. + +In the fifth volume of Lecky’s History of England, the historian draws +an interesting distinction between the qualities needed for a successful +political career in modern society and those which lead to eminence in +the spheres of pure intellect or pure moral effort. He says: + +“....the moral qualities that are required in the higher spheres +of statesmanship [are not] those of a hero or a saint. Passionate +earnestness and self-devotion, complete concentration of every faculty +on an unselfish aim, uncalculating daring, a delicacy of conscience and +a loftiness of aim far exceeding those of the average of men, are here +likely to prove rather a hindrance than an assistance. The politician +deals very largely with the superficial and the commonplace; his art is +in a great measure that of skilful compromise, and in the conditions +of modern life, the statesman is likely to succeed best who possesses +secondary qualities to an unusual degree, who is in the closest +intellectual and moral sympathy with the average of the intelligent +men of his time, and who pursues common ideals with more than common +ability.... Tact, business talent, knowledge of men, resolution, +promptitude and sagacity in dealing with immediate emergencies, a +character which lends itself easily to conciliation, diminishes friction +and inspires confidence, are especially needed, and they are more likely +to be found among shrewd and enlightened men of the world than among men +of great original genius or of an heroic type of character.” + +The American people should feel profoundly grateful that the greatest +American statesman since Washington, the statesman who in this +absolutely democratic republic succeeded best, was the very man who +actually combined the two sets of qualities which the historian thus +puts in antithesis. Abraham Lincoln, the rail-splitter, the Western +country lawyer, was one of the shrewdest and most enlightened men of the +world, and he had all the practical qualities which enable such a man to +guide his countrymen; and yet he was also a genius of the heroic type, +a leader who rose level to the greatest crisis through which this nation +or any other nation had to pass in the nineteenth century. + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +SAGAMORE HILL, OYSTER BAY, N. Y., September 22, 1905. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE + + +“I have endured,” wrote Lincoln not long before his death, “a great +deal of ridicule without much malice, and have received a great deal of +kindness not quite free from ridicule.” On Easter Day, 1865, the world +knew how little this ridicule, how much this kindness, had really +signified. Thereafter, Lincoln the man became Lincoln the hero, year by +year more heroic, until to-day, with the swift passing of those who knew +him, his figure grows ever dimmer, less real. This should not be. For +Lincoln the man, patient, wise, set in a high resolve, is worth far more +than Lincoln the hero, vaguely glorious. Invaluable is the example of +the man, intangible that of the hero. + +And, though it is not for us, as for those who in awed stillness +listened at Gettysburg with inspired perception, to know Abraham +Lincoln, yet there is for us another way whereby we may attain such +knowledge—through his words—uttered in all sincerity to those who +loved or hated him. Cold, unsatisfying they may seem, these printed +words, while we can yet speak with those who knew him, and look into +eyes that once looked into his. But in truth it is here that we find his +simple greatness, his great simplicity, and though no man tried less so +to show his power, no man has so shown it more clearly. + +Thus these writings of Abraham Lincoln are associated with those of +Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, and of the other “Founders of the +Republic,” not that Lincoln should become still more of the past, but, +rather, that he with them should become still more of the present. +However faint and mythical may grow the story of that Great Struggle, +the leader, Lincoln, at least should remain a real, living American. +No matter how clearly, how directly, Lincoln has shown himself in his +writings, we yet should not forget those men whose minds, from their +various view-points, have illumined for us his character. As this nation +owes a great debt to Lincoln, so, also, Lincoln’s memory owes a great +debt to a nation which, as no other nation could have done, has been +able to appreciate his full worth. Among the many who have brought about +this appreciation, those only whose estimates have been placed in these +volumes may be mentioned here. To President Roosevelt, to Mr. Schurz +and to Mr. Choate, the editor, for himself, for the publishers, and on +behalf of the readers, wishes to offer his sincere acknowledgments. + +Thanks are also due, for valuable and sympathetic assistance rendered in +the preparation of this work, to Mr. Gilbert A. Tracy, of Putnam, Conn., +Major William H. Lambert, of Philadelphia, and Mr. C. F. Gunther, of +Chicago, to the Chicago Historical Association and personally to +its capable Secretary, Miss McIlvaine, to Major Henry S. Burrage, of +Portland, Me., and to General Thomas J. Henderson, of Illinois. + +For various courtesies received, the editor is furthermore indebted to +the Librarian of the Library of Congress; to Messrs. McClure, Phillips +& Co., D. Appleton & Co., Macmillan & Co., Dodd, Mead & Co., and Harper +Brothers, of New York; to Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Dana, Estes & Co., +and L. C. Page & Co., of Boston; to A. C. McClure & Co., of Chicago; to +The Robert Clarke Co., of Cincinnati, and to the J. B. Lippincott Co., +of Philadelphia. + +It is hardly necessary to add that every effort has been made by the +editor to bring into these volumes whatever material may there properly +belong, material much of which is widely scattered in public libraries +and in private collections. He has been fortunate in securing certain +interesting correspondence and papers which had not before come into +print in book form. Information concerning some of these papers had +reached him too late to enable the papers to find place in their proper +chronological order in the set. Rather, however, than not to present +these papers to the readers they have been included in the seventh +volume of the set, which concludes the “Writings.” + + [These later papers are, in this etext, re-arranged into chronologic + order. D.W.] + +October, 1905, A. B. L. + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN: AN ESSAY BY CARL SHURZ + + +No American can study the character and career of Abraham Lincoln +without being carried away by sentimental emotions. We are always +inclined to idealize that which we love,—a state of mind very +unfavorable to the exercise of sober critical judgment. It is therefore +not surprising that most of those who have written or spoken on that +extraordinary man, even while conscientiously endeavoring to draw a +lifelike portraiture of his being, and to form a just estimate of his +public conduct, should have drifted into more or less indiscriminating +eulogy, painting his great features in the most glowing colors, and +covering with tender shadings whatever might look like a blemish. + +But his standing before posterity will not be exalted by mere praise of +his virtues and abilities, nor by any concealment of his limitations +and faults. The stature of the great man, one of whose peculiar charms +consisted in his being so unlike all other great men, will rather lose +than gain by the idealization which so easily runs into the commonplace. +For it was distinctly the weird mixture of qualities and forces in him, +of the lofty with the common, the ideal with the uncouth, of that which +he had become with that which he had not ceased to be, that made him +so fascinating a character among his fellow-men, gave him his singular +power over their minds and hearts, and fitted him to be the greatest +leader in the greatest crisis of our national life. + +His was indeed a marvellous growth. The statesman or the military hero +born and reared in a log cabin is a familiar figure in American history; +but we may search in vain among our celebrities for one whose origin and +early life equalled Abraham Lincoln’s in wretchedness. He first saw the +light in a miserable hovel in Kentucky, on a farm consisting of a +few barren acres in a dreary neighborhood; his father a typical “poor +Southern white,” shiftless and without ambition for himself or his +children, constantly looking for a new piece of land on which he might +make a living without much work; his mother, in her youth handsome and +bright, grown prematurely coarse in feature and soured in mind by daily +toil and care; the whole household squalid, cheerless, and utterly void +of elevating inspirations.... Only when the family had “moved” into the +malarious backwoods of Indiana, the mother had died, and a stepmother, +a woman of thrift and energy, had taken charge of the children, the +shaggy-headed, ragged, barefooted, forlorn boy, then seven years old, +“began to feel like a human being.” Hard work was his early lot. When a +mere boy he had to help in supporting the family, either on his father’s +clearing, or hired out to other farmers to plough, or dig ditches, or +chop wood, or drive ox teams; occasionally also to “tend the baby,” +when the farmer’s wife was otherwise engaged. He could regard it as an +advancement to a higher sphere of activity when he obtained work in a +“crossroads store,” where he amused the customers by his talk over the +counter; for he soon distinguished himself among the backwoods folk +as one who had something to say worth listening to. To win that +distinction, he had to draw mainly upon his wits; for, while his thirst +for knowledge was great, his opportunities for satisfying that thirst +were wofully slender. + +In the log schoolhouse, which he could visit but little, he was taught +only reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic. Among the people +of the settlement, bush farmers and small tradesmen, he found none of +uncommon intelligence or education; but some of them had a few books, +which he borrowed eagerly. Thus he read and reread, AEsop’s Fables, +learning to tell stories with a point and to argue by parables; he read +Robinson Crusoe, The Pilgrim’s Progress, a short history of the United +States, and Weems’s Life of Washington. To the town constable’s he went +to read the Revised Statutes of Indiana. Every printed page that fell +into his hands he would greedily devour, and his family and friends +watched him with wonder, as the uncouth boy, after his daily work, +crouched in a corner of the log cabin or outside under a tree, absorbed +in a book while munching his supper of corn bread. In this manner he +began to gather some knowledge, and sometimes he would astonish the +girls with such startling remarks as that the earth was moving around +the sun, and not the sun around the earth, and they marvelled where +“Abe” could have got such queer notions. Soon he also felt the impulse +to write; not only making extracts from books he wished to remember, but +also composing little essays of his own. First he sketched these with +charcoal on a wooden shovel scraped white with a drawing-knife, or on +basswood shingles. Then he transferred them to paper, which was a scarce +commodity in the Lincoln household; taking care to cut his expressions +close, so that they might not cover too much space,—a style-forming +method greatly to be commended. Seeing boys put a burning coal on the +back of a wood turtle, he was moved to write on cruelty to animals. +Seeing men intoxicated with whiskey, he wrote on temperance. In +verse-making, too, he tried himself, and in satire on persons offensive +to him or others,—satire the rustic wit of which was not always fit for +ears polite. Also political thoughts he put upon paper, and some of +his pieces were even deemed good enough for publication in the county +weekly. + +Thus he won a neighborhood reputation as a clever young man, which he +increased by his performances as a speaker, not seldom drawing upon +himself the dissatisfaction of his employers by mounting a stump in the +field, and keeping the farm hands from their work by little speeches in +a jocose and sometimes also a serious vein. At the rude social frolics +of the settlement he became an important person, telling funny, stories, +mimicking the itinerant preachers who had happened to pass by, and +making his mark at wrestling matches, too; for at the age of seventeen +he had attained his full height, six feet four inches in his stockings, +if he had any, and a terribly muscular clodhopper he was. But he +was known never to use his extraordinary strength to the injury or +humiliation of others; rather to do them a kindly turn, or to enforce +justice and fair dealing between them. All this made him a favorite in +backwoods society, although in some things he appeared a little odd, +to his friends. Far more than any of them, he was given not only to +reading, but to fits of abstraction, to quiet musing with himself, and +also to strange spells of melancholy, from which he often would pass in +a moment to rollicking outbursts of droll humor. But on the whole he +was one of the people among whom he lived; in appearance perhaps even +a little more uncouth than most of them,—a very tall, rawboned youth, +with large features, dark, shrivelled skin, and rebellious hair; his +arms and legs long, out of proportion; clad in deerskin trousers, which +from frequent exposure to the rain had shrunk so as to sit tightly on +his limbs, leaving several inches of bluish shin exposed between their +lower end and the heavy tan-colored shoes; the nether garment held +usually by only one suspender, that was strung over a coarse homemade +shirt; the head covered in winter with a coonskin cap, in summer with a +rough straw hat of uncertain shape, without a band. + +It is doubtful whether he felt himself much superior to his +surroundings, although he confessed to a yearning for some knowledge +of the world outside of the circle in which he lived. This wish was +gratified; but how? At the age of nineteen he went down the Mississippi +to New Orleans as a flatboat hand, temporarily joining a trade many +members of which at that time still took pride in being called “half +horse and half alligator.” After his return he worked and lived in the +old way until the spring of 1830, when his father “moved again,” this +time to Illinois; and on the journey of fifteen days “Abe” had to drive +the ox wagon which carried the household goods. Another log cabin was +built, and then, fencing a field, Abraham Lincoln split those historic +rails which were destined to play so picturesque a part in the +Presidential campaign twenty-eight years later. + +Having come of age, Lincoln left the family, and “struck out for +himself.” He had to “take jobs whenever he could get them.” The first +of these carried him again as a flatboat hand to New Orleans. There +something happened that made a lasting impression upon his soul: +he witnessed a slave auction. “His heart bled,” wrote one of his +companions; “said nothing much; was silent; looked bad. I can say, +knowing it, that it was on this trip that he formed his opinion on +slavery. It run its iron in him then and there, May, 1831. I have +heard him say so often.” Then he lived several years at New Salem, +in Illinois, a small mushroom village, with a mill, some “stores” and +whiskey shops, that rose quickly, and soon disappeared again. It was a +desolate, disjointed, half-working and half-loitering life, without any +other aim than to gain food and shelter from day to day. He served as +pilot on a steamboat trip, then as clerk in a store and a mill; business +failing, he was adrift for some time. Being compelled to measure his +strength with the chief bully of the neighborhood, and overcoming him, +he became a noted person in that muscular community, and won the esteem +and friendship of the ruling gang of ruffians to such a degree that, +when the Black Hawk war broke out, they elected him, a young man of +twenty-three, captain of a volunteer company, composed mainly of roughs +of their kind. He took the field, and his most noteworthy deed of valor +consisted, not in killing an Indian, but in protecting against his own +men, at the peril of his own life, the life of an old savage who had +strayed into his camp. + +The Black Hawk war over, he turned to politics. The step from the +captaincy of a volunteer company to a candidacy for a seat in the +Legislature seemed a natural one. But his popularity, although great +in New Salem, had not spread far enough over the district, and he was +defeated. Then the wretched hand-to-mouth struggle began again. He “set +up in store-business” with a dissolute partner, who drank whiskey while +Lincoln was reading books. The result was a disastrous failure and a +load of debt. Thereupon he became a deputy surveyor, and was appointed +postmaster of New Salem, the business of the post-office being so small +that he could carry the incoming and outgoing mail in his hat. All this +could not lift him from poverty, and his surveying instruments and horse +and saddle were sold by the sheriff for debt. + +But while all this misery was upon him his ambition rose to higher aims. +He walked many miles to borrow from a schoolmaster a grammar with which +to improve his language. A lawyer lent him a copy of Blackstone, and he +began to study law. + +People would look wonderingly at the grotesque figure lying in the +grass, “with his feet up a tree,” or sitting on a fence, as, absorbed +in a book, he learned to construct correct sentences and made himself +a jurist. At once he gained a little practice, pettifogging before a +justice of the peace for friends, without expecting a fee. Judicial +functions, too, were thrust upon him, but only at horse-races or +wrestling matches, where his acknowledged honesty and fairness gave his +verdicts undisputed authority. His popularity grew apace, and soon +he could be a candidate for the Legislature again. Although he called +himself a Whig, an ardent admirer of Henry Clay, his clever stump +speeches won him the election in the strongly Democratic district. +Then for the first time, perhaps, he thought seriously of his outward +appearance. So far he had been content with a garb of “Kentucky jeans,” +not seldom ragged, usually patched, and always shabby. Now, he borrowed +some money from a friend to buy a new suit of clothes—“store clothes” +fit for a Sangamon County statesman; and thus adorned he set out for the +state capital, Vandalia, to take his seat among the lawmakers. + +His legislative career, which stretched over several sessions—for +he was thrice re-elected, in 1836, 1838, and 1840—was not remarkably +brilliant. He did, indeed, not lack ambition. He dreamed even of making +himself “the De Witt Clinton of Illinois,” and he actually distinguished +himself by zealous and effective work in those “log-rolling” operations +by which the young State received “a general system of internal +improvements” in the shape of railroads, canals, and banks,—a reckless +policy, burdening the State with debt, and producing the usual crop of +political demoralization, but a policy characteristic of the time and +the impatiently enterprising spirit of the Western people. Lincoln, +no doubt with the best intentions, but with little knowledge of the +subject, simply followed the popular current. The achievement in which, +perhaps, he gloried most was the removal of the State government from +Vandalia to Springfield; one of those triumphs of political management +which are apt to be the pride of the small politician’s statesmanship. +One thing, however, he did in which his true nature asserted itself, and +which gave distinct promise of the future pursuit of high aims. Against +an overwhelming preponderance of sentiment in the Legislature, followed +by only one other member, he recorded his protest against a proslavery +resolution,—that protest declaring “the institution of slavery to +be founded on both injustice and bad policy.” This was not only the +irrepressible voice of his conscience; it was true moral valor, too; for +at that time, in many parts of the West, an abolitionist was regarded +as little better than a horse-thief, and even “Abe Lincoln” would hardly +have been forgiven his antislavery principles, had he not been known +as such an “uncommon good fellow.” But here, in obedience to the great +conviction of his life, he manifested his courage to stand alone, that +courage which is the first requisite of leadership in a great cause. + +Together with his reputation and influence as a politician grew his law +practice, especially after he had removed from New Salem to Springfield, +and associated himself with a practitioner of good standing. He had now +at last won a fixed position in society. He became a successful lawyer, +less, indeed, by his learning as a jurist than by his effectiveness as +an advocate and by the striking uprightness of his character; and it may +truly be said that his vivid sense of truth and justice had much to do +with his effectiveness as an advocate. He would refuse to act as the +attorney even of personal friends when he saw the right on the other +side. He would abandon cases, even during trial, when the testimony +convinced him that his client was in the wrong. He would dissuade those +who sought his service from pursuing an obtainable advantage when their +claims seemed to him unfair. Presenting his very first case in the +United States Circuit Court, the only question being one of authority, +he declared that, upon careful examination, he found all the authorities +on the other side, and none on his. Persons accused of crime, when he +thought them guilty, he would not defend at all, or, attempting their +defence, he was unable to put forth his powers. One notable exception is +on record, when his personal sympathies had been strongly aroused. But +when he felt himself to be the protector of innocence, the defender +of justice, or the prosecutor of wrong, he frequently disclosed such +unexpected resources of reasoning, such depth of feeling, and rose to +such fervor of appeal as to astonish and overwhelm his hearers, and make +him fairly irresistible. Even an ordinary law argument, coming from him, +seldom failed to produce the impression that he was profoundly convinced +of the soundness of his position. It is not surprising that the mere +appearance of so conscientious an attorney in any case should have +carried, not only to juries, but even to judges, almost a presumption +of right on his side, and that the people began to call him, sincerely +meaning it, “honest Abe Lincoln.” + +In the meantime he had private sorrows and trials of a painfully +afflicting nature. He had loved and been loved by a fair and estimable +girl, Ann Rutledge, who died in the flower of her youth and beauty, and +he mourned her loss with such intensity of grief that his friends feared +for his reason. Recovering from his morbid depression, he bestowed +what he thought a new affection upon another lady, who refused him. +And finally, moderately prosperous in his worldly affairs, and having +prospects of political distinction before him, he paid his addresses to +Mary Todd, of Kentucky, and was accepted. But then tormenting doubts of +the genuineness of his own affection for her, of the compatibility +of their characters, and of their future happiness came upon him. His +distress was so great that he felt himself in danger of suicide, and +feared to carry a pocket-knife with him; and he gave mortal offence +to his bride by not appearing on the appointed wedding day. Now the +torturing consciousness of the wrong he had done her grew unendurable. +He won back her affection, ended the agony by marrying her, and became a +faithful and patient husband and a good father. But it was no secret +to those who knew the family well that his domestic life was full of +trials. The erratic temper of his wife not seldom put the gentleness +of his nature to the severest tests; and these troubles and struggles, +which accompanied him through all the vicissitudes of his life from +the modest home in Springfield to the White House at Washington, +adding untold private heart-burnings to his public cares, and sometimes +precipitating upon him incredible embarrassments in the discharge of his +public duties, form one of the most pathetic features of his career. + +He continued to “ride the circuit,” read books while travelling in his +buggy, told funny stories to his fellow-lawyers in the tavern, chatted +familiarly with his neighbors around the stove in the store and at the +post-office, had his hours of melancholy brooding as of old, and became +more and more widely known and trusted and beloved among the people +of his State for his ability as a lawyer and politician, for the +uprightness of his character and the overflowing spring of sympathetic +kindness in his heart. His main ambition was confessedly that of +political distinction; but hardly any one would at that time have seen +in him the man destined to lead the nation through the greatest crisis +of the century. + +His time had not yet come when, in 1846, he was elected to Congress. In +a clever speech in the House of Representatives he denounced President +Polk for having unjustly forced war upon Mexico, and he amused the +Committee of the Whole by a witty attack upon General Cass. More +important was the expression he gave to his antislavery impulses +by offering a bill looking to the emancipation of the slaves in the +District of Columbia, and by his repeated votes for the famous Wilmot +Proviso, intended to exclude slavery from the Territories acquired from +Mexico. But when, at the expiration of his term, in March, 1849, he left +his seat, he gloomily despaired of ever seeing the day when the cause +nearest to his heart would be rightly grasped by the people, and when he +would be able to render any service to his country in solving the great +problem. Nor had his career as a member of Congress in any sense been +such as to gratify his ambition. Indeed, if he ever had any belief in a +great destiny for himself, it must have been weak at that period; for he +actually sought to obtain from the new Whig President, General Taylor, +the place of Commissioner of the General Land Office; willing to +bury himself in one of the administrative bureaus of the government. +Fortunately for the country, he failed; and no less fortunately, when, +later, the territorial governorship of Oregon was offered to him, Mrs. +Lincoln’s protest induced him to decline it. Returning to Springfield, +he gave himself with renewed zest to his law practice, acquiesced in the +Compromise of 1850 with reluctance and a mental reservation, supported +in the Presidential campaign of 1852 the Whig candidate in some +spiritless speeches, and took but a languid interest in the politics of +the day. But just then his time was drawing near. + +The peace promised, and apparently inaugurated, by the Compromise of +1850 was rudely broken by the introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill +in 1854. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, opening the Territories +of the United States, the heritage of coming generations, to the +invasion of slavery, suddenly revealed the whole significance of the +slavery question to the people of the free States, and thrust itself +into the politics of the country as the paramount issue. Something like +an electric shock flashed through the North. Men who but a short time +before had been absorbed by their business pursuits, and deprecated all +political agitation, were startled out of their security by a sudden +alarm, and excitedly took sides. That restless trouble of conscience +about slavery, which even in times of apparent repose had secretly +disturbed the souls of Northern people, broke forth in an utterance +louder than ever. The bonds of accustomed party allegiance gave way. +Antislavery Democrats and antislavery Whigs felt themselves drawn +together by a common overpowering sentiment, and soon they began to +rally in a new organization. The Republican party sprang into being to +meet the overruling call of the hour. Then Abraham Lincoln’s time was +come. He rapidly advanced to a position of conspicuous championship in +the struggle. This, however, was not owing to his virtues and abilities +alone. Indeed, the slavery question stirred his soul in its profoundest +depths; it was, as one of his intimate friends said, “the only one on +which he would become excited”; it called forth all his faculties and +energies. Yet there were many others who, having long and arduously +fought the antislavery battle in the popular assembly, or in the press, +or in the halls of Congress, far surpassed him in prestige, and compared +with whom he was still an obscure and untried man. His reputation, +although highly honorable and well earned, had so far been essentially +local. As a stump-speaker in Whig canvasses outside of his State he had +attracted comparatively little attention; but in Illinois he had been +recognized as one of the foremost men of the Whig party. Among the +opponents of the Nebraska Bill he occupied in his State so important +a position, that in 1856 he was the choice of a large majority of the +“Anti-Nebraska men” in the Legislature for a seat in the Senate of the +United States which then became vacant; and when he, an old Whig, could +not obtain the votes of the Anti-Nebraska Democrats necessary to make +a majority, he generously urged his friends to transfer their votes +to Lyman Trumbull, who was then elected. Two years later, in the +first national convention of the Republican party, the delegation from +Illinois brought him forward as a candidate for the vice-presidency, and +he received respectable support. Still, the name of Abraham Lincoln was +not widely known beyond the boundaries of his own State. But now it was +this local prominence in Illinois that put him in a position of peculiar +advantage on the battlefield of national politics. In the assault on the +Missouri Compromise which broke down all legal barriers to the spread +of slavery Stephen Arnold Douglas was the ostensible leader and central +figure; and Douglas was a Senator from Illinois, Lincoln’s State. +Douglas’s national theatre of action was the Senate, but in his +constituency in Illinois were the roots of his official position and +power. What he did in the Senate he had to justify before the people +of Illinois, in order to maintain himself in place; and in Illinois all +eyes turned to Lincoln as Douglas’s natural antagonist. + +As very young men they had come to Illinois, Lincoln from Indiana, +Douglas from Vermont, and had grown up together in public life, Douglas +as a Democrat, Lincoln as a Whig. They had met first in Vandalia, in +1834, when Lincoln was in the Legislature and Douglas in the lobby; and +again in 1836, both as members of the Legislature. Douglas, a very able +politician, of the agile, combative, audacious, “pushing” sort, rose in +political distinction with remarkable rapidity. In quick succession he +became a member of the Legislature, a State’s attorney, secretary +of state, a judge on the supreme bench of Illinois, three times a +Representative in Congress, and a Senator of the United States when only +thirty-nine years old. In the National Democratic convention of 1852 he +appeared even as an aspirant to the nomination for the Presidency, as +the favorite of “young America,” and received a respectable vote. He had +far outstripped Lincoln in what is commonly called political success +and in reputation. But it had frequently happened that in political +campaigns Lincoln felt himself impelled, or was selected by his Whig +friends, to answer Douglas’s speeches; and thus the two were looked +upon, in a large part of the State at least, as the representative +combatants of their respective parties in the debates before +popular meetings. As soon, therefore, as, after the passage of his +Kansas-Nebraska Bill, Douglas returned to Illinois to defend his cause +before his constituents, Lincoln, obeying not only his own impulse, but +also general expectation, stepped forward as his principal opponent. +Thus the struggle about the principles involved in the Kansas-Nebraska +Bill, or, in a broader sense, the struggle between freedom and slavery, +assumed in Illinois the outward form of a personal contest between +Lincoln and Douglas; and, as it continued and became more animated, +that personal contest in Illinois was watched with constantly increasing +interest by the whole country. When, in 1858, Douglas’s senatorial term +being about to expire, Lincoln was formally designated by the Republican +convention of Illinois as their candidate for the Senate, to take +Douglas’s place, and the two contestants agreed to debate the questions +at issue face to face in a series of public meetings, the eyes of the +whole American people were turned eagerly to that one point: and the +spectacle reminded one of those lays of ancient times telling of two +armies, in battle array, standing still to see their two principal +champions fight out the contested cause between the lines in single +combat. + +Lincoln had then reached the full maturity of his powers. His equipment +as a statesman did not embrace a comprehensive knowledge of public +affairs. What he had studied he had indeed made his own, with the eager +craving and that zealous tenacity characteristic of superior minds +learning under difficulties. But his narrow opportunities and the +unsteady life he had led during his younger years had not permitted +the accumulation of large stores in his mind. It is true, in political +campaigns he had occasionally spoken on the ostensible issues between +the Whigs and the Democrats, the tariff, internal improvements, banks, +and so on, but only in a perfunctory manner. Had he ever given much +serious thought and study to these subjects, it is safe to assume that +a mind so prolific of original conceits as his would certainly have +produced some utterance upon them worth remembering. His soul had +evidently never been deeply stirred by such topics. But when his moral +nature was aroused, his brain developed an untiring activity until it +had mastered all the knowledge within reach. As soon as the repeal of +the Missouri Compromise had thrust the slavery question into politics +as the paramount issue, Lincoln plunged into an arduous study of all +its legal, historical, and moral aspects, and then his mind became a +complete arsenal of argument. His rich natural gifts, trained by long +and varied practice, had made him an orator of rare persuasiveness. In +his immature days, he had pleased himself for a short period with that +inflated, high-flown style which, among the uncultivated, passes for +“beautiful speaking.” His inborn truthfulness and his artistic instinct +soon overcame that aberration and revealed to him the noble beauty and +strength of simplicity. He possessed an uncommon power of clear and +compact statement, which might have reminded those who knew the story +of his early youth of the efforts of the poor boy, when he copied his +compositions from the scraped wooden shovel, carefully to trim his +expressions in order to save paper. His language had the energy of +honest directness and he was a master of logical lucidity. He loved +to point and enliven his reasoning by humorous illustrations, usually +anecdotes of Western life, of which he had an inexhaustible store at his +command. These anecdotes had not seldom a flavor of rustic robustness +about them, but he used them with great effect, while amusing the +audience, to give life to an abstraction, to explode an absurdity, to +clinch an argument, to drive home an admonition. The natural kindliness +of his tone, softening prejudice and disarming partisan rancor, would +often open to his reasoning a way into minds most unwilling to receive +it. + +Yet his greatest power consisted in the charm of his individuality. That +charm did not, in the ordinary way, appeal to the ear or to the eye. His +voice was not melodious; rather shrill and piercing, especially when it +rose to its high treble in moments of great animation. His figure was +unhandsome, and the action of his unwieldy limbs awkward. He commanded +none of the outward graces of oratory as they are commonly understood. +His charm was of a different kind. It flowed from the rare depth and +genuineness of his convictions and his sympathetic feelings. Sympathy +was the strongest element in his nature. One of his biographers, who +knew him before he became President, says: “Lincoln’s compassion might +be stirred deeply by an object present, but never by an object absent +and unseen. In the former case he would most likely extend relief, with +little inquiry into the merits of the case, because, as he expressed it +himself, it ‘took a pain out of his own heart.’” Only half of this is +correct. It is certainly true that he could not witness any individual +distress or oppression, or any kind of suffering, without feeling a pang +of pain himself, and that by relieving as much as he could the suffering +of others he put an end to his own. This compassionate impulse to help +he felt not only for human beings, but for every living creature. As in +his boyhood he angrily reproved the boys who tormented a wood turtle by +putting a burning coal on its back, so, we are told, he would, when a +mature man, on a journey, dismount from his buggy and wade waist-deep +in mire to rescue a pig struggling in a swamp. Indeed, appeals to his +compassion were so irresistible to him, and he felt it so difficult +to refuse anything when his refusal could give pain, that he himself +sometimes spoke of his inability to say “no” as a positive weakness. +But that certainly does not prove that his compassionate feeling was +confined to individual cases of suffering witnessed with his own eyes. +As the boy was moved by the aspect of the tortured wood turtle to +compose an essay against cruelty to animals in general, so the aspect of +other cases of suffering and wrong wrought up his moral nature, and set +his mind to work against cruelty, injustice, and oppression in general. + +As his sympathy went forth to others, it attracted others to him. +Especially those whom he called the “plain people” felt themselves drawn +to him by the instinctive feeling that he understood, esteemed, and +appreciated them. He had grown up among the poor, the lowly, the +ignorant. He never ceased to remember the good souls he had met among +them, and the many kindnesses they had done him. Although in his mental +development he had risen far above them, he never looked down upon them. +How they felt and how they reasoned he knew, for so he had once felt and +reasoned himself. How they could be moved he knew, for so he had once +been moved himself and practised moving others. His mind was much larger +than theirs, but it thoroughly comprehended theirs; and while he thought +much farther than they, their thoughts were ever present to him. Nor had +the visible distance between them grown as wide as his rise in the world +would seem to have warranted. Much of his backwoods speech and manners +still clung to him. Although he had become “Mr. Lincoln” to his later +acquaintances, he was still “Abe” to the “Nats” and “Billys” and “Daves” +of his youth; and their familiarity neither appeared unnatural to +them, nor was it in the least awkward to him. He still told and +enjoyed stories similar to those he had told and enjoyed in the Indiana +settlement and at New Salem. His wants remained as modest as they had +ever been; his domestic habits had by no means completely accommodated +themselves to those of his more highborn wife; and though the “Kentucky +jeans” apparel had long been dropped, his clothes of better material +and better make would sit ill sorted on his gigantic limbs. His cotton +umbrella, without a handle, and tied together with a coarse string to +keep it from flapping, which he carried on his circuit rides, is said to +be remembered still by some of his surviving neighbors. This rusticity +of habit was utterly free from that affected contempt of refinement and +comfort which self-made men sometimes carry into their more affluent +circumstances. To Abraham Lincoln it was entirely natural, and all those +who came into contact with him knew it to be so. In his ways of thinking +and feeling he had become a gentleman in the highest sense, but the +refining process had polished but little the outward form. The plain +people, therefore, still considered “honest Abe Lincoln” one of +themselves; and when they felt, which they no doubt frequently did, that +his thoughts and aspirations moved in a sphere above their own, +they were all the more proud of him, without any diminution +of fellow-feeling. It was this relation of mutual sympathy and +understanding between Lincoln and the plain people that gave him his +peculiar power as a public man, and singularly fitted him, as we shall +see, for that leadership which was preeminently required in the great +crisis then coming on,—the leadership which indeed thinks and moves +ahead of the masses, but always remains within sight and sympathetic +touch of them. + +He entered upon the campaign of 1858 better equipped than he had ever +been before. He not only instinctively felt, but he had convinced +himself by arduous study, that in this struggle against the spread of +slavery he had right, justice, philosophy, the enlightened opinion of +mankind, history, the Constitution, and good policy on his side. It +was observed that after he began to discuss the slavery question his +speeches were pitched in a much loftier key than his former oratorical +efforts. While he remained fond of telling funny stories in private +conversation, they disappeared more and more from his public discourse. +He would still now and then point his argument with expressions of +inimitable quaintness, and flash out rays of kindly humor and witty +irony; but his general tone was serious, and rose sometimes to genuine +solemnity. His masterly skill in dialectical thrust and parry, his +wealth of knowledge, his power of reasoning and elevation of sentiment, +disclosed in language of rare precision, strength, and beauty, not +seldom astonished his old friends. + +Neither of the two champions could have found a more formidable +antagonist than each now met in the other. Douglas was by far the most +conspicuous member of his party. His admirers had dubbed him “the Little +Giant,” contrasting in that nickname the greatness of his mind with the +smallness of his body. But though of low stature, his broad-shouldered +figure appeared uncommonly sturdy, and there was something lion-like in +the squareness of his brow and jaw, and in the defiant shake of his long +hair. His loud and persistent advocacy of territorial expansion, in the +name of patriotism and “manifest destiny,” had given him an enthusiastic +following among the young and ardent. Great natural parts, a highly +combative temperament, and long training had made him a debater +unsurpassed in a Senate filled with able men. He could be as forceful in +his appeals to patriotic feelings as he was fierce in denunciation and +thoroughly skilled in all the baser tricks of parliamentary pugilism. +While genial and rollicking in his social intercourse—the idol of the +“boys” he felt himself one of the most renowned statesmen of his time, +and would frequently meet his opponents with an overbearing haughtiness, +as persons more to be pitied than to be feared. In his speech opening +the campaign of 1858, he spoke of Lincoln, whom the Republicans had +dared to advance as their candidate for “his” place in the Senate, with +an air of patronizing if not contemptuous condescension, as “a kind, +amiable, and intelligent gentleman and a good citizen.” The Little Giant +would have been pleased to pass off his antagonist as a tall dwarf. He +knew Lincoln too well, however, to indulge himself seriously in such a +delusion. But the political situation was at that moment in a curious +tangle, and Douglas could expect to derive from the confusion great +advantage over his opponent. + +By the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, opening the Territories to the +ingress of slavery, Douglas had pleased the South, but greatly alarmed +the North. He had sought to conciliate Northern sentiment by appending +to his Kansas-Nebraska Bill the declaration that its intent was “not +to legislate slavery into any State or Territory, nor to exclude it +therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form +and regulate their institutions in their own way, subject only to the +Constitution of the United States.” This he called “the great principle +of popular sovereignty.” When asked whether, under this act, the people +of a Territory, before its admission as a State, would have the right +to exclude slavery, he answered, “That is a question for the courts +to decide.” Then came the famous “Dred Scott decision,” in which the +Supreme Court held substantially that the right to hold slaves +as property existed in the Territories by virtue of the Federal +Constitution, and that this right could not be denied by any act of a +territorial government. This, of course, denied the right of the people +of any Territory to exclude slavery while they were in a territorial +condition, and it alarmed the Northern people still more. Douglas +recognized the binding force of the decision of the Supreme Court, at +the same time maintaining, most illogically, that his great principle +of popular sovereignty remained in force nevertheless. Meanwhile, the +proslavery people of western Missouri, the so-called “border ruffians,” +had invaded Kansas, set up a constitutional convention, made +a constitution of an extreme pro-slavery type, the “Lecompton +Constitution,” refused to submit it fairly to a vote of the people of +Kansas, and then referred it to Congress for acceptance,—seeking thus +to accomplish the admission of Kansas as a slave State. Had Douglas +supported such a scheme, he would have lost all foothold in the North. +In the name of popular sovereignty he loudly declared his opposition to +the acceptance of any constitution not sanctioned by a formal popular +vote. He “did not care,” he said, “whether slavery be voted up or down,” +but there must be a fair vote of the people. Thus he drew upon himself +the hostility of the Buchanan administration, which was controlled by +the proslavery interest, but he saved his Northern following. More +than this, not only did his Democratic admirers now call him “the true +champion of freedom,” but even some Republicans of large influence, +prominent among them Horace Greeley, sympathizing with Douglas in his +fight against the Lecompton Constitution, and hoping to detach him +permanently from the proslavery interest and to force a lasting breach +in the Democratic party, seriously advised the Republicans of Illinois +to give up their opposition to Douglas, and to help re-elect him to the +Senate. Lincoln was not of that opinion. He believed that great popular +movements can succeed only when guided by their faithful friends, and +that the antislavery cause could not safely be entrusted to the keeping +of one who “did not care whether slavery be voted up or down.” This +opinion prevailed in Illinois; but the influences within the Republican +party over which it prevailed yielded only a reluctant acquiescence, if +they acquiesced at all, after having materially strengthened Douglas’s +position. Such was the situation of things when the campaign of 1858 +between Lincoln and Douglas began. + +Lincoln opened the campaign on his side at the convention which +nominated him as the Republican candidate for the senatorship, with +a memorable saying which sounded like a shout from the watchtower of +history: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this +government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not +expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but +I expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or +all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further +spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the +belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates +will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the +States,—old as well as new, North as well as South.” Then he proceeded +to point out that the Nebraska doctrine combined with the Dred Scott +decision worked in the direction of making the nation “all slave.” Here +was the “irrepressible conflict” spoken of by Seward a short time later, +in a speech made famous mainly by that phrase. If there was any new +discovery in it, the right of priority was Lincoln’s. This utterance +proved not only his statesmanlike conception of the issue, but also, +in his situation as a candidate, the firmness of his moral courage. +The friends to whom he had read the draught of this speech before he +delivered it warned him anxiously that its delivery might be fatal to +his success in the election. This was shrewd advice, in the ordinary +sense. While a slaveholder could threaten disunion with impunity, the +mere suggestion that the existence of slavery was incompatible with +freedom in the Union would hazard the political chances of any public +man in the North. But Lincoln was inflexible. “It is true,” said he, +“and I will deliver it as written.... I would rather be defeated with +these expressions in my speech held up and discussed before the people +than be victorious without them.” The statesman was right in his +far-seeing judgment and his conscientious statement of the truth, but +the practical politicians were also right in their prediction of the +immediate effect. Douglas instantly seized upon the declaration that a +house divided against itself cannot stand as the main objective point of +his attack, interpreting it as an incitement to a “relentless sectional +war,” and there is no doubt that the persistent reiteration of this +charge served to frighten not a few timid souls. + +Lincoln constantly endeavored to bring the moral and philosophical side +of the subject to the foreground. “Slavery is wrong” was the keynote of +all his speeches. To Douglas’s glittering sophism that the right of the +people of a Territory to have slavery or not, as they might desire, was +in accordance with the principle of true popular sovereignty, he made +the pointed answer: “Then true popular sovereignty, according to Senator +Douglas, means that, when one man makes another man his slave, no +third man shall be allowed to object.” To Douglas’s argument that +the principle which demanded that the people of a Territory should be +permitted to choose whether they would have slavery or not “originated +when God made man, and placed good and evil before him, allowing him +to choose upon his own responsibility,” Lincoln solemnly replied: “No; +God—did not place good and evil before man, telling him to make his +choice. On the contrary, God did tell him there was one tree of the +fruit of which he should not eat, upon pain of death.” He did not, +however, place himself on the most advanced ground taken by the radical +anti-slavery men. He admitted that, under the Constitution, “the +Southern people were entitled to a Congressional fugitive slave law,” +although he did not approve the fugitive slave law then existing. He +declared also that, if slavery were kept out of the Territories during +their territorial existence, as it should be, and if then the people of +any Territory, having a fair chance and a clear field, should do such +an extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave constitution, uninfluenced by +the actual presence of the institution among them, he saw no alternative +but to admit such a Territory into the Union. He declared further that, +while he should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abolished in the +District of Columbia, he would, as a member of Congress, with his +present views, not endeavor to bring on that abolition except on +condition that emancipation be gradual, that it be approved by the +decision of a majority of voters in the District, and that compensation +be made to unwilling owners. On every available occasion, he pronounced +himself in favor of the deportation and colonization of the blacks, of +course with their consent. He repeatedly disavowed any wish on his part +to have social and political equality established between whites and +blacks. On this point he summed up his views in a reply to Douglas’s +assertion that the Declaration of Independence, in speaking of all men +as being created equal, did not include the negroes, saying: “I do not +understand the Declaration of Independence to mean that all men were +created equal in all respects. They are not equal in color. But I +believe that it does mean to declare that all men are equal in some +respects; they are equal in their right to life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness.” + +With regard to some of these subjects Lincoln modified his position at +a later period, and it has been suggested that he would have professed +more advanced principles in his debates with Douglas, had he not feared +thereby to lose votes. This view can hardly be sustained. Lincoln had +the courage of his opinions, but he was not a radical. The man who +risked his election by delivering, against the urgent protest of his +friends, the speech about “the house divided against itself” would not +have shrunk from the expression of more extreme views, had he really +entertained them. It is only fair to assume that he said what at the +time he really thought, and that if, subsequently, his opinions changed, +it was owing to new conceptions of good policy and of duty brought +forth by an entirely new set of circumstances and exigencies. It +is characteristic that he continued to adhere to the impracticable +colonization plan even after the Emancipation Proclamation had already +been issued. + +But in this contest Lincoln proved himself not only a debater, but +also a political strategist of the first order. The “kind, amiable, and +intelligent gentleman,” as Douglas had been pleased to call him, was by +no means as harmless as a dove. He possessed an uncommon share of that +worldly shrewdness which not seldom goes with genuine simplicity of +character; and the political experience gathered in the Legislature +and in Congress, and in many election campaigns, added to his keen +intuitions, had made him as far-sighted a judge of the probable effects +of a public man’s sayings or doings upon the popular mind, and as +accurate a calculator in estimating political chances and forecasting +results, as could be found among the party managers in Illinois. And +now he perceived keenly the ugly dilemma in which Douglas found himself, +between the Dred Scott decision, which declared the right to hold slaves +to exist in the Territories by virtue of the Federal Constitution, and +his “great principle of popular sovereignty,” according to which the +people of a Territory, if they saw fit, were to have the right to +exclude slavery therefrom. Douglas was twisting and squirming to +the best of his ability to avoid the admission that the two were +incompatible. The question then presented itself if it would be good +policy for Lincoln to force Douglas to a clear expression of his opinion +as to whether, the Dred Scott decision notwithstanding, “the people of a +Territory could in any lawful way exclude slavery from its limits prior +to the formation of a State constitution.” Lincoln foresaw and predicted +what Douglas would answer: that slavery could not exist in a Territory +unless the people desired it and gave it protection by territorial +legislation. In an improvised caucus the policy of pressing the +interrogatory on Douglas was discussed. Lincoln’s friends unanimously +advised against it, because the answer foreseen would sufficiently +commend Douglas to the people of Illinois to insure his re-election to +the Senate. But Lincoln persisted. “I am after larger game,” said he. +“If Douglas so answers, he can never be President, and the battle of +1860 is worth a hundred of this.” The interrogatory was pressed upon +Douglas, and Douglas did answer that, no matter what the decision of +the Supreme Court might be on the abstract question, the people of +a Territory had the lawful means to introduce or exclude slavery by +territorial legislation friendly or unfriendly to the institution. +Lincoln found it easy to show the absurdity of the proposition that, if +slavery were admitted to exist of right in the Territories by virtue +of the supreme law, the Federal Constitution, it could be kept out or +expelled by an inferior law, one made by a territorial Legislature. +Again the judgment of the politicians, having only the nearest object in +view, proved correct: Douglas was reelected to the Senate. But Lincoln’s +judgment proved correct also: Douglas, by resorting to the expedient +of his “unfriendly legislation doctrine,” forfeited his last chance of +becoming President of the United States. He might have hoped to win, by +sufficient atonement, his pardon from the South for his opposition +to the Lecompton Constitution; but that he taught the people of the +Territories a trick by which they could defeat what the proslavery men +considered a constitutional right, and that he called that trick +lawful, this the slave power would never forgive. The breach between +the Southern and the Northern Democracy was thenceforth irremediable and +fatal. + +The Presidential election of 1860 approached. The struggle in Kansas, +and the debates in Congress which accompanied it, and which not +unfrequently provoked violent outbursts, continually stirred the popular +excitement. Within the Democratic party raged the war of factions. The +national Democratic convention met at Charleston on the 23d of April, +1860. After a struggle of ten days between the adherents and the +opponents of Douglas, during which the delegates from the cotton States +had withdrawn, the convention adjourned without having nominated any +candidates, to meet again in Baltimore on the 18th of June. There was no +prospect, however, of reconciling the hostile elements. It appeared very +probable that the Baltimore convention would nominate Douglas, while +the seceding Southern Democrats would set up a candidate of their own, +representing extreme proslavery principles. + +Meanwhile, the national Republican convention assembled at Chicago on +the 16th of May, full of enthusiasm and hope. The situation was easily +understood. The Democrats would have the South. In order to succeed +in the election, the Republicans had to win, in addition to the States +carried by Fremont in 1856, those that were classed as “doubtful,”—New +Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, or Illinois in the place of either +New Jersey or Indiana. The most eminent Republican statesmen and leaders +of the time thought of for the Presidency were Seward and Chase, both +regarded as belonging to the more advanced order of antislavery men. +Of the two, Seward had the largest following, mainly from New York, +New England, and the Northwest. Cautious politicians doubted seriously +whether Seward, to whom some phrases in his speeches had undeservedly +given the reputation of a reckless radical, would be able to command the +whole Republican vote in the doubtful States. Besides, during his long +public career he had made enemies. It was evident that those who thought +Seward’s nomination too hazardous an experiment would consider Chase +unavailable for the same reason. They would then look round for an +“available” man; and among the “available” men Abraham Lincoln was +easily discovered to stand foremost. His great debate with Douglas had +given him a national reputation. The people of the East being eager +to see the hero of so dramatic a contest, he had been induced to visit +several Eastern cities, and had astonished and delighted large and +distinguished audiences with speeches of singular power and originality. +An address delivered by him in the Cooper Institute in New York, before +an audience containing a large number of important persons, was then, +and has ever since been, especially praised as one of the most logical +and convincing political speeches ever made in this country. The people +of the West had grown proud of him as a distinctively Western great man, +and his popularity at home had some peculiar features which could be +expected to exercise a potent charm. Nor was Lincoln’s name as that of +an available candidate left to the chance of accidental discovery. It +is indeed not probable that he thought of himself as a Presidential +possibility, during his contest with Douglas for the senatorship. As +late as April, 1859, he had written to a friend who had approached him +on the subject that he did not think himself fit for the Presidency. +The Vice-Presidency was then the limit of his ambition. But some of +his friends in Illinois took the matter seriously in hand, and Lincoln, +after some hesitation, then formally authorized “the use of his name.” +The matter was managed with such energy and excellent judgment that, +in the convention, he had not only the whole vote of Illinois to start +with, but won votes on all sides without offending any rival. A large +majority of the opponents of Seward went over to Abraham Lincoln, and +gave him the nomination on the third ballot. As had been foreseen, +Douglas was nominated by one wing of the Democratic party at Baltimore, +while the extreme proslavery wing put Breckinridge into the field as +its candidate. After a campaign conducted with the energy of genuine +enthusiasm on the antislavery side the united Republicans defeated the +divided Democrats, and Lincoln was elected President by a majority of +fifty-seven votes in the electoral colleges. + +The result of the election had hardly been declared when the disunion +movement in the South, long threatened and carefully planned and +prepared, broke out in the shape of open revolt, and nearly a month +before Lincoln could be inaugurated as President of the United States +seven Southern States had adopted ordinances of secession, formed an +independent confederacy, framed a constitution for it, and elected +Jefferson Davis its president, expecting the other slaveholding +States soon to join them. On the 11th of February, 1861, Lincoln left +Springfield for Washington; having, with characteristic simplicity, +asked his law partner not to change the sign of the firm “Lincoln +and Herndon” during the four years unavoidable absence of the senior +partner, and having taken an affectionate and touching leave of his +neighbors. + +The situation which confronted the new President was appalling: the +larger part of the South in open rebellion, the rest of the slaveholding +States wavering preparing to follow; the revolt guided by determined, +daring, and skillful leaders; the Southern people, apparently full of +enthusiasm and military spirit, rushing to arms, some of the forts +and arsenals already in their possession; the government of the Union, +before the accession of the new President, in the hands of men some of +whom actively sympathized with the revolt, while others were hampered by +their traditional doctrines in dealing with it, and really gave it aid +and comfort by their irresolute attitude; all the departments full of +“Southern sympathizers” and honeycombed with disloyalty; the treasury +empty, and the public credit at the lowest ebb; the arsenals ill +supplied with arms, if not emptied by treacherous practices; the regular +army of insignificant strength, dispersed over an immense surface, and +deprived of some of its best officers by defection; the navy small and +antiquated. But that was not all. The threat of disunion had so often +been resorted to by the slave power in years gone by that most Northern +people had ceased to believe in its seriousness. But, when disunion +actually appeared as a stern reality, something like a chill swept +through the whole Northern country. A cry for union and peace at any +price rose on all sides. Democratic partisanship reiterated this cry +with vociferous vehemence, and even many Republicans grew afraid of +the victory they had just achieved at the ballot-box, and spoke of +compromise. The country fairly resounded with the noise of “anticoercion +meetings.” Expressions of firm resolution from determined antislavery +men were indeed not wanting, but they were for a while almost drowned +by a bewildering confusion of discordant voices. Even this was not +all. Potent influences in Europe, with an ill-concealed desire for the +permanent disruption of the American Union, eagerly espoused the cause +of the Southern seceders, and the two principal maritime powers of the +Old World seemed only to be waiting for a favorable opportunity to lend +them a helping hand. + +This was the state of things to be mastered by “honest Abe Lincoln” when +he took his seat in the Presidential chair,—“honest Abe Lincoln,” who +was so good-natured that he could not say “no”; the greatest achievement +in whose life had been a debate on the slavery question; who had never +been in any position of power; who was without the slightest experience +of high executive duties, and who had only a speaking acquaintance with +the men upon whose counsel and cooperation he was to depend. Nor was +his accession to power under such circumstances greeted with general +confidence even by the members of his party. While he had indeed won +much popularity, many Republicans, especially among those who had +advocated Seward’s nomination for the Presidency, saw the simple +“Illinois lawyer” take the reins of government with a feeling little +short of dismay. The orators and journals of the opposition were +ridiculing and lampooning him without measure. Many people actually +wondered how such a man could dare to undertake a task which, as he +himself had said to his neighbors in his parting speech, was “more +difficult than that of Washington himself had been.” + +But Lincoln brought to that task, aside from other uncommon qualities, +the first requisite,—an intuitive comprehension of its nature. While +he did not indulge in the delusion that the Union could be maintained or +restored without a conflict of arms, he could indeed not foresee all the +problems he would have to solve. He instinctively understood, however, +by what means that conflict would have to be conducted by the government +of a democracy. He knew that the impending war, whether great or small, +would not be like a foreign war, exciting a united national enthusiasm, +but a civil war, likely to fan to uncommon heat the animosities of party +even in the localities controlled by the government; that this war would +have to be carried on not by means of a ready-made machinery, ruled +by an undisputed, absolute will, but by means to be furnished by the +voluntary action of the people:—armies to be formed by voluntary +enlistments; large sums of money to be raised by the people, through +representatives, voluntarily taxing themselves; trust of extraordinary +power to be voluntarily granted; and war measures, not seldom +restricting the rights and liberties to which the citizen was +accustomed, to be voluntarily accepted and submitted to by the people, +or at least a large majority of them; and that this would have to be +kept up not merely during a short period of enthusiastic excitement; but +possibly through weary years of alternating success and disaster, hope +and despondency. He knew that in order to steer this government by +public opinion successfully through all the confusion created by the +prejudices and doubts and differences of sentiment distracting the +popular mind, and so to propitiate, inspire, mould, organize, unite, and +guide the popular will that it might give forth all the means required +for the performance of his great task, he would have to take into +account all the influences strongly affecting the current of popular +thought and feeling, and to direct while appearing to obey. + +This was the kind of leadership he intuitively conceived to be needed +when a free people were to be led forward en masse to overcome a +great common danger under circumstances of appalling difficulty, the +leadership which does not dash ahead with brilliant daring, no matter +who follows, but which is intent upon rallying all the available forces, +gathering in the stragglers, closing up the column, so that the front +may advance well supported. For this leadership Abraham Lincoln was +admirably fitted, better than any other American statesman of his day; +for he understood the plain people, with all their loves and hates, +their prejudices and their noble impulses, their weaknesses and their +strength, as he understood himself, and his sympathetic nature was apt +to draw their sympathy to him. + +His inaugural address foreshadowed his official course in characteristic +manner. Although yielding nothing in point of principle, it was by no +means a flaming antislavery manifesto, such as would have pleased the +more ardent Republicans. It was rather the entreaty of a sorrowing +father speaking to his wayward children. In the kindliest language +he pointed out to the secessionists how ill advised their attempt at +disunion was, and why, for their own sakes, they should desist. Almost +plaintively, he told them that, while it was not their duty to destroy +the Union, it was his sworn duty to preserve it; that the least he +could do, under the obligations of his oath, was to possess and hold the +property of the United States; that he hoped to do this peaceably; that +he abhorred war for any purpose, and that they would have none +unless they themselves were the aggressors. It was a masterpiece of +persuasiveness, and while Lincoln had accepted many valuable amendments +suggested by Seward, it was essentially his own. Probably Lincoln +himself did not expect his inaugural address to have any effect upon the +secessionists, for he must have known them to be resolved upon disunion +at any cost. But it was an appeal to the wavering minds in the North, +and upon them it made a profound impression. Every candid man, however +timid and halting, had to admit that the President was bound by his oath +to do his duty; that under that oath he could do no less than he said +he would do; that if the secessionists resisted such an appeal as +the President had made, they were bent upon mischief, and that the +government must be supported against them. The partisan sympathy with +the Southern insurrection which still existed in the North did indeed +not disappear, but it diminished perceptibly under the influence of such +reasoning. Those who still resisted it did so at the risk of appearing +unpatriotic. + +It must not be supposed, however, that Lincoln at once succeeded in +pleasing everybody, even among his friends,—even among those nearest to +him. In selecting his cabinet, which he did substantially before he left +Springfield for Washington, he thought it wise to call to his assistance +the strong men of his party, especially those who had given evidence of +the support they commanded as his competitors in the Chicago convention. +In them he found at the same time representatives of the +different shades of opinion within the party, and of the different +elements—former Whigs and former Democrats—from which the party had +recruited itself. This was sound policy under the circumstances. It +might indeed have been foreseen that among the members of a cabinet so +composed, troublesome disagreements and rivalries would break out. But +it was better for the President to have these strong and ambitious +men near him as his co-operators than to have them as his critics in +Congress, where their differences might have been composed in a common +opposition to him. As members of his cabinet he could hope to control +them, and to keep them busily employed in the service of a common +purpose, if he had the strength to do so. Whether he did possess this +strength was soon tested by a singularly rude trial. + +There can be no doubt that the foremost members of his cabinet, Seward +and Chase, the most eminent Republican statesmen, had felt themselves +wronged by their party when in its national convention it preferred +to them for the Presidency a man whom, not unnaturally, they thought +greatly their inferior in ability and experience as well as in service. +The soreness of that disappointment was intensified when they saw this +Western man in the White House, with so much of rustic manner and speech +as still clung to him, meeting his fellow-citizens, high and low, on a +footing of equality, with the simplicity of his good nature unburdened +by any conventional dignity of deportment, and dealing with the great +business of state in an easy-going, unmethodical, and apparently +somewhat irreverent way. They did not understand such a man. Especially +Seward, who, as Secretary of State, considered himself next to the +Chief Executive, and who quickly accustomed himself to giving orders and +making arrangements upon his own motion, thought it necessary that he +should rescue the direction of public affairs from hands so unskilled, +and take full charge of them himself. At the end of the first month of +the administration he submitted a “memorandum” to President Lincoln, +which has been first brought to light by Nicolay and Hay, and is one of +their most valuable contributions to the history of those days. In that +paper Seward actually told the President that at the end of a month’s +administration the government was still without a policy, either +domestic or foreign; that the slavery question should be eliminated from +the struggle about the Union; that the matter of the maintenance of the +forts and other possessions in the South should be decided with that +view; that explanations should be demanded categorically from the +governments of Spain and France, which were then preparing, one for the +annexation of San Domingo, and both for the invasion of Mexico; that +if no satisfactory explanations were received war should be declared +against Spain and France by the United States; that explanations should +also be sought from Russia and Great Britain, and a vigorous continental +spirit of independence against European intervention be aroused all over +the American continent; that this policy should be incessantly pursued +and directed by somebody; that either the President should devote +himself entirely to it, or devolve the direction on some member of his +cabinet, whereupon all debate on this policy must end. + +This could be understood only as a formal demand that the President +should acknowledge his own incompetency to perform his duties, content +himself with the amusement of distributing post-offices, and resign his +power as to all important affairs into the hands of his Secretary of +State. It seems to-day incomprehensible how a statesman of Seward’s +calibre could at that period conceive a plan of policy in which the +slavery question had no place; a policy which rested upon the utterly +delusive assumption that the secessionists, who had already formed their +Southern Confederacy and were with stern resolution preparing to fight +for its independence, could be hoodwinked back into the Union by some +sentimental demonstration against European interference; a policy which, +at that critical moment, would have involved the Union in a foreign war, +thus inviting foreign intervention in favor of the Southern Confederacy, +and increasing tenfold its chances in the struggle for independence. But +it is equally incomprehensible how Seward could fail to see that this +demand of an unconditional surrender was a mortal insult to the head +of the government, and that by putting his proposition on paper he +delivered himself into the hands of the very man he had insulted; for, +had Lincoln, as most Presidents would have done, instantly dismissed +Seward, and published the true reason for that dismissal, it would +inevitably have been the end of Seward’s career. But Lincoln did what +not many of the noblest and greatest men in history would have been +noble and great enough to do. He considered that Seward was still +capable of rendering great service to his country in the place in +which he was, if rightly controlled. He ignored the insult, but +firmly established his superiority. In his reply, which he forthwith +despatched, he told Seward that the administration had a domestic policy +as laid down in the inaugural address with Seward’s approval; that +it had a foreign policy as traced in Seward’s despatches with the +President’s approval; that if any policy was to be maintained or +changed, he, the President, was to direct that on his responsibility; +and that in performing that duty the President had a right to the +advice of his secretaries. Seward’s fantastic schemes of foreign war +and continental policies Lincoln brushed aside by passing them over in +silence. Nothing more was said. Seward must have felt that he was at +the mercy of a superior man; that his offensive proposition had been +generously pardoned as a temporary aberration of a great mind, and that +he could atone for it only by devoted personal loyalty. This he did. +He was thoroughly subdued, and thenceforth submitted to Lincoln his +despatches for revision and amendment without a murmur. The war with +European nations was no longer thought of; the slavery question found in +due time its proper place in the struggle for the Union; and when, at +a later period, the dismissal of Seward was demanded by dissatisfied +senators, who attributed to him the shortcomings of the administration, +Lincoln stood stoutly by his faithful Secretary of State. + +Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, a man of superb presence, of +eminent ability and ardent patriotism, of great natural dignity and a +certain outward coldness of manner, which made him appear more difficult +of approach than he really was, did not permit his disappointment to +burst out in such extravagant demonstrations. But Lincoln’s ways were +so essentially different from his that they never became quite +intelligible, and certainly not congenial to him. It might, perhaps, +have been better had there been, at the beginning of the administration, +some decided clash between Lincoln and Chase, as there was between +Lincoln and Seward, to bring on a full mutual explanation, and to make +Chase appreciate the real seriousness of Lincoln’s nature. But, as it +was, their relations always remained somewhat formal, and Chase never +felt quite at ease under a chief whom he could not understand, and whose +character and powers he never learned to esteem at their true value. +At the same time, he devoted himself zealously to the duties of his +department, and did the country arduous service under circumstances of +extreme difficulty. Nobody recognized this more heartily than Lincoln +himself, and they managed to work together until near the end of +Lincoln’s first Presidential term, when Chase, after some disagreements +concerning appointments to office, resigned from the treasury; and, +after Taney’s death, the President made him Chief Justice. + +The rest of the cabinet consisted of men of less eminence, who +subordinated themselves more easily. In January, 1862, Lincoln found it +necessary to bow Cameron out of the war office, and to put in his place +Edwin M. Stanton, a man of intensely practical mind, vehement impulses, +fierce positiveness, ruthless energy, immense working power, lofty +patriotism, and severest devotion to duty. He accepted the war office +not as a partisan, for he had never been a Republican, but only to +do all he could in “helping to save the country.” The manner in +which Lincoln succeeded in taming this lion to his will, by frankly +recognizing his great qualities, by giving him the most generous +confidence, by aiding him in his work to the full of his power, by +kindly concession or affectionate persuasiveness in cases of differing +opinions, or, when it was necessary, by firm assertions of superior +authority, bears the highest testimony to his skill in the management of +men. Stanton, who had entered the service with rather a mean opinion +of Lincoln’s character and capacity, became one of his warmest, most +devoted, and most admiring friends, and with none of his secretaries +was Lincoln’s intercourse more intimate. To take advice with candid +readiness, and to weigh it without any pride of his own opinion, was one +of Lincoln’s preeminent virtues; but he had not long presided over his +cabinet council when his was felt by all its members to be the ruling +mind. + +The cautious policy foreshadowed in his inaugural address, and pursued +during the first period of the civil war, was far from satisfying all +his party friends. The ardent spirits among the Union men thought that +the whole North should at once be called to arms, to crush the rebellion +by one powerful blow. The ardent spirits among the antislavery men +insisted that, slavery having brought forth the rebellion, this powerful +blow should at once be aimed at slavery. Both complained that the +administration was spiritless, undecided, and lamentably slow in its +proceedings. Lincoln reasoned otherwise. The ways of thinking and +feeling of the masses, of the plain people, were constantly present to +his mind. The masses, the plain people, had to furnish the men for the +fighting, if fighting was to be done. He believed that the plain people +would be ready to fight when it clearly appeared necessary, and that +they would feel that necessity when they felt themselves attacked. He +therefore waited until the enemies of the Union struck the first blow. +As soon as, on the 12th of April, 1861, the first gun was fired in +Charleston harbor on the Union flag upon Fort Sumter, the call was +sounded, and the Northern people rushed to arms. + +Lincoln knew that the plain people were now indeed ready to fight in +defence of the Union, but not yet ready to fight for the destruction of +slavery. He declared openly that he had a right to summon the people to +fight for the Union, but not to summon them to fight for the abolition +of slavery as a primary object; and this declaration gave him numberless +soldiers for the Union who at that period would have hesitated to do +battle against the institution of slavery. For a time he succeeded +in rendering harmless the cry of the partisan opposition that the +Republican administration were perverting the war for the Union into an +“abolition war.” But when he went so far as to countermand the acts of +some generals in the field, looking to the emancipation of the slaves +in the districts covered by their commands, loud complaints arose from +earnest antislavery men, who accused the President of turning his back +upon the antislavery cause. Many of these antislavery men will now, +after a calm retrospect, be willing to admit that it would have been +a hazardous policy to endanger, by precipitating a demonstrative fight +against slavery, the success of the struggle for the Union. + +Lincoln’s views and feelings concerning slavery had not changed. Those +who conversed with him intimately upon the subject at that period know +that he did not expect slavery long to survive the triumph of the Union, +even if it were not immediately destroyed by the war. In this he was +right. Had the Union armies achieved a decisive victory in an early +period of the conflict, and had the seceded States been received back +with slavery, the “slave power” would then have been a defeated power, +defeated in an attempt to carry out its most effective threat. It would +have lost its prestige. Its menaces would have been hollow sound, and +ceased to make any one afraid. It could no longer have hoped to expand, +to maintain an equilibrium in any branch of Congress, and to control the +government. The victorious free States would have largely overbalanced +it. It would no longer have been able to withstand the onset of a +hostile age. It could no longer have ruled,—and slavery had to rule in +order to live. It would have lingered for a while, but it would surely +have been “in the course of ultimate extinction.” A prolonged war +precipitated the destruction of slavery; a short war might only have +prolonged its death struggle. Lincoln saw this clearly; but he saw also +that, in a protracted death struggle, it might still have kept disloyal +sentiments alive, bred distracting commotions, and caused great mischief +to the country. He therefore hoped that slavery would not survive the +war. + +But the question how he could rightfully employ his power to bring on +its speedy destruction was to him not a question of mere sentiment. He +himself set forth his reasoning upon it, at a later period, in one +of his inimitable letters. “I am naturally antislavery,” said he. “If +slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember the time when +I did not so think and feel. And yet I have never understood that the +Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act upon that +judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the +best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the 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 that power. I understood, too, that, in ordinary civil +administration, this oath even forbade me practically to indulge my +private abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I did +understand, however, also, that my oath imposed upon me the duty of +preserving, to the best of my ability, by every indispensable means, +that government, that nation, of which the Constitution was the organic +law. I could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tied +to preserve the Constitution—if, to save slavery, or any minor matter, +I should permit the wreck of government, country, and Constitution +all together.” In other words, if the salvation of the government, the +Constitution, and the Union demanded the destruction of slavery, he +felt it to be not only his right, but his sworn duty to destroy it. Its +destruction became a necessity of the war for the Union. + +As the war dragged on and disaster followed disaster, the sense of that +necessity steadily grew upon him. Early in 1862, as some of his friends +well remember, he saw, what Seward seemed not to see, that to give +the war for the Union an antislavery character was the surest means to +prevent the recognition of the Southern Confederacy as an independent +nation by European powers; that, slavery being abhorred by the moral +sense of civilized mankind, no European government would dare to offer +so gross an insult to the public opinion of its people as openly to +favor the creation of a state founded upon slavery to the prejudice of +an existing nation fighting against slavery. He saw also that slavery +untouched was to the rebellion an element of power, and that in order +to overcome that power it was necessary to turn it into an element +of weakness. Still, he felt no assurance that the plain people were +prepared for so radical a measure as the emancipation of the slaves by +act of the government, and he anxiously considered that, if they were +not, this great step might, by exciting dissension at the North, injure +the cause of the Union in one quarter more than it would help it in +another. He heartily welcomed an effort made in New York to mould and +stimulate public sentiment on the slavery question by public meetings +boldly pronouncing for emancipation. At the same time he himself +cautiously advanced with a recommendation, expressed in a special +message to Congress, that the United States should co-operate with any +State which might adopt the gradual abolishment of slavery, giving +such State pecuniary aid to compensate the former owners of emancipated +slaves. The discussion was started, and spread rapidly. Congress adopted +the resolution recommended, and soon went a step farther in passing a +bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. The plain people +began to look at emancipation on a larger scale as a thing to be +considered seriously by patriotic citizens; and soon Lincoln thought +that the time was ripe, and that the edict of freedom could be ventured +upon without danger of serious confusion in the Union ranks. + +The failure of McClellan’s movement upon Richmond increased immensely +the prestige of the enemy. The need of some great act to stimulate the +vitality of the Union cause seemed to grow daily more pressing. On +July 21, 1862, Lincoln surprised his cabinet with the draught of a +proclamation declaring free the slaves in all the States that should be +still in rebellion against the United States on the 1st of January, 1863. +As to the matter itself he announced that he had fully made up his mind; +he invited advice only concerning the form and the time of publication. +Seward suggested that the proclamation, if then brought out, amidst +disaster and distress, would sound like the last shriek of a perishing +cause. Lincoln accepted the suggestion, and the proclamation was +postponed. Another defeat followed, the second at Bull Run. But when, +after that battle, the Confederate army, under Lee, crossed the Potomac +and invaded Maryland, Lincoln vowed in his heart that, if the Union army +were now blessed with success, the decree of freedom should surely +be issued. The victory of Antietam was won on September 17, and the +preliminary Emancipation Proclamation came forth on the a 22d. It was +Lincoln’s own resolution and act; but practically it bound the nation, +and permitted no step backward. In spite of its limitations, it was the +actual abolition of slavery. Thus he wrote his name upon the books of +history with the title dearest to his heart, the liberator of the slave. + +It is true, the great proclamation, which stamped the war as one for +“union and freedom,” did not at once mark the turning of the tide on the +field of military operations. There were more disasters, Fredericksburg +and Chancellorsville. But with Gettysburg and Vicksburg the whole aspect +of the war changed. Step by step, now more slowly, then more rapidly, +but with increasing steadiness, the flag of the Union advanced from +field to field toward the final consummation. The decree of emancipation +was naturally followed by the enlistment of emancipated negroes in the +Union armies. This measure had a anther reaching effect than merely +giving the Union armies an increased supply of men. The laboring force +of the rebellion was hopelessly disorganized. The war became like a +problem of arithmetic. As the Union armies pushed forward, the area +from which the Southern Confederacy could draw recruits and supplies +constantly grew smaller, while the area from which the Union recruited +its strength constantly grew larger; and everywhere, even within the +Southern lines, the Union had its allies. The fate of the rebellion +was then virtually decided; but it still required much bloody work to +convince the brave warriors who fought for it that they were really +beaten. + +Neither did the Emancipation Proclamation forthwith command universal +assent among the people who were loyal to the Union. There were even +signs of a reaction against the administration in the fall elections of +1862, seemingly justifying the opinion, entertained by many, that the +President had really anticipated the development of popular feeling. The +cry that the war for the Union had been turned into an “abolition war” +was raised again by the opposition, and more loudly than ever. But +the good sense and patriotic instincts of the plain people gradually +marshalled themselves on Lincoln’s side, and he lost no opportunity to +help on this process by personal argument and admonition. There never +has been a President in such constant and active contact with the public +opinion of the country, as there never has been a President who, while +at the head of the government, remained so near to the people. Beyond +the circle of those who had long known him the feeling steadily grew +that the man in the White House was “honest Abe Lincoln” still, and +that every citizen might approach him with complaint, expostulation, or +advice, without danger of meeting a rebuff from power-proud authority, +or humiliating condescension; and this privilege was used by so many +and with such unsparing freedom that only superhuman patience could +have endured it all. There are men now living who would to-day read with +amazement, if not regret, what they ventured to say or write to him. But +Lincoln repelled no one whom he believed to speak to him in good faith +and with patriotic purpose. No good advice would go unheeded. No candid +criticism would offend him. No honest opposition, while it might pain +him, would produce a lasting alienation of feeling between him and the +opponent. It may truly be said that few men in power have ever been +exposed to more daring attempts to direct their course, to severer +censure of their acts, and to more cruel misrepresentation of their +motives: And all this he met with that good-natured humor peculiarly his +own, and with untiring effort to see the right and to impress it +upon those who differed from him. The conversations he had and the +correspondence he carried on upon matters of public interest, not only +with men in official position, but with private citizens, were almost +unceasing, and in a large number of public letters, written ostensibly +to meetings, or committees, or persons of importance, he addressed +himself directly to the popular mind. Most of these letters stand among +the finest monuments of our political literature. Thus he presented the +singular spectacle of a President who, in the midst of a great civil +war, with unprecedented duties weighing upon him, was constantly in +person debating the great features of his policy with the people. + +While in this manner he exercised an ever-increasing influence upon the +popular understanding, his sympathetic nature endeared him more and +more to the popular heart. In vain did journals and speakers of the +opposition represent him as a lightminded trifler, who amused himself +with frivolous story-telling and coarse jokes, while the blood of the +people was flowing in streams. The people knew that the man at the head +of affairs, on whose haggard face the twinkle of humor so frequently +changed into an expression of profoundest sadness, was more than any +other deeply distressed by the suffering he witnessed; that he felt +the pain of every wound that was inflicted on the battlefield, and the +anguish of every woman or child who had lost husband or father; that +whenever he could he was eager to alleviate sorrow, and that his mercy +was never implored in vain. They looked to him as one who was with them +and of them in all their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows, who +laughed with them and wept with them; and as his heart was theirs; so +their hearts turned to him. His popularity was far different from +that of Washington, who was revered with awe, or that of Jackson, +the unconquerable hero, for whom party enthusiasm never grew weary +of shouting. To Abraham Lincoln the people became bound by a genuine +sentimental attachment. It was not a matter of respect, or confidence, +or party pride, for this feeling spread far beyond the boundary lines of +his party; it was an affair of the heart, independent of mere reasoning. +When the soldiers in the field or their folks at home spoke of “Father +Abraham,” there was no cant in it. They felt that their President was +really caring for them as a father would, and that they could go to him, +every one of them, as they would go to a father, and talk to him of what +troubled them, sure to find a willing ear and tender sympathy. Thus, +their President, and his cause, and his endeavors, and his success +gradually became to them almost matters of family concern. And this +popularity carried him triumphantly through the Presidential election +of 1864, in spite of an opposition within his own party which at first +seemed very formidable. + +Many of the radical antislavery men were never quite satisfied with +Lincoln’s ways of meeting the problems of the time. They were very +earnest and mostly very able men, who had positive ideas as to “how this +rebellion should be put down.” They would not recognize the necessity +of measuring the steps of the government according to the progress +of opinion among the plain people. They criticised Lincoln’s cautious +management as irresolute, halting, lacking in definite purpose and in +energy; he should not have delayed emancipation so long; he should not +have confided important commands to men of doubtful views as to slavery; +he should have authorized military commanders to set the slaves free +as they went on; he dealt too leniently with unsuccessful generals; he +should have put down all factious opposition with a strong hand instead +of trying to pacify it; he should have given the people accomplished +facts instead of arguing with them, and so on. It is true, these +criticisms were not always entirely unfounded. Lincoln’s policy had, +with the virtues of democratic government, some of its weaknesses, which +in the presence of pressing exigencies were apt to deprive governmental +action of the necessary vigor; and his kindness of heart, his +disposition always to respect the feelings of others, frequently made +him recoil from anything like severity, even when severity was urgently +called for. But many of his radical critics have since then revised +their judgment sufficiently to admit that Lincoln’s policy was, on the +whole, the wisest and safest; that a policy of heroic methods, while it +has sometimes accomplished great results, could in a democracy like +ours be maintained only by constant success; that it would have quickly +broken down under the weight of disaster; that it might have been +successful from the start, had the Union, at the beginning of the +conflict, had its Grants and Shermans and Sheridans, its Farraguts and +Porters, fully matured at the head of its forces; but that, as the great +commanders had to be evolved slowly from the developments of the war, +constant success could not be counted upon, and it was best to follow +a policy which was in friendly contact with the popular force, and +therefore more fit to stand trial of misfortune on the battlefield. But +at that period they thought differently, and their dissatisfaction with +Lincoln’s doings was greatly increased by the steps he took toward the +reconstruction of rebel States then partially in possession of the Union +forces. + +In December, 1863, Lincoln issued an amnesty proclamation, offering +pardon to all implicated in the rebellion, with certain specified +exceptions, on condition of their taking and maintaining an oath to +support the Constitution and obey the laws of the United States and the +proclamations of the President with regard to slaves; and also promising +that when, in any of the rebel States, a number of citizens equal to one +tenth of the voters in 1860 should re-establish a state government in +conformity with the oath above mentioned, such should be recognized +by the Executive as the true government of the State. The proclamation +seemed at first to be received with general favor. But soon another +scheme of reconstruction, much more stringent in its provisions, was put +forward in the House of Representatives by Henry Winter Davis. Benjamin +Wade championed it in the Senate. It passed in the closing moments of +the session in July, 1864, and Lincoln, instead of making it a law by +his signature, embodied the text of it in a proclamation as a plan of +reconstruction worthy of being earnestly considered. The differences of +opinion concerning this subject had only intensified the feeling against +Lincoln which had long been nursed among the radicals, and some of +them openly declared their purpose of resisting his re-election to +the Presidency. Similar sentiments were manifested by the advanced +antislavery men of Missouri, who, in their hot faction-fight with the +“conservatives” of that State, had not received from Lincoln the active +support they demanded. Still another class of Union men, mainly in the +East, gravely shook their heads when considering the question whether +Lincoln should be re-elected. They were those who cherished in their +minds an ideal of statesmanship and of personal bearing in high office +with which, in their opinion, Lincoln’s individuality was much out of +accord. They were shocked when they heard him cap an argument upon grave +affairs of state with a story about “a man out in Sangamon County,”—a +story, to be sure, strikingly clinching his point, but sadly lacking in +dignity. They could not understand the man who was capable, in opening +a cabinet meeting, of reading to his secretaries a funny chapter from a +recent book of Artemus Ward, with which in an unoccupied moment he had +relieved his care-burdened mind, and who then solemnly informed the +executive council that he had vowed in his heart to issue a proclamation +emancipating the slaves as soon as God blessed the Union arms with +another victory. They were alarmed at the weakness of a President who +would indeed resist the urgent remonstrances of statesmen against his +policy, but could not resist the prayer of an old woman for the pardon +of a soldier who was sentenced to be shot for desertion. Such men, +mostly sincere and ardent patriots, not only wished, but earnestly set +to work, to prevent Lincoln’s renomination. Not a few of them actually +believed, in 1863, that, if the national convention of the Union party +were held then, Lincoln would not be supported by the delegation of a +single State. But when the convention met at Baltimore, in June, 1864, +the voice of the people was heard. On the first ballot Lincoln received +the votes of the delegations from all the States except Missouri; and +even the Missourians turned over their votes to him before the result of +the ballot was declared. + +But even after his renomination the opposition to Lincoln within the +ranks of the Union party did not subside. A convention, called by the +dissatisfied radicals in Missouri, and favored by men of a similar +way of thinking in other States, had been held already in May, and +had nominated as its candidate for the Presidency General Fremont. He, +indeed, did not attract a strong following, but opposition movements +from different quarters appeared more formidable. Henry Winter Davis and +Benjamin Wade assailed Lincoln in a flaming manifesto. Other Union men, +of undoubted patriotism and high standing, persuaded themselves, and +sought to persuade the people, that Lincoln’s renomination was ill +advised and dangerous to the Union cause. As the Democrats had put off +their convention until the 29th of August, the Union party had, during +the larger part of the summer, no opposing candidate and platform to +attack, and the political campaign languished. Neither were the tidings +from the theatre of war of a cheering character. The terrible losses +suffered by Grant’s army in the battles of the Wilderness spread general +gloom. Sherman seemed for a while to be in a precarious position before +Atlanta. The opposition to Lincoln within the Union party grew louder in +its complaints and discouraging predictions. Earnest demands were heard +that his candidacy should be withdrawn. Lincoln himself, not knowing +how strongly the masses were attached to him, was haunted by dark +forebodings of defeat. Then the scene suddenly changed as if by magic. + +The Democrats, in their national convention, declared the war a failure, +demanded, substantially, peace at any price, and nominated on such a +platform General McClellan as their candidate. Their convention had +hardly adjourned when the capture of Atlanta gave a new aspect to the +military situation. It was like a sun-ray bursting through a dark +cloud. The rank and file of the Union party rose with rapidly growing +enthusiasm. The song “We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred +thousand strong,” resounded all over the land. Long before the decisive +day arrived, the result was beyond doubt, and Lincoln was re-elected +President by overwhelming majorities. The election over even his +severest critics found themselves forced to admit that Lincoln was the +only possible candidate for the Union party in 1864, and that neither +political combinations nor campaign speeches, nor even victories in the +field, were needed to insure his success. The plain people had all the +while been satisfied with Abraham Lincoln: they confided in him; they +loved him; they felt themselves near to him; they saw personified in him +the cause of Union and freedom; and they went to the ballot-box for him +in their strength. + +The hour of triumph called out the characteristic impulses of his +nature. The opposition within the Union party had stung him to the +quick. Now he had his opponents before him, baffled and humiliated. Not +a moment did he lose to stretch out the hand of friendship to all. “Now +that the election is over,” he said, in response to a serenade, “may not +all, having a common interest, reunite in a common effort to save our +common country? For my own part, I have striven, and will strive, to +place no obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here I have not +willingly planted a thorn in any man’s bosom. While I am deeply +sensible to the high compliment of a re-election, it adds nothing to +my satisfaction that any other man may be pained or disappointed by the +result. May I ask those who were with me to join with me in the same +spirit toward those who were against me?” This was Abraham Lincoln’s +character as tested in the furnace of prosperity. + +The war was virtually decided, but not yet ended. Sherman was +irresistibly carrying the Union flag through the South. Grant had his +iron hand upon the ramparts of Richmond. The days of the Confederacy +were evidently numbered. Only the last blow remained to be struck. Then +Lincoln’s second inauguration came, and with it his second inaugural +address. Lincoln’s famous “Gettysburg speech” has been much and justly +admired. But far greater, as well as far more characteristic, was that +inaugural in which he poured out the whole devotion and tenderness of +his great soul. It had all the solemnity of a father’s last admonition +and blessing to his children before he lay down to die. These were +its closing words: “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this +mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it +continue until all the wealth piled up by the bondman’s two hundred and +fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of +blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, +as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, ‘The +judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’ With malice +toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God +gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in; +to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the +battle, and for his widow and his orphan; to do all which may achieve +and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all +nations.” + +This was like a sacred poem. No American President had ever spoken words +like these to the American people. America never had a President who +found such words in the depth of his heart. + +Now followed the closing scenes of the war. The Southern armies fought +bravely to the last, but all in vain. Richmond fell. Lincoln himself +entered the city on foot, accompanied only by a few officers and a +squad of sailors who had rowed him ashore from the flotilla in the James +River, a negro picked up on the way serving as a guide. Never had the +world seen a more modest conqueror and a more characteristic triumphal +procession, no army with banners and drums, only a throng of those who +had been slaves, hastily run together, escorting the victorious chief +into the capital of the vanquished foe. We are told that they pressed +around him, kissed his hands and his garments, and shouted and danced +for joy, while tears ran down the President’s care-furrowed cheeks. + +A few days more brought the surrender of Lee’s army, and peace was +assured. The people of the North were wild with joy. Everywhere +festive guns were booming, bells pealing, the churches ringing with +thanksgivings, and jubilant multitudes thronging the thoroughfares, when +suddenly the news flashed over the land that Abraham Lincoln had been +murdered. The people were stunned by the blow. Then a wail of sorrow +went up such as America had never heard before. Thousands of Northern +households grieved as if they had lost their dearest member. Many a +Southern man cried out in his heart that his people had been robbed +of their best friend in their humiliation and distress, when Abraham +Lincoln was struck down. It was as if the tender affection which his +countrymen bore him had inspired all nations with a common sentiment. +All civilized mankind stood mourning around the coffin of the dead +President. Many of those, here and abroad, who not long before had +ridiculed and reviled him were among the first to hasten on with their +flowers of eulogy, and in that universal chorus of lamentation and +praise there was not a voice that did not tremble with genuine emotion. +Never since Washington’s death had there been such unanimity of judgment +as to a man’s virtues and greatness; and even Washington’s death, +although his name was held in greater reverence, did not touch so +sympathetic a chord in the people’s hearts. + +Nor can it be said that this was owing to the tragic character of +Lincoln’s end. It is true, the death of this gentlest and most merciful +of rulers by the hand of a mad fanatic was well apt to exalt him beyond +his merits in the estimation of those who loved him, and to make his +renown the object of peculiarly tender solicitude. But it is also true +that the verdict pronounced upon him in those days has been affected +little by time, and that historical inquiry has served rather to +increase than to lessen the appreciation of his virtues, his abilities, +his services. Giving the fullest measure of credit to his great +ministers,—to Seward for his conduct of foreign affairs, to Chase for +the management of the finances under terrible difficulties, to Stanton +for the performance of his tremendous task as war secretary,—and +readily acknowledging that without the skill and fortitude of the great +commanders, and the heroism of the soldiers and sailors under them, +success could not have been achieved, the historian still finds that +Lincoln’s judgment and will were by no means governed by those around +him; that the most important steps were owing to his initiative; that +his was the deciding and directing mind; and that it was pre-eminently +he whose sagacity and whose character enlisted for the administration +in its struggles the countenance, the sympathy, and the support of the +people. It is found, even, that his judgment on military matters was +astonishingly acute, and that the advice and instructions he gave to the +generals commanding in the field would not seldom have done honor to the +ablest of them. History, therefore, without overlooking, or palliating, +or excusing any of his shortcomings or mistakes, continues to place +him foremost among the saviours of the Union and the liberators of the +slave. More than that, it awards to him the merit of having accomplished +what but few political philosophers would have recognized as +possible,—of leading the republic through four years of furious civil +conflict without any serious detriment to its free institutions. + +He was, indeed, while President, violently denounced by the opposition +as a tyrant and a usurper, for having gone beyond his constitutional +powers in authorizing or permitting the temporary suppression of +newspapers, and in wantonly suspending the writ of habeas corpus and +resorting to arbitrary arrests. 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 +demanded by necessity, should never be permitted to pass without a +protest on the one hand, and without an apology on the other. It is well +they did not so pass during our civil war. That arbitrary measures were +resorted to is true. That they were resorted to most sparingly, and only +when the government thought them absolutely required by the safety of +the republic, will now hardly be denied. But certain it is that the +history of the world does not furnish a single example of a government +passing through so tremendous a crisis as our civil war was with so +small a record of arbitrary acts, and so little interference with the +ordinary course of law outside the field of military operations. No +American President ever wielded such power as that which was thrust into +Lincoln’s hands. It is to be hoped that no American President ever +will have to be entrusted with such power again. But no man was ever +entrusted with it to whom its seductions were less dangerous than they +proved to be to Abraham Lincoln. With scrupulous care he endeavored, +even under the most trying circumstances, to remain strictly within the +constitutional limitations of his authority; and whenever the boundary +became indistinct, or when the dangers of the situation forced him +to cross it, he was equally careful to mark his acts as exceptional +measures, justifiable only by the imperative necessities of the civil +war, so that they might not pass into history as precedents for similar +acts in time of peace. It is an unquestionable fact that during the +reconstruction period which followed the war, more things were done +capable of serving as dangerous precedents than during the war itself. +Thus it may truly be said of him not only that under his guidance the +republic was saved from disruption and the country was purified of the +blot of slavery, but that, during the stormiest and most perilous crisis +in our history, he so conducted the government and so wielded his almost +dictatorial power as to leave essentially intact our free institutions +in all things that concern the rights and liberties of the citizens. +He understood well the nature of the problem. In his first message to +Congress he defined it in admirably pointed language: “Must a government +be of necessity too strong for the liberties of its own people, or +too weak to maintain its own existence? Is there in all republics this +inherent weakness?” This question he answered in the name of the great +American republic, as no man could have answered it better, with a +triumphant “No....” + +It has been said that Abraham Lincoln died at the right moment for his +fame. However that may be, he had, at the time of his death, certainly +not exhausted his usefulness to his country. He was probably the only +man who could have guided the nation through the perplexities of the +reconstruction period in such a manner as to prevent in the work of +peace the revival of the passions of the war. He would indeed not have +escaped serious controversy as to details of policy; but he could have +weathered it far better than any other statesman of his time, for his +prestige with the active politicians had been immensely strengthened by +his triumphant re-election; and, what is more important, he would have +been supported by the confidence of the victorious Northern people that +he would do all to secure the safety of the Union and the rights of +the emancipated negro, and at the same time by the confidence of the +defeated Southern people that nothing would be done by him from motives +of vindictiveness, or of unreasoning fanaticism, or of a selfish party +spirit. “With malice toward none, with charity for all,” the foremost +of the victors would have personified in himself the genius of +reconciliation. + +He might have rendered the country a great service in another direction. +A few days after the fall of Richmond, he pointed out to a friend the +crowd of office-seekers besieging his door. “Look at that,” said he. +“Now we have conquered the rebellion, but here you see something that +may become more dangerous to this republic than the rebellion itself.” +It is true, Lincoln as President did not profess what we now call civil +service reform principles. He used the patronage of the government +in many cases avowedly to reward party work, in many others to form +combinations and to produce political effects advantageous to the Union +cause, and in still others simply to put the right man into the right +place. But in his endeavors to strengthen the Union cause, and in his +search for able and useful men for public duties, he frequently went +beyond the limits of his party, and gradually accustomed himself to the +thought that, while party service had its value, considerations of +the public interest were, as to appointments to office, of far greater +consequence. Moreover, there had been such a mingling of different +political elements in support of the Union during the civil war that +Lincoln, standing at the head of that temporarily united motley mass, +hardly felt himself, in the narrow sense of the term, a party man. +And as he became strongly impressed with the dangers brought upon the +republic by the use of public offices as party spoils, it is by no means +improbable that, had he survived the all-absorbing crisis and found time +to turn to other objects, one of the most important reforms of later +days would have been pioneered by his powerful authority. This was +not to be. But the measure of his achievements was full enough for +immortality. + +To the younger generation Abraham Lincoln has already become a +half-mythical figure, which, in the haze of historic distance, grows +to more and more heroic proportions, but also loses in distinctness of +outline and feature. This is indeed the common lot of popular heroes; +but the Lincoln legend will be more than ordinarily apt to become +fanciful, as his individuality, assembling seemingly incongruous +qualities and forces in a character at the same time grand and most +lovable, was so unique, and his career so abounding in startling +contrasts. As the state of society in which Abraham Lincoln grew up +passes away, the world will read with increasing wonder of the man who, +not only of the humblest origin, but remaining the simplest and +most unpretending of citizens, was raised to a position of power +unprecedented in our history; who was the gentlest and most peace-loving +of mortals, unable to see any creature suffer without a pang in his own +breast, and suddenly found himself called to conduct the greatest and +bloodiest of our wars; who wielded the power of government when stern +resolution and relentless force were the order of the day and then won +and ruled the popular mind and heart by the tender sympathies of his +nature; who was a cautious conservative by temperament and mental habit, +and led the most sudden and sweeping social revolution of our time; +who, preserving his homely speech and rustic manner even in the most +conspicuous position of that period, drew upon himself the scoffs of +polite society, and then thrilled the soul of mankind with utterances of +wonderful beauty and grandeur; who, in his heart the best friend of the +defeated South, was murdered because a crazy fanatic took him for its +most cruel enemy; who, while in power, was beyond measure lampooned and +maligned by sectional passion and an excited party spirit, and around +whose bier friend and foe gathered to praise him which they have since +never ceased to do—as one of the greatest of Americans and the best of +men. + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BY JOSEPH H. CHOATE + + +[This Address was delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical +Institution, November 13, 1900. It is included in this set with the +courteous permission of the author and of Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell & +Company.] + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +When you asked me to deliver the Inaugural Address on this occasion, +I recognized that I owed this compliment to the fact that I was the +official representative of America, and in selecting a subject I +ventured to think that I might interest you for an hour in a brief study +in popular government, as illustrated by the life of the most American +of all Americans. I therefore offer no apology for asking your attention +to Abraham Lincoln—to his unique character and the part he bore in +two important achievements of modern history: the preservation of the +integrity of the American Union and the emancipation of the colored +race. + +During his brief term of power he was probably the object of more abuse, +vilification, and ridicule than any other man in the world; but when he +fell by the hand of an assassin, at the very moment of his stupendous +victory, all the nations of the earth vied with one another in paying +homage to his character, and the thirty-five years that have since +elapsed have established his place in history as one of the great +benefactors not of his own country alone, but of the human race. + +One of many noble utterances upon the occasion of his death was that in +which ‘Punch’ made its magnanimous recantation of the spirit with which +it had pursued him: + + “Beside this corpse that bears for winding sheet + The stars and stripes he lived to rear anew, + Between the mourners at his head and feet, + Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? + + ................... + + “Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, + To lame my pencil, and confute my pen + To make me own this hind—of princes peer, + This rail-splitter—a true born king of men.” + +Fiction can furnish no match for the romance of his life, and biography +will be searched in vain for such startling vicissitudes of fortune, +so great power and glory won out of such humble beginnings and adverse +circumstances. + +Doubtless you are all familiar with the salient points of his +extraordinary career. In the zenith of his fame he was the wise, +patient, courageous, successful ruler of men; exercising more power than +any monarch of his time, not for himself, but for the good of the people +who had placed it in his hands; commander-in-chief of a vast military +power, which waged with ultimate success the greatest war of the +century; the triumphant champion of popular government, the deliverer +of four millions of his fellowmen from bondage; honored by mankind as +Statesman, President, and Liberator. + +Let us glance now at the first half of the brief life of which this was +the glorious and happy consummation. Nothing could be more squalid and +miserable than the home in which Abraham Lincoln was born—a one-roomed +cabin without floor or window in what was then the wilderness of +Kentucky, in the heart of that frontier life which swiftly moved +westward from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, always in advance of +schools and churches, of books and money, of railroads and newspapers, +of all things which are generally regarded as the comforts and even +necessaries of life. His father, ignorant, needy, and thriftless, +content if he could keep soul and body together for himself and his +family, was ever seeking, without success, to better his unhappy +condition by moving on from one such scene of dreary desolation to +another. The rude society which surrounded them was not much better. The +struggle for existence was hard, and absorbed all their energies. They +were fighting the forest, the wild beast, and the retreating savage. +From the time when he could barely handle tools until he attained his +majority, Lincoln’s life was that of a simple farm laborer, poorly clad, +housed, and fed, at work either on his father’s wretched farm or hired +out to neighboring farmers. But in spite, or perhaps by means, of this +rude environment, he grew to be a stalwart giant, reaching six feet four +at nineteen, and fabulous stories are told of his feats of strength. +With the growth of this mighty frame began that strange education which +in his ripening years was to qualify him for the great destiny that +awaited him, and the development of those mental faculties and moral +endowments which, by the time he reached middle life, were to make him +the sagacious, patient, and triumphant leader of a great nation in the +crisis of its fate. His whole schooling, obtained during such odd times +as could be spared from grinding labor, did not amount in all to as much +as one year, and the quality of the teaching was of the lowest possible +grade, including only the elements of reading, writing, and ciphering. +But out of these simple elements, when rightly used by the right man, +education is achieved, and Lincoln knew how to use them. As so often +happens, he seemed to take warning from his father’s unfortunate +example. Untiring industry, an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and +an ever-growing desire to rise above his surroundings, were early +manifestations of his character. + +Books were almost unknown in that community, but the Bible was in +every house, and somehow or other Pilgrim’s Progress, AEsop’s Fables, +a History of the United States, and a Life of Washington fell into his +hands. He trudged on foot many miles through the wilderness to borrow an +English Grammar, and is said to have devoured greedily the contents of +the Statutes of Indiana that fell in his way. These few volumes he read +and reread—and his power of assimilation was great. To be shut in with +a few books and to master them thoroughly sometimes does more for the +development of character than freedom to range at large, in a cursory +and indiscriminate way, through wide domains of literature. This youth’s +mind, at any rate, was thoroughly saturated with Biblical knowledge and +Biblical language, which, in after life, he used with great readiness +and effect. But it was the constant use of the little knowledge which he +had that developed and exercised his mental powers. After the hard +day’s work was done, while others slept, he toiled on, always reading or +writing. From an early age he did his own thinking and made up his own +mind—invaluable traits in the future President. Paper was such a scarce +commodity that, by the evening firelight, he would write and cipher +on the back of a wooden shovel, and then shave it off to make room for +more. By and by, as he approached manhood, he began speaking in the rude +gatherings of the neighborhood, and so laid the foundation of that art +of persuading his fellow-men which was one rich result of his education, +and one great secret of his subsequent success. + +Accustomed as we are in these days of steam and telegraphs to have every +intelligent boy survey the whole world each morning before breakfast, +and inform himself as to what is going on in every nation, it is hardly +possible to conceive how benighted and isolated was the condition of the +community at Pigeon Creek in Indiana, of which the family of Lincoln’s +father formed a part, or how eagerly an ambitious and high-spirited boy, +such as he, must have yearned to escape. The first glimpse that he ever +got of any world beyond the narrow confines of his home was in 1828, at +the age of nineteen, when a neighbor employed him to accompany his son +down the river to New Orleans to dispose of a flatboat of produce—a +commission which he discharged with great success. + +Shortly after his return from this his first excursion into the outer +world, his father, tired of failure in Indiana, packed his family and +all his worldly goods into a single wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, and +after a fourteen days’ tramp through the wilderness, pitched his camp +once more, in Illinois. Here Abraham, having come of age and being now +his own master, rendered the last service of his minority by ploughing +the fifteen-acre lot and splitting from the tall walnut trees of the +primeval forest enough rails to surround the little clearing with a +fence. Such was the meagre outfit of this coming leader of men, at the +age when the future British Prime Minister or statesman emerges from the +university as a double first or senior wrangler, with every advantage +that high training and broad culture and association with the wisest and +the best of men and women can give, and enters upon some form of public +service on the road to usefulness and honor, the University course being +only the first stage of the public training. So Lincoln, at twenty-one, +had just begun his preparation for the public life to which he soon +began to aspire. For some years yet he must continue to earn his daily +bread by the sweat of his brow, having absolutely no means, no home, +no friend to consult. More farm work as a hired hand, a clerkship in a +village store, the running of a mill, another trip to New Orleans on a +flatboat of his own contriving, a pilot’s berth on the river—these were +the means by which he subsisted until, in the summer of 1832, when he +was twenty-three years of age, an event occurred which gave him public +recognition. + +The Black Hawk war broke out, and, the Governor of Illinois calling for +volunteers to repel the band of savages whose leader bore that name, +Lincoln enlisted and was elected captain by his comrades, among whom he +had already established his supremacy by signal feats of strength and +more than one successful single combat. During the brief hostilities +he was engaged in no battle and won no military glory, but his local +leadership was established. The same year he offered himself as a +candidate for the Legislature of Illinois, but failed at the polls. Yet +his vast popularity with those who knew him was manifest. The district +consisted of several counties, but the unanimous vote of the people +of his own county was for Lincoln. Another unsuccessful attempt at +store-keeping was followed by better luck at surveying, until his horse +and instruments were levied upon under execution for the debts of his +business adventure. + +I have been thus detailed in sketching his early years because upon +these strange foundations the structure of his great fame and service +was built. In the place of a school and university training fortune +substituted these trials, hardships, and struggles as a preparation for +the great work which he had to do. It turned out to be exactly what +the emergency required. Ten years instead at the public school and the +university certainly never could have fitted this man for the unique +work which was to be thrown upon him. Some other Moses would have had to +lead us to our Jordan, to the sight of our promised land of liberty. + +At the age of twenty-five he became a member of the Legislature of +Illinois, and so continued for eight years, and, in the meantime, +qualified himself by reading such law books as he could borrow at +random—for he was too poor to buy any to be called to the Bar. For +his second quarter of a century—during which a single term in Congress +introduced him into the arena of national questions—he gave himself up +to law and politics. In spite of his soaring ambition, his two years +in Congress gave him no premonition of the great destiny that awaited +him,—and at its close, in 1849, we find him an unsuccessful applicant +to the President for appointment as Commissioner of the General Land +Office—a purely administrative bureau; a fortunate escape for +himself and for his country. Year by year his knowledge and power, his +experience and reputation extended, and his mental faculties seemed to +grow by what they fed on. His power of persuasion, which had always been +marked, was developed to an extraordinary degree, now that he became +engaged in congenial questions and subjects. Little by little he rose to +prominence at the Bar, and became the most effective public speaker in +the West. Not that he possessed any of the graces of the orator; but his +logic was invincible, and his clearness and force of statement impressed +upon his hearers the convictions of his honest mind, while his broad +sympathies and sparkling and genial humor made him a universal favorite +as far and as fast as his acquaintance extended. + +These twenty years that elapsed from the time of his establishment as +a lawyer and legislator in Springfield, the new capital of Illinois, +furnished a fitting theatre for the development and display of his great +faculties, and, with his new and enlarged opportunities, he obviously +grew in mental stature in this second period of his career, as if +to compensate for the absolute lack of advantages under which he had +suffered in youth. As his powers enlarged, his reputation extended, +for he was always before the people, felt a warm sympathy with all that +concerned them, took a zealous part in the discussion of every public +question, and made his personal influence ever more widely and deeply +felt. + +My brethren of the legal profession will naturally ask me, how could +this rough backwoodsman, whose youth had been spent in the forest or +on the farm and the flatboat, without culture or training, education or +study, by the random reading, on the wing, of a few miscellaneous law +books, become a learned and accomplished lawyer? Well, he never did. +He never would have earned his salt as a ‘Writer’ for the ‘Signet’, +nor have won a place as advocate in the Court of Session, where the +technique of the profession has reached its highest perfection, and +centuries of learning and precedent are involved in the equipment of a +lawyer. Dr. Holmes, when asked by an anxious young mother, “When should +the education of a child begin?” replied, “Madam, at least two centuries +before it is born!” and so I am sure it is with the Scots lawyer. + +But not so in Illinois in 1840. Between 1830 and 1880 its population +increased twenty-fold, and when Lincoln began practising law in +Springfield in 1837, life in Illinois was very crude and simple, and so +were the courts and the administration of justice. Books and libraries +were scarce. But the people loved justice, upheld the law, and followed +the courts, and soon found their favorites among the advocates. The +fundamental principles of the common law, as set forth by Blackstone +and Chitty, were not so difficult to acquire; and brains, common sense, +force of character, tenacity of purpose, ready wit and power of speech +did the rest, and supplied all the deficiencies of learning. + +The lawsuits of those days were extremely simple, and the principles of +natural justice were mainly relied on to dispose of them at the Bar +and on the Bench, without resort to technical learning. Railroads, +corporations absorbing the chief business of the community, combined +and inherited wealth, with all the subtle and intricate questions they +breed, had not yet come in—and so the professional agents and the +equipment which they require were not needed. But there were many highly +educated and powerful men at the Bar of Illinois, even in those early +days, whom the spirit of enterprise had carried there in search of fame +and fortune. It was by constant contact and conflict with these that +Lincoln acquired professional strength and skill. Every community and +every age creates its own Bar, entirely adequate for its present uses +and necessities. So in Illinois, as the population and wealth of the +State kept on doubling and quadrupling, its Bar presented a growing +abundance of learning and science and technical skill. The early +practitioners grew with its growth and mastered the requisite knowledge. +Chicago soon grew to be one of the largest and richest and certainly +the most intensely active city on the continent, and if any of my +professional friends here had gone there in Lincoln’s later years, to +try or argue a cause, or transact other business, with any idea that +Edinburgh or London had a monopoly of legal learning, science, or +subtlety, they would certainly have found their mistake. + +In those early days in the West, every lawyer, especially every court +lawyer, was necessarily a politician, constantly engaged in the public +discussion of the many questions evolved from the rapid development +of town, county, State, and Federal affairs. Then and there, in this +regard, public discussion supplied the place which the universal +activity of the press has since monopolized, and the public speaker who, +by clearness, force, earnestness, and wit; could make himself felt on +the questions of the day would rapidly come to the front. In the absence +of that immense variety of popular entertainments which now feed the +public taste and appetite, the people found their chief amusement in +frequenting the courts and public and political assemblies. In either +place, he who impressed, entertained, and amused them most was the +hero of the hour. They did not discriminate very carefully between the +eloquence of the forum and the eloquence of the hustings. Human nature +ruled in both alike, and he who was the most effective speaker in a +political harangue was often retained as most likely to win in a cause +to be tried or argued. And I have no doubt in this way many retainers +came to Lincoln. Fees, money in any form, had no charms for him—in +his eager pursuit of fame he could not afford to make money. He was +ambitious to distinguish himself by some great service to mankind, and +this ambition for fame and real public service left no room for avarice +in his composition. However much he earned, he seems to have ended every +year hardly richer than he began it, and yet, as the years passed, +fees came to him freely. One of L 1,000 is recorded—a very large +professional fee at that time, even in any part of America, the paradise +of lawyers. I lay great stress on Lincoln’s career as a lawyer—much +more than his biographers do because in America a state of things +exists wholly different from that which prevails in Great Britain. The +profession of the law always has been and is to this day the principal +avenue to public life; and I am sure that his training and experience +in the courts had much to do with the development of those forces of +intellect and character which he soon displayed on a broader arena. + +It was in political controversy, of course, that he acquired his wide +reputation, and made his deep and lasting impression upon the people of +what had now become the powerful State of Illinois, and upon the people +of the Great West, to whom the political power and control of the United +States were already surely and swiftly passing from the older Eastern +States. It was this reputation and this impression, and the familiar +knowledge of his character which had come to them from his local +leadership, that happily inspired the people of the West to present him +as their candidate, and to press him upon the Republican convention of +1860 as the fit and necessary leader in the struggle for life which was +before the nation. + +That struggle, as you all know, arose out of the terrible question of +slavery—and I must trust to your general knowledge of the history +of that question to make intelligible the attitude and leadership of +Lincoln as the champion of the hosts of freedom in the final contest. +Negro slavery had been firmly established in the Southern States from +an early period of their history. In 1619, the year before the Mayflower +landed our Pilgrim Fathers upon Plymouth Rock, a Dutch ship had +discharged a cargo of African slaves at Jamestown in Virginia: All +through the colonial period their importation had continued. A few had +found their way into the Northern States, but none of them in sufficient +numbers to constitute danger or to afford a basis for political power. +At the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, there is no +doubt that the principal members of the convention not only condemned +slavery as a moral, social, and political evil, but believed that by +the suppression of the slave trade it was in the course of gradual +extinction in the South, as it certainly was in the North. Washington, +in his will, provided for the emancipation of his own slaves, and +said to Jefferson that it “was among his first wishes to see some plan +adopted by which slavery in his country might be abolished.” Jefferson +said, referring to the institution: “I tremble for my country when I +think that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever,”—and +Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, and Patrick Henry were all utterly opposed +to it. But it was made the subject of a fatal compromise in the Federal +Constitution, whereby its existence was recognized in the States as a +basis of representation, the prohibition of the importation of slaves +was postponed for twenty years, and the return of fugitive slaves +provided for. But no imminent danger was apprehended from it till, by +the invention of the cotton gin in 1792, cotton culture by negro labor +became at once and forever the leading industry of the South, and gave +a new impetus to the importation of slaves, so that in 1808, when +the constitutional prohibition took effect, their numbers had vastly +increased. From that time forward slavery became the basis of a great +political power, and the Southern States, under all circumstances and at +every opportunity, carried on a brave and unrelenting struggle for its +maintenance and extension. + +The conscience of the North was slow to rise against it, though bitter +controversies from time to time took place. The Southern leaders +threatened disunion if their demands were not complied with. To save the +Union, compromise after compromise was made, but each one in the end was +broken. The Missouri Compromise, made in 1820 upon the occasion of +the admission of Missouri into the Union as a slave State, whereby, in +consideration of such admission, slavery was forever excluded from the +Northwest Territory, was ruthlessly repealed in 1854, by a Congress +elected in the interests of the slave power, the intent being to force +slavery into that vast territory which had so long been dedicated to +freedom. This challenge at last aroused the slumbering conscience and +passion of the North, and led to the formation of the Republican party +for the avowed purpose of preventing, by constitutional methods, the +further extension of slavery. + +In its first campaign, in 1856, though it failed to elect its +candidates; it received a surprising vote and carried many of the +States. No one could any longer doubt that the North had made up its +mind that no threats of disunion should deter it from pressing its +cherished purpose and performing its long neglected duty. From the +outset, Lincoln was one of the most active and effective leaders and +speakers of the new party, and the great debates between Lincoln and +Douglas in 1858, as the respective champions of the restriction and +extension of slavery, attracted the attention of the whole country. +Lincoln’s powerful arguments carried conviction everywhere. His moral +nature was thoroughly aroused his conscience was stirred to the quick. +Unless slavery was wrong, nothing was wrong. Was each man, of whatever +color, entitled to the fruits of his own labor, or could one man live +in idle luxury by the sweat of another’s brow, whose skin was darker? +He was an implicit believer in that principle of the Declaration of +Independence that all men are vested with certain inalienable rights +the equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. On this +doctrine he staked his case and carried it. We have time only for one or +two sentences in which he struck the keynote of the contest. + +“The real issue in this country is the eternal struggle between these +two principles—right and wrong—throughout the world. They are the two +principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and +will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, +and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in +whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, ‘You +work and toil and earn bread and I’ll eat it.’” + +He foresaw with unerring vision that the conflict was inevitable and +irrepressible—that one or the other, the right or the wrong, freedom +or slavery, must ultimately prevail and wholly prevail, throughout the +country; and this was the principle that carried the war, once begun, to +a finish. + +One sentence of his is immortal: + +“Under the operation of the policy of compromise, the slavery agitation +has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion +it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. ‘A +house divided against itself cannot stand.’ I believe this government +cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect +the Union to be 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 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.” + +During the entire decade from 1850 to 1860 the agitation of the +slavery question was at the boiling point, and events which have become +historical continually indicated the near approach of the overwhelming +storm. No sooner had the Compromise Acts of 1850 resulted in a temporary +peace, which everybody said must be final and perpetual, than new +outbreaks came. The forcible carrying away of fugitive slaves by Federal +troops from Boston agitated that ancient stronghold of freedom to its +foundations. The publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which truly exposed +the frightful possibilities of the slave system; the reckless attempts +by force and fraud to establish it in Kansas against the will of the +vast majority of the settlers; the beating of Summer in the Senate +Chamber for words spoken in debate; the Dred Scott decision in the +Supreme Court, which made the nation realize that the slave power had at +last reached the fountain of Federal justice; and finally the execution +of John Brown, for his wild raid into Virginia, to invite the slaves to +rally to the standard of freedom which he unfurled:—all these events +tend to illustrate and confirm Lincoln’s contention that the nation +could not permanently continue half slave and half free, but must become +all one thing or all the other. When John Brown lay under sentence of +death he declared that now he was sure that slavery must be wiped out in +blood; but neither he nor his executioners dreamt that within four years +a million soldiers would be marching across the country for its final +extirpation, to the music of the war-song of the great conflict: + + “John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave, + But his soul is marching on.” + +And now, at the age of fifty-one, this child of the wilderness, this +farm laborer, rail-sputter, flatboatman, this surveyor, lawyer, orator, +statesman, and patriot, found himself elected by the great party which +was pledged to prevent at all hazards the further extension of slavery, +as the chief magistrate of the Republic, bound to carry out that +purpose, to be the leader and ruler of the nation in its most trying +hour. + +Those who believe that there is a living Providence that overrules and +conducts the affairs of nations, find in the elevation of this plain man +to this extraordinary fortune and to this great duty, which he so +fitly discharged, a signal vindication of their faith. Perhaps to this +philosophical institution the judgment of our philosopher Emerson will +commend itself as a just estimate of Lincoln’s historical place. + +“His occupying the chair of state was a triumph of the good sense of +mankind and of the public conscience. He grew according to the need; his +mind mastered the problem of the day: and as the problem grew, so did +his comprehension of it. In the war there was no place for holiday +magistrate, nor fair-weather sailor. The new pilot was hurried to +the helm in a tornado. In four years—four years of battle days—his +endurance, his fertility of resource, his magnanimity, were sorely +tried, and never found wanting. There, by his courage, his justice, his +even temper, his fertile counsel, his humanity, he stood a heroic figure +in the centre of a heroic epoch. He is the true history of the American +people in his time, the true representative of this continent—father +of his country, the pulse of twenty millions throbbing in his heart, the +thought of their mind—articulated in his tongue.” + +He was born great, as distinguished from those who achieve greatness or +have it thrust upon them, and his inherent capacity, mental, moral, and +physical, having been recognized by the educated intelligence of a free +people, they happily chose him for their ruler in a day of deadly peril. + +It is now forty years since I first saw and heard Abraham Lincoln, but +the impression which he left on my mind is ineffaceable. After his great +successes in the West he came to New York to make a political address. +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 struggle; +his deep-set eyes looked sad and anxious; his countenance in repose gave +little evidence of that brain power which had raised him from the lowest +to the highest station among his countrymen; 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, clergymen, statesmen, lawyers, merchants, +critics. They were all very curious to hear him. His fame as a powerful +speaker had preceded him, and exaggerated rumor of his wit—the worst +forerunner of an orator—had reached the East. When Mr. Bryant presented +him, on the high platform of the Cooper Institute, 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 pretence, he spoke straight to the point. If any came +expecting 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 marvellous 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 Constitution in order to form a more perfect +union, to establish justice, and 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 those 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 wrong 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 congratulations, and he who had +come as a stranger departed with the laurels of great triumph. + +Alas! in five years from that exulting night I saw him again, for the +last time, in the same city, borne in his coffin through its draped +streets. With tears and lamentations a heart-broken people accompanied +him from Washington, the scene of his martyrdom, to his last +resting-place in the young city of the West where he had worked his way +to fame. + +Never was a new ruler in a more desperate plight than Lincoln when +he entered office on the fourth of March, 1861, four months after his +election, and took his oath to support the Constitution and the Union. +The intervening time had been busily employed by the Southern States in +carrying out their threat of disunion in the event of his election. +As soon as the fact was ascertained, seven of them had seceded and had +seized upon the forts, arsenals, navy yards, and other public property +of the United States within their boundaries, and were making every +preparation for war. In the meantime the retiring President, who had +been elected by the slave power, and who thought the seceding States +could not lawfully be coerced, had done absolutely nothing. Lincoln +found himself, by the Constitution, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and +Navy of the United States, but with only a remnant of either at hand. +Each was to be created on a great scale out of the unknown resources of +a nation untried in war. + +In his mild and conciliatory inaugural address, while appealing to the +seceding States to return to their allegiance, he avowed his purpose to +keep the solemn oath he had taken that day, to see that the laws of the +Union were faithfully executed, and to use the troops to recover the +forts, navy yards, and other property belonging to the government. It +is probable, however, that neither side actually realized that war +was inevitable, and that the other was determined to fight, until the +assault on Fort Sumter presented the South as the first aggressor +and roused the North to use every possible resource to maintain the +government and the imperilled Union, and to vindicate the supremacy of +the flag over every inch of the territory of the United States. The +fact that Lincoln’s first proclamation called for only 75,000 troops, to +serve for three months, shows how inadequate was even his idea of what +the future had in store. But from that moment Lincoln and his loyal +supporters never faltered in their purpose. They knew they could win, +that it was their duty to win, and that for America the whole hope +of the future depended upon their winning; for now by the acts of the +seceding States the issue of the election to secure or prevent the +extension of slavery—stood transformed into a struggle to preserve or +to destroy the Union. + +We cannot follow this contest. You know its gigantic proportions; that +it lasted four years instead of three months; that in its progress, +instead of 75,000 men, more than 2,000,000 were enrolled on the side +of the government alone; that the aggregate cost and loss to the nation +approximated to 1,000,000,000 pounds sterling, and that not less than +300,000 brave and precious lives were sacrificed on each side. History +has recorded how Lincoln bore himself during these four frightful years; +that he was the real President, the responsible and actual head of the +government, through it all; that he listened to all advice, heard all +parties, and then, always realizing his responsibility to God and the +nation, decided every great executive question for himself. His absolute +honesty had become proverbial long before he was President. “Honest Abe +Lincoln” was the name by which he had been known for years. His every +act attested it. + +In all the grandeur of the vast power that he wielded, he never ceased +to be one of the plain people, as he always called them, never lost or +impaired his perfect sympathy with them, was always in perfect touch +with them and open to their appeals; and here lay the very secret of +his personality and of his power, for the people in turn gave him their +absolute confidence. His courage, his fortitude, his patience, his +hopefulness, were sorely tried but never exhausted. + +He was true as steel to his generals, but had frequent occasion to +change them, as he found them inadequate. This serious and painful duty +rested wholly upon him, and was perhaps his most important function as +Commander-in-Chief; but when, at last, he recognized in General Grant +the master of the situation, the man who could and would bring the war +to a triumphant end, he gave it all over to him and upheld him with all +his might. Amid all the pressure and distress that the burdens of office +brought upon him, his unfailing sense of humor saved him; probably it +made it possible for him to live under the burden. He had always been +the great story-teller of the West, and he used and cultivated this +faculty to relieve the weight of the load he bore. + +It enabled him to keep the wonderful record of never having lost his +temper, no matter what agony he had to bear. A whole night might be +spent in recounting the stories of his wit, humor, and harmless sarcasm. +But I will recall only two of his sayings, both about General Grant, who +always found plenty of enemies and critics to urge the President to oust +him from his command. One, I am sure, will interest all Scotchmen. They +repeated with malicious intent the gossip that Grant drank. “What +does he drink?” asked Lincoln. “Whiskey,” was, of course, the answer; +doubtless you can guess the brand. “Well,” said the President, “just +find out what particular kind he uses and I’ll send a barrel to each of +my other generals.” The other must be as pleasing to the British as +to the American ear. When pressed again on other grounds to get rid of +Grant, he declared, “I can’t spare that man, he fights!” + +He was tender-hearted to a fault, and never could resist the appeals of +wives and mothers of soldiers who had got into trouble and were under +sentence of death for their offences. His Secretary of War and other +officials complained that they never could get deserters shot. As surely +as the women of the culprit’s family could get at him he always gave +way. Certainly you will all appreciate his exquisite sympathy with the +suffering relatives of those who had fallen in battle. His heart bled +with theirs. Never was there a more gentle and tender utterance than his +letter to a mother who had given all her sons to her country, written at +a time when the angel of death had visited almost every household in the +land, and was already hovering over him. + +“I have been shown,” he says, “in the files of the War Department a +statement 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 your grief for a +loss so overwhelming but I cannot refrain from tendering to you the +consolation which 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 the +lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a +sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.” + +Hardly could your illustrious sovereign, from the depths of her queenly +and womanly heart, have spoken words more touching and tender to soothe +the stricken mothers of her own soldiers. + +The Emancipation Proclamation, with which Mr. Lincoln delighted the +country and the world on the first of January, 1863, will doubtless +secure for him a foremost place in history among the philanthropists +and benefactors of the race, as it rescued, from hopeless and degrading +slavery, so many millions of his fellow-beings described in the law and +existing in fact as “chattels-personal, in the hands of their owners +and possessors, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever.” +Rarely does the happy fortune come to one man to render such a service +to his kind—to proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the +inhabitants thereof. + +Ideas rule the world, and never was there a more signal instance of this +triumph of an idea than here. William Lloyd Garrison, who thirty years +before had begun his crusade for the abolition of slavery, and had lived +to see this glorious and unexpected consummation of the hopeless cause +to which he had devoted his life, well described the proclamation as +a “great historic event, sublime in its magnitude, momentous and +beneficent in its far-reaching consequences, and eminently just and +right alike to the oppressor and the oppressed.” + +Lincoln had always been heart and soul opposed to slavery. Tradition +says that on the trip on the flatboat to New Orleans he formed his +first and last opinion of slavery at the sight of negroes chained and +scourged, and that then and there the iron entered into his soul. No +boy could grow to manhood in those days as a poor white in Kentucky and +Indiana, in close contact with slavery or in its neighborhood, without a +growing consciousness of its blighting effects on free labor, as well as +of its frightful injustice and cruelty. In the Legislature of Illinois, +where the public sentiment was all for upholding the institution and +violently against every movement for its abolition or restriction, upon +the passage of resolutions to that effect he had the courage with one +companion to put on record his protest, “believing that the institution +of slavery is founded both in injustice and bad policy.” No great +demonstration of courage, you will say; but that was at a time when +Garrison, for his abolition utterances, had been dragged by an angry mob +through the streets of Boston with a rope around his body, and in +the very year that Lovejoy in the same State of Illinois was slain by +rioters while defending his press, from which he had printed antislavery +appeals. + +In Congress he brought in a bill for gradual abolition in the District +of Columbia, with compensation to the owners, for until they raised +treasonable hands against the life of the nation he always maintained +that the property of the slaveholders, into which they had come by two +centuries of descent, without fault on their part, ought not to be taken +away from them without just compensation. He used to say that, one way +or another, he had voted forty-two times for the Wilmot Proviso, which +Mr. Wilmot of Pennsylvania moved as an addition to every bill which +affected United States territory, “that neither slavery nor involuntary +servitude shall ever exist in any part of the said territory,” and it is +evident that his condemnation of the system, on moral grounds as a crime +against the human race, and on political grounds as a cancer that was +sapping the vitals of the nation, and must master its whole being or +be itself extirpated, grew steadily upon him until it culminated in his +great speeches in the Illinois debate. + +By the mere election of Lincoln to the Presidency, the further extension +of slavery into the Territories was rendered forever impossible—Vox +populi, vox Dei. Revolutions never go backward, and when founded on a +great moral sentiment stirring the heart of an indignant people their +edicts are irresistible and final. Had the slave power acquiesced in +that election, had the Southern States remained under the Constitution +and within the Union, and relied upon their constitutional and legal +rights, their favorite institution, immoral as it was, blighting and +fatal as it was, might have endured for another century. The great party +that had elected him, unalterably determined against its extension, was +nevertheless pledged not to interfere with its continuance in the States +where it already existed. Of course, when new regions were forever +closed against it, from its very nature it must have begun to shrink +and to dwindle; and probably gradual and compensated emancipation, +which appealed very strongly to the new President’s sense of justice and +expediency, would, in the progress of time, by a reversion to the ideas +of the founders of the Republic, have found a safe outlet for both +masters and slaves. But whom the gods wish to destroy they first make +mad, and when seven States, afterwards increased to eleven, openly +seceded from the Union, when they declared and began the war upon the +nation, and challenged its mighty power to the desperate and protracted +struggle for its life, and for the maintenance of its authority as +a nation over its territory, they gave to Lincoln and to freedom the +sublime opportunity of history. + +In his first inaugural address, when as yet not a drop of precious blood +had been shed, while he held out to them the olive branch in one hand, +in the other he presented the guarantees of the Constitution, and after +reciting the emphatic resolution of the convention that nominated +him, 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 of our +political fabric depend,” he reiterated this sentiment, and declared, +with no mental reservation, “that all the protection which, consistently +with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully +given to all the States when lawfully demanded for whatever cause as +cheerfully to one section as to another.” + +When, however, these magnanimous overtures for peace and reunion were +rejected; when the seceding States defied the Constitution and every +clause and principle of it; when they persisted in staying out of the +Union from which they had seceded, and proceeded to carve out of its +territory a new and hostile empire based on slavery; when they flew at +the throat of the nation and plunged it into the bloodiest war of the +nineteenth century the tables were turned, and the belief gradually came +to the mind of the President that if the Rebellion was not soon subdued +by force of arms, if the war must be fought out to the bitter end, then +to reach that end the salvation of the nation itself might require +the destruction of slavery wherever it existed; that if the war was to +continue on one side for Disunion, for no other purpose than to preserve +slavery, it must continue on the other side for the Union, to destroy +slavery. + +As he said, “Events control me; I cannot control events,” and as the +dreadful war progressed and became more deadly and dangerous, the +unalterable conviction was forced upon him that, in order that the +frightful sacrifice of life and treasure on both sides might not be all +in vain, it had become his duty as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, as +a necessary war measure, to strike a blow at the Rebellion which, +all others failing, would inevitably lead to its annihilation, by +annihilating the very thing for which it was contending. His own words +are the best: + +“I understood that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of +my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving by every indispensable +means that government—that nation—of which that Constitution was the +organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the +Constitution? By general law, life and limb must be protected, yet often +a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely +given to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional +might become lawful by becoming 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 ever 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.” + +And so, at last, when in his judgment the indispensable necessity had +come, he struck the fatal blow, and signed the proclamation which has +made his name immortal. By it, the President, as Commander-in-Chief in +time of actual armed rebellion, and as a fit and necessary war measure +for suppressing the rebellion, proclaimed all persons held as slaves +in the States and parts of States then in rebellion to be thenceforward +free, and declared that the executive, with the army and navy, would +recognize and maintain their freedom. + +In the other great steps of the government, which led to the triumphant +prosecution of the war, he necessarily shared the responsibility and the +credit with the great statesmen who stayed up his hands in his cabinet, +with Seward, Chase and Stanton, and the rest,—and with his generals and +admirals, his soldiers and sailors, but this great act was absolutely +his own. The conception and execution were exclusively his. He laid it +before his cabinet as a measure on which his mind was made up and could +not be changed, asking them only for suggestions as to details. He chose +the time and the circumstances under which the Emancipation should be +proclaimed and when it should take effect. + +It came not an hour too soon; but public opinion in the North would not +have sustained it earlier. In the first eighteen months of the war its +ravages had extended from the Atlantic to beyond the Mississippi. Many +victories in the West had been balanced and paralyzed by inaction +and disasters in Virginia, only partially redeemed by the bloody and +indecisive battle of Antietam; a reaction had set in from the general +enthusiasm which had swept the Northern States after the assault upon +Sumter. It could not truly be said that they had lost heart, but faction +was raising its head. Heard through the land like the blast of a +bugle, the proclamation rallied the patriotism of the country to fresh +sacrifices and renewed ardor. It was a step that could not be revoked. +It relieved the conscience of the nation from an incubus that had +oppressed it from its birth. The United States were rescued from the +false predicament in which they had been from the beginning, and the +great popular heart leaped with new enthusiasm for “Liberty and Union, +henceforth and forever, one and inseparable.” It brought not only moral +but material support to the cause of the government, for within two +years 120,000 colored troops were enlisted in the military service and +following the national flag, supported by all the loyalty of the North, +and led by its choicest spirits. One mother said, when her son was +offered the command of the first colored regiment, “If he accepts it +I shall be as proud as if I had heard that he was shot.” He was shot +heading a gallant charge of his regiment.... The Confederates replied to +a request of his friends for his body that they had “buried him under a +layer of his niggers...;” but that mother has lived to enjoy thirty-six +years of his glory, and Boston has erected its noblest monument to his +memory. + +The effect of the proclamation upon the actual progress of the war was +not immediate, but wherever the Federal armies advanced they carried +freedom with them, and when the summer came round the new spirit and +force which had animated the heart of the government and people were +manifest. In the first week of July the decisive battle of Gettysburg +turned the tide of war, and the fall of Vicksburg made the great river +free from its source to the Gulf. + +On foreign nations the influence of the proclamation and of these new +victories was of great importance. In those days, when there was no +cable, it was not easy for foreign observers to appreciate what was +really going on; they could not see clearly the true state of affairs, +as in the last year of the nineteenth century we have been able, by our +new electric vision, to watch every event at the antipodes and observe +its effect. The Rebel emissaries, sent over to solicit intervention, +spared no pains to impress upon the minds of public and private men +and upon the press their own views of the character of the contest. The +prospects of the Confederacy were always better abroad than at home. The +stock markets of the world gambled upon its chances, and its bonds at +one time were high in favor. + +Such ideas as these were seriously held: that the North was fighting for +empire and the South for independence; that the Southern States, instead +of being the grossest oligarchies, essentially despotisms, founded on +the right of one man to appropriate the fruit of other men’s toil and to +exclude them from equal rights, were real republics, feebler to be sure +than their Northern rivals, but representing the same idea of freedom, +and that the mighty strength of the nation was being put forth to +crush them; that Jefferson Davis and the Southern leaders had created +a nation; that the republican experiment had failed and the Union had +ceased to exist. But the crowning argument to foreign minds was that +it was an utter impossibility for the government to win in the contest; +that the success of the Southern States, so far as separation was +concerned, was as certain as any event yet future and contingent could +be; that the subjugation of the South by the North, even if it could be +accomplished, would prove a calamity to the United States and the world, +and especially calamitous to the negro race; and that such a victory +would necessarily leave the people of the South for many generations +cherishing deadly hostility against the government and the North, and +plotting always to recover their independence. + +When Lincoln issued his proclamation he knew that all these ideas were +founded in error; that the national resources were inexhaustible; +that the government could and would win, and that if slavery were once +finally disposed of, the only cause of difference being out of the way, +the North and South would come together again, and by and by be as good +friends as ever. In many quarters abroad the proclamation was +welcomed with enthusiasm by the friends of America; but I think the +demonstrations in its favor that brought more gladness to Lincoln’s +heart than any other were the meetings held in the manufacturing +centres, by the very operatives upon whom the war bore the hardest, +expressing the most enthusiastic sympathy with the proclamation, while +they bore with heroic fortitude the grievous privations which the war +entailed upon them. Mr. Lincoln’s expectation when he announced to the +world that all slaves in all States then in rebellion were set free +must have been that the avowed position of his government, that the +continuance of the war now meant the annihilation of slavery, would make +intervention impossible for any foreign nation whose people were lovers +of liberty—and so the result proved. + +The growth and development of Lincoln’s mental power and moral force, of +his intense and magnetic personality, after the vast responsibilities of +government were thrown upon him at the age of fifty-two, furnish a rare +and striking illustration of the marvellous capacity and adaptability of +the human intellect—of the sound mind in the sound body. He came to +the discharge of the great duties of the Presidency with absolutely no +experience in the administration of government, or of the vastly +varied and complicated questions of foreign and domestic policy which +immediately arose, and continued to press upon him during the rest of +his life; but he mastered each as it came, apparently with the facility +of a trained and experienced ruler. As Clarendon said of Cromwell, “His +parts seemed to be raised by the demands of great station.” His life +through it all was one of intense labor, anxiety, and distress, without +one hour of peaceful repose from first to last. But he rose to every +occasion. He led public opinion, but did not march so far in advance of +it as to fail of its effective support in every great emergency. He +knew the heart and thought of the people, as no man not in constant and +absolute sympathy with them could have known it, and so holding their +confidence, he triumphed through and with them. Not only was there this +steady growth of intellect, but the infinite delicacy of his nature and +its capacity for refinement developed also, as exhibited in the +purity and perfection of his language and style of speech. The rough +backwoodsman, who had never seen the inside of a university, became in +the end, by self-training and the exercise of his own powers of mind, +heart, and soul, a master of style, and some of his utterances will rank +with the best, the most perfectly adapted to the occasion which produced +them. + +Have you time to listen to his two-minutes speech at Gettysburg, at the +dedication of the Soldiers’ Cemetery? His whole soul was in it: + +“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a +great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived +and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great 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 cannot consecrate—we cannot +hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here +have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The +world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here but it can +never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to +be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have +thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to +the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we +take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full +measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall +not have died in vain—that this nation under God shall have a new birth +of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, and for +the people shall not perish from the earth.” + +He lived to see his work indorsed by an overwhelming majority of his +countrymen. In his second inaugural address, pronounced just forty days +before his death, there is a single passage which well displays his +indomitable will and at the same time his deep religious feeling, +his sublime charity to the enemies of his country, and his broad and +catholic humanity: + +“If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offences +which in the Providence of God must needs come, but which, having +continued through the 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 offence came, shall we discern therein any departure +from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always +ascribe to Him? Fondly do we 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 bondsmen’s two hundred and +fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of +blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with another drawn by the sword, +as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, ‘the +judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’ + +“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the +right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the +work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall +have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan to do all which +may achieve, and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and +with all nations.” + +His prayer was answered. The forty days of life that remained to +him were crowned with great historic events. He lived to see +his Proclamation of Emancipation embodied in an amendment of the +Constitution, adopted by Congress, and submitted to the States for +ratification. The mighty scourge of war did speedily pass away, for it +was given him to witness the surrender of the Rebel army and the fall of +their capital, and the starry flag that he loved waving in triumph over +the national soil. When he died by the madman’s hand in the supreme hour +of victory, the vanquished lost their best friend, and the human race +one of its noblest examples; and all the friends of freedom and justice, +in whose cause he lived and died, joined hands as mourners at his grave. + + + + +THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1832–1843 + + + + +1832 + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON 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 according with an established custom and the principles of true +Republicanism 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 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 objection arises from the want of ability to +pay. + +With respect to the County of Sangamon, some.... + +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....... + +What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to say. It is probable, +however, that it would not be greater 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 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 on 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 dictate 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 histories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly +appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object +of vital importance, 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 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 something 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. Many 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; 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. + +New Salem, March 9, 1832. + + + + +1833 + + + + +TO E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + + +NEW SALEM, Aug. 10, 1833 + +E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + +Dear Sir:—In regard to the time David Rankin served the enclosed +discharge shows correctly—as well as I can recollect—having no writing +to refer. The transfer of Rankin from my company occurred as follows: +Rankin having lost his horse at Dixon’s ferry and having acquaintance in +one of the foot companies who were going down the river was desirous +to go with them, and one Galishen being an acquaintance of mine and +belonging to the company in which Rankin wished to go wished to leave +it and join mine, this being the case it was agreed that they should +exchange places and answer to each other’s names—as it was expected +we all would be discharged in very few days. As to a blanket—I have no +knowledge of Rankin ever getting any. The above embraces all the facts +now in my recollection which are pertinent to the case. + +I shall take pleasure in giving any further information in my power +should you call on me. + +Your friend, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR POSTAGE RECEIPT + + +TO Mr. SPEARS. + +Mr. SPEARS: + +At your request I send you a receipt for the postage on your paper. I am +somewhat surprised at your request. I will, however, comply with it. +The law requires newspaper postage to be paid in advance, and now that +I have waited a full year you choose to wound my feelings by insinuating +that unless you get a receipt I will probably make you pay it again. + +Respectfully, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1836 + + + + +ANNOUNCEMENT OF POLITICAL VIEWS. + + +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 +constituents, as well those that oppose as those that support me. + +While acting as their representative, I shall be governed 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 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. + +Very respectfully, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO POLITICAL SMEAR + + +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 you +said. I am flattered with the personal regard you manifested for me; +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. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MISS MARY OWENS. + + +VANDALIA, December 13, 1836. + +MARY:—I have been sick ever since my arrival, or I should have written +sooner. It is but little difference, however, as I have very little +even yet to write. And more, the longer I can avoid the mortification +of looking in the post-office for your letter and not finding it, the +better. You see I am mad about that old letter yet. I don’t like very +well to risk you again. I’ll try you once more, anyhow. + +The new State House is not yet finished, and consequently the +Legislature is doing little or nothing. The governor delivered an +inflammatory political message, and it is expected there will be some +sparring between the parties about it as soon as the two Houses get to +business. Taylor delivered up his petition for the new county to one +of our members this morning. I am told he despairs of its success, on +account of all the members from Morgan County opposing it. There are +names enough on the petition, I think, to justify the members from our +county in going for it; but if the members from Morgan oppose it, which +they say they will, the chance will be bad. + +Our chance to take the seat of government to Springfield is better than +I expected. An internal-improvement convention was held there since we +met, which recommended a loan of several millions of dollars, on the +faith of the State, to construct railroads. Some of the Legislature are +for it, and some against it; which has the majority I cannot tell. +There is great strife and struggling for the office of the United States +Senator here at this time. It is probable we shall ease their pains in +a few days. The opposition men have no candidate of their own, and +consequently they will smile as complacently at the angry snarl of the +contending Van Buren candidates and their respective friends as the +Christian does at Satan’s rage. You recollect that I mentioned at the +outset of this letter that I had been unwell. That is the fact, though +I believe I am about well now; but that, with other things I cannot +account for, have conspired, and have gotten my spirits so low that I +feel that I would rather be any place in the world than here. I really +cannot endure the thought of staying here ten weeks. Write back as soon +as you get this, and, if possible, say something that will please me, +for really I have not been pleased since I left you. This letter is +so dry and stupid that I am ashamed to send it, but with my present +feelings I cannot do any better. + +Give my best respects to Mr. and Mrs. Able and family. + +Your friend, LINCOLN + + + + +1837 + + + + +SPEECH IN ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + + +January [?], 1837 + +Mr. CHAIRMAN:—Lest I should fall into the too common error of being +mistaken in regard to which side I design to be upon, I shall make it +my first care to remove all doubt on that point, by declaring that I am +opposed to the resolution under consideration, in toto. Before I proceed +to the body of the subject, I will further remark, that it is not +without a considerable degree of apprehension that I venture to cross +the track of the gentleman from Coles [Mr. Linder]. Indeed, I do not +believe I could muster a sufficiency of courage to come in contact with +that gentleman, were it not for the fact that he, some days since, +most graciously condescended to assure us that he would never be found +wasting ammunition on small game. On the same fortunate occasion, +he further gave us to understand, that he regarded himself as being +decidedly the superior of our common friend from Randolph [Mr. Shields]; +and feeling, as I really do, that I, to say the most of myself, am +nothing more than the peer of our friend from Randolph, I shall +regard the gentleman from Coles as decidedly my superior also, and +consequently, in the course of what I shall have to say, whenever I +shall have occasion to allude to that gentleman, I shall endeavor +to adopt that kind of court language which I understand to be due to +decided superiority. In one faculty, at least, there can be no dispute +of the gentleman’s superiority over me and most other men, and that is, +the faculty of entangling a subject, so that neither himself, or +any other man, can find head or tail to it. Here he has introduced a +resolution embracing ninety-nine printed lines across common writing +paper, and yet more than one half of his opening speech has been made +upon subjects about which there is not one word said in his resolution. + +Though his resolution embraces nothing in regard to the +constitutionality of the Bank, much of what he has said has been with +a view to make the impression that it was unconstitutional in its +inception. Now, although I am satisfied that an ample field may be found +within the pale of the resolution, at least for small game, yet, as +the gentleman has traveled out of it, I feel that I may, with all due +humility, venture to follow him. The gentleman has discovered that some +gentleman at Washington city has been upon the very eve of deciding our +Bank unconstitutional, and that he would probably have completed his +very authentic decision, had not some one of the Bank officers placed +his hand upon his mouth, and begged him to withhold it. The fact +that the individuals composing our Supreme Court have, in an official +capacity, decided in favor of the constitutionality of the Bank, would, +in my mind, seem a sufficient answer to this. It is a fact known to all, +that the members of the Supreme Court, together with the Governor, form +a Council of Revision, and that this Council approved this Bank charter. +I ask, then, if the extra-judicial decision not quite but almost made +by the gentleman at Washington, before whom, by the way, the question of +the constitutionality of our Bank never has, nor never can come—is to +be taken as paramount to a decision officially made by that tribunal, +by which, and which alone, the constitutionality of the Bank can ever be +settled? But, aside from this view of the subject, I would ask, if the +committee which this resolution proposes to appoint are to examine into +the Constitutionality of the Bank? Are they to be clothed with power to +send for persons and papers, for this object? And after they have found +the bank to be unconstitutional, and decided it so, how are they to +enforce their decision? What will their decision amount to? They cannot +compel the Bank to cease operations, or to change the course of its +operations. What good, then, can their labors result in? Certainly none. + +The gentleman asks, if we, without an examination, shall, by giving the +State deposits to the Bank, and by taking the stock reserved for the +State, legalize its former misconduct. Now I do not pretend to possess +sufficient legal knowledge to decide whether a legislative enactment +proposing to, and accepting from, the Bank, certain terms, would have +the effect to legalize or wipe out its former errors, or not; but I can +assure the gentleman, if such should be the effect, he has already got +behind the settlement of accounts; for it is well known to all, that the +Legislature, at its last session, passed a supplemental Bank charter, +which the Bank has since accepted, and which, according to his doctrine, +has legalized all the alleged violations of its original charter in the +distribution of its stock. + +I now proceed to the resolution. By examination it will be found that +the first thirty-three lines, being precisely one third of the whole, +relate exclusively to the distribution of the stock by the commissioners +appointed by the State. Now, Sir, it is clear that no question can arise +on this portion of the resolution, except a question between capitalists +in regard to the ownership of stock. Some gentlemen have their stock in +their hands, while others, who have more money than they know what to +do with, want it; and this, and this alone, is the question, to settle +which we are called on to squander thousands of the people’s money. +What interest, let me ask, have the people in the settlement of this +question? What difference is it to them whether the stock is owned by +Judge Smith or Sam Wiggins? If any gentleman be entitled to stock in the +Bank, which he is kept out of possession of by others, let him assert +his right in the Supreme Court, and let him or his antagonist, whichever +may be found in the wrong, pay the costs of suit. It is an old maxim, +and a very sound one, that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. +Now, Sir, in the present case, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden +to them, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the +people’s money being used to pay the fiddler. No one can doubt that the +examination proposed by this resolution must cost the State some ten or +twelve thousand dollars; and all this to settle a question in which +the people have no interest, and about which they care nothing. These +capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the +people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves we are +called upon to appropriate the people’s money to settle the quarrel. + +I leave this part of the resolution and proceed to the remainder. It +will be found that no charge in the remaining part of the resolution, if +true, amounts to the violation of the Bank charter, except one, which I +will notice in due time. It might seem quite sufficient to say no more +upon any of these charges or insinuations than enough to show they are +not violations of the charter; yet, as they are ingeniously framed and +handled, with a view to deceive and mislead, I will notice in their +order all the most prominent of them. The first of these is in relation +to a connection between our Bank and several banking institutions in +other States. Admitting this connection to exist, I should like to see +the gentleman from Coles, or any other gentleman, undertake to show that +there is any harm in it. What can there be in such a connection, that +the people of Illinois are willing to pay their money to get a peep +into? By a reference to the tenth section of the Bank charter, any +gentleman can see that the framers of the act contemplated the holding +of stock in the institutions of other corporations. Why, then, is it, +when neither law nor justice forbids it, that we are asked to spend our +time and money in inquiring into its truth? + +The next charge, in the order of time, is, that some officer, director, +clerk or servant of the Bank, has been required to take an oath of +secrecy in relation to the affairs of said Bank. Now, I do not know +whether this be true or false—neither do I believe any honest man +cares. I know that the seventh section of the charter expressly +guarantees to the Bank the right of making, under certain restrictions, +such by-laws as it may think fit; and I further know that the requiring +an oath of secrecy would not transcend those restrictions. What, then, +if the Bank has chosen to exercise this right? Whom can it injure? Does +not every merchant have his secret mark? and who is ever silly enough +to complain of it? I presume if the Bank does require any such oath of +secrecy, it is done through a motive of delicacy to those individuals +who deal with it. Why, Sir, not many days since, one gentleman upon this +floor, who, by the way, I have no doubt is now ready to join this hue +and cry against the Bank, indulged in a philippic against one of the +Bank officials, because, as he said, he had divulged a secret. + +Immediately following this last charge, there are several insinuations +in the resolution, which are too silly to require any sort of notice, +were it not for the fact that they conclude by saying, “to the great +injury of the people at large.” In answer to this I would say that it +is strange enough, that the people are suffering these “great injuries,” +and yet are not sensible of it! Singular indeed that the people should +be writhing under oppression and injury, and yet not one among them +to be found to raise the voice of complaint. If the Bank be inflicting +injury upon the people, why is it that not a single petition is +presented to this body on the subject? If the Bank really be a +grievance, why is it that no one of the real people is found to ask +redress of it? The truth is, no such oppression exists. If it did, our +people would groan with memorials and petitions, and we would not be +permitted to rest day or night, till we had put it down. The people know +their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them, when +they are invaded. Let them call for an investigation, and I shall ever +stand ready to respond to the call. But they have made no such call. I +make the assertion boldly, and without fear of contradiction, that no +man, who does not hold an office, or does not aspire to one, has ever +found any fault of the Bank. It has doubled the prices of the products +of their farms, and filled their pockets with a sound circulating +medium, and they are all well pleased with its operations. No, Sir, it +is the politician who is the first to sound the alarm (which, by +the way, is a false one.) It is he, who, by these unholy means, is +endeavoring to blow up a storm that he may ride upon and direct. It is +he, and he alone, that here proposes to spend thousands of the people’s +public treasure, for no other advantage to them than to make valueless +in their pockets the reward of their industry. Mr. Chairman, this work +is exclusively the work of politicians; a set of men who have interests +aside from the interests of the people, and who, to say the most of +them, are, taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from honest +men. I say this with the greater freedom, because, being a politician +myself, none can regard it as personal. + +Again, it is charged, or rather insinuated, that officers of the Bank +have loaned money at usurious rates of interest. Suppose this to be +true, are we to send a committee of this House to inquire into it? +Suppose the committee should find it true, can they redress the injured +individuals? Assuredly not. If any individual had been injured in this +way, is there not an ample remedy to be found in the laws of the land? +Does the gentleman from Coles know that there is a statute standing in +full force making it highly penal for an individual to loan money at a +higher rate of interest than twelve per cent? If he does not he is too +ignorant to be placed at the head of the committee which his resolution +purposes and if he does, his neglect to mention it shows him to be too +uncandid to merit the respect or confidence of any one. + +But besides all this, if the Bank were struck from existence, could +not the owners of the capital still loan it usuriously, as well as now? +whatever the Bank, or its officers, may have done, I know that +usurious transactions were much more frequent and enormous before the +commencement of its operations than they have ever been since. + +The next insinuation is, that the Bank has refused specie payments. +This, if true is a violation of the charter. But there is not the +least probability of its truth; because, if such had been the fact, the +individual to whom payment was refused would have had an interest in +making it public, by suing for the damages to which the charter entitles +him. Yet no such thing has been done; and the strong presumption is, +that the insinuation is false and groundless. + +From this to the end of the resolution, there is nothing that merits +attention—I therefore drop the particular examination of it. + +By a general view of the resolution, it will be seen that a principal +object of the committee is to examine into, and ferret out, a mass of +corruption supposed to have been committed by the commissioners +who apportioned the stock of the Bank. I believe it is universally +understood and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly unless +they have a motive to do otherwise. If this be true, we can only suppose +that the commissioners acted corruptly by also supposing that they were +bribed to do so. Taking this view of the subject, I would ask if the +Bank is likely to find it more difficult to bribe the committee of +seven, which, we are about to appoint, than it may have found it to +bribe the commissioners? + +(Here Mr. Linder called to order. The Chair decided that Mr. Lincoln +was not out of order. Mr. Linder appealed to the House, but, before the +question was put, withdrew his appeal, saying he preferred to let the +gentleman go on; he thought he would break his own neck. Mr. Lincoln +proceeded:) + +Another gracious condescension! I acknowledge it with gratitude. I know +I was not out of order; and I know every sensible man in the House knows +it. I was not saying that the gentleman from Coles could be bribed, nor, +on the other hand, will I say he could not. In that particular I leave +him where I found him. I was only endeavoring to show that there was at +least as great a probability of any seven members that could be selected +from this House being bribed to act corruptly, as there was that the +twenty-four commissioners had been so bribed. By a reference to +the ninth section of the Bank charter, it will be seen that those +commissioners were John Tilson, Robert K. McLaughlin, Daniel Warm, A.G. +S. Wight, John C. Riley, W. H. Davidson, Edward M. Wilson, Edward L. +Pierson, Robert R. Green, Ezra Baker, Aquilla Wren, John Taylor, Samuel +C. Christy, Edmund Roberts, Benjamin Godfrey, Thomas Mather, A. M. +Jenkins, W. Linn, W. S. Gilman, Charles Prentice, Richard I. Hamilton, +A.H. Buckner, W. F. Thornton, and Edmund D. Taylor. + +These are twenty-four of the most respectable men in the State. Probably +no twenty-four men could be selected in the State with whom the people +are better acquainted, or in whose honor and integrity they would +more readily place confidence. And I now repeat, that there is less +probability that those men have been bribed and corrupted, than that +any seven men, or rather any six men, that could be selected from the +members of this House, might be so bribed and corrupted, even though +they were headed and led on by “decided superiority” himself. + +In all seriousness, I ask every reasonable man, if an issue be joined +by these twenty-four commissioners, on the one part, and any other +seven men, on the other part, and the whole depend upon the honor and +integrity of the contending parties, to which party would the greatest +degree of credit be due? Again: Another consideration is, that we have +no right to make the examination. What I shall say upon this head I +design exclusively for the law-loving and law-abiding part of the House. +To those who claim omnipotence for the Legislature, and who in the +plenitude of their assumed powers are disposed to disregard the +Constitution, law, good faith, moral right, and everything else, I have +not a word to say. But to the law-abiding part I say, examine the Bank +charter, go examine the Constitution, go examine the acts that the +General Assembly of this State has passed, and you will find just as +much authority given in each and every of them to compel the Bank to +bring its coffers to this hall and to pour their contents upon this +floor, as to compel it to submit to this examination which this +resolution proposes. Why, Sir, the gentleman from Coles, the mover of +this resolution, very lately denied on this floor that the Legislature +had any right to repeal or otherwise meddle with its own acts, when +those acts were made in the nature of contracts, and had been accepted +and acted on by other parties. Now I ask if this resolution does not +propose, for this House alone, to do what he, but the other day, denied +the right of the whole Legislature to do? He must either abandon the +position he then took, or he must now vote against his own resolution. +It is no difference to me, and I presume but little to any one else, +which he does. + +I am by no means the special advocate of the Bank. I have long thought +that it would be well for it to report its condition to the General +Assembly, and that cases might occur, when it might be proper to make an +examination of its affairs by a committee. Accordingly, during the +last session, while a bill supplemental to the Bank charter was pending +before the House, I offered an amendment to the same, in these words: +“The said corporation shall, at the next session of the General +Assembly, and at each subsequent General Session, during the existence +of its charter, report to the same the amount of debts due from said +corporation; the amount of debts due to the same; the amount of specie +in its vaults, and an account of all lands then owned by the same, and +the amount for which such lands have been taken; and moreover, if said +corporation shall at any time neglect or refuse to submit its books, +papers, and all and everything necessary for a full and fair examination +of its affairs, to any person or persons appointed by the General +Assembly, for the purpose of making such examination, the said +corporation shall forfeit its charter.” + +This amendment was negatived by a vote of 34 to 15. Eleven of the 34 who +voted against it are now members of this House; and though it would +be out of order to call their names, I hope they will all recollect +themselves, and not vote for this examination to be made without +authority, inasmuch as they refused to receive the authority when it was +in their power to do so. + +I have said that cases might occur, when an examination might be proper; +but I do not believe any such case has now occurred; and if it has, +I should still be opposed to making an examination without legal +authority. I am opposed to encouraging that lawless and mobocratic +spirit, whether in relation to the Bank or anything else, which is +already abroad in the land and is spreading with rapid and fearful +impetuosity, to the ultimate overthrow of every institution, of every +moral principle, in which persons and property have hitherto found +security. + +But supposing we had the authority, I would ask what good can result +from the examination? Can we declare the Bank unconstitutional, and +compel it to desist from the abuses of its power, provided we find such +abuses to exist? Can we repair the injuries which it may have done to +individuals? Most certainly we can do none of these things. Why +then shall we spend the public money in such employment? Oh, say the +examiners, we can injure the credit of the Bank, if nothing else, Please +tell me, gentlemen, who will suffer most by that? You cannot injure, to +any extent, the stockholders. They are men of wealth—of large capital; +and consequently, beyond the power of malice. But by injuring the credit +of the Bank, you will depreciate the value of its paper in the hands of +the honest and unsuspecting farmer and mechanic, and that is all you can +do. But suppose you could effect your whole purpose; suppose you could +wipe the Bank from existence, which is the grand ultimatum of the +project, what would be the consequence? why, Sir, we should spend +several thousand dollars of the public treasure in the operation, +annihilate the currency of the State, render valueless in the hands of +our people that reward of their former labors, and finally be once more +under the comfortable obligation of paying the Wiggins loan, principal +and interest. + + + + +OPPOSITION TO MOB-RULE + + +ADDRESS BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN’S LYCEUM OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. + +January 27, 1838. + +As a subject for the remarks of the evening, “The Perpetuation of our +Political Institutions” is selected. + +In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American +people, find our account running under date of the nineteenth century of +the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the +fairest portion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility +of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the +government of a system of political institutions conducing more +essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which +the history of former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of +existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental +blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them; +they are a legacy bequeathed us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, +but now lamented and departed, race of ancestors. Theirs was the +task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through +themselves us, of this goodly land, and to uprear upon its hills and its +valleys a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; it is ours only +to transmit these—the former unprofaned by the foot of an invader, the +latter undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation—to the +latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task +gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and +love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully +to perform. + +How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach +of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect +some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a +blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with +all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military +chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink +from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand +years. + +At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer: +If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from +abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and +finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die +by suicide. + +I hope I am over-wary; but if I am not, there is even now something +of ill omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which +pervades the country—the growing disposition to substitute the wild and +furious passions in lieu of the sober judgment of courts, and the +worse than savage mobs for the executive ministers of justice. This +disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now +exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a +violation of truth and an insult to our intelligence to deny. Accounts +of outrages committed by mobs form the everyday news of the times. +They have pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana; they are +neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the former nor the burning suns +of the latter; they are not the creature of climate, neither are they +confined to the slave holding or the non-slave holding States. Alike +they spring up among the pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, +and the order-loving citizens of the land of steady habits. Whatever +then their cause may be, it is common to the whole country. + +It would be tedious as well as useless to recount the horrors of all of +them. Those happening in the State of Mississippi and at St. Louis are +perhaps the most dangerous in example and revolting to humanity. In the +Mississippi case they first commenced by hanging the regular gamblers—a +set of men certainly not following for a livelihood a very useful or +very honest occupation, but one which, so far from being forbidden by +the laws, was actually licensed by an act of the Legislature passed but +a single year before. Next, negroes suspected of conspiring to raise an +insurrection were caught up and hanged in all parts of the State; +then, white men supposed to be leagued with the negroes; and finally, +strangers from neighboring States, going thither on business, were in +many instances subjected to the same fate. Thus went on this process of +hanging, from gamblers to negroes, from negroes to white citizens, and +from these to strangers, till dead men were seen literally dangling +from the boughs of trees upon every roadside, and in numbers almost +sufficient to rival the native Spanish moss of the country as a drapery +of the forest. + +Turn then to that horror-striking scene at St. Louis. A single victim +only was sacrificed there. This story is very short, and is perhaps +the most highly tragic of anything of its length that has ever been +witnessed in real life. A mulatto man by the name of McIntosh was seized +in the street, dragged to the suburbs of the city, chained to a tree, +and actually burned to death; and all within a single hour from the time +he had been a freeman attending to his own business and at peace with +the world. + +Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the scenes becoming more +and more frequent in this land so lately famed for love of law and +order, and the stories of which have even now grown too familiar to +attract anything more than an idle remark. + +But you are perhaps ready to ask, “What has this to do with the +perpetuation of our political institutions?” I answer, It has much to +do with it. Its direct consequences are, comparatively speaking, but +a small evil, and much of its danger consists in the proneness of +our minds to regard its direct as its only consequences. Abstractly +considered, the hanging of the gamblers at Vicksburg was of but little +consequence. They constitute a portion of population that is worse than +useless in any community; and their death, if no pernicious example be +set by it, is never matter of reasonable regret with any one. If +they were annually swept from the stage of existence by the plague or +smallpox, honest men would perhaps be much profited by the operation. +Similar too is the correct reasoning in regard to the burning of the +negro at St. Louis. He had forfeited his life by the perpetration of an +outrageous murder upon one of the most worthy and respectable citizens +of the city, and had he not died as he did, he must have died by the +sentence of the law in a very short time afterwards. As to him alone, +it was as well the way it was as it could otherwise have been. But the +example in either case was fearful. When men take it in their heads +to-day to hang gamblers or burn murderers, they should recollect that in +the confusion usually attending such transactions they will be as likely +to hang or burn some one who is neither a gambler nor a murderer as one +who is, and that, acting upon the example they set, the mob of to-morrow +may, and probably will, hang or burn some of them by the very same +mistake. And not only so: the innocent, those who have ever set their +faces against violations of law in every shape, alike with the guilty +fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by +step, till all the walls erected for the defense of the persons and +property of individuals are trodden down and disregarded. But all this, +even, is not the full extent of the evil. By such examples, by instances +of the perpetrators of such acts going unpunished, the lawless in spirit +are encouraged to become lawless in practice; and having been used to +no restraint but dread of punishment, they thus become absolutely +unrestrained. Having ever regarded government as their deadliest bane, +they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations, and pray for +nothing so much as its total annihilation. While, on the other hand, +good men, men who love tranquillity, who desire to abide by the laws and +enjoy their benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense +of their country, seeing their property destroyed, their families +insulted, and their lives endangered, their persons injured, and seeing +nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the better, become tired +of and disgusted with a government that offers them no protection, and +are not much averse to a change in which they imagine they have nothing +to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocratic spirit which +all must admit is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of +any government, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may +effectually be broken down and destroyed—I mean the attachment of the +people. Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever the +vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in bands +of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob +provision-stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and +hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunity, depend on +it, this government cannot last. By such things the feelings of the best +citizens will become more or less alienated from it, and thus it will +be left without friends, or with too few, and those few too weak to +make their friendship effectual. At such a time, and under such +circumstances, men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting +to seize the opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric +which for the last half century has been the fondest hope of the lovers +of freedom throughout the world. + +I know the American people are much attached to their government; I know +they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils +long and patiently before they would ever think of exchanging it for +another,—yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually +despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons +and property are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, +the alienation of their affections from the government is the natural +consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it must come. + +Here, then, is one point at which danger may be expected. + +The question recurs, How shall we fortify against it? The answer is +simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to +his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate +in the least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate +their violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the +support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the +Constitution and laws let every American pledge his life, his property, +and his sacred honor. Let every man remember that to violate the law is +to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his +own and his children’s liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed +by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; +let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be +written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached +from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts +of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the +nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the +grave and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, +sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. + +While ever a state of feeling such as this shall universally or even +very generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, +and fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national freedom. + +When, I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, let me +not be understood as saying there are no bad laws, or that grievances +may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been +made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although +bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, +while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be +religiously observed. So also in unprovided cases. If such arise, let +proper legal provisions be made for them with the least possible delay, +but till then let them, if not too intolerable, be borne with. + +There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. In any +case that may arise, as, for instance, the promulgation of abolitionism, +one of two positions is necessarily true—that is, the thing is right +within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of all law and all +good citizens, or it is wrong, and therefore proper to be prohibited by +legal enactments; and in neither case is the interposition of mob law +either necessary, justifiable, or excusable. + +But it may be asked, Why suppose danger to our political institutions? +Have we not preserved them for more than fifty years? And why may we not +for fifty times as long? + +We hope there is no sufficient reason. We hope all danger may be +overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be +extremely dangerous. There are now, and will hereafter be, many causes, +dangerous in their tendency, which have not existed heretofore, and +which are not too insignificant to merit attention. That our government +should have been maintained in its original form, from its establishment +until now, is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support +it through that period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through +that period it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now it is +understood to be a successful one. Then, all that sought celebrity +and fame and distinction expected to find them in the success of that +experiment. Their all was staked upon it; their destiny was inseparably +linked with it. Their ambition aspired to display before an admiring +world a practical demonstration of the truth of a proposition which had +hitherto been considered at best no better than problematical—namely, +the capability of a people to govern themselves. If they succeeded they +were to be immortalized; their names were to be transferred to counties, +and cities, and rivers, and mountains; and to be revered and sung, +toasted through all time. If they failed, they were to be called +knaves and fools, and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink and be +forgotten. They succeeded. The experiment is successful, and thousands +have won their deathless names in making it so. But the game is caught; +and I believe it is true that with the catching end the pleasures of +the chase. This field of glory is harvested, and the crop is already +appropriated. But new reapers will arise, and they too will seek a +field. It is to deny what the history of the world tells us is true, to +suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring +up amongst us. And when they do, they will as naturally seek the +gratification of their ruling passion as others have done before them. +The question then is, Can that gratification be found in supporting +and in maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others? Most +certainly it cannot. Many great and good men, sufficiently qualified for +any task they should undertake, may ever be found whose ambition would +aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a Gubernatorial or a +Presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion, or +the tribe of the eagle. What! think you these places would satisfy an +Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon? Never! Towering genius disdains +a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no +distinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected +to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve +under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, +however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if +possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves +or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable, then, to expect that some man +possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to +push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us? And +when such an one does it will require the people to be united with each +other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, +to successfully frustrate his designs. + +Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as +willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, yet, +that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of +building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down. + +Here then is a probable case, highly dangerous, and such an one as could +not have well existed heretofore. + +Another reason which once was, but which, to the same extent, is now no +more, has done much in maintaining our institutions thus far. I mean the +powerful influence which the interesting scenes of the Revolution had +upon the passions of the people as distinguished from their judgment. By +this influence, the jealousy, envy, and avarice incident to our nature, +and so common to a state of peace, prosperity, and conscious strength, +were for the time in a great measure smothered and rendered inactive, +while the deep-rooted principles of hate, and the powerful motive of +revenge, instead of being turned against each other, were directed +exclusively against the British nation. And thus, from the force of +circumstances, the basest principles of our nature were either made to +lie dormant, or to become the active agents in the advancement of +the noblest of causes—that of establishing and maintaining civil and +religious liberty. + +But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has faded, with the +circumstances that produced it. + +I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolution are now or ever +will be entirely forgotten, but that, like everything else, they must +fade upon the memory of the world, and grow more and more dim by the +lapse of time. In history, we hope, they will be read of, and recounted, +so long as the Bible shall be read; but even granting that they will, +their influence cannot be what it heretofore has been. Even then they +cannot be so universally known nor so vividly felt as they were by the +generation just gone to rest. At the close of that struggle, nearly +every adult male had been a participator in some of its scenes. The +consequence was that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a +father, a son, or a brother, a living history was to be found in +every family—a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of its own +authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received, in +the midst of the very scenes related—a history, too, that could be read +and understood alike by all, the wise and the ignorant, the learned and +the unlearned. But those histories are gone. They can be read no more +forever. They were a fortress of strength; but what invading foeman +could never do the silent artillery of time has done—the leveling of +its walls. They are gone. They were a forest of giant oaks; but the +all-restless hurricane has swept over them, and left only here and +there a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, +unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle breezes, and to +combat with its mutilated limbs a few more ruder storms, then to sink +and be no more. + +They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they have +crumbled away that temple must fall unless we, their descendants, supply +their places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober +reason. Passion has helped us, but can do so no more. It will in future +be our enemy. Reason cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason—must +furnish all the materials for our future support and defense. Let those +materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and +in particular, a reverence for the Constitution and laws; and that we +improved to the last, that we remained free to the last, that we revered +his name to the last, that during his long sleep we permitted no hostile +foot to pass over or desecrate his resting place, shall be that which to +learn the last trump shall awaken our Washington. + +Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its +basis; and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, +“the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” + + + + +PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. + + +March 3, 1837. + +The following protest was presented to the House, which was read and +ordered to be spread in the journals, to wit: + +“Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having 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 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 said +resolutions is their reason for entering this protest. + +“DAN STONE, + +“A. LINCOLN, + +“Representatives from the County of Sangamon.” + + + + +TO MISS MARY OWENS. + + +SPRINGFIELD, May 7, 1837. + +MISS MARY S. OWENS. + +FRIEND MARY:—I have commenced two letters to send you before this, both +of which displeased me before I got half done, and so I tore them up. +The first I thought was not serious enough, and the second was on the +other extreme. I shall send this, turn out as it may. + +This thing of living in Springfield is rather a dull business, after +all; at least it is so to me. I am quite as lonesome here as I ever was +anywhere in my life. I have been spoken to by but one woman since I have +been here, and should not have been by her if she could have avoided it. +I ’ve never been to church yet, and probably shall not be soon. I stay +away because I am conscious I should not know how to behave myself. + +I am often thinking of what we said about your coming to live at +Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There is a great +deal of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would be your doom +to see without sharing it. You would have to be poor, without the means +of hiding your poverty. Do you believe you could bear that patiently? +Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is +my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented; and +there is nothing I can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to +fail in the effort. I know I should be much happier with you than the +way I am, provided I saw no signs of discontent in you. What you have +said to me may have been in the way of jest, or I may have misunderstood +you. If so, then let it be forgotten; if otherwise, I much wish you +would think seriously before you decide. What I have said I will most +positively abide by, provided you wish it. My opinion is that you had +better not do it. You have not been accustomed to hardship, and it may +be more severe than you now imagine. I know you are capable of thinking +correctly on any subject, and if you deliberate maturely upon this +subject before you decide, then I am willing to abide your decision. + +You must write me a good long letter after you get this. You have +nothing else to do, and though it might not seem interesting to you +after you had written it, it would be a good deal of company to me in +this “busy wilderness.” Tell your sister I don’t want to hear any more +about selling out and moving. That gives me the “hypo” whenever I think +of it. + +Yours, etc., LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOHN BENNETT. + + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug. 5, 1837. JOHN BENNETT, ESQ. + +DEAR SIR:—Mr. Edwards tells me you wish to know whether the act to which +your own incorporation provision was attached passed into a law. It +did. You can organize under the general incorporation law as soon as you +choose. + +I also tacked a provision onto a fellow’s bill to authorize the +relocation of the road from Salem down to your town, but I am not +certain whether or not the bill passed, neither do I suppose I can +ascertain before the law will be published, if it is a law. Bowling +Greene, Bennette Abe? and yourself are appointed to make the change. No +news. No excitement except a little about the election of Monday next. + +I suppose, of course, our friend Dr. Heney stands no chance in your +diggings. + +Your friend and humble servant, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MARY OWENS. + + +SPRINGFIELD, Aug. 16, 1837 + +FRIEND MARY: You will no doubt think it rather strange that I should +write you a letter on the same day on which we parted, and I can only +account for it by supposing that seeing you lately makes me think of you +more than usual; while at our late meeting we had but few expressions +of thoughts. You must know that I cannot see you, or think of you, with +entire indifference; and yet it may be that you are mistaken in regard +to what my real feelings toward you are. + +If I knew you were not, I should not have troubled you with this letter. +Perhaps any other man would know enough without information; but I +consider it my peculiar right to plead ignorance, and your bounden duty +to allow the plea. + +I want in all cases to do right; and most particularly so in all cases +with women. + +I want, at this particular time, more than any thing else to do right +with you; and if I knew it would be doing right, as I rather suspect it +would, to let you alone I would do it. And, for the purpose of making +the matter as plain as possible, I now say that you can drop the +subject, dismiss your thoughts (if you ever had any) from me for ever +and leave this letter unanswered without calling forth one accusing +murmur from me. And I will even go further and say that, if it will add +anything to your comfort or peace of mind to do so, it is my sincere +wish that you should. Do not understand by this that I wish to cut your +acquaintance. I mean no such thing. What I do wish is that our further +acquaintance shall depend upon yourself. If such further acquaintance +would contribute nothing to your happiness, I am sure it would not to +mine. If you feel yourself in any degree bound to me, I am now willing +to release you, provided you wish it; while on the other hand I am +willing and even anxious to bind you faster if I can be convinced +that it will, in any considerable degree, add to your happiness. This, +indeed, is the whole question with me. Nothing would make me more +miserable than to believe you miserable, nothing more happy than to know +you were so. + +In what I have now said, I think I cannot be misunderstood; and to make +myself understood is the only object of this letter. + +If it suits you best not to answer this, farewell. A long life and +a merry one attend you. But, if you conclude to write back, speak as +plainly as I do. There can neither be harm nor danger in saying to me +anything you think, just in the manner you think it. My respects to your +sister. + +Your friend, LINCOLN. + + + + +LEGAL SUIT OF WIDOW v.s. Gen. ADAMS + + +TO THE PEOPLE. + +“SANGAMON JOURNAL,” SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug. 19, 1837. + +In accordance with our determination, as expressed last week, we present +to the reader the articles which were published in hand-bill form, in +reference to the case of the heirs of Joseph Anderson vs. James Adams. +These articles can now be read uninfluenced by personal or party +feeling, and with the sole motive of learning the truth. When that is +done, the reader can pass his own judgment on the matters at issue. + +We only regret in this case, that the publications were not made some +weeks before the election. Such a course might have prevented the +expressions of regret, which have often been heard since, from different +individuals, on account of the disposition they made of their votes. + +To the Public: + +It is well known to most of you, that there is existing at this time +considerable excitement in regard to Gen. Adams’s titles to certain +tracts of land, and the manner in which he acquired them. As I +understand, the Gen. charges that the whole has been gotten up by a knot +of lawyers to injure his election; and as I am one of the knot to which +he refers, and as I happen to be in possession of facts connected with +the matter, I will, in as brief a manner as possible, make a statement +of them, together with the means by which I arrived at the knowledge of +them. + +Sometime in May or June last, a widow woman, by the name of Anderson, +and her son, who resides in Fulton county, came to Springfield, for +the purpose as they said of selling a ten acre lot of ground lying near +town, which they claimed as the property of the deceased husband and +father. + +When they reached town they found the land was claimed by Gen. Adams. +John T. Stuart and myself were employed to look into the matter, and if +it was thought we could do so with any prospect of success, to commence +a suit for the land. I went immediately to the recorder’s office to +examine Adams’s title, and found that the land had been entered by one +Dixon, deeded by Dixon to Thomas, by Thomas to one Miller, and by Miller +to Gen. Adams. The oldest of these three deeds was about ten or eleven +years old, and the latest more than five, all recorded at the same +time, and that within less than one year. This I thought a suspicious +circumstance, and I was thereby induced to examine the deeds very +closely, with a view to the discovery of some defect by which to +overturn the title, being almost convinced then it was founded in fraud. +I discovered that in the deed from Thomas to Miller, although Miller’s +name stood in a sort of marginal note on the record book, it was nowhere +in the deed itself. I told the fact to Talbott, the recorder, and +proposed to him that he should go to Gen. Adams’s and get the original +deed, and compare it with the record, and thereby ascertain whether +the defect was in the original or there was merely an error in the +recording. As Talbott afterwards told me, he went to the General’s, but +not finding him at home, got the deed from his son, which, when compared +with the record, proved what we had discovered was merely an error of +the recorder. After Mr. Talbott corrected the record, he brought the +original to our office, as I then thought and think yet, to show us +that it was right. When he came into the room he handed the deed to me, +remarking that the fault was all his own. On opening it, another paper +fell out of it, which on examination proved to be an assignment of a +judgment in the Circuit Court of Sangamon County from Joseph Anderson, +the late husband of the widow above named, to James Adams, the judgment +being in favor of said Anderson against one Joseph Miller. Knowing that +this judgment had some connection with the land affair, I immediately +took a copy of it, which is word for word, letter for letter and cross +for cross as follows: + +Joseph Anderson, vs. Joseph Miller. + +Judgment in Sangamon Circuit Court against Joseph Miller obtained on a +note originally 25 dolls and interest thereon accrued. I assign all my +right, title and interest to James Adams which is in consideration of a +debt I owe said Adams. + +his JOSEPH x ANDERSON. mark. + +As the copy shows, it bore date May 10, 1827; although the judgment +assigned by it was not obtained until the October afterwards, as may be +seen by any one on the records of the Circuit Court. Two other strange +circumstances attended it which cannot be represented by a copy. One of +them was, that the date “1827” had first been made “1837” and, without +the figure “3,” being fully obliterated, the figure “2” had afterwards +been made on top of it; the other was that, although the date was ten +years old, the writing on it, from the freshness of its appearance, was +thought by many, and I believe by all who saw it, not to be more than a +week old. The paper on which it was written had a very old appearance; +and there were some old figures on the back of it which made the +freshness of the writing on the face of it much more striking than I +suppose it otherwise might have been. The reader’s curiosity is no doubt +excited to know what connection this assignment had with the land in +question. The story is this: Dixon sold and deeded the land to Thomas; +Thomas sold it to Anderson; but before he gave a deed, Anderson sold it +to Miller, and took Miller’s note for the purchase money. When this +note became due, Anderson sued Miller on it, and Miller procured an +injunction from the Court of Chancery to stay the collection of the +money until he should get a deed for the land. Gen. Adams was employed +as an attorney by Anderson in this chancery suit, and at the October +term, 1827, the injunction was dissolved, and a judgment given in favor +of Anderson against Miller; and it was provided that Thomas was to +execute a deed for the land in favor of Miller and deliver it to Gen. +Adams, to be held up by him till Miller paid the judgment, and then to +deliver it to him. Miller left the county without paying the judgment. +Anderson moved to Fulton county, where he has since died When the widow +came to Springfield last May or June, as before mentioned, and found the +land deeded to Gen. Adams by Miller, she was naturally led to inquire +why the money due upon the judgment had not been sent to them, inasmuch +as he, Gen. Adams, had no authority to deliver Thomas’s deed to Miller +until the money was paid. Then it was the General told her, or perhaps +her son, who came with her, that Anderson, in his lifetime, had assigned +the judgment to him, Gen. Adams. I am now told that the General is +exhibiting an assignment of the same judgment bearing date “1828” and +in other respects differing from the one described; and that he is +asserting that no such assignment as the one copied by me ever existed; +or if there did, it was forged between Talbott and the lawyers, and +slipped into his papers for the purpose of injuring him. Now, I can only +say that I know precisely such a one did exist, and that Ben. Talbott, +Wm. Butler, C.R. Matheny, John T. Stuart, Judge Logan, Robert Irwin, P. +C. Canedy and S. M. Tinsley, all saw and examined it, and that at least +one half of them will swear that IT WAS IN GENERAL ADAMS’S HANDWRITING!! +And further, I know that Talbott will swear that he got it out of the +General’s possession, and returned it into his possession again. The +assignment which the General is now exhibiting purports to have been by +Anderson in writing. The one I copied was signed with a cross. + +I am told that Gen. Neale says that he will swear that he heard Gen. +Adams tell young Anderson that the assignment made by his father was +signed with a cross. + +The above are ‘facts,’ as stated. I leave them without comment. I have +given the names of persons who have knowledge of these facts, in order +that any one who chooses may call on them and ascertain how far they +will corroborate my statements. I have only made these statements +because I am known by many to be one of the individuals against whom +the charge of forging the assignment and slipping it into the General’s +papers has been made, and because our silence might be construed into +a confession of its truth. I shall not subscribe my name; but I hereby +authorize the editor of the Journal to give it up to any one that may +call for it. + + + + +LINCOLN AND TALBOTT IN REPLY TO GEN. ADAMS. + + +“SANGAMON JOURNAL,” SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Oct. 28, 1837. + +In the Republican of this morning a publication of Gen. Adams’s appears, +in which my name is used quite unreservedly. For this I thank the +General. I thank him because it gives me an opportunity, without +appearing obtrusive, of explaining a part of a former publication of +mine, which appears to me to have been misunderstood by many. + +In the former publication alluded to, I stated, in substance, that +Mr. Talbott got a deed from a son of Gen. Adams’s for the purpose of +correcting a mistake that had occurred on the record of the said deed +in the recorder’s office; that he corrected the record, and brought the +deed and handed it to me, and that on opening the deed, another paper, +being the assignment of a judgment, fell out of it. This statement +Gen. Adams and the editor of the Republican have seized upon as a most +palpable evidence of fabrication and falsehood. They set themselves +gravely about proving that the assignment could not have been in the +deed when Talbott got it from young Adams, as he, Talbott, would have +seen it when he opened the deed to correct the record. Now, the truth +is, Talbott did see the assignment when he opened the deed, or at least +he told me he did on the same day; and I only omitted to say so, in +my former publication, because it was a matter of such palpable and +necessary inference. I had stated that Talbott had corrected the record +by the deed; and of course he must have opened it; and, just as the +General and his friends argue, must have seen the assignment. I omitted +to state the fact of Talbott’s seeing the assignment, because its +existence was so necessarily connected with other facts which I did +state, that I thought the greatest dunce could not but understand +it. Did I say Talbott had not seen it? Did I say anything that was +inconsistent with his having seen it before? Most certainly I did +neither; and if I did not, what becomes of the argument? These logical +gentlemen can sustain their argument only by assuming that I did say +negatively everything that I did not say affirmatively; and upon the +same assumption, we may expect to find the General, if a little harder +pressed for argument, saying that I said Talbott came to our office with +his head downward, not that I actually said so, but because I omitted to +say he came feet downward. + +In his publication to-day, the General produces the affidavit of Reuben +Radford, in which it is said that Talbott told Radford that he did not +find the assignment in the deed, in the recording of which the error +was committed, but that he found it wrapped in another paper in the +recorder’s office, upon which statement the Genl. comments as follows, +to wit: “If it be true as stated by Talbott to Radford, that he +found the assignment wrapped up in another paper at his office, that +contradicts the statement of Lincoln that it fell out of the deed.” + +Is common sense to be abused with such sophistry? Did I say what Talbott +found it in? If Talbott did find it in another paper at his office, is +that any reason why he could not have folded it in a deed and brought +it to my office? Can any one be so far duped as to be made believe that +what may have happened at Talbot’s office at one time is inconsistent +with what happened at my office at another time? + +Now Talbott’s statement of the case as he makes it to me is this, that +he got a bunch of deeds from young Adams, and that he knows he found the +assignment in the bunch, but he is not certain which particular deed it +was in, nor is he certain whether it was folded in the same deed out of +which it was taken, or another one, when it was brought to my office. Is +this a mysterious story? Is there anything suspicious about it? + +“But it is useless to dwell longer on this point. Any man who is not +wilfully blind can see at a flash, that there is no discrepancy, and +Lincoln has shown that they are not only inconsistent with truth, but +each other”—I can only say, that I have shown that he has done no such +thing; and if the reader is disposed to require any other evidence than +the General’s assertion, he will be of my opinion. + +Excepting the General’s most flimsy attempt at mystification, in regard +to a discrepance between Talbott and myself, he has not denied a single +statement that I made in my hand-bill. Every material statement that +I made has been sworn to by men who, in former times, were thought as +respectable as General Adams. I stated that an assignment of a judgment, +a copy of which I gave, had existed—Benj. Talbott, C. R. Matheny, Wm. +Butler, and Judge Logan swore to its existence. I stated that it was +said to be in Gen. Adams’s handwriting—the same men swore it was in +his handwriting. I stated that Talbott would swear that he got it out of +Gen. Adams’s possession—Talbott came forward and did swear it. + +Bidding adieu to the former publication, I now propose to examine the +General’s last gigantic production. I now propose to point out some +discrepancies in the General’s address; and such, too, as he shall not +be able to escape from. Speaking of the famous assignment, the General +says: “This last charge, which was their last resort, their dying +effort to render my character infamous among my fellow citizens, was +manufactured at a certain lawyer’s office in the town, printed at the +office of the Sangamon Journal, and found its way into the world some +time between two days just before the last election.” Now turn to Mr. +Keys’ affidavit, in which you will find the following, viz.: “I +certify that some time in May or the early part of June, 1837, I saw +at Williams’s corner a paper purporting to be an assignment from Joseph +Anderson to James Adams, which assignment was signed by a mark to +Anderson’s name,” etc. Now mark, if Keys saw the assignment on the last +of May or first of June, Gen. Adams tells a falsehood when he says +it was manufactured just before the election, which was on the 7th of +August; and if it was manufactured just before the election, Keys tells +a falsehood when he says he saw it on the last of May or first of +June. Either Keys or the General is irretrievably in for it; and in the +General’s very condescending language, I say “Let them settle it between +them.” + +Now again, let the reader, bearing in mind that General Adams has +unequivocally said, in one part of his address, that the charge in +relation to the assignment was manufactured just before the election, +turn to the affidavit of Peter S. Weber, where the following will be +found viz.: “I, Peter S. Weber, do certify that from the best of +my recollection, on the day or day after Gen. Adams started for the +Illinois Rapids, in May last, that I was at the house of Gen. Adams, +sitting in the kitchen, situated on the back part of the house, it being +in the afternoon, and that Benjamin Talbott came around the house, back +into the kitchen, and appeared wild and confused, and that he laid a +package of papers on the kitchen table and requested that they should be +handed to Lucian. He made no apology for coming to the kitchen, nor +for not handing them to Lucian himself, but showed the token of being +frightened and confused both in demeanor and speech and for what cause I +could not apprehend.” + +Commenting on Weber’s affidavit, Gen. Adams asks, “Why this fright and +confusion?” I reply that this is a question for the General himself. +Weber says that it was in May, and if so, it is most clear that Talbott +was not frightened on account of the assignment, unless the General +lies when he says the assignment charge was manufactured just before the +election. Is it not a strong evidence, that the General is not traveling +with the pole-star of truth in his front, to see him in one part of +his address roundly asserting that the assignment was manufactured +just before the election, and then, forgetting that position, procuring +Weber’s most foolish affidavit, to prove that Talbott had been engaged +in manufacturing it two months before? + +In another part of his address, Gen. Adams says: “That I hold an +assignment of said judgment, dated the 20th of May, 1828, and signed +by said Anderson, I have never pretended to deny or conceal, but stated +that fact in one of my circulars previous to the election, and also +in answer to a bill in chancery.” Now I pronounce this statement +unqualifiedly false, and shall not rely on the word or oath of any +man to sustain me in what I say; but will let the whole be decided by +reference to the circular and answer in chancery of which the General +speaks. In his circular he did speak of an assignment; but he did not +say it bore date 20th of May, 1828; nor did he say it bore any date. In +his answer in chancery, he did say that he had an assignment; but he +did not say that it bore date the 20th May, 1828; but so far from it, he +said on oath (for he swore to the answer) that as well as recollected, +he obtained it in 1827. If any one doubts, let him examine the circular +and answer for himself. They are both accessible. + +It will readily be observed that the principal part of Adams’s defense +rests upon the argument that if he had been base enough to forge an +assignment he would not have been fool enough to forge one that would +not cover the case. This argument he used in his circular before the +election. The Republican has used it at least once, since then; and +Adams uses it again in his publication of to-day. Now I pledge myself to +show that he is just such a fool that he and his friends have contended +it was impossible for him to be. Recollect—he says he has a genuine +assignment; and that he got Joseph Klein’s affidavit, stating that he +had seen it, and that he believed the signature to have been executed +by the same hand that signed Anderson’s name to the answer in chancery. +Luckily Klein took a copy of this genuine assignment, which I have been +permitted to see; and hence I know it does not cover the case. In the +first place it is headed “Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph Miller,” and heads +off “Judgment in Sangamon Circuit Court.” Now, mark, there never was +a case in Sangamon Circuit Court entitled Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph +Miller. The case mentioned in my former publication, and the only +one between these parties that ever existed in the Circuit Court, was +entitled Joseph Miller vs. Joseph Anderson, Miller being the plaintiff. +What then becomes of all their sophistry about Adams not being fool +enough to forge an assignment that would not cover the case? It is +certain that the present one does not cover the case; and if he got +it honestly, it is still clear that he was fool enough to pay for an +assignment that does not cover the case. + +The General asks for the proof of disinterested witnesses. Whom does he +consider disinterested? None can be more so than those who have already +testified against him. No one of them had the least interest on earth, +so far as I can learn, to injure him. True, he says they had conspired +against him; but if the testimony of an angel from Heaven were +introduced against him, he would make the same charge of conspiracy. +And now I put the question to every reflecting man, Do you believe that +Benjamin Talbott, Chas. R. Matheny, William Butler and Stephen T. Logan, +all sustaining high and spotless characters, and justly proud of them, +would deliberately perjure themselves, without any motive whatever, +except to injure a man’s election; and that, too, a man who had been a +candidate, time out of mind, and yet who had never been elected to any +office? + +Adams’s assurance, in demanding disinterested testimony, is surpassing. +He brings in the affidavit of his own son, and even of Peter S. Weber, +with whom I am not acquainted, but who, I suppose, is some black or +mulatto boy, from his being kept in the kitchen, to prove his points; +but when such a man as Talbott, a man who, but two years ago, ran +against Gen. Adams for the office of Recorder and beat him more than +four votes to one, is introduced against him, he asks the community, +with all the consequence of a lord, to reject his testimony. + +I might easily write a volume, pointing out inconsistencies between +the statements in Adams’s last address with one another, and with other +known facts; but I am aware the reader must already be tired with +the length of this article. His opening statements, that he was first +accused of being a Tory, and that he refuted that; that then the +Sampson’s ghost story was got up, and he refuted that; that as a last +resort, a dying effort, the assignment charge was got up is all as false +as hell, as all this community must know. Sampson’s ghost first made +its appearance in print, and that, too, after Keys swears he saw the +assignment, as any one may see by reference to the files of papers; and +Gen. Adams himself, in reply to the Sampson’s ghost story, was the first +man that raised the cry of toryism, and it was only by way of set-off, +and never in seriousness, that it was bandied back at him. His effort is +to make the impression that his enemies first made the charge of toryism +and he drove them from that, then Sampson’s ghost, he drove them from +that, then finally the assignment charge was manufactured just before +election. Now, the only general reply he ever made to the Sampson’s +ghost and tory charges he made at one and the same time, and not in +succession as he states; and the date of that reply will show, that it +was made at least a month after the date on which Keys swears he saw the +Anderson assignment. But enough. In conclusion I will only say that I +have a character to defend as well as Gen. Adams, but I disdain to whine +about it as he does. It is true I have no children nor kitchen boys; and +if I had, I should scorn to lug them in to make affidavits for me. + +A. LINCOLN, September 6, 1837. + + + + +Gen. ADAMS CONTROVERSY—CONTINUED + + +TO THE PUBLIC. + +“SANGAMON JOURNAL,” Springfield, Ill, Oct.28, 1837. + +Such is the turn which things have taken lately, that when Gen. Adams +writes a book, I am expected to write a commentary on it. In the +Republican of this morning he has presented the world with a new work +of six columns in length; in consequence of which I must beg the room of +one column in the Journal. It is obvious that a minute reply cannot +be made in one column to everything that can be said in six; and, +consequently, I hope that expectation will be answered if I reply to +such parts of the General’s publication as are worth replying to. + +It may not be improper to remind the reader that in his publication of +Sept. 6th General Adams said that the assignment charge was manufactured +just before the election; and that in reply I proved that statement to +be false by Keys, his own witness. Now, without attempting to explain, +he furnishes me with another witness (Tinsley) by which the same thing +is proved, to wit, that the assignment was not manufactured just before +the election; but that it was some weeks before. Let it be borne in mind +that Adams made this statement—has himself furnished two witnesses to +prove its falsehood, and does not attempt to deny or explain it. Before +going farther, let a pin be stuck here, labeled “One lie proved and +confessed.” On the 6th of September he said he had before stated in +the hand-bill that he held an assignment dated May 20th, 1828, which in +reply I pronounced to be false, and referred to the hand-bill for the +truth of what I said. This week he forgets to make any explanation of +this. Let another pin be stuck here, labelled as before. I mention these +things because, if, when I convict him in one falsehood, he is permitted +to shift his ground and pass it by in silence, there can be no end to +this controversy. + +The first thing that attracts my attention in the General’s present +production is the information he is pleased to give to “those who are +made to suffer at his (my) hands.” + +Under present circumstances, this cannot apply to me, for I am not +a widow nor an orphan: nor have I a wife or children who might by +possibility become such. Such, however, I have no doubt, have been, +and will again be made to suffer at his hands! Hands! Yes, they are +the mischievous agents. The next thing I shall notice is his favorite +expression, “not of lawyers, doctors and others,” which he is so fond of +applying to all who dare expose his rascality. Now, let it be remembered +that when he first came to this country he attempted to impose himself +upon the community as a lawyer, and actually carried the attempt so +far as to induce a man who was under a charge of murder to entrust the +defence of his life in his hands, and finally took his money and got +him hanged. Is this the man that is to raise a breeze in his favor by +abusing lawyers? If he is not himself a lawyer, it is for the lack of +sense, and not of inclination. If he is not a lawyer, he is a liar, for +he proclaimed himself a lawyer, and got a man hanged by depending on +him. + +Passing over such parts of the article as have neither fact nor argument +in them, I come to the question asked by Adams whether any person ever +saw the assignment in his possession. This is an insult to common sense. +Talbott has sworn once and repeated time and again, that he got it out +of Adams’s possession and returned it into the same possession. Still, +as though he was addressing fools, he has assurance to ask if any person +ever saw it in his possession. + +Next I quote a sentence, “Now my son Lucian swears that when Talbott +called for the deed, that he, Talbott, opened it and pointed out the +error.” True. His son Lucian did swear as he says; and in doing so, he +swore what I will prove by his own affidavit to be a falsehood. Turn to +Lucian’s affidavit, and you will there see that Talbott called for the +deed by which to correct an error on the record. Thus it appears that +the error in question was on the record, and not in the deed. How then +could Talbott open the deed and point out the error? Where a thing is +not, it cannot be pointed out. The error was not in the deed, and of +course could not be pointed out there. This does not merely prove that +the error could not be pointed out, as Lucian swore it was; but it +proves, too, that the deed was not opened in his presence with a special +view to the error, for if it had been, he could not have failed to see +that there was no error in it. It is easy enough to see why Lucian swore +this. His object was to prove that the assignment was not in the deed +when Talbott got it: but it was discovered he could not swear this +safely, without first swearing the deed was opened—and if he swore it +was opened, he must show a motive for opening it, and the conclusion +with him and his father was that the pointing out the error would appear +the most plausible. + +For the purpose of showing that the assignment was not in the bundle +when Talbott got it, is the story introduced into Lucian’s affidavit +that the deeds were counted. It is a remarkable fact, and one that +should stand as a warning to all liars and fabricators, that in this +short affidavit of Lucian’s he only attempted to depart from the truth, +so far as I have the means of knowing, in two points, to wit, in the +opening the deed and pointing out the error and the counting of the +deeds,—and in both of these he caught himself. About the counting, he +caught himself thus—after saying the bundle contained five deeds and +a lease, he proceeds, “and I saw no other papers than the said deed and +lease.” First he has six papers, and then he saw none but two; for “my +son Lucian’s” benefit, let a pin be stuck here. + +Adams again adduces the argument, that he could not have forged the +assignment, for the reason that he could have had no motive for it. With +those that know the facts there is no absence of motive. Admitting the +paper which he has filed in the suit to be genuine, it is clear that it +cannot answer the purpose for which he designs it. Hence his motive for +making one that he supposed would answer is obvious. His making the date +too old is also easily enough accounted for. The records were not in his +hands, and then, there being some considerable talk upon this particular +subject, he knew he could not examine the records to ascertain the +precise dates without subjecting himself to suspicion; and hence he +concluded to try it by guess, and, as it turned out, missed it a little. +About Miller’s deposition I have a word to say. In the first place, +Miller’s answer to the first question shows upon its face that he had +been tampered with, and the answer dictated to him. He was asked if he +knew Joel Wright and James Adams; and above three-fourths of his answer +consists of what he knew about Joseph Anderson, a man about whom nothing +had been asked, nor a word said in the question—a fact that can only be +accounted for upon the supposition that Adams had secretly told him what +he wished him to swear to. + +Another of Miller’s answers I will prove both by common sense and the +Court of Record is untrue. To one question he answers, “Anderson brought +a suit against me before James Adams, then an acting justice of the +peace in Sangamon County, before whom he obtained a judgment. + +“Q.—Did you remove the same by injunction to the Sangamon Circuit +Court? Ans.—I did remove it.” + +Now mark—it is said he removed it by injunction. The word “injunction” +in common language imports a command that some person or thing shall +not move or be removed; in law it has the same meaning. An injunction +issuing out of chancery to a justice of the peace is a command to him to +stop all proceedings in a named case until further orders. It is not an +order to remove but to stop or stay something that is already moving. +Besides this, the records of the Sangamon Circuit Court show that the +judgment of which Miller swore was never removed into said Court by +injunction or otherwise. + +I have now to take notice of a part of Adams’s address which in the +order of time should have been noticed before. It is in these words: +“I have now shown, in the opinion of two competent judges, that the +handwriting of the forged assignment differed from mine, and by one of +them that it could not be mistaken for mine.” That is false. Tinsley no +doubt is the judge referred to; and by reference to his certificate it +will be seen that he did not say the handwriting of the assignment +could not be mistaken for Adams’s—nor did he use any other expression +substantially, or anything near substantially, the same. But if Tinsley +had said the handwriting could not be mistaken for Adams’s, it would +have been equally unfortunate for Adams: for it then would have +contradicted Keys, who says, “I looked at the writing and judged it the +said Adams’s or a good imitation.” + +Adams speaks with much apparent confidence of his success on attending +lawsuits, and the ultimate maintenance of his title to the land in +question. Without wishing to disturb the pleasure of his dream, I would +say to him that it is not impossible that he may yet be taught to sing a +different song in relation to the matter. + +At the end of Miller’s deposition, Adams asks, “Will Mr. Lincoln now say +that he is almost convinced my title to this ten acre tract of land +is founded in fraud?” I answer, I will not. I will now change the +phraseology so as to make it run—I am quite convinced, &c. I cannot +pass in silence Adams’s assertion that he has proved that the forged +assignment was not in the deed when it came from his house by Talbott, +the recorder. In this, although Talbott has sworn that the assignment +was in the bundle of deeds when it came from his house, Adams has +the unaccountable assurance to say that he has proved the contrary by +Talbott. Let him or his friends attempt to show wherein he proved any +such thing by Talbott. + +In his publication of the 6th of September he hinted to Talbott, that +he might be mistaken. In his present, speaking of Talbott and me he says +“They may have been imposed upon.” Can any man of the least penetration +fail to see the object of this? After he has stormed and raged till he +hopes and imagines he has got us a little scared he wishes to softly +whisper in our ears, “If you’ll quit I will.” If he could get us to say +that some unknown, undefined being had slipped the assignment into +our hands without our knowledge, not a doubt remains but that he would +immediately discover that we were the purest men on earth. This is the +ground he evidently wishes us to understand he is willing to compromise +upon. But we ask no such charity at his hands. We are neither mistaken +nor imposed upon. We have made the statements we have because we know +them to be true and we choose to live or die by them. + +Esq. Carter, who is Adams’s friend, personal and political, will +recollect, that, on the 5th of this month, he (Adams), with a great +affectation of modesty, declared that he would never introduce his own +child as a witness. Notwithstanding this affectation of modesty, he has +in his present publication introduced his child as witness; and as if to +show with how much contempt he could treat his own declaration, he +has had this same Esq. Carter to administer the oath to him. And so +important a witness does he consider him, and so entirely does the whole +of his entire present production depend upon the testimony of his child, +that in it he has mentioned “my son,” “my son Lucian,” “Lucian, my son,” +and the like expressions no less than fifteen different times. Let it +be remembered here, that I have shown the affidavit of “my darling son +Lucian” to be false by the evidence apparent on its own face; and I now +ask if that affidavit be taken away what foundation will the fabric have +left to stand upon? + +General Adams’s publications and out-door maneuvering, taken in +connection with the editorial articles of the Republican, are not more +foolish and contradictory than they are ludicrous and amusing. One +week the Republican notifies the public that Gen. Adams is preparing +an instrument that will tear, rend, split, rive, blow up, confound, +overwhelm, annihilate, extinguish, exterminate, burst asunder, and grind +to powder all its slanderers, and particularly Talbott and Lincoln—all +of which is to be done in due time. + +Then for two or three weeks all is calm—not a word said. Again the +Republican comes forth with a mere passing remark that “public” opinion +has decided in favor of Gen. Adams, and intimates that he will give +himself no more trouble about the matter. In the meantime Adams himself +is prowling about and, as Burns says of the devil, “For prey, and holes +and corners tryin’,” and in one instance goes so far as to take an old +acquaintance of mine several steps from a crowd and, apparently weighed +down with the importance of his business, gravely and solemnly asks him +if “he ever heard Lincoln say he was a deist.” + +Anon the Republican comes again. “We invite the attention of the public +to General Adams’s communication,” &c. “The victory is a great one, the +triumph is overwhelming.” I really believe the editor of the Illinois +Republican is fool enough to think General Adams leads off—“Authors +most egregiously mistaken &c. Most woefully shall their presumption be +punished,” &c. (Lord have mercy on us.) “The hour is yet to come, yea, +nigh at hand—(how long first do you reckon?)—when the Journal and its +junto shall say, I have appeared too early.” “Their infamy shall be laid +bare to the public gaze.” Suddenly the General appears to relent at the +severity with which he is treating us and he exclaims: “The condemnation +of my enemies is the inevitable result of my own defense.” For your +health’s sake, dear Gen., do not permit your tenderness of heart to +afflict you so much on our account. For some reason (perhaps because we +are killed so quickly) we shall never be sensible of our suffering. + +Farewell, General. I will see you again at court if not before—when and +where we will settle the question whether you or the widow shall have +the land. + +A. LINCOLN. October 18, 1837. + + + + +1838 + + + + +TO Mrs. O. H. BROWNING—A FARCE + + +SPRINGFIELD, April 1, 1838. + +DEAR MADAM:—Without apologizing for being egotistical, 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 and suffered +since I saw you, I shall necessarily have to relate some that happened +before. + +It was, then, in the autumn of 1836 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 despatch. I, of course, accepted the proposal, for you know +I could not have done otherwise had I really been averse to it; but +privately, between 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 company, 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 ever 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 mentioned. In a few days we +had an interview, and, although 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-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 had +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 coming 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 continually repenting the +rashness which had led me to make it. Through life, I have been in no +bondage, either real or imaginary, from the thraldom of which I so much +desired to be free. After my return home, I saw nothing to change my +opinions of her in any particular. She was the same, and so was I. I now +spent my time in planning how I might get along through 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 Irishman does the halter. + +After all my suffering upon this deeply interesting subject, here I am, +wholly, unexpectedly, completely, out of the “scrape”; and now I 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 her 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 endurance. I was mortified, it seemed +to me, in a hundred different ways. My vanity was deeply wounded by the +reflection that I had 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. But let it all go. I’ll try and outlive it. +Others have been made fools of by the girls, but this can never with +truth be said of me. I most emphatically in this instance, 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 any one 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. LINCOLN. + + + + +1839 + + + + +REMARKS ON SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS + + +IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, January 17, 1839. + +Mr. Lincoln, from Committee on Finance, to which the subject was +referred, made a report on the subject of purchasing of the United +States all the unsold lands lying within the limits of the State of +Illinois, accompanied by resolutions that this State propose to purchase +all unsold lands at twenty-five cents per acre, and pledging the faith +of the State to carry the proposal into effect if the government accept +the same within two years. + +Mr. Lincoln thought the resolutions ought to be seriously considered. In +reply to the gentleman from Adams, he said that it was not to enrich the +State. The price of the lands may be raised, it was thought by some; by +others, that it would be reduced. The conclusion in his mind was that +the representatives in this Legislature from the country in which +the lands lie would be opposed to raising the price, because it would +operate against the settlement of the lands. He referred to the lands in +the military tract. They had fallen into the hands of large speculators +in consequence of the low price. He was opposed to a low price of land. +He thought it was adverse to the interests of the poor settler, because +speculators buy them up. He was opposed to a reduction of the price of +public lands. + +Mr. Lincoln referred to some official documents emanating from Indiana, +and compared the progressive population of the two States. Illinois +had gained upon that State under the public land system as it is. His +conclusion was that ten years from this time Illinois would have no more +public land unsold than Indiana now has. He referred also to Ohio. That +State had sold nearly all her public lands. She was but twenty years +ahead of us, and as our lands were equally salable—more so, as he +maintained—we should have no more twenty years from now than she has at +present. + +Mr. Lincoln referred to the canal lands, and supposed that the policy of +the State would be different in regard to them, if the representatives +from that section of country could themselves choose the policy; but the +representatives from other parts of the State had a veto upon it, and +regulated the policy. He thought that if the State had all the lands, +the policy of the Legislature would be more liberal to all sections. + +He referred to the policy of the General Government. He thought that +if the national debt had not been paid, the expenses of the government +would not have doubled, as they had done since that debt was paid. + + + + +TO ——— ROW. + + +SPRINGFIELD, June 11, 1839 DEAR ROW: + +Mr. Redman informs me that you wish me to write you the particulars of +a conversation between Dr. Felix and myself relative to you. The Dr. +overtook me between Rushville and Beardstown. + +He, after learning that I had lived at Springfield, asked if I was +acquainted with you. I told him I was. He said you had lately been +elected constable in Adams, but that you never would be again. I asked +him why. He said the people there had found out that you had been +sheriff or deputy sheriff in Sangamon County, and that you came off and +left your securities to suffer. He then asked me if I did not know such +to be the fact. I told him I did not think you had ever been sheriff or +deputy sheriff in Sangamon, but that I thought you had been constable. I +further told him that if you had left your securities to suffer in that +or any other case, I had never heard of it, and that if it had been so, +I thought I would have heard of it. + +If the Dr. is telling that I told him anything against you whatever, I +authorize you to contradict it flatly. We have no news here. + +Your friend, as ever, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +SPEECH ON NATIONAL BANK + + +IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, December 20, 1839. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:—It is peculiarly embarrassing to me to attempt a +continuance of the discussion, on this evening, which has been conducted +in this hall on several preceding ones. It is so because on each of +those evenings there was a much fuller attendance than now, without any +reason for its being so, except the greater interest the community feel +in the speakers who addressed them then than they do in him who is to do +so now. I am, indeed, apprehensive that the few who have attended +have done so more to spare me mortification than in the hope of being +interested in anything I may be able to say. This circumstance casts +a damp upon my spirits, which I am sure I shall be unable to overcome +during the evening. But enough of preface. + +The subject heretofore and now to be discussed is the subtreasury scheme +of the present administration, as a means of collecting, safe-keeping, +transferring, and disbursing, the revenues of the nation, as contrasted +with a national bank for the same purposes. Mr. Douglas has said that we +(the Whigs) have not dared to meet them (the Locos) in argument on this +question. I protest against this assertion. I assert that we have again +and again, during this discussion, urged facts and arguments against +the subtreasury which they have neither dared to deny nor attempted to +answer. But lest some may be led to believe that we really wish to avoid +the question, I now propose, in my humble way, to urge those arguments +again; at the same time begging the audience to mark well the positions +I shall take and the proof I shall offer to sustain them, and that they +will not again permit Mr. Douglas or his friends to escape the force of +them by a round and groundless assertion that we “dare not meet them in +argument.” + +Of the subtreasury, then, as contrasted with a national bank for the +before-enumerated purposes, I lay down the following propositions, to +wit: (1) It will injuriously affect the community by its operation on +the circulating medium. (2) It will be a more expensive fiscal agent. +(3) It will be a less secure depository of the public money. To show +the truth of the first proposition, let us take a short review of our +condition under the operation of a national bank. It was the depository +of the public revenues. Between the collection of those revenues and the +disbursement of them by the government, the bank was permitted to and +did actually loan them out to individuals, and hence the large amount of +money actually collected for revenue purposes, which by any other +plan would have been idle a great portion of the time, was kept almost +constantly in circulation. Any person who will reflect that money is +only valuable while in circulation will readily perceive that any device +which will keep the government revenues in constant circulation, instead +of being locked up in idleness, is no inconsiderable advantage. By the +subtreasury the revenue is to be collected and kept in iron boxes until +the government wants it for disbursement; thus robbing the people of the +use of it, while the government does not itself need it, and while the +money is performing no nobler office than that of rusting in iron boxes. +The natural effect of this change of policy, every one will see, is +to reduce the quantity of money in circulation. But, again, by +the subtreasury scheme the revenue is to be collected in specie. I +anticipate that this will be disputed. I expect to hear it said that +it is not the policy of the administration to collect the revenue +in specie. If it shall, I reply that Mr. Van Buren, in his message +recommending the subtreasury, expended nearly a column of that document +in an attempt to persuade Congress to provide for the collection of the +revenue in specie exclusively; and he concludes with these words: + +“It may be safely assumed that no motive of convenience to the citizens +requires the reception of bank paper.” In addition to this, Mr. +Silas Wright, Senator from New York, and the political, personal and +confidential friend of Mr. Van Buren, drafted and introduced into the +Senate the first subtreasury bill, and that bill provided for ultimately +collecting the revenue in specie. It is true, I know, that that clause +was stricken from the bill, but it was done by the votes of the Whigs, +aided by a portion only of the Van Buren senators. No subtreasury +bill has yet become a law, though two or three have been considered by +Congress, some with and some without the specie clause; so that I +admit there is room for quibbling upon the question of whether the +administration favor the exclusive specie doctrine or not; but I take it +that the fact that the President at first urged the specie doctrine, +and that under his recommendation the first bill introduced embraced it, +warrants us in charging it as the policy of the party until their head +as publicly recants it as he at first espoused it. I repeat, then, that +by the subtreasury the revenue is to be collected in specie. Now mark +what the effect of this must be. By all estimates ever made there are +but between sixty and eighty millions of specie in the United States. +The expenditures of the Government for the year 1838—the last for which +we have had the report—were forty millions. Thus it is seen that if the +whole revenue be collected in specie, it will take more than half of all +the specie in the nation to do it. By this means more than half of all +the specie belonging to the fifteen millions of souls who compose the +whole population of the country is thrown into the hands of the public +office-holders, and other public creditors comprising in number perhaps +not more than one quarter of a million, leaving the other fourteen +millions and three quarters to get along as they best can, with less +than one half of the specie of the country, and whatever rags and +shinplasters they may be able to put, and keep, in circulation. By +this means, every office-holder and other public creditor may, and +most likely will, set up shaver; and a most glorious harvest will the +specie-men have of it,—each specie-man, upon a fair division, having to +his share the fleecing of about fifty-nine rag-men. In all candor let me +ask, was such a system for benefiting the few at the expense of the many +ever before devised? And was the sacred name of Democracy ever before +made to indorse such an enormity against the rights of the people? + +I have already said that the subtreasury will reduce the quantity of +money in circulation. This position is strengthened by the recollection +that the revenue is to be collected in Specie, so that the mere amount +of revenue is not all that is withdrawn, but the amount of paper +circulation that the forty millions would serve as a basis to is +withdrawn, which would be in a sound state at least one hundred +millions. When one hundred millions, or more, of the circulation we +now have shall be withdrawn, who can contemplate without terror the +distress, ruin, bankruptcy, and beggary that must follow? The man +who has purchased any article—say a horse—on credit, at one hundred +dollars, when there are two hundred millions circulating in the country, +if the quantity be reduced to one hundred millions by the arrival of +pay-day, will find the horse but sufficient to pay half the debt; and +the other half must either be paid out of his other means, and thereby +become a clear loss to him, or go unpaid, and thereby become a clear +loss to his creditor. What I have here said of a single case of the +purchase of a horse will hold good in every case of a debt existing at +the time a reduction in the quantity of money occurs, by whomsoever, and +for whatsoever, it may have been contracted. It may be said that +what the debtor loses the creditor gains by this operation; but on +examination this will be found true only to a very limited extent. It is +more generally true that all lose by it—the creditor by losing more of +his debts than he gains by the increased value of those he collects; the +debtor by either parting with more of his property to pay his debts +than he received in contracting them, or by entirely breaking up his +business, and thereby being thrown upon the world in idleness. + +The general distress thus created will, to be sure, be temporary, +because, whatever change may occur in the quantity of money in any +community, time will adjust the derangement produced; but while that +adjustment is progressing, all suffer more or less, and very many lose +everything that renders life desirable. Why, then, shall we suffer a +severe difficulty, even though it be but temporary, unless we receive +some equivalent for it? + +What I have been saying as to the effect produced by a reduction of the +quantity of money relates to the whole country. I now propose to +show that it would produce a peculiar and permanent hardship upon the +citizens of those States and Territories in which the public lands lie. +The land-offices in those States and Territories, as all know, form the +great gulf by which all, or nearly all, the money in them is swallowed +up. When the quantity of money shall be reduced, and consequently +everything under individual control brought down in proportion, the +price of those lands, being fixed by law, will remain as now. Of +necessity it will follow that the produce or labor that now raises money +sufficient to purchase eighty acres will then raise but sufficient +to purchase forty, or perhaps not that much; and this difficulty and +hardship will last as long, in some degree, as any portion of these +lands shall remain undisposed of. Knowing, as I well do, the difficulty +that poor people now encounter in procuring homes, I hesitate not to say +that when the price of the public lands shall be doubled or trebled, or, +which is the same thing, produce and labor cut down to one half or one +third of their present prices, it will be little less than impossible +for them to procure those homes at all.... + +Well, then, what did become of him? (Postmaster General Barry) Why, the +President immediately expressed his high disapprobation of his almost +unequaled incapacity and corruption by appointing him to a foreign +mission, with a salary and outfit of $18,000 a year! The party now +attempt to throw Barry off, and to avoid the responsibility of his sins. +Did not the President indorse those sins when, on the very heel of +their commission, he appointed their author to the very highest and most +honorable office in his gift, and which is but a single step behind the +very goal of American political ambition? + +I return to another of Mr. Douglas’s excuses for the expenditures of +1838, at the same time announcing the pleasing intelligence that this is +the last one. He says that ten millions of that year’s expenditure was +a contingent appropriation, to prosecute an anticipated war with Great +Britain on the Maine boundary question. Few words will settle this. +First, that the ten millions appropriated was not made till 1839, and +consequently could not have been expended in 1838; second, although it +was appropriated, it has never been expended at all. Those who heard Mr. +Douglas recollect that he indulged himself in a contemptuous expression +of pity for me. “Now he’s got me,” thought I. But when he went on to +say that five millions of the expenditure of 1838 were payments of the +French indemnities, which I knew to be untrue; that five millions had +been for the post-office, which I knew to be untrue; that ten millions +had been for the Maine boundary war, which I not only knew to be untrue, +but supremely ridiculous also; and when I saw that he was stupid enough +to hope that I would permit such groundless and audacious assertions to +go unexposed,—I readily consented that, on the score both of veracity +and sagacity, the audience should judge whether he or I were the more +deserving of the world’s contempt. + +Mr. Lamborn insists that the difference between the Van Buren party and +the Whigs is that, although the former sometimes err in practice, +they are always correct in principle, whereas the latter are wrong in +principle; and, better to impress this proposition, he uses a figurative +expression in these words: “The Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, +but they are sound in the head and the heart.” The first branch of the +figure—that is, that the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel—I admit +is not merely figuratively, but literally true. Who that looks but for +a moment at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their Harringtons, and their +hundreds of others, scampering away with the public money to Texas, to +Europe, and to every spot of the earth where a villain may hope to find +refuge from justice, can at all doubt that they are most distressingly +affected in their heels with a species of “running itch”? It seems +that this malady of their heels operates on these sound-headed and +honest-hearted creatures very much like the cork leg in the comic song +did on its owner: which, when he had once got started on it, the more he +tried to stop it, the more it would run away. At the hazard of wearing +this point threadbare, I will relate an anecdote which seems too +strikingly in point to be omitted. A witty Irish soldier, who was always +boasting of his bravery when no danger was near, but who invariably +retreated without orders at the first charge of an engagement, being +asked by his captain why he did so, replied: “Captain, I have as brave a +heart as Julius Caesar ever had; but, somehow or other, whenever +danger approaches, my cowardly legs will run away with it.” So with Mr. +Lamborn’s party. They take the public money into their hand for the +most laudable purpose that wise heads and honest hearts can dictate; but +before they can possibly get it out again, their rascally “vulnerable +heels” will run away with them. + +Seriously this proposition of Mr. Lamborn is nothing more or less than +a request that his party may be tried by their professions instead of +their practices. Perhaps no position that the party assumes is more +liable to or more deserving of exposure than this very modest request; +and nothing but the unwarrantable length to which I have already +extended these remarks forbids me now attempting to expose it. For the +reason given, I pass it by. + +I shall advert to but one more point. Mr. Lamborn refers to the late +elections in the States, and from their results confidently predicts +that every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the next +Presidential election. Address that argument to cowards and to knaves; +with the free and the brave it will effect nothing. It may be true; if +it must, let it. Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours +may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was +the last to desert, but that I never deserted her. I know that the great +volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that +reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political corruption in a +current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity +over the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave +unscathed no green spot or living thing; while on its bosom are riding, +like demons on the waves of hell, the imps of that evil spirit, and +fiendishly taunting all those who dare resist its destroying course with +the hopelessness of their effort; and, knowing this, I cannot deny that +all may be swept away. Broken by it I, too, may be; bow to it I never +will. The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to +deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not +deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those +dimensions not wholly unworthy of its almighty Architect, it is when I +contemplate the cause of my country deserted by all the world beside, +and I standing up boldly and alone, and hurling defiance at her +victorious oppressors. Here, without contemplating consequences, before +high heaven and in the face of the world, I swear eternal fidelity to +the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and +my love. And who that thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt the oath +that I take? Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. +But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so. We still shall have the +proud consolation of saying to our consciences, and to the departed +shade of our country’s freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment, +and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, +we never faltered in defending. + + + + +TO JOHN T. STUART. + + +SPRINGFIELD, December 23, 1839. + +DEAR STUART: + +Dr. Henry will write you all the political news. I write this about some +little matters of business. You recollect you told me you had drawn the +Chicago Masark money, and sent it to the claimants. A hawk-billed Yankee +is here besetting me at every turn I take, saying that Robert Kinzie +never received the eighty dollars to which he was entitled. Can you tell +me anything about the matter? Again, old Mr. Wright, who lives up South +Fork somewhere, is teasing me continually about some deeds which he says +he left with you, but which I can find nothing of. Can you tell me where +they are? The Legislature is in session and has suffered the bank to +forfeit its charter without benefit of clergy. There seems to be little +disposition to resuscitate it. + +Whenever a letter comes from you to Mrs.____________ I carry it to her, +and then I see Betty; she is a tolerable nice “fellow” now. Maybe I will +write again when I get more time. + +Your friend as ever, A. LINCOLN + +P. S.—The Democratic giant is here, but he is not much worth talking +about. A.L. + + + + +1840 + + + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + + +Confidential. + +January [1?], 1840. + +To MESSRS ——— + +GENTLEMEN:—In obedience to a resolution of the Whig State convention, +we have appointed you the Central Whig Committee of your county. The +trust confided to you will be one of watchfulness and labor; but we hope +the glory of having contributed to the overthrow of the corrupt powers +that now control our beloved country will be a sufficient reward for the +time and labor you will devote to it. Our Whig brethren throughout the +Union have met in convention, and after due deliberation and +mutual concessions have elected candidates for the Presidency and +Vice-Presidency not only worthy of our cause, but worthy of the support +of every true patriot who would have our country redeemed, and her +institutions honestly and faithfully administered. To overthrow the +trained bands that are opposed to us whose salaried officers are ever +on the watch, and whose misguided followers are ever ready to obey their +smallest commands, every Whig must not only know his duty, but must +firmly resolve, whatever of time and labor it may cost, boldly and +faithfully to do it. Our intention is to organize the whole State, so +that every Whig can be brought to the polls in the coming Presidential +contest. We cannot do this, however, without your co-operation; and +as we do our duty, so we shall expect you to do yours. After due +deliberation, the following is the plan of organization, and the duties +required of each county committee: + +(1) To divide their county into small districts, and to appoint in each +a subcommittee, whose duty it shall be to make a perfect list of all the +voters in their respective districts, and to ascertain with certainty +for whom they will vote. If they meet with men who are doubtful as to +the man they will support, such voters should be designated in separate +lines, with the name of the man they will probably support. + +(2) It will be the duty of said subcommittee to keep a constant watch on +the doubtful voters, and from time to time have them talked to by those +in whom they have the most confidence, and also to place in their hands +such documents as will enlighten and influence them. + +(3) It will also be their duty to report to you, at least once a month, +the progress they are making, and on election days see that every Whig +is brought to the polls. + +(4) The subcommittees should be appointed immediately; and by the last +of April, at least, they should make their first report. + +(5) On the first of each month hereafter we shall expect to hear from +you. After the first report of your subcommittees, unless there should +be found a great many doubtful voters, you can tell pretty accurately +the manner in which your county will vote. In each of your letters to +us, you will state the number of certain votes both for and against us, +as well as the number of doubtful votes, with your opinion of the manner +in which they will be cast. + +(6) When we have heard from all the counties, we shall be able to +tell with similar accuracy the political complexion of the State. This +information will be forwarded to you as soon as received. + +(7) Inclosed is a prospectus for a newspaper to be continued until after +the Presidential election. It will be superintended by ourselves, and +every Whig in the State must take it. It will be published so low that +every one can afford it. You must raise a fund and forward us for extra +copies,—every county ought to send—fifty or one hundred dollars,—and +the copies will be forwarded to you for distribution among our political +opponents. The paper will be devoted exclusively to the great cause +in which we are engaged. Procure subscriptions, and forward them to us +immediately. + +(8) Immediately after any election in your county, you must inform us of +its results; and as early as possible after any general election we will +give you the like information. + +(9) A senator in Congress is to be elected by our next Legislature. Let +no local interests divide you, but select candidates that can succeed. + +(10) Our plan of operations will of course be concealed from every one +except our good friends who of right ought to know them. + +Trusting much in our good cause, the strength of our candidates, and +the determination of the Whigs everywhere to do their duty, we go to +the work of organization in this State confident of success. We have +the numbers, and if properly organized and exerted, with the gallant +Harrison at our head, we shall meet our foes and conquer them in all +parts of the Union. + +Address your letters to Dr. A. G. Henry, R. F, Barrett; A. Lincoln, E. +D. Baker, J. F. Speed. + + + + +TO JOHN T. STUART. + + +SPRINGFIELD, March 1, 1840 + +DEAR STUART: + +I have never seen the prospects of our party so bright in these parts +as they are now. We shall carry this county by a larger majority than +we did in 1836, when you ran against May. I do not think my prospects, +individually, are very flattering, for I think it probable I shall +not be permitted to be a candidate; but the party ticket will succeed +triumphantly. Subscriptions to the “Old Soldier” pour in without +abatement. This morning I took from the post office a letter from Dubois +enclosing the names of sixty subscribers, and on carrying it to Francis +I found he had received one hundred and forty more from other quarters +by the same day’s mail. That is but an average specimen of every day’s +receipts. Yesterday Douglas, having chosen to consider himself insulted +by something in the Journal, undertook to cane Francis in the street. +Francis caught him by the hair and jammed him back against a market cart +where the matter ended by Francis being pulled away from him. The +whole affair was so ludicrous that Francis and everybody else (Douglass +excepted) have been laughing about it ever since. + +I send you the names of some of the V.B. men who have come out for +Harrison about town, and suggest that you send them some documents. + +Moses Coffman (he let us appoint him a delegate yesterday), Aaron +Coffman, George Gregory, H. M. Briggs, Johnson (at Birchall’s +Bookstore), Michael Glyn, Armstrong (not Hosea nor Hugh, but a +carpenter), Thomas Hunter, Moses Pileher (he was always a Whig and +deserves attention), Matthew Crowder Jr., Greenberry Smith; John Fagan, +George Fagan, William Fagan (these three fell out with us about Early, +and are doubtful now), John M. Cartmel, Noah Rickard, John Rickard, +Walter Marsh. + +The foregoing should be addressed at Springfield. + +Also send some to Solomon Miller and John Auth at Salisbury. Also to +Charles Harper, Samuel Harper, and B. C. Harper, and T. J. Scroggins, +John Scroggins at Pulaski, Logan County. + +Speed says he wrote you what Jo Smith said about you as he passed here. +We will procure the names of some of his people here, and send them to +you before long. Speed also says you must not fail to send us the New +York Journal he wrote for some time since. + +Evan Butler is jealous that you never send your compliments to him. You +must not neglect him next time. + +Your friend, as ever, A. LINCOLN + + + + +RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + + +November 28, 1840. + +In the Illinois House of Representatives, November 28, 1840, Mr. Lincoln +offered the following: + +Resolved, That so much of the governor’s message as relates to +fraudulent voting, and other fraudulent practices at elections, be +referred to the Committee on Elections, with instructions to said +committee to prepare and report to the House a bill for such an act as +may in their judgment afford the greatest possible protection of the +elective franchise against all frauds of all sorts whatever. + + + + +RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + + +December 2, 1840. + +Resolved, That the Committee on Education be instructed to inquire +into the expediency of providing by law for the examination as to the +qualification of persons offering themselves as school teachers, that no +teacher shall receive any part of the public school fund who shall not +have successfully passed such examination, and that they report by bill +or otherwise. + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + + +December 4, 1840 + +In the House of Representatives, Illinois, December 4, 1840, on +presentation of a report respecting petition of H. N. Purple, claiming +the seat of Mr. Phelps from Peoria, Mr. Lincoln moved that the House +resolve itself into Committee of the Whole on the question, and take +it up immediately. Mr. Lincoln considered the question of the highest +importance whether an individual had a right to sit in this House or +not. The course he should propose would be to take up the evidence and +decide upon the facts seriatim. + +Mr. Drummond wanted time; they could not decide in the heat of debate, +etc. + +Mr. Lincoln thought that the question had better be gone into now. +In courts of law jurors were required to decide on evidence, without +previous study or examination. They were required to know nothing of +the subject until the evidence was laid before them for their immediate +decision. He thought that the heat of party would be augmented by delay. + +The Speaker called Mr. Lincoln to order as being irrelevant; no mention +had been made of party heat. + +Mr. Drummond said he had only spoken of debate. Mr. Lincoln asked what +caused the heat, if it was not party? Mr. Lincoln concluded by urging +that the question would be decided now better than hereafter, and he +thought with less heat and excitement. + +(Further debate, in which Lincoln participated.) + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + + +December 4, 1840. + +In the Illinois House of Representatives, December 4, 1840, House in +Committee of the Whole on the bill providing for payment of interest on +the State debt,—Mr. Lincoln moved to strike out the body and amendments +of the bill, and insert in lieu thereof an amendment which in substance +was that the governor be authorized to issue bonds for the payment of +the interest; that these be called “interest bonds”; that the taxes +accruing on Congress lands as they become taxable be irrevocably set +aside and devoted as a fund to the payment of the interest bonds. Mr. +Lincoln went into the reasons which appeared to him to render this plan +preferable to that of hypothecating the State bonds. By this course we +could get along till the next meeting of the Legislature, which was +of great importance. To the objection which might be urged that these +interest bonds could not be cashed, he replied that if our other bonds +could, much more could these, which offered a perfect security, a fund +being irrevocably set aside to provide for their redemption. To another +objection, that we should be paying compound interest, he would reply +that the rapid growth and increase of our resources was in so great a +ratio as to outstrip the difficulty; that his object was to do the best +that could be done in the present emergency. All agreed that the faith +of the State must be preserved; this plan appeared to him preferable +to a hypothecation of bonds, which would have to be redeemed and the +interest paid. How this was to be done, he could not see; therefore he +had, after turning the matter over in every way, devised this measure, +which would carry us on till the next Legislature. + +(Mr. Lincoln spoke at some length, advocating his measure.) + +Lincoln advocated his measure, December 11, 1840. + +December 12, 1840, he had thought some permanent provision ought to be +made for the bonds to be hypothecated, but was satisfied taxation and +revenue could not be connected with it now. + + + + +1841 + + + + +TO JOHN T. STUART—ON DEPRESSION + + +SPRINGFIELD, Jan 23, 1841 + +DEAR STUART: I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were +equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one +cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell; I +awfully forbode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die +or be better, as it appears to me.... I fear I shall be unable to attend +any business here, and a change of scene might help me. If I could be +myself, I would rather remain at home with Judge Logan. I can write no +more. + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + + +January 23, 1841 + +In the House of Representatives January 23, 1841, while discussing the +continuation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Mr. Moore was afraid +the holders of the “scrip” would lose. + +Mr. Napier thought there was no danger of that; and Mr. Lincoln said he +had not examined to see what amount of scrip would probably be needed. +The principal point in his mind was this, that nobody was obliged to +take these certificates. It is altogether voluntary on their part, and +if they apprehend it will fall in their hands they will not take it. +Further the loss, if any there be, will fall on the citizens of that +section of the country. + +This scrip is not going to circulate over an extensive range of country, +but will be confined chiefly to the vicinity of the canal. Now, we find +the representatives of that section of the country are all in favor of +the bill. + +When we propose to protect their interests, they say to us: Leave us +to take care of ourselves; we are willing to run the risk. And this +is reasonable; we must suppose they are competent to protect their own +interests, and it is only fair to let them do it. + + + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + + +February 9, 1841. + +Appeal to the People of the State of Illinois. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:—When the General Assembly, now about adjourning, +assembled in November last, from the bankrupt state of the public +treasury, the pecuniary embarrassments prevailing in every department +of society, the dilapidated state of the public works, and the impending +danger of the degradation of the State, you had a right to expect +that your representatives would lose no time in devising and adopting +measures to avert threatened calamities, alleviate the distresses of +the people, and allay the fearful apprehensions in regard to the future +prosperity of the State. It was not expected by you that the spirit of +party would take the lead in the councils of the State, and make every +interest bend to its demands. Nor was it expected that any party would +assume to itself the entire control of legislation, and convert the +means and offices of the State, and the substance of the people, into +aliment for party subsistence. Neither could it have been expected by +you that party spirit, however strong its desires and unreasonable +its demands, would have passed the sanctuary of the Constitution, and +entered with its unhallowed and hideous form into the formation of the +judiciary system. + +At the early period of the session, measures were adopted by the +dominant party to take possession of the State, to fill all public +offices with party men, and make every measure affecting the interests +of the people and the credit of the State operate in furtherance of +their party views. The merits of men and measures therefore became the +subject of discussion in caucus, instead of the halls of legislation, +and decisions there made by a minority of the Legislature have been +executed and carried into effect by the force of party discipline, +without any regard whatever to the rights of the people or the interests +of the State. The Supreme Court of the State was organized, and judges +appointed, according to the provisions of the Constitution, in 1824. +The people have never complained of the organization of that court; no +attempt has ever before been made to change that department. Respect for +public opinion, and regard for the rights and liberties of the people, +have hitherto restrained the spirit of party from attacks upon the +independence and integrity of the judiciary. The same judges have +continued in office since 1824; their decisions have not been the +subject of complaint among the people; the integrity and honesty of the +court have not been questioned, and it has never been supposed that +the court has ever permitted party prejudice or party considerations +to operate upon their decisions. The court was made to consist of four +judges, and by the Constitution two form a quorum for the transaction +of business. With this tribunal, thus constituted, the people have +been satisfied for near sixteen years. The same law which organized the +Supreme Court in 1824 also established and organized circuit courts +to be held in each county in the State, and five circuit judges were +appointed to hold those courts. In 1826 the Legislature abolished these +circuit courts, repealed the judges out of office, and required the +judges of the Supreme Court to hold the circuit courts. The reasons +assigned for this change were, first, that the business of the country +could be better attended to by the four judges of the Supreme Court than +by the two sets of judges; and, second, the state of the public treasury +forbade the employment of unnecessary officers. In 1828 a circuit was +established north of the Illinois River, in order to meet the wants of +the people, and a circuit judge was appointed to hold the courts in that +circuit. + +In 1834 the circuit-court system was again established throughout the +State, circuit judges appointed to hold the courts, and the judges of +the Supreme Court were relieved from the performance of circuit court +duties. The change was recommended by the then acting governor of the +State, General W. L. D. Ewing, in the following terms: + +“The augmented population of the State, the multiplied number of +organized counties, as well as the increase of business in all, has +long since convinced every one conversant with this department of +our government of the indispensable necessity of an alteration in +our judiciary system, and the subject is therefore recommended to the +earnest patriotic consideration of the Legislature. The present system +has never been exempt from serious and weighty objections. The idea of +appealing from the circuit court to the same judges in the Supreme Court +is recommended by little hopes of redress to the injured party below. +The duties of the circuit, too, it may be added, consume one half of the +year, leaving a small and inadequate portion of time (when that required +for domestic purposes is deducted) to erect, in the decisions of the +Supreme Court, a judicial monument of legal learning and research, +which the talent and ability of the court might otherwise be entirely +competent to.” + +With this organization of circuit courts the people have never +complained. The only complaints which we have heard have come from +circuits which were so large that the judges could not dispose of the +business, and the circuits in which Judges Pearson and Ralston lately +presided. + +Whilst the honor and credit of the State demanded legislation upon the +subject of the public debt, the canal, the unfinished public works, and +the embarrassments of the people, the judiciary stood upon a basis +which required no change—no legislative action. Yet the party in power, +neglecting every interest requiring legislative action, and wholly +disregarding the rights, wishes, and interests of the people, has, for +the unholy purpose of providing places for its partisans and supplying +them with large salaries, disorganized that department of the +government. Provision is made for the election of five party judges +of the Supreme Court, the proscription of four circuit judges, and the +appointment of party clerks in more than half the counties of the +State. Men professing respect for public opinion, and acknowledged to be +leaders of the party, have avowed in the halls of legislation that +the change in the judiciary was intended to produce political results +favorable to their party and party friends. The immutable principles +of justice are to make way for party interests, and the bonds of social +order are to be rent in twain, in order that a desperate faction may +be sustained at the expense of the people. The change proposed in the +judiciary was supported upon grounds so destructive to the institutions +of the country, and so entirely at war with the rights and liberties +of the people, that the party could not secure entire unanimity in its +support, three Democrats of the Senate and five of the House voting +against the measure. They were unwilling to see the temples of justice +and the seats of independent judges occupied by the tools of faction. +The declarations of the party leaders, the selection of party men for +judges, and the total disregard for the public will in the adoption of +the measure, prove conclusively that the object has been not reform, but +destruction; not the advancement of the highest interests of the State, +but the predominance of party. + +We cannot in this manner undertake to point out all the objections to +this party measure; we present you with those stated by the Council +of Revision upon returning the bill, and we ask for them a candid +consideration. + +Believing that the independence of the judiciary has been destroyed, +that hereafter our courts will be independent of the people, and +entirely dependent upon the Legislature; that our rights of property +and liberty of conscience can no longer be regarded as safe from the +encroachments of unconstitutional legislation; and knowing of no other +remedy which can be adopted consistently with the peace and good order +of society, we call upon you to avail yourselves of the opportunity +afforded, and, at the next general election, vote for a convention of +the people. + + S. H. LITTLE, + E. D. BAKER, + J. J. HARDIN, + E. B. WEBS, + A. LINCOLN, + J. GILLESPIE, + + Committee on behalf of the Whig members of the Legislature. + + + + +AGAINST THE REORGANIZATION OF THE JUDICIARY. + + +EXTRACT FROM A PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE + +February 26, 1841 + +For the reasons thus presented, and for others no less apparent, the +undersigned cannot assent to the passage of the bill, or permit it to +become a law, without this evidence of their disapprobation; and they +now protest against the reorganization of the judiciary, because—(1) +It violates the great principles of free government by subjecting the +judiciary to the Legislature. (2) It is a fatal blow at the independence +of the judges and the constitutional term of their office. (3) It is a +measure not asked for, or wished for, by the people. (4) It will greatly +increase the expense of our courts, or else greatly diminish their +utility. (5) It will give our courts a political and partisan character, +thereby impairing public confidence in their decisions. (6) It will +impair our standing with other States and the world. (7)It is a party +measure for party purposes, from which no practical good to the people +can possibly arise, but which may be the source of immeasurable evils. + +The undersigned are well aware that this protest will be altogether +unavailing with the majority of this body. The blow has already fallen, +and we are compelled to stand by, the mournful spectators of the ruin it +will cause. + +[Signed by 35 members, among whom was Abraham Lincoln.] + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—MURDER CASE + + +SPRINGFIELD June 19, 1841. + +DEAR SPEED:—We have had the highest state of excitement here for a week +past that our community has ever witnessed; and, although the public +feeling is somewhat allayed, the curious affair which aroused it is very +far from being even yet cleared of mystery. It would take a quire of +paper to give you anything like a full account of it, and I therefore +only propose a brief outline. The chief personages in the drama are +Archibald Fisher, supposed to be murdered, and Archibald Trailor, Henry +Trailor, and William Trailor, supposed to have murdered him. The three +Trailors are brothers: the first, Arch., as you know, lives in town; +the second, Henry, in Clary’s Grove; and the third, William, in Warren +County; and Fisher, the supposed murdered, being without a family, had +made his home with William. On Saturday evening, being the 29th of May, +Fisher and William came to Henry’s in a one-horse dearborn, and there +stayed over Sunday; and on Monday all three came to Springfield (Henry +on horseback) and joined Archibald at Myers’s, the Dutch carpenter. +That evening at supper Fisher was missing, and so next morning some +ineffectual search was made for him; and on Tuesday, at one o’clock +P.M., William and Henry started home without him. In a day or two Henry +and one or two of his Clary-Grove neighbors came back for him again, and +advertised his disappearance in the papers. The knowledge of the matter +thus far had not been general, and here it dropped entirely, till about +the 10th instant, when Keys received a letter from the postmaster in +Warren County, that William had arrived at home, and was telling a very +mysterious and improbable story about the disappearance of Fisher, which +induced the community there to suppose he had been disposed of unfairly. +Keys made this letter public, which immediately set the whole town and +adjoining county agog. And so it has continued until yesterday. The mass +of the people commenced a systematic search for the dead body, while +Wickersham was despatched to arrest Henry Trailor at the Grove, and Jim +Maxcy to Warren to arrest William. On Monday last, Henry was brought in, +and showed an evident inclination to insinuate that he knew Fisher to be +dead, and that Arch. and William had killed him. He said he guessed the +body could be found in Spring Creek, between the Beardstown road and +Hickox’s mill. Away the people swept like a herd of buffalo, and cut +down Hickox’s mill-dam nolens volens, to draw the water out of the pond, +and then went up and down and down and up the creek, fishing and raking, +and raking and ducking and diving for two days, and, after all, no dead +body found. + +In the meantime a sort of scuffling-ground had been found in the brush +in the angle, or point, where the road leading into the woods past +the brewery and the one leading in past the brick-yard meet. From the +scuffle-ground was the sign of something about the size of a man having +been dragged to the edge of the thicket, where it joined the track +of some small-wheeled carriage drawn by one horse, as shown by the +road-tracks. The carriage-track led off toward Spring Creek. Near this +drag-trail Dr. Merryman found two hairs, which, after a long scientific +examination, he pronounced to be triangular human hairs, which term, he +says, includes within it the whiskers, the hair growing under the arms +and on other parts of the body; and he judged that these two were of the +whiskers, because the ends were cut, showing that they had flourished in +the neighborhood of the razor’s operations. On Thursday last Jim Maxcy +brought in William Trailor from Warren. On the same day Arch. was +arrested and put in jail. Yesterday (Friday) William was put upon his +examining trial before May and Lovely. Archibald and Henry were both +present. Lamborn prosecuted, and Logan, Baker, and your humble servant +defended. A great many witnesses were introduced and examined, but I +shall only mention those whose testimony seemed most important. The +first of these was Captain Ransdell. He swore that when William and +Henry left Springfield for home on Tuesday before mentioned they did not +take the direct route,—which, you know, leads by the butcher shop,—but +that they followed the street north until they got opposite, or nearly +opposite, May’s new house, after which he could not see them from where +he stood; and it was afterwards proved that in about an hour after they +started, they came into the street by the butcher shop from toward the +brickyard. Dr. Merryman and others swore to what is stated about the +scuffle-ground, drag-trail, whiskers, and carriage tracks. Henry was +then introduced by the prosecution. He swore that when they started for +home they went out north, as Ransdell stated, and turned down west +by the brick-yard into the woods, and there met Archibald; that they +proceeded a small distance farther, when he was placed as a sentinel to +watch for and announce the approach of any one that might happen that +way; that William and Arch. took the dearborn out of the road a small +distance to the edge of the thicket, where they stopped, and he saw +them lift the body of a man into it; that they then moved off with the +carriage in the direction of Hickox’s mill, and he loitered about for +something like an hour, when William returned with the carriage, but +without Arch., and said they had put him in a safe place; that they went +somehow he did not know exactly how—into the road close to the brewery, +and proceeded on to Clary’s Grove. He also stated that some time during +the day William told him that he and Arch. had killed Fisher the evening +before; that the way they did it was by him William knocking him down +with a club, and Arch. then choking him to death. + +An old man from Warren, called Dr. Gilmore, was then introduced on +the part of the defense. He swore that he had known Fisher for several +years; that Fisher had resided at his house a long time at each of two +different spells—once while he built a barn for him, and once while +he was doctored for some chronic disease; that two or three years ago +Fisher had a serious hurt in his head by the bursting of a gun, since +which he had been subject to continued bad health and occasional +aberration of mind. He also stated that on last Tuesday, being the same +day that Maxcy arrested William Trailor, he (the doctor) was from home +in the early part of the day, and on his return, about eleven o’clock, +found Fisher at his house in bed, and apparently very unwell; that he +asked him how he came from Springfield; that Fisher said he had come by +Peoria, and also told of several other places he had been at more in the +direction of Peoria, which showed that he at the time of speaking did +not know where he had been wandering about in a state of derangement. +He further stated that in about two hours he received a note from one of +Trailor’s friends, advising him of his arrest, and requesting him to go +on to Springfield as a witness, to testify as to the state of Fisher’s +health in former times; that he immediately set off, calling up two +of his neighbors as company, and, riding all evening and all night, +overtook Maxcy and William at Lewiston in Fulton County; that Maxcy +refusing to discharge Trailor upon his statement, his two neighbors +returned and he came on to Springfield. Some question being made as to +whether the doctor’s story was not a fabrication, several acquaintances +of his (among whom was the same postmaster who wrote Keys, as before +mentioned) were introduced as sort of compurgators, who swore that they +knew the doctor to be of good character for truth and veracity, and +generally of good character in every way. + +Here the testimony ended, and the Trailors were discharged, Arch. and +William expressing both in word and manner their entire confidence that +Fisher would be found alive at the doctor’s by Galloway, Mallory, and +Myers, who a day before had been despatched for that purpose; which +Henry still protested that no power on earth could ever show Fisher +alive. Thus stands this curious affair. When the doctor’s story +was first made public, it was amusing to scan and contemplate the +countenances and hear the remarks of those who had been actively in +search for the dead body: some looked quizzical, some melancholy, and +some furiously angry. Porter, who had been very active, swore he always +knew the man was not dead, and that he had not stirred an inch to hunt +for him; Langford, who had taken the lead in cutting down Hickox’s +mill-dam, and wanted to hang Hickox for objecting, looked most +awfully woebegone: he seemed the “victim of unrequited affection,” as +represented in the comic almanacs we used to laugh over; and Hart, the +little drayman that hauled Molly home once, said it was too damned bad +to have so much trouble, and no hanging after all. + +I commenced this letter on yesterday, since which I received yours of +the 13th. I stick to my promise to come to Louisville. Nothing new here +except what I have written. I have not seen ______ since my last trip, +and I am going out there as soon as I mail this letter. + +Yours forever, LINCOLN. + + + + +STATEMENT ABOUT HARRY WILTON. + + +June 25, 1841 + +It having been charged in some of the public prints that Harry Wilton, +late United States marshal for the district of Illinois, had used his +office for political effect, in the appointment of deputies for the +taking of the census for the year 1840, we, the undersigned, were called +upon by Mr. Wilton to examine the papers in his possession relative +to these appointments, and to ascertain therefrom the correctness or +incorrectness of such charge. We accompanied Mr. Wilton to a room, and +examined the matter as fully as we could with the means afforded us. The +only sources of information bearing on the subject which were submitted +to us were the letters, etc., recommending and opposing the various +appointments made, and Mr. Wilton’s verbal statements concerning the +same. From these letters, etc., it appears that in some instances +appointments were made in accordance with the recommendations of leading +Whigs, and in opposition to those of leading Democrats; among which +instances the appointments at Scott, Wayne, Madison, and Lawrence are +the strongest. According to Mr. Wilton’s statement of the seventy-six +appointments we examined, fifty-four were of Democrats, eleven of Whigs, +and eleven of unknown politics. + +The chief ground of complaint against Mr. Wilton, as we had understood +it, was because of his appointment of so many Democratic candidates for +the Legislature, thus giving them a decided advantage over their +Whig opponents; and consequently our attention was directed rather +particularly to that point. We found that there were many such +appointments, among which were those in Tazewell, McLean, Iroquois, +Coles, Menard, Wayne, Washington, Fayette, etc.; and we did not +learn that there was one instance in which a Whig candidate for the +Legislature had been appointed. There was no written evidence before +us showing us at what time those appointments were made; but Mr. Wilton +stated that they all with one exception were made before those +appointed became candidates for the Legislature, and the letters, etc., +recommending them all bear date before, and most of them long before, +those appointed were publicly announced candidates. + +We give the foregoing naked facts and draw no conclusions from them. + +BEND. S. EDWARDS, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MISS MARY SPEED—PRACTICAL SLAVERY + + +BLOOMINGTON, ILL., September 27, 1841. + +Miss Mary Speed, Louisville, Ky. + +MY FRIEND: By the way, a fine example was presented on board the boat +for contemplating the effect of condition upon human happiness. A +gentleman had purchased twelve negroes in different 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 fastened to the main chain by a shorter one, at a convenient +distance from the others, so that the negroes were strung together +precisely like so many fish upon a trotline. 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 ruthless +and unrelenting than any other; 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 offence for which he +had been sold was an overfondness 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 Springfield 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. + +Your sincere friend, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1842 + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON MARRIAGE + + +January 30, 1842. + +MY DEAR SPEED:—Feeling, as you know I do, the deepest solicitude for +the success of the enterprise you are engaged in, I adopt this as the +last method I can adopt to aid you, in case (which God forbid!) you +shall need any aid. I do not place what I am going to say on paper +because I can say it better that way than I could by word of mouth, but, +were I to say it orally before we part, most likely you would forget +it at the very time when it might do you some good. As I think it +reasonable that you will feel very badly some time between this and the +final consummation of your purpose, it is intended that you shall read +this just at such a time. Why I say it is reasonable that you will feel +very badly yet, is because of three special causes added to the general +one which I shall mention. + +The general cause is, that you are naturally of a nervous temperament; +and this I say from what I have seen of you personally, and what you +have told me concerning your mother at various times, and concerning +your brother William at the time his wife died. The first special cause +is your exposure to bad weather on your journey, which my experience +clearly proves to be very severe on defective nerves. The second is the +absence of all business and conversation of friends, which might divert +your mind, give it occasional rest from the intensity of thought which +will sometimes wear the sweetest idea threadbare and turn it to the +bitterness of death. The third is the rapid and near approach of that +crisis on which all your thoughts and feelings concentrate. + +If from all these causes you shall escape and go through triumphantly, +without another “twinge of the soul,” I shall be most happily but most +egregiously deceived. If, on the contrary, you shall, as I expect you +will at sometime, be agonized and distressed, let me, who have some +reason to speak with judgment on such a subject, beseech you to ascribe +it to the causes I have mentioned, and not to some false and ruinous +suggestion of the Devil. + +“But,” you will say, “do not your causes apply to every one engaged in +a like undertaking?” By no means. The particular causes, to a greater +or less extent, perhaps do apply in all cases; but the general +one,—nervous debility, which is the key and conductor of all +the particular ones, and without which they would be utterly +harmless,—though it does pertain to you, does not pertain to one in a +thousand. It is out of this that the painful difference between you and +the mass of the world springs. + +I know what the painful point with you is at all times when you are +unhappy; it is an apprehension that you do not love her as you should. +What nonsense! How came you to court her? Was it because you thought she +deserved it, and that you had given her reason to expect it? If it was +for that why did not the same reason make you court Ann Todd, and at +least twenty others of whom you can think, and to whom it would apply +with greater force than to her? Did you court her for her wealth? Why, +you know she had none. But you say you reasoned yourself into it. What +do you mean by that? Was it not that you found yourself unable to reason +yourself out of it? Did you not think, and partly form the purpose, of +courting her the first time you ever saw her or heard of her? What had +reason to do with it at that early stage? There was nothing at that time +for reason to work upon. Whether she was moral, amiable, sensible, +or even of good character, you did not, nor could then know, except, +perhaps, you might infer the last from the company you found her in. + +All you then did or could know of her was her personal appearance and +deportment; and these, if they impress at all, impress the heart, and +not the head. + +Say candidly, were not those heavenly black eyes the whole basis of all +your early reasoning on the subject? After you and I had once been at +the residence, did you not go and take me all the way to Lexington and +back, for no other purpose but to get to see her again, on our return +on that evening to take a trip for that express object? What earthly +consideration would you take to find her scouting and despising you, and +giving herself up to another? But of this you have no apprehension; and +therefore you cannot bring it home to your feelings. + +I shall be so anxious about you that I shall want you to write by every +mail. + +Your friend, LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 3, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:—Your letter of the 25th January came to hand to-day. You +well know that I do not feel my own sorrows much more keenly than I do +yours, when I know of them; and yet I assure you I was not much hurt by +what you wrote me of your excessively bad feeling at the time you wrote. +Not that I am less capable of sympathizing with you now than ever, not +that I am less your friend than ever, but because I hope and believe +that your present anxiety and distress about her health and her life +must and will forever banish those horrid doubts which I know you +sometimes felt as to the truth of your affection for her. If they can +once and forever be removed (and I almost feel a presentiment that the +Almighty has sent your present affliction expressly for that object), +surely nothing can come in their stead to fill their immeasurable +measure of misery. The death-scenes of those we love are surely painful +enough; but these we are prepared for and expect to see: they happen to +all, and all know they must happen. Painful as they are, they are not +an unlooked for sorrow. Should she, as you fear, be destined to an early +grave, it is indeed a great consolation to know that she is so well +prepared to meet it. Her religion, which you once disliked so much, +I will venture you now prize most highly. But I hope your melancholy +bodings as to her early death are not well founded. I even hope that +ere this reaches you she will have returned with improved and still +improving health, and that you will have met her, and forgotten the +sorrows of the past in the enjoyments of the present. I would say more +if I could, but it seems that I have said enough. It really appears +to me that you yourself ought to rejoice, and not sorrow, at this +indubitable evidence of your undying affection for her. Why, Speed, if +you did not love her although you might not wish her death, you would +most certainly be resigned to it. Perhaps this point is no longer +a question with you, and my pertinacious dwelling upon it is a rude +intrusion upon your feelings. If so, you must pardon me. You know the +hell I have suffered on that point, and how tender I am upon it. You +know I do not mean wrong. I have been quite clear of “hypo” since you +left, even better than I was along in the fall. I have seen ______ but +once. She seemed very cheerful, and so I said nothing to her about what +we spoke of. + +Old Uncle Billy Herndon is dead, and it is said this evening that Uncle +Ben Ferguson will not live. This, I believe, is all the news, and enough +at that unless it were better. Write me immediately on the receipt of +this. + +Your friend, as ever, LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON DEPRESSION + + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 13, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:—Yours of the 1st instant came to hand three or four days +ago. When this shall reach you, you will have been Fanny’s husband +several days. You know my desire to befriend you is everlasting; that +I will never cease while I know how to do anything. But you will always +hereafter be on ground that I have never occupied, and consequently, +if advice were needed, I might advise wrong. I do fondly hope, however, +that you will never again need any comfort from abroad. But should I be +mistaken in this, should excessive pleasure still be accompanied with +a painful counterpart at times, still let me urge you, as I have ever +done, to remember, in the depth and even agony of despondency, that very +shortly you are to feel well again. I am now fully convinced that you +love her as ardently as you are capable of loving. Your ever being happy +in her presence, and your intense anxiety about her health, if there +were nothing else, would place this beyond all dispute in my mind. I +incline to think it probable that your nerves will fail you occasionally +for a while; but once you get them firmly guarded now that trouble is +over forever. I think, if I were you, in case my mind were not exactly +right, I would avoid being idle. I would immediately engage in some +business, or go to making preparations for it, which would be the same +thing. If you went through the ceremony calmly, or even with sufficient +composure not to excite alarm in any present, you are safe beyond +question, and in two or three months, to say the most, will be the +happiest of men. + +I would desire you to give my particular respects to Fanny; but perhaps +you will not wish her to know you have received this, lest she should +desire to see it. Make her write me an answer to my last letter to her; +at any rate I would set great value upon a note or letter from her. +Write me whenever you have leisure. Yours forever, A. LINCOLN. P. S.—I +have been quite a man since you left. + + + + +TO G. B. SHELEDY. + + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Feb. 16, 1842. + +G. B. SHELEDY, ESQ.: + +Yours of the 10th is duly received. Judge Logan and myself are doing +business together now, and we are willing to attend to your cases as you +propose. As to the terms, we are willing to attend each case you prepare +and send us for $10 (when there shall be no opposition) to be sent in +advance, or you to know that it is safe. It takes $5.75 of cost to +start upon, that is, $1.75 to clerk, and $2 to each of two publishers +of papers. Judge Logan thinks it will take the balance of $20 to carry +a case through. This must be advanced from time to time as the services +are performed, as the officers will not act without. I do not know +whether you can be admitted an attorney of the Federal court in your +absence or not; nor is it material, as the business can be done in our +names. + +Thinking it may aid you a little, I send you one of our blank forms of +Petitions. It, you will see, is framed to be sworn to before the Federal +court clerk, and, in your cases, will have [to] be so far changed as to +be sworn to before the clerk of your circuit court; and his certificate +must be accompanied with his official seal. The schedules, too, must +be attended to. Be sure that they contain the creditors’ names, their +residences, the amounts due each, the debtors’ names, their residences, +and the amounts they owe, also all property and where located. + +Also be sure that the schedules are all signed by the applicants as well +as the Petition. Publication will have to be made here in one paper, +and in one nearest the residence of the applicant. Write us in each case +where the last advertisement is to be sent, whether to you or to what +paper. + +I believe I have now said everything that can be of any advantage. Your +friend as ever, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GEORGE E. PICKETT—ADVICE TO YOUTH + + +February 22, 1842. + +I never encourage deceit, and falsehood, especially if you have got a +bad memory, is the worst enemy a fellow can have. The fact is truth +is your truest friend, no matter what the circumstances are. +Notwithstanding this copy-book preamble, my boy, I am inclined to +suggest a little prudence on your part. You see I have a congenital +aversion to failure, and the sudden announcement to your Uncle Andrew of +the success of your “lamp rubbing” might possibly prevent your passing +the severe physical examination to which you will be subjected in order +to enter the Military Academy. You see I should like to have a perfect +soldier credited to dear old Illinois—no broken bones, scalp wounds, +etc. So I think it might be wise to hand this letter from me in to +your good uncle through his room-window after he has had a comfortable +dinner, and watch its effect from the top of the pigeon-house. + +I have just told the folks here in Springfield on this 111th anniversary +of the birth of him whose name, mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, +still mightiest in the cause of moral reformation, we mention in solemn +awe, in naked, deathless splendor, that the one victory we can ever call +complete will be that one which proclaims that there is not one slave or +one drunkard on the face of God’s green earth. Recruit for this victory. + +Now, boy, on your march, don’t you go and forget the old maxim that “one +drop of honey catches more flies than a half-gallon of gall.” Load your +musket with this maxim, and smoke it in your pipe. + + + + +ADDRESS BEFORE THE SPRINGFIELD WASHINGTONIAN TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, + + +FEBRUARY 22, 1842. + +Although the temperance cause has been in progress for near twenty +years, it is apparent to all that it is just now being crowned with a +degree of success hitherto unparalleled. + +The list of its friends is daily swelled by the additions of fifties, of +hundreds, and of thousands. The cause itself seems suddenly transformed +from a cold abstract theory to a living, breathing, active, and powerful +chieftain, going forth “conquering and to conquer.” The citadels of his +great adversary are daily being stormed and dismantled; his temple and +his altars, where the rites of his idolatrous worship have long been +performed, and where human sacrifices have long been wont to be made, +are daily desecrated and deserted. The triumph of the conqueror’s fame +is sounding from hill to hill, from sea to sea, and from land to land, +and calling millions to his standard at a blast. + +For this new and splendid success we heartily rejoice. That that success +is so much greater now than heretofore is doubtless owing to rational +causes; and if we would have it continue, we shall do well to inquire +what those causes are. + +The warfare heretofore waged against the demon intemperance has somehow +or other been erroneous. Either the champions engaged or the tactics +they adopted have not been the most proper. These champions for the most +part have been preachers, lawyers, and hired agents. Between these and +the mass of mankind there is a want of approachability, if the term +be admissible, partially, at least, fatal to their success. They are +supposed to have no sympathy of feeling or interest with those very +persons whom it is their object to convince and persuade. + +And again, it is so common and so easy to ascribe motives to men of +these classes other than those they profess to act upon. The preacher, +it is said, advocates temperance because he is a fanatic, and desires a +union of the Church and State; the lawyer from his pride and vanity of +hearing himself speak; and the hired agent for his salary. But when one +who has long been known as a victim of intemperance bursts the fetters +that have bound him, and appears before his neighbors “clothed and in +his right mind,” a redeemed specimen of long-lost humanity, and stands +up, with tears of joy trembling in his eyes, to tell of the miseries +once endured, now to be endured no more forever; of his once naked and +starving children, now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife long weighed +down with woe, weeping, and a broken heart, now restored to health, +happiness, and a renewed affection; and how easily it is all done, once +it is resolved to be done; how simple his language! there is a logic and +an eloquence in it that few with human feelings can resist. They cannot +say that he desires a union of Church and State, for he is not a church +member; they cannot say he is vain of hearing himself speak, for his +whole demeanor shows he would gladly avoid speaking at all; they cannot +say he speaks for pay, for he receives none, and asks for none. Nor can +his sincerity in any way be doubted, or his sympathy for those he would +persuade to imitate his example be denied. + +In my judgment, it is to the battles of this new class of champions +that our late success is greatly, perhaps chiefly, owing. But, had the +old-school champions themselves been of the most wise selecting, was +their system of tactics the most judicious? It seems to me it was +not. Too much denunciation against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers +was indulged in. This I think was both impolitic and unjust. It was +impolitic, because it is not much in the nature of man to be driven to +anything; still less to be driven about that which is exclusively his +own business; and least of all where such driving is to be submitted +to at the expense of pecuniary interest or burning appetite. When the +dram-seller and drinker were incessantly told not in accents of entreaty +and persuasion, diffidently addressed by erring man to an erring +brother, but in the thundering tones of anathema and denunciation with +which the lordly judge often groups together all the crimes of the +felon’s life, and thrusts them in his face just ere he passes sentence +of death upon him that they were the authors of all the vice and misery +and crime in the land; that they were the manufacturers and material of +all the thieves and robbers and murderers that infest the earth; that +their houses were the workshops of the devil; and that their persons +should be shunned by all the good and virtuous, as moral pestilences—I +say, when they were told all this, and in this way, it is not wonderful +that they were slow to acknowledge the truth of such denunciations, +and to join the ranks of their denouncers in a hue and cry against +themselves. + +To have expected them to do otherwise than they did to have expected +them not to meet denunciation with denunciation, crimination with +crimination, and anathema with anathema—was to expect a reversal of +human nature, which is God’s decree and can never be reversed. + +When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, +unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true +maxim that “a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.” +So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him +that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches +his heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his +reason; and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble +in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed that +cause really be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his +judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned +and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues +to his head and his heart; and though your cause be naked truth itself, +transformed to the heaviest lance, harder than steel, and sharper than +steel can be made, and though you throw it with more than herculean +force and precision, you shall be no more able to pierce him than to +penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, +and so must he be understood by those who would lead him, even to his +own best interests. + +On this point the Washingtonians greatly excel the temperance advocates +of former times. Those whom they desire to convince and persuade are +their old friends and companions. They know they are not demons, nor +even the worst of men; they know that generally they are kind, generous, +and charitable even beyond the example of their more staid and sober +neighbors. They are practical philanthropists; and they glow with +a generous and brotherly zeal that mere theorizers are incapable of +feeling. Benevolence and charity possess their hearts entirely; and out +of the abundance of their hearts their tongues give utterance; “love +through all their actions runs, and all their words are mild.” In this +spirit they speak and act, and in the same they are heard and regarded. +And when such is the temper of the advocate, and such of the audience, +no good cause can be unsuccessful. But I have said that denunciations +against dramsellers and dram-drinkers are unjust, as well as impolitic. +Let us see. I have not inquired at what period of time the use of +intoxicating liquors commenced; nor is it important to know. It is +sufficient that, to all of us who now inhabit the world, the practice of +drinking them is just as old as the world itself that is, we have seen +the one just as long as we have seen the other. When all such of us as +have now reached the years of maturity first opened our eyes upon +the stage of existence, we found intoxicating liquor recognized by +everybody, used by everybody, repudiated by nobody. It commonly entered +into the first draught of the infant and the last draught of the dying +man. From the sideboard of the parson down to the ragged pocket of the +houseless loafer, it was constantly found. Physicians proscribed it in +this, that, and the other disease; government provided it for soldiers +and sailors; and to have a rolling or raising, a husking or “hoedown,” +anywhere about without it was positively insufferable. So, too, it was +everywhere a respectable article of manufacture and merchandise. The +making of it was regarded as an honorable livelihood, and he who could +make most was the most enterprising and respectable. Large and small +manufactories of it were everywhere erected, in which all the earthly +goods of their owners were invested. Wagons drew it from town to town; +boats bore it from clime to clime, and the winds wafted it from nation +to nation; and merchants bought and sold it, by wholesale and retail, +with precisely the same feelings on the part of the seller, buyer, and +bystander as are felt at the selling and buying of ploughs, beef, bacon, +or any other of the real necessaries of life. Universal public opinion +not only tolerated but recognized and adopted its use. + +It is true that even then it was known and acknowledged that many were +greatly injured by it; but none seemed to think the injury arose from +the use of a bad thing, but from the abuse of a very good thing. The +victims of it were to be pitied and compassionated, just as are the +heirs of consumption and other hereditary diseases. Their failing was +treated as a misfortune, and not as a crime, or even as a disgrace. If, +then, what I have been saying is true, is it wonderful that some should +think and act now as all thought and acted twenty years ago? and is it +just to assail, condemn, or despise them for doing so? The universal +sense of mankind on any subject is an argument, or at least an +influence, not easily overcome. The success of the argument in favor +of the existence of an overruling Providence mainly depends upon that +sense; and men ought not in justice to be denounced for yielding to it +in any case, or giving it up slowly, especially when they are backed by +interest, fixed habits, or burning appetites. + +Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reformers fell, was +the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly incorrigible, and +therefore must be turned adrift and damned without remedy in order that +the grace of temperance might abound, to the temperate then, and to all +mankind some hundreds of years thereafter. There is in this some +thing so repugnant to humanity, so uncharitable, so cold-blooded and +feelingless, that it, never did nor ever can enlist the enthusiasm of a +popular cause. We could not love the man who taught it we could not hear +him with patience. The heart could not throw open its portals to it, +the generous man could not adopt it—it could not mix with his blood. +It looked so fiendishly selfish, so like throwing fathers and brothers +overboard to lighten the boat for our security, that the noble-minded +shrank from the manifest meanness of the thing. And besides this, the +benefits of a reformation to be effected by such a system were too +remote in point of time to warmly engage many in its behalf. Few can +be induced to labor exclusively for posterity, and none will do it +enthusiastically. —Posterity has done nothing for us; and, theorize on +it as we may, practically we shall do very little for it, unless we are +made to think we are at the same time doing something for ourselves. + +What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit to ask or to expect +a whole community to rise up and labor for the temporal happiness of +others, after themselves shall be consigned to the dust, a majority +of which community take no pains whatever to secure their own eternal +welfare at no more distant day! Great distance in either time or +space has wonderful power to lull and render quiescent the human mind. +Pleasures to be enjoyed, or pains to be endured, after we shall be dead +and gone are but little regarded even in our own cases, and much less +in the cases of others. Still, in addition to this there is something so +ludicrous in promises of good or threats of evil a great way off as to +render the whole subject with which they are connected easily turned +into ridicule. “Better lay down that spade you are stealing, Paddy; if +you don’t you’ll pay for it at the day of judgment.” “Be the powers, if +ye’ll credit me so long I’ll take another jist.” + +By the Washingtonians this system of consigning the habitual drunkard +to hopeless ruin is repudiated. They adopt a more enlarged philanthropy; +they go for present as well as future good. They labor for all now +living, as well as hereafter to live. They teach hope to all-despair to +none. As applying to their cause, they deny the doctrine of +unpardonable sin; as in Christianity it is taught, so in this they +teach—“While—While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may +return.” And, what is a matter of more profound congratulation, they, by +experiment upon experiment and example upon example, prove the maxim +to be no less true in the one case than in the other. On every hand we +behold those who but yesterday were the chief of sinners, now the chief +apostles of the cause. Drunken devils are cast out by ones, by sevens, +by legions; and their unfortunate victims, like the poor possessed who +were redeemed from their long and lonely wanderings in the tombs, are +publishing to the ends of the earth how great things have been done for +them. + +To these new champions and this new system of tactics our late +success is mainly owing, and to them we must mainly look for the final +consummation. The ball is now rolling gloriously on, and none are so +able as they to increase its speed and its bulk, to add to its momentum +and its magnitude—even though unlearned in letters, for this task none +are so well educated. To fit them for this work they have been taught in +the true school. They have been in that gulf from which they would teach +others the means of escape. They have passed that prison wall which +others have long declared impassable; and who that has not shall dare to +weigh opinions with them as to the mode of passing? + +But if it be true, as I have insisted, that those who have suffered by +intemperance personally, and have reformed, are the most powerful and +efficient instruments to push the reformation to ultimate success, it +does not follow that those who have not suffered have no part left them +to perform. Whether or not the world would be vastly benefited by a +total and final banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks seems +to me not now an open question. Three fourths of mankind confess the +affirmative with their tongues, and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge +it in their hearts. + +Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing what good the good of the +whole demands? Shall he who cannot do much be for that reason excused +if he do nothing? “But,” says one, “what good can I do by signing the +pledge? I never drank, even without signing.” This question has already +been asked and answered more than a million of times. Let it be answered +once more. For the man suddenly or in any other way to break off from +the use of drams, who has indulged in them for a long course of years +and until his appetite for them has grown ten or a hundredfold stronger +and more craving than any natural appetite can be, requires a most +powerful moral effort. In such an undertaking he needs every moral +support and influence that can possibly be brought to his aid and thrown +around him. And not only so, but every moral prop should be taken from +whatever argument might rise in his mind to lure him to his backsliding. +When he casts his eyes around him, he should be able to see all that he +respects, all that he admires, all that he loves, kindly and anxiously +pointing him onward, and none beckoning him back to his former miserable +“wallowing in the mire.” + +But it is said by some that men will think and act for themselves; that +none will disuse spirits or anything else because his neighbors do; and +that moral influence is not that powerful engine contended for. Let us +examine this. Let me ask the man who could maintain this position most +stiffly, what compensation he will accept to go to church some Sunday +and sit during the sermon with his wife’s bonnet upon his head? Not a +trifle, I’ll venture. And why not? There would be nothing irreligious +in it, nothing immoral, nothing uncomfortable—then why not? Is it not +because there would be something egregiously unfashionable in it? Then +it is the influence of fashion; and what is the influence of fashion +but the influence that other people’s actions have on our actions—the +strong inclination each of us feels to do as we see all our neighbors +do? Nor is the influence of fashion confined to any particular thing or +class of things; it is just as strong on one subject as another. Let us +make it as unfashionable to withhold our names from the temperance cause +as for husbands to wear their wives’ bonnets to church, and instances +will be just as rare in the one case as the other. + +“But,” say some, “we are no drunkards, and we shall not acknowledge +ourselves such by joining a reformed drunkard’s society, whatever our +influence might be.” Surely no Christian will adhere to this objection. +If they believe as they profess, that Omnipotence condescended to take +on himself the form of sinful man, and as such to die an ignominious +death for their sakes, surely they will not refuse submission to the +infinitely lesser condescension, for the temporal, and perhaps +eternal, salvation of a large, erring, and unfortunate class of their +fellow-creatures. Nor is the condescension very great. In my judgment +such of us as have never fallen victims have been spared more by the +absence of appetite than from any mental or moral superiority over those +who have. Indeed, I believe if we take habitual drunkards as a class, +their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with +those of any other class. There seems ever to have been a proneness +in the brilliant and warm-blooded to fall into this vice—the demon of +intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius +and of generosity. What one of us but can call to mind some relative, +more promising in youth than all his fellows, who has fallen a sacrifice +to his rapacity? He ever seems to have gone forth like the Egyptian +angel of death, commissioned to slay, if not the first, the fairest born +of every family. Shall he now be arrested in his desolating career? In +that arrest all can give aid that will; and who shall be excused that +can and will not? Far around as human breath has ever blown he keeps our +fathers, our brothers, our sons, and our friends prostrate in the chains +of moral death. To all the living everywhere we cry, “Come sound the +moral trump, that these may rise and stand up an exceeding great army.” +“Come from the four winds, O breath! and breathe upon these slain +that they may live.” If the relative grandeur of revolutions shall be +estimated by the great amount of human misery they alleviate, and the +small amount they inflict, then indeed will this be the grandest the +world shall ever have seen. + +Of our political revolution of ‘76 we are all justly proud. It has given +us a degree of political freedom far exceeding that of any other nation +of the earth. In it the world has found a solution of the long-mooted +problem as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the +germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the +universal liberty of mankind. But, with all these glorious results, +past, present, and to come, it had its evils too. It breathed forth +famine, swam in blood, and rode in fire; and long, long after, the +orphan’s cry and the widow’s wail continued to break the sad silence +that ensued. These were the price, the inevitable price, paid for the +blessings it bought. + +Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find a stronger +bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed; in +it, more of want supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow assuaged. +By it no Orphans starving, no widows weeping. By it none wounded in +feeling, none injured in interest; even the drammaker and dram-seller +will have glided into other occupations so gradually as never to +have felt the change, and will stand ready to join all others in the +universal song of gladness. And what a noble ally this to the cause of +political freedom, with such an aid its march cannot fail to be on +and on, till every son of earth shall drink in rich fruition the +sorrow-quenching draughts of perfect liberty. Happy day when-all +appetites controlled, all poisons subdued, all matter subjected-mind, +all-conquering mind, shall live and move, the monarch of the world. +Glorious consummation! Hail, fall of fury! Reign of reason, all hail! + +And when the victory shall be complete, when there shall be neither +a slave nor a drunkard on the earth, how proud the title of that land +which may truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both +those revolutions that shall have ended in that victory. How nobly +distinguished that people who shall have planted and nurtured to +maturity both the political and moral freedom of their species. + +This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of +Washington; we are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the +mightiest name of earth long since mightiest in the cause of civil +liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy +is expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the +name of Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn +awe pronounce the name, and in its naked deathless splendor leave it +shining on. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + + +SPRINGFIELD, February 25, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:—Yours of the 16th instant, announcing that Miss Fanny and +you are “no more twain, but one flesh,” reached me this morning. I +have no way of telling you how much happiness I wish you both, though I +believe you both can conceive it. I feel somewhat jealous of both of you +now: you will be so exclusively concerned for one another, that I shall +be forgotten entirely. My acquaintance with Miss Fanny (I call her this, +lest you should think I am speaking of your mother) was too short for me +to reasonably hope to long be remembered by her; and still I am sure I +shall not forget her soon. Try if you cannot remind her of that debt she +owes me—and be sure you do not interfere to prevent her paying it. + +I regret to learn that you have resolved to not return to Illinois. +I shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably things seem to be +arranged in this world! If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and +if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the +loss. I did hope she and you would make your home here; but I own I have +no right to insist. You owe obligations to her ten thousand times +more sacred than you can owe to others, and in that light let them be +respected and observed. It is natural that she should desire to remain +with her relatives and friends. As to friends, however, she could not +need them anywhere: she would have them in abundance here. + +Give my kind remembrance to Mr. Williamson and his family, particularly +Miss Elizabeth; also to your mother, brother, and sisters. Ask little +Eliza Davis if she will ride to town with me if I come there again. And +finally, give Fanny a double reciprocation of all the love she sent me. +Write me often, and believe me + +Yours forever, LINCOLN. + +P. S. Poor Easthouse is gone at last. He died awhile before day this +morning. They say he was very loath to die.... + +L. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON MARRIAGE CONCERNS + + +SPRINGFIELD, February 25,1842. + +DEAR SPEED:—I received yours of the 12th written the day you went down +to William’s place, some days since, but delayed answering it till I +should receive the promised one of the 16th, which came last night. +I opened the letter with intense anxiety and trepidation; so much so, +that, although it turned out better than I expected, I have hardly yet, +at a distance of ten hours, become calm. + +I tell you, Speed, our forebodings (for which you and I are peculiar) +are all the worst sort of nonsense. I fancied, from the time I received +your letter of Saturday, that the one of Wednesday was never to come, +and yet it did come, and what is more, it is perfectly clear, both from +its tone and handwriting, that you were much happier, or, if you think +the term preferable, less miserable, when you wrote it than when you +wrote the last one before. You had so obviously improved at the +very time I so much fancied you would have grown worse. You say that +something indescribably horrible and alarming still haunts you. You will +not say that three months from now, I will venture. When your nerves +once get steady now, the whole trouble will be over forever. Nor should +you become impatient at their being even very slow in becoming steady. +Again you say, you much fear that that Elysium of which you have dreamed +so much is never to be realized. Well, if it shall not, I dare swear it +will not be the fault of her who is now your wife. I now have no doubt +that it is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of +Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly can realize. Far short +of your dreams as you may be, no woman could do more to realize them +than that same black-eyed Fanny. If you could but contemplate her +through my imagination, it would appear ridiculous to you that any one +should for a moment think of being unhappy with her. My old father +used to have a saying that “If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the +tighter”; and it occurs to me that if the bargain you have just closed +can possibly be called a bad one, it is certainly the most pleasant one +for applying that maxim to which my fancy can by any effort picture. + +I write another letter, enclosing this, which you can show her, if she +desires it. I do this because she would think strangely, perhaps, should +you tell her that you received no letters from me, or, telling her you +do, refuse to let her see them. I close this, entertaining the confident +hope that every successive letter I shall have from you (which I here +pray may not be few, nor far between) may show you possessing a more +steady hand and cheerful heart than the last preceding it. As ever, your +friend, LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + + +SPRINGFIELD, March 27, 1842 + +DEAR SPEED:—Yours of the 10th instant was received three or four days +since. You know I am sincere when I tell you the pleasure its contents +gave me was, and is, inexpressible. As to your farm matter, I have +no sympathy with you. I have no farm, nor ever expect to have, and +consequently have not studied the subject enough to be much interested +with it. I can only say that I am glad you are satisfied and pleased +with it. But on that other subject, to me of the most intense interest +whether in joy or sorrow, I never had the power to withhold my sympathy +from you. It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you +say you are “far happier than you ever expected to be.” That much I know +is enough. I know you too well to suppose your expectations were not, +at least, sometimes extravagant, and if the reality exceeds them all, I +say, Enough, dear Lord. I am not going beyond the truth when I tell you +that the short space it took me to read your last letter gave me more +pleasure than the total sum of all I have enjoyed since the fatal 1st +of January, 1841. Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely +happy, but for the never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy +whom I have contributed to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot +but reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while she is otherwise. +She accompanied a large party on the railroad cars to Jacksonville +last Monday, and on her return spoke, so that I heard of it, of having +enjoyed the trip exceedingly. God be praised for that. + +You know with what sleepless vigilance I have watched you ever since the +commencement of your affair; and although I am almost confident it is +useless, I cannot forbear once more to say that I think it is even yet +possible for your spirits to flag down and leave you miserable. If they +should, don’t fail to remember that they cannot long remain so. One +thing I can tell you which I know you will be glad to hear, and that is +that I have seen—and scrutinized her feelings as well as I could, and +am fully convinced she is far happier now than she has been for the last +fifteen months past. + +You will see by the last Sangamon Journal, that I made a temperance +speech on the 22d of February, which I claim that Fanny and you shall +read as an act of charity to me; for I cannot learn that anybody else +has read it, or is likely to. Fortunately it is not very long, and I +shall deem it a sufficient compliance with my request if one of you +listens while the other reads it. + +As to your Lockridge matter, it is only necessary to say that there +has been no court since you left, and that the next commences to-morrow +morning, during which I suppose we cannot fail to get a judgment. + +I wish you would learn of Everett what he would take, over and above a +discharge for all the trouble we have been at, to take his business out +of our hands and give it to somebody else. It is impossible to collect +money on that or any other claim here now; and although you know I am +not a very petulant man, I declare I am almost out of patience with Mr. +Everett’s importunity. It seems like he not only writes all the letters +he can himself, but gets everybody else in Louisville and vicinity to +be constantly writing to us about his claim. I have always said that +Mr. Everett is a very clever fellow, and I am very sorry he cannot be +obliged; but it does seem to me he ought to know we are interested to +collect his claim, and therefore would do it if we could. + +I am neither joking nor in a pet when I say we would thank him to +transfer his business to some other, without any compensation for what +we have done, provided he will see the court cost paid, for which we are +security. + +The sweet violet you inclosed came safely to hand, but it was so dry, +and mashed so flat, that it crumbled to dust at the first attempt +to handle it. The juice that mashed out of it stained a place in the +letter, which I mean to preserve and cherish for the sake of her who +procured it to be sent. My renewed good wishes to her in particular, and +generally to all such of your relations who know me. + +As ever, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, July 4, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:—Yours of the 16th June was received only a day or two +since. It was not mailed at Louisville till the 25th. You speak of the +great time that has elapsed since I wrote you. Let me explain that. Your +letter reached here a day or two after I started on the circuit. I +was gone five or six weeks, so that I got the letters only a few weeks +before Butler started to your country. I thought it scarcely worth while +to write you the news which he could and would tell you more in detail. +On his return he told me you would write me soon, and so I waited for +your letter. As to my having been displeased with your advice, surely +you know better than that. I know you do, and therefore will not labor +to convince you. True, that subject is painful to me; but it is not your +silence, or the silence of all the world, that can make me forget it. I +acknowledge the correctness of your advice too; but before I resolve +to do the one thing or the other, I must gain my confidence in my own +ability to keep my resolves when they are made. In that ability you know +I once prided myself as the only or chief gem of my character; that gem +I lost—how and where you know too well. I have not yet regained it; and +until I do, I cannot trust myself in any matter of much importance. I +believe now that had you understood my case at the time as well as I +understand yours afterward, by the aid you would have given me I should +have sailed through clear, but that does not now afford me sufficient +confidence to begin that or the like of that again. + +You make a kind acknowledgment of your obligations to me for your +present happiness. I am pleased with that acknowledgment. But a thousand +times more am I pleased to know that you enjoy a degree of happiness +worthy of an acknowledgment. The truth is, I am not sure that there was +any merit with me in the part I took in your difficulty; I was drawn to +it by a fate. If I would I could not have done less than I did. I always +was superstitious; I believe God made me one of the instruments of +bringing your Fanny and you together, which union I have no doubt He had +fore-ordained. Whatever He designs He will do for me yet. “Stand still, +and see the salvation of the Lord” is my text just now. If, as you say, +you have told Fanny all, I should have no objection to her seeing this +letter, but for its reference to our friend here: let her seeing it +depend upon whether she has ever known anything of my affairs; and if +she has not, do not let her. + +I do not think I can come to Kentucky this season. I am so poor and make +so little headway in the world, that I drop back in a month of idleness +as much as I gain in a year’s sowing. I should like to visit you again. +I should like to see that “sis” of yours that was absent when I was +there, though I suppose she would run away again if she were to hear I +was coming. + +My respects and esteem to all your friends there, and, by your +permission, my love to your Fanny. + +Ever yours, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +A LETTER FROM THE LOST TOWNSHIPS + + +Article written by Lincoln for the Sangamon Journal in ridicule of James +Shields, who, as State Auditor, had declined to receive State Bank notes +in payment of taxes. The above letter purported to come from a poor +widow who, though supplied with State Bank paper, could not obtain a +receipt for her tax bill. This, and another subsequent letter by Mary +Todd, brought about the “Lincoln-Shields Duel.” + + + + +LOST TOWNSHIPS + + +August 27, 1842. + +DEAR Mr. PRINTER: + +I see you printed that long letter I sent you a spell ago. I ’m quite +encouraged by it, and can’t keep from writing again. I think the +printing of my letters will be a good thing all round—it will give +me the benefit of being known by the world, and give the world the +advantage of knowing what’s going on in the Lost Townships, and give +your paper respectability besides. So here comes another. Yesterday +afternoon I hurried through cleaning up the dinner dishes and stepped +over to neighbor S——— to see if his wife Peggy was as well as mout be +expected, and hear what they called the baby. Well, when I got there and +just turned round the corner of his log cabin, there he was, setting on +the doorstep reading a newspaper. “How are you, Jeff?” says I. He sorter +started when he heard me, for he hadn’t seen me before. “Why,” says he, +“I ’m mad as the devil, Aunt ’Becca!” “What about?” says I; “ain’t +its hair the right color? None of that nonsense, Jeff; there ain’t an +honester woman in the Lost Townships than....”—“Than who?” says he; +“what the mischief are you about?” I began to see I was running the +wrong trail, and so says I, “Oh! nothing: I guess I was mistaken a +little, that’s all. But what is it you ’re mad about?” + +“Why,” says he, “I’ve been tugging ever since harvest, getting out wheat +and hauling it to the river to raise State Bank paper enough to pay my +tax this year and a little school debt I owe; and now, just as I ’ve got +it, here I open this infernal Extra Register, expecting to find it full +of ‘Glorious Democratic Victories’ and ‘High Comb’d Cocks,’ when, lo +and behold! I find a set of fellows, calling themselves officers of the +State, have forbidden the tax collectors, and school commissioners to +receive State paper at all; and so here it is dead on my hands. I don’t +now believe all the plunder I’ve got will fetch ready cash enough to pay +my taxes and that school debt.” + +I was a good deal thunderstruck myself; for that was the first I had +heard of the proclamation, and my old man was pretty much in the same +fix with Jeff. We both stood a moment staring at one another without +knowing what to say. At last says I, “Mr. S——— let me look at that +paper.” He handed it to me, when I read the proclamation over. + +“There now,” says he, “did you ever see such a piece of impudence and +imposition as that?” I saw Jeff was in a good tune for saying some +ill-natured things, and so I tho’t I would just argue a little on the +contrary side, and make him rant a spell if I could. “Why,” says I, +looking as dignified and thoughtful as I could, “it seems pretty tough, +to be sure, to have to raise silver where there’s none to be raised; but +then, you see, ‘there will be danger of loss’ if it ain’t done.” + +“Loss! damnation!” says he. “I defy Daniel Webster, I defy King Solomon, +I defy the world—I defy—I defy—yes, I defy even you, Aunt ’Becca, +to show how the people can lose anything by paying their taxes in State +paper.” + +“Well,” says I, “you see what the officers of State say about it, and +they are a desarnin’ set of men. But,” says I, “I guess you ’re mistaken +about what the proclamation says. It don’t say the people will lose +anything by the paper money being taken for taxes. It only says ‘there +will be danger of loss’; and though it is tolerable plain that the +people can’t lose by paying their taxes in something they can get easier +than silver, instead of having to pay silver; and though it’s just as +plain that the State can’t lose by taking State Bank paper, however low +it may be, while she owes the bank more than the whole revenue, and +can pay that paper over on her debt, dollar for dollar;—still there is +danger of loss to the ‘officers of State’; and you know, Jeff, we can’t +get along without officers of State.” + +“Damn officers of State!” says he; “that’s what Whigs are always +hurrahing for.” + +“Now, don’t swear so, Jeff,” says I, “you know I belong to the meetin’, +and swearin’ hurts my feelings.” + +“Beg pardon, Aunt ’Becca,” says he; “but I do say it’s enough to make +Dr. Goddard swear, to have tax to pay in silver, for nothing only +that Ford may get his two thousand a year, and Shields his twenty-four +hundred a year, and Carpenter his sixteen hundred a year, and all +without ‘danger of loss’ by taking it in State paper. Yes, yes: it’s +plain enough now what these officers of State mean by ‘danger of loss.’ +Wash, I s’pose, actually lost fifteen hundred dollars out of the three +thousand that two of these ‘officers of State’ let him steal from the +treasury, by being compelled to take it in State paper. Wonder if we +don’t have a proclamation before long, commanding us to make up this +loss to Wash in silver.” + +And so he went on till his breath run out, and he had to stop. I +couldn’t think of anything to say just then, and so I begun to look over +the paper again. “Ay! here’s another proclamation, or something like +it.” + +“Another?” says Jeff; “and whose egg is it, pray?” + +I looked to the bottom of it, and read aloud, “Your obedient servant, +James Shields, Auditor.” + +“Aha!” says Jeff, “one of them same three fellows again. Well read it, +and let’s hear what of it.” + +I read on till I came to where it says, “The object of this measure is +to suspend the collection of the revenue for the current year.” + +“Now stop, now stop!” says he; “that’s a lie a’ready, and I don’t want +to hear of it.” + +“Oh, maybe not,” says I. + +“I say it-is-a-lie. Suspend the collection, indeed! Will the collectors, +that have taken their oaths to make the collection, dare to end it? +Is there anything in law requiring them to perjure themselves at the +bidding of James Shields? + +“Will the greedy gullet of the penitentiary be satisfied with swallowing +him instead of all of them, if they should venture to obey him? And +would he not discover some ‘danger of loss,’ and be off about the time +it came to taking their places? + +“And suppose the people attempt to suspend, by refusing to pay; what +then? The collectors would just jerk up their horses and cows, and the +like, and sell them to the highest bidder for silver in hand, without +valuation or redemption. Why, Shields didn’t believe that story himself; +it was never meant for the truth. If it was true, why was it not writ +till five days after the proclamation? Why did n’t Carlin and Carpenter +sign it as well as Shields? Answer me that, Aunt ’Becca. I say it’s a +lie, and not a well told one at that. It grins out like a copper dollar. +Shields is a fool as well as a liar. With him truth is out of the +question; and as for getting a good, bright, passable lie out of him, +you might as well try to strike fire from a cake of tallow. I stick to +it, it’s all an infernal Whig lie!” + +“A Whig lie! Highty tighty!” + +“Yes, a Whig lie; and it’s just like everything the cursed British Whigs +do. First they’ll do some divilment, and then they’ll tell a lie to hide +it. And they don’t care how plain a lie it is; they think they can cram +any sort of a one down the throats of the ignorant Locofocos, as they +call the Democrats.” + +“Why, Jeff, you ’re crazy: you don’t mean to say Shields is a Whig!” + +“Yes, I do.” + +“Why, look here! the proclamation is in your own Democratic paper, as +you call it.” + +“I know it; and what of that? They only printed it to let us Democrats +see the deviltry the Whigs are at.” + +“Well, but Shields is the auditor of this Loco—I mean this Democratic +State.” + +“So he is, and Tyler appointed him to office.” + +“Tyler appointed him?” + +“Yes (if you must chaw it over), Tyler appointed him; or, if it was n’t +him, it was old Granny Harrison, and that’s all one. I tell you, Aunt +’Becca, there’s no mistake about his being a Whig. Why, his very looks +shows it; everything about him shows it: if I was deaf and blind, I +could tell him by the smell. I seed him when I was down in Springfield +last winter. They had a sort of a gatherin’ there one night among the +grandees, they called a fair. All the gals about town was there, and all +the handsome widows and married women, finickin’ about trying to look +like gals, tied as tight in the middle, and puffed out at both ends, +like bundles of fodder that had n’t been stacked yet, but wanted +stackin’ pretty bad. And then they had tables all around the house +kivered over with [———] caps and pincushions and ten thousand such +little knick-knacks, tryin’ to sell ’em to the fellows that were bowin’, +and scrapin’ and kungeerin’ about ’em. They would n’t let no Democrats +in, for fear they’d disgust the ladies, or scare the little gals, or +dirty the floor. I looked in at the window, and there was this same +fellow Shields floatin’ about on the air, without heft or earthly +substances, just like a lock of cat fur where cats had been fighting. + +“He was paying his money to this one, and that one, and t’ other one, +and sufferin’ great loss because it was n’t silver instead of State +paper; and the sweet distress he seemed to be in,—his very features, +in the ecstatic agony of his soul, spoke audibly and distinctly, ‘Dear +girls, it is distressing, but I cannot marry you all. Too well I know +how much you suffer; but do, do remember, it is not my fault that I am +so handsome and so interesting.’ + +“As this last was expressed by a most exquisite contortion of his face, +he seized hold of one of their hands, and squeezed, and held on to it +about a quarter of an hour. ‘Oh, my good fellow!’ says I to myself, ‘if +that was one of our Democratic gals in the Lost Townships, the way you +’d get a brass pin let into you would be about up to the head.’ He a +Democrat! Fiddlesticks! I tell you, Aunt ’Becca, he’s a Whig, and no +mistake; nobody but a Whig could make such a conceity dunce of himself.” + +“Well,” says I, “maybe he is; but, if he is, I ’m mistaken the worst +sort. Maybe so, maybe so; but, if I am, I’ll suffer by it; I’ll be a +Democrat if it turns out that Shields is a Whig, considerin’ you shall +be a Whig if he turns out a Democrat.” + +“A bargain, by jingoes!” says he; “but how will we find out?” + +“Why,” says I, “we’ll just write and ax the printer.” + +“Agreed again!” says he; “and by thunder! if it does turn out that +Shields is a Democrat, I never will——” + +“Jefferson! Jefferson!” + +“What do you want, Peggy?” + +“Do get through your everlasting clatter some time, and bring me a gourd +of water; the child’s been crying for a drink this livelong hour.” + +“Let it die, then; it may as well die for water as to be taxed to death +to fatten officers of State.” + +Jeff run off to get the water, though, just like he hadn’t been saying +anything spiteful, for he’s a raal good-hearted fellow, after all, once +you get at the foundation of him. + +I walked into the house, and, “Why, Peggy,” says I, “I declare we like +to forgot you altogether.” + +“Oh, yes,” says she, “when a body can’t help themselves, everybody soon +forgets ’em; but, thank God! by day after to-morrow I shall be well +enough to milk the cows, and pen the calves, and wring the contrary +ones’ tails for ’em, and no thanks to nobody.” + +“Good evening, Peggy,” says I, and so I sloped, for I seed she was mad +at me for making Jeff neglect her so long. + +And now, Mr. Printer, will you be sure to let us know in your next paper +whether this Shields is a Whig or a Democrat? I don’t care about it for +myself, for I know well enough how it is already; but I want to convince +Jeff. It may do some good to let him, and others like him, know who +and what these officers of State are. It may help to send the present +hypocritical set to where they belong, and to fill the places they now +disgrace with men who will do more work for less pay, and take fewer +airs while they are doing it. It ain’t sensible to think that the same +men who get us in trouble will change their course; and yet it’s pretty +plain if some change for the better is not made, it’s not long that +either Peggy or I or any of us will have a cow left to milk, or a calf’s +tail to wring. + +Yours truly, + +REBECCA ———. + + + + +INVITATION TO HENRY CLAY. + + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug 29, 1842. + +HON. HENRY CLAY, Lexington, Ky. + +DEAR SIR:—We hear you are to visit Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 5th Of +October next. If our information in this is correct we hope you will +not deny us the pleasure of seeing you in our State. We are aware of the +toil necessarily incident to a journey by one circumstanced as you are; +but once you have embarked, as you have already determined to do, the +toil would not be greatly augmented by extending the journey to our +capital. The season of the year will be most favorable for good roads, +and pleasant weather; and although we cannot but believe you would be +highly gratified with such a visit to the prairie-land, the pleasure it +would give us and thousands such as we is beyond all question. You have +never visited Illinois, or at least this portion of it; and should you +now yield to our request, we promise you such a reception as shall be +worthy of the man on whom are now turned the fondest hopes of a great +and suffering nation. + +Please inform us at the earliest convenience whether we may expect you. + +Very respectfully your obedient servants, + + A. G. HENRY, A. T. BLEDSOE, + C. BIRCHALL, A. LINCOLN, + G. M. CABANNISS, ROB’T IRWIN, + P. A. SAUNDERS, J. M. ALLEN, + F. N. FRANCIS. + Executive Committee “Clay Club.” + +(Clay’s answer, September 6, 1842, declines with thanks.) + + + + +CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE LINCOLN-SHIELDS DUEL. + + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + +ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:—I regret that my absence on public business +compelled me to postpone a matter of private consideration a little +longer than I could have desired. It will only be necessary, however, to +account for it by informing you that I have been to Quincy on business +that would not admit of delay. I will now state briefly the reasons of +my troubling you with this communication, the disagreeable nature of +which I regret, as I had hoped to avoid any difficulty with any one in +Springfield while residing there, by endeavoring to conduct myself in +such a way amongst both my political friends and opponents as to escape +the necessity of any. Whilst thus abstaining from giving provocation, +I have become the object of slander, vituperation, and personal abuse, +which were I capable of submitting to, I would prove myself worthy of +the whole of it. + +In two or three of the last numbers of the Sangamon Journal, articles +of the most personal nature and calculated to degrade me have made their +appearance. On inquiring, I was informed by the editor of that paper, +through the medium of my friend General Whitesides, that you are the +author of those articles. This information satisfies me that I have +become by some means or other the object of your secret hostility. I +will not take the trouble of inquiring into the reason of all this; +but I will take the liberty of requiring a full, positive, and +absolute retraction of all offensive allusions used by you in these +communications, in relation to my private character and standing as a +man, as an apology for the insults conveyed in them. + +This may prevent consequences which no one will regret more than myself. + +Your obedient servant, JAS. SHIELDS. + + + + +TO J. SHIELDS. + + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842 + +JAS. SHIELDS, ESQ.:—Your note of to-day was handed me by General +Whitesides. In that note you say you have been informed, through the +medium of the editor of the Journal, that I am the author of certain +articles in that paper which you deem personally abusive of you; and +without stopping to inquire whether I really am the author, or to point +out what is offensive in them, you demand an unqualified retraction of +all that is offensive, and then proceed to hint at consequences. + +Now, sir, there is in this so much assumption of facts and so much of +menace as to consequences, that I cannot submit to answer that note any +further than I have, and to add that the consequences to which I suppose +you allude would be matter of as great regret to me as it possibly could +to you. + +Respectfully, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO A. LINCOLN FROM JAS. SHIELDS + + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + +ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:—In reply to my note of this date, you intimate +that I assume facts and menace consequences, and that you cannot submit +to answer it further. As now, sir, you desire it, I will be a little +more particular. The editor of the Sangamon Journal gave me to +understand that you are the author of an article which appeared, I +think, in that paper of the 2d September instant, headed “The Lost +Townships,” and signed Rebecca or ’Becca. I would therefore take the +liberty of asking whether you are the author of said article, or any +other over the same signature which has appeared in any of the late +numbers of that paper. If so, I repeat my request of an absolute +retraction of all offensive allusions contained therein in relation to +my private character and standing. If you are not the author of any of +these articles, your denial will be sufficient. I will say further, it +is not my intention to menace, but to do myself justice. + +Your obedient servant, JAS. SHIELDS. + + + + +MEMORANDUM OF INSTRUCTIONS TO E. H. MERRYMAN, + + +Lincoln’s Second, + +September 19, 1842. + +In case Whitesides shall signify a wish to adjust this affair without +further difficulty, let him know that if the present papers be +withdrawn, and a note from Mr. Shields asking to know if I am the author +of the articles of which he complains, and asking that I shall make him +gentlemanly satisfaction if I am the author, and this without menace, or +dictation as to what that satisfaction shall be, a pledge is made that +the following answer shall be given: + +“I did write the ‘Lost Townships’ letter which appeared in the Journal +of the 2d instant, but had no participation in any form in any other +article alluding to you. I wrote that wholly for political effect—I had +no intention of injuring your personal or private character or standing +as a man or a gentleman; and I did not then think, and do not now think, +that that article could produce or has produced that effect against you; +and had I anticipated such an effect I would have forborne to write it. +And I will add that your conduct toward me, so far as I know, had always +been gentlemanly; and that I had no personal pique against you, and no +cause for any.” + +If this should be done, I leave it with you to arrange what shall +and what shall not be published. If nothing like this is done, the +preliminaries of the fight are to be— + +First. Weapons: Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, precisely +equal in all respects, and such as now used by the cavalry company at +Jacksonville. + +Second. Position: A plank ten feet long, and from nine to twelve inches +broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the ground, as the line between +us, which neither is to pass his foot over upon forfeit of his life. +Next a line drawn on the ground on either side of said plank and +parallel with it, each at the distance of the whole length of the sword +and three feet additional from the plank; and the passing of his own +such line by either party during the fight shall be deemed a surrender +of the contest. + +Third. Time: On Thursday evening at five o’clock, if you can get it so; +but in no case to be at a greater distance of time than Friday evening +at five o’clock. + +Fourth. Place: Within three miles of Alton, on the opposite side of the +river, the particular spot to be agreed on by you. + +Any preliminary details coming within the above rules you are at liberty +to make at your discretion; but you are in no case to swerve from these +rules, or to pass beyond their limits. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + + +SPRINGFIELD, October 4, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:—You have heard of my duel with Shields, and I have now +to inform you that the dueling business still rages in this city. Day +before yesterday Shields challenged Butler, who accepted, and proposed +fighting next morning at sunrise in Bob Allen’s meadow, one hundred +yards’ distance, with rifles. To this Whitesides, Shields’s second, said +“No,” because of the law. Thus ended duel No. 2. Yesterday Whitesides +chose to consider himself insulted by Dr. Merryman, so sent him a kind +of quasi-challenge, inviting him to meet him at the Planter’s House in +St. Louis on the next Friday, to settle their difficulty. Merryman made +me his friend, and sent Whitesides a note, inquiring to know if he meant +his note as a challenge, and if so, that he would, according to the +law in such case made and provided, prescribe the terms of the meeting. +Whitesides returned for answer that if Merryman would meet him at the +Planter’s House as desired, he would challenge him. Merryman replied in +a note that he denied Whitesides’s right to dictate time and place, but +that he (Merryman) would waive the question of time, and meet him at +Louisiana, Missouri. Upon my presenting this note to Whitesides and +stating verbally its contents, he declined receiving it, saying he had +business in St. Louis, and it was as near as Louisiana. Merryman +then directed me to notify Whitesides that he should publish the +correspondence between them, with such comments as he thought fit. This +I did. Thus it stood at bedtime last night. This morning Whitesides, by +his friend Shields, is praying for a new trial, on the ground that +he was mistaken in Merryman’s proposition to meet him at Louisiana, +Missouri, thinking it was the State of Louisiana. This Merryman hoots +at, and is preparing his publication; while the town is in a ferment, +and a street fight somewhat anticipated. + +But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but to +say something on that subject which you know to be of such infinite +solicitude to me. The immense sufferings you endured from the first days +of September till the middle of February you never tried to conceal from +me, and I well understood. You have now been the husband of a lovely +woman nearly eight months. That you are happier now than the day you +married her I well know, for without you could not be living. But I have +your word for it, too, and the returning elasticity of spirits which is +manifested in your letters. But I want to ask a close question, “Are +you now in feeling as well as judgment glad that you are married as you +are?” From anybody but me this would be an impudent question, not to +be tolerated; but I know you will pardon it in me. Please answer it +quickly, as I am impatient to know. I have sent my love to your Fanny so +often, I fear she is getting tired of it. However, I venture to tender +it again. + +Yours forever, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JAMES S. IRWIN. + + +SPRINGFIELD, November 2, 1842. + +JAS. S. IRWIN ESQ.: + +Owing to my absence, yours of the 22nd ult. was not received till this +moment. Judge Logan and myself are willing to attend to any business +in the Supreme Court you may send us. As to fees, it is impossible to +establish a rule that will apply in all, or even a great many cases. +We believe we are never accused of being very unreasonable in this +particular; and we would always be easily satisfied, provided we could +see the money—but whatever fees we earn at a distance, if not paid +before, we have noticed, we never hear of after the work is done. We, +therefore, are growing a little sensitive on that point. + +Yours etc., + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1843 + + + + +RESOLUTIONS AT A WHIG MEETING AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, MARCH 1, 1843. + + +The object of the meeting was stated by Mr. Lincoln of Springfield, who +offered the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted: + +Resolved, That a tariff of duties on imported goods, producing +sufficient revenue for the payment of the necessary expenditures of the +National Government, and so adjusted as to protect American industry, is +indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the American people. + +Resolved, That we are opposed to direct taxation for the support of the +National Government. + +Resolved, That a national bank, properly restricted, is highly necessary +and proper to the establishment and maintenance of a sound currency, and +for the cheap and safe collection, keeping, and disbursing of the public +revenue. + +Resolved, That the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the +public lands, upon the principles of Mr. Clay’s bill, accords with the +best interests of the nation, and particularly with those of the State +of Illinois. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional district +of the State to nominate and support at the approaching election a +candidate of their own principles, regardless of the chances of success. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of all portions of the State +to adopt and rigidly adhere to the convention system of nominating +candidates. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional district +to hold a district convention on or before the first Monday of May next, +to be composed of a number of delegates from each county equal to double +the number of its representatives in the General Assembly, provided, +each county shall have at least one delegate. Said delegates to be +chosen by primary meetings of the Whigs, at such times and places as +they in their respective counties may see fit. Said district conventions +each to nominate one candidate for Congress, and one delegate to +a national convention for the purpose of nominating candidates for +President and Vice-President of the United States. The seven delegates +so nominated to a national convention to have power to add two delegates +to their own number, and to fill all vacancies. + +Resolved, That A. T. Bledsoe, S. T. Logan, and A. Lincoln be appointed a +committee to prepare an address to the people of the State. + +Resolved, That N. W. Edwards, A. G. Henry, James H. Matheny, John +C. Doremus, and James C. Conkling be appointed a Whig Central State +Committee, with authority to fill any vacancy that may occur in the +committee. + + + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + + +Address to the People of Illinois. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:—By a resolution of a meeting of such of the Whigs of +the State as are now at Springfield, we, the undersigned, were appointed +to prepare an address to you. The performance of that task we now +undertake. + +Several resolutions were adopted by the meeting; and the chief object of +this address is to show briefly the reasons for their adoption. + +The first of those resolutions declares a tariff of duties upon foreign +importations, producing sufficient revenue for the support of the +General Government, and so adjusted as to protect American industry, to +be indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the American people; +and the second declares direct taxation for a national revenue to +be improper. Those two resolutions are kindred in their nature, and +therefore proper and convenient to be considered together. The question +of protection is a subject entirely too broad to be crowded into a +few pages only, together with several other subjects. On that point we +therefore content ourselves with giving the following extracts from +the writings of Mr. Jefferson, General Jackson, and the speech of Mr. +Calhoun: + +“To be independent for the comforts of life, we must fabricate them +ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side of the +agriculturalist. The grand inquiry now is, Shall we make our own +comforts, or go without them at the will of a foreign nation? He, +therefore, who is now against domestic manufactures must be for reducing +us either to dependence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in +skins and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am not one of +those; experience has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary +to our independence as to our comfort.” Letter of Mr. Jefferson to +Benjamin Austin. + +“I ask, What is the real situation of the agriculturalist? Where has the +American farmer a market for his surplus produce? Except for cotton, he +has neither a foreign nor a home market. Does not this clearly prove, +when there is no market at home or abroad, that there [is] too much +labor employed in agriculture? Common sense at once points out the +remedy. Take from agriculture six hundred thousand men, women, and +children, and you will at once give a market for more breadstuffs than +all Europe now furnishes. In short, we have been too long subject to the +policy of British merchants. It is time we should become a little +more Americanized, and instead of feeding the paupers and laborers +of England, feed our own; or else in a short time, by continuing our +present policy, we shall all be rendered paupers ourselves.”—General +Jackson’s Letter to Dr. Coleman. + +“When our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they soon +will be, under the fostering care of government, the farmer will find +a ready market for his surplus produce, and—what is of equal +consequence—a certain and cheap supply of all he wants; his prosperity +will diffuse itself to every class of the community.” Speech of Hon. J. +C. Calhoun on the Tariff. + +The question of revenue we will now briefly consider. For several +years past the revenues of the government have been unequal to its +expenditures, and consequently loan after loan, sometimes direct and +sometimes indirect in form, has been resorted to. By this means a +new national debt has been created, and is still growing on us with +a rapidity fearful to contemplate—a rapidity only reasonably to be +expected in time of war. This state of things has been produced by a +prevailing unwillingness either to increase the tariff or resort to +direct taxation. But the one or the other must come. Coming expenditures +must be met, and the present debt must be paid; and money cannot always +be borrowed for these objects. The system of loans is but temporary in +its nature, and must soon explode. It is a system not only ruinous while +it lasts, but one that must soon fail and leave us destitute. As an +individual who undertakes to live by borrowing soon finds his original +means devoured by interest, and, next, no one left to borrow from, so +must it be with a government. + +We repeat, then, that a tariff sufficient for revenue, or a direct tax, +must soon be resorted to; and, indeed, we believe this alternative is +now denied by no one. But which system shall be adopted? Some of our +opponents, in theory, admit the propriety of a tariff sufficient for +a revenue, but even they will not in practice vote for such a tariff; +while others boldly advocate direct taxation. Inasmuch, therefore, as +some of them boldly advocate direct taxation, and all the rest—or so +nearly all as to make exceptions needless—refuse to adopt the tariff, +we think it is doing them no injustice to class them all as advocates +of direct taxation. Indeed, we believe they are only delaying an open +avowal of the system till they can assure themselves that the people +will tolerate it. Let us, then, briefly compare the two systems. The +tariff is the cheaper system, because the duties, being collected in +large parcels at a few commercial points, will require comparatively few +officers in their collection; while by the direct-tax system the land +must be literally covered with assessors and collectors, going forth +like swarms of Egyptian locusts, devouring every blade of grass and +other green thing. And, again, by the tariff system the whole revenue is +paid by the consumers of foreign goods, and those chiefly the luxuries, +and not the necessaries, of life. By this system the man who contents +himself to live upon the products of his own country pays nothing at +all. And surely that country is extensive enough, and its products +abundant and varied enough, to answer all the real wants of its people. +In short, by this system the burthen of revenue falls almost entirely on +the wealthy and luxurious few, while the substantial and laboring many +who live at home, and upon home products, go entirely free. By the +direct-tax system none can escape. However strictly the citizen may +exclude from his premises all foreign luxuries,—fine cloths, fine +silks, rich wines, golden chains, and diamond rings,—still, for +the possession of his house, his barn, and his homespun, he is to be +perpetually haunted and harassed by the tax-gatherer. With these views +we leave it to be determined whether we or our opponents are the more +truly democratic on the subject. + +The third resolution declares the necessity and propriety of a national +bank. During the last fifty years so much has been said and written both +as to the constitutionality and expediency of such an institution, that +we could not hope to improve in the least on former discussions of the +subject, were we to undertake it. We, therefore, upon the question of +constitutionality content ourselves with remarking the facts that the +first national bank was established chiefly by the same men who formed +the Constitution, at a time when that instrument was but two years old, +and receiving the sanction, as President, of the immortal Washington; +that the second received the sanction, as President, of Mr. Madison, +to whom common consent has awarded the proud title of “Father of the +Constitution”; and subsequently the sanction of the Supreme Court, the +most enlightened judicial tribunal in the world. Upon the question of +expediency, we only ask you to examine the history of the times during +the existence of the two banks, and compare those times with the +miserable present. + +The fourth resolution declares the expediency of Mr. Clay’s land bill. +Much incomprehensible jargon is often used against the constitutionality +of this measure. We forbear, in this place, attempting an answer to it, +simply because, in our opinion, those who urge it are through party +zeal resolved not to see or acknowledge the truth. The question of +expediency, at least so far as Illinois is concerned, seems to us the +clearest imaginable. By the bill we are to receive annually a large sum +of money, no part of which we otherwise receive. The precise annual sum +cannot be known in advance; it doubtless will vary in different years. +Still it is something to know that in the last year—a year of almost +unparalleled pecuniary pressure—it amounted to more than forty thousand +dollars. This annual income, in the midst of our almost insupportable +difficulties, in the days of our severest necessity, our political +opponents are furiously resolving to take and keep from us. And for +what? Many silly reasons are given, as is usual in cases where a single +good one is not to be found. One is that by giving us the proceeds +of the lands we impoverish the national treasury, and thereby render +necessary an increase of the tariff. This may be true; but if so, the +amount of it only is that those whose pride, whose abundance of means, +prompt them to spurn the manufactures of our country, and to strut in +British cloaks and coats and pantaloons, may have to pay a few cents +more on the yard for the cloth that makes them. A terrible evil, truly, +to the Illinois farmer, who never wore, nor ever expects to wear, a +single yard of British goods in his whole life. Another of their reasons +is that by the passage and continuance of Mr. Clay’s bill, we prevent +the passage of a bill which would give us more. This, if it were sound +in itself, is waging destructive war with the former position; for if +Mr. Clay’s bill impoverishes the treasury too much, what shall be said +of one that impoverishes it still more? But it is not sound in itself. +It is not true that Mr. Clay’s bill prevents the passage of one more +favorable to us of the new States. Considering the strength and opposite +interest of the old States, the wonder is that they ever permitted one +to pass so favorable as Mr. Clay’s. The last twenty-odd years’ efforts +to reduce the price of the lands, and to pass graduation bills and +cession bills, prove the assertion to be true; and if there were no +experience in support of it, the reason itself is plain. The States +in which none, or few, of the public lands lie, and those consequently +interested against parting with them except for the best price, are +the majority; and a moment’s reflection will show that they must ever +continue the majority, because by the time one of the original new +States (Ohio, for example) becomes populous and gets weight in Congress, +the public lands in her limits are so nearly sold out that in every +point material to this question she becomes an old State. She does not +wish the price reduced, because there is none left for her citizens +to buy; she does not wish them ceded to the States in which they lie, +because they no longer lie in her limits, and she will get nothing +by the cession. In the nature of things, the States interested in +the reduction of price, in graduation, in cession, and in all similar +projects, never can be the majority. Nor is there reason to hope that +any of them can ever succeed as a Democratic party measure, because we +have heretofore seen that party in full power, year after year, +with many of their leaders making loud professions in favor of these +projects, and yet doing nothing. What reason, then, is there to believe +they will hereafter do better? In every light in which we can view this +question, it amounts simply to this: Shall we accept our share of the +proceeds under Mr. Clay’s bill, or shall we rather reject that and get +nothing? + +The fifth resolution recommends that a Whig candidate for Congress be +run in every district, regardless of the chances of success. We are +aware that it is sometimes a temporary gratification, when a friend +cannot succeed, to be able to choose between opponents; but we believe +that that gratification is the seed-time which never fails to be +followed by a most abundant harvest of bitterness. By this policy we +entangle ourselves. By voting for our opponents, such of us as do it +in some measure estop ourselves to complain of their acts, however +glaringly wrong we may believe them to be. By this policy no one portion +of our friends can ever be certain as to what course another portion +may adopt; and by this want of mutual and perfect understanding our +political identity is partially frittered away and lost. And, again, +those who are thus elected by our aid ever become our bitterest +persecutors. Take a few prominent examples. In 1830 Reynolds was elected +Governor; in 1835 we exerted our whole strength to elect Judge Young +to the United States Senate, which effort, though failing, gave him the +prominence that subsequently elected him; in 1836 General Ewing, was so +elected to the United States Senate; and yet let us ask what three men +have been more perseveringly vindictive in their assaults upon all our +men and measures than they? During the last summer the whole State +was covered with pamphlet editions of misrepresentations against us, +methodized into chapters and verses, written by two of these same +men,—Reynolds and Young, in which they did not stop at charging us with +error merely, but roundly denounced us as the designing enemies of +human liberty, itself. If it be the will of Heaven that such men shall +politically live, be it so; but never, never again permit them to draw a +particle of their sustenance from us. + +The sixth resolution recommends the adoption of the convention system +for the nomination of candidates. This we believe to be of the very +first importance. Whether the system is right in itself we do not stop +to inquire; contenting ourselves with trying to show that, while our +opponents use it, it is madness in us not to defend ourselves with +it. Experience has shown that we cannot successfully defend ourselves +without it. For examples, look at the elections of last year. Our +candidate for governor, with the approbation of a large portion of the +party, took the field without a nomination, and in open opposition to +the system. Wherever in the counties the Whigs had held conventions and +nominated candidates for the Legislature, the aspirants who were not +nominated were induced to rebel against the nominations, and to become +candidates, as is said, “on their own hook.” And, go where you would +into a large Whig county, you were sure to find the Whigs not contending +shoulder to shoulder against the common enemy, but divided into +factions, and fighting furiously with one another. The election came, +and what was the result? The governor beaten, the Whig vote being +decreased many thousands since 1840, although the Democratic vote +had not increased any. Beaten almost everywhere for members of the +Legislature,—Tazewell, with her four hundred Whig majority, sending a +delegation half Democratic; Vermillion, with her five hundred, doing +the same; Coles, with her four hundred, sending two out of three; and +Morgan, with her two hundred and fifty, sending three out of four,—and +this to say nothing of the numerous other less glaring examples; the +whole winding up with the aggregate number of twenty-seven Democratic +representatives sent from Whig counties. As to the senators, too, the +result was of the same character. And it is most worthy to be remembered +that of all the Whigs in the State who ran against the regular nominees, +a single one only was elected. Although they succeeded in defeating +the nominees almost by scores, they too were defeated, and the spoils +chucklingly borne off by the common enemy. + +We do not mention the fact of many of the Whigs opposing the convention +system heretofore for the purpose of censuring them. Far from it. +We expressly protest against such a conclusion. We know they were +generally, perhaps universally, as good and true Whigs as we ourselves +claim to be. + +We mention it merely to draw attention to the disastrous result it +produced, as an example forever hereafter to be avoided. That “union is +strength” is a truth that has been known, illustrated, and declared in +various ways and forms in all ages of the world. That great fabulist and +philosopher Aesop illustrated it by his fable of the bundle of sticks; +and he whose wisdom surpasses that of all philosophers has declared +that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” It is to induce our +friends to act upon this important and universally acknowledged truth +that we urge the adoption of the convention system. Reflection will +prove that there is no other way of practically applying it. In its +application we know there will be incidents temporarily painful; but, +after all, those incidents will be fewer and less intense with than +without the system. If two friends aspire to the same office it is +certain that both cannot succeed. Would it not, then, be much less +painful to have the question decided by mutual friends some time before, +than to snarl and quarrel until the day of election, and then both be +beaten by the common enemy? + +Before leaving this subject, we think proper to remark that we do not +understand the resolution as intended to recommend the application of +the convention system to the nomination of candidates for the small +offices no way connected with politics; though we must say we do not +perceive that such an application of it would be wrong. + +The seventh resolution recommends the holding of district conventions +in May next, for the purpose of nominating candidates for Congress. The +propriety of this rests upon the same reasons with that of the sixth, +and therefore needs no further discussion. + +The eighth and ninth also relate merely to the practical application of +the foregoing, and therefore need no discussion. + +Before closing, permit us to add a few reflections on the present +condition and future prospects of the Whig party. In almost all the +States we have fallen into the minority, and despondency seems to +prevail universally among us. Is there just cause for this? In 1840 we +carried the nation by more than a hundred and forty thousand majority. +Our opponents charged that we did it by fraudulent voting; but whatever +they may have believed, we know the charge to be untrue. Where, now, is +that mighty host? Have they gone over to the enemy? Let the results of +the late elections answer. Every State which has fallen off from the +Whig cause since 1840 has done so not by giving more Democratic votes +than they did then, but by giving fewer Whig. Bouck, who was elected +Democratic Governor of New York last fall by more than 15,000 majority, +had not then as many votes as he had in 1840, when he was beaten by +seven or eight thousand. And so has it been in all the other States +which have fallen away from our cause. From this it is evident that tens +of thousands in the late elections have not voted at all. Who and what +are they? is an important question, as respects the future. They can +come forward and give us the victory again. That all, or nearly all, of +them are Whigs is most apparent. Our opponents, stung to madness by +the defeat of 1840, have ever since rallied with more than their usual +unanimity. It has not been they that have been kept from the polls. +These facts show what the result must be, once the people again rally +in their entire strength. Proclaim these facts, and predict this result; +and although unthinking opponents may smile at us, the sagacious ones +will “believe and tremble.” And why shall the Whigs not all rally again? +Are their principles less dear now than in 1840? Have any of their +doctrines since then been discovered to be untrue? It is true, the +victory of 1840 did not produce the happy results anticipated; but it +is equally true, as we believe, that the unfortunate death of General +Harrison was the cause of the failure. It was not the election of +General Harrison that was expected to produce happy effects, but the +measures to be adopted by his administration. By means of his death, +and the unexpected course of his successor, those measures were never +adopted. How could the fruits follow? The consequences we always +predicted would follow the failure of those measures have followed, and +are now upon us in all their horrors. By the course of Mr. Tyler the +policy of our opponents has continued in operation, still leaving them +with the advantage of charging all its evils upon us as the results of +a Whig administration. Let none be deceived by this somewhat plausible, +though entirely false charge. If they ask us for the sufficient and +sound currency we promised, let them be answered that we only promised +it through the medium of a national bank, which they, aided by Mr. +Tyler, prevented our establishing. And let them be reminded, too, that +their own policy in relation to the currency has all the time been, and +still is, in full operation. Let us then again come forth in our might, +and by a second victory accomplish that which death prevented in the +first. We can do it. When did the Whigs ever fail if they were fully +aroused and united? Even in single States, under such circumstances, +defeat seldom overtakes them. Call to mind the contested elections +within the last few years, and particularly those of Moore and Letcher +from Kentucky, Newland and Graham from North Carolina, and the famous +New Jersey case. In all these districts Locofocoism had stalked +omnipotent before; but when the whole people were aroused by its +enormities on those occasions, they put it down, never to rise again. + +We declare it to be our solemn conviction, that the Whigs are always a +majority of this nation; and that to make them always successful needs +but to get them all to the polls and to vote unitedly. This is the great +desideratum. Let us make every effort to attain it. At every election, +let every Whig act as though he knew the result to depend upon his +action. In the great contest of 1840 some more than twenty one hundred +thousand votes were cast, and so surely as there shall be that many, +with the ordinary increase added, cast in 1844 that surely will a Whig +be elected President of the United States. + +A. LINCOLN. S. T. LOGAN. A. T. BLEDSOE. + +March 4, 1843. + + + + +TO JOHN BENNETT. + + +SPRINGFIELD, March 7, 1843. + +FRIEND BENNETT: + +Your letter of this day was handed me by Mr. Miles. It is too late now +to effect the object you desire. On yesterday morning the most of the +Whig members from this district got together and agreed to hold the +convention at Tremont in Tazewell County. I am sorry to hear that any +of the Whigs of your county, or indeed of any county, should longer +be against conventions. On last Wednesday evening a meeting of all the +Whigs then here from all parts of the State was held, and the question +of the propriety of conventions was brought up and fully discussed, and +at the end of the discussion a resolution recommending the system of +conventions to all the Whigs of the State was unanimously adopted. +Other resolutions were also passed, all of which will appear in the next +Journal. The meeting also appointed a committee to draft an address +to the people of the State, which address will also appear in the next +journal. + +In it you will find a brief argument in favor of conventions—and +although I wrote it myself I will say to you that it is conclusive upon +the point and can not be reasonably answered. The right way for you to +do is hold your meeting and appoint delegates any how, and if there be +any who will not take part, let it be so. The matter will work so well +this time that even they who now oppose will come in next time. + +The convention is to be held at Tremont on the 5th of April and +according to the rule we have adopted your county is to have +delegates—being double your representation. + +If there be any good Whig who is disposed to stick out against +conventions get him at least to read the arguement in their favor in the +address. + +Yours as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +JOSHUA F. SPEED. + + +SPRINGFIELD, March 24, 1843. + +DEAR SPEED:—We had a meeting of the Whigs of the county here on last +Monday to appoint delegates to a district convention; and Baker beat me, +and got the delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite +of my attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates; so that +in getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a +fellow who is made a groomsman to a man that has cut him out and is +marrying his own dear “gal.” About the prospects of your having a +namesake at our town, can’t say exactly yet. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., March 26, 1843. + +FRIEND MORRIS: + +Your letter of the a 3 d, was received on yesterday morning, and for +which (instead of an excuse, which you thought proper to ask) I tender +you my sincere thanks. It is truly gratifying to me to learn that, while +the people of Sangamon have cast me off, my old friends of Menard, who +have known me longest and best, stick to me. It would astonish, if +not amuse, the older citizens to learn that I (a stranger, friendless, +uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars per +month) have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and +aristocratic family distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, +too, the strangest combination of church influence against me. Baker is +a Campbellite; and therefore, as I suppose, with few exceptions got all +that church. My wife has some relations in the Presbyterian churches, +and some with the Episcopal churches; and therefore, wherever it would +tell, I was set down as either the one or the other, while it was +everywhere contended that no Christian ought to go for me, because I +belonged to no church, was suspected of being a deist, and had talked +about fighting a duel. With all these things, Baker, of course, had +nothing to do. Nor do I complain of them. As to his own church going +for him, I think that was right enough, and as to the influences I +have spoken of in the other, though they were very strong, it would be +grossly untrue and unjust to charge that they acted upon them in a body +or were very near so. I only mean that those influences levied a tax +of a considerable per cent. upon my strength throughout the religious +controversy. But enough of this. + +You say that in choosing a candidate for Congress you have an equal +right with Sangamon, and in this you are undoubtedly correct. In +agreeing to withdraw if the Whigs of Sangamon should go against me, I +did not mean that they alone were worth consulting, but that if she, +with her heavy delegation, should be against me, it would be impossible +for me to succeed, and therefore I had as well decline. And in relation +to Menard having rights, permit me fully to recognize them, and to +express the opinion that, if she and Mason act circumspectly, they will +in the convention be able so far to enforce their rights as to decide +absolutely which one of the candidates shall be successful. Let me show +the reason of this. Hardin, or some other Morgan candidate, will get +Putnam, Marshall, Woodford, Tazewell, and Logan—making sixteen. Then +you and Mason, having three, can give the victory to either side. + +You say you shall instruct your delegates for me, unless I object. I +certainly shall not object. That would be too pleasant a compliment for +me to tread in the dust. And besides, if anything should happen (which, +however, is not probable) by which Baker should be thrown out of the +fight, I would be at liberty to accept the nomination if I could get +it. I do, however, feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from +getting the nomination. I should despise myself were I to attempt it. +I think, then, it would be proper for your meeting to appoint three +delegates and to instruct them to go for some one as the first choice, +some one else as a second, and perhaps some one as a third; and if in +those instructions I were named as the first choice, it would gratify me +very much. If you wish to hold the balance of power, it is important for +you to attend to and secure the vote of Mason also: You should be sure +to have men appointed delegates that you know you can safely confide in. +If yourself and James Short were appointed from your county, all would +be safe; but whether Jim’s woman affair a year ago might not be in the +way of his appointment is a question. I don’t know whether you know it, +but I know him to be as honorable a man as there is in the world. You +have my permission, and even request, to show this letter to Short; but +to no one else, unless it be a very particular friend who you know will +not speak of it. + +Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN. + +P. S Will you write me again? + + + + +TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + + +April 14, 1843. + +FRIEND MORRIS: + +I have heard it intimated that Baker has been attempting to get you or +Miles, or both of you, to violate the instructions of the meeting that +appointed you, and to go for him. I have insisted, and still insist, +that this cannot be true. Surely Baker would not do the like. As well +might Hardin ask me to vote for him in the convention. Again, it is said +there will be an attempt to get up instructions in your county requiring +you to go for Baker. This is all wrong. Upon the same rule, Why +might not I fly from the decision against me in Sangamon, and get up +instructions to their delegates to go for me? There are at least twelve +hundred Whigs in the county that took no part, and yet I would as soon +put my head in the fire as to attempt it. Besides, if any one should get +the nomination by such extraordinary means, all harmony in the district +would inevitably be lost. Honest Whigs (and very nearly all of them +are honest) would not quietly abide such enormities. I repeat, such an +attempt on Baker’s part cannot be true. Write me at Springfield how the +matter is. Don’t show or speak of this letter. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +TO GEN. J. J. HARDIN. + + +SPRINGFIELD, May 11, 1843. + +FRIEND HARDIN: + +Butler informs me that he received a letter from you, in which you +expressed some doubt whether the Whigs of Sangamon will support you +cordially. You may, at once, dismiss all fears on that subject. We +have already resolved to make a particular effort to give you the very +largest majority possible in our county. From this, no Whig of the +county dissents. We have many objects for doing it. We make it a matter +of honor and pride to do it; we do it because we love the Whig cause; we +do it because we like you personally; and last, we wish to convince you +that we do not bear that hatred to Morgan County that you people have so +long seemed to imagine. You will see by the journals of this week that +we propose, upon pain of losing a barbecue, to give you twice as great +a majority in this county as you shall receive in your own. I got up the +proposal. + +Who of the five appointed is to write the district address? I did the +labor of writing one address this year, and got thunder for my reward. +Nothing new here. + +Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN. + +P. S.—I wish you would measure one of the largest of those swords we +took to Alton and write me the length of it, from tip of the point to +tip of the hilt, in feet and inches. I have a dispute about the length. + +A. L. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF +ABRAHAM LINCOLN — VOLUME 1: 1832-1843 ***
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/2653-h/2653-h.htm b/2653-h/2653-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f8d573 --- /dev/null +++ b/2653-h/2653-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8966 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume One | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> +<style> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +.big {font-size: x-large;} +.pre {white-space: pre;} +.ph1, .ph2, .ph3, .ph4 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } +.ph1 { font-size: xx-large; margin: .67em auto; } +.ph2 { font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; } +.ph3 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } +.ph4 { font-size: medium; margin: 1.12em auto; } +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +</style> + </head> + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN — VOLUME 1: 1832-1843 ***</div> + <h1> + THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + </h1> + <div class='ph2'> + VOLUME ONE + </div> + <div class='ph3'> + CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION + </div> + <div class='ph4'> + Edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley <br><br> + + With an Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt <br><br> + + The Essay on Lincoln by Carl Schurz <br><br> + + The Address on Lincoln by Joseph Choate <br> <br> + </div> + <hr> + <p> + <br> <br> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <span class='big'><b>CONTENTS</b></span> + </p> + <p> + <br> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>VOLUME 1.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> INTRODUCTORY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> INTRODUCTORY NOTE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> ABRAHAM LINCOLN: AN ESSAY BY CARL SHURZ </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BY JOSEPH H. CHOATE </a> + </p> + <p> + <br> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> <span class='big'><b>THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, + 1832-1843</b></span> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> <b>1832</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON COUNTY. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> <b>1833</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> TO E. C. BLANKENSHIP. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR POSTAGE RECEIPT </a> + </p> + <p> + <br> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> <b>1836</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> ANNOUNCEMENT OF POLITICAL VIEWS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> RESPONSE TO POLITICAL SMEAR </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> TO MISS MARY OWENS. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> <b>1837</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> SPEECH IN ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> OPPOSITION TO MOB-RULE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE ON THE + SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> TO MISS MARY OWENS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> TO JOHN BENNETT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> TO MARY OWENS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> LEGAL SUIT OF WIDOW v.s. Gen. ADAMS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> LINCOLN AND TALBOTT IN REPLY TO GEN. ADAMS. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> Gen. ADAMS CONTROVERSY—CONTINUED </a> + </p> + <p> + <br> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> <b>1838</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> TO Mrs. O. H. BROWNING—A FARCE </a> + </p> + <p> + <br> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> <b>1839</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> REMARKS ON SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> TO ——— ROW. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> SPEECH ON NATIONAL BANK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> TO JOHN T. STUART. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0033"> <b>1840</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0034"> CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0035"> TO JOHN T. STUART. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0036"> RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0037"> RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0038"> REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0039"> REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0040"> <b>1841</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0041"> TO JOHN T. STUART—ON DEPRESSION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0043"> CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0044"> AGAINST THE REORGANIZATION OF THE JUDICIARY. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0045"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—MURDER CASE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0046"> STATEMENT ABOUT HARRY WILTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0047"> TO MISS MARY SPEED—PRACTICAL SLAVERY + </a> + </p> + <p> + <br> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0048"> <b>1842</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0049"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON MARRIAGE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0050"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0051"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON DEPRESSION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0052"> TO G. B. SHELEDY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0053"> TO GEORGE E. PICKETT—ADVICE TO YOUTH + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0054"> ADDRESS BEFORE THE SPRINGFIELD WASHINGTONIAN + TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0055"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0056"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON MARRIAGE CONCERNS + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0057"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0058"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0059"> A LETTER FROM THE LOST TOWNSHIPS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0060"> LOST TOWNSHIPS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0061"> INVITATION TO HENRY CLAY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0062"> CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE LINCOLN-SHIELDS DUEL. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0063"> TO J. SHIELDS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0064"> TO A. LINCOLN FROM JAS. SHIELDS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0065"> MEMORANDUM OF INSTRUCTIONS TO E. H. MERRYMAN, + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0066"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0067"> TO JAMES S. IRWIN. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0068"> <b>1843</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0069"> RESOLUTIONS AT A WHIG MEETING AT SPRINGFIELD, + ILLINOIS, MARCH 1, 1843. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0070"> CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0071"> TO JOHN BENNETT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0072"> JOSHUA F. SPEED. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0073"> TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0074"> TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0075"> TO GEN. J. J. HARDIN. </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br> <br> + </p> + <hr> + <p> + <br> <br> <a id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div class='ph1'> + VOLUME 1. + </div> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + INTRODUCTORY + </h2></div> + <p> + Immediately after Lincoln’s re-election to the Presidency, in an off-hand + speech, delivered in response to a serenade by some of his admirers on the + evening of November 10, 1864, he spoke as follows: + </p> + <p> + “It has long been a grave question whether any government not too strong + for the liberties of its people can be strong enough to maintain its + existence in great emergencies. On this point, the present rebellion + brought our republic to a severe test, and the Presidential election, + occurring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a little to + the strain.... The strife of the election is but human nature practically + applied to the facts in the case. What has occurred in this case must ever + occur in similar cases. Human nature will not change. In any future great + national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and + as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore + study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn wisdom from and none of + them as wrongs to be avenged.... Now that the election is over, may not + all having a common interest reunite in a common fort to save our common + country? For my own part, I have striven and shall strive to avoid placing + any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here, I have not willingly + planted a thorn in any man’s bosom. While I am deeply sensible to the high + compliment of a re-election and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God + for having directed my countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think for + their own good, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may + be disappointed or pained by the result.” + </p> + <p> + This speech has not attracted much general attention, yet it is in a + peculiar degree both illustrative and typical of the great statesman who + made it, alike in its strong common-sense and in its lofty standard of + morality. Lincoln’s life, Lincoln’s deeds and words, are not only of + consuming interest to the historian, but should be intimately known to + every man engaged in the hard practical work of American political life. + It is difficult to overstate how much it means to a nation to have as the + two foremost figures in its history men like Washington and Lincoln. It is + good for every man in any way concerned in public life to feel that the + highest ambition any American can possibly have will be gratified just in + proportion as he raises himself toward the standards set by these two men. + </p> + <p> + It is a very poor thing, whether for nations or individuals, to advance + the history of great deeds done in the past as an excuse for doing poorly + in the present; but it is an excellent thing to study the history of the + great deeds of the past, and of the great men who did them, with an + earnest desire to profit thereby so as to render better service in the + present. In their essentials, the men of the present day are much like the + men of the past, and the live issues of the present can be faced to better + advantage by men who have in good faith studied how the leaders of the + nation faced the dead issues of the past. Such a study of Lincoln’s life + will enable us to avoid the twin gulfs of immorality and inefficiency—the + gulfs which always lie one on each side of the careers alike of man and of + nation. It helps nothing to have avoided one if shipwreck is encountered + in the other. The fanatic, the well-meaning moralist of unbalanced mind, + the parlor critic who condemns others but has no power himself to do good + and but little power to do ill—all these were as alien to Lincoln as + the vicious and unpatriotic themselves. His life teaches our people that + they must act with wisdom, because otherwise adherence to right will be + mere sound and fury without substance; and that they must also act + high-mindedly, or else what seems to be wisdom will in the end turn out to + be the most destructive kind of folly. + </p> + <p> + Throughout his entire life, and especially after he rose to leadership in + his party, Lincoln was stirred to his depths by the sense of fealty to a + lofty ideal; but throughout his entire life, he also accepted human nature + as it is, and worked with keen, practical good sense to achieve results + with the instruments at hand. It is impossible to conceive of a man + farther removed from baseness, farther removed from corruption, from mere + self-seeking; but it is also impossible to conceive of a man of more sane + and healthy mind—a man less under the influence of that fantastic + and diseased morality (so fantastic and diseased as to be in reality + profoundly immoral) which makes a man in this work-a-day world refuse to + do what is possible because he cannot accomplish the impossible. + </p> + <p> + In the fifth volume of Lecky’s History of England, the historian draws an + interesting distinction between the qualities needed for a successful + political career in modern society and those which lead to eminence in the + spheres of pure intellect or pure moral effort. He says: + </p> + <p> + “....the moral qualities that are required in the higher spheres of + statesmanship [are not] those of a hero or a saint. Passionate earnestness + and self-devotion, complete concentration of every faculty on an unselfish + aim, uncalculating daring, a delicacy of conscience and a loftiness of aim + far exceeding those of the average of men, are here likely to prove rather + a hindrance than an assistance. The politician deals very largely with the + superficial and the commonplace; his art is in a great measure that of + skilful compromise, and in the conditions of modern life, the statesman is + likely to succeed best who possesses secondary qualities to an unusual + degree, who is in the closest intellectual and moral sympathy with the + average of the intelligent men of his time, and who pursues common ideals + with more than common ability.... Tact, business talent, knowledge of men, + resolution, promptitude and sagacity in dealing with immediate + emergencies, a character which lends itself easily to conciliation, + diminishes friction and inspires confidence, are especially needed, and + they are more likely to be found among shrewd and enlightened men of the + world than among men of great original genius or of an heroic type of + character.” + </p> + <p> + The American people should feel profoundly grateful that the greatest + American statesman since Washington, the statesman who in this absolutely + democratic republic succeeded best, was the very man who actually combined + the two sets of qualities which the historian thus puts in antithesis. + Abraham Lincoln, the rail-splitter, the Western country lawyer, was one of + the shrewdest and most enlightened men of the world, and he had all the + practical qualities which enable such a man to guide his countrymen; and + yet he was also a genius of the heroic type, a leader who rose level to + the greatest crisis through which this nation or any other nation had to + pass in the nineteenth century. + </p> + <p> + THEODORE ROOSEVELT + </p> + <p> + SAGAMORE HILL, OYSTER BAY, N. Y., September 22, 1905. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + INTRODUCTORY NOTE + </h2></div> + <p> + “I have endured,” wrote Lincoln not long before his death, “a great deal + of ridicule without much malice, and have received a great deal of + kindness not quite free from ridicule.” On Easter Day, 1865, the world + knew how little this ridicule, how much this kindness, had really + signified. Thereafter, Lincoln the man became Lincoln the hero, year by + year more heroic, until to-day, with the swift passing of those who knew + him, his figure grows ever dimmer, less real. This should not be. For + Lincoln the man, patient, wise, set in a high resolve, is worth far more + than Lincoln the hero, vaguely glorious. Invaluable is the example of the + man, intangible that of the hero. + </p> + <p> + And, though it is not for us, as for those who in awed stillness listened + at Gettysburg with inspired perception, to know Abraham Lincoln, yet there + is for us another way whereby we may attain such knowledge—through + his words—uttered in all sincerity to those who loved or hated him. + Cold, unsatisfying they may seem, these printed words, while we can yet + speak with those who knew him, and look into eyes that once looked into + his. But in truth it is here that we find his simple greatness, his great + simplicity, and though no man tried less so to show his power, no man has + so shown it more clearly. + </p> + <p> + Thus these writings of Abraham Lincoln are associated with those of + Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, and of the other “Founders of the + Republic,” not that Lincoln should become still more of the past, but, + rather, that he with them should become still more of the present. However + faint and mythical may grow the story of that Great Struggle, the leader, + Lincoln, at least should remain a real, living American. No matter how + clearly, how directly, Lincoln has shown himself in his writings, we yet + should not forget those men whose minds, from their various view-points, + have illumined for us his character. As this nation owes a great debt to + Lincoln, so, also, Lincoln’s memory owes a great debt to a nation which, + as no other nation could have done, has been able to appreciate his full + worth. Among the many who have brought about this appreciation, those only + whose estimates have been placed in these volumes may be mentioned here. + To President Roosevelt, to Mr. Schurz and to Mr. Choate, the editor, for + himself, for the publishers, and on behalf of the readers, wishes to offer + his sincere acknowledgments. + </p> + <p> + Thanks are also due, for valuable and sympathetic assistance rendered in + the preparation of this work, to Mr. Gilbert A. Tracy, of Putnam, Conn., + Major William H. Lambert, of Philadelphia, and Mr. C. F. Gunther, of + Chicago, to the Chicago Historical Association and personally to its + capable Secretary, Miss McIlvaine, to Major Henry S. Burrage, of Portland, + Me., and to General Thomas J. Henderson, of Illinois. + </p> + <p> + For various courtesies received, the editor is furthermore indebted to the + Librarian of the Library of Congress; to Messrs. McClure, Phillips & + Co., D. Appleton & Co., Macmillan & Co., Dodd, Mead & Co., and + Harper Brothers, of New York; to Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Dana, Estes + & Co., and L. C. Page & Co., of Boston; to A. C. McClure & + Co., of Chicago; to The Robert Clarke Co., of Cincinnati, and to the J. B. + Lippincott Co., of Philadelphia. + </p> + <p> + It is hardly necessary to add that every effort has been made by the + editor to bring into these volumes whatever material may there properly + belong, material much of which is widely scattered in public libraries and + in private collections. He has been fortunate in securing certain + interesting correspondence and papers which had not before come into print + in book form. Information concerning some of these papers had reached him + too late to enable the papers to find place in their proper chronological + order in the set. Rather, however, than not to present these papers to the + readers they have been included in the seventh volume of the set, which + concludes the “Writings.” + </p> +<div class='pre'> + [These later papers are, in this etext, re-arranged into chronologic + order. D.W.] +</div> + <p> + October, 1905, A. B. L. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + ABRAHAM LINCOLN: AN ESSAY BY CARL SHURZ + </h2></div> + <p> + No American can study the character and career of Abraham Lincoln without + being carried away by sentimental emotions. We are always inclined to + idealize that which we love,—a state of mind very unfavorable to the + exercise of sober critical judgment. It is therefore not surprising that + most of those who have written or spoken on that extraordinary man, even + while conscientiously endeavoring to draw a lifelike portraiture of his + being, and to form a just estimate of his public conduct, should have + drifted into more or less indiscriminating eulogy, painting his great + features in the most glowing colors, and covering with tender shadings + whatever might look like a blemish. + </p> + <p> + But his standing before posterity will not be exalted by mere praise of + his virtues and abilities, nor by any concealment of his limitations and + faults. The stature of the great man, one of whose peculiar charms + consisted in his being so unlike all other great men, will rather lose + than gain by the idealization which so easily runs into the commonplace. + For it was distinctly the weird mixture of qualities and forces in him, of + the lofty with the common, the ideal with the uncouth, of that which he + had become with that which he had not ceased to be, that made him so + fascinating a character among his fellow-men, gave him his singular power + over their minds and hearts, and fitted him to be the greatest leader in + the greatest crisis of our national life. + </p> + <p> + His was indeed a marvellous growth. The statesman or the military hero + born and reared in a log cabin is a familiar figure in American history; + but we may search in vain among our celebrities for one whose origin and + early life equalled Abraham Lincoln’s in wretchedness. He first saw the + light in a miserable hovel in Kentucky, on a farm consisting of a few + barren acres in a dreary neighborhood; his father a typical “poor Southern + white,” shiftless and without ambition for himself or his children, + constantly looking for a new piece of land on which he might make a living + without much work; his mother, in her youth handsome and bright, grown + prematurely coarse in feature and soured in mind by daily toil and care; + the whole household squalid, cheerless, and utterly void of elevating + inspirations.... Only when the family had “moved” into the malarious + backwoods of Indiana, the mother had died, and a stepmother, a woman of + thrift and energy, had taken charge of the children, the shaggy-headed, + ragged, barefooted, forlorn boy, then seven years old, “began to feel like + a human being.” Hard work was his early lot. When a mere boy he had to + help in supporting the family, either on his father’s clearing, or hired + out to other farmers to plough, or dig ditches, or chop wood, or drive ox + teams; occasionally also to “tend the baby,” when the farmer’s wife was + otherwise engaged. He could regard it as an advancement to a higher sphere + of activity when he obtained work in a “crossroads store,” where he amused + the customers by his talk over the counter; for he soon distinguished + himself among the backwoods folk as one who had something to say worth + listening to. To win that distinction, he had to draw mainly upon his + wits; for, while his thirst for knowledge was great, his opportunities for + satisfying that thirst were wofully slender. + </p> + <p> + In the log schoolhouse, which he could visit but little, he was taught + only reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic. Among the people of the + settlement, bush farmers and small tradesmen, he found none of uncommon + intelligence or education; but some of them had a few books, which he + borrowed eagerly. Thus he read and reread, AEsop’s Fables, learning to + tell stories with a point and to argue by parables; he read Robinson + Crusoe, The Pilgrim’s Progress, a short history of the United States, and + Weems’s Life of Washington. To the town constable’s he went to read the + Revised Statutes of Indiana. Every printed page that fell into his hands + he would greedily devour, and his family and friends watched him with + wonder, as the uncouth boy, after his daily work, crouched in a corner of + the log cabin or outside under a tree, absorbed in a book while munching + his supper of corn bread. In this manner he began to gather some + knowledge, and sometimes he would astonish the girls with such startling + remarks as that the earth was moving around the sun, and not the sun + around the earth, and they marvelled where “Abe” could have got such queer + notions. Soon he also felt the impulse to write; not only making extracts + from books he wished to remember, but also composing little essays of his + own. First he sketched these with charcoal on a wooden shovel scraped + white with a drawing-knife, or on basswood shingles. Then he transferred + them to paper, which was a scarce commodity in the Lincoln household; + taking care to cut his expressions close, so that they might not cover too + much space,—a style-forming method greatly to be commended. Seeing + boys put a burning coal on the back of a wood turtle, he was moved to + write on cruelty to animals. Seeing men intoxicated with whiskey, he wrote + on temperance. In verse-making, too, he tried himself, and in satire on + persons offensive to him or others,—satire the rustic wit of which + was not always fit for ears polite. Also political thoughts he put upon + paper, and some of his pieces were even deemed good enough for publication + in the county weekly. + </p> + <p> + Thus he won a neighborhood reputation as a clever young man, which he + increased by his performances as a speaker, not seldom drawing upon + himself the dissatisfaction of his employers by mounting a stump in the + field, and keeping the farm hands from their work by little speeches in a + jocose and sometimes also a serious vein. At the rude social frolics of + the settlement he became an important person, telling funny, stories, + mimicking the itinerant preachers who had happened to pass by, and making + his mark at wrestling matches, too; for at the age of seventeen he had + attained his full height, six feet four inches in his stockings, if he had + any, and a terribly muscular clodhopper he was. But he was known never to + use his extraordinary strength to the injury or humiliation of others; + rather to do them a kindly turn, or to enforce justice and fair dealing + between them. All this made him a favorite in backwoods society, although + in some things he appeared a little odd, to his friends. Far more than any + of them, he was given not only to reading, but to fits of abstraction, to + quiet musing with himself, and also to strange spells of melancholy, from + which he often would pass in a moment to rollicking outbursts of droll + humor. But on the whole he was one of the people among whom he lived; in + appearance perhaps even a little more uncouth than most of them,—a + very tall, rawboned youth, with large features, dark, shrivelled skin, and + rebellious hair; his arms and legs long, out of proportion; clad in + deerskin trousers, which from frequent exposure to the rain had shrunk so + as to sit tightly on his limbs, leaving several inches of bluish shin + exposed between their lower end and the heavy tan-colored shoes; the + nether garment held usually by only one suspender, that was strung over a + coarse homemade shirt; the head covered in winter with a coonskin cap, in + summer with a rough straw hat of uncertain shape, without a band. + </p> + <p> + It is doubtful whether he felt himself much superior to his surroundings, + although he confessed to a yearning for some knowledge of the world + outside of the circle in which he lived. This wish was gratified; but how? + At the age of nineteen he went down the Mississippi to New Orleans as a + flatboat hand, temporarily joining a trade many members of which at that + time still took pride in being called “half horse and half alligator.” + After his return he worked and lived in the old way until the spring of + 1830, when his father “moved again,” this time to Illinois; and on the + journey of fifteen days “Abe” had to drive the ox wagon which carried the + household goods. Another log cabin was built, and then, fencing a field, + Abraham Lincoln split those historic rails which were destined to play so + picturesque a part in the Presidential campaign twenty-eight years later. + </p> + <p> + Having come of age, Lincoln left the family, and “struck out for himself.” + He had to “take jobs whenever he could get them.” The first of these + carried him again as a flatboat hand to New Orleans. There something + happened that made a lasting impression upon his soul: he witnessed a + slave auction. “His heart bled,” wrote one of his companions; “said + nothing much; was silent; looked bad. I can say, knowing it, that it was + on this trip that he formed his opinion on slavery. It run its iron in him + then and there, May, 1831. I have heard him say so often.” Then he lived + several years at New Salem, in Illinois, a small mushroom village, with a + mill, some “stores” and whiskey shops, that rose quickly, and soon + disappeared again. It was a desolate, disjointed, half-working and + half-loitering life, without any other aim than to gain food and shelter + from day to day. He served as pilot on a steamboat trip, then as clerk in + a store and a mill; business failing, he was adrift for some time. Being + compelled to measure his strength with the chief bully of the + neighborhood, and overcoming him, he became a noted person in that + muscular community, and won the esteem and friendship of the ruling gang + of ruffians to such a degree that, when the Black Hawk war broke out, they + elected him, a young man of twenty-three, captain of a volunteer company, + composed mainly of roughs of their kind. He took the field, and his most + noteworthy deed of valor consisted, not in killing an Indian, but in + protecting against his own men, at the peril of his own life, the life of + an old savage who had strayed into his camp. + </p> + <p> + The Black Hawk war over, he turned to politics. The step from the + captaincy of a volunteer company to a candidacy for a seat in the + Legislature seemed a natural one. But his popularity, although great in + New Salem, had not spread far enough over the district, and he was + defeated. Then the wretched hand-to-mouth struggle began again. He “set up + in store-business” with a dissolute partner, who drank whiskey while + Lincoln was reading books. The result was a disastrous failure and a load + of debt. Thereupon he became a deputy surveyor, and was appointed + postmaster of New Salem, the business of the post-office being so small + that he could carry the incoming and outgoing mail in his hat. All this + could not lift him from poverty, and his surveying instruments and horse + and saddle were sold by the sheriff for debt. + </p> + <p> + But while all this misery was upon him his ambition rose to higher aims. + He walked many miles to borrow from a schoolmaster a grammar with which to + improve his language. A lawyer lent him a copy of Blackstone, and he began + to study law. + </p> + <p> + People would look wonderingly at the grotesque figure lying in the grass, + “with his feet up a tree,” or sitting on a fence, as, absorbed in a book, + he learned to construct correct sentences and made himself a jurist. At + once he gained a little practice, pettifogging before a justice of the + peace for friends, without expecting a fee. Judicial functions, too, were + thrust upon him, but only at horse-races or wrestling matches, where his + acknowledged honesty and fairness gave his verdicts undisputed authority. + His popularity grew apace, and soon he could be a candidate for the + Legislature again. Although he called himself a Whig, an ardent admirer of + Henry Clay, his clever stump speeches won him the election in the strongly + Democratic district. Then for the first time, perhaps, he thought + seriously of his outward appearance. So far he had been content with a + garb of “Kentucky jeans,” not seldom ragged, usually patched, and always + shabby. Now, he borrowed some money from a friend to buy a new suit of + clothes—“store clothes” fit for a Sangamon County statesman; and + thus adorned he set out for the state capital, Vandalia, to take his seat + among the lawmakers. + </p> + <p> + His legislative career, which stretched over several sessions—for he + was thrice re-elected, in 1836, 1838, and 1840—was not remarkably + brilliant. He did, indeed, not lack ambition. He dreamed even of making + himself “the De Witt Clinton of Illinois,” and he actually distinguished + himself by zealous and effective work in those “log-rolling” operations by + which the young State received “a general system of internal improvements” + in the shape of railroads, canals, and banks,—a reckless policy, + burdening the State with debt, and producing the usual crop of political + demoralization, but a policy characteristic of the time and the + impatiently enterprising spirit of the Western people. Lincoln, no doubt + with the best intentions, but with little knowledge of the subject, simply + followed the popular current. The achievement in which, perhaps, he + gloried most was the removal of the State government from Vandalia to + Springfield; one of those triumphs of political management which are apt + to be the pride of the small politician’s statesmanship. One thing, + however, he did in which his true nature asserted itself, and which gave + distinct promise of the future pursuit of high aims. Against an + overwhelming preponderance of sentiment in the Legislature, followed by + only one other member, he recorded his protest against a proslavery + resolution,—that protest declaring “the institution of slavery to be + founded on both injustice and bad policy.” This was not only the + irrepressible voice of his conscience; it was true moral valor, too; for + at that time, in many parts of the West, an abolitionist was regarded as + little better than a horse-thief, and even “Abe Lincoln” would hardly have + been forgiven his antislavery principles, had he not been known as such an + “uncommon good fellow.” But here, in obedience to the great conviction of + his life, he manifested his courage to stand alone, that courage which is + the first requisite of leadership in a great cause. + </p> + <p> + Together with his reputation and influence as a politician grew his law + practice, especially after he had removed from New Salem to Springfield, + and associated himself with a practitioner of good standing. He had now at + last won a fixed position in society. He became a successful lawyer, less, + indeed, by his learning as a jurist than by his effectiveness as an + advocate and by the striking uprightness of his character; and it may + truly be said that his vivid sense of truth and justice had much to do + with his effectiveness as an advocate. He would refuse to act as the + attorney even of personal friends when he saw the right on the other side. + He would abandon cases, even during trial, when the testimony convinced + him that his client was in the wrong. He would dissuade those who sought + his service from pursuing an obtainable advantage when their claims seemed + to him unfair. Presenting his very first case in the United States Circuit + Court, the only question being one of authority, he declared that, upon + careful examination, he found all the authorities on the other side, and + none on his. Persons accused of crime, when he thought them guilty, he + would not defend at all, or, attempting their defence, he was unable to + put forth his powers. One notable exception is on record, when his + personal sympathies had been strongly aroused. But when he felt himself to + be the protector of innocence, the defender of justice, or the prosecutor + of wrong, he frequently disclosed such unexpected resources of reasoning, + such depth of feeling, and rose to such fervor of appeal as to astonish + and overwhelm his hearers, and make him fairly irresistible. Even an + ordinary law argument, coming from him, seldom failed to produce the + impression that he was profoundly convinced of the soundness of his + position. It is not surprising that the mere appearance of so + conscientious an attorney in any case should have carried, not only to + juries, but even to judges, almost a presumption of right on his side, and + that the people began to call him, sincerely meaning it, “honest Abe + Lincoln.” + </p> + <p> + In the meantime he had private sorrows and trials of a painfully + afflicting nature. He had loved and been loved by a fair and estimable + girl, Ann Rutledge, who died in the flower of her youth and beauty, and he + mourned her loss with such intensity of grief that his friends feared for + his reason. Recovering from his morbid depression, he bestowed what he + thought a new affection upon another lady, who refused him. And finally, + moderately prosperous in his worldly affairs, and having prospects of + political distinction before him, he paid his addresses to Mary Todd, of + Kentucky, and was accepted. But then tormenting doubts of the genuineness + of his own affection for her, of the compatibility of their characters, + and of their future happiness came upon him. His distress was so great + that he felt himself in danger of suicide, and feared to carry a + pocket-knife with him; and he gave mortal offence to his bride by not + appearing on the appointed wedding day. Now the torturing consciousness of + the wrong he had done her grew unendurable. He won back her affection, + ended the agony by marrying her, and became a faithful and patient husband + and a good father. But it was no secret to those who knew the family well + that his domestic life was full of trials. The erratic temper of his wife + not seldom put the gentleness of his nature to the severest tests; and + these troubles and struggles, which accompanied him through all the + vicissitudes of his life from the modest home in Springfield to the White + House at Washington, adding untold private heart-burnings to his public + cares, and sometimes precipitating upon him incredible embarrassments in + the discharge of his public duties, form one of the most pathetic features + of his career. + </p> + <p> + He continued to “ride the circuit,” read books while travelling in his + buggy, told funny stories to his fellow-lawyers in the tavern, chatted + familiarly with his neighbors around the stove in the store and at the + post-office, had his hours of melancholy brooding as of old, and became + more and more widely known and trusted and beloved among the people of his + State for his ability as a lawyer and politician, for the uprightness of + his character and the overflowing spring of sympathetic kindness in his + heart. His main ambition was confessedly that of political distinction; + but hardly any one would at that time have seen in him the man destined to + lead the nation through the greatest crisis of the century. + </p> + <p> + His time had not yet come when, in 1846, he was elected to Congress. In a + clever speech in the House of Representatives he denounced President Polk + for having unjustly forced war upon Mexico, and he amused the Committee of + the Whole by a witty attack upon General Cass. More important was the + expression he gave to his antislavery impulses by offering a bill looking + to the emancipation of the slaves in the District of Columbia, and by his + repeated votes for the famous Wilmot Proviso, intended to exclude slavery + from the Territories acquired from Mexico. But when, at the expiration of + his term, in March, 1849, he left his seat, he gloomily despaired of ever + seeing the day when the cause nearest to his heart would be rightly + grasped by the people, and when he would be able to render any service to + his country in solving the great problem. Nor had his career as a member + of Congress in any sense been such as to gratify his ambition. Indeed, if + he ever had any belief in a great destiny for himself, it must have been + weak at that period; for he actually sought to obtain from the new Whig + President, General Taylor, the place of Commissioner of the General Land + Office; willing to bury himself in one of the administrative bureaus of + the government. Fortunately for the country, he failed; and no less + fortunately, when, later, the territorial governorship of Oregon was + offered to him, Mrs. Lincoln’s protest induced him to decline it. + Returning to Springfield, he gave himself with renewed zest to his law + practice, acquiesced in the Compromise of 1850 with reluctance and a + mental reservation, supported in the Presidential campaign of 1852 the + Whig candidate in some spiritless speeches, and took but a languid + interest in the politics of the day. But just then his time was drawing + near. + </p> + <p> + The peace promised, and apparently inaugurated, by the Compromise of 1850 + was rudely broken by the introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854. + The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, opening the Territories of the + United States, the heritage of coming generations, to the invasion of + slavery, suddenly revealed the whole significance of the slavery question + to the people of the free States, and thrust itself into the politics of + the country as the paramount issue. Something like an electric shock + flashed through the North. Men who but a short time before had been + absorbed by their business pursuits, and deprecated all political + agitation, were startled out of their security by a sudden alarm, and + excitedly took sides. That restless trouble of conscience about slavery, + which even in times of apparent repose had secretly disturbed the souls of + Northern people, broke forth in an utterance louder than ever. The bonds + of accustomed party allegiance gave way. Antislavery Democrats and + antislavery Whigs felt themselves drawn together by a common overpowering + sentiment, and soon they began to rally in a new organization. The + Republican party sprang into being to meet the overruling call of the + hour. Then Abraham Lincoln’s time was come. He rapidly advanced to a + position of conspicuous championship in the struggle. This, however, was + not owing to his virtues and abilities alone. Indeed, the slavery question + stirred his soul in its profoundest depths; it was, as one of his intimate + friends said, “the only one on which he would become excited”; it called + forth all his faculties and energies. Yet there were many others who, + having long and arduously fought the antislavery battle in the popular + assembly, or in the press, or in the halls of Congress, far surpassed him + in prestige, and compared with whom he was still an obscure and untried + man. His reputation, although highly honorable and well earned, had so far + been essentially local. As a stump-speaker in Whig canvasses outside of + his State he had attracted comparatively little attention; but in Illinois + he had been recognized as one of the foremost men of the Whig party. Among + the opponents of the Nebraska Bill he occupied in his State so important a + position, that in 1856 he was the choice of a large majority of the + “Anti-Nebraska men” in the Legislature for a seat in the Senate of the + United States which then became vacant; and when he, an old Whig, could + not obtain the votes of the Anti-Nebraska Democrats necessary to make a + majority, he generously urged his friends to transfer their votes to Lyman + Trumbull, who was then elected. Two years later, in the first national + convention of the Republican party, the delegation from Illinois brought + him forward as a candidate for the vice-presidency, and he received + respectable support. Still, the name of Abraham Lincoln was not widely + known beyond the boundaries of his own State. But now it was this local + prominence in Illinois that put him in a position of peculiar advantage on + the battlefield of national politics. In the assault on the Missouri + Compromise which broke down all legal barriers to the spread of slavery + Stephen Arnold Douglas was the ostensible leader and central figure; and + Douglas was a Senator from Illinois, Lincoln’s State. Douglas’s national + theatre of action was the Senate, but in his constituency in Illinois were + the roots of his official position and power. What he did in the Senate he + had to justify before the people of Illinois, in order to maintain himself + in place; and in Illinois all eyes turned to Lincoln as Douglas’s natural + antagonist. + </p> + <p> + As very young men they had come to Illinois, Lincoln from Indiana, Douglas + from Vermont, and had grown up together in public life, Douglas as a + Democrat, Lincoln as a Whig. They had met first in Vandalia, in 1834, when + Lincoln was in the Legislature and Douglas in the lobby; and again in + 1836, both as members of the Legislature. Douglas, a very able politician, + of the agile, combative, audacious, “pushing” sort, rose in political + distinction with remarkable rapidity. In quick succession he became a + member of the Legislature, a State’s attorney, secretary of state, a judge + on the supreme bench of Illinois, three times a Representative in + Congress, and a Senator of the United States when only thirty-nine years + old. In the National Democratic convention of 1852 he appeared even as an + aspirant to the nomination for the Presidency, as the favorite of “young + America,” and received a respectable vote. He had far outstripped Lincoln + in what is commonly called political success and in reputation. But it had + frequently happened that in political campaigns Lincoln felt himself + impelled, or was selected by his Whig friends, to answer Douglas’s + speeches; and thus the two were looked upon, in a large part of the State + at least, as the representative combatants of their respective parties in + the debates before popular meetings. As soon, therefore, as, after the + passage of his Kansas-Nebraska Bill, Douglas returned to Illinois to + defend his cause before his constituents, Lincoln, obeying not only his + own impulse, but also general expectation, stepped forward as his + principal opponent. Thus the struggle about the principles involved in the + Kansas-Nebraska Bill, or, in a broader sense, the struggle between freedom + and slavery, assumed in Illinois the outward form of a personal contest + between Lincoln and Douglas; and, as it continued and became more + animated, that personal contest in Illinois was watched with constantly + increasing interest by the whole country. When, in 1858, Douglas’s + senatorial term being about to expire, Lincoln was formally designated by + the Republican convention of Illinois as their candidate for the Senate, + to take Douglas’s place, and the two contestants agreed to debate the + questions at issue face to face in a series of public meetings, the eyes + of the whole American people were turned eagerly to that one point: and + the spectacle reminded one of those lays of ancient times telling of two + armies, in battle array, standing still to see their two principal + champions fight out the contested cause between the lines in single + combat. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln had then reached the full maturity of his powers. His equipment as + a statesman did not embrace a comprehensive knowledge of public affairs. + What he had studied he had indeed made his own, with the eager craving and + that zealous tenacity characteristic of superior minds learning under + difficulties. But his narrow opportunities and the unsteady life he had + led during his younger years had not permitted the accumulation of large + stores in his mind. It is true, in political campaigns he had occasionally + spoken on the ostensible issues between the Whigs and the Democrats, the + tariff, internal improvements, banks, and so on, but only in a perfunctory + manner. Had he ever given much serious thought and study to these + subjects, it is safe to assume that a mind so prolific of original + conceits as his would certainly have produced some utterance upon them + worth remembering. His soul had evidently never been deeply stirred by + such topics. But when his moral nature was aroused, his brain developed an + untiring activity until it had mastered all the knowledge within reach. As + soon as the repeal of the Missouri Compromise had thrust the slavery + question into politics as the paramount issue, Lincoln plunged into an + arduous study of all its legal, historical, and moral aspects, and then + his mind became a complete arsenal of argument. His rich natural gifts, + trained by long and varied practice, had made him an orator of rare + persuasiveness. In his immature days, he had pleased himself for a short + period with that inflated, high-flown style which, among the uncultivated, + passes for “beautiful speaking.” His inborn truthfulness and his artistic + instinct soon overcame that aberration and revealed to him the noble + beauty and strength of simplicity. He possessed an uncommon power of clear + and compact statement, which might have reminded those who knew the story + of his early youth of the efforts of the poor boy, when he copied his + compositions from the scraped wooden shovel, carefully to trim his + expressions in order to save paper. His language had the energy of honest + directness and he was a master of logical lucidity. He loved to point and + enliven his reasoning by humorous illustrations, usually anecdotes of + Western life, of which he had an inexhaustible store at his command. These + anecdotes had not seldom a flavor of rustic robustness about them, but he + used them with great effect, while amusing the audience, to give life to + an abstraction, to explode an absurdity, to clinch an argument, to drive + home an admonition. The natural kindliness of his tone, softening + prejudice and disarming partisan rancor, would often open to his reasoning + a way into minds most unwilling to receive it. + </p> + <p> + Yet his greatest power consisted in the charm of his individuality. That + charm did not, in the ordinary way, appeal to the ear or to the eye. His + voice was not melodious; rather shrill and piercing, especially when it + rose to its high treble in moments of great animation. His figure was + unhandsome, and the action of his unwieldy limbs awkward. He commanded + none of the outward graces of oratory as they are commonly understood. His + charm was of a different kind. It flowed from the rare depth and + genuineness of his convictions and his sympathetic feelings. Sympathy was + the strongest element in his nature. One of his biographers, who knew him + before he became President, says: “Lincoln’s compassion might be stirred + deeply by an object present, but never by an object absent and unseen. In + the former case he would most likely extend relief, with little inquiry + into the merits of the case, because, as he expressed it himself, it ‘took + a pain out of his own heart.’” Only half of this is correct. It is + certainly true that he could not witness any individual distress or + oppression, or any kind of suffering, without feeling a pang of pain + himself, and that by relieving as much as he could the suffering of others + he put an end to his own. This compassionate impulse to help he felt not + only for human beings, but for every living creature. As in his boyhood he + angrily reproved the boys who tormented a wood turtle by putting a burning + coal on its back, so, we are told, he would, when a mature man, on a + journey, dismount from his buggy and wade waist-deep in mire to rescue a + pig struggling in a swamp. Indeed, appeals to his compassion were so + irresistible to him, and he felt it so difficult to refuse anything when + his refusal could give pain, that he himself sometimes spoke of his + inability to say “no” as a positive weakness. But that certainly does not + prove that his compassionate feeling was confined to individual cases of + suffering witnessed with his own eyes. As the boy was moved by the aspect + of the tortured wood turtle to compose an essay against cruelty to animals + in general, so the aspect of other cases of suffering and wrong wrought up + his moral nature, and set his mind to work against cruelty, injustice, and + oppression in general. + </p> + <p> + As his sympathy went forth to others, it attracted others to him. + Especially those whom he called the “plain people” felt themselves drawn + to him by the instinctive feeling that he understood, esteemed, and + appreciated them. He had grown up among the poor, the lowly, the ignorant. + He never ceased to remember the good souls he had met among them, and the + many kindnesses they had done him. Although in his mental development he + had risen far above them, he never looked down upon them. How they felt + and how they reasoned he knew, for so he had once felt and reasoned + himself. How they could be moved he knew, for so he had once been moved + himself and practised moving others. His mind was much larger than theirs, + but it thoroughly comprehended theirs; and while he thought much farther + than they, their thoughts were ever present to him. Nor had the visible + distance between them grown as wide as his rise in the world would seem to + have warranted. Much of his backwoods speech and manners still clung to + him. Although he had become “Mr. Lincoln” to his later acquaintances, he + was still “Abe” to the “Nats” and “Billys” and “Daves” of his youth; and + their familiarity neither appeared unnatural to them, nor was it in the + least awkward to him. He still told and enjoyed stories similar to those + he had told and enjoyed in the Indiana settlement and at New Salem. His + wants remained as modest as they had ever been; his domestic habits had by + no means completely accommodated themselves to those of his more highborn + wife; and though the “Kentucky jeans” apparel had long been dropped, his + clothes of better material and better make would sit ill sorted on his + gigantic limbs. His cotton umbrella, without a handle, and tied together + with a coarse string to keep it from flapping, which he carried on his + circuit rides, is said to be remembered still by some of his surviving + neighbors. This rusticity of habit was utterly free from that affected + contempt of refinement and comfort which self-made men sometimes carry + into their more affluent circumstances. To Abraham Lincoln it was entirely + natural, and all those who came into contact with him knew it to be so. In + his ways of thinking and feeling he had become a gentleman in the highest + sense, but the refining process had polished but little the outward form. + The plain people, therefore, still considered “honest Abe Lincoln” one of + themselves; and when they felt, which they no doubt frequently did, that + his thoughts and aspirations moved in a sphere above their own, they were + all the more proud of him, without any diminution of fellow-feeling. It + was this relation of mutual sympathy and understanding between Lincoln and + the plain people that gave him his peculiar power as a public man, and + singularly fitted him, as we shall see, for that leadership which was + preeminently required in the great crisis then coming on,—the + leadership which indeed thinks and moves ahead of the masses, but always + remains within sight and sympathetic touch of them. + </p> + <p> + He entered upon the campaign of 1858 better equipped than he had ever been + before. He not only instinctively felt, but he had convinced himself by + arduous study, that in this struggle against the spread of slavery he had + right, justice, philosophy, the enlightened opinion of mankind, history, + the Constitution, and good policy on his side. It was observed that after + he began to discuss the slavery question his speeches were pitched in a + much loftier key than his former oratorical efforts. While he remained + fond of telling funny stories in private conversation, they disappeared + more and more from his public discourse. He would still now and then point + his argument with expressions of inimitable quaintness, and flash out rays + of kindly humor and witty irony; but his general tone was serious, and + rose sometimes to genuine solemnity. His masterly skill in dialectical + thrust and parry, his wealth of knowledge, his power of reasoning and + elevation of sentiment, disclosed in language of rare precision, strength, + and beauty, not seldom astonished his old friends. + </p> + <p> + Neither of the two champions could have found a more formidable antagonist + than each now met in the other. Douglas was by far the most conspicuous + member of his party. His admirers had dubbed him “the Little Giant,” + contrasting in that nickname the greatness of his mind with the smallness + of his body. But though of low stature, his broad-shouldered figure + appeared uncommonly sturdy, and there was something lion-like in the + squareness of his brow and jaw, and in the defiant shake of his long hair. + His loud and persistent advocacy of territorial expansion, in the name of + patriotism and “manifest destiny,” had given him an enthusiastic following + among the young and ardent. Great natural parts, a highly combative + temperament, and long training had made him a debater unsurpassed in a + Senate filled with able men. He could be as forceful in his appeals to + patriotic feelings as he was fierce in denunciation and thoroughly skilled + in all the baser tricks of parliamentary pugilism. While genial and + rollicking in his social intercourse—the idol of the “boys” he felt + himself one of the most renowned statesmen of his time, and would + frequently meet his opponents with an overbearing haughtiness, as persons + more to be pitied than to be feared. In his speech opening the campaign of + 1858, he spoke of Lincoln, whom the Republicans had dared to advance as + their candidate for “his” place in the Senate, with an air of patronizing + if not contemptuous condescension, as “a kind, amiable, and intelligent + gentleman and a good citizen.” The Little Giant would have been pleased to + pass off his antagonist as a tall dwarf. He knew Lincoln too well, + however, to indulge himself seriously in such a delusion. But the + political situation was at that moment in a curious tangle, and Douglas + could expect to derive from the confusion great advantage over his + opponent. + </p> + <p> + By the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, opening the Territories to the + ingress of slavery, Douglas had pleased the South, but greatly alarmed the + North. He had sought to conciliate Northern sentiment by appending to his + Kansas-Nebraska Bill the declaration that its intent was “not to legislate + slavery into any State or Territory, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to + leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their + institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the + United States.” This he called “the great principle of popular + sovereignty.” When asked whether, under this act, the people of a + Territory, before its admission as a State, would have the right to + exclude slavery, he answered, “That is a question for the courts to + decide.” Then came the famous “Dred Scott decision,” in which the Supreme + Court held substantially that the right to hold slaves as property existed + in the Territories by virtue of the Federal Constitution, and that this + right could not be denied by any act of a territorial government. This, of + course, denied the right of the people of any Territory to exclude slavery + while they were in a territorial condition, and it alarmed the Northern + people still more. Douglas recognized the binding force of the decision of + the Supreme Court, at the same time maintaining, most illogically, that + his great principle of popular sovereignty remained in force nevertheless. + Meanwhile, the proslavery people of western Missouri, the so-called + “border ruffians,” had invaded Kansas, set up a constitutional convention, + made a constitution of an extreme pro-slavery type, the “Lecompton + Constitution,” refused to submit it fairly to a vote of the people of + Kansas, and then referred it to Congress for acceptance,—seeking + thus to accomplish the admission of Kansas as a slave State. Had Douglas + supported such a scheme, he would have lost all foothold in the North. In + the name of popular sovereignty he loudly declared his opposition to the + acceptance of any constitution not sanctioned by a formal popular vote. He + “did not care,” he said, “whether slavery be voted up or down,” but there + must be a fair vote of the people. Thus he drew upon himself the hostility + of the Buchanan administration, which was controlled by the proslavery + interest, but he saved his Northern following. More than this, not only + did his Democratic admirers now call him “the true champion of freedom,” + but even some Republicans of large influence, prominent among them Horace + Greeley, sympathizing with Douglas in his fight against the Lecompton + Constitution, and hoping to detach him permanently from the proslavery + interest and to force a lasting breach in the Democratic party, seriously + advised the Republicans of Illinois to give up their opposition to + Douglas, and to help re-elect him to the Senate. Lincoln was not of that + opinion. He believed that great popular movements can succeed only when + guided by their faithful friends, and that the antislavery cause could not + safely be entrusted to the keeping of one who “did not care whether + slavery be voted up or down.” This opinion prevailed in Illinois; but the + influences within the Republican party over which it prevailed yielded + only a reluctant acquiescence, if they acquiesced at all, after having + materially strengthened Douglas’s position. Such was the situation of + things when the campaign of 1858 between Lincoln and Douglas began. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln opened the campaign on his side at the convention which nominated + him as the Republican candidate for the senatorship, with a memorable + saying which sounded like a shout from the watchtower of history: “A house + divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot + endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to + be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but I expect it will + cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either + the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place + it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course + of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward, till it + shall become alike lawful in all the States,—old as well as new, + North as well as South.” Then he proceeded to point out that the Nebraska + doctrine combined with the Dred Scott decision worked in the direction of + making the nation “all slave.” Here was the “irrepressible conflict” + spoken of by Seward a short time later, in a speech made famous mainly by + that phrase. If there was any new discovery in it, the right of priority + was Lincoln’s. This utterance proved not only his statesmanlike conception + of the issue, but also, in his situation as a candidate, the firmness of + his moral courage. The friends to whom he had read the draught of this + speech before he delivered it warned him anxiously that its delivery might + be fatal to his success in the election. This was shrewd advice, in the + ordinary sense. While a slaveholder could threaten disunion with impunity, + the mere suggestion that the existence of slavery was incompatible with + freedom in the Union would hazard the political chances of any public man + in the North. But Lincoln was inflexible. “It is true,” said he, “and I + will deliver it as written.... I would rather be defeated with these + expressions in my speech held up and discussed before the people than be + victorious without them.” The statesman was right in his far-seeing + judgment and his conscientious statement of the truth, but the practical + politicians were also right in their prediction of the immediate effect. + Douglas instantly seized upon the declaration that a house divided against + itself cannot stand as the main objective point of his attack, + interpreting it as an incitement to a “relentless sectional war,” and + there is no doubt that the persistent reiteration of this charge served to + frighten not a few timid souls. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln constantly endeavored to bring the moral and philosophical side of + the subject to the foreground. “Slavery is wrong” was the keynote of all + his speeches. To Douglas’s glittering sophism that the right of the people + of a Territory to have slavery or not, as they might desire, was in + accordance with the principle of true popular sovereignty, he made the + pointed answer: “Then true popular sovereignty, according to Senator + Douglas, means that, when one man makes another man his slave, no third + man shall be allowed to object.” To Douglas’s argument that the principle + which demanded that the people of a Territory should be permitted to + choose whether they would have slavery or not “originated when God made + man, and placed good and evil before him, allowing him to choose upon his + own responsibility,” Lincoln solemnly replied: “No; God—did not + place good and evil before man, telling him to make his choice. On the + contrary, God did tell him there was one tree of the fruit of which he + should not eat, upon pain of death.” He did not, however, place himself on + the most advanced ground taken by the radical anti-slavery men. He + admitted that, under the Constitution, “the Southern people were entitled + to a Congressional fugitive slave law,” although he did not approve the + fugitive slave law then existing. He declared also that, if slavery were + kept out of the Territories during their territorial existence, as it + should be, and if then the people of any Territory, having a fair chance + and a clear field, should do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt a + slave constitution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of the institution + among them, he saw no alternative but to admit such a Territory into the + Union. He declared further that, while he should be exceedingly glad to + see slavery abolished in the District of Columbia, he would, as a member + of Congress, with his present views, not endeavor to bring on that + abolition except on condition that emancipation be gradual, that it be + approved by the decision of a majority of voters in the District, and that + compensation be made to unwilling owners. On every available occasion, he + pronounced himself in favor of the deportation and colonization of the + blacks, of course with their consent. He repeatedly disavowed any wish on + his part to have social and political equality established between whites + and blacks. On this point he summed up his views in a reply to Douglas’s + assertion that the Declaration of Independence, in speaking of all men as + being created equal, did not include the negroes, saying: “I do not + understand the Declaration of Independence to mean that all men were + created equal in all respects. They are not equal in color. But I believe + that it does mean to declare that all men are equal in some respects; they + are equal in their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” + </p> + <p> + With regard to some of these subjects Lincoln modified his position at a + later period, and it has been suggested that he would have professed more + advanced principles in his debates with Douglas, had he not feared thereby + to lose votes. This view can hardly be sustained. Lincoln had the courage + of his opinions, but he was not a radical. The man who risked his election + by delivering, against the urgent protest of his friends, the speech about + “the house divided against itself” would not have shrunk from the + expression of more extreme views, had he really entertained them. It is + only fair to assume that he said what at the time he really thought, and + that if, subsequently, his opinions changed, it was owing to new + conceptions of good policy and of duty brought forth by an entirely new + set of circumstances and exigencies. It is characteristic that he + continued to adhere to the impracticable colonization plan even after the + Emancipation Proclamation had already been issued. + </p> + <p> + But in this contest Lincoln proved himself not only a debater, but also a + political strategist of the first order. The “kind, amiable, and + intelligent gentleman,” as Douglas had been pleased to call him, was by no + means as harmless as a dove. He possessed an uncommon share of that + worldly shrewdness which not seldom goes with genuine simplicity of + character; and the political experience gathered in the Legislature and in + Congress, and in many election campaigns, added to his keen intuitions, + had made him as far-sighted a judge of the probable effects of a public + man’s sayings or doings upon the popular mind, and as accurate a + calculator in estimating political chances and forecasting results, as + could be found among the party managers in Illinois. And now he perceived + keenly the ugly dilemma in which Douglas found himself, between the Dred + Scott decision, which declared the right to hold slaves to exist in the + Territories by virtue of the Federal Constitution, and his “great + principle of popular sovereignty,” according to which the people of a + Territory, if they saw fit, were to have the right to exclude slavery + therefrom. Douglas was twisting and squirming to the best of his ability + to avoid the admission that the two were incompatible. The question then + presented itself if it would be good policy for Lincoln to force Douglas + to a clear expression of his opinion as to whether, the Dred Scott + decision notwithstanding, “the people of a Territory could in any lawful + way exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State + constitution.” Lincoln foresaw and predicted what Douglas would answer: + that slavery could not exist in a Territory unless the people desired it + and gave it protection by territorial legislation. In an improvised caucus + the policy of pressing the interrogatory on Douglas was discussed. + Lincoln’s friends unanimously advised against it, because the answer + foreseen would sufficiently commend Douglas to the people of Illinois to + insure his re-election to the Senate. But Lincoln persisted. “I am after + larger game,” said he. “If Douglas so answers, he can never be President, + and the battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this.” The interrogatory was + pressed upon Douglas, and Douglas did answer that, no matter what the + decision of the Supreme Court might be on the abstract question, the + people of a Territory had the lawful means to introduce or exclude slavery + by territorial legislation friendly or unfriendly to the institution. + Lincoln found it easy to show the absurdity of the proposition that, if + slavery were admitted to exist of right in the Territories by virtue of + the supreme law, the Federal Constitution, it could be kept out or + expelled by an inferior law, one made by a territorial Legislature. Again + the judgment of the politicians, having only the nearest object in view, + proved correct: Douglas was reelected to the Senate. But Lincoln’s + judgment proved correct also: Douglas, by resorting to the expedient of + his “unfriendly legislation doctrine,” forfeited his last chance of + becoming President of the United States. He might have hoped to win, by + sufficient atonement, his pardon from the South for his opposition to the + Lecompton Constitution; but that he taught the people of the Territories a + trick by which they could defeat what the proslavery men considered a + constitutional right, and that he called that trick lawful, this the slave + power would never forgive. The breach between the Southern and the + Northern Democracy was thenceforth irremediable and fatal. + </p> + <p> + The Presidential election of 1860 approached. The struggle in Kansas, and + the debates in Congress which accompanied it, and which not unfrequently + provoked violent outbursts, continually stirred the popular excitement. + Within the Democratic party raged the war of factions. The national + Democratic convention met at Charleston on the 23d of April, 1860. After a + struggle of ten days between the adherents and the opponents of Douglas, + during which the delegates from the cotton States had withdrawn, the + convention adjourned without having nominated any candidates, to meet + again in Baltimore on the 18th of June. There was no prospect, however, of + reconciling the hostile elements. It appeared very probable that the + Baltimore convention would nominate Douglas, while the seceding Southern + Democrats would set up a candidate of their own, representing extreme + proslavery principles. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, the national Republican convention assembled at Chicago on the + 16th of May, full of enthusiasm and hope. The situation was easily + understood. The Democrats would have the South. In order to succeed in the + election, the Republicans had to win, in addition to the States carried by + Fremont in 1856, those that were classed as “doubtful,”—New Jersey, + Pennsylvania, and Indiana, or Illinois in the place of either New Jersey + or Indiana. The most eminent Republican statesmen and leaders of the time + thought of for the Presidency were Seward and Chase, both regarded as + belonging to the more advanced order of antislavery men. Of the two, + Seward had the largest following, mainly from New York, New England, and + the Northwest. Cautious politicians doubted seriously whether Seward, to + whom some phrases in his speeches had undeservedly given the reputation of + a reckless radical, would be able to command the whole Republican vote in + the doubtful States. Besides, during his long public career he had made + enemies. It was evident that those who thought Seward’s nomination too + hazardous an experiment would consider Chase unavailable for the same + reason. They would then look round for an “available” man; and among the + “available” men Abraham Lincoln was easily discovered to stand foremost. + His great debate with Douglas had given him a national reputation. The + people of the East being eager to see the hero of so dramatic a contest, + he had been induced to visit several Eastern cities, and had astonished + and delighted large and distinguished audiences with speeches of singular + power and originality. An address delivered by him in the Cooper Institute + in New York, before an audience containing a large number of important + persons, was then, and has ever since been, especially praised as one of + the most logical and convincing political speeches ever made in this + country. The people of the West had grown proud of him as a distinctively + Western great man, and his popularity at home had some peculiar features + which could be expected to exercise a potent charm. Nor was Lincoln’s name + as that of an available candidate left to the chance of accidental + discovery. It is indeed not probable that he thought of himself as a + Presidential possibility, during his contest with Douglas for the + senatorship. As late as April, 1859, he had written to a friend who had + approached him on the subject that he did not think himself fit for the + Presidency. The Vice-Presidency was then the limit of his ambition. But + some of his friends in Illinois took the matter seriously in hand, and + Lincoln, after some hesitation, then formally authorized “the use of his + name.” The matter was managed with such energy and excellent judgment + that, in the convention, he had not only the whole vote of Illinois to + start with, but won votes on all sides without offending any rival. A + large majority of the opponents of Seward went over to Abraham Lincoln, + and gave him the nomination on the third ballot. As had been foreseen, + Douglas was nominated by one wing of the Democratic party at Baltimore, + while the extreme proslavery wing put Breckinridge into the field as its + candidate. After a campaign conducted with the energy of genuine + enthusiasm on the antislavery side the united Republicans defeated the + divided Democrats, and Lincoln was elected President by a majority of + fifty-seven votes in the electoral colleges. + </p> + <p> + The result of the election had hardly been declared when the disunion + movement in the South, long threatened and carefully planned and prepared, + broke out in the shape of open revolt, and nearly a month before Lincoln + could be inaugurated as President of the United States seven Southern + States had adopted ordinances of secession, formed an independent + confederacy, framed a constitution for it, and elected Jefferson Davis its + president, expecting the other slaveholding States soon to join them. On + the 11th of February, 1861, Lincoln left Springfield for Washington; + having, with characteristic simplicity, asked his law partner not to + change the sign of the firm “Lincoln and Herndon” during the four years + unavoidable absence of the senior partner, and having taken an + affectionate and touching leave of his neighbors. + </p> + <p> + The situation which confronted the new President was appalling: the larger + part of the South in open rebellion, the rest of the slaveholding States + wavering preparing to follow; the revolt guided by determined, daring, and + skillful leaders; the Southern people, apparently full of enthusiasm and + military spirit, rushing to arms, some of the forts and arsenals already + in their possession; the government of the Union, before the accession of + the new President, in the hands of men some of whom actively sympathized + with the revolt, while others were hampered by their traditional doctrines + in dealing with it, and really gave it aid and comfort by their irresolute + attitude; all the departments full of “Southern sympathizers” and + honeycombed with disloyalty; the treasury empty, and the public credit at + the lowest ebb; the arsenals ill supplied with arms, if not emptied by + treacherous practices; the regular army of insignificant strength, + dispersed over an immense surface, and deprived of some of its best + officers by defection; the navy small and antiquated. But that was not + all. The threat of disunion had so often been resorted to by the slave + power in years gone by that most Northern people had ceased to believe in + its seriousness. But, when disunion actually appeared as a stern reality, + something like a chill swept through the whole Northern country. A cry for + union and peace at any price rose on all sides. Democratic partisanship + reiterated this cry with vociferous vehemence, and even many Republicans + grew afraid of the victory they had just achieved at the ballot-box, and + spoke of compromise. The country fairly resounded with the noise of + “anticoercion meetings.” Expressions of firm resolution from determined + antislavery men were indeed not wanting, but they were for a while almost + drowned by a bewildering confusion of discordant voices. Even this was not + all. Potent influences in Europe, with an ill-concealed desire for the + permanent disruption of the American Union, eagerly espoused the cause of + the Southern seceders, and the two principal maritime powers of the Old + World seemed only to be waiting for a favorable opportunity to lend them a + helping hand. + </p> + <p> + This was the state of things to be mastered by “honest Abe Lincoln” when + he took his seat in the Presidential chair,—“honest Abe Lincoln,” + who was so good-natured that he could not say “no”; the greatest + achievement in whose life had been a debate on the slavery question; who + had never been in any position of power; who was without the slightest + experience of high executive duties, and who had only a speaking + acquaintance with the men upon whose counsel and cooperation he was to + depend. Nor was his accession to power under such circumstances greeted + with general confidence even by the members of his party. While he had + indeed won much popularity, many Republicans, especially among those who + had advocated Seward’s nomination for the Presidency, saw the simple + “Illinois lawyer” take the reins of government with a feeling little short + of dismay. The orators and journals of the opposition were ridiculing and + lampooning him without measure. Many people actually wondered how such a + man could dare to undertake a task which, as he himself had said to his + neighbors in his parting speech, was “more difficult than that of + Washington himself had been.” + </p> + <p> + But Lincoln brought to that task, aside from other uncommon qualities, the + first requisite,—an intuitive comprehension of its nature. While he + did not indulge in the delusion that the Union could be maintained or + restored without a conflict of arms, he could indeed not foresee all the + problems he would have to solve. He instinctively understood, however, by + what means that conflict would have to be conducted by the government of a + democracy. He knew that the impending war, whether great or small, would + not be like a foreign war, exciting a united national enthusiasm, but a + civil war, likely to fan to uncommon heat the animosities of party even in + the localities controlled by the government; that this war would have to + be carried on not by means of a ready-made machinery, ruled by an + undisputed, absolute will, but by means to be furnished by the voluntary + action of the people:—armies to be formed by voluntary enlistments; + large sums of money to be raised by the people, through representatives, + voluntarily taxing themselves; trust of extraordinary power to be + voluntarily granted; and war measures, not seldom restricting the rights + and liberties to which the citizen was accustomed, to be voluntarily + accepted and submitted to by the people, or at least a large majority of + them; and that this would have to be kept up not merely during a short + period of enthusiastic excitement; but possibly through weary years of + alternating success and disaster, hope and despondency. He knew that in + order to steer this government by public opinion successfully through all + the confusion created by the prejudices and doubts and differences of + sentiment distracting the popular mind, and so to propitiate, inspire, + mould, organize, unite, and guide the popular will that it might give + forth all the means required for the performance of his great task, he + would have to take into account all the influences strongly affecting the + current of popular thought and feeling, and to direct while appearing to + obey. + </p> + <p> + This was the kind of leadership he intuitively conceived to be needed when + a free people were to be led forward en masse to overcome a great common + danger under circumstances of appalling difficulty, the leadership which + does not dash ahead with brilliant daring, no matter who follows, but + which is intent upon rallying all the available forces, gathering in the + stragglers, closing up the column, so that the front may advance well + supported. For this leadership Abraham Lincoln was admirably fitted, + better than any other American statesman of his day; for he understood the + plain people, with all their loves and hates, their prejudices and their + noble impulses, their weaknesses and their strength, as he understood + himself, and his sympathetic nature was apt to draw their sympathy to him. + </p> + <p> + His inaugural address foreshadowed his official course in characteristic + manner. Although yielding nothing in point of principle, it was by no + means a flaming antislavery manifesto, such as would have pleased the more + ardent Republicans. It was rather the entreaty of a sorrowing father + speaking to his wayward children. In the kindliest language he pointed out + to the secessionists how ill advised their attempt at disunion was, and + why, for their own sakes, they should desist. Almost plaintively, he told + them that, while it was not their duty to destroy the Union, it was his + sworn duty to preserve it; that the least he could do, under the + obligations of his oath, was to possess and hold the property of the + United States; that he hoped to do this peaceably; that he abhorred war + for any purpose, and that they would have none unless they themselves were + the aggressors. It was a masterpiece of persuasiveness, and while Lincoln + had accepted many valuable amendments suggested by Seward, it was + essentially his own. Probably Lincoln himself did not expect his inaugural + address to have any effect upon the secessionists, for he must have known + them to be resolved upon disunion at any cost. But it was an appeal to the + wavering minds in the North, and upon them it made a profound impression. + Every candid man, however timid and halting, had to admit that the + President was bound by his oath to do his duty; that under that oath he + could do no less than he said he would do; that if the secessionists + resisted such an appeal as the President had made, they were bent upon + mischief, and that the government must be supported against them. The + partisan sympathy with the Southern insurrection which still existed in + the North did indeed not disappear, but it diminished perceptibly under + the influence of such reasoning. Those who still resisted it did so at the + risk of appearing unpatriotic. + </p> + <p> + It must not be supposed, however, that Lincoln at once succeeded in + pleasing everybody, even among his friends,—even among those nearest + to him. In selecting his cabinet, which he did substantially before he + left Springfield for Washington, he thought it wise to call to his + assistance the strong men of his party, especially those who had given + evidence of the support they commanded as his competitors in the Chicago + convention. In them he found at the same time representatives of the + different shades of opinion within the party, and of the different + elements—former Whigs and former Democrats—from which the + party had recruited itself. This was sound policy under the circumstances. + It might indeed have been foreseen that among the members of a cabinet so + composed, troublesome disagreements and rivalries would break out. But it + was better for the President to have these strong and ambitious men near + him as his co-operators than to have them as his critics in Congress, + where their differences might have been composed in a common opposition to + him. As members of his cabinet he could hope to control them, and to keep + them busily employed in the service of a common purpose, if he had the + strength to do so. Whether he did possess this strength was soon tested by + a singularly rude trial. + </p> + <p> + There can be no doubt that the foremost members of his cabinet, Seward and + Chase, the most eminent Republican statesmen, had felt themselves wronged + by their party when in its national convention it preferred to them for + the Presidency a man whom, not unnaturally, they thought greatly their + inferior in ability and experience as well as in service. The soreness of + that disappointment was intensified when they saw this Western man in the + White House, with so much of rustic manner and speech as still clung to + him, meeting his fellow-citizens, high and low, on a footing of equality, + with the simplicity of his good nature unburdened by any conventional + dignity of deportment, and dealing with the great business of state in an + easy-going, unmethodical, and apparently somewhat irreverent way. They did + not understand such a man. Especially Seward, who, as Secretary of State, + considered himself next to the Chief Executive, and who quickly accustomed + himself to giving orders and making arrangements upon his own motion, + thought it necessary that he should rescue the direction of public affairs + from hands so unskilled, and take full charge of them himself. At the end + of the first month of the administration he submitted a “memorandum” to + President Lincoln, which has been first brought to light by Nicolay and + Hay, and is one of their most valuable contributions to the history of + those days. In that paper Seward actually told the President that at the + end of a month’s administration the government was still without a policy, + either domestic or foreign; that the slavery question should be eliminated + from the struggle about the Union; that the matter of the maintenance of + the forts and other possessions in the South should be decided with that + view; that explanations should be demanded categorically from the + governments of Spain and France, which were then preparing, one for the + annexation of San Domingo, and both for the invasion of Mexico; that if no + satisfactory explanations were received war should be declared against + Spain and France by the United States; that explanations should also be + sought from Russia and Great Britain, and a vigorous continental spirit of + independence against European intervention be aroused all over the + American continent; that this policy should be incessantly pursued and + directed by somebody; that either the President should devote himself + entirely to it, or devolve the direction on some member of his cabinet, + whereupon all debate on this policy must end. + </p> + <p> + This could be understood only as a formal demand that the President should + acknowledge his own incompetency to perform his duties, content himself + with the amusement of distributing post-offices, and resign his power as + to all important affairs into the hands of his Secretary of State. It + seems to-day incomprehensible how a statesman of Seward’s calibre could at + that period conceive a plan of policy in which the slavery question had no + place; a policy which rested upon the utterly delusive assumption that the + secessionists, who had already formed their Southern Confederacy and were + with stern resolution preparing to fight for its independence, could be + hoodwinked back into the Union by some sentimental demonstration against + European interference; a policy which, at that critical moment, would have + involved the Union in a foreign war, thus inviting foreign intervention in + favor of the Southern Confederacy, and increasing tenfold its chances in + the struggle for independence. But it is equally incomprehensible how + Seward could fail to see that this demand of an unconditional surrender + was a mortal insult to the head of the government, and that by putting his + proposition on paper he delivered himself into the hands of the very man + he had insulted; for, had Lincoln, as most Presidents would have done, + instantly dismissed Seward, and published the true reason for that + dismissal, it would inevitably have been the end of Seward’s career. But + Lincoln did what not many of the noblest and greatest men in history would + have been noble and great enough to do. He considered that Seward was + still capable of rendering great service to his country in the place in + which he was, if rightly controlled. He ignored the insult, but firmly + established his superiority. In his reply, which he forthwith despatched, + he told Seward that the administration had a domestic policy as laid down + in the inaugural address with Seward’s approval; that it had a foreign + policy as traced in Seward’s despatches with the President’s approval; + that if any policy was to be maintained or changed, he, the President, was + to direct that on his responsibility; and that in performing that duty the + President had a right to the advice of his secretaries. Seward’s fantastic + schemes of foreign war and continental policies Lincoln brushed aside by + passing them over in silence. Nothing more was said. Seward must have felt + that he was at the mercy of a superior man; that his offensive proposition + had been generously pardoned as a temporary aberration of a great mind, + and that he could atone for it only by devoted personal loyalty. This he + did. He was thoroughly subdued, and thenceforth submitted to Lincoln his + despatches for revision and amendment without a murmur. The war with + European nations was no longer thought of; the slavery question found in + due time its proper place in the struggle for the Union; and when, at a + later period, the dismissal of Seward was demanded by dissatisfied + senators, who attributed to him the shortcomings of the administration, + Lincoln stood stoutly by his faithful Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, a man of superb presence, of eminent + ability and ardent patriotism, of great natural dignity and a certain + outward coldness of manner, which made him appear more difficult of + approach than he really was, did not permit his disappointment to burst + out in such extravagant demonstrations. But Lincoln’s ways were so + essentially different from his that they never became quite intelligible, + and certainly not congenial to him. It might, perhaps, have been better + had there been, at the beginning of the administration, some decided clash + between Lincoln and Chase, as there was between Lincoln and Seward, to + bring on a full mutual explanation, and to make Chase appreciate the real + seriousness of Lincoln’s nature. But, as it was, their relations always + remained somewhat formal, and Chase never felt quite at ease under a chief + whom he could not understand, and whose character and powers he never + learned to esteem at their true value. At the same time, he devoted + himself zealously to the duties of his department, and did the country + arduous service under circumstances of extreme difficulty. Nobody + recognized this more heartily than Lincoln himself, and they managed to + work together until near the end of Lincoln’s first Presidential term, + when Chase, after some disagreements concerning appointments to office, + resigned from the treasury; and, after Taney’s death, the President made + him Chief Justice. + </p> + <p> + The rest of the cabinet consisted of men of less eminence, who + subordinated themselves more easily. In January, 1862, Lincoln found it + necessary to bow Cameron out of the war office, and to put in his place + Edwin M. Stanton, a man of intensely practical mind, vehement impulses, + fierce positiveness, ruthless energy, immense working power, lofty + patriotism, and severest devotion to duty. He accepted the war office not + as a partisan, for he had never been a Republican, but only to do all he + could in “helping to save the country.” The manner in which Lincoln + succeeded in taming this lion to his will, by frankly recognizing his + great qualities, by giving him the most generous confidence, by aiding him + in his work to the full of his power, by kindly concession or affectionate + persuasiveness in cases of differing opinions, or, when it was necessary, + by firm assertions of superior authority, bears the highest testimony to + his skill in the management of men. Stanton, who had entered the service + with rather a mean opinion of Lincoln’s character and capacity, became one + of his warmest, most devoted, and most admiring friends, and with none of + his secretaries was Lincoln’s intercourse more intimate. To take advice + with candid readiness, and to weigh it without any pride of his own + opinion, was one of Lincoln’s preeminent virtues; but he had not long + presided over his cabinet council when his was felt by all its members to + be the ruling mind. + </p> + <p> + The cautious policy foreshadowed in his inaugural address, and pursued + during the first period of the civil war, was far from satisfying all his + party friends. The ardent spirits among the Union men thought that the + whole North should at once be called to arms, to crush the rebellion by + one powerful blow. The ardent spirits among the antislavery men insisted + that, slavery having brought forth the rebellion, this powerful blow + should at once be aimed at slavery. Both complained that the + administration was spiritless, undecided, and lamentably slow in its + proceedings. Lincoln reasoned otherwise. The ways of thinking and feeling + of the masses, of the plain people, were constantly present to his mind. + The masses, the plain people, had to furnish the men for the fighting, if + fighting was to be done. He believed that the plain people would be ready + to fight when it clearly appeared necessary, and that they would feel that + necessity when they felt themselves attacked. He therefore waited until + the enemies of the Union struck the first blow. As soon as, on the 12th of + April, 1861, the first gun was fired in Charleston harbor on the Union + flag upon Fort Sumter, the call was sounded, and the Northern people + rushed to arms. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln knew that the plain people were now indeed ready to fight in + defence of the Union, but not yet ready to fight for the destruction of + slavery. He declared openly that he had a right to summon the people to + fight for the Union, but not to summon them to fight for the abolition of + slavery as a primary object; and this declaration gave him numberless + soldiers for the Union who at that period would have hesitated to do + battle against the institution of slavery. For a time he succeeded in + rendering harmless the cry of the partisan opposition that the Republican + administration were perverting the war for the Union into an “abolition + war.” But when he went so far as to countermand the acts of some generals + in the field, looking to the emancipation of the slaves in the districts + covered by their commands, loud complaints arose from earnest antislavery + men, who accused the President of turning his back upon the antislavery + cause. Many of these antislavery men will now, after a calm retrospect, be + willing to admit that it would have been a hazardous policy to endanger, + by precipitating a demonstrative fight against slavery, the success of the + struggle for the Union. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln’s views and feelings concerning slavery had not changed. Those who + conversed with him intimately upon the subject at that period know that he + did not expect slavery long to survive the triumph of the Union, even if + it were not immediately destroyed by the war. In this he was right. Had + the Union armies achieved a decisive victory in an early period of the + conflict, and had the seceded States been received back with slavery, the + “slave power” would then have been a defeated power, defeated in an + attempt to carry out its most effective threat. It would have lost its + prestige. Its menaces would have been hollow sound, and ceased to make any + one afraid. It could no longer have hoped to expand, to maintain an + equilibrium in any branch of Congress, and to control the government. The + victorious free States would have largely overbalanced it. It would no + longer have been able to withstand the onset of a hostile age. It could no + longer have ruled,—and slavery had to rule in order to live. It + would have lingered for a while, but it would surely have been “in the + course of ultimate extinction.” A prolonged war precipitated the + destruction of slavery; a short war might only have prolonged its death + struggle. Lincoln saw this clearly; but he saw also that, in a protracted + death struggle, it might still have kept disloyal sentiments alive, bred + distracting commotions, and caused great mischief to the country. He + therefore hoped that slavery would not survive the war. + </p> + <p> + But the question how he could rightfully employ his power to bring on its + speedy destruction was to him not a question of mere sentiment. He himself + set forth his reasoning upon it, at a later period, in one of his + inimitable letters. “I am naturally antislavery,” said he. “If slavery is + not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember the time when I did not so + think and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency + conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act upon that judgment and + feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the best of my + ability, preserve, protect, and defend the 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 + that power. I understood, too, that, in ordinary civil administration, + this oath even forbade me practically to indulge my private abstract + judgment on the moral question of slavery. I did understand, however, + also, that my oath imposed upon me the duty of preserving, to the best of + my ability, by every indispensable means, that government, that nation, of + which the Constitution was the organic law. I could not feel that, to the + best of my ability, I had even tied to preserve the Constitution—if, + to save slavery, or any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of + government, country, and Constitution all together.” In other words, if + the salvation of the government, the Constitution, and the Union demanded + the destruction of slavery, he felt it to be not only his right, but his + sworn duty to destroy it. Its destruction became a necessity of the war + for the Union. + </p> + <p> + As the war dragged on and disaster followed disaster, the sense of that + necessity steadily grew upon him. Early in 1862, as some of his friends + well remember, he saw, what Seward seemed not to see, that to give the war + for the Union an antislavery character was the surest means to prevent the + recognition of the Southern Confederacy as an independent nation by + European powers; that, slavery being abhorred by the moral sense of + civilized mankind, no European government would dare to offer so gross an + insult to the public opinion of its people as openly to favor the creation + of a state founded upon slavery to the prejudice of an existing nation + fighting against slavery. He saw also that slavery untouched was to the + rebellion an element of power, and that in order to overcome that power it + was necessary to turn it into an element of weakness. Still, he felt no + assurance that the plain people were prepared for so radical a measure as + the emancipation of the slaves by act of the government, and he anxiously + considered that, if they were not, this great step might, by exciting + dissension at the North, injure the cause of the Union in one quarter more + than it would help it in another. He heartily welcomed an effort made in + New York to mould and stimulate public sentiment on the slavery question + by public meetings boldly pronouncing for emancipation. At the same time + he himself cautiously advanced with a recommendation, expressed in a + special message to Congress, that the United States should co-operate with + any State which might adopt the gradual abolishment of slavery, giving + such State pecuniary aid to compensate the former owners of emancipated + slaves. The discussion was started, and spread rapidly. Congress adopted + the resolution recommended, and soon went a step farther in passing a bill + to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. The plain people began to + look at emancipation on a larger scale as a thing to be considered + seriously by patriotic citizens; and soon Lincoln thought that the time + was ripe, and that the edict of freedom could be ventured upon without + danger of serious confusion in the Union ranks. + </p> + <p> + The failure of McClellan’s movement upon Richmond increased immensely the + prestige of the enemy. The need of some great act to stimulate the + vitality of the Union cause seemed to grow daily more pressing. On July + 21, 1862, Lincoln surprised his cabinet with the draught of a proclamation + declaring free the slaves in all the States that should be still in + rebellion against the United States on the 1st of January,1863. As to the + matter itself he announced that he had fully made up his mind; he invited + advice only concerning the form and the time of publication. Seward + suggested that the proclamation, if then brought out, amidst disaster and + distress, would sound like the last shriek of a perishing cause. Lincoln + accepted the suggestion, and the proclamation was postponed. Another + defeat followed, the second at Bull Run. But when, after that battle, the + Confederate army, under Lee, crossed the Potomac and invaded Maryland, + Lincoln vowed in his heart that, if the Union army were now blessed with + success, the decree of freedom should surely be issued. The victory of + Antietam was won on September 17, and the preliminary Emancipation + Proclamation came forth on the a 22d. It was Lincoln’s own resolution and + act; but practically it bound the nation, and permitted no step backward. + In spite of its limitations, it was the actual abolition of slavery. Thus + he wrote his name upon the books of history with the title dearest to his + heart, the liberator of the slave. + </p> + <p> + It is true, the great proclamation, which stamped the war as one for + “union and freedom,” did not at once mark the turning of the tide on the + field of military operations. There were more disasters, Fredericksburg + and Chancellorsville. But with Gettysburg and Vicksburg the whole aspect + of the war changed. Step by step, now more slowly, then more rapidly, but + with increasing steadiness, the flag of the Union advanced from field to + field toward the final consummation. The decree of emancipation was + naturally followed by the enlistment of emancipated negroes in the Union + armies. This measure had a anther reaching effect than merely giving the + Union armies an increased supply of men. The laboring force of the + rebellion was hopelessly disorganized. The war became like a problem of + arithmetic. As the Union armies pushed forward, the area from which the + Southern Confederacy could draw recruits and supplies constantly grew + smaller, while the area from which the Union recruited its strength + constantly grew larger; and everywhere, even within the Southern lines, + the Union had its allies. The fate of the rebellion was then virtually + decided; but it still required much bloody work to convince the brave + warriors who fought for it that they were really beaten. + </p> + <p> + Neither did the Emancipation Proclamation forthwith command universal + assent among the people who were loyal to the Union. There were even signs + of a reaction against the administration in the fall elections of 1862, + seemingly justifying the opinion, entertained by many, that the President + had really anticipated the development of popular feeling. The cry that + the war for the Union had been turned into an “abolition war” was raised + again by the opposition, and more loudly than ever. But the good sense and + patriotic instincts of the plain people gradually marshalled themselves on + Lincoln’s side, and he lost no opportunity to help on this process by + personal argument and admonition. There never has been a President in such + constant and active contact with the public opinion of the country, as + there never has been a President who, while at the head of the government, + remained so near to the people. Beyond the circle of those who had long + known him the feeling steadily grew that the man in the White House was + “honest Abe Lincoln” still, and that every citizen might approach him with + complaint, expostulation, or advice, without danger of meeting a rebuff + from power-proud authority, or humiliating condescension; and this + privilege was used by so many and with such unsparing freedom that only + superhuman patience could have endured it all. There are men now living + who would to-day read with amazement, if not regret, what they ventured to + say or write to him. But Lincoln repelled no one whom he believed to speak + to him in good faith and with patriotic purpose. No good advice would go + unheeded. No candid criticism would offend him. No honest opposition, + while it might pain him, would produce a lasting alienation of feeling + between him and the opponent. It may truly be said that few men in power + have ever been exposed to more daring attempts to direct their course, to + severer censure of their acts, and to more cruel misrepresentation of + their motives: And all this he met with that good-natured humor peculiarly + his own, and with untiring effort to see the right and to impress it upon + those who differed from him. The conversations he had and the + correspondence he carried on upon matters of public interest, not only + with men in official position, but with private citizens, were almost + unceasing, and in a large number of public letters, written ostensibly to + meetings, or committees, or persons of importance, he addressed himself + directly to the popular mind. Most of these letters stand among the finest + monuments of our political literature. Thus he presented the singular + spectacle of a President who, in the midst of a great civil war, with + unprecedented duties weighing upon him, was constantly in person debating + the great features of his policy with the people. + </p> + <p> + While in this manner he exercised an ever-increasing influence upon the + popular understanding, his sympathetic nature endeared him more and more + to the popular heart. In vain did journals and speakers of the opposition + represent him as a lightminded trifler, who amused himself with frivolous + story-telling and coarse jokes, while the blood of the people was flowing + in streams. The people knew that the man at the head of affairs, on whose + haggard face the twinkle of humor so frequently changed into an expression + of profoundest sadness, was more than any other deeply distressed by the + suffering he witnessed; that he felt the pain of every wound that was + inflicted on the battlefield, and the anguish of every woman or child who + had lost husband or father; that whenever he could he was eager to + alleviate sorrow, and that his mercy was never implored in vain. They + looked to him as one who was with them and of them in all their hopes and + fears, their joys and sorrows, who laughed with them and wept with them; + and as his heart was theirs; so their hearts turned to him. His popularity + was far different from that of Washington, who was revered with awe, or + that of Jackson, the unconquerable hero, for whom party enthusiasm never + grew weary of shouting. To Abraham Lincoln the people became bound by a + genuine sentimental attachment. It was not a matter of respect, or + confidence, or party pride, for this feeling spread far beyond the + boundary lines of his party; it was an affair of the heart, independent of + mere reasoning. When the soldiers in the field or their folks at home + spoke of “Father Abraham,” there was no cant in it. They felt that their + President was really caring for them as a father would, and that they + could go to him, every one of them, as they would go to a father, and talk + to him of what troubled them, sure to find a willing ear and tender + sympathy. Thus, their President, and his cause, and his endeavors, and his + success gradually became to them almost matters of family concern. And + this popularity carried him triumphantly through the Presidential election + of 1864, in spite of an opposition within his own party which at first + seemed very formidable. + </p> + <p> + Many of the radical antislavery men were never quite satisfied with + Lincoln’s ways of meeting the problems of the time. They were very earnest + and mostly very able men, who had positive ideas as to “how this rebellion + should be put down.” They would not recognize the necessity of measuring + the steps of the government according to the progress of opinion among the + plain people. They criticised Lincoln’s cautious management as irresolute, + halting, lacking in definite purpose and in energy; he should not have + delayed emancipation so long; he should not have confided important + commands to men of doubtful views as to slavery; he should have authorized + military commanders to set the slaves free as they went on; he dealt too + leniently with unsuccessful generals; he should have put down all factious + opposition with a strong hand instead of trying to pacify it; he should + have given the people accomplished facts instead of arguing with them, and + so on. It is true, these criticisms were not always entirely unfounded. + Lincoln’s policy had, with the virtues of democratic government, some of + its weaknesses, which in the presence of pressing exigencies were apt to + deprive governmental action of the necessary vigor; and his kindness of + heart, his disposition always to respect the feelings of others, + frequently made him recoil from anything like severity, even when severity + was urgently called for. But many of his radical critics have since then + revised their judgment sufficiently to admit that Lincoln’s policy was, on + the whole, the wisest and safest; that a policy of heroic methods, while + it has sometimes accomplished great results, could in a democracy like + ours be maintained only by constant success; that it would have quickly + broken down under the weight of disaster; that it might have been + successful from the start, had the Union, at the beginning of the + conflict, had its Grants and Shermans and Sheridans, its Farraguts and + Porters, fully matured at the head of its forces; but that, as the great + commanders had to be evolved slowly from the developments of the war, + constant success could not be counted upon, and it was best to follow a + policy which was in friendly contact with the popular force, and therefore + more fit to stand trial of misfortune on the battlefield. But at that + period they thought differently, and their dissatisfaction with Lincoln’s + doings was greatly increased by the steps he took toward the + reconstruction of rebel States then partially in possession of the Union + forces. + </p> + <p> + In December, 1863, Lincoln issued an amnesty proclamation, offering pardon + to all implicated in the rebellion, with certain specified exceptions, on + condition of their taking and maintaining an oath to support the + Constitution and obey the laws of the United States and the proclamations + of the President with regard to slaves; and also promising that when, in + any of the rebel States, a number of citizens equal to one tenth of the + voters in 1860 should re-establish a state government in conformity with + the oath above mentioned, such should be recognized by the Executive as + the true government of the State. The proclamation seemed at first to be + received with general favor. But soon another scheme of reconstruction, + much more stringent in its provisions, was put forward in the House of + Representatives by Henry Winter Davis. Benjamin Wade championed it in the + Senate. It passed in the closing moments of the session in July, 1864, and + Lincoln, instead of making it a law by his signature, embodied the text of + it in a proclamation as a plan of reconstruction worthy of being earnestly + considered. The differences of opinion concerning this subject had only + intensified the feeling against Lincoln which had long been nursed among + the radicals, and some of them openly declared their purpose of resisting + his re-election to the Presidency. Similar sentiments were manifested by + the advanced antislavery men of Missouri, who, in their hot faction-fight + with the “conservatives” of that State, had not received from Lincoln the + active support they demanded. Still another class of Union men, mainly in + the East, gravely shook their heads when considering the question whether + Lincoln should be re-elected. They were those who cherished in their minds + an ideal of statesmanship and of personal bearing in high office with + which, in their opinion, Lincoln’s individuality was much out of accord. + They were shocked when they heard him cap an argument upon grave affairs + of state with a story about “a man out in Sangamon County,”—a story, + to be sure, strikingly clinching his point, but sadly lacking in dignity. + They could not understand the man who was capable, in opening a cabinet + meeting, of reading to his secretaries a funny chapter from a recent book + of Artemus Ward, with which in an unoccupied moment he had relieved his + care-burdened mind, and who then solemnly informed the executive council + that he had vowed in his heart to issue a proclamation emancipating the + slaves as soon as God blessed the Union arms with another victory. They + were alarmed at the weakness of a President who would indeed resist the + urgent remonstrances of statesmen against his policy, but could not resist + the prayer of an old woman for the pardon of a soldier who was sentenced + to be shot for desertion. Such men, mostly sincere and ardent patriots, + not only wished, but earnestly set to work, to prevent Lincoln’s + renomination. Not a few of them actually believed, in 1863, that, if the + national convention of the Union party were held then, Lincoln would not + be supported by the delegation of a single State. But when the convention + met at Baltimore, in June, 1864, the voice of the people was heard. On the + first ballot Lincoln received the votes of the delegations from all the + States except Missouri; and even the Missourians turned over their votes + to him before the result of the ballot was declared. + </p> + <p> + But even after his renomination the opposition to Lincoln within the ranks + of the Union party did not subside. A convention, called by the + dissatisfied radicals in Missouri, and favored by men of a similar way of + thinking in other States, had been held already in May, and had nominated + as its candidate for the Presidency General Fremont. He, indeed, did not + attract a strong following, but opposition movements from different + quarters appeared more formidable. Henry Winter Davis and Benjamin Wade + assailed Lincoln in a flaming manifesto. Other Union men, of undoubted + patriotism and high standing, persuaded themselves, and sought to persuade + the people, that Lincoln’s renomination was ill advised and dangerous to + the Union cause. As the Democrats had put off their convention until the + 29th of August, the Union party had, during the larger part of the summer, + no opposing candidate and platform to attack, and the political campaign + languished. Neither were the tidings from the theatre of war of a cheering + character. The terrible losses suffered by Grant’s army in the battles of + the Wilderness spread general gloom. Sherman seemed for a while to be in a + precarious position before Atlanta. The opposition to Lincoln within the + Union party grew louder in its complaints and discouraging predictions. + Earnest demands were heard that his candidacy should be withdrawn. Lincoln + himself, not knowing how strongly the masses were attached to him, was + haunted by dark forebodings of defeat. Then the scene suddenly changed as + if by magic. + </p> + <p> + The Democrats, in their national convention, declared the war a failure, + demanded, substantially, peace at any price, and nominated on such a + platform General McClellan as their candidate. Their convention had hardly + adjourned when the capture of Atlanta gave a new aspect to the military + situation. It was like a sun-ray bursting through a dark cloud. The rank + and file of the Union party rose with rapidly growing enthusiasm. The song + “We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand strong,” resounded + all over the land. Long before the decisive day arrived, the result was + beyond doubt, and Lincoln was re-elected President by overwhelming + majorities. The election over even his severest critics found themselves + forced to admit that Lincoln was the only possible candidate for the Union + party in 1864, and that neither political combinations nor campaign + speeches, nor even victories in the field, were needed to insure his + success. The plain people had all the while been satisfied with Abraham + Lincoln: they confided in him; they loved him; they felt themselves near + to him; they saw personified in him the cause of Union and freedom; and + they went to the ballot-box for him in their strength. + </p> + <p> + The hour of triumph called out the characteristic impulses of his nature. + The opposition within the Union party had stung him to the quick. Now he + had his opponents before him, baffled and humiliated. Not a moment did he + lose to stretch out the hand of friendship to all. “Now that the election + is over,” he said, in response to a serenade, “may not all, having a + common interest, reunite in a common effort to save our common country? + For my own part, I have striven, and will strive, to place no obstacle in + the way. So long as I have been here I have not willingly planted a thorn + in any man’s bosom. While I am deeply sensible to the high compliment of a + re-election, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be + pained or disappointed by the result. May I ask those who were with me to + join with me in the same spirit toward those who were against me?” This + was Abraham Lincoln’s character as tested in the furnace of prosperity. + </p> + <p> + The war was virtually decided, but not yet ended. Sherman was irresistibly + carrying the Union flag through the South. Grant had his iron hand upon + the ramparts of Richmond. The days of the Confederacy were evidently + numbered. Only the last blow remained to be struck. Then Lincoln’s second + inauguration came, and with it his second inaugural address. Lincoln’s + famous “Gettysburg speech” has been much and justly admired. But far + greater, as well as far more characteristic, was that inaugural in which + he poured out the whole devotion and tenderness of his great soul. It had + all the solemnity of a father’s last admonition and blessing to his + children before he lay down to die. These were its closing words: “Fondly + do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may + speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth + piled up by the bondman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil + shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be + paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years + ago, so still it must be said, ‘The judgments of the Lord are true and + righteous altogether.’ With malice toward none, with charity for all, with + firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive 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.” + </p> + <p> + This was like a sacred poem. No American President had ever spoken words + like these to the American people. America never had a President who found + such words in the depth of his heart. + </p> + <p> + Now followed the closing scenes of the war. The Southern armies fought + bravely to the last, but all in vain. Richmond fell. Lincoln himself + entered the city on foot, accompanied only by a few officers and a squad + of sailors who had rowed him ashore from the flotilla in the James River, + a negro picked up on the way serving as a guide. Never had the world seen + a more modest conqueror and a more characteristic triumphal procession, no + army with banners and drums, only a throng of those who had been slaves, + hastily run together, escorting the victorious chief into the capital of + the vanquished foe. We are told that they pressed around him, kissed his + hands and his garments, and shouted and danced for joy, while tears ran + down the President’s care-furrowed cheeks. + </p> + <p> + A few days more brought the surrender of Lee’s army, and peace was + assured. The people of the North were wild with joy. Everywhere festive + guns were booming, bells pealing, the churches ringing with thanksgivings, + and jubilant multitudes thronging the thoroughfares, when suddenly the + news flashed over the land that Abraham Lincoln had been murdered. The + people were stunned by the blow. Then a wail of sorrow went up such as + America had never heard before. Thousands of Northern households grieved + as if they had lost their dearest member. Many a Southern man cried out in + his heart that his people had been robbed of their best friend in their + humiliation and distress, when Abraham Lincoln was struck down. It was as + if the tender affection which his countrymen bore him had inspired all + nations with a common sentiment. All civilized mankind stood mourning + around the coffin of the dead President. Many of those, here and abroad, + who not long before had ridiculed and reviled him were among the first to + hasten on with their flowers of eulogy, and in that universal chorus of + lamentation and praise there was not a voice that did not tremble with + genuine emotion. Never since Washington’s death had there been such + unanimity of judgment as to a man’s virtues and greatness; and even + Washington’s death, although his name was held in greater reverence, did + not touch so sympathetic a chord in the people’s hearts. + </p> + <p> + Nor can it be said that this was owing to the tragic character of + Lincoln’s end. It is true, the death of this gentlest and most merciful of + rulers by the hand of a mad fanatic was well apt to exalt him beyond his + merits in the estimation of those who loved him, and to make his renown + the object of peculiarly tender solicitude. But it is also true that the + verdict pronounced upon him in those days has been affected little by + time, and that historical inquiry has served rather to increase than to + lessen the appreciation of his virtues, his abilities, his services. + Giving the fullest measure of credit to his great ministers,—to + Seward for his conduct of foreign affairs, to Chase for the management of + the finances under terrible difficulties, to Stanton for the performance + of his tremendous task as war secretary,—and readily acknowledging + that without the skill and fortitude of the great commanders, and the + heroism of the soldiers and sailors under them, success could not have + been achieved, the historian still finds that Lincoln’s judgment and will + were by no means governed by those around him; that the most important + steps were owing to his initiative; that his was the deciding and + directing mind; and that it was pre-eminently he whose sagacity and whose + character enlisted for the administration in its struggles the + countenance, the sympathy, and the support of the people. It is found, + even, that his judgment on military matters was astonishingly acute, and + that the advice and instructions he gave to the generals commanding in the + field would not seldom have done honor to the ablest of them. History, + therefore, without overlooking, or palliating, or excusing any of his + shortcomings or mistakes, continues to place him foremost among the + saviours of the Union and the liberators of the slave. More than that, it + awards to him the merit of having accomplished what but few political + philosophers would have recognized as possible,—of leading the + republic through four years of furious civil conflict without any serious + detriment to its free institutions. + </p> + <p> + He was, indeed, while President, violently denounced by the opposition as + a tyrant and a usurper, for having gone beyond his constitutional powers + in authorizing or permitting the temporary suppression of newspapers, and + in wantonly suspending the writ of habeas corpus and resorting to + arbitrary arrests. 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 demanded by necessity, + should never be permitted to pass without a protest on the one hand, and + without an apology on the other. It is well they did not so pass during + our civil war. That arbitrary measures were resorted to is true. That they + were resorted to most sparingly, and only when the government thought them + absolutely required by the safety of the republic, will now hardly be + denied. But certain it is that the history of the world does not furnish a + single example of a government passing through so tremendous a crisis as + our civil war was with so small a record of arbitrary acts, and so little + interference with the ordinary course of law outside the field of military + operations. No American President ever wielded such power as that which + was thrust into Lincoln’s hands. It is to be hoped that no American + President ever will have to be entrusted with such power again. But no man + was ever entrusted with it to whom its seductions were less dangerous than + they proved to be to Abraham Lincoln. With scrupulous care he endeavored, + even under the most trying circumstances, to remain strictly within the + constitutional limitations of his authority; and whenever the boundary + became indistinct, or when the dangers of the situation forced him to + cross it, he was equally careful to mark his acts as exceptional measures, + justifiable only by the imperative necessities of the civil war, so that + they might not pass into history as precedents for similar acts in time of + peace. It is an unquestionable fact that during the reconstruction period + which followed the war, more things were done capable of serving as + dangerous precedents than during the war itself. Thus it may truly be said + of him not only that under his guidance the republic was saved from + disruption and the country was purified of the blot of slavery, but that, + during the stormiest and most perilous crisis in our history, he so + conducted the government and so wielded his almost dictatorial power as to + leave essentially intact our free institutions in all things that concern + the rights and liberties of the citizens. He understood well the nature of + the problem. In his first message to Congress he defined it in admirably + pointed language: “Must a government be of necessity too strong for the + liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence? Is + there in all republics this inherent weakness?” This question he answered + in the name of the great American republic, as no man could have answered + it better, with a triumphant “No....” + </p> + <p> + It has been said that Abraham Lincoln died at the right moment for his + fame. However that may be, he had, at the time of his death, certainly not + exhausted his usefulness to his country. He was probably the only man who + could have guided the nation through the perplexities of the + reconstruction period in such a manner as to prevent in the work of peace + the revival of the passions of the war. He would indeed not have escaped + serious controversy as to details of policy; but he could have weathered + it far better than any other statesman of his time, for his prestige with + the active politicians had been immensely strengthened by his triumphant + re-election; and, what is more important, he would have been supported by + the confidence of the victorious Northern people that he would do all to + secure the safety of the Union and the rights of the emancipated negro, + and at the same time by the confidence of the defeated Southern people + that nothing would be done by him from motives of vindictiveness, or of + unreasoning fanaticism, or of a selfish party spirit. “With malice toward + none, with charity for all,” the foremost of the victors would have + personified in himself the genius of reconciliation. + </p> + <p> + He might have rendered the country a great service in another direction. A + few days after the fall of Richmond, he pointed out to a friend the crowd + of office-seekers besieging his door. “Look at that,” said he. “Now we + have conquered the rebellion, but here you see something that may become + more dangerous to this republic than the rebellion itself.” It is true, + Lincoln as President did not profess what we now call civil service reform + principles. He used the patronage of the government in many cases avowedly + to reward party work, in many others to form combinations and to produce + political effects advantageous to the Union cause, and in still others + simply to put the right man into the right place. But in his endeavors to + strengthen the Union cause, and in his search for able and useful men for + public duties, he frequently went beyond the limits of his party, and + gradually accustomed himself to the thought that, while party service had + its value, considerations of the public interest were, as to appointments + to office, of far greater consequence. Moreover, there had been such a + mingling of different political elements in support of the Union during + the civil war that Lincoln, standing at the head of that temporarily + united motley mass, hardly felt himself, in the narrow sense of the term, + a party man. And as he became strongly impressed with the dangers brought + upon the republic by the use of public offices as party spoils, it is by + no means improbable that, had he survived the all-absorbing crisis and + found time to turn to other objects, one of the most important reforms of + later days would have been pioneered by his powerful authority. This was + not to be. But the measure of his achievements was full enough for + immortality. + </p> + <p> + To the younger generation Abraham Lincoln has already become a + half-mythical figure, which, in the haze of historic distance, grows to + more and more heroic proportions, but also loses in distinctness of + outline and feature. This is indeed the common lot of popular heroes; but + the Lincoln legend will be more than ordinarily apt to become fanciful, as + his individuality, assembling seemingly incongruous qualities and forces + in a character at the same time grand and most lovable, was so unique, and + his career so abounding in startling contrasts. As the state of society in + which Abraham Lincoln grew up passes away, the world will read with + increasing wonder of the man who, not only of the humblest origin, but + remaining the simplest and most unpretending of citizens, was raised to a + position of power unprecedented in our history; who was the gentlest and + most peace-loving of mortals, unable to see any creature suffer without a + pang in his own breast, and suddenly found himself called to conduct the + greatest and bloodiest of our wars; who wielded the power of government + when stern resolution and relentless force were the order of the day and + then won and ruled the popular mind and heart by the tender sympathies of + his nature; who was a cautious conservative by temperament and mental + habit, and led the most sudden and sweeping social revolution of our time; + who, preserving his homely speech and rustic manner even in the most + conspicuous position of that period, drew upon himself the scoffs of + polite society, and then thrilled the soul of mankind with utterances of + wonderful beauty and grandeur; who, in his heart the best friend of the + defeated South, was murdered because a crazy fanatic took him for its most + cruel enemy; who, while in power, was beyond measure lampooned and + maligned by sectional passion and an excited party spirit, and around + whose bier friend and foe gathered to praise him which they have since + never ceased to do—as one of the greatest of Americans and the best + of men. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BY JOSEPH H. CHOATE + </h2></div> + <p> + [This Address was delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical + Institution, November 13, 1900. It is included in this set with the + courteous permission of the author and of Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell & + Company.] + </p> + <p> + ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + When you asked me to deliver the Inaugural Address on this occasion, I + recognized that I owed this compliment to the fact that I was the official + representative of America, and in selecting a subject I ventured to think + that I might interest you for an hour in a brief study in popular + government, as illustrated by the life of the most American of all + Americans. I therefore offer no apology for asking your attention to + Abraham Lincoln—to his unique character and the part he bore in two + important achievements of modern history: the preservation of the + integrity of the American Union and the emancipation of the colored race. + </p> + <p> + During his brief term of power he was probably the object of more abuse, + vilification, and ridicule than any other man in the world; but when he + fell by the hand of an assassin, at the very moment of his stupendous + victory, all the nations of the earth vied with one another in paying + homage to his character, and the thirty-five years that have since elapsed + have established his place in history as one of the great benefactors not + of his own country alone, but of the human race. + </p> + <p> + One of many noble utterances upon the occasion of his death was that in + which ‘Punch’ made its magnanimous recantation of the spirit with which it + had pursued him: + </p> +<div class='pre'> + “Beside this corpse that bears for winding sheet + The stars and stripes he lived to rear anew, + Between the mourners at his head and feet, + Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? + + ................... + + “Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, + To lame my pencil, and confute my pen + To make me own this hind—of princes peer, + This rail-splitter—a true born king of men.” +</div> + <p> + Fiction can furnish no match for the romance of his life, and biography + will be searched in vain for such startling vicissitudes of fortune, so + great power and glory won out of such humble beginnings and adverse + circumstances. + </p> + <p> + Doubtless you are all familiar with the salient points of his + extraordinary career. In the zenith of his fame he was the wise, patient, + courageous, successful ruler of men; exercising more power than any + monarch of his time, not for himself, but for the good of the people who + had placed it in his hands; commander-in-chief of a vast military power, + which waged with ultimate success the greatest war of the century; the + triumphant champion of popular government, the deliverer of four millions + of his fellowmen from bondage; honored by mankind as Statesman, President, + and Liberator. + </p> + <p> + Let us glance now at the first half of the brief life of which this was + the glorious and happy consummation. Nothing could be more squalid and + miserable than the home in which Abraham Lincoln was born—a + one-roomed cabin without floor or window in what was then the wilderness + of Kentucky, in the heart of that frontier life which swiftly moved + westward from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, always in advance of + schools and churches, of books and money, of railroads and newspapers, of + all things which are generally regarded as the comforts and even + necessaries of life. His father, ignorant, needy, and thriftless, content + if he could keep soul and body together for himself and his family, was + ever seeking, without success, to better his unhappy condition by moving + on from one such scene of dreary desolation to another. The rude society + which surrounded them was not much better. The struggle for existence was + hard, and absorbed all their energies. They were fighting the forest, the + wild beast, and the retreating savage. From the time when he could barely + handle tools until he attained his majority, Lincoln’s life was that of a + simple farm laborer, poorly clad, housed, and fed, at work either on his + father’s wretched farm or hired out to neighboring farmers. But in spite, + or perhaps by means, of this rude environment, he grew to be a stalwart + giant, reaching six feet four at nineteen, and fabulous stories are told + of his feats of strength. With the growth of this mighty frame began that + strange education which in his ripening years was to qualify him for the + great destiny that awaited him, and the development of those mental + faculties and moral endowments which, by the time he reached middle life, + were to make him the sagacious, patient, and triumphant leader of a great + nation in the crisis of its fate. His whole schooling, obtained during + such odd times as could be spared from grinding labor, did not amount in + all to as much as one year, and the quality of the teaching was of the + lowest possible grade, including only the elements of reading, writing, + and ciphering. But out of these simple elements, when rightly used by the + right man, education is achieved, and Lincoln knew how to use them. As so + often happens, he seemed to take warning from his father’s unfortunate + example. Untiring industry, an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and an + ever-growing desire to rise above his surroundings, were early + manifestations of his character. + </p> + <p> + Books were almost unknown in that community, but the Bible was in every + house, and somehow or other Pilgrim’s Progress, AEsop’s Fables, a History + of the United States, and a Life of Washington fell into his hands. He + trudged on foot many miles through the wilderness to borrow an English + Grammar, and is said to have devoured greedily the contents of the + Statutes of Indiana that fell in his way. These few volumes he read and + reread—and his power of assimilation was great. To be shut in with a + few books and to master them thoroughly sometimes does more for the + development of character than freedom to range at large, in a cursory and + indiscriminate way, through wide domains of literature. This youth’s mind, + at any rate, was thoroughly saturated with Biblical knowledge and Biblical + language, which, in after life, he used with great readiness and effect. + But it was the constant use of the little knowledge which he had that + developed and exercised his mental powers. After the hard day’s work was + done, while others slept, he toiled on, always reading or writing. From an + early age he did his own thinking and made up his own mind—invaluable + traits in the future President. Paper was such a scarce commodity that, by + the evening firelight, he would write and cipher on the back of a wooden + shovel, and then shave it off to make room for more. By and by, as he + approached manhood, he began speaking in the rude gatherings of the + neighborhood, and so laid the foundation of that art of persuading his + fellow-men which was one rich result of his education, and one great + secret of his subsequent success. + </p> + <p> + Accustomed as we are in these days of steam and telegraphs to have every + intelligent boy survey the whole world each morning before breakfast, and + inform himself as to what is going on in every nation, it is hardly + possible to conceive how benighted and isolated was the condition of the + community at Pigeon Creek in Indiana, of which the family of Lincoln’s + father formed a part, or how eagerly an ambitious and high-spirited boy, + such as he, must have yearned to escape. The first glimpse that he ever + got of any world beyond the narrow confines of his home was in 1828, at + the age of nineteen, when a neighbor employed him to accompany his son + down the river to New Orleans to dispose of a flatboat of produce—a + commission which he discharged with great success. + </p> + <p> + Shortly after his return from this his first excursion into the outer + world, his father, tired of failure in Indiana, packed his family and all + his worldly goods into a single wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, and after + a fourteen days’ tramp through the wilderness, pitched his camp once more, + in Illinois. Here Abraham, having come of age and being now his own + master, rendered the last service of his minority by ploughing the + fifteen-acre lot and splitting from the tall walnut trees of the primeval + forest enough rails to surround the little clearing with a fence. Such was + the meagre outfit of this coming leader of men, at the age when the future + British Prime Minister or statesman emerges from the university as a + double first or senior wrangler, with every advantage that high training + and broad culture and association with the wisest and the best of men and + women can give, and enters upon some form of public service on the road to + usefulness and honor, the University course being only the first stage of + the public training. So Lincoln, at twenty-one, had just begun his + preparation for the public life to which he soon began to aspire. For some + years yet he must continue to earn his daily bread by the sweat of his + brow, having absolutely no means, no home, no friend to consult. More farm + work as a hired hand, a clerkship in a village store, the running of a + mill, another trip to New Orleans on a flatboat of his own contriving, a + pilot’s berth on the river—these were the means by which he + subsisted until, in the summer of 1832, when he was twenty-three years of + age, an event occurred which gave him public recognition. + </p> + <p> + The Black Hawk war broke out, and, the Governor of Illinois calling for + volunteers to repel the band of savages whose leader bore that name, + Lincoln enlisted and was elected captain by his comrades, among whom he + had already established his supremacy by signal feats of strength and more + than one successful single combat. During the brief hostilities he was + engaged in no battle and won no military glory, but his local leadership + was established. The same year he offered himself as a candidate for the + Legislature of Illinois, but failed at the polls. Yet his vast popularity + with those who knew him was manifest. The district consisted of several + counties, but the unanimous vote of the people of his own county was for + Lincoln. Another unsuccessful attempt at store-keeping was followed by + better luck at surveying, until his horse and instruments were levied upon + under execution for the debts of his business adventure. + </p> + <p> + I have been thus detailed in sketching his early years because upon these + strange foundations the structure of his great fame and service was built. + In the place of a school and university training fortune substituted these + trials, hardships, and struggles as a preparation for the great work which + he had to do. It turned out to be exactly what the emergency required. Ten + years instead at the public school and the university certainly never + could have fitted this man for the unique work which was to be thrown upon + him. Some other Moses would have had to lead us to our Jordan, to the + sight of our promised land of liberty. + </p> + <p> + At the age of twenty-five he became a member of the Legislature of + Illinois, and so continued for eight years, and, in the meantime, + qualified himself by reading such law books as he could borrow at random—for + he was too poor to buy any to be called to the Bar. For his second quarter + of a century—during which a single term in Congress introduced him + into the arena of national questions—he gave himself up to law and + politics. In spite of his soaring ambition, his two years in Congress gave + him no premonition of the great destiny that awaited him,—and at its + close, in 1849, we find him an unsuccessful applicant to the President for + appointment as Commissioner of the General Land Office—a purely + administrative bureau; a fortunate escape for himself and for his country. + Year by year his knowledge and power, his experience and reputation + extended, and his mental faculties seemed to grow by what they fed on. His + power of persuasion, which had always been marked, was developed to an + extraordinary degree, now that he became engaged in congenial questions + and subjects. Little by little he rose to prominence at the Bar, and + became the most effective public speaker in the West. Not that he + possessed any of the graces of the orator; but his logic was invincible, + and his clearness and force of statement impressed upon his hearers the + convictions of his honest mind, while his broad sympathies and sparkling + and genial humor made him a universal favorite as far and as fast as his + acquaintance extended. + </p> + <p> + These twenty years that elapsed from the time of his establishment as a + lawyer and legislator in Springfield, the new capital of Illinois, + furnished a fitting theatre for the development and display of his great + faculties, and, with his new and enlarged opportunities, he obviously grew + in mental stature in this second period of his career, as if to compensate + for the absolute lack of advantages under which he had suffered in youth. + As his powers enlarged, his reputation extended, for he was always before + the people, felt a warm sympathy with all that concerned them, took a + zealous part in the discussion of every public question, and made his + personal influence ever more widely and deeply felt. + </p> + <p> + My brethren of the legal profession will naturally ask me, how could this + rough backwoodsman, whose youth had been spent in the forest or on the + farm and the flatboat, without culture or training, education or study, by + the random reading, on the wing, of a few miscellaneous law books, become + a learned and accomplished lawyer? Well, he never did. He never would have + earned his salt as a ‘Writer’ for the ‘Signet’, nor have won a place as + advocate in the Court of Session, where the technique of the profession + has reached its highest perfection, and centuries of learning and + precedent are involved in the equipment of a lawyer. Dr. Holmes, when + asked by an anxious young mother, “When should the education of a child + begin?” replied, “Madam, at least two centuries before it is born!” and so + I am sure it is with the Scots lawyer. + </p> + <p> + But not so in Illinois in 1840. Between 1830 and 1880 its population + increased twenty-fold, and when Lincoln began practising law in + Springfield in 1837, life in Illinois was very crude and simple, and so + were the courts and the administration of justice. Books and libraries + were scarce. But the people loved justice, upheld the law, and followed + the courts, and soon found their favorites among the advocates. The + fundamental principles of the common law, as set forth by Blackstone and + Chitty, were not so difficult to acquire; and brains, common sense, force + of character, tenacity of purpose, ready wit and power of speech did the + rest, and supplied all the deficiencies of learning. + </p> + <p> + The lawsuits of those days were extremely simple, and the principles of + natural justice were mainly relied on to dispose of them at the Bar and on + the Bench, without resort to technical learning. Railroads, corporations + absorbing the chief business of the community, combined and inherited + wealth, with all the subtle and intricate questions they breed, had not + yet come in—and so the professional agents and the equipment which + they require were not needed. But there were many highly educated and + powerful men at the Bar of Illinois, even in those early days, whom the + spirit of enterprise had carried there in search of fame and fortune. It + was by constant contact and conflict with these that Lincoln acquired + professional strength and skill. Every community and every age creates its + own Bar, entirely adequate for its present uses and necessities. So in + Illinois, as the population and wealth of the State kept on doubling and + quadrupling, its Bar presented a growing abundance of learning and science + and technical skill. The early practitioners grew with its growth and + mastered the requisite knowledge. Chicago soon grew to be one of the + largest and richest and certainly the most intensely active city on the + continent, and if any of my professional friends here had gone there in + Lincoln’s later years, to try or argue a cause, or transact other + business, with any idea that Edinburgh or London had a monopoly of legal + learning, science, or subtlety, they would certainly have found their + mistake. + </p> + <p> + In those early days in the West, every lawyer, especially every court + lawyer, was necessarily a politician, constantly engaged in the public + discussion of the many questions evolved from the rapid development of + town, county, State, and Federal affairs. Then and there, in this regard, + public discussion supplied the place which the universal activity of the + press has since monopolized, and the public speaker who, by clearness, + force, earnestness, and wit; could make himself felt on the questions of + the day would rapidly come to the front. In the absence of that immense + variety of popular entertainments which now feed the public taste and + appetite, the people found their chief amusement in frequenting the courts + and public and political assemblies. In either place, he who impressed, + entertained, and amused them most was the hero of the hour. They did not + discriminate very carefully between the eloquence of the forum and the + eloquence of the hustings. Human nature ruled in both alike, and he who + was the most effective speaker in a political harangue was often retained + as most likely to win in a cause to be tried or argued. And I have no + doubt in this way many retainers came to Lincoln. Fees, money in any form, + had no charms for him—in his eager pursuit of fame he could not + afford to make money. He was ambitious to distinguish himself by some + great service to mankind, and this ambition for fame and real public + service left no room for avarice in his composition. However much he + earned, he seems to have ended every year hardly richer than he began it, + and yet, as the years passed, fees came to him freely. One of L 1,000 is + recorded—a very large professional fee at that time, even in any + part of America, the paradise of lawyers. I lay great stress on Lincoln’s + career as a lawyer—much more than his biographers do because in + America a state of things exists wholly different from that which prevails + in Great Britain. The profession of the law always has been and is to this + day the principal avenue to public life; and I am sure that his training + and experience in the courts had much to do with the development of those + forces of intellect and character which he soon displayed on a broader + arena. + </p> + <p> + It was in political controversy, of course, that he acquired his wide + reputation, and made his deep and lasting impression upon the people of + what had now become the powerful State of Illinois, and upon the people of + the Great West, to whom the political power and control of the United + States were already surely and swiftly passing from the older Eastern + States. It was this reputation and this impression, and the familiar + knowledge of his character which had come to them from his local + leadership, that happily inspired the people of the West to present him as + their candidate, and to press him upon the Republican convention of 1860 + as the fit and necessary leader in the struggle for life which was before + the nation. + </p> + <p> + That struggle, as you all know, arose out of the terrible question of + slavery—and I must trust to your general knowledge of the history of + that question to make intelligible the attitude and leadership of Lincoln + as the champion of the hosts of freedom in the final contest. Negro + slavery had been firmly established in the Southern States from an early + period of their history. In 1619, the year before the Mayflower landed our + Pilgrim Fathers upon Plymouth Rock, a Dutch ship had discharged a cargo of + African slaves at Jamestown in Virginia: All through the colonial period + their importation had continued. A few had found their way into the + Northern States, but none of them in sufficient numbers to constitute + danger or to afford a basis for political power. At the time of the + adoption of the Federal Constitution, there is no doubt that the principal + members of the convention not only condemned slavery as a moral, social, + and political evil, but believed that by the suppression of the slave + trade it was in the course of gradual extinction in the South, as it + certainly was in the North. Washington, in his will, provided for the + emancipation of his own slaves, and said to Jefferson that it “was among + his first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in his country + might be abolished.” Jefferson said, referring to the institution: “I + tremble for my country when I think that God is just; that His justice + cannot sleep forever,”—and Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, and Patrick + Henry were all utterly opposed to it. But it was made the subject of a + fatal compromise in the Federal Constitution, whereby its existence was + recognized in the States as a basis of representation, the prohibition of + the importation of slaves was postponed for twenty years, and the return + of fugitive slaves provided for. But no imminent danger was apprehended + from it till, by the invention of the cotton gin in 1792, cotton culture + by negro labor became at once and forever the leading industry of the + South, and gave a new impetus to the importation of slaves, so that in + 1808, when the constitutional prohibition took effect, their numbers had + vastly increased. From that time forward slavery became the basis of a + great political power, and the Southern States, under all circumstances + and at every opportunity, carried on a brave and unrelenting struggle for + its maintenance and extension. + </p> + <p> + The conscience of the North was slow to rise against it, though bitter + controversies from time to time took place. The Southern leaders + threatened disunion if their demands were not complied with. To save the + Union, compromise after compromise was made, but each one in the end was + broken. The Missouri Compromise, made in 1820 upon the occasion of the + admission of Missouri into the Union as a slave State, whereby, in + consideration of such admission, slavery was forever excluded from the + Northwest Territory, was ruthlessly repealed in 1854, by a Congress + elected in the interests of the slave power, the intent being to force + slavery into that vast territory which had so long been dedicated to + freedom. This challenge at last aroused the slumbering conscience and + passion of the North, and led to the formation of the Republican party for + the avowed purpose of preventing, by constitutional methods, the further + extension of slavery. + </p> + <p> + In its first campaign, in 1856, though it failed to elect its candidates; + it received a surprising vote and carried many of the States. No one could + any longer doubt that the North had made up its mind that no threats of + disunion should deter it from pressing its cherished purpose and + performing its long neglected duty. From the outset, Lincoln was one of + the most active and effective leaders and speakers of the new party, and + the great debates between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858, as the respective + champions of the restriction and extension of slavery, attracted the + attention of the whole country. Lincoln’s powerful arguments carried + conviction everywhere. His moral nature was thoroughly aroused his + conscience was stirred to the quick. Unless slavery was wrong, nothing was + wrong. Was each man, of whatever color, entitled to the fruits of his own + labor, or could one man live in idle luxury by the sweat of another’s + brow, whose skin was darker? He was an implicit believer in that principle + of the Declaration of Independence that all men are vested with certain + inalienable rights the equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of + happiness. On this doctrine he staked his case and carried it. We have + time only for one or two sentences in which he struck the keynote of the + contest. + </p> + <p> + “The real issue in this country is the eternal struggle between these two + principles—right and wrong—throughout the world. They are the + two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, + and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of + humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same + principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that + says, ‘You work and toil and earn bread and I’ll eat it.’” + </p> + <p> + He foresaw with unerring vision that the conflict was inevitable and + irrepressible—that one or the other, the right or the wrong, freedom + or slavery, must ultimately prevail and wholly prevail, throughout the + country; and this was the principle that carried the war, once begun, to a + finish. + </p> + <p> + One sentence of his is immortal: + </p> + <p> + “Under the operation of the policy of compromise, the slavery agitation + has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it + will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. ‘A house + divided against itself cannot stand.’ I believe this government cannot + endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to + be 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 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.” + </p> + <p> + During the entire decade from 1850 to 1860 the agitation of the slavery + question was at the boiling point, and events which have become historical + continually indicated the near approach of the overwhelming storm. No + sooner had the Compromise Acts of 1850 resulted in a temporary peace, + which everybody said must be final and perpetual, than new outbreaks came. + The forcible carrying away of fugitive slaves by Federal troops from + Boston agitated that ancient stronghold of freedom to its foundations. The + publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which truly exposed the frightful + possibilities of the slave system; the reckless attempts by force and + fraud to establish it in Kansas against the will of the vast majority of + the settlers; the beating of Summer in the Senate Chamber for words spoken + in debate; the Dred Scott decision in the Supreme Court, which made the + nation realize that the slave power had at last reached the fountain of + Federal justice; and finally the execution of John Brown, for his wild + raid into Virginia, to invite the slaves to rally to the standard of + freedom which he unfurled:—all these events tend to illustrate and + confirm Lincoln’s contention that the nation could not permanently + continue half slave and half free, but must become all one thing or all + the other. When John Brown lay under sentence of death he declared that + now he was sure that slavery must be wiped out in blood; but neither he + nor his executioners dreamt that within four years a million soldiers + would be marching across the country for its final extirpation, to the + music of the war-song of the great conflict: + </p> +<div class='pre'> + “John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave, + But his soul is marching on.” +</div> + <p> + And now, at the age of fifty-one, this child of the wilderness, this farm + laborer, rail-sputter, flatboatman, this surveyor, lawyer, orator, + statesman, and patriot, found himself elected by the great party which was + pledged to prevent at all hazards the further extension of slavery, as the + chief magistrate of the Republic, bound to carry out that purpose, to be + the leader and ruler of the nation in its most trying hour. + </p> + <p> + Those who believe that there is a living Providence that overrules and + conducts the affairs of nations, find in the elevation of this plain man + to this extraordinary fortune and to this great duty, which he so fitly + discharged, a signal vindication of their faith. Perhaps to this + philosophical institution the judgment of our philosopher Emerson will + commend itself as a just estimate of Lincoln’s historical place. + </p> + <p> + “His occupying the chair of state was a triumph of the good sense of + mankind and of the public conscience. He grew according to the need; his + mind mastered the problem of the day: and as the problem grew, so did his + comprehension of it. In the war there was no place for holiday magistrate, + nor fair-weather sailor. The new pilot was hurried to the helm in a + tornado. In four years—four years of battle days—his + endurance, his fertility of resource, his magnanimity, were sorely tried, + and never found wanting. There, by his courage, his justice, his even + temper, his fertile counsel, his humanity, he stood a heroic figure in the + centre of a heroic epoch. He is the true history of the American people in + his time, the true representative of this continent—father of his + country, the pulse of twenty millions throbbing in his heart, the thought + of their mind—articulated in his tongue.” + </p> + <p> + He was born great, as distinguished from those who achieve greatness or + have it thrust upon them, and his inherent capacity, mental, moral, and + physical, having been recognized by the educated intelligence of a free + people, they happily chose him for their ruler in a day of deadly peril. + </p> + <p> + It is now forty years since I first saw and heard Abraham Lincoln, but the + impression which he left on my mind is ineffaceable. After his great + successes in the West he came to New York to make a political address. 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 struggle; his deep-set + eyes looked sad and anxious; his countenance in repose gave little + evidence of that brain power which had raised him from the lowest to the + highest station among his countrymen; 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, clergymen, statesmen, lawyers, merchants, + critics. They were all very curious to hear him. His fame as a powerful + speaker had preceded him, and exaggerated rumor of his wit—the worst + forerunner of an orator—had reached the East. When Mr. Bryant + presented him, on the high platform of the Cooper Institute, 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 pretence, he spoke straight to the point. If any came expecting 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 + marvellous 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 Constitution in order to form a more perfect + union, to establish justice, and 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 those 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 wrong 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 congratulations, and he who had come as a stranger departed + with the laurels of great triumph. + </p> + <p> + Alas! in five years from that exulting night I saw him again, for the last + time, in the same city, borne in his coffin through its draped streets. + With tears and lamentations a heart-broken people accompanied him from + Washington, the scene of his martyrdom, to his last resting-place in the + young city of the West where he had worked his way to fame. + </p> + <p> + Never was a new ruler in a more desperate plight than Lincoln when he + entered office on the fourth of March, 1861, four months after his + election, and took his oath to support the Constitution and the Union. The + intervening time had been busily employed by the Southern States in + carrying out their threat of disunion in the event of his election. As + soon as the fact was ascertained, seven of them had seceded and had seized + upon the forts, arsenals, navy yards, and other public property of the + United States within their boundaries, and were making every preparation + for war. In the meantime the retiring President, who had been elected by + the slave power, and who thought the seceding States could not lawfully be + coerced, had done absolutely nothing. Lincoln found himself, by the + Constitution, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United + States, but with only a remnant of either at hand. Each was to be created + on a great scale out of the unknown resources of a nation untried in war. + </p> + <p> + In his mild and conciliatory inaugural address, while appealing to the + seceding States to return to their allegiance, he avowed his purpose to + keep the solemn oath he had taken that day, to see that the laws of the + Union were faithfully executed, and to use the troops to recover the + forts, navy yards, and other property belonging to the government. It is + probable, however, that neither side actually realized that war was + inevitable, and that the other was determined to fight, until the assault + on Fort Sumter presented the South as the first aggressor and roused the + North to use every possible resource to maintain the government and the + imperilled Union, and to vindicate the supremacy of the flag over every + inch of the territory of the United States. The fact that Lincoln’s first + proclamation called for only 75,000 troops, to serve for three months, + shows how inadequate was even his idea of what the future had in store. + But from that moment Lincoln and his loyal supporters never faltered in + their purpose. They knew they could win, that it was their duty to win, + and that for America the whole hope of the future depended upon their + winning; for now by the acts of the seceding States the issue of the + election to secure or prevent the extension of slavery—stood + transformed into a struggle to preserve or to destroy the Union. + </p> + <p> + We cannot follow this contest. You know its gigantic proportions; that it + lasted four years instead of three months; that in its progress, instead + of 75,000 men, more than 2,000,000 were enrolled on the side of the + government alone; that the aggregate cost and loss to the nation + approximated to 1,000,000,000 pounds sterling, and that not less than + 300,000 brave and precious lives were sacrificed on each side. History has + recorded how Lincoln bore himself during these four frightful years; that + he was the real President, the responsible and actual head of the + government, through it all; that he listened to all advice, heard all + parties, and then, always realizing his responsibility to God and the + nation, decided every great executive question for himself. His absolute + honesty had become proverbial long before he was President. “Honest Abe + Lincoln” was the name by which he had been known for years. His every act + attested it. + </p> + <p> + In all the grandeur of the vast power that he wielded, he never ceased to + be one of the plain people, as he always called them, never lost or + impaired his perfect sympathy with them, was always in perfect touch with + them and open to their appeals; and here lay the very secret of his + personality and of his power, for the people in turn gave him their + absolute confidence. His courage, his fortitude, his patience, his + hopefulness, were sorely tried but never exhausted. + </p> + <p> + He was true as steel to his generals, but had frequent occasion to change + them, as he found them inadequate. This serious and painful duty rested + wholly upon him, and was perhaps his most important function as + Commander-in-Chief; but when, at last, he recognized in General Grant the + master of the situation, the man who could and would bring the war to a + triumphant end, he gave it all over to him and upheld him with all his + might. Amid all the pressure and distress that the burdens of office + brought upon him, his unfailing sense of humor saved him; probably it made + it possible for him to live under the burden. He had always been the great + story-teller of the West, and he used and cultivated this faculty to + relieve the weight of the load he bore. + </p> + <p> + It enabled him to keep the wonderful record of never having lost his + temper, no matter what agony he had to bear. A whole night might be spent + in recounting the stories of his wit, humor, and harmless sarcasm. But I + will recall only two of his sayings, both about General Grant, who always + found plenty of enemies and critics to urge the President to oust him from + his command. One, I am sure, will interest all Scotchmen. They repeated + with malicious intent the gossip that Grant drank. “What does he drink?” + asked Lincoln. “Whiskey,” was, of course, the answer; doubtless you can + guess the brand. “Well,” said the President, “just find out what + particular kind he uses and I’ll send a barrel to each of my other + generals.” The other must be as pleasing to the British as to the American + ear. When pressed again on other grounds to get rid of Grant, he declared, + “I can’t spare that man, he fights!” + </p> + <p> + He was tender-hearted to a fault, and never could resist the appeals of + wives and mothers of soldiers who had got into trouble and were under + sentence of death for their offences. His Secretary of War and other + officials complained that they never could get deserters shot. As surely + as the women of the culprit’s family could get at him he always gave way. + Certainly you will all appreciate his exquisite sympathy with the + suffering relatives of those who had fallen in battle. His heart bled with + theirs. Never was there a more gentle and tender utterance than his letter + to a mother who had given all her sons to her country, written at a time + when the angel of death had visited almost every household in the land, + and was already hovering over him. + </p> + <p> + “I have been shown,” he says, “in the files of the War Department a + statement 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 your grief for a loss so + overwhelming but I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation + which 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 the lost, and the + solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon + the altar of freedom.” + </p> + <p> + Hardly could your illustrious sovereign, from the depths of her queenly + and womanly heart, have spoken words more touching and tender to soothe + the stricken mothers of her own soldiers. + </p> + <p> + The Emancipation Proclamation, with which Mr. Lincoln delighted the + country and the world on the first of January, 1863, will doubtless secure + for him a foremost place in history among the philanthropists and + benefactors of the race, as it rescued, from hopeless and degrading + slavery, so many millions of his fellow-beings described in the law and + existing in fact as “chattels-personal, in the hands of their owners and + possessors, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever.” + Rarely does the happy fortune come to one man to render such a service to + his kind—to proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the + inhabitants thereof. + </p> + <p> + Ideas rule the world, and never was there a more signal instance of this + triumph of an idea than here. William Lloyd Garrison, who thirty years + before had begun his crusade for the abolition of slavery, and had lived + to see this glorious and unexpected consummation of the hopeless cause to + which he had devoted his life, well described the proclamation as a “great + historic event, sublime in its magnitude, momentous and beneficent in its + far-reaching consequences, and eminently just and right alike to the + oppressor and the oppressed.” + </p> + <p> + Lincoln had always been heart and soul opposed to slavery. Tradition says + that on the trip on the flatboat to New Orleans he formed his first and + last opinion of slavery at the sight of negroes chained and scourged, and + that then and there the iron entered into his soul. No boy could grow to + manhood in those days as a poor white in Kentucky and Indiana, in close + contact with slavery or in its neighborhood, without a growing + consciousness of its blighting effects on free labor, as well as of its + frightful injustice and cruelty. In the Legislature of Illinois, where the + public sentiment was all for upholding the institution and violently + against every movement for its abolition or restriction, upon the passage + of resolutions to that effect he had the courage with one companion to put + on record his protest, “believing that the institution of slavery is + founded both in injustice and bad policy.” No great demonstration of + courage, you will say; but that was at a time when Garrison, for his + abolition utterances, had been dragged by an angry mob through the streets + of Boston with a rope around his body, and in the very year that Lovejoy + in the same State of Illinois was slain by rioters while defending his + press, from which he had printed antislavery appeals. + </p> + <p> + In Congress he brought in a bill for gradual abolition in the District of + Columbia, with compensation to the owners, for until they raised + treasonable hands against the life of the nation he always maintained that + the property of the slaveholders, into which they had come by two + centuries of descent, without fault on their part, ought not to be taken + away from them without just compensation. He used to say that, one way or + another, he had voted forty-two times for the Wilmot Proviso, which Mr. + Wilmot of Pennsylvania moved as an addition to every bill which affected + United States territory, “that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude + shall ever exist in any part of the said territory,” and it is evident + that his condemnation of the system, on moral grounds as a crime against + the human race, and on political grounds as a cancer that was sapping the + vitals of the nation, and must master its whole being or be itself + extirpated, grew steadily upon him until it culminated in his great + speeches in the Illinois debate. + </p> + <p> + By the mere election of Lincoln to the Presidency, the further extension + of slavery into the Territories was rendered forever impossible—Vox + populi, vox Dei. Revolutions never go backward, and when founded on a + great moral sentiment stirring the heart of an indignant people their + edicts are irresistible and final. Had the slave power acquiesced in that + election, had the Southern States remained under the Constitution and + within the Union, and relied upon their constitutional and legal rights, + their favorite institution, immoral as it was, blighting and fatal as it + was, might have endured for another century. The great party that had + elected him, unalterably determined against its extension, was + nevertheless pledged not to interfere with its continuance in the States + where it already existed. Of course, when new regions were forever closed + against it, from its very nature it must have begun to shrink and to + dwindle; and probably gradual and compensated emancipation, which appealed + very strongly to the new President’s sense of justice and expediency, + would, in the progress of time, by a reversion to the ideas of the + founders of the Republic, have found a safe outlet for both masters and + slaves. But whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad, and when + seven States, afterwards increased to eleven, openly seceded from the + Union, when they declared and began the war upon the nation, and + challenged its mighty power to the desperate and protracted struggle for + its life, and for the maintenance of its authority as a nation over its + territory, they gave to Lincoln and to freedom the sublime opportunity of + history. + </p> + <p> + In his first inaugural address, when as yet not a drop of precious blood + had been shed, while he held out to them the olive branch in one hand, in + the other he presented the guarantees of the Constitution, and after + reciting the emphatic resolution of the convention that nominated him, + 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 of our + political fabric depend,” he reiterated this sentiment, and declared, with + no mental reservation, “that all the protection which, consistently with + the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to + all the States when lawfully demanded for whatever cause as cheerfully to + one section as to another.” + </p> + <p> + When, however, these magnanimous overtures for peace and reunion were + rejected; when the seceding States defied the Constitution and every + clause and principle of it; when they persisted in staying out of the + Union from which they had seceded, and proceeded to carve out of its + territory a new and hostile empire based on slavery; when they flew at the + throat of the nation and plunged it into the bloodiest war of the + nineteenth century the tables were turned, and the belief gradually came + to the mind of the President that if the Rebellion was not soon subdued by + force of arms, if the war must be fought out to the bitter end, then to + reach that end the salvation of the nation itself might require the + destruction of slavery wherever it existed; that if the war was to + continue on one side for Disunion, for no other purpose than to preserve + slavery, it must continue on the other side for the Union, to destroy + slavery. + </p> + <p> + As he said, “Events control me; I cannot control events,” and as the + dreadful war progressed and became more deadly and dangerous, the + unalterable conviction was forced upon him that, in order that the + frightful sacrifice of life and treasure on both sides might not be all in + vain, it had become his duty as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, as a + necessary war measure, to strike a blow at the Rebellion which, all others + failing, would inevitably lead to its annihilation, by annihilating the + very thing for which it was contending. His own words are the best: + </p> + <p> + “I understood that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my + ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving by every indispensable + means that government—that nation—of which that Constitution + was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve + the Constitution? By general law, life and limb must be protected, yet + often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely + given to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional + might become lawful by becoming 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 ever 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.” + </p> + <p> + And so, at last, when in his judgment the indispensable necessity had + come, he struck the fatal blow, and signed the proclamation which has made + his name immortal. By it, the President, as Commander-in-Chief in time of + actual armed rebellion, and as a fit and necessary war measure for + suppressing the rebellion, proclaimed all persons held as slaves in the + States and parts of States then in rebellion to be thenceforward free, and + declared that the executive, with the army and navy, would recognize and + maintain their freedom. + </p> + <p> + In the other great steps of the government, which led to the triumphant + prosecution of the war, he necessarily shared the responsibility and the + credit with the great statesmen who stayed up his hands in his cabinet, + with Seward, Chase and Stanton, and the rest,—and with his generals + and admirals, his soldiers and sailors, but this great act was absolutely + his own. The conception and execution were exclusively his. He laid it + before his cabinet as a measure on which his mind was made up and could + not be changed, asking them only for suggestions as to details. He chose + the time and the circumstances under which the Emancipation should be + proclaimed and when it should take effect. + </p> + <p> + It came not an hour too soon; but public opinion in the North would not + have sustained it earlier. In the first eighteen months of the war its + ravages had extended from the Atlantic to beyond the Mississippi. Many + victories in the West had been balanced and paralyzed by inaction and + disasters in Virginia, only partially redeemed by the bloody and + indecisive battle of Antietam; a reaction had set in from the general + enthusiasm which had swept the Northern States after the assault upon + Sumter. It could not truly be said that they had lost heart, but faction + was raising its head. Heard through the land like the blast of a bugle, + the proclamation rallied the patriotism of the country to fresh sacrifices + and renewed ardor. It was a step that could not be revoked. It relieved + the conscience of the nation from an incubus that had oppressed it from + its birth. The United States were rescued from the false predicament in + which they had been from the beginning, and the great popular heart leaped + with new enthusiasm for “Liberty and Union, henceforth and forever, one + and inseparable.” It brought not only moral but material support to the + cause of the government, for within two years 120,000 colored troops were + enlisted in the military service and following the national flag, + supported by all the loyalty of the North, and led by its choicest + spirits. One mother said, when her son was offered the command of the + first colored regiment, “If he accepts it I shall be as proud as if I had + heard that he was shot.” He was shot heading a gallant charge of his + regiment.... The Confederates replied to a request of his friends for his + body that they had “buried him under a layer of his niggers...;” but that + mother has lived to enjoy thirty-six years of his glory, and Boston has + erected its noblest monument to his memory. + </p> + <p> + The effect of the proclamation upon the actual progress of the war was not + immediate, but wherever the Federal armies advanced they carried freedom + with them, and when the summer came round the new spirit and force which + had animated the heart of the government and people were manifest. In the + first week of July the decisive battle of Gettysburg turned the tide of + war, and the fall of Vicksburg made the great river free from its source + to the Gulf. + </p> + <p> + On foreign nations the influence of the proclamation and of these new + victories was of great importance. In those days, when there was no cable, + it was not easy for foreign observers to appreciate what was really going + on; they could not see clearly the true state of affairs, as in the last + year of the nineteenth century we have been able, by our new electric + vision, to watch every event at the antipodes and observe its effect. The + Rebel emissaries, sent over to solicit intervention, spared no pains to + impress upon the minds of public and private men and upon the press their + own views of the character of the contest. The prospects of the + Confederacy were always better abroad than at home. The stock markets of + the world gambled upon its chances, and its bonds at one time were high in + favor. + </p> + <p> + Such ideas as these were seriously held: that the North was fighting for + empire and the South for independence; that the Southern States, instead + of being the grossest oligarchies, essentially despotisms, founded on the + right of one man to appropriate the fruit of other men’s toil and to + exclude them from equal rights, were real republics, feebler to be sure + than their Northern rivals, but representing the same idea of freedom, and + that the mighty strength of the nation was being put forth to crush them; + that Jefferson Davis and the Southern leaders had created a nation; that + the republican experiment had failed and the Union had ceased to exist. + But the crowning argument to foreign minds was that it was an utter + impossibility for the government to win in the contest; that the success + of the Southern States, so far as separation was concerned, was as certain + as any event yet future and contingent could be; that the subjugation of + the South by the North, even if it could be accomplished, would prove a + calamity to the United States and the world, and especially calamitous to + the negro race; and that such a victory would necessarily leave the people + of the South for many generations cherishing deadly hostility against the + government and the North, and plotting always to recover their + independence. + </p> + <p> + When Lincoln issued his proclamation he knew that all these ideas were + founded in error; that the national resources were inexhaustible; that the + government could and would win, and that if slavery were once finally + disposed of, the only cause of difference being out of the way, the North + and South would come together again, and by and by be as good friends as + ever. In many quarters abroad the proclamation was welcomed with + enthusiasm by the friends of America; but I think the demonstrations in + its favor that brought more gladness to Lincoln’s heart than any other + were the meetings held in the manufacturing centres, by the very + operatives upon whom the war bore the hardest, expressing the most + enthusiastic sympathy with the proclamation, while they bore with heroic + fortitude the grievous privations which the war entailed upon them. Mr. + Lincoln’s expectation when he announced to the world that all slaves in + all States then in rebellion were set free must have been that the avowed + position of his government, that the continuance of the war now meant the + annihilation of slavery, would make intervention impossible for any + foreign nation whose people were lovers of liberty—and so the result + proved. + </p> + <p> + The growth and development of Lincoln’s mental power and moral force, of + his intense and magnetic personality, after the vast responsibilities of + government were thrown upon him at the age of fifty-two, furnish a rare + and striking illustration of the marvellous capacity and adaptability of + the human intellect—of the sound mind in the sound body. He came to + the discharge of the great duties of the Presidency with absolutely no + experience in the administration of government, or of the vastly varied + and complicated questions of foreign and domestic policy which immediately + arose, and continued to press upon him during the rest of his life; but he + mastered each as it came, apparently with the facility of a trained and + experienced ruler. As Clarendon said of Cromwell, “His parts seemed to be + raised by the demands of great station.” His life through it all was one + of intense labor, anxiety, and distress, without one hour of peaceful + repose from first to last. But he rose to every occasion. He led public + opinion, but did not march so far in advance of it as to fail of its + effective support in every great emergency. He knew the heart and thought + of the people, as no man not in constant and absolute sympathy with them + could have known it, and so holding their confidence, he triumphed through + and with them. Not only was there this steady growth of intellect, but the + infinite delicacy of his nature and its capacity for refinement developed + also, as exhibited in the purity and perfection of his language and style + of speech. The rough backwoodsman, who had never seen the inside of a + university, became in the end, by self-training and the exercise of his + own powers of mind, heart, and soul, a master of style, and some of his + utterances will rank with the best, the most perfectly adapted to the + occasion which produced them. + </p> + <p> + Have you time to listen to his two-minutes speech at Gettysburg, at the + dedication of the Soldiers’ Cemetery? His whole soul was in it: + </p> + <p> + “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this + continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the + proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great + civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so + dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great 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 cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow + this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have + consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will + little note, nor long remember, what we say here but it can never forget + what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here + to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly + advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task + remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased + devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of + devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have + died in vain—that this nation under God shall have a new birth of + freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, and for + the people shall not perish from the earth.” + </p> + <p> + He lived to see his work indorsed by an overwhelming majority of his + countrymen. In his second inaugural address, pronounced just forty days + before his death, there is a single passage which well displays his + indomitable will and at the same time his deep religious feeling, his + sublime charity to the enemies of his country, and his broad and catholic + humanity: + </p> + <p> + “If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offences which + in the Providence of God must needs come, but which, having continued + through the 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 offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine + attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? + Fondly do we 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 bondsmen’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited + toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash + shall be paid with another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand + years ago, so still it must be said, ‘the judgments of the Lord are true + and righteous altogether.’ + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + His prayer was answered. The forty days of life that remained to him were + crowned with great historic events. He lived to see his Proclamation of + Emancipation embodied in an amendment of the Constitution, adopted by + Congress, and submitted to the States for ratification. The mighty scourge + of war did speedily pass away, for it was given him to witness the + surrender of the Rebel army and the fall of their capital, and the starry + flag that he loved waving in triumph over the national soil. When he died + by the madman’s hand in the supreme hour of victory, the vanquished lost + their best friend, and the human race one of its noblest examples; and all + the friends of freedom and justice, in whose cause he lived and died, + joined hands as mourners at his grave. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1832-1843 + </h2></div> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + 1832 + </h2></div> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON COUNTY. + </h2></div> + <h3> + March 9, 1832. + </h3> + <p> + FELLOW CITIZENS:—Having become a candidate for the honorable office + of one of your Representatives in the next General Assembly of this State, + in according with an established custom and the principles of true + Republicanism it becomes my duty to make known to you, the people whom I + propose to represent, my sentiments with regard to local affairs. + </p> + <p> + 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 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 + objection arises from the want of ability to pay. + </p> + <p> + With respect to the County of Sangamon, some.... + </p> + <p> + 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....... + </p> + <p> + What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to say. It is probable, + however, that it would not be greater 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 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 on 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. + </p> + <p> + Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate 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 histories + of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value + of our free institutions, appears to be an object of vital importance, + 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. + </p> + <p> + For my 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 something to the advancement of any measure which + might have a tendency to accelerate that happy period. + </p> + <p> + With regard to existing laws, some alterations are thought to be + necessary. Many 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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; 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. + </p> + <p> + Your friend and fellow-citizen, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + New Salem, March 9, 1832. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + 1833 + </h2></div> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + </h2></div> + <h3> + NEW SALEM, Aug. 10, 1833 + </h3> + <p> + E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + </p> + <p> + Dear Sir:—In regard to the time David Rankin served the enclosed + discharge shows correctly—as well as I can recollect—having no + writing to refer. The transfer of Rankin from my company occurred as + follows: Rankin having lost his horse at Dixon’s ferry and having + acquaintance in one of the foot companies who were going down the river + was desirous to go with them, and one Galishen being an acquaintance of + mine and belonging to the company in which Rankin wished to go wished to + leave it and join mine, this being the case it was agreed that they should + exchange places and answer to each other’s names—as it was expected + we all would be discharged in very few days. As to a blanket—I have + no knowledge of Rankin ever getting any. The above embraces all the facts + now in my recollection which are pertinent to the case. + </p> + <p> + I shall take pleasure in giving any further information in my power should + you call on me. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR POSTAGE RECEIPT + </h2></div> + <h3> + TO Mr. SPEARS. + </h3> + <p> + Mr. SPEARS: + </p> + <p> + At your request I send you a receipt for the postage on your paper. I am + somewhat surprised at your request. I will, however, comply with it. The + law requires newspaper postage to be paid in advance, and now that I have + waited a full year you choose to wound my feelings by insinuating that + unless you get a receipt I will probably make you pay it again. + </p> + <p> + Respectfully, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + 1836 + </h2></div> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + ANNOUNCEMENT OF POLITICAL VIEWS. + </h2></div> + <h3> + New Salem, June 13, 1836. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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). + </p> + <p> + If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon my constituents, + as well those that oppose as those that support me. + </p> + <p> + While acting as their representative, I shall be governed 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 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. + </p> + <p> + Very respectfully, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + RESPONSE TO POLITICAL SMEAR + </h2></div> + <h3> + TO ROBERT ALLEN + </h3> + <p> + New Salem, June 21, 1836 + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 you said. + I am flattered with the personal regard you manifested for me; 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. + </p> + <p> + Very respectfully, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO MISS MARY OWENS. + </h2></div> + <h3> + VANDALIA, December 13, 1836. + </h3> + <p> + MARY:—I have been sick ever since my arrival, or I should have + written sooner. It is but little difference, however, as I have very + little even yet to write. And more, the longer I can avoid the + mortification of looking in the post-office for your letter and not + finding it, the better. You see I am mad about that old letter yet. I + don’t like very well to risk you again. I’ll try you once more, anyhow. + </p> + <p> + The new State House is not yet finished, and consequently the Legislature + is doing little or nothing. The governor delivered an inflammatory + political message, and it is expected there will be some sparring between + the parties about it as soon as the two Houses get to business. Taylor + delivered up his petition for the new county to one of our members this + morning. I am told he despairs of its success, on account of all the + members from Morgan County opposing it. There are names enough on the + petition, I think, to justify the members from our county in going for it; + but if the members from Morgan oppose it, which they say they will, the + chance will be bad. + </p> + <p> + Our chance to take the seat of government to Springfield is better than I + expected. An internal-improvement convention was held there since we met, + which recommended a loan of several millions of dollars, on the faith of + the State, to construct railroads. Some of the Legislature are for it, and + some against it; which has the majority I cannot tell. There is great + strife and struggling for the office of the United States Senator here at + this time. It is probable we shall ease their pains in a few days. The + opposition men have no candidate of their own, and consequently they will + smile as complacently at the angry snarl of the contending Van Buren + candidates and their respective friends as the Christian does at Satan’s + rage. You recollect that I mentioned at the outset of this letter that I + had been unwell. That is the fact, though I believe I am about well now; + but that, with other things I cannot account for, have conspired, and have + gotten my spirits so low that I feel that I would rather be any place in + the world than here. I really cannot endure the thought of staying here + ten weeks. Write back as soon as you get this, and, if possible, say + something that will please me, for really I have not been pleased since I + left you. This letter is so dry and stupid that I am ashamed to send it, + but with my present feelings I cannot do any better. + </p> + <p> + Give my best respects to Mr. and Mrs. Able and family. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, LINCOLN + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + 1837 + </h2></div> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + SPEECH IN ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + </h2></div> + <h3> + January [?], 1837 + </h3> + <p> + Mr. CHAIRMAN:—Lest I should fall into the too common error of being + mistaken in regard to which side I design to be upon, I shall make it my + first care to remove all doubt on that point, by declaring that I am + opposed to the resolution under consideration, in toto. Before I proceed + to the body of the subject, I will further remark, that it is not without + a considerable degree of apprehension that I venture to cross the track of + the gentleman from Coles [Mr. Linder]. Indeed, I do not believe I could + muster a sufficiency of courage to come in contact with that gentleman, + were it not for the fact that he, some days since, most graciously + condescended to assure us that he would never be found wasting ammunition + on small game. On the same fortunate occasion, he further gave us to + understand, that he regarded himself as being decidedly the superior of + our common friend from Randolph [Mr. Shields]; and feeling, as I really + do, that I, to say the most of myself, am nothing more than the peer of + our friend from Randolph, I shall regard the gentleman from Coles as + decidedly my superior also, and consequently, in the course of what I + shall have to say, whenever I shall have occasion to allude to that + gentleman, I shall endeavor to adopt that kind of court language which I + understand to be due to decided superiority. In one faculty, at least, + there can be no dispute of the gentleman’s superiority over me and most + other men, and that is, the faculty of entangling a subject, so that + neither himself, or any other man, can find head or tail to it. Here he + has introduced a resolution embracing ninety-nine printed lines across + common writing paper, and yet more than one half of his opening speech has + been made upon subjects about which there is not one word said in his + resolution. + </p> + <p> + Though his resolution embraces nothing in regard to the constitutionality + of the Bank, much of what he has said has been with a view to make the + impression that it was unconstitutional in its inception. Now, although I + am satisfied that an ample field may be found within the pale of the + resolution, at least for small game, yet, as the gentleman has traveled + out of it, I feel that I may, with all due humility, venture to follow + him. The gentleman has discovered that some gentleman at Washington city + has been upon the very eve of deciding our Bank unconstitutional, and that + he would probably have completed his very authentic decision, had not some + one of the Bank officers placed his hand upon his mouth, and begged him to + withhold it. The fact that the individuals composing our Supreme Court + have, in an official capacity, decided in favor of the constitutionality + of the Bank, would, in my mind, seem a sufficient answer to this. It is a + fact known to all, that the members of the Supreme Court, together with + the Governor, form a Council of Revision, and that this Council approved + this Bank charter. I ask, then, if the extra-judicial decision not quite + but almost made by the gentleman at Washington, before whom, by the way, + the question of the constitutionality of our Bank never has, nor never can + come—is to be taken as paramount to a decision officially made by + that tribunal, by which, and which alone, the constitutionality of the + Bank can ever be settled? But, aside from this view of the subject, I + would ask, if the committee which this resolution proposes to appoint are + to examine into the Constitutionality of the Bank? Are they to be clothed + with power to send for persons and papers, for this object? And after they + have found the bank to be unconstitutional, and decided it so, how are + they to enforce their decision? What will their decision amount to? They + cannot compel the Bank to cease operations, or to change the course of its + operations. What good, then, can their labors result in? Certainly none. + </p> + <p> + The gentleman asks, if we, without an examination, shall, by giving the + State deposits to the Bank, and by taking the stock reserved for the + State, legalize its former misconduct. Now I do not pretend to possess + sufficient legal knowledge to decide whether a legislative enactment + proposing to, and accepting from, the Bank, certain terms, would have the + effect to legalize or wipe out its former errors, or not; but I can assure + the gentleman, if such should be the effect, he has already got behind the + settlement of accounts; for it is well known to all, that the Legislature, + at its last session, passed a supplemental Bank charter, which the Bank + has since accepted, and which, according to his doctrine, has legalized + all the alleged violations of its original charter in the distribution of + its stock. + </p> + <p> + I now proceed to the resolution. By examination it will be found that the + first thirty-three lines, being precisely one third of the whole, relate + exclusively to the distribution of the stock by the commissioners + appointed by the State. Now, Sir, it is clear that no question can arise + on this portion of the resolution, except a question between capitalists + in regard to the ownership of stock. Some gentlemen have their stock in + their hands, while others, who have more money than they know what to do + with, want it; and this, and this alone, is the question, to settle which + we are called on to squander thousands of the people’s money. What + interest, let me ask, have the people in the settlement of this question? + What difference is it to them whether the stock is owned by Judge Smith or + Sam Wiggins? If any gentleman be entitled to stock in the Bank, which he + is kept out of possession of by others, let him assert his right in the + Supreme Court, and let him or his antagonist, whichever may be found in + the wrong, pay the costs of suit. It is an old maxim, and a very sound + one, that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. Now, Sir, in the + present case, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden to them, choose to + lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the people’s money being used + to pay the fiddler. No one can doubt that the examination proposed by this + resolution must cost the State some ten or twelve thousand dollars; and + all this to settle a question in which the people have no interest, and + about which they care nothing. These capitalists generally act + harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people, and now that they have + got into a quarrel with themselves we are called upon to appropriate the + people’s money to settle the quarrel. + </p> + <p> + I leave this part of the resolution and proceed to the remainder. It will + be found that no charge in the remaining part of the resolution, if true, + amounts to the violation of the Bank charter, except one, which I will + notice in due time. It might seem quite sufficient to say no more upon any + of these charges or insinuations than enough to show they are not + violations of the charter; yet, as they are ingeniously framed and + handled, with a view to deceive and mislead, I will notice in their order + all the most prominent of them. The first of these is in relation to a + connection between our Bank and several banking institutions in other + States. Admitting this connection to exist, I should like to see the + gentleman from Coles, or any other gentleman, undertake to show that there + is any harm in it. What can there be in such a connection, that the people + of Illinois are willing to pay their money to get a peep into? By a + reference to the tenth section of the Bank charter, any gentleman can see + that the framers of the act contemplated the holding of stock in the + institutions of other corporations. Why, then, is it, when neither law nor + justice forbids it, that we are asked to spend our time and money in + inquiring into its truth? + </p> + <p> + The next charge, in the order of time, is, that some officer, director, + clerk or servant of the Bank, has been required to take an oath of secrecy + in relation to the affairs of said Bank. Now, I do not know whether this + be true or false—neither do I believe any honest man cares. I know + that the seventh section of the charter expressly guarantees to the Bank + the right of making, under certain restrictions, such by-laws as it may + think fit; and I further know that the requiring an oath of secrecy would + not transcend those restrictions. What, then, if the Bank has chosen to + exercise this right? Whom can it injure? Does not every merchant have his + secret mark? and who is ever silly enough to complain of it? I presume if + the Bank does require any such oath of secrecy, it is done through a + motive of delicacy to those individuals who deal with it. Why, Sir, not + many days since, one gentleman upon this floor, who, by the way, I have no + doubt is now ready to join this hue and cry against the Bank, indulged in + a philippic against one of the Bank officials, because, as he said, he had + divulged a secret. + </p> + <p> + Immediately following this last charge, there are several insinuations in + the resolution, which are too silly to require any sort of notice, were it + not for the fact that they conclude by saying, “to the great injury of the + people at large.” In answer to this I would say that it is strange enough, + that the people are suffering these “great injuries,” and yet are not + sensible of it! Singular indeed that the people should be writhing under + oppression and injury, and yet not one among them to be found to raise the + voice of complaint. If the Bank be inflicting injury upon the people, why + is it that not a single petition is presented to this body on the subject? + If the Bank really be a grievance, why is it that no one of the real + people is found to ask redress of it? The truth is, no such oppression + exists. If it did, our people would groan with memorials and petitions, + and we would not be permitted to rest day or night, till we had put it + down. The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and + maintain them, when they are invaded. Let them call for an investigation, + and I shall ever stand ready to respond to the call. But they have made no + such call. I make the assertion boldly, and without fear of contradiction, + that no man, who does not hold an office, or does not aspire to one, has + ever found any fault of the Bank. It has doubled the prices of the + products of their farms, and filled their pockets with a sound circulating + medium, and they are all well pleased with its operations. No, Sir, it is + the politician who is the first to sound the alarm (which, by the way, is + a false one.) It is he, who, by these unholy means, is endeavoring to blow + up a storm that he may ride upon and direct. It is he, and he alone, that + here proposes to spend thousands of the people’s public treasure, for no + other advantage to them than to make valueless in their pockets the reward + of their industry. Mr. Chairman, this work is exclusively the work of + politicians; a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of + the people, and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, at + least one long step removed from honest men. I say this with the greater + freedom, because, being a politician myself, none can regard it as + personal. + </p> + <p> + Again, it is charged, or rather insinuated, that officers of the Bank have + loaned money at usurious rates of interest. Suppose this to be true, are + we to send a committee of this House to inquire into it? Suppose the + committee should find it true, can they redress the injured individuals? + Assuredly not. If any individual had been injured in this way, is there + not an ample remedy to be found in the laws of the land? Does the + gentleman from Coles know that there is a statute standing in full force + making it highly penal for an individual to loan money at a higher rate of + interest than twelve per cent? If he does not he is too ignorant to be + placed at the head of the committee which his resolution purposes and if + he does, his neglect to mention it shows him to be too uncandid to merit + the respect or confidence of any one. + </p> + <p> + But besides all this, if the Bank were struck from existence, could not + the owners of the capital still loan it usuriously, as well as now? + whatever the Bank, or its officers, may have done, I know that usurious + transactions were much more frequent and enormous before the commencement + of its operations than they have ever been since. + </p> + <p> + The next insinuation is, that the Bank has refused specie payments. This, + if true is a violation of the charter. But there is not the least + probability of its truth; because, if such had been the fact, the + individual to whom payment was refused would have had an interest in + making it public, by suing for the damages to which the charter entitles + him. Yet no such thing has been done; and the strong presumption is, that + the insinuation is false and groundless. + </p> + <p> + From this to the end of the resolution, there is nothing that merits + attention—I therefore drop the particular examination of it. + </p> + <p> + By a general view of the resolution, it will be seen that a principal + object of the committee is to examine into, and ferret out, a mass of + corruption supposed to have been committed by the commissioners who + apportioned the stock of the Bank. I believe it is universally understood + and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly unless they have a + motive to do otherwise. If this be true, we can only suppose that the + commissioners acted corruptly by also supposing that they were bribed to + do so. Taking this view of the subject, I would ask if the Bank is likely + to find it more difficult to bribe the committee of seven, which, we are + about to appoint, than it may have found it to bribe the commissioners? + </p> + <p> + (Here Mr. Linder called to order. The Chair decided that Mr. Lincoln was + not out of order. Mr. Linder appealed to the House, but, before the + question was put, withdrew his appeal, saying he preferred to let the + gentleman go on; he thought he would break his own neck. Mr. Lincoln + proceeded:) + </p> + <p> + Another gracious condescension! I acknowledge it with gratitude. I know I + was not out of order; and I know every sensible man in the House knows it. + I was not saying that the gentleman from Coles could be bribed, nor, on + the other hand, will I say he could not. In that particular I leave him + where I found him. I was only endeavoring to show that there was at least + as great a probability of any seven members that could be selected from + this House being bribed to act corruptly, as there was that the + twenty-four commissioners had been so bribed. By a reference to the ninth + section of the Bank charter, it will be seen that those commissioners were + John Tilson, Robert K. McLaughlin, Daniel Warm, A.G. S. Wight, John C. + Riley, W. H. Davidson, Edward M. Wilson, Edward L. Pierson, Robert R. + Green, Ezra Baker, Aquilla Wren, John Taylor, Samuel C. Christy, Edmund + Roberts, Benjamin Godfrey, Thomas Mather, A. M. Jenkins, W. Linn, W. S. + Gilman, Charles Prentice, Richard I. Hamilton, A.H. Buckner, W. F. + Thornton, and Edmund D. Taylor. + </p> + <p> + These are twenty-four of the most respectable men in the State. Probably + no twenty-four men could be selected in the State with whom the people are + better acquainted, or in whose honor and integrity they would more readily + place confidence. And I now repeat, that there is less probability that + those men have been bribed and corrupted, than that any seven men, or + rather any six men, that could be selected from the members of this House, + might be so bribed and corrupted, even though they were headed and led on + by “decided superiority” himself. + </p> + <p> + In all seriousness, I ask every reasonable man, if an issue be joined by + these twenty-four commissioners, on the one part, and any other seven men, + on the other part, and the whole depend upon the honor and integrity of + the contending parties, to which party would the greatest degree of credit + be due? Again: Another consideration is, that we have no right to make the + examination. What I shall say upon this head I design exclusively for the + law-loving and law-abiding part of the House. To those who claim + omnipotence for the Legislature, and who in the plenitude of their assumed + powers are disposed to disregard the Constitution, law, good faith, moral + right, and everything else, I have not a word to say. But to the + law-abiding part I say, examine the Bank charter, go examine the + Constitution, go examine the acts that the General Assembly of this State + has passed, and you will find just as much authority given in each and + every of them to compel the Bank to bring its coffers to this hall and to + pour their contents upon this floor, as to compel it to submit to this + examination which this resolution proposes. Why, Sir, the gentleman from + Coles, the mover of this resolution, very lately denied on this floor that + the Legislature had any right to repeal or otherwise meddle with its own + acts, when those acts were made in the nature of contracts, and had been + accepted and acted on by other parties. Now I ask if this resolution does + not propose, for this House alone, to do what he, but the other day, + denied the right of the whole Legislature to do? He must either abandon + the position he then took, or he must now vote against his own resolution. + It is no difference to me, and I presume but little to any one else, which + he does. + </p> + <p> + I am by no means the special advocate of the Bank. I have long thought + that it would be well for it to report its condition to the General + Assembly, and that cases might occur, when it might be proper to make an + examination of its affairs by a committee. Accordingly, during the last + session, while a bill supplemental to the Bank charter was pending before + the House, I offered an amendment to the same, in these words: “The said + corporation shall, at the next session of the General Assembly, and at + each subsequent General Session, during the existence of its charter, + report to the same the amount of debts due from said corporation; the + amount of debts due to the same; the amount of specie in its vaults, and + an account of all lands then owned by the same, and the amount for which + such lands have been taken; and moreover, if said corporation shall at any + time neglect or refuse to submit its books, papers, and all and everything + necessary for a full and fair examination of its affairs, to any person or + persons appointed by the General Assembly, for the purpose of making such + examination, the said corporation shall forfeit its charter.” + </p> + <p> + This amendment was negatived by a vote of 34 to 15. Eleven of the 34 who + voted against it are now members of this House; and though it would be out + of order to call their names, I hope they will all recollect themselves, + and not vote for this examination to be made without authority, inasmuch + as they refused to receive the authority when it was in their power to do + so. + </p> + <p> + I have said that cases might occur, when an examination might be proper; + but I do not believe any such case has now occurred; and if it has, I + should still be opposed to making an examination without legal authority. + I am opposed to encouraging that lawless and mobocratic spirit, whether in + relation to the Bank or anything else, which is already abroad in the land + and is spreading with rapid and fearful impetuosity, to the ultimate + overthrow of every institution, of every moral principle, in which persons + and property have hitherto found security. + </p> + <p> + But supposing we had the authority, I would ask what good can result from + the examination? Can we declare the Bank unconstitutional, and compel it + to desist from the abuses of its power, provided we find such abuses to + exist? Can we repair the injuries which it may have done to individuals? + Most certainly we can do none of these things. Why then shall we spend the + public money in such employment? Oh, say the examiners, we can injure the + credit of the Bank, if nothing else, Please tell me, gentlemen, who will + suffer most by that? You cannot injure, to any extent, the stockholders. + They are men of wealth—of large capital; and consequently, beyond + the power of malice. But by injuring the credit of the Bank, you will + depreciate the value of its paper in the hands of the honest and + unsuspecting farmer and mechanic, and that is all you can do. But suppose + you could effect your whole purpose; suppose you could wipe the Bank from + existence, which is the grand ultimatum of the project, what would be the + consequence? why, Sir, we should spend several thousand dollars of the + public treasure in the operation, annihilate the currency of the State, + render valueless in the hands of our people that reward of their former + labors, and finally be once more under the comfortable obligation of + paying the Wiggins loan, principal and interest. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + OPPOSITION TO MOB-RULE + </h2></div> + <h3> + ADDRESS BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN’S LYCEUM OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. + </h3> + <p> + January 27, 1838. + </p> + <p> + As a subject for the remarks of the evening, “The Perpetuation of our + Political Institutions” is selected. + </p> + <p> + In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American + people, find our account running under date of the nineteenth century of + the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the + fairest portion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility of + soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government of + a system of political institutions conducing more essentially to the ends + of civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of former + times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves + the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the + acquirement or establishment of them; they are a legacy bequeathed us by a + once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed, race of + ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess + themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land, and to uprear + upon its hills and its valleys a political edifice of liberty and equal + rights; it is ours only to transmit these—the former unprofaned by + the foot of an invader, the latter undecayed by the lapse of time and + untorn by usurpation—to the latest generation that fate shall permit + the world to know. This task gratitude to our fathers, justice to + ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all + imperatively require us faithfully to perform. + </p> + <p> + How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach + of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some + transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? + Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the + treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a + Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio + or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. + </p> + <p> + At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer: If + it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. + If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As + a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide. + </p> + <p> + I hope I am over-wary; but if I am not, there is even now something of ill + omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades + the country—the growing disposition to substitute the wild and + furious passions in lieu of the sober judgment of courts, and the worse + than savage mobs for the executive ministers of justice. This disposition + is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, + though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth + and an insult to our intelligence to deny. Accounts of outrages committed + by mobs form the everyday news of the times. They have pervaded the + country from New England to Louisiana; they are neither peculiar to the + eternal snows of the former nor the burning suns of the latter; they are + not the creature of climate, neither are they confined to the slave + holding or the non-slave holding States. Alike they spring up among the + pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving citizens + of the land of steady habits. Whatever then their cause may be, it is + common to the whole country. + </p> + <p> + It would be tedious as well as useless to recount the horrors of all of + them. Those happening in the State of Mississippi and at St. Louis are + perhaps the most dangerous in example and revolting to humanity. In the + Mississippi case they first commenced by hanging the regular gamblers—a + set of men certainly not following for a livelihood a very useful or very + honest occupation, but one which, so far from being forbidden by the laws, + was actually licensed by an act of the Legislature passed but a single + year before. Next, negroes suspected of conspiring to raise an + insurrection were caught up and hanged in all parts of the State; then, + white men supposed to be leagued with the negroes; and finally, strangers + from neighboring States, going thither on business, were in many instances + subjected to the same fate. Thus went on this process of hanging, from + gamblers to negroes, from negroes to white citizens, and from these to + strangers, till dead men were seen literally dangling from the boughs of + trees upon every roadside, and in numbers almost sufficient to rival the + native Spanish moss of the country as a drapery of the forest. + </p> + <p> + Turn then to that horror-striking scene at St. Louis. A single victim only + was sacrificed there. This story is very short, and is perhaps the most + highly tragic of anything of its length that has ever been witnessed in + real life. A mulatto man by the name of McIntosh was seized in the street, + dragged to the suburbs of the city, chained to a tree, and actually burned + to death; and all within a single hour from the time he had been a freeman + attending to his own business and at peace with the world. + </p> + <p> + Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the scenes becoming more and + more frequent in this land so lately famed for love of law and order, and + the stories of which have even now grown too familiar to attract anything + more than an idle remark. + </p> + <p> + But you are perhaps ready to ask, “What has this to do with the + perpetuation of our political institutions?” I answer, It has much to do + with it. Its direct consequences are, comparatively speaking, but a small + evil, and much of its danger consists in the proneness of our minds to + regard its direct as its only consequences. Abstractly considered, the + hanging of the gamblers at Vicksburg was of but little consequence. They + constitute a portion of population that is worse than useless in any + community; and their death, if no pernicious example be set by it, is + never matter of reasonable regret with any one. If they were annually + swept from the stage of existence by the plague or smallpox, honest men + would perhaps be much profited by the operation. Similar too is the + correct reasoning in regard to the burning of the negro at St. Louis. He + had forfeited his life by the perpetration of an outrageous murder upon + one of the most worthy and respectable citizens of the city, and had he + not died as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the law in a very + short time afterwards. As to him alone, it was as well the way it was as + it could otherwise have been. But the example in either case was fearful. + When men take it in their heads to-day to hang gamblers or burn murderers, + they should recollect that in the confusion usually attending such + transactions they will be as likely to hang or burn some one who is + neither a gambler nor a murderer as one who is, and that, acting upon the + example they set, the mob of to-morrow may, and probably will, hang or + burn some of them by the very same mistake. And not only so: the innocent, + those who have ever set their faces against violations of law in every + shape, alike with the guilty fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and + thus it goes on, step by step, till all the walls erected for the defense + of the persons and property of individuals are trodden down and + disregarded. But all this, even, is not the full extent of the evil. By + such examples, by instances of the perpetrators of such acts going + unpunished, the lawless in spirit are encouraged to become lawless in + practice; and having been used to no restraint but dread of punishment, + they thus become absolutely unrestrained. Having ever regarded government + as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of the suspension of its + operations, and pray for nothing so much as its total annihilation. While, + on the other hand, good men, men who love tranquillity, who desire to + abide by the laws and enjoy their benefits, who would gladly spill their + blood in the defense of their country, seeing their property destroyed, + their families insulted, and their lives endangered, their persons + injured, and seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the + better, become tired of and disgusted with a government that offers them + no protection, and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine + they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocratic + spirit which all must admit is now abroad in the land, the strongest + bulwark of any government, and particularly of those constituted like + ours, may effectually be broken down and destroyed—I mean the + attachment of the people. Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; + whenever the vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in + bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob + provision-stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and + hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunity, depend on + it, this government cannot last. By such things the feelings of the best + citizens will become more or less alienated from it, and thus it will be + left without friends, or with too few, and those few too weak to make + their friendship effectual. At such a time, and under such circumstances, + men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the + opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric which for the + last half century has been the fondest hope of the lovers of freedom + throughout the world. + </p> + <p> + I know the American people are much attached to their government; I know + they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils long + and patiently before they would ever think of exchanging it for another,—yet, + notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually despised and + disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and property + are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of + their affections from the government is the natural consequence; and to + that, sooner or later, it must come. + </p> + <p> + Here, then, is one point at which danger may be expected. + </p> + <p> + The question recurs, How shall we fortify against it? The answer is + simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to + his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the + least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their + violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of + the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and + laws let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred + honor. Let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the + blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children’s + liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother + to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, + in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling + books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in + legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let + it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the + young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay of all sexes and + tongues and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. + </p> + <p> + While ever a state of feeling such as this shall universally or even very + generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and + fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national freedom. + </p> + <p> + When, I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, let me not + be understood as saying there are no bad laws, or that grievances may not + arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean + to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they + exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue + in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed. So + also in unprovided cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be + made for them with the least possible delay, but till then let them, if + not too intolerable, be borne with. + </p> + <p> + There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. In any + case that may arise, as, for instance, the promulgation of abolitionism, + one of two positions is necessarily true—that is, the thing is right + within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of all law and all + good citizens, or it is wrong, and therefore proper to be prohibited by + legal enactments; and in neither case is the interposition of mob law + either necessary, justifiable, or excusable. + </p> + <p> + But it may be asked, Why suppose danger to our political institutions? + Have we not preserved them for more than fifty years? And why may we not + for fifty times as long? + </p> + <p> + We hope there is no sufficient reason. We hope all danger may be overcome; + but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely + dangerous. There are now, and will hereafter be, many causes, dangerous in + their tendency, which have not existed heretofore, and which are not too + insignificant to merit attention. That our government should have been + maintained in its original form, from its establishment until now, is not + much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that + period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that period it + was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now it is understood to be + a successful one. Then, all that sought celebrity and fame and distinction + expected to find them in the success of that experiment. Their all was + staked upon it; their destiny was inseparably linked with it. Their + ambition aspired to display before an admiring world a practical + demonstration of the truth of a proposition which had hitherto been + considered at best no better than problematical—namely, the + capability of a people to govern themselves. If they succeeded they were + to be immortalized; their names were to be transferred to counties, and + cities, and rivers, and mountains; and to be revered and sung, toasted + through all time. If they failed, they were to be called knaves and fools, + and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink and be forgotten. They + succeeded. The experiment is successful, and thousands have won their + deathless names in making it so. But the game is caught; and I believe it + is true that with the catching end the pleasures of the chase. This field + of glory is harvested, and the crop is already appropriated. But new + reapers will arise, and they too will seek a field. It is to deny what the + history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and + talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. And when they do, they + will as naturally seek the gratification of their ruling passion as others + have done before them. The question then is, Can that gratification be + found in supporting and in maintaining an edifice that has been erected by + others? Most certainly it cannot. Many great and good men, sufficiently + qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found whose + ambition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a + Gubernatorial or a Presidential chair; but such belong not to the family + of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What! think you these places would + satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon? Never! Towering genius + disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no + distinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected to + the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any + chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however + illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it + will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving + freemen. Is it unreasonable, then, to expect that some man possessed of + the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its + utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us? And when such an one + does it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to + the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully + frustrate his designs. + </p> + <p> + Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as + willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, yet, that + opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building + up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down. + </p> + <p> + Here then is a probable case, highly dangerous, and such an one as could + not have well existed heretofore. + </p> + <p> + Another reason which once was, but which, to the same extent, is now no + more, has done much in maintaining our institutions thus far. I mean the + powerful influence which the interesting scenes of the Revolution had upon + the passions of the people as distinguished from their judgment. By this + influence, the jealousy, envy, and avarice incident to our nature, and so + common to a state of peace, prosperity, and conscious strength, were for + the time in a great measure smothered and rendered inactive, while the + deep-rooted principles of hate, and the powerful motive of revenge, + instead of being turned against each other, were directed exclusively + against the British nation. And thus, from the force of circumstances, the + basest principles of our nature were either made to lie dormant, or to + become the active agents in the advancement of the noblest of causes—that + of establishing and maintaining civil and religious liberty. + </p> + <p> + But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has faded, with the + circumstances that produced it. + </p> + <p> + I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolution are now or ever + will be entirely forgotten, but that, like everything else, they must fade + upon the memory of the world, and grow more and more dim by the lapse of + time. In history, we hope, they will be read of, and recounted, so long as + the Bible shall be read; but even granting that they will, their influence + cannot be what it heretofore has been. Even then they cannot be so + universally known nor so vividly felt as they were by the generation just + gone to rest. At the close of that struggle, nearly every adult male had + been a participator in some of its scenes. The consequence was that of + those scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, a son, or a brother, a + living history was to be found in every family—a history bearing the + indubitable testimonies of its own authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in + the scars of wounds received, in the midst of the very scenes related—a + history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, the wise and + the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned. But those histories are gone. + They can be read no more forever. They were a fortress of strength; but + what invading foeman could never do the silent artillery of time has done—the + leveling of its walls. They are gone. They were a forest of giant oaks; + but the all-restless hurricane has swept over them, and left only here and + there a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, + unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle breezes, and to + combat with its mutilated limbs a few more ruder storms, then to sink and + be no more. + </p> + <p> + They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they have + crumbled away that temple must fall unless we, their descendants, supply + their places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober + reason. Passion has helped us, but can do so no more. It will in future be + our enemy. Reason cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason—must + furnish all the materials for our future support and defense. Let those + materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and in + particular, a reverence for the Constitution and laws; and that we + improved to the last, that we remained free to the last, that we revered + his name to the last, that during his long sleep we permitted no hostile + foot to pass over or desecrate his resting place, shall be that which to + learn the last trump shall awaken our Washington. + </p> + <p> + Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its basis; + and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, “the gates + of hell shall not prevail against it.” + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. + </h2></div> + <h3> + March 3, 1837. + </h3> + <p> + The following protest was presented to the House, which was read and + ordered to be spread in the journals, to wit: + </p> + <p> + “Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both + branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the undersigned + hereby protest against the passage of the same. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + “The difference between these opinions and those contained in the said + resolutions is their reason for entering this protest. + </p> + <p> + “DAN STONE, “A. LINCOLN, + </p> + <p> + “Representatives from the County of Sangamon.” + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO MISS MARY OWENS. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, May 7, 1837. + </h3> + <p> + MISS MARY S. OWENS. + </p> + <p> + FRIEND MARY:—I have commenced two letters to send you before this, + both of which displeased me before I got half done, and so I tore them up. + The first I thought was not serious enough, and the second was on the + other extreme. I shall send this, turn out as it may. + </p> + <p> + This thing of living in Springfield is rather a dull business, after all; + at least it is so to me. I am quite as lonesome here as I ever was + anywhere in my life. I have been spoken to by but one woman since I have + been here, and should not have been by her if she could have avoided it. I + ’ve never been to church yet, and probably shall not be soon. I stay away + because I am conscious I should not know how to behave myself. + </p> + <p> + I am often thinking of what we said about your coming to live at + Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There is a great deal + of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would be your doom to see + without sharing it. You would have to be poor, without the means of hiding + your poverty. Do you believe you could bear that patiently? Whatever woman + may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to + do all in my power to make her happy and contented; and there is nothing I + can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the effort. I + know I should be much happier with you than the way I am, provided I saw + no signs of discontent in you. What you have said to me may have been in + the way of jest, or I may have misunderstood you. If so, then let it be + forgotten; if otherwise, I much wish you would think seriously before you + decide. What I have said I will most positively abide by, provided you + wish it. My opinion is that you had better not do it. You have not been + accustomed to hardship, and it may be more severe than you now imagine. I + know you are capable of thinking correctly on any subject, and if you + deliberate maturely upon this subject before you decide, then I am willing + to abide your decision. + </p> + <p> + You must write me a good long letter after you get this. You have nothing + else to do, and though it might not seem interesting to you after you had + written it, it would be a good deal of company to me in this “busy + wilderness.” Tell your sister I don’t want to hear any more about selling + out and moving. That gives me the “hypo” whenever I think of it. + </p> + <p> + Yours, etc., LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOHN BENNETT. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug. 5, 1837. JOHN BENNETT, ESQ. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SIR:—Mr. Edwards tells me you wish to know whether the act to which + your own incorporation provision was attached passed into a law. It did. + You can organize under the general incorporation law as soon as you + choose. + </p> + <p> + I also tacked a provision onto a fellow’s bill to authorize the relocation + of the road from Salem down to your town, but I am not certain whether or + not the bill passed, neither do I suppose I can ascertain before the law + will be published, if it is a law. Bowling Greene, Bennette Abe? and + yourself are appointed to make the change. No news. No excitement except a + little about the election of Monday next. + </p> + <p> + I suppose, of course, our friend Dr. Heney stands no chance in your + diggings. + </p> + <p> + Your friend and humble servant, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO MARY OWENS. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Aug. 16, 1837 + </h3> + <p> + FRIEND MARY: You will no doubt think it rather strange that I should write + you a letter on the same day on which we parted, and I can only account + for it by supposing that seeing you lately makes me think of you more than + usual; while at our late meeting we had but few expressions of thoughts. + You must know that I cannot see you, or think of you, with entire + indifference; and yet it may be that you are mistaken in regard to what my + real feelings toward you are. + </p> + <p> + If I knew you were not, I should not have troubled you with this letter. + Perhaps any other man would know enough without information; but I + consider it my peculiar right to plead ignorance, and your bounden duty to + allow the plea. + </p> + <p> + I want in all cases to do right; and most particularly so in all cases + with women. + </p> + <p> + I want, at this particular time, more than any thing else to do right with + you; and if I knew it would be doing right, as I rather suspect it would, + to let you alone I would do it. And, for the purpose of making the matter + as plain as possible, I now say that you can drop the subject, dismiss + your thoughts (if you ever had any) from me for ever and leave this letter + unanswered without calling forth one accusing murmur from me. And I will + even go further and say that, if it will add anything to your comfort or + peace of mind to do so, it is my sincere wish that you should. Do not + understand by this that I wish to cut your acquaintance. I mean no such + thing. What I do wish is that our further acquaintance shall depend upon + yourself. If such further acquaintance would contribute nothing to your + happiness, I am sure it would not to mine. If you feel yourself in any + degree bound to me, I am now willing to release you, provided you wish it; + while on the other hand I am willing and even anxious to bind you faster + if I can be convinced that it will, in any considerable degree, add to + your happiness. This, indeed, is the whole question with me. Nothing would + make me more miserable than to believe you miserable, nothing more happy + than to know you were so. + </p> + <p> + In what I have now said, I think I cannot be misunderstood; and to make + myself understood is the only object of this letter. + </p> + <p> + If it suits you best not to answer this, farewell. A long life and a merry + one attend you. But, if you conclude to write back, speak as plainly as I + do. There can neither be harm nor danger in saying to me anything you + think, just in the manner you think it. My respects to your sister. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + LEGAL SUIT OF WIDOW v.s. Gen. ADAMS + </h2></div> + <h3> + TO THE PEOPLE. + </h3> + <p> + “SANGAMON JOURNAL,” SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug. 19, 1837. + </p> + <p> + In accordance with our determination, as expressed last week, we present + to the reader the articles which were published in hand-bill form, in + reference to the case of the heirs of Joseph Anderson vs. James Adams. + These articles can now be read uninfluenced by personal or party feeling, + and with the sole motive of learning the truth. When that is done, the + reader can pass his own judgment on the matters at issue. + </p> + <p> + We only regret in this case, that the publications were not made some + weeks before the election. Such a course might have prevented the + expressions of regret, which have often been heard since, from different + individuals, on account of the disposition they made of their votes. + </p> + <p> + To the Public: + </p> + <p> + It is well known to most of you, that there is existing at this time + considerable excitement in regard to Gen. Adams’s titles to certain tracts + of land, and the manner in which he acquired them. As I understand, the + Gen. charges that the whole has been gotten up by a knot of lawyers to + injure his election; and as I am one of the knot to which he refers, and + as I happen to be in possession of facts connected with the matter, I + will, in as brief a manner as possible, make a statement of them, together + with the means by which I arrived at the knowledge of them. + </p> + <p> + Sometime in May or June last, a widow woman, by the name of Anderson, and + her son, who resides in Fulton county, came to Springfield, for the + purpose as they said of selling a ten acre lot of ground lying near town, + which they claimed as the property of the deceased husband and father. + </p> + <p> + When they reached town they found the land was claimed by Gen. Adams. John + T. Stuart and myself were employed to look into the matter, and if it was + thought we could do so with any prospect of success, to commence a suit + for the land. I went immediately to the recorder’s office to examine + Adams’s title, and found that the land had been entered by one Dixon, + deeded by Dixon to Thomas, by Thomas to one Miller, and by Miller to Gen. + Adams. The oldest of these three deeds was about ten or eleven years old, + and the latest more than five, all recorded at the same time, and that + within less than one year. This I thought a suspicious circumstance, and I + was thereby induced to examine the deeds very closely, with a view to the + discovery of some defect by which to overturn the title, being almost + convinced then it was founded in fraud. I discovered that in the deed from + Thomas to Miller, although Miller’s name stood in a sort of marginal note + on the record book, it was nowhere in the deed itself. I told the fact to + Talbott, the recorder, and proposed to him that he should go to Gen. + Adams’s and get the original deed, and compare it with the record, and + thereby ascertain whether the defect was in the original or there was + merely an error in the recording. As Talbott afterwards told me, he went + to the General’s, but not finding him at home, got the deed from his son, + which, when compared with the record, proved what we had discovered was + merely an error of the recorder. After Mr. Talbott corrected the record, + he brought the original to our office, as I then thought and think yet, to + show us that it was right. When he came into the room he handed the deed + to me, remarking that the fault was all his own. On opening it, another + paper fell out of it, which on examination proved to be an assignment of a + judgment in the Circuit Court of Sangamon County from Joseph Anderson, the + late husband of the widow above named, to James Adams, the judgment being + in favor of said Anderson against one Joseph Miller. Knowing that this + judgment had some connection with the land affair, I immediately took a + copy of it, which is word for word, letter for letter and cross for cross + as follows: + </p> + <p> + Joseph Anderson, vs. Joseph Miller. + </p> + <p> + Judgment in Sangamon Circuit Court against Joseph Miller obtained on a + note originally 25 dolls and interest thereon accrued. I assign all my + right, title and interest to James Adams which is in consideration of a + debt I owe said Adams. + </p> + <p> + his JOSEPH x ANDERSON. mark. + </p> + <p> + As the copy shows, it bore date May 10, 1827; although the judgment + assigned by it was not obtained until the October afterwards, as may be + seen by any one on the records of the Circuit Court. Two other strange + circumstances attended it which cannot be represented by a copy. One of + them was, that the date “1827” had first been made “1837” and, without the + figure “3,” being fully obliterated, the figure “2” had afterwards been + made on top of it; the other was that, although the date was ten years + old, the writing on it, from the freshness of its appearance, was thought + by many, and I believe by all who saw it, not to be more than a week old. + The paper on which it was written had a very old appearance; and there + were some old figures on the back of it which made the freshness of the + writing on the face of it much more striking than I suppose it otherwise + might have been. The reader’s curiosity is no doubt excited to know what + connection this assignment had with the land in question. The story is + this: Dixon sold and deeded the land to Thomas; Thomas sold it to + Anderson; but before he gave a deed, Anderson sold it to Miller, and took + Miller’s note for the purchase money. When this note became due, Anderson + sued Miller on it, and Miller procured an injunction from the Court of + Chancery to stay the collection of the money until he should get a deed + for the land. Gen. Adams was employed as an attorney by Anderson in this + chancery suit, and at the October term, 1827, the injunction was + dissolved, and a judgment given in favor of Anderson against Miller; and + it was provided that Thomas was to execute a deed for the land in favor of + Miller and deliver it to Gen. Adams, to be held up by him till Miller paid + the judgment, and then to deliver it to him. Miller left the county + without paying the judgment. Anderson moved to Fulton county, where he has + since died When the widow came to Springfield last May or June, as before + mentioned, and found the land deeded to Gen. Adams by Miller, she was + naturally led to inquire why the money due upon the judgment had not been + sent to them, inasmuch as he, Gen. Adams, had no authority to deliver + Thomas’s deed to Miller until the money was paid. Then it was the General + told her, or perhaps her son, who came with her, that Anderson, in his + lifetime, had assigned the judgment to him, Gen. Adams. I am now told that + the General is exhibiting an assignment of the same judgment bearing date + “1828” and in other respects differing from the one described; and that he + is asserting that no such assignment as the one copied by me ever existed; + or if there did, it was forged between Talbott and the lawyers, and + slipped into his papers for the purpose of injuring him. Now, I can only + say that I know precisely such a one did exist, and that Ben. Talbott, Wm. + Butler, C.R. Matheny, John T. Stuart, Judge Logan, Robert Irwin, P. C. + Canedy and S. M. Tinsley, all saw and examined it, and that at least one + half of them will swear that IT WAS IN GENERAL ADAMS’S HANDWRITING!! And + further, I know that Talbott will swear that he got it out of the + General’s possession, and returned it into his possession again. The + assignment which the General is now exhibiting purports to have been by + Anderson in writing. The one I copied was signed with a cross. + </p> + <p> + I am told that Gen. Neale says that he will swear that he heard Gen. Adams + tell young Anderson that the assignment made by his father was signed with + a cross. + </p> + <p> + The above are ‘facts,’ as stated. I leave them without comment. I have + given the names of persons who have knowledge of these facts, in order + that any one who chooses may call on them and ascertain how far they will + corroborate my statements. I have only made these statements because I am + known by many to be one of the individuals against whom the charge of + forging the assignment and slipping it into the General’s papers has been + made, and because our silence might be construed into a confession of its + truth. I shall not subscribe my name; but I hereby authorize the editor of + the Journal to give it up to any one that may call for it. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + LINCOLN AND TALBOTT IN REPLY TO GEN. ADAMS. + </h2></div> + <h3> + “SANGAMON JOURNAL,” SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Oct. 28, 1837. + </h3> + <p> + In the Republican of this morning a publication of Gen. Adams’s appears, + in which my name is used quite unreservedly. For this I thank the General. + I thank him because it gives me an opportunity, without appearing + obtrusive, of explaining a part of a former publication of mine, which + appears to me to have been misunderstood by many. + </p> + <p> + In the former publication alluded to, I stated, in substance, that Mr. + Talbott got a deed from a son of Gen. Adams’s for the purpose of + correcting a mistake that had occurred on the record of the said deed in + the recorder’s office; that he corrected the record, and brought the deed + and handed it to me, and that on opening the deed, another paper, being + the assignment of a judgment, fell out of it. This statement Gen. Adams + and the editor of the Republican have seized upon as a most palpable + evidence of fabrication and falsehood. They set themselves gravely about + proving that the assignment could not have been in the deed when Talbott + got it from young Adams, as he, Talbott, would have seen it when he opened + the deed to correct the record. Now, the truth is, Talbott did see the + assignment when he opened the deed, or at least he told me he did on the + same day; and I only omitted to say so, in my former publication, because + it was a matter of such palpable and necessary inference. I had stated + that Talbott had corrected the record by the deed; and of course he must + have opened it; and, just as the General and his friends argue, must have + seen the assignment. I omitted to state the fact of Talbott’s seeing the + assignment, because its existence was so necessarily connected with other + facts which I did state, that I thought the greatest dunce could not but + understand it. Did I say Talbott had not seen it? Did I say anything that + was inconsistent with his having seen it before? Most certainly I did + neither; and if I did not, what becomes of the argument? These logical + gentlemen can sustain their argument only by assuming that I did say + negatively everything that I did not say affirmatively; and upon the same + assumption, we may expect to find the General, if a little harder pressed + for argument, saying that I said Talbott came to our office with his head + downward, not that I actually said so, but because I omitted to say he + came feet downward. + </p> + <p> + In his publication to-day, the General produces the affidavit of Reuben + Radford, in which it is said that Talbott told Radford that he did not + find the assignment in the deed, in the recording of which the error was + committed, but that he found it wrapped in another paper in the recorder’s + office, upon which statement the Genl. comments as follows, to wit: “If it + be true as stated by Talbott to Radford, that he found the assignment + wrapped up in another paper at his office, that contradicts the statement + of Lincoln that it fell out of the deed.” + </p> + <p> + Is common sense to be abused with such sophistry? Did I say what Talbott + found it in? If Talbott did find it in another paper at his office, is + that any reason why he could not have folded it in a deed and brought it + to my office? Can any one be so far duped as to be made believe that what + may have happened at Talbot’s office at one time is inconsistent with what + happened at my office at another time? + </p> + <p> + Now Talbott’s statement of the case as he makes it to me is this, that he + got a bunch of deeds from young Adams, and that he knows he found the + assignment in the bunch, but he is not certain which particular deed it + was in, nor is he certain whether it was folded in the same deed out of + which it was taken, or another one, when it was brought to my office. Is + this a mysterious story? Is there anything suspicious about it? + </p> + <p> + “But it is useless to dwell longer on this point. Any man who is not + wilfully blind can see at a flash, that there is no discrepancy, and + Lincoln has shown that they are not only inconsistent with truth, but each + other”—I can only say, that I have shown that he has done no such + thing; and if the reader is disposed to require any other evidence than + the General’s assertion, he will be of my opinion. + </p> + <p> + Excepting the General’s most flimsy attempt at mystification, in regard to + a discrepance between Talbott and myself, he has not denied a single + statement that I made in my hand-bill. Every material statement that I + made has been sworn to by men who, in former times, were thought as + respectable as General Adams. I stated that an assignment of a judgment, a + copy of which I gave, had existed—Benj. Talbott, C. R. Matheny, Wm. + Butler, and Judge Logan swore to its existence. I stated that it was said + to be in Gen. Adams’s handwriting—the same men swore it was in his + handwriting. I stated that Talbott would swear that he got it out of Gen. + Adams’s possession—Talbott came forward and did swear it. + </p> + <p> + Bidding adieu to the former publication, I now propose to examine the + General’s last gigantic production. I now propose to point out some + discrepancies in the General’s address; and such, too, as he shall not be + able to escape from. Speaking of the famous assignment, the General says: + “This last charge, which was their last resort, their dying effort to + render my character infamous among my fellow citizens, was manufactured at + a certain lawyer’s office in the town, printed at the office of the + Sangamon Journal, and found its way into the world some time between two + days just before the last election.” Now turn to Mr. Keys’ affidavit, in + which you will find the following, viz.: “I certify that some time in May + or the early part of June, 1837, I saw at Williams’s corner a paper + purporting to be an assignment from Joseph Anderson to James Adams, which + assignment was signed by a mark to Anderson’s name,” etc. Now mark, if + Keys saw the assignment on the last of May or first of June, Gen. Adams + tells a falsehood when he says it was manufactured just before the + election, which was on the 7th of August; and if it was manufactured just + before the election, Keys tells a falsehood when he says he saw it on the + last of May or first of June. Either Keys or the General is irretrievably + in for it; and in the General’s very condescending language, I say “Let + them settle it between them.” + </p> + <p> + Now again, let the reader, bearing in mind that General Adams has + unequivocally said, in one part of his address, that the charge in + relation to the assignment was manufactured just before the election, turn + to the affidavit of Peter S. Weber, where the following will be found + viz.: “I, Peter S. Weber, do certify that from the best of my + recollection, on the day or day after Gen. Adams started for the Illinois + Rapids, in May last, that I was at the house of Gen. Adams, sitting in the + kitchen, situated on the back part of the house, it being in the + afternoon, and that Benjamin Talbott came around the house, back into the + kitchen, and appeared wild and confused, and that he laid a package of + papers on the kitchen table and requested that they should be handed to + Lucian. He made no apology for coming to the kitchen, nor for not handing + them to Lucian himself, but showed the token of being frightened and + confused both in demeanor and speech and for what cause I could not + apprehend.” + </p> + <p> + Commenting on Weber’s affidavit, Gen. Adams asks, “Why this fright and + confusion?” I reply that this is a question for the General himself. Weber + says that it was in May, and if so, it is most clear that Talbott was not + frightened on account of the assignment, unless the General lies when he + says the assignment charge was manufactured just before the election. Is + it not a strong evidence, that the General is not traveling with the + pole-star of truth in his front, to see him in one part of his address + roundly asserting that the assignment was manufactured just before the + election, and then, forgetting that position, procuring Weber’s most + foolish affidavit, to prove that Talbott had been engaged in manufacturing + it two months before? + </p> + <p> + In another part of his address, Gen. Adams says: “That I hold an + assignment of said judgment, dated the 20th of May, 1828, and signed by + said Anderson, I have never pretended to deny or conceal, but stated that + fact in one of my circulars previous to the election, and also in answer + to a bill in chancery.” Now I pronounce this statement unqualifiedly + false, and shall not rely on the word or oath of any man to sustain me in + what I say; but will let the whole be decided by reference to the circular + and answer in chancery of which the General speaks. In his circular he did + speak of an assignment; but he did not say it bore date 20th of May, 1828; + nor did he say it bore any date. In his answer in chancery, he did say + that he had an assignment; but he did not say that it bore date the 20th + May, 1828; but so far from it, he said on oath (for he swore to the + answer) that as well as recollected, he obtained it in 1827. If any one + doubts, let him examine the circular and answer for himself. They are both + accessible. + </p> + <p> + It will readily be observed that the principal part of Adams’s defense + rests upon the argument that if he had been base enough to forge an + assignment he would not have been fool enough to forge one that would not + cover the case. This argument he used in his circular before the election. + The Republican has used it at least once, since then; and Adams uses it + again in his publication of to-day. Now I pledge myself to show that he is + just such a fool that he and his friends have contended it was impossible + for him to be. Recollect—he says he has a genuine assignment; and + that he got Joseph Klein’s affidavit, stating that he had seen it, and + that he believed the signature to have been executed by the same hand that + signed Anderson’s name to the answer in chancery. Luckily Klein took a + copy of this genuine assignment, which I have been permitted to see; and + hence I know it does not cover the case. In the first place it is headed + “Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph Miller,” and heads off “Judgment in Sangamon + Circuit Court.” Now, mark, there never was a case in Sangamon Circuit + Court entitled Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph Miller. The case mentioned in my + former publication, and the only one between these parties that ever + existed in the Circuit Court, was entitled Joseph Miller vs. Joseph + Anderson, Miller being the plaintiff. What then becomes of all their + sophistry about Adams not being fool enough to forge an assignment that + would not cover the case? It is certain that the present one does not + cover the case; and if he got it honestly, it is still clear that he was + fool enough to pay for an assignment that does not cover the case. + </p> + <p> + The General asks for the proof of disinterested witnesses. Whom does he + consider disinterested? None can be more so than those who have already + testified against him. No one of them had the least interest on earth, so + far as I can learn, to injure him. True, he says they had conspired + against him; but if the testimony of an angel from Heaven were introduced + against him, he would make the same charge of conspiracy. And now I put + the question to every reflecting man, Do you believe that Benjamin + Talbott, Chas. R. Matheny, William Butler and Stephen T. Logan, all + sustaining high and spotless characters, and justly proud of them, would + deliberately perjure themselves, without any motive whatever, except to + injure a man’s election; and that, too, a man who had been a candidate, + time out of mind, and yet who had never been elected to any office? + </p> + <p> + Adams’s assurance, in demanding disinterested testimony, is surpassing. He + brings in the affidavit of his own son, and even of Peter S. Weber, with + whom I am not acquainted, but who, I suppose, is some black or mulatto + boy, from his being kept in the kitchen, to prove his points; but when + such a man as Talbott, a man who, but two years ago, ran against Gen. + Adams for the office of Recorder and beat him more than four votes to one, + is introduced against him, he asks the community, with all the consequence + of a lord, to reject his testimony. + </p> + <p> + I might easily write a volume, pointing out inconsistencies between the + statements in Adams’s last address with one another, and with other known + facts; but I am aware the reader must already be tired with the length of + this article. His opening statements, that he was first accused of being a + Tory, and that he refuted that; that then the Sampson’s ghost story was + got up, and he refuted that; that as a last resort, a dying effort, the + assignment charge was got up is all as false as hell, as all this + community must know. Sampson’s ghost first made its appearance in print, + and that, too, after Keys swears he saw the assignment, as any one may see + by reference to the files of papers; and Gen. Adams himself, in reply to + the Sampson’s ghost story, was the first man that raised the cry of + toryism, and it was only by way of set-off, and never in seriousness, that + it was bandied back at him. His effort is to make the impression that his + enemies first made the charge of toryism and he drove them from that, then + Sampson’s ghost, he drove them from that, then finally the assignment + charge was manufactured just before election. Now, the only general reply + he ever made to the Sampson’s ghost and tory charges he made at one and + the same time, and not in succession as he states; and the date of that + reply will show, that it was made at least a month after the date on which + Keys swears he saw the Anderson assignment. But enough. In conclusion I + will only say that I have a character to defend as well as Gen. Adams, but + I disdain to whine about it as he does. It is true I have no children nor + kitchen boys; and if I had, I should scorn to lug them in to make + affidavits for me. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN, September 6, 1837. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + Gen. ADAMS CONTROVERSY—CONTINUED + </h2></div> + <h3> + TO THE PUBLIC. + </h3> + <p> + “SANGAMON JOURNAL,” Springfield, Ill, Oct.28, 1837. + </p> + <p> + Such is the turn which things have taken lately, that when Gen. Adams + writes a book, I am expected to write a commentary on it. In the + Republican of this morning he has presented the world with a new work of + six columns in length; in consequence of which I must beg the room of one + column in the Journal. It is obvious that a minute reply cannot be made in + one column to everything that can be said in six; and, consequently, I + hope that expectation will be answered if I reply to such parts of the + General’s publication as are worth replying to. + </p> + <p> + It may not be improper to remind the reader that in his publication of + Sept. 6th General Adams said that the assignment charge was manufactured + just before the election; and that in reply I proved that statement to be + false by Keys, his own witness. Now, without attempting to explain, he + furnishes me with another witness (Tinsley) by which the same thing is + proved, to wit, that the assignment was not manufactured just before the + election; but that it was some weeks before. Let it be borne in mind that + Adams made this statement—has himself furnished two witnesses to + prove its falsehood, and does not attempt to deny or explain it. Before + going farther, let a pin be stuck here, labeled “One lie proved and + confessed.” On the 6th of September he said he had before stated in the + hand-bill that he held an assignment dated May 20th, 1828, which in reply + I pronounced to be false, and referred to the hand-bill for the truth of + what I said. This week he forgets to make any explanation of this. Let + another pin be stuck here, labelled as before. I mention these things + because, if, when I convict him in one falsehood, he is permitted to shift + his ground and pass it by in silence, there can be no end to this + controversy. + </p> + <p> + The first thing that attracts my attention in the General’s present + production is the information he is pleased to give to “those who are made + to suffer at his (my) hands.” + </p> + <p> + Under present circumstances, this cannot apply to me, for I am not a widow + nor an orphan: nor have I a wife or children who might by possibility + become such. Such, however, I have no doubt, have been, and will again be + made to suffer at his hands! Hands! Yes, they are the mischievous agents. + The next thing I shall notice is his favorite expression, “not of lawyers, + doctors and others,” which he is so fond of applying to all who dare + expose his rascality. Now, let it be remembered that when he first came to + this country he attempted to impose himself upon the community as a + lawyer, and actually carried the attempt so far as to induce a man who was + under a charge of murder to entrust the defence of his life in his hands, + and finally took his money and got him hanged. Is this the man that is to + raise a breeze in his favor by abusing lawyers? If he is not himself a + lawyer, it is for the lack of sense, and not of inclination. If he is not + a lawyer, he is a liar, for he proclaimed himself a lawyer, and got a man + hanged by depending on him. + </p> + <p> + Passing over such parts of the article as have neither fact nor argument + in them, I come to the question asked by Adams whether any person ever saw + the assignment in his possession. This is an insult to common sense. + Talbott has sworn once and repeated time and again, that he got it out of + Adams’s possession and returned it into the same possession. Still, as + though he was addressing fools, he has assurance to ask if any person ever + saw it in his possession. + </p> + <p> + Next I quote a sentence, “Now my son Lucian swears that when Talbott + called for the deed, that he, Talbott, opened it and pointed out the + error.” True. His son Lucian did swear as he says; and in doing so, he + swore what I will prove by his own affidavit to be a falsehood. Turn to + Lucian’s affidavit, and you will there see that Talbott called for the + deed by which to correct an error on the record. Thus it appears that the + error in question was on the record, and not in the deed. How then could + Talbott open the deed and point out the error? Where a thing is not, it + cannot be pointed out. The error was not in the deed, and of course could + not be pointed out there. This does not merely prove that the error could + not be pointed out, as Lucian swore it was; but it proves, too, that the + deed was not opened in his presence with a special view to the error, for + if it had been, he could not have failed to see that there was no error in + it. It is easy enough to see why Lucian swore this. His object was to + prove that the assignment was not in the deed when Talbott got it: but it + was discovered he could not swear this safely, without first swearing the + deed was opened—and if he swore it was opened, he must show a motive + for opening it, and the conclusion with him and his father was that the + pointing out the error would appear the most plausible. + </p> + <p> + For the purpose of showing that the assignment was not in the bundle when + Talbott got it, is the story introduced into Lucian’s affidavit that the + deeds were counted. It is a remarkable fact, and one that should stand as + a warning to all liars and fabricators, that in this short affidavit of + Lucian’s he only attempted to depart from the truth, so far as I have the + means of knowing, in two points, to wit, in the opening the deed and + pointing out the error and the counting of the deeds,—and in both of + these he caught himself. About the counting, he caught himself thus—after + saying the bundle contained five deeds and a lease, he proceeds, “and I + saw no other papers than the said deed and lease.” First he has six + papers, and then he saw none but two; for “my son Lucian’s” benefit, let a + pin be stuck here. + </p> + <p> + Adams again adduces the argument, that he could not have forged the + assignment, for the reason that he could have had no motive for it. With + those that know the facts there is no absence of motive. Admitting the + paper which he has filed in the suit to be genuine, it is clear that it + cannot answer the purpose for which he designs it. Hence his motive for + making one that he supposed would answer is obvious. His making the date + too old is also easily enough accounted for. The records were not in his + hands, and then, there being some considerable talk upon this particular + subject, he knew he could not examine the records to ascertain the precise + dates without subjecting himself to suspicion; and hence he concluded to + try it by guess, and, as it turned out, missed it a little. About Miller’s + deposition I have a word to say. In the first place, Miller’s answer to + the first question shows upon its face that he had been tampered with, and + the answer dictated to him. He was asked if he knew Joel Wright and James + Adams; and above three-fourths of his answer consists of what he knew + about Joseph Anderson, a man about whom nothing had been asked, nor a word + said in the question—a fact that can only be accounted for upon the + supposition that Adams had secretly told him what he wished him to swear + to. + </p> + <p> + Another of Miller’s answers I will prove both by common sense and the + Court of Record is untrue. To one question he answers, “Anderson brought a + suit against me before James Adams, then an acting justice of the peace in + Sangamon County, before whom he obtained a judgment. + </p> + <p> + “Q.—Did you remove the same by injunction to the Sangamon Circuit + Court? Ans.—I did remove it.” + </p> + <p> + Now mark—it is said he removed it by injunction. The word + “injunction” in common language imports a command that some person or + thing shall not move or be removed; in law it has the same meaning. An + injunction issuing out of chancery to a justice of the peace is a command + to him to stop all proceedings in a named case until further orders. It is + not an order to remove but to stop or stay something that is already + moving. Besides this, the records of the Sangamon Circuit Court show that + the judgment of which Miller swore was never removed into said Court by + injunction or otherwise. + </p> + <p> + I have now to take notice of a part of Adams’s address which in the order + of time should have been noticed before. It is in these words: “I have now + shown, in the opinion of two competent judges, that the handwriting of the + forged assignment differed from mine, and by one of them that it could not + be mistaken for mine.” That is false. Tinsley no doubt is the judge + referred to; and by reference to his certificate it will be seen that he + did not say the handwriting of the assignment could not be mistaken for + Adams’s—nor did he use any other expression substantially, or + anything near substantially, the same. But if Tinsley had said the + handwriting could not be mistaken for Adams’s, it would have been equally + unfortunate for Adams: for it then would have contradicted Keys, who says, + “I looked at the writing and judged it the said Adams’s or a good + imitation.” + </p> + <p> + Adams speaks with much apparent confidence of his success on attending + lawsuits, and the ultimate maintenance of his title to the land in + question. Without wishing to disturb the pleasure of his dream, I would + say to him that it is not impossible that he may yet be taught to sing a + different song in relation to the matter. + </p> + <p> + At the end of Miller’s deposition, Adams asks, “Will Mr. Lincoln now say + that he is almost convinced my title to this ten acre tract of land is + founded in fraud?” I answer, I will not. I will now change the phraseology + so as to make it run—I am quite convinced, &c. I cannot pass in + silence Adams’s assertion that he has proved that the forged assignment + was not in the deed when it came from his house by Talbott, the recorder. + In this, although Talbott has sworn that the assignment was in the bundle + of deeds when it came from his house, Adams has the unaccountable + assurance to say that he has proved the contrary by Talbott. Let him or + his friends attempt to show wherein he proved any such thing by Talbott. + </p> + <p> + In his publication of the 6th of September he hinted to Talbott, that he + might be mistaken. In his present, speaking of Talbott and me he says + “They may have been imposed upon.” Can any man of the least penetration + fail to see the object of this? After he has stormed and raged till he + hopes and imagines he has got us a little scared he wishes to softly + whisper in our ears, “If you’ll quit I will.” If he could get us to say + that some unknown, undefined being had slipped the assignment into our + hands without our knowledge, not a doubt remains but that he would + immediately discover that we were the purest men on earth. This is the + ground he evidently wishes us to understand he is willing to compromise + upon. But we ask no such charity at his hands. We are neither mistaken nor + imposed upon. We have made the statements we have because we know them to + be true and we choose to live or die by them. + </p> + <p> + Esq. Carter, who is Adams’s friend, personal and political, will + recollect, that, on the 5th of this month, he (Adams), with a great + affectation of modesty, declared that he would never introduce his own + child as a witness. Notwithstanding this affectation of modesty, he has in + his present publication introduced his child as witness; and as if to show + with how much contempt he could treat his own declaration, he has had this + same Esq. Carter to administer the oath to him. And so important a witness + does he consider him, and so entirely does the whole of his entire present + production depend upon the testimony of his child, that in it he has + mentioned “my son,” “my son Lucian,” “Lucian, my son,” and the like + expressions no less than fifteen different times. Let it be remembered + here, that I have shown the affidavit of “my darling son Lucian” to be + false by the evidence apparent on its own face; and I now ask if that + affidavit be taken away what foundation will the fabric have left to stand + upon? + </p> + <p> + General Adams’s publications and out-door maneuvering, taken in connection + with the editorial articles of the Republican, are not more foolish and + contradictory than they are ludicrous and amusing. One week the Republican + notifies the public that Gen. Adams is preparing an instrument that will + tear, rend, split, rive, blow up, confound, overwhelm, annihilate, + extinguish, exterminate, burst asunder, and grind to powder all its + slanderers, and particularly Talbott and Lincoln—all of which is to + be done in due time. + </p> + <p> + Then for two or three weeks all is calm—not a word said. Again the + Republican comes forth with a mere passing remark that “public” opinion + has decided in favor of Gen. Adams, and intimates that he will give + himself no more trouble about the matter. In the meantime Adams himself is + prowling about and, as Burns says of the devil, “For prey, and holes and + corners tryin’,” and in one instance goes so far as to take an old + acquaintance of mine several steps from a crowd and, apparently weighed + down with the importance of his business, gravely and solemnly asks him if + “he ever heard Lincoln say he was a deist.” + </p> + <p> + Anon the Republican comes again. “We invite the attention of the public to + General Adams’s communication,” &c. “The victory is a great one, the + triumph is overwhelming.” I really believe the editor of the Illinois + Republican is fool enough to think General Adams leads off—“Authors + most egregiously mistaken &c. Most woefully shall their presumption be + punished,” &c. (Lord have mercy on us.) “The hour is yet to come, yea, + nigh at hand—(how long first do you reckon?)—when the Journal + and its junto shall say, I have appeared too early.” “Their infamy shall + be laid bare to the public gaze.” Suddenly the General appears to relent + at the severity with which he is treating us and he exclaims: “The + condemnation of my enemies is the inevitable result of my own defense.” + For your health’s sake, dear Gen., do not permit your tenderness of heart + to afflict you so much on our account. For some reason (perhaps because we + are killed so quickly) we shall never be sensible of our suffering. + </p> + <p> + Farewell, General. I will see you again at court if not before—when + and where we will settle the question whether you or the widow shall have + the land. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. October 18, 1837. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + 1838 + </h2></div> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO Mrs. O. H. BROWNING—A FARCE + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, April 1, 1838. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR MADAM:—Without apologizing for being egotistical, 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 and + suffered since I saw you, I shall necessarily have to relate some that + happened before. + </p> + <p> + It was, then, in the autumn of 1836 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 despatch. I, of course, accepted the proposal, for you know I + could not have done otherwise had I really been averse to it; but + privately, between 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 company, 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 ever 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 mentioned. In a few days we had an + interview, and, although 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-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 had 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. + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + Shortly after this, without coming 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. + </p> + <p> + All this while, although I was fixed, “firm as the surge-repelling rock,” + in my resolution, I found I was continually repenting the rashness which + had led me to make it. Through life, I have been in no bondage, either + real or imaginary, from the thraldom of which I so much desired to be + free. After my return home, I saw nothing to change my opinions of her in + any particular. She was the same, and so was I. I now spent my time in + planning how I might get along through 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 Irishman does the halter. + </p> + <p> + After all my suffering upon this deeply interesting subject, here I am, + wholly, unexpectedly, completely, out of the “scrape”; and now I 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 her 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. + </p> + <p> + I finally was forced to give it up; at which I very unexpectedly found + myself mortified almost beyond endurance. I was mortified, it seemed to + me, in a hundred different ways. My vanity was deeply wounded by the + reflection that I had 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. But let it all go. I’ll try and outlive it. Others have + been made fools of by the girls, but this can never with truth be said of + me. I most emphatically in this instance, 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 any one who would be blockhead + enough to have me. + </p> + <p> + When you receive this, write me a long yarn about something to amuse me. + Give my respects to Mr. Browning. + </p> + <p> + Your sincere friend, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + 1839 + </h2></div> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0029"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + REMARKS ON SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS + </h2></div> + <h3> + IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, January 17, 1839. + </h3> + <p> + Mr. Lincoln, from Committee on Finance, to which the subject was referred, + made a report on the subject of purchasing of the United States all the + unsold lands lying within the limits of the State of Illinois, accompanied + by resolutions that this State propose to purchase all unsold lands at + twenty-five cents per acre, and pledging the faith of the State to carry + the proposal into effect if the government accept the same within two + years. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Lincoln thought the resolutions ought to be seriously considered. In + reply to the gentleman from Adams, he said that it was not to enrich the + State. The price of the lands may be raised, it was thought by some; by + others, that it would be reduced. The conclusion in his mind was that the + representatives in this Legislature from the country in which the lands + lie would be opposed to raising the price, because it would operate + against the settlement of the lands. He referred to the lands in the + military tract. They had fallen into the hands of large speculators in + consequence of the low price. He was opposed to a low price of land. He + thought it was adverse to the interests of the poor settler, because + speculators buy them up. He was opposed to a reduction of the price of + public lands. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Lincoln referred to some official documents emanating from Indiana, + and compared the progressive population of the two States. Illinois had + gained upon that State under the public land system as it is. His + conclusion was that ten years from this time Illinois would have no more + public land unsold than Indiana now has. He referred also to Ohio. That + State had sold nearly all her public lands. She was but twenty years ahead + of us, and as our lands were equally salable—more so, as he + maintained—we should have no more twenty years from now than she has + at present. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Lincoln referred to the canal lands, and supposed that the policy of + the State would be different in regard to them, if the representatives + from that section of country could themselves choose the policy; but the + representatives from other parts of the State had a veto upon it, and + regulated the policy. He thought that if the State had all the lands, the + policy of the Legislature would be more liberal to all sections. + </p> + <p> + He referred to the policy of the General Government. He thought that if + the national debt had not been paid, the expenses of the government would + not have doubled, as they had done since that debt was paid. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0030"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO ——— ROW. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, June 11, 1839 DEAR ROW: + </h3> + <p> + Mr. Redman informs me that you wish me to write you the particulars of a + conversation between Dr. Felix and myself relative to you. The Dr. + overtook me between Rushville and Beardstown. + </p> + <p> + He, after learning that I had lived at Springfield, asked if I was + acquainted with you. I told him I was. He said you had lately been elected + constable in Adams, but that you never would be again. I asked him why. He + said the people there had found out that you had been sheriff or deputy + sheriff in Sangamon County, and that you came off and left your securities + to suffer. He then asked me if I did not know such to be the fact. I told + him I did not think you had ever been sheriff or deputy sheriff in + Sangamon, but that I thought you had been constable. I further told him + that if you had left your securities to suffer in that or any other case, + I had never heard of it, and that if it had been so, I thought I would + have heard of it. + </p> + <p> + If the Dr. is telling that I told him anything against you whatever, I + authorize you to contradict it flatly. We have no news here. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, as ever, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0031"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + SPEECH ON NATIONAL BANK + </h2></div> + <h3> + IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, December 20, 1839. + </p> + <p> + FELLOW-CITIZENS:—It is peculiarly embarrassing to me to attempt a + continuance of the discussion, on this evening, which has been conducted + in this hall on several preceding ones. It is so because on each of those + evenings there was a much fuller attendance than now, without any reason + for its being so, except the greater interest the community feel in the + speakers who addressed them then than they do in him who is to do so now. + I am, indeed, apprehensive that the few who have attended have done so + more to spare me mortification than in the hope of being interested in + anything I may be able to say. This circumstance casts a damp upon my + spirits, which I am sure I shall be unable to overcome during the evening. + But enough of preface. + </p> + <p> + The subject heretofore and now to be discussed is the subtreasury scheme + of the present administration, as a means of collecting, safe-keeping, + transferring, and disbursing, the revenues of the nation, as contrasted + with a national bank for the same purposes. Mr. Douglas has said that we + (the Whigs) have not dared to meet them (the Locos) in argument on this + question. I protest against this assertion. I assert that we have again + and again, during this discussion, urged facts and arguments against the + subtreasury which they have neither dared to deny nor attempted to answer. + But lest some may be led to believe that we really wish to avoid the + question, I now propose, in my humble way, to urge those arguments again; + at the same time begging the audience to mark well the positions I shall + take and the proof I shall offer to sustain them, and that they will not + again permit Mr. Douglas or his friends to escape the force of them by a + round and groundless assertion that we “dare not meet them in argument.” + </p> + <p> + Of the subtreasury, then, as contrasted with a national bank for the + before-enumerated purposes, I lay down the following propositions, to wit: + (1) It will injuriously affect the community by its operation on the + circulating medium. (2) It will be a more expensive fiscal agent. (3) It + will be a less secure depository of the public money. To show the truth of + the first proposition, let us take a short review of our condition under + the operation of a national bank. It was the depository of the public + revenues. Between the collection of those revenues and the disbursement of + them by the government, the bank was permitted to and did actually loan + them out to individuals, and hence the large amount of money actually + collected for revenue purposes, which by any other plan would have been + idle a great portion of the time, was kept almost constantly in + circulation. Any person who will reflect that money is only valuable while + in circulation will readily perceive that any device which will keep the + government revenues in constant circulation, instead of being locked up in + idleness, is no inconsiderable advantage. By the subtreasury the revenue + is to be collected and kept in iron boxes until the government wants it + for disbursement; thus robbing the people of the use of it, while the + government does not itself need it, and while the money is performing no + nobler office than that of rusting in iron boxes. The natural effect of + this change of policy, every one will see, is to reduce the quantity of + money in circulation. But, again, by the subtreasury scheme the revenue is + to be collected in specie. I anticipate that this will be disputed. I + expect to hear it said that it is not the policy of the administration to + collect the revenue in specie. If it shall, I reply that Mr. Van Buren, in + his message recommending the subtreasury, expended nearly a column of that + document in an attempt to persuade Congress to provide for the collection + of the revenue in specie exclusively; and he concludes with these words: + </p> + <p> + “It may be safely assumed that no motive of convenience to the citizens + requires the reception of bank paper.” In addition to this, Mr. Silas + Wright, Senator from New York, and the political, personal and + confidential friend of Mr. Van Buren, drafted and introduced into the + Senate the first subtreasury bill, and that bill provided for ultimately + collecting the revenue in specie. It is true, I know, that that clause was + stricken from the bill, but it was done by the votes of the Whigs, aided + by a portion only of the Van Buren senators. No subtreasury bill has yet + become a law, though two or three have been considered by Congress, some + with and some without the specie clause; so that I admit there is room for + quibbling upon the question of whether the administration favor the + exclusive specie doctrine or not; but I take it that the fact that the + President at first urged the specie doctrine, and that under his + recommendation the first bill introduced embraced it, warrants us in + charging it as the policy of the party until their head as publicly + recants it as he at first espoused it. I repeat, then, that by the + subtreasury the revenue is to be collected in specie. Now mark what the + effect of this must be. By all estimates ever made there are but between + sixty and eighty millions of specie in the United States. The expenditures + of the Government for the year 1838—the last for which we have had + the report—were forty millions. Thus it is seen that if the whole + revenue be collected in specie, it will take more than half of all the + specie in the nation to do it. By this means more than half of all the + specie belonging to the fifteen millions of souls who compose the whole + population of the country is thrown into the hands of the public + office-holders, and other public creditors comprising in number perhaps + not more than one quarter of a million, leaving the other fourteen + millions and three quarters to get along as they best can, with less than + one half of the specie of the country, and whatever rags and shinplasters + they may be able to put, and keep, in circulation. By this means, every + office-holder and other public creditor may, and most likely will, set up + shaver; and a most glorious harvest will the specie-men have of it,—each + specie-man, upon a fair division, having to his share the fleecing of + about fifty-nine rag-men. In all candor let me ask, was such a system for + benefiting the few at the expense of the many ever before devised? And was + the sacred name of Democracy ever before made to indorse such an enormity + against the rights of the people? + </p> + <p> + I have already said that the subtreasury will reduce the quantity of money + in circulation. This position is strengthened by the recollection that the + revenue is to be collected in Specie, so that the mere amount of revenue + is not all that is withdrawn, but the amount of paper circulation that the + forty millions would serve as a basis to is withdrawn, which would be in a + sound state at least one hundred millions. When one hundred millions, or + more, of the circulation we now have shall be withdrawn, who can + contemplate without terror the distress, ruin, bankruptcy, and beggary + that must follow? The man who has purchased any article—say a horse—on + credit, at one hundred dollars, when there are two hundred millions + circulating in the country, if the quantity be reduced to one hundred + millions by the arrival of pay-day, will find the horse but sufficient to + pay half the debt; and the other half must either be paid out of his other + means, and thereby become a clear loss to him, or go unpaid, and thereby + become a clear loss to his creditor. What I have here said of a single + case of the purchase of a horse will hold good in every case of a debt + existing at the time a reduction in the quantity of money occurs, by + whomsoever, and for whatsoever, it may have been contracted. It may be + said that what the debtor loses the creditor gains by this operation; but + on examination this will be found true only to a very limited extent. It + is more generally true that all lose by it—the creditor by losing + more of his debts than he gains by the increased value of those he + collects; the debtor by either parting with more of his property to pay + his debts than he received in contracting them, or by entirely breaking up + his business, and thereby being thrown upon the world in idleness. + </p> + <p> + The general distress thus created will, to be sure, be temporary, because, + whatever change may occur in the quantity of money in any community, time + will adjust the derangement produced; but while that adjustment is + progressing, all suffer more or less, and very many lose everything that + renders life desirable. Why, then, shall we suffer a severe difficulty, + even though it be but temporary, unless we receive some equivalent for it? + </p> + <p> + What I have been saying as to the effect produced by a reduction of the + quantity of money relates to the whole country. I now propose to show that + it would produce a peculiar and permanent hardship upon the citizens of + those States and Territories in which the public lands lie. The + land-offices in those States and Territories, as all know, form the great + gulf by which all, or nearly all, the money in them is swallowed up. When + the quantity of money shall be reduced, and consequently everything under + individual control brought down in proportion, the price of those lands, + being fixed by law, will remain as now. Of necessity it will follow that + the produce or labor that now raises money sufficient to purchase eighty + acres will then raise but sufficient to purchase forty, or perhaps not + that much; and this difficulty and hardship will last as long, in some + degree, as any portion of these lands shall remain undisposed of. Knowing, + as I well do, the difficulty that poor people now encounter in procuring + homes, I hesitate not to say that when the price of the public lands shall + be doubled or trebled, or, which is the same thing, produce and labor cut + down to one half or one third of their present prices, it will be little + less than impossible for them to procure those homes at all.... + </p> + <p> + Well, then, what did become of him? (Postmaster General Barry) Why, the + President immediately expressed his high disapprobation of his almost + unequaled incapacity and corruption by appointing him to a foreign + mission, with a salary and outfit of $18,000 a year! The party now attempt + to throw Barry off, and to avoid the responsibility of his sins. Did not + the President indorse those sins when, on the very heel of their + commission, he appointed their author to the very highest and most + honorable office in his gift, and which is but a single step behind the + very goal of American political ambition? + </p> + <p> + I return to another of Mr. Douglas’s excuses for the expenditures of 1838, + at the same time announcing the pleasing intelligence that this is the + last one. He says that ten millions of that year’s expenditure was a + contingent appropriation, to prosecute an anticipated war with Great + Britain on the Maine boundary question. Few words will settle this. First, + that the ten millions appropriated was not made till 1839, and + consequently could not have been expended in 1838; second, although it was + appropriated, it has never been expended at all. Those who heard Mr. + Douglas recollect that he indulged himself in a contemptuous expression of + pity for me. “Now he’s got me,” thought I. But when he went on to say that + five millions of the expenditure of 1838 were payments of the French + indemnities, which I knew to be untrue; that five millions had been for + the post-office, which I knew to be untrue; that ten millions had been for + the Maine boundary war, which I not only knew to be untrue, but supremely + ridiculous also; and when I saw that he was stupid enough to hope that I + would permit such groundless and audacious assertions to go unexposed,—I + readily consented that, on the score both of veracity and sagacity, the + audience should judge whether he or I were the more deserving of the + world’s contempt. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Lamborn insists that the difference between the Van Buren party and + the Whigs is that, although the former sometimes err in practice, they are + always correct in principle, whereas the latter are wrong in principle; + and, better to impress this proposition, he uses a figurative expression + in these words: “The Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, but they are + sound in the head and the heart.” The first branch of the figure—that + is, that the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel—I admit is not + merely figuratively, but literally true. Who that looks but for a moment + at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their Harringtons, and their hundreds + of others, scampering away with the public money to Texas, to Europe, and + to every spot of the earth where a villain may hope to find refuge from + justice, can at all doubt that they are most distressingly affected in + their heels with a species of “running itch”? It seems that this malady of + their heels operates on these sound-headed and honest-hearted creatures + very much like the cork leg in the comic song did on its owner: which, + when he had once got started on it, the more he tried to stop it, the more + it would run away. At the hazard of wearing this point threadbare, I will + relate an anecdote which seems too strikingly in point to be omitted. A + witty Irish soldier, who was always boasting of his bravery when no danger + was near, but who invariably retreated without orders at the first charge + of an engagement, being asked by his captain why he did so, replied: + “Captain, I have as brave a heart as Julius Caesar ever had; but, somehow + or other, whenever danger approaches, my cowardly legs will run away with + it.” So with Mr. Lamborn’s party. They take the public money into their + hand for the most laudable purpose that wise heads and honest hearts can + dictate; but before they can possibly get it out again, their rascally + “vulnerable heels” will run away with them. + </p> + <p> + Seriously this proposition of Mr. Lamborn is nothing more or less than a + request that his party may be tried by their professions instead of their + practices. Perhaps no position that the party assumes is more liable to or + more deserving of exposure than this very modest request; and nothing but + the unwarrantable length to which I have already extended these remarks + forbids me now attempting to expose it. For the reason given, I pass it + by. + </p> + <p> + I shall advert to but one more point. Mr. Lamborn refers to the late + elections in the States, and from their results confidently predicts that + every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the next + Presidential election. Address that argument to cowards and to knaves; + with the free and the brave it will effect nothing. It may be true; if it + must, let it. Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may + lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the + last to desert, but that I never deserted her. I know that the great + volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that reigns + there, is belching forth the lava of political corruption in a current + broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole + length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave unscathed no green + spot or living thing; while on its bosom are riding, like demons on the + waves of hell, the imps of that evil spirit, and fiendishly taunting all + those who dare resist its destroying course with the hopelessness of their + effort; and, knowing this, I cannot deny that all may be swept away. + Broken by it I, too, may be; bow to it I never will. The probability that + we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a + cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me. If ever I feel the + soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy + of its almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my + country deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly and + alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, without + contemplating consequences, before high heaven and in the face of the + world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the + land of my life, my liberty, and my love. And who that thinks with me will + not fearlessly adopt the oath that I take? Let none falter who thinks he + is right, and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so. + We still shall have the proud consolation of saying to our consciences, + and to the departed shade of our country’s freedom, that the cause + approved of our judgment, and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in + chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered in defending. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0032"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOHN T. STUART. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, December 23, 1839. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR STUART: + </p> + <p> + Dr. Henry will write you all the political news. I write this about some + little matters of business. You recollect you told me you had drawn the + Chicago Masark money, and sent it to the claimants. A hawk-billed Yankee + is here besetting me at every turn I take, saying that Robert Kinzie never + received the eighty dollars to which he was entitled. Can you tell me + anything about the matter? Again, old Mr. Wright, who lives up South Fork + somewhere, is teasing me continually about some deeds which he says he + left with you, but which I can find nothing of. Can you tell me where they + are? The Legislature is in session and has suffered the bank to forfeit + its charter without benefit of clergy. There seems to be little + disposition to resuscitate it. + </p> + <p> + Whenever a letter comes from you to Mrs.____________ I carry it to her, + and then I see Betty; she is a tolerable nice “fellow” now. Maybe I will + write again when I get more time. + </p> + <p> + Your friend as ever, A. LINCOLN + </p> + <p> + P. S.—The Democratic giant is here, but he is not much worth talking + about. A.L. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0033"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + 1840 + </h2></div> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0034"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + </h2></div> + <h3> + Confidential. + </h3> + <p> + January [1?], 1840. + </p> + <p> + To MESSRS ——— + </p> + <p> + GENTLEMEN:—In obedience to a resolution of the Whig State + convention, we have appointed you the Central Whig Committee of your + county. The trust confided to you will be one of watchfulness and labor; + but we hope the glory of having contributed to the overthrow of the + corrupt powers that now control our beloved country will be a sufficient + reward for the time and labor you will devote to it. Our Whig brethren + throughout the Union have met in convention, and after due deliberation + and mutual concessions have elected candidates for the Presidency and + Vice-Presidency not only worthy of our cause, but worthy of the support of + every true patriot who would have our country redeemed, and her + institutions honestly and faithfully administered. To overthrow the + trained bands that are opposed to us whose salaried officers are ever on + the watch, and whose misguided followers are ever ready to obey their + smallest commands, every Whig must not only know his duty, but must firmly + resolve, whatever of time and labor it may cost, boldly and faithfully to + do it. Our intention is to organize the whole State, so that every Whig + can be brought to the polls in the coming Presidential contest. We cannot + do this, however, without your co-operation; and as we do our duty, so we + shall expect you to do yours. After due deliberation, the following is the + plan of organization, and the duties required of each county committee: + </p> + <p> + (1) To divide their county into small districts, and to appoint in each a + subcommittee, whose duty it shall be to make a perfect list of all the + voters in their respective districts, and to ascertain with certainty for + whom they will vote. If they meet with men who are doubtful as to the man + they will support, such voters should be designated in separate lines, + with the name of the man they will probably support. + </p> + <p> + (2) It will be the duty of said subcommittee to keep a constant watch on + the doubtful voters, and from time to time have them talked to by those in + whom they have the most confidence, and also to place in their hands such + documents as will enlighten and influence them. + </p> + <p> + (3) It will also be their duty to report to you, at least once a month, + the progress they are making, and on election days see that every Whig is + brought to the polls. + </p> + <p> + (4) The subcommittees should be appointed immediately; and by the last of + April, at least, they should make their first report. + </p> + <p> + (5) On the first of each month hereafter we shall expect to hear from you. + After the first report of your subcommittees, unless there should be found + a great many doubtful voters, you can tell pretty accurately the manner in + which your county will vote. In each of your letters to us, you will state + the number of certain votes both for and against us, as well as the number + of doubtful votes, with your opinion of the manner in which they will be + cast. + </p> + <p> + (6) When we have heard from all the counties, we shall be able to tell + with similar accuracy the political complexion of the State. This + information will be forwarded to you as soon as received. + </p> + <p> + (7) Inclosed is a prospectus for a newspaper to be continued until after + the Presidential election. It will be superintended by ourselves, and + every Whig in the State must take it. It will be published so low that + every one can afford it. You must raise a fund and forward us for extra + copies,—every county ought to send—fifty or one hundred + dollars,—and the copies will be forwarded to you for distribution + among our political opponents. The paper will be devoted exclusively to + the great cause in which we are engaged. Procure subscriptions, and + forward them to us immediately. + </p> + <p> + (8) Immediately after any election in your county, you must inform us of + its results; and as early as possible after any general election we will + give you the like information. + </p> + <p> + (9) A senator in Congress is to be elected by our next Legislature. Let no + local interests divide you, but select candidates that can succeed. + </p> + <p> + (10) Our plan of operations will of course be concealed from every one + except our good friends who of right ought to know them. + </p> + <p> + Trusting much in our good cause, the strength of our candidates, and the + determination of the Whigs everywhere to do their duty, we go to the work + of organization in this State confident of success. We have the numbers, + and if properly organized and exerted, with the gallant Harrison at our + head, we shall meet our foes and conquer them in all parts of the Union. + </p> + <p> + Address your letters to Dr. A. G. Henry, R. F, Barrett; A. Lincoln, E. D. + Baker, J. F. Speed. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0035"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOHN T. STUART. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, March 1, 1840 + </h3> + <p> + DEAR STUART: + </p> + <p> + I have never seen the prospects of our party so bright in these parts as + they are now. We shall carry this county by a larger majority than we did + in 1836, when you ran against May. I do not think my prospects, + individually, are very flattering, for I think it probable I shall not be + permitted to be a candidate; but the party ticket will succeed + triumphantly. Subscriptions to the “Old Soldier” pour in without + abatement. This morning I took from the post office a letter from Dubois + enclosing the names of sixty subscribers, and on carrying it to Francis I + found he had received one hundred and forty more from other quarters by + the same day’s mail. That is but an average specimen of every day’s + receipts. Yesterday Douglas, having chosen to consider himself insulted by + something in the Journal, undertook to cane Francis in the street. Francis + caught him by the hair and jammed him back against a market cart where the + matter ended by Francis being pulled away from him. The whole affair was + so ludicrous that Francis and everybody else (Douglass excepted) have been + laughing about it ever since. + </p> + <p> + I send you the names of some of the V.B. men who have come out for + Harrison about town, and suggest that you send them some documents. + </p> + <p> + Moses Coffman (he let us appoint him a delegate yesterday), Aaron Coffman, + George Gregory, H. M. Briggs, Johnson (at Birchall’s Bookstore), Michael + Glyn, Armstrong (not Hosea nor Hugh, but a carpenter), Thomas Hunter, + Moses Pileher (he was always a Whig and deserves attention), Matthew + Crowder Jr., Greenberry Smith; John Fagan, George Fagan, William Fagan + (these three fell out with us about Early, and are doubtful now), John M. + Cartmel, Noah Rickard, John Rickard, Walter Marsh. + </p> + <p> + The foregoing should be addressed at Springfield. + </p> + <p> + Also send some to Solomon Miller and John Auth at Salisbury. Also to + Charles Harper, Samuel Harper, and B. C. Harper, and T. J. Scroggins, John + Scroggins at Pulaski, Logan County. + </p> + <p> + Speed says he wrote you what Jo Smith said about you as he passed here. We + will procure the names of some of his people here, and send them to you + before long. Speed also says you must not fail to send us the New York + Journal he wrote for some time since. + </p> + <p> + Evan Butler is jealous that you never send your compliments to him. You + must not neglect him next time. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, as ever, A. LINCOLN + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0036"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + </h2></div> + <h3> + November 28, 1840. + </h3> + <p> + In the Illinois House of Representatives, November 28, 1840, Mr. Lincoln + offered the following: + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That so much of the governor’s message as relates to fraudulent + voting, and other fraudulent practices at elections, be referred to the + Committee on Elections, with instructions to said committee to prepare and + report to the House a bill for such an act as may in their judgment afford + the greatest possible protection of the elective franchise against all + frauds of all sorts whatever. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0037"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + </h2></div> + <h3> + December 2, 1840. + </h3> + <p> + Resolved, That the Committee on Education be instructed to inquire into + the expediency of providing by law for the examination as to the + qualification of persons offering themselves as school teachers, that no + teacher shall receive any part of the public school fund who shall not + have successfully passed such examination, and that they report by bill or + otherwise. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0038"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + </h2></div> + <h3> + December 4, 1840 + </h3> + <p> + In the House of Representatives, Illinois, December 4, 1840, on + presentation of a report respecting petition of H. N. Purple, claiming the + seat of Mr. Phelps from Peoria, Mr. Lincoln moved that the House resolve + itself into Committee of the Whole on the question, and take it up + immediately. Mr. Lincoln considered the question of the highest importance + whether an individual had a right to sit in this House or not. The course + he should propose would be to take up the evidence and decide upon the + facts seriatim. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Drummond wanted time; they could not decide in the heat of debate, + etc. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Lincoln thought that the question had better be gone into now. In + courts of law jurors were required to decide on evidence, without previous + study or examination. They were required to know nothing of the subject + until the evidence was laid before them for their immediate decision. He + thought that the heat of party would be augmented by delay. + </p> + <p> + The Speaker called Mr. Lincoln to order as being irrelevant; no mention + had been made of party heat. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Drummond said he had only spoken of debate. Mr. Lincoln asked what + caused the heat, if it was not party? Mr. Lincoln concluded by urging that + the question would be decided now better than hereafter, and he thought + with less heat and excitement. + </p> + <p> + (Further debate, in which Lincoln participated.) + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0039"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + </h2></div> + <h3> + December 4, 1840. + </h3> + <p> + In the Illinois House of Representatives, December 4, 1840, House in + Committee of the Whole on the bill providing for payment of interest on + the State debt,—Mr. Lincoln moved to strike out the body and + amendments of the bill, and insert in lieu thereof an amendment which in + substance was that the governor be authorized to issue bonds for the + payment of the interest; that these be called “interest bonds”; that the + taxes accruing on Congress lands as they become taxable be irrevocably set + aside and devoted as a fund to the payment of the interest bonds. Mr. + Lincoln went into the reasons which appeared to him to render this plan + preferable to that of hypothecating the State bonds. By this course we + could get along till the next meeting of the Legislature, which was of + great importance. To the objection which might be urged that these + interest bonds could not be cashed, he replied that if our other bonds + could, much more could these, which offered a perfect security, a fund + being irrevocably set aside to provide for their redemption. To another + objection, that we should be paying compound interest, he would reply that + the rapid growth and increase of our resources was in so great a ratio as + to outstrip the difficulty; that his object was to do the best that could + be done in the present emergency. All agreed that the faith of the State + must be preserved; this plan appeared to him preferable to a hypothecation + of bonds, which would have to be redeemed and the interest paid. How this + was to be done, he could not see; therefore he had, after turning the + matter over in every way, devised this measure, which would carry us on + till the next Legislature. + </p> + <p> + (Mr. Lincoln spoke at some length, advocating his measure.) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln advocated his measure, December 11, 1840. + </p> + <p> + December 12, 1840, he had thought some permanent provision ought to be + made for the bonds to be hypothecated, but was satisfied taxation and + revenue could not be connected with it now. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0040"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + 1841 + </h2></div> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0041"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOHN T. STUART—ON DEPRESSION + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Jan 23, 1841 + </h3> + <p> + DEAR STUART: I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were + equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one + cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell; I + awfully forbode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die + or be better, as it appears to me.... I fear I shall be unable to attend + any business here, and a change of scene might help me. If I could be + myself, I would rather remain at home with Judge Logan. I can write no + more. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0042"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + </h2></div> + <h3> + January 23, 1841 + </h3> + <p> + In the House of Representatives January 23, 1841, while discussing the + continuation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Mr. Moore was afraid the + holders of the “scrip” would lose. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Napier thought there was no danger of that; and Mr. Lincoln said he + had not examined to see what amount of scrip would probably be needed. The + principal point in his mind was this, that nobody was obliged to take + these certificates. It is altogether voluntary on their part, and if they + apprehend it will fall in their hands they will not take it. Further the + loss, if any there be, will fall on the citizens of that section of the + country. + </p> + <p> + This scrip is not going to circulate over an extensive range of country, + but will be confined chiefly to the vicinity of the canal. Now, we find + the representatives of that section of the country are all in favor of the + bill. + </p> + <p> + When we propose to protect their interests, they say to us: Leave us to + take care of ourselves; we are willing to run the risk. And this is + reasonable; we must suppose they are competent to protect their own + interests, and it is only fair to let them do it. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0043"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + </h2></div> + <h3> + February 9, 1841. + </h3> + <p> + Appeal to the People of the State of Illinois. + </p> + <p> + FELLOW-CITIZENS:—When the General Assembly, now about adjourning, + assembled in November last, from the bankrupt state of the public + treasury, the pecuniary embarrassments prevailing in every department of + society, the dilapidated state of the public works, and the impending + danger of the degradation of the State, you had a right to expect that + your representatives would lose no time in devising and adopting measures + to avert threatened calamities, alleviate the distresses of the people, + and allay the fearful apprehensions in regard to the future prosperity of + the State. It was not expected by you that the spirit of party would take + the lead in the councils of the State, and make every interest bend to its + demands. Nor was it expected that any party would assume to itself the + entire control of legislation, and convert the means and offices of the + State, and the substance of the people, into aliment for party + subsistence. Neither could it have been expected by you that party spirit, + however strong its desires and unreasonable its demands, would have passed + the sanctuary of the Constitution, and entered with its unhallowed and + hideous form into the formation of the judiciary system. + </p> + <p> + At the early period of the session, measures were adopted by the dominant + party to take possession of the State, to fill all public offices with + party men, and make every measure affecting the interests of the people + and the credit of the State operate in furtherance of their party views. + The merits of men and measures therefore became the subject of discussion + in caucus, instead of the halls of legislation, and decisions there made + by a minority of the Legislature have been executed and carried into + effect by the force of party discipline, without any regard whatever to + the rights of the people or the interests of the State. The Supreme Court + of the State was organized, and judges appointed, according to the + provisions of the Constitution, in 1824. The people have never complained + of the organization of that court; no attempt has ever before been made to + change that department. Respect for public opinion, and regard for the + rights and liberties of the people, have hitherto restrained the spirit of + party from attacks upon the independence and integrity of the judiciary. + The same judges have continued in office since 1824; their decisions have + not been the subject of complaint among the people; the integrity and + honesty of the court have not been questioned, and it has never been + supposed that the court has ever permitted party prejudice or party + considerations to operate upon their decisions. The court was made to + consist of four judges, and by the Constitution two form a quorum for the + transaction of business. With this tribunal, thus constituted, the people + have been satisfied for near sixteen years. The same law which organized + the Supreme Court in 1824 also established and organized circuit courts to + be held in each county in the State, and five circuit judges were + appointed to hold those courts. In 1826 the Legislature abolished these + circuit courts, repealed the judges out of office, and required the judges + of the Supreme Court to hold the circuit courts. The reasons assigned for + this change were, first, that the business of the country could be better + attended to by the four judges of the Supreme Court than by the two sets + of judges; and, second, the state of the public treasury forbade the + employment of unnecessary officers. In 1828 a circuit was established + north of the Illinois River, in order to meet the wants of the people, and + a circuit judge was appointed to hold the courts in that circuit. + </p> + <p> + In 1834 the circuit-court system was again established throughout the + State, circuit judges appointed to hold the courts, and the judges of the + Supreme Court were relieved from the performance of circuit court duties. + The change was recommended by the then acting governor of the State, + General W. L. D. Ewing, in the following terms: + </p> + <p> + “The augmented population of the State, the multiplied number of organized + counties, as well as the increase of business in all, has long since + convinced every one conversant with this department of our government of + the indispensable necessity of an alteration in our judiciary system, and + the subject is therefore recommended to the earnest patriotic + consideration of the Legislature. The present system has never been exempt + from serious and weighty objections. The idea of appealing from the + circuit court to the same judges in the Supreme Court is recommended by + little hopes of redress to the injured party below. The duties of the + circuit, too, it may be added, consume one half of the year, leaving a + small and inadequate portion of time (when that required for domestic + purposes is deducted) to erect, in the decisions of the Supreme Court, a + judicial monument of legal learning and research, which the talent and + ability of the court might otherwise be entirely competent to.” + </p> + <p> + With this organization of circuit courts the people have never complained. + The only complaints which we have heard have come from circuits which were + so large that the judges could not dispose of the business, and the + circuits in which Judges Pearson and Ralston lately presided. + </p> + <p> + Whilst the honor and credit of the State demanded legislation upon the + subject of the public debt, the canal, the unfinished public works, and + the embarrassments of the people, the judiciary stood upon a basis which + required no change—no legislative action. Yet the party in power, + neglecting every interest requiring legislative action, and wholly + disregarding the rights, wishes, and interests of the people, has, for the + unholy purpose of providing places for its partisans and supplying them + with large salaries, disorganized that department of the government. + Provision is made for the election of five party judges of the Supreme + Court, the proscription of four circuit judges, and the appointment of + party clerks in more than half the counties of the State. Men professing + respect for public opinion, and acknowledged to be leaders of the party, + have avowed in the halls of legislation that the change in the judiciary + was intended to produce political results favorable to their party and + party friends. The immutable principles of justice are to make way for + party interests, and the bonds of social order are to be rent in twain, in + order that a desperate faction may be sustained at the expense of the + people. The change proposed in the judiciary was supported upon grounds so + destructive to the institutions of the country, and so entirely at war + with the rights and liberties of the people, that the party could not + secure entire unanimity in its support, three Democrats of the Senate and + five of the House voting against the measure. They were unwilling to see + the temples of justice and the seats of independent judges occupied by the + tools of faction. The declarations of the party leaders, the selection of + party men for judges, and the total disregard for the public will in the + adoption of the measure, prove conclusively that the object has been not + reform, but destruction; not the advancement of the highest interests of + the State, but the predominance of party. + </p> + <p> + We cannot in this manner undertake to point out all the objections to this + party measure; we present you with those stated by the Council of Revision + upon returning the bill, and we ask for them a candid consideration. + </p> + <p> + Believing that the independence of the judiciary has been destroyed, that + hereafter our courts will be independent of the people, and entirely + dependent upon the Legislature; that our rights of property and liberty of + conscience can no longer be regarded as safe from the encroachments of + unconstitutional legislation; and knowing of no other remedy which can be + adopted consistently with the peace and good order of society, we call + upon you to avail yourselves of the opportunity afforded, and, at the next + general election, vote for a convention of the people. + </p> +<div class='pre'> + S. H. LITTLE, + E. D. BAKER, + J. J. HARDIN, + E. B. WEBS, + A. LINCOLN, + J. GILLESPIE, + + Committee on behalf of the Whig members of the Legislature. +</div> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0044"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + AGAINST THE REORGANIZATION OF THE JUDICIARY. + </h2></div> + <h3> + EXTRACT FROM A PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE + </h3> + <p> + February 26, 1841 + </p> + <p> + For the reasons thus presented, and for others no less apparent, the + undersigned cannot assent to the passage of the bill, or permit it to + become a law, without this evidence of their disapprobation; and they now + protest against the reorganization of the judiciary, because—(1) It + violates the great principles of free government by subjecting the + judiciary to the Legislature. (2) It is a fatal blow at the independence + of the judges and the constitutional term of their office. (3) It is a + measure not asked for, or wished for, by the people. (4) It will greatly + increase the expense of our courts, or else greatly diminish their + utility. (5) It will give our courts a political and partisan character, + thereby impairing public confidence in their decisions. (6) It will impair + our standing with other States and the world. (7)It is a party measure for + party purposes, from which no practical good to the people can possibly + arise, but which may be the source of immeasurable evils. + </p> + <p> + The undersigned are well aware that this protest will be altogether + unavailing with the majority of this body. The blow has already fallen, + and we are compelled to stand by, the mournful spectators of the ruin it + will cause. + </p> + <p> + [Signed by 35 members, among whom was Abraham Lincoln.] + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0045"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—MURDER CASE + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD June 19, 1841. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—We have had the highest state of excitement here for a + week past that our community has ever witnessed; and, although the public + feeling is somewhat allayed, the curious affair which aroused it is very + far from being even yet cleared of mystery. It would take a quire of paper + to give you anything like a full account of it, and I therefore only + propose a brief outline. The chief personages in the drama are Archibald + Fisher, supposed to be murdered, and Archibald Trailor, Henry Trailor, and + William Trailor, supposed to have murdered him. The three Trailors are + brothers: the first, Arch., as you know, lives in town; the second, Henry, + in Clary’s Grove; and the third, William, in Warren County; and Fisher, + the supposed murdered, being without a family, had made his home with + William. On Saturday evening, being the 29th of May, Fisher and William + came to Henry’s in a one-horse dearborn, and there stayed over Sunday; and + on Monday all three came to Springfield (Henry on horseback) and joined + Archibald at Myers’s, the Dutch carpenter. That evening at supper Fisher + was missing, and so next morning some ineffectual search was made for him; + and on Tuesday, at one o’clock P.M., William and Henry started home + without him. In a day or two Henry and one or two of his Clary-Grove + neighbors came back for him again, and advertised his disappearance in the + papers. The knowledge of the matter thus far had not been general, and + here it dropped entirely, till about the 10th instant, when Keys received + a letter from the postmaster in Warren County, that William had arrived at + home, and was telling a very mysterious and improbable story about the + disappearance of Fisher, which induced the community there to suppose he + had been disposed of unfairly. Keys made this letter public, which + immediately set the whole town and adjoining county agog. And so it has + continued until yesterday. The mass of the people commenced a systematic + search for the dead body, while Wickersham was despatched to arrest Henry + Trailor at the Grove, and Jim Maxcy to Warren to arrest William. On Monday + last, Henry was brought in, and showed an evident inclination to insinuate + that he knew Fisher to be dead, and that Arch. and William had killed him. + He said he guessed the body could be found in Spring Creek, between the + Beardstown road and Hickox’s mill. Away the people swept like a herd of + buffalo, and cut down Hickox’s mill-dam nolens volens, to draw the water + out of the pond, and then went up and down and down and up the creek, + fishing and raking, and raking and ducking and diving for two days, and, + after all, no dead body found. + </p> + <p> + In the meantime a sort of scuffling-ground had been found in the brush in + the angle, or point, where the road leading into the woods past the + brewery and the one leading in past the brick-yard meet. From the + scuffle-ground was the sign of something about the size of a man having + been dragged to the edge of the thicket, where it joined the track of some + small-wheeled carriage drawn by one horse, as shown by the road-tracks. + The carriage-track led off toward Spring Creek. Near this drag-trail Dr. + Merryman found two hairs, which, after a long scientific examination, he + pronounced to be triangular human hairs, which term, he says, includes + within it the whiskers, the hair growing under the arms and on other parts + of the body; and he judged that these two were of the whiskers, because + the ends were cut, showing that they had flourished in the neighborhood of + the razor’s operations. On Thursday last Jim Maxcy brought in William + Trailor from Warren. On the same day Arch. was arrested and put in jail. + Yesterday (Friday) William was put upon his examining trial before May and + Lovely. Archibald and Henry were both present. Lamborn prosecuted, and + Logan, Baker, and your humble servant defended. A great many witnesses + were introduced and examined, but I shall only mention those whose + testimony seemed most important. The first of these was Captain Ransdell. + He swore that when William and Henry left Springfield for home on Tuesday + before mentioned they did not take the direct route,—which, you + know, leads by the butcher shop,—but that they followed the street + north until they got opposite, or nearly opposite, May’s new house, after + which he could not see them from where he stood; and it was afterwards + proved that in about an hour after they started, they came into the street + by the butcher shop from toward the brickyard. Dr. Merryman and others + swore to what is stated about the scuffle-ground, drag-trail, whiskers, + and carriage tracks. Henry was then introduced by the prosecution. He + swore that when they started for home they went out north, as Ransdell + stated, and turned down west by the brick-yard into the woods, and there + met Archibald; that they proceeded a small distance farther, when he was + placed as a sentinel to watch for and announce the approach of any one + that might happen that way; that William and Arch. took the dearborn out + of the road a small distance to the edge of the thicket, where they + stopped, and he saw them lift the body of a man into it; that they then + moved off with the carriage in the direction of Hickox’s mill, and he + loitered about for something like an hour, when William returned with the + carriage, but without Arch., and said they had put him in a safe place; + that they went somehow he did not know exactly how—into the road + close to the brewery, and proceeded on to Clary’s Grove. He also stated + that some time during the day William told him that he and Arch. had + killed Fisher the evening before; that the way they did it was by him + William knocking him down with a club, and Arch. then choking him to + death. + </p> + <p> + An old man from Warren, called Dr. Gilmore, was then introduced on the + part of the defense. He swore that he had known Fisher for several years; + that Fisher had resided at his house a long time at each of two different + spells—once while he built a barn for him, and once while he was + doctored for some chronic disease; that two or three years ago Fisher had + a serious hurt in his head by the bursting of a gun, since which he had + been subject to continued bad health and occasional aberration of mind. He + also stated that on last Tuesday, being the same day that Maxcy arrested + William Trailor, he (the doctor) was from home in the early part of the + day, and on his return, about eleven o’clock, found Fisher at his house in + bed, and apparently very unwell; that he asked him how he came from + Springfield; that Fisher said he had come by Peoria, and also told of + several other places he had been at more in the direction of Peoria, which + showed that he at the time of speaking did not know where he had been + wandering about in a state of derangement. He further stated that in about + two hours he received a note from one of Trailor’s friends, advising him + of his arrest, and requesting him to go on to Springfield as a witness, to + testify as to the state of Fisher’s health in former times; that he + immediately set off, calling up two of his neighbors as company, and, + riding all evening and all night, overtook Maxcy and William at Lewiston + in Fulton County; that Maxcy refusing to discharge Trailor upon his + statement, his two neighbors returned and he came on to Springfield. Some + question being made as to whether the doctor’s story was not a + fabrication, several acquaintances of his (among whom was the same + postmaster who wrote Keys, as before mentioned) were introduced as sort of + compurgators, who swore that they knew the doctor to be of good character + for truth and veracity, and generally of good character in every way. + </p> + <p> + Here the testimony ended, and the Trailors were discharged, Arch. and + William expressing both in word and manner their entire confidence that + Fisher would be found alive at the doctor’s by Galloway, Mallory, and + Myers, who a day before had been despatched for that purpose; which Henry + still protested that no power on earth could ever show Fisher alive. Thus + stands this curious affair. When the doctor’s story was first made public, + it was amusing to scan and contemplate the countenances and hear the + remarks of those who had been actively in search for the dead body: some + looked quizzical, some melancholy, and some furiously angry. Porter, who + had been very active, swore he always knew the man was not dead, and that + he had not stirred an inch to hunt for him; Langford, who had taken the + lead in cutting down Hickox’s mill-dam, and wanted to hang Hickox for + objecting, looked most awfully woebegone: he seemed the “victim of + unrequited affection,” as represented in the comic almanacs we used to + laugh over; and Hart, the little drayman that hauled Molly home once, said + it was too damned bad to have so much trouble, and no hanging after all. + </p> + <p> + I commenced this letter on yesterday, since which I received yours of the + 13th. I stick to my promise to come to Louisville. Nothing new here except + what I have written. I have not seen ______ since my last trip, and I am + going out there as soon as I mail this letter. + </p> + <p> + Yours forever, LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0046"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + STATEMENT ABOUT HARRY WILTON. + </h2></div> + <h3> + June 25, 1841 + </h3> + <p> + It having been charged in some of the public prints that Harry Wilton, + late United States marshal for the district of Illinois, had used his + office for political effect, in the appointment of deputies for the taking + of the census for the year 1840, we, the undersigned, were called upon by + Mr. Wilton to examine the papers in his possession relative to these + appointments, and to ascertain therefrom the correctness or incorrectness + of such charge. We accompanied Mr. Wilton to a room, and examined the + matter as fully as we could with the means afforded us. The only sources + of information bearing on the subject which were submitted to us were the + letters, etc., recommending and opposing the various appointments made, + and Mr. Wilton’s verbal statements concerning the same. From these + letters, etc., it appears that in some instances appointments were made in + accordance with the recommendations of leading Whigs, and in opposition to + those of leading Democrats; among which instances the appointments at + Scott, Wayne, Madison, and Lawrence are the strongest. According to Mr. + Wilton’s statement of the seventy-six appointments we examined, fifty-four + were of Democrats, eleven of Whigs, and eleven of unknown politics. + </p> + <p> + The chief ground of complaint against Mr. Wilton, as we had understood it, + was because of his appointment of so many Democratic candidates for the + Legislature, thus giving them a decided advantage over their Whig + opponents; and consequently our attention was directed rather particularly + to that point. We found that there were many such appointments, among + which were those in Tazewell, McLean, Iroquois, Coles, Menard, Wayne, + Washington, Fayette, etc.; and we did not learn that there was one + instance in which a Whig candidate for the Legislature had been appointed. + There was no written evidence before us showing us at what time those + appointments were made; but Mr. Wilton stated that they all with one + exception were made before those appointed became candidates for the + Legislature, and the letters, etc., recommending them all bear date + before, and most of them long before, those appointed were publicly + announced candidates. + </p> + <p> + We give the foregoing naked facts and draw no conclusions from them. + </p> + <p> + BEND. S. EDWARDS, A. LINCOLN. <a id="link2H_4_0047"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO MISS MARY SPEED—PRACTICAL SLAVERY + </h2></div> + <h3> + BLOOMINGTON, ILL., September 27, 1841. + </h3> + <p> + Miss Mary Speed, Louisville, Ky. + </p> + <p> + MY FRIEND: By the way, a fine example was presented on board the boat for + contemplating the effect of condition upon human happiness. A gentleman + had purchased twelve negroes in different 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 + fastened to the main chain by a shorter one, at a convenient distance from + the others, so that the negroes were strung together precisely like so + many fish upon a trotline. 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 ruthless and unrelenting than any other; 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 + offence for which he had been sold was an overfondness 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 Springfield 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. + </p> + <p> + Your sincere friend, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0048"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + 1842 + </h2></div> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0049"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON MARRIAGE + </h2></div> + <h3> + January 30, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + MY DEAR SPEED:—Feeling, as you know I do, the deepest solicitude for + the success of the enterprise you are engaged in, I adopt this as the last + method I can adopt to aid you, in case (which God forbid!) you shall need + any aid. I do not place what I am going to say on paper because I can say + it better that way than I could by word of mouth, but, were I to say it + orally before we part, most likely you would forget it at the very time + when it might do you some good. As I think it reasonable that you will + feel very badly some time between this and the final consummation of your + purpose, it is intended that you shall read this just at such a time. Why + I say it is reasonable that you will feel very badly yet, is because of + three special causes added to the general one which I shall mention. + </p> + <p> + The general cause is, that you are naturally of a nervous temperament; and + this I say from what I have seen of you personally, and what you have told + me concerning your mother at various times, and concerning your brother + William at the time his wife died. The first special cause is your + exposure to bad weather on your journey, which my experience clearly + proves to be very severe on defective nerves. The second is the absence of + all business and conversation of friends, which might divert your mind, + give it occasional rest from the intensity of thought which will sometimes + wear the sweetest idea threadbare and turn it to the bitterness of death. + The third is the rapid and near approach of that crisis on which all your + thoughts and feelings concentrate. + </p> + <p> + If from all these causes you shall escape and go through triumphantly, + without another “twinge of the soul,” I shall be most happily but most + egregiously deceived. If, on the contrary, you shall, as I expect you will + at sometime, be agonized and distressed, let me, who have some reason to + speak with judgment on such a subject, beseech you to ascribe it to the + causes I have mentioned, and not to some false and ruinous suggestion of + the Devil. + </p> + <p> + “But,” you will say, “do not your causes apply to every one engaged in a + like undertaking?” By no means. The particular causes, to a greater or + less extent, perhaps do apply in all cases; but the general one,—nervous + debility, which is the key and conductor of all the particular ones, and + without which they would be utterly harmless,—though it does pertain + to you, does not pertain to one in a thousand. It is out of this that the + painful difference between you and the mass of the world springs. + </p> + <p> + I know what the painful point with you is at all times when you are + unhappy; it is an apprehension that you do not love her as you should. + What nonsense! How came you to court her? Was it because you thought she + deserved it, and that you had given her reason to expect it? If it was for + that why did not the same reason make you court Ann Todd, and at least + twenty others of whom you can think, and to whom it would apply with + greater force than to her? Did you court her for her wealth? Why, you know + she had none. But you say you reasoned yourself into it. What do you mean + by that? Was it not that you found yourself unable to reason yourself out + of it? Did you not think, and partly form the purpose, of courting her the + first time you ever saw her or heard of her? What had reason to do with it + at that early stage? There was nothing at that time for reason to work + upon. Whether she was moral, amiable, sensible, or even of good character, + you did not, nor could then know, except, perhaps, you might infer the + last from the company you found her in. + </p> + <p> + All you then did or could know of her was her personal appearance and + deportment; and these, if they impress at all, impress the heart, and not + the head. + </p> + <p> + Say candidly, were not those heavenly black eyes the whole basis of all + your early reasoning on the subject? After you and I had once been at the + residence, did you not go and take me all the way to Lexington and back, + for no other purpose but to get to see her again, on our return on that + evening to take a trip for that express object? What earthly consideration + would you take to find her scouting and despising you, and giving herself + up to another? But of this you have no apprehension; and therefore you + cannot bring it home to your feelings. + </p> + <p> + I shall be so anxious about you that I shall want you to write by every + mail. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0050"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 3, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—Your letter of the 25th January came to hand to-day. You + well know that I do not feel my own sorrows much more keenly than I do + yours, when I know of them; and yet I assure you I was not much hurt by + what you wrote me of your excessively bad feeling at the time you wrote. + Not that I am less capable of sympathizing with you now than ever, not + that I am less your friend than ever, but because I hope and believe that + your present anxiety and distress about her health and her life must and + will forever banish those horrid doubts which I know you sometimes felt as + to the truth of your affection for her. If they can once and forever be + removed (and I almost feel a presentiment that the Almighty has sent your + present affliction expressly for that object), surely nothing can come in + their stead to fill their immeasurable measure of misery. The death-scenes + of those we love are surely painful enough; but these we are prepared for + and expect to see: they happen to all, and all know they must happen. + Painful as they are, they are not an unlooked for sorrow. Should she, as + you fear, be destined to an early grave, it is indeed a great consolation + to know that she is so well prepared to meet it. Her religion, which you + once disliked so much, I will venture you now prize most highly. But I + hope your melancholy bodings as to her early death are not well founded. I + even hope that ere this reaches you she will have returned with improved + and still improving health, and that you will have met her, and forgotten + the sorrows of the past in the enjoyments of the present. I would say more + if I could, but it seems that I have said enough. It really appears to me + that you yourself ought to rejoice, and not sorrow, at this indubitable + evidence of your undying affection for her. Why, Speed, if you did not + love her although you might not wish her death, you would most certainly + be resigned to it. Perhaps this point is no longer a question with you, + and my pertinacious dwelling upon it is a rude intrusion upon your + feelings. If so, you must pardon me. You know the hell I have suffered on + that point, and how tender I am upon it. You know I do not mean wrong. I + have been quite clear of “hypo” since you left, even better than I was + along in the fall. I have seen ______ but once. She seemed very cheerful, + and so I said nothing to her about what we spoke of. + </p> + <p> + Old Uncle Billy Herndon is dead, and it is said this evening that Uncle + Ben Ferguson will not live. This, I believe, is all the news, and enough + at that unless it were better. Write me immediately on the receipt of + this. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, as ever, LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0051"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON DEPRESSION + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 13, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—Yours of the 1st instant came to hand three or four days + ago. When this shall reach you, you will have been Fanny’s husband several + days. You know my desire to befriend you is everlasting; that I will never + cease while I know how to do anything. But you will always hereafter be on + ground that I have never occupied, and consequently, if advice were + needed, I might advise wrong. I do fondly hope, however, that you will + never again need any comfort from abroad. But should I be mistaken in + this, should excessive pleasure still be accompanied with a painful + counterpart at times, still let me urge you, as I have ever done, to + remember, in the depth and even agony of despondency, that very shortly + you are to feel well again. I am now fully convinced that you love her as + ardently as you are capable of loving. Your ever being happy in her + presence, and your intense anxiety about her health, if there were nothing + else, would place this beyond all dispute in my mind. I incline to think + it probable that your nerves will fail you occasionally for a while; but + once you get them firmly guarded now that trouble is over forever. I + think, if I were you, in case my mind were not exactly right, I would + avoid being idle. I would immediately engage in some business, or go to + making preparations for it, which would be the same thing. If you went + through the ceremony calmly, or even with sufficient composure not to + excite alarm in any present, you are safe beyond question, and in two or + three months, to say the most, will be the happiest of men. + </p> + <p> + I would desire you to give my particular respects to Fanny; but perhaps + you will not wish her to know you have received this, lest she should + desire to see it. Make her write me an answer to my last letter to her; at + any rate I would set great value upon a note or letter from her. Write me + whenever you have leisure. Yours forever, A. LINCOLN. P. S.—I have + been quite a man since you left. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0052"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO G. B. SHELEDY. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Feb. 16, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + G. B. SHELEDY, ESQ.: + </p> + <p> + Yours of the 10th is duly received. Judge Logan and myself are doing + business together now, and we are willing to attend to your cases as you + propose. As to the terms, we are willing to attend each case you prepare + and send us for $10 (when there shall be no opposition) to be sent in + advance, or you to know that it is safe. It takes $5.75 of cost to start + upon, that is, $1.75 to clerk, and $2 to each of two publishers of papers. + Judge Logan thinks it will take the balance of $20 to carry a case + through. This must be advanced from time to time as the services are + performed, as the officers will not act without. I do not know whether you + can be admitted an attorney of the Federal court in your absence or not; + nor is it material, as the business can be done in our names. + </p> + <p> + Thinking it may aid you a little, I send you one of our blank forms of + Petitions. It, you will see, is framed to be sworn to before the Federal + court clerk, and, in your cases, will have [to] be so far changed as to be + sworn to before the clerk of your circuit court; and his certificate must + be accompanied with his official seal. The schedules, too, must be + attended to. Be sure that they contain the creditors’ names, their + residences, the amounts due each, the debtors’ names, their residences, + and the amounts they owe, also all property and where located. + </p> + <p> + Also be sure that the schedules are all signed by the applicants as well + as the Petition. Publication will have to be made here in one paper, and + in one nearest the residence of the applicant. Write us in each case where + the last advertisement is to be sent, whether to you or to what paper. + </p> + <p> + I believe I have now said everything that can be of any advantage. Your + friend as ever, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0053"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO GEORGE E. PICKETT—ADVICE TO YOUTH + </h2></div> + <h3> + February 22, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + I never encourage deceit, and falsehood, especially if you have got a bad + memory, is the worst enemy a fellow can have. The fact is truth is your + truest friend, no matter what the circumstances are. Notwithstanding this + copy-book preamble, my boy, I am inclined to suggest a little prudence on + your part. You see I have a congenital aversion to failure, and the sudden + announcement to your Uncle Andrew of the success of your “lamp rubbing” + might possibly prevent your passing the severe physical examination to + which you will be subjected in order to enter the Military Academy. You + see I should like to have a perfect soldier credited to dear old Illinois—no + broken bones, scalp wounds, etc. So I think it might be wise to hand this + letter from me in to your good uncle through his room-window after he has + had a comfortable dinner, and watch its effect from the top of the + pigeon-house. + </p> + <p> + I have just told the folks here in Springfield on this 111th anniversary + of the birth of him whose name, mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, + still mightiest in the cause of moral reformation, we mention in solemn + awe, in naked, deathless splendor, that the one victory we can ever call + complete will be that one which proclaims that there is not one slave or + one drunkard on the face of God’s green earth. Recruit for this victory. + </p> + <p> + Now, boy, on your march, don’t you go and forget the old maxim that “one + drop of honey catches more flies than a half-gallon of gall.” Load your + musket with this maxim, and smoke it in your pipe. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0054"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + ADDRESS BEFORE THE SPRINGFIELD WASHINGTONIAN TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, + </h2></div> + <h3> + FEBRUARY 22, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + Although the temperance cause has been in progress for near twenty years, + it is apparent to all that it is just now being crowned with a degree of + success hitherto unparalleled. + </p> + <p> + The list of its friends is daily swelled by the additions of fifties, of + hundreds, and of thousands. The cause itself seems suddenly transformed + from a cold abstract theory to a living, breathing, active, and powerful + chieftain, going forth “conquering and to conquer.” The citadels of his + great adversary are daily being stormed and dismantled; his temple and his + altars, where the rites of his idolatrous worship have long been + performed, and where human sacrifices have long been wont to be made, are + daily desecrated and deserted. The triumph of the conqueror’s fame is + sounding from hill to hill, from sea to sea, and from land to land, and + calling millions to his standard at a blast. + </p> + <p> + For this new and splendid success we heartily rejoice. That that success + is so much greater now than heretofore is doubtless owing to rational + causes; and if we would have it continue, we shall do well to inquire what + those causes are. + </p> + <p> + The warfare heretofore waged against the demon intemperance has somehow or + other been erroneous. Either the champions engaged or the tactics they + adopted have not been the most proper. These champions for the most part + have been preachers, lawyers, and hired agents. Between these and the mass + of mankind there is a want of approachability, if the term be admissible, + partially, at least, fatal to their success. They are supposed to have no + sympathy of feeling or interest with those very persons whom it is their + object to convince and persuade. + </p> + <p> + And again, it is so common and so easy to ascribe motives to men of these + classes other than those they profess to act upon. The preacher, it is + said, advocates temperance because he is a fanatic, and desires a union of + the Church and State; the lawyer from his pride and vanity of hearing + himself speak; and the hired agent for his salary. But when one who has + long been known as a victim of intemperance bursts the fetters that have + bound him, and appears before his neighbors “clothed and in his right + mind,” a redeemed specimen of long-lost humanity, and stands up, with + tears of joy trembling in his eyes, to tell of the miseries once endured, + now to be endured no more forever; of his once naked and starving + children, now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife long weighed down with + woe, weeping, and a broken heart, now restored to health, happiness, and a + renewed affection; and how easily it is all done, once it is resolved to + be done; how simple his language! there is a logic and an eloquence in it + that few with human feelings can resist. They cannot say that he desires a + union of Church and State, for he is not a church member; they cannot say + he is vain of hearing himself speak, for his whole demeanor shows he would + gladly avoid speaking at all; they cannot say he speaks for pay, for he + receives none, and asks for none. Nor can his sincerity in any way be + doubted, or his sympathy for those he would persuade to imitate his + example be denied. + </p> + <p> + In my judgment, it is to the battles of this new class of champions that + our late success is greatly, perhaps chiefly, owing. But, had the + old-school champions themselves been of the most wise selecting, was their + system of tactics the most judicious? It seems to me it was not. Too much + denunciation against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers was indulged in. This + I think was both impolitic and unjust. It was impolitic, because it is not + much in the nature of man to be driven to anything; still less to be + driven about that which is exclusively his own business; and least of all + where such driving is to be submitted to at the expense of pecuniary + interest or burning appetite. When the dram-seller and drinker were + incessantly told not in accents of entreaty and persuasion, diffidently + addressed by erring man to an erring brother, but in the thundering tones + of anathema and denunciation with which the lordly judge often groups + together all the crimes of the felon’s life, and thrusts them in his face + just ere he passes sentence of death upon him that they were the authors + of all the vice and misery and crime in the land; that they were the + manufacturers and material of all the thieves and robbers and murderers + that infest the earth; that their houses were the workshops of the devil; + and that their persons should be shunned by all the good and virtuous, as + moral pestilences—I say, when they were told all this, and in this + way, it is not wonderful that they were slow to acknowledge the truth of + such denunciations, and to join the ranks of their denouncers in a hue and + cry against themselves. + </p> + <p> + To have expected them to do otherwise than they did to have expected them + not to meet denunciation with denunciation, crimination with crimination, + and anathema with anathema—was to expect a reversal of human nature, + which is God’s decree and can never be reversed. + </p> + <p> + When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, + unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true + maxim that “a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.” So + with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that + you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his + heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his reason; and + which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing + his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause really be + a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his judgment, or to + command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and + he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his + heart; and though your cause be naked truth itself, transformed to the + heaviest lance, harder than steel, and sharper than steel can be made, and + though you throw it with more than herculean force and precision, you + shall be no more able to pierce him than to penetrate the hard shell of a + tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, and so must he be understood by + those who would lead him, even to his own best interests. + </p> + <p> + On this point the Washingtonians greatly excel the temperance advocates of + former times. Those whom they desire to convince and persuade are their + old friends and companions. They know they are not demons, nor even the + worst of men; they know that generally they are kind, generous, and + charitable even beyond the example of their more staid and sober + neighbors. They are practical philanthropists; and they glow with a + generous and brotherly zeal that mere theorizers are incapable of feeling. + Benevolence and charity possess their hearts entirely; and out of the + abundance of their hearts their tongues give utterance; “love through all + their actions runs, and all their words are mild.” In this spirit they + speak and act, and in the same they are heard and regarded. And when such + is the temper of the advocate, and such of the audience, no good cause can + be unsuccessful. But I have said that denunciations against dramsellers + and dram-drinkers are unjust, as well as impolitic. Let us see. I have not + inquired at what period of time the use of intoxicating liquors commenced; + nor is it important to know. It is sufficient that, to all of us who now + inhabit the world, the practice of drinking them is just as old as the + world itself that is, we have seen the one just as long as we have seen + the other. When all such of us as have now reached the years of maturity + first opened our eyes upon the stage of existence, we found intoxicating + liquor recognized by everybody, used by everybody, repudiated by nobody. + It commonly entered into the first draught of the infant and the last + draught of the dying man. From the sideboard of the parson down to the + ragged pocket of the houseless loafer, it was constantly found. Physicians + proscribed it in this, that, and the other disease; government provided it + for soldiers and sailors; and to have a rolling or raising, a husking or + “hoedown,” anywhere about without it was positively insufferable. So, too, + it was everywhere a respectable article of manufacture and merchandise. + The making of it was regarded as an honorable livelihood, and he who could + make most was the most enterprising and respectable. Large and small + manufactories of it were everywhere erected, in which all the earthly + goods of their owners were invested. Wagons drew it from town to town; + boats bore it from clime to clime, and the winds wafted it from nation to + nation; and merchants bought and sold it, by wholesale and retail, with + precisely the same feelings on the part of the seller, buyer, and + bystander as are felt at the selling and buying of ploughs, beef, bacon, + or any other of the real necessaries of life. Universal public opinion not + only tolerated but recognized and adopted its use. + </p> + <p> + It is true that even then it was known and acknowledged that many were + greatly injured by it; but none seemed to think the injury arose from the + use of a bad thing, but from the abuse of a very good thing. The victims + of it were to be pitied and compassionated, just as are the heirs of + consumption and other hereditary diseases. Their failing was treated as a + misfortune, and not as a crime, or even as a disgrace. If, then, what I + have been saying is true, is it wonderful that some should think and act + now as all thought and acted twenty years ago? and is it just to assail, + condemn, or despise them for doing so? The universal sense of mankind on + any subject is an argument, or at least an influence, not easily overcome. + The success of the argument in favor of the existence of an overruling + Providence mainly depends upon that sense; and men ought not in justice to + be denounced for yielding to it in any case, or giving it up slowly, + especially when they are backed by interest, fixed habits, or burning + appetites. + </p> + <p> + Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reformers fell, was + the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly incorrigible, and + therefore must be turned adrift and damned without remedy in order that + the grace of temperance might abound, to the temperate then, and to all + mankind some hundreds of years thereafter. There is in this some thing so + repugnant to humanity, so uncharitable, so cold-blooded and feelingless, + that it, never did nor ever can enlist the enthusiasm of a popular cause. + We could not love the man who taught it we could not hear him with + patience. The heart could not throw open its portals to it, the generous + man could not adopt it—it could not mix with his blood. It looked so + fiendishly selfish, so like throwing fathers and brothers overboard to + lighten the boat for our security, that the noble-minded shrank from the + manifest meanness of the thing. And besides this, the benefits of a + reformation to be effected by such a system were too remote in point of + time to warmly engage many in its behalf. Few can be induced to labor + exclusively for posterity, and none will do it enthusiastically. —Posterity + has done nothing for us; and, theorize on it as we may, practically we + shall do very little for it, unless we are made to think we are at the + same time doing something for ourselves. + </p> + <p> + What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit to ask or to expect a + whole community to rise up and labor for the temporal happiness of others, + after themselves shall be consigned to the dust, a majority of which + community take no pains whatever to secure their own eternal welfare at no + more distant day! Great distance in either time or space has wonderful + power to lull and render quiescent the human mind. Pleasures to be + enjoyed, or pains to be endured, after we shall be dead and gone are but + little regarded even in our own cases, and much less in the cases of + others. Still, in addition to this there is something so ludicrous in + promises of good or threats of evil a great way off as to render the whole + subject with which they are connected easily turned into ridicule. “Better + lay down that spade you are stealing, Paddy; if you don’t you’ll pay for + it at the day of judgment.” “Be the powers, if ye’ll credit me so long + I’ll take another jist.” + </p> + <p> + By the Washingtonians this system of consigning the habitual drunkard to + hopeless ruin is repudiated. They adopt a more enlarged philanthropy; they + go for present as well as future good. They labor for all now living, as + well as hereafter to live. They teach hope to all-despair to none. As + applying to their cause, they deny the doctrine of unpardonable sin; as in + Christianity it is taught, so in this they teach—“While—While + the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return.” And, what is a + matter of more profound congratulation, they, by experiment upon + experiment and example upon example, prove the maxim to be no less true in + the one case than in the other. On every hand we behold those who but + yesterday were the chief of sinners, now the chief apostles of the cause. + Drunken devils are cast out by ones, by sevens, by legions; and their + unfortunate victims, like the poor possessed who were redeemed from their + long and lonely wanderings in the tombs, are publishing to the ends of the + earth how great things have been done for them. + </p> + <p> + To these new champions and this new system of tactics our late success is + mainly owing, and to them we must mainly look for the final consummation. + The ball is now rolling gloriously on, and none are so able as they to + increase its speed and its bulk, to add to its momentum and its magnitude—even + though unlearned in letters, for this task none are so well educated. To + fit them for this work they have been taught in the true school. They have + been in that gulf from which they would teach others the means of escape. + They have passed that prison wall which others have long declared + impassable; and who that has not shall dare to weigh opinions with them as + to the mode of passing? + </p> + <p> + But if it be true, as I have insisted, that those who have suffered by + intemperance personally, and have reformed, are the most powerful and + efficient instruments to push the reformation to ultimate success, it does + not follow that those who have not suffered have no part left them to + perform. Whether or not the world would be vastly benefited by a total and + final banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks seems to me not now an + open question. Three fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with their + tongues, and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts. + </p> + <p> + Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing what good the good of the + whole demands? Shall he who cannot do much be for that reason excused if + he do nothing? “But,” says one, “what good can I do by signing the pledge? + I never drank, even without signing.” This question has already been asked + and answered more than a million of times. Let it be answered once more. + For the man suddenly or in any other way to break off from the use of + drams, who has indulged in them for a long course of years and until his + appetite for them has grown ten or a hundredfold stronger and more craving + than any natural appetite can be, requires a most powerful moral effort. + In such an undertaking he needs every moral support and influence that can + possibly be brought to his aid and thrown around him. And not only so, but + every moral prop should be taken from whatever argument might rise in his + mind to lure him to his backsliding. When he casts his eyes around him, he + should be able to see all that he respects, all that he admires, all that + he loves, kindly and anxiously pointing him onward, and none beckoning him + back to his former miserable “wallowing in the mire.” + </p> + <p> + But it is said by some that men will think and act for themselves; that + none will disuse spirits or anything else because his neighbors do; and + that moral influence is not that powerful engine contended for. Let us + examine this. Let me ask the man who could maintain this position most + stiffly, what compensation he will accept to go to church some Sunday and + sit during the sermon with his wife’s bonnet upon his head? Not a trifle, + I’ll venture. And why not? There would be nothing irreligious in it, + nothing immoral, nothing uncomfortable—then why not? Is it not + because there would be something egregiously unfashionable in it? Then it + is the influence of fashion; and what is the influence of fashion but the + influence that other people’s actions have on our actions—the strong + inclination each of us feels to do as we see all our neighbors do? Nor is + the influence of fashion confined to any particular thing or class of + things; it is just as strong on one subject as another. Let us make it as + unfashionable to withhold our names from the temperance cause as for + husbands to wear their wives’ bonnets to church, and instances will be + just as rare in the one case as the other. + </p> + <p> + “But,” say some, “we are no drunkards, and we shall not acknowledge + ourselves such by joining a reformed drunkard’s society, whatever our + influence might be.” Surely no Christian will adhere to this objection. If + they believe as they profess, that Omnipotence condescended to take on + himself the form of sinful man, and as such to die an ignominious death + for their sakes, surely they will not refuse submission to the infinitely + lesser condescension, for the temporal, and perhaps eternal, salvation of + a large, erring, and unfortunate class of their fellow-creatures. Nor is + the condescension very great. In my judgment such of us as have never + fallen victims have been spared more by the absence of appetite than from + any mental or moral superiority over those who have. Indeed, I believe if + we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will + bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. There seems + ever to have been a proneness in the brilliant and warm-blooded to fall + into this vice—the demon of intemperance ever seems to have + delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity. What one of us + but can call to mind some relative, more promising in youth than all his + fellows, who has fallen a sacrifice to his rapacity? He ever seems to have + gone forth like the Egyptian angel of death, commissioned to slay, if not + the first, the fairest born of every family. Shall he now be arrested in + his desolating career? In that arrest all can give aid that will; and who + shall be excused that can and will not? Far around as human breath has + ever blown he keeps our fathers, our brothers, our sons, and our friends + prostrate in the chains of moral death. To all the living everywhere we + cry, “Come sound the moral trump, that these may rise and stand up an + exceeding great army.” “Come from the four winds, O breath! and breathe + upon these slain that they may live.” If the relative grandeur of + revolutions shall be estimated by the great amount of human misery they + alleviate, and the small amount they inflict, then indeed will this be the + grandest the world shall ever have seen. + </p> + <p> + Of our political revolution of ‘76 we are all justly proud. It has given + us a degree of political freedom far exceeding that of any other nation of + the earth. In it the world has found a solution of the long-mooted problem + as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the germ which + has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty + of mankind. But, with all these glorious results, past, present, and to + come, it had its evils too. It breathed forth famine, swam in blood, and + rode in fire; and long, long after, the orphan’s cry and the widow’s wail + continued to break the sad silence that ensued. These were the price, the + inevitable price, paid for the blessings it bought. + </p> + <p> + Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find a stronger + bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed; in + it, more of want supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow assuaged. By + it no Orphans starving, no widows weeping. By it none wounded in feeling, + none injured in interest; even the drammaker and dram-seller will have + glided into other occupations so gradually as never to have felt the + change, and will stand ready to join all others in the universal song of + gladness. And what a noble ally this to the cause of political freedom, + with such an aid its march cannot fail to be on and on, till every son of + earth shall drink in rich fruition the sorrow-quenching draughts of + perfect liberty. Happy day when-all appetites controlled, all poisons + subdued, all matter subjected-mind, all-conquering mind, shall live and + move, the monarch of the world. Glorious consummation! Hail, fall of fury! + Reign of reason, all hail! + </p> + <p> + And when the victory shall be complete, when there shall be neither a + slave nor a drunkard on the earth, how proud the title of that land which + may truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both those + revolutions that shall have ended in that victory. How nobly distinguished + that people who shall have planted and nurtured to maturity both the + political and moral freedom of their species. + </p> + <p> + This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of + Washington; we are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the mightiest + name of earth long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, still + mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy is expected. It + cannot be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington + is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the + name, and in its naked deathless splendor leave it shining on. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0055"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, February 25, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—Yours of the 16th instant, announcing that Miss Fanny + and you are “no more twain, but one flesh,” reached me this morning. I + have no way of telling you how much happiness I wish you both, though I + believe you both can conceive it. I feel somewhat jealous of both of you + now: you will be so exclusively concerned for one another, that I shall be + forgotten entirely. My acquaintance with Miss Fanny (I call her this, lest + you should think I am speaking of your mother) was too short for me to + reasonably hope to long be remembered by her; and still I am sure I shall + not forget her soon. Try if you cannot remind her of that debt she owes me—and + be sure you do not interfere to prevent her paying it. + </p> + <p> + I regret to learn that you have resolved to not return to Illinois. I + shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably things seem to be + arranged in this world! If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and if + we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss. + I did hope she and you would make your home here; but I own I have no + right to insist. You owe obligations to her ten thousand times more sacred + than you can owe to others, and in that light let them be respected and + observed. It is natural that she should desire to remain with her + relatives and friends. As to friends, however, she could not need them + anywhere: she would have them in abundance here. + </p> + <p> + Give my kind remembrance to Mr. Williamson and his family, particularly + Miss Elizabeth; also to your mother, brother, and sisters. Ask little + Eliza Davis if she will ride to town with me if I come there again. And + finally, give Fanny a double reciprocation of all the love she sent me. + Write me often, and believe me + </p> + <p> + Yours forever, LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + P. S. Poor Easthouse is gone at last. He died awhile before day this + morning. They say he was very loath to die.... + </p> + <p> + L. <a id="link2H_4_0056"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON MARRIAGE CONCERNS + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, February 25,1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—I received yours of the 12th written the day you went + down to William’s place, some days since, but delayed answering it till I + should receive the promised one of the 16th, which came last night. I + opened the letter with intense anxiety and trepidation; so much so, that, + although it turned out better than I expected, I have hardly yet, at a + distance of ten hours, become calm. + </p> + <p> + I tell you, Speed, our forebodings (for which you and I are peculiar) are + all the worst sort of nonsense. I fancied, from the time I received your + letter of Saturday, that the one of Wednesday was never to come, and yet + it did come, and what is more, it is perfectly clear, both from its tone + and handwriting, that you were much happier, or, if you think the term + preferable, less miserable, when you wrote it than when you wrote the last + one before. You had so obviously improved at the very time I so much + fancied you would have grown worse. You say that something indescribably + horrible and alarming still haunts you. You will not say that three months + from now, I will venture. When your nerves once get steady now, the whole + trouble will be over forever. Nor should you become impatient at their + being even very slow in becoming steady. Again you say, you much fear that + that Elysium of which you have dreamed so much is never to be realized. + Well, if it shall not, I dare swear it will not be the fault of her who is + now your wife. I now have no doubt that it is the peculiar misfortune of + both you and me to dream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything + earthly can realize. Far short of your dreams as you may be, no woman + could do more to realize them than that same black-eyed Fanny. If you + could but contemplate her through my imagination, it would appear + ridiculous to you that any one should for a moment think of being unhappy + with her. My old father used to have a saying that “If you make a bad + bargain, hug it all the tighter”; and it occurs to me that if the bargain + you have just closed can possibly be called a bad one, it is certainly the + most pleasant one for applying that maxim to which my fancy can by any + effort picture. + </p> + <p> + I write another letter, enclosing this, which you can show her, if she + desires it. I do this because she would think strangely, perhaps, should + you tell her that you received no letters from me, or, telling her you do, + refuse to let her see them. I close this, entertaining the confident hope + that every successive letter I shall have from you (which I here pray may + not be few, nor far between) may show you possessing a more steady hand + and cheerful heart than the last preceding it. As ever, your friend, + LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0057"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, March 27, 1842 + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—Yours of the 10th instant was received three or four + days since. You know I am sincere when I tell you the pleasure its + contents gave me was, and is, inexpressible. As to your farm matter, I + have no sympathy with you. I have no farm, nor ever expect to have, and + consequently have not studied the subject enough to be much interested + with it. I can only say that I am glad you are satisfied and pleased with + it. But on that other subject, to me of the most intense interest whether + in joy or sorrow, I never had the power to withhold my sympathy from you. + It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you say you are + “far happier than you ever expected to be.” That much I know is enough. I + know you too well to suppose your expectations were not, at least, + sometimes extravagant, and if the reality exceeds them all, I say, Enough, + dear Lord. I am not going beyond the truth when I tell you that the short + space it took me to read your last letter gave me more pleasure than the + total sum of all I have enjoyed since the fatal 1st of January, 1841. + Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely happy, but for the + never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy whom I have contributed + to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot but reproach myself for + even wishing to be happy while she is otherwise. She accompanied a large + party on the railroad cars to Jacksonville last Monday, and on her return + spoke, so that I heard of it, of having enjoyed the trip exceedingly. God + be praised for that. + </p> + <p> + You know with what sleepless vigilance I have watched you ever since the + commencement of your affair; and although I am almost confident it is + useless, I cannot forbear once more to say that I think it is even yet + possible for your spirits to flag down and leave you miserable. If they + should, don’t fail to remember that they cannot long remain so. One thing + I can tell you which I know you will be glad to hear, and that is that I + have seen—and scrutinized her feelings as well as I could, and am + fully convinced she is far happier now than she has been for the last + fifteen months past. + </p> + <p> + You will see by the last Sangamon Journal, that I made a temperance speech + on the 22d of February, which I claim that Fanny and you shall read as an + act of charity to me; for I cannot learn that anybody else has read it, or + is likely to. Fortunately it is not very long, and I shall deem it a + sufficient compliance with my request if one of you listens while the + other reads it. + </p> + <p> + As to your Lockridge matter, it is only necessary to say that there has + been no court since you left, and that the next commences to-morrow + morning, during which I suppose we cannot fail to get a judgment. + </p> + <p> + I wish you would learn of Everett what he would take, over and above a + discharge for all the trouble we have been at, to take his business out of + our hands and give it to somebody else. It is impossible to collect money + on that or any other claim here now; and although you know I am not a very + petulant man, I declare I am almost out of patience with Mr. Everett’s + importunity. It seems like he not only writes all the letters he can + himself, but gets everybody else in Louisville and vicinity to be + constantly writing to us about his claim. I have always said that Mr. + Everett is a very clever fellow, and I am very sorry he cannot be obliged; + but it does seem to me he ought to know we are interested to collect his + claim, and therefore would do it if we could. + </p> + <p> + I am neither joking nor in a pet when I say we would thank him to transfer + his business to some other, without any compensation for what we have + done, provided he will see the court cost paid, for which we are security. + </p> + <p> + The sweet violet you inclosed came safely to hand, but it was so dry, and + mashed so flat, that it crumbled to dust at the first attempt to handle + it. The juice that mashed out of it stained a place in the letter, which I + mean to preserve and cherish for the sake of her who procured it to be + sent. My renewed good wishes to her in particular, and generally to all + such of your relations who know me. + </p> + <p> + As ever, + </p> + <p> + LINCOLN. <a id="link2H_4_0058"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, July 4, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—Yours of the 16th June was received only a day or two + since. It was not mailed at Louisville till the 25th. You speak of the + great time that has elapsed since I wrote you. Let me explain that. Your + letter reached here a day or two after I started on the circuit. I was + gone five or six weeks, so that I got the letters only a few weeks before + Butler started to your country. I thought it scarcely worth while to write + you the news which he could and would tell you more in detail. On his + return he told me you would write me soon, and so I waited for your + letter. As to my having been displeased with your advice, surely you know + better than that. I know you do, and therefore will not labor to convince + you. True, that subject is painful to me; but it is not your silence, or + the silence of all the world, that can make me forget it. I acknowledge + the correctness of your advice too; but before I resolve to do the one + thing or the other, I must gain my confidence in my own ability to keep my + resolves when they are made. In that ability you know I once prided myself + as the only or chief gem of my character; that gem I lost—how and + where you know too well. I have not yet regained it; and until I do, I + cannot trust myself in any matter of much importance. I believe now that + had you understood my case at the time as well as I understand yours + afterward, by the aid you would have given me I should have sailed through + clear, but that does not now afford me sufficient confidence to begin that + or the like of that again. + </p> + <p> + You make a kind acknowledgment of your obligations to me for your present + happiness. I am pleased with that acknowledgment. But a thousand times + more am I pleased to know that you enjoy a degree of happiness worthy of + an acknowledgment. The truth is, I am not sure that there was any merit + with me in the part I took in your difficulty; I was drawn to it by a + fate. If I would I could not have done less than I did. I always was + superstitious; I believe God made me one of the instruments of bringing + your Fanny and you together, which union I have no doubt He had + fore-ordained. Whatever He designs He will do for me yet. “Stand still, + and see the salvation of the Lord” is my text just now. If, as you say, + you have told Fanny all, I should have no objection to her seeing this + letter, but for its reference to our friend here: let her seeing it depend + upon whether she has ever known anything of my affairs; and if she has + not, do not let her. + </p> + <p> + I do not think I can come to Kentucky this season. I am so poor and make + so little headway in the world, that I drop back in a month of idleness as + much as I gain in a year’s sowing. I should like to visit you again. I + should like to see that “sis” of yours that was absent when I was there, + though I suppose she would run away again if she were to hear I was + coming. + </p> + <p> + My respects and esteem to all your friends there, and, by your permission, + my love to your Fanny. + </p> + <p> + Ever yours, + </p> + <p> + LINCOLN. <a id="link2H_4_0059"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + A LETTER FROM THE LOST TOWNSHIPS + </h2></div> + <p> + Article written by Lincoln for the Sangamon Journal in ridicule of James + Shields, who, as State Auditor, had declined to receive State Bank notes + in payment of taxes. The above letter purported to come from a poor widow + who, though supplied with State Bank paper, could not obtain a receipt for + her tax bill. This, and another subsequent letter by Mary Todd, brought + about the “Lincoln-Shields Duel.” + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0060"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + LOST TOWNSHIPS + </h2></div> + <h3> + August 27, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR Mr. PRINTER: + </p> + <p> + I see you printed that long letter I sent you a spell ago. I ’m quite + encouraged by it, and can’t keep from writing again. I think the printing + of my letters will be a good thing all round—it will give me the + benefit of being known by the world, and give the world the advantage of + knowing what’s going on in the Lost Townships, and give your paper + respectability besides. So here comes another. Yesterday afternoon I + hurried through cleaning up the dinner dishes and stepped over to neighbor + S——— to see if his wife Peggy was as well as mout be + expected, and hear what they called the baby. Well, when I got there and + just turned round the corner of his log cabin, there he was, setting on + the doorstep reading a newspaper. “How are you, Jeff?” says I. He sorter + started when he heard me, for he hadn’t seen me before. “Why,” says he, “I + ’m mad as the devil, Aunt ’Becca!” “What about?” says I; “ain’t its hair + the right color? None of that nonsense, Jeff; there ain’t an honester + woman in the Lost Townships than....”—“Than who?” says he; “what the + mischief are you about?” I began to see I was running the wrong trail, and + so says I, “Oh! nothing: I guess I was mistaken a little, that’s all. But + what is it you ’re mad about?” + </p> + <p> + “Why,” says he, “I’ve been tugging ever since harvest, getting out wheat + and hauling it to the river to raise State Bank paper enough to pay my tax + this year and a little school debt I owe; and now, just as I ’ve got it, + here I open this infernal Extra Register, expecting to find it full of + ‘Glorious Democratic Victories’ and ‘High Comb’d Cocks,’ when, lo and + behold! I find a set of fellows, calling themselves officers of the State, + have forbidden the tax collectors, and school commissioners to receive + State paper at all; and so here it is dead on my hands. I don’t now + believe all the plunder I’ve got will fetch ready cash enough to pay my + taxes and that school debt.” + </p> + <p> + I was a good deal thunderstruck myself; for that was the first I had heard + of the proclamation, and my old man was pretty much in the same fix with + Jeff. We both stood a moment staring at one another without knowing what + to say. At last says I, “Mr. S——— let me look at that + paper.” He handed it to me, when I read the proclamation over. + </p> + <p> + “There now,” says he, “did you ever see such a piece of impudence and + imposition as that?” I saw Jeff was in a good tune for saying some + ill-natured things, and so I tho’t I would just argue a little on the + contrary side, and make him rant a spell if I could. “Why,” says I, + looking as dignified and thoughtful as I could, “it seems pretty tough, to + be sure, to have to raise silver where there’s none to be raised; but + then, you see, ‘there will be danger of loss’ if it ain’t done.” + </p> + <p> + “Loss! damnation!” says he. “I defy Daniel Webster, I defy King Solomon, I + defy the world—I defy—I defy—yes, I defy even you, Aunt + ’Becca, to show how the people can lose anything by paying their taxes in + State paper.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” says I, “you see what the officers of State say about it, and they + are a desarnin’ set of men. But,” says I, “I guess you ’re mistaken about + what the proclamation says. It don’t say the people will lose anything by + the paper money being taken for taxes. It only says ‘there will be danger + of loss’; and though it is tolerable plain that the people can’t lose by + paying their taxes in something they can get easier than silver, instead + of having to pay silver; and though it’s just as plain that the State + can’t lose by taking State Bank paper, however low it may be, while she + owes the bank more than the whole revenue, and can pay that paper over on + her debt, dollar for dollar;—still there is danger of loss to the + ‘officers of State’; and you know, Jeff, we can’t get along without + officers of State.” + </p> + <p> + “Damn officers of State!” says he; “that’s what Whigs are always hurrahing + for.” + </p> + <p> + “Now, don’t swear so, Jeff,” says I, “you know I belong to the meetin’, + and swearin’ hurts my feelings.” + </p> + <p> + “Beg pardon, Aunt ’Becca,” says he; “but I do say it’s enough to make Dr. + Goddard swear, to have tax to pay in silver, for nothing only that Ford + may get his two thousand a year, and Shields his twenty-four hundred a + year, and Carpenter his sixteen hundred a year, and all without ‘danger of + loss’ by taking it in State paper. Yes, yes: it’s plain enough now what + these officers of State mean by ‘danger of loss.’ Wash, I s’pose, actually + lost fifteen hundred dollars out of the three thousand that two of these + ‘officers of State’ let him steal from the treasury, by being compelled to + take it in State paper. Wonder if we don’t have a proclamation before + long, commanding us to make up this loss to Wash in silver.” + </p> + <p> + And so he went on till his breath run out, and he had to stop. I couldn’t + think of anything to say just then, and so I begun to look over the paper + again. “Ay! here’s another proclamation, or something like it.” + </p> + <p> + “Another?” says Jeff; “and whose egg is it, pray?” + </p> + <p> + I looked to the bottom of it, and read aloud, “Your obedient servant, + James Shields, Auditor.” + </p> + <p> + “Aha!” says Jeff, “one of them same three fellows again. Well read it, and + let’s hear what of it.” + </p> + <p> + I read on till I came to where it says, “The object of this measure is to + suspend the collection of the revenue for the current year.” + </p> + <p> + “Now stop, now stop!” says he; “that’s a lie a’ready, and I don’t want to + hear of it.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, maybe not,” says I. + </p> + <p> + “I say it-is-a-lie. Suspend the collection, indeed! Will the collectors, + that have taken their oaths to make the collection, dare to end it? Is + there anything in law requiring them to perjure themselves at the bidding + of James Shields? + </p> + <p> + “Will the greedy gullet of the penitentiary be satisfied with swallowing + him instead of all of them, if they should venture to obey him? And would + he not discover some ‘danger of loss,’ and be off about the time it came + to taking their places? + </p> + <p> + “And suppose the people attempt to suspend, by refusing to pay; what then? + The collectors would just jerk up their horses and cows, and the like, and + sell them to the highest bidder for silver in hand, without valuation or + redemption. Why, Shields didn’t believe that story himself; it was never + meant for the truth. If it was true, why was it not writ till five days + after the proclamation? Why did n’t Carlin and Carpenter sign it as well + as Shields? Answer me that, Aunt ’Becca. I say it’s a lie, and not a well + told one at that. It grins out like a copper dollar. Shields is a fool as + well as a liar. With him truth is out of the question; and as for getting + a good, bright, passable lie out of him, you might as well try to strike + fire from a cake of tallow. I stick to it, it’s all an infernal Whig lie!” + </p> + <p> + “A Whig lie! Highty tighty!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, a Whig lie; and it’s just like everything the cursed British Whigs + do. First they’ll do some divilment, and then they’ll tell a lie to hide + it. And they don’t care how plain a lie it is; they think they can cram + any sort of a one down the throats of the ignorant Locofocos, as they call + the Democrats.” + </p> + <p> + “Why, Jeff, you ’re crazy: you don’t mean to say Shields is a Whig!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I do.” + </p> + <p> + “Why, look here! the proclamation is in your own Democratic paper, as you + call it.” + </p> + <p> + “I know it; and what of that? They only printed it to let us Democrats see + the deviltry the Whigs are at.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, but Shields is the auditor of this Loco—I mean this + Democratic State.” + </p> + <p> + “So he is, and Tyler appointed him to office.” + </p> + <p> + “Tyler appointed him?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes (if you must chaw it over), Tyler appointed him; or, if it was n’t + him, it was old Granny Harrison, and that’s all one. I tell you, Aunt + ’Becca, there’s no mistake about his being a Whig. Why, his very looks + shows it; everything about him shows it: if I was deaf and blind, I could + tell him by the smell. I seed him when I was down in Springfield last + winter. They had a sort of a gatherin’ there one night among the grandees, + they called a fair. All the gals about town was there, and all the + handsome widows and married women, finickin’ about trying to look like + gals, tied as tight in the middle, and puffed out at both ends, like + bundles of fodder that had n’t been stacked yet, but wanted stackin’ + pretty bad. And then they had tables all around the house kivered over + with [———] caps and pincushions and ten thousand such + little knick-knacks, tryin’ to sell ’em to the fellows that were bowin’, + and scrapin’ and kungeerin’ about ’em. They would n’t let no Democrats in, + for fear they’d disgust the ladies, or scare the little gals, or dirty the + floor. I looked in at the window, and there was this same fellow Shields + floatin’ about on the air, without heft or earthly substances, just like a + lock of cat fur where cats had been fighting. + </p> + <p> + “He was paying his money to this one, and that one, and t’ other one, and + sufferin’ great loss because it was n’t silver instead of State paper; and + the sweet distress he seemed to be in,—his very features, in the + ecstatic agony of his soul, spoke audibly and distinctly, ‘Dear girls, it + is distressing, but I cannot marry you all. Too well I know how much you + suffer; but do, do remember, it is not my fault that I am so handsome and + so interesting.’ + </p> + <p> + “As this last was expressed by a most exquisite contortion of his face, he + seized hold of one of their hands, and squeezed, and held on to it about a + quarter of an hour. ‘Oh, my good fellow!’ says I to myself, ‘if that was + one of our Democratic gals in the Lost Townships, the way you ’d get a + brass pin let into you would be about up to the head.’ He a Democrat! + Fiddlesticks! I tell you, Aunt ’Becca, he’s a Whig, and no mistake; nobody + but a Whig could make such a conceity dunce of himself.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” says I, “maybe he is; but, if he is, I ’m mistaken the worst sort. + Maybe so, maybe so; but, if I am, I’ll suffer by it; I’ll be a Democrat if + it turns out that Shields is a Whig, considerin’ you shall be a Whig if he + turns out a Democrat.” + </p> + <p> + “A bargain, by jingoes!” says he; “but how will we find out?” + </p> + <p> + “Why,” says I, “we’ll just write and ax the printer.” + </p> + <p> + “Agreed again!” says he; “and by thunder! if it does turn out that Shields + is a Democrat, I never will——” + </p> + <p> + “Jefferson! Jefferson!” + </p> + <p> + “What do you want, Peggy?” + </p> + <p> + “Do get through your everlasting clatter some time, and bring me a gourd + of water; the child’s been crying for a drink this livelong hour.” + </p> + <p> + “Let it die, then; it may as well die for water as to be taxed to death to + fatten officers of State.” + </p> + <p> + Jeff run off to get the water, though, just like he hadn’t been saying + anything spiteful, for he’s a raal good-hearted fellow, after all, once + you get at the foundation of him. + </p> + <p> + I walked into the house, and, “Why, Peggy,” says I, “I declare we like to + forgot you altogether.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes,” says she, “when a body can’t help themselves, everybody soon + forgets ’em; but, thank God! by day after to-morrow I shall be well enough + to milk the cows, and pen the calves, and wring the contrary ones’ tails + for ’em, and no thanks to nobody.” + </p> + <p> + “Good evening, Peggy,” says I, and so I sloped, for I seed she was mad at + me for making Jeff neglect her so long. + </p> + <p> + And now, Mr. Printer, will you be sure to let us know in your next paper + whether this Shields is a Whig or a Democrat? I don’t care about it for + myself, for I know well enough how it is already; but I want to convince + Jeff. It may do some good to let him, and others like him, know who and + what these officers of State are. It may help to send the present + hypocritical set to where they belong, and to fill the places they now + disgrace with men who will do more work for less pay, and take fewer airs + while they are doing it. It ain’t sensible to think that the same men who + get us in trouble will change their course; and yet it’s pretty plain if + some change for the better is not made, it’s not long that either Peggy or + I or any of us will have a cow left to milk, or a calf’s tail to wring. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + REBECCA ———. <a id="link2H_4_0061"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + INVITATION TO HENRY CLAY. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug 29, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + HON. HENRY CLAY, Lexington, Ky. + </p> + <p> + DEAR SIR:—We hear you are to visit Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 5th + Of October next. If our information in this is correct we hope you will + not deny us the pleasure of seeing you in our State. We are aware of the + toil necessarily incident to a journey by one circumstanced as you are; + but once you have embarked, as you have already determined to do, the toil + would not be greatly augmented by extending the journey to our capital. + The season of the year will be most favorable for good roads, and pleasant + weather; and although we cannot but believe you would be highly gratified + with such a visit to the prairie-land, the pleasure it would give us and + thousands such as we is beyond all question. You have never visited + Illinois, or at least this portion of it; and should you now yield to our + request, we promise you such a reception as shall be worthy of the man on + whom are now turned the fondest hopes of a great and suffering nation. + </p> + <p> + Please inform us at the earliest convenience whether we may expect you. + </p> + <p> + Very respectfully your obedient servants, + </p> +<div class='pre'> + A. G. HENRY, A. T. BLEDSOE, + C. BIRCHALL, A. LINCOLN, + G. M. CABANNISS, ROB’T IRWIN, + P. A. SAUNDERS, J. M. ALLEN, + F. N. FRANCIS. + Executive Committee “Clay Club.” +</div> + <p> + (Clay’s answer, September 6, 1842, declines with thanks.) + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0062"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE LINCOLN-SHIELDS DUEL. + </h2></div> + <h3> + TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:—I regret that my absence on public business + compelled me to postpone a matter of private consideration a little longer + than I could have desired. It will only be necessary, however, to account + for it by informing you that I have been to Quincy on business that would + not admit of delay. I will now state briefly the reasons of my troubling + you with this communication, the disagreeable nature of which I regret, as + I had hoped to avoid any difficulty with any one in Springfield while + residing there, by endeavoring to conduct myself in such a way amongst + both my political friends and opponents as to escape the necessity of any. + Whilst thus abstaining from giving provocation, I have become the object + of slander, vituperation, and personal abuse, which were I capable of + submitting to, I would prove myself worthy of the whole of it. + </p> + <p> + In two or three of the last numbers of the Sangamon Journal, articles of + the most personal nature and calculated to degrade me have made their + appearance. On inquiring, I was informed by the editor of that paper, + through the medium of my friend General Whitesides, that you are the + author of those articles. This information satisfies me that I have become + by some means or other the object of your secret hostility. I will not + take the trouble of inquiring into the reason of all this; but I will take + the liberty of requiring a full, positive, and absolute retraction of all + offensive allusions used by you in these communications, in relation to my + private character and standing as a man, as an apology for the insults + conveyed in them. + </p> + <p> + This may prevent consequences which no one will regret more than myself. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, JAS. SHIELDS. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0063"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO J. SHIELDS. + </h2></div> + <h3> + TREMONT, September 17, 1842 + </h3> + <p> + JAS. SHIELDS, ESQ.:—Your note of to-day was handed me by General + Whitesides. In that note you say you have been informed, through the + medium of the editor of the Journal, that I am the author of certain + articles in that paper which you deem personally abusive of you; and + without stopping to inquire whether I really am the author, or to point + out what is offensive in them, you demand an unqualified retraction of all + that is offensive, and then proceed to hint at consequences. + </p> + <p> + Now, sir, there is in this so much assumption of facts and so much of + menace as to consequences, that I cannot submit to answer that note any + further than I have, and to add that the consequences to which I suppose + you allude would be matter of as great regret to me as it possibly could + to you. + </p> + <p> + Respectfully, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a id="link2H_4_0064"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO A. LINCOLN FROM JAS. SHIELDS + </h2></div> + <h3> + TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:—In reply to my note of this date, you intimate + that I assume facts and menace consequences, and that you cannot submit to + answer it further. As now, sir, you desire it, I will be a little more + particular. The editor of the Sangamon Journal gave me to understand that + you are the author of an article which appeared, I think, in that paper of + the 2d September instant, headed “The Lost Townships,” and signed Rebecca + or ’Becca. I would therefore take the liberty of asking whether you are + the author of said article, or any other over the same signature which has + appeared in any of the late numbers of that paper. If so, I repeat my + request of an absolute retraction of all offensive allusions contained + therein in relation to my private character and standing. If you are not + the author of any of these articles, your denial will be sufficient. I + will say further, it is not my intention to menace, but to do myself + justice. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, JAS. SHIELDS. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0065"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + MEMORANDUM OF INSTRUCTIONS TO E. H. MERRYMAN, + </h2></div> + <h3> + Lincoln’s Second, + </h3> + <p> + September 19, 1842. + </p> + <p> + In case Whitesides shall signify a wish to adjust this affair without + further difficulty, let him know that if the present papers be withdrawn, + and a note from Mr. Shields asking to know if I am the author of the + articles of which he complains, and asking that I shall make him + gentlemanly satisfaction if I am the author, and this without menace, or + dictation as to what that satisfaction shall be, a pledge is made that the + following answer shall be given: + </p> + <p> + “I did write the ‘Lost Townships’ letter which appeared in the Journal of + the 2d instant, but had no participation in any form in any other article + alluding to you. I wrote that wholly for political effect—I had no + intention of injuring your personal or private character or standing as a + man or a gentleman; and I did not then think, and do not now think, that + that article could produce or has produced that effect against you; and + had I anticipated such an effect I would have forborne to write it. And I + will add that your conduct toward me, so far as I know, had always been + gentlemanly; and that I had no personal pique against you, and no cause + for any.” + </p> + <p> + If this should be done, I leave it with you to arrange what shall and what + shall not be published. If nothing like this is done, the preliminaries of + the fight are to be— + </p> + <p> + First. Weapons: Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, precisely equal + in all respects, and such as now used by the cavalry company at + Jacksonville. + </p> + <p> + Second. Position: A plank ten feet long, and from nine to twelve inches + broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the ground, as the line between us, + which neither is to pass his foot over upon forfeit of his life. Next a + line drawn on the ground on either side of said plank and parallel with + it, each at the distance of the whole length of the sword and three feet + additional from the plank; and the passing of his own such line by either + party during the fight shall be deemed a surrender of the contest. + </p> + <p> + Third. Time: On Thursday evening at five o’clock, if you can get it so; + but in no case to be at a greater distance of time than Friday evening at + five o’clock. + </p> + <p> + Fourth. Place: Within three miles of Alton, on the opposite side of the + river, the particular spot to be agreed on by you. + </p> + <p> + Any preliminary details coming within the above rules you are at liberty + to make at your discretion; but you are in no case to swerve from these + rules, or to pass beyond their limits. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0066"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, October 4, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—You have heard of my duel with Shields, and I have now + to inform you that the dueling business still rages in this city. Day + before yesterday Shields challenged Butler, who accepted, and proposed + fighting next morning at sunrise in Bob Allen’s meadow, one hundred yards’ + distance, with rifles. To this Whitesides, Shields’s second, said “No,” + because of the law. Thus ended duel No. 2. Yesterday Whitesides chose to + consider himself insulted by Dr. Merryman, so sent him a kind of + quasi-challenge, inviting him to meet him at the Planter’s House in St. + Louis on the next Friday, to settle their difficulty. Merryman made me his + friend, and sent Whitesides a note, inquiring to know if he meant his note + as a challenge, and if so, that he would, according to the law in such + case made and provided, prescribe the terms of the meeting. Whitesides + returned for answer that if Merryman would meet him at the Planter’s House + as desired, he would challenge him. Merryman replied in a note that he + denied Whitesides’s right to dictate time and place, but that he + (Merryman) would waive the question of time, and meet him at Louisiana, + Missouri. Upon my presenting this note to Whitesides and stating verbally + its contents, he declined receiving it, saying he had business in St. + Louis, and it was as near as Louisiana. Merryman then directed me to + notify Whitesides that he should publish the correspondence between them, + with such comments as he thought fit. This I did. Thus it stood at bedtime + last night. This morning Whitesides, by his friend Shields, is praying for + a new trial, on the ground that he was mistaken in Merryman’s proposition + to meet him at Louisiana, Missouri, thinking it was the State of + Louisiana. This Merryman hoots at, and is preparing his publication; while + the town is in a ferment, and a street fight somewhat anticipated. + </p> + <p> + But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but to say + something on that subject which you know to be of such infinite solicitude + to me. The immense sufferings you endured from the first days of September + till the middle of February you never tried to conceal from me, and I well + understood. You have now been the husband of a lovely woman nearly eight + months. That you are happier now than the day you married her I well know, + for without you could not be living. But I have your word for it, too, and + the returning elasticity of spirits which is manifested in your letters. + But I want to ask a close question, “Are you now in feeling as well as + judgment glad that you are married as you are?” From anybody but me this + would be an impudent question, not to be tolerated; but I know you will + pardon it in me. Please answer it quickly, as I am impatient to know. I + have sent my love to your Fanny so often, I fear she is getting tired of + it. However, I venture to tender it again. + </p> + <p> + Yours forever, + </p> + <p> + LINCOLN. <a id="link2H_4_0067"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JAMES S. IRWIN. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, November 2, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + JAS. S. IRWIN ESQ.: + </p> + <p> + Owing to my absence, yours of the 22nd ult. was not received till this + moment. Judge Logan and myself are willing to attend to any business in + the Supreme Court you may send us. As to fees, it is impossible to + establish a rule that will apply in all, or even a great many cases. We + believe we are never accused of being very unreasonable in this + particular; and we would always be easily satisfied, provided we could see + the money—but whatever fees we earn at a distance, if not paid + before, we have noticed, we never hear of after the work is done. We, + therefore, are growing a little sensitive on that point. + </p> + <p> + Yours etc., + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a id="link2H_4_0068"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + 1843 + </h2></div> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0069"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + RESOLUTIONS AT A WHIG MEETING AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, MARCH 1, 1843. + </h2></div> + <p> + The object of the meeting was stated by Mr. Lincoln of Springfield, who + offered the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted: + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That a tariff of duties on imported goods, producing sufficient + revenue for the payment of the necessary expenditures of the National + Government, and so adjusted as to protect American industry, is + indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the American people. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That we are opposed to direct taxation for the support of the + National Government. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That a national bank, properly restricted, is highly necessary + and proper to the establishment and maintenance of a sound currency, and + for the cheap and safe collection, keeping, and disbursing of the public + revenue. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the public + lands, upon the principles of Mr. Clay’s bill, accords with the best + interests of the nation, and particularly with those of the State of + Illinois. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional district of + the State to nominate and support at the approaching election a candidate + of their own principles, regardless of the chances of success. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of all portions of the State to + adopt and rigidly adhere to the convention system of nominating + candidates. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional district to + hold a district convention on or before the first Monday of May next, to + be composed of a number of delegates from each county equal to double the + number of its representatives in the General Assembly, provided, each + county shall have at least one delegate. Said delegates to be chosen by + primary meetings of the Whigs, at such times and places as they in their + respective counties may see fit. Said district conventions each to + nominate one candidate for Congress, and one delegate to a national + convention for the purpose of nominating candidates for President and + Vice-President of the United States. The seven delegates so nominated to a + national convention to have power to add two delegates to their own + number, and to fill all vacancies. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That A. T. Bledsoe, S. T. Logan, and A. Lincoln be appointed a + committee to prepare an address to the people of the State. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That N. W. Edwards, A. G. Henry, James H. Matheny, John C. + Doremus, and James C. Conkling be appointed a Whig Central State + Committee, with authority to fill any vacancy that may occur in the + committee. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0070"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + </h2></div> + <h3> + Address to the People of Illinois. + </h3> + <p> + FELLOW-CITIZENS:—By a resolution of a meeting of such of the Whigs of the + State as are now at Springfield, we, the undersigned, were appointed to + prepare an address to you. The performance of that task we now undertake. + </p> + <p> + Several resolutions were adopted by the meeting; and the chief object of + this address is to show briefly the reasons for their adoption. + </p> + <p> + The first of those resolutions declares a tariff of duties upon foreign + importations, producing sufficient revenue for the support of the General + Government, and so adjusted as to protect American industry, to be + indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the American people; and the + second declares direct taxation for a national revenue to be improper. + Those two resolutions are kindred in their nature, and therefore proper + and convenient to be considered together. The question of protection is a + subject entirely too broad to be crowded into a few pages only, together + with several other subjects. On that point we therefore content ourselves + with giving the following extracts from the writings of Mr. Jefferson, + General Jackson, and the speech of Mr. Calhoun: + </p> + <p> + “To be independent for the comforts of life, we must fabricate them + ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side of the + agriculturalist. The grand inquiry now is, Shall we make our own comforts, + or go without them at the will of a foreign nation? He, therefore, who is + now against domestic manufactures must be for reducing us either to + dependence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in skins and to live + like wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am not one of those; experience + has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to our independence + as to our comfort.” Letter of Mr. Jefferson to Benjamin Austin. + </p> + <p> + “I ask, What is the real situation of the agriculturalist? Where has the + American farmer a market for his surplus produce? Except for cotton, he + has neither a foreign nor a home market. Does not this clearly prove, when + there is no market at home or abroad, that there [is] too much labor + employed in agriculture? Common sense at once points out the remedy. Take + from agriculture six hundred thousand men, women, and children, and you + will at once give a market for more breadstuffs than all Europe now + furnishes. In short, we have been too long subject to the policy of + British merchants. It is time we should become a little more Americanized, + and instead of feeding the paupers and laborers of England, feed our own; + or else in a short time, by continuing our present policy, we shall all be + rendered paupers ourselves.”—General Jackson’s Letter to Dr. + Coleman. + </p> + <p> + “When our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they soon + will be, under the fostering care of government, the farmer will find a + ready market for his surplus produce, and—what is of equal + consequence—a certain and cheap supply of all he wants; his + prosperity will diffuse itself to every class of the community.” Speech of + Hon. J. C. Calhoun on the Tariff. + </p> + <p> + The question of revenue we will now briefly consider. For several years + past the revenues of the government have been unequal to its expenditures, + and consequently loan after loan, sometimes direct and sometimes indirect + in form, has been resorted to. By this means a new national debt has been + created, and is still growing on us with a rapidity fearful to contemplate—a + rapidity only reasonably to be expected in time of war. This state of + things has been produced by a prevailing unwillingness either to increase + the tariff or resort to direct taxation. But the one or the other must + come. Coming expenditures must be met, and the present debt must be paid; + and money cannot always be borrowed for these objects. The system of loans + is but temporary in its nature, and must soon explode. It is a system not + only ruinous while it lasts, but one that must soon fail and leave us + destitute. As an individual who undertakes to live by borrowing soon finds + his original means devoured by interest, and, next, no one left to borrow + from, so must it be with a government. + </p> + <p> + We repeat, then, that a tariff sufficient for revenue, or a direct tax, + must soon be resorted to; and, indeed, we believe this alternative is now + denied by no one. But which system shall be adopted? Some of our + opponents, in theory, admit the propriety of a tariff sufficient for a + revenue, but even they will not in practice vote for such a tariff; while + others boldly advocate direct taxation. Inasmuch, therefore, as some of + them boldly advocate direct taxation, and all the rest—or so nearly + all as to make exceptions needless—refuse to adopt the tariff, we + think it is doing them no injustice to class them all as advocates of + direct taxation. Indeed, we believe they are only delaying an open avowal + of the system till they can assure themselves that the people will + tolerate it. Let us, then, briefly compare the two systems. The tariff is + the cheaper system, because the duties, being collected in large parcels + at a few commercial points, will require comparatively few officers in + their collection; while by the direct-tax system the land must be + literally covered with assessors and collectors, going forth like swarms + of Egyptian locusts, devouring every blade of grass and other green thing. + And, again, by the tariff system the whole revenue is paid by the + consumers of foreign goods, and those chiefly the luxuries, and not the + necessaries, of life. By this system the man who contents himself to live + upon the products of his own country pays nothing at all. And surely that + country is extensive enough, and its products abundant and varied enough, + to answer all the real wants of its people. In short, by this system the + burthen of revenue falls almost entirely on the wealthy and luxurious few, + while the substantial and laboring many who live at home, and upon home + products, go entirely free. By the direct-tax system none can escape. + However strictly the citizen may exclude from his premises all foreign + luxuries,—fine cloths, fine silks, rich wines, golden chains, and + diamond rings,—still, for the possession of his house, his barn, and + his homespun, he is to be perpetually haunted and harassed by the + tax-gatherer. With these views we leave it to be determined whether we or + our opponents are the more truly democratic on the subject. + </p> + <p> + The third resolution declares the necessity and propriety of a national + bank. During the last fifty years so much has been said and written both + as to the constitutionality and expediency of such an institution, that we + could not hope to improve in the least on former discussions of the + subject, were we to undertake it. We, therefore, upon the question of + constitutionality content ourselves with remarking the facts that the + first national bank was established chiefly by the same men who formed the + Constitution, at a time when that instrument was but two years old, and + receiving the sanction, as President, of the immortal Washington; that the + second received the sanction, as President, of Mr. Madison, to whom common + consent has awarded the proud title of “Father of the Constitution”; and + subsequently the sanction of the Supreme Court, the most enlightened + judicial tribunal in the world. Upon the question of expediency, we only + ask you to examine the history of the times during the existence of the + two banks, and compare those times with the miserable present. + </p> + <p> + The fourth resolution declares the expediency of Mr. Clay’s land bill. + Much incomprehensible jargon is often used against the constitutionality + of this measure. We forbear, in this place, attempting an answer to it, + simply because, in our opinion, those who urge it are through party zeal + resolved not to see or acknowledge the truth. The question of expediency, + at least so far as Illinois is concerned, seems to us the clearest + imaginable. By the bill we are to receive annually a large sum of money, + no part of which we otherwise receive. The precise annual sum cannot be + known in advance; it doubtless will vary in different years. Still it is + something to know that in the last year—a year of almost + unparalleled pecuniary pressure—it amounted to more than forty + thousand dollars. This annual income, in the midst of our almost + insupportable difficulties, in the days of our severest necessity, our + political opponents are furiously resolving to take and keep from us. And + for what? Many silly reasons are given, as is usual in cases where a + single good one is not to be found. One is that by giving us the proceeds + of the lands we impoverish the national treasury, and thereby render + necessary an increase of the tariff. This may be true; but if so, the + amount of it only is that those whose pride, whose abundance of means, + prompt them to spurn the manufactures of our country, and to strut in + British cloaks and coats and pantaloons, may have to pay a few cents more + on the yard for the cloth that makes them. A terrible evil, truly, to the + Illinois farmer, who never wore, nor ever expects to wear, a single yard + of British goods in his whole life. Another of their reasons is that by + the passage and continuance of Mr. Clay’s bill, we prevent the passage of + a bill which would give us more. This, if it were sound in itself, is + waging destructive war with the former position; for if Mr. Clay’s bill + impoverishes the treasury too much, what shall be said of one that + impoverishes it still more? But it is not sound in itself. It is not true + that Mr. Clay’s bill prevents the passage of one more favorable to us of + the new States. Considering the strength and opposite interest of the old + States, the wonder is that they ever permitted one to pass so favorable as + Mr. Clay’s. The last twenty-odd years’ efforts to reduce the price of the + lands, and to pass graduation bills and cession bills, prove the assertion + to be true; and if there were no experience in support of it, the reason + itself is plain. The States in which none, or few, of the public lands + lie, and those consequently interested against parting with them except + for the best price, are the majority; and a moment’s reflection will show + that they must ever continue the majority, because by the time one of the + original new States (Ohio, for example) becomes populous and gets weight + in Congress, the public lands in her limits are so nearly sold out that in + every point material to this question she becomes an old State. She does + not wish the price reduced, because there is none left for her citizens to + buy; she does not wish them ceded to the States in which they lie, because + they no longer lie in her limits, and she will get nothing by the cession. + In the nature of things, the States interested in the reduction of price, + in graduation, in cession, and in all similar projects, never can be the + majority. Nor is there reason to hope that any of them can ever succeed as + a Democratic party measure, because we have heretofore seen that party in + full power, year after year, with many of their leaders making loud + professions in favor of these projects, and yet doing nothing. What + reason, then, is there to believe they will hereafter do better? In every + light in which we can view this question, it amounts simply to this: Shall + we accept our share of the proceeds under Mr. Clay’s bill, or shall we + rather reject that and get nothing? + </p> + <p> + The fifth resolution recommends that a Whig candidate for Congress be run + in every district, regardless of the chances of success. We are aware that + it is sometimes a temporary gratification, when a friend cannot succeed, + to be able to choose between opponents; but we believe that that + gratification is the seed-time which never fails to be followed by a most + abundant harvest of bitterness. By this policy we entangle ourselves. By + voting for our opponents, such of us as do it in some measure estop + ourselves to complain of their acts, however glaringly wrong we may + believe them to be. By this policy no one portion of our friends can ever + be certain as to what course another portion may adopt; and by this want + of mutual and perfect understanding our political identity is partially + frittered away and lost. And, again, those who are thus elected by our aid + ever become our bitterest persecutors. Take a few prominent examples. In + 1830 Reynolds was elected Governor; in 1835 we exerted our whole strength + to elect Judge Young to the United States Senate, which effort, though + failing, gave him the prominence that subsequently elected him; in 1836 + General Ewing, was so elected to the United States Senate; and yet let us + ask what three men have been more perseveringly vindictive in their + assaults upon all our men and measures than they? During the last summer + the whole State was covered with pamphlet editions of misrepresentations + against us, methodized into chapters and verses, written by two of these + same men,—Reynolds and Young, in which they did not stop at charging + us with error merely, but roundly denounced us as the designing enemies of + human liberty, itself. If it be the will of Heaven that such men shall + politically live, be it so; but never, never again permit them to draw a + particle of their sustenance from us. + </p> + <p> + The sixth resolution recommends the adoption of the convention system for + the nomination of candidates. This we believe to be of the very first + importance. Whether the system is right in itself we do not stop to + inquire; contenting ourselves with trying to show that, while our + opponents use it, it is madness in us not to defend ourselves with it. + Experience has shown that we cannot successfully defend ourselves without + it. For examples, look at the elections of last year. Our candidate for + governor, with the approbation of a large portion of the party, took the + field without a nomination, and in open opposition to the system. Wherever + in the counties the Whigs had held conventions and nominated candidates + for the Legislature, the aspirants who were not nominated were induced to + rebel against the nominations, and to become candidates, as is said, “on + their own hook.” And, go where you would into a large Whig county, you + were sure to find the Whigs not contending shoulder to shoulder against + the common enemy, but divided into factions, and fighting furiously with + one another. The election came, and what was the result? The governor + beaten, the Whig vote being decreased many thousands since 1840, although + the Democratic vote had not increased any. Beaten almost everywhere for + members of the Legislature,—Tazewell, with her four hundred Whig + majority, sending a delegation half Democratic; Vermillion, with her five + hundred, doing the same; Coles, with her four hundred, sending two out of + three; and Morgan, with her two hundred and fifty, sending three out of + four,—and this to say nothing of the numerous other less glaring + examples; the whole winding up with the aggregate number of twenty-seven + Democratic representatives sent from Whig counties. As to the senators, + too, the result was of the same character. And it is most worthy to be + remembered that of all the Whigs in the State who ran against the regular + nominees, a single one only was elected. Although they succeeded in + defeating the nominees almost by scores, they too were defeated, and the + spoils chucklingly borne off by the common enemy. + </p> + <p> + We do not mention the fact of many of the Whigs opposing the convention + system heretofore for the purpose of censuring them. Far from it. We + expressly protest against such a conclusion. We know they were generally, + perhaps universally, as good and true Whigs as we ourselves claim to be. + </p> + <p> + We mention it merely to draw attention to the disastrous result it + produced, as an example forever hereafter to be avoided. That “union is + strength” is a truth that has been known, illustrated, and declared in + various ways and forms in all ages of the world. That great fabulist and + philosopher Aesop illustrated it by his fable of the bundle of sticks; and + he whose wisdom surpasses that of all philosophers has declared that “a + house divided against itself cannot stand.” It is to induce our friends to + act upon this important and universally acknowledged truth that we urge + the adoption of the convention system. Reflection will prove that there is + no other way of practically applying it. In its application we know there + will be incidents temporarily painful; but, after all, those incidents + will be fewer and less intense with than without the system. If two + friends aspire to the same office it is certain that both cannot succeed. + Would it not, then, be much less painful to have the question decided by + mutual friends some time before, than to snarl and quarrel until the day + of election, and then both be beaten by the common enemy? + </p> + <p> + Before leaving this subject, we think proper to remark that we do not + understand the resolution as intended to recommend the application of the + convention system to the nomination of candidates for the small offices no + way connected with politics; though we must say we do not perceive that + such an application of it would be wrong. + </p> + <p> + The seventh resolution recommends the holding of district conventions in + May next, for the purpose of nominating candidates for Congress. The + propriety of this rests upon the same reasons with that of the sixth, and + therefore needs no further discussion. + </p> + <p> + The eighth and ninth also relate merely to the practical application of + the foregoing, and therefore need no discussion. + </p> + <p> + Before closing, permit us to add a few reflections on the present + condition and future prospects of the Whig party. In almost all the States + we have fallen into the minority, and despondency seems to prevail + universally among us. Is there just cause for this? In 1840 we carried the + nation by more than a hundred and forty thousand majority. Our opponents + charged that we did it by fraudulent voting; but whatever they may have + believed, we know the charge to be untrue. Where, now, is that mighty + host? Have they gone over to the enemy? Let the results of the late + elections answer. Every State which has fallen off from the Whig cause + since 1840 has done so not by giving more Democratic votes than they did + then, but by giving fewer Whig. Bouck, who was elected Democratic Governor + of New York last fall by more than 15,000 majority, had not then as many + votes as he had in 1840, when he was beaten by seven or eight thousand. + And so has it been in all the other States which have fallen away from our + cause. From this it is evident that tens of thousands in the late + elections have not voted at all. Who and what are they? is an important + question, as respects the future. They can come forward and give us the + victory again. That all, or nearly all, of them are Whigs is most + apparent. Our opponents, stung to madness by the defeat of 1840, have ever + since rallied with more than their usual unanimity. It has not been they + that have been kept from the polls. These facts show what the result must + be, once the people again rally in their entire strength. Proclaim these + facts, and predict this result; and although unthinking opponents may + smile at us, the sagacious ones will “believe and tremble.” And why shall + the Whigs not all rally again? Are their principles less dear now than in + 1840? Have any of their doctrines since then been discovered to be untrue? + It is true, the victory of 1840 did not produce the happy results + anticipated; but it is equally true, as we believe, that the unfortunate + death of General Harrison was the cause of the failure. It was not the + election of General Harrison that was expected to produce happy effects, + but the measures to be adopted by his administration. By means of his + death, and the unexpected course of his successor, those measures were + never adopted. How could the fruits follow? The consequences we always + predicted would follow the failure of those measures have followed, and + are now upon us in all their horrors. By the course of Mr. Tyler the + policy of our opponents has continued in operation, still leaving them + with the advantage of charging all its evils upon us as the results of a + Whig administration. Let none be deceived by this somewhat plausible, + though entirely false charge. If they ask us for the sufficient and sound + currency we promised, let them be answered that we only promised it + through the medium of a national bank, which they, aided by Mr. Tyler, + prevented our establishing. And let them be reminded, too, that their own + policy in relation to the currency has all the time been, and still is, in + full operation. Let us then again come forth in our might, and by a second + victory accomplish that which death prevented in the first. We can do it. + When did the Whigs ever fail if they were fully aroused and united? Even + in single States, under such circumstances, defeat seldom overtakes them. + Call to mind the contested elections within the last few years, and + particularly those of Moore and Letcher from Kentucky, Newland and Graham + from North Carolina, and the famous New Jersey case. In all these + districts Locofocoism had stalked omnipotent before; but when the whole + people were aroused by its enormities on those occasions, they put it + down, never to rise again. + </p> + <p> + We declare it to be our solemn conviction, that the Whigs are always a + majority of this nation; and that to make them always successful needs but + to get them all to the polls and to vote unitedly. This is the great + desideratum. Let us make every effort to attain it. At every election, let + every Whig act as though he knew the result to depend upon his action. In + the great contest of 1840 some more than twenty one hundred thousand votes + were cast, and so surely as there shall be that many, with the ordinary + increase added, cast in 1844 that surely will a Whig be elected President + of the United States. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. S. T. LOGAN. A. T. BLEDSOE. + </p> + <p> + March 4, 1843. + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0071"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO JOHN BENNETT. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, March 7, 1843. + </h3> + <p> + FRIEND BENNETT: + </p> + <p> + Your letter of this day was handed me by Mr. Miles. It is too late now to + effect the object you desire. On yesterday morning the most of the Whig + members from this district got together and agreed to hold the convention + at Tremont in Tazewell County. I am sorry to hear that any of the Whigs of + your county, or indeed of any county, should longer be against + conventions. On last Wednesday evening a meeting of all the Whigs then + here from all parts of the State was held, and the question of the + propriety of conventions was brought up and fully discussed, and at the + end of the discussion a resolution recommending the system of conventions + to all the Whigs of the State was unanimously adopted. Other resolutions + were also passed, all of which will appear in the next Journal. The + meeting also appointed a committee to draft an address to the people of + the State, which address will also appear in the next journal. + </p> + <p> + In it you will find a brief argument in favor of conventions—and + although I wrote it myself I will say to you that it is conclusive upon + the point and can not be reasonably answered. The right way for you to do + is hold your meeting and appoint delegates any how, and if there be any + who will not take part, let it be so. The matter will work so well this + time that even they who now oppose will come in next time. + </p> + <p> + The convention is to be held at Tremont on the 5th of April and according + to the rule we have adopted your county is to have delegates—being + double your representation. + </p> + <p> + If there be any good Whig who is disposed to stick out against conventions + get him at least to read the arguement in their favor in the address. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a id="link2H_4_0072"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + JOSHUA F. SPEED. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, March 24, 1843. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—We had a meeting of the Whigs of the county here on last + Monday to appoint delegates to a district convention; and Baker beat me, + and got the delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite of + my attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates; so that in + getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow + who is made a groomsman to a man that has cut him out and is marrying his + own dear “gal.” About the prospects of your having a namesake at our town, + can’t say exactly yet. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a id="link2H_4_0073"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILL., March 26, 1843. + </h3> + <p> + FRIEND MORRIS: + </p> + <p> + Your letter of the a 3 d, was received on yesterday morning, and for which + (instead of an excuse, which you thought proper to ask) I tender you my + sincere thanks. It is truly gratifying to me to learn that, while the + people of Sangamon have cast me off, my old friends of Menard, who have + known me longest and best, stick to me. It would astonish, if not amuse, + the older citizens to learn that I (a stranger, friendless, uneducated, + penniless boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars per month) have been + put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family + distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, too, the strangest + combination of church influence against me. Baker is a Campbellite; and + therefore, as I suppose, with few exceptions got all that church. My wife + has some relations in the Presbyterian churches, and some with the + Episcopal churches; and therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set down + as either the one or the other, while it was everywhere contended that no + Christian ought to go for me, because I belonged to no church, was + suspected of being a deist, and had talked about fighting a duel. With all + these things, Baker, of course, had nothing to do. Nor do I complain of + them. As to his own church going for him, I think that was right enough, + and as to the influences I have spoken of in the other, though they were + very strong, it would be grossly untrue and unjust to charge that they + acted upon them in a body or were very near so. I only mean that those + influences levied a tax of a considerable per cent. upon my strength + throughout the religious controversy. But enough of this. + </p> + <p> + You say that in choosing a candidate for Congress you have an equal right + with Sangamon, and in this you are undoubtedly correct. In agreeing to + withdraw if the Whigs of Sangamon should go against me, I did not mean + that they alone were worth consulting, but that if she, with her heavy + delegation, should be against me, it would be impossible for me to + succeed, and therefore I had as well decline. And in relation to Menard + having rights, permit me fully to recognize them, and to express the + opinion that, if she and Mason act circumspectly, they will in the + convention be able so far to enforce their rights as to decide absolutely + which one of the candidates shall be successful. Let me show the reason of + this. Hardin, or some other Morgan candidate, will get Putnam, Marshall, + Woodford, Tazewell, and Logan—making sixteen. Then you and Mason, + having three, can give the victory to either side. + </p> + <p> + You say you shall instruct your delegates for me, unless I object. I + certainly shall not object. That would be too pleasant a compliment for me + to tread in the dust. And besides, if anything should happen (which, + however, is not probable) by which Baker should be thrown out of the + fight, I would be at liberty to accept the nomination if I could get it. I + do, however, feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from getting + the nomination. I should despise myself were I to attempt it. I think, + then, it would be proper for your meeting to appoint three delegates and + to instruct them to go for some one as the first choice, some one else as + a second, and perhaps some one as a third; and if in those instructions I + were named as the first choice, it would gratify me very much. If you wish + to hold the balance of power, it is important for you to attend to and + secure the vote of Mason also: You should be sure to have men appointed + delegates that you know you can safely confide in. If yourself and James + Short were appointed from your county, all would be safe; but whether + Jim’s woman affair a year ago might not be in the way of his appointment + is a question. I don’t know whether you know it, but I know him to be as + honorable a man as there is in the world. You have my permission, and even + request, to show this letter to Short; but to no one else, unless it be a + very particular friend who you know will not speak of it. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + P. S Will you write me again? + </p> + <p> + <a id="link2H_4_0074"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + </h2></div> + <h3> + April 14, 1843. + </h3> + <p> + FRIEND MORRIS: + </p> + <p> + I have heard it intimated that Baker has been attempting to get you or + Miles, or both of you, to violate the instructions of the meeting that + appointed you, and to go for him. I have insisted, and still insist, that + this cannot be true. Surely Baker would not do the like. As well might + Hardin ask me to vote for him in the convention. Again, it is said there + will be an attempt to get up instructions in your county requiring you to + go for Baker. This is all wrong. Upon the same rule, Why might not I fly + from the decision against me in Sangamon, and get up instructions to their + delegates to go for me? There are at least twelve hundred Whigs in the + county that took no part, and yet I would as soon put my head in the fire + as to attempt it. Besides, if any one should get the nomination by such + extraordinary means, all harmony in the district would inevitably be lost. + Honest Whigs (and very nearly all of them are honest) would not quietly + abide such enormities. I repeat, such an attempt on Baker’s part cannot be + true. Write me at Springfield how the matter is. Don’t show or speak of + this letter. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN <a id="link2H_4_0075"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br><br><br><br> + </div> + <div class='chapter'><h2> + TO GEN. J. J. HARDIN. + </h2></div> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, May 11, 1843. + </h3> + <p> + FRIEND HARDIN: + </p> + <p> + Butler informs me that he received a letter from you, in which you + expressed some doubt whether the Whigs of Sangamon will support you + cordially. You may, at once, dismiss all fears on that subject. We have + already resolved to make a particular effort to give you the very largest + majority possible in our county. From this, no Whig of the county + dissents. We have many objects for doing it. We make it a matter of honor + and pride to do it; we do it because we love the Whig cause; we do it + because we like you personally; and last, we wish to convince you that we + do not bear that hatred to Morgan County that you people have so long + seemed to imagine. You will see by the journals of this week that we + propose, upon pain of losing a barbecue, to give you twice as great a + majority in this county as you shall receive in your own. I got up the + proposal. + </p> + <p> + Who of the five appointed is to write the district address? I did the + labor of writing one address this year, and got thunder for my reward. + Nothing new here. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + P. S.—I wish you would measure one of the largest of those swords we + took to Alton and write me the length of it, from tip of the point to tip + of the hilt, in feet and inches. I have a dispute about the length. + </p> + <p> + A. L. <br> <br> + </p> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN — VOLUME 1: 1832-1843 ***</div> + </body> +</html> diff --git a/2653-h/images/cover.jpg b/2653-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f335aa --- /dev/null +++ b/2653-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared for Gutenberg by David Widger, widger@cecomet.net + + + + + +THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + + + +VOLUME 1. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY + +Immediately after Lincoln's re-election to the Presidency, in an +off-hand speech, delivered in response to a serenade by some of +his admirers on the evening of November 10, 1864, he spoke as +follows: + +"It has long been a grave question whether any government not too +strong for the liberties of its people can be strong enough to +maintain its existence in great emergencies. On this point, the +present rebellion brought our republic to a severe test, and the +Presidential election, occurring in regular course during the +rebellion, added not a little to the strain.... The strife of +the election is but human nature practically applied to the facts +in the case. What has occurred in this case must ever occur in +similar cases. Human nature will not change. In any future +great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall +have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as +good. Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy +to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.... +Now that the election is over, may not all having a common +interest reunite in a common fort to save our common country? +For my own part, I have striven and shall strive to avoid placing +any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here, I have not +willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am deeply +sensible to the high compliment of a re-election and duly +grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God for having directed my +countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think for their own good, +it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be +disappointed or pained by the result." + +This speech has not attracted much general attention, yet it is +in a peculiar degree both illustrative and typical of the great +statesman who made it, alike in its strong common-sense and in +its lofty standard of morality. Lincoln's life, Lincoln's deeds +and words, are not only of consuming interest to the historian, +but should be intimately known to every man engaged in the hard +practical work of American political life. It is difficult to +overstate how much it means to a nation to have as the two +foremost figures in its history men like Washington and Lincoln. +It is good for every man in any way concerned in public life to +feel that the highest ambition any American can possibly have +will be gratified just in proportion as he raises himself toward +the standards set by these two men. + +It is a very poor thing, whether for nations or individuals, to +advance the history of great deeds done in the past as an excuse +for doing poorly in the present; but it is an excellent thing to +study the history of the great deeds of the past, and of the +great men who did them, with an earnest desire to profit thereby +so as to render better service in the present. In their +essentials, the men of the present day are much like the men of +the past, and the live issues of the present can be faced to +better advantage by men who have in good faith studied how the +leaders of the nation faced the dead issues of the past. Such a +study of Lincoln's life will enable us to avoid the twin gulfs of +immorality and inefficiency--the gulfs which always lie one on +each side of the careers alike of man and of nation. It helps +nothing to have avoided one if shipwreck is encountered in the +other. The fanatic, the well-meaning moralist of unbalanced +mind, the parlor critic who condemns others but has no power +himself to do good and but little power to do ill--all these were +as alien to Lincoln as the vicious and unpatriotic themselves. +His life teaches our people that they must act with wisdom, +because otherwise adherence to right will be mere sound and fury +without substance; and that they must also act high-mindedly, or +else what seems to be wisdom will in the end turn out to be the +most destructive kind of folly. + +Throughout his entire life, and especially after he rose to +leadership in his party, Lincoln was stirred to his depths by the +sense of fealty to a lofty ideal; but throughout his entire life, +he also accepted human nature as it is, and worked with keen, +practical good sense to achieve results with the instruments at +hand. It is impossible to conceive of a man farther removed from +baseness, farther removed from corruption, from mere self- +seeking; but it is also impossible to conceive of a man of more +sane and healthy mind--a man less under the influence of that +fantastic and diseased morality (so fantastic and diseased as to +be in reality profoundly immoral) which makes a man in this work- +a-day world refuse to do what is possible because he cannot +accomplish the impossible. + +In the fifth volume of Lecky's History of England, the historian +draws an interesting distinction between the qualities needed for +a successful political career in modern society and those which +lead to eminence in the spheres of pure intellect or pure moral +effort. He says: + +"....the moral qualities that are required in the higher spheres +of statesmanship [are not] those of a hero or a saint. Passionate +earnestness and self-devotion, complete concentration of every +faculty on an unselfish aim, uncalculating daring, a delicacy of +conscience and a loftiness of aim far exceeding those of the +average of men, are here likely to prove rather a hindrance than +an assistance. The politician deals very largely with the +superficial and the commonplace; his art is in a great measure +that of skilful compromise, and in the conditions of modern life, +the statesman is likely to succeed best who possesses secondary +qualities to an unusual degree, who is in the closest +intellectual and moral sympathy with the average of the +intelligent men of his time, and who pursues common ideals with. +mow than common ability.... Tact, business talent, knowledge of +men, resolution, promptitude and sagacity in dealing with +immediate emergencies, a character which lends itself easily to +conciliation, diminishes friction and inspires confidence, are +especially needed, and they are more likely to be found among +shrewd and enlightened men of the world than among men of great +original genius or of an heroic type of character." + +The American people should feel profoundly grateful that the +greatest American statesman since Washington, the statesman who +in this absolutely democratic republic succeeded best, was the +very man who actually combined the two sets of qualities which +the historian thus puts in antithesis. Abraham Lincoln, the +rail-splitter, the Western country lawyer, was one of the +shrewdest and most enlightened men of the world, and he had all +the practical qualities which enable such a man to guide his +countrymen; and yet he was also a genius of the heroic type, a +leader who rose level to the greatest crisis through which this +nation or any other nation had to pass in the nineteenth century. + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +SAGAMORE HILL, +OYSTER BAY, N. Y., +September 22, 1905. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE + +"I have endured," wrote Lincoln not long before his death, "a +great deal of ridicule without much malice, and have received a +great deal of kindness not quite free from ridicule." On Easter +Day, 1865, the world knew how little this ridicule, how much this +kindness, had really signified. Thereafter, Lincoln the man +became Lincoln the hero, year by year more heroic, until to-day, +with the swift passing of those who knew him, his figure grows +ever dimmer, less real. This should not be. For Lincoln the +man, patient, wise, set in a high resolve, is worth far more than +Lincoln the hero, vaguely glorious. Invaluable is the example of +the man, intangible that of the hero. + +And, though it is not for us, as for those who in awed stillness +listened at Gettysburg with inspired perception, to know Abraham +Lincoln, yet there is for us another way whereby we may attain +such knowledge--through his words--uttered in all sincerity to +those who loved or hated him. Cold, unsatisfying they may seem, +these printed words, while we can yet speak with those who knew +him, and look into eyes that once looked into his. But in truth +it is here that we find his simple greatness, his great +simplicity, and though no man tried less so to show his power, no +man has so shown it more clearly. + +Thus these writings of Abraham Lincoln are associated with those +of Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, and of the other "Founders of +the Republic," not that Lincoln should become still more of the +past, but, rather, that he with them should become still more of +the present. However faint and mythical may grow the story of +that Great Struggle, the leader, Lincoln, at least should remain +a real, living American. No matter how clearly, how directly, +Lincoln has shown himself in his writings, we yet should not +forget those men whose minds, from their various view-points, +have illumined for us his character. As this nation owes a great +debt to Lincoln, so, also, Lincoln's memory owes a great debt to +a nation which, as no other nation could have done, has been able +to appreciate his full worth. Among the many who have brought +about this appreciation, those only whose estimates have been +placed in these volumes may be mentioned here. To President +Roosevelt, to Mr. Schurz and to Mr. Choate, the editor, for +himself, for the publishers, and on behalf of the readers, wishes +to offer his sincere acknowledgments. + +Thanks are also due, for valuable and sympathetic assistance +rendered in the preparation of this work, to Mr. Gilbert A. +Tracy, of Putnam, Conn., Major William H. Lambert, of +Philadelphia, and Mr. C. F. Gunther, of Chicago, to the Chicago +Historical Association and personally to its capable Secretary, +Miss McIlvaine, to Major Henry S. Burrage, of Portland, Me., and +to General Thomas J. Henderson, of Illinois. + +For various courtesies received, the editor is furthermore +indebted to the Librarian of the Library of Congress; to Messrs. +McClure, Phillips & Co., D. Appleton & Co., Macmillan & Co., +Dodd, Mead & Co., and Harper Brothers, of New York; to Houghton, +Mifflin & Co., Dana, Estes & Co., and L. C. Page & Co., of +Boston; to A. C. McClurg & Co., of Chicago; to The Robert Clarke +Co., of Cincinnati, and to the J. B. Lippincott Co., of +Philadelphia. + +It is hardly necessary to add that every effort has been made by +the editor to bring into these volumes whatever material may +there properly belong, material much of which is widely scattered +in public libraries and in private collections. He has been +fortunate in securing certain interesting correspondence and +papers which had not before come into print in book form. +Information concerning some of these papers had reached him too +late to enable the papers to find place in their proper +chronological order in the set. Rather, however, than not to +present these papers to the readers they have been included in +the seventh volume of the set, which concludes the " Writings." + +[These later papers are, in this etext, re-arranged into +chronologic order. D.W.] + + +October, 1905, + +A. B. L. + + + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN: + +AN ESSAY BY CARL SHURZ + +No American can study the character and career of Abraham Lincoln +without being carried away by sentimental emotions. We are +always inclined to idealize that which we love,--a state of mind +very unfavorable to the exercise of sober critical judgment. It +is therefore not surprising that most of those who have written +or spoken on that extraordinary man, even while conscientiously +endeavoring to draw a lifelike portraiture of his being, and to +form a just estimate of his public conduct, should have drifted +into more or less indiscriminating eulogy, painting his great +features in the most glowing colors, and covering with tender +shadings whatever might look like a blemish. + +But his standing before posterity will not be exalted by mere +praise of his virtues and abilities, nor by any concealment of +his limitations and faults. The stature of the great man, one of +whose peculiar charms consisted in his being so unlike all other +great men, will rather lose than gain by the idealization which +so easily runs into the commonplace. For it was distinctly the +weird mixture of qualities and forces in him, of the lofty with +the common, the ideal with the uncouth, of that which he had +become with that which he had not ceased to be, that made him so +fascinating a character among his fellow-men, gave him his +singular power over their minds and hearts, and fitted him to be +the greatest leader in the greatest crisis of our national life. + +His was indeed a marvellous growth. The statesman or the +military hero born and reared in a log cabin is a familiar figure +in American history; but we may search in vain among our +celebrities for one whose origin and early life equalled Abraham +Lincoln's in wretchedness. He first saw the light in a miserable +hovel in Kentucky, on a farm consisting of a few barren acres in +a dreary neighborhood; his father a typical "poor Southern +white," shiftless and without ambition for himself or his +children, constantly looking for a new piece of land on which he +might make a living without much work; his mother, in her youth +handsome and bright, grown prematurely coarse in feature and +soured in mind by daily toil and care; the whole household +squalid, cheerless, and utterly void of elevating inspirations... +Only when the family had "moved" into the malarious backwoods of +Indiana, the mother had died, and a stepmother, a woman of thrift +and energy, had taken charge of the children, the shaggy-headed, +ragged, barefooted, forlorn boy, then seven years old, "began to +feel like a human being." Hard work was his early lot. When a +mere boy he had to help in supporting the family, either on his +father's clearing, or hired out to other farmers to plough, or +dig ditches, or chop wood, or drive ox teams; occasionally also +to "tend the baby," when the farmer's wife was otherwise engaged. +He could regard it as an advancement to a higher sphere of +activity when he obtained work in a "crossroads store," where he +amused the customers by his talk over the counter; for he soon +distinguished himself among the backwoods folk as one who had +something to say worth listening to. To win that distinction, he +had to draw mainly upon his wits; for, while his thirst for +knowledge was great, his opportunities for satisfying that thirst +were wofully slender. + +In the log schoolhouse, which he could visit but little, he was +taught only reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic. Among +the people of the settlement, bush farmers and small tradesmen, +he found none of uncommon intelligence or education; but some of +them had a few books, which he borrowed eagerly. Thus he read +and reread, AEsop's Fables, learning to tell stories with a point +and to argue by parables; he read Robinson Crusoe, The Pilgrim's +Progress, a short history of the United States, and Weems's Life +of Washington. To the town constable's he went to read the +Revised Statutes of Indiana. Every printed page that fell into +his hands he would greedily devour, and his family and friends +watched him with wonder, as the uncouth boy, after his daily +work, crouched in a corner of the log cabin or outside under a +tree, absorbed in a book while munching his supper of corn bread. +In this manner he began to gather some knowledge, and sometimes +he would astonish the girls with such startling remarks as that +the earth was moving around the sun, and not the sun around the +earth, and they marvelled where "Abe" could have got such queer +notions. Soon he also felt the impulse to write; not only making +extracts from books he wished to remember, but also composing +little essays of his own. First he sketched these with charcoal +on a wooden shovel scraped white with a drawing-knife, or on +basswood shingles. Then he transferred them to paper, which was +a scarce commodity in the Lincoln household; taking care to cut +his expressions close, so that they might not cover too much +space,--a style-forming method greatly to be commended. Seeing +boys put a burning coal on the back of a wood turtle, he was +moved to write on cruelty to animals. Seeing men intoxicated +with whiskey, he wrote on temperance. In verse-making, too, he +tried himself, and in satire on persons offensive to him or +others,--satire the rustic wit of which was not always fit for +ears polite. Also political thoughts he put upon paper, and some +of his pieces were even deemed good enough for publication in the +county weekly. + +Thus he won a neighborhood reputation as a clever young man, +which he increased by his performances as a speaker, not seldom +drawing upon himself the dissatisfaction of his employers by +mounting a stump in the field, and keeping the farm hands from +their work by little speeches in a jocose and sometimes also a +serious vein. At the rude social frolics of the settlement he +became an important person, telling funny, stories, mimicking the +itinerant preachers who had happened to pass by, and making his +mark at wrestling matches, too; for at the age of seventeen he +had attained his full height, six feet four inches in his +stockings, if he had any, and a terribly muscular clodhopper he +was. But he was known never to use his extraordinary strength to +the injury or humiliation of others; rather to do them a kindly +turn, or to enforce justice and fair dealing between them. All +this made him a favorite in backwoods society, although in some +things he appeared a little odd, to his friends. Far more than +any of them, he was given not only to reading, but to fits of +abstraction, to quiet musing with himself, and also to strange +spells of melancholy, from which he often would pass in a moment +to rollicking outbursts of droll humor. But on the whole he was +one of the people among whom he lived; in appearance perhaps even +a little more uncouth than most of them,--a very tall, rawboned +youth, with large features, dark, shrivelled skin, and rebellious +hair; his arms and legs long, out of proportion; clad in deerskin +trousers, which from frequent exposure to the rain had shrunk so +as to sit tightly on his limbs, leaving several inches of bluish +shin exposed between their lower end and the heavy tan-colored +shoes; the nether garment held usually by only one suspender, +that was strung over a coarse homemade shirt; the head covered in +winter with a coonskin cap, in summer with a rough straw hat of +uncertain shape, without a band. + +It is doubtful whether he felt himself much superior to his +surroundings, although he confessed to a yearning for some +knowledge of the world outside of the circle in which he lived. +This wish was gratified; but how? At the age of nineteen he went +down the Mississippi to New Orleans as a flatboat hand, +temporarily joining a trade many members of which at that time +still took pride in being called "half horse and half alligator." +After his return he worked and lived in the old way until the +spring of 1830, when his father "moved again," this time to +Illinois; and on the journey of fifteen days "Abe" had to drive +the ox wagon which carried the household goods. Another log +cabin was built, and then, fencing a field, Abraham Lincoln split +those historic rails which were destined to play so picturesque a +part in the Presidential campaign twenty-eight years later. + +Having come of age, Lincoln left the family, and "struck out for +himself." He had to "take jobs whenever he could get them." The +first of these carried him again as a flatboat hand to New +Orleans. There something happened that made a lasting impression +upon his soul: he witnessed a slave auction. "His heart bled," +wrote one of his companions; "said nothing much; was silent; +looked bad. I can say, knowing it, that it was on this trip that +he formed his opinion on slavery. It run its iron in him then +and there, May, 1831. I have heard him say so often." Then he +lived several years at New Salem, in Illinois, a small mushroom +village, with a mill, some "stores" and whiskey shops, that rose +quickly, and soon disappeared again. It was a desolate, +disjointed, half-working and half-loitering life, without any +other aim than to gain food and shelter from day to day. He +served as pilot on a steamboat trip, then as clerk in a store and +a mill; business failing, he was adrift for some time. Being +compelled to measure his strength with the chief bully of the +neighborhood, and overcoming him, he became a noted person in +that muscular community, and won the esteem and friendship of the +ruling gang of ruffians to such a degree that, when the Black +Hawk war broke out, they elected him, a young man of twenty- +three, captain of a volunteer company, composed mainly of roughs +of their kind. He took the field, and his most noteworthy deed +of valor consisted, not in killing an Indian, but in protecting +against his own men, at the peril of his own life, the life of an +old savage who had strayed into his camp. + +The Black Hawk war over, he turned to politics. The step from +the captaincy of a volunteer company to a candidacy for a seat in +the Legislature seemed a natural one. But his popularity, +although great in New Salem, had not spread far enough over the +district, and he was defeated. Then the wretched hand-to-mouth +struggle began again. He "set up in store-business" with a +dissolute partner, who drank whiskey while Lincoln was reading +books. The result was a disastrous failure and a load of debt. +Thereupon he became a deputy surveyor, and was appointed +postmaster of New Salem, the business of the post-office being so +small that he could carry the incoming and outgoing mail in his +hat. All this could not lift him from poverty, and his surveying +instruments and horse and saddle were sold by the sheriff for +debt. + +But while all this misery was upon him his ambition rose to +higher aims. He walked many miles to borrow from a schoolmaster +a grammar with which to improve his language. A lawyer lent him +a copy of Blackstone, and he began to study law. + +People would look wonderingly at the grotesque figure lying in +the grass, "with his feet up a tree," or sitting on a fence, as, +absorbed in a book, he learned to construct correct sentences and +made himself a jurist. At once he gained a little practice, +pettifogging before a justice of the peace for friends, without +expecting a fee. Judicial functions, too, were thrust upon him, +but only at horse-races or wrestling matches, where his +acknowledged honesty and fairness gave his verdicts undisputed +authority. His popularity grew apace, and soon he could be a +candidate for the Legislature again. Although he called himself +a Whig, an ardent admirer of Henry Clay, his clever stump +speeches won him the election in the strongly Democratic +district. Then for the first time, perhaps, he thought seriously +of his outward appearance. So far he had been content with a +garb of "Kentucky jeans," not seldom ragged, usually patched, and +always shabby. Now, he borrowed some money from a friend to buy +a new suit of clothes--"store clothes" fit for a Sangamon County +statesman; and thus adorned he set out for the state capital, +Vandalia, to take his seat among the lawmakers. + +His legislative career, which stretched over several sessions-- +for he was thrice re-elected, in 1836, 1838, and 1840--was not +remarkably brilliant. He did, indeed, not lack ambition. He +dreamed even of making himself "the De Witt Clinton of Illinois," +and he actually distinguished himself by zealous and effective +work in those "log-rolling" operations by which the young State +received "a general system of internal improvements" in the shape +of railroads, canals, and banks,--a reckless policy, burdening +the State with debt, and producing the usual crop of political +demoralization, but a policy characteristic of the time and the +impatiently enterprising spirit of the Western people. Lincoln, +no doubt with the best intentions, but with little knowledge of +the subject, simply followed the popular current. The +achievement in which, perhaps, he gloried most was the removal of +the State government from Vandalia to Springfield; one of those +triumphs of political management which are apt to be the pride of +the small politician's statesmanship. One thing, however, he did +in which his true nature asserted itself, and which gave distinct +promise of the future pursuit of high aims. Against an +overwhelming preponderance of sentiment in the Legislature, +followed by only one other member, he recorded his protest +against a proslavery resolution,--that protest declaring "the +institution of slavery to be founded on both injustice and bad +policy." This was not only the irrepressible voice of his +conscience; it was true moral valor, too; for at that time, in +many parts of the West, an abolitionist was regarded as little +better than a horse-thief, and even "Abe Lincoln" would hardly +have been forgiven his antislavery principles, had he not been +known as such an "uncommon good fellow." But here, in obedience +to the great conviction of his life, he manifested his courage to +stand alone, that courage which is the first requisite of +leadership in a great cause. + +Together with his reputation and influence as a politician grew +his law practice, especially after he had removed from New Salem +to Springfield, and associated himself with a practitioner of +good standing. He had now at last won a fixed position in +society. He became a successful lawyer, less, indeed, by his +learning as a jurist than by his effectiveness as an advocate and +by the striking uprightness of his character; and it may truly be +said that his vivid sense of truth and justice had much to do +with his effectiveness as an advocate. He would refuse to act as +the attorney even of personal friends when he saw the right on +the other side. He would abandon cases, even during trial, when +the testimony convinced him that his client was in the wrong. He +would dissuade those who sought his service from pursuing an +obtainable advantage when their claims seemed to him unfair. +Presenting his very first case in the United States Circuit +Court, the only question being one of authority, he declared +that, upon careful examination, he found all the authorities on +the other side, and none on his. Persons accused of crime, when +he thought them guilty, he would not defend at all, or, +attempting their defence, he was unable to put forth his powers. +One notable exception is on record, when his personal sympathies +had been strongly aroused. But when he felt himself to be the +protector of innocence, the defender of justice, or the +prosecutor of wrong, he frequently disclosed such unexpected +resources of reasoning, such depth of feeling, and rose to such +fervor of appeal as to astonish and overwhelm his hearers, and +make him fairly irresistible. Even an ordinary law argument, +coming from him, seldom failed to produce the impression that he +was profoundly convinced of the soundness of his position. It is +not surprising that the mere appearance of so conscientious an +attorney in any case should have carried, not only to juries, but +even to judges, almost a presumption of right on his side, and +that the people began to call him, sincerely meaning it, "honest +Abe Lincoln." + +In the meantime he had private sorrows and trials of a painfully +afflicting nature. He had loved and been loved by a fair and +estimable girl, Ann Rutledge, who died in the flower of her youth +and beauty, and he mourned her loss with such intensity of grief +that his friends feared for his reason. Recovering from his +morbid depression, he bestowed what he thought a new affection +upon another lady, who refused him. And finally, moderately +prosperous in his worldly affairs, and having prospects of +political distinction before him, he paid his addresses to Mary +Todd, of Kentucky, and was accepted. But then tormenting doubts +of the genuineness of his own affection for her, of the +compatibility of their characters, and of their future happiness +came upon him. His distress was so great that he felt himself in +danger of suicide, and feared to carry a pocket-knife with him; +and he gave mortal offence to his bride by not appearing on the +appointed wedding day. Now the torturing consciousness of the +wrong he had done her grew unendurable. He won back her +affection, ended the agony by marrying her, and became a faithful +and patient husband and a good father. But it was no secret to +those who knew the family well that his domestic life was full of +trials. The erratic temper of his wife not seldom put the +gentleness of his nature to the severest tests; and these +troubles and struggles, which accompanied him through all the +vicissitudes of his life from the modest home in Springfield to +the White House at Washington, adding untold private heart- +burnings to his public cares, and sometimes precipitating upon +him incredible embarrassments in the discharge of his public +duties, form one of the most pathetic features of his career. + +He continued to "ride the circuit," read books while travelling +in his buggy, told funny stories to his fellow-lawyers in the +tavern, chatted familiarly with his neighbors around the stove in +the store and at the post-office, had his hours of melancholy +brooding as of old, and became more and more widely known and +trusted and beloved among the people of his State for his ability +as a lawyer and politician, for the uprightness of his character +and the overflowing spring of sympathetic kindness in his heart. +His main ambition was confessedly that of political distinction; +but hardly any one would at that time have seen in him the man +destined to lead the nation through the greatest crisis of the +century. + +His time had not yet come when, in 1846, he was elected to +Congress. In a clever speech in the House of Representatives he +denounced President Polk for having unjustly forced war upon +Mexico, and he amused the Committee of the Whole by a witty +attack upon General Cass. More important was the expression he +gave to his antislavery impulses by offering a bill looking to +the emancipation of the slaves in the District of Columbia, and +by his repeated votes for the famous Wilmot Proviso, intended to +exclude slavery from the Territories acquired from Mexico. But +when, at the expiration of his term, in March, 1849, he left his +seat, he gloomily despaired of ever seeing the day when the cause +nearest to his heart would be rightly grasped by the people, and +when he would be able to render any service to his country in +solving the great problem. Nor had his career as a member of +Congress in any sense been such as to gratify his ambition. +Indeed, if he ever had any belief in a great destiny for himself, +it must have been weak at that period; for he actually sought to +obtain from the new Whig President, General Taylor, the place of +Commissioner of the General Land Office; willing to bury himself +in one of the administrative bureaus of the government. +Fortunately for the country, he failed; and no less fortunately, +when, later, the territorial governorship of Oregon was offered +to him, Mrs. Lincoln's protest induced him to decline it. +Returning to Springfield, he gave himself with renewed zest to +his law practice, acquiesced in the Compromise of 1850 with +reluctance and a mental reservation, supported in the +Presidential campaign of 1852 the Whig candidate in some +spiritless speeches, and took but a languid interest in the +politics of the day. But just then his time was drawing near. + +The peace promised, and apparently inaugurated, by the Compromise +of 1850 was rudely broken by the introduction of the Kansas- +Nebraska Bill in 1854. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, +opening the Territories of the United States, the heritage of +coming generations, to the invasion of slavery, suddenly revealed +the whole significance of the slavery question to the people of +the free States, and thrust itself into the politics of the +country as the paramount issue. Something like an electric shock +flashed through the North. Men who but a short time before had +been absorbed by their business pursuits, and deprecated all +political agitation, were startled out of their security by a +sudden alarm, and excitedly took sides. That restless trouble of +conscience about slavery, which even in times of apparent repose +had secretly disturbed the souls of Northern people, broke forth +in an utterance louder than ever. The bonds of accustomed party +allegiance gave way. Antislavery Democrats and antislavery Whigs +felt themselves drawn together by a common overpowering +sentiment, and soon they began to rally in a new organization. +The Republican party sprang into being to meet the overruling +call of the hour. Then Abraham Lincoln's time was come. He +rapidly advanced to a position of conspicuous championship in the +struggle. This, however, was not owing to his virtues and +abilities alone. Indeed, the slavery question stirred his soul +in its profoundest depths; it was, as one of his intimate friends +said, "the only one on which he would become excited"; it called +forth all his faculties and energies. Yet there were many others +who, having long and arduously fought the antislavery battle in +the popular assembly, or in the press, or in the halls of +Congress, far surpassed him in prestige, and compared with whom +he was still an obscure and untried man. His reputation, +although highly honorable and well earned, had so far been +essentially local. As a stump-speaker in Whig canvasses outside +of his State he had attracted comparatively little attention; but +in Illinois he had been recognized as one of the foremost men of +the Whig party. Among the opponents of the Nebraska Bill he +occupied in his State so important a position, that in 1856 he +was the choice of a large majority of the "Anti-Nebraska men" in +the Legislature for a seat in the Senate of the United States +which then became vacant; and when he, an old Whig, could not +obtain the votes of the Anti-Nebraska Democrats necessary to make +a majority, he generously urged his friends to transfer their +votes to Lyman Trumbull, who was then elected. Two years later, +in the first national convention of the Republican party, the +delegation from Illinois brought him forward as a candidate for +the vice-presidency, and he received respectable support. Still, +the name of Abraham Lincoln was not widely known beyond the +boundaries of his own State. But now it was this local +prominence in Illinois that put him in a position of peculiar +advantage on the battlefield of national politics. In the +assault on the Missouri Compromise which broke down all legal +barriers to the spread of slavery Stephen Arnold Douglas was the +ostensible leader and central figure; and Douglas was a Senator +from Illinois, Lincoln's State. Douglas's national theatre of +action was the Senate, but in his constituency in Illinois were +the roots of his official position and power. What he did in the +Senate he had to justify before the people of Illinois, in order +to maintain himself in place; and in Illinois all eyes turned to +Lincoln as Douglas's natural antagonist. + +As very young men they had come to Illinois, Lincoln from +Indiana, Douglas from Vermont, and had grown up together in +public life, Douglas as a Democrat, Lincoln as a Whig. They had +met first in Vandalia, in 1834, when Lincoln was in the +Legislature and Douglas in the lobby; and again in 1836, both as +members of the Legislature. Douglas, a very able politician, of +the agile, combative, audacious, "pushing" sort, rose in +political distinction with remarkable rapidity. In quick +succession he became a member of the Legislature, a State's +attorney, secretary of state, a judge on the supreme bench of +Illinois, three times a Representative in Congress, and a Senator +of the United States when only thirty-nine years old. In the +National Democratic convention of 1852 he appeared even as an +aspirant to the nomination for the Presidency, as the favorite of +"young America," and received a respectable vote. He had far +outstripped Lincoln in what is commonly called political success +and in reputation. But it had frequently happened that in +political campaigns Lincoln felt himself impelled, or was +selected by his Whig friends, to answer Douglas's speeches; and +thus the two were looked upon, in a large part of the State at +least, as the representative combatants of their respective +parties in the debates before popular meetings. As soon, +therefore, as, after the passage of his Kansas-Nebraska Bill, +Douglas returned to Illinois to defend his cause before his +constituents, Lincoln, obeying not only his own impulse, but also +general expectation, stepped forward as his principal opponent. +Thus the struggle about the principles involved in the Kansas- +Nebraska Bill, or, in a broader sense, the struggle between +freedom and slavery, assumed in Illinois the outward form of a +personal contest between Lincoln and Douglas; and, as it +continued and became more animated, that personal contest in +Illinois was watched with constantly increasing interest by the +whole country. When, in 1858, Douglas's senatorial term being +about to expire, Lincoln was formally designated by the +Republican convention of Illinois as their candidate for the +Senate, to take Douglas's place, and the two contestants agreed +to debate the questions at issue face to face in a series of +public meetings, the eyes of the whole American people were +turned eagerly to that one point: and the spectacle reminded one +of those lays of ancient times telling of two armies, in battle +array, standing still to see their two principal champions fight +out the contested cause between the lines in single combat. + +Lincoln had then reached the full maturity of his powers. His +equipment as a statesman did not embrace a comprehensive +knowledge of public affairs. What he had studied he had indeed +made his own, with the eager craving and that zealous tenacity +characteristic of superior minds learning under difficulties. +But his narrow opportunities and the unsteady life he had led +during his younger years had not permitted the accumulation of +large stores in his mind. It is true, in political campaigns he +had occasionally spoken on the ostensible issues between the +Whigs and the Democrats, the tariff, internal improvements, +banks, and so on, but only in a perfunctory manner. Had he ever +given much serious thought and study to these subjects, it is +safe to assume that a mind so prolific of original conceits as +his would certainly have produced some utterance upon them worth +remembering. His soul had evidently never been deeply stirred by +such topics. But when his moral nature was aroused, his brain +developed an untiring activity until it had mastered all the +knowledge within reach. As soon as the repeal of the Missouri +Compromise had thrust the slavery question into politics as the +paramount issue, Lincoln plunged into an arduous study of all its +legal, historical, and moral aspects, and then his mind became a +complete arsenal of argument. His rich natural gifts, trained by +long and varied practice, had made him an orator of rare +persuasiveness. In his immature days, he had pleased himself for +a short period with that inflated, high-flown style which, among +the uncultivated, passes for "beautiful speaking." His inborn +truthfulness and his artistic instinct soon overcame that +aberration and revealed to him the noble beauty and strength of +simplicity. He possessed an uncommon power of clear and compact +statement, which might have reminded those who knew the story of +his early youth of the efforts of the poor boy, when he copied +his compositions from the scraped wooden shovel, carefully to +trim his expressions in order to save paper. His language had +the energy of honest directness and he was a master of logical +lucidity. He loved to point and enliven his reasoning by +humorous illustrations, usually anecdotes of Western life, of +which he had an inexhaustible store at his command. These +anecdotes had not seldom a flavor of rustic robustness about +them, but he used them with great effect, while amusing the +audience, to give life to an abstraction, to explode an +absurdity, to clinch an argument, to drive home an admonition. +The natural kindliness of his tone, softening prejudice and +disarming partisan rancor, would often open to his reasoning a +way into minds most unwilling to receive it. + +Yet his greatest power consisted in the charm of his +individuality. That charm did not, in the ordinary way, appeal +to the ear or to the eye. His voice was not melodious; rather +shrill and piercing, especially when it rose to its high treble +in moments of great animation. His figure was unhandsome, and +the action of his unwieldy limbs awkward. He commanded none of +the outward graces of oratory as they are commonly understood. +His charm was of a different kind. It flowed from the rare depth +and genuineness of his convictions and his sympathetic feelings. +Sympathy was the strongest element in his nature. One of his +biographers, who knew him before he became President, says: +"Lincoln's compassion might be stirred deeply by an object +present, but never by an object absent and unseen. In the former +case he would most likely extend relief, with little inquiry into +the merits of the case, because, as he expressed it himself, it +`took a pain out of his own heart.'" Only half of this is +correct. It is certainly true that he could not witness any +individual distress or oppression, or any kind of suffering, +without feeling a pang of pain himself, and that by relieving as +much as he could the suffering of others he put an end to his +own. This compassionate impulse to help he felt not only for +human beings, but for every living creature. As in his boyhood +he angrily reproved the boys who tormented a wood turtle by +putting a burning coal on its back, so, we are told, he would, +when a mature man, on a journey, dismount from his buggy and wade +waist-deep in mire to rescue a pig struggling in a swamp. +Indeed, appeals to his compassion were so irresistible to him, +and he felt it so difficult to refuse anything when his refusal +could give pain, that he himself sometimes spoke of his inability +to say "no" as a positive weakness. But that certainly does not +prove that his compassionate feeling was confined to individual +cases of suffering witnessed with his own eyes. As the boy was +moved by the aspect of the tortured wood turtle to compose an +essay against cruelty to animals in general, so the aspect of +other cases of suffering and wrong wrought up his moral nature, +and set his mind to work against cruelty, injustice, and +oppression in general. + +As his sympathy went forth to others, it attracted others to him. +Especially those whom he called the "plain people" felt +themselves drawn to him by the instinctive feeling that he +understood, esteemed, and appreciated them. He had grown up +among the poor, the lowly, the ignorant. He never ceased to +remember the good souls he had met among them, and the many +kindnesses they had done him. Although in his mental development +he had risen far above them, he never looked down upon them. How +they felt and how they reasoned he knew, for so he had once felt +and reasoned himself. How they could be moved he knew, for so he +had once been moved himself and practised moving others. His +mind was much larger than theirs, but it thoroughly comprehended +theirs; and while he thought much farther than they, their +thoughts were ever present to him. Nor had the visible distance +between them grown as wide as his rise in the world would seem to +have warranted. Much of his backwoods speech and manners still +clung to him. Although he had become "Mr. Lincoln" to his later +acquaintances, he was still "Abe" to the "Nats" and "Billys" and +"Daves" of his youth; and their familiarity neither appeared +unnatural to them, nor was it in the least awkward to him. He +still told and enjoyed stories similar to those he had told and +enjoyed in the Indiana settlement and at New Salem. His wants +remained as modest as they had ever been; his domestic habits had +by no means completely accommodated themselves to those of his +more highborn wife; and though the "Kentucky jeans" apparel had +long been dropped, his clothes of better material and better make +would sit ill sorted on his gigantic limbs. His cotton umbrella, +without a handle, and tied together with a coarse string to keep +it from flapping, which he carried on his circuit rides, is said +to be remembered still by some of his surviving neighbors. This +rusticity of habit was utterly free from that affected contempt +of refinement and comfort which self-made men sometimes carry +into their more affluent circumstances. To Abraham Lincoln it +was entirely natural, and all those who came into contact with +him knew it to be so. In his ways of thinking and feeling he had +become a gentleman in the highest sense, but the refining process +had polished but little the outward form. The plain people, +therefore, still considered "honest Abe Lincoln" one of +themselves; and when they felt, which they no doubt frequently +did, that his thoughts and aspirations moved in a sphere above +their own, they were all the more proud of him, without any +diminution of fellow-feeling. It was this relation of mutual +sympathy and understanding between Lincoln and the plain people +that gave him his peculiar power as a public man, and singularly +fitted him, as we shall see, for that leadership which was +preeminently required in the great crisis then coming on,--the +leadership which indeed thinks and moves ahead of the masses, but +always remains within sight and sympathetic touch of them. + +He entered upon the campaign of 1858 better equipped than he had +ever been before. He not only instinctively felt, but he had +convinced himself by arduous study, that in this struggle against +the spread of slavery he had right, justice, philosophy, the +enlightened opinion of mankind, history, the Constitution, and +good policy on his side. It was observed that after he began to +discuss the slavery question his speeches were pitched in a much +loftier key than his former oratorical efforts. While he +remained fond of telling funny stories in private conversation, +they disappeared more and more from his public discourse. He +would still now and then point his argument with expressions of +inimitable quaintness, and flash out rays of kindly humor and +witty irony; but his general tone was serious, and rose sometimes +to genuine solemnity. His masterly skill in dialectical thrust +and parry, his wealth of knowledge, his power of reasoning and +elevation of sentiment, disclosed in language of rare precision, +strength, and beauty, not seldom astonished his old friends. + +Neither of the two champions could have found a more formidable +antagonist than each now met in the other. Douglas was by far +the most conspicuous member of his party. His admirers had dubbed +him "the Little Giant," contrasting in that nickname the +greatness of his mind with the smallness of his body. But though +of low stature, his broad-shouldered figure appeared uncommonly +sturdy, and there was something lion-like in the squareness of +his brow and jaw, and in the defiant shake of his long hair. His +loud and persistent advocacy of territorial expansion, in the +name of patriotism and "manifest destiny," had given him an +enthusiastic following among the young and ardent. Great natural +parts, a highly combative temperament, and long training had made +him a debater unsurpassed in a Senate filled with able men. He +could be as forceful in his appeals to patriotic feelings as he +was fierce in denunciation and thoroughly skilled in all the +baser tricks of parliamentary pugilism. While genial and +rollicking in his social intercourse--the idol of the "boys" he +felt himself one of the most renowned statesmen of his time, and +would frequently meet his opponents with an overbearing +haughtiness, as persons more to be pitied than to be feared. In +his speech opening the campaign of 1858, he spoke of Lincoln, +whom the Republicans had dared to advance as their candidate for +"his" place in the Senate, with an air of patronizing if not +contemptuous condescension, as "a kind, amiable, and intelligent +gentleman and a good citizen." The Little Giant would have been +pleased to pass off his antagonist as a tall dwarf. He knew +Lincoln too well, however, to indulge himself seriously in such a +delusion. But the political situation was at that moment in a +curious tangle, and Douglas could expect to derive from the +confusion great advantage over his opponent. + +By the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, opening the Territories +to the ingress of slavery, Douglas had pleased the South, but +greatly alarmed the North. He had sought to conciliate Northern +sentiment by appending to his Kansas-Nebraska Bill the +declaration that its intent was "not to legislate slavery into +any State or Territory, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave +the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their +institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution +of the United States." This he called "the great principle of +popular sovereignty." When asked whether, under this act, the +people of a Territory, before its admission as a State, would +have the right to exclude slavery, he answered, "That is a +question for the courts to decide." Then came the famous "Dred +Scott decision," in which the Supreme Court held substantially +that the right to hold slaves as property existed in the +Territories by virtue of the Federal Constitution, and that this +right could not be denied by any act of a territorial government. +This, of course, denied the right of the people of any Territory +to exclude slavery while they were in a territorial condition, +and it alarmed the Northern people still more. Douglas +recognized the binding force of the decision of the Supreme +Court, at the same time maintaining, most illogically, that his +great principle of popular sovereignty remained in force +nevertheless. Meanwhile, the proslavery people of western +Missouri, the so-called "border ruffians," had invaded Kansas, +set up a constitutional convention, made a constitution of an +extreme pro-slavery type, the "Lecompton Constitution," refused +to submit it fairly to a vote of the people of Kansas, and then +referred it to Congress for acceptance,--seeking thus to +accomplish the admission of Kansas as a slave State. Had Douglas +supported such a scheme, he would have lost all foothold in the +North. In the name of popular sovereignty he loudly declared his +opposition to the acceptance of any constitution not sanctioned +by a formal popular vote. He "did not care," he said, "whether +slavery be voted up or down," but there must be a fair vote of +the people. Thus he drew upon himself the hostility of the +Buchanan administration, which was controlled by the proslavery +interest, but he saved his Northern following. More than this, +not only did his Democratic admirers now call him "the true +champion of freedom," but even some Republicans of large +influence, prominent among them Horace Greeley, sympathizing with +Douglas in his fight against the Lecompton Constitution, and +hoping to detach him permanently from the proslavery interest and +to force a lasting breach in the Democratic party, seriously +advised the Republicans of Illinois to give up their opposition +to Douglas, and to help re-elect him to the Senate. Lincoln was +not of that opinion. He believed that great popular movements +can succeed only when guided by their faithful friends, and that +the antislavery cause could not safely be entrusted to the +keeping of one who "did not care whether slavery be voted up or +down." This opinion prevailed in Illinois; but the influences +within the Republican party over which it prevailed yielded only +a reluctant acquiescence, if they acquiesced at all, after having +materially strengthened Douglas's position. Such was the +situation of things when the campaign of 1858 between Lincoln and +Douglas began. + +Lincoln opened the campaign on his side at the convention which +nominated him as the Republican candidate for the senatorship, +with a memorable saying which sounded like a shout from the +watchtower of history: "A house divided against itself cannot +stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half +slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. +I do not expect the house to fall, but I expect it will cease to +be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. +Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of +it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief +that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates +will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all +the States,--old as well as new, North as well as South." Then +he proceeded to point out that the Nebraska doctrine combined +with the Dred Scott decision worked in the direction of making +the nation "all slave." Here was the "irrepressible conflict" +spoken of by Seward a short time later, in a speech made famous +mainly by that phrase. If there was any new discovery in it, the +right of priority was Lincoln's. This utterance proved not only +his statesmanlike conception of the issue, but also, in his +situation as a candidate, the firmness of his moral courage. The +friends to whom he had read the draught of this speech before he +delivered it warned him anxiously that its delivery might be +fatal to his success in the election. This was shrewd advice, in +the ordinary sense. While a slaveholder could threaten disunion +with impunity, the mere suggestion that the existence of slavery +was incompatible with freedom in the Union would hazard the +political chances of any public man in the North. But Lincoln +was inflexible. "It is true," said he, "and I will deliver it as +written.... I would rather be defeated with these expressions in +my speech held up and discussed before the people than be +victorious without them." The statesman was right in his far- +seeing judgment and his conscientious statement of the truth, but +the practical politicians were also right in their prediction of +the immediate effect. Douglas instantly seized upon the +declaration that a house divided against itself cannot stand as +the main objective point of his attack, interpreting it as an +incitement to a "relentless sectional war," and there is no doubt +that the persistent reiteration of this charge served to frighten +not a few timid souls. + +Lincoln constantly endeavored to bring the moral and +philosophical side of the subject to the foreground. "Slavery is +wrong" was the keynote of all his speeches. To Douglas's +glittering sophism that the right of the people of a Territory to +have slavery or not, as they might desire, was in accordance with +the principle of true popular sovereignty, he made the pointed +answer: "Then true popular sovereignty, according to Senator +Douglas, means that, when one man makes another man his slave, no +third man shall be allowed to object." To Douglas's argument +that the principle which demanded that the people of a Territory +should be permitted to choose whether they would have slavery or +not "originated when God made man, and placed good and evil +before him, allowing him to choose upon his own responsibility," +Lincoln solemnly replied: "No; God--did not place good and evil +before man, telling him to make his choice. On the contrary, God +did tell him there was one tree of the fruit of which he should +not eat, upon pain of death." He did not, however, place himself +on the most advanced ground taken by the radical anti-slavery +men. He admitted that, under the Constitution, "the Southern +people were entitled to a Congressional fugitive slave law," +although he did not approve the fugitive slave law then existing. +He declared also that, if slavery were kept out of the +Territories during their territorial existence, as it should be, +and if then the people of any Territory, having a fair chance and +a clear field, should do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt +a slave constitution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of the +institution among them, he saw no alternative but to admit such a +Territory into the Union. He declared further that, while he +should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abolished in the +District of Columbia, he would, as a member of Congress, with his +present views, not endeavor to bring on that abolition except on +condition that emancipation be gradual, that it be approved by +the decision of a majority of voters in the District, and that +compensation be made to unwilling owners. On every available +occasion, he pronounced himself in favor of the deportation and +colonization of the blacks, of course with their consent. He +repeatedly disavowed any wish on his part to have social and +political equality established between whites and blacks. On +this point he summed up his views in a reply to Douglas's +assertion that the Declaration of Independence, in speaking of +all men as being created equal, did not include the negroes, +saying: " I do not understand the Declaration of Independence to +mean that all men were created equal in all respects. They are +not equal in color. But I believe that it does mean to declare +that all men are equal in some respects; they are equal in their +right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." + +With regard to some of these subjects Lincoln modified his +position at a later period, and it has been suggested that he +would have professed more advanced principles in his debates with +Douglas, had he not feared thereby to lose votes. This view can +hardly be sustained. Lincoln had the courage of his opinions, +but he was not a radical. The man who risked his election by +delivering, against the urgent protest of his friends, the speech +about "the house divided against itself" would not have shrunk +from the expression of more extreme views, had he really +entertained them. It is only fair to assume that he said what at +the time he really thought, and that if, subsequently, his +opinions changed, it was owing to new conceptions of good policy +and of duty brought forth by an entirely new set of circumstances +and exigencies. It is characteristic that he continued to adhere +to the impracticable colonization plan even after the +Emancipation Proclamation had already been issued. + +But in this contest Lincoln proved himself not only a debater, +but also a political strategist of the first order. The "kind, +amiable, and intelligent gentleman," as Douglas had been pleased +to call him, was by no means as harmless as a dove. He possessed +an uncommon share of that worldly shrewdness which not seldom +goes with genuine simplicity of character; and the political +experience gathered in the Legislature and in Congress, and in +many election campaigns, added to his keen intuitions, had made +him as far-sighted a judge of the probable effects of a public +man's sayings or doings upon the popular mind, and as accurate a +calculator in estimating political chances and forecasting +results, as could be found among the party managers in Illinois. +And now he perceived keenly the ugly dilemma in which Douglas +found himself, between the Dred Scott decision, which declared +the right to hold slaves to exist in the Territories by virtue of +the Federal Constitution, and his "great principle of popular +sovereignty," according to which the people of a Territory, if +they saw fit, were to have the right to exclude slavery +therefrom. Douglas was twisting and squirming to the best of his +ability to avoid the admission that the two were incompatible. +The question then presented itself if it would be good policy for +Lincoln to force Douglas to a clear expression of his opinion as +to whether, the Dred Scott decision notwithstanding, "the people +of a Territory could in any lawful way exclude slavery from its +limits prior to the formation of a State constitution." Lincoln +foresaw and predicted what Douglas would answer: that slavery +could not exist in a Territory unless the people desired it and +gave it protection by territorial legislation. In an improvised +caucus the policy of pressing the interrogatory on Douglas was +discussed. Lincoln's friends unanimously advised against it, +because the answer foreseen would sufficiently commend Douglas to +the people of Illinois to insure his re-election to the Senate. +But Lincoln persisted. "I am after larger game," said he. "If +Douglas so answers, he can never be President, and the battle of +1860 is worth a hundred of this." The interrogatory was pressed +upon Douglas, and Douglas did answer that, no matter what the +decision of the Supreme Court might be on the abstract question, +the people of a Territory had the lawful means to introduce or +exclude slavery by territorial legislation friendly or unfriendly +to the institution. Lincoln found it easy to show the absurdity +of the proposition that, if slavery were admitted to exist of +right in the Territories by virtue of the supreme law, the +Federal Constitution, it could be kept out or expelled by an +inferior law, one made by a territorial Legislature. Again the +judgment of the politicians, having only the nearest object in +view, proved correct: Douglas was reelected to the Senate. But +Lincoln's judgment proved correct also: Douglas, by resorting to +the expedient of his "unfriendly legislation doctrine," forfeited +his last chance of becoming President of the United States. He +might have hoped to win, by sufficient atonement, his pardon from +the South for his opposition to the Lecompton Constitution; but +that he taught the people of the Territories a trick by which +they could defeat what the proslavery men considered a +constitutional right, and that he called that trick lawful, this +the slave power would never forgive. The breach between the +Southern and the Northern Democracy was thenceforth irremediable +and fatal. + +The Presidential election of 1860 approached. The struggle in +Kansas, and the debates in Congress which accompanied it, and +which not unfrequently provoked violent outbursts, continually +stirred the popular excitement. Within the Democratic party +raged the war of factions. The national Democratic convention +met at Charleston on the 23d of April, 1860. After a struggle of +ten days between the adherents and the opponents of Douglas, +during which the delegates from the cotton States had withdrawn, +the convention adjourned without having nominated any candidates, +to meet again in Baltimore on the 18th of June. There was no +prospect, however, of reconciling the hostile elements. It +appeared very probable that the Baltimore convention would +nominate Douglas, while the seceding Southern Democrats would set +up a candidate of their own, representing extreme proslavery +principles. + +Meanwhile, the national Republican convention assembled at +Chicago on the 16th of May, full of enthusiasm and hope. The +situation was easily understood. The Democrats would have the +South. In order to succeed in the election, the Republicans had +to win, in addition to the States carried by Fremont in 1856, +those that were classed as "doubtful,"--New Jersey, Pennsylvania, +and Indiana, or Illinois in the place of either New Jersey or +Indiana. The most eminent Republican statesmen and leaders of +the time thought of for the Presidency were Seward and Chase, +both regarded as belonging to the more advanced order of +antislavery men. Of the two, Seward had the largest following, +mainly from New York, New England, and the Northwest. Cautious +politicians doubted seriously whether Seward, to whom some +phrases in his speeches had undeservedly given the reputation of +a reckless radical, would be able to command the whole Republican +vote in the doubtful States. Besides, during his long public +career he had made enemies. It was evident that those who +thought Seward's nomination too hazardous an experiment would +consider Chase unavailable for the same reason. They would then +look round for an "available" man; and among the "available" men +Abraham Lincoln was easily discovered to stand foremost. His +great debate with Douglas had given him a national reputation. +The people of the East being eager to see the hero of so dramatic +a contest, he had been induced to visit several Eastern cities, +and had astonished and delighted large and distinguished +audiences with speeches of singular power and originality. An +address delivered by him in the Cooper Institute in New York, +before an audience containing a large number of important +persons, was then, and has ever since been, especially praised as +one of the most logical and convincing political speeches ever +made in this country. The people of the West had grown proud of +him as a distinctively Western great man, and his popularity at +home had some peculiar features which could be expected to +exercise a potent charm. Nor was Lincoln's name as that of an +available candidate left to the chance of accidental discovery. +It is indeed not probable that he thought of himself as a +Presidential possibility, during his contest with Douglas for the +senatorship. As late as April, 1859, he had written to a friend +who had approached him on the subject that he did not think +himself fit for the Presidency. The Vice-Presidency was then the +limit of his ambition. But some of his friends in Illinois took +the matter seriously in hand, and Lincoln, after some hesitation, +then formally authorized "the use of his name." The matter was +managed with such energy and excellent judgment that, in the +convention, he had not only the whole vote of Illinois to start +with, but won votes on all sides without offending any rival. A +large majority of the opponents of Seward went over to Abraham +Lincoln, and gave him the nomination on the third ballot. As had +been foreseen, Douglas was nominated by one wing of the +Democratic party at Baltimore, while the extreme proslavery wing +put Breckinridge into the field as its candidate. After a +campaign conducted with the energy of genuine enthusiasm on the +antislavery side the united Republicans defeated the divided +Democrats, and Lincoln was elected President by a majority of +fifty-seven votes in the electoral colleges. + +The result of the election had hardly been declared when the +disunion movement in the South, long threatened and carefully +planned and prepared, broke out in the shape of open revolt, and +nearly a month before Lincoln could be inaugurated as President +of the United States seven Southern States had adopted ordinances +of secession, formed an independent confederacy, framed a +constitution for it, and elected Jefferson Davis its president, +expecting the other slaveholding States soon to join them. On +the 11th of February, 1861, Lincoln left Springfield for +Washington; having, with characteristic simplicity, asked his law +partner not to change the sign of the firm "Lincoln and Herndon " +during the four years unavoidable absence of the senior partner, +and having taken an affectionate and touching leave of his +neighbors. + +The situation which confronted the new President was appalling: +the larger part of the South in open rebellion, the rest of the +slaveholding States wavering preparing to follow; the revolt +guided by determined, daring, and skillful leaders; the Southern +people, apparently full of enthusiasm and military spirit, +rushing to arms, some of the forts and arsenals already in their +possession; the government of the Union, before the accession of +the new President, in the hands of men some of whom actively +sympathized with the revolt, while others were hampered by their +traditional doctrines in dealing with it, and really gave it aid +and comfort by their irresolute attitude; all the departments +full of "Southern sympathizers" and honeycombed with disloyalty; +the treasury empty, and the public credit at the lowest ebb; the +arsenals ill supplied with arms, if not emptied by treacherous +practices; the regular army of insignificant strength, dispersed +over an immense surface, and deprived of some of its best +officers by defection; the navy small and antiquated. But that +was not all. The threat of disunion had so often been resorted +to by the slave power in years gone by that most Northern people +had ceased to believe in its seriousness. But, when disunion +actually appeared as a stern reality, something like a chill +swept through the whole Northern country. A cry for union and +peace at any price rose on all sides. Democratic partisanship +reiterated this cry with vociferous vehemence, and even many +Republicans grew afraid of the victory they had just achieved at +the ballot-box, and spoke of compromise. The country fairly +resounded with the noise of "anticoercion meetings." Expressions +of firm resolution from determined antislavery men were indeed +not wanting, but they were for a while almost drowned by a +bewildering confusion of discordant voices. Even this was not +all. Potent influences in Europe, with an ill-concealed desire +for the permanent disruption of the American Union, eagerly +espoused the cause of the Southern seceders, and the two +principal maritime powers of the Old World seemed only to be +waiting for a favorable opportunity to lend them a helping hand. + +This was the state of things to be mastered by "honest Abe +Lincoln" when he took his seat in the Presidential chair,-- +"honest Abe Lincoln," who was so good-natured that he could not +say "no"; the greatest achievement in whose life had been a +debate on the slavery question; who had never been in any +position of power; who was without the slightest experience of +high executive duties, and who had only a speaking acquaintance +with the men upon whose counsel and cooperation he was to depend. +Nor was his accession to power under such circumstances greeted +with general confidence even by the members of his party. While +he had indeed won much popularity, many Republicans, especially +among those who had advocated Seward's nomination for the +Presidency, saw the simple "Illinois lawyer" take the reins of +government with a feeling little short of dismay. The orators +and journals of the opposition were ridiculing and lampooning him +without measure. Many people actually wondered how such a man +could dare to undertake a task which, as he himself had said to +his neighbors in his parting speech, was "more difficult than +that of Washington himself had been." + +But Lincoln brought to that task, aside from other uncommon +qualities, the first requisite,--an intuitive comprehension of +its nature. While he did not indulge in the delusion that the +Union could be maintained or restored without a conflict of arms, +he could indeed not foresee all the problems he would have to +solve. He instinctively understood, however, by what means that +conflict would have to be conducted by the government of a +democracy. He knew that the impending war, whether great or +small, would not be like a foreign war, exciting a united +national enthusiasm, but a civil war, likely to fan to uncommon +heat the animosities of party even in the localities controlled +by the government; that this war would have to be carried on not +by means of a ready-made machinery, ruled by an undisputed, +absolute will, but by means to be furnished by the voluntary +action of the people:--armies to be formed by voluntary +enlistments; large sums of money to be raised by the people, +through representatives, voluntarily taxing themselves; trust of +extraordinary power to be voluntarily granted; and war measures, +not seldom restricting the rights and liberties to which the +citizen was accustomed, to be voluntarily accepted and submitted +to by the people, or at least a large majority of them; and that +this would have to be kept up not merely during a short period of +enthusiastic excitement; but possibly through weary years of +alternating success and disaster, hope and despondency. He knew +that in order to steer this government by public opinion +successfully through all the confusion created by the prejudices +and doubts and differences of sentiment distracting the popular +mind, and so to propitiate, inspire, mould, organize, unite, and +guide the popular will that it might give forth all the means +required for the performance of his great task, he would have to +take into account all the influences strongly affecting the +current of popular thought and feeling, and to direct while +appearing to obey. + +This was the kind of leadership he intuitively conceived to be +needed when a free people were to be led forward en masse to +overcome a great common danger under circumstances of appalling +difficulty, the leadership which does not dash ahead with +brilliant daring, no matter who follows, but which is intent upon +rallying all the available forces, gathering in the stragglers, +closing up the column, so that the front may advance well +supported. For this leadership Abraham Lincoln was admirably +fitted, better than any other American statesman of his day; for +he understood the plain people, with all their loves and hates, +their prejudices and their noble impulses, their weaknesses and +their strength, as he understood himself, and his sympathetic +nature was apt to draw their sympathy to him. + +His inaugural address foreshadowed his official course in +characteristic manner. Although yielding nothing in point of +principle, it was by no means a flaming antislavery manifesto, +such as would have pleased the more ardent Republicans. It was +rather the entreaty of a sorrowing father speaking to his wayward +children. In the kindliest language he pointed out to the +secessionists how ill advised their attempt at disunion was, and +why, for their own sakes, they should desist. Almost +plaintively, he told them that, while it was not their duty to +destroy the Union, it was his sworn duty to preserve it; that the +least he could do, under the obligations of his oath, was to +possess and hold the property of the United States; that he hoped +to do this peaceably; that he abhorred war for any purpose, and +that they would have none unless they themselves were the +aggressors. It was a masterpiece of persuasiveness, and while +Lincoln had accepted many valuable amendments suggested by +Seward, it was essentially his own. Probably Lincoln himself did +not expect his inaugural address to have any effect upon the +secessionists, for he must have known them to be resolved upon +disunion at any cost. But it was an appeal to the wavering minds +in the North, and upon them it made a profound impression. Every +candid man, however timid and halting, had to admit that the +President was bound by his oath to do his duty; that under that +oath he could do no less than he said he would do; that if the +secessionists resisted such an appeal as the President had made, +they were bent upon mischief, and that the government must be +supported against them. The partisan sympathy with the Southern +insurrection which still existed in the North did indeed not +disappear, but it diminished perceptibly under the influence of +such reasoning. Those who still resisted it did so at the risk +of appearing unpatriotic. + +It must not be supposed, however, that Lincoln at once succeeded +in pleasing everybody, even among his friends,--even among those +nearest to him. In selecting his cabinet, which he did +substantially before he left Springfield for Washington, he +thought it wise to call to his assistance the strong men of his +party, especially those who had given evidence of the support +they commanded as his competitors in the Chicago convention. In +them he found at the same time representatives of the different +shades of opinion within the party, and of the different +elements--former Whigs and former Democrats--from which the party +had recruited itself. This was sound policy under the +circumstances. It might indeed have been foreseen that among the +members of a cabinet so composed, troublesome disagreements and +rivalries would break out. But it was better for the President +to have these strong and ambitious men near him as his co- +operators than to have them as his critics in Congress, where +their differences might have been composed in a common opposition +to him. As members of his cabinet he could hope to control them, +and to keep them busily employed in the service of a common +purpose, if he had the strength to do so. Whether he did possess +this strength was soon tested by a singularly rude trial. + +There can be no doubt that the foremost members of his cabinet, +Seward and Chase, the most eminent Republican statesmen, had felt +themselves wronged by their party when in its national convention +it preferred to them for the Presidency a man whom, not +unnaturally, they thought greatly their inferior in ability and +experience as well as in service. The soreness of that +disappointment was intensified when they saw this Western man in +the White House, with so much of rustic manner and speech as +still clung to him, meeting his fellow-citizens, high and low, on +a footing of equality, with the simplicity of his good nature +unburdened by any conventional dignity of deportment, and dealing +with the great business of state in an easy-going, unmethodical, +and apparently somewhat irreverent way. They did not understand +such a man. Especially Seward, who, as Secretary of State, +considered himself next to the Chief Executive, and who quickly +accustomed himself to giving orders and making arrangements upon +his own motion, thought it necessary that he should rescue the +direction of public affairs from hands so unskilled, and take +full charge of them himself. At the end of the first month of +the administration he submitted a "memorandum" to President +Lincoln, which has been first brought to light by Nicolay and +Hay, and is one of their most valuable contributions to the +history of those days. In that paper Seward actually told the +President that at the end of a month's administration the +government was still without a policy, either domestic or +foreign; that the slavery question should be eliminated from the +struggle about the Union; that the matter of the maintenance of +the forts and other possessions in the South should be decided +with that view; that explanations should be demanded +categorically from the governments of Spain and France, which +were then preparing, one for the annexation of San Domingo, and +both for the invasion of Mexico; that if no satisfactory +explanations were received war should be declared against Spain +and France by the United States; that explanations should also be +sought from Russia and Great Britain, and a vigorous continental +spirit of independence against European intervention be aroused +all over the American continent; that this policy should be +incessantly pursued and directed by somebody; that either the +President should devote himself entirely to it, or devolve the +direction on some member of his cabinet, whereupon all debate on +this policy must end. + +This could be understood only as a formal demand that the +President should acknowledge his own incompetency to perform his +duties, content himself with the amusement of distributing post- +offices, and resign his power as to all important affairs into +the hands of his Secretary of State. It seems to-day +incomprehensible how a statesman of Seward's calibre could at +that period conceive a plan of policy in which the slavery +question had no place; a policy which rested upon the utterly +delusive assumption that the secessionists, who had already +formed their Southern Confederacy and were with stern resolution +preparing to fight for its independence, could be hoodwinked back +into the Union by some sentimental demonstration against European +interference; a policy which, at that critical moment, would have +involved the Union in a foreign war, thus inviting foreign +intervention in favor of the Southern Confederacy, and increasing +tenfold its chances in the struggle for independence. But it is +equally incomprehensible how Seward could fail to see that this +demand of an unconditional surrender was a mortal insult to the +head of the government, and that by putting his proposition on +paper he delivered himself into the hands of the very man he had +insulted; for, had Lincoln, as most Presidents would have done, +instantly dismissed Seward, and published the true reason for +that dismissal, it would inevitably have been the end of Seward's +career. But Lincoln did what not many of the noblest and +greatest men in history would have been noble and great enough to +do. He considered that Seward was still capable of rendering +great service to his country in the place in which he was, if +rightly controlled. He ignored the insult, but firmly +established his superiority. In his reply, which he forthwith +despatched, he told Seward that the administration had a domestic +policy as laid down in the inaugural address with Seward's +approval; that it had a foreign policy as traced in Seward's +despatches with the President's approval; that if any policy was +to be maintained or changed, he, the President, was to direct +that on his responsibility; and that in performing that duty the +President had a right to the advice of his secretaries. Seward's +fantastic schemes of foreign war and continental policies Lincoln +brushed aside by passing them over in silence. Nothing more was +said. Seward must have felt that he was at the mercy of a +superior man; that his offensive proposition had been generously +pardoned as a temporary aberration of a great mind, and that he +could atone for it only by devoted personal loyalty. This he +did. He was thoroughly subdued, and thenceforth submitted to +Lincoln his despatches for revision and amendment without a +murmur. The war with European nations was no longer thought of; +the slavery question found in due time its proper place in the +struggle for the Union; and when, at a later period, the +dismissal of Seward was demanded by dissatisfied senators, who +attributed to him the shortcomings of the administration, Lincoln +stood stoutly by his faithful Secretary of State. + +Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, a man of superb presence, +of eminent ability and ardent patriotism, of great natural +dignity and a certain outward coldness of manner, which made him +appear more difficult of approach than he really was, did not +permit his disappointment to burst out in such extravagant +demonstrations. But Lincoln's ways were so essentially different +from his that they never became quite intelligible, and certainly +not congenial to him. It might, perhaps, have been better had +there been, at the beginning of the administration, some decided +clash between Lincoln and Chase, as there was between Lincoln and +Seward, to bring on a full mutual explanation, and to make Chase +appreciate the real seriousness of Lincoln's nature. But, as it +was, their relations always remained somewhat formal, and Chase +never felt quite at ease under a chief whom he could not +understand, and whose character and powers he never learned to +esteem at their true value. At the same time, he devoted himself +zealously to the duties of his department, and did the country +arduous service under circumstances of extreme difficulty. +Nobody recognized this more heartily than Lincoln himself, and +they managed to work together until near the end of Lincoln's +first Presidential term, when Chase, after some disagreements +concerning appointments to office, resigned from the treasury; +and, after Taney's death, the President made him Chief Justice. + +The rest of the cabinet consisted of men of less eminence, who +subordinated themselves more easily. In January, 1862, Lincoln +found it necessary to bow Cameron out of the war office, and to +put in his place Edwin M. Stanton, a man of intensely practical +mind, vehement impulses, fierce positiveness, ruthless energy, +immense working power, lofty patriotism, and severest devotion to +duty. He accepted the war office not as a partisan, for he had +never been a Republican, but only to do all he could in "helping +to save the country." The manner in which Lincoln succeeded in +taming this lion to his will, by frankly recognizing his great +qualities, by giving him the most generous confidence, by aiding +him in his work to the full of his power, by kindly concession or +affectionate persuasiveness in cases of differing opinions, or, +when it was necessary, by firm assertions of superior authority, +bears the highest testimony to his skill in the management of +men. Stanton, who had entered the service with rather a mean +opinion of Lincoln's character and capacity, became one of his +warmest, most devoted, and most admiring friends, and with none +of his secretaries was Lincoln's intercourse more intimate. To +take advice with candid readiness, and to weigh it without any +pride of his own opinion, was one of Lincoln's preeminent +virtues; but he had not long presided over his cabinet council +when his was felt by all its members to be the ruling mind. + +The cautious policy foreshadowed in his inaugural address, and +pursued during the first period of the civil war, was far from +satisfying all his party friends. The ardent spirits among the +Union men thought that the whole North should at once be called +to arms, to crush the rebellion by one powerful blow. The ardent +spirits among the antislavery men insisted that, slavery having +brought forth the rebellion, this powerful blow should at once be +aimed at slavery. Both complained that the administration was +spiritless, undecided, and lamentably slow in its proceedings. +Lincoln reasoned otherwise. The ways of thinking and feeling of +the masses, of the plain people, were constantly present to his +mind. The masses, the plain people, had to furnish the men for +the fighting, if fighting was to be done. He believed that the +plain people would be ready to fight when it clearly appeared +necessary, and that they would feel that necessity when they felt +themselves attacked. He therefore waited until the enemies of +the Union struck the first blow. As soon as, on the 12th of +April, 1861, the first gun was fired in Charleston harbor on the +Union flag upon Fort Sumter, the call was sounded, and the +Northern people rushed to arms. + +Lincoln knew that the plain people were now indeed ready to fight +in defence of the Union, but not yet ready to fight for the +destruction of slavery. He declared openly that he had a right +to summon the people to fight for the Union, but not to summon +them to fight for the abolition of slavery as a primary object; +and this declaration gave him numberless soldiers for the Union +who at that period would have hesitated to do battle against the +institution of slavery. For a time he succeeded in rendering +harmless the cry of the partisan opposition that the Republican +administration were perverting the war for the Union into an +"abolition war." But when he went so far as to countermand the +acts of some generals in the field, looking to the emancipation +of the slaves in the districts covered by their commands, loud +complaints arose from earnest antislavery men, who accused the +President of turning his back upon the antislavery cause. Many +of these antislavery men will now, after a calm retrospect, be +willing to admit that it would have been a hazardous policy to +endanger, by precipitating a demonstrative fight against slavery, +the success of the struggle for the Union. + +Lincoln's views and feelings concerning slavery had not changed. +Those who conversed with him intimately upon the subject at that +period know that he did not expect slavery long to survive the +triumph of the Union, even if it were not immediately destroyed +by the war. In this he was right. Had the Union armies achieved +a decisive victory in an early period of the conflict, and had +the seceded States been received back with slavery, the "slave +power" would then have been a defeated power, defeated in an +attempt to carry out its most effective threat. It would have +lost its prestige. Its menaces would have been hollow sound, and +ceased to make any one afraid. It could no longer have hoped to +expand, to maintain an equilibrium in any branch of Congress, and +to control the government. The victorious free States would have +largely overbalanced it. It would no longer have been able to +withstand the onset of a hostile age. It could no longer have +ruled,--and slavery had to rule in order to live. It would have +lingered for a while, but it would surely have been "in the +course of ultimate extinction." A prolonged war precipitated the +destruction of slavery; a short war might only have prolonged its +death struggle. Lincoln saw this clearly; but he saw also that, +in a protracted death struggle, it might still have kept disloyal +sentiments alive, bred distracting commotions, and caused great +mischief to the country. He therefore hoped that slavery would +not survive the war. + +But the question how he could rightfully employ his power to +bring on its speedy destruction was to him not a question of mere +sentiment. He himself set forth his reasoning upon it, at a +later period, in one of his inimitable letters. "I am naturally +antislavery," said he. "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is +wrong. I cannot remember the time when I did not so think and +feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency +conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act upon that judgment +and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the best +of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the 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 that power. I understood, +too, that, in ordinary civil administration, this oath even +forbade me practically to indulge my private abstract judgment on +the moral question of slavery. I did understand, however, also, +that my oath imposed upon me the duty of preserving, to the best +of my ability, by every indispensable means, that government, +that nation, of which the Constitution was the organic law. I +could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tied +to preserve the Constitution--if, to save slavery, or any minor +matter, I should permit the wreck of government, country, and +Constitution all together." In other words, if the salvation of +the government, the Constitution, and the Union demanded the +destruction of slavery, he felt it to be not only his right, but +his sworn duty to destroy it. Its destruction became a necessity +of the war for the Union. + +As the war dragged on and disaster followed disaster, the sense +of that necessity steadily grew upon him. Early in 1862, as some +of his friends well remember, he saw, what Seward seemed not to +see, that to give the war for the Union an antislavery character +was the surest means to prevent the recognition of the Southern +Confederacy as an independent nation by European powers; that, +slavery being abhorred by the moral sense of civilized mankind, +no European government would dare to offer so gross an insult to +the public opinion of its people as openly to favor the creation +of a state founded upon slavery to the prejudice of an existing +nation fighting against slavery. He saw also that slavery +untouched was to the rebellion an element of power, and that in +order to overcome that power it was necessary to turn it into an +element of weakness. Still, he felt no assurance that the plain +people were prepared for so radical a measure as the emancipation +of the slaves by act of the government, and he anxiously +considered that, if they were not, this great step might, by +exciting dissension at the North, injure the cause of the Union +in one quarter more than it would help it in another. He +heartily welcomed an effort made in New York to mould and +stimulate public sentiment on the slavery question by public +meetings boldly pronouncing for emancipation. At the same time +he himself cautiously advanced with a recommendation, expressed +in a special message to Congress, that the United States should +co-operate with any State which might adopt the gradual +abolishment of slavery, giving such State pecuniary aid to +compensate the former owners of emancipated slaves. The +discussion was started, and spread rapidly. Congress adopted the +resolution recommended, and soon went a step farther in passing a +bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. The plain +people began to look at emancipation on a larger scale as a thing +to be considered seriously by patriotic citizens; and soon +Lincoln thought that the time was ripe, and that the edict of +freedom could be ventured upon without danger of serious +confusion in the Union ranks. + +The failure of McClellan's movement upon Richmond increased +immensely the prestige of the enemy. The need of some great act +to stimulate the vitality of the Union cause seemed to grow daily +more pressing. On July 21, 1862, Lincoln surprised his cabinet +with the draught of a proclamation declaring free the slaves in +all the States that should be still in rebellion against the +United States on the 1st of January,1863. As to the matter +itself he announced that he had fully made up his mind; he +invited advice only concerning the form and the time of +publication. Seward suggested that the proclamation, if then +brought out, amidst disaster and distress, would sound like the +last shriek of a perishing cause. Lincoln accepted the +suggestion, and the proclamation was postponed. Another defeat +followed, the second at Bull Run. But when, after that battle, +the Confederate army, under Lee, crossed the Potomac and invaded +Maryland, Lincoln vowed in his heart that, if the Union army were +now blessed with success, the decree of freedom should surely be +issued. The victory of Antietam was won on September 17, and the +preliminary Emancipation Proclamation came forth on the a 22d. +It was Lincoln's own resolution and act; but practically it bound +the nation, and permitted no step backward. In spite of its +limitations, it was the actual abolition of slavery. Thus he +wrote his name upon the books of history with the title dearest +to his heart, the liberator of the slave. + +It is true, the great proclamation, which stamped the war as one +for "union and freedom," did not at once mark the turning of the +tide on the field of military operations. There were more +disasters, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. But with +Gettysburg and Vicksburg the whole aspect of the war changed. +Step by step, now more slowly, then more rapidly, but with +increasing steadiness, the flag of the Union advanced from field +to field toward the final consummation. The decree of +emancipation was naturally followed by the enlistment of +emancipated negroes in the Union armies. This measure had a +anther reaching effect than merely giving the Union armies an +increased supply of men. The laboring force of the rebellion was +hopelessly disorganized. The war became like a problem of +arithmetic. As the Union armies pushed forward, the area from +which the Southern Confederacy could draw recruits and supplies +constantly grew smaller, while the area from which the Union +recruited its strength constantly grew larger; and everywhere, +even within the Southern lines, the Union had its allies. The +fate of the rebellion was then virtually decided; but it still +required much bloody work to convince the brave warriors who +fought for it that they were really beaten. + +Neither did the Emancipation Proclamation forthwith command +universal assent among the people who were loyal to the Union. +There were even signs of a reaction against the administration in +the fall elections of 1862, seemingly justifying the opinion, +entertained by many, that the President had really anticipated +the development of popular feeling. The cry that the war for the +Union had been turned into an "abolition war" was raised again by +the opposition, and more loudly than ever. But the good sense +and patriotic instincts of the plain people gradually marshalled +themselves on Lincoln's side, and he lost no opportunity to help +on this process by personal argument and admonition. There never +has been a President in such constant and active contact with the +public opinion of the country, as there never has been a +President who, while at the head of the government, remained so +near to the people. Beyond the circle of those who had long +known him the feeling steadily grew that the man in the White +House was "honest Abe Lincoln" still, and that every citizen +might approach him with complaint, expostulation, or advice, +without danger of meeting a rebuff from power-proud authority, or +humiliating condescension; and this privilege was used by so many +and with such unsparing freedom that only superhuman patience +could have endured it all. There are men now living who would +to-day read with amazement, if not regret, what they ventured to +say or write to him. But Lincoln repelled no one whom he +believed to speak to him in good faith and with patriotic +purpose. No good advice would go unheeded. No candid criticism +would offend him. No honest opposition, while it might pain him, +would produce a lasting alienation of feeling between him and the +opponent. It may truly be said that few men in power have ever +been exposed to more daring attempts to direct their course, to +severer censure of their acts, and to more cruel +misrepresentation of their motives: And all this he met with that +good-natured humor peculiarly his own, and with untiring effort +to see the right and to impress it upon those who differed from +him. The conversations he had and the correspondence he carried +on upon matters of public interest, not only with men in official +position, but with private citizens, were almost unceasing, and +in a large number of public letters, written ostensibly to +meetings, or committees, or persons of importance, he addressed +himself directly to the popular mind. Most of these letters +stand among the finest monuments of our political literature. +Thus he presented the singular spectacle of a President who, in +the midst of a great civil war, with unprecedented duties +weighing upon him, was constantly in person debating the great +features of his policy with the people. + +While in this manner he exercised an ever-increasing influence +upon the popular understanding, his sympathetic nature endeared +him more and more to the popular heart. In vain did journals and +speakers of the opposition represent him as a lightminded +trifler, who amused himself with frivolous story-telling and +coarse jokes, while the blood of the people was flowing in +streams. The people knew that the man at the head of affairs, on +whose haggard face the twinkle of humor so frequently changed +into an expression of profoundest sadness, was more than any +other deeply distressed by the suffering he witnessed; that he +felt the pain of every wound that was inflicted on the +battlefield, and the anguish of every woman or child who had lost +husband or father; that whenever he could he was eager to +alleviate sorrow, and that his mercy was never implored in vain. +They looked to him as one who was with them and of them in all +their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows, who laughed with +them and wept with them; and as his heart was theirs; so their +hearts turned to him. His popularity was far different from that +of Washington, who was revered with awe, or that of Jackson, the +unconquerable hero, for whom party enthusiasm never grew weary of +shouting. To Abraham Lincoln the people became bound by a +genuine sentimental attachment. It was not a matter of respect, +or confidence, or party pride, for this feeling spread far beyond +the boundary lines of his party; it was an affair of the heart, +independent of mere reasoning. When the soldiers in the field or +their folks at home spoke of "Father Abraham," there was no cant +in it. They felt that their President was really caring for them +as a father would, and that they could go to him, every one of +them, as they would go to a father, and talk to him of what +troubled them, sure to find a willing ear and tender sympathy. +Thus, their President, and his cause, and his endeavors, and his +success gradually became to them almost matters of family +concern. And this popularity carried him triumphantly through +the Presidential election of 1864, in spite of an opposition +within his own party which at first seemed very formidable. + +Many of the radical antislavery men were never quite satisfied +with Lincoln's ways of meeting the problems of the time. They +were very earnest and mostly very able men, who had positive +ideas as to "how this rebellion should be put down." They would +not recognize the necessity of measuring the steps of the +government according to the progress of opinion among the plain +people. They criticised Lincoln's cautious management as +irresolute, halting, lacking in definite purpose and in energy; +he should not have delayed emancipation so long; he should not +have confided important commands to men of doubtful views as to +slavery; he should have authorized military commanders to set the +slaves free as they went on; he dealt too leniently with +unsuccessful generals; he should have put down all factious +opposition with a strong hand instead of trying to pacify it; he +should have given the people accomplished facts instead of +arguing with them, and so on. It is true, these criticisms were +not always entirely unfounded. Lincoln's policy had, with the +virtues of democratic government, some of its weaknesses, which +in the presence of pressing exigencies were apt to deprive +governmental action of the necessary vigor; and his kindness of +heart, his disposition always to respect the feelings of others, +frequently made him recoil from anything like severity, even when +severity was urgently called for. But many of his radical +critics have since then revised their judgment sufficiently to +admit that Lincoln's policy was, on the whole, the wisest and +safest; that a policy of heroic methods, while it has sometimes +accomplished great results, could in a democracy like ours be +maintained only by constant success; that it would have quickly +broken down under the weight of disaster; that it might have been +successful from the start, had the Union, at the beginning of the +conflict, had its Grants and Shermans and Sheridans, its +Farraguts and Porters, fully matured at the head of its forces; +but that, as the great commanders had to be evolved slowly from +the developments of the war, constant success could not be +counted upon, and it was best to follow a policy which was in +friendly contact with the popular force, and therefore more fit +to stand trial of misfortune on the battlefield. But at that +period they thought differently, and their dissatisfaction with +Lincoln's doings was greatly increased by the steps he took +toward the reconstruction of rebel States then partially in +possession of the Union forces. + +In December, 1863, Lincoln issued an amnesty proclamation, +offering pardon to all implicated in the rebellion, with certain +specified exceptions, on condition of their taking and +maintaining an oath to support the Constitution and obey the laws +of the United States and the proclamations of the President with +regard to slaves; and also promising that when, in any of the +rebel States, a number of citizens equal to one tenth of the +voters in 1860 should re-establish a state government in +conformity with the oath above mentioned, such should be +recognized by the Executive as the true government of the State. +The proclamation seemed at first to be received with general +favor. But soon another scheme of reconstruction, much more +stringent in its provisions, was put forward in the House of +Representatives by Henry Winter Davis. Benjamin Wade championed +it in the Senate. It passed in the closing moments of the +session in July, 1864, and Lincoln, instead of making it a law by +his signature, embodied the text of it in a proclamation as a +plan of reconstruction worthy of being earnestly considered. The +differences of opinion concerning this subject had only +intensified the feeling against Lincoln which had long been +nursed among the radicals, and some of them openly declared their +purpose of resisting his re-election to the Presidency. Similar +sentiments were manifested by the advanced antislavery men of +Missouri, who, in their hot faction-fight with the +"conservatives" of that State, had not received from Lincoln the +active support they demanded. Still another class of Union men, +mainly in the East, gravely shook their heads when considering +the question whether Lincoln should be re-elected. They were +those who cherished in their minds an ideal of statesmanship and +of personal bearing in high office with which, in their opinion, +Lincoln's individuality was much out of accord. They were +shocked when they heard him cap an argument upon grave affairs of +state with a story about "a man out in Sangamon County,"--a +story, to be sure, strikingly clinching his point, but sadly +lacking in dignity. They could not understand the man who was +capable, in opening a cabinet meeting, of reading to his +secretaries a funny chapter from a recent book of Artemus Ward, +with which in an unoccupied moment he had relieved his care- +burdened mind, and who then solemnly informed the executive +council that he had vowed in his heart to issue a proclamation +emancipating the slaves as soon as God blessed the Union arms +with another victory. They were alarmed at the weakness of a +President who would indeed resist the urgent remonstrances of +statesmen against his policy, but could not resist the prayer of +an old woman for the pardon of a soldier who was sentenced to be +shot for desertion. Such men, mostly sincere and ardent +patriots, not only wished, but earnestly set to work, to prevent +Lincoln's renomination. Not a few of them actually believed, in +1863, that, if the national convention of the Union party were +held then, Lincoln would not be supported by the delegation of a +single State. But when the convention met at Baltimore, in June, +1864, the voice of the people was heard. On the first ballot +Lincoln received the votes of the delegations from all the States +except Missouri; and even the Missourians turned over their votes +to him before the result of the ballot was declared. + +But even after his renomination the opposition to Lincoln within +the ranks of the Union party did not subside. A convention, +called by the dissatisfied radicals in Missouri, and favored by +men of a similar way of thinking in other States, had been held +already in May, and had nominated as its candidate for the +Presidency General Fremont. He, indeed, did not attract a strong +following, but opposition movements from different quarters +appeared more formidable. Henry Winter Davis and Benjamin Wade +assailed Lincoln in a flaming manifesto. Other Union men, of +undoubted patriotism and high standing, persuaded themselves, and +sought to persuade the people, that Lincoln's renomination was +ill advised and dangerous to the Union cause. As the Democrats +had put off their convention until the 29th of August, the Union +party had, during the larger part of the summer, no opposing +candidate and platform to attack, and the political campaign +languished. Neither were the tidings from the theatre of war of +a cheering character. The terrible losses suffered by Grant's +army in the battles of the Wilderness spread general gloom. +Sherman seemed for a while to be in a precarious position before +Atlanta. The opposition to Lincoln within the Union party grew +louder in its complaints and discouraging predictions. Earnest +demands were heard that his candidacy should be withdrawn. +Lincoln himself, not knowing how strongly the masses were +attached to him, was haunted by dark forebodings of defeat. Then +the scene suddenly changed as if by magic. + +The Democrats, in their national convention, declared the war a +failure, demanded, substantially, peace at any price, and +nominated on such a platform General McClellan as their +candidate. Their convention had hardly adjourned when the +capture of Atlanta gave a new aspect to the military situation. +It was like a sun-ray bursting through a dark cloud. The rank +and file of the Union party rose with rapidly growing enthusiasm. +The song "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand +strong," resounded all over the land. Long before the decisive +day arrived, the result was beyond doubt, and Lincoln was re- +elected President by overwhelming majorities. The election over +even his severest critics found themselves forced to admit that +Lincoln was the only possible candidate for the Union party in +1864, and that neither political combinations nor campaign +speeches, nor even victories in the field, were needed to insure +his success. The plain people had all the while been satisfied +with Abraham Lincoln: they confided in him; they loved him; they +felt themselves near to him; they saw personified in him the +cause of Union and freedom; and they went to the ballot-box for +him in their strength. + +The hour of triumph called out the characteristic impulses of his +nature. The opposition within the Union party had stung him to +the quick. Now he had his opponents before him, baffled and +humiliated. Not a moment did he lose to stretch out the hand of +friendship to all. " Now that the election is over," he said, in +response to a serenade, "may not all, having a common interest, +reunite in a common effort to save our common country? For my own +part, I have striven, and will strive, to place no obstacle in +the way. So long as I have been here I have not willingly +planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am deeply sensible +to the high compliment of a re-election, it adds nothing to my +satisfaction that any other man may be pained or disappointed by +the result. May I ask those who were with me to join with me in +the same spirit toward those who were against me?" This was +Abraham Lincoln's character as tested in the furnace of +prosperity. + +The war was virtually decided, but not yet ended. Sherman was +irresistibly carrying the Union flag through the South. Grant +had his iron hand upon the ramparts of Richmond. The days of the +Confederacy were evidently numbered. Only the last blow remained +to be struck. Then Lincoln's second inauguration came, and with +it his second inaugural address. Lincoln's famous "Gettysburg +speech " has been much and justly admired. But far greater, as +well as far more characteristic, was that inaugural in which he +poured out the whole devotion and tenderness of his great soul. +It had all the solemnity of a father's last admonition and +blessing to his children before he lay down to die. These were +its closing words: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that +this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God +wills that it continue until all the wealth piled up by the +bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be +sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be +paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand +years ago, so still it must be said, `The judgments of the Lord +are true and righteous altogether.' With malice toward none, +with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us +to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in; to +bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne +the battle, and for his widow and his orphan; to do all which may +achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and +with all nations." + +This was like a sacred poem. No American President had ever +spoken words like these to the American people. America never +had a President who found such words in the depth of his heart. + +Now followed the closing scenes of the war. The Southern armies +fought bravely to the last, but all in vain. Richmond fell. +Lincoln himself entered the city on foot, accompanied only by a +few officers and a squad of sailors who had rowed him ashore from +the flotilla in the James River, a negro picked up on the way +serving as a guide. Never had the world seen a more modest +conqueror and a more characteristic triumphal procession, no army +with banners and drums, only a throng of those who had been +slaves, hastily run together, escorting the victorious chief into +the capital of the vanquished foe. We are told that they pressed +around him, kissed his hands and his garments, and shouted and +danced for joy, while tears ran down the President's care- +furrowed cheeks. + +A few days more brought the surrender of Lee's army, and peace +was assured. The people of the North were wild with joy. +Everywhere festive guns were booming, bells pealing, the churches +ringing with thanksgivings, and jubilant multitudes thronging the +thoroughfares, when suddenly the news flashed over the land that +Abraham Lincoln had been murdered. The people were stunned by +the blow. Then a wail of sorrow went up such as America had +never heard before. Thousands of Northern households grieved as +if they had lost their dearest member. Many a Southern man cried +out in his heart that his people had been robbed of their best +friend in their humiliation and distress, when Abraham Lincoln +was struck down. It was as if the tender affection which his +countrymen bore him had inspired all nations with a common +sentiment. All civilized mankind stood mourning around the +coffin of the dead President. Many of those, here and abroad, +who not long before had ridiculed and reviled him were among the +first to hasten on with their flowers of eulogy, and in that +universal chorus of lamentation and praise there was not a voice +that did not tremble with genuine emotion. Never since +Washington's death had there been such unanimity of judgment as +to a man's virtues and greatness; and even Washington's death, +although his name was held in greater reverence, did not touch so +sympathetic a chord in the people's hearts. + +Nor can it be said that this was owing to the tragic character of +Lincoln's end. It is true, the death of this gentlest and most +merciful of rulers by the hand of a mad fanatic was well apt to +exalt him beyond his merits in the estimation of those who loved +him, and to make his renown the object of peculiarly tender +solicitude. But it is also true that the verdict pronounced upon +him in those days has been affected little by time, and that +historical inquiry has served rather to increase than to lessen +the appreciation of his virtues, his abilities, his services. +Giving the fullest measure of credit to his great ministers,--to +Seward for his conduct of foreign affairs, to Chase for the +management of the finances under terrible difficulties, to +Stanton for the performance of his tremendous task as war +secretary,--and readily acknowledging that without the skill and +fortitude of the great commanders, and the heroism of the +soldiers and sailors under them, success could not have been +achieved, the historian still finds that Lincoln's judgment and +will were by no means governed by those around him; that the most +important steps were owing to his initiative; that his was the +deciding and directing mind; and that it was pre-eminently he +whose sagacity and whose character enlisted for the +administration in its struggles the countenance, the sympathy, +and the support of the people. It is found, even, that his +judgment on military matters was astonishingly acute, and that +the advice and instructions he gave to the generals commanding in +the field would not seldom have done honor to the ablest of them. +History, therefore, without overlooking, or palliating, or +excusing any of his shortcomings or mistakes, continues to place +him foremost among the saviours of the Union and the liberators +of the slave. More than that, it awards to him the merit of +having accomplished what but few political philosophers would +have recognized as possible,--of leading the republic through +four years of furious civil conflict without any serious +detriment to its free institutions. + +He was, indeed, while President, violently denounced by the +opposition as a tyrant and a usurper, for having gone beyond his +constitutional powers in authorizing or permitting the temporary +suppression of newspapers, and in wantonly suspending the writ of +habeas corpus and resorting to arbitrary arrests. 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 demanded by necessity, +should never be permitted to pass without a protest on the one +hand, and without an apology on the other. It is well they did +not so pass during our civil war. That arbitrary measures were +resorted to is true. That they were resorted to most sparingly, +and only when the government thought them absolutely required by +the safety of the republic, will now hardly be denied. But +certain it is that the history of the world does not furnish a +single example of a government passing through so tremendous a +crisis as our civil war was with so small a record of arbitrary +acts, and so little interference with the ordinary course of law +outside the field of military operations. No American President +ever wielded such power as that which was thrust into Lincoln's +hands. It is to be hoped that no American President ever will +have to be entrusted with such power again. But no man was ever +entrusted with it to whom its seductions were less dangerous than +they proved to be to Abraham Lincoln. With scrupulous care he +endeavored, even under the most trying circumstances, to remain +strictly within the constitutional limitations of his authority; +and whenever the boundary became indistinct, or when the dangers +of the situation forced him to cross it, he was equally careful +to mark his acts as exceptional measures, justifiable only by the +imperative necessities of the civil war, so that they might not +pass into history as precedents for similar acts in time of +peace. It is an unquestionable fact that during the +reconstruction period which followed the war, more things were +done capable of serving as dangerous precedents than during the +war itself. Thus it may truly be said of him not only that under +his guidance the republic was saved from disruption and the +country was purified of the blot of slavery, but that, during the +stormiest and most perilous crisis in our history, he so +conducted the government and so wielded his almost dictatorial +power as to leave essentially intact our free institutions in all +things that concern the rights and liberties of the citizens. He +understood well the nature of the problem. In his first message +to Congress he defined it in admirably pointed language: "Must a +government be of necessity too strong for the liberties of its +own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence? Is there +in all republics this inherent weakness?" This question he +answered in the name of the great American republic, as no man +could have answered it better, with a triumphant "No...." + +It has been said that Abraham Lincoln died at the right moment +for his fame. However that may be, he had, at the time of his +death, certainly not exhausted his usefulness to his country. He +was probably the only man who could have guided the nation +through the perplexities of the reconstruction period in such a +manner as to prevent in the work of peace the revival of the +passions of the war. He would indeed not have escaped serious +controversy as to details of policy; but he could have weathered +it far better than any other statesman of his time, for his +prestige with the active politicians had been immensely +strengthened by his triumphant re-election; and, what is more +important, he would have been supported by the confidence of the +victorious Northern people that he would do all to secure the +safety of the Union and the rights of the emancipated negro, and +at the same time by the confidence of the defeated Southern +people that nothing would be done by him from motives of +vindictiveness, or of unreasoning fanaticism, or of a selfish +party spirit. "With malice toward none, with charity for all," +the foremost of the victors would have personified in himself the +genius of reconciliation. + +He might have rendered the country a great service in another +direction. A few days after the fall of Richmond, he pointed out +to a friend the crowd of office-seekers besieging his door. +"Look at that," said he. " Now we have conquered the rebellion, +but here you see something that may become more dangerous to this +republic than the rebellion itself." It is true, Lincoln as +President did not profess what we now call civil service reform +principles. He used the patronage of the government in many +cases avowedly to reward party work, in many others to form +combinations and to produce political effects advantageous to the +Union cause, and in still others simply to put the right man into +the right place. But in his endeavors to strengthen the Union +cause, and in his search for able and useful men for public +duties, he frequently went beyond the limits of his party, and +gradually accustomed himself to the thought that, while party +service had its value, considerations of the public interest +were, as to appointments to office, of far greater consequence. +Moreover, there had been such a mingling of different political +elements in support of the Union during the civil war that +Lincoln, standing at the head of that temporarily united motley +mass, hardly felt himself, in the narrow sense of the term, a +party man. And as he became strongly impressed with the dangers +brought upon the republic by the use of public offices as party +spoils, it is by no means improbable that, had he survived the +all-absorbing crisis and found time to turn to other objects, one +of the most important reforms of later days would have been +pioneered by his powerful authority. This was not to be. But +the measure of his achievements was full enough for immortality. + +To the younger generation Abraham Lincoln has already become a +half-mythical figure, which, in the haze of historic distance, +grows to more and more heroic proportions, but also loses in +distinctness of outline and feature. This is indeed the common +lot of popular heroes; but the Lincoln legend will be more than +ordinarily apt to become fanciful, as his individuality, +assembling seemingly incongruous qualities and forces in a +character at the same time grand and most lovable, was so unique, +and his career so abounding in startling contrasts. As the state +of society in which Abraham Lincoln grew up passes away, the +world will read with increasing wonder of the man who, not only +of the humblest origin, but remaining the simplest and most +unpretending of citizens, was raised to a position of power +unprecedented in our history; who was the gentlest and most +peace-loving of mortals, unable to see any creature suffer +without a pang in his own breast, and suddenly found himself +called to conduct the greatest and bloodiest of our wars; who +wielded the power of government when stern resolution and +relentless force were the order of the day and then won and ruled +the popular mind and heart by the tender sympathies of his +nature; who was a cautious conservative by temperament and mental +habit, and led the most sudden and sweeping social revolution of +our time; who, preserving his homely speech and rustic manner +even in the most conspicuous position of that period, drew upon +himself the scoffs of polite society, and then thrilled the soul +of mankind with utterances of wonderful beauty and grandeur; who, +in his heart the best friend of the defeated South, was murdered +because a crazy fanatic took him for its most cruel enemy; who, +while in power, was beyond measure lampooned and maligned by +sectional passion and an excited party spirit, and around whose +bier friend and foe gathered to praise him which they have since +never ceased to do--as one of the greatest of Americans and the +best of men. + + + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +BY JOSEPH H. CHOATE + + +[This Address was delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical +Institution, November 13, 1900. It is included in this set with +the courteous permission of the author and of Messrs. Thomas Y. +Crowell & Company.] + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +When you asked me to deliver the Inaugural Address on this +occasion, I recognized that I owed this compliment to the fact +that I was the official representative of America, and in +selecting a subject I ventured to think that I might interest you +for an hour in a brief study in popular government, as +illustrated by the life of the most American of all Americans. I +therefore offer no apology for asking your attention to Abraham +Lincoln--to his unique character and the part he bore in two +important achievements of modern history: the preservation of the +integrity of the American Union and the emancipation of the +colored race. + +During his brief term of power he was probably the object of more +abuse, vilification, and ridicule than any other man in the +world; but when he fell by the hand of an assassin, at the very +moment of his stupendous victory, all the nations of the earth +vied with one another in paying homage to his character, and the +thirty-five years that have since elapsed have established his +place in history as one of the great benefactors not of his own +country alone, but of the human race. + +One of many noble utterances upon the occasion of his death was +that in which 'Punch' made its magnanimous recantation of the +spirit with which it had pursued him: + + + "Beside this corpse that bears for winding sheet + The stars and stripes he lived to rear anew, + Between the mourners at his head and feet, + Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? + + ................... + + "Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, + To lame my pencil, and confute my pen + To make me own this hind--of princes peer, + This rail-splitter--a true born king of men." + + +Fiction can furnish no match for the romance of his life, and +biography will be searched in vain for such startling +vicissitudes of fortune, so great power and glory won out of such +humble beginnings and adverse circumstances. + +Doubtless you are all familiar with the salient points of his +extraordinary career. In the zenith of his fame he was the wise, +patient, courageous, successful ruler of men; exercising more +power than any monarch of his time, not for himself, but for the +good of the people who had placed it in his hands; commander-in- +chief of a vast military power, which waged with ultimate success +the greatest war of the century; the triumphant champion of +popular government, the deliverer of four millions of his fellow- +men from bondage; honored by mankind as Statesman, President, and +Liberator. + +Let us glance now at the first half of the brief life of which +this was the glorious and happy consummation. Nothing could be +more squalid and miserable than the home in which Abraham Lincoln +was born--a one-roomed cabin without floor or window in what was +then the wilderness of Kentucky, in the heart of that frontier +life which swiftly moved westward from the Alleghanies to the +Mississippi, always in advance of schools and churches, of books +and money, of railroads and newspapers, of all things which are +generally regarded as the comforts and even necessaries of life. +His father, ignorant, needy, and thriftless, content if he could +keep soul and body together for himself and his family, was ever +seeking, without success, to better his unhappy condition by +moving on from one such scene of dreary desolation to another. +The rude society which surrounded them was not much better. The +struggle for existence was hard, and absorbed all their energies. +They were fighting the forest, the wild beast, and the retreating +savage. From the time when he could barely handle tools until he +attained his majority, Lincoln's life was that of a simple farm +laborer, poorly clad, housed, and fed, at work either on his +father's wretched farm or hired out to neighboring farmers. But +in spite, or perhaps by means, of this rude environment, he grew +to be a stalwart giant, reaching six feet four at nineteen, and +fabulous stories are told of his feats of strength. With the +growth of this mighty frame began that strange education which in +his ripening years was to qualify him for the great destiny that +awaited him, and the development of those mental faculties and +moral endowments which, by the time he reached middle life, were +to make him the sagacious, patient, and triumphant leader of a +great nation in the crisis of its fate. His whole schooling, +obtained during such odd times as could be spared from grinding +labor, did not amount in all to as much as one year, and the +quality of the teaching was of the lowest possible grade, +including only the elements of reading, writing, and ciphering. +But out of these simple elements, when rightly used by the right +man, education is achieved, and Lincoln knew how to use them. As +so often happens, he seemed to take warning from his father's +unfortunate example. Untiring industry, an insatiable thirst for +knowledge, and an ever-growing desire to rise above his +surroundings, were early manifestations of his character. + +Books were almost unknown in that community, but the Bible was in +every house, and somehow or other Pilgrim's Progress, AEsop's +Fables, a History of the United States, and a Life of Washington +fell into his hands. He trudged on foot many miles through the +wilderness to borrow an English Grammar, and is said to have +devoured greedily the contents of the Statutes of Indiana that +fell in his way. These few volumes he read and reread--and his +power of assimilation was great. To be shut in with a few books +and to master them thoroughly sometimes does more for the +development of character than freedom to range at large, in a +cursory and indiscriminate way, through wide domains of +literature. This youth's mind, at any rate, was thoroughly +saturated with Biblical knowledge and Biblical language, which, +in after life, he used with great readiness and effect. But it +was the constant use of the little knowledge which he had that +developed and exercised his mental powers. After the hard day's +work was done, while others slept, he toiled on, always reading +or writing. From an early age he did his own thinking and made +up his own mind--invaluable traits in the future President. +Paper was such a scarce commodity that, by the evening firelight, +he would write and cipher on the back of a wooden shovel, and +then shave it off to make room for more. By and by, as he +approached manhood, he began speaking in the rude gatherings of +the neighborhood, and so laid the foundation of that art of +persuading his fellow-men which was one rich result of his +education, and one great secret of his subsequent success. + +Accustomed as we are in these days of steam and telegraphs to +have every intelligent boy survey the whole world each morning +before breakfast, and inform himself as to what is going on in +every nation, it is hardly possible to conceive how benighted and +isolated was the condition of the community at Pigeon Creek in +Indiana, of which the family of Lincoln's father formed a part, +or how eagerly an ambitious and high-spirited boy, such as he, +must have yearned to escape. The first glimpse that he ever got +of any world beyond the narrow confines of his home was in 1828, +at the age of nineteen, when a neighbor employed him to accompany +his son down the river to New Orleans to dispose of a flatboat of +produce--a commission which he discharged with great success. + +Shortly after his return from this his first excursion into the +outer world, his father, tired of failure in Indiana, packed his +family and all his worldly goods into a single wagon drawn by two +yoke of oxen, and after a fourteen days' tramp through the +wilderness, pitched his camp once more, in Illinois. Here +Abraham, having come of age and being now his own master, +rendered the last service of his minority by ploughing the +fifteen-acre lot and splitting from the tall walnut trees of the +primeval forest enough rails to surround the little clearing with +a fence. Such was the meagre outfit of this coming leader of +men, at the age when the future British Prime Minister or +statesman emerges from the university as a double first or senior +wrangler, with every advantage that high training and broad +culture and association with the wisest and the best of men and +women can give, and enters upon some form of public service on +the road to usefulness and honor, the University course being +only the first stage of the public training. So Lincoln, at +twenty-one, had just begun his preparation for the public life to +which he soon began to aspire. For some years yet he must +continue to earn his daily bread by the sweat of his brow, having +absolutely no means, no home, no friend to consult. More farm +work as a hired hand, a clerkship in a village store, the running +of a mill, another trip to New Orleans on a flatboat of his own +contriving, a pilot's berth on the river--these were the means by +which he subsisted until, in the summer of 1832, when he was +twenty-three years of age, an event occurred which gave him +public recognition. + +The Black Hawk war broke out, and, the Governor of Illinois +calling for volunteers to repel the band of savages whose leader +bore that name, Lincoln enlisted and was elected captain by his +comrades, among whom he had already established his supremacy by +signal feats of strength and more than one successful single +combat. During the brief hostilities he was engaged in no battle +and won no military glory, but his local leadership was +established. The same year he offered himself as a candidate for +the Legislature of Illinois, but failed at the polls. Yet his +vast popularity with those who knew him was manifest. The +district consisted of several counties, but the unanimous vote of +the people of his own county was for Lincoln. Another +unsuccessful attempt at store-keeping was followed by better luck +at surveying, until his horse and instruments were levied upon +under execution for the debts of his business adventure. + +I have been thus detailed in sketching his early years because +upon these strange foundations the structure of his great fame +and service was built. In the place of a school and university +training fortune substituted these trials, hardships, and +struggles as a preparation for the great work which he had to do. +It turned out to be exactly what the emergency required. Ten +years instead at the public school and the university certainly +never could have fitted this man for the unique work which was to +be thrown upon him. Some other Moses would have had to lead us +to our Jordan, to the sight of our promised land of liberty. + +At the age of twenty-five he became a member of the Legislature +of Illinois, and so continued for eight years, and, in the +meantime, qualified himself by reading such law books as he could +borrow at random--for he was too poor to buy any to be called to +the Bar. For his second quarter of a century--during which a +single term in Congress introduced him into the arena of national +questions--he gave himself up to law and politics. In spite of +his soaring ambition, his two years in Congress gave him no +premonition of the great destiny that awaited him,--and at its +close, in 1849, we find him an unsuccessful applicant to the +President for appointment as Commissioner of the General Land +Office--a purely administrative bureau; a fortunate escape for +himself and for his country. Year by year his knowledge and +power, his experience and reputation extended, and his mental +faculties seemed to grow by what they fed on. His power of +persuasion, which had always been marked, was developed to an +extraordinary degree, now that he became engaged in congenial +questions and subjects. Little by little he rose to prominence +at the Bar, and became the most effective public speaker in the +West. Not that he possessed any of the graces of the orator; but +his logic was invincible, and his clearness and force of +statement impressed upon his hearers the convictions of his +honest mind, while his broad sympathies and sparkling and genial +humor made him a universal favorite as far and as fast as his +acquaintance extended. + +These twenty years that elapsed from the time of his +establishment as a lawyer and legislator in Springfield, the new +capital of Illinois, furnished a fitting theatre for the +development and display of his great faculties, and, with his new +and enlarged opportunities, he obviously grew in mental stature +in this second period of his career, as if to compensate for the +absolute lack of advantages under which he had suffered in youth. +As his powers enlarged, his reputation extended, for he was +always before the people, felt a warm sympathy with all that +concerned them, took a zealous part in the discussion of every +public question, and made his personal influence ever more widely +and deeply felt. + +My, brethren of the legal profession will naturally ask me, how +could this rough backwoodsman, whose youth had been spent in the +forest or on the farm and the flatboat, without culture or +training, education or study, by the random reading, on the wing, +of a few miscellaneous law books, become a learned and +accomplished lawyer? Well, he never did. He never would have +earned his salt as a 'Writer' for the 'Signet', nor have won a +place as advocate in the Court of Session, where the technique of +the profession has reached its highest perfection, and centuries +of learning and precedent are involved in the equipment of a +lawyer. Dr. Holmes, when asked by an anxious young mother, "When +should the education of a child begin?" replied, "Madam, at least +two centuries before it is born!" and so I am sure it is with the +Scots lawyer. + +But not so in Illinois in 1840. Between i83o and x88o its +population increased twenty-fold, and when Lincoln began +practising law in Springfield in 1837, life in Illinois was very +crude and simple, and so were the courts and the administration +of justice. Books and libraries were scarce. But the people +loved justice, upheld the law, and followed the courts, and soon +found their favorites among the advocates. The fundamental +principles of the common law, as set forth by Blackstone and +Chitty, were not so difficult to acquire; and brains, common +sense, force of character, tenacity of purpose, ready wit and +power of speech did the rest, and supplied all the deficiencies +of learning. + +The lawsuits of those days were extremely simple, and the +principles of natural justice were mainly relied on to dispose of +them at the Bar and on the Bench, without resort to technical +learning. Railroads, corporations absorbing the chief business +of the community, combined and inherited wealth, with all the +subtle and intricate questions they breed, had not yet come in-- +and so the professional agents and the equipment which they +require were not needed. But there were many highly educated and +powerful men at the Bar of Illinois, even in those early days, +whom the spirit of enterprise had carried there in search of fame +and fortune. It was by constant contact and conflict with these +that Lincoln acquired professional strength and skill. Every +community and every age creates its own Bar, entirely adequate +for its present uses and necessities. So in Illinois, as the +population and wealth of the State kept on doubling and +quadrupling, its Bar presented a growing abundance of learning +and science and technical skill. The early practitioners grew +with its growth and mastered the requisite knowledge. Chicago +soon grew to be one of the largest and richest and certainly the +most intensely active city on the continent, and if any of my +professional friends here had gone there in Lincoln's later +years, to try or argue a cause, or transact other business, with +any idea that Edinburgh or London had a monopoly of legal +learning, science, or subtlety, they would certainly have found +their mistake. + +In those early days in the West, every lawyer, especially every +court lawyer, was necessarily a politician, constantly engaged in +the public discussion of the many questions evolved from the +rapid development of town, county, State, and Federal affairs. +Then and there, in this regard, public discussion supplied the +place which the universal activity of the press has since +monopolized, and the public speaker who, by clearness, force, +earnestness, and wit; could make himself felt on the questions of +the day would rapidly come to the front. In the absence of that +immense variety of popular entertainments which now feed the +public taste and appetite, the people found their chief amusement +in frequenting the courts and public and political assemblies. +In either place, he who impressed, entertained, and amused them +most was the hero of the hour. They did not discriminate very +carefully between the eloquence of the forum and the eloquence of +the hustings. Human nature ruled in both alike, and he who was +the most effective speaker in a political harangue was often +retained as most likely to win in a cause to be tried or argued. +And I have no doubt in this way many retainers came to Lincoln. +Fees, money in any form, had no charms for him--in his eager +pursuit of fame he could not afford to make money. He was +ambitious to distinguish himself by some great service to +mankind, and this ambition for fame and real public service left +no room for avarice in his composition. However much he earned, +he seems to have ended every year hardly richer than he began it, +and yet, as the years passed, fees came to him freely. One of +L 1,000 is recorded--a very large professional fee at that time, +even in any part of America, the paradise of lawyers. I lay +great stress on Lincoln's career as a lawyer--much more than his +biographers do because in America a state of things exists wholly +different from that which prevails in Great Britain. The +profession of the law always has been and is to this day the +principal avenue to public life; and I am sure that his training +and experience in the courts had much to do with the development +of those forces of intellect and character which he soon +displayed on a broader arena. + +It was in political controversy, of course, that he acquired his +wide reputation, and made his deep and lasting impression upon +the people of what had now become the powerful State of Illinois, +and upon the people of the Great West, to whom the political +power and control of the United States were already surely and +swiftly passing from the older Eastern States. It was this +reputation and this impression, and the familiar knowledge of his +character which had come to them from his local leadership, that +happily inspired the people of the West to present him as their +candidate, and to press him upon the Republican convention of +1860 as the fit and necessary leader in the struggle for life +which was before the nation. + +That struggle, as you all know, arose out of the terrible +question of slavery--and I must trust to your general knowledge +of the history of that question to make intelligible the attitude +and leadership of Lincoln as the champion of the hosts of freedom +in the final contest. Negro slavery had been firmly established +in the Southern States from an early period of their history. In +1619, the year before the Mayflower landed our Pilgrim Fathers +upon Plymouth Rock, a Dutch ship had discharged a cargo of +African slaves at Jamestown in Virginia: All through the colonial +period their importation had continued. A few had found their +way into the Northern States, but none of them in sufficient +numbers to constitute danger or to afford a basis for political +power. At the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, +there is no doubt that the principal members of the convention +not only condemned slavery as a moral, social, and political +evil, but believed that by the suppression of the slave trade it +was in the course of gradual extinction in the South, as it +certainly was in the North. Washington, in his will, provided +for the emancipation of his own slaves, and said to Jefferson +that it "was among his first wishes to see some plan adopted by +which slavery in his country might be abolished." Jefferson +said, referring to the institution: "I tremble for my country +when I think that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep +forever,"--and Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, and Patrick Henry were +all utterly opposed to it. But it was made the subject of a +fatal compromise in the Federal Constitution, whereby its +existence was recognized in the States as a basis of +representation, the prohibition of the importation of slaves was +postponed for twenty years, and the return of fugitive slaves +provided for. But no imminent danger was apprehended from it +till, by the invention of the cotton gin in 1792, cotton culture +by negro labor became at once and forever the leading industry of +the South, and gave a new impetus to the importation of slaves, +so that in 1808, when the constitutional prohibition took effect, +their numbers had vastly increased. From that time forward +slavery became the basis of a great political power, and the +Southern States, under all circumstances and at every +opportunity, carried on a brave and unrelenting struggle for its +maintenance and extension. + +The conscience of the North was slow to rise against it, though +bitter controversies from time to time took place. The Southern +leaders threatened disunion if their demands were not complied +with. To save the Union, compromise after compromise was made, +but each one in the end was broken. The Missouri Compromise, +made in 1820 upon the occasion of the admission of Missouri into +the Union as a slave State, whereby, in consideration of such +admission, slavery was forever excluded from the Northwest +Territory, was ruthlessly repealed in 1854, by a Congress elected +in the interests of the slave power, the intent being to force +slavery into that vast territory which had so long been dedicated +to freedom. This challenge at last aroused the slumbering +conscience and passion of the North, and led to the formation of +the Republican party for the avowed purpose of preventing, by +constitutional methods, the further extension of slavery. + +In its first campaign, in 1856, though it failed to elect its +candidates; it received a surprising vote and carried many of the +States. No one could any longer doubt that the North had made up +its mind that no threats of disunion should deter it from +pressing its cherished purpose and performing its long neglected +duty. From the outset, Lincoln was one of the most active and +effective leaders and speakers of the new party, and the great +debates between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858, as the respective +champions of the restriction and extension of slavery, attracted +the attention of the whole country. Lincoln's powerful arguments +carried conviction everywhere. His moral nature was thoroughly +aroused his conscience was stirred to the quick. Unless slavery +was wrong, nothing was wrong. Was each man, of whatever color, +entitled to the fruits of his own labor, or could one man live in +idle luxury by the sweat of another's brow, whose skin was +darker? He was an implicit believer in that principle of the +Declaration of Independence that all men are vested with certain +inalienable rights the equal rights to life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness. On this doctrine he staked his case and +carried it. We have time only for one or two sentences in which +he struck the keynote of the contest + +"The real issue in this country is the eternal struggle between +these two principles--right and wrong--throughout the world. +They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the +beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one +is the common right of humanity, and the other the divine right +of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops +itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and +earn bread and I'll eat it." + +He foresaw with unerring vision that the conflict was inevitable +and irrepressible--that one or the other, the right or the wrong, +freedom or slavery, must ultimately prevail and wholly prevail, +throughout the country; and this was the principle that carried +the war, once begun, to a finish. + +One sentence of his is immortal: + +"Under the operation of the policy of compromise, the slavery +agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. +In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been +reached and passed. 'A house divided against itself cannot +stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half +slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be 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 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." + +During the entire decade from 1850 to 1860 the agitation of the +slavery question was at the boiling point, and events which have +become historical continually indicated the near approach of the +overwhelming storm. No sooner had the Compromise Acts of 1850 +resulted in a temporary peace, which everybody said must be final +and perpetual, than new outbreaks came. The forcible carrying +away of fugitive slaves by Federal troops from Boston agitated +that ancient stronghold of freedom to its foundations. The +publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which truly exposed the +frightful possibilities of the slave system; the reckless +attempts by force and fraud to establish it in Kansas against the +will of the vast majority of the settlers; the beating of Summer +in the Senate Chamber for words spoken in debate; the Dred Scott +decision in the Supreme Court, which made the nation realize that +the slave power had at last reached the fountain of Federal +justice; and finally the execution of John Brown, for his wild +raid into Virginia, to invite the slaves to rally to the standard +of freedom which he unfurled:--all these events tend to +illustrate and confirm Lincoln's contention that the nation could +not permanently continue half slave and half free, but must +become all one thing or all the other. When John Brown lay under +sentence of death he declared that now he was sure that slavery +must be wiped out in blood; but neither he nor his executioners +dreamt that within four years a million soldiers would be +marching across the country for its final extirpation, to the +music of the war-song of the great conflict: + + "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, + But his soul is marching on." + +And now, at the age of fifty-one, this child of the wilderness, +this farm laborer, rail-sputter, flatboatman, this surveyor, +lawyer, orator, statesman, and patriot, found himself elected by +the great party which was pledged to prevent at all hazards the +further extension of slavery, as the chief magistrate of the +Republic, bound to carry out that purpose, to be the leader and +ruler of the nation in its most trying hour. + +Those who believe that there is a living Providence that +overrules and conducts the affairs of nations, find in the +elevation of this plain man to this extraordinary fortune and to +this great duty, which he so fitly discharged, a signal +vindication of their faith. Perhaps to this philosophical +institution the judgment of our philosopher Emerson will commend +itself as a just estimate of Lincoln's historical place + +"His occupying the chair of state was a triumph of the good sense +of mankind and of the public conscience. He grew according to +the need; his mind mastered the problem of the day: and as the +problem grew, so did his comprehension of it. In the war there +was no place for holiday magistrate, nor fair-weather sailor. +The new pilot was hurried to the helm in a tornado. In four +years--four years of battle days--his endurance, his fertility of +resource, his magnanimity, were sorely tried, and never found +wanting. There, by his courage, his justice, his even temper, +his fertile counsel, his humanity, he stood a heroic figure in +the centre of a heroic epoch. He is the true history of the +American people in his time, the true representative of this +continent--father of his country, the pulse of twenty millions +throbbing in his heart, the thought of their mind--articulated in +his tongue." + +He was born great, as distinguished from those who achieve +greatness or have it thrust upon them, and his inherent capacity, +mental, moral, and physical, having been recognized by the +educated intelligence of a free people, they happily chose him +for their ruler in a day of deadly peril. + +It is now forty years since I first saw and heard Abraham +Lincoln, but the impression which he left on my mind is +ineffaceable. After his great successes in the West he came to +New York to make a political address. 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 struggle; his deep-set eyes looked sad and anxious; +his countenance in repose gave little evidence of that brain +power which had raised him from the lowest to the highest station +among his countrymen; 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, clergymen, statesmen, +lawyers, merchants, critics. They were all very curious to hear +him. His fame as a powerful speaker had preceded him, and +exaggerated rumor of his wit--the worst forerunner of an orator-- +had reached the East. When Mr. Bryant presented him, on the high +platform of the Cooper Institute, 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 pretence, he spoke straight to the point. If any came +expecting 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 marvellous 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 Constitution in order to form a more +perfect union, to establish justice, and 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 those 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 wrong 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 congratulations, and he who had come +as a stranger departed with the laurels of great triumph. + +Alas! in five years from that exulting night I saw him again, for +the last time, in the same city, borne in his coffin through its +draped streets. With tears and lamentations a heart-broken +people accompanied him from Washington, the scene of his +martyrdom, to his last resting-place in the young city of the +West where he had worked his way to fame. + +Never was a new ruler in a more desperate plight than Lincoln +when he entered office on the fourth of March, 1861, four months +after his election, and took his oath to support the Constitution +and the Union. The intervening time had been busily employed by +the Southern States in carrying out their threat of disunion in +the event of his election. As soon as the fact was ascertained, +seven of them had seceded and had seized upon the forts, +arsenals, navy yards, and other public property of the United +States within their boundaries, and were making every preparation +for war. In the meantime the retiring President, who had been +elected by the slave power, and who thought the seceding States +could not lawfully be coerced, had done absolutely nothing. +Lincoln found himself, by the Constitution, Commander-in-Chief of +the Army and Navy of the United States, but with only a remnant +of either at hand. Each was to be created on a great scale out +of the unknown resources of a nation untried in war. + +In his mild and conciliatory inaugural address, while appealing +to the seceding States to return to their allegiance, he avowed +his purpose to keep the solemn oath he had taken that day, to see +that the laws of the Union were faithfully executed, and to use +the troops to recover the forts, navy yards, and other property +belonging to the government. It is probable, however, that +neither side actually realized that war was inevitable, and that +the other was determined to fight, until the assault on Fort +Sumter presented the South as the first aggressor and roused the +North to use every possible resource to maintain the government +and the imperilled Union, and to vindicate the supremacy of the +flag over every inch of the territory of the United States. The +fact that Lincoln's first proclamation called for only 75,000 +troops, to serve for three months, shows how inadequate was even +his idea of what the future had in store. But from that moment +Lincoln and his loyal supporters never faltered in their purpose. +They knew they could win, that it was their duty to win, and that +for America the whole hope of the future depended upon their +winning; for now by the acts of the seceding States the issue of +the election to secure or prevent the extension of slavery--stood +transformed into a struggle to preserve or to destroy the Union. + +We cannot follow this contest. You know its gigantic +proportions; that it lasted four years instead of three months; +that in its progress, instead of 75,000 men, more than 2,000,000 +were enrolled on the side of the government alone; that the +aggregate cost and loss to the nation approximated to +1,000,000,000 pounds sterling, and that not less than 300,000 +brave and precious lives were sacrificed on each side. History +has recorded how Lincoln bore himself during these four frightful +years; that he was the real President, the responsible and actual +head of the government, through it all; that he listened to all +advice, heard all parties, and then, always realizing his +responsibility to God and the nation, decided every great +executive question for himself. His absolute honesty had become +proverbial long before he was President. "Honest Abe Lincoln" +was the name by which he had been known for years. His every act +attested it. + +In all the grandeur of the vast power that he wielded, he never +ceased to be one of the plain people, as he always called them, +never lost or impaired his perfect sympathy with them, was always +in perfect touch with them and open to their appeals; and here +lay the very secret of his personality and of his power, for the +people in turn gave him their absolute confidence. His courage, +his fortitude, his patience, his hopefulness, were sorely tried +but never exhausted. + +He was true as steel to his generals, but had frequent occasion +to change them, as he found them inadequate. This serious and +painful duty rested wholly upon him, and was perhaps his most +important function as Commander-in-Chief; but when, at last, he +recognized in General Grant the master of the situation, the man +who could and would bring the war to a triumphant end, he gave it +all over to him and upheld him with all his might. Amid all the +pressure and distress that the burdens of office brought upon +him, his unfailing sense of humor saved him; probably it made it +possible for him to live under the burden. He had always been +the great story-teller of the West, and he used and cultivated +this faculty to relieve the weight of the load he bore. + +It enabled him to keep the wonderful record of never having lost +his temper, no matter what agony he had to bear. A whole night +might be spent in recounting the stories of his wit, humor, and +harmless sarcasm. But I will recall only two of his sayings, +both about General Grant, who always found plenty of enemies and +critics to urge the President to oust him from his command. One, +I am sure, will interest all Scotchmen. They repeated with +malicious intent the gossip that Grant drank. "What does he +drink?" asked Lincoln. "Whiskey," was, of course, the answer; +doubtless you can guess the brand. "Well," said the President, +"just find out what particular kind he uses and I'll send a +barrel to each of my other generals." The other must be as +pleasing to the British as to the American ear. When pressed +again on other grounds to get rid of Grant, he declared, "I can't +spare that man, he fights!" + +He was tender-hearted to a fault, and never could resist the +appeals of wives and mothers of soldiers who had got into trouble +and were under sentence of death for their offences. His +Secretary of War and other officials complained that they never +could get deserters shot. As surely as the women of the +culprit's family could get at him he always gave way. Certainly +you will all appreciate his exquisite sympathy with the suffering +relatives of those who had fallen in battle. His heart bled with +theirs. Never was there a more gentle and tender utterance than +his letter to a mother who had given all her sons to her country, +written at a time when the angel of death had visited almost +every household in the land, and was already hovering over him. + +"I have been shown," he says, "in the files of the War Department +a statement 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 your grief for a loss so overwhelming but I cannot refrain +from tendering to you the consolation which 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 the lost, +and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a +sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." + +Hardly could your illustrious sovereign, from the depths of her +queenly and womanly heart, have spoken words more touching and +tender to soothe the stricken mothers of her own soldiers. + +The Emancipation Proclamation, with which Mr. Lincoln delighted +the country and the world on the first of January, 1863, will +doubtless secure for him a foremost place in history among the +philanthropists and benefactors of the race, as it rescued, from +hopeless and degrading slavery, so many millions of his fellow- +beings described in the law and existing in fact as "chattels- +personal, in the hands of their owners and possessors, to all +intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever." Rarely does +the happy fortune come to one man to render such a service to his +kind--to proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the +inhabitants thereof. + +Ideas rule the world, and never was there a more signal instance +of this triumph of an idea than here. William Lloyd Garrison, +who thirty years before had begun his crusade for the abolition +of slavery, and had lived to see this glorious and unexpected +consummation of the hopeless cause to which he had devoted his +life, well described the proclamation as a "great historic event, +sublime in its magnitude, momentous and beneficent in its far- +reaching consequences, and eminently just and right alike to the +oppressor and the oppressed." + +Lincoln had always been heart and soul opposed to slavery. +Tradition says that on the trip on the flatboat to New Orleans he +formed his first and last opinion of slavery at the sight of +negroes chained and scourged, and that then and there the iron +entered into his soul. No boy could grow to manhood in those +days as a poor white in Kentucky and Indiana, in close contact +with slavery or in its neighborhood, without a growing +consciousness of its blighting effects on free labor, as well as +of its frightful injustice and cruelty. In the Legislature of +Illinois, where the public sentiment was all for upholding the +institution and violently against every movement for its +abolition or restriction, upon the passage of resolutions to that +effect he had the courage with one companion to put on record his +protest, "believing that the institution of slavery is founded +both in injustice and bad policy." No great demonstration of +courage, you will say; but that was at a time when Garrison, for +his abolition utterances, had been dragged by an angry mob +through the streets of Boston with a rope around his body, and in +the very year that Lovejoy in the same State of Illinois was +slain by rioters while defending his press, from which he had +printed antislavery appeals. + +In Congress he brought in a bill for gradual abolition in the +District of Columbia, with compensation to the owners, for until +they raised treasonable hands against the life of the nation he +always maintained that the property of the slaveholders, into +which they had come by two centuries of descent, without fault on +their part, ought not to be taken away from them without just +compensation. He used to say that, one way or another, he had +voted forty-two times for the Wilmot Proviso, which Mr. Wilmot of +Pennsylvania moved as an addition to every bill which affected +United States territory, "that neither slavery nor involuntary +servitude shall ever exist in any part of the said territory," +and it is evident that his condemnation of the system, on moral +grounds as a crime against the human race, and on political +grounds as a cancer that was sapping the vitals of the nation, +and must master its whole being or be itself extirpated, grew +steadily upon him until it culminated in his great speeches in +the Illinois debate. + +By the mere election of Lincoln to the Presidency, the further +extension of slavery into the Territories was rendered forever +impossible--Vox populi, vox Dei. Revolutions never go backward, +and when founded on a great moral sentiment stirring the heart of +an indignant people their edicts are irresistible and final. Had +the slave power acquiesced in that election, had the Southern +States remained under the Constitution and within the Union, and +relied upon their constitutional and legal rights, their favorite +institution, immoral as it was, blighting and fatal as it was, +might have endured for another century. The great party that had +elected him, unalterably determined against its extension, was +nevertheless pledged not to interfere with its continuance in the +States where it already existed. Of course, when new regions +were forever closed against it, from its very nature it must have +begun to shrink and to dwindle; and probably gradual and +compensated emancipation, which appealed very strongly to the new +President's sense of justice and expediency, would, in the +progress of time, by a reversion to the ideas of the founders of +the Republic, have found a safe outlet for both masters and +slaves. But whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad, +and when seven States, afterwards increased to eleven, openly +seceded from the Union, when they declared and began the war upon +the nation, and challenged its mighty power to the desperate and +protracted struggle for its life, and for the maintenance of its +authority as a nation over its territory, they gave to Lincoln +and to freedom the sublime opportunity of history. + +In his first inaugural address, when as yet not a drop of +precious blood had been shed, while he held out to them the olive +branch in one hand, in the other he presented the guarantees of +the Constitution, and after reciting the emphatic resolution of +the convention that nominated him, 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 of our +political fabric depend," he reiterated this sentiment, and +declared, with no mental reservation, "that all the protection +which, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be +given, will be cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully +demanded for whatever cause as cheerfully to one section as to +another." + +When, however, these magnanimous overtures for peace and reunion +were rejected; when the seceding States defied the Constitution +and every clause and principle of it; when they persisted in +staying out of the Union from which they had seceded, and +proceeded to carve out of its territory a new and hostile empire +based on slavery; when they flew at the throat of the nation and +plunged it into the bloodiest war of the nineteenth century the +tables were turned, and the belief gradually came to the mind of +the President that if the Rebellion was not soon subdued by force +of arms, if the war must be fought out to the bitter end, then to +reach that end the salvation of the nation itself might require +the destruction of slavery wherever it existed; that if the war +was to continue on one side for Disunion, for no other purpose +than to preserve slavery, it must continue on the other side for +the Union, to destroy slavery. + +As he said, "Events control me; I cannot control events," and as +the dreadful war progressed and became more deadly and dangerous, +the unalterable conviction was forced upon him that, in order +that the frightful sacrifice of life and treasure on both sides +might not be all in vain, it had become his duty as Commander-in- +Chief of the Army, as a necessary war measure, to strike a blow +at the Rebellion which, all others failing, would inevitably lead +to its annihilation, by annihilating the very thing for which it +was contending. His own words are the best: + +"I understood that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the +best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving by +every indispensable means that government--that nation--of which +that Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose +the nation and yet preserve the Constitution? By general law, +life and limb must be protected, yet often a limb must be +amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to +save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional +might become lawful by becoming 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 ever 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." + +And so, at last, when in his judgment the indispensable necessity +had come, he struck the fatal blow, and signed the proclamation +which has made his name immortal. By it, the President, as +Commander-in-Chief in time of actual armed rebellion, and as a +fit and necessary war measure for suppressing the rebellion, +proclaimed all persons held as slaves in the States and parts of +States then in rebellion to be thenceforward free, and declared +that the executive, with the army and navy, would recognize and +maintain their freedom. + +In the other great steps of the government, which led to the +triumphant prosecution of the war, he necessarily shared the +responsibility and the credit with the great statesmen who stayed +up his hands in his cabinet, with Seward, Chase and Stanton, and +the rest,--and with his generals and admirals, his soldiers and +sailors, but this great act was absolutely his own. The +conception and execution were exclusively his. He laid it before +his cabinet as a measure on which his mind was made up and could +not be changed, asking them only for suggestions as to details. +He chose the time and the circumstances under which the +Emancipation should be proclaimed and when it should take effect. + +It came not an hour too soon; but public opinion in the North +would not have sustained it earlier. In the first eighteen +months of the war its ravages had extended from the Atlantic to +beyond the Mississippi. Many victories in the West had been +balanced and paralyzed by inaction and disasters in Virginia, +only partially redeemed by the bloody and indecisive battle of +Antietam; a reaction had set in from the general enthusiasm which +had swept the Northern States after the assault upon Sumter. It +could not truly be said that they had lost heart, but faction was +raising its head. Heard through the land like the blast of a +bugle, the proclamation rallied the patriotism of the country to +fresh sacrifices and renewed ardor. It was a step that could not +be revoked. It relieved the conscience of the nation from an +incubus that had oppressed it from its birth. The United States +were rescued from the false predicament in which they had been +from the beginning, and the great popular heart leaped with new +enthusiasm for "Liberty and Union, henceforth and forever, one +and inseparable." It brought not only moral but material support +to the cause of the government, for within two years 120,000 +colored troops were enlisted in the military service and +following the national flag, supported by all the loyalty of the +North, and led by its choicest spirits. One mother said, when +her son was offered the command of the first colored regiment, +"If he accepts it I shall be as proud as if I had heard that he +was shot." He was shot heading a gallant charge of his +regiment.... The Confederates replied to a request of his +friends for his body that they had "buried him under a layer of +his niggers....;" but that mother has lived to enjoy thirty-six +years of his glory, and Boston has erected its noblest monument +to his memory. + +The effect of the proclamation upon the actual progress of the +war was not immediate, but wherever the Federal armies advanced +they carried freedom with them, and when the summer came round +the new spirit and force which had animated the heart of the +government and people were manifest. In the first week of July +the decisive battle of Gettysburg turned the tide of war, and the +fall of Vicksburg made the great river free from its source to +the Gulf. + +On foreign nations the influence of the proclamation and of these +new victories was of great importance. In those days, when there +was no cable, it was not easy for foreign observers to appreciate +what was really going on; they could not see clearly the true +state of affairs, as in the last year of the nineteenth century +we have been able, by our new electric vision, to watch every +event at the antipodes and observe its effect. The Rebel +emissaries, sent over to solicit intervention, spared no pains to +impress upon the minds of public and private men and upon the +press their own views of the character of the contest. The +prospects of the Confederacy were always better abroad than at +home. The stock markets of the world gambled upon its chances, +and its bonds at one time were high in favor. + +Such ideas as these were seriously held: that the North was +fighting for empire and the South for independence; that the +Southern States, instead of being the grossest oligarchies, +essentially despotisms, founded on the right of one man to +appropriate the fruit of other men's toil and to exclude them +from equal rights, were real republics, feebler to be sure than +their Northern rivals, but representing the same idea of freedom, +and that the mighty strength of the nation was being put forth to +crush them; that Jefferson Davis and the Southern leaders had +created a nation; that the republican experiment had failed and +the Union had ceased to exist. But the crowning argument to +foreign minds was that it was an utter impossibility for the +government to win in the contest; that the success of the +Southern States, so far as separation was concerned, was as +certain as any event yet future and contingent could be; that the +subjugation of the South by the North, even if it could be +accomplished, would prove a calamity to the United States and the +world, and especially calamitous to the negro race; and that such +a victory would necessarily leave the people of the South for +many generations cherishing deadly hostility against the +government and the North, and plotting always to recover their +independence. + +When Lincoln issued his proclamation he knew that all these ideas +were founded in error; that the national resources were +inexhaustible; that the government could and would win, and that +if slavery were once finally disposed of, the only cause of +difference being out of the way, the North and South would come +together again, and by and by be as good friends as ever. In +many quarters abroad the proclamation was welcomed with +enthusiasm by the friends of America; but I think the +demonstrations in its favor that brought more gladness to +Lincoln's heart than any other were the meetings held in the +manufacturing centres, by the very operatives upon whom the war +bore the hardest, expressing the most enthusiastic sympathy with +the proclamation, while they bore with heroic fortitude the +grievous privations which the war entailed upon them. Mr. +Lincoln's expectation when he announced to the world that all +slaves in all States then in rebellion were set free must have +been that the avowed position of his government, that the +continuance of the war now meant the annihilation of slavery, +would make intervention impossible for any foreign nation whose +people were lovers of liberty--and so the result proved. + +The growth and development of Lincoln's mental power and moral +force, of his intense and magnetic personality, after the vast +responsibilities of government were thrown upon him at the age of +fifty-two, furnish a rare and striking illustration of the +marvellous capacity and adaptability of the human intellect--of +the sound mind in the sound body. He came to the discharge of +the great duties of the Presidency with absolutely no experience +in the administration of government, or of the vastly varied and +complicated questions of foreign and domestic policy which +immediately arose, and continued to press upon him during the +rest of his life; but he mastered each as it came, apparently +with the facility of a trained and experienced ruler. As +Clarendon said of Cromwell, "His parts seemed to be raised by the +demands of great station." His life through it all was one of +intense labor, anxiety, and distress, without one hour of +peaceful repose from first to last. But he rose to every +occasion. He led public opinion, but did not march so far in +advance of it as to fail of its effective support in every great +emergency. He knew the heart and thought of the people, as no +man not in constant and absolute sympathy with them could have +known it, and so holding their confidence, he triumphed through +and with them. Not only was there this steady growth of +intellect, but the infinite delicacy of his nature and its +capacity for refinement developed also, as exhibited in the +purity and perfection of his language and style of speech. The +rough backwoodsman, who had never seen the inside of a +university, became in the end, by self-training and the exercise +of his own powers of mind, heart, and soul, a master of style, +and some of his utterances will rank with the best, the most +perfectly adapted to the occasion which produced them. + +Have you time to listen to his two-minutes speech at Gettysburg, +at the dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery? His whole soul was +in it: + +"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged +in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation +so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a +great 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 cannot consecrate--we cannot hallow this +ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have +consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The +world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here but +it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the +living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which +they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is +rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining +before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion +to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of +devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not +have died in vain--that this nation under God shall have a new +birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the +people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth." + +He lived to see his work indorsed by an overwhelming majority of +his countrymen. In his second inaugural address, pronounced just +forty days before his death, there is a single passage which well +displays his indomitable will and at the same time his deep +religious feeling, his sublime charity to the enemies of his +country, and his broad and catholic humanity: + +"If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those +offences which in the Providence of God must needs come, but +which, having continued through the 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 offence came, +shall we discern therein any departure from those divine +attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to +Him? Fondly do we 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 bondsmen's two hundred +and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every +drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with another +drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so +still it must be said, 'the judgments of the Lord are true and +righteous altogether.' + +"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in +the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to +finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds; to care +for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his +orphan to do all which may achieve, and cherish a just and +lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." + +His prayer was answered. The forty days of life that remained to +him were crowned with great historic events. He lived to see his +Proclamation of Emancipation embodied in an amendment of the +Constitution, adopted by Congress, and submitted to the States +for ratification. The mighty scourge of war did speedily pass +away, for it was given him to witness the surrender of the Rebel +army and the fall of their capital, and the starry flag that he +loved waving in triumph over the national soil. When he died by +the madman's hand in the supreme hour of victory, the vanquished +lost their best friend, and the human race one of its noblest +examples; and all the friends of freedom and justice, in whose +cause he lived and died, joined hands as mourners at his grave. + + + + + + +THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +1832-1843 + + + + +1832 + + +ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON 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 according with an established custom +and the principles of true Republicanism 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 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 objection arises from the want of +ability to pay. + +With respect to the County of Sangamon, some.... + +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....... + +What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to say. It is +probable, however, that it would not be greater 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 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 on 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 dictate 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 histories of his own and other +countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free +institutions, appears to be an object +of vital importance, 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 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 something 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. Many 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; 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. + +New Salem, March 9, 1832. + + + + +1833 + + +TO E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + +NEW SALEM, +Aug. 10, 1833 + +E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + +Dear Sir:--In regard to the time David Rankin served the enclosed +discharge shows correctly--as well as I can recollect--having no +writing to refer. The transfer of Rankin from my company +occurred as follows: Rankin having lost his horse at Dixon's +ferry and having acquaintance in one of the foot companies who +were going down the river was desirous to go with them, and one +Galishen being an acquaintance of mine and belonging to the +company in which Rankin wished to go wished to leave it and join +mine, this being the case it was agreed that they should exchange +places and answer to each other's names--as it was expected we +all would be discharged in very few days. As to a blanket--I +have no knowledge of Rankin ever getting any. The above embraces +all the facts now in my recollection which are pertinent to the +case. + +I shall take pleasure in giving any further information in my +power should you call on me. + +Your friend, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR POSTAGE RECEIPT + +TO Mr. SPEARS. + +Mr. SPEARS: + +At your request I send you a receipt for the postage on your +paper. I am somewhat surprised at your request. I will, +however, comply with it. The law requires newspaper postage to +be paid in advance, and now that I have waited a full year you +choose to wound my feelings by insinuating that unless you get a +receipt I will probably make you pay it again. + +Respectfully, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1836 + + +ANNOUNCEMENT OF POLITICAL VIEWS. + +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 +constituents, as well those that oppose as those that support me. + +While acting as their representative, I shall be governed 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 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. + +Very respectfully, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO POLITICAL SMEAR + +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 you said. I am flattered with the personal +regard you manifested for me; 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. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MISS MARY OWENS. + +VANDALIA, +December 13, 1836. + +MARY:--I have been sick ever since my arrival, or I should have +written sooner. It is but little difference, however, as I have +very little even yet to write. And more, the longer I can avoid +the mortification of looking in the post-office for your letter +and not finding it, the better. You see I am mad about that old +letter yet. I don't like very well to risk you again. I'll try +you once more, anyhow. + +The new State House is not yet finished, and consequently the +Legislature is doing little or nothing. The governor delivered +an inflammatory political message, and it is expected there will +be some sparring between the parties about it as soon as the two +Houses get to business. Taylor delivered up his petition for the +new county to one of our members this morning. I am told he +despairs of its success, on account of all the members from +Morgan County opposing it. There are names enough on the +petition, I think, to justify the members from our county in +going for it; but if the members from Morgan oppose it, which +they say they will, the chance will be bad. + +Our chance to take the seat of government to Springfield is +better than I expected. An internal-improvement convention was +held there since we met, which recommended a loan of several +millions of dollars, on the faith of the State, to construct +railroads. Some of the Legislature are for it, and some against +it; which has the majority I cannot tell. There is great strife +and struggling for the office of the United States Senator here +at this time. It is probable we shall ease their pains in a few +days. The opposition men have no candidate of their own, and +consequently they will smile as complacently at the angry snarl +of the contending Van Buren candidates and their respective +friends as the Christian does at Satan's rage. You recollect +that I mentioned at the outset of this letter that I had been +unwell. That is the fact, though I believe I am about well now; +but that, with other things I cannot account for, have conspired, +and have gotten my spirits so low that I feel that I would rather +be any place in the world than here. I really cannot endure the +thought of staying here ten weeks. Write back as soon as you get +this, and, if possible, say something that will please me, for +really I have not been pleased since I left you. This letter is +so dry and stupid that I am ashamed to send it, but with my +present feelings I cannot do any better. + +Give my best respects to Mr. and Mrs. Able and family. + +Your friend, +LINCOLN + + + + +1837 + + +SPEECH IN ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +January [?], 1837 + +Mr. CHAIRMAN:--Lest I should fall into the too common error of +being mistaken in regard to which side I design to be upon, I +shall make it my first care to remove all doubt on that point, by +declaring that I am opposed to the resolution under +consideration, in toto. Before I proceed to the body of the +subject, I will further remark, that it is not without a +considerable degree of apprehension that I venture to cross the +track of the gentleman from Coles [Mr. Linder]. Indeed, I do not +believe I could muster a sufficiency of courage to come in +contact with that gentleman, were it not for the fact that he, +some days since, most graciously condescended to assure us that +he would never be found wasting ammunition on small game. On the +same fortunate occasion, he further gave us to understand, that +he regarded himself as being decidedly the superior of our common +friend from Randolph [Mr. Shields]; and feeling, as I really do, +that I, to say the most of myself, am nothing more than the peer +of our friend from Randolph, I shall regard the gentleman from +Coles as decidedly my superior also, and consequently, in the +course of what I shall have to say, whenever I shall have +occasion to allude to that gentleman, I shall endeavor to adopt +that kind of court language which I understand to be due to +decided superiority. In one faculty, at least, there can be no +dispute of the gentleman's superiority over me and most other +men, and that is, the faculty of entangling a subject, so that +neither himself, or any other man, can find head or tail to it. +Here he has introduced a resolution embracing ninety-nine printed +lines across common writing paper, and yet more than one half of +his opening speech has been made upon subjects about which there +is not one word said in his resolution. + +Though his resolution embraces nothing in regard to the +constitutionality of the Bank, much of what he has said has been +with a view to make the impression that it was unconstitutional +in its inception. Now, although I am satisfied that an ample +field may be found within the pale of the resolution, at least +for small game, yet, as the gentleman has traveled out of it, I +feel that I may, with all due humility, venture to follow him. +The gentleman has discovered that some gentleman at Washington +city has been upon the very eve of deciding our Bank +unconstitutional, and that he would probably have completed his +very authentic decision, had not some one of the Bank officers +placed his hand upon his mouth, and begged him to withhold it. +The fact that the individuals composing our Supreme Court have, +in an official capacity, decided in favor of the +constitutionality of the Bank, would, in my mind, seem a +sufficient answer to this. It is a fact known to all, that the +members of the Supreme Court, together with the Governor, form a +Council of Revision, and that this Council approved this Bank +charter. I ask, then, if the extra-judicial decision not quite +but almost made by the gentleman at Washington, before whom, by +the way, the question of the constitutionality of our Bank never +has, nor never can come--is to be taken as paramount to a +decision officially made by that tribunal, by which, and which +alone, the constitutionality of the Bank can ever be settled? +But, aside from this view of the subject, I would ask, if the +committee which this resolution proposes to appoint are to +examine into the Constitutionality of the Bank? Are they to be +clothed with power to send for persons and papers, for this +object? And after they have found the bank to be +unconstitutional, and decided it so, how are they to enforce +their decision? What will their decision amount to? They cannot +compel the Bank to cease operations, or to change the course of +its operations. What good, then, can their labors result in? +Certainly none. + +The gentleman asks, if we, without an examination, shall, by +giving the State deposits to the Bank, and by taking the stock +reserved for the State, legalize its former misconduct. Now I do +not pretend to possess sufficient legal knowledge to decide +whether a legislative enactment proposing to, and accepting from, +the Bank, certain terms, would have the effect to legalize or +wipe out its former errors, or not; but I can assure the +gentleman, if such should be the effect, he has already got +behind the settlement of accounts; for it is well known to all, +that the Legislature, at its last session, passed a supplemental +Bank charter, which the Bank has since accepted, and which, +according to his doctrine, has legalized all the alleged +violations of its original charter in the distribution of its +stock. + +I now proceed to the resolution. By examination it will be found +that the first thirty-three lines, being precisely one third of +the whole, relate exclusively to the distribution of the stock by +the commissioners appointed by the State. Now, Sir, it is clear +that no question can arise on this portion of the resolution, +except a question between capitalists in regard to the ownership +of stock. Some gentlemen have their stock in their hands, while +others, who have more money than they know what to do with, want +it; and this, and this alone, is the question, to settle which we +are called on to squander thousands of the people's money. What +interest, let me ask, have the people in the settlement of this +question? What difference is it to them whether the stock is +owned by Judge Smith or Sam Wiggins? If any gentleman be entitled +to stock in the Bank, which he is kept out of possession of by +others, let him assert his right in the Supreme Court, and let +him or his antagonist, whichever may be found in the wrong, pay +the costs of suit. It is an old maxim, and a very sound one, +that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. Now, Sir, in +the present case, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden to +them, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the +people's money being used to pay the fiddler. No one can doubt +that the examination proposed by this resolution must cost the +State some ten or twelve thousand dollars; and all this to settle +a question in which the people have no interest, and about which +they care nothing. These capitalists generally act harmoniously +and in concert, to fleece the people, and now that they have got +into a quarrel with themselves we are called upon to appropriate +the people's money to settle the quarrel. + +I leave this part of the resolution and proceed to the remainder. +It will be found that no charge in the remaining part of the +resolution, if true, amounts to the violation of the Bank +charter, except one, which I will notice in due time. It might +seem quite sufficient to say no more upon any of these charges or +insinuations than enough to show they are not violations of the +charter; yet, as they are ingeniously framed and handled, with a +view to deceive and mislead, I will notice in their order all the +most prominent of them. The first of these is in relation to a +connection between our Bank and several banking institutions in +other States. Admitting this connection to exist, I should like +to see the gentleman from Coles, or any other gentleman, +undertake to show that there is any harm in it. What can there +be in such a connection, that the people of Illinois are willing +to pay their money to get a peep into? By a reference to the +tenth section of the Bank charter, any gentleman can see that the +framers of the act contemplated the holding of stock in the +institutions of other corporations. Why, then, is it, when +neither law nor justice forbids it, that we are asked to spend +our time and money in inquiring into its truth? + +The next charge, in the order of time, is, that some officer, +director, clerk or servant of the Bank, has been required to take +an oath of secrecy in relation to the affairs of said Bank. Now, +I do not know whether this be true or fa1se--neither do I believe +any honest man cares. I know that the seventh section of the +charter expressly guarantees to the Bank the right of making, +under certain restrictions, such by-laws as it may think fit; and +I further know that the requiring an oath of secrecy would not +transcend those restrictions. What, then, if the Bank has chosen +to exercise this right? Whom can it injure? Does not every +merchant have his secret mark? and who is ever silly enough to +complain of it? I presume if the Bank does require any such oath +of secrecy, it is done through a motive of delicacy to those +individuals who deal with it. Why, Sir, not many days since, one +gentleman upon this floor, who, by the way, I have no doubt is +now ready to join this hue and cry against the Bank, indulged in +a philippic against one of the Bank officials, because, as he +said, he had divulged a secret. + +Immediately following this last charge, there are several +insinuations in the resolution, which are too silly to require +any sort of notice, were it not for the fact that they conclude +by saying, "to the great injury of the people at large." In +answer to this I would say that it is strange enough, that the +people are suffering these "great injuries," and yet are not +sensible of it! Singular indeed that the people should be +writhing under oppression and injury, and yet not one among them +to be found to raise the voice of complaint. If the Bank be +inflicting injury upon the people, why is it that not a single +petition is presented to this body on the subject? If the Bank +really be a grievance, why is it that no one of the real people +is found to ask redress of it? The truth is, no such oppression +exists. If it did, our people would groan with memorials and +petitions, and we would not be permitted to rest day or night, +till we had put it down. The people know their rights, and they +are never slow to assert and maintain them, when they are +invaded. Let them call for an investigation, and I shall ever +stand ready to respond to the call. But they have made no such +call. I make the assertion boldly, and without fear of +contradiction, that no man, who does not hold an office, or does +not aspire to one, has ever found any fault of the Bank. It has +doubled the prices of the products of their farms, and filled +their pockets with a sound circulating medium, and they are all +well pleased with its operations. No, Sir, it is the politician +who is the first to sound the alarm (which, by the way, is a +false one.) It is he, who, by these unholy means, is endeavoring +to blow up a storm that he may ride upon and direct. It is he, +and he alone, that here proposes to spend thousands of the +people's public treasure, for no other advantage to them than to +make valueless in their pockets the reward of their industry. +Mr. Chairman, this work is exclusively the work of politicians; a +set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the +people, and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, +at least one long step removed from honest men. I say this with +the greater freedom, because, being a politician myself, none can +regard it as personal. + +Again, it is charged, or rather insinuated, that officers of the +Bank have loaned money at usurious rates of interest. Suppose +this to be true, are we to send a committee of this House to +inquire into it? Suppose the committee should find it true, can +they redress the injured individuals? Assuredly not. If any +individual had been injured in this way, is there not an ample +remedy to be found in the laws of the land? Does the gentleman +from Coles know that there is a statute standing in full force +making it highly penal for an individual to loan money at a +higher rate of interest than twelve per cent? If he does not he +is too ignorant to be placed at the head of the committee which +his resolution purposes and if he does, his neglect to mention it +shows him to be too uncandid to merit the respect or confidence +of any one. + +But besides all this, if the Bank were struck from existence, +could not the owners of the capital still loan it usuriously, as +well as now? whatever the Bank, or its officers, may have done, I +know that usurious transactions were much more frequent and +enormous before the commencement of its operations than they have +ever been since. + +The next insinuation is, that the Bank has refused specie +payments. This, if true is a violation of the charter. But +there is not the least probability of its truth; because, if such +had been the fact, the individual to whom payment was refused +would have had an interest in making it public, by suing for the +damages to which the charter entitles him. Yet no such thing has +been done; and the strong presumption is, that the insinuation is +false and groundless. + +>From this to the end of the resolution, there is nothing that +merits attention--I therefore drop the particular examination of +it. + +By a general view of the resolution, it will be seen that a +principal object of the committee is to examine into, and ferret +out, a mass of corruption supposed to have been committed by the +commissioners who apportioned the stock of the Bank. I believe +it is universally understood and acknowledged that all men will +ever act correctly unless they have a motive to do otherwise. If +this be true, we can only suppose that the commissioners acted +corruptly by also supposing that they were bribed to do so. +Taking this view of the subject, I would ask if the Bank is +likely to find it more difficult to bribe the committee of seven, +which, we are about to appoint, than it may have found it to +bribe the commissioners? + +(Here Mr. Linder called to order. The Chair decided that Mr. +Lincoln was not out of order. Mr. Linder appealed to the House, +but, before the question was put, withdrew his appeal, saying he +preferred to let the gentleman go on; he thought he would break +his own neck. Mr. Lincoln proceeded:) + +Another gracious condescension! I acknowledge it with gratitude. +I know I was not out of order; and I know every sensible man in +the House knows it. I was not saying that the gentleman from +Coles could be bribed, nor, on the other hand, will I say he +could not. In that particular I leave him where I found him. I +was only endeavoring to show that there was at least as great a +probability of any seven members that could be selected from this +House being bribed to act corruptly, as there was that the +twenty-four commissioners had been so bribed. By a reference to +the ninth section of the Bank charter, it will be seen that those +commissioners were John Tilson, Robert K. McLaughlin, Daniel +Warm, A.G. S. Wight, John C. Riley, W. H. Davidson, Edward +M. Wilson, Edward L. Pierson, Robert R. Green, Ezra Baker, +Aquilla Wren, John Taylor, Samuel C. Christy, Edmund Roberts, +Benjamin Godfrey, Thomas Mather, A. M. Jenkins, W. Linn, W. +S. Gilman, Charles Prentice, Richard I. Hamilton, A.H. +Buckner, W. F. Thornton, and Edmund D. Taylor. + +These are twenty-four of the most respectable men in the State. +Probably no twenty-four men could be selected in the State with +whom the people are better acquainted, or in whose honor and +integrity they would more readily place confidence. And I now +repeat, that there is less probability that those men have been +bribed and corrupted, than that any seven men, or rather any six +men, that could be selected from the members of this House, might +be so bribed and corrupted, even though they were headed and led +on by "decided superiority" himself. + +In all seriousness, I ask every reasonable man, if an issue be +joined by these twenty-four commissioners, on the one part, and +any other seven men, on the other part, and the whole depend upon +the honor and integrity of the contending parties, to which party +would the greatest degree of credit be due? Again: Another +consideration is, that we have no right to make the examination. +What I shall say upon this head I design exclusively for the law- +loving and law-abiding part of the House. To those who claim +omnipotence for the Legislature, and who in the plenitude of +their assumed powers are disposed to disregard the Constitution, +law, good faith, moral right, and everything else, I have not a +word to say. But to the law-abiding part I say, examine the Bank +charter, go examine the Constitution, go examine the acts that +the General Assembly of this State has passed, and you will find +just as much authority given in each and every of them to compel +the Bank to bring its coffers to this hall and to pour their +contents upon this floor, as to compel it to submit to this +examination which this resolution proposes. Why, Sir, the +gentleman from Co1es, the mover of this resolution, very lately +denied on this floor that the Legislature had any right to repeal +or otherwise meddle with its own acts, when those acts were made +in the nature of contracts, and had been accepted and acted on by +other parties. Now I ask if this resolution does not propose, +for this House alone, to do what he, but the other day, denied +the right of the whole Legislature to do? He must either abandon +the position he then took, or he must now vote against his own +resolution. It is no difference to me, and I presume but little +to any one else, which he does. + +I am by no means the special advocate of the Bank. I have long +thought that it would be well for it to report its condition to +the General Assembly, and that cases might occur, when it might +be proper to make an examination of its affairs by a committee. +Accordingly, during the last session, while a bill supplemental +to the Bank charter was pending before the House, I offered an +amendment to the same, in these words: "The said corporation +shall, at the next session of the General Assembly, and at each +subsequent General Session, during the existence of its charter, +report to the same the amount of debts due from said corporation; +the amount of debts due to the same; the amount of specie in its +vaults, and an account of all lands then owned by the same, and +the amount for which such lands have been taken; and moreover, if +said corporation shall at any time neglect or refuse to submit +its books, papers, and all and everything necessary for a full +and fair examination of its affairs, to any person or persons +appointed by the General Assembly, for the purpose of making such +examination, the said corporation shall forfeit its charter." + +This amendment was negatived by a vote of 34 to 15. Eleven of +the 34 who voted against it are now members of this House; and +though it would be out of order to call their names, I hope they +will all recollect themselves, and not vote for this examination +to be made without authority, inasmuch as they refused to receive +the authority when it was in their power to do so. + +I have said that cases might occur, when an examination might be +proper; but I do not believe any such case has now occurred; and +if it has, I should still be opposed to making an examination +without legal authority. I am opposed to encouraging that +lawless and mobocratic spirit, whether in relation to the Bank or +anything else, which is already abroad in the land and is +spreading with rapid and fearful impetuosity, to the ultimate +overthrow of every institution, of every moral principle, in +which persons and property have hitherto found security. + +But supposing we had the authority, I would ask what good can +result from the examination? Can we declare the Bank +unconstitutional, and compel it to desist from the abuses of its +power, provided we find such abuses to exist? Can we repair the +injuries which it may have done to individuals? Most certainly we +can do none of these things. Why then +shall we spend the public money in such employment? Oh, say the +examiners, we can injure the credit of the Bank, if nothing else, +Please tell me, gentlemen, who will suffer most by that? You +cannot injure, to any extent, the stockholders. They are men of +wealth--of large capital; and consequently, beyond the power of +malice. But by injuring the credit of the Bank, you will +depreciate the value of its paper in the hands of the honest and +unsuspecting farmer and mechanic, and that is all you can do. +But suppose you could effect your whole purpose; suppose you +could wipe the Bank from existence, which is the grand ultimatum +of the project, what would be the consequence? why, Sir, we +should spend several thousand dollars of the public treasure in +the operation, annihilate the currency of the State, render +valueless in the hands of our people that reward of their former +labors, and finally be once more under the comfortable obligation +of paying the Wiggins loan, principal and interest. + + + + +OPPOSITION TO MOB-RULE + +ADDRESS BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN' S LYCEUM OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. + +January 27, 1837. + +As a subject for the remarks of the evening, "The Perpetuation of +our Political Institutions "is selected. + +In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the +American people, find our account running under date of the +nineteenth century of the Christian era. We find ourselves in +the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth as +regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of +climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of +political institutions conducing more essentially to the ends of +civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of +former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, +found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental +blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of +them; they are a legacy bequeathed us by a once hardy, brave, and +patriotic, but now lamented and departed, race of ancestors. +Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess +themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land, and +to uprear upon its hills and its valleys a political edifice of +liberty and equal rights; it is ours only to transmit these--the +former unprofaned by the foot of an invader, the latter undecayed +by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation--to the latest +generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task +gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to +posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively +require us faithfully to perform. + +How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the +approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? +Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the +ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, +Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth +(our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for +a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or +make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. + +At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I +answer: If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it +cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must +ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we +must live through all time, or die by suicide. + +I hope I am over-wary; but if I am not, there is even now +something of ill omen amongst us. I mean the increasing +disregard for law which pervades the country--the growing +disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions in lieu +of the sober judgment of courts, and the worse than savage mobs +for the executive ministers of justice. This disposition is +awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, +though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation +of truth and an insult to our intelligence to deny. Accounts of +outrages committed by mobs form the everyday news of the times. +They have pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana; +they are neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the former nor +the burning suns of the latter; they are not the creature of +climate, neither are they confined to the slave holding or the +non-slave holding States. Alike they spring up among the +pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving +citizens of the land of steady habits. Whatever then their cause +may be, it is common to the whole country. + +It would be tedious as well as useless to recount the horrors of +all of them. Those happening in the State of Mississippi and at +St. Louis are perhaps the most dangerous in example and +revolting to humanity. In the Mississippi case they first +commenced by hanging the regular gamblers--a set of men certainly +not following for a livelihood a very useful or very honest +occupation, but one which, so far from being forbidden by the +laws, was actually licensed by an act of the Legislature passed +but a single year before. Next, negroes suspected of conspiring +to raise an insurrection were caught up and hanged in all parts +of the State; then, white men supposed to be leagued with the +negroes; and finally, strangers from neighboring States, going +thither on business, were in many instances subjected to the same +fate. Thus went on this process of hanging, from gamblers to +negroes, from negroes to white citizens, and from these to +strangers, till dead men were seen literally dangling from the +boughs of trees upon every roadside, and in numbers almost +sufficient to rival the native Spanish moss of the country as a +drapery of the forest. + +Turn then to that horror-striking scene at St. Louis. A single +victim only was sacrificed there. This story is very short, and +is perhaps the most highly tragic of anything of its length that +has ever been witnessed in real life. A mulatto man by the name +of McIntosh was seized in the street, dragged to the suburbs of +the city, chained to a tree, and actually burned to death; and +all within a single hour from the time he had been a freeman +attending to his own business and at peace with the world. + +Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the scenes becoming +more and more frequent in this land so lately famed for love of +law and order, and the stories of which have even now grown too +familiar to attract anything more than an idle remark. + +But you are perhaps ready to ask, "What has this to do with the +perpetuation of our political institutions?" I answer, It has +much to do with it. Its direct consequences are, comparatively +speaking, but a small evil, and much of its danger consists in +the proneness of our minds to regard its direct as its only +consequences. Abstractly considered, the hanging of the gamblers +at Vicksburg was of but little consequence. They constitute a +portion of population that is worse than useless in any +community; and their death, if no pernicious example be set by +it, is never matter of reasonable regret with any one. If they +were annually swept from the stage of existence by the plague or +smallpox, honest men would perhaps be much profited by the +operation. Similar too is the correct reasoning in regard to the +burning of the negro at St. Louis. He had forfeited his life by +the perpetration of an outrageous murder upon one of the most +worthy and respectable citizens of the city, and had he not died +as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the law in a very +short time afterwards. As to him alone, it was as well the way +it was as it could otherwise have been. But the example in +either case was fearful. When men take it in their heads to-day +to hang gamblers or burn murderers, they should recollect that in +the confusion usually attending such transactions they will be as +likely to hang or burn some one who is neither a gambler nor a +murderer as one who is, and that, acting upon the example they +set, the mob of to-morrow may, and probably will, hang or burn +some of them by the very same mistake. And not only so: the +innocent, those who have ever set their faces against violations +of law in every shape, alike with the guilty fall victims to the +ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by step, till all +the walls erected for the defense of the persons and property of +individuals are trodden down and disregarded. But all this, +even, is not the full extent of the evil. By such examples, by +instances of the perpetrators of such acts going unpunished, the +lawless in spirit are encouraged to become lawless in practice; +and having been used to no restraint but dread of punishment, +they thus become absolutely unrestrained. Having ever regarded +government as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of the +suspension of its operations, and pray for nothing so much as its +total annihilation. While, on the other hand, good men, men who +love tranquillity, who desire to abide by the laws and enjoy +their benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense +of their country, seeing their property destroyed, their families +insulted, and their lives endangered, their persons injured, and +seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the +better, become tired of and disgusted with a government that +offers them no protection, and are not much averse to a change in +which they imagine they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the +operation of this mobocratic spirit which all must admit is now +abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of any government, and +particularly of those constituted like ours, may effectually be +broken down and destroyed--I mean the attachment of the people. +Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever the +vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in +bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and +rob provision-stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot +editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and with +impunity, depend on it, this government cannot last. By such +things the feelings of the best citizens will become more or less +alienated from it, and thus it will be left without friends, or +with too few, and those few too weak to make their friendship +effectual. At such a time, and under such circumstances, men of +sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the +opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric which +for the last half century has been the fondest hope of the lovers +of freedom throughout the world. + +I know the American people are much attached to their government; +I know they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would +endure evils long and patiently before they would ever think of +exchanging it for another,--yet, notwithstanding all this, if the +laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to +be secure in their persons and property are held by no better +tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their +affections from the government is the natural consequence; and to +that, sooner or later, it must come. + +Here, then, is one point at which danger may be expected. + +The question recurs, How shall we fortify against it? The answer +is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every +well-wisher to his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution +never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country, +and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots +of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of +Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and laws let +every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred +honor. Let every man remember that to violate the law is to +trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of +his own and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws +be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that +prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, +and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, +and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed +in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in +short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and +let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and +the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, +sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. + +While ever a state of feeling such as this shall universally or +even very generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be +every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to subvert our +national freedom. + +When, I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, +let me not be understood as saying there are no bad laws, or that +grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal +provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I +do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be +repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in +force, for the sake of example they should be religiously +observed. So also in unprovided cases. If such arise, let +proper legal provisions be made for them with the least possible +delay, but till then let them, if not too intolerable, be borne +with. + +There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. +In any case that may arise, as, for instance, the promulgation of +abolitionism, one of two positions is necessarily true--that is, +the thing is right within itself, and therefore deserves the +protection of all law and all good citizens, or it is wrong, and +therefore proper to be prohibited by legal enactments; and in +neither case is the interposition of mob law either necessary, +justifiable, or excusable. + +But it may be asked, Why suppose danger to our political +institutions? Have we not preserved them for more than fifty +years? And why may we not for fifty times as long? + +We hope there is no sufficient reason. We hope all danger may be +overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would +itself be extremely dangerous. There are now, and will hereafter +be, many causes, dangerous in their tendency, which have not +existed heretofore, and which are not too insignificant to merit +attention. That our government should have been maintained in +its original form, from its establishment until now, is not much +to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that +period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that +period it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now it +is understood to be a successful one. Then, all that sought +celebrity and fame and distinction expected to find them in the +success of that experiment. Their all was staked upon it; their +destiny was inseparably linked with it. Their ambition aspired +to display before an admiring world a practical demonstration of +the truth of a proposition which had hitherto been considered at +best no better than problematical--namely, the capability of a +people to govern themselves. If they succeeded they were to be +immortalized; their names were to be transferred to counties, and +cities, and rivers, and mountains; and to be revered and sung, +toasted through all time. If they failed, they were to be called +knaves) and fools, and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink +and be forgotten. They succeeded. The experiment is successful, +and thousands have won their deathless names in making it so. +But the game is caught; and I believe it is true that with the +catching end the pleasures of the chase. This field of glory is +harvested, and the crop is already appropriated. But new reapers +will arise, and they too will seek a field. It is to deny what +the history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of +ambition and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. +And when they do, they will as naturally seek the gratification +of their ruling passion as others have done before them. The +question then is, Can that gratification be found in supporting +and in maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others? +Most certainly it cannot. Many great and good men, sufficiently +qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found +whose ambition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, +a Gubernatorial or a Presidential chair; but such belong not to +the family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What! think +you these places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a +Napoleon? Never! Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It +seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no distinction in +adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected to the +memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve +under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any +predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for +distinction; and if possible, it will have it, whether at the +expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen. Is it +unreasonable, then, to expect that some man possessed of the +loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to +its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us? And +when such an one does it will require the people to be united +with each other, attached to the government and laws, and +generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs. + +Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would +as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, +yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in +the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of +pulling down. + +Here then is a probable case, highly dangerous, and such an one +as could not have well existed heretofore. + +Another reason which once was, but which, to the same extent, is +now no more, has done much in maintaining our institutions thus +far. I mean the powerful influence which the interesting scenes +of the Revolution had upon the passions of the people as +distinguished from their judgment. By this influence, the +jealousy, envy, and avarice incident to our nature, and so common +to a state of peace, prosperity, and conscious strength, were for +the time in a great measure smothered and rendered inactive, +while the deep-rooted principles of hate, and the powerful motive +of revenge, instead of being turned against each other, were +directed exclusively against the British nation. And thus, from +the force of circumstances, the basest principles of our nature +were either made to lie dormant, or to become the active agents +in the advancement of the noblest of causes--that of establishing +and maintaining civil and religious liberty. + +But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has faded, with +the circumstances that produced it. + +I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolution are now or +ever will be entirely forgotten, but that, like everything else, +they must fade upon the memory of the world, and grow more and +more dim by the lapse of time. In history, we hope, they will be +read of, and recounted, so long as the Bible shall be read; but +even granting that they will, their influence cannot be what it +heretofore has been. Even then they cannot be so universally +known nor so vividly felt as they were by the generation just +gone to rest. At the close of that struggle, nearly every adult +male had been a participator in some of its scenes. The +consequence was that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a +father, a son, or a brother, a living history was to be found in +every family--a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of +its own authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in the scars of +wounds received, in the midst of the very scenes related--a +history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, the +wise and the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned. But those +histories are gone. They can be read no more forever. They were +a fortress of strength; but what invading foeman could never do +the silent artillery of time has done--the leveling of its walls. +They are gone. They were a forest of giant oaks; but the all- +restless hurricane has swept over them, and left only here and +there a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its +foliage, unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle +breezes, and to combat with its mutilated limbs a few more ruder +storms, then to sink and be no more. + +They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they +have crumbled away that temple must fall unless we, their +descendants, supply their places with other pillars, hewn from +the solid quarry of sober reason. Passion has helped us, but can +do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason cold, +calculating, unimpassioned reason--must furnish all the materials +for our future support and defense. Let those materials be +moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and in +particular, a reverence for the Constitution and laws; and that +we improved to the last, that we remained free to the last, that +we revered his name to the last, that during his long sleep we +permitted no hostile foot to pass over or desecrate his resting +place, shall be that which to learn the last trump shall awaken +our Washington. + +Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of +its basis; and as truly as has been said of the only greater +institution, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." + + + + +PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE ON THE +SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. + +March 3, 1837. + +The following protest was presented to the House, which was read +and ordered to be spread in the journals, to wit: + +"Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having 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 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 +said resolutions is their reason for entering this protest. + +"DAN STONE, +"A. LINCOLN, +"Representatives from the County of Sangamon." + + + + +TO MISS MARY OWENS. + +SPRINGFIELD, May 7, 1837. + +MISS MARY S. OWENS. + +FRIEND MARY:--I have commenced two letters to send you before +this, both of which displeased me before I got half done, and so +I tore them up. The first I thought was not serious enough, and +the second was on the other extreme. I shall send this, turn out +as it may. + +This thing of living in Springfield is rather a dull business, +after all; at least it is so to me. I am quite as lonesome here +as I ever was anywhere in my life. I have been spoken to by but +one woman since I have been here, and should not have been by her +if she could have avoided it. I 've never been to church yet, +and probably shall not be soon. I stay away because I am +conscious I should not know how to behave myself. + +I am often thinking of what we said about your coming to live at +Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There is a +great deal of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would +be your doom to see without sharing it. You would have to be +poor, without the means of hiding your poverty. Do you believe +you could bear that patiently? Whatever woman may cast her lot +with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to do all in +my power to make her happy and contented; and there is nothing I +can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the +effort. I know I should be much happier with you than the way I +am, provided I saw no signs of discontent in you. What you have +said to me may have been in the way of jest, or I may have +misunderstood you. If so, then let it be forgotten; if +otherwise, I much wish you would think seriously before you +decide. What I have said I will most positively abide by, +provided you wish it. My opinion is that you had better not do +it. You have not been accustomed to hardship, and it may be more +severe than you now imagine. I know you are capable of thinking +correctly on any subject, and if you deliberate maturely upon +this subject before you decide, then I am willing to abide your +decision. + +You must write me a good long letter after you get this. You +have nothing else to do, and though it might not seem interesting +to you after you had written it, it would be a good deal of +company to me in this "busy wilderness." Tell your sister I don't +want to hear any more about selling out and moving. That gives +me the "hypo" whenever I think of it. Yours, etc., + +LINCOLN + + + + +TO JOHN BENNETT. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug. 5, 1837. + +JOHN BENNETT, ESQ. + +DEAR SIR:-Mr. Edwards tells me you wish to know whether the act +to which your own incorporation provision was attached passed +into a law. It did. You can organize under the general +incorporation law as soon as you choose. + +I also tacked a provision onto a fellow's bill to authorize the +relocation of the road from Salem down to your town, but I am not +certain whether or not the bill passed, neither do I suppose I +can ascertain before the law will be published, if it is a law. +Bowling Greene, Bennette Abe? and yourself are appointed to make +the change. No news. No excitement except a little about the +election of Monday next. + +I suppose, of course, our friend Dr. Heney stands no chance in +your diggings. + +Your friend and humble servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MARY OWENS. + +SPRINGFIELD, +Aug. 16, 1837 + +FRIEND MARY: +You will no doubt think it rather strange that I should write you +a letter on the same day on which we parted, and I can only +account for it by supposing that seeing you lately makes me think +of you more than usual; while at our late meeting we had but few +expressions of thoughts. You must know that I cannot see you, or +think of you, with entire indifference; and yet it may be that +you are mistaken in regard to what my real feelings toward you +are. + +If I knew you were not, I should not have troubled you with this +letter. Perhaps any other man would know enough without +information; but I consider it my peculiar right to plead +ignorance, and your bounden duty to allow the plea. + +I want in all cases to do right; and most particularly so in all +cases with women. + +I want, at this particular time, more than any thing else to do +right with you; and if I knew it would be doing right, as I +rather suspect it would, to let you alone I would do it. And, +for the purpose of making the matter as plain as possible, I now +say that you can drop the subject, dismiss your thoughts (if you +ever had any) from me for ever and leave this letter unanswered +without calling forth one accusing murmur from me. And I will +even go further and say that, if it will add anything to your +comfort or peace of mind to do so, it is my sincere wish that you +should. Do not understand by this that I wish to cut your +acquaintance. I mean no such thing. What I do wish is that our +further acquaintance shall depend upon yourself. If such further +acquaintance would contribute nothing to your happiness, I am +sure it would not to mine. If you feel yourself in any degree +bound to me, I am now willing to release you, provided you wish +it; while on the other hand I am willing and even anxious to bind +you faster if I can be convinced that it will, in any +considerable degree, add to your happiness. This, indeed, is the +whole question with me. Nothing would make me more miserable +than to believe you miserable, nothing more happy than to know +you were so. + +In what I have now said, I think I cannot be misunderstood; and +to make myself understood is the only object of this letter. + +If it suits you best not to answer this, farewell. A long life +and a merry one attend you. But, if you conclude to write back, +speak as plainly as I do. There can neither be harm nor danger +in saying to me anything you think, just in the manner you think +it. My respects to your sister. + +Your friend, + +LINCOLN + + + + +LEGAL SUIT OF WIDOW v.s. Gen. ADAMS + +TO THE PEOPLE. + +"SANGAMON JOURNAL," SPRINGFIELD, ILL., +Aug. 19, 1837. + +In accordance with our determination, as expressed last week, we +present to the reader the articles which were published in hand- +bill form, in reference to the case of the heirs of Joseph +Anderson vs. James Adams. These articles can now be read +uninfluenced by personal or party feeling, and with the sole +motive of learning the truth. When that is done, the reader can +pass his own judgment on the matters at issue. + +We only regret in this case, that the publications were not made +some weeks before the election. Such a course might have +prevented the expressions of regret, which have often been heard +since, from different individuals, on account of the disposition +they made of their votes. + + + +To the Public: + +It is well known to most of you, that there is existing at this +time considerable excitement in regard to Gen. Adams's titles to +certain tracts of land, and the manner in which he acquired them. +As I understand, the Gen. charges that the whole has been gotten +up by a knot of lawyers to injure his election; and as I am one +of the knot to which he refers, and as I happen to be in +possession of facts connected with the matter, I will, in as +brief a manner as possible, make a statement of them, together +with the means by which I arrived at the know1edge of them. + +Sometime in May or June last, a widow woman, by the name of +Anderson, and her son, who resides in Fulton county, came to +Springfield, for the purpose as they said of selling a ten acre +lot of ground lying near town, which they claimed as the property +of the deceased husband and father. + +When they reached town they found the land was c1aimed by Gen. +Adams. John T. Stuart and myself were employed to look into the +matter, and if it was thought we could do so with any prospect of +success, to commence a suit for the land. I went immediately to +the recorder's office to examine Adams's title, and found that +the land had been entered by one Dixon, deeded by Dixon to +Thomas, by Thomas to one Miller, and by Miller to Gen. Adams. +The oldest of these three deeds was about ten or eleven years +old, and the latest more than five, all recorded at the same +time, and that within less than one year. This I thought a +suspicious circumstance, and I was thereby induced to examine the +deeds very closely, with a view to the discovery of some defect +by which to overturn the title, being almost convinced then it +was founded in fraud. I discovered that in the deed from Thomas +to Miller, although Miller's name stood in a sort of marginal +note on the record book, it was nowhere in the deed itself. I +told the fact to Talbott, the recorder, and proposed to him that +he should go to Gen. Adams's and get the original deed, and +compare it with the record, and thereby ascertain whether the +defect was in the original or there was merely an error in the +recording. As Talbott afterwards told me, he went to the +General's, but not finding him at home, got the deed from his +son, which, when compared with the record, proved what we had +discovered was merely an error of the recorder. After Mr. +Talbott corrected the record, be brought the original to our +office, as I then thought and think yet, to show us that it was +right. When he came into the room he handed the deed to me, +remarking that the fault was all his own. On opening it, another +paper fell out of it, which on examination proved to be an +assignment of a judgment in the Circuit Court of Sangamon County +from Joseph Anderson, the late husband of the widow above named, +to James Adams, the judgment being in favor of said Anderson +against one Joseph Miller. Knowing that this judgment had some +connection with the land affair, I immediately took a copy of it, +which is word for word, letter for letter and cross for cross as +follows: + +"Joseph Anderson, +vs. +Joseph Miller. + +Judgment in Sangamon Circuit Court against Joseph Miller obtained +on a note originally 25 dolls and interest thereon accrued. +I assign all my right, title and interest to James Adams which is +in consideration of a debt I owe said Adams. + +his +JOSEPH x ANDERSON. +mark." + + +As the copy shows, it bore date May 10, 1827; although the +judgment assigned by it was not obtained until the October +afterwards, as may be seen by any one on the records of the +Circuit Court. Two other strange circumstances attended it which +cannot be represented by a copy. One of them was, that the date +"1827" had first been made "1837" and, without the figure "3," +being fully obliterated, the figure "2" had afterwards been made +on top of it; the other was that, although the date was ten years +old, the writing on it, from the freshness of its appearance, was +thought by many, and I believe by all who saw it, not to be more +than a week old. The paper on which it was written had a very +old appearance; and there were some old figures on the back of it +which made the freshness of the writing on the face of it much +more striking than I suppose it otherwise might have been. The +reader's curiosity is no doubt excited to know what connection +this assignment had with the land in question. The story is +this: Dixon sold and deeded the land to Thomas; Thomas sold it to +Anderson; but before he gave a deed, Anderson sold it to Miller, +and took Miller's note for the purchase money. When this note +became due, Anderson sued Miller on it, and Miller procured an +injunction from the Court of Chancery to stay the collection of +the money until he should get a deed for the land. Gen. Adams +was employed as an attorney by Anderson in this chancery suit, +and at the October term, 1827, the injunction was dissolved, and +a judgment given in favor of Anderson against Miller; and it was +provided that Thomas was to execute a deed for the land in favor +of Miller and deliver it to Gen. Adams, to be held up by him till +Miller paid the judgment, and then to deliver it to him. Miller +left the county without paying the judgment. Anderson moved to +Fulton county, where he has since died When the widow came to +Springfield last May or June, as before mentioned, and found the +land deeded to Gen. Adams by Miller, she was naturally led to +inquire why the money due upon the judgment had not been sent to +them, inasmuch as he, Gen. Adams, had no authority to deliver +Thomas's deed to Miller until the money was paid. Then it was +the General told her, or perhaps her son, who came with her, that +Anderson, in his lifetime, had assigned the judgment to him, Gen. +Adams. I am now told that the General is exhibiting an +assignment of the same judgment bearing date "1828" and in other +respects differing from the one described; and that he is +asserting that no such assignment as the one copied by me ever +existed; or if there did, it was forged between Talbott and the +lawyers, and slipped into his papers for the purpose of injuring +him. Now, I can only say that I know precisely such a one did +exist, and that Ben. Talbott, Wm. Butler, C.R. Matheny, John +T. Stuart, Judge Logan, Robert Irwin, P. C. Canedy and S. M. +Tinsley, all saw and examined it, and that at least one half of +them will swear that IT WAS IN GENERAL ADAMS'S HANDWRITING !! And +further, I know that Talbott will swear that he got it out of the +General's possession, and returned it into his possession again. +The assignment which the General is now exhibiting purports to +have been by Anderson in writing. The one I copied was signed +with a cross. + +I am told that Gen. Neale says that he will swear that he heard +Gen. Adams tell young Anderson that the assignment made by his +father was signed with a cross. + +The above are 'facts, as stated. I leave them without comment. +I have given the names of persons who have knowledge of these +facts, in order that any one who chooses may call on them and +ascertain how far they will corroborate my statements. I have +only made these statements because I am known by many to be one +of the individuals against whom the charge of forging the +assignment and slipping it into the General's papers has been +made, and because our silence might be construed into a +confession of its truth. I shall not subscribe my name; but I +hereby authorize the editor of the Journal to give it up to any +one that may call for it." + + + + +LINCOLN AND TALBOTT IN REPLY TO GEN. ADAMS. + +"SANGAMON JOURNAL," SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Oct. 28, 1837. + +In the Republican of this morning a publication of Gen. Adams's +appears, in which my name is used quite unreservedly. For this I +thank the General. I thank him because it gives me an +opportunity, without appearing obtrusive, of explaining a part of +a former publication of mine, which appears to me to have been +misunderstood by many. + +In the former publication alluded to, I stated, in substance, +that Mr. Talbott got a deed from a son of Gen. Adams's for the +purpose of correcting a mistake that had occurred on the record +of the said deed in the recorder's office; that he corrected the +record, and brought the deed and handed it to me, and that on +opening the deed, another paper, being the assignment of a +judgment, fell out of it. This statement Gen. Adams and the +editor of the Republican have seized upon as a most palpable +evidence of fabrication and falsehood. They set themselves +gravely about proving that the assignment could not have been in +the deed when Talbott got it from young Adams, as he, Talbott, +would have seen it when he opened the deed to correct the record. +Now, the truth is, Talbott did see the assignment when he opened +the deed, or at least he told me he did on the same day; and I +only omitted to say so, in my former publication, because it was +a matter of such palpable and necessary inference. I had stated +that Talbott had corrected the record by the deed; and of course +he must have opened it; and, just as the General and his friends +argue, must have seen the assignment. I omitted to state the +fact of Talbott's seeing the assignment, because its existence +was so necessarily connected with other facts which I did state, +that I thought the greatest dunce could not but understand it. +Did I say Talbott had not seen it? Did I say anything that was +inconsistent with his having seen it before? Most certainly I did +neither; and if I did not, what becomes of the argument? These +logical gentlemen can sustain their argument only by assuming +that I did say negatively everything that I did not say +affirmatively; and upon the same assumption, we may expect to +find the General, if a little harder pressed for argument, saying +that I said Talbott came to our office with his head downward, +not that I actually said so, but because I omitted to say he came +feet downward. + +In his publication to-day, the General produces the affidavit of +Reuben Radford, in which it is said that Talbott told Radford +that he did not find the assignment in the deed, in the recording +of which the error was committed, but that he found it wrapped in +another paper in the recorder's office, upon which statement the +Genl. comments as follows, to wit: +"If it be true as stated by Talbott to Radford, that he found the +assignment wrapped up in another paper at his office, that +contradicts the statement of Lincoln that it fell out of the +deed." + +Is common sense to be abused with such sophistry? Did I say what +Talbott found it in? If Talbott did find it in another paper at +his office, is that any reason why he could not have folded it in +a deed and brought it to my office? Can any one be so far duped +as to be made believe that what may have happened at Talbot's +office at one time is inconsistent with what happened at my +office at another time? + +Now Talbott's statement of the case as he makes it to me is this, +that he got a bunch of deeds from young Adams, and that he knows +he found the assignment in the bunch, but he is not certain which +particular deed it was in, nor is he certain whether it was +folded in the same deed out of which it was taken, or another +one, when it was brought to my office. Is this a mysterious +story? Is there anything suspicious about it? + +"But it is useless to dwell longer on this point. Any man who is +not wilfully blind can see at a flash, that there is no +discrepancy, and Lincoln has shown that they are not only +inconsistent with truth, but each other"--I can only say, that I +have shown that he has done no such thing; and if the reader is +disposed to require any other evidence than the General's +assertion, he will be of my opinion. + +Excepting the General's most flimsy attempt at mystification, in +regard to a discrepance between Talbott and myself, he has not +denied a single statement that I made in my hand-bill. Every +material statement that I made has been sworn to by men who, in +former times, were thought as respectable as General Adams. I +stated that an assignment of a judgment, a copy of which I gave, +had existed--Benj. Talbott, C. R. Matheny, Wm. Butler, and +Judge Logan swore to its existence. I stated that it was said to +be in Gen. Adams's handwriting--the same men swore it was in his +handwriting. I stated that Talbott would swear that he got it +out of Gen. Adams's possession--Talbott came forward and did +swear it. + +Bidding adieu to the former publication, I now propose to examine +the General's last gigantic production. I now propose to point +out some discrepancies in the General's address; and such, too, +as he shall not be able to escape from. Speaking of the famous +assignment, the General says: "This last charge, which was their +last resort, their dying effort to render my character infamous +among my fellow citizens, was manufactured at a certain lawyer's +office in the town, printed at the office of the Sangamon +Journal, and found its way into the world some time between two +days just before the last election." Now turn to Mr. Keys' +affidavit, in which you will find the following, viz.: "I certify +that some time in May or the early part of June, 1837, I saw at +Williams's corner a paper purporting to be an assignment from +Joseph Anderson to James Adams, which assignment was signed by a +mark to Anderson's name," etc. Now mark, if Keys saw the +assignment on the last of May or first of June, Gen. Adams tells +a falsehood when he says it was manufactured just before the +election, which was on the 7th of August; and if it was +manufactured just before the election, Keys tells a falsehood +when he says he saw it on the last of May or first of June. +Either Keys or the General is irretrievably in for it; and in the +General's very condescending language, I say "Let them settle it +between them." + +Now again, let the reader, bearing in mind that General Adams has +unequivocally said, in one part of his address, that the charge +in relation to the assignment was manufactured just before the +election, turn to the affidavit of Peter S. Weber, where the +following will be found viz.: "I, Peter S. Weber, do certify +that from the best of my recollection, on the day or day after +Gen. Adams started for the Illinois Rapids, in May last, that I +was at the house of Gen. Adams, sitting in the kitchen, situated +on the back part of the house, it being in the afternoon, and +that Benjamin Talbott came around the house, back into the +kitchen, and appeared wild and confused, and that he laid a +package of papers on the kitchen table and requested that they +should be handed to Lucian. He made no apology for coming to the +kitchen, nor for not handing them to Lucian himself, but showed +the token of being frightened and confused both in demeanor and +speech and for what cause I could not apprehend." + +Commenting on Weber's affidavit, Gen. Adams asks, "Why this +fright and confusion?" I reply that this is a question for the +General himself. Weber says that it was in May, and if so, it is +most clear that Talbott was not frightened on account of the +assignment, unless the General lies when he says the assignment +charge was manufactured just before the election. Is it not a +strong evidence, that the General is not traveling with the pole- +star of truth in his front, to see him in one part of his address +roundly asserting that the assignment was manufactured just +before the election, and then, forgetting that position, +procuring Weber's most foolish affidavit, to prove that Talbott +had been engaged in manufacturing it two months before? + +In another part of his address, Gen. Adams says: "That I hold an +assignment of said judgment, dated the 20th of May, 1828, and +signed by said Anderson, I have never pretended to deny or +conceal, but stated that fact in one of my circulars previous to +the election, and also in answer to a bill in chancery." Now I +pronounce this statement unqualifiedly false, and shall not rely +on the word or oath of any man to sustain me in what I say; but +will let the whole be decided by reference to the circular and +answer in chancery of which the General speaks. In his circular +he did speak of an assignment; but he did not say it bore date +20th of May, 1828; nor did he say it bore any date. In his +answer in chancery, he did say that he had an assignment; but he +did not say that it bore date the 20th May, 1828; but so far from +it, he said on oath (for he swore to the answer) that as well as +recollected, he obtained it in 1827. If any one doubts, let him +examine the circular and answer for himself. They are both +accessible. + +It will readily be observed that the principal part of Adams's +defense rests upon the argument that if he had been base enough +to forge an assignment he would not have been fool enough to +forge one that would not cover the case. This argument he used +in his circular before the election. The Republican has used it +at least once, since then; and Adams uses it again in his +publication of to-day. Now I pledge myself to show that he is +just such a fool that he and his friends have contended it was +impossible for him to be. Recollect--he says he has a genuine +assignment; and that he got Joseph Klein's affidavit, stating +that he had seen it, and that he believed the signature to have +been executed by the same hand that signed Anderson's name to the +answer in chancery. Luckily Klein took a copy of this genuine +assignment, which I have been permitted to see; and hence I know +it does not cover the case. In the first place it is headed +"Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph Miller," and heads off "Judgment in +Sangamon Circuit Court." Now, mark, there never was a case in +Sangamon Circuit Court entitled Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph +Miller. The case mentioned in my former publication, and the +only one between these parties that ever existed in the Circuit +Court, was entitled Joseph Miller vs. Joseph Anderson, Miller +being the plaintiff. What then becomes of all their sophistry +about Adams not being fool enough to forge an assignment that +would not cover the case? It is certain that the present one does +not cover the case; and if he got it honestly, it is still clear +that he was fool enough to pay for an assignment that does not +cover the case. + +The General asks for the proof of disinterested witnesses. Whom +does he consider disinterested? None can be more so than those +who have already testified against him. No one of them had the +least interest on earth, so far as I can learn, to injure him. +True, he says they had conspired against him; but if the +testimony of an angel from Heaven were introduced against him, he +would make the same charge of conspiracy. And now I put the +question to every reflecting man, Do you believe that Benjamin +Talbott, Chas. R. Matheny, William Butler and Stephen T. +Logan, all sustaining high and spotless characters, and justly +proud of them, would deliberately perjure themselves, without any +motive whatever, except to injure a man's election; and that, +too, a man who had been a candidate, time out of mind, and yet +who had never been elected to any office? + +Adams's assurance, in demanding disinterested testimony, is +surpassing. He brings in the affidavit of his own son, and even +of Peter S. Weber, with whom I am not acquainted, but who, I +suppose, is some black or mulatto boy, from his being kept in the +kitchen, to prove his points; but when such a man as Talbott, a +man who, but two years ago, ran against Gen. Adams for the office +of Recorder and beat him more than four votes to one, is +introduced against him, he asks the community, with all the +consequence of a lord, to reject his testimony. + +I might easily write a volume, pointing out inconsistencies +between the statements in Adams's last address with one another, +and with other known facts; but I am aware the reader must +already be tired with the length of this article. His opening +statements, that he was first accused of being a Tory, and that +he refuted that; that then the Sampson's ghost story was got up, +and he refuted that; that as a last resort, a dying effort, the +assignment charge was got up is all as false as hell, as all this +community must know. Sampson's ghost first made its appearance +in print, and that, too, after Keys swears he saw the assignment, +as any one may see by reference to the files of papers; and Gen. +Adams himself, in reply to the Sampson's ghost story, was the +first man that raised the cry of toryism, and it was only by way +of set-off, and never in seriousness, that it was bandied back at +him. His effort is to make the impression that his enemies first +made the charge of toryism and he drove them from that, then +Sampson's ghost, he drove them from that, then finally the +assignment charge was manufactured just before election. Now, +the only general reply he ever made to the Sampson's ghost and +tory charges he made at one and the same time, and not in +succession as he states; and the date of that reply will show, +that it was made at least a month after the date on which Keys +swears he saw the Anderson assignment. But enough. In +conclusion I will only say that I have a character to defend as +well as Gen. Adams, but I disdain to whine about it as he does. +It is true I have no children nor kitchen boys; and if I had, I +should scorn to lug them in to make affidavits for me. + +A. LINCOLN, September 6, 1837. + + + + +Gen. ADAMS CONTROVERSY--CONTINUED + +TO THE PUBLIC. + +"SANGAMON JOURNAL," Springfield, Ill, Oct.28, 1837. + +Such is the turn which things have taken lately, that when Gen. +Adams writes a book, I am expected to write a commentary on it. +In the Republican of this morning he has presented the world with +a new work of six columns in length; in consequence of which I +must beg the room of one column in the Journal. It is obvious +that a minute reply cannot be made in one column to everything +that can be said in six; and, consequently, I hope that +expectation will be answered if I reply to such parts of the +General's publication as are worth replying to. + +It may not be improper to remind the reader that in his +publication of Sept. 6th General Adams said that the assignment +charge was manufactured just before the election; and that in +reply I proved that statement to be false by Keys, his own +witness. Now, without attempting to explain, he furnishes me +with another witness (Tinsley) by which the same thing is proved, +to wit, that the assignment was not manufactured just before the +election; but that it was some weeks before. Let it be borne in +mind that Adams made this statement--has himself furnished two +witnesses to prove its falsehood, and does not attempt to deny or +explain it. Before going farther, let a pin be stuck here, +labeled "One lie proved and confessed." On the 6th of September +he said he had before stated in the hand-bill that he held an +assignment dated May 20th, 1828, which in reply I pronounced to +be false, and referred to the hand-bill for the truth of what I +said. This week he forgets to make any explanation of this. Let +another pin be stuck here, labelled as before. I mention these +things because, if, when I convict him in one falsehood, he is +permitted to shift his ground and pass it by in silence, there +can be no end to this controversy. + +The first thing that attracts my attention in the General's +present production is the information he is pleased to give to +"those who are made to suffer at his (my) hands." + +Under present circumstances, this cannot apply to me, for I am +not a widow nor an orphan: nor have I a wife or children who +might by possibility become such. Such, however, I have no +doubt, have been, and will again be made to suffer at his hands! +Hands! Yes, they are the mischievous agents. The next thing I +shall notice is his favorite expression, "not of lawyers, doctors +and others," which he is so fond of applying to all who dare +expose his rascality. Now, let it be remembered that when he +first came to this country he attempted to impose himself upon +the community as a lawyer, and actually carried the attempt so +far as to induce a man who was under a charge of murder to +entrust the defence of his life in his hands, and finally took +his money and got him hanged. Is this the man that is to raise a +breeze in his favor by abusing lawyers? If he is not himself a +lawyer, it is for the lack of sense, and not of inclination. If +he is not a lawyer, he is a liar, for he proclaimed himself a +lawyer, and got a man hanged by depending on him. + +Passing over such parts of the article as have neither fact nor +argument in them, I come to the question asked by Adams whether +any person ever saw the assignment in his possession. This is an +insult to common sense. Talbott has sworn once and repeated time +and again, that he got it out of Adams's possession and returned +it into the same possession. Still, as though he was addressing +fools, he has assurance to ask if any person ever saw it in his +possession. + +Next I quote a sentence, "Now my son Lucian swears that when +Talbott called for the deed, that he, Talbott, opened it and +pointed out the error." True. His son Lucian did swear as he +says; and in doing so, he swore what I will prove by his own +affidavit to be a falsehood. Turn to Lucian's affidavit, and you +will there see that Talbott called for the deed by which to +correct an error on the record. Thus it appears that the error +in question was on the record, and not in the deed. How then +could Talbott open the deed and point out the error? Where a +thing is not, it cannot be pointed out. The error was not in the +deed, and of course could not be pointed out there. This does +not merely prove that the error could not be pointed out, as +Lucian swore it was; but it proves, too, that the deed was not +opened in his presence with a special view to the error, for if +it had been, he could not have failed to see that there was no +error in it. It is easy enough to see why Lucian swore this. +His object was to prove that the assignment was not in the deed +when Talbott got it: but it was discovered he could not swear +this safely, without first swearing the deed was opened--and if +he swore it was opened, he must show a motive for opening it, and +the conclusion with him and his father was that the pointing out +the error would appear the most plausible. + +For the purpose of showing that the assignment was not in the +bundle when Talbott got it, is the story introduced into Lucian's +affidavit that the deeds were counted. It is a remarkable fact, +and one that should stand as a warning to all liars and +fabricators, that in this short affidavit of Lucian's he only +attempted to depart from the truth, so far as I have the means of +knowing, in two points, to wit, in the opening the deed and +pointing out the error and the counting of the deeds,--and in +both of these he caught himself. About the counting, he caught +himself thus--after saying the bundle contained five deeds and a +lease, he proceeds, "and I saw no other papers than the said deed +and lease." First he has six papers, and then he saw none but +two; for "my son Lucian's" benefit, let a pin be stuck here. + +Adams again adduces the argument, that he could not have forged +the assignment, for the reason that he could have had no motive +for it. With those that know the facts there is no absence of +motive. Admitting the paper which he has filed in the suit to be +genuine, it is clear that it cannot answer the purpose for which +he designs it. Hence his motive for making one that he supposed +would answer is obvious. His making the date too old is also +easily enough accounted for. The records were not in his hands, +and then, there being some considerable talk upon this particular +subject, he knew he could not examine the records to ascertain +the precise dates without subjecting himself to suspicion; and +hence he concluded to try it by guess, and, as it turned out, +missed it a little. About Miller's deposition I have a word to +say. In the first place, Miller's answer to the first question +shows upon its face that he had been tampered with, and the +answer dictated to him. He was asked if he knew Joel Wright and +James Adams; and above three-fourths of his answer consists of +what he knew about Joseph Anderson, a man about whom nothing had +been asked, nor a word said in the question--a fact that can only +be accounted for upon the supposition that Adams had secretly +told him what he wished him to swear to. + +Another of Miller's answers I will prove both by common sense and +the Court of Record is untrue. To one question he answers, +"Anderson brought a suit against me before James Adams, then an +acting justice of the peace in Sangamon County, before whom he +obtained a judgment. + +"Q.--Did you remove the same by injunction to the Sangamon +Circuit Court? Ans.--I did remove it." + +Now mark--it is said he removed it by injunction. The word +"injunction" in common language imports a command that some +person or thing shall not move or be removed; in law it has the +same meaning. An injunction issuing out of chancery to a justice +of the peace is a command to him to stop all proceedings in a +named case until further orders. It is not an order to remove +but to stop or stay something that is already moving. Besides +this, the records of the Sangamon Circuit Court show that the +judgment of which Miller swore was never removed into said Court +by injunction or otherwise. + +I have now to take notice of a part of Adams's address which in +the order of time should have been noticed before. It is in +these words: "I have now shown, in the opinion of two competent +judges, that the handwriting of the forged assignment differed +from mine, and by one of them that it could not be mistaken for +mine." That is false. Tinsley no doubt is the judge referred +to; and by reference to his certificate it will be seen that he +did not say the handwriting of the assignment could not be +mistaken for Adams's--nor did he use any other expression +substantially, or anything near substantially, the same. But if +Tinsley had said the handwriting could not be mistaken for +Adams's, it would have been equally unfortunate for Adams: for it +then would have contradicted Keys, who says, "I looked at the +writing and judged it the said Adams's or a good imitation." + +Adams speaks with much apparent confidence of his success on +attending lawsuits, and the ultimate maintenance of his title to +the land in question. Without wishing to disturb the pleasure of +his dream, I would say to him that it is not impossible that he +may yet be taught to sing a different song in relation to the +matter. + +At the end of Miller's deposition, Adams asks, Will Mr. Lincoln +now say that he is almost convinced my title to this ten acre +tract of land is founded in fraud?" I answer, I will not. I will +now change the phraseology so as to make it run--I am quite +convinced, &c. I cannot pass in silence Adams's assertion that +he has proved that the forged assignment was not in the deed when +it came from his house by Talbott, the recorder. In this, +although Talbott has sworn that the assignment was in the bundle +of deeds when it came from his house, Adams has the unaccountable +assurance to say that he has proved the contrary by Talbott. Let +him or his friends attempt to show wherein he proved any such +thing by Talbott. + +In his publication of the 6th of September he hinted to Talbott, +that he might be mistaken. In his present, speaking of Talbott +and me he says "They may have been imposed upon." Can any man of +the least penetration fail to see the object of this? After be +has stormed and raged till he hopes and imagines he has got us a +little scared he wishes to softly whisper in our ears, "If you'l1 +quit I will." If he could get us to say that some unknown, +undefined being had slipped the assignment into our hands without +our knowledge, not a doubt remains but that be would immediately +discover that we were the purest men on earth. This is the +ground he evidently wishes us to understand he is willing to +compromise upon. But we ask no such charity at his hands. We +are neither mistaken nor imposed upon. We have made the +statements we have because we know them to be true and we choose +to live or die by them. + +Esq. Carter, who is Adams's friend, personal and political, will +recollect, that, on the 5th of this month, he (Adams), with a +great affectation of modesty, declared that he would never +introduce his own child as a witness. Notwithstanding this +affectation of modesty, he has in his present publication +introduced his child as witness; and as if to show with how much +contempt he could treat his own declaration, he has had this same +Esq. Carter to administer the oath to him. And so important a +witness does he consider him, and so entirely does the whole of +his entire present production depend upon the testimony of his +child, that in it he has mentioned "my son," "my son Lucian," +"Lucian, my son," and the like expressions no less than fifteen +different times. Let it be remembered here, that I have shown +the affidavit of "my darling son Lucian" to be false by the +evidence apparent on its own face; and I now ask if that +affidavit be taken away what foundation will the fabric have left +to stand upon? + +General Adams's publications and out-door maneuvering, taken in +connection with the editorial articles of the Republican, are not +more foolish and contradictory than they are ludicrous and +amusing. One week the Republican notifies the public that Gen. +Adams is preparing an instrument that will tear, rend, split, +rive, blow up, confound, overwhelm, annihilate, extinguish, +exterminate, burst asunder, and grind to powder all its +slanderers, and particularly Talbott and Lincoln--all of which is +to be done in due time. + +Then for two or three weeks all is calm--not a word said. Again +the Republican comes forth with a mere passing remark that +"public" opinion has decided in favor of Gen. Adams, and +intimates that he will give himself no more trouble about the +matter. In the meantime Adams himself is prowling about and, as +Burns says of the devil, "For prey, and holes and corners +tryin'," and in one instance goes so far as to take an old +acquaintance of mine several steps from a crowd and, apparently +weighed down with the importance of his business, gravely and +solemnly asks him if "he ever heard Lincoln say he was a deist." + +Anon the Republican comes again. "We invite the attention of the +public to General Adams's communication," &c. "The victory is a +great one, the triumph is overwhelming." I really believe the +editor of the Illinois Republican is fool enough to think General +Adams leads off--"Authors most egregiously mistaken) &c. Most +woefully shall their presumption be punished," &c. (Lord have +mercy on us.) "The hour is yet to come, yea, nigh at hand--(how +long first do you reckon ?)--when the Journal and its junto shall +say, I have appeared too early." "Their infamy shall be laid bare +to the public gaze." Suddenly the General appears to relent at +the severity with which he is treating us and he exclaims: "The +condemnation of my enemies is the inevitable result of my own +defense." For your health's sake, dear Gen., do not permit your +tenderness of heart to afflict you so much on our account. For +some reason (perhaps because we are killed so quickly) we shall +never be sensible of our suffering. + +Farewell, General. I will see you again at court if not before-- +when and where we will settle the question whether you or the +widow shall have the land. + +A. LINCOLN. +October 18, 1837. + + + + +1838 + + +TO Mrs. O. H. BROWNING--A FARCE + +SPRINGFIELD, April 1, 1838. + +DEAR MADAM:--Without apologizing for being egotistical, 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 and suffered since I saw you, I shall +necessarily have to relate some that happened before. + +It was, then, in the autumn of 1836 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 despatch. I, of +course, accepted the proposal, for you know I could not have done +otherwise had I really been averse to it; but privately, between +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 +company, 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 ever 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 +mentioned. In a few days we had an interview, and, although 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- +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 +had 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 coming 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 continually +repenting the rashness which had led me to make it. Through +life, I have been in no bondage, either real or imaginary, from +the thraldom of which I so much desired to be free. After my +return home, I saw nothing to change my opinions of her in any +particular. She was the same, and so was I. I now spent my time +in planning how I might get along through 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 Irishman does the halter. + +After all my suffering upon this deeply interesting subject, here +I am, wholly, unexpectedly, completely, out of the "scrape"; and +now I 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 her 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 endurance. I was mortified, +it seemed to me, in a hundred different ways. My vanity was +deeply wounded by the reflection that I had 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. But let it all go. I'll try and outlive it. +Others have been made fools of by the girls, but this can never +with truth be said of me. I most emphatically in this instance, +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 any one 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. LINCOLN. + + + + +1839 + + +REMARKS ON SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS + +IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, January 17, 1839. + +Mr. Lincoln, from Committee on Finance, to which the subject was +referred, made a report on the subject of purchasing of the +United States all the unsold lands lying within the limits of the +State of Illinois, accompanied by resolutions that this State +propose to purchase all unsold lands at twenty-five cents per +acre, and pledging the faith of the State to carry the proposal +into effect if the government accept the same within two years. + +Mr. Lincoln thought the resolutions ought to be seriously +considered. In reply to the gentleman from Adams, he said that +it was not to enrich the State. The price of the lands may be +raised, it was thought by some; by others, that it would be +reduced. The conclusion in his mind was that the representatives +in this Legislature from the country in which the lands lie would +be opposed to raising the price, because it would operate against +the settlement of the lands. He referred to the lands in the +military tract. They had fallen into the hands of large +speculators in consequence of the low price. He was opposed to a +low price of land. He thought it was adverse to the interests of +the poor settler, because speculators buy them up. He was +opposed to a reduction of the price of public lands. + +Mr. Lincoln referred to some official documents emanating from +Indiana, and compared the progressive population of the two +States. Illinois had gained upon that State under the public +land system as it is. His conclusion was that ten years from +this time Illinois would have no more public land unsold than +Indiana now has. He referred also to Ohio. That State had sold +nearly all her public lands. She was but twenty years ahead of +us, and as our lands were equally salable--more so, as he +maintained--we should have no more twenty years from now than she +has at present. + +Mr. Lincoln referred to the canal lands, and supposed that the +policy of the State would be different in regard to them, if the +representatives from that section of country could themselves +choose the policy; but the representatives from other parts of +the State had a veto upon it, and regulated the policy. He +thought that if the State had all the lands, the policy of the +Legislature would be more liberal to all sections. + +He referred to the policy of the General Government. He thought +that if the national debt had not been paid, the expenses of the +government would not have doubled, as they had done since that +debt was paid. + + + + +TO _________ ROW. + +SPRINGFIELD, June 11, 1839 + +DEAR ROW: + +Mr. Redman informs me that you wish me to write you the +particulars of a conversation between Dr. Felix and myself +relative to you. The Dr. overtook me between Rushville and +Beardstown. + +He, after learning that I had lived at Springfield, asked if I +was acquainted with you. I told him I was. He said you had +lately been elected constable in Adams, but that you never would +be again. I asked him why. He said the people there had found +out that you had been sheriff or deputy sheriff in Sangamon +County, and that you came off and left your securities to suffer. +He then asked me if I did not know such to be the fact. I told +him I did not think you had ever been sheriff or deputy sheriff +in Sangamon, but that I thought you had been constable. I +further told him that if you had left your securities to suffer +in that or any other case, I had never heard of it, and that if +it had been so, I thought I would have heard of it. + +If the Dr. is telling that I told him anything against you +whatever, I authorize you to contradict it flatly. We have no +news here. + +Your friend, as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +SPEECH ON NATIONAL BANK + +IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, December 20, 1839. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--It is peculiarly embarrassing to me to attempt +a continuance of the discussion, on this evening, which has been +conducted in this hall on several preceding ones. It is so +because on each of those evenings there was a much fuller +attendance than now, without any reason for its being so, except +the greater interest the community feel in the speakers who +addressed them then than they do in him who is to do so now. I +am, indeed, apprehensive that the few who have attended have done +so more to spare me mortification than in the hope of being +interested in anything I may be able to say. This circumstance +casts a damp upon my spirits, which I am sure I shall be unable +to overcome during the evening. But enough of preface. + +The subject heretofore and now to be discussed is the subtreasury +scheme of the present administration, as a means of collecting, +safe-keeping, transferring, and disbursing, the revenues of the +nation, as contrasted with a national bank for the same purposes. +Mr. Douglas has said that we (the Whigs) have not dared to meet +them (the Locos) in argument on this question. I protest against +this assertion. I assert that we have again and again, during +this discussion, urged facts and arguments against the +subtreasury which they have neither dared to deny nor attempted +to answer. But lest some may be led to believe that we really +wish to avoid the question, I now propose, in my humble way, to +urge those arguments again; at the same time begging the audience +to mark well the positions I shall take and the proof I shall +offer to sustain them, and that they will not again permit Mr. +Douglas or his friends to escape the force of them by a round and +groundless assertion that we "dare not meet them in argument." + +Of the subtreasury, then, as contrasted with a national bank for +the before-enumerated purposes, I lay down the following +propositions, to wit: (1) It will injuriously affect the +community by its operation on the circulating medium. (2) It +will be a more expensive fiscal agent. (3) It will be a less +secure depository of the public money. To show the truth of the +first proposition, let us take a short review of our condition +under the operation of a national bank. It was the depository of +the public revenues. Between the collection of those revenues +and the disbursement of them by the government, the bank was +permitted to and did actually loan them out to individuals, and +hence the large amount of money actually collected for revenue +purposes, which by any other plan would have been idle a great +portion of the time, was kept almost constantly in circulation. +Any person who will reflect that money is only valuable while in +circulation will readily perceive that any device which will keep +the government revenues in constant circulation, instead of being +locked up in idleness, is no inconsiderable advantage. By the +subtreasury the revenue is to be collected and kept in iron boxes +until the government wants it for disbursement; thus robbing the +people of the use of it, while the government does not itself +need it, and while the money is performing no nobler office than +that of rusting in iron boxes. The natural effect of this change +of policy, every one will see, is to reduce the quantity of money +in circulation. But, again, by the subtreasury scheme the +revenue is to be collected in specie. I anticipate that this +will be disputed. I expect to hear it said that it is not the +policy of the administration to collect the revenue in specie. +If it shall, I reply that Mr. Van Buren, in his message +recommending the subtreasury, expended nearly a column of that +document in an attempt to persuade Congress to provide for the +collection of the revenue in specie exclusively; and he concludes +with these words: + +"It may be safely assumed that no motive of convenience to the +citizens requires the reception of bank paper." In addition to +this, Mr. Silas Wright, Senator from New York, and the political, +personal and confidential friend of Mr. Van Buren, drafted and +introduced into the Senate the first subtreasury bill, and that +bill provided for ultimately collecting the revenue in specie. +It is true, I know, that that clause was stricken from the bill, +but it was done by the votes of the Whigs, aided by a portion +only of the Van Buren senators. No subtreasury bill has yet +become a law, though two or three have been considered by +Congress, some with and some without the specie clause; so that I +admit there is room for quibbling upon the question of whether +the administration favor the exclusive specie doctrine or not; +but I take it that the fact that the President at first urged the +specie doctrine, and that under his recommendation the first bill +introduced embraced it, warrants us in charging it as the policy +of the party until their head as publicly recants it as he at +first espoused it. I repeat, then, that by the subtreasury the +revenue is to be collected in specie. Now mark what the effect +of this must be. By all estimates ever made there are but +between sixty and eighty millions of specie in the United States. +The expenditures of the Government for the year 1838--the last +for which we have had the report--were forty millions. Thus it +is seen that if the whole revenue be collected in specie, it will +take more than half of all the specie in the nation to do it. By +this means more than half of all the specie belonging to the +fifteen millions of souls who compose the whole population of the +country is thrown into the hands of the public office-holders, +and other public creditors comprising in number perhaps not more +than one quarter of a million, leaving the other fourteen +millions and three quarters to get along as they best can, with +less than one half of the specie of the country, and whatever +rags and shinplasters they may be able to put, and keep, in +circulation. By this means, every office-holder and other public +creditor may, and most likely will, set up shaver; and a most +glorious harvest will the specie-men have of it,--each specie- +man, upon a fair division, having to his share the fleecing of +about fifty-nine rag-men. In all candor let me ask, was such a +system for benefiting the few at the expense of the many ever +before devised? And was the sacred name of Democracy ever before +made to indorse such an enormity against the rights of the +people? + +I have already said that the subtreasury will reduce the quantity +of money in circulation. This position is strengthened by the +recollection that the revenue is to be collected in Specie, so +that the mere amount of revenue is not all that is withdrawn, but +the amount of paper circulation that the forty millions would +serve as a basis to is withdrawn, which would be in a sound state +at least one hundred millions. When one hundred millions, or +more, of the circulation we now have shall be withdrawn, who can +contemplate without terror the distress, ruin, bankruptcy, and +beggary that must follow? The man who has purchased any article-- +say a horse--on credit, at one hundred dollars, when there are +two hundred millions circulating in the country, if the quantity +be reduced to one hundred millions by the arrival of pay-day, +will find the horse but sufficient to pay half the debt; and the +other half must either be paid out of his other means, and +thereby become a clear loss to him, or go unpaid, and thereby +become a clear loss to his creditor. What I have here said of a +single case of the purchase of a horse will hold good in every +case of a debt existing at the time a reduction in the quantity +of money occurs, by whomsoever, and for whatsoever, it may have +been contracted. It may be said that what the debtor loses the +creditor gains by this operation; but on examination this will be +found true only to a very limited extent. It is more generally +true that all lose by it--the creditor by losing more of his +debts than he gains by the increased value of those he collects; +the debtor by either parting with more of his property to pay his +debts than he received in contracting them, or by entirely +breaking up his business, and thereby being thrown upon the world +in idleness. + +The general distress thus created will, to be sure, be temporary, +because, whatever change may occur in the quantity of money in +any community, time will adjust the derangement produced; but +while that adjustment is progressing, all suffer more or less, +and very many lose everything that renders life desirable. Why, +then, shall we suffer a severe difficulty, even though it be but +temporary, unless we receive some equivalent for it? + +What I have been saying as to the effect produced by a reduction +of the quantity of money relates to the whole country. I now +propose to show that it would produce a peculiar and permanent +hardship upon the citizens of those States and Territories in +which the public lands lie. The land-offices in those States and +Territories, as all know, form the great gulf by which all, or +nearly all, the money in them is swallowed up. When the quantity +of money shall be reduced, and consequently everything under +individual control brought down in proportion, the price of those +lands, being fixed by law, will remain as now. Of necessity it +will follow that the produce or labor that now raises money +sufficient to purchase eighty acres will then raise but +sufficient to purchase forty, or perhaps not that much; and this +difficulty and hardship will last as long, in some degree, as any +portion of these lands shall remain undisposed of. Knowing, as I +well do, the difficulty that poor people now encounter in +procuring homes, I hesitate not to say that when the price of the +public lands shall be doubled or trebled, or, which is the same +thing, produce and labor cut down to one half or one third of +their present prices, it will be little less than impossible for +them to procure those homes at all.... + +Well, then, what did become of him? (Postmaster General Barry) +Why, the President immediately expressed his high disapprobation +of his almost unequaled incapacity and corruption by appointing +him to a foreign mission, with a salary and outfit of $18,000 a +year! The party now attempt to throw Barry off, and to avoid the +responsibility of his sins. Did not the President indorse those +sins when, on the very heel of their commission, he appointed +their author to the very highest and most honorable office in his +gift, and which is but a single step behind the very goal of +American political ambition? + +I return to another of Mr. Douglas's excuses for the expenditures +of 1838, at the same time announcing the pleasing intelligence +that this is the last one. He says that ten millions of that +year's expenditure was a contingent appropriation, to prosecute +an anticipated war with Great Britain on the Maine boundary +question. Few words will settle this. First, that the ten +millions appropriated was not made till 1839, and consequently +could not have been expended in 1838; second, although it was +appropriated, it has never been expended at all. Those who heard +Mr. Douglas recollect that he indulged himself in a contemptuous +expression of pity for me. "Now he's got me," thought I. But +when he went on to say that five millions of the expenditure of +1838 were payments of the French indemnities, which I knew to be +untrue; that five millions had been for the post-office, which I +knew to be untrue; that ten millions had been for the Maine +boundary war, which I not only knew to be untrue, but supremely +ridiculous also; and when I saw that he was stupid enough to hope +that I would permit such groundless and audacious assertions to +go unexposed,--I readily consented that, on the score both of +veracity and sagacity, the audience should judge whether he or I +were the more deserving of the world's contempt. + +Mr. Lamborn insists that the difference between the Van Buren +party and the Whigs is that, although the former sometimes err in +practice, they are always correct in principle, whereas the +latter are wrong in principle; and, better to impress this +proposition, he uses a figurative expression in these words: "The +Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, but they are sound in the +head and the heart." The first branch of the figure--that is, +that the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel--I admit is not +merely figuratively, but literally true. Who that looks but for +a moment at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their Harringtons, +and their hundreds of others, scampering away with the public +money to Texas, to Europe, and to every spot of the earth where a +villain may hope to find refuge from justice, can at all doubt +that they are most distressingly affected in their heels with a +species of "running itch"? It seems that this malady of their +heels operates on these sound-headed and honest-hearted creatures +very much like the cork leg in the comic song did on its owner: +which, when he had once got started on it, the more he tried to +stop it, the more it would run away. At the hazard of wearing +this point threadbare, I will relate an anecdote which seems too +strikingly in point to be omitted. A witty Irish soldier, who +was always boasting of his bravery when no danger was near, but +who invariably retreated without orders at the first charge of an +engagement, being asked by his captain why he did so, replied: +"Captain, I have as brave a heart as Julius Caesar ever had; but, +somehow or other, whenever danger approaches, my cowardly legs +will run away with it." So with Mr. Lamborn's party. They take +the public money into their hand for the most laudable purpose +that wise heads and honest hearts can dictate; but before they +can possibly get it out again, their rascally "vulnerable heels" +will run away with them. + +Seriously this proposition of Mr. Lamborn is nothing more or less +than a request that his party may be tried by their professions +instead of their practices. Perhaps no position that the party +assumes is more liable to or more deserving of exposure than this +very modest request; and nothing but the unwarrantable length to +which I have already extended these remarks forbids me now +attempting to expose it. For the reason given, I pass it by. + +I shall advert to but one more point. Mr. Lamborn refers to the +late elections in the States, and from their results confidently +predicts that every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van +Buren at the next Presidential election. Address that argument +to cowards and to knaves; with the free and the brave it will +effect nothing. It may be true; if it must, let it. Many free +countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but if +she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to +desert, but that I never deserted her. I know that the great +volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit +that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political +corruption in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping with +frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, +bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living thing; +while on its bosom are riding, like demons on the waves of hell, +the imps of that evil spirit, and fiendishly taunting all those +who dare resist its destroying course with the hopelessness of +their effort; and, knowing this, I cannot deny that all may be +swept away. Broken by it I, too, may be; bow to it I never will. +The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to +deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it +shall not deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate +and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its +almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my +country deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up +boldly and alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious +oppressors. Here, without contemplating consequences, before +high heaven and in the face of the world, I swear eternal +fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, +my liberty, and my love. And who that thinks with me will not +fearlessly adopt the oath that I take? Let none falter who thinks +he is right, and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall +fail, be it so. We still shall have the proud consolation of +saying to our consciences, and to the departed shade of our +country's freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment, and +adored of our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, in +death, we never faltered in defending. + + + + +TO JOHN T. STUART. + +SPRINGFIELD, December 23, 1839. + +DEAR STUART: + +Dr. Henry will write you all the political news. I write this +about some little matters of business. You recollect you told me +you had drawn the Chicago Masark money, and sent it to the +claimants. A hawk-billed Yankee is here besetting me at every +turn I take, saying that Robert Kinzie never received the eighty +dollars to which he was entitled. Can you tell me anything about +the matter? Again, old Mr. Wright, who lives up South Fork +somewhere, is teasing me continually about some deeds which he +says he left with you, but which I can find nothing of. Can you +tell me where they are? The Legislature is in session and has +suffered the bank to forfeit its charter without benefit of +clergy. There seems to be little disposition to resuscitate it. + +Whenever a letter comes from you to Mrs._____________ +I carry it to her, and then I see Betty; she is a tolerable nice +"fellow" now. Maybe I will write again when I get more time. + +Your friend as ever, +A. LINCOLN + +P. S.--The Democratic giant is here, but he is not much worth +talking about. +A.L. + + + + +1840 + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + +Confidential. + +January [1?], 1840. + +To MESSRS _______ + +GENTLEMEN:--In obedience to a resolution of the Whig State +convention, we have appointed you the Central Whig Committee of +your county. The trust confided to you will be one of +watchfulness and labor; but we hope the glory of having +contributed to the overthrow of the corrupt powers that now +control our beloved country will be a sufficient reward for the +time and labor you will devote to it. Our Whig brethren +throughout the Union have met in convention, and after due +deliberation and mutual concessions have elected candidates for +the Presidency and Vice-Presidency not only worthy of our cause, +but worthy of the support of every true patriot who would have +our country redeemed, and her institutions honestly and +faithfully administered. To overthrow the trained bands that are +opposed to us whose salaried officers are ever on the watch, and +whose misguided followers are ever ready to obey their smallest +commands, every Whig must not only know his duty, but must firmly +resolve, whatever of time and labor it may cost, boldly and +faithfully to do it. Our intention is to organize the whole +State, so that every Whig can be brought to the polls in the +coming Presidential contest. We cannot do this, however, without +your co-operation; and as we do our duty, so we shall expect you +to do yours. After due deliberation, the following is the plan +of organization, and the duties required of each county +committee: + +(1) To divide their county into small districts, and to appoint +in each a subcommittee, whose duty it shall be to make a perfect +list of all the voters in their respective districts, and to +ascertain with certainty for whom they will vote. If they meet +with men who are doubtful as to the man they will support, such +voters should be designated in separate lines, with the name of +the man they will probably support. + +(2) It will be the duty of said subcommittee to keep a constant +watch on the doubtful voters, and from time to time have them +talked to by those in whom they have the most confidence, and +also to place in their hands such documents as will enlighten and +influence them. + +(3) It will also be their duty to report to you, at least once a +month, the progress they are making, and on election days see +that every Whig is brought to the polls. + +(4) The subcommittees should be appointed immediately; and by the +last of April, at least, they should make their first report. + +(5) On the first of each month hereafter we shall expect to hear +from you. After the first report of your subcommittees, unless +there should be found a great many doubtful voters, you can tell +pretty accurately the manner in which your county will vote. In +each of your letters to us, you will state the number of certain +votes both for and against us, as well as the number of doubtful +votes, with your opinion of the manner in which they will be +cast. + +(6) When we have heard from all the counties, we shall be able to +tell with similar accuracy the political complexion of the State. +This information will be forwarded to you as soon as received. + +(7) Inclosed is a prospectus for a newspaper to be continued +until after the Presidential election. It will be superintended +by ourselves, and every Whig in the State must take it. It will +be published so low that every one can afford it. You must raise +a fund and forward us for extra copies,--every county ought to +send--fifty or one hundred dollars,--and the copies will be +forwarded to you for distribution among our political opponents. +The paper will be devoted exclusively to the great cause in which +we are engaged. Procure subscriptions, and forward them to us +immediately. + +(8) Immediately after any election in your county, you must +inform us of its results; and as early as possible after any +general election we will give you the like information. + +(9) A senator in Congress is to be elected by our next +Legislature. Let no local interests divide you, but select +candidates that can succeed. + +(10) Our plan of operations will of course be concealed from +every one except our good friends who of right ought to know +them. + +Trusting much in our good cause, the strength of our candidates, +and the determination of the Whigs everywhere to do their duty, +we go to the work of organization in this State confident of +success. We have the numbers, and if properly organized and +exerted, with the gallant Harrison at our head, we shall meet our +foes and conquer them in all parts of the Union. + +Address your letters to Dr. A. G. Henry, R. F, Barrett; A. +Lincoln, E. D. Baker, J. F. Speed. + + + + +TO JOHN T. STUART. + +SPRINGFIELD, +March 1, 1840 + +DEAR STUART: + +I have never seen the prospects of our party so bright in these +parts as they are now. We shall carry this county by a larger +majority than we did in 1836, when you ran against May. I do not +think my prospects, individually, are very flattering, for I +think it probable I shall not be permitted to be a candidate; but +the party ticket will succeed triumphantly. Subscriptions to the +"Old Soldier" pour in without abatement. This morning I took +from the post office a letter from Dubois enclosing the names of +sixty subscribers, and on carrying it to Francis I found he had +received one hundred and forty more from other quarters by the +same day's mail. That is but an average specimen of every day's +receipts. Yesterday Douglas, having chosen to consider himself +insulted by something in the Journal, undertook to cane Francis +in the street. Francis caught him by the hair and jammed him +back against a market cart where the matter ended by Francis +being pulled away from him. The whole affair was so ludicrous +that Francis and everybody else (Douglass excepted) have been +laughing about it ever since. + +I send you the names of some of the V.B. men who have come out +for Harrison about town, and suggest that you send them some +documents. + +Moses Coffman (he let us appoint him a delegate yesterday), Aaron +Coffman, George Gregory, H. M. Briggs, Johnson (at Birchall's +Bookstore), Michael Glyn, Armstrong (not Hosea nor Hugh, but a +carpenter), Thomas Hunter, Moses Pileher (he was always a Whig +and deserves attention), Matthew Crowder Jr., Greenberry Smith; +John Fagan, George Fagan, William Fagan (these three fell out +with us about Early, and are doubtful now), John M. Cartmel, +Noah Rickard, John Rickard, Walter Marsh. + +The foregoing should be addressed at Springfield. + +Also send some to Solomon Miller and John Auth at Salisbury. +Also to Charles Harper, Samuel Harper, and B. C. Harper, and T. +J. Scroggins, John Scroggins at Pulaski, Logan County. + +Speed says he wrote you what Jo Smith said about you as he passed +here. We will procure the names of some of his people here, and +send them to you before long. Speed also says you must not fail +to send us the New York Journal he wrote for some time since. + +Evan Butler is jealous that you never send your compliments to +him. You must not neglect him next time. + +Your friend, as ever, +A. LINCOLN + + + + +RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +November 28, 1840. + +In the Illinois House of Representatives, November 28, 1840, Mr. +Lincoln offered the following: + +Resolved, That so much of the governor's message as relates to +fraudulent voting, and other fraudulent practices at elections, +be referred to the Committee on Elections, with instructions to +said committee to prepare and report to the House a bill for such +an act as may in their judgment afford the greatest possible +protection of the elective franchise against all frauds of all +sorts whatever. + + + + +RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +December 2, 1840. + +Resolved, That the Committee on Education be instructed to +inquire into the expediency of providing by law for the +examination as to the qualification of persons offering +themselves as school teachers, that no teacher shall receive any +part of the public school fund who shall not have successfully +passed such examination, and that they report by bill or +otherwise. + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +December 4, 1840 + +In the House of Representatives, Illinois, December 4, 1840, on +presentation of a report respecting petition of H. N. Purple, +claiming the seat of Mr. Phelps from Peoria, Mr. Lincoln moved +that the House resolve itself into Committee of the Whole on the +question, and take it up immediately. Mr. Lincoln considered the +question of the highest importance whether an individual had a +right to sit in this House or not. The course he should propose +would be to take up the evidence and decide upon the facts +seriatim. + +Mr. Drummond wanted time; they could not decide in the heat of +debate, etc. + +Mr. Lincoln thought that the question had better be gone into +now. In courts of law jurors were required to decide on +evidence, without previous study or examination. They were +required to know nothing of the subject until the evidence was +laid before them for their immediate decision. He thought that +the heat of party would be augmented by delay. + +The Speaker called Mr. Lincoln to order as being irrelevant; no +mention had been made of party heat. + +Mr. Drummond said he had only spoken of debate. Mr. Lincoln +asked what caused the heat, if it was not party? Mr. Lincoln +concluded by urging that the question would be decided now better +than hereafter, and he thought with less heat and excitement. + +(Further debate, in which Lincoln participated.) + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +December 4, 1840. + +In the Illinois House of Representatives, December 4, 1840,House +in Committee of the Whole on the bill providing for payment of +interest on the State debt,--Mr. Lincoln moved to strike out the +body and amendments of the bill, and insert in lieu thereof an +amendment which in substance was that the governor be authorized +to issue bonds for the payment of the interest; that these be +called "interest bonds"; that the taxes accruing on Congress +lands as they become taxable be irrevocably set aside and devoted +as a fund to the payment of the interest bonds. Mr. Lincoln went +into the reasons which appeared to him to render this plan +preferable to that of hypothecating the State bonds. By this +course we could get along till the next meeting of the +Legislature, which was of great importance. To the objection +which might be urged that these interest bonds could not be +cashed, he replied that if our other bonds could, much more could +these, which offered a perfect security, a fund being irrevocably +set aside to provide for their redemption. To another objection, +that we should be paying compound interest, he would reply that +the rapid growth and increase of our resources was in so great a +ratio as to outstrip the difficulty; that his object was to do +the best that could be done in the present emergency. All agreed +that the faith of the State must be preserved; this plan appeared +to him preferable to a hypothecation of bonds, which would have +to be redeemed and the interest paid. How this was to be done, he +could not see; therefore he had, after turning the matter over in +every way, devised this measure, which would carry us on till the +next Legislature. + +(Mr. Lincoln spoke at some length, advocating his measure.) + +Lincoln advocated his measure, December 11, 1840. + +December 12, 1840, he had thought some permanent provision ought +to be made for the bonds to be hypothecated, but was satisfied +taxation and revenue could not be connected with it now. + + + + +1841 + + +TO JOHN T. STUART--ON DEPRESSION + +SPRINGFIELD, Jan 23, 1841 + +DEAR STUART: +I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were +equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be +one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I +cannot tell; I awfully forbode I shall not. To remain as I am is +impossible. I must die or be better, as it appears to me.... +I fear I shall be unable to attend any business here, and a +change of scene might help me. If I could be myself, I would +rather remain at home with Judge Logan. I can write no more. + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +January 23, 1841 + + +In the House of Representatives January 23, 1841, while +discussing the continuation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, +Mr. Moore was afraid the holders of the "scrip" would lose. + +Mr. Napier thought there was no danger of that; and Mr. Lincoln +said he had not examined to see what amount of scrip would +probably be needed. The principal point in his mind was this, +that nobody was obliged to take these certificates. It is +altogether voluntary on their part, and if they apprehend it will +fall in their hands they will not take it. Further the loss, if +any there be, will fall on the citizens of that section of the +country. + +This scrip is not going to circulate over an extensive range of +country, but will be confined chiefly to the vicinity of the +canal. Now, we find the representatives of that section of the +country are all in favor of the bill. + +When we propose to protect their interests, they say to us: Leave +us to take care of ourselves; we are willing to run the risk. +And this is reasonable; we must suppose they are competent to +protect their own interests, and it is only fair to let them do +it. + + + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + +February 9, 1841. + +Appeal to the People of the State of Illinois. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--When the General Assembly, now about +adjourning, assembled in November last, from the bankrupt state +of the public treasury, the pecuniary embarrassments prevailing +in every department of society, the dilapidated state of the +public works, and the impending danger of the degradation of the +State, you had a right to expect that your representatives would +lose no time in devising and adopting measures to avert +threatened calamities, alleviate the distresses of the people, +and allay the fearful apprehensions in regard to the future +prosperity of the State. It was not expected by you that the +spirit of party would take the lead in the councils of the State, +and make every interest bend to its demands. Nor was it expected +that any party would assume to itself the entire control of +legislation, and convert the means and offices of the State, and +the substance of the people, into aliment for party subsistence. +Neither could it have been expected by you that party spirit, +however strong its desires and unreasonable its demands, would +have passed the sanctuary of the Constitution, and entered with +its unhallowed and hideous form into the formation of the +judiciary system. + +At the early period of the session, measures were adopted by the +dominant party to take possession of the State, to fill all +public offices with party men, and make every measure affecting +the interests of the people and the credit of the State operate +in furtherance of their party views. The merits of men and +measures therefore became the subject of discussion in caucus, +instead of the halls of legislation, and decisions there made by +a minority of the Legislature have been executed and carried into +effect by the force of party discipline, without any regard +whatever to the rights of the people or the interests of the +State. The Supreme Court of the State was organized, and judges +appointed, according to the provisions of the Constitution, in +1824. The people have never complained of the organization of +that court; no attempt has ever before been made to change that +department. Respect for public opinion, and regard for the +rights and liberties of the people, have hitherto restrained the +spirit of party from attacks upon the independence and integrity +of the judiciary. The same judges have continued in office since +1824; their decisions have not been the subject of complaint +among the people; the integrity and honesty of the court have not +been questioned, and it has never been supposed that the court +has ever permitted party prejudice or party considerations to +operate upon their decisions. The court was made to consist of +four judges, and by the Constitution two form a quorum for the +transaction of business. With this tribunal, thus constituted, +the people have been satisfied for near sixteen years. The same +law which organized the Supreme Court in 1824 also established +and organized circuit courts to be held in each county in the +State, and five circuit judges were appointed to hold those +courts. In 1826 the Legislature abolished these circuit courts, +repealed the judges out of office, and required the judges of the +Supreme Court to hold the circuit courts. The reasons assigned +for this change were, first, that the business of the country +could be better attended to by the four judges of the Supreme +Court than by the two sets of judges; and, second, the state of +the public treasury forbade the employment of unnecessary +officers. In 1828 a circuit was established north of the +Illinois River, in order to meet the wants of the people, and a +circuit judge was appointed to hold the courts in that circuit. + +In 1834 the circuit-court system was again established throughout +the State, circuit judges appointed to hold the courts, and the +judges of the Supreme Court were relieved from the performance of +circuit court duties. The change was recommended by the then +acting governor of the State, General W. L. D. Ewing, in the +following terms: + +"The augmented population of the State, the multiplied number of +organized counties, as well as the increase of business in all, +has long since convinced every one conversant with this +department of our government of the indispensable necessity of an +alteration in our judiciary system, and the subject is therefore +recommended to the earnest patriotic consideration of the +Legislature. The present system has never been exempt from +serious and weighty objections. The idea of appealing from the +circuit court to the same judges in the Supreme Court is +recommended by little hopes of redress to the injured party +below. The duties of the circuit, too, it may be added, consume +one half of the year, leaving a small and inadequate portion of +time (when that required for domestic purposes is deducted) to +erect, in the decisions of the Supreme Court, a judicial monument +of legal learning and research, which the talent and ability of +the court might otherwise be entirely competent to." + +With this organization of circuit courts the people have never +complained. The only complaints which we have heard have come +from circuits which were so large that the judges could not +dispose of the business, and the circuits in which Judges Pearson +and Ralston lately presided. + +Whilst the honor and credit of the State demanded legislation +upon the subject of the public debt, the canal, the unfinished +public works, and the embarrassments of the people, the judiciary +stood upon a basis which required no change--no legislative +action. Yet the party in power, neglecting every interest +requiring legislative action, and wholly disregarding the rights, +wishes, and interests of the people, has, for the unholy purpose +of providing places for its partisans and supplying them with +large salaries, disorganized that department of the government. +Provision is made for the election of five party judges of the +Supreme Court, the proscription of four circuit judges, and the +appointment of party clerks in more than half the counties of the +State. Men professing respect for public opinion, and +acknowledged to be leaders of the party, have avowed in the halls +of legislation that the change in the judiciary was intended to +produce political results favorable to their party and party +friends. The immutable principles of justice are to make way for +party interests, and the bonds of social order are to be rent in +twain, in order that a desperate faction may be sustained at the +expense of the people. The change proposed in the judiciary was +supported upon grounds so destructive to the institutions of the +country, and so entirely at war with the rights and liberties of +the people, that the party could not secure entire unanimity in +its support, three Democrats of the Senate and five of the House +voting against the measure. They were unwilling to see the +temples of justice and the seats of independent judges occupied +by the tools of faction. The declarations of the party leaders, +the selection of party men for judges, and the total disregard +for the public will in the adoption of the measure, prove +conclusively that the object has been not reform, but +destruction; not the advancement of the highest interests of the +State, but the predominance of party. + +We cannot in this manner undertake to point out all the +objections to this party measure; we present you with those +stated by the Council of Revision upon returning the bill, and we +ask for them a candid consideration. + +Believing that the independence of the judiciary has been +destroyed, that hereafter our courts will be independent of the +people, and entirely dependent upon the Legislature; that our +rights of property and liberty of conscience can no longer be +regarded as safe from the encroachments of unconstitutional +legislation; and knowing of no other remedy which can be adopted +consistently with the peace and good order of society, we call +upon you to avail yourselves of the opportunity afforded, and, at +the next general election, vote for a convention of the people. + +S. H. LITTLE, +E. D. BAKER, +J. J. HARDIN, +E. B. WEBS, +A. LINCOLN, +J. GILLESPIE, + +Committee on behalf of the Whig members of the Legislature. + + + + +EXTRACT FROM A PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE AGAINST THE +REORGANIZATION OF THE JUDICIARY. + +February 26, 1841 + +For the reasons thus presented, and for others no less apparent, +the undersigned cannot assent to the passage of the bill, or +permit it to become a law, without this evidence of their +disapprobation; and they now protest against the reorganization +of the judiciary, because--(1) It violates the great principles +of free government by subjecting the judiciary to the +Legislature. (2) It is a fatal blow at the independence of the +judges and the constitutional term of their office. (3) It is a +measure not asked for, or wished for, by the people. (4) It will +greatly increase the expense of our courts, or else greatly +diminish their utility. (5) It will give our courts a political +and partisan character, thereby impairing public confidence in +their decisions. (6) It will impair our standing with other +States and the world. (7)It is a party measure for party +purposes, from which no practical good to the people can possibly +arise, but which may be the source of immeasurable evils. + +The undersigned are well aware that this protest will be +altogether unavailing with the majority of this body. The blow +has already fallen, and we are compelled to stand by, the +mournful spectators of the ruin it will cause. + +[Signed by 35 members, among whom was Abraham Lincoln.] + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--MURDER CASE + +SPRINGFIELD June 19, 1841. + +DEAR SPEED:--We have had the highest state of excitement here for +a week past that our community has ever witnessed; and, although +the public feeling is somewhat allayed, the curious affair which +aroused it is very far from being even yet cleared of mystery. +It would take a quire of paper to give you anything like a full +account of it, and I therefore only propose a brief outline. The +chief personages in the drama are Archibald Fisher, supposed to +be murdered, and Archibald Trailor, Henry Trailor, and William +Trailor, supposed to have murdered him. The three Trailors are +brothers: the first, Arch., as you know, lives in town; the +second, Henry, in Clary's Grove; and the third, William, in +Warren County; and Fisher, the supposed murdered, being without a +family, had made his home with William. On Saturday evening, +being the 29th of May, Fisher and William came to Henry's in a +one-horse dearborn, and there stayed over Sunday; and on Monday +all three came to Springfield (Henry on horseback) and joined +Archibald at Myers's, the Dutch carpenter. That evening at +supper Fisher was missing, and so next morning some ineffectual +search was made for him; and on Tuesday, at one o'clock P.M., +William and Henry started home without him. In a day or two +Henry and one or two of his Clary-Grove neighbors came back for +him again, and advertised his disappearance in the papers. The +knowledge of the matter thus far had not been general, and here +it dropped entirely, till about the 10th instant, when Keys +received a letter from the postmaster in Warren County, that +William had arrived at home, and was telling a very mysterious +and improbable story about the disappearance of Fisher, which +induced the community there to suppose he had been disposed of +unfairly. Keys made this letter public, which immediately set +the whole town and adjoining county agog. And so it has +continued until yesterday. The mass of the people commenced a +systematic search for the dead body, while Wickersham was +despatched to arrest Henry Trailor at the Grove, and Jim Maxcy to +Warren to arrest William. On Monday last, Henry was brought in, +and showed an evident inclination to insinuate that he knew +Fisher to be dead, and that Arch. and William had killed him. +He said he guessed the body could be found in Spring Creek, +between the Beardstown road and Hickox's mill. Away the people +swept like a herd of buffalo, and cut down Hickox's mill-dam +nolens volens, to draw the water out of the pond, and then went +up and down and down and up the creek, fishing and raking, and +raking and ducking and diving for two days, and, after all, no +dead body found. + +In the meantime a sort of scuffling-ground had been found in the +brush in the angle, or point, where the road leading into the +woods past the brewery and the one leading in past the brick-yard +meet. From the scuffle-ground was the sign of something about +the size of a man having been dragged to the edge of the thicket, +where it joined the track of some small-wheeled carriage drawn by +one horse, as shown by the road-tracks. The carriage-track led +off toward Spring Creek. Near this drag-trail Dr. Merryman found +two hairs, which, after a long scientific examination, he +pronounced to be triangular human hairs, which term, he says, +includes within it the whiskers, the hair growing under the arms +and on other parts of the body; and he judged that these two were +of the whiskers, because the ends were cut, showing that they had +flourished in the neighborhood of the razor's operations. On +Thursday last Jim Maxcy brought in William Trailor from Warren. +On the same day Arch. was arrested and put in jail. Yesterday +(Friday) William was put upon his examining trial before May and +Lovely. Archibald and Henry were both present. Lamborn +prosecuted, and Logan, Baker, and your humble servant defended. +A great many witnesses were introduced and examined, but I shall +only mention those whose testimony seemed most important. The +first of these was Captain Ransdell. He swore that when William +and Henry left Springfield for home on Tuesday before mentioned +they did not take the direct route,--which, you know, leads by +the butcher shop,--but that they followed the street north until +they got opposite, or nearly opposite, May's new house, after +which he could not see them from where he stood; and it was +afterwards proved that in about an hour after they started, they +came into the street by the butcher shop from toward the brick- +yard. Dr. Merryman and others swore to what is stated about the +scuffle-ground, drag-trail, whiskers, and carriage tracks. Henry +was then introduced by the prosecution. He swore that when they +started for home they went out north, as Ransdell stated, and +turned down west by the brick-yard into the woods, and there met +Archibald; that they proceeded a small distance farther, when he +was placed as a sentinel to watch for and announce the approach +of any one that might happen that way; that William and Arch. +took the dearborn out of the road a small distance to the edge of +the thicket, where they stopped, and he saw them lift the body of +a man into it; that they then moved off with the carriage in the +direction of Hickox's mill, and he loitered about for something +like an hour, when William returned with the carriage, but +without Arch., and said they had put him in a safe place; that +they went somehow he did not know exactly how--into the road +close to the brewery, and proceeded on to Clary's Grove. He also +stated that some time during the day William told him that he and +Arch. had killed Fisher the evening before; that the way they +did it was by him William knocking him down with a club, and +Arch. then choking him to death. + +An old man from Warren, called Dr. Gilmore, was then introduced +on the part of the defense. He swore that he had known Fisher +for several years; that Fisher had resided at his house a long +time at each of two different spells--once while he built a barn +for him, and once while he was doctored for some chronic disease; +that two or three years ago Fisher had a serious hurt in his head +by the bursting of a gun, since which he had been subject to +continued bad health and occasional aberration of mind. He also +stated that on last Tuesday, being the same day that Maxcy +arrested William Trailor, he (the doctor) was from home in the +early part of the day, and on his return, about eleven o'clock, +found Fisher at his house in bed, and apparently very unwell; +that he asked him how he came from Springfield; that Fisher said +he had come by Peoria, and also told of several other places he +had been at more in the direction of Peoria, which showed that he +at the time of speaking did not know where he had been wandering +about in a state of derangement. He further stated that in about +two hours he received a note from one of Trailor's friends, +advising him of his arrest, and requesting him to go on to +Springfield as a witness, to testify as to the state of Fisher's +health in former times; that he immediately set off, calling up +two of his neighbors as company, and, riding all evening and all +night, overtook Maxcy and William at Lewiston in Fulton County; +that Maxcy refusing to discharge Trailor upon his statement, his +two neighbors returned and he came on to Springfield. Some +question being made as to whether the doctor's story was not a +fabrication, several acquaintances of his (among whom was the +same postmaster who wrote Keys, as before mentioned) were +introduced as sort of compurgators, who swore that they knew the +doctor to be of good character for truth and veracity, and +generally of good character in every way. + +Here the testimony ended, and the Trailors were discharged, Arch. +and William expressing both in word and manner their entire +confidence that Fisher would be found alive at the doctor's by +Galloway, Mallory, and Myers, who a day before had been +despatched for that purpose; which Henry still protested that no +power on earth could ever show Fisher alive. Thus stands this +curious affair. When the doctor's story was first made public, +it was amusing to scan and contemplate the countenances and hear +the remarks of those who had been actively in search for the dead +body: some looked quizzical, some melancholy, and some furiously +angry. Porter, who had been very active, swore he always knew +the man was not dead, and that he had not stirred an inch to hunt +for him; Langford, who had taken the lead in cutting down +Hickox's mill-dam, and wanted to hang Hickox for objecting, +looked most awfully woebegone: he seemed the "victim of +unrequited affection," as represented in the comic almanacs we +used to laugh over; and Hart, the little drayman that hauled +Molly home once, said it was too damned bad to have so much +trouble, and no hanging after all. + +I commenced this letter on yesterday, since which I received +yours of the 13th. I stick to my promise to come to Louisville. +Nothing new here except what I have written. I have not seen +_____ since my last trip, and I am going out there as soon as I +mail this letter. + +Yours forever, +LINCOLN. + + + + +STATEMENT ABOUT HARRY WILTON. + +June 25, 1841 + +It having been charged in some of the public prints that Harry +Wilton, late United States marshal for the district of Illinois, +had used his office for political effect, in the appointment of +deputies for the taking of the census for the year 1840, we, the +undersigned, were called upon by Mr. Wilton to examine the papers +in his possession relative to these appointments, and to +ascertain therefrom the correctness or incorrectness of such +charge. We accompanied Mr. Wilton to a room, and examined the +matter as fully as we could with the means afforded us. The only +sources of information bearing on the subject which were +submitted to us were the letters, etc., recommending and opposing +the various appointments made, and Mr. Wilton's verbal statements +concerning the same. From these letters, etc., it appears that +in some instances appointments were made in accordance with the +recommendations of leading Whigs, and in opposition to those of +leading Democrats; among which instances the appointments at +Scott, Wayne, Madison, and Lawrence are the strongest. According +to Mr. Wilton's statement of the seventy-six appointments we +examined, fifty-four were of Democrats, eleven of Whigs, and +eleven of unknown politics. + +The chief ground of complaint against Mr. Wilton, as we had +understood it, was because of his appointment of so many +Democratic candidates for the Legislature, thus giving them a +decided advantage over their Whig opponents; and consequently our +attention was directed rather particularly to that point. We +found that there were many such appointments, among which were +those in Tazewell, McLean, Iroquois, Coles, Menard, Wayne, +Washington, Fayette, etc.; and we did not learn that there was +one instance in which a Whig candidate for the Legislature had +been appointed. There was no written evidence before us showing +us at what time those appointments were made; but Mr. Wilton +stated that they all with one exception were made before those +appointed became candidates for the Legislature, and the letters, +etc., recommending them all bear date before, and most of them +long before, those appointed were publicly announced candidates. + +We give the foregoing naked facts and draw no conclusions from +them. + +BEND. S. EDWARDS, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MISS MARY SPEED--PRACTICAL SLAVERY + +BLOOMINGTON, ILL., September 27, 1841. + +Miss Mary Speed, Louisville, Ky. + +MY FRIEND: +By the way, a fine example was presented on board the boat for +contemplating the effect of condition upon human happiness. A +gentleman had purchased twelve negroes in different 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 fastened to the main chain by a +shorter one, at a convenient distance from the others, so that +the negroes were strung together precisely like so many fish upon +a trotline. 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 ruthless 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 offence for which he had been sold was an overfondness 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 Springfield 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. + +Your sincere friend, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1842 + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--ON MARRIAGE + +January 3?, 1842. + +MY DEAR SPEED:--Feeling, as you know I do, the deepest solicitude +for the success of the enterprise you are engaged in, I adopt +this as the last method I can adopt to aid you, in case (which +God forbid!) you shall need any aid. I do not place what I am +going to say on paper because I can say it better that way than I +could by word of mouth, but, were I to say it orally before we +part, most likely you would forget it at the very time when it +might do you some good. As I think it reasonable that you will +feel very badly some time between this and the final consummation +of your purpose, it is intended that you shall read this just at +such a time. Why I say it is reasonable that you will feel very +badly yet, is because of three special causes added to the +general one which I shall mention. + +The general cause is, that you are naturally of a nervous +temperament; and this I say from what I have seen of you +personally, and what you have told me concerning your mother at +various times, and concerning your brother William at the time +his wife died. The first special cause is your exposure to bad +weather on your journey, which my experience clearly proves to be +very severe on defective nerves. The second is the absence of +all business and conversation of friends, which might divert your +mind, give it occasional rest from the intensity of thought which +will sometimes wear the sweetest idea threadbare and turn it to +the bitterness of death. The third is the rapid and near +approach of that crisis on which all your thoughts and feelings +concentrate. + +If from all these causes you shall escape and go through +triumphantly, without another "twinge of the soul," I shall be +most happily but most egregiously deceived. If, on the contrary, +you shall, as I expect you will at sometime, be agonized and +distressed, let me, who have some reason to speak with judgment +on such a subject, beseech you to ascribe it to the causes I have +mentioned, and not to some false and ruinous suggestion of the +Devil. + +"But," you will say, "do not your causes apply to every one +engaged in a like undertaking?" By no means. The particular +causes, to a greater or less extent, perhaps do apply in all +cases; but the general one,--nervous debility, which is the key +and conductor of all the particular ones, and without which they +would be utterly harmless,--though it does pertain to you, does +not pertain to one in a thousand. It is out of this that the +painful difference between you and the mass of the world springs. + +I know what the painful point with you is at all times when you +are unhappy; it is an apprehension that you do not love her as +you should. What nonsense! How came you to court her? Was it +because you thought she deserved it, and that you had given her +reason to expect it? If it was for that why did not the same +reason make you court Ann Todd, and at least twenty others of +whom you can think, and to whom it would apply with greater force +than to her? Did you court her for her wealth? Why, you know she +had none. But you say you reasoned yourself into it. What do +you mean by that? Was it not that you found yourself unable to +reason yourself out of it? Did you not think, and partly form the +purpose, of courting her the first time you ever saw her or heard +of her? What had reason to do with it at that early stage? There +was nothing at that time for reason to work upon. Whether she +was moral, amiable, sensible, or even of good character, you did +not, nor could then know, except, perhaps, you might infer the +last from the company you found her in. + +All you then did or could know of her was her personal appearance +and deportment; and these, if they impress at all, impress the +heart, and not the head. + +Say candidly, were not those heavenly black eyes the whole basis +of all your early reasoning on the subject? After you and I had +once been at the residence, did you not go and take me all the +way to Lexington and back, for no other purpose but to get to see +her again, on our return on that evening to take a trip for that +express object? What earthly consideration would you take to find +her scouting and despising you, and giving herself up to another? +But of this you have no apprehension; and therefore you cannot +bring it home to your feelings. + +I shall be so anxious about you that I shall want you to write by +every mail. Your friend, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 3, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Your letter of the 25th January came to hand to-day. +You well know that I do not feel my own sorrows much more keenly +than I do yours, when I know of them; and yet I assure you I was +not much hurt by what you wrote me of your excessively bad +feeling at the time you wrote. Not that I am less capable of +sympathizing with you now than ever, not that I am less your +friend than ever, but because I hope and believe that your +present anxiety and distress about her health and her life must +and will forever banish those horrid doubts which I know you +sometimes felt as to the truth of your affection for her. If +they can once and forever be removed (and I almost feel a +presentiment that the Almighty has sent your present affliction +expressly for that object), surely nothing can come in their +stead to fill their immeasurable measure of misery. The death- +scenes of those we love are surely painful enough; but these we +are prepared for and expect to see: they happen to all, and all +know they must happen. Painful as they are, they are not an +unlooked for sorrow. Should she, as you fear, be destined to an +early grave, it is indeed a great consolation to know that she is +so well prepared to meet it. Her religion, which you once +disliked so much, I will venture you now prize most highly. But +I hope your melancholy bodings as to her early death are not well +founded. I even hope that ere this reaches you she will have +returned with improved and still improving health, and that you +will have met her, and forgotten the sorrows of the past in the +enjoyments of the present. I would say more if I could, but it +seems that I have said enough. It really appears to me that you +yourself ought to rejoice, and not sorrow, at this indubitable +evidence of your undying affection for her. Why, Speed, if you +did not love her although you might not wish her death, you would +most certainly be resigned to it. Perhaps this point is no +longer a question with you, and my pertinacious dwelling upon it +is a rude intrusion upon your feelings. If so, you must pardon +me. You know the hell I have suffered on that point, and how +tender I am upon it. You know I do not mean wrong. I have been +quite clear of "hypo" since you left, even better than I was +along in the fall. I have seen ______ but once. She seemed very +cheerful, and so I said nothing to her about what we spoke of. + +Old Uncle Billy Herndon is dead, and it is said this evening that +Uncle Ben Ferguson will not live. This, I believe, is all the +news, and enough at that unless it were better. Write me +immediately on the receipt of this. Your friend, as ever, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--ON DEPRESSION + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 13, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 1st instant came to hand three or four +days ago. When this shall reach you, you will have been Fanny's +husband several days. You know my desire to befriend you is +everlasting; that I will never cease while I know how to do +anything. But you will always hereafter be on ground that I have +never occupied, and consequently, if advice were needed, I might +advise wrong. I do fondly hope, however, that you will never +again need any comfort from abroad. But should I be mistaken in +this, should excessive pleasure still be accompanied with a +painful counterpart at times, still let me urge you, as I have +ever done, to remember, in the depth and even agony of +despondency, that very shortly you are to feel well again. I am +now fully convinced that you love her as ardently as you are +capable of loving. Your ever being happy in her presence, and +your intense anxiety about her health, if there were nothing +else, would place this beyond all dispute in my mind. I incline +to think it probable that your nerves will fail you occasionally +for a while; but once you get them firmly guarded now that +trouble is over forever. I think, if I were you, in case my mind +were not exactly right, I would avoid being idle. I would +immediately engage in some business, or go to making preparations +for it, which would be the same thing. If you went through the +ceremony calmly, or even with sufficient composure not to excite +alarm in any present, you are safe beyond question, and in two or +three months, to say the most, will be the happiest of men. + +I would desire you to give my particular respects to Fanny; but +perhaps you will not wish her to know you have received this, +lest she should desire to see it. Make her write me an answer to +my last letter to her; at any rate I would set great value upon a +note or letter from her. Write me whenever you have leisure. +Yours forever, +A. LINCOLN. +P. S.--I have been quite a man since you left. + + + + +TO G. B. SHELEDY. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Feb. 16, 1842. + +G. B. SHELEDY, ESQ.: + +Yours of the 10th is duly received. Judge Logan and myself are +doing business together now, and we are willing to attend to your +cases as you propose. As to the terms, we are willing to attend +each case you prepare and send us for $10 (when there shall be no +opposition) to be sent in advance, or you to know that it is +safe. It takes $5.75 of cost to start upon, that is, $1.75 to +clerk, and $2 to each of two publishers of papers. Judge Logan +thinks it will take the balance of $20 to carry a case through. +This must be advanced from time to time as the services are +performed, as the officers will not act without. I do not know +whether you can be admitted an attorney of the Federal court in +your absence or not; nor is it material, as the business can be +done in our names. + +Thinking it may aid you a little, I send you one of our blank +forms of Petitions. It, you will see, is framed to be sworn to +before the Federal court clerk, and, in your cases, will have +[to] be so far changed as to be sworn to before the clerk of your +circuit court; and his certificate must be accompanied with his +official seal. The schedules, too, must be attended to. Be sure +that they contain the creditors' names, their residences, the +amounts due each, the debtors' names, their residences, and the +amounts they owe, also all property and where located. + +Also be sure that the schedules are all signed by the applicants +as well as the Petition. Publication will have to be made here +in one paper, and in one nearest the residence of the applicant. +Write us in each case where the last advertisement is to be sent, +whether to you or to what paper. + +I believe I have now said everything that can be of any +advantage. Your friend as ever, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GEORGE E. PICKETT--ADVICE TO YOUTH + +February 22, 1842. + +I never encourage deceit, and falsehood, especially if you have +got a bad memory, is the worst enemy a fellow can have. The fact +is truth is your truest friend, no matter what the circumstances +are. Notwithstanding this copy-book preamble, my boy, I am +inclined to suggest a little prudence on your part. You see I +have a congenital aversion to failure, and the sudden +announcement to your Uncle Andrew of the success of your "lamp +rubbing" might possibly prevent your passing the severe physical +examination to which you will be subjected in order to enter the +Military Academy. You see I should like to have a perfect +soldier credited to dear old Illinois--no broken bones, scalp +wounds, etc. So I think it might be wise to hand this letter +from me in to your good uncle through his room-window after he +has had a comfortable dinner, and watch its effect from the top +of the pigeon-house. + +I have just told the folks here in Springfield on this 111th +anniversary of the birth of him whose name, mightiest in the +cause of civil liberty, still mightiest in the cause of moral +reformation, we mention in solemn awe, in naked, deathless +splendor, that the one victory we can ever call complete will be +that one which proclaims that there is not one slave or one +drunkard on the face of God's green earth. Recruit for this +victory. + +Now, boy, on your march, don't you go and forget the old maxim +that "one drop of honey catches more flies than a half-gallon of +gall." Load your musket with this maxim, and smoke it in your +pipe. + + + + +ADDRESS BEFORE THE SPRINGFIELD WASHINGTONIAN +TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 22, 1842. + +Although the temperance cause has been in progress for near +twenty years, it is apparent to all that it is just now being +crowned with a degree of success hitherto unparalleled. + +The list of its friends is daily swelled by the additions of +fifties, of hundreds, and of thousands. The cause itself seems +suddenly transformed from a cold abstract theory to a living, +breathing, active, and powerful chieftain, going forth +"conquering and to conquer." The citadels of his great adversary +are daily being stormed and dismantled; his temple and his +altars, where the rites of his idolatrous worship have long been +performed, and where human sacrifices have long been wont to be +made, are daily desecrated and deserted. The triumph of the +conqueror's fame is sounding from hill to hill, from sea to sea, +and from land to land, and calling millions to his standard at a +blast. + +For this new and splendid success we heartily rejoice. That that +success is so much greater now than heretofore is doubtless owing +to rational causes; and if we would have it continue, we shall do +well to inquire what those causes are. + +The warfare heretofore waged against the demon intemperance has +somehow or other been erroneous. Either the champions engaged or +the tactics they adopted have not been the most proper. These +champions for the most part have been preachers, lawyers, and +hired agents. Between these and the mass of mankind there is a +want of approachability, if the term be admissible, partially, at +least, fatal to their success. They are supposed to have no +sympathy of feeling or interest with those very persons whom it +is their object to convince and persuade. + +And again, it is so common and so easy to ascribe motives to men +of these classes other than those they profess to act upon. The +preacher, it is said, advocates temperance because he is a +fanatic, and desires a union of the Church and State; the lawyer +from his pride and vanity of hearing himself speak; and the hired +agent for his salary. But when one who has long been known as a +victim of intemperance bursts the fetters that have bound him, +and appears before his neighbors "clothed and in his right mind," +a redeemed specimen of long-lost humanity, and stands up, with +tears of joy trembling in his eyes, to tell of the miseries once +endured, now to be endured no more forever; of his once naked and +starving children, now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife long +weighed down with woe, weeping, and a broken heart, now restored +to health, happiness, and a renewed affection; and how easily it +is all done, once it is resolved to be done; how simple his +language! there is a logic and an eloquence in it that few with +human feelings can resist. They cannot say that he desires a +union of Church and State, for he is not a church member; they +cannot say he is vain of hearing himself speak, for his whole +demeanor shows he would gladly avoid speaking at all; they cannot +say he speaks for pay, for he receives none, and asks for none. +Nor can his sincerity in any way be doubted, or his sympathy for +those he would persuade to imitate his example be denied. + +In my judgment, it is to the battles of this new class of +champions that our late success is greatly, perhaps chiefly, +owing. But, had the old-school champions themselves been of the +most wise selecting, was their system of tactics the most +judicious? It seems to me it was not. Too much denunciation +against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers was indulged in. This I +think was both impolitic and unjust. It was impolitic, because +it is not much in the nature of man to be driven to anything; +still less to be driven about that which is exclusively his own +business; and least of all where such driving is to be submitted +to at the expense of pecuniary interest or burning appetite. +When the dram-seller and drinker were incessantly told not in +accents of entreaty and persuasion, diffidently addressed by +erring man to an erring brother, but in the thundering tones of +anathema and denunciation with which the lordly judge often +groups together all the crimes of the felon's life, and thrusts +them in his face just ere he passes sentence of death upon him +that they were the authors of all the vice and misery and crime +in the land; that they were the manufacturers and material of all +the thieves and robbers and murderers that infest the earth; that +their houses were the workshops of the devil; and that their +persons should be shunned by all the good and virtuous, as moral +pestilences--I say, when they were told all this, and in this +way, it is not wonderful that they were slow to acknowledge the +truth of such denunciations, and to join the ranks of their +denouncers in a hue and cry against themselves. + +To have expected them to do otherwise than they did to have +expected them not to meet denunciation with denunciation, +crimination with crimination, and anathema with anathema--was to +expect a reversal of human nature, which is God's decree and can +never be reversed. + +When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, +kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an +old and a true maxim that "a drop of honey catches more flies +than a gallon of gall." So with men. If you would win a man to +your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. +Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say +what he will, is the great highroad to his reason; and which, +when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing +his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause +really be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his +judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be +shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close +all the avenues to his head and his heart; and though your cause +be naked truth itself, transformed to the heaviest lance, harder +than steel, and sharper than steel can be made, and though you +throw it with more than herculean force and precision, you shall +be no more able to pierce him than to penetrate the hard shell of +a tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, and so must he be +understood by those who would lead him, even to his own best +interests. + +On this point the Washingtonians greatly excel the temperance +advocates of former times. Those whom they desire to convince +and persuade are their old friends and companions. They know +they are not demons, nor even the worst of men; they know that +generally they are kind, generous, and charitable even beyond the +example of their more staid and sober neighbors. They are +practical philanthropists; and they glow with a generous and +brotherly zeal that mere theorizers are incapable of feeling. +Benevolence and charity possess their hearts entirely; and out of +the abundance of their hearts their tongues give utterance; "love +through all their actions runs, and all their words are mild." +In this spirit they speak and act, and in the same they are heard +and regarded. And when such is the temper of the advocate, and +such of the audience, no good cause can be unsuccessful. But I +have said that denunciations against dramsellers and dram- +drinkers are unjust, as well as impolitic. Let us see. I have +not inquired at what period of time the use of intoxicating +liquors commenced; nor is it important to know. It is sufficient +that, to all of us who now inhabit the world, the practice of +drinking them is just as old as the world itself that is, we have +seen the one just as long as we have seen the other. When all +such of us as have now reached the years of maturity first opened +our eyes upon the stage of existence, we found intoxicating +liquor recognized by everybody, used by everybody, repudiated by +nobody. It commonly entered into the first draught of the infant +and the last draught of the dying man. From the sideboard of the +parson down to the ragged pocket of the houseless loafer, it was +constantly found. Physicians proscribed it in this, that, and +the other disease; government provided it for soldiers and +sailors; and to have a rolling or raising, a husking or +"hoedown," anywhere about without it was positively insufferable. +So, too, it was everywhere a respectable article of manufacture +and merchandise. The making of it was regarded as an honorable +livelihood, and he who could make most was the most enterprising +and respectable. Large and small manufactories of it were +everywhere erected, in which all the earthly goods of their +owners were invested. Wagons drew it from town to town; boats +bore it from clime to clime, and the winds wafted it from nation +to nation; and merchants bought and sold it, by wholesale and +retail, with precisely the same feelings on the part of the +seller, buyer, and bystander as are felt at the selling and +buying of ploughs, beef, bacon, or any other of the real +necessaries of life. Universal public opinion not only tolerated +but recognized and adopted its use. + +It is true that even then it was known and acknowledged that many +were greatly injured by it; but none seemed to think the injury +arose from the use of a bad thing, but from the abuse of a very +good thing. The victims of it were to be pitied and +compassionated, just as are the heirs of consumption and other +hereditary diseases. Their failing was treated as a misfortune, +and not as a crime, or even as a disgrace. If, then, what I have +been saying is true, is it wonderful that some should think and +act now as all thought and acted twenty years ago? and is it just +to assail, condemn, or despise them for doing so? The universal +sense of mankind on any subject is an argument, or at least an +influence, not easily overcome. The success of the argument in +favor of the existence of an overruling Providence mainly depends +upon that sense; and men ought not in justice to be denounced for +yielding to it in any case, or giving it up slowly, especially +when they are backed by interest, fixed habits, or burning +appetites. + +Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reformers +fell, was the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly +incorrigible, and therefore must be turned adrift and damned +without remedy in order that the grace of temperance might +abound, to the temperate then, and to all mankind some hundreds +of years thereafter. There is in this some thing so repugnant to +humanity, so uncharitable, so cold-blooded and feelingless, that +it, never did nor ever can enlist the enthusiasm of a popular +cause. We could not love the man who taught it we could not hear +him with patience. The heart could not throw open its portals to +it, the generous man could not adopt it--it could not mix with +his blood. It looked so fiendishly selfish, so like throwing +fathers and brothers overboard to lighten the boat for our +security, that the noble-minded shrank from the manifest meanness +of the thing. And besides this, the benefits of a reformation to +be effected by such a system were too remote in point of time to +warmly engage many in its behalf. Few can be induced to labor +exclusively for posterity, and none will do it enthusiastically. +--Posterity has done nothing for us; and, theorize on it as we +may, practically we shall do very little for it, unless we are +made to think we are at the same time doing something for +ourselves. + +What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit to ask or to +expect a whole community to rise up and labor for the temporal +happiness of others, after themselves shall be consigned to the +dust, a majority of which community take no pains whatever to +secure their own eternal welfare at no more distant day! Great +distance in either time or space has wonderful power to lull and +render quiescent the human mind. Pleasures to be enjoyed, or +pains to be endured, after we shall be dead and gone are but +little regarded even in our own cases, and much less in the cases +of others. Still, in addition to this there is something so +ludicrous in promises of good or threats of evil a great way off +as to render the whole subject with which they are connected +easily turned into ridicule. "Better lay down that spade you are +stealing, Paddy; if you don't you'll pay for it at the day of +judgment." "Be the powers, if ye 'll credit me so long I'll take +another jist." + +By the Washingtonians this system of consigning the habitual +drunkard to hopeless ruin is repudiated. They adopt a more +enlarged philanthropy; they go for present as well as future +good. They labor for all now living, as well as hereafter to +live. They teach hope to all-despair to none. As applying to +their cause, they deny the doctrine of unpardonable sin; as in +Christianity it is taught, so in this they teach--"While--While +the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return." And, +what is a matter of more profound congratulation, they, by +experiment upon experiment and example upon example, prove the +maxim to be no less true in the one case than in the other. On +every hand we behold those who but yesterday were the chief of +sinners, now the chief apostles of the cause. Drunken devils are +cast out by ones, by sevens, by legions; and their unfortunate +victims, like the poor possessed who were redeemed from their +long and lonely wanderings in the tombs, are publishing to the +ends of the earth how great things have been done for them. + +To these new champions and this new system of tactics our late +success is mainly owing, and to them we must mainly look for the +final consummation. The ball is now rolling gloriously on, and +none are so able as they to increase its speed and its bulk, to +add to its momentum and its magnitude--even though unlearned in +letters, for this task none are so well educated. To fit them +for this work they have been taught in the true school. They +have been in that gulf from which they would teach others the +means of escape. They have passed that prison wall which others +have long declared impassable; and who that has not shall dare to +weigh opinions with them as to the mode of passing? + +But if it be true, as I have insisted, that those who have +suffered by intemperance personally, and have reformed, are the +most powerful and efficient instruments to push the reformation +to ultimate success, it does not follow that those who have not +suffered have no part left them to perform. Whether or not the +world would be vastly benefited by a total and final banishment +from it of all intoxicating drinks seems to me not now an open +question. Three fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with +their tongues, and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge it in +their hearts. + +Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing what good the good +of the whole demands? Shall he who cannot do much be for that +reason excused if he do nothing? "But," says one, "what good can +I do by signing the pledge? I never drank, even without +signing." This question has already been asked and answered more +than a million of times. Let it be answered once more. For the +man suddenly or in any other way to break off from the use of +drams, who has indulged in them for a long course of years and +until his appetite for them has grown ten or a hundredfold +stronger and more craving than any natural appetite can be, +requires a most powerful moral effort. In such an undertaking he +needs every moral support and influence that can possibly be +brought to his aid and thrown around him. And not only so, but +every moral prop should be taken from whatever argument might +rise in his mind to lure him to his backsliding. When he casts +his eyes around him, he should be able to see all that he +respects, all that he admires, all that he loves, kindly and +anxiously pointing him onward, and none beckoning him back to his +former miserable "wallowing in the mire." + +But it is said by some that men will think and act for +themselves; that none will disuse spirits or anything else +because his neighbors do; and that moral influence is not that +powerful engine contended for. Let us examine this. Let me ask +the man who could maintain this position most stiffly, what +compensation he will accept to go to church some Sunday and sit +during the sermon with his wife's bonnet upon his head? Not a +trifle, I'll venture. And why not? There would be nothing +irreligious in it, nothing immoral, nothing uncomfortable--then +why not? Is it not because there would be something egregiously +unfashionable in it? Then it is the influence of fashion; and +what is the influence of fashion but the influence that other +people's actions have on our actions--the strong inclination each +of us feels to do as we see all our neighbors do? Nor is the +influence of fashion confined to any particular thing or class of +things; it is just as strong on one subject as another. Let us +make it as unfashionable to withhold our names from the +temperance cause as for husbands to wear their wives' bonnets to +church, and instances will be just as rare in the one case as the +other. + +"But," say some, "we are no drunkards, and we shall not +acknowledge ourselves such by joining a reformed drunkard's +society, whatever our influence might be." Surely no Christian +will adhere to this objection. If they believe as they profess, +that Omnipotence condescended to take on himself the form of +sinful man, and as such to die an ignominious death for their +sakes, surely they will not refuse submission to the infinitely +lesser condescension, for the temporal, and perhaps eternal, +salvation of a large, erring, and unfortunate class of their +fellow-creatures. Nor is the condescension very great. In my +judgment such of us as have never fallen victims have been spared +more by the absence of appetite than from any mental or moral +superiority over those who have. Indeed, I believe if we take +habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will +bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. +There seems ever to have been a proneness in the brilliant and +warm-blooded to fall into this vice--the demon of intemperance +ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and +of generosity. What one of us but can call to mind some +relative, more promising in youth than all his fellows, who has +fallen a sacrifice to his rapacity? He ever seems to have gone +forth like the Egyptian angel of death, commissioned to slay, if +not the first, the fairest born of every family. Shall he now be +arrested in his desolating career? In that arrest all can give +aid that will; and who shall be excused that can and will not? +Far around as human breath has ever blown he keeps our fathers, +our brothers, our sons, and our friends prostrate in the chains +of moral death. To all the living everywhere we cry, "Come sound +the moral trump, that these may rise and stand up an exceeding +great army." "Come from the four winds, O breath! and breathe +upon these slain that they may live." If the relative grandeur +of revolutions shall be estimated by the great amount of human +misery they alleviate, and the small amount they inflict, then +indeed will this be the grandest the world shall ever have seen. + +Of our political revolution of '76 we are all justly proud. It +has given us a degree of political freedom far exceeding that of +any other nation of the earth. In it the world has found a +solution of the long-mooted problem as to the capability of man +to govern himself. In it was the germ which has vegetated, and +still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty of +mankind. But, with all these glorious results, past, present, +and to come, it had its evils too. It breathed forth famine, +swam in blood, and rode in fire; and long, long after, the +orphan's cry and the widow's wail continued to break the sad +silence that ensued. These were the price, the inevitable price, +paid for the blessings it bought. + +Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find a +stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater +tyrant deposed; in it, more of want supplied, more disease +healed, more sorrow assuaged. By it no Orphans starving, no +widows weeping. By it none wounded in feeling, none injured in +interest; even the drammaker and dram-seller will have glided +into other occupations so gradually as never to have felt the +change, and will stand ready to join all others in the universal +song of gladness. And what a noble ally this to the cause of +political freedom, with such an aid its march cannot fail to be +on and on, till every son of earth shall drink in rich fruition +the sorrow-quenching draughts of perfect liberty. Happy day +when-all appetites controlled, all poisons subdued, all matter +subjected-mind, all-conquering mind, shall live and move, the +monarch of the world. Glorious consummation! Hail, fall of +fury! Reign of reason, all hail! + +And when the victory shall be complete, when there shall be +neither a slave nor a drunkard on the earth, how proud the title +of that land which may truly claim to be the birthplace and the +cradle of both those revolutions that shall have ended in that +victory. How nobly distinguished that people who shall have +planted and nurtured to maturity both the political and moral +freedom of their species. + +This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of +Washington; we are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the +mightiest name of earth long since mightiest in the cause of +civil liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. On that +name no eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to +the sun or glory to the name of Washington is alike impossible. +Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its +naked deathless splendor leave it shining on. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, February 25, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 16th instant, announcing that Miss +Fanny and you are "no more twain, but one flesh," reached me this +morning. I have no way of telling you how much happiness I wish +you both, though I believe you both can conceive it. I feel +somewhat jealous of both of you now: you will be so exclusively +concerned for one another, that I shall be forgotten entirely. +My acquaintance with Miss Fanny (I call her this, lest you should +think I am speaking of your mother) was too short for me to +reasonably hope to long be remembered by her; and still I am sure +I shall not forget her soon. Try if you cannot remind her of that +debt she owes me--and be sure you do not interfere to prevent her +paying it. + +I regret to learn that you have resolved to not return to +Illinois. I shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably +things seem to be arranged in this world! If we have no friends, +we have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are sure to lose +them, and be doubly pained by the loss. I did hope she and you +would make your home here; but I own I have no right to insist. +You owe obligations to her ten thousand times more sacred than +you can owe to others, and in that light let them be respected +and observed. It is natural that she should desire to remain with +her relatives and friends. As to friends, however, she could not +need them anywhere: she would have them in abundance here. + +Give my kind remembrance to Mr. Williamson and his family, +particularly Miss Elizabeth; also to your mother, brother, and +sisters. Ask little Eliza Davis if she will ride to town with me +if I come there again. And finally, give Fanny a double +reciprocation of all the love she sent me. Write me often, and +believe me + +Yours forever, + +LINCOLN. + +P. S. Poor Easthouse is gone at last. He died awhile before day +this morning. They say he was very loath to die.... + +L. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--ON MARRIAGE CONCERNS + +SPRINGFIELD, February 25,1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--I received yours of the 12th written the day you +went down to William's place, some days since, but delayed +answering it till I should receive the promised one of the 16th, +which came last night. I opened the letter with intense anxiety +and trepidation; so much so, that, although it turned out better +than I expected, I have hardly yet, at a distance of ten hours, +become calm. + +I tell you, Speed, our forebodings (for which you and I are +peculiar) are all the worst sort of nonsense. I fancied, from +the time I received your letter of Saturday, that the one of +Wednesday was never to come, and yet it did come, and what is +more, it is perfectly clear, both from its tone and handwriting, +that you were much happier, or, if you think the term preferable, +less miserable, when you wrote it than when you wrote the last +one before. You had so obviously improved at the very time I so +much fancied you would have grown worse. You say that something +indescribably horrible and alarming still haunts you. You will +not say that three months from now, I will venture. When your +nerves once get steady now, the whole trouble will be over +forever. Nor should you become impatient at their being even +very slow in becoming steady. Again you say, you much fear that +that Elysium of which you have dreamed so much is never to be +realized. Well, if it shall not, I dare swear it will not be the +fault of her who is now your wife. I now have no doubt that it +is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of +Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly can realize. Far +short of your dreams as you may be, no woman could do more to +realize them than that same black-eyed Fanny. If you could but +contemplate her through my imagination, it would appear +ridiculous to you that any one should for a moment think of being +unhappy with her. My old father used to have a saying that "If +you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter"; and it occurs to +me that if the bargain you have just closed can possibly be +called a bad one, it is certainly the most pleasant one for +applying that maxim to which my fancy can by any effort picture. + +I write another letter, enclosing this, which you can show her, +if she desires it. I do this because she would think strangely, +perhaps, should you tell her that you received no letters from +me, or, telling her you do, refuse to let her see them. I close +this, entertaining the confident hope that every successive +letter I shall have from you (which I here pray may not be few, +nor far between) may show you possessing a more steady hand and +cheerful heart than the last preceding it. +As ever, your friend, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 27, 1842 + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 10th instant was received three or four +days since. You know I am sincere when I tell you the pleasure +its contents gave me was, and is, inexpressible. As to your farm +matter, I have no sympathy with you. I have no farm, nor ever +expect to have, and consequently have not studied the subject +enough to be much interested with it. I can only say that I am +glad you are satisfied and pleased with it. But on that other +subject, to me of the most intense interest whether in joy or +sorrow, I never had the power to withhold my sympathy from you. +It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you say +you are "far happier than you ever expected to be." That much I +know is enough. I know you too well to suppose your expectations +were not, at least, sometimes extravagant, and if the reality +exceeds them all, I say, Enough, dear Lord. I am not going +beyond the truth when I tell you that the short space it took me +to read your last letter gave me more pleasure than the total sum +of all I have enjoyed since the fatal 1st of January, 1841. +Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely happy, but +for the never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy whom I +have contributed to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot +but reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while she is +otherwise. She accompanied a large party on the railroad cars to +Jacksonville last Monday, and on her return spoke, so that I +heard of it, of having enjoyed the trip exceedingly. God be +praised for that. + +You know with what sleepless vigilance I have watched you ever +since the commencement of your affair; and although I am almost +confident it is useless, I cannot forbear once more to say that I +think it is even yet possible for your spirits to flag down and +leave you miserable. If they should, don't fail to remember that +they cannot long remain so. One thing I can tell you which I +know you will be glad to hear, and that is that I have seen--and +scrutinized her feelings as well as I could, and am fully +convinced she is far happier now than she has been for the last +fifteen months past. + +You will see by the last Sangamon Journal, that I made a +temperance speech on the 22d of February, which I claim that +Fanny and you shall read as an act of charity to me; for I cannot +learn that anybody else has read it, or is likely to. +Fortunately it is not very long, and I shall deem it a sufficient +compliance with my request if one of you listens while the other +reads it. + +As to your Lockridge matter, it is only necessary to say that +there has been no court since you left, and that the next +commences to-morrow morning, during which I suppose we cannot +fail to get a judgment. + +I wish you would learn of Everett what he would take, over and +above a discharge for all the trouble we have been at, to take +his business out of our hands and give it to somebody else. It +is impossible to collect money on that or any other claim here +now; and although you know I am not a very petulant man, I +declare I am almost out of patience with Mr. Everett's +importunity. It seems like he not only writes all the letters he +can himself, but gets everybody else in Louisville and vicinity +to be constantly writing to us about his claim. I have always +said that Mr. Everett is a very clever fellow, and I am very +sorry he cannot be obliged; but it does seem to me he ought to +know we are interested to collect his claim, and therefore would +do it if we could. + +I am neither joking nor in a pet when I say we would thank him to +transfer his business to some other, without any compensation for +what we have done, provided he will see the court cost paid, for +which we are security. + +The sweet violet you inclosed came safely to hand, but it was so +dry, and mashed so flat, that it crumbled to dust at the first +attempt to handle it. The juice that mashed out of it stained a +place in the letter, which I mean to preserve and cherish for the +sake of her who procured it to be sent. My renewed good wishes +to her in particular, and generally to all such of your relations +who know me. + +As ever, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, July 4, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 16th June was received only a day or +two since. It was not mailed at Louisville till the 25th. You +speak of the great time that has elapsed since I wrote you. Let +me explain that. Your letter reached here a day or two after I +started on the circuit. I was gone five or six weeks, so that I +got the letters only a few weeks before Butler started to your +country. I thought it scarcely worth while to write you the news +which he could and would tell you more in detail. On his return +he told me you would write me soon, and so I waited for your +letter. As to my having been displeased with your advice, surely +you know better than that. I know you do, and therefore will not +labor to convince you. True, that subject is painful to me; but +it is not your silence, or the silence of all the world, that can +make me forget it. I acknowledge the correctness of your advice +too; but before I resolve to do the one thing or the other, I +must gain my confidence in my own ability to keep my resolves +when they are made. In that ability you know I once prided +myself as the only or chief gem of my character; that gem I lost- +-how and where you know too well. I have not yet regained it; +and until I do, I cannot trust myself in any matter of much +importance. I believe now that had you understood my case at the +time as well as I understand yours afterward, by the aid you +would have given me I should have sailed through clear, but that +does not now afford me sufficient confidence to begin that or the +like of that again. + +You make a kind acknowledgment of your obligations to me for your +present happiness. I am pleased with that acknowledgment. But a +thousand times more am I pleased to know that you enjoy a degree +of happiness worthy of an acknowledgment. The truth is, I am not +sure that there was any merit with me in the part I took in your +difficulty; I was drawn to it by a fate. If I would I could not +have done less than I did. I always was superstitious; I believe +God made me one of the instruments of bringing your Fanny and you +together, which union I have no doubt He had fore-ordained. +Whatever He designs He will do for me yet. "Stand still, and see +the salvation of the Lord" is my text just now. If, as you say, +you have told Fanny all, I should have no objection to her seeing +this letter, but for its reference to our friend here: let her +seeing it depend upon whether she has ever known anything of my +affairs; and if she has not, do not let her. + +I do not think I can come to Kentucky this season. I am so poor +and make so little headway in the world, that I drop back in a +month of idleness as much as I gain in a year's sowing. I should +like to visit you again. I should like to see that "sis" of +yours that was absent when I was there, though I suppose she +would run away again if she were to hear I was coming. + +My respects and esteem to all your friends there, and, by your +permission, my love to your Fanny. + +Ever yours, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +A LETTER FROM THE LOST TOWNSHIPS + +Article written by Lincoln for the Sangamon Journal in ridicule +of James Shields, who, as State Auditor, had declined to receive +State Bank notes in payment of taxes. The above letter purported +to come from a poor widow who, though supplied with State Bank +paper, could not obtain a receipt for her tax bill. This, and +another subsequent letter by Mary Todd, brought about the +"Lincoln-Shields Duel." + + + + +LOST TOWNSHIPS + +August 27, 1842. + +DEAR Mr. PRINTER: + +I see you printed that long letter I sent you a spell ago. I 'm +quite encouraged by it, and can't keep from writing again. I +think the printing of my letters will be a good thing all round-- +it will give me the benefit of being known by the world, and give +the world the advantage of knowing what's going on in the Lost +Townships, and give your paper respectability besides. So here +comes another. Yesterday afternoon I hurried through cleaning up +the dinner dishes and stepped over to neighbor S_______ to see if +his wife Peggy was as well as mout be expected, and hear what +they called the baby. Well, when I got there and just turned +round the corner of his log cabin, there he was, setting on the +doorstep reading a newspaper. "How are you, Jeff?" says I. He +sorter started when he heard me, for he hadn't seen me before. +"Why," says he, "I 'm mad as the devil, Aunt 'Becca!" "What +about?" says I; "ain't its hair the right color? None of that +nonsense, Jeff; there ain't an honester woman in the Lost +Townships than..."--"Than who?" says he; "what the mischief are +you about?" I began to see I was running the wrong trail, and so +says I, "Oh! nothing: I guess I was mistaken a little, that's +all. But what is it you 're mad about?" + +"Why," says he, "I've been tugging ever since harvest, getting +out wheat and hauling it to the river to raise State Bank paper +enough to pay my tax this year and a little school debt I owe; +and now, just as I 've got it, here I open this infernal Extra +Register, expecting to find it full of 'Glorious Democratic +Victories' and 'High Comb'd Cocks,' when, lo and behold! I find a +set of fellows, calling themselves officers of the State, have +forbidden the tax collectors, and school commissioners to receive +State paper at all; and so here it is dead on my hands. I don't +now believe all the plunder I've got will fetch ready cash enough +to pay my taxes and that school debt." + +I was a good deal thunderstruck myself; for that was the first I +had heard of the proclamation, and my old man was pretty much in +the same fix with Jeff. We both stood a moment staring at one +another without knowing what to say. At last says I, "Mr. +S______ let me look at that paper." He handed it to me, when I +read the proclamation over. + +"There now," says he, "did you ever see such a piece of impudence +and imposition as that?" I saw Jeff was in a good tune for saying +some ill-natured things, and so I tho't I would just argue a +little on the contrary side, and make him rant a spell if I +could. "Why," says I, looking as dignified and thoughtful as I +could, "it seems pretty tough, to be sure, to have to raise +silver where there's none to be raised; but then, you see, 'there +will be danger of loss' if it ain't done." + +"Loss! damnation!" says he. "I defy Daniel Webster, I defy King +Solomon, I defy the world--I defy--I defy--yes, I defy even you, +Aunt 'Becca, to show how the people can lose anything by paying +their taxes in State paper." + +"Well," says I, "you see what the officers of State say about it, +and they are a desarnin' set of men. But," says I, "I guess you +'re mistaken about what the proclamation says. It don't say the +people will lose anything by the paper money being taken for +taxes. It only says 'there will be danger of loss'; and though +it is tolerable plain that the people can't lose by paying their +taxes in something they can get easier than silver, instead of +having to pay silver; and though it's just as plain that the +State can't lose by taking State Bank paper, however low it may +be, while she owes the bank more than the whole revenue, and can +pay that paper over on her debt, dollar for dollar;--still there +is danger of loss to the 'officers of State'; and you know, Jeff, +we can't get along without officers of State." + +"Damn officers of State!" says he; "that's what Whigs are always +hurrahing for." + +"Now, don't swear so, Jeff," says I, "you know I belong to the +meetin', and swearin' hurts my feelings." + +"Beg pardon, Aunt 'Becca," says he; "but I do say it's enough to +make Dr. Goddard swear, to have tax to pay in silver, for +nothing only that Ford may get his two thousand a year, and +Shields his twenty-four hundred a year, and Carpenter his sixteen +hundred a year, and all without 'danger of loss' by taking it in +State paper. Yes, yes: it's plain enough now what these officers +of State mean by 'danger of loss.' Wash, I s'pose, actually lost +fifteen hundred dollars out of the three thousand that two of +these 'officers of State' let him steal from the treasury, by +being compelled to take it in State paper. Wonder if we don't +have a proclamation before long, commanding us to make up this +loss to Wash in silver." + +And so he went on till his breath run out, and he had to stop. I +couldn't think of anything to say just then, and so I begun to +look over the paper again. "Ay! here's another proclamation, or +something like it." + +"Another?" says Jeff; "and whose egg is it, pray?" + +I looked to the bottom of it, and read aloud, "Your obedient +servant, James Shields, Auditor." + +"Aha!" says Jeff, "one of them same three fellows again. Well +read it, and let's hear what of it." + +I read on till I came to where it says, "The object of this +measure is to suspend the collection of the revenue for the +current year." + +"Now stop, now stop!" says he; "that's a lie a'ready, and I don't +want to hear of it." + +"Oh, maybe not," says I. + +"I say it-is-a-lie. Suspend the collection, indeed! Will the +collectors, that have taken their oaths to make the collection, +dare to end it? Is there anything in law requiring them to +perjure themselves at the bidding of James Shields? + +"Will the greedy gullet of the penitentiary be satisfied with +swallowing him instead of all of them, if they should venture to +obey him? And would he not discover some 'danger of loss,' and be +off about the time it came to taking their places? + +"And suppose the people attempt to suspend, by refusing to pay; +what then? The collectors would just jerk up their horses and +cows, and the like, and sell them to the highest bidder for +silver in hand, without valuation or redemption. Why, Shields +didn't believe that story himself; it was never meant for the +truth. If it was true, why was it not writ till five days after +the proclamation? Why did n't Carlin and Carpenter sign it as +well as Shields? Answer me that, Aunt 'Becca. I say it's a lie, +and not a well told one at that. It grins out like a copper +dollar. Shields is a fool as well as a liar. With him truth is +out of the question; and as for getting a good, bright, passable +lie out of him, you might as well try to strike fire from a cake +of tallow. I stick to it, it's all an infernal Whig lie!" + +"A Whig lie! Highty tighty!" + +"Yes, a Whig lie; and it's just like everything the cursed +British Whigs do. First they'll do some divilment, and then +they'll tell a lie to hide it. And they don't care how plain a +lie it is; they think they can cram any sort of a one down the +throats of the ignorant Locofocos, as they call the Democrats." + +"Why, Jeff, you 're crazy: you don't mean to say Shields is a +Whig!" + +"Yes, I do." + +"Why, look here! the proclamation is in your own Democratic +paper, as you call it." + +"I know it; and what of that? They only printed it to let us +Democrats see the deviltry the Whigs are at." + +"Well, but Shields is the auditor of this Loco--I mean this +Democratic State." + +"So he is, and Tyler appointed him to office." + +"Tyler appointed him?" + +"Yes (if you must chaw it over), Tyler appointed him; or, if it +was n't him, it was old Granny Harrison, and that's all one. I +tell you, Aunt 'Becca, there's no mistake about his being a Whig. +Why, his very looks shows it; everything about him shows it: if I +was deaf and blind, I could tell him by the smell. I seed him +when I was down in Springfield last winter. They had a sort of a +gatherin' there one night among the grandees, they called a fair. +All the gals about town was there, and all the handsome widows +and married women, finickin' about trying to look like gals, tied +as tight in the middle, and puffed out at both ends, like bundles +of fodder that had n't been stacked yet, but wanted stackin' +pretty bad. And then they had tables all around the house +kivered over with [ ] caps and pincushions and ten +thousand such little knick-knacks, tryin' to sell 'em to the +fellows that were bowin', and scrapin' and kungeerin' about 'em. +They would n't let no Democrats in, for fear they'd disgust the +ladies, or scare the little gals, or dirty the floor. I looked +in at the window, and there was this same fellow Shields floatin' +about on the air, without heft or earthly substances, just like a +lock of cat fur where cats had been fighting. + +"He was paying his money to this one, and that one, and t' other +one, and sufferin' great loss because it was n't silver instead +of State paper; and the sweet distress he seemed to be in,--his +very features, in the ecstatic agony of his soul, spoke audibly +and distinctly, 'Dear girls, it is distressing, but I cannot +marry you all. Too well I know how much you suffer; but do, do +remember, it is not my fault that I am so handsome and so +interesting.' + +"As this last was expressed by a most exquisite contortion of his +face, he seized hold of one of their hands, and squeezed, and +held on to it about a quarter of an hour. 'Oh, my good fellow!' +says I to myself, 'if that was one of our Democratic gals in the +Lost Townships, the way you 'd get a brass pin let into you would +be about up to the head.' He a Democrat! Fiddlesticks! I tell +you, Aunt 'Becca, he's a Whig, and no mistake; nobody but a Whig +could make such a conceity dunce of himself." + +"Well," says I, "maybe he is; but, if he is, I 'm mistaken the +worst sort. Maybe so, maybe so; but, if I am, I'll suffer by it; +I'll be a Democrat if it turns out that Shields is a Whig, +considerin' you shall be a Whig if he turns out a Democrat." + +"A bargain, by jingoes!" says he; "but how will we find out?" + +"Why," says I, "we'll just write and ax the printer." + +"Agreed again!" says he; "and by thunder! if it does turn out +that Shields is a Democrat, I never will __________" + +"Jefferson! Jefferson!" + +"What do you want, Peggy?" + +"Do get through your everlasting clatter some time, and bring me +a gourd of water; the child's been crying for a drink this +livelong hour." + +"Let it die, then; it may as well die for water as to be taxed to +death to fatten officers of State." + +Jeff run off to get the water, though, just like he hadn't been +saying anything spiteful, for he's a raal good-hearted fellow, +after all, once you get at the foundation of him. + +I walked into the house, and, "Why, Peggy," says I, "I declare we +like to forgot you altogether." + +"Oh, yes," says she, "when a body can't help themselves, +everybody soon forgets 'em; but, thank God! by day after to- +morrow I shall be well enough to milk the cows, and pen the +calves, and wring the contrary ones' tails for 'em, and no thanks +to nobody." + +"Good evening, Peggy," says I, and so I sloped, for I seed she +was mad at me for making Jeff neglect her so long. + +And now, Mr. Printer, will you be sure to let us know in your +next paper whether this Shields is a Whig or a Democrat? I don't +care about it for myself, for I know well enough how it is +already; but I want to convince Jeff. It may do some good to let +him, and others like him, know who and what these officers of +State are. It may help to send the present hypocritical set to +where they belong, and to fill the places they now disgrace with +men who will do more work for less pay, and take fewer airs while +they are doing it. It ain't sensible to think that the same men +who get us in trouble will change their course; and yet it's +pretty plain if some change for the better is not made, it's not +long that either Peggy or I or any of us will have a cow left to +milk, or a calf's tail to wring. + +Yours truly, + +REBECCA ____________ + + + + +INVITATION TO HENRY CLAY. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug 29, 1842. + +HON. HENRY CLAY, Lexington, Ky. + +DEAR SIR:--We hear you are to visit Indianapolis, Indiana, on the +5th Of October next. If our information in this is correct we +hope you will not deny us the pleasure of seeing you in our +State. We are aware of the toil necessarily incident to a +journey by one circumstanced as you are; but once you have +embarked, as you have already determined to do, the toil would +not be greatly augmented by extending the journey to our capital. +The season of the year will be most favorable for good roads, and +pleasant weather; and although we cannot but believe you would be +highly gratified with such a visit to the prairie-land, the +pleasure it would give us and thousands such as we is beyond all +question. You have never visited Illinois, or at least this +portion of it; and should you now yield to our request, we +promise you such a reception as shall he worthy of the man on +whom are now turned the fondest hopes of a great and suffering +nation. + +Please inform us at the earliest convenience whether we may +expect you. + +Very respectfully your obedient servants, +A. G. HENRY, A. T. BLEDSOE, +C. BIRCHALL, A. LINCOLN, +G. M. CABANNISS, ROB'T IRWIN, +P. A. SAUNDERS, J. M. ALLEN, +F. N. FRANCIS. +Executive Committee "Clay Club." + +(Clay's answer, September 6, 1842, declines with thanks.) + + + + +CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE LINCOLN-SHIELDS DUEL. + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + +ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:--I regret that my absence on public business +compelled me to postpone a matter of private consideration a +little longer than I could have desired. It will only be +necessary, however, to account for it by informing you that I +have been to Quincy on business that would not admit of delay. I +will now state briefly the reasons of my troubling you with this +communication, the disagreeable nature of which I regret, as I +had hoped to avoid any difficulty with any one in Springfield +while residing there, by endeavoring to conduct myself in such a +way amongst both my political friends and opponents as to escape +the necessity of any. Whilst thus abstaining from giving +provocation, I have become the object of slander, vituperation, +and personal abuse, which were I capable of submitting to, I +would prove myself worthy of the whole of it. + +In two or three of the last numbers of the Sangamon Journal, +articles of the most personal nature and calculated to degrade me +have made their appearance. On inquiring, I was informed by the +editor of that paper, through the medium of my friend General +Whitesides, that you are the author of those articles. This +information satisfies me that I have become by some means or +other the object of your secret hostility. I will not take the +trouble of inquiring into the reason of all this; but I will take +the liberty of requiring a full, positive, and absolute +retraction of all offensive allusions used by you in these +communications, in relation to my private character and standing +as a man, as an apology for the insults conveyed in them. + +This may prevent consequences which no one will regret more than +myself. + +Your obedient servant, JAS. SHIELDS. + + + + +TO J. SHIELDS. + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842 + +JAS. SHIELDS, ESQ.:--Your note of to-day was handed me by General +Whitesides. In that note you say you have been informed, through +the medium of the editor of the Journal, that I am the author of +certain articles in that paper which you deem personally abusive +of you; and without stopping to inquire whether I really am the +author, or to point out what is offensive in them, you demand an +unqualified retraction of all that is offensive, and then proceed +to hint at consequences. + +Now, sir, there is in this so much assumption of facts and so +much of menace as to consequences, that I cannot submit to answer +that note any further than I have, and to add that the +consequences to which I suppose you allude would be matter of as +great regret to me as it possibly could to you. + +Respectfully, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO A. LINCOLN FROM JAS. SHIELDS + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + +ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:--In reply to my note of this date, you +intimate that I assume facts and menace consequences, and that +you cannot submit to answer it further. As now, sir, you desire +it, I will be a little more particular. The editor of the +Sangamon Journal gave me to understand that you are the author of +an article which appeared, I think, in that paper of the 2d +September instant, headed "The Lost Townships," and signed +Rebecca or 'Becca. I would therefore take the liberty of asking +whether you are the author of said article, or any other over the +same signature which has appeared in any of the late numbers of +that paper. If so, I repeat my request of an absolute retraction +of all offensive allusions contained therein in relation to my +private character and standing. If you are not the author of any +of these articles, your denial will he sufficient. I will say +further, it is not my intention to menace, but to do myself +justice. + +Your obedient servant, +JAS. SHIELDS. + + + + +MEMORANDUM OF INSTRUCTIONS TO E. H. MERRYMAN, + +Lincoln's Second, + +September 19, 1842. + +In case Whitesides shall signify a wish to adjust this affair +without further difficulty, let him know that if the present +papers be withdrawn, and a note from Mr. Shields asking to know +if I am the author of the articles of which he complains, and +asking that I shall make him gentlemanly satisfaction if I am the +author, and this without menace, or dictation as to what that +satisfaction shall be, a pledge is made that the following answer +shall be given: + +"I did write the 'Lost Townships' letter which appeared in the +Journal of the 2d instant, but had no participation in any form +in any other article alluding to you. I wrote that wholly for +political effect--I had no intention of injuring your personal or +private character or standing as a man or a gentleman; and I did +not then think, and do not now think, that that article could +produce or has produced that effect against you; and had I +anticipated such an effect I would have forborne to write it. +And I will add that your conduct toward me, so far as I know, had +always been gentlemanly; and that I had no personal pique against +you, and no cause for any." + +If this should be done, I leave it with you to arrange what shall +and what shall not be published. If nothing like this is done, +the preliminaries of the fight are to be-- + +First. Weapons: Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, +precisely equal in all respects, and such as now used by the +cavalry company at Jacksonville. + +Second. Position: A plank ten feet long, and from nine to twelve +inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the ground, as the +line between us, which neither is to pass his foot over upon +forfeit of his life. Next a line drawn on the ground on either +side of said plank and parallel with it, each at the distance of +the whole length of the sword and three feet additional from the +plank; and the passing of his own such line by either party +during the fight shall be deemed a surrender of the contest. + +Third. Time: On Thursday evening at five o'clock, if you can get +it so; but in no case to be at a greater distance of time than +Friday evening at five o'clock. + +Fourth. Place: Within three miles of Alton, on the opposite side +of the river, the particular spot to be agreed on by you. + +Any preliminary details coming within the above rules you are at +liberty to make at your discretion; but you are in no case to +swerve from these rules, or to pass beyond their limits. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, October 4, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--You have heard of my duel with Shields, and I have +now to inform you that the dueling business still rages in this +city. Day before yesterday Shields challenged Butler, who +accepted, and proposed fighting next morning at sunrise in Bob +Allen's meadow, one hundred yards' distance, with rifles. To +this Whitesides, Shields's second, said "No," because of the law. +Thus ended duel No. 2. Yesterday Whitesides chose to consider +himself insulted by Dr. Merryman, so sent him a kind of quasi- +challenge, inviting him to meet him at the Planter's House in St. +Louis on the next Friday, to settle their difficulty. Merryman +made me his friend, and sent Whitesides a note, inquiring to know +if he meant his note as a challenge, and if so, that he would, +according to the law in such case made and provided, prescribe +the terms of the meeting. Whitesides returned for answer that if +Merryman would meet him at the Planter's House as desired, he +would challenge him. Merryman replied in a note that he denied +Whitesides's right to dictate time and place, but that he +(Merryman) would waive the question of time, and meet him at +Louisiana, Missouri. Upon my presenting this note to Whitesides +and stating verbally its contents, he declined receiving it, +saying he had business in St. Louis, and it was as near as +Louisiana. Merryman then directed me to notify Whitesides that +he should publish the correspondence between them, with such +comments as he thought fit. This I did. Thus it stood at +bedtime last night. This morning Whitesides, by his friend +Shields, is praying for a new trial, on the ground that he was +mistaken in Merryman's proposition to meet him at Louisiana, +Missouri, thinking it was the State of Louisiana. This Merryman +hoots at, and is preparing his publication; while the town is in +a ferment, and a street fight somewhat anticipated. + +But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but to +say something on that subject which you know to be of such +infinite solicitude to me. The immense sufferings you endured +from the first days of September till the middle of February you +never tried to conceal from me, and I well understood. You have +now been the husband of a lovely woman nearly eight months. That +you are happier now than the day you married her I well know, for +without you could not be living. But I have your word for it, +too, and the returning elasticity of spirits which is manifested +in your letters. But I want to ask a close question, "Are you +now in feeling as well as judgment glad that you are married as +you are?" From anybody but me this would be an impudent question, +not to be tolerated; but I know you will pardon it in me. Please +answer it quickly, as I am impatient to know. I have sent my +love to your Fanny so often, I fear she is getting tired of it. +However, I venture to tender it again. + +Yours forever, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JAMES S. IRWIN. + +SPRINGFIELD, +November 2, 1842. + +JAS. S. IRWIN ESQ.: + +Owing to my absence, yours of the 22nd ult. was not received +till this moment. Judge Logan and myself are willing to attend +to any business in the Supreme Court you may send us. As to +fees, it is impossible to establish a rule that will apply in +all, or even a great many cases. We believe we are never accused +of being very unreasonable in this particular; and we would +always be easily satisfied, provided we could see the money--but +whatever fees we earn at a distance, if not paid before, we have +noticed, we never hear of after the work is done. We, therefore, +are growing a little sensitive on that point. + +Yours etc., + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1843 + + +RESOLUTIONS AT A WHIG MEETING AT SPRINGFIELD, +ILLINOIS, MARCH 1, 1843. + +The object of the meeting was stated by Mr. Lincoln of +Springfield, who offered the following resolutions, which were +unanimously adopted: + +Resolved, That a tariff of duties on imported goods, producing +sufficient revenue for the payment of the necessary expenditures +of the National Government, and so adjusted as to protect +American industry, is indispensably necessary to the prosperity +of the American people. + +Resolved, That we are opposed to direct taxation for the support +of the National Government. + +Resolved, That a national bank, properly restricted, is highly +necessary and proper to the establishment and maintenance of a +sound currency, and for the cheap and safe collection, keeping, +and disbursing of the public revenue. + +Resolved, That the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of +the public lands, upon the principles of Mr. Clay's bill, accords +with the best interests of the nation, and particularly with +those of the State of Illinois. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional +district of the State to nominate and support at the approaching +election a candidate of their own principles, regardless of the +chances of success. + +Resolved, That we recommend to th, Whigs of all portions of the +State to adopt and rigidly adhere to the convention system of +nominating candidates. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional +district to hold a district convention on or before the first +Monday of May next, to be composed of a number of delegates from +each county equal to double the n tuber of its representatives in +the General Assembly, provided, each county shall have at least +one delegate. Said delegates to be chosen by primary meetings of +the Whigs, at such times and places as they in their respective +counties may see fit. Said district conventions each to nominate +one candidate for Congress, and one delegate to a national +convention for the purpose of nominating candidates for President +and Vice-President of the United States. The seven delegates so +nominated to a national convention to have power to add two +delegates to their own number, and to fill all vacancies. + +Resolved, That A. T. Bledsoe, S. T. Logan, and A. Lincoln be +appointed a committee to prepare an address to the people of the +State. + +Resolved, That N. W. Edwards, A. G. Henry, James H. Matheny, John +C. Doremus, and James C. Conkling be appointed a Whig Central +State Committee, with authority to fill any vacancy that may +occur in the committee. + + + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + +Address to the People of Illinois. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:-By a resolution of a meeting of such of the +Whigs of the State as are now at Springfield, we, the +undersigned, were appointed to prepare an address to you. The +performance of that task we now undertake. + +Several resolutions were adopted by the meeting; and the chief +object of this address is to show briefly the reasons for their +adoption. + +The first of those resolutions declares a tariff of duties upon +foreign importations, producing sufficient revenue for the +support of the General Government, and so adjusted as to protect +American industry, to be indispensably necessary to the +prosperity of the American people; and the second declares direct +taxation for a national revenue to be improper. Those two +resolutions are kindred in their nature, and therefore proper and +convenient to be considered together. The question of protection +is a subject entirely too broad to be crowded into a few pages +only, together with several other subjects. On that point we +therefore content ourselves with giving the following extracts +from the writings of Mr. Jefferson, General Jackson, and the +speech of Mr. Calhoun: + +"To be independent for the comforts of life, we must fabricate +them ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side +of the agriculturalist. The grand inquiry now is, Shall we make +our own comforts, or go without them at the will of a foreign +nation? He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufactures +must be for reducing us either to dependence on that foreign +nation, or to be clothed in skins and to live like wild beasts in +dens and caverns. I am not one of those; experience has taught +me that manufactures are now as necessary to our independence as +to our comfort." Letter of Mr. Jefferson to Benjamin Austin. + +"I ask, What is the real situation of the agriculturalist? Where +has the American farmer a market for his surplus produce? Except +for cotton, he has neither a foreign nor a home market. Does not +this clearly prove, when there is no market at home or abroad, +that there [is] too much labor employed in agriculture? Common +sense at once points out the remedy. Take from agriculture six +hundred thousand men, women, and children, and you will at once +give a market for more breadstuffs than all Europe now furnishes. +In short, we have been too long subject to the policy of British +merchants. It is time we should become a little more +Americanized, and instead of feeding the paupers and laborers of +England, feed our own; or else in a short time, by continuing our +present policy, we shall all be rendered paupers ourselves."-- +General Jackson's Letter to Dr. Coleman. + +"When our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they +soon will be, under the fostering care of government, the farmer +will find a ready market for his surplus produce, and--what is of +equal consequence--a certain and cheap supply of all he wants; +his prosperity will diffuse itself to every class of the +community." Speech of Hon. J. C. Calhoun on the Tariff. + +The question of revenue we will now briefly consider. For +several years past the revenues of the government have been +unequal to its expenditures, and consequently loan after loan, +sometimes direct and sometimes indirect in form, has been +resorted to. By this means a new national debt has been created, +and is still growing on us with a rapidity fearful to +contemplate--a rapidity only reasonably to be expected in time of +war. This state of things has been produced by a prevailing +unwillingness either to increase the tariff or resort to direct +taxation. But the one or the other must come. Coming +expenditures must be met, and the present debt must be paid; and +money cannot always be borrowed for these objects. The system of +loans is but temporary in its nature, and must soon explode. It +is a system not only ruinous while it lasts, but one that must +soon fail and leave us destitute. As an individual who +undertakes to live by borrowing soon finds his original means +devoured by interest, and, next, no one left to borrow from, so +must it be with a government. + +We repeat, then, that a tariff sufficient for revenue, or a +direct tax, must soon be resorted to; and, indeed, we believe +this alternative is now denied by no one. But which system shall +be adopted? Some of our opponents, in theory, admit the propriety +of a tariff sufficient for a revenue, but even they will not in +practice vote for such a tariff; while others boldly advocate +direct taxation. Inasmuch, therefore, as some of them boldly +advocate direct taxation, and all the rest--or so nearly all as +to make exceptions needless--refuse to adopt the tariff, we think +it is doing them no injustice to class them all as advocates of +direct taxation. Indeed, we believe they are only delaying an +open avowal of the system till they can assure themselves that +the people will tolerate it. Let us, then, briefly compare the +two systems. The tariff is the cheaper system, because the +duties, being collected in large parcels at a few commercial +points, will require comparatively few officers in their +collection; while by the direct-tax system the land must be +literally covered with assessors and collectors, going forth like +swarms of Egyptian locusts, devouring every blade of grass and +other green thing. And, again, by the tariff system the whole +revenue is paid by the consumers of foreign goods, and those +chiefly the luxuries, and not the necessaries, of life. By this +system the man who contents himself to live upon the products of +his own country pays nothing at all. And surely that country is +extensive enough, and its products abundant and varied enough, to +answer all the real wants of its people. In short, by this +system the burthen of revenue falls almost entirely on the +wealthy and luxurious few, while the substantial and laboring +many who live at home, and upon home products, go entirely free. +By the direct-tax system none can escape. However strictly the +citizen may exclude from his premises all foreign luxuries,--fine +cloths, fine silks, rich wines, golden chains, and diamond +rings,--still, for the possession of his house, his barn, and his +homespun, he is to be perpetually haunted and harassed by the +tax-gatherer. With these views we leave it to be determined +whether we or our opponents are the more truly democratic on the +subject. + +The third resolution declares the necessity and propriety of a +national bank. During the last fifty years so much has been said +and written both as to the constitutionality and expediency of +such an institution, that we could not hope to improve in the +least on former discussions of the subject, were we to undertake +it. We, therefore, upon the question of constitutionality +content ourselves with remarking the facts that the first +national bank was established chiefly by the same men who formed +the Constitution, at a time when that instrument was but two +years old, and receiving the sanction, as President, of the +immortal Washington; that the second received the sanction, as +President, of Mr. Madison, to whom common consent has awarded the +proud title of "Father of the Constitution"; and subsequently the +sanction of the Supreme Court, the most enlightened judicial +tribunal in the world. Upon the question of expediency, we only +ask you to examine the history of the times during the existence +of the two banks, and compare those times with the miserable +present. + +The fourth resolution declares the expediency of Mr. Clay's land +bill. Much incomprehensible jargon is often used against the +constitutionality of this measure. We forbear, in this place, +attempting an answer to it, simply because, in our opinion, those +who urge it are through party zeal resolved not to see or +acknowledge the truth. The question of expediency, at least so +far as Illinois is concerned, seems to us the clearest +imaginable. By the bill we are to receive annually a large sum +of money, no part of which we otherwise receive. The precise +annual sum cannot be known in advance; it doubtless will vary in +different years. Still it is something to know that in the last +year--a year of almost unparalleled pecuniary pressure--it +amounted to more than forty thousand dollars. This annual +income, in the midst of our almost insupportable difficulties, in +the days of our severest necessity, our political opponents are +furiously resolving to take and keep from us. And for what? +Many silly reasons are given, as is usual in cases where a single +good one is not to be found. One is that by giving us the +proceeds of the lands we impoverish the national treasury, and +thereby render necessary an increase of the tariff. This may be +true; but if so, the amount of it only is that those whose pride, +whose abundance of means, prompt them to spurn the manufactures +of our country, and to strut in British cloaks and coats and +pantaloons, may have to pay a few cents more on the yard for the +cloth that makes them. A terrible evil, truly, to the Illinois +farmer, who never wore, nor ever expects to wear, a single yard +of British goods in his whole life. Another of their reasons is +that by the passage and continuance of Mr. Clay's bill, we +prevent the passage of a bill which would give us more. This, if +it were sound in itself, is waging destructive war with the +former position; for if Mr. Clay's bill impoverishes the treasury +too much, what shall be said of one that impoverishes it still +more? But it is not sound in itself. It is not true that Mr. +Clay's bill prevents the passage of one more favorable to us of +the new States. Considering the strength and opposite interest +of the old States, the wonder is that they ever permitted one to +pass so favorable as Mr. Clay's. The last twenty-odd years' +efforts to reduce the price of the lands, and to pass graduation +bills and cession bills, prove the assertion to be true; and if +there were no experience in support of it, the reason itself is +plain. The States in which none, or few, of the public lands +lie, and those consequently interested against parting with them +except for the best price, are the majority; and a moment's +reflection will show that they must ever continue the majority, +because by the time one of the original new States (Ohio, for +example) becomes populous and gets weight in Congress, the public +lands in her limits are so nearly sold out that in every point +material to this question she becomes an old State. She does not +wish the price reduced, because there is none left for her +citizens to buy; she does not wish them ceded to the States in +which they lie, because they no longer lie in her limits, and she +will get nothing by the cession. In the nature of things, the +States interested in the reduction of price, in graduation, in +cession, and in all similar projects, never can be the majority. +Nor is there reason to hope that any of them can ever succeed as +a Democratic party measure, because we have heretofore seen that +party in full power, year after year, with many of their leaders +making loud professions in favor of these projects, and yet doing +nothing. What reason, then, is there to believe they will +hereafter do better? In every light in which we can view this +question, it amounts simply to this: Shall we accept our share of +the proceeds under Mr. Clay's bill, or shall we rather reject +that and get nothing? + +The fifth resolution recommends that a Whig candidate for +Congress be run in every district, regardless of the chances of +success. We are aware that it is sometimes a temporary +gratification, when a friend cannot succeed, to be able to choose +between opponents; but we believe that that gratification is the +seed-time which never fails to be followed by a most abundant +harvest of bitterness. By this policy we entangle ourselves. By +voting for our opponents, such of us as do it in some measure +estop ourselves to complain of their acts, however glaringly +wrong we may believe them to be. By this policy no one portion +of our friends can ever be certain as to what course another +portion may adopt; and by this want of mutual and perfect +understanding our political identity is partially frittered away +and lost. And, again, those who are thus elected by our aid ever +become our bitterest persecutors. Take a few prominent examples. +In 1830 Reynolds was elected Governor; in 1835 we exerted our +whole strength to elect Judge Young to the United States Senate, +which effort, though failing, gave him the prominence that +subsequently elected him; in 1836 General Ewing, was so elected +to the United States Senate; and yet let us ask what three men +have been more perseveringly vindictive in their assaults upon +all our men and measures than they? During the last summer the +whole State was covered with pamphlet editions of +misrepresentations against us, methodized into chapters and +verses, written by two of these same men,--Reynolds and Young, in +which they did not stop at charging us with error merely, but +roundly denounced us as the designing enemies of human liberty, +itself. If it be the will of Heaven that such men shall +politically live, be it so; but never, never again permit them to +draw a particle of their sustenance from us. + +The sixth resolution recommends the adoption of the convention +system for the nomination of candidates. This we believe to be +of the very first importance. Whether the system is right in +itself we do not stop to inquire; contenting ourselves with +trying to show that, while our opponents use it, it is madness in +us not to defend ourselves with it. Experience has shown that we +cannot successfully defend ourselves without it. For examples, +look at the elections of last year. Our candidate for governor, +with the approbation of a large portion of the party, took the +field without a nomination, and in open opposition to the system. +Wherever in the counties the Whigs had held conventions and +nominated candidates for the Legislature, the aspirants who were +not nominated were induced to rebel against the nominations, and +to become candidates, as is said, "on their own hook." And, go +where you would into a large Whig county, you were sure to find +the Whigs not contending shoulder to shoulder against the common +enemy, but divided into factions, and fighting furiously with one +another. The election came, and what was the result? The +governor beaten, the Whig vote being decreased many thousands +since 1840, although the Democratic vote had not increased any. +Beaten almost everywhere for members of the Legislature,-- +Tazewell, with her four hundred Whig majority, sending a +delegation half Democratic; Vermillion, with her five hundred, +doing the same; Coles, with her four hundred, sending two out of +three; and Morgan, with her two hundred and fifty, sending three +out of four,--and this to say nothing of the numerous other less +glaring examples; the whole winding up with the aggregate number +of twenty-seven Democratic representatives sent from Whig +counties. As to the senators, too, the result was of the same +character. And it is most worthy to be remembered that of all +the Whigs in the State who ran against the regular nominees, a +single one only was elected. Although they succeeded in +defeating the nominees almost by scores, they too were defeated, +and the spoils chucklingly borne off by the common enemy. + +We do not mention the fact of many of the Whigs opposing the +convention system heretofore for the purpose of censuring them. +Far from it. We expressly protest against such a conclusion. We +know they were generally, perhaps universally, as good and true +Whigs as we ourselves claim to be. + +We mention it merely to draw attention to the disastrous result +it produced, as an example forever hereafter to be avoided. That +"union is strength" is a truth that has been known, illustrated, +and declared in various ways and forms in all ages of the world. +That great fabulist and philosopher Aesop illustrated it by his +fable of the bundle of sticks; and he whose wisdom surpasses that +of all philosophers has declared that "a house divided against +itself cannot stand." It is to induce our friends to act upon +this important and universally acknowledged truth that we urge +the adoption of the convention system. Reflection will prove +that there is no other way of practically applying it. In its +application we know there will be incidents temporarily painful; +but, after all, those incidents will be fewer and less intense +with than without the system. If two friends aspire to the same +office it is certain that both cannot succeed. Would it not, +then, be much less painful to have the question decided by mutual +friends some time before, than to snarl and quarrel until the day +of election, and then both be beaten by the common enemy? + +Before leaving this subject, we think proper to remark that we do +not understand the resolution as intended to recommend the +application of the convention system to the nomination of +candidates for the small offices no way connected with politics; +though we must say we do not perceive that such an application. +of it would be wrong. + +The seventh resolution recommends the holding of district +conventions in May next, for the purpose of nominating candidates +for Congress. The propriety of this rests upon the same reasons +with that of the sixth, and therefore needs no further +discussion. + +The eighth and ninth also relate merely to the practical +application of the foregoing, and therefore need no discussion. + +Before closing, permit us to add a few reflections on the present +condition and future prospects of the Whig party. In almost all +the States we have fallen into the minority, and despondency +seems to prevail universally among us. Is there just cause for +this? In 1840 we carried the nation by more than a hundred and +forty thousand majority. Our opponents charged that we did it by +fraudulent voting; but whatever they may have believed, we know +the charge to be untrue. Where, now, is that mighty host? Have +they gone over to the enemy? Let the results of the late +elections answer. Every State which has fallen off from the Whig +cause since 1840 has done so not by giving more Democratic votes +than they did then, but by giving fewer Whig. Bouck, who was +elected Democratic Governor of New York last fall by more than +15,000 majority, had not then as many votes as he had in 1840, +when he was beaten by seven or eight thousand. And so has it +been in all the other States which have fallen away from our +cause. From this it is evident that tens of thousands in the +late elections have not voted at all. Who and what are they? is +an important question, as respects the future. They can come +forward and give us the victory again. That all, or nearly all, +of them are Whigs is most apparent. Our opponents, stung to +madness by the defeat of 1840, have ever since rallied with more +than their usual unanimity. It has not been they that have been +kept from the polls. These facts show what the result must be, +once the people again rally in their entire strength. Proclaim +these facts, and predict this result; and although unthinking +opponents may smile at us, the sagacious ones will "believe and +tremble." And why shall the Whigs not all rally again? Are +their principles less dear now than in 1840? Have any of their +doctrines since then been discovered to be untrue? It is true, +the victory of 1840 did not produce the happy results +anticipated; but it is equally true, as we believe, that the +unfortunate death of General Harrison was the cause of the +failure. It was not the election of General Harrison that was +expected to produce happy effects, but the measures to be adopted +by his administration. By means of his death, and the unexpected +course of his successor, those measures were never adopted. How +could the fruits follow? The consequences we always predicted +would follow the failure of those measures have followed, and are +now upon us in all their horrors. By the course of Mr. Tyler the +policy of our opponents has continued in operation, still leaving +them with the advantage of charging all its evils upon us as the +results of a Whig administration. Let none be deceived by this +somewhat plausible, though entirely false charge. If they ask us +for the sufficient and sound currency we promised, let them be +answered that we only promised it through the medium of a +national bank, which they, aided by Mr. Tyler, prevented our +establishing. And let them be reminded, too, that their own +policy in relation to the currency has all the time been, and +still is, in full operation. Let us then again come forth in our +might, and by a second victory accomplish that which death +prevented in the first. We can do it. When did the Whigs ever +fail if they were fully aroused and united? Even in single +States, under such circumstances, defeat seldom overtakes them. +Call to mind the contested elections within the last few years, +and particularly those of Moore and Letcher from Kentucky, +Newland and Graham from North Carolina, and the famous New Jersey +case. In all these districts Locofocoism had stalked omnipotent +before; but when the whole people were aroused by its enormities +on those occasions, they put it down, never to rise again. + +We declare it to be our solemn conviction, that the Whigs are +always a majority of this nation; and that to make them always +successful needs but to get them all to the polls and to vote +unitedly. This is the great desideratum. Let us make every +effort to attain it. At every election, let every Whig act as +though he knew the result to depend upon his action. In the +great contest of 1840 some more than twenty one hundred thousand +votes were cast, and so surely as there shall be that many, with +the ordinary increase added, cast in 1844 that surely will a Whig +be elected President of the United States. + +A. LINCOLN. +S. T. LOGAN. +A. T. BLEDSOE. + +March 4, 1843. + + + + +TO JOHN BENNETT. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 7, 1843. + +FRIEND BENNETT: + +Your letter of this day was handed me by Mr. Miles. It is too +late now to effect the object you desire. On yesterday morning +the most of the Whig members from this district got together and +agreed to hold the convention at Tremont in Tazewell County. I +am sorry to hear that any of the Whigs of your county, or indeed +of any county, should longer be against conventions. On last +Wednesday evening a meeting of all the Whigs then here from all +parts of the State was held, and the question of the propriety. +of conventions was brought up and fully discussed, and at the end +of the discussion a resolution recommending the system of +conventions to all the Whigs of the State was unanimously +adopted. Other resolutions were also passed, all of which will +appear in the next Journal. The meeting also appointed a +committee to draft an address to the people of the State, which +address will also appear in the next journal. + +In it you will find a brief argument in favor of conventions--and +although I wrote it myself I will say to you that it is +conclusive upon the point and can not be reasonably answered. +The right way for you to do is hold your meeting and appoint +delegates any how, and if there be any who will not take part, +let it be so. The matter will work so well this time that even +they who now oppose will come in next time. + +The convention is to be held at Tremont on the 5th of April and +according to the rule we have adopted your county is to have +delegates -being double your representation. + +If there be any good Whig who is disposed to stick out against +conventions get him at least to read the arguement in their +favor in the address. + +Yours as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 24, 1843. + +DEAR SPEED:--We had a meeting of the Whigs of the county here on +last Monday to appoint delegates to a district convention; and +Baker beat me, and got the delegation instructed to go for him. +The meeting, in spite of my attempt to decline it, appointed me +one of the delegates; so that in getting Baker the nomination I +shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow who is made a groomsman +to a man that has cut him out and is marrying his own dear "gal." +About the prospects of your having a namesake at our town, can't +say exactly yet. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., March 26, 1843. + +FRIEND MORRIS: + +Your letter of the a 3 d, was received on yesterday morning, and +for which (instead of an excuse, which you thought proper to ask) +I tender you my sincere thanks. It is truly gratifying to me to +learn that, while the people of Sangamon have cast me off, my old +friends of Menard, who have known me longest and best, stick to +me. It would astonish, if not amuse, the older citizens to learn +that I (a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, +working on a flatboat at ten dollars per month) have been put +down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic +family distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, too, +the strangest combination of church influence against me. Baker +is a Campbellite; and therefore, as I suppose, with few +exceptions got all that church. My wife has some relations in +the Presbyterian churches, and some with the Episcopal churches; +and therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set down as either +the one or the other, while it was everywhere contended that no +Christian ought to go for me, because I belonged to no church, +was suspected of being a deist, and had talked about fighting a +duel. With all these things, Baker, of course, had nothing to +do. Nor do I complain of them. As to his own church going for +him, I think that was right enough, and as to the influences I +have spoken of in the other, though they were very strong, it +would be grossly untrue and unjust to charge that they acted upon +them in a body or were very near so. I only mean that those +influences levied a tax of a considerable per cent. upon my +strength throughout the religious controversy. But enough of +this. + +You say that in choosing a candidate for Congress you have an +equal right with Sangamon, and in this you are undoubtedly +correct. In agreeing to withdraw if the Whigs of Sangamon should +go against me, I did not mean that they alone were worth +consulting, but that if she, with her heavy delegation, should be +against me, it would be impossible for me to succeed, and +therefore I had as well decline. And in relation to Menard +having rights, permit me fully to recognize them, and to express +the opinion that, if she and Mason act circumspectly, they will +in the convention be able so far to enforce their rights as to +decide absolutely which one of the candidates shall be +successful. Let me show the reason of this. Hardin, or some +other Morgan candidate, will get Putnam, Marshall, Woodford, +Tazewell, and Logan--making sixteen. Then you and Mason, having +three, can give the victory to either side. + +You say you shall instruct your delegates for me, unless I +object. I certainly shall not object. That would be too +pleasant a compliment for me to tread in the dust. And besides, +if anything should happen (which, however, is not probable) by +which Baker should be thrown out of the fight, I would be at +liberty to accept the nomination if I could get it. I do, +however, feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from +getting the nomination. I should despise myself were I to +attempt it. I think, then, it would be proper for your meeting +to appoint three delegates and to instruct them to go for some +one as the first choice, some one else as a second, and perhaps +some one as a third; and if in those instructions I were named as +the first choice, it would gratify me very much. If you wish to +hold the balance of power, it is important for you to attend to +and secure the vote of Mason also: You should be sure to have men +appointed delegates that you know you can safely confide in. If +yourself and James Short were appointed from your county, all +would be safe; but whether Jim's woman affair a year ago might +not be in the way of his appointment is a question. I don't know +whether you know it, but I know him to be as honorable a man as +there is in the world. You have my permission, and even request, +to show this letter to Short; but to no one else, unless it be a +very particular friend who you know will not speak of it. + +Yours as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + +P. S Will you write me again? + + + + +TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + +April 14, 1843. + +FRIEND MORRIS: + +I have heard it intimated that Baker has been attempting to get +you or Miles, or both of you, to violate the instructions of the +meeting that appointed you, and to go for him. I have insisted, +and still insist, that this cannot be true. Surely Baker would +not do the like. As well might Hardin ask me to vote for him in +the convention. Again, it is said there will be an attempt to +get up instructions in your county requiring you to go for Baker. +This is all wrong. Upon the same rule, Why might not I fly from +the decision against me in Sangamon, and get up instructions to +their delegates to go for me? There are at least twelve hundred +Whigs in the county that took no part, and yet I would as soon +put my head in the fire as to attempt it. Besides, if any one +should get the nomination by such extraordinary means, all +harmony in the district would inevitably be lost. Honest Whigs +(and very nearly all of them are honest) would not quietly abide +such enormities. I repeat, such an attempt on Baker's part +cannot be true. Write me at Springfield how the matter is. +Don't show or speak of this letter. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +TO GEN. J. J. HARDIN. + +SPRINGFIELD, May 11, 1843. + +FRIEND HARDIN: + +Butler informs me that he received a letter from you, in which +you expressed some doubt whether the Whigs of Sangamon will +support you cordially. You may, at once, dismiss all fears on +that subject. We have already resolved to make a particular +effort to give you the very largest majority possible in our +county. From this, no Whig of the county dissents. We have many +objects for doing it. We make it a matter of honor and pride to +do it; we do it because we love the Whig cause; we do it because +we like you personally; and last, we wish to convince you that we +do not bear that hatred to Morgan County that you people have so +long seemed to imagine. You will see by the journals of this +week that we propose, upon pain of losing a barbecue, to give you +twice as great a majority in this county as you shall receive in +your own. I got up the proposal. + +Who of the five appointed is to write the district address? I +did the labor of writing one address this year, and got thunder +for my reward. Nothing new here. + +Yours as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + +P. S.--I wish you would measure one of the largest of those +swords we took to Alton and write me the length of it, from tip +of the point to tip of the hilt, in feet and inches. I have a +dispute about the length. + +A. L. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Vol 1 + diff --git a/old/1linc10.zip b/old/1linc10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e9959d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1linc10.zip diff --git a/old/1linc11.txt b/old/1linc11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..636d52d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1linc11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8932 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, v1 +#1 in our series of the Writings of Abraham Lincoln + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other +Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your +own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future +readers. Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. 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Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION + + + +VOLUME 1. + + +INTRODUCTORY + +Immediately after Lincoln's re-election to the Presidency, in an +off-hand speech, delivered in response to a serenade by some of +his admirers on the evening of November 10, 1864, he spoke as +follows: + +"It has long been a grave question whether any government not too +strong for the liberties of its people can be strong enough to +maintain its existence in great emergencies. On this point, the +present rebellion brought our republic to a severe test, and the +Presidential election, occurring in regular course during the +rebellion, added not a little to the strain.... The strife of +the election is but human nature practically applied to the facts +in the case. What has occurred in this case must ever occur in +similar cases. Human nature will not change. In any future +great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall +have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as +good. Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy +to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.... +Now that the election is over, may not all having a common +interest reunite in a common fort to save our common country? +For my own part, I have striven and shall strive to avoid placing +any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here, I have not +willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am deeply +sensible to the high compliment of a re-election and duly +grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God for having directed my +countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think for their own good, +it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be +disappointed or pained by the result." + +This speech has not attracted much general attention, yet it is +in a peculiar degree both illustrative and typical of the great +statesman who made it, alike in its strong common-sense and in +its lofty standard of morality. Lincoln's life, Lincoln's deeds +and words, are not only of consuming interest to the historian, +but should be intimately known to every man engaged in the hard +practical work of American political life. It is difficult to +overstate how much it means to a nation to have as the two +foremost figures in its history men like Washington and Lincoln. +It is good for every man in any way concerned in public life to +feel that the highest ambition any American can possibly have +will be gratified just in proportion as he raises himself toward +the standards set by these two men. + +It is a very poor thing, whether for nations or individuals, to +advance the history of great deeds done in the past as an excuse +for doing poorly in the present; but it is an excellent thing to +study the history of the great deeds of the past, and of the +great men who did them, with an earnest desire to profit thereby +so as to render better service in the present. In their +essentials, the men of the present day are much like the men of +the past, and the live issues of the present can be faced to +better advantage by men who have in good faith studied how the +leaders of the nation faced the dead issues of the past. Such a +study of Lincoln's life will enable us to avoid the twin gulfs of +immorality and inefficiency--the gulfs which always lie one on +each side of the careers alike of man and of nation. It helps +nothing to have avoided one if shipwreck is encountered in the +other. The fanatic, the well-meaning moralist of unbalanced +mind, the parlor critic who condemns others but has no power +himself to do good and but little power to do ill--all these were +as alien to Lincoln as the vicious and unpatriotic themselves. +His life teaches our people that they must act with wisdom, +because otherwise adherence to right will be mere sound and fury +without substance; and that they must also act high-mindedly, or +else what seems to be wisdom will in the end turn out to be the +most destructive kind of folly. + +Throughout his entire life, and especially after he rose to +leadership in his party, Lincoln was stirred to his depths by the +sense of fealty to a lofty ideal; but throughout his entire life, +he also accepted human nature as it is, and worked with keen, +practical good sense to achieve results with the instruments at +hand. It is impossible to conceive of a man farther removed from +baseness, farther removed from corruption, from mere self- +seeking; but it is also impossible to conceive of a man of more +sane and healthy mind--a man less under the influence of that +fantastic and diseased morality (so fantastic and diseased as to +be in reality profoundly immoral) which makes a man in this work- +a-day world refuse to do what is possible because he cannot +accomplish the impossible. + +In the fifth volume of Lecky's History of England, the historian +draws an interesting distinction between the qualities needed for +a successful political career in modern society and those which +lead to eminence in the spheres of pure intellect or pure moral +effort. He says: + +"....the moral qualities that are required in the higher spheres +of statesmanship [are not] those of a hero or a saint. Passionate +earnestness and self-devotion, complete concentration of every +faculty on an unselfish aim, uncalculating daring, a delicacy of +conscience and a loftiness of aim far exceeding those of the +average of men, are here likely to prove rather a hindrance than +an assistance. The politician deals very largely with the +superficial and the commonplace; his art is in a great measure +that of skilful compromise, and in the conditions of modern life, +the statesman is likely to succeed best who possesses secondary +qualities to an unusual degree, who is in the closest +intellectual and moral sympathy with the average of the +intelligent men of his time, and who pursues common ideals with. +mow than common ability.... Tact, business talent, knowledge of +men, resolution, promptitude and sagacity in dealing with +immediate emergencies, a character which lends itself easily to +conciliation, diminishes friction and inspires confidence, are +especially needed, and they are more likely to be found among +shrewd and enlightened men of the world than among men of great +original genius or of an heroic type of character." + +The American people should feel profoundly grateful that the +greatest American statesman since Washington, the statesman who +in this absolutely democratic republic succeeded best, was the +very man who actually combined the two sets of qualities which +the historian thus puts in antithesis. Abraham Lincoln, the +rail-splitter, the Western country lawyer, was one of the +shrewdest and most enlightened men of the world, and he had all +the practical qualities which enable such a man to guide his +countrymen; and yet he was also a genius of the heroic type, a +leader who rose level to the greatest crisis through which this +nation or any other nation had to pass in the nineteenth century. + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +SAGAMORE HILL, +OYSTER BAY, N. Y., +September 22, 1905. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE + +"I have endured," wrote Lincoln not long before his death, "a +great deal of ridicule without much malice, and have received a +great deal of kindness not quite free from ridicule." On Easter +Day, 1865, the world knew how little this ridicule, how much this +kindness, had really signified. Thereafter, Lincoln the man +became Lincoln the hero, year by year more heroic, until to-day, +with the swift passing of those who knew him, his figure grows +ever dimmer, less real. This should not be. For Lincoln the +man, patient, wise, set in a high resolve, is worth far more than +Lincoln the hero, vaguely glorious. Invaluable is the example of +the man, intangible that of the hero. + +And, though it is not for us, as for those who in awed stillness +listened at Gettysburg with inspired perception, to know Abraham +Lincoln, yet there is for us another way whereby we may attain +such knowledge--through his words--uttered in all sincerity to +those who loved or hated him. Cold, unsatisfying they may seem, +these printed words, while we can yet speak with those who knew +him, and look into eyes that once looked into his. But in truth +it is here that we find his simple greatness, his great +simplicity, and though no man tried less so to show his power, no +man has so shown it more clearly. + +Thus these writings of Abraham Lincoln are associated with those +of Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, and of the other "Founders of +the Republic," not that Lincoln should become still more of the +past, but, rather, that he with them should become still more of +the present. However faint and mythical may grow the story of +that Great Struggle, the leader, Lincoln, at least should remain +a real, living American. No matter how clearly, how directly, +Lincoln has shown himself in his writings, we yet should not +forget those men whose minds, from their various view-points, +have illumined for us his character. As this nation owes a great +debt to Lincoln, so, also, Lincoln's memory owes a great debt to +a nation which, as no other nation could have done, has been able +to appreciate his full worth. Among the many who have brought +about this appreciation, those only whose estimates have been +placed in these volumes may be mentioned here. To President +Roosevelt, to Mr. Schurz and to Mr. Choate, the editor, for +himself, for the publishers, and on behalf of the readers, wishes +to offer his sincere acknowledgments. + +Thanks are also due, for valuable and sympathetic assistance +rendered in the preparation of this work, to Mr. Gilbert A. +Tracy, of Putnam, Conn., Major William H. Lambert, of +Philadelphia, and Mr. C. F. Gunther, of Chicago, to the Chicago +Historical Association and personally to its capable Secretary, +Miss McIlvaine, to Major Henry S. Burrage, of Portland, Me., and +to General Thomas J. Henderson, of Illinois. + +For various courtesies received, the editor is furthermore +indebted to the Librarian of the Library of Congress; to Messrs. +McClure, Phillips & Co., D. Appleton & Co., Macmillan & Co., +Dodd, Mead & Co., and Harper Brothers, of New York; to Houghton, +Mifflin & Co., Dana, Estes & Co., and L. C. Page & Co., of +Boston; to A. C. McClurg & Co., of Chicago; to The Robert Clarke +Co., of Cincinnati, and to the J. B. Lippincott Co., of +Philadelphia. + +It is hardly necessary to add that every effort has been made by +the editor to bring into these volumes whatever material may +there properly belong, material much of which is widely scattered +in public libraries and in private collections. He has been +fortunate in securing certain interesting correspondence and +papers which had not before come into print in book form. +Information concerning some of these papers had reached him too +late to enable the papers to find place in their proper +chronological order in the set. Rather, however, than not to +present these papers to the readers they have been included in +the seventh volume of the set, which concludes the "Writings." + +[These later papers are, in this etext, re-arranged into +chronologic order. D.W.] + + +October, 1905, + +A. B. L. + + + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN: + +AN ESSAY BY CARL SHURZ + +No American can study the character and career of Abraham Lincoln +without being carried away by sentimental emotions. We are +always inclined to idealize that which we love,--a state of mind +very unfavorable to the exercise of sober critical judgment. It +is therefore not surprising that most of those who have written +or spoken on that extraordinary man, even while conscientiously +endeavoring to draw a lifelike portraiture of his being, and to +form a just estimate of his public conduct, should have drifted +into more or less indiscriminating eulogy, painting his great +features in the most glowing colors, and covering with tender +shadings whatever might look like a blemish. + +But his standing before posterity will not be exalted by mere +praise of his virtues and abilities, nor by any concealment of +his limitations and faults. The stature of the great man, one of +whose peculiar charms consisted in his being so unlike all other +great men, will rather lose than gain by the idealization which +so easily runs into the commonplace. For it was distinctly the +weird mixture of qualities and forces in him, of the lofty with +the common, the ideal with the uncouth, of that which he had +become with that which he had not ceased to be, that made him so +fascinating a character among his fellow-men, gave him his +singular power over their minds and hearts, and fitted him to be +the greatest leader in the greatest crisis of our national life. + +His was indeed a marvellous growth. The statesman or the +military hero born and reared in a log cabin is a familiar figure +in American history; but we may search in vain among our +celebrities for one whose origin and early life equalled Abraham +Lincoln's in wretchedness. He first saw the light in a miserable +hovel in Kentucky, on a farm consisting of a few barren acres in +a dreary neighborhood; his father a typical "poor Southern +white," shiftless and without ambition for himself or his +children, constantly looking for a new piece of land on which he +might make a living without much work; his mother, in her youth +handsome and bright, grown prematurely coarse in feature and +soured in mind by daily toil and care; the whole household +squalid, cheerless, and utterly void of elevating inspirations... +Only when the family had "moved" into the malarious backwoods of +Indiana, the mother had died, and a stepmother, a woman of thrift +and energy, had taken charge of the children, the shaggy-headed, +ragged, barefooted, forlorn boy, then seven years old, "began to +feel like a human being." Hard work was his early lot. When a +mere boy he had to help in supporting the family, either on his +father's clearing, or hired out to other farmers to plough, or +dig ditches, or chop wood, or drive ox teams; occasionally also +to "tend the baby," when the farmer's wife was otherwise engaged. +He could regard it as an advancement to a higher sphere of +activity when he obtained work in a "crossroads store," where he +amused the customers by his talk over the counter; for he soon +distinguished himself among the backwoods folk as one who had +something to say worth listening to. To win that distinction, he +had to draw mainly upon his wits; for, while his thirst for +knowledge was great, his opportunities for satisfying that thirst +were wofully slender. + +In the log schoolhouse, which he could visit but little, he was +taught only reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic. Among +the people of the settlement, bush farmers and small tradesmen, +he found none of uncommon intelligence or education; but some of +them had a few books, which he borrowed eagerly. Thus he read +and reread, AEsop's Fables, learning to tell stories with a point +and to argue by parables; he read Robinson Crusoe, The Pilgrim's +Progress, a short history of the United States, and Weems's Life +of Washington. To the town constable's he went to read the +Revised Statutes of Indiana. Every printed page that fell into +his hands he would greedily devour, and his family and friends +watched him with wonder, as the uncouth boy, after his daily +work, crouched in a corner of the log cabin or outside under a +tree, absorbed in a book while munching his supper of corn bread. +In this manner he began to gather some knowledge, and sometimes +he would astonish the girls with such startling remarks as that +the earth was moving around the sun, and not the sun around the +earth, and they marvelled where "Abe" could have got such queer +notions. Soon he also felt the impulse to write; not only making +extracts from books he wished to remember, but also composing +little essays of his own. First he sketched these with charcoal +on a wooden shovel scraped white with a drawing-knife, or on +basswood shingles. Then he transferred them to paper, which was +a scarce commodity in the Lincoln household; taking care to cut +his expressions close, so that they might not cover too much +space,--a style-forming method greatly to be commended. Seeing +boys put a burning coal on the back of a wood turtle, he was +moved to write on cruelty to animals. Seeing men intoxicated +with whiskey, he wrote on temperance. In verse-making, too, he +tried himself, and in satire on persons offensive to him or +others,--satire the rustic wit of which was not always fit for +ears polite. Also political thoughts he put upon paper, and some +of his pieces were even deemed good enough for publication in the +county weekly. + +Thus he won a neighborhood reputation as a clever young man, +which he increased by his performances as a speaker, not seldom +drawing upon himself the dissatisfaction of his employers by +mounting a stump in the field, and keeping the farm hands from +their work by little speeches in a jocose and sometimes also a +serious vein. At the rude social frolics of the settlement he +became an important person, telling funny, stories, mimicking the +itinerant preachers who had happened to pass by, and making his +mark at wrestling matches, too; for at the age of seventeen he +had attained his full height, six feet four inches in his +stockings, if he had any, and a terribly muscular clodhopper he +was. But he was known never to use his extraordinary strength to +the injury or humiliation of others; rather to do them a kindly +turn, or to enforce justice and fair dealing between them. All +this made him a favorite in backwoods society, although in some +things he appeared a little odd, to his friends. Far more than +any of them, he was given not only to reading, but to fits of +abstraction, to quiet musing with himself, and also to strange +spells of melancholy, from which he often would pass in a moment +to rollicking outbursts of droll humor. But on the whole he was +one of the people among whom he lived; in appearance perhaps even +a little more uncouth than most of them,--a very tall, rawboned +youth, with large features, dark, shrivelled skin, and rebellious +hair; his arms and legs long, out of proportion; clad in deerskin +trousers, which from frequent exposure to the rain had shrunk so +as to sit tightly on his limbs, leaving several inches of bluish +shin exposed between their lower end and the heavy tan-colored +shoes; the nether garment held usually by only one suspender, +that was strung over a coarse homemade shirt; the head covered in +winter with a coonskin cap, in summer with a rough straw hat of +uncertain shape, without a band. + +It is doubtful whether he felt himself much superior to his +surroundings, although he confessed to a yearning for some +knowledge of the world outside of the circle in which he lived. +This wish was gratified; but how? At the age of nineteen he went +down the Mississippi to New Orleans as a flatboat hand, +temporarily joining a trade many members of which at that time +still took pride in being called "half horse and half alligator." +After his return he worked and lived in the old way until the +spring of 1830, when his father "moved again," this time to +Illinois; and on the journey of fifteen days "Abe" had to drive +the ox wagon which carried the household goods. Another log +cabin was built, and then, fencing a field, Abraham Lincoln split +those historic rails which were destined to play so picturesque a +part in the Presidential campaign twenty-eight years later. + +Having come of age, Lincoln left the family, and "struck out for +himself." He had to "take jobs whenever he could get them." The +first of these carried him again as a flatboat hand to New +Orleans. There something happened that made a lasting impression +upon his soul: he witnessed a slave auction. "His heart bled," +wrote one of his companions; "said nothing much; was silent; +looked bad. I can say, knowing it, that it was on this trip that +he formed his opinion on slavery. It run its iron in him then +and there, May, 1831. I have heard him say so often." Then he +lived several years at New Salem, in Illinois, a small mushroom +village, with a mill, some "stores" and whiskey shops, that rose +quickly, and soon disappeared again. It was a desolate, +disjointed, half-working and half-loitering life, without any +other aim than to gain food and shelter from day to day. He +served as pilot on a steamboat trip, then as clerk in a store and +a mill; business failing, he was adrift for some time. Being +compelled to measure his strength with the chief bully of the +neighborhood, and overcoming him, he became a noted person in +that muscular community, and won the esteem and friendship of the +ruling gang of ruffians to such a degree that, when the Black +Hawk war broke out, they elected him, a young man of twenty- +three, captain of a volunteer company, composed mainly of roughs +of their kind. He took the field, and his most noteworthy deed +of valor consisted, not in killing an Indian, but in protecting +against his own men, at the peril of his own life, the life of an +old savage who had strayed into his camp. + +The Black Hawk war over, he turned to politics. The step from +the captaincy of a volunteer company to a candidacy for a seat in +the Legislature seemed a natural one. But his popularity, +although great in New Salem, had not spread far enough over the +district, and he was defeated. Then the wretched hand-to-mouth +struggle began again. He "set up in store-business" with a +dissolute partner, who drank whiskey while Lincoln was reading +books. The result was a disastrous failure and a load of debt. +Thereupon he became a deputy surveyor, and was appointed +postmaster of New Salem, the business of the post-office being so +small that he could carry the incoming and outgoing mail in his +hat. All this could not lift him from poverty, and his surveying +instruments and horse and saddle were sold by the sheriff for +debt. + +But while all this misery was upon him his ambition rose to +higher aims. He walked many miles to borrow from a schoolmaster +a grammar with which to improve his language. A lawyer lent him +a copy of Blackstone, and he began to study law. + +People would look wonderingly at the grotesque figure lying in +the grass, "with his feet up a tree," or sitting on a fence, as, +absorbed in a book, he learned to construct correct sentences and +made himself a jurist. At once he gained a little practice, +pettifogging before a justice of the peace for friends, without +expecting a fee. Judicial functions, too, were thrust upon him, +but only at horse-races or wrestling matches, where his +acknowledged honesty and fairness gave his verdicts undisputed +authority. His popularity grew apace, and soon he could be a +candidate for the Legislature again. Although he called himself +a Whig, an ardent admirer of Henry Clay, his clever stump +speeches won him the election in the strongly Democratic +district. Then for the first time, perhaps, he thought seriously +of his outward appearance. So far he had been content with a +garb of "Kentucky jeans," not seldom ragged, usually patched, and +always shabby. Now, he borrowed some money from a friend to buy +a new suit of clothes--"store clothes" fit for a Sangamon County +statesman; and thus adorned he set out for the state capital, +Vandalia, to take his seat among the lawmakers. + +His legislative career, which stretched over several sessions-- +for he was thrice re-elected, in 1836, 1838, and 1840--was not +remarkably brilliant. He did, indeed, not lack ambition. He +dreamed even of making himself "the De Witt Clinton of Illinois," +and he actually distinguished himself by zealous and effective +work in those "log-rolling" operations by which the young State +received "a general system of internal improvements" in the shape +of railroads, canals, and banks,--a reckless policy, burdening +the State with debt, and producing the usual crop of political +demoralization, but a policy characteristic of the time and the +impatiently enterprising spirit of the Western people. Lincoln, +no doubt with the best intentions, but with little knowledge of +the subject, simply followed the popular current. The +achievement in which, perhaps, he gloried most was the removal of +the State government from Vandalia to Springfield; one of those +triumphs of political management which are apt to be the pride of +the small politician's statesmanship. One thing, however, he did +in which his true nature asserted itself, and which gave distinct +promise of the future pursuit of high aims. Against an +overwhelming preponderance of sentiment in the Legislature, +followed by only one other member, he recorded his protest +against a proslavery resolution,--that protest declaring "the +institution of slavery to be founded on both injustice and bad +policy." This was not only the irrepressible voice of his +conscience; it was true moral valor, too; for at that time, in +many parts of the West, an abolitionist was regarded as little +better than a horse-thief, and even "Abe Lincoln" would hardly +have been forgiven his antislavery principles, had he not been +known as such an "uncommon good fellow." But here, in obedience +to the great conviction of his life, he manifested his courage to +stand alone, that courage which is the first requisite of +leadership in a great cause. + +Together with his reputation and influence as a politician grew +his law practice, especially after he had removed from New Salem +to Springfield, and associated himself with a practitioner of +good standing. He had now at last won a fixed position in +society. He became a successful lawyer, less, indeed, by his +learning as a jurist than by his effectiveness as an advocate and +by the striking uprightness of his character; and it may truly be +said that his vivid sense of truth and justice had much to do +with his effectiveness as an advocate. He would refuse to act as +the attorney even of personal friends when he saw the right on +the other side. He would abandon cases, even during trial, when +the testimony convinced him that his client was in the wrong. He +would dissuade those who sought his service from pursuing an +obtainable advantage when their claims seemed to him unfair. +Presenting his very first case in the United States Circuit +Court, the only question being one of authority, he declared +that, upon careful examination, he found all the authorities on +the other side, and none on his. Persons accused of crime, when +he thought them guilty, he would not defend at all, or, +attempting their defence, he was unable to put forth his powers. +One notable exception is on record, when his personal sympathies +had been strongly aroused. But when he felt himself to be the +protector of innocence, the defender of justice, or the +prosecutor of wrong, he frequently disclosed such unexpected +resources of reasoning, such depth of feeling, and rose to such +fervor of appeal as to astonish and overwhelm his hearers, and +make him fairly irresistible. Even an ordinary law argument, +coming from him, seldom failed to produce the impression that he +was profoundly convinced of the soundness of his position. It is +not surprising that the mere appearance of so conscientious an +attorney in any case should have carried, not only to juries, but +even to judges, almost a presumption of right on his side, and +that the people began to call him, sincerely meaning it, "honest +Abe Lincoln." + +In the meantime he had private sorrows and trials of a painfully +afflicting nature. He had loved and been loved by a fair and +estimable girl, Ann Rutledge, who died in the flower of her youth +and beauty, and he mourned her loss with such intensity of grief +that his friends feared for his reason. Recovering from his +morbid depression, he bestowed what he thought a new affection +upon another lady, who refused him. And finally, moderately +prosperous in his worldly affairs, and having prospects of +political distinction before him, he paid his addresses to Mary +Todd, of Kentucky, and was accepted. But then tormenting doubts +of the genuineness of his own affection for her, of the +compatibility of their characters, and of their future happiness +came upon him. His distress was so great that he felt himself in +danger of suicide, and feared to carry a pocket-knife with him; +and he gave mortal offence to his bride by not appearing on the +appointed wedding day. Now the torturing consciousness of the +wrong he had done her grew unendurable. He won back her +affection, ended the agony by marrying her, and became a faithful +and patient husband and a good father. But it was no secret to +those who knew the family well that his domestic life was full of +trials. The erratic temper of his wife not seldom put the +gentleness of his nature to the severest tests; and these +troubles and struggles, which accompanied him through all the +vicissitudes of his life from the modest home in Springfield to +the White House at Washington, adding untold private heart- +burnings to his public cares, and sometimes precipitating upon +him incredible embarrassments in the discharge of his public +duties, form one of the most pathetic features of his career. + +He continued to "ride the circuit," read books while travelling +in his buggy, told funny stories to his fellow-lawyers in the +tavern, chatted familiarly with his neighbors around the stove in +the store and at the post-office, had his hours of melancholy +brooding as of old, and became more and more widely known and +trusted and beloved among the people of his State for his ability +as a lawyer and politician, for the uprightness of his character +and the overflowing spring of sympathetic kindness in his heart. +His main ambition was confessedly that of political distinction; +but hardly any one would at that time have seen in him the man +destined to lead the nation through the greatest crisis of the +century. + +His time had not yet come when, in 1846, he was elected to +Congress. In a clever speech in the House of Representatives he +denounced President Polk for having unjustly forced war upon +Mexico, and he amused the Committee of the Whole by a witty +attack upon General Cass. More important was the expression he +gave to his antislavery impulses by offering a bill looking to +the emancipation of the slaves in the District of Columbia, and +by his repeated votes for the famous Wilmot Proviso, intended to +exclude slavery from the Territories acquired from Mexico. But +when, at the expiration of his term, in March, 1849, he left his +seat, he gloomily despaired of ever seeing the day when the cause +nearest to his heart would be rightly grasped by the people, and +when he would be able to render any service to his country in +solving the great problem. Nor had his career as a member of +Congress in any sense been such as to gratify his ambition. +Indeed, if he ever had any belief in a great destiny for himself, +it must have been weak at that period; for he actually sought to +obtain from the new Whig President, General Taylor, the place of +Commissioner of the General Land Office; willing to bury himself +in one of the administrative bureaus of the government. +Fortunately for the country, he failed; and no less fortunately, +when, later, the territorial governorship of Oregon was offered +to him, Mrs. Lincoln's protest induced him to decline it. +Returning to Springfield, he gave himself with renewed zest to +his law practice, acquiesced in the Compromise of 1850 with +reluctance and a mental reservation, supported in the +Presidential campaign of 1852 the Whig candidate in some +spiritless speeches, and took but a languid interest in the +politics of the day. But just then his time was drawing near. + +The peace promised, and apparently inaugurated, by the Compromise +of 1850 was rudely broken by the introduction of the Kansas- +Nebraska Bill in 1854. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, +opening the Territories of the United States, the heritage of +coming generations, to the invasion of slavery, suddenly revealed +the whole significance of the slavery question to the people of +the free States, and thrust itself into the politics of the +country as the paramount issue. Something like an electric shock +flashed through the North. Men who but a short time before had +been absorbed by their business pursuits, and deprecated all +political agitation, were startled out of their security by a +sudden alarm, and excitedly took sides. That restless trouble of +conscience about slavery, which even in times of apparent repose +had secretly disturbed the souls of Northern people, broke forth +in an utterance louder than ever. The bonds of accustomed party +allegiance gave way. Antislavery Democrats and antislavery Whigs +felt themselves drawn together by a common overpowering +sentiment, and soon they began to rally in a new organization. +The Republican party sprang into being to meet the overruling +call of the hour. Then Abraham Lincoln's time was come. He +rapidly advanced to a position of conspicuous championship in the +struggle. This, however, was not owing to his virtues and +abilities alone. Indeed, the slavery question stirred his soul +in its profoundest depths; it was, as one of his intimate friends +said, "the only one on which he would become excited"; it called +forth all his faculties and energies. Yet there were many others +who, having long and arduously fought the antislavery battle in +the popular assembly, or in the press, or in the halls of +Congress, far surpassed him in prestige, and compared with whom +he was still an obscure and untried man. His reputation, +although highly honorable and well earned, had so far been +essentially local. As a stump-speaker in Whig canvasses outside +of his State he had attracted comparatively little attention; but +in Illinois he had been recognized as one of the foremost men of +the Whig party. Among the opponents of the Nebraska Bill he +occupied in his State so important a position, that in 1856 he +was the choice of a large majority of the "Anti-Nebraska men" in +the Legislature for a seat in the Senate of the United States +which then became vacant; and when he, an old Whig, could not +obtain the votes of the Anti-Nebraska Democrats necessary to make +a majority, he generously urged his friends to transfer their +votes to Lyman Trumbull, who was then elected. Two years later, +in the first national convention of the Republican party, the +delegation from Illinois brought him forward as a candidate for +the vice-presidency, and he received respectable support. Still, +the name of Abraham Lincoln was not widely known beyond the +boundaries of his own State. But now it was this local +prominence in Illinois that put him in a position of peculiar +advantage on the battlefield of national politics. In the +assault on the Missouri Compromise which broke down all legal +barriers to the spread of slavery Stephen Arnold Douglas was the +ostensible leader and central figure; and Douglas was a Senator +from Illinois, Lincoln's State. Douglas's national theatre of +action was the Senate, but in his constituency in Illinois were +the roots of his official position and power. What he did in the +Senate he had to justify before the people of Illinois, in order +to maintain himself in place; and in Illinois all eyes turned to +Lincoln as Douglas's natural antagonist. + +As very young men they had come to Illinois, Lincoln from +Indiana, Douglas from Vermont, and had grown up together in +public life, Douglas as a Democrat, Lincoln as a Whig. They had +met first in Vandalia, in 1834, when Lincoln was in the +Legislature and Douglas in the lobby; and again in 1836, both as +members of the Legislature. Douglas, a very able politician, of +the agile, combative, audacious, "pushing" sort, rose in +political distinction with remarkable rapidity. In quick +succession he became a member of the Legislature, a State's +attorney, secretary of state, a judge on the supreme bench of +Illinois, three times a Representative in Congress, and a Senator +of the United States when only thirty-nine years old. In the +National Democratic convention of 1852 he appeared even as an +aspirant to the nomination for the Presidency, as the favorite of +"young America," and received a respectable vote. He had far +outstripped Lincoln in what is commonly called political success +and in reputation. But it had frequently happened that in +political campaigns Lincoln felt himself impelled, or was +selected by his Whig friends, to answer Douglas's speeches; and +thus the two were looked upon, in a large part of the State at +least, as the representative combatants of their respective +parties in the debates before popular meetings. As soon, +therefore, as, after the passage of his Kansas-Nebraska Bill, +Douglas returned to Illinois to defend his cause before his +constituents, Lincoln, obeying not only his own impulse, but also +general expectation, stepped forward as his principal opponent. +Thus the struggle about the principles involved in the Kansas- +Nebraska Bill, or, in a broader sense, the struggle between +freedom and slavery, assumed in Illinois the outward form of a +personal contest between Lincoln and Douglas; and, as it +continued and became more animated, that personal contest in +Illinois was watched with constantly increasing interest by the +whole country. When, in 1858, Douglas's senatorial term being +about to expire, Lincoln was formally designated by the +Republican convention of Illinois as their candidate for the +Senate, to take Douglas's place, and the two contestants agreed +to debate the questions at issue face to face in a series of +public meetings, the eyes of the whole American people were +turned eagerly to that one point: and the spectacle reminded one +of those lays of ancient times telling of two armies, in battle +array, standing still to see their two principal champions fight +out the contested cause between the lines in single combat. + +Lincoln had then reached the full maturity of his powers. His +equipment as a statesman did not embrace a comprehensive +knowledge of public affairs. What he had studied he had indeed +made his own, with the eager craving and that zealous tenacity +characteristic of superior minds learning under difficulties. +But his narrow opportunities and the unsteady life he had led +during his younger years had not permitted the accumulation of +large stores in his mind. It is true, in political campaigns he +had occasionally spoken on the ostensible issues between the +Whigs and the Democrats, the tariff, internal improvements, +banks, and so on, but only in a perfunctory manner. Had he ever +given much serious thought and study to these subjects, it is +safe to assume that a mind so prolific of original conceits as +his would certainly have produced some utterance upon them worth +remembering. His soul had evidently never been deeply stirred by +such topics. But when his moral nature was aroused, his brain +developed an untiring activity until it had mastered all the +knowledge within reach. As soon as the repeal of the Missouri +Compromise had thrust the slavery question into politics as the +paramount issue, Lincoln plunged into an arduous study of all its +legal, historical, and moral aspects, and then his mind became a +complete arsenal of argument. His rich natural gifts, trained by +long and varied practice, had made him an orator of rare +persuasiveness. In his immature days, he had pleased himself for +a short period with that inflated, high-flown style which, among +the uncultivated, passes for "beautiful speaking." His inborn +truthfulness and his artistic instinct soon overcame that +aberration and revealed to him the noble beauty and strength of +simplicity. He possessed an uncommon power of clear and compact +statement, which might have reminded those who knew the story of +his early youth of the efforts of the poor boy, when he copied +his compositions from the scraped wooden shovel, carefully to +trim his expressions in order to save paper. His language had +the energy of honest directness and he was a master of logical +lucidity. He loved to point and enliven his reasoning by +humorous illustrations, usually anecdotes of Western life, of +which he had an inexhaustible store at his command. These +anecdotes had not seldom a flavor of rustic robustness about +them, but he used them with great effect, while amusing the +audience, to give life to an abstraction, to explode an +absurdity, to clinch an argument, to drive home an admonition. +The natural kindliness of his tone, softening prejudice and +disarming partisan rancor, would often open to his reasoning a +way into minds most unwilling to receive it. + +Yet his greatest power consisted in the charm of his +individuality. That charm did not, in the ordinary way, appeal +to the ear or to the eye. His voice was not melodious; rather +shrill and piercing, especially when it rose to its high treble +in moments of great animation. His figure was unhandsome, and +the action of his unwieldy limbs awkward. He commanded none of +the outward graces of oratory as they are commonly understood. +His charm was of a different kind. It flowed from the rare depth +and genuineness of his convictions and his sympathetic feelings. +Sympathy was the strongest element in his nature. One of his +biographers, who knew him before he became President, says: +"Lincoln's compassion might be stirred deeply by an object +present, but never by an object absent and unseen. In the former +case he would most likely extend relief, with little inquiry into +the merits of the case, because, as he expressed it himself, it +`took a pain out of his own heart.'" Only half of this is +correct. It is certainly true that he could not witness any +individual distress or oppression, or any kind of suffering, +without feeling a pang of pain himself, and that by relieving as +much as he could the suffering of others he put an end to his +own. This compassionate impulse to help he felt not only for +human beings, but for every living creature. As in his boyhood +he angrily reproved the boys who tormented a wood turtle by +putting a burning coal on its back, so, we are told, he would, +when a mature man, on a journey, dismount from his buggy and wade +waist-deep in mire to rescue a pig struggling in a swamp. +Indeed, appeals to his compassion were so irresistible to him, +and he felt it so difficult to refuse anything when his refusal +could give pain, that he himself sometimes spoke of his inability +to say "no" as a positive weakness. But that certainly does not +prove that his compassionate feeling was confined to individual +cases of suffering witnessed with his own eyes. As the boy was +moved by the aspect of the tortured wood turtle to compose an +essay against cruelty to animals in general, so the aspect of +other cases of suffering and wrong wrought up his moral nature, +and set his mind to work against cruelty, injustice, and +oppression in general. + +As his sympathy went forth to others, it attracted others to him. +Especially those whom he called the "plain people" felt +themselves drawn to him by the instinctive feeling that he +understood, esteemed, and appreciated them. He had grown up +among the poor, the lowly, the ignorant. He never ceased to +remember the good souls he had met among them, and the many +kindnesses they had done him. Although in his mental development +he had risen far above them, he never looked down upon them. How +they felt and how they reasoned he knew, for so he had once felt +and reasoned himself. How they could be moved he knew, for so he +had once been moved himself and practised moving others. His +mind was much larger than theirs, but it thoroughly comprehended +theirs; and while he thought much farther than they, their +thoughts were ever present to him. Nor had the visible distance +between them grown as wide as his rise in the world would seem to +have warranted. Much of his backwoods speech and manners still +clung to him. Although he had become "Mr. Lincoln" to his later +acquaintances, he was still "Abe" to the "Nats" and "Billys" and +"Daves" of his youth; and their familiarity neither appeared +unnatural to them, nor was it in the least awkward to him. He +still told and enjoyed stories similar to those he had told and +enjoyed in the Indiana settlement and at New Salem. His wants +remained as modest as they had ever been; his domestic habits had +by no means completely accommodated themselves to those of his +more highborn wife; and though the "Kentucky jeans" apparel had +long been dropped, his clothes of better material and better make +would sit ill sorted on his gigantic limbs. His cotton umbrella, +without a handle, and tied together with a coarse string to keep +it from flapping, which he carried on his circuit rides, is said +to be remembered still by some of his surviving neighbors. This +rusticity of habit was utterly free from that affected contempt +of refinement and comfort which self-made men sometimes carry +into their more affluent circumstances. To Abraham Lincoln it +was entirely natural, and all those who came into contact with +him knew it to be so. In his ways of thinking and feeling he had +become a gentleman in the highest sense, but the refining process +had polished but little the outward form. The plain people, +therefore, still considered "honest Abe Lincoln" one of +themselves; and when they felt, which they no doubt frequently +did, that his thoughts and aspirations moved in a sphere above +their own, they were all the more proud of him, without any +diminution of fellow-feeling. It was this relation of mutual +sympathy and understanding between Lincoln and the plain people +that gave him his peculiar power as a public man, and singularly +fitted him, as we shall see, for that leadership which was +preeminently required in the great crisis then coming on,--the +leadership which indeed thinks and moves ahead of the masses, but +always remains within sight and sympathetic touch of them. + +He entered upon the campaign of 1858 better equipped than he had +ever been before. He not only instinctively felt, but he had +convinced himself by arduous study, that in this struggle against +the spread of slavery he had right, justice, philosophy, the +enlightened opinion of mankind, history, the Constitution, and +good policy on his side. It was observed that after he began to +discuss the slavery question his speeches were pitched in a much +loftier key than his former oratorical efforts. While he +remained fond of telling funny stories in private conversation, +they disappeared more and more from his public discourse. He +would still now and then point his argument with expressions of +inimitable quaintness, and flash out rays of kindly humor and +witty irony; but his general tone was serious, and rose sometimes +to genuine solemnity. His masterly skill in dialectical thrust +and parry, his wealth of knowledge, his power of reasoning and +elevation of sentiment, disclosed in language of rare precision, +strength, and beauty, not seldom astonished his old friends. + +Neither of the two champions could have found a more formidable +antagonist than each now met in the other. Douglas was by far +the most conspicuous member of his party. His admirers had dubbed +him "the Little Giant," contrasting in that nickname the +greatness of his mind with the smallness of his body. But though +of low stature, his broad-shouldered figure appeared uncommonly +sturdy, and there was something lion-like in the squareness of +his brow and jaw, and in the defiant shake of his long hair. His +loud and persistent advocacy of territorial expansion, in the +name of patriotism and "manifest destiny," had given him an +enthusiastic following among the young and ardent. Great natural +parts, a highly combative temperament, and long training had made +him a debater unsurpassed in a Senate filled with able men. He +could be as forceful in his appeals to patriotic feelings as he +was fierce in denunciation and thoroughly skilled in all the +baser tricks of parliamentary pugilism. While genial and +rollicking in his social intercourse--the idol of the "boys" he +felt himself one of the most renowned statesmen of his time, and +would frequently meet his opponents with an overbearing +haughtiness, as persons more to be pitied than to be feared. In +his speech opening the campaign of 1858, he spoke of Lincoln, +whom the Republicans had dared to advance as their candidate for +"his" place in the Senate, with an air of patronizing if not +contemptuous condescension, as "a kind, amiable, and intelligent +gentleman and a good citizen." The Little Giant would have been +pleased to pass off his antagonist as a tall dwarf. He knew +Lincoln too well, however, to indulge himself seriously in such a +delusion. But the political situation was at that moment in a +curious tangle, and Douglas could expect to derive from the +confusion great advantage over his opponent. + +By the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, opening the Territories +to the ingress of slavery, Douglas had pleased the South, but +greatly alarmed the North. He had sought to conciliate Northern +sentiment by appending to his Kansas-Nebraska Bill the +declaration that its intent was "not to legislate slavery into +any State or Territory, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave +the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their +institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution +of the United States." This he called "the great principle of +popular sovereignty." When asked whether, under this act, the +people of a Territory, before its admission as a State, would +have the right to exclude slavery, he answered, "That is a +question for the courts to decide." Then came the famous "Dred +Scott decision," in which the Supreme Court held substantially +that the right to hold slaves as property existed in the +Territories by virtue of the Federal Constitution, and that this +right could not be denied by any act of a territorial government. +This, of course, denied the right of the people of any Territory +to exclude slavery while they were in a territorial condition, +and it alarmed the Northern people still more. Douglas +recognized the binding force of the decision of the Supreme +Court, at the same time maintaining, most illogically, that his +great principle of popular sovereignty remained in force +nevertheless. Meanwhile, the proslavery people of western +Missouri, the so-called "border ruffians," had invaded Kansas, +set up a constitutional convention, made a constitution of an +extreme pro-slavery type, the "Lecompton Constitution," refused +to submit it fairly to a vote of the people of Kansas, and then +referred it to Congress for acceptance,--seeking thus to +accomplish the admission of Kansas as a slave State. Had Douglas +supported such a scheme, he would have lost all foothold in the +North. In the name of popular sovereignty he loudly declared his +opposition to the acceptance of any constitution not sanctioned +by a formal popular vote. He "did not care," he said, "whether +slavery be voted up or down," but there must be a fair vote of +the people. Thus he drew upon himself the hostility of the +Buchanan administration, which was controlled by the proslavery +interest, but he saved his Northern following. More than this, +not only did his Democratic admirers now call him "the true +champion of freedom," but even some Republicans of large +influence, prominent among them Horace Greeley, sympathizing with +Douglas in his fight against the Lecompton Constitution, and +hoping to detach him permanently from the proslavery interest and +to force a lasting breach in the Democratic party, seriously +advised the Republicans of Illinois to give up their opposition +to Douglas, and to help re-elect him to the Senate. Lincoln was +not of that opinion. He believed that great popular movements +can succeed only when guided by their faithful friends, and that +the antislavery cause could not safely be entrusted to the +keeping of one who "did not care whether slavery be voted up or +down." This opinion prevailed in Illinois; but the influences +within the Republican party over which it prevailed yielded only +a reluctant acquiescence, if they acquiesced at all, after having +materially strengthened Douglas's position. Such was the +situation of things when the campaign of 1858 between Lincoln and +Douglas began. + +Lincoln opened the campaign on his side at the convention which +nominated him as the Republican candidate for the senatorship, +with a memorable saying which sounded like a shout from the +watchtower of history: "A house divided against itself cannot +stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half +slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. +I do not expect the house to fall, but I expect it will cease to +be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. +Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of +it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief +that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates +will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all +the States,--old as well as new, North as well as South." Then +he proceeded to point out that the Nebraska doctrine combined +with the Dred Scott decision worked in the direction of making +the nation "all slave." Here was the "irrepressible conflict" +spoken of by Seward a short time later, in a speech made famous +mainly by that phrase. If there was any new discovery in it, the +right of priority was Lincoln's. This utterance proved not only +his statesmanlike conception of the issue, but also, in his +situation as a candidate, the firmness of his moral courage. The +friends to whom he had read the draught of this speech before he +delivered it warned him anxiously that its delivery might be +fatal to his success in the election. This was shrewd advice, in +the ordinary sense. While a slaveholder could threaten disunion +with impunity, the mere suggestion that the existence of slavery +was incompatible with freedom in the Union would hazard the +political chances of any public man in the North. But Lincoln +was inflexible. "It is true," said he, "and I will deliver it as +written.... I would rather be defeated with these expressions in +my speech held up and discussed before the people than be +victorious without them." The statesman was right in his far- +seeing judgment and his conscientious statement of the truth, but +the practical politicians were also right in their prediction of +the immediate effect. Douglas instantly seized upon the +declaration that a house divided against itself cannot stand as +the main objective point of his attack, interpreting it as an +incitement to a "relentless sectional war," and there is no doubt +that the persistent reiteration of this charge served to frighten +not a few timid souls. + +Lincoln constantly endeavored to bring the moral and +philosophical side of the subject to the foreground. "Slavery is +wrong" was the keynote of all his speeches. To Douglas's +glittering sophism that the right of the people of a Territory to +have slavery or not, as they might desire, was in accordance with +the principle of true popular sovereignty, he made the pointed +answer: "Then true popular sovereignty, according to Senator +Douglas, means that, when one man makes another man his slave, no +third man shall be allowed to object." To Douglas's argument +that the principle which demanded that the people of a Territory +should be permitted to choose whether they would have slavery or +not "originated when God made man, and placed good and evil +before him, allowing him to choose upon his own responsibility," +Lincoln solemnly replied: "No; God--did not place good and evil +before man, telling him to make his choice. On the contrary, God +did tell him there was one tree of the fruit of which he should +not eat, upon pain of death." He did not, however, place himself +on the most advanced ground taken by the radical anti-slavery +men. He admitted that, under the Constitution, "the Southern +people were entitled to a Congressional fugitive slave law," +although he did not approve the fugitive slave law then existing. +He declared also that, if slavery were kept out of the +Territories during their territorial existence, as it should be, +and if then the people of any Territory, having a fair chance and +a clear field, should do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt +a slave constitution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of the +institution among them, he saw no alternative but to admit such a +Territory into the Union. He declared further that, while he +should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abolished in the +District of Columbia, he would, as a member of Congress, with his +present views, not endeavor to bring on that abolition except on +condition that emancipation be gradual, that it be approved by +the decision of a majority of voters in the District, and that +compensation be made to unwilling owners. On every available +occasion, he pronounced himself in favor of the deportation and +colonization of the blacks, of course with their consent. He +repeatedly disavowed any wish on his part to have social and +political equality established between whites and blacks. On +this point he summed up his views in a reply to Douglas's +assertion that the Declaration of Independence, in speaking of +all men as being created equal, did not include the negroes, +saying: "I do not understand the Declaration of Independence to +mean that all men were created equal in all respects. They are +not equal in color. But I believe that it does mean to declare +that all men are equal in some respects; they are equal in their +right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." + +With regard to some of these subjects Lincoln modified his +position at a later period, and it has been suggested that he +would have professed more advanced principles in his debates with +Douglas, had he not feared thereby to lose votes. This view can +hardly be sustained. Lincoln had the courage of his opinions, +but he was not a radical. The man who risked his election by +delivering, against the urgent protest of his friends, the speech +about "the house divided against itself" would not have shrunk +from the expression of more extreme views, had he really +entertained them. It is only fair to assume that he said what at +the time he really thought, and that if, subsequently, his +opinions changed, it was owing to new conceptions of good policy +and of duty brought forth by an entirely new set of circumstances +and exigencies. It is characteristic that he continued to adhere +to the impracticable colonization plan even after the +Emancipation Proclamation had already been issued. + +But in this contest Lincoln proved himself not only a debater, +but also a political strategist of the first order. The "kind, +amiable, and intelligent gentleman," as Douglas had been pleased +to call him, was by no means as harmless as a dove. He possessed +an uncommon share of that worldly shrewdness which not seldom +goes with genuine simplicity of character; and the political +experience gathered in the Legislature and in Congress, and in +many election campaigns, added to his keen intuitions, had made +him as far-sighted a judge of the probable effects of a public +man's sayings or doings upon the popular mind, and as accurate a +calculator in estimating political chances and forecasting +results, as could be found among the party managers in Illinois. +And now he perceived keenly the ugly dilemma in which Douglas +found himself, between the Dred Scott decision, which declared +the right to hold slaves to exist in the Territories by virtue of +the Federal Constitution, and his "great principle of popular +sovereignty," according to which the people of a Territory, if +they saw fit, were to have the right to exclude slavery +therefrom. Douglas was twisting and squirming to the best of his +ability to avoid the admission that the two were incompatible. +The question then presented itself if it would be good policy for +Lincoln to force Douglas to a clear expression of his opinion as +to whether, the Dred Scott decision notwithstanding, "the people +of a Territory could in any lawful way exclude slavery from its +limits prior to the formation of a State constitution." Lincoln +foresaw and predicted what Douglas would answer: that slavery +could not exist in a Territory unless the people desired it and +gave it protection by territorial legislation. In an improvised +caucus the policy of pressing the interrogatory on Douglas was +discussed. Lincoln's friends unanimously advised against it, +because the answer foreseen would sufficiently commend Douglas to +the people of Illinois to insure his re-election to the Senate. +But Lincoln persisted. "I am after larger game," said he. "If +Douglas so answers, he can never be President, and the battle of +1860 is worth a hundred of this." The interrogatory was pressed +upon Douglas, and Douglas did answer that, no matter what the +decision of the Supreme Court might be on the abstract question, +the people of a Territory had the lawful means to introduce or +exclude slavery by territorial legislation friendly or unfriendly +to the institution. Lincoln found it easy to show the absurdity +of the proposition that, if slavery were admitted to exist of +right in the Territories by virtue of the supreme law, the +Federal Constitution, it could be kept out or expelled by an +inferior law, one made by a territorial Legislature. Again the +judgment of the politicians, having only the nearest object in +view, proved correct: Douglas was reelected to the Senate. But +Lincoln's judgment proved correct also: Douglas, by resorting to +the expedient of his "unfriendly legislation doctrine," forfeited +his last chance of becoming President of the United States. He +might have hoped to win, by sufficient atonement, his pardon from +the South for his opposition to the Lecompton Constitution; but +that he taught the people of the Territories a trick by which +they could defeat what the proslavery men considered a +constitutional right, and that he called that trick lawful, this +the slave power would never forgive. The breach between the +Southern and the Northern Democracy was thenceforth irremediable +and fatal. + +The Presidential election of 1860 approached. The struggle in +Kansas, and the debates in Congress which accompanied it, and +which not unfrequently provoked violent outbursts, continually +stirred the popular excitement. Within the Democratic party +raged the war of factions. The national Democratic convention +met at Charleston on the 23d of April, 1860. After a struggle of +ten days between the adherents and the opponents of Douglas, +during which the delegates from the cotton States had withdrawn, +the convention adjourned without having nominated any candidates, +to meet again in Baltimore on the 18th of June. There was no +prospect, however, of reconciling the hostile elements. It +appeared very probable that the Baltimore convention would +nominate Douglas, while the seceding Southern Democrats would set +up a candidate of their own, representing extreme proslavery +principles. + +Meanwhile, the national Republican convention assembled at +Chicago on the 16th of May, full of enthusiasm and hope. The +situation was easily understood. The Democrats would have the +South. In order to succeed in the election, the Republicans had +to win, in addition to the States carried by Fremont in 1856, +those that were classed as "doubtful,"--New Jersey, Pennsylvania, +and Indiana, or Illinois in the place of either New Jersey or +Indiana. The most eminent Republican statesmen and leaders of +the time thought of for the Presidency were Seward and Chase, +both regarded as belonging to the more advanced order of +antislavery men. Of the two, Seward had the largest following, +mainly from New York, New England, and the Northwest. Cautious +politicians doubted seriously whether Seward, to whom some +phrases in his speeches had undeservedly given the reputation of +a reckless radical, would be able to command the whole Republican +vote in the doubtful States. Besides, during his long public +career he had made enemies. It was evident that those who +thought Seward's nomination too hazardous an experiment would +consider Chase unavailable for the same reason. They would then +look round for an "available" man; and among the "available" men +Abraham Lincoln was easily discovered to stand foremost. His +great debate with Douglas had given him a national reputation. +The people of the East being eager to see the hero of so dramatic +a contest, he had been induced to visit several Eastern cities, +and had astonished and delighted large and distinguished +audiences with speeches of singular power and originality. An +address delivered by him in the Cooper Institute in New York, +before an audience containing a large number of important +persons, was then, and has ever since been, especially praised as +one of the most logical and convincing political speeches ever +made in this country. The people of the West had grown proud of +him as a distinctively Western great man, and his popularity at +home had some peculiar features which could be expected to +exercise a potent charm. Nor was Lincoln's name as that of an +available candidate left to the chance of accidental discovery. +It is indeed not probable that he thought of himself as a +Presidential possibility, during his contest with Douglas for the +senatorship. As late as April, 1859, he had written to a friend +who had approached him on the subject that he did not think +himself fit for the Presidency. The Vice-Presidency was then the +limit of his ambition. But some of his friends in Illinois took +the matter seriously in hand, and Lincoln, after some hesitation, +then formally authorized "the use of his name." The matter was +managed with such energy and excellent judgment that, in the +convention, he had not only the whole vote of Illinois to start +with, but won votes on all sides without offending any rival. A +large majority of the opponents of Seward went over to Abraham +Lincoln, and gave him the nomination on the third ballot. As had +been foreseen, Douglas was nominated by one wing of the +Democratic party at Baltimore, while the extreme proslavery wing +put Breckinridge into the field as its candidate. After a +campaign conducted with the energy of genuine enthusiasm on the +antislavery side the united Republicans defeated the divided +Democrats, and Lincoln was elected President by a majority of +fifty-seven votes in the electoral colleges. + +The result of the election had hardly been declared when the +disunion movement in the South, long threatened and carefully +planned and prepared, broke out in the shape of open revolt, and +nearly a month before Lincoln could be inaugurated as President +of the United States seven Southern States had adopted ordinances +of secession, formed an independent confederacy, framed a +constitution for it, and elected Jefferson Davis its president, +expecting the other slaveholding States soon to join them. On +the 11th of February, 1861, Lincoln left Springfield for +Washington; having, with characteristic simplicity, asked his law +partner not to change the sign of the firm "Lincoln and Herndon" +during the four years unavoidable absence of the senior partner, +and having taken an affectionate and touching leave of his +neighbors. + +The situation which confronted the new President was appalling: +the larger part of the South in open rebellion, the rest of the +slaveholding States wavering preparing to follow; the revolt +guided by determined, daring, and skillful leaders; the Southern +people, apparently full of enthusiasm and military spirit, +rushing to arms, some of the forts and arsenals already in their +possession; the government of the Union, before the accession of +the new President, in the hands of men some of whom actively +sympathized with the revolt, while others were hampered by their +traditional doctrines in dealing with it, and really gave it aid +and comfort by their irresolute attitude; all the departments +full of "Southern sympathizers" and honeycombed with disloyalty; +the treasury empty, and the public credit at the lowest ebb; the +arsenals ill supplied with arms, if not emptied by treacherous +practices; the regular army of insignificant strength, dispersed +over an immense surface, and deprived of some of its best +officers by defection; the navy small and antiquated. But that +was not all. The threat of disunion had so often been resorted +to by the slave power in years gone by that most Northern people +had ceased to believe in its seriousness. But, when disunion +actually appeared as a stern reality, something like a chill +swept through the whole Northern country. A cry for union and +peace at any price rose on all sides. Democratic partisanship +reiterated this cry with vociferous vehemence, and even many +Republicans grew afraid of the victory they had just achieved at +the ballot-box, and spoke of compromise. The country fairly +resounded with the noise of "anticoercion meetings." Expressions +of firm resolution from determined antislavery men were indeed +not wanting, but they were for a while almost drowned by a +bewildering confusion of discordant voices. Even this was not +all. Potent influences in Europe, with an ill-concealed desire +for the permanent disruption of the American Union, eagerly +espoused the cause of the Southern seceders, and the two +principal maritime powers of the Old World seemed only to be +waiting for a favorable opportunity to lend them a helping hand. + +This was the state of things to be mastered by "honest Abe +Lincoln" when he took his seat in the Presidential chair,-- +"honest Abe Lincoln," who was so good-natured that he could not +say "no"; the greatest achievement in whose life had been a +debate on the slavery question; who had never been in any +position of power; who was without the slightest experience of +high executive duties, and who had only a speaking acquaintance +with the men upon whose counsel and cooperation he was to depend. +Nor was his accession to power under such circumstances greeted +with general confidence even by the members of his party. While +he had indeed won much popularity, many Republicans, especially +among those who had advocated Seward's nomination for the +Presidency, saw the simple "Illinois lawyer" take the reins of +government with a feeling little short of dismay. The orators +and journals of the opposition were ridiculing and lampooning him +without measure. Many people actually wondered how such a man +could dare to undertake a task which, as he himself had said to +his neighbors in his parting speech, was "more difficult than +that of Washington himself had been." + +But Lincoln brought to that task, aside from other uncommon +qualities, the first requisite,--an intuitive comprehension of +its nature. While he did not indulge in the delusion that the +Union could be maintained or restored without a conflict of arms, +he could indeed not foresee all the problems he would have to +solve. He instinctively understood, however, by what means that +conflict would have to be conducted by the government of a +democracy. He knew that the impending war, whether great or +small, would not be like a foreign war, exciting a united +national enthusiasm, but a civil war, likely to fan to uncommon +heat the animosities of party even in the localities controlled +by the government; that this war would have to be carried on not +by means of a ready-made machinery, ruled by an undisputed, +absolute will, but by means to be furnished by the voluntary +action of the people:--armies to be formed by voluntary +enlistments; large sums of money to be raised by the people, +through representatives, voluntarily taxing themselves; trust of +extraordinary power to be voluntarily granted; and war measures, +not seldom restricting the rights and liberties to which the +citizen was accustomed, to be voluntarily accepted and submitted +to by the people, or at least a large majority of them; and that +this would have to be kept up not merely during a short period of +enthusiastic excitement; but possibly through weary years of +alternating success and disaster, hope and despondency. He knew +that in order to steer this government by public opinion +successfully through all the confusion created by the prejudices +and doubts and differences of sentiment distracting the popular +mind, and so to propitiate, inspire, mould, organize, unite, and +guide the popular will that it might give forth all the means +required for the performance of his great task, he would have to +take into account all the influences strongly affecting the +current of popular thought and feeling, and to direct while +appearing to obey. + +This was the kind of leadership he intuitively conceived to be +needed when a free people were to be led forward en masse to +overcome a great common danger under circumstances of appalling +difficulty, the leadership which does not dash ahead with +brilliant daring, no matter who follows, but which is intent upon +rallying all the available forces, gathering in the stragglers, +closing up the column, so that the front may advance well +supported. For this leadership Abraham Lincoln was admirably +fitted, better than any other American statesman of his day; for +he understood the plain people, with all their loves and hates, +their prejudices and their noble impulses, their weaknesses and +their strength, as he understood himself, and his sympathetic +nature was apt to draw their sympathy to him. + +His inaugural address foreshadowed his official course in +characteristic manner. Although yielding nothing in point of +principle, it was by no means a flaming antislavery manifesto, +such as would have pleased the more ardent Republicans. It was +rather the entreaty of a sorrowing father speaking to his wayward +children. In the kindliest language he pointed out to the +secessionists how ill advised their attempt at disunion was, and +why, for their own sakes, they should desist. Almost +plaintively, he told them that, while it was not their duty to +destroy the Union, it was his sworn duty to preserve it; that the +least he could do, under the obligations of his oath, was to +possess and hold the property of the United States; that he hoped +to do this peaceably; that he abhorred war for any purpose, and +that they would have none unless they themselves were the +aggressors. It was a masterpiece of persuasiveness, and while +Lincoln had accepted many valuable amendments suggested by +Seward, it was essentially his own. Probably Lincoln himself did +not expect his inaugural address to have any effect upon the +secessionists, for he must have known them to be resolved upon +disunion at any cost. But it was an appeal to the wavering minds +in the North, and upon them it made a profound impression. Every +candid man, however timid and halting, had to admit that the +President was bound by his oath to do his duty; that under that +oath he could do no less than he said he would do; that if the +secessionists resisted such an appeal as the President had made, +they were bent upon mischief, and that the government must be +supported against them. The partisan sympathy with the Southern +insurrection which still existed in the North did indeed not +disappear, but it diminished perceptibly under the influence of +such reasoning. Those who still resisted it did so at the risk +of appearing unpatriotic. + +It must not be supposed, however, that Lincoln at once succeeded +in pleasing everybody, even among his friends,--even among those +nearest to him. In selecting his cabinet, which he did +substantially before he left Springfield for Washington, he +thought it wise to call to his assistance the strong men of his +party, especially those who had given evidence of the support +they commanded as his competitors in the Chicago convention. In +them he found at the same time representatives of the different +shades of opinion within the party, and of the different +elements--former Whigs and former Democrats--from which the party +had recruited itself. This was sound policy under the +circumstances. It might indeed have been foreseen that among the +members of a cabinet so composed, troublesome disagreements and +rivalries would break out. But it was better for the President +to have these strong and ambitious men near him as his co- +operators than to have them as his critics in Congress, where +their differences might have been composed in a common opposition +to him. As members of his cabinet he could hope to control them, +and to keep them busily employed in the service of a common +purpose, if he had the strength to do so. Whether he did possess +this strength was soon tested by a singularly rude trial. + +There can be no doubt that the foremost members of his cabinet, +Seward and Chase, the most eminent Republican statesmen, had felt +themselves wronged by their party when in its national convention +it preferred to them for the Presidency a man whom, not +unnaturally, they thought greatly their inferior in ability and +experience as well as in service. The soreness of that +disappointment was intensified when they saw this Western man in +the White House, with so much of rustic manner and speech as +still clung to him, meeting his fellow-citizens, high and low, on +a footing of equality, with the simplicity of his good nature +unburdened by any conventional dignity of deportment, and dealing +with the great business of state in an easy-going, unmethodical, +and apparently somewhat irreverent way. They did not understand +such a man. Especially Seward, who, as Secretary of State, +considered himself next to the Chief Executive, and who quickly +accustomed himself to giving orders and making arrangements upon +his own motion, thought it necessary that he should rescue the +direction of public affairs from hands so unskilled, and take +full charge of them himself. At the end of the first month of +the administration he submitted a "memorandum" to President +Lincoln, which has been first brought to light by Nicolay and +Hay, and is one of their most valuable contributions to the +history of those days. In that paper Seward actually told the +President that at the end of a month's administration the +government was still without a policy, either domestic or +foreign; that the slavery question should be eliminated from the +struggle about the Union; that the matter of the maintenance of +the forts and other possessions in the South should be decided +with that view; that explanations should be demanded +categorically from the governments of Spain and France, which +were then preparing, one for the annexation of San Domingo, and +both for the invasion of Mexico; that if no satisfactory +explanations were received war should be declared against Spain +and France by the United States; that explanations should also be +sought from Russia and Great Britain, and a vigorous continental +spirit of independence against European intervention be aroused +all over the American continent; that this policy should be +incessantly pursued and directed by somebody; that either the +President should devote himself entirely to it, or devolve the +direction on some member of his cabinet, whereupon all debate on +this policy must end. + +This could be understood only as a formal demand that the +President should acknowledge his own incompetency to perform his +duties, content himself with the amusement of distributing post- +offices, and resign his power as to all important affairs into +the hands of his Secretary of State. It seems to-day +incomprehensible how a statesman of Seward's calibre could at +that period conceive a plan of policy in which the slavery +question had no place; a policy which rested upon the utterly +delusive assumption that the secessionists, who had already +formed their Southern Confederacy and were with stern resolution +preparing to fight for its independence, could be hoodwinked back +into the Union by some sentimental demonstration against European +interference; a policy which, at that critical moment, would have +involved the Union in a foreign war, thus inviting foreign +intervention in favor of the Southern Confederacy, and increasing +tenfold its chances in the struggle for independence. But it is +equally incomprehensible how Seward could fail to see that this +demand of an unconditional surrender was a mortal insult to the +head of the government, and that by putting his proposition on +paper he delivered himself into the hands of the very man he had +insulted; for, had Lincoln, as most Presidents would have done, +instantly dismissed Seward, and published the true reason for +that dismissal, it would inevitably have been the end of Seward's +career. But Lincoln did what not many of the noblest and +greatest men in history would have been noble and great enough to +do. He considered that Seward was still capable of rendering +great service to his country in the place in which he was, if +rightly controlled. He ignored the insult, but firmly +established his superiority. In his reply, which he forthwith +despatched, he told Seward that the administration had a domestic +policy as laid down in the inaugural address with Seward's +approval; that it had a foreign policy as traced in Seward's +despatches with the President's approval; that if any policy was +to be maintained or changed, he, the President, was to direct +that on his responsibility; and that in performing that duty the +President had a right to the advice of his secretaries. Seward's +fantastic schemes of foreign war and continental policies Lincoln +brushed aside by passing them over in silence. Nothing more was +said. Seward must have felt that he was at the mercy of a +superior man; that his offensive proposition had been generously +pardoned as a temporary aberration of a great mind, and that he +could atone for it only by devoted personal loyalty. This he +did. He was thoroughly subdued, and thenceforth submitted to +Lincoln his despatches for revision and amendment without a +murmur. The war with European nations was no longer thought of; +the slavery question found in due time its proper place in the +struggle for the Union; and when, at a later period, the +dismissal of Seward was demanded by dissatisfied senators, who +attributed to him the shortcomings of the administration, Lincoln +stood stoutly by his faithful Secretary of State. + +Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, a man of superb presence, +of eminent ability and ardent patriotism, of great natural +dignity and a certain outward coldness of manner, which made him +appear more difficult of approach than he really was, did not +permit his disappointment to burst out in such extravagant +demonstrations. But Lincoln's ways were so essentially different +from his that they never became quite intelligible, and certainly +not congenial to him. It might, perhaps, have been better had +there been, at the beginning of the administration, some decided +clash between Lincoln and Chase, as there was between Lincoln and +Seward, to bring on a full mutual explanation, and to make Chase +appreciate the real seriousness of Lincoln's nature. But, as it +was, their relations always remained somewhat formal, and Chase +never felt quite at ease under a chief whom he could not +understand, and whose character and powers he never learned to +esteem at their true value. At the same time, he devoted himself +zealously to the duties of his department, and did the country +arduous service under circumstances of extreme difficulty. +Nobody recognized this more heartily than Lincoln himself, and +they managed to work together until near the end of Lincoln's +first Presidential term, when Chase, after some disagreements +concerning appointments to office, resigned from the treasury; +and, after Taney's death, the President made him Chief Justice. + +The rest of the cabinet consisted of men of less eminence, who +subordinated themselves more easily. In January, 1862, Lincoln +found it necessary to bow Cameron out of the war office, and to +put in his place Edwin M. Stanton, a man of intensely practical +mind, vehement impulses, fierce positiveness, ruthless energy, +immense working power, lofty patriotism, and severest devotion to +duty. He accepted the war office not as a partisan, for he had +never been a Republican, but only to do all he could in "helping +to save the country." The manner in which Lincoln succeeded in +taming this lion to his will, by frankly recognizing his great +qualities, by giving him the most generous confidence, by aiding +him in his work to the full of his power, by kindly concession or +affectionate persuasiveness in cases of differing opinions, or, +when it was necessary, by firm assertions of superior authority, +bears the highest testimony to his skill in the management of +men. Stanton, who had entered the service with rather a mean +opinion of Lincoln's character and capacity, became one of his +warmest, most devoted, and most admiring friends, and with none +of his secretaries was Lincoln's intercourse more intimate. To +take advice with candid readiness, and to weigh it without any +pride of his own opinion, was one of Lincoln's preeminent +virtues; but he had not long presided over his cabinet council +when his was felt by all its members to be the ruling mind. + +The cautious policy foreshadowed in his inaugural address, and +pursued during the first period of the civil war, was far from +satisfying all his party friends. The ardent spirits among the +Union men thought that the whole North should at once be called +to arms, to crush the rebellion by one powerful blow. The ardent +spirits among the antislavery men insisted that, slavery having +brought forth the rebellion, this powerful blow should at once be +aimed at slavery. Both complained that the administration was +spiritless, undecided, and lamentably slow in its proceedings. +Lincoln reasoned otherwise. The ways of thinking and feeling of +the masses, of the plain people, were constantly present to his +mind. The masses, the plain people, had to furnish the men for +the fighting, if fighting was to be done. He believed that the +plain people would be ready to fight when it clearly appeared +necessary, and that they would feel that necessity when they felt +themselves attacked. He therefore waited until the enemies of +the Union struck the first blow. As soon as, on the 12th of +April, 1861, the first gun was fired in Charleston harbor on the +Union flag upon Fort Sumter, the call was sounded, and the +Northern people rushed to arms. + +Lincoln knew that the plain people were now indeed ready to fight +in defence of the Union, but not yet ready to fight for the +destruction of slavery. He declared openly that he had a right +to summon the people to fight for the Union, but not to summon +them to fight for the abolition of slavery as a primary object; +and this declaration gave him numberless soldiers for the Union +who at that period would have hesitated to do battle against the +institution of slavery. For a time he succeeded in rendering +harmless the cry of the partisan opposition that the Republican +administration were perverting the war for the Union into an +"abolition war." But when he went so far as to countermand the +acts of some generals in the field, looking to the emancipation +of the slaves in the districts covered by their commands, loud +complaints arose from earnest antislavery men, who accused the +President of turning his back upon the antislavery cause. Many +of these antislavery men will now, after a calm retrospect, be +willing to admit that it would have been a hazardous policy to +endanger, by precipitating a demonstrative fight against slavery, +the success of the struggle for the Union. + +Lincoln's views and feelings concerning slavery had not changed. +Those who conversed with him intimately upon the subject at that +period know that he did not expect slavery long to survive the +triumph of the Union, even if it were not immediately destroyed +by the war. In this he was right. Had the Union armies achieved +a decisive victory in an early period of the conflict, and had +the seceded States been received back with slavery, the "slave +power" would then have been a defeated power, defeated in an +attempt to carry out its most effective threat. It would have +lost its prestige. Its menaces would have been hollow sound, and +ceased to make any one afraid. It could no longer have hoped to +expand, to maintain an equilibrium in any branch of Congress, and +to control the government. The victorious free States would have +largely overbalanced it. It would no longer have been able to +withstand the onset of a hostile age. It could no longer have +ruled,--and slavery had to rule in order to live. It would have +lingered for a while, but it would surely have been "in the +course of ultimate extinction." A prolonged war precipitated the +destruction of slavery; a short war might only have prolonged its +death struggle. Lincoln saw this clearly; but he saw also that, +in a protracted death struggle, it might still have kept disloyal +sentiments alive, bred distracting commotions, and caused great +mischief to the country. He therefore hoped that slavery would +not survive the war. + +But the question how he could rightfully employ his power to +bring on its speedy destruction was to him not a question of mere +sentiment. He himself set forth his reasoning upon it, at a +later period, in one of his inimitable letters. "I am naturally +antislavery," said he. "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is +wrong. I cannot remember the time when I did not so think and +feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency +conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act upon that judgment +and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the best +of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the 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 that power. I understood, +too, that, in ordinary civil administration, this oath even +forbade me practically to indulge my private abstract judgment on +the moral question of slavery. I did understand, however, also, +that my oath imposed upon me the duty of preserving, to the best +of my ability, by every indispensable means, that government, +that nation, of which the Constitution was the organic law. I +could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tied +to preserve the Constitution--if, to save slavery, or any minor +matter, I should permit the wreck of government, country, and +Constitution all together." In other words, if the salvation of +the government, the Constitution, and the Union demanded the +destruction of slavery, he felt it to be not only his right, but +his sworn duty to destroy it. Its destruction became a necessity +of the war for the Union. + +As the war dragged on and disaster followed disaster, the sense +of that necessity steadily grew upon him. Early in 1862, as some +of his friends well remember, he saw, what Seward seemed not to +see, that to give the war for the Union an antislavery character +was the surest means to prevent the recognition of the Southern +Confederacy as an independent nation by European powers; that, +slavery being abhorred by the moral sense of civilized mankind, +no European government would dare to offer so gross an insult to +the public opinion of its people as openly to favor the creation +of a state founded upon slavery to the prejudice of an existing +nation fighting against slavery. He saw also that slavery +untouched was to the rebellion an element of power, and that in +order to overcome that power it was necessary to turn it into an +element of weakness. Still, he felt no assurance that the plain +people were prepared for so radical a measure as the emancipation +of the slaves by act of the government, and he anxiously +considered that, if they were not, this great step might, by +exciting dissension at the North, injure the cause of the Union +in one quarter more than it would help it in another. He +heartily welcomed an effort made in New York to mould and +stimulate public sentiment on the slavery question by public +meetings boldly pronouncing for emancipation. At the same time +he himself cautiously advanced with a recommendation, expressed +in a special message to Congress, that the United States should +co-operate with any State which might adopt the gradual +abolishment of slavery, giving such State pecuniary aid to +compensate the former owners of emancipated slaves. The +discussion was started, and spread rapidly. Congress adopted the +resolution recommended, and soon went a step farther in passing a +bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. The plain +people began to look at emancipation on a larger scale as a thing +to be considered seriously by patriotic citizens; and soon +Lincoln thought that the time was ripe, and that the edict of +freedom could be ventured upon without danger of serious +confusion in the Union ranks. + +The failure of McClellan's movement upon Richmond increased +immensely the prestige of the enemy. The need of some great act +to stimulate the vitality of the Union cause seemed to grow daily +more pressing. On July 21, 1862, Lincoln surprised his cabinet +with the draught of a proclamation declaring free the slaves in +all the States that should be still in rebellion against the +United States on the 1st of January,1863. As to the matter +itself he announced that he had fully made up his mind; he +invited advice only concerning the form and the time of +publication. Seward suggested that the proclamation, if then +brought out, amidst disaster and distress, would sound like the +last shriek of a perishing cause. Lincoln accepted the +suggestion, and the proclamation was postponed. Another defeat +followed, the second at Bull Run. But when, after that battle, +the Confederate army, under Lee, crossed the Potomac and invaded +Maryland, Lincoln vowed in his heart that, if the Union army were +now blessed with success, the decree of freedom should surely be +issued. The victory of Antietam was won on September 17, and the +preliminary Emancipation Proclamation came forth on the a 22d. +It was Lincoln's own resolution and act; but practically it bound +the nation, and permitted no step backward. In spite of its +limitations, it was the actual abolition of slavery. Thus he +wrote his name upon the books of history with the title dearest +to his heart, the liberator of the slave. + +It is true, the great proclamation, which stamped the war as one +for "union and freedom," did not at once mark the turning of the +tide on the field of military operations. There were more +disasters, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. But with +Gettysburg and Vicksburg the whole aspect of the war changed. +Step by step, now more slowly, then more rapidly, but with +increasing steadiness, the flag of the Union advanced from field +to field toward the final consummation. The decree of +emancipation was naturally followed by the enlistment of +emancipated negroes in the Union armies. This measure had a +anther reaching effect than merely giving the Union armies an +increased supply of men. The laboring force of the rebellion was +hopelessly disorganized. The war became like a problem of +arithmetic. As the Union armies pushed forward, the area from +which the Southern Confederacy could draw recruits and supplies +constantly grew smaller, while the area from which the Union +recruited its strength constantly grew larger; and everywhere, +even within the Southern lines, the Union had its allies. The +fate of the rebellion was then virtually decided; but it still +required much bloody work to convince the brave warriors who +fought for it that they were really beaten. + +Neither did the Emancipation Proclamation forthwith command +universal assent among the people who were loyal to the Union. +There were even signs of a reaction against the administration in +the fall elections of 1862, seemingly justifying the opinion, +entertained by many, that the President had really anticipated +the development of popular feeling. The cry that the war for the +Union had been turned into an "abolition war" was raised again by +the opposition, and more loudly than ever. But the good sense +and patriotic instincts of the plain people gradually marshalled +themselves on Lincoln's side, and he lost no opportunity to help +on this process by personal argument and admonition. There never +has been a President in such constant and active contact with the +public opinion of the country, as there never has been a +President who, while at the head of the government, remained so +near to the people. Beyond the circle of those who had long +known him the feeling steadily grew that the man in the White +House was "honest Abe Lincoln" still, and that every citizen +might approach him with complaint, expostulation, or advice, +without danger of meeting a rebuff from power-proud authority, or +humiliating condescension; and this privilege was used by so many +and with such unsparing freedom that only superhuman patience +could have endured it all. There are men now living who would +to-day read with amazement, if not regret, what they ventured to +say or write to him. But Lincoln repelled no one whom he +believed to speak to him in good faith and with patriotic +purpose. No good advice would go unheeded. No candid criticism +would offend him. No honest opposition, while it might pain him, +would produce a lasting alienation of feeling between him and the +opponent. It may truly be said that few men in power have ever +been exposed to more daring attempts to direct their course, to +severer censure of their acts, and to more cruel +misrepresentation of their motives: And all this he met with that +good-natured humor peculiarly his own, and with untiring effort +to see the right and to impress it upon those who differed from +him. The conversations he had and the correspondence he carried +on upon matters of public interest, not only with men in official +position, but with private citizens, were almost unceasing, and +in a large number of public letters, written ostensibly to +meetings, or committees, or persons of importance, he addressed +himself directly to the popular mind. Most of these letters +stand among the finest monuments of our political literature. +Thus he presented the singular spectacle of a President who, in +the midst of a great civil war, with unprecedented duties +weighing upon him, was constantly in person debating the great +features of his policy with the people. + +While in this manner he exercised an ever-increasing influence +upon the popular understanding, his sympathetic nature endeared +him more and more to the popular heart. In vain did journals and +speakers of the opposition represent him as a lightminded +trifler, who amused himself with frivolous story-telling and +coarse jokes, while the blood of the people was flowing in +streams. The people knew that the man at the head of affairs, on +whose haggard face the twinkle of humor so frequently changed +into an expression of profoundest sadness, was more than any +other deeply distressed by the suffering he witnessed; that he +felt the pain of every wound that was inflicted on the +battlefield, and the anguish of every woman or child who had lost +husband or father; that whenever he could he was eager to +alleviate sorrow, and that his mercy was never implored in vain. +They looked to him as one who was with them and of them in all +their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows, who laughed with +them and wept with them; and as his heart was theirs; so their +hearts turned to him. His popularity was far different from that +of Washington, who was revered with awe, or that of Jackson, the +unconquerable hero, for whom party enthusiasm never grew weary of +shouting. To Abraham Lincoln the people became bound by a +genuine sentimental attachment. It was not a matter of respect, +or confidence, or party pride, for this feeling spread far beyond +the boundary lines of his party; it was an affair of the heart, +independent of mere reasoning. When the soldiers in the field or +their folks at home spoke of "Father Abraham," there was no cant +in it. They felt that their President was really caring for them +as a father would, and that they could go to him, every one of +them, as they would go to a father, and talk to him of what +troubled them, sure to find a willing ear and tender sympathy. +Thus, their President, and his cause, and his endeavors, and his +success gradually became to them almost matters of family +concern. And this popularity carried him triumphantly through +the Presidential election of 1864, in spite of an opposition +within his own party which at first seemed very formidable. + +Many of the radical antislavery men were never quite satisfied +with Lincoln's ways of meeting the problems of the time. They +were very earnest and mostly very able men, who had positive +ideas as to "how this rebellion should be put down." They would +not recognize the necessity of measuring the steps of the +government according to the progress of opinion among the plain +people. They criticised Lincoln's cautious management as +irresolute, halting, lacking in definite purpose and in energy; +he should not have delayed emancipation so long; he should not +have confided important commands to men of doubtful views as to +slavery; he should have authorized military commanders to set the +slaves free as they went on; he dealt too leniently with +unsuccessful generals; he should have put down all factious +opposition with a strong hand instead of trying to pacify it; he +should have given the people accomplished facts instead of +arguing with them, and so on. It is true, these criticisms were +not always entirely unfounded. Lincoln's policy had, with the +virtues of democratic government, some of its weaknesses, which +in the presence of pressing exigencies were apt to deprive +governmental action of the necessary vigor; and his kindness of +heart, his disposition always to respect the feelings of others, +frequently made him recoil from anything like severity, even when +severity was urgently called for. But many of his radical +critics have since then revised their judgment sufficiently to +admit that Lincoln's policy was, on the whole, the wisest and +safest; that a policy of heroic methods, while it has sometimes +accomplished great results, could in a democracy like ours be +maintained only by constant success; that it would have quickly +broken down under the weight of disaster; that it might have been +successful from the start, had the Union, at the beginning of the +conflict, had its Grants and Shermans and Sheridans, its +Farraguts and Porters, fully matured at the head of its forces; +but that, as the great commanders had to be evolved slowly from +the developments of the war, constant success could not be +counted upon, and it was best to follow a policy which was in +friendly contact with the popular force, and therefore more fit +to stand trial of misfortune on the battlefield. But at that +period they thought differently, and their dissatisfaction with +Lincoln's doings was greatly increased by the steps he took +toward the reconstruction of rebel States then partially in +possession of the Union forces. + +In December, 1863, Lincoln issued an amnesty proclamation, +offering pardon to all implicated in the rebellion, with certain +specified exceptions, on condition of their taking and +maintaining an oath to support the Constitution and obey the laws +of the United States and the proclamations of the President with +regard to slaves; and also promising that when, in any of the +rebel States, a number of citizens equal to one tenth of the +voters in 1860 should re-establish a state government in +conformity with the oath above mentioned, such should be +recognized by the Executive as the true government of the State. +The proclamation seemed at first to be received with general +favor. But soon another scheme of reconstruction, much more +stringent in its provisions, was put forward in the House of +Representatives by Henry Winter Davis. Benjamin Wade championed +it in the Senate. It passed in the closing moments of the +session in July, 1864, and Lincoln, instead of making it a law by +his signature, embodied the text of it in a proclamation as a +plan of reconstruction worthy of being earnestly considered. The +differences of opinion concerning this subject had only +intensified the feeling against Lincoln which had long been +nursed among the radicals, and some of them openly declared their +purpose of resisting his re-election to the Presidency. Similar +sentiments were manifested by the advanced antislavery men of +Missouri, who, in their hot faction-fight with the +"conservatives" of that State, had not received from Lincoln the +active support they demanded. Still another class of Union men, +mainly in the East, gravely shook their heads when considering +the question whether Lincoln should be re-elected. They were +those who cherished in their minds an ideal of statesmanship and +of personal bearing in high office with which, in their opinion, +Lincoln's individuality was much out of accord. They were +shocked when they heard him cap an argument upon grave affairs of +state with a story about "a man out in Sangamon County,"--a +story, to be sure, strikingly clinching his point, but sadly +lacking in dignity. They could not understand the man who was +capable, in opening a cabinet meeting, of reading to his +secretaries a funny chapter from a recent book of Artemus Ward, +with which in an unoccupied moment he had relieved his care- +burdened mind, and who then solemnly informed the executive +council that he had vowed in his heart to issue a proclamation +emancipating the slaves as soon as God blessed the Union arms +with another victory. They were alarmed at the weakness of a +President who would indeed resist the urgent remonstrances of +statesmen against his policy, but could not resist the prayer of +an old woman for the pardon of a soldier who was sentenced to be +shot for desertion. Such men, mostly sincere and ardent +patriots, not only wished, but earnestly set to work, to prevent +Lincoln's renomination. Not a few of them actually believed, in +1863, that, if the national convention of the Union party were +held then, Lincoln would not be supported by the delegation of a +single State. But when the convention met at Baltimore, in June, +1864, the voice of the people was heard. On the first ballot +Lincoln received the votes of the delegations from all the States +except Missouri; and even the Missourians turned over their votes +to him before the result of the ballot was declared. + +But even after his renomination the opposition to Lincoln within +the ranks of the Union party did not subside. A convention, +called by the dissatisfied radicals in Missouri, and favored by +men of a similar way of thinking in other States, had been held +already in May, and had nominated as its candidate for the +Presidency General Fremont. He, indeed, did not attract a strong +following, but opposition movements from different quarters +appeared more formidable. Henry Winter Davis and Benjamin Wade +assailed Lincoln in a flaming manifesto. Other Union men, of +undoubted patriotism and high standing, persuaded themselves, and +sought to persuade the people, that Lincoln's renomination was +ill advised and dangerous to the Union cause. As the Democrats +had put off their convention until the 29th of August, the Union +party had, during the larger part of the summer, no opposing +candidate and platform to attack, and the political campaign +languished. Neither were the tidings from the theatre of war of +a cheering character. The terrible losses suffered by Grant's +army in the battles of the Wilderness spread general gloom. +Sherman seemed for a while to be in a precarious position before +Atlanta. The opposition to Lincoln within the Union party grew +louder in its complaints and discouraging predictions. Earnest +demands were heard that his candidacy should be withdrawn. +Lincoln himself, not knowing how strongly the masses were +attached to him, was haunted by dark forebodings of defeat. Then +the scene suddenly changed as if by magic. + +The Democrats, in their national convention, declared the war a +failure, demanded, substantially, peace at any price, and +nominated on such a platform General McClellan as their +candidate. Their convention had hardly adjourned when the +capture of Atlanta gave a new aspect to the military situation. +It was like a sun-ray bursting through a dark cloud. The rank +and file of the Union party rose with rapidly growing enthusiasm. +The song "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand +strong," resounded all over the land. Long before the decisive +day arrived, the result was beyond doubt, and Lincoln was re- +elected President by overwhelming majorities. The election over +even his severest critics found themselves forced to admit that +Lincoln was the only possible candidate for the Union party in +1864, and that neither political combinations nor campaign +speeches, nor even victories in the field, were needed to insure +his success. The plain people had all the while been satisfied +with Abraham Lincoln: they confided in him; they loved him; they +felt themselves near to him; they saw personified in him the +cause of Union and freedom; and they went to the ballot-box for +him in their strength. + +The hour of triumph called out the characteristic impulses of his +nature. The opposition within the Union party had stung him to +the quick. Now he had his opponents before him, baffled and +humiliated. Not a moment did he lose to stretch out the hand of +friendship to all. "Now that the election is over," he said, in +response to a serenade, "may not all, having a common interest, +reunite in a common effort to save our common country? For my own +part, I have striven, and will strive, to place no obstacle in +the way. So long as I have been here I have not willingly +planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am deeply sensible +to the high compliment of a re-election, it adds nothing to my +satisfaction that any other man may be pained or disappointed by +the result. May I ask those who were with me to join with me in +the same spirit toward those who were against me?" This was +Abraham Lincoln's character as tested in the furnace of +prosperity. + +The war was virtually decided, but not yet ended. Sherman was +irresistibly carrying the Union flag through the South. Grant +had his iron hand upon the ramparts of Richmond. The days of the +Confederacy were evidently numbered. Only the last blow remained +to be struck. Then Lincoln's second inauguration came, and with +it his second inaugural address. Lincoln's famous "Gettysburg +speech "has been much and justly admired. But far greater, as +well as far more characteristic, was that inaugural in which he +poured out the whole devotion and tenderness of his great soul. +It had all the solemnity of a father's last admonition and +blessing to his children before he lay down to die. These were +its closing words: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that +this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God +wills that it continue until all the wealth piled up by the +bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be +sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be +paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand +years ago, so still it must be said, `The judgments of the Lord +are true and righteous altogether.' With malice toward none, +with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us +to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in; to +bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne +the battle, and for his widow and his orphan; to do all which may +achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and +with all nations." + +This was like a sacred poem. No American President had ever +spoken words like these to the American people. America never +had a President who found such words in the depth of his heart. + +Now followed the closing scenes of the war. The Southern armies +fought bravely to the last, but all in vain. Richmond fell. +Lincoln himself entered the city on foot, accompanied only by a +few officers and a squad of sailors who had rowed him ashore from +the flotilla in the James River, a negro picked up on the way +serving as a guide. Never had the world seen a more modest +conqueror and a more characteristic triumphal procession, no army +with banners and drums, only a throng of those who had been +slaves, hastily run together, escorting the victorious chief into +the capital of the vanquished foe. We are told that they pressed +around him, kissed his hands and his garments, and shouted and +danced for joy, while tears ran down the President's care- +furrowed cheeks. + +A few days more brought the surrender of Lee's army, and peace +was assured. The people of the North were wild with joy. +Everywhere festive guns were booming, bells pealing, the churches +ringing with thanksgivings, and jubilant multitudes thronging the +thoroughfares, when suddenly the news flashed over the land that +Abraham Lincoln had been murdered. The people were stunned by +the blow. Then a wail of sorrow went up such as America had +never heard before. Thousands of Northern households grieved as +if they had lost their dearest member. Many a Southern man cried +out in his heart that his people had been robbed of their best +friend in their humiliation and distress, when Abraham Lincoln +was struck down. It was as if the tender affection which his +countrymen bore him had inspired all nations with a common +sentiment. All civilized mankind stood mourning around the +coffin of the dead President. Many of those, here and abroad, +who not long before had ridiculed and reviled him were among the +first to hasten on with their flowers of eulogy, and in that +universal chorus of lamentation and praise there was not a voice +that did not tremble with genuine emotion. Never since +Washington's death had there been such unanimity of judgment as +to a man's virtues and greatness; and even Washington's death, +although his name was held in greater reverence, did not touch so +sympathetic a chord in the people's hearts. + +Nor can it be said that this was owing to the tragic character of +Lincoln's end. It is true, the death of this gentlest and most +merciful of rulers by the hand of a mad fanatic was well apt to +exalt him beyond his merits in the estimation of those who loved +him, and to make his renown the object of peculiarly tender +solicitude. But it is also true that the verdict pronounced upon +him in those days has been affected little by time, and that +historical inquiry has served rather to increase than to lessen +the appreciation of his virtues, his abilities, his services. +Giving the fullest measure of credit to his great ministers,--to +Seward for his conduct of foreign affairs, to Chase for the +management of the finances under terrible difficulties, to +Stanton for the performance of his tremendous task as war +secretary,--and readily acknowledging that without the skill and +fortitude of the great commanders, and the heroism of the +soldiers and sailors under them, success could not have been +achieved, the historian still finds that Lincoln's judgment and +will were by no means governed by those around him; that the most +important steps were owing to his initiative; that his was the +deciding and directing mind; and that it was pre-eminently he +whose sagacity and whose character enlisted for the +administration in its struggles the countenance, the sympathy, +and the support of the people. It is found, even, that his +judgment on military matters was astonishingly acute, and that +the advice and instructions he gave to the generals commanding in +the field would not seldom have done honor to the ablest of them. +History, therefore, without overlooking, or palliating, or +excusing any of his shortcomings or mistakes, continues to place +him foremost among the saviours of the Union and the liberators +of the slave. More than that, it awards to him the merit of +having accomplished what but few political philosophers would +have recognized as possible,--of leading the republic through +four years of furious civil conflict without any serious +detriment to its free institutions. + +He was, indeed, while President, violently denounced by the +opposition as a tyrant and a usurper, for having gone beyond his +constitutional powers in authorizing or permitting the temporary +suppression of newspapers, and in wantonly suspending the writ of +habeas corpus and resorting to arbitrary arrests. 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 demanded by necessity, +should never be permitted to pass without a protest on the one +hand, and without an apology on the other. It is well they did +not so pass during our civil war. That arbitrary measures were +resorted to is true. That they were resorted to most sparingly, +and only when the government thought them absolutely required by +the safety of the republic, will now hardly be denied. But +certain it is that the history of the world does not furnish a +single example of a government passing through so tremendous a +crisis as our civil war was with so small a record of arbitrary +acts, and so little interference with the ordinary course of law +outside the field of military operations. No American President +ever wielded such power as that which was thrust into Lincoln's +hands. It is to be hoped that no American President ever will +have to be entrusted with such power again. But no man was ever +entrusted with it to whom its seductions were less dangerous than +they proved to be to Abraham Lincoln. With scrupulous care he +endeavored, even under the most trying circumstances, to remain +strictly within the constitutional limitations of his authority; +and whenever the boundary became indistinct, or when the dangers +of the situation forced him to cross it, he was equally careful +to mark his acts as exceptional measures, justifiable only by the +imperative necessities of the civil war, so that they might not +pass into history as precedents for similar acts in time of +peace. It is an unquestionable fact that during the +reconstruction period which followed the war, more things were +done capable of serving as dangerous precedents than during the +war itself. Thus it may truly be said of him not only that under +his guidance the republic was saved from disruption and the +country was purified of the blot of slavery, but that, during the +stormiest and most perilous crisis in our history, he so +conducted the government and so wielded his almost dictatorial +power as to leave essentially intact our free institutions in all +things that concern the rights and liberties of the citizens. He +understood well the nature of the problem. In his first message +to Congress he defined it in admirably pointed language: "Must a +government be of necessity too strong for the liberties of its +own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence? Is there +in all republics this inherent weakness?" This question he +answered in the name of the great American republic, as no man +could have answered it better, with a triumphant "No...." + +It has been said that Abraham Lincoln died at the right moment +for his fame. However that may be, he had, at the time of his +death, certainly not exhausted his usefulness to his country. He +was probably the only man who could have guided the nation +through the perplexities of the reconstruction period in such a +manner as to prevent in the work of peace the revival of the +passions of the war. He would indeed not have escaped serious +controversy as to details of policy; but he could have weathered +it far better than any other statesman of his time, for his +prestige with the active politicians had been immensely +strengthened by his triumphant re-election; and, what is more +important, he would have been supported by the confidence of the +victorious Northern people that he would do all to secure the +safety of the Union and the rights of the emancipated negro, and +at the same time by the confidence of the defeated Southern +people that nothing would be done by him from motives of +vindictiveness, or of unreasoning fanaticism, or of a selfish +party spirit. "With malice toward none, with charity for all," +the foremost of the victors would have personified in himself the +genius of reconciliation. + +He might have rendered the country a great service in another +direction. A few days after the fall of Richmond, he pointed out +to a friend the crowd of office-seekers besieging his door. +"Look at that," said he. "Now we have conquered the rebellion, +but here you see something that may become more dangerous to this +republic than the rebellion itself." It is true, Lincoln as +President did not profess what we now call civil service reform +principles. He used the patronage of the government in many +cases avowedly to reward party work, in many others to form +combinations and to produce political effects advantageous to the +Union cause, and in still others simply to put the right man into +the right place. But in his endeavors to strengthen the Union +cause, and in his search for able and useful men for public +duties, he frequently went beyond the limits of his party, and +gradually accustomed himself to the thought that, while party +service had its value, considerations of the public interest +were, as to appointments to office, of far greater consequence. +Moreover, there had been such a mingling of different political +elements in support of the Union during the civil war that +Lincoln, standing at the head of that temporarily united motley +mass, hardly felt himself, in the narrow sense of the term, a +party man. And as he became strongly impressed with the dangers +brought upon the republic by the use of public offices as party +spoils, it is by no means improbable that, had he survived the +all-absorbing crisis and found time to turn to other objects, one +of the most important reforms of later days would have been +pioneered by his powerful authority. This was not to be. But +the measure of his achievements was full enough for immortality. + +To the younger generation Abraham Lincoln has already become a +half-mythical figure, which, in the haze of historic distance, +grows to more and more heroic proportions, but also loses in +distinctness of outline and feature. This is indeed the common +lot of popular heroes; but the Lincoln legend will be more than +ordinarily apt to become fanciful, as his individuality, +assembling seemingly incongruous qualities and forces in a +character at the same time grand and most lovable, was so unique, +and his career so abounding in startling contrasts. As the state +of society in which Abraham Lincoln grew up passes away, the +world will read with increasing wonder of the man who, not only +of the humblest origin, but remaining the simplest and most +unpretending of citizens, was raised to a position of power +unprecedented in our history; who was the gentlest and most +peace-loving of mortals, unable to see any creature suffer +without a pang in his own breast, and suddenly found himself +called to conduct the greatest and bloodiest of our wars; who +wielded the power of government when stern resolution and +relentless force were the order of the day and then won and ruled +the popular mind and heart by the tender sympathies of his +nature; who was a cautious conservative by temperament and mental +habit, and led the most sudden and sweeping social revolution of +our time; who, preserving his homely speech and rustic manner +even in the most conspicuous position of that period, drew upon +himself the scoffs of polite society, and then thrilled the soul +of mankind with utterances of wonderful beauty and grandeur; who, +in his heart the best friend of the defeated South, was murdered +because a crazy fanatic took him for its most cruel enemy; who, +while in power, was beyond measure lampooned and maligned by +sectional passion and an excited party spirit, and around whose +bier friend and foe gathered to praise him which they have since +never ceased to do--as one of the greatest of Americans and the +best of men. + + + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +BY JOSEPH H. CHOATE + + +[This Address was delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical +Institution, November 13, 1900. It is included in this set with +the courteous permission of the author and of Messrs. Thomas Y. +Crowell & Company.] + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +When you asked me to deliver the Inaugural Address on this +occasion, I recognized that I owed this compliment to the fact +that I was the official representative of America, and in +selecting a subject I ventured to think that I might interest you +for an hour in a brief study in popular government, as +illustrated by the life of the most American of all Americans. I +therefore offer no apology for asking your attention to Abraham +Lincoln--to his unique character and the part he bore in two +important achievements of modern history: the preservation of the +integrity of the American Union and the emancipation of the +colored race. + +During his brief term of power he was probably the object of more +abuse, vilification, and ridicule than any other man in the +world; but when he fell by the hand of an assassin, at the very +moment of his stupendous victory, all the nations of the earth +vied with one another in paying homage to his character, and the +thirty-five years that have since elapsed have established his +place in history as one of the great benefactors not of his own +country alone, but of the human race. + +One of many noble utterances upon the occasion of his death was +that in which 'Punch' made its magnanimous recantation of the +spirit with which it had pursued him: + + + "Beside this corpse that bears for winding sheet + The stars and stripes he lived to rear anew, + Between the mourners at his head and feet, + Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? + + ................... + + "Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, + To lame my pencil, and confute my pen + To make me own this hind--of princes peer, + This rail-splitter--a true born king of men." + + +Fiction can furnish no match for the romance of his life, and +biography will be searched in vain for such startling +vicissitudes of fortune, so great power and glory won out of such +humble beginnings and adverse circumstances. + +Doubtless you are all familiar with the salient points of his +extraordinary career. In the zenith of his fame he was the wise, +patient, courageous, successful ruler of men; exercising more +power than any monarch of his time, not for himself, but for the +good of the people who had placed it in his hands; commander-in- +chief of a vast military power, which waged with ultimate success +the greatest war of the century; the triumphant champion of +popular government, the deliverer of four millions of his fellow- +men from bondage; honored by mankind as Statesman, President, and +Liberator. + +Let us glance now at the first half of the brief life of which +this was the glorious and happy consummation. Nothing could be +more squalid and miserable than the home in which Abraham Lincoln +was born--a one-roomed cabin without floor or window in what was +then the wilderness of Kentucky, in the heart of that frontier +life which swiftly moved westward from the Alleghanies to the +Mississippi, always in advance of schools and churches, of books +and money, of railroads and newspapers, of all things which are +generally regarded as the comforts and even necessaries of life. +His father, ignorant, needy, and thriftless, content if he could +keep soul and body together for himself and his family, was ever +seeking, without success, to better his unhappy condition by +moving on from one such scene of dreary desolation to another. +The rude society which surrounded them was not much better. The +struggle for existence was hard, and absorbed all their energies. +They were fighting the forest, the wild beast, and the retreating +savage. From the time when he could barely handle tools until he +attained his majority, Lincoln's life was that of a simple farm +laborer, poorly clad, housed, and fed, at work either on his +father's wretched farm or hired out to neighboring farmers. But +in spite, or perhaps by means, of this rude environment, he grew +to be a stalwart giant, reaching six feet four at nineteen, and +fabulous stories are told of his feats of strength. With the +growth of this mighty frame began that strange education which in +his ripening years was to qualify him for the great destiny that +awaited him, and the development of those mental faculties and +moral endowments which, by the time he reached middle life, were +to make him the sagacious, patient, and triumphant leader of a +great nation in the crisis of its fate. His whole schooling, +obtained during such odd times as could be spared from grinding +labor, did not amount in all to as much as one year, and the +quality of the teaching was of the lowest possible grade, +including only the elements of reading, writing, and ciphering. +But out of these simple elements, when rightly used by the right +man, education is achieved, and Lincoln knew how to use them. As +so often happens, he seemed to take warning from his father's +unfortunate example. Untiring industry, an insatiable thirst for +knowledge, and an ever-growing desire to rise above his +surroundings, were early manifestations of his character. + +Books were almost unknown in that community, but the Bible was in +every house, and somehow or other Pilgrim's Progress, AEsop's +Fables, a History of the United States, and a Life of Washington +fell into his hands. He trudged on foot many miles through the +wilderness to borrow an English Grammar, and is said to have +devoured greedily the contents of the Statutes of Indiana that +fell in his way. These few volumes he read and reread--and his +power of assimilation was great. To be shut in with a few books +and to master them thoroughly sometimes does more for the +development of character than freedom to range at large, in a +cursory and indiscriminate way, through wide domains of +literature. This youth's mind, at any rate, was thoroughly +saturated with Biblical knowledge and Biblical language, which, +in after life, he used with great readiness and effect. But it +was the constant use of the little knowledge which he had that +developed and exercised his mental powers. After the hard day's +work was done, while others slept, he toiled on, always reading +or writing. From an early age he did his own thinking and made +up his own mind--invaluable traits in the future President. +Paper was such a scarce commodity that, by the evening firelight, +he would write and cipher on the back of a wooden shovel, and +then shave it off to make room for more. By and by, as he +approached manhood, he began speaking in the rude gatherings of +the neighborhood, and so laid the foundation of that art of +persuading his fellow-men which was one rich result of his +education, and one great secret of his subsequent success. + +Accustomed as we are in these days of steam and telegraphs to +have every intelligent boy survey the whole world each morning +before breakfast, and inform himself as to what is going on in +every nation, it is hardly possible to conceive how benighted and +isolated was the condition of the community at Pigeon Creek in +Indiana, of which the family of Lincoln's father formed a part, +or how eagerly an ambitious and high-spirited boy, such as he, +must have yearned to escape. The first glimpse that he ever got +of any world beyond the narrow confines of his home was in 1828, +at the age of nineteen, when a neighbor employed him to accompany +his son down the river to New Orleans to dispose of a flatboat of +produce--a commission which he discharged with great success. + +Shortly after his return from this his first excursion into the +outer world, his father, tired of failure in Indiana, packed his +family and all his worldly goods into a single wagon drawn by two +yoke of oxen, and after a fourteen days' tramp through the +wilderness, pitched his camp once more, in Illinois. Here +Abraham, having come of age and being now his own master, +rendered the last service of his minority by ploughing the +fifteen-acre lot and splitting from the tall walnut trees of the +primeval forest enough rails to surround the little clearing with +a fence. Such was the meagre outfit of this coming leader of +men, at the age when the future British Prime Minister or +statesman emerges from the university as a double first or senior +wrangler, with every advantage that high training and broad +culture and association with the wisest and the best of men and +women can give, and enters upon some form of public service on +the road to usefulness and honor, the University course being +only the first stage of the public training. So Lincoln, at +twenty-one, had just begun his preparation for the public life to +which he soon began to aspire. For some years yet he must +continue to earn his daily bread by the sweat of his brow, having +absolutely no means, no home, no friend to consult. More farm +work as a hired hand, a clerkship in a village store, the running +of a mill, another trip to New Orleans on a flatboat of his own +contriving, a pilot's berth on the river--these were the means by +which he subsisted until, in the summer of 1832, when he was +twenty-three years of age, an event occurred which gave him +public recognition. + +The Black Hawk war broke out, and, the Governor of Illinois +calling for volunteers to repel the band of savages whose leader +bore that name, Lincoln enlisted and was elected captain by his +comrades, among whom he had already established his supremacy by +signal feats of strength and more than one successful single +combat. During the brief hostilities he was engaged in no battle +and won no military glory, but his local leadership was +established. The same year he offered himself as a candidate for +the Legislature of Illinois, but failed at the polls. Yet his +vast popularity with those who knew him was manifest. The +district consisted of several counties, but the unanimous vote of +the people of his own county was for Lincoln. Another +unsuccessful attempt at store-keeping was followed by better luck +at surveying, until his horse and instruments were levied upon +under execution for the debts of his business adventure. + +I have been thus detailed in sketching his early years because +upon these strange foundations the structure of his great fame +and service was built. In the place of a school and university +training fortune substituted these trials, hardships, and +struggles as a preparation for the great work which he had to do. +It turned out to be exactly what the emergency required. Ten +years instead at the public school and the university certainly +never could have fitted this man for the unique work which was to +be thrown upon him. Some other Moses would have had to lead us +to our Jordan, to the sight of our promised land of liberty. + +At the age of twenty-five he became a member of the Legislature +of Illinois, and so continued for eight years, and, in the +meantime, qualified himself by reading such law books as he could +borrow at random--for he was too poor to buy any to be called to +the Bar. For his second quarter of a century--during which a +single term in Congress introduced him into the arena of national +questions--he gave himself up to law and politics. In spite of +his soaring ambition, his two years in Congress gave him no +premonition of the great destiny that awaited him,--and at its +close, in 1849, we find him an unsuccessful applicant to the +President for appointment as Commissioner of the General Land +Office--a purely administrative bureau; a fortunate escape for +himself and for his country. Year by year his knowledge and +power, his experience and reputation extended, and his mental +faculties seemed to grow by what they fed on. His power of +persuasion, which had always been marked, was developed to an +extraordinary degree, now that he became engaged in congenial +questions and subjects. Little by little he rose to prominence +at the Bar, and became the most effective public speaker in the +West. Not that he possessed any of the graces of the orator; but +his logic was invincible, and his clearness and force of +statement impressed upon his hearers the convictions of his +honest mind, while his broad sympathies and sparkling and genial +humor made him a universal favorite as far and as fast as his +acquaintance extended. + +These twenty years that elapsed from the time of his +establishment as a lawyer and legislator in Springfield, the new +capital of Illinois, furnished a fitting theatre for the +development and display of his great faculties, and, with his new +and enlarged opportunities, he obviously grew in mental stature +in this second period of his career, as if to compensate for the +absolute lack of advantages under which he had suffered in youth. +As his powers enlarged, his reputation extended, for he was +always before the people, felt a warm sympathy with all that +concerned them, took a zealous part in the discussion of every +public question, and made his personal influence ever more widely +and deeply felt. + +My, brethren of the legal profession will naturally ask me, how +could this rough backwoodsman, whose youth had been spent in the +forest or on the farm and the flatboat, without culture or +training, education or study, by the random reading, on the wing, +of a few miscellaneous law books, become a learned and +accomplished lawyer? Well, he never did. He never would have +earned his salt as a 'Writer' for the 'Signet', nor have won a +place as advocate in the Court of Session, where the technique of +the profession has reached its highest perfection, and centuries +of learning and precedent are involved in the equipment of a +lawyer. Dr. Holmes, when asked by an anxious young mother, "When +should the education of a child begin?" replied, "Madam, at least +two centuries before it is born!" and so I am sure it is with the +Scots lawyer. + +But not so in Illinois in 1840. Between 1830 and 1880 its +population increased twenty-fold, and when Lincoln began +practising law in Springfield in 1837, life in Illinois was very +crude and simple, and so were the courts and the administration +of justice. Books and libraries were scarce. But the people +loved justice, upheld the law, and followed the courts, and soon +found their favorites among the advocates. The fundamental +principles of the common law, as set forth by Blackstone and +Chitty, were not so difficult to acquire; and brains, common +sense, force of character, tenacity of purpose, ready wit and +power of speech did the rest, and supplied all the deficiencies +of learning. + +The lawsuits of those days were extremely simple, and the +principles of natural justice were mainly relied on to dispose of +them at the Bar and on the Bench, without resort to technical +learning. Railroads, corporations absorbing the chief business +of the community, combined and inherited wealth, with all the +subtle and intricate questions they breed, had not yet come in-- +and so the professional agents and the equipment which they +require were not needed. But there were many highly educated and +powerful men at the Bar of Illinois, even in those early days, +whom the spirit of enterprise had carried there in search of fame +and fortune. It was by constant contact and conflict with these +that Lincoln acquired professional strength and skill. Every +community and every age creates its own Bar, entirely adequate +for its present uses and necessities. So in Illinois, as the +population and wealth of the State kept on doubling and +quadrupling, its Bar presented a growing abundance of learning +and science and technical skill. The early practitioners grew +with its growth and mastered the requisite knowledge. Chicago +soon grew to be one of the largest and richest and certainly the +most intensely active city on the continent, and if any of my +professional friends here had gone there in Lincoln's later +years, to try or argue a cause, or transact other business, with +any idea that Edinburgh or London had a monopoly of legal +learning, science, or subtlety, they would certainly have found +their mistake. + +In those early days in the West, every lawyer, especially every +court lawyer, was necessarily a politician, constantly engaged in +the public discussion of the many questions evolved from the +rapid development of town, county, State, and Federal affairs. +Then and there, in this regard, public discussion supplied the +place which the universal activity of the press has since +monopolized, and the public speaker who, by clearness, force, +earnestness, and wit; could make himself felt on the questions of +the day would rapidly come to the front. In the absence of that +immense variety of popular entertainments which now feed the +public taste and appetite, the people found their chief amusement +in frequenting the courts and public and political assemblies. +In either place, he who impressed, entertained, and amused them +most was the hero of the hour. They did not discriminate very +carefully between the eloquence of the forum and the eloquence of +the hustings. Human nature ruled in both alike, and he who was +the most effective speaker in a political harangue was often +retained as most likely to win in a cause to be tried or argued. +And I have no doubt in this way many retainers came to Lincoln. +Fees, money in any form, had no charms for him--in his eager +pursuit of fame he could not afford to make money. He was +ambitious to distinguish himself by some great service to +mankind, and this ambition for fame and real public service left +no room for avarice in his composition. However much he earned, +he seems to have ended every year hardly richer than he began it, +and yet, as the years passed, fees came to him freely. One of +L 1,000 is recorded--a very large professional fee at that time, +even in any part of America, the paradise of lawyers. I lay +great stress on Lincoln's career as a lawyer--much more than his +biographers do because in America a state of things exists wholly +different from that which prevails in Great Britain. The +profession of the law always has been and is to this day the +principal avenue to public life; and I am sure that his training +and experience in the courts had much to do with the development +of those forces of intellect and character which he soon +displayed on a broader arena. + +It was in political controversy, of course, that he acquired his +wide reputation, and made his deep and lasting impression upon +the people of what had now become the powerful State of Illinois, +and upon the people of the Great West, to whom the political +power and control of the United States were already surely and +swiftly passing from the older Eastern States. It was this +reputation and this impression, and the familiar knowledge of his +character which had come to them from his local leadership, that +happily inspired the people of the West to present him as their +candidate, and to press him upon the Republican convention of +1860 as the fit and necessary leader in the struggle for life +which was before the nation. + +That struggle, as you all know, arose out of the terrible +question of slavery--and I must trust to your general knowledge +of the history of that question to make intelligible the attitude +and leadership of Lincoln as the champion of the hosts of freedom +in the final contest. Negro slavery had been firmly established +in the Southern States from an early period of their history. In +1619, the year before the Mayflower landed our Pilgrim Fathers +upon Plymouth Rock, a Dutch ship had discharged a cargo of +African slaves at Jamestown in Virginia: All through the colonial +period their importation had continued. A few had found their +way into the Northern States, but none of them in sufficient +numbers to constitute danger or to afford a basis for political +power. At the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, +there is no doubt that the principal members of the convention +not only condemned slavery as a moral, social, and political +evil, but believed that by the suppression of the slave trade it +was in the course of gradual extinction in the South, as it +certainly was in the North. Washington, in his will, provided +for the emancipation of his own slaves, and said to Jefferson +that it "was among his first wishes to see some plan adopted by +which slavery in his country might be abolished." Jefferson +said, referring to the institution: "I tremble for my country +when I think that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep +forever,"--and Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, and Patrick Henry were +all utterly opposed to it. But it was made the subject of a +fatal compromise in the Federal Constitution, whereby its +existence was recognized in the States as a basis of +representation, the prohibition of the importation of slaves was +postponed for twenty years, and the return of fugitive slaves +provided for. But no imminent danger was apprehended from it +till, by the invention of the cotton gin in 1792, cotton culture +by negro labor became at once and forever the leading industry of +the South, and gave a new impetus to the importation of slaves, +so that in 1808, when the constitutional prohibition took effect, +their numbers had vastly increased. From that time forward +slavery became the basis of a great political power, and the +Southern States, under all circumstances and at every +opportunity, carried on a brave and unrelenting struggle for its +maintenance and extension. + +The conscience of the North was slow to rise against it, though +bitter controversies from time to time took place. The Southern +leaders threatened disunion if their demands were not complied +with. To save the Union, compromise after compromise was made, +but each one in the end was broken. The Missouri Compromise, +made in 1820 upon the occasion of the admission of Missouri into +the Union as a slave State, whereby, in consideration of such +admission, slavery was forever excluded from the Northwest +Territory, was ruthlessly repealed in 1854, by a Congress elected +in the interests of the slave power, the intent being to force +slavery into that vast territory which had so long been dedicated +to freedom. This challenge at last aroused the slumbering +conscience and passion of the North, and led to the formation of +the Republican party for the avowed purpose of preventing, by +constitutional methods, the further extension of slavery. + +In its first campaign, in 1856, though it failed to elect its +candidates; it received a surprising vote and carried many of the +States. No one could any longer doubt that the North had made up +its mind that no threats of disunion should deter it from +pressing its cherished purpose and performing its long neglected +duty. From the outset, Lincoln was one of the most active and +effective leaders and speakers of the new party, and the great +debates between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858, as the respective +champions of the restriction and extension of slavery, attracted +the attention of the whole country. Lincoln's powerful arguments +carried conviction everywhere. His moral nature was thoroughly +aroused his conscience was stirred to the quick. Unless slavery +was wrong, nothing was wrong. Was each man, of whatever color, +entitled to the fruits of his own labor, or could one man live in +idle luxury by the sweat of another's brow, whose skin was +darker? He was an implicit believer in that principle of the +Declaration of Independence that all men are vested with certain +inalienable rights the equal rights to life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness. On this doctrine he staked his case and +carried it. We have time only for one or two sentences in which +he struck the keynote of the contest + +"The real issue in this country is the eternal struggle between +these two principles--right and wrong--throughout the world. +They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the +beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one +is the common right of humanity, and the other the divine right +of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops +itself. It is the same spirit that says, 'You work and toil and +earn bread and I'll eat it.'" + +He foresaw with unerring vision that the conflict was inevitable +and irrepressible--that one or the other, the right or the wrong, +freedom or slavery, must ultimately prevail and wholly prevail, +throughout the country; and this was the principle that carried +the war, once begun, to a finish. + +One sentence of his is immortal: + +"Under the operation of the policy of compromise, the slavery +agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. +In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been +reached and passed. 'A house divided against itself cannot +stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half +slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be 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 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." + +During the entire decade from 1850 to 1860 the agitation of the +slavery question was at the boiling point, and events which have +become historical continually indicated the near approach of the +overwhelming storm. No sooner had the Compromise Acts of 1850 +resulted in a temporary peace, which everybody said must be final +and perpetual, than new outbreaks came. The forcible carrying +away of fugitive slaves by Federal troops from Boston agitated +that ancient stronghold of freedom to its foundations. The +publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which truly exposed the +frightful possibilities of the slave system; the reckless +attempts by force and fraud to establish it in Kansas against the +will of the vast majority of the settlers; the beating of Summer +in the Senate Chamber for words spoken in debate; the Dred Scott +decision in the Supreme Court, which made the nation realize that +the slave power had at last reached the fountain of Federal +justice; and finally the execution of John Brown, for his wild +raid into Virginia, to invite the slaves to rally to the standard +of freedom which he unfurled:--all these events tend to +illustrate and confirm Lincoln's contention that the nation could +not permanently continue half slave and half free, but must +become all one thing or all the other. When John Brown lay under +sentence of death he declared that now he was sure that slavery +must be wiped out in blood; but neither he nor his executioners +dreamt that within four years a million soldiers would be +marching across the country for its final extirpation, to the +music of the war-song of the great conflict: + + "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, + But his soul is marching on." + +And now, at the age of fifty-one, this child of the wilderness, +this farm laborer, rail-sputter, flatboatman, this surveyor, +lawyer, orator, statesman, and patriot, found himself elected by +the great party which was pledged to prevent at all hazards the +further extension of slavery, as the chief magistrate of the +Republic, bound to carry out that purpose, to be the leader and +ruler of the nation in its most trying hour. + +Those who believe that there is a living Providence that +overrules and conducts the affairs of nations, find in the +elevation of this plain man to this extraordinary fortune and to +this great duty, which he so fitly discharged, a signal +vindication of their faith. Perhaps to this philosophical +institution the judgment of our philosopher Emerson will commend +itself as a just estimate of Lincoln's historical place + +"His occupying the chair of state was a triumph of the good sense +of mankind and of the public conscience. He grew according to +the need; his mind mastered the problem of the day: and as the +problem grew, so did his comprehension of it. In the war there +was no place for holiday magistrate, nor fair-weather sailor. +The new pilot was hurried to the helm in a tornado. In four +years--four years of battle days--his endurance, his fertility of +resource, his magnanimity, were sorely tried, and never found +wanting. There, by his courage, his justice, his even temper, +his fertile counsel, his humanity, he stood a heroic figure in +the centre of a heroic epoch. He is the true history of the +American people in his time, the true representative of this +continent--father of his country, the pulse of twenty millions +throbbing in his heart, the thought of their mind--articulated in +his tongue." + +He was born great, as distinguished from those who achieve +greatness or have it thrust upon them, and his inherent capacity, +mental, moral, and physical, having been recognized by the +educated intelligence of a free people, they happily chose him +for their ruler in a day of deadly peril. + +It is now forty years since I first saw and heard Abraham +Lincoln, but the impression which he left on my mind is +ineffaceable. After his great successes in the West he came to +New York to make a political address. 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 struggle; his deep-set eyes looked sad and anxious; +his countenance in repose gave little evidence of that brain +power which had raised him from the lowest to the highest station +among his countrymen; 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, clergymen, statesmen, +lawyers, merchants, critics. They were all very curious to hear +him. His fame as a powerful speaker had preceded him, and +exaggerated rumor of his wit--the worst forerunner of an orator-- +had reached the East. When Mr. Bryant presented him, on the high +platform of the Cooper Institute, 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 pretence, he spoke straight to the point. If any came +expecting 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 marvellous 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 Constitution in order to form a more +perfect union, to establish justice, and 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 those 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 wrong 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 congratulations, and he who had come +as a stranger departed with the laurels of great triumph. + +Alas! in five years from that exulting night I saw him again, for +the last time, in the same city, borne in his coffin through its +draped streets. With tears and lamentations a heart-broken +people accompanied him from Washington, the scene of his +martyrdom, to his last resting-place in the young city of the +West where he had worked his way to fame. + +Never was a new ruler in a more desperate plight than Lincoln +when he entered office on the fourth of March, 1861, four months +after his election, and took his oath to support the Constitution +and the Union. The intervening time had been busily employed by +the Southern States in carrying out their threat of disunion in +the event of his election. As soon as the fact was ascertained, +seven of them had seceded and had seized upon the forts, +arsenals, navy yards, and other public property of the United +States within their boundaries, and were making every preparation +for war. In the meantime the retiring President, who had been +elected by the slave power, and who thought the seceding States +could not lawfully be coerced, had done absolutely nothing. +Lincoln found himself, by the Constitution, Commander-in-Chief of +the Army and Navy of the United States, but with only a remnant +of either at hand. Each was to be created on a great scale out +of the unknown resources of a nation untried in war. + +In his mild and conciliatory inaugural address, while appealing +to the seceding States to return to their allegiance, he avowed +his purpose to keep the solemn oath he had taken that day, to see +that the laws of the Union were faithfully executed, and to use +the troops to recover the forts, navy yards, and other property +belonging to the government. It is probable, however, that +neither side actually realized that war was inevitable, and that +the other was determined to fight, until the assault on Fort +Sumter presented the South as the first aggressor and roused the +North to use every possible resource to maintain the government +and the imperilled Union, and to vindicate the supremacy of the +flag over every inch of the territory of the United States. The +fact that Lincoln's first proclamation called for only 75,000 +troops, to serve for three months, shows how inadequate was even +his idea of what the future had in store. But from that moment +Lincoln and his loyal supporters never faltered in their purpose. +They knew they could win, that it was their duty to win, and that +for America the whole hope of the future depended upon their +winning; for now by the acts of the seceding States the issue of +the election to secure or prevent the extension of slavery--stood +transformed into a struggle to preserve or to destroy the Union. + +We cannot follow this contest. You know its gigantic +proportions; that it lasted four years instead of three months; +that in its progress, instead of 75,000 men, more than 2,000,000 +were enrolled on the side of the government alone; that the +aggregate cost and loss to the nation approximated to +1,000,000,000 pounds sterling, and that not less than 300,000 +brave and precious lives were sacrificed on each side. History +has recorded how Lincoln bore himself during these four frightful +years; that he was the real President, the responsible and actual +head of the government, through it all; that he listened to all +advice, heard all parties, and then, always realizing his +responsibility to God and the nation, decided every great +executive question for himself. His absolute honesty had become +proverbial long before he was President. "Honest Abe Lincoln" +was the name by which he had been known for years. His every act +attested it. + +In all the grandeur of the vast power that he wielded, he never +ceased to be one of the plain people, as he always called them, +never lost or impaired his perfect sympathy with them, was always +in perfect touch with them and open to their appeals; and here +lay the very secret of his personality and of his power, for the +people in turn gave him their absolute confidence. His courage, +his fortitude, his patience, his hopefulness, were sorely tried +but never exhausted. + +He was true as steel to his generals, but had frequent occasion +to change them, as he found them inadequate. This serious and +painful duty rested wholly upon him, and was perhaps his most +important function as Commander-in-Chief; but when, at last, he +recognized in General Grant the master of the situation, the man +who could and would bring the war to a triumphant end, he gave it +all over to him and upheld him with all his might. Amid all the +pressure and distress that the burdens of office brought upon +him, his unfailing sense of humor saved him; probably it made it +possible for him to live under the burden. He had always been +the great story-teller of the West, and he used and cultivated +this faculty to relieve the weight of the load he bore. + +It enabled him to keep the wonderful record of never having lost +his temper, no matter what agony he had to bear. A whole night +might be spent in recounting the stories of his wit, humor, and +harmless sarcasm. But I will recall only two of his sayings, +both about General Grant, who always found plenty of enemies and +critics to urge the President to oust him from his command. One, +I am sure, will interest all Scotchmen. They repeated with +malicious intent the gossip that Grant drank. "What does he +drink?" asked Lincoln. "Whiskey," was, of course, the answer; +doubtless you can guess the brand. "Well," said the President, +"just find out what particular kind he uses and I'll send a +barrel to each of my other generals." The other must be as +pleasing to the British as to the American ear. When pressed +again on other grounds to get rid of Grant, he declared, "I can't +spare that man, he fights!" + +He was tender-hearted to a fault, and never could resist the +appeals of wives and mothers of soldiers who had got into trouble +and were under sentence of death for their offences. His +Secretary of War and other officials complained that they never +could get deserters shot. As surely as the women of the +culprit's family could get at him he always gave way. Certainly +you will all appreciate his exquisite sympathy with the suffering +relatives of those who had fallen in battle. His heart bled with +theirs. Never was there a more gentle and tender utterance than +his letter to a mother who had given all her sons to her country, +written at a time when the angel of death had visited almost +every household in the land, and was already hovering over him. + +"I have been shown," he says, "in the files of the War Department +a statement 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 your grief for a loss so overwhelming but I cannot refrain +from tendering to you the consolation which 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 the lost, +and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a +sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." + +Hardly could your illustrious sovereign, from the depths of her +queenly and womanly heart, have spoken words more touching and +tender to soothe the stricken mothers of her own soldiers. + +The Emancipation Proclamation, with which Mr. Lincoln delighted +the country and the world on the first of January, 1863, will +doubtless secure for him a foremost place in history among the +philanthropists and benefactors of the race, as it rescued, from +hopeless and degrading slavery, so many millions of his fellow- +beings described in the law and existing in fact as "chattels- +personal, in the hands of their owners and possessors, to all +intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever." Rarely does +the happy fortune come to one man to render such a service to his +kind--to proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the +inhabitants thereof. + +Ideas rule the world, and never was there a more signal instance +of this triumph of an idea than here. William Lloyd Garrison, +who thirty years before had begun his crusade for the abolition +of slavery, and had lived to see this glorious and unexpected +consummation of the hopeless cause to which he had devoted his +life, well described the proclamation as a "great historic event, +sublime in its magnitude, momentous and beneficent in its far- +reaching consequences, and eminently just and right alike to the +oppressor and the oppressed." + +Lincoln had always been heart and soul opposed to slavery. +Tradition says that on the trip on the flatboat to New Orleans he +formed his first and last opinion of slavery at the sight of +negroes chained and scourged, and that then and there the iron +entered into his soul. No boy could grow to manhood in those +days as a poor white in Kentucky and Indiana, in close contact +with slavery or in its neighborhood, without a growing +consciousness of its blighting effects on free labor, as well as +of its frightful injustice and cruelty. In the Legislature of +Illinois, where the public sentiment was all for upholding the +institution and violently against every movement for its +abolition or restriction, upon the passage of resolutions to that +effect he had the courage with one companion to put on record his +protest, "believing that the institution of slavery is founded +both in injustice and bad policy." No great demonstration of +courage, you will say; but that was at a time when Garrison, for +his abolition utterances, had been dragged by an angry mob +through the streets of Boston with a rope around his body, and in +the very year that Lovejoy in the same State of Illinois was +slain by rioters while defending his press, from which he had +printed antislavery appeals. + +In Congress he brought in a bill for gradual abolition in the +District of Columbia, with compensation to the owners, for until +they raised treasonable hands against the life of the nation he +always maintained that the property of the slaveholders, into +which they had come by two centuries of descent, without fault on +their part, ought not to be taken away from them without just +compensation. He used to say that, one way or another, he had +voted forty-two times for the Wilmot Proviso, which Mr. Wilmot of +Pennsylvania moved as an addition to every bill which affected +United States territory, "that neither slavery nor involuntary +servitude shall ever exist in any part of the said territory," +and it is evident that his condemnation of the system, on moral +grounds as a crime against the human race, and on political +grounds as a cancer that was sapping the vitals of the nation, +and must master its whole being or be itself extirpated, grew +steadily upon him until it culminated in his great speeches in +the Illinois debate. + +By the mere election of Lincoln to the Presidency, the further +extension of slavery into the Territories was rendered forever +impossible--Vox populi, vox Dei. Revolutions never go backward, +and when founded on a great moral sentiment stirring the heart of +an indignant people their edicts are irresistible and final. Had +the slave power acquiesced in that election, had the Southern +States remained under the Constitution and within the Union, and +relied upon their constitutional and legal rights, their favorite +institution, immoral as it was, blighting and fatal as it was, +might have endured for another century. The great party that had +elected him, unalterably determined against its extension, was +nevertheless pledged not to interfere with its continuance in the +States where it already existed. Of course, when new regions +were forever closed against it, from its very nature it must have +begun to shrink and to dwindle; and probably gradual and +compensated emancipation, which appealed very strongly to the new +President's sense of justice and expediency, would, in the +progress of time, by a reversion to the ideas of the founders of +the Republic, have found a safe outlet for both masters and +slaves. But whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad, +and when seven States, afterwards increased to eleven, openly +seceded from the Union, when they declared and began the war upon +the nation, and challenged its mighty power to the desperate and +protracted struggle for its life, and for the maintenance of its +authority as a nation over its territory, they gave to Lincoln +and to freedom the sublime opportunity of history. + +In his first inaugural address, when as yet not a drop of +precious blood had been shed, while he held out to them the olive +branch in one hand, in the other he presented the guarantees of +the Constitution, and after reciting the emphatic resolution of +the convention that nominated him, 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 of our +political fabric depend," he reiterated this sentiment, and +declared, with no mental reservation, "that all the protection +which, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be +given, will be cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully +demanded for whatever cause as cheerfully to one section as to +another." + +When, however, these magnanimous overtures for peace and reunion +were rejected; when the seceding States defied the Constitution +and every clause and principle of it; when they persisted in +staying out of the Union from which they had seceded, and +proceeded to carve out of its territory a new and hostile empire +based on slavery; when they flew at the throat of the nation and +plunged it into the bloodiest war of the nineteenth century the +tables were turned, and the belief gradually came to the mind of +the President that if the Rebellion was not soon subdued by force +of arms, if the war must be fought out to the bitter end, then to +reach that end the salvation of the nation itself might require +the destruction of slavery wherever it existed; that if the war +was to continue on one side for Disunion, for no other purpose +than to preserve slavery, it must continue on the other side for +the Union, to destroy slavery. + +As he said, "Events control me; I cannot control events," and as +the dreadful war progressed and became more deadly and dangerous, +the unalterable conviction was forced upon him that, in order +that the frightful sacrifice of life and treasure on both sides +might not be all in vain, it had become his duty as Commander-in- +Chief of the Army, as a necessary war measure, to strike a blow +at the Rebellion which, all others failing, would inevitably lead +to its annihilation, by annihilating the very thing for which it +was contending. His own words are the best: + +"I understood that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the +best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving by +every indispensable means that government--that nation--of which +that Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose +the nation and yet preserve the Constitution? By general law, +life and limb must be protected, yet often a limb must be +amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to +save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional +might become lawful by becoming 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 ever 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." + +And so, at last, when in his judgment the indispensable necessity +had come, he struck the fatal blow, and signed the proclamation +which has made his name immortal. By it, the President, as +Commander-in-Chief in time of actual armed rebellion, and as a +fit and necessary war measure for suppressing the rebellion, +proclaimed all persons held as slaves in the States and parts of +States then in rebellion to be thenceforward free, and declared +that the executive, with the army and navy, would recognize and +maintain their freedom. + +In the other great steps of the government, which led to the +triumphant prosecution of the war, he necessarily shared the +responsibility and the credit with the great statesmen who stayed +up his hands in his cabinet, with Seward, Chase and Stanton, and +the rest,--and with his generals and admirals, his soldiers and +sailors, but this great act was absolutely his own. The +conception and execution were exclusively his. He laid it before +his cabinet as a measure on which his mind was made up and could +not be changed, asking them only for suggestions as to details. +He chose the time and the circumstances under which the +Emancipation should be proclaimed and when it should take effect. + +It came not an hour too soon; but public opinion in the North +would not have sustained it earlier. In the first eighteen +months of the war its ravages had extended from the Atlantic to +beyond the Mississippi. Many victories in the West had been +balanced and paralyzed by inaction and disasters in Virginia, +only partially redeemed by the bloody and indecisive battle of +Antietam; a reaction had set in from the general enthusiasm which +had swept the Northern States after the assault upon Sumter. It +could not truly be said that they had lost heart, but faction was +raising its head. Heard through the land like the blast of a +bugle, the proclamation rallied the patriotism of the country to +fresh sacrifices and renewed ardor. It was a step that could not +be revoked. It relieved the conscience of the nation from an +incubus that had oppressed it from its birth. The United States +were rescued from the false predicament in which they had been +from the beginning, and the great popular heart leaped with new +enthusiasm for "Liberty and Union, henceforth and forever, one +and inseparable." It brought not only moral but material support +to the cause of the government, for within two years 120,000 +colored troops were enlisted in the military service and +following the national flag, supported by all the loyalty of the +North, and led by its choicest spirits. One mother said, when +her son was offered the command of the first colored regiment, +"If he accepts it I shall be as proud as if I had heard that he +was shot." He was shot heading a gallant charge of his +regiment.... The Confederates replied to a request of his +friends for his body that they had "buried him under a layer of +his niggers....;" but that mother has lived to enjoy thirty-six +years of his glory, and Boston has erected its noblest monument +to his memory. + +The effect of the proclamation upon the actual progress of the +war was not immediate, but wherever the Federal armies advanced +they carried freedom with them, and when the summer came round +the new spirit and force which had animated the heart of the +government and people were manifest. In the first week of July +the decisive battle of Gettysburg turned the tide of war, and the +fall of Vicksburg made the great river free from its source to +the Gulf. + +On foreign nations the influence of the proclamation and of these +new victories was of great importance. In those days, when there +was no cable, it was not easy for foreign observers to appreciate +what was really going on; they could not see clearly the true +state of affairs, as in the last year of the nineteenth century +we have been able, by our new electric vision, to watch every +event at the antipodes and observe its effect. The Rebel +emissaries, sent over to solicit intervention, spared no pains to +impress upon the minds of public and private men and upon the +press their own views of the character of the contest. The +prospects of the Confederacy were always better abroad than at +home. The stock markets of the world gambled upon its chances, +and its bonds at one time were high in favor. + +Such ideas as these were seriously held: that the North was +fighting for empire and the South for independence; that the +Southern States, instead of being the grossest oligarchies, +essentially despotisms, founded on the right of one man to +appropriate the fruit of other men's toil and to exclude them +from equal rights, were real republics, feebler to be sure than +their Northern rivals, but representing the same idea of freedom, +and that the mighty strength of the nation was being put forth to +crush them; that Jefferson Davis and the Southern leaders had +created a nation; that the republican experiment had failed and +the Union had ceased to exist. But the crowning argument to +foreign minds was that it was an utter impossibility for the +government to win in the contest; that the success of the +Southern States, so far as separation was concerned, was as +certain as any event yet future and contingent could be; that the +subjugation of the South by the North, even if it could be +accomplished, would prove a calamity to the United States and the +world, and especially calamitous to the negro race; and that such +a victory would necessarily leave the people of the South for +many generations cherishing deadly hostility against the +government and the North, and plotting always to recover their +independence. + +When Lincoln issued his proclamation he knew that all these ideas +were founded in error; that the national resources were +inexhaustible; that the government could and would win, and that +if slavery were once finally disposed of, the only cause of +difference being out of the way, the North and South would come +together again, and by and by be as good friends as ever. In +many quarters abroad the proclamation was welcomed with +enthusiasm by the friends of America; but I think the +demonstrations in its favor that brought more gladness to +Lincoln's heart than any other were the meetings held in the +manufacturing centres, by the very operatives upon whom the war +bore the hardest, expressing the most enthusiastic sympathy with +the proclamation, while they bore with heroic fortitude the +grievous privations which the war entailed upon them. Mr. +Lincoln's expectation when he announced to the world that all +slaves in all States then in rebellion were set free must have +been that the avowed position of his government, that the +continuance of the war now meant the annihilation of slavery, +would make intervention impossible for any foreign nation whose +people were lovers of liberty--and so the result proved. + +The growth and development of Lincoln's mental power and moral +force, of his intense and magnetic personality, after the vast +responsibilities of government were thrown upon him at the age of +fifty-two, furnish a rare and striking illustration of the +marvellous capacity and adaptability of the human intellect--of +the sound mind in the sound body. He came to the discharge of +the great duties of the Presidency with absolutely no experience +in the administration of government, or of the vastly varied and +complicated questions of foreign and domestic policy which +immediately arose, and continued to press upon him during the +rest of his life; but he mastered each as it came, apparently +with the facility of a trained and experienced ruler. As +Clarendon said of Cromwell, "His parts seemed to be raised by the +demands of great station." His life through it all was one of +intense labor, anxiety, and distress, without one hour of +peaceful repose from first to last. But he rose to every +occasion. He led public opinion, but did not march so far in +advance of it as to fail of its effective support in every great +emergency. He knew the heart and thought of the people, as no +man not in constant and absolute sympathy with them could have +known it, and so holding their confidence, he triumphed through +and with them. Not only was there this steady growth of +intellect, but the infinite delicacy of his nature and its +capacity for refinement developed also, as exhibited in the +purity and perfection of his language and style of speech. The +rough backwoodsman, who had never seen the inside of a +university, became in the end, by self-training and the exercise +of his own powers of mind, heart, and soul, a master of style, +and some of his utterances will rank with the best, the most +perfectly adapted to the occasion which produced them. + +Have you time to listen to his two-minutes speech at Gettysburg, +at the dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery? His whole soul was +in it: + +"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged +in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation +so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a +great 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 cannot consecrate--we cannot hallow this +ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have +consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The +world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here but +it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the +living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which +they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is +rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining +before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion +to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of +devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not +have died in vain--that this nation under God shall have a new +birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the +people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth." + +He lived to see his work indorsed by an overwhelming majority of +his countrymen. In his second inaugural address, pronounced just +forty days before his death, there is a single passage which well +displays his indomitable will and at the same time his deep +religious feeling, his sublime charity to the enemies of his +country, and his broad and catholic humanity: + +"If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those +offences which in the Providence of God must needs come, but +which, having continued through the 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 offence came, +shall we discern therein any departure from those divine +attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to +Him? Fondly do we 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 bondsmen's two hundred +and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every +drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with another +drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so +still it must be said, 'the judgments of the Lord are true and +righteous altogether.' + +"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in +the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to +finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds; to care +for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his +orphan to do all which may achieve, and cherish a just and +lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." + +His prayer was answered. The forty days of life that remained to +him were crowned with great historic events. He lived to see his +Proclamation of Emancipation embodied in an amendment of the +Constitution, adopted by Congress, and submitted to the States +for ratification. The mighty scourge of war did speedily pass +away, for it was given him to witness the surrender of the Rebel +army and the fall of their capital, and the starry flag that he +loved waving in triumph over the national soil. When he died by +the madman's hand in the supreme hour of victory, the vanquished +lost their best friend, and the human race one of its noblest +examples; and all the friends of freedom and justice, in whose +cause he lived and died, joined hands as mourners at his grave. + + + + + + +THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +1832-1843 + + + + +1832 + + +ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON 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 according with an established custom +and the principles of true Republicanism 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 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 objection arises from the want of +ability to pay. + +With respect to the County of Sangamon, some.... + +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....... + +What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to say. It is +probable, however, that it would not be greater 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 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 on 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 dictate 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 histories of his own and other +countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free +institutions, appears to be an object +of vital importance, 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 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 something 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. Many 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; 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. + +New Salem, March 9, 1832. + + + + +1833 + + +TO E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + +NEW SALEM, +Aug. 10, 1833 + +E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + +Dear Sir:--In regard to the time David Rankin served the enclosed +discharge shows correctly--as well as I can recollect--having no +writing to refer. The transfer of Rankin from my company +occurred as follows: Rankin having lost his horse at Dixon's +ferry and having acquaintance in one of the foot companies who +were going down the river was desirous to go with them, and one +Galishen being an acquaintance of mine and belonging to the +company in which Rankin wished to go wished to leave it and join +mine, this being the case it was agreed that they should exchange +places and answer to each other's names--as it was expected we +all would be discharged in very few days. As to a blanket--I +have no knowledge of Rankin ever getting any. The above embraces +all the facts now in my recollection which are pertinent to the +case. + +I shall take pleasure in giving any further information in my +power should you call on me. + +Your friend, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR POSTAGE RECEIPT + +TO Mr. SPEARS. + +Mr. SPEARS: + +At your request I send you a receipt for the postage on your +paper. I am somewhat surprised at your request. I will, +however, comply with it. The law requires newspaper postage to +be paid in advance, and now that I have waited a full year you +choose to wound my feelings by insinuating that unless you get a +receipt I will probably make you pay it again. + +Respectfully, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1836 + + +ANNOUNCEMENT OF POLITICAL VIEWS. + +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 +constituents, as well those that oppose as those that support me. + +While acting as their representative, I shall be governed 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 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. + +Very respectfully, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO POLITICAL SMEAR + +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 you said. I am flattered with the personal +regard you manifested for me; 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. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MISS MARY OWENS. + +VANDALIA, +December 13, 1836. + +MARY:--I have been sick ever since my arrival, or I should have +written sooner. It is but little difference, however, as I have +very little even yet to write. And more, the longer I can avoid +the mortification of looking in the post-office for your letter +and not finding it, the better. You see I am mad about that old +letter yet. I don't like very well to risk you again. I'll try +you once more, anyhow. + +The new State House is not yet finished, and consequently the +Legislature is doing little or nothing. The governor delivered +an inflammatory political message, and it is expected there will +be some sparring between the parties about it as soon as the two +Houses get to business. Taylor delivered up his petition for the +new county to one of our members this morning. I am told he +despairs of its success, on account of all the members from +Morgan County opposing it. There are names enough on the +petition, I think, to justify the members from our county in +going for it; but if the members from Morgan oppose it, which +they say they will, the chance will be bad. + +Our chance to take the seat of government to Springfield is +better than I expected. An internal-improvement convention was +held there since we met, which recommended a loan of several +millions of dollars, on the faith of the State, to construct +railroads. Some of the Legislature are for it, and some against +it; which has the majority I cannot tell. There is great strife +and struggling for the office of the United States Senator here +at this time. It is probable we shall ease their pains in a few +days. The opposition men have no candidate of their own, and +consequently they will smile as complacently at the angry snarl +of the contending Van Buren candidates and their respective +friends as the Christian does at Satan's rage. You recollect +that I mentioned at the outset of this letter that I had been +unwell. That is the fact, though I believe I am about well now; +but that, with other things I cannot account for, have conspired, +and have gotten my spirits so low that I feel that I would rather +be any place in the world than here. I really cannot endure the +thought of staying here ten weeks. Write back as soon as you get +this, and, if possible, say something that will please me, for +really I have not been pleased since I left you. This letter is +so dry and stupid that I am ashamed to send it, but with my +present feelings I cannot do any better. + +Give my best respects to Mr. and Mrs. Able and family. + +Your friend, +LINCOLN + + + + +1837 + + +SPEECH IN ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +January [?], 1837 + +Mr. CHAIRMAN:--Lest I should fall into the too common error of +being mistaken in regard to which side I design to be upon, I +shall make it my first care to remove all doubt on that point, by +declaring that I am opposed to the resolution under +consideration, in toto. Before I proceed to the body of the +subject, I will further remark, that it is not without a +considerable degree of apprehension that I venture to cross the +track of the gentleman from Coles [Mr. Linder]. Indeed, I do not +believe I could muster a sufficiency of courage to come in +contact with that gentleman, were it not for the fact that he, +some days since, most graciously condescended to assure us that +he would never be found wasting ammunition on small game. On the +same fortunate occasion, he further gave us to understand, that +he regarded himself as being decidedly the superior of our common +friend from Randolph [Mr. Shields]; and feeling, as I really do, +that I, to say the most of myself, am nothing more than the peer +of our friend from Randolph, I shall regard the gentleman from +Coles as decidedly my superior also, and consequently, in the +course of what I shall have to say, whenever I shall have +occasion to allude to that gentleman, I shall endeavor to adopt +that kind of court language which I understand to be due to +decided superiority. In one faculty, at least, there can be no +dispute of the gentleman's superiority over me and most other +men, and that is, the faculty of entangling a subject, so that +neither himself, or any other man, can find head or tail to it. +Here he has introduced a resolution embracing ninety-nine printed +lines across common writing paper, and yet more than one half of +his opening speech has been made upon subjects about which there +is not one word said in his resolution. + +Though his resolution embraces nothing in regard to the +constitutionality of the Bank, much of what he has said has been +with a view to make the impression that it was unconstitutional +in its inception. Now, although I am satisfied that an ample +field may be found within the pale of the resolution, at least +for small game, yet, as the gentleman has traveled out of it, I +feel that I may, with all due humility, venture to follow him. +The gentleman has discovered that some gentleman at Washington +city has been upon the very eve of deciding our Bank +unconstitutional, and that he would probably have completed his +very authentic decision, had not some one of the Bank officers +placed his hand upon his mouth, and begged him to withhold it. +The fact that the individuals composing our Supreme Court have, +in an official capacity, decided in favor of the +constitutionality of the Bank, would, in my mind, seem a +sufficient answer to this. It is a fact known to all, that the +members of the Supreme Court, together with the Governor, form a +Council of Revision, and that this Council approved this Bank +charter. I ask, then, if the extra-judicial decision not quite +but almost made by the gentleman at Washington, before whom, by +the way, the question of the constitutionality of our Bank never +has, nor never can come--is to be taken as paramount to a +decision officially made by that tribunal, by which, and which +alone, the constitutionality of the Bank can ever be settled? +But, aside from this view of the subject, I would ask, if the +committee which this resolution proposes to appoint are to +examine into the Constitutionality of the Bank? Are they to be +clothed with power to send for persons and papers, for this +object? And after they have found the bank to be +unconstitutional, and decided it so, how are they to enforce +their decision? What will their decision amount to? They cannot +compel the Bank to cease operations, or to change the course of +its operations. What good, then, can their labors result in? +Certainly none. + +The gentleman asks, if we, without an examination, shall, by +giving the State deposits to the Bank, and by taking the stock +reserved for the State, legalize its former misconduct. Now I do +not pretend to possess sufficient legal knowledge to decide +whether a legislative enactment proposing to, and accepting from, +the Bank, certain terms, would have the effect to legalize or +wipe out its former errors, or not; but I can assure the +gentleman, if such should be the effect, he has already got +behind the settlement of accounts; for it is well known to all, +that the Legislature, at its last session, passed a supplemental +Bank charter, which the Bank has since accepted, and which, +according to his doctrine, has legalized all the alleged +violations of its original charter in the distribution of its +stock. + +I now proceed to the resolution. By examination it will be found +that the first thirty-three lines, being precisely one third of +the whole, relate exclusively to the distribution of the stock by +the commissioners appointed by the State. Now, Sir, it is clear +that no question can arise on this portion of the resolution, +except a question between capitalists in regard to the ownership +of stock. Some gentlemen have their stock in their hands, while +others, who have more money than they know what to do with, want +it; and this, and this alone, is the question, to settle which we +are called on to squander thousands of the people's money. What +interest, let me ask, have the people in the settlement of this +question? What difference is it to them whether the stock is +owned by Judge Smith or Sam Wiggins? If any gentleman be entitled +to stock in the Bank, which he is kept out of possession of by +others, let him assert his right in the Supreme Court, and let +him or his antagonist, whichever may be found in the wrong, pay +the costs of suit. It is an old maxim, and a very sound one, +that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. Now, Sir, in +the present case, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden to +them, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the +people's money being used to pay the fiddler. No one can doubt +that the examination proposed by this resolution must cost the +State some ten or twelve thousand dollars; and all this to settle +a question in which the people have no interest, and about which +they care nothing. These capitalists generally act harmoniously +and in concert, to fleece the people, and now that they have got +into a quarrel with themselves we are called upon to appropriate +the people's money to settle the quarrel. + +I leave this part of the resolution and proceed to the remainder. +It will be found that no charge in the remaining part of the +resolution, if true, amounts to the violation of the Bank +charter, except one, which I will notice in due time. It might +seem quite sufficient to say no more upon any of these charges or +insinuations than enough to show they are not violations of the +charter; yet, as they are ingeniously framed and handled, with a +view to deceive and mislead, I will notice in their order all the +most prominent of them. The first of these is in relation to a +connection between our Bank and several banking institutions in +other States. Admitting this connection to exist, I should like +to see the gentleman from Coles, or any other gentleman, +undertake to show that there is any harm in it. What can there +be in such a connection, that the people of Illinois are willing +to pay their money to get a peep into? By a reference to the +tenth section of the Bank charter, any gentleman can see that the +framers of the act contemplated the holding of stock in the +institutions of other corporations. Why, then, is it, when +neither law nor justice forbids it, that we are asked to spend +our time and money in inquiring into its truth? + +The next charge, in the order of time, is, that some officer, +director, clerk or servant of the Bank, has been required to take +an oath of secrecy in relation to the affairs of said Bank. Now, +I do not know whether this be true or false--neither do I believe +any honest man cares. I know that the seventh section of the +charter expressly guarantees to the Bank the right of making, +under certain restrictions, such by-laws as it may think fit; and +I further know that the requiring an oath of secrecy would not +transcend those restrictions. What, then, if the Bank has chosen +to exercise this right? Whom can it injure? Does not every +merchant have his secret mark? and who is ever silly enough to +complain of it? I presume if the Bank does require any such oath +of secrecy, it is done through a motive of delicacy to those +individuals who deal with it. Why, Sir, not many days since, one +gentleman upon this floor, who, by the way, I have no doubt is +now ready to join this hue and cry against the Bank, indulged in +a philippic against one of the Bank officials, because, as he +said, he had divulged a secret. + +Immediately following this last charge, there are several +insinuations in the resolution, which are too silly to require +any sort of notice, were it not for the fact that they conclude +by saying, "to the great injury of the people at large." In +answer to this I would say that it is strange enough, that the +people are suffering these "great injuries," and yet are not +sensible of it! Singular indeed that the people should be +writhing under oppression and injury, and yet not one among them +to be found to raise the voice of complaint. If the Bank be +inflicting injury upon the people, why is it that not a single +petition is presented to this body on the subject? If the Bank +really be a grievance, why is it that no one of the real people +is found to ask redress of it? The truth is, no such oppression +exists. If it did, our people would groan with memorials and +petitions, and we would not be permitted to rest day or night, +till we had put it down. The people know their rights, and they +are never slow to assert and maintain them, when they are +invaded. Let them call for an investigation, and I shall ever +stand ready to respond to the call. But they have made no such +call. I make the assertion boldly, and without fear of +contradiction, that no man, who does not hold an office, or does +not aspire to one, has ever found any fault of the Bank. It has +doubled the prices of the products of their farms, and filled +their pockets with a sound circulating medium, and they are all +well pleased with its operations. No, Sir, it is the politician +who is the first to sound the alarm (which, by the way, is a +false one.) It is he, who, by these unholy means, is endeavoring +to blow up a storm that he may ride upon and direct. It is he, +and he alone, that here proposes to spend thousands of the +people's public treasure, for no other advantage to them than to +make valueless in their pockets the reward of their industry. +Mr. Chairman, this work is exclusively the work of politicians; a +set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the +people, and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, +at least one long step removed from honest men. I say this with +the greater freedom, because, being a politician myself, none can +regard it as personal. + +Again, it is charged, or rather insinuated, that officers of the +Bank have loaned money at usurious rates of interest. Suppose +this to be true, are we to send a committee of this House to +inquire into it? Suppose the committee should find it true, can +they redress the injured individuals? Assuredly not. If any +individual had been injured in this way, is there not an ample +remedy to be found in the laws of the land? Does the gentleman +from Coles know that there is a statute standing in full force +making it highly penal for an individual to loan money at a +higher rate of interest than twelve per cent? If he does not he +is too ignorant to be placed at the head of the committee which +his resolution purposes and if he does, his neglect to mention it +shows him to be too uncandid to merit the respect or confidence +of any one. + +But besides all this, if the Bank were struck from existence, +could not the owners of the capital still loan it usuriously, as +well as now? whatever the Bank, or its officers, may have done, I +know that usurious transactions were much more frequent and +enormous before the commencement of its operations than they have +ever been since. + +The next insinuation is, that the Bank has refused specie +payments. This, if true is a violation of the charter. But +there is not the least probability of its truth; because, if such +had been the fact, the individual to whom payment was refused +would have had an interest in making it public, by suing for the +damages to which the charter entitles him. Yet no such thing has +been done; and the strong presumption is, that the insinuation is +false and groundless. + +From this to the end of the resolution, there is nothing that +merits attention--I therefore drop the particular examination of +it. + +By a general view of the resolution, it will be seen that a +principal object of the committee is to examine into, and ferret +out, a mass of corruption supposed to have been committed by the +commissioners who apportioned the stock of the Bank. I believe +it is universally understood and acknowledged that all men will +ever act correctly unless they have a motive to do otherwise. If +this be true, we can only suppose that the commissioners acted +corruptly by also supposing that they were bribed to do so. +Taking this view of the subject, I would ask if the Bank is +likely to find it more difficult to bribe the committee of seven, +which, we are about to appoint, than it may have found it to +bribe the commissioners? + +(Here Mr. Linder called to order. The Chair decided that Mr. +Lincoln was not out of order. Mr. Linder appealed to the House, +but, before the question was put, withdrew his appeal, saying he +preferred to let the gentleman go on; he thought he would break +his own neck. Mr. Lincoln proceeded:) + +Another gracious condescension! I acknowledge it with gratitude. +I know I was not out of order; and I know every sensible man in +the House knows it. I was not saying that the gentleman from +Coles could be bribed, nor, on the other hand, will I say he +could not. In that particular I leave him where I found him. I +was only endeavoring to show that there was at least as great a +probability of any seven members that could be selected from this +House being bribed to act corruptly, as there was that the +twenty-four commissioners had been so bribed. By a reference to +the ninth section of the Bank charter, it will be seen that those +commissioners were John Tilson, Robert K. McLaughlin, Daniel +Warm, A.G. S. Wight, John C. Riley, W. H. Davidson, Edward +M. Wilson, Edward L. Pierson, Robert R. Green, Ezra Baker, +Aquilla Wren, John Taylor, Samuel C. Christy, Edmund Roberts, +Benjamin Godfrey, Thomas Mather, A. M. Jenkins, W. Linn, W. +S. Gilman, Charles Prentice, Richard I. Hamilton, A.H. +Buckner, W. F. Thornton, and Edmund D. Taylor. + +These are twenty-four of the most respectable men in the State. +Probably no twenty-four men could be selected in the State with +whom the people are better acquainted, or in whose honor and +integrity they would more readily place confidence. And I now +repeat, that there is less probability that those men have been +bribed and corrupted, than that any seven men, or rather any six +men, that could be selected from the members of this House, might +be so bribed and corrupted, even though they were headed and led +on by "decided superiority" himself. + +In all seriousness, I ask every reasonable man, if an issue be +joined by these twenty-four commissioners, on the one part, and +any other seven men, on the other part, and the whole depend upon +the honor and integrity of the contending parties, to which party +would the greatest degree of credit be due? Again: Another +consideration is, that we have no right to make the examination. +What I shall say upon this head I design exclusively for the law- +loving and law-abiding part of the House. To those who claim +omnipotence for the Legislature, and who in the plenitude of +their assumed powers are disposed to disregard the Constitution, +law, good faith, moral right, and everything else, I have not a +word to say. But to the law-abiding part I say, examine the Bank +charter, go examine the Constitution, go examine the acts that +the General Assembly of this State has passed, and you will find +just as much authority given in each and every of them to compel +the Bank to bring its coffers to this hall and to pour their +contents upon this floor, as to compel it to submit to this +examination which this resolution proposes. Why, Sir, the +gentleman from Coles, the mover of this resolution, very lately +denied on this floor that the Legislature had any right to repeal +or otherwise meddle with its own acts, when those acts were made +in the nature of contracts, and had been accepted and acted on by +other parties. Now I ask if this resolution does not propose, +for this House alone, to do what he, but the other day, denied +the right of the whole Legislature to do? He must either abandon +the position he then took, or he must now vote against his own +resolution. It is no difference to me, and I presume but little +to any one else, which he does. + +I am by no means the special advocate of the Bank. I have long +thought that it would be well for it to report its condition to +the General Assembly, and that cases might occur, when it might +be proper to make an examination of its affairs by a committee. +Accordingly, during the last session, while a bill supplemental +to the Bank charter was pending before the House, I offered an +amendment to the same, in these words: "The said corporation +shall, at the next session of the General Assembly, and at each +subsequent General Session, during the existence of its charter, +report to the same the amount of debts due from said corporation; +the amount of debts due to the same; the amount of specie in its +vaults, and an account of all lands then owned by the same, and +the amount for which such lands have been taken; and moreover, if +said corporation shall at any time neglect or refuse to submit +its books, papers, and all and everything necessary for a full +and fair examination of its affairs, to any person or persons +appointed by the General Assembly, for the purpose of making such +examination, the said corporation shall forfeit its charter." + +This amendment was negatived by a vote of 34 to 15. Eleven of +the 34 who voted against it are now members of this House; and +though it would be out of order to call their names, I hope they +will all recollect themselves, and not vote for this examination +to be made without authority, inasmuch as they refused to receive +the authority when it was in their power to do so. + +I have said that cases might occur, when an examination might be +proper; but I do not believe any such case has now occurred; and +if it has, I should still be opposed to making an examination +without legal authority. I am opposed to encouraging that +lawless and mobocratic spirit, whether in relation to the Bank or +anything else, which is already abroad in the land and is +spreading with rapid and fearful impetuosity, to the ultimate +overthrow of every institution, of every moral principle, in +which persons and property have hitherto found security. + +But supposing we had the authority, I would ask what good can +result from the examination? Can we declare the Bank +unconstitutional, and compel it to desist from the abuses of its +power, provided we find such abuses to exist? Can we repair the +injuries which it may have done to individuals? Most certainly we +can do none of these things. Why then +shall we spend the public money in such employment? Oh, say the +examiners, we can injure the credit of the Bank, if nothing else, +Please tell me, gentlemen, who will suffer most by that? You +cannot injure, to any extent, the stockholders. They are men of +wealth--of large capital; and consequently, beyond the power of +malice. But by injuring the credit of the Bank, you will +depreciate the value of its paper in the hands of the honest and +unsuspecting farmer and mechanic, and that is all you can do. +But suppose you could effect your whole purpose; suppose you +could wipe the Bank from existence, which is the grand ultimatum +of the project, what would be the consequence? why, Sir, we +should spend several thousand dollars of the public treasure in +the operation, annihilate the currency of the State, render +valueless in the hands of our people that reward of their former +labors, and finally be once more under the comfortable obligation +of paying the Wiggins loan, principal and interest. + + + + +OPPOSITION TO MOB-RULE + +ADDRESS BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN' S LYCEUM OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. + +January 27, 1837. + +As a subject for the remarks of the evening, "The Perpetuation of +our Political Institutions "is selected. + +In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the +American people, find our account running under date of the +nineteenth century of the Christian era. We find ourselves in +the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth as +regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of +climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of +political institutions conducing more essentially to the ends of +civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of +former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, +found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental +blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of +them; they are a legacy bequeathed us by a once hardy, brave, and +patriotic, but now lamented and departed, race of ancestors. +Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess +themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land, and +to uprear upon its hills and its valleys a political edifice of +liberty and equal rights; it is ours only to transmit these--the +former unprofaned by the foot of an invader, the latter undecayed +by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation--to the latest +generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task +gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to +posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively +require us faithfully to perform. + +How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the +approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? +Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the +ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, +Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth +(our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for +a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or +make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. + +At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I +answer: If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it +cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must +ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we +must live through all time, or die by suicide. + +I hope I am over-wary; but if I am not, there is even now +something of ill omen amongst us. I mean the increasing +disregard for law which pervades the country--the growing +disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions in lieu +of the sober judgment of courts, and the worse than savage mobs +for the executive ministers of justice. This disposition is +awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, +though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation +of truth and an insult to our intelligence to deny. Accounts of +outrages committed by mobs form the everyday news of the times. +They have pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana; +they are neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the former nor +the burning suns of the latter; they are not the creature of +climate, neither are they confined to the slave holding or the +non-slave holding States. Alike they spring up among the +pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving +citizens of the land of steady habits. Whatever then their cause +may be, it is common to the whole country. + +It would be tedious as well as useless to recount the horrors of +all of them. Those happening in the State of Mississippi and at +St. Louis are perhaps the most dangerous in example and +revolting to humanity. In the Mississippi case they first +commenced by hanging the regular gamblers--a set of men certainly +not following for a livelihood a very useful or very honest +occupation, but one which, so far from being forbidden by the +laws, was actually licensed by an act of the Legislature passed +but a single year before. Next, negroes suspected of conspiring +to raise an insurrection were caught up and hanged in all parts +of the State; then, white men supposed to be leagued with the +negroes; and finally, strangers from neighboring States, going +thither on business, were in many instances subjected to the same +fate. Thus went on this process of hanging, from gamblers to +negroes, from negroes to white citizens, and from these to +strangers, till dead men were seen literally dangling from the +boughs of trees upon every roadside, and in numbers almost +sufficient to rival the native Spanish moss of the country as a +drapery of the forest. + +Turn then to that horror-striking scene at St. Louis. A single +victim only was sacrificed there. This story is very short, and +is perhaps the most highly tragic of anything of its length that +has ever been witnessed in real life. A mulatto man by the name +of McIntosh was seized in the street, dragged to the suburbs of +the city, chained to a tree, and actually burned to death; and +all within a single hour from the time he had been a freeman +attending to his own business and at peace with the world. + +Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the scenes becoming +more and more frequent in this land so lately famed for love of +law and order, and the stories of which have even now grown too +familiar to attract anything more than an idle remark. + +But you are perhaps ready to ask, "What has this to do with the +perpetuation of our political institutions?" I answer, It has +much to do with it. Its direct consequences are, comparatively +speaking, but a small evil, and much of its danger consists in +the proneness of our minds to regard its direct as its only +consequences. Abstractly considered, the hanging of the gamblers +at Vicksburg was of but little consequence. They constitute a +portion of population that is worse than useless in any +community; and their death, if no pernicious example be set by +it, is never matter of reasonable regret with any one. If they +were annually swept from the stage of existence by the plague or +smallpox, honest men would perhaps be much profited by the +operation. Similar too is the correct reasoning in regard to the +burning of the negro at St. Louis. He had forfeited his life by +the perpetration of an outrageous murder upon one of the most +worthy and respectable citizens of the city, and had he not died +as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the law in a very +short time afterwards. As to him alone, it was as well the way +it was as it could otherwise have been. But the example in +either case was fearful. When men take it in their heads to-day +to hang gamblers or burn murderers, they should recollect that in +the confusion usually attending such transactions they will be as +likely to hang or burn some one who is neither a gambler nor a +murderer as one who is, and that, acting upon the example they +set, the mob of to-morrow may, and probably will, hang or burn +some of them by the very same mistake. And not only so: the +innocent, those who have ever set their faces against violations +of law in every shape, alike with the guilty fall victims to the +ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by step, till all +the walls erected for the defense of the persons and property of +individuals are trodden down and disregarded. But all this, +even, is not the full extent of the evil. By such examples, by +instances of the perpetrators of such acts going unpunished, the +lawless in spirit are encouraged to become lawless in practice; +and having been used to no restraint but dread of punishment, +they thus become absolutely unrestrained. Having ever regarded +government as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of the +suspension of its operations, and pray for nothing so much as its +total annihilation. While, on the other hand, good men, men who +love tranquillity, who desire to abide by the laws and enjoy +their benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense +of their country, seeing their property destroyed, their families +insulted, and their lives endangered, their persons injured, and +seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the +better, become tired of and disgusted with a government that +offers them no protection, and are not much averse to a change in +which they imagine they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the +operation of this mobocratic spirit which all must admit is now +abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of any government, and +particularly of those constituted like ours, may effectually be +broken down and destroyed--I mean the attachment of the people. +Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever the +vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in +bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and +rob provision-stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot +editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and with +impunity, depend on it, this government cannot last. By such +things the feelings of the best citizens will become more or less +alienated from it, and thus it will be left without friends, or +with too few, and those few too weak to make their friendship +effectual. At such a time, and under such circumstances, men of +sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the +opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric which +for the last half century has been the fondest hope of the lovers +of freedom throughout the world. + +I know the American people are much attached to their government; +I know they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would +endure evils long and patiently before they would ever think of +exchanging it for another,--yet, notwithstanding all this, if the +laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to +be secure in their persons and property are held by no better +tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their +affections from the government is the natural consequence; and to +that, sooner or later, it must come. + +Here, then, is one point at which danger may be expected. + +The question recurs, How shall we fortify against it? The answer +is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every +well-wisher to his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution +never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country, +and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots +of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of +Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and laws let +every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred +honor. Let every man remember that to violate the law is to +trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of +his own and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws +be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that +prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, +and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, +and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed +in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in +short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and +let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and +the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, +sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. + +While ever a state of feeling such as this shall universally or +even very generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be +every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to subvert our +national freedom. + +When, I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, +let me not be understood as saying there are no bad laws, or that +grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal +provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I +do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be +repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in +force, for the sake of example they should be religiously +observed. So also in unprovided cases. If such arise, let +proper legal provisions be made for them with the least possible +delay, but till then let them, if not too intolerable, be borne +with. + +There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. +In any case that may arise, as, for instance, the promulgation of +abolitionism, one of two positions is necessarily true--that is, +the thing is right within itself, and therefore deserves the +protection of all law and all good citizens, or it is wrong, and +therefore proper to be prohibited by legal enactments; and in +neither case is the interposition of mob law either necessary, +justifiable, or excusable. + +But it may be asked, Why suppose danger to our political +institutions? Have we not preserved them for more than fifty +years? And why may we not for fifty times as long? + +We hope there is no sufficient reason. We hope all danger may be +overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would +itself be extremely dangerous. There are now, and will hereafter +be, many causes, dangerous in their tendency, which have not +existed heretofore, and which are not too insignificant to merit +attention. That our government should have been maintained in +its original form, from its establishment until now, is not much +to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that +period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that +period it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now it +is understood to be a successful one. Then, all that sought +celebrity and fame and distinction expected to find them in the +success of that experiment. Their all was staked upon it; their +destiny was inseparably linked with it. Their ambition aspired +to display before an admiring world a practical demonstration of +the truth of a proposition which had hitherto been considered at +best no better than problematical--namely, the capability of a +people to govern themselves. If they succeeded they were to be +immortalized; their names were to be transferred to counties, and +cities, and rivers, and mountains; and to be revered and sung, +toasted through all time. If they failed, they were to be called +knaves and fools, and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink +and be forgotten. They succeeded. The experiment is successful, +and thousands have won their deathless names in making it so. +But the game is caught; and I believe it is true that with the +catching end the pleasures of the chase. This field of glory is +harvested, and the crop is already appropriated. But new reapers +will arise, and they too will seek a field. It is to deny what +the history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of +ambition and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. +And when they do, they will as naturally seek the gratification +of their ruling passion as others have done before them. The +question then is, Can that gratification be found in supporting +and in maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others? +Most certainly it cannot. Many great and good men, sufficiently +qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found +whose ambition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, +a Gubernatorial or a Presidential chair; but such belong not to +the family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What! think +you these places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a +Napoleon? Never! Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It +seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no distinction in +adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected to the +memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve +under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any +predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for +distinction; and if possible, it will have it, whether at the +expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen. Is it +unreasonable, then, to expect that some man possessed of the +loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to +its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us? And +when such an one does it will require the people to be united +with each other, attached to the government and laws, and +generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs. + +Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would +as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, +yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in +the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of +pulling down. + +Here then is a probable case, highly dangerous, and such an one +as could not have well existed heretofore. + +Another reason which once was, but which, to the same extent, is +now no more, has done much in maintaining our institutions thus +far. I mean the powerful influence which the interesting scenes +of the Revolution had upon the passions of the people as +distinguished from their judgment. By this influence, the +jealousy, envy, and avarice incident to our nature, and so common +to a state of peace, prosperity, and conscious strength, were for +the time in a great measure smothered and rendered inactive, +while the deep-rooted principles of hate, and the powerful motive +of revenge, instead of being turned against each other, were +directed exclusively against the British nation. And thus, from +the force of circumstances, the basest principles of our nature +were either made to lie dormant, or to become the active agents +in the advancement of the noblest of causes--that of establishing +and maintaining civil and religious liberty. + +But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has faded, with +the circumstances that produced it. + +I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolution are now or +ever will be entirely forgotten, but that, like everything else, +they must fade upon the memory of the world, and grow more and +more dim by the lapse of time. In history, we hope, they will be +read of, and recounted, so long as the Bible shall be read; but +even granting that they will, their influence cannot be what it +heretofore has been. Even then they cannot be so universally +known nor so vividly felt as they were by the generation just +gone to rest. At the close of that struggle, nearly every adult +male had been a participator in some of its scenes. The +consequence was that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a +father, a son, or a brother, a living history was to be found in +every family--a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of +its own authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in the scars of +wounds received, in the midst of the very scenes related--a +history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, the +wise and the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned. But those +histories are gone. They can be read no more forever. They were +a fortress of strength; but what invading foeman could never do +the silent artillery of time has done--the leveling of its walls. +They are gone. They were a forest of giant oaks; but the all- +restless hurricane has swept over them, and left only here and +there a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its +foliage, unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle +breezes, and to combat with its mutilated limbs a few more ruder +storms, then to sink and be no more. + +They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they +have crumbled away that temple must fall unless we, their +descendants, supply their places with other pillars, hewn from +the solid quarry of sober reason. Passion has helped us, but can +do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason cold, +calculating, unimpassioned reason--must furnish all the materials +for our future support and defense. Let those materials be +moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and in +particular, a reverence for the Constitution and laws; and that +we improved to the last, that we remained free to the last, that +we revered his name to the last, that during his long sleep we +permitted no hostile foot to pass over or desecrate his resting +place, shall be that which to learn the last trump shall awaken +our Washington. + +Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of +its basis; and as truly as has been said of the only greater +institution, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." + + + + +PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE ON THE +SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. + +March 3, 1837. + +The following protest was presented to the House, which was read +and ordered to be spread in the journals, to wit: + +"Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having 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 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 +said resolutions is their reason for entering this protest. + +"DAN STONE, +"A. LINCOLN, +"Representatives from the County of Sangamon." + + + + +TO MISS MARY OWENS. + +SPRINGFIELD, May 7, 1837. + +MISS MARY S. OWENS. + +FRIEND MARY:--I have commenced two letters to send you before +this, both of which displeased me before I got half done, and so +I tore them up. The first I thought was not serious enough, and +the second was on the other extreme. I shall send this, turn out +as it may. + +This thing of living in Springfield is rather a dull business, +after all; at least it is so to me. I am quite as lonesome here +as I ever was anywhere in my life. I have been spoken to by but +one woman since I have been here, and should not have been by her +if she could have avoided it. I 've never been to church yet, +and probably shall not be soon. I stay away because I am +conscious I should not know how to behave myself. + +I am often thinking of what we said about your coming to live at +Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There is a +great deal of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would +be your doom to see without sharing it. You would have to be +poor, without the means of hiding your poverty. Do you believe +you could bear that patiently? Whatever woman may cast her lot +with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to do all in +my power to make her happy and contented; and there is nothing I +can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the +effort. I know I should be much happier with you than the way I +am, provided I saw no signs of discontent in you. What you have +said to me may have been in the way of jest, or I may have +misunderstood you. If so, then let it be forgotten; if +otherwise, I much wish you would think seriously before you +decide. What I have said I will most positively abide by, +provided you wish it. My opinion is that you had better not do +it. You have not been accustomed to hardship, and it may be more +severe than you now imagine. I know you are capable of thinking +correctly on any subject, and if you deliberate maturely upon +this subject before you decide, then I am willing to abide your +decision. + +You must write me a good long letter after you get this. You +have nothing else to do, and though it might not seem interesting +to you after you had written it, it would be a good deal of +company to me in this "busy wilderness." Tell your sister I don't +want to hear any more about selling out and moving. That gives +me the "hypo" whenever I think of it. Yours, etc., + +LINCOLN + + + + +TO JOHN BENNETT. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug. 5, 1837. + +JOHN BENNETT, ESQ. + +DEAR SIR:-Mr. Edwards tells me you wish to know whether the act +to which your own incorporation provision was attached passed +into a law. It did. You can organize under the general +incorporation law as soon as you choose. + +I also tacked a provision onto a fellow's bill to authorize the +relocation of the road from Salem down to your town, but I am not +certain whether or not the bill passed, neither do I suppose I +can ascertain before the law will be published, if it is a law. +Bowling Greene, Bennette Abe? and yourself are appointed to make +the change. No news. No excitement except a little about the +election of Monday next. + +I suppose, of course, our friend Dr. Heney stands no chance in +your diggings. + +Your friend and humble servant, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MARY OWENS. + +SPRINGFIELD, +Aug. 16, 1837 + +FRIEND MARY: +You will no doubt think it rather strange that I should write you +a letter on the same day on which we parted, and I can only +account for it by supposing that seeing you lately makes me think +of you more than usual; while at our late meeting we had but few +expressions of thoughts. You must know that I cannot see you, or +think of you, with entire indifference; and yet it may be that +you are mistaken in regard to what my real feelings toward you +are. + +If I knew you were not, I should not have troubled you with this +letter. Perhaps any other man would know enough without +information; but I consider it my peculiar right to plead +ignorance, and your bounden duty to allow the plea. + +I want in all cases to do right; and most particularly so in all +cases with women. + +I want, at this particular time, more than any thing else to do +right with you; and if I knew it would be doing right, as I +rather suspect it would, to let you alone I would do it. And, +for the purpose of making the matter as plain as possible, I now +say that you can drop the subject, dismiss your thoughts (if you +ever had any) from me for ever and leave this letter unanswered +without calling forth one accusing murmur from me. And I will +even go further and say that, if it will add anything to your +comfort or peace of mind to do so, it is my sincere wish that you +should. Do not understand by this that I wish to cut your +acquaintance. I mean no such thing. What I do wish is that our +further acquaintance shall depend upon yourself. If such further +acquaintance would contribute nothing to your happiness, I am +sure it would not to mine. If you feel yourself in any degree +bound to me, I am now willing to release you, provided you wish +it; while on the other hand I am willing and even anxious to bind +you faster if I can be convinced that it will, in any +considerable degree, add to your happiness. This, indeed, is the +whole question with me. Nothing would make me more miserable +than to believe you miserable, nothing more happy than to know +you were so. + +In what I have now said, I think I cannot be misunderstood; and +to make myself understood is the only object of this letter. + +If it suits you best not to answer this, farewell. A long life +and a merry one attend you. But, if you conclude to write back, +speak as plainly as I do. There can neither be harm nor danger +in saying to me anything you think, just in the manner you think +it. My respects to your sister. + +Your friend, + +LINCOLN + + + + +LEGAL SUIT OF WIDOW v.s. Gen. ADAMS + +TO THE PEOPLE. + +"SANGAMON JOURNAL," SPRINGFIELD, ILL., +Aug. 19, 1837. + +In accordance with our determination, as expressed last week, we +present to the reader the articles which were published in hand- +bill form, in reference to the case of the heirs of Joseph +Anderson vs. James Adams. These articles can now be read +uninfluenced by personal or party feeling, and with the sole +motive of learning the truth. When that is done, the reader can +pass his own judgment on the matters at issue. + +We only regret in this case, that the publications were not made +some weeks before the election. Such a course might have +prevented the expressions of regret, which have often been heard +since, from different individuals, on account of the disposition +they made of their votes. + + + +To the Public: + +It is well known to most of you, that there is existing at this +time considerable excitement in regard to Gen. Adams's titles to +certain tracts of land, and the manner in which he acquired them. +As I understand, the Gen. charges that the whole has been gotten +up by a knot of lawyers to injure his election; and as I am one +of the knot to which he refers, and as I happen to be in +possession of facts connected with the matter, I will, in as +brief a manner as possible, make a statement of them, together +with the means by which I arrived at the knowledge of them. + +Sometime in May or June last, a widow woman, by the name of +Anderson, and her son, who resides in Fulton county, came to +Springfield, for the purpose as they said of selling a ten acre +lot of ground lying near town, which they claimed as the property +of the deceased husband and father. + +When they reached town they found the land was claimed by Gen. +Adams. John T. Stuart and myself were employed to look into the +matter, and if it was thought we could do so with any prospect of +success, to commence a suit for the land. I went immediately to +the recorder's office to examine Adams's title, and found that +the land had been entered by one Dixon, deeded by Dixon to +Thomas, by Thomas to one Miller, and by Miller to Gen. Adams. +The oldest of these three deeds was about ten or eleven years +old, and the latest more than five, all recorded at the same +time, and that within less than one year. This I thought a +suspicious circumstance, and I was thereby induced to examine the +deeds very closely, with a view to the discovery of some defect +by which to overturn the title, being almost convinced then it +was founded in fraud. I discovered that in the deed from Thomas +to Miller, although Miller's name stood in a sort of marginal +note on the record book, it was nowhere in the deed itself. I +told the fact to Talbott, the recorder, and proposed to him that +he should go to Gen. Adams's and get the original deed, and +compare it with the record, and thereby ascertain whether the +defect was in the original or there was merely an error in the +recording. As Talbott afterwards told me, he went to the +General's, but not finding him at home, got the deed from his +son, which, when compared with the record, proved what we had +discovered was merely an error of the recorder. After Mr. +Talbott corrected the record, be brought the original to our +office, as I then thought and think yet, to show us that it was +right. When he came into the room he handed the deed to me, +remarking that the fault was all his own. On opening it, another +paper fell out of it, which on examination proved to be an +assignment of a judgment in the Circuit Court of Sangamon County +from Joseph Anderson, the late husband of the widow above named, +to James Adams, the judgment being in favor of said Anderson +against one Joseph Miller. Knowing that this judgment had some +connection with the land affair, I immediately took a copy of it, +which is word for word, letter for letter and cross for cross as +follows: + +Joseph Anderson, +vs. +Joseph Miller. + +Judgment in Sangamon Circuit Court against Joseph Miller obtained +on a note originally 25 dolls and interest thereon accrued. +I assign all my right, title and interest to James Adams which is +in consideration of a debt I owe said Adams. + +his +JOSEPH x ANDERSON. +mark. + + +As the copy shows, it bore date May 10, 1827; although the +judgment assigned by it was not obtained until the October +afterwards, as may be seen by any one on the records of the +Circuit Court. Two other strange circumstances attended it which +cannot be represented by a copy. One of them was, that the date +"1827" had first been made "1837" and, without the figure "3," +being fully obliterated, the figure "2" had afterwards been made +on top of it; the other was that, although the date was ten years +old, the writing on it, from the freshness of its appearance, was +thought by many, and I believe by all who saw it, not to be more +than a week old. The paper on which it was written had a very +old appearance; and there were some old figures on the back of it +which made the freshness of the writing on the face of it much +more striking than I suppose it otherwise might have been. The +reader's curiosity is no doubt excited to know what connection +this assignment had with the land in question. The story is +this: Dixon sold and deeded the land to Thomas; Thomas sold it to +Anderson; but before he gave a deed, Anderson sold it to Miller, +and took Miller's note for the purchase money. When this note +became due, Anderson sued Miller on it, and Miller procured an +injunction from the Court of Chancery to stay the collection of +the money until he should get a deed for the land. Gen. Adams +was employed as an attorney by Anderson in this chancery suit, +and at the October term, 1827, the injunction was dissolved, and +a judgment given in favor of Anderson against Miller; and it was +provided that Thomas was to execute a deed for the land in favor +of Miller and deliver it to Gen. Adams, to be held up by him till +Miller paid the judgment, and then to deliver it to him. Miller +left the county without paying the judgment. Anderson moved to +Fulton county, where he has since died When the widow came to +Springfield last May or June, as before mentioned, and found the +land deeded to Gen. Adams by Miller, she was naturally led to +inquire why the money due upon the judgment had not been sent to +them, inasmuch as he, Gen. Adams, had no authority to deliver +Thomas's deed to Miller until the money was paid. Then it was +the General told her, or perhaps her son, who came with her, that +Anderson, in his lifetime, had assigned the judgment to him, Gen. +Adams. I am now told that the General is exhibiting an +assignment of the same judgment bearing date "1828" and in other +respects differing from the one described; and that he is +asserting that no such assignment as the one copied by me ever +existed; or if there did, it was forged between Talbott and the +lawyers, and slipped into his papers for the purpose of injuring +him. Now, I can only say that I know precisely such a one did +exist, and that Ben. Talbott, Wm. Butler, C.R. Matheny, John +T. Stuart, Judge Logan, Robert Irwin, P. C. Canedy and S. M. +Tinsley, all saw and examined it, and that at least one half of +them will swear that IT WAS IN GENERAL ADAMS'S HANDWRITING !! And +further, I know that Talbott will swear that he got it out of the +General's possession, and returned it into his possession again. +The assignment which the General is now exhibiting purports to +have been by Anderson in writing. The one I copied was signed +with a cross. + +I am told that Gen. Neale says that he will swear that he heard +Gen. Adams tell young Anderson that the assignment made by his +father was signed with a cross. + +The above are 'facts,' as stated. I leave them without comment. +I have given the names of persons who have knowledge of these +facts, in order that any one who chooses may call on them and +ascertain how far they will corroborate my statements. I have +only made these statements because I am known by many to be one +of the individuals against whom the charge of forging the +assignment and slipping it into the General's papers has been +made, and because our silence might be construed into a +confession of its truth. I shall not subscribe my name; but I +hereby authorize the editor of the Journal to give it up to any +one that may call for it. + + + + +LINCOLN AND TALBOTT IN REPLY TO GEN. ADAMS. + +"SANGAMON JOURNAL," SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Oct. 28, 1837. + +In the Republican of this morning a publication of Gen. Adams's +appears, in which my name is used quite unreservedly. For this I +thank the General. I thank him because it gives me an +opportunity, without appearing obtrusive, of explaining a part of +a former publication of mine, which appears to me to have been +misunderstood by many. + +In the former publication alluded to, I stated, in substance, +that Mr. Talbott got a deed from a son of Gen. Adams's for the +purpose of correcting a mistake that had occurred on the record +of the said deed in the recorder's office; that he corrected the +record, and brought the deed and handed it to me, and that on +opening the deed, another paper, being the assignment of a +judgment, fell out of it. This statement Gen. Adams and the +editor of the Republican have seized upon as a most palpable +evidence of fabrication and falsehood. They set themselves +gravely about proving that the assignment could not have been in +the deed when Talbott got it from young Adams, as he, Talbott, +would have seen it when he opened the deed to correct the record. +Now, the truth is, Talbott did see the assignment when he opened +the deed, or at least he told me he did on the same day; and I +only omitted to say so, in my former publication, because it was +a matter of such palpable and necessary inference. I had stated +that Talbott had corrected the record by the deed; and of course +he must have opened it; and, just as the General and his friends +argue, must have seen the assignment. I omitted to state the +fact of Talbott's seeing the assignment, because its existence +was so necessarily connected with other facts which I did state, +that I thought the greatest dunce could not but understand it. +Did I say Talbott had not seen it? Did I say anything that was +inconsistent with his having seen it before? Most certainly I did +neither; and if I did not, what becomes of the argument? These +logical gentlemen can sustain their argument only by assuming +that I did say negatively everything that I did not say +affirmatively; and upon the same assumption, we may expect to +find the General, if a little harder pressed for argument, saying +that I said Talbott came to our office with his head downward, +not that I actually said so, but because I omitted to say he came +feet downward. + +In his publication to-day, the General produces the affidavit of +Reuben Radford, in which it is said that Talbott told Radford +that he did not find the assignment in the deed, in the recording +of which the error was committed, but that he found it wrapped in +another paper in the recorder's office, upon which statement the +Genl. comments as follows, to wit: +"If it be true as stated by Talbott to Radford, that he found the +assignment wrapped up in another paper at his office, that +contradicts the statement of Lincoln that it fell out of the +deed." + +Is common sense to be abused with such sophistry? Did I say what +Talbott found it in? If Talbott did find it in another paper at +his office, is that any reason why he could not have folded it in +a deed and brought it to my office? Can any one be so far duped +as to be made believe that what may have happened at Talbot's +office at one time is inconsistent with what happened at my +office at another time? + +Now Talbott's statement of the case as he makes it to me is this, +that he got a bunch of deeds from young Adams, and that he knows +he found the assignment in the bunch, but he is not certain which +particular deed it was in, nor is he certain whether it was +folded in the same deed out of which it was taken, or another +one, when it was brought to my office. Is this a mysterious +story? Is there anything suspicious about it? + +"But it is useless to dwell longer on this point. Any man who is +not wilfully blind can see at a flash, that there is no +discrepancy, and Lincoln has shown that they are not only +inconsistent with truth, but each other"--I can only say, that I +have shown that he has done no such thing; and if the reader is +disposed to require any other evidence than the General's +assertion, he will be of my opinion. + +Excepting the General's most flimsy attempt at mystification, in +regard to a discrepance between Talbott and myself, he has not +denied a single statement that I made in my hand-bill. Every +material statement that I made has been sworn to by men who, in +former times, were thought as respectable as General Adams. I +stated that an assignment of a judgment, a copy of which I gave, +had existed--Benj. Talbott, C. R. Matheny, Wm. Butler, and +Judge Logan swore to its existence. I stated that it was said to +be in Gen. Adams's handwriting--the same men swore it was in his +handwriting. I stated that Talbott would swear that he got it +out of Gen. Adams's possession--Talbott came forward and did +swear it. + +Bidding adieu to the former publication, I now propose to examine +the General's last gigantic production. I now propose to point +out some discrepancies in the General's address; and such, too, +as he shall not be able to escape from. Speaking of the famous +assignment, the General says: "This last charge, which was their +last resort, their dying effort to render my character infamous +among my fellow citizens, was manufactured at a certain lawyer's +office in the town, printed at the office of the Sangamon +Journal, and found its way into the world some time between two +days just before the last election." Now turn to Mr. Keys' +affidavit, in which you will find the following, viz.: "I certify +that some time in May or the early part of June, 1837, I saw at +Williams's corner a paper purporting to be an assignment from +Joseph Anderson to James Adams, which assignment was signed by a +mark to Anderson's name," etc. Now mark, if Keys saw the +assignment on the last of May or first of June, Gen. Adams tells +a falsehood when he says it was manufactured just before the +election, which was on the 7th of August; and if it was +manufactured just before the election, Keys tells a falsehood +when he says he saw it on the last of May or first of June. +Either Keys or the General is irretrievably in for it; and in the +General's very condescending language, I say "Let them settle it +between them." + +Now again, let the reader, bearing in mind that General Adams has +unequivocally said, in one part of his address, that the charge +in relation to the assignment was manufactured just before the +election, turn to the affidavit of Peter S. Weber, where the +following will be found viz.: "I, Peter S. Weber, do certify +that from the best of my recollection, on the day or day after +Gen. Adams started for the Illinois Rapids, in May last, that I +was at the house of Gen. Adams, sitting in the kitchen, situated +on the back part of the house, it being in the afternoon, and +that Benjamin Talbott came around the house, back into the +kitchen, and appeared wild and confused, and that he laid a +package of papers on the kitchen table and requested that they +should be handed to Lucian. He made no apology for coming to the +kitchen, nor for not handing them to Lucian himself, but showed +the token of being frightened and confused both in demeanor and +speech and for what cause I could not apprehend." + +Commenting on Weber's affidavit, Gen. Adams asks, "Why this +fright and confusion?" I reply that this is a question for the +General himself. Weber says that it was in May, and if so, it is +most clear that Talbott was not frightened on account of the +assignment, unless the General lies when he says the assignment +charge was manufactured just before the election. Is it not a +strong evidence, that the General is not traveling with the pole- +star of truth in his front, to see him in one part of his address +roundly asserting that the assignment was manufactured just +before the election, and then, forgetting that position, +procuring Weber's most foolish affidavit, to prove that Talbott +had been engaged in manufacturing it two months before? + +In another part of his address, Gen. Adams says: "That I hold an +assignment of said judgment, dated the 20th of May, 1828, and +signed by said Anderson, I have never pretended to deny or +conceal, but stated that fact in one of my circulars previous to +the election, and also in answer to a bill in chancery." Now I +pronounce this statement unqualifiedly false, and shall not rely +on the word or oath of any man to sustain me in what I say; but +will let the whole be decided by reference to the circular and +answer in chancery of which the General speaks. In his circular +he did speak of an assignment; but he did not say it bore date +20th of May, 1828; nor did he say it bore any date. In his +answer in chancery, he did say that he had an assignment; but he +did not say that it bore date the 20th May, 1828; but so far from +it, he said on oath (for he swore to the answer) that as well as +recollected, he obtained it in 1827. If any one doubts, let him +examine the circular and answer for himself. They are both +accessible. + +It will readily be observed that the principal part of Adams's +defense rests upon the argument that if he had been base enough +to forge an assignment he would not have been fool enough to +forge one that would not cover the case. This argument he used +in his circular before the election. The Republican has used it +at least once, since then; and Adams uses it again in his +publication of to-day. Now I pledge myself to show that he is +just such a fool that he and his friends have contended it was +impossible for him to be. Recollect--he says he has a genuine +assignment; and that he got Joseph Klein's affidavit, stating +that he had seen it, and that he believed the signature to have +been executed by the same hand that signed Anderson's name to the +answer in chancery. Luckily Klein took a copy of this genuine +assignment, which I have been permitted to see; and hence I know +it does not cover the case. In the first place it is headed +"Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph Miller," and heads off "Judgment in +Sangamon Circuit Court." Now, mark, there never was a case in +Sangamon Circuit Court entitled Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph +Miller. The case mentioned in my former publication, and the +only one between these parties that ever existed in the Circuit +Court, was entitled Joseph Miller vs. Joseph Anderson, Miller +being the plaintiff. What then becomes of all their sophistry +about Adams not being fool enough to forge an assignment that +would not cover the case? It is certain that the present one does +not cover the case; and if he got it honestly, it is still clear +that he was fool enough to pay for an assignment that does not +cover the case. + +The General asks for the proof of disinterested witnesses. Whom +does he consider disinterested? None can be more so than those +who have already testified against him. No one of them had the +least interest on earth, so far as I can learn, to injure him. +True, he says they had conspired against him; but if the +testimony of an angel from Heaven were introduced against him, he +would make the same charge of conspiracy. And now I put the +question to every reflecting man, Do you believe that Benjamin +Talbott, Chas. R. Matheny, William Butler and Stephen T. +Logan, all sustaining high and spotless characters, and justly +proud of them, would deliberately perjure themselves, without any +motive whatever, except to injure a man's election; and that, +too, a man who had been a candidate, time out of mind, and yet +who had never been elected to any office? + +Adams's assurance, in demanding disinterested testimony, is +surpassing. He brings in the affidavit of his own son, and even +of Peter S. Weber, with whom I am not acquainted, but who, I +suppose, is some black or mulatto boy, from his being kept in the +kitchen, to prove his points; but when such a man as Talbott, a +man who, but two years ago, ran against Gen. Adams for the office +of Recorder and beat him more than four votes to one, is +introduced against him, he asks the community, with all the +consequence of a lord, to reject his testimony. + +I might easily write a volume, pointing out inconsistencies +between the statements in Adams's last address with one another, +and with other known facts; but I am aware the reader must +already be tired with the length of this article. His opening +statements, that he was first accused of being a Tory, and that +he refuted that; that then the Sampson's ghost story was got up, +and he refuted that; that as a last resort, a dying effort, the +assignment charge was got up is all as false as hell, as all this +community must know. Sampson's ghost first made its appearance +in print, and that, too, after Keys swears he saw the assignment, +as any one may see by reference to the files of papers; and Gen. +Adams himself, in reply to the Sampson's ghost story, was the +first man that raised the cry of toryism, and it was only by way +of set-off, and never in seriousness, that it was bandied back at +him. His effort is to make the impression that his enemies first +made the charge of toryism and he drove them from that, then +Sampson's ghost, he drove them from that, then finally the +assignment charge was manufactured just before election. Now, +the only general reply he ever made to the Sampson's ghost and +tory charges he made at one and the same time, and not in +succession as he states; and the date of that reply will show, +that it was made at least a month after the date on which Keys +swears he saw the Anderson assignment. But enough. In +conclusion I will only say that I have a character to defend as +well as Gen. Adams, but I disdain to whine about it as he does. +It is true I have no children nor kitchen boys; and if I had, I +should scorn to lug them in to make affidavits for me. + +A. LINCOLN, September 6, 1837. + + + + +Gen. ADAMS CONTROVERSY--CONTINUED + +TO THE PUBLIC. + +"SANGAMON JOURNAL," Springfield, Ill, Oct.28, 1837. + +Such is the turn which things have taken lately, that when Gen. +Adams writes a book, I am expected to write a commentary on it. +In the Republican of this morning he has presented the world with +a new work of six columns in length; in consequence of which I +must beg the room of one column in the Journal. It is obvious +that a minute reply cannot be made in one column to everything +that can be said in six; and, consequently, I hope that +expectation will be answered if I reply to such parts of the +General's publication as are worth replying to. + +It may not be improper to remind the reader that in his +publication of Sept. 6th General Adams said that the assignment +charge was manufactured just before the election; and that in +reply I proved that statement to be false by Keys, his own +witness. Now, without attempting to explain, he furnishes me +with another witness (Tinsley) by which the same thing is proved, +to wit, that the assignment was not manufactured just before the +election; but that it was some weeks before. Let it be borne in +mind that Adams made this statement--has himself furnished two +witnesses to prove its falsehood, and does not attempt to deny or +explain it. Before going farther, let a pin be stuck here, +labeled "One lie proved and confessed." On the 6th of September +he said he had before stated in the hand-bill that he held an +assignment dated May 20th, 1828, which in reply I pronounced to +be false, and referred to the hand-bill for the truth of what I +said. This week he forgets to make any explanation of this. Let +another pin be stuck here, labelled as before. I mention these +things because, if, when I convict him in one falsehood, he is +permitted to shift his ground and pass it by in silence, there +can be no end to this controversy. + +The first thing that attracts my attention in the General's +present production is the information he is pleased to give to +"those who are made to suffer at his (my) hands." + +Under present circumstances, this cannot apply to me, for I am +not a widow nor an orphan: nor have I a wife or children who +might by possibility become such. Such, however, I have no +doubt, have been, and will again be made to suffer at his hands! +Hands! Yes, they are the mischievous agents. The next thing I +shall notice is his favorite expression, "not of lawyers, doctors +and others," which he is so fond of applying to all who dare +expose his rascality. Now, let it be remembered that when he +first came to this country he attempted to impose himself upon +the community as a lawyer, and actually carried the attempt so +far as to induce a man who was under a charge of murder to +entrust the defence of his life in his hands, and finally took +his money and got him hanged. Is this the man that is to raise a +breeze in his favor by abusing lawyers? If he is not himself a +lawyer, it is for the lack of sense, and not of inclination. If +he is not a lawyer, he is a liar, for he proclaimed himself a +lawyer, and got a man hanged by depending on him. + +Passing over such parts of the article as have neither fact nor +argument in them, I come to the question asked by Adams whether +any person ever saw the assignment in his possession. This is an +insult to common sense. Talbott has sworn once and repeated time +and again, that he got it out of Adams's possession and returned +it into the same possession. Still, as though he was addressing +fools, he has assurance to ask if any person ever saw it in his +possession. + +Next I quote a sentence, "Now my son Lucian swears that when +Talbott called for the deed, that he, Talbott, opened it and +pointed out the error." True. His son Lucian did swear as he +says; and in doing so, he swore what I will prove by his own +affidavit to be a falsehood. Turn to Lucian's affidavit, and you +will there see that Talbott called for the deed by which to +correct an error on the record. Thus it appears that the error +in question was on the record, and not in the deed. How then +could Talbott open the deed and point out the error? Where a +thing is not, it cannot be pointed out. The error was not in the +deed, and of course could not be pointed out there. This does +not merely prove that the error could not be pointed out, as +Lucian swore it was; but it proves, too, that the deed was not +opened in his presence with a special view to the error, for if +it had been, he could not have failed to see that there was no +error in it. It is easy enough to see why Lucian swore this. +His object was to prove that the assignment was not in the deed +when Talbott got it: but it was discovered he could not swear +this safely, without first swearing the deed was opened--and if +he swore it was opened, he must show a motive for opening it, and +the conclusion with him and his father was that the pointing out +the error would appear the most plausible. + +For the purpose of showing that the assignment was not in the +bundle when Talbott got it, is the story introduced into Lucian's +affidavit that the deeds were counted. It is a remarkable fact, +and one that should stand as a warning to all liars and +fabricators, that in this short affidavit of Lucian's he only +attempted to depart from the truth, so far as I have the means of +knowing, in two points, to wit, in the opening the deed and +pointing out the error and the counting of the deeds,--and in +both of these he caught himself. About the counting, he caught +himself thus--after saying the bundle contained five deeds and a +lease, he proceeds, "and I saw no other papers than the said deed +and lease." First he has six papers, and then he saw none but +two; for "my son Lucian's" benefit, let a pin be stuck here. + +Adams again adduces the argument, that he could not have forged +the assignment, for the reason that he could have had no motive +for it. With those that know the facts there is no absence of +motive. Admitting the paper which he has filed in the suit to be +genuine, it is clear that it cannot answer the purpose for which +he designs it. Hence his motive for making one that he supposed +would answer is obvious. His making the date too old is also +easily enough accounted for. The records were not in his hands, +and then, there being some considerable talk upon this particular +subject, he knew he could not examine the records to ascertain +the precise dates without subjecting himself to suspicion; and +hence he concluded to try it by guess, and, as it turned out, +missed it a little. About Miller's deposition I have a word to +say. In the first place, Miller's answer to the first question +shows upon its face that he had been tampered with, and the +answer dictated to him. He was asked if he knew Joel Wright and +James Adams; and above three-fourths of his answer consists of +what he knew about Joseph Anderson, a man about whom nothing had +been asked, nor a word said in the question--a fact that can only +be accounted for upon the supposition that Adams had secretly +told him what he wished him to swear to. + +Another of Miller's answers I will prove both by common sense and +the Court of Record is untrue. To one question he answers, +"Anderson brought a suit against me before James Adams, then an +acting justice of the peace in Sangamon County, before whom he +obtained a judgment. + +"Q.--Did you remove the same by injunction to the Sangamon +Circuit Court? Ans.--I did remove it." + +Now mark--it is said he removed it by injunction. The word +"injunction" in common language imports a command that some +person or thing shall not move or be removed; in law it has the +same meaning. An injunction issuing out of chancery to a justice +of the peace is a command to him to stop all proceedings in a +named case until further orders. It is not an order to remove +but to stop or stay something that is already moving. Besides +this, the records of the Sangamon Circuit Court show that the +judgment of which Miller swore was never removed into said Court +by injunction or otherwise. + +I have now to take notice of a part of Adams's address which in +the order of time should have been noticed before. It is in +these words: "I have now shown, in the opinion of two competent +judges, that the handwriting of the forged assignment differed +from mine, and by one of them that it could not be mistaken for +mine." That is false. Tinsley no doubt is the judge referred +to; and by reference to his certificate it will be seen that he +did not say the handwriting of the assignment could not be +mistaken for Adams's--nor did he use any other expression +substantially, or anything near substantially, the same. But if +Tinsley had said the handwriting could not be mistaken for +Adams's, it would have been equally unfortunate for Adams: for it +then would have contradicted Keys, who says, "I looked at the +writing and judged it the said Adams's or a good imitation." + +Adams speaks with much apparent confidence of his success on +attending lawsuits, and the ultimate maintenance of his title to +the land in question. Without wishing to disturb the pleasure of +his dream, I would say to him that it is not impossible that he +may yet be taught to sing a different song in relation to the +matter. + +At the end of Miller's deposition, Adams asks, "Will Mr. Lincoln +now say that he is almost convinced my title to this ten acre +tract of land is founded in fraud?" I answer, I will not. I will +now change the phraseology so as to make it run--I am quite +convinced, &c. I cannot pass in silence Adams's assertion that +he has proved that the forged assignment was not in the deed when +it came from his house by Talbott, the recorder. In this, +although Talbott has sworn that the assignment was in the bundle +of deeds when it came from his house, Adams has the unaccountable +assurance to say that he has proved the contrary by Talbott. Let +him or his friends attempt to show wherein he proved any such +thing by Talbott. + +In his publication of the 6th of September he hinted to Talbott, +that he might be mistaken. In his present, speaking of Talbott +and me he says "They may have been imposed upon." Can any man of +the least penetration fail to see the object of this? After be +has stormed and raged till he hopes and imagines he has got us a +little scared he wishes to softly whisper in our ears, "If you'll +quit I will." If he could get us to say that some unknown, +undefined being had slipped the assignment into our hands without +our knowledge, not a doubt remains but that be would immediately +discover that we were the purest men on earth. This is the +ground he evidently wishes us to understand he is willing to +compromise upon. But we ask no such charity at his hands. We +are neither mistaken nor imposed upon. We have made the +statements we have because we know them to be true and we choose +to live or die by them. + +Esq. Carter, who is Adams's friend, personal and political, will +recollect, that, on the 5th of this month, he (Adams), with a +great affectation of modesty, declared that he would never +introduce his own child as a witness. Notwithstanding this +affectation of modesty, he has in his present publication +introduced his child as witness; and as if to show with how much +contempt he could treat his own declaration, he has had this same +Esq. Carter to administer the oath to him. And so important a +witness does he consider him, and so entirely does the whole of +his entire present production depend upon the testimony of his +child, that in it he has mentioned "my son," "my son Lucian," +"Lucian, my son," and the like expressions no less than fifteen +different times. Let it be remembered here, that I have shown +the affidavit of "my darling son Lucian" to be false by the +evidence apparent on its own face; and I now ask if that +affidavit be taken away what foundation will the fabric have left +to stand upon? + +General Adams's publications and out-door maneuvering, taken in +connection with the editorial articles of the Republican, are not +more foolish and contradictory than they are ludicrous and +amusing. One week the Republican notifies the public that Gen. +Adams is preparing an instrument that will tear, rend, split, +rive, blow up, confound, overwhelm, annihilate, extinguish, +exterminate, burst asunder, and grind to powder all its +slanderers, and particularly Talbott and Lincoln--all of which is +to be done in due time. + +Then for two or three weeks all is calm--not a word said. Again +the Republican comes forth with a mere passing remark that +"public" opinion has decided in favor of Gen. Adams, and +intimates that he will give himself no more trouble about the +matter. In the meantime Adams himself is prowling about and, as +Burns says of the devil, "For prey, and holes and corners +tryin'," and in one instance goes so far as to take an old +acquaintance of mine several steps from a crowd and, apparently +weighed down with the importance of his business, gravely and +solemnly asks him if "he ever heard Lincoln say he was a deist." + +Anon the Republican comes again. "We invite the attention of the +public to General Adams's communication," &c. "The victory is a +great one, the triumph is overwhelming." I really believe the +editor of the Illinois Republican is fool enough to think General +Adams leads off--"Authors most egregiously mistaken &c. Most +woefully shall their presumption be punished," &c. (Lord have +mercy on us.) "The hour is yet to come, yea, nigh at hand--(how +long first do you reckon ?)--when the Journal and its junto shall +say, I have appeared too early." "Their infamy shall be laid bare +to the public gaze." Suddenly the General appears to relent at +the severity with which he is treating us and he exclaims: "The +condemnation of my enemies is the inevitable result of my own +defense." For your health's sake, dear Gen., do not permit your +tenderness of heart to afflict you so much on our account. For +some reason (perhaps because we are killed so quickly) we shall +never be sensible of our suffering. + +Farewell, General. I will see you again at court if not before-- +when and where we will settle the question whether you or the +widow shall have the land. + +A. LINCOLN. +October 18, 1837. + + + + +1838 + + +TO Mrs. O. H. BROWNING--A FARCE + +SPRINGFIELD, April 1, 1838. + +DEAR MADAM:--Without apologizing for being egotistical, 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 and suffered since I saw you, I shall +necessarily have to relate some that happened before. + +It was, then, in the autumn of 1836 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 despatch. I, of +course, accepted the proposal, for you know I could not have done +otherwise had I really been averse to it; but privately, between +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 +company, 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 ever 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 +mentioned. In a few days we had an interview, and, although 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- +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 +had 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 coming 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 continually +repenting the rashness which had led me to make it. Through +life, I have been in no bondage, either real or imaginary, from +the thraldom of which I so much desired to be free. After my +return home, I saw nothing to change my opinions of her in any +particular. She was the same, and so was I. I now spent my time +in planning how I might get along through 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 Irishman does the halter. + +After all my suffering upon this deeply interesting subject, here +I am, wholly, unexpectedly, completely, out of the "scrape"; and +now I 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 her 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 endurance. I was mortified, +it seemed to me, in a hundred different ways. My vanity was +deeply wounded by the reflection that I had 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. But let it all go. I'll try and outlive it. +Others have been made fools of by the girls, but this can never +with truth be said of me. I most emphatically in this instance, +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 any one 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. LINCOLN. + + + + +1839 + + +REMARKS ON SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS + +IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, January 17, 1839. + +Mr. Lincoln, from Committee on Finance, to which the subject was +referred, made a report on the subject of purchasing of the +United States all the unsold lands lying within the limits of the +State of Illinois, accompanied by resolutions that this State +propose to purchase all unsold lands at twenty-five cents per +acre, and pledging the faith of the State to carry the proposal +into effect if the government accept the same within two years. + +Mr. Lincoln thought the resolutions ought to be seriously +considered. In reply to the gentleman from Adams, he said that +it was not to enrich the State. The price of the lands may be +raised, it was thought by some; by others, that it would be +reduced. The conclusion in his mind was that the representatives +in this Legislature from the country in which the lands lie would +be opposed to raising the price, because it would operate against +the settlement of the lands. He referred to the lands in the +military tract. They had fallen into the hands of large +speculators in consequence of the low price. He was opposed to a +low price of land. He thought it was adverse to the interests of +the poor settler, because speculators buy them up. He was +opposed to a reduction of the price of public lands. + +Mr. Lincoln referred to some official documents emanating from +Indiana, and compared the progressive population of the two +States. Illinois had gained upon that State under the public +land system as it is. His conclusion was that ten years from +this time Illinois would have no more public land unsold than +Indiana now has. He referred also to Ohio. That State had sold +nearly all her public lands. She was but twenty years ahead of +us, and as our lands were equally salable--more so, as he +maintained--we should have no more twenty years from now than she +has at present. + +Mr. Lincoln referred to the canal lands, and supposed that the +policy of the State would be different in regard to them, if the +representatives from that section of country could themselves +choose the policy; but the representatives from other parts of +the State had a veto upon it, and regulated the policy. He +thought that if the State had all the lands, the policy of the +Legislature would be more liberal to all sections. + +He referred to the policy of the General Government. He thought +that if the national debt had not been paid, the expenses of the +government would not have doubled, as they had done since that +debt was paid. + + + + +TO _________ ROW. + +SPRINGFIELD, June 11, 1839 + +DEAR ROW: + +Mr. Redman informs me that you wish me to write you the +particulars of a conversation between Dr. Felix and myself +relative to you. The Dr. overtook me between Rushville and +Beardstown. + +He, after learning that I had lived at Springfield, asked if I +was acquainted with you. I told him I was. He said you had +lately been elected constable in Adams, but that you never would +be again. I asked him why. He said the people there had found +out that you had been sheriff or deputy sheriff in Sangamon +County, and that you came off and left your securities to suffer. +He then asked me if I did not know such to be the fact. I told +him I did not think you had ever been sheriff or deputy sheriff +in Sangamon, but that I thought you had been constable. I +further told him that if you had left your securities to suffer +in that or any other case, I had never heard of it, and that if +it had been so, I thought I would have heard of it. + +If the Dr. is telling that I told him anything against you +whatever, I authorize you to contradict it flatly. We have no +news here. + +Your friend, as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +SPEECH ON NATIONAL BANK + +IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, December 20, 1839. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--It is peculiarly embarrassing to me to attempt +a continuance of the discussion, on this evening, which has been +conducted in this hall on several preceding ones. It is so +because on each of those evenings there was a much fuller +attendance than now, without any reason for its being so, except +the greater interest the community feel in the speakers who +addressed them then than they do in him who is to do so now. I +am, indeed, apprehensive that the few who have attended have done +so more to spare me mortification than in the hope of being +interested in anything I may be able to say. This circumstance +casts a damp upon my spirits, which I am sure I shall be unable +to overcome during the evening. But enough of preface. + +The subject heretofore and now to be discussed is the subtreasury +scheme of the present administration, as a means of collecting, +safe-keeping, transferring, and disbursing, the revenues of the +nation, as contrasted with a national bank for the same purposes. +Mr. Douglas has said that we (the Whigs) have not dared to meet +them (the Locos) in argument on this question. I protest against +this assertion. I assert that we have again and again, during +this discussion, urged facts and arguments against the +subtreasury which they have neither dared to deny nor attempted +to answer. But lest some may be led to believe that we really +wish to avoid the question, I now propose, in my humble way, to +urge those arguments again; at the same time begging the audience +to mark well the positions I shall take and the proof I shall +offer to sustain them, and that they will not again permit Mr. +Douglas or his friends to escape the force of them by a round and +groundless assertion that we "dare not meet them in argument." + +Of the subtreasury, then, as contrasted with a national bank for +the before-enumerated purposes, I lay down the following +propositions, to wit: (1) It will injuriously affect the +community by its operation on the circulating medium. (2) It +will be a more expensive fiscal agent. (3) It will be a less +secure depository of the public money. To show the truth of the +first proposition, let us take a short review of our condition +under the operation of a national bank. It was the depository of +the public revenues. Between the collection of those revenues +and the disbursement of them by the government, the bank was +permitted to and did actually loan them out to individuals, and +hence the large amount of money actually collected for revenue +purposes, which by any other plan would have been idle a great +portion of the time, was kept almost constantly in circulation. +Any person who will reflect that money is only valuable while in +circulation will readily perceive that any device which will keep +the government revenues in constant circulation, instead of being +locked up in idleness, is no inconsiderable advantage. By the +subtreasury the revenue is to be collected and kept in iron boxes +until the government wants it for disbursement; thus robbing the +people of the use of it, while the government does not itself +need it, and while the money is performing no nobler office than +that of rusting in iron boxes. The natural effect of this change +of policy, every one will see, is to reduce the quantity of money +in circulation. But, again, by the subtreasury scheme the +revenue is to be collected in specie. I anticipate that this +will be disputed. I expect to hear it said that it is not the +policy of the administration to collect the revenue in specie. +If it shall, I reply that Mr. Van Buren, in his message +recommending the subtreasury, expended nearly a column of that +document in an attempt to persuade Congress to provide for the +collection of the revenue in specie exclusively; and he concludes +with these words: + +"It may be safely assumed that no motive of convenience to the +citizens requires the reception of bank paper." In addition to +this, Mr. Silas Wright, Senator from New York, and the political, +personal and confidential friend of Mr. Van Buren, drafted and +introduced into the Senate the first subtreasury bill, and that +bill provided for ultimately collecting the revenue in specie. +It is true, I know, that that clause was stricken from the bill, +but it was done by the votes of the Whigs, aided by a portion +only of the Van Buren senators. No subtreasury bill has yet +become a law, though two or three have been considered by +Congress, some with and some without the specie clause; so that I +admit there is room for quibbling upon the question of whether +the administration favor the exclusive specie doctrine or not; +but I take it that the fact that the President at first urged the +specie doctrine, and that under his recommendation the first bill +introduced embraced it, warrants us in charging it as the policy +of the party until their head as publicly recants it as he at +first espoused it. I repeat, then, that by the subtreasury the +revenue is to be collected in specie. Now mark what the effect +of this must be. By all estimates ever made there are but +between sixty and eighty millions of specie in the United States. +The expenditures of the Government for the year 1838--the last +for which we have had the report--were forty millions. Thus it +is seen that if the whole revenue be collected in specie, it will +take more than half of all the specie in the nation to do it. By +this means more than half of all the specie belonging to the +fifteen millions of souls who compose the whole population of the +country is thrown into the hands of the public office-holders, +and other public creditors comprising in number perhaps not more +than one quarter of a million, leaving the other fourteen +millions and three quarters to get along as they best can, with +less than one half of the specie of the country, and whatever +rags and shinplasters they may be able to put, and keep, in +circulation. By this means, every office-holder and other public +creditor may, and most likely will, set up shaver; and a most +glorious harvest will the specie-men have of it,--each specie- +man, upon a fair division, having to his share the fleecing of +about fifty-nine rag-men. In all candor let me ask, was such a +system for benefiting the few at the expense of the many ever +before devised? And was the sacred name of Democracy ever before +made to indorse such an enormity against the rights of the +people? + +I have already said that the subtreasury will reduce the quantity +of money in circulation. This position is strengthened by the +recollection that the revenue is to be collected in Specie, so +that the mere amount of revenue is not all that is withdrawn, but +the amount of paper circulation that the forty millions would +serve as a basis to is withdrawn, which would be in a sound state +at least one hundred millions. When one hundred millions, or +more, of the circulation we now have shall be withdrawn, who can +contemplate without terror the distress, ruin, bankruptcy, and +beggary that must follow? The man who has purchased any article-- +say a horse--on credit, at one hundred dollars, when there are +two hundred millions circulating in the country, if the quantity +be reduced to one hundred millions by the arrival of pay-day, +will find the horse but sufficient to pay half the debt; and the +other half must either be paid out of his other means, and +thereby become a clear loss to him, or go unpaid, and thereby +become a clear loss to his creditor. What I have here said of a +single case of the purchase of a horse will hold good in every +case of a debt existing at the time a reduction in the quantity +of money occurs, by whomsoever, and for whatsoever, it may have +been contracted. It may be said that what the debtor loses the +creditor gains by this operation; but on examination this will be +found true only to a very limited extent. It is more generally +true that all lose by it--the creditor by losing more of his +debts than he gains by the increased value of those he collects; +the debtor by either parting with more of his property to pay his +debts than he received in contracting them, or by entirely +breaking up his business, and thereby being thrown upon the world +in idleness. + +The general distress thus created will, to be sure, be temporary, +because, whatever change may occur in the quantity of money in +any community, time will adjust the derangement produced; but +while that adjustment is progressing, all suffer more or less, +and very many lose everything that renders life desirable. Why, +then, shall we suffer a severe difficulty, even though it be but +temporary, unless we receive some equivalent for it? + +What I have been saying as to the effect produced by a reduction +of the quantity of money relates to the whole country. I now +propose to show that it would produce a peculiar and permanent +hardship upon the citizens of those States and Territories in +which the public lands lie. The land-offices in those States and +Territories, as all know, form the great gulf by which all, or +nearly all, the money in them is swallowed up. When the quantity +of money shall be reduced, and consequently everything under +individual control brought down in proportion, the price of those +lands, being fixed by law, will remain as now. Of necessity it +will follow that the produce or labor that now raises money +sufficient to purchase eighty acres will then raise but +sufficient to purchase forty, or perhaps not that much; and this +difficulty and hardship will last as long, in some degree, as any +portion of these lands shall remain undisposed of. Knowing, as I +well do, the difficulty that poor people now encounter in +procuring homes, I hesitate not to say that when the price of the +public lands shall be doubled or trebled, or, which is the same +thing, produce and labor cut down to one half or one third of +their present prices, it will be little less than impossible for +them to procure those homes at all.... + +Well, then, what did become of him? (Postmaster General Barry) +Why, the President immediately expressed his high disapprobation +of his almost unequaled incapacity and corruption by appointing +him to a foreign mission, with a salary and outfit of $18,000 a +year! The party now attempt to throw Barry off, and to avoid the +responsibility of his sins. Did not the President indorse those +sins when, on the very heel of their commission, he appointed +their author to the very highest and most honorable office in his +gift, and which is but a single step behind the very goal of +American political ambition? + +I return to another of Mr. Douglas's excuses for the expenditures +of 1838, at the same time announcing the pleasing intelligence +that this is the last one. He says that ten millions of that +year's expenditure was a contingent appropriation, to prosecute +an anticipated war with Great Britain on the Maine boundary +question. Few words will settle this. First, that the ten +millions appropriated was not made till 1839, and consequently +could not have been expended in 1838; second, although it was +appropriated, it has never been expended at all. Those who heard +Mr. Douglas recollect that he indulged himself in a contemptuous +expression of pity for me. "Now he's got me," thought I. But +when he went on to say that five millions of the expenditure of +1838 were payments of the French indemnities, which I knew to be +untrue; that five millions had been for the post-office, which I +knew to be untrue; that ten millions had been for the Maine +boundary war, which I not only knew to be untrue, but supremely +ridiculous also; and when I saw that he was stupid enough to hope +that I would permit such groundless and audacious assertions to +go unexposed,--I readily consented that, on the score both of +veracity and sagacity, the audience should judge whether he or I +were the more deserving of the world's contempt. + +Mr. Lamborn insists that the difference between the Van Buren +party and the Whigs is that, although the former sometimes err in +practice, they are always correct in principle, whereas the +latter are wrong in principle; and, better to impress this +proposition, he uses a figurative expression in these words: "The +Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, but they are sound in the +head and the heart." The first branch of the figure--that is, +that the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel--I admit is not +merely figuratively, but literally true. Who that looks but for +a moment at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their Harringtons, +and their hundreds of others, scampering away with the public +money to Texas, to Europe, and to every spot of the earth where a +villain may hope to find refuge from justice, can at all doubt +that they are most distressingly affected in their heels with a +species of "running itch"? It seems that this malady of their +heels operates on these sound-headed and honest-hearted creatures +very much like the cork leg in the comic song did on its owner: +which, when he had once got started on it, the more he tried to +stop it, the more it would run away. At the hazard of wearing +this point threadbare, I will relate an anecdote which seems too +strikingly in point to be omitted. A witty Irish soldier, who +was always boasting of his bravery when no danger was near, but +who invariably retreated without orders at the first charge of an +engagement, being asked by his captain why he did so, replied: +"Captain, I have as brave a heart as Julius Caesar ever had; but, +somehow or other, whenever danger approaches, my cowardly legs +will run away with it." So with Mr. Lamborn's party. They take +the public money into their hand for the most laudable purpose +that wise heads and honest hearts can dictate; but before they +can possibly get it out again, their rascally "vulnerable heels" +will run away with them. + +Seriously this proposition of Mr. Lamborn is nothing more or less +than a request that his party may be tried by their professions +instead of their practices. Perhaps no position that the party +assumes is more liable to or more deserving of exposure than this +very modest request; and nothing but the unwarrantable length to +which I have already extended these remarks forbids me now +attempting to expose it. For the reason given, I pass it by. + +I shall advert to but one more point. Mr. Lamborn refers to the +late elections in the States, and from their results confidently +predicts that every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van +Buren at the next Presidential election. Address that argument +to cowards and to knaves; with the free and the brave it will +effect nothing. It may be true; if it must, let it. Many free +countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but if +she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to +desert, but that I never deserted her. I know that the great +volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit +that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political +corruption in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping with +frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, +bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living thing; +while on its bosom are riding, like demons on the waves of hell, +the imps of that evil spirit, and fiendishly taunting all those +who dare resist its destroying course with the hopelessness of +their effort; and, knowing this, I cannot deny that all may be +swept away. Broken by it I, too, may be; bow to it I never will. +The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to +deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it +shall not deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate +and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its +almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my +country deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up +boldly and alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious +oppressors. Here, without contemplating consequences, before +high heaven and in the face of the world, I swear eternal +fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, +my liberty, and my love. And who that thinks with me will not +fearlessly adopt the oath that I take? Let none falter who thinks +he is right, and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall +fail, be it so. We still shall have the proud consolation of +saying to our consciences, and to the departed shade of our +country's freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment, and +adored of our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, in +death, we never faltered in defending. + + + + +TO JOHN T. STUART. + +SPRINGFIELD, December 23, 1839. + +DEAR STUART: + +Dr. Henry will write you all the political news. I write this +about some little matters of business. You recollect you told me +you had drawn the Chicago Masark money, and sent it to the +claimants. A hawk-billed Yankee is here besetting me at every +turn I take, saying that Robert Kinzie never received the eighty +dollars to which he was entitled. Can you tell me anything about +the matter? Again, old Mr. Wright, who lives up South Fork +somewhere, is teasing me continually about some deeds which he +says he left with you, but which I can find nothing of. Can you +tell me where they are? The Legislature is in session and has +suffered the bank to forfeit its charter without benefit of +clergy. There seems to be little disposition to resuscitate it. + +Whenever a letter comes from you to Mrs._____________ +I carry it to her, and then I see Betty; she is a tolerable nice +"fellow" now. Maybe I will write again when I get more time. + +Your friend as ever, +A. LINCOLN + +P. S.--The Democratic giant is here, but he is not much worth +talking about. +A.L. + + + + +1840 + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + +Confidential. + +January [1?], 1840. + +To MESSRS _______ + +GENTLEMEN:--In obedience to a resolution of the Whig State +convention, we have appointed you the Central Whig Committee of +your county. The trust confided to you will be one of +watchfulness and labor; but we hope the glory of having +contributed to the overthrow of the corrupt powers that now +control our beloved country will be a sufficient reward for the +time and labor you will devote to it. Our Whig brethren +throughout the Union have met in convention, and after due +deliberation and mutual concessions have elected candidates for +the Presidency and Vice-Presidency not only worthy of our cause, +but worthy of the support of every true patriot who would have +our country redeemed, and her institutions honestly and +faithfully administered. To overthrow the trained bands that are +opposed to us whose salaried officers are ever on the watch, and +whose misguided followers are ever ready to obey their smallest +commands, every Whig must not only know his duty, but must firmly +resolve, whatever of time and labor it may cost, boldly and +faithfully to do it. Our intention is to organize the whole +State, so that every Whig can be brought to the polls in the +coming Presidential contest. We cannot do this, however, without +your co-operation; and as we do our duty, so we shall expect you +to do yours. After due deliberation, the following is the plan +of organization, and the duties required of each county +committee: + +(1) To divide their county into small districts, and to appoint +in each a subcommittee, whose duty it shall be to make a perfect +list of all the voters in their respective districts, and to +ascertain with certainty for whom they will vote. If they meet +with men who are doubtful as to the man they will support, such +voters should be designated in separate lines, with the name of +the man they will probably support. + +(2) It will be the duty of said subcommittee to keep a constant +watch on the doubtful voters, and from time to time have them +talked to by those in whom they have the most confidence, and +also to place in their hands such documents as will enlighten and +influence them. + +(3) It will also be their duty to report to you, at least once a +month, the progress they are making, and on election days see +that every Whig is brought to the polls. + +(4) The subcommittees should be appointed immediately; and by the +last of April, at least, they should make their first report. + +(5) On the first of each month hereafter we shall expect to hear +from you. After the first report of your subcommittees, unless +there should be found a great many doubtful voters, you can tell +pretty accurately the manner in which your county will vote. In +each of your letters to us, you will state the number of certain +votes both for and against us, as well as the number of doubtful +votes, with your opinion of the manner in which they will be +cast. + +(6) When we have heard from all the counties, we shall be able to +tell with similar accuracy the political complexion of the State. +This information will be forwarded to you as soon as received. + +(7) Inclosed is a prospectus for a newspaper to be continued +until after the Presidential election. It will be superintended +by ourselves, and every Whig in the State must take it. It will +be published so low that every one can afford it. You must raise +a fund and forward us for extra copies,--every county ought to +send--fifty or one hundred dollars,--and the copies will be +forwarded to you for distribution among our political opponents. +The paper will be devoted exclusively to the great cause in which +we are engaged. Procure subscriptions, and forward them to us +immediately. + +(8) Immediately after any election in your county, you must +inform us of its results; and as early as possible after any +general election we will give you the like information. + +(9) A senator in Congress is to be elected by our next +Legislature. Let no local interests divide you, but select +candidates that can succeed. + +(10) Our plan of operations will of course be concealed from +every one except our good friends who of right ought to know +them. + +Trusting much in our good cause, the strength of our candidates, +and the determination of the Whigs everywhere to do their duty, +we go to the work of organization in this State confident of +success. We have the numbers, and if properly organized and +exerted, with the gallant Harrison at our head, we shall meet our +foes and conquer them in all parts of the Union. + +Address your letters to Dr. A. G. Henry, R. F, Barrett; A. +Lincoln, E. D. Baker, J. F. Speed. + + + + +TO JOHN T. STUART. + +SPRINGFIELD, +March 1, 1840 + +DEAR STUART: + +I have never seen the prospects of our party so bright in these +parts as they are now. We shall carry this county by a larger +majority than we did in 1836, when you ran against May. I do not +think my prospects, individually, are very flattering, for I +think it probable I shall not be permitted to be a candidate; but +the party ticket will succeed triumphantly. Subscriptions to the +"Old Soldier" pour in without abatement. This morning I took +from the post office a letter from Dubois enclosing the names of +sixty subscribers, and on carrying it to Francis I found he had +received one hundred and forty more from other quarters by the +same day's mail. That is but an average specimen of every day's +receipts. Yesterday Douglas, having chosen to consider himself +insulted by something in the Journal, undertook to cane Francis +in the street. Francis caught him by the hair and jammed him +back against a market cart where the matter ended by Francis +being pulled away from him. The whole affair was so ludicrous +that Francis and everybody else (Douglass excepted) have been +laughing about it ever since. + +I send you the names of some of the V.B. men who have come out +for Harrison about town, and suggest that you send them some +documents. + +Moses Coffman (he let us appoint him a delegate yesterday), Aaron +Coffman, George Gregory, H. M. Briggs, Johnson (at Birchall's +Bookstore), Michael Glyn, Armstrong (not Hosea nor Hugh, but a +carpenter), Thomas Hunter, Moses Pileher (he was always a Whig +and deserves attention), Matthew Crowder Jr., Greenberry Smith; +John Fagan, George Fagan, William Fagan (these three fell out +with us about Early, and are doubtful now), John M. Cartmel, +Noah Rickard, John Rickard, Walter Marsh. + +The foregoing should be addressed at Springfield. + +Also send some to Solomon Miller and John Auth at Salisbury. +Also to Charles Harper, Samuel Harper, and B. C. Harper, and T. +J. Scroggins, John Scroggins at Pulaski, Logan County. + +Speed says he wrote you what Jo Smith said about you as he passed +here. We will procure the names of some of his people here, and +send them to you before long. Speed also says you must not fail +to send us the New York Journal he wrote for some time since. + +Evan Butler is jealous that you never send your compliments to +him. You must not neglect him next time. + +Your friend, as ever, +A. LINCOLN + + + + +RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +November 28, 1840. + +In the Illinois House of Representatives, November 28, 1840, Mr. +Lincoln offered the following: + +Resolved, That so much of the governor's message as relates to +fraudulent voting, and other fraudulent practices at elections, +be referred to the Committee on Elections, with instructions to +said committee to prepare and report to the House a bill for such +an act as may in their judgment afford the greatest possible +protection of the elective franchise against all frauds of all +sorts whatever. + + + + +RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +December 2, 1840. + +Resolved, That the Committee on Education be instructed to +inquire into the expediency of providing by law for the +examination as to the qualification of persons offering +themselves as school teachers, that no teacher shall receive any +part of the public school fund who shall not have successfully +passed such examination, and that they report by bill or +otherwise. + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +December 4, 1840 + +In the House of Representatives, Illinois, December 4, 1840, on +presentation of a report respecting petition of H. N. Purple, +claiming the seat of Mr. Phelps from Peoria, Mr. Lincoln moved +that the House resolve itself into Committee of the Whole on the +question, and take it up immediately. Mr. Lincoln considered the +question of the highest importance whether an individual had a +right to sit in this House or not. The course he should propose +would be to take up the evidence and decide upon the facts +seriatim. + +Mr. Drummond wanted time; they could not decide in the heat of +debate, etc. + +Mr. Lincoln thought that the question had better be gone into +now. In courts of law jurors were required to decide on +evidence, without previous study or examination. They were +required to know nothing of the subject until the evidence was +laid before them for their immediate decision. He thought that +the heat of party would be augmented by delay. + +The Speaker called Mr. Lincoln to order as being irrelevant; no +mention had been made of party heat. + +Mr. Drummond said he had only spoken of debate. Mr. Lincoln +asked what caused the heat, if it was not party? Mr. Lincoln +concluded by urging that the question would be decided now better +than hereafter, and he thought with less heat and excitement. + +(Further debate, in which Lincoln participated.) + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +December 4, 1840. + +In the Illinois House of Representatives, December 4, 1840, House +in Committee of the Whole on the bill providing for payment of +interest on the State debt,--Mr. Lincoln moved to strike out the +body and amendments of the bill, and insert in lieu thereof an +amendment which in substance was that the governor be authorized +to issue bonds for the payment of the interest; that these be +called "interest bonds"; that the taxes accruing on Congress +lands as they become taxable be irrevocably set aside and devoted +as a fund to the payment of the interest bonds. Mr. Lincoln went +into the reasons which appeared to him to render this plan +preferable to that of hypothecating the State bonds. By this +course we could get along till the next meeting of the +Legislature, which was of great importance. To the objection +which might be urged that these interest bonds could not be +cashed, he replied that if our other bonds could, much more could +these, which offered a perfect security, a fund being irrevocably +set aside to provide for their redemption. To another objection, +that we should be paying compound interest, he would reply that +the rapid growth and increase of our resources was in so great a +ratio as to outstrip the difficulty; that his object was to do +the best that could be done in the present emergency. All agreed +that the faith of the State must be preserved; this plan appeared +to him preferable to a hypothecation of bonds, which would have +to be redeemed and the interest paid. How this was to be done, he +could not see; therefore he had, after turning the matter over in +every way, devised this measure, which would carry us on till the +next Legislature. + +(Mr. Lincoln spoke at some length, advocating his measure.) + +Lincoln advocated his measure, December 11, 1840. + +December 12, 1840, he had thought some permanent provision ought +to be made for the bonds to be hypothecated, but was satisfied +taxation and revenue could not be connected with it now. + + + + +1841 + + +TO JOHN T. STUART--ON DEPRESSION + +SPRINGFIELD, Jan 23, 1841 + +DEAR STUART: +I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were +equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be +one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I +cannot tell; I awfully forbode I shall not. To remain as I am is +impossible. I must die or be better, as it appears to me.... +I fear I shall be unable to attend any business here, and a +change of scene might help me. If I could be myself, I would +rather remain at home with Judge Logan. I can write no more. + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +January 23, 1841 + + +In the House of Representatives January 23, 1841, while +discussing the continuation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, +Mr. Moore was afraid the holders of the "scrip" would lose. + +Mr. Napier thought there was no danger of that; and Mr. Lincoln +said he had not examined to see what amount of scrip would +probably be needed. The principal point in his mind was this, +that nobody was obliged to take these certificates. It is +altogether voluntary on their part, and if they apprehend it will +fall in their hands they will not take it. Further the loss, if +any there be, will fall on the citizens of that section of the +country. + +This scrip is not going to circulate over an extensive range of +country, but will be confined chiefly to the vicinity of the +canal. Now, we find the representatives of that section of the +country are all in favor of the bill. + +When we propose to protect their interests, they say to us: Leave +us to take care of ourselves; we are willing to run the risk. +And this is reasonable; we must suppose they are competent to +protect their own interests, and it is only fair to let them do +it. + + + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + +February 9, 1841. + +Appeal to the People of the State of Illinois. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--When the General Assembly, now about +adjourning, assembled in November last, from the bankrupt state +of the public treasury, the pecuniary embarrassments prevailing +in every department of society, the dilapidated state of the +public works, and the impending danger of the degradation of the +State, you had a right to expect that your representatives would +lose no time in devising and adopting measures to avert +threatened calamities, alleviate the distresses of the people, +and allay the fearful apprehensions in regard to the future +prosperity of the State. It was not expected by you that the +spirit of party would take the lead in the councils of the State, +and make every interest bend to its demands. Nor was it expected +that any party would assume to itself the entire control of +legislation, and convert the means and offices of the State, and +the substance of the people, into aliment for party subsistence. +Neither could it have been expected by you that party spirit, +however strong its desires and unreasonable its demands, would +have passed the sanctuary of the Constitution, and entered with +its unhallowed and hideous form into the formation of the +judiciary system. + +At the early period of the session, measures were adopted by the +dominant party to take possession of the State, to fill all +public offices with party men, and make every measure affecting +the interests of the people and the credit of the State operate +in furtherance of their party views. The merits of men and +measures therefore became the subject of discussion in caucus, +instead of the halls of legislation, and decisions there made by +a minority of the Legislature have been executed and carried into +effect by the force of party discipline, without any regard +whatever to the rights of the people or the interests of the +State. The Supreme Court of the State was organized, and judges +appointed, according to the provisions of the Constitution, in +1824. The people have never complained of the organization of +that court; no attempt has ever before been made to change that +department. Respect for public opinion, and regard for the +rights and liberties of the people, have hitherto restrained the +spirit of party from attacks upon the independence and integrity +of the judiciary. The same judges have continued in office since +1824; their decisions have not been the subject of complaint +among the people; the integrity and honesty of the court have not +been questioned, and it has never been supposed that the court +has ever permitted party prejudice or party considerations to +operate upon their decisions. The court was made to consist of +four judges, and by the Constitution two form a quorum for the +transaction of business. With this tribunal, thus constituted, +the people have been satisfied for near sixteen years. The same +law which organized the Supreme Court in 1824 also established +and organized circuit courts to be held in each county in the +State, and five circuit judges were appointed to hold those +courts. In 1826 the Legislature abolished these circuit courts, +repealed the judges out of office, and required the judges of the +Supreme Court to hold the circuit courts. The reasons assigned +for this change were, first, that the business of the country +could be better attended to by the four judges of the Supreme +Court than by the two sets of judges; and, second, the state of +the public treasury forbade the employment of unnecessary +officers. In 1828 a circuit was established north of the +Illinois River, in order to meet the wants of the people, and a +circuit judge was appointed to hold the courts in that circuit. + +In 1834 the circuit-court system was again established throughout +the State, circuit judges appointed to hold the courts, and the +judges of the Supreme Court were relieved from the performance of +circuit court duties. The change was recommended by the then +acting governor of the State, General W. L. D. Ewing, in the +following terms: + +"The augmented population of the State, the multiplied number of +organized counties, as well as the increase of business in all, +has long since convinced every one conversant with this +department of our government of the indispensable necessity of an +alteration in our judiciary system, and the subject is therefore +recommended to the earnest patriotic consideration of the +Legislature. The present system has never been exempt from +serious and weighty objections. The idea of appealing from the +circuit court to the same judges in the Supreme Court is +recommended by little hopes of redress to the injured party +below. The duties of the circuit, too, it may be added, consume +one half of the year, leaving a small and inadequate portion of +time (when that required for domestic purposes is deducted) to +erect, in the decisions of the Supreme Court, a judicial monument +of legal learning and research, which the talent and ability of +the court might otherwise be entirely competent to." + +With this organization of circuit courts the people have never +complained. The only complaints which we have heard have come +from circuits which were so large that the judges could not +dispose of the business, and the circuits in which Judges Pearson +and Ralston lately presided. + +Whilst the honor and credit of the State demanded legislation +upon the subject of the public debt, the canal, the unfinished +public works, and the embarrassments of the people, the judiciary +stood upon a basis which required no change--no legislative +action. Yet the party in power, neglecting every interest +requiring legislative action, and wholly disregarding the rights, +wishes, and interests of the people, has, for the unholy purpose +of providing places for its partisans and supplying them with +large salaries, disorganized that department of the government. +Provision is made for the election of five party judges of the +Supreme Court, the proscription of four circuit judges, and the +appointment of party clerks in more than half the counties of the +State. Men professing respect for public opinion, and +acknowledged to be leaders of the party, have avowed in the halls +of legislation that the change in the judiciary was intended to +produce political results favorable to their party and party +friends. The immutable principles of justice are to make way for +party interests, and the bonds of social order are to be rent in +twain, in order that a desperate faction may be sustained at the +expense of the people. The change proposed in the judiciary was +supported upon grounds so destructive to the institutions of the +country, and so entirely at war with the rights and liberties of +the people, that the party could not secure entire unanimity in +its support, three Democrats of the Senate and five of the House +voting against the measure. They were unwilling to see the +temples of justice and the seats of independent judges occupied +by the tools of faction. The declarations of the party leaders, +the selection of party men for judges, and the total disregard +for the public will in the adoption of the measure, prove +conclusively that the object has been not reform, but +destruction; not the advancement of the highest interests of the +State, but the predominance of party. + +We cannot in this manner undertake to point out all the +objections to this party measure; we present you with those +stated by the Council of Revision upon returning the bill, and we +ask for them a candid consideration. + +Believing that the independence of the judiciary has been +destroyed, that hereafter our courts will be independent of the +people, and entirely dependent upon the Legislature; that our +rights of property and liberty of conscience can no longer be +regarded as safe from the encroachments of unconstitutional +legislation; and knowing of no other remedy which can be adopted +consistently with the peace and good order of society, we call +upon you to avail yourselves of the opportunity afforded, and, at +the next general election, vote for a convention of the people. + +S. H. LITTLE, +E. D. BAKER, +J. J. HARDIN, +E. B. WEBS, +A. LINCOLN, +J. GILLESPIE, + +Committee on behalf of the Whig members of the Legislature. + + + + +EXTRACT FROM A PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE AGAINST THE +REORGANIZATION OF THE JUDICIARY. + +February 26, 1841 + +For the reasons thus presented, and for others no less apparent, +the undersigned cannot assent to the passage of the bill, or +permit it to become a law, without this evidence of their +disapprobation; and they now protest against the reorganization +of the judiciary, because--(1) It violates the great principles +of free government by subjecting the judiciary to the +Legislature. (2) It is a fatal blow at the independence of the +judges and the constitutional term of their office. (3) It is a +measure not asked for, or wished for, by the people. (4) It will +greatly increase the expense of our courts, or else greatly +diminish their utility. (5) It will give our courts a political +and partisan character, thereby impairing public confidence in +their decisions. (6) It will impair our standing with other +States and the world. (7)It is a party measure for party +purposes, from which no practical good to the people can possibly +arise, but which may be the source of immeasurable evils. + +The undersigned are well aware that this protest will be +altogether unavailing with the majority of this body. The blow +has already fallen, and we are compelled to stand by, the +mournful spectators of the ruin it will cause. + +[Signed by 35 members, among whom was Abraham Lincoln.] + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--MURDER CASE + +SPRINGFIELD June 19, 1841. + +DEAR SPEED:--We have had the highest state of excitement here for +a week past that our community has ever witnessed; and, although +the public feeling is somewhat allayed, the curious affair which +aroused it is very far from being even yet cleared of mystery. +It would take a quire of paper to give you anything like a full +account of it, and I therefore only propose a brief outline. The +chief personages in the drama are Archibald Fisher, supposed to +be murdered, and Archibald Trailor, Henry Trailor, and William +Trailor, supposed to have murdered him. The three Trailors are +brothers: the first, Arch., as you know, lives in town; the +second, Henry, in Clary's Grove; and the third, William, in +Warren County; and Fisher, the supposed murdered, being without a +family, had made his home with William. On Saturday evening, +being the 29th of May, Fisher and William came to Henry's in a +one-horse dearborn, and there stayed over Sunday; and on Monday +all three came to Springfield (Henry on horseback) and joined +Archibald at Myers's, the Dutch carpenter. That evening at +supper Fisher was missing, and so next morning some ineffectual +search was made for him; and on Tuesday, at one o'clock P.M., +William and Henry started home without him. In a day or two +Henry and one or two of his Clary-Grove neighbors came back for +him again, and advertised his disappearance in the papers. The +knowledge of the matter thus far had not been general, and here +it dropped entirely, till about the 10th instant, when Keys +received a letter from the postmaster in Warren County, that +William had arrived at home, and was telling a very mysterious +and improbable story about the disappearance of Fisher, which +induced the community there to suppose he had been disposed of +unfairly. Keys made this letter public, which immediately set +the whole town and adjoining county agog. And so it has +continued until yesterday. The mass of the people commenced a +systematic search for the dead body, while Wickersham was +despatched to arrest Henry Trailor at the Grove, and Jim Maxcy to +Warren to arrest William. On Monday last, Henry was brought in, +and showed an evident inclination to insinuate that he knew +Fisher to be dead, and that Arch. and William had killed him. +He said he guessed the body could be found in Spring Creek, +between the Beardstown road and Hickox's mill. Away the people +swept like a herd of buffalo, and cut down Hickox's mill-dam +nolens volens, to draw the water out of the pond, and then went +up and down and down and up the creek, fishing and raking, and +raking and ducking and diving for two days, and, after all, no +dead body found. + +In the meantime a sort of scuffling-ground had been found in the +brush in the angle, or point, where the road leading into the +woods past the brewery and the one leading in past the brick-yard +meet. From the scuffle-ground was the sign of something about +the size of a man having been dragged to the edge of the thicket, +where it joined the track of some small-wheeled carriage drawn by +one horse, as shown by the road-tracks. The carriage-track led +off toward Spring Creek. Near this drag-trail Dr. Merryman found +two hairs, which, after a long scientific examination, he +pronounced to be triangular human hairs, which term, he says, +includes within it the whiskers, the hair growing under the arms +and on other parts of the body; and he judged that these two were +of the whiskers, because the ends were cut, showing that they had +flourished in the neighborhood of the razor's operations. On +Thursday last Jim Maxcy brought in William Trailor from Warren. +On the same day Arch. was arrested and put in jail. Yesterday +(Friday) William was put upon his examining trial before May and +Lovely. Archibald and Henry were both present. Lamborn +prosecuted, and Logan, Baker, and your humble servant defended. +A great many witnesses were introduced and examined, but I shall +only mention those whose testimony seemed most important. The +first of these was Captain Ransdell. He swore that when William +and Henry left Springfield for home on Tuesday before mentioned +they did not take the direct route,--which, you know, leads by +the butcher shop,--but that they followed the street north until +they got opposite, or nearly opposite, May's new house, after +which he could not see them from where he stood; and it was +afterwards proved that in about an hour after they started, they +came into the street by the butcher shop from toward the brick- +yard. Dr. Merryman and others swore to what is stated about the +scuffle-ground, drag-trail, whiskers, and carriage tracks. Henry +was then introduced by the prosecution. He swore that when they +started for home they went out north, as Ransdell stated, and +turned down west by the brick-yard into the woods, and there met +Archibald; that they proceeded a small distance farther, when he +was placed as a sentinel to watch for and announce the approach +of any one that might happen that way; that William and Arch. +took the dearborn out of the road a small distance to the edge of +the thicket, where they stopped, and he saw them lift the body of +a man into it; that they then moved off with the carriage in the +direction of Hickox's mill, and he loitered about for something +like an hour, when William returned with the carriage, but +without Arch., and said they had put him in a safe place; that +they went somehow he did not know exactly how--into the road +close to the brewery, and proceeded on to Clary's Grove. He also +stated that some time during the day William told him that he and +Arch. had killed Fisher the evening before; that the way they +did it was by him William knocking him down with a club, and +Arch. then choking him to death. + +An old man from Warren, called Dr. Gilmore, was then introduced +on the part of the defense. He swore that he had known Fisher +for several years; that Fisher had resided at his house a long +time at each of two different spells--once while he built a barn +for him, and once while he was doctored for some chronic disease; +that two or three years ago Fisher had a serious hurt in his head +by the bursting of a gun, since which he had been subject to +continued bad health and occasional aberration of mind. He also +stated that on last Tuesday, being the same day that Maxcy +arrested William Trailor, he (the doctor) was from home in the +early part of the day, and on his return, about eleven o'clock, +found Fisher at his house in bed, and apparently very unwell; +that he asked him how he came from Springfield; that Fisher said +he had come by Peoria, and also told of several other places he +had been at more in the direction of Peoria, which showed that he +at the time of speaking did not know where he had been wandering +about in a state of derangement. He further stated that in about +two hours he received a note from one of Trailor's friends, +advising him of his arrest, and requesting him to go on to +Springfield as a witness, to testify as to the state of Fisher's +health in former times; that he immediately set off, calling up +two of his neighbors as company, and, riding all evening and all +night, overtook Maxcy and William at Lewiston in Fulton County; +that Maxcy refusing to discharge Trailor upon his statement, his +two neighbors returned and he came on to Springfield. Some +question being made as to whether the doctor's story was not a +fabrication, several acquaintances of his (among whom was the +same postmaster who wrote Keys, as before mentioned) were +introduced as sort of compurgators, who swore that they knew the +doctor to be of good character for truth and veracity, and +generally of good character in every way. + +Here the testimony ended, and the Trailors were discharged, Arch. +and William expressing both in word and manner their entire +confidence that Fisher would be found alive at the doctor's by +Galloway, Mallory, and Myers, who a day before had been +despatched for that purpose; which Henry still protested that no +power on earth could ever show Fisher alive. Thus stands this +curious affair. When the doctor's story was first made public, +it was amusing to scan and contemplate the countenances and hear +the remarks of those who had been actively in search for the dead +body: some looked quizzical, some melancholy, and some furiously +angry. Porter, who had been very active, swore he always knew +the man was not dead, and that he had not stirred an inch to hunt +for him; Langford, who had taken the lead in cutting down +Hickox's mill-dam, and wanted to hang Hickox for objecting, +looked most awfully woebegone: he seemed the "victim of +unrequited affection," as represented in the comic almanacs we +used to laugh over; and Hart, the little drayman that hauled +Molly home once, said it was too damned bad to have so much +trouble, and no hanging after all. + +I commenced this letter on yesterday, since which I received +yours of the 13th. I stick to my promise to come to Louisville. +Nothing new here except what I have written. I have not seen +_____ since my last trip, and I am going out there as soon as I +mail this letter. + +Yours forever, +LINCOLN. + + + + +STATEMENT ABOUT HARRY WILTON. + +June 25, 1841 + +It having been charged in some of the public prints that Harry +Wilton, late United States marshal for the district of Illinois, +had used his office for political effect, in the appointment of +deputies for the taking of the census for the year 1840, we, the +undersigned, were called upon by Mr. Wilton to examine the papers +in his possession relative to these appointments, and to +ascertain therefrom the correctness or incorrectness of such +charge. We accompanied Mr. Wilton to a room, and examined the +matter as fully as we could with the means afforded us. The only +sources of information bearing on the subject which were +submitted to us were the letters, etc., recommending and opposing +the various appointments made, and Mr. Wilton's verbal statements +concerning the same. From these letters, etc., it appears that +in some instances appointments were made in accordance with the +recommendations of leading Whigs, and in opposition to those of +leading Democrats; among which instances the appointments at +Scott, Wayne, Madison, and Lawrence are the strongest. According +to Mr. Wilton's statement of the seventy-six appointments we +examined, fifty-four were of Democrats, eleven of Whigs, and +eleven of unknown politics. + +The chief ground of complaint against Mr. Wilton, as we had +understood it, was because of his appointment of so many +Democratic candidates for the Legislature, thus giving them a +decided advantage over their Whig opponents; and consequently our +attention was directed rather particularly to that point. We +found that there were many such appointments, among which were +those in Tazewell, McLean, Iroquois, Coles, Menard, Wayne, +Washington, Fayette, etc.; and we did not learn that there was +one instance in which a Whig candidate for the Legislature had +been appointed. There was no written evidence before us showing +us at what time those appointments were made; but Mr. Wilton +stated that they all with one exception were made before those +appointed became candidates for the Legislature, and the letters, +etc., recommending them all bear date before, and most of them +long before, those appointed were publicly announced candidates. + +We give the foregoing naked facts and draw no conclusions from +them. + +BEND. S. EDWARDS, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MISS MARY SPEED--PRACTICAL SLAVERY + +BLOOMINGTON, ILL., September 27, 1841. + +Miss Mary Speed, Louisville, Ky. + +MY FRIEND: +By the way, a fine example was presented on board the boat for +contemplating the effect of condition upon human happiness. A +gentleman had purchased twelve negroes in different 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 fastened to the main chain by a +shorter one, at a convenient distance from the others, so that +the negroes were strung together precisely like so many fish upon +a trotline. 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 ruthless 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 offence for which he had been sold was an overfondness 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 Springfield 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. + +Your sincere friend, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1842 + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--ON MARRIAGE + +January 3?, 1842. + +MY DEAR SPEED:--Feeling, as you know I do, the deepest solicitude +for the success of the enterprise you are engaged in, I adopt +this as the last method I can adopt to aid you, in case (which +God forbid!) you shall need any aid. I do not place what I am +going to say on paper because I can say it better that way than I +could by word of mouth, but, were I to say it orally before we +part, most likely you would forget it at the very time when it +might do you some good. As I think it reasonable that you will +feel very badly some time between this and the final consummation +of your purpose, it is intended that you shall read this just at +such a time. Why I say it is reasonable that you will feel very +badly yet, is because of three special causes added to the +general one which I shall mention. + +The general cause is, that you are naturally of a nervous +temperament; and this I say from what I have seen of you +personally, and what you have told me concerning your mother at +various times, and concerning your brother William at the time +his wife died. The first special cause is your exposure to bad +weather on your journey, which my experience clearly proves to be +very severe on defective nerves. The second is the absence of +all business and conversation of friends, which might divert your +mind, give it occasional rest from the intensity of thought which +will sometimes wear the sweetest idea threadbare and turn it to +the bitterness of death. The third is the rapid and near +approach of that crisis on which all your thoughts and feelings +concentrate. + +If from all these causes you shall escape and go through +triumphantly, without another "twinge of the soul," I shall be +most happily but most egregiously deceived. If, on the contrary, +you shall, as I expect you will at sometime, be agonized and +distressed, let me, who have some reason to speak with judgment +on such a subject, beseech you to ascribe it to the causes I have +mentioned, and not to some false and ruinous suggestion of the +Devil. + +"But," you will say, "do not your causes apply to every one +engaged in a like undertaking?" By no means. The particular +causes, to a greater or less extent, perhaps do apply in all +cases; but the general one,--nervous debility, which is the key +and conductor of all the particular ones, and without which they +would be utterly harmless,--though it does pertain to you, does +not pertain to one in a thousand. It is out of this that the +painful difference between you and the mass of the world springs. + +I know what the painful point with you is at all times when you +are unhappy; it is an apprehension that you do not love her as +you should. What nonsense! How came you to court her? Was it +because you thought she deserved it, and that you had given her +reason to expect it? If it was for that why did not the same +reason make you court Ann Todd, and at least twenty others of +whom you can think, and to whom it would apply with greater force +than to her? Did you court her for her wealth? Why, you know she +had none. But you say you reasoned yourself into it. What do +you mean by that? Was it not that you found yourself unable to +reason yourself out of it? Did you not think, and partly form the +purpose, of courting her the first time you ever saw her or heard +of her? What had reason to do with it at that early stage? There +was nothing at that time for reason to work upon. Whether she +was moral, amiable, sensible, or even of good character, you did +not, nor could then know, except, perhaps, you might infer the +last from the company you found her in. + +All you then did or could know of her was her personal appearance +and deportment; and these, if they impress at all, impress the +heart, and not the head. + +Say candidly, were not those heavenly black eyes the whole basis +of all your early reasoning on the subject? After you and I had +once been at the residence, did you not go and take me all the +way to Lexington and back, for no other purpose but to get to see +her again, on our return on that evening to take a trip for that +express object? What earthly consideration would you take to find +her scouting and despising you, and giving herself up to another? +But of this you have no apprehension; and therefore you cannot +bring it home to your feelings. + +I shall be so anxious about you that I shall want you to write by +every mail. Your friend, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 3, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Your letter of the 25th January came to hand to-day. +You well know that I do not feel my own sorrows much more keenly +than I do yours, when I know of them; and yet I assure you I was +not much hurt by what you wrote me of your excessively bad +feeling at the time you wrote. Not that I am less capable of +sympathizing with you now than ever, not that I am less your +friend than ever, but because I hope and believe that your +present anxiety and distress about her health and her life must +and will forever banish those horrid doubts which I know you +sometimes felt as to the truth of your affection for her. If +they can once and forever be removed (and I almost feel a +presentiment that the Almighty has sent your present affliction +expressly for that object), surely nothing can come in their +stead to fill their immeasurable measure of misery. The death- +scenes of those we love are surely painful enough; but these we +are prepared for and expect to see: they happen to all, and all +know they must happen. Painful as they are, they are not an +unlooked for sorrow. Should she, as you fear, be destined to an +early grave, it is indeed a great consolation to know that she is +so well prepared to meet it. Her religion, which you once +disliked so much, I will venture you now prize most highly. But +I hope your melancholy bodings as to her early death are not well +founded. I even hope that ere this reaches you she will have +returned with improved and still improving health, and that you +will have met her, and forgotten the sorrows of the past in the +enjoyments of the present. I would say more if I could, but it +seems that I have said enough. It really appears to me that you +yourself ought to rejoice, and not sorrow, at this indubitable +evidence of your undying affection for her. Why, Speed, if you +did not love her although you might not wish her death, you would +most certainly be resigned to it. Perhaps this point is no +longer a question with you, and my pertinacious dwelling upon it +is a rude intrusion upon your feelings. If so, you must pardon +me. You know the hell I have suffered on that point, and how +tender I am upon it. You know I do not mean wrong. I have been +quite clear of "hypo" since you left, even better than I was +along in the fall. I have seen ______ but once. She seemed very +cheerful, and so I said nothing to her about what we spoke of. + +Old Uncle Billy Herndon is dead, and it is said this evening that +Uncle Ben Ferguson will not live. This, I believe, is all the +news, and enough at that unless it were better. Write me +immediately on the receipt of this. Your friend, as ever, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--ON DEPRESSION + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 13, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 1st instant came to hand three or four +days ago. When this shall reach you, you will have been Fanny's +husband several days. You know my desire to befriend you is +everlasting; that I will never cease while I know how to do +anything. But you will always hereafter be on ground that I have +never occupied, and consequently, if advice were needed, I might +advise wrong. I do fondly hope, however, that you will never +again need any comfort from abroad. But should I be mistaken in +this, should excessive pleasure still be accompanied with a +painful counterpart at times, still let me urge you, as I have +ever done, to remember, in the depth and even agony of +despondency, that very shortly you are to feel well again. I am +now fully convinced that you love her as ardently as you are +capable of loving. Your ever being happy in her presence, and +your intense anxiety about her health, if there were nothing +else, would place this beyond all dispute in my mind. I incline +to think it probable that your nerves will fail you occasionally +for a while; but once you get them firmly guarded now that +trouble is over forever. I think, if I were you, in case my mind +were not exactly right, I would avoid being idle. I would +immediately engage in some business, or go to making preparations +for it, which would be the same thing. If you went through the +ceremony calmly, or even with sufficient composure not to excite +alarm in any present, you are safe beyond question, and in two or +three months, to say the most, will be the happiest of men. + +I would desire you to give my particular respects to Fanny; but +perhaps you will not wish her to know you have received this, +lest she should desire to see it. Make her write me an answer to +my last letter to her; at any rate I would set great value upon a +note or letter from her. Write me whenever you have leisure. +Yours forever, +A. LINCOLN. +P. S.--I have been quite a man since you left. + + + + +TO G. B. SHELEDY. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Feb. 16, 1842. + +G. B. SHELEDY, ESQ.: + +Yours of the 10th is duly received. Judge Logan and myself are +doing business together now, and we are willing to attend to your +cases as you propose. As to the terms, we are willing to attend +each case you prepare and send us for $10 (when there shall be no +opposition) to be sent in advance, or you to know that it is +safe. It takes $5.75 of cost to start upon, that is, $1.75 to +clerk, and $2 to each of two publishers of papers. Judge Logan +thinks it will take the balance of $20 to carry a case through. +This must be advanced from time to time as the services are +performed, as the officers will not act without. I do not know +whether you can be admitted an attorney of the Federal court in +your absence or not; nor is it material, as the business can be +done in our names. + +Thinking it may aid you a little, I send you one of our blank +forms of Petitions. It, you will see, is framed to be sworn to +before the Federal court clerk, and, in your cases, will have +[to] be so far changed as to be sworn to before the clerk of your +circuit court; and his certificate must be accompanied with his +official seal. The schedules, too, must be attended to. Be sure +that they contain the creditors' names, their residences, the +amounts due each, the debtors' names, their residences, and the +amounts they owe, also all property and where located. + +Also be sure that the schedules are all signed by the applicants +as well as the Petition. Publication will have to be made here +in one paper, and in one nearest the residence of the applicant. +Write us in each case where the last advertisement is to be sent, +whether to you or to what paper. + +I believe I have now said everything that can be of any +advantage. Your friend as ever, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GEORGE E. PICKETT--ADVICE TO YOUTH + +February 22, 1842. + +I never encourage deceit, and falsehood, especially if you have +got a bad memory, is the worst enemy a fellow can have. The fact +is truth is your truest friend, no matter what the circumstances +are. Notwithstanding this copy-book preamble, my boy, I am +inclined to suggest a little prudence on your part. You see I +have a congenital aversion to failure, and the sudden +announcement to your Uncle Andrew of the success of your "lamp +rubbing" might possibly prevent your passing the severe physical +examination to which you will be subjected in order to enter the +Military Academy. You see I should like to have a perfect +soldier credited to dear old Illinois--no broken bones, scalp +wounds, etc. So I think it might be wise to hand this letter +from me in to your good uncle through his room-window after he +has had a comfortable dinner, and watch its effect from the top +of the pigeon-house. + +I have just told the folks here in Springfield on this 111th +anniversary of the birth of him whose name, mightiest in the +cause of civil liberty, still mightiest in the cause of moral +reformation, we mention in solemn awe, in naked, deathless +splendor, that the one victory we can ever call complete will be +that one which proclaims that there is not one slave or one +drunkard on the face of God's green earth. Recruit for this +victory. + +Now, boy, on your march, don't you go and forget the old maxim +that "one drop of honey catches more flies than a half-gallon of +gall." Load your musket with this maxim, and smoke it in your +pipe. + + + + +ADDRESS BEFORE THE SPRINGFIELD WASHINGTONIAN +TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 22, 1842. + +Although the temperance cause has been in progress for near +twenty years, it is apparent to all that it is just now being +crowned with a degree of success hitherto unparalleled. + +The list of its friends is daily swelled by the additions of +fifties, of hundreds, and of thousands. The cause itself seems +suddenly transformed from a cold abstract theory to a living, +breathing, active, and powerful chieftain, going forth +"conquering and to conquer." The citadels of his great adversary +are daily being stormed and dismantled; his temple and his +altars, where the rites of his idolatrous worship have long been +performed, and where human sacrifices have long been wont to be +made, are daily desecrated and deserted. The triumph of the +conqueror's fame is sounding from hill to hill, from sea to sea, +and from land to land, and calling millions to his standard at a +blast. + +For this new and splendid success we heartily rejoice. That that +success is so much greater now than heretofore is doubtless owing +to rational causes; and if we would have it continue, we shall do +well to inquire what those causes are. + +The warfare heretofore waged against the demon intemperance has +somehow or other been erroneous. Either the champions engaged or +the tactics they adopted have not been the most proper. These +champions for the most part have been preachers, lawyers, and +hired agents. Between these and the mass of mankind there is a +want of approachability, if the term be admissible, partially, at +least, fatal to their success. They are supposed to have no +sympathy of feeling or interest with those very persons whom it +is their object to convince and persuade. + +And again, it is so common and so easy to ascribe motives to men +of these classes other than those they profess to act upon. The +preacher, it is said, advocates temperance because he is a +fanatic, and desires a union of the Church and State; the lawyer +from his pride and vanity of hearing himself speak; and the hired +agent for his salary. But when one who has long been known as a +victim of intemperance bursts the fetters that have bound him, +and appears before his neighbors "clothed and in his right mind," +a redeemed specimen of long-lost humanity, and stands up, with +tears of joy trembling in his eyes, to tell of the miseries once +endured, now to be endured no more forever; of his once naked and +starving children, now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife long +weighed down with woe, weeping, and a broken heart, now restored +to health, happiness, and a renewed affection; and how easily it +is all done, once it is resolved to be done; how simple his +language! there is a logic and an eloquence in it that few with +human feelings can resist. They cannot say that he desires a +union of Church and State, for he is not a church member; they +cannot say he is vain of hearing himself speak, for his whole +demeanor shows he would gladly avoid speaking at all; they cannot +say he speaks for pay, for he receives none, and asks for none. +Nor can his sincerity in any way be doubted, or his sympathy for +those he would persuade to imitate his example be denied. + +In my judgment, it is to the battles of this new class of +champions that our late success is greatly, perhaps chiefly, +owing. But, had the old-school champions themselves been of the +most wise selecting, was their system of tactics the most +judicious? It seems to me it was not. Too much denunciation +against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers was indulged in. This I +think was both impolitic and unjust. It was impolitic, because +it is not much in the nature of man to be driven to anything; +still less to be driven about that which is exclusively his own +business; and least of all where such driving is to be submitted +to at the expense of pecuniary interest or burning appetite. +When the dram-seller and drinker were incessantly told not in +accents of entreaty and persuasion, diffidently addressed by +erring man to an erring brother, but in the thundering tones of +anathema and denunciation with which the lordly judge often +groups together all the crimes of the felon's life, and thrusts +them in his face just ere he passes sentence of death upon him +that they were the authors of all the vice and misery and crime +in the land; that they were the manufacturers and material of all +the thieves and robbers and murderers that infest the earth; that +their houses were the workshops of the devil; and that their +persons should be shunned by all the good and virtuous, as moral +pestilences--I say, when they were told all this, and in this +way, it is not wonderful that they were slow to acknowledge the +truth of such denunciations, and to join the ranks of their +denouncers in a hue and cry against themselves. + +To have expected them to do otherwise than they did to have +expected them not to meet denunciation with denunciation, +crimination with crimination, and anathema with anathema--was to +expect a reversal of human nature, which is God's decree and can +never be reversed. + +When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, +kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an +old and a true maxim that "a drop of honey catches more flies +than a gallon of gall." So with men. If you would win a man to +your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. +Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say +what he will, is the great highroad to his reason; and which, +when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing +his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause +really be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his +judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be +shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close +all the avenues to his head and his heart; and though your cause +be naked truth itself, transformed to the heaviest lance, harder +than steel, and sharper than steel can be made, and though you +throw it with more than herculean force and precision, you shall +be no more able to pierce him than to penetrate the hard shell of +a tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, and so must he be +understood by those who would lead him, even to his own best +interests. + +On this point the Washingtonians greatly excel the temperance +advocates of former times. Those whom they desire to convince +and persuade are their old friends and companions. They know +they are not demons, nor even the worst of men; they know that +generally they are kind, generous, and charitable even beyond the +example of their more staid and sober neighbors. They are +practical philanthropists; and they glow with a generous and +brotherly zeal that mere theorizers are incapable of feeling. +Benevolence and charity possess their hearts entirely; and out of +the abundance of their hearts their tongues give utterance; "love +through all their actions runs, and all their words are mild." +In this spirit they speak and act, and in the same they are heard +and regarded. And when such is the temper of the advocate, and +such of the audience, no good cause can be unsuccessful. But I +have said that denunciations against dramsellers and dram- +drinkers are unjust, as well as impolitic. Let us see. I have +not inquired at what period of time the use of intoxicating +liquors commenced; nor is it important to know. It is sufficient +that, to all of us who now inhabit the world, the practice of +drinking them is just as old as the world itself that is, we have +seen the one just as long as we have seen the other. When all +such of us as have now reached the years of maturity first opened +our eyes upon the stage of existence, we found intoxicating +liquor recognized by everybody, used by everybody, repudiated by +nobody. It commonly entered into the first draught of the infant +and the last draught of the dying man. From the sideboard of the +parson down to the ragged pocket of the houseless loafer, it was +constantly found. Physicians proscribed it in this, that, and +the other disease; government provided it for soldiers and +sailors; and to have a rolling or raising, a husking or +"hoedown," anywhere about without it was positively insufferable. +So, too, it was everywhere a respectable article of manufacture +and merchandise. The making of it was regarded as an honorable +livelihood, and he who could make most was the most enterprising +and respectable. Large and small manufactories of it were +everywhere erected, in which all the earthly goods of their +owners were invested. Wagons drew it from town to town; boats +bore it from clime to clime, and the winds wafted it from nation +to nation; and merchants bought and sold it, by wholesale and +retail, with precisely the same feelings on the part of the +seller, buyer, and bystander as are felt at the selling and +buying of ploughs, beef, bacon, or any other of the real +necessaries of life. Universal public opinion not only tolerated +but recognized and adopted its use. + +It is true that even then it was known and acknowledged that many +were greatly injured by it; but none seemed to think the injury +arose from the use of a bad thing, but from the abuse of a very +good thing. The victims of it were to be pitied and +compassionated, just as are the heirs of consumption and other +hereditary diseases. Their failing was treated as a misfortune, +and not as a crime, or even as a disgrace. If, then, what I have +been saying is true, is it wonderful that some should think and +act now as all thought and acted twenty years ago? and is it just +to assail, condemn, or despise them for doing so? The universal +sense of mankind on any subject is an argument, or at least an +influence, not easily overcome. The success of the argument in +favor of the existence of an overruling Providence mainly depends +upon that sense; and men ought not in justice to be denounced for +yielding to it in any case, or giving it up slowly, especially +when they are backed by interest, fixed habits, or burning +appetites. + +Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reformers +fell, was the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly +incorrigible, and therefore must be turned adrift and damned +without remedy in order that the grace of temperance might +abound, to the temperate then, and to all mankind some hundreds +of years thereafter. There is in this some thing so repugnant to +humanity, so uncharitable, so cold-blooded and feelingless, that +it, never did nor ever can enlist the enthusiasm of a popular +cause. We could not love the man who taught it we could not hear +him with patience. The heart could not throw open its portals to +it, the generous man could not adopt it--it could not mix with +his blood. It looked so fiendishly selfish, so like throwing +fathers and brothers overboard to lighten the boat for our +security, that the noble-minded shrank from the manifest meanness +of the thing. And besides this, the benefits of a reformation to +be effected by such a system were too remote in point of time to +warmly engage many in its behalf. Few can be induced to labor +exclusively for posterity, and none will do it enthusiastically. +--Posterity has done nothing for us; and, theorize on it as we +may, practically we shall do very little for it, unless we are +made to think we are at the same time doing something for +ourselves. + +What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit to ask or to +expect a whole community to rise up and labor for the temporal +happiness of others, after themselves shall be consigned to the +dust, a majority of which community take no pains whatever to +secure their own eternal welfare at no more distant day! Great +distance in either time or space has wonderful power to lull and +render quiescent the human mind. Pleasures to be enjoyed, or +pains to be endured, after we shall be dead and gone are but +little regarded even in our own cases, and much less in the cases +of others. Still, in addition to this there is something so +ludicrous in promises of good or threats of evil a great way off +as to render the whole subject with which they are connected +easily turned into ridicule. "Better lay down that spade you are +stealing, Paddy; if you don't you'll pay for it at the day of +judgment." "Be the powers, if ye 'll credit me so long I'll take +another jist." + +By the Washingtonians this system of consigning the habitual +drunkard to hopeless ruin is repudiated. They adopt a more +enlarged philanthropy; they go for present as well as future +good. They labor for all now living, as well as hereafter to +live. They teach hope to all-despair to none. As applying to +their cause, they deny the doctrine of unpardonable sin; as in +Christianity it is taught, so in this they teach--"While--While +the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return." And, +what is a matter of more profound congratulation, they, by +experiment upon experiment and example upon example, prove the +maxim to be no less true in the one case than in the other. On +every hand we behold those who but yesterday were the chief of +sinners, now the chief apostles of the cause. Drunken devils are +cast out by ones, by sevens, by legions; and their unfortunate +victims, like the poor possessed who were redeemed from their +long and lonely wanderings in the tombs, are publishing to the +ends of the earth how great things have been done for them. + +To these new champions and this new system of tactics our late +success is mainly owing, and to them we must mainly look for the +final consummation. The ball is now rolling gloriously on, and +none are so able as they to increase its speed and its bulk, to +add to its momentum and its magnitude--even though unlearned in +letters, for this task none are so well educated. To fit them +for this work they have been taught in the true school. They +have been in that gulf from which they would teach others the +means of escape. They have passed that prison wall which others +have long declared impassable; and who that has not shall dare to +weigh opinions with them as to the mode of passing? + +But if it be true, as I have insisted, that those who have +suffered by intemperance personally, and have reformed, are the +most powerful and efficient instruments to push the reformation +to ultimate success, it does not follow that those who have not +suffered have no part left them to perform. Whether or not the +world would be vastly benefited by a total and final banishment +from it of all intoxicating drinks seems to me not now an open +question. Three fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with +their tongues, and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge it in +their hearts. + +Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing what good the good +of the whole demands? Shall he who cannot do much be for that +reason excused if he do nothing? "But," says one, "what good can +I do by signing the pledge? I never drank, even without +signing." This question has already been asked and answered more +than a million of times. Let it be answered once more. For the +man suddenly or in any other way to break off from the use of +drams, who has indulged in them for a long course of years and +until his appetite for them has grown ten or a hundredfold +stronger and more craving than any natural appetite can be, +requires a most powerful moral effort. In such an undertaking he +needs every moral support and influence that can possibly be +brought to his aid and thrown around him. And not only so, but +every moral prop should be taken from whatever argument might +rise in his mind to lure him to his backsliding. When he casts +his eyes around him, he should be able to see all that he +respects, all that he admires, all that he loves, kindly and +anxiously pointing him onward, and none beckoning him back to his +former miserable "wallowing in the mire." + +But it is said by some that men will think and act for +themselves; that none will disuse spirits or anything else +because his neighbors do; and that moral influence is not that +powerful engine contended for. Let us examine this. Let me ask +the man who could maintain this position most stiffly, what +compensation he will accept to go to church some Sunday and sit +during the sermon with his wife's bonnet upon his head? Not a +trifle, I'll venture. And why not? There would be nothing +irreligious in it, nothing immoral, nothing uncomfortable--then +why not? Is it not because there would be something egregiously +unfashionable in it? Then it is the influence of fashion; and +what is the influence of fashion but the influence that other +people's actions have on our actions--the strong inclination each +of us feels to do as we see all our neighbors do? Nor is the +influence of fashion confined to any particular thing or class of +things; it is just as strong on one subject as another. Let us +make it as unfashionable to withhold our names from the +temperance cause as for husbands to wear their wives' bonnets to +church, and instances will be just as rare in the one case as the +other. + +"But," say some, "we are no drunkards, and we shall not +acknowledge ourselves such by joining a reformed drunkard's +society, whatever our influence might be." Surely no Christian +will adhere to this objection. If they believe as they profess, +that Omnipotence condescended to take on himself the form of +sinful man, and as such to die an ignominious death for their +sakes, surely they will not refuse submission to the infinitely +lesser condescension, for the temporal, and perhaps eternal, +salvation of a large, erring, and unfortunate class of their +fellow-creatures. Nor is the condescension very great. In my +judgment such of us as have never fallen victims have been spared +more by the absence of appetite than from any mental or moral +superiority over those who have. Indeed, I believe if we take +habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will +bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. +There seems ever to have been a proneness in the brilliant and +warm-blooded to fall into this vice--the demon of intemperance +ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and +of generosity. What one of us but can call to mind some +relative, more promising in youth than all his fellows, who has +fallen a sacrifice to his rapacity? He ever seems to have gone +forth like the Egyptian angel of death, commissioned to slay, if +not the first, the fairest born of every family. Shall he now be +arrested in his desolating career? In that arrest all can give +aid that will; and who shall be excused that can and will not? +Far around as human breath has ever blown he keeps our fathers, +our brothers, our sons, and our friends prostrate in the chains +of moral death. To all the living everywhere we cry, "Come sound +the moral trump, that these may rise and stand up an exceeding +great army." "Come from the four winds, O breath! and breathe +upon these slain that they may live." If the relative grandeur +of revolutions shall be estimated by the great amount of human +misery they alleviate, and the small amount they inflict, then +indeed will this be the grandest the world shall ever have seen. + +Of our political revolution of '76 we are all justly proud. It +has given us a degree of political freedom far exceeding that of +any other nation of the earth. In it the world has found a +solution of the long-mooted problem as to the capability of man +to govern himself. In it was the germ which has vegetated, and +still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty of +mankind. But, with all these glorious results, past, present, +and to come, it had its evils too. It breathed forth famine, +swam in blood, and rode in fire; and long, long after, the +orphan's cry and the widow's wail continued to break the sad +silence that ensued. These were the price, the inevitable price, +paid for the blessings it bought. + +Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find a +stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater +tyrant deposed; in it, more of want supplied, more disease +healed, more sorrow assuaged. By it no Orphans starving, no +widows weeping. By it none wounded in feeling, none injured in +interest; even the drammaker and dram-seller will have glided +into other occupations so gradually as never to have felt the +change, and will stand ready to join all others in the universal +song of gladness. And what a noble ally this to the cause of +political freedom, with such an aid its march cannot fail to be +on and on, till every son of earth shall drink in rich fruition +the sorrow-quenching draughts of perfect liberty. Happy day +when-all appetites controlled, all poisons subdued, all matter +subjected-mind, all-conquering mind, shall live and move, the +monarch of the world. Glorious consummation! Hail, fall of +fury! Reign of reason, all hail! + +And when the victory shall be complete, when there shall be +neither a slave nor a drunkard on the earth, how proud the title +of that land which may truly claim to be the birthplace and the +cradle of both those revolutions that shall have ended in that +victory. How nobly distinguished that people who shall have +planted and nurtured to maturity both the political and moral +freedom of their species. + +This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of +Washington; we are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the +mightiest name of earth long since mightiest in the cause of +civil liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. On that +name no eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to +the sun or glory to the name of Washington is alike impossible. +Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its +naked deathless splendor leave it shining on. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, February 25, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 16th instant, announcing that Miss +Fanny and you are "no more twain, but one flesh," reached me this +morning. I have no way of telling you how much happiness I wish +you both, though I believe you both can conceive it. I feel +somewhat jealous of both of you now: you will be so exclusively +concerned for one another, that I shall be forgotten entirely. +My acquaintance with Miss Fanny (I call her this, lest you should +think I am speaking of your mother) was too short for me to +reasonably hope to long be remembered by her; and still I am sure +I shall not forget her soon. Try if you cannot remind her of that +debt she owes me--and be sure you do not interfere to prevent her +paying it. + +I regret to learn that you have resolved to not return to +Illinois. I shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably +things seem to be arranged in this world! If we have no friends, +we have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are sure to lose +them, and be doubly pained by the loss. I did hope she and you +would make your home here; but I own I have no right to insist. +You owe obligations to her ten thousand times more sacred than +you can owe to others, and in that light let them be respected +and observed. It is natural that she should desire to remain with +her relatives and friends. As to friends, however, she could not +need them anywhere: she would have them in abundance here. + +Give my kind remembrance to Mr. Williamson and his family, +particularly Miss Elizabeth; also to your mother, brother, and +sisters. Ask little Eliza Davis if she will ride to town with me +if I come there again. And finally, give Fanny a double +reciprocation of all the love she sent me. Write me often, and +believe me + +Yours forever, + +LINCOLN. + +P. S. Poor Easthouse is gone at last. He died awhile before day +this morning. They say he was very loath to die.... + +L. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--ON MARRIAGE CONCERNS + +SPRINGFIELD, February 25,1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--I received yours of the 12th written the day you +went down to William's place, some days since, but delayed +answering it till I should receive the promised one of the 16th, +which came last night. I opened the letter with intense anxiety +and trepidation; so much so, that, although it turned out better +than I expected, I have hardly yet, at a distance of ten hours, +become calm. + +I tell you, Speed, our forebodings (for which you and I are +peculiar) are all the worst sort of nonsense. I fancied, from +the time I received your letter of Saturday, that the one of +Wednesday was never to come, and yet it did come, and what is +more, it is perfectly clear, both from its tone and handwriting, +that you were much happier, or, if you think the term preferable, +less miserable, when you wrote it than when you wrote the last +one before. You had so obviously improved at the very time I so +much fancied you would have grown worse. You say that something +indescribably horrible and alarming still haunts you. You will +not say that three months from now, I will venture. When your +nerves once get steady now, the whole trouble will be over +forever. Nor should you become impatient at their being even +very slow in becoming steady. Again you say, you much fear that +that Elysium of which you have dreamed so much is never to be +realized. Well, if it shall not, I dare swear it will not be the +fault of her who is now your wife. I now have no doubt that it +is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of +Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly can realize. Far +short of your dreams as you may be, no woman could do more to +realize them than that same black-eyed Fanny. If you could but +contemplate her through my imagination, it would appear +ridiculous to you that any one should for a moment think of being +unhappy with her. My old father used to have a saying that "If +you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter"; and it occurs to +me that if the bargain you have just closed can possibly be +called a bad one, it is certainly the most pleasant one for +applying that maxim to which my fancy can by any effort picture. + +I write another letter, enclosing this, which you can show her, +if she desires it. I do this because she would think strangely, +perhaps, should you tell her that you received no letters from +me, or, telling her you do, refuse to let her see them. I close +this, entertaining the confident hope that every successive +letter I shall have from you (which I here pray may not be few, +nor far between) may show you possessing a more steady hand and +cheerful heart than the last preceding it. +As ever, your friend, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 27, 1842 + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 10th instant was received three or four +days since. You know I am sincere when I tell you the pleasure +its contents gave me was, and is, inexpressible. As to your farm +matter, I have no sympathy with you. I have no farm, nor ever +expect to have, and consequently have not studied the subject +enough to be much interested with it. I can only say that I am +glad you are satisfied and pleased with it. But on that other +subject, to me of the most intense interest whether in joy or +sorrow, I never had the power to withhold my sympathy from you. +It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you say +you are "far happier than you ever expected to be." That much I +know is enough. I know you too well to suppose your expectations +were not, at least, sometimes extravagant, and if the reality +exceeds them all, I say, Enough, dear Lord. I am not going +beyond the truth when I tell you that the short space it took me +to read your last letter gave me more pleasure than the total sum +of all I have enjoyed since the fatal 1st of January, 1841. +Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely happy, but +for the never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy whom I +have contributed to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot +but reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while she is +otherwise. She accompanied a large party on the railroad cars to +Jacksonville last Monday, and on her return spoke, so that I +heard of it, of having enjoyed the trip exceedingly. God be +praised for that. + +You know with what sleepless vigilance I have watched you ever +since the commencement of your affair; and although I am almost +confident it is useless, I cannot forbear once more to say that I +think it is even yet possible for your spirits to flag down and +leave you miserable. If they should, don't fail to remember that +they cannot long remain so. One thing I can tell you which I +know you will be glad to hear, and that is that I have seen--and +scrutinized her feelings as well as I could, and am fully +convinced she is far happier now than she has been for the last +fifteen months past. + +You will see by the last Sangamon Journal, that I made a +temperance speech on the 22d of February, which I claim that +Fanny and you shall read as an act of charity to me; for I cannot +learn that anybody else has read it, or is likely to. +Fortunately it is not very long, and I shall deem it a sufficient +compliance with my request if one of you listens while the other +reads it. + +As to your Lockridge matter, it is only necessary to say that +there has been no court since you left, and that the next +commences to-morrow morning, during which I suppose we cannot +fail to get a judgment. + +I wish you would learn of Everett what he would take, over and +above a discharge for all the trouble we have been at, to take +his business out of our hands and give it to somebody else. It +is impossible to collect money on that or any other claim here +now; and although you know I am not a very petulant man, I +declare I am almost out of patience with Mr. Everett's +importunity. It seems like he not only writes all the letters he +can himself, but gets everybody else in Louisville and vicinity +to be constantly writing to us about his claim. I have always +said that Mr. Everett is a very clever fellow, and I am very +sorry he cannot be obliged; but it does seem to me he ought to +know we are interested to collect his claim, and therefore would +do it if we could. + +I am neither joking nor in a pet when I say we would thank him to +transfer his business to some other, without any compensation for +what we have done, provided he will see the court cost paid, for +which we are security. + +The sweet violet you inclosed came safely to hand, but it was so +dry, and mashed so flat, that it crumbled to dust at the first +attempt to handle it. The juice that mashed out of it stained a +place in the letter, which I mean to preserve and cherish for the +sake of her who procured it to be sent. My renewed good wishes +to her in particular, and generally to all such of your relations +who know me. + +As ever, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, July 4, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 16th June was received only a day or +two since. It was not mailed at Louisville till the 25th. You +speak of the great time that has elapsed since I wrote you. Let +me explain that. Your letter reached here a day or two after I +started on the circuit. I was gone five or six weeks, so that I +got the letters only a few weeks before Butler started to your +country. I thought it scarcely worth while to write you the news +which he could and would tell you more in detail. On his return +he told me you would write me soon, and so I waited for your +letter. As to my having been displeased with your advice, surely +you know better than that. I know you do, and therefore will not +labor to convince you. True, that subject is painful to me; but +it is not your silence, or the silence of all the world, that can +make me forget it. I acknowledge the correctness of your advice +too; but before I resolve to do the one thing or the other, I +must gain my confidence in my own ability to keep my resolves +when they are made. In that ability you know I once prided +myself as the only or chief gem of my character; that gem I lost- +-how and where you know too well. I have not yet regained it; +and until I do, I cannot trust myself in any matter of much +importance. I believe now that had you understood my case at the +time as well as I understand yours afterward, by the aid you +would have given me I should have sailed through clear, but that +does not now afford me sufficient confidence to begin that or the +like of that again. + +You make a kind acknowledgment of your obligations to me for your +present happiness. I am pleased with that acknowledgment. But a +thousand times more am I pleased to know that you enjoy a degree +of happiness worthy of an acknowledgment. The truth is, I am not +sure that there was any merit with me in the part I took in your +difficulty; I was drawn to it by a fate. If I would I could not +have done less than I did. I always was superstitious; I believe +God made me one of the instruments of bringing your Fanny and you +together, which union I have no doubt He had fore-ordained. +Whatever He designs He will do for me yet. "Stand still, and see +the salvation of the Lord" is my text just now. If, as you say, +you have told Fanny all, I should have no objection to her seeing +this letter, but for its reference to our friend here: let her +seeing it depend upon whether she has ever known anything of my +affairs; and if she has not, do not let her. + +I do not think I can come to Kentucky this season. I am so poor +and make so little headway in the world, that I drop back in a +month of idleness as much as I gain in a year's sowing. I should +like to visit you again. I should like to see that "sis" of +yours that was absent when I was there, though I suppose she +would run away again if she were to hear I was coming. + +My respects and esteem to all your friends there, and, by your +permission, my love to your Fanny. + +Ever yours, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +A LETTER FROM THE LOST TOWNSHIPS + +Article written by Lincoln for the Sangamon Journal in ridicule +of James Shields, who, as State Auditor, had declined to receive +State Bank notes in payment of taxes. The above letter purported +to come from a poor widow who, though supplied with State Bank +paper, could not obtain a receipt for her tax bill. This, and +another subsequent letter by Mary Todd, brought about the +"Lincoln-Shields Duel." + + + + +LOST TOWNSHIPS + +August 27, 1842. + +DEAR Mr. PRINTER: + +I see you printed that long letter I sent you a spell ago. I 'm +quite encouraged by it, and can't keep from writing again. I +think the printing of my letters will be a good thing all round-- +it will give me the benefit of being known by the world, and give +the world the advantage of knowing what's going on in the Lost +Townships, and give your paper respectability besides. So here +comes another. Yesterday afternoon I hurried through cleaning up +the dinner dishes and stepped over to neighbor S_______ to see if +his wife Peggy was as well as mout be expected, and hear what +they called the baby. Well, when I got there and just turned +round the corner of his log cabin, there he was, setting on the +doorstep reading a newspaper. "How are you, Jeff?" says I. He +sorter started when he heard me, for he hadn't seen me before. +"Why," says he, "I 'm mad as the devil, Aunt 'Becca!" "What +about?" says I; "ain't its hair the right color? None of that +nonsense, Jeff; there ain't an honester woman in the Lost +Townships than..." --"Than who?" says he; "what the mischief are +you about?" I began to see I was running the wrong trail, and so +says I, "Oh! nothing: I guess I was mistaken a little, that's +all. But what is it you 're mad about?" + +"Why," says he, "I've been tugging ever since harvest, getting +out wheat and hauling it to the river to raise State Bank paper +enough to pay my tax this year and a little school debt I owe; +and now, just as I 've got it, here I open this infernal Extra +Register, expecting to find it full of 'Glorious Democratic +Victories' and 'High Comb'd Cocks,' when, lo and behold! I find a +set of fellows, calling themselves officers of the State, have +forbidden the tax collectors, and school commissioners to receive +State paper at all; and so here it is dead on my hands. I don't +now believe all the plunder I've got will fetch ready cash enough +to pay my taxes and that school debt." + +I was a good deal thunderstruck myself; for that was the first I +had heard of the proclamation, and my old man was pretty much in +the same fix with Jeff. We both stood a moment staring at one +another without knowing what to say. At last says I, "Mr. +S______ let me look at that paper." He handed it to me, when I +read the proclamation over. + +"There now," says he, "did you ever see such a piece of impudence +and imposition as that?" I saw Jeff was in a good tune for saying +some ill-natured things, and so I tho't I would just argue a +little on the contrary side, and make him rant a spell if I +could. "Why," says I, looking as dignified and thoughtful as I +could, "it seems pretty tough, to be sure, to have to raise +silver where there's none to be raised; but then, you see, 'there +will be danger of loss' if it ain't done." + +"Loss! damnation!" says he. "I defy Daniel Webster, I defy King +Solomon, I defy the world--I defy--I defy--yes, I defy even you, +Aunt 'Becca, to show how the people can lose anything by paying +their taxes in State paper." + +"Well," says I, "you see what the officers of State say about it, +and they are a desarnin' set of men. But," says I, "I guess you +'re mistaken about what the proclamation says. It don't say the +people will lose anything by the paper money being taken for +taxes. It only says 'there will be danger of loss'; and though +it is tolerable plain that the people can't lose by paying their +taxes in something they can get easier than silver, instead of +having to pay silver; and though it's just as plain that the +State can't lose by taking State Bank paper, however low it may +be, while she owes the bank more than the whole revenue, and can +pay that paper over on her debt, dollar for dollar;--still there +is danger of loss to the 'officers of State'; and you know, Jeff, +we can't get along without officers of State." + +"Damn officers of State!" says he; "that's what Whigs are always +hurrahing for." + +"Now, don't swear so, Jeff," says I, "you know I belong to the +meetin', and swearin' hurts my feelings." + +"Beg pardon, Aunt 'Becca," says he; "but I do say it's enough to +make Dr. Goddard swear, to have tax to pay in silver, for +nothing only that Ford may get his two thousand a year, and +Shields his twenty-four hundred a year, and Carpenter his sixteen +hundred a year, and all without 'danger of loss' by taking it in +State paper. Yes, yes: it's plain enough now what these officers +of State mean by 'danger of loss.' Wash, I s'pose, actually lost +fifteen hundred dollars out of the three thousand that two of +these 'officers of State' let him steal from the treasury, by +being compelled to take it in State paper. Wonder if we don't +have a proclamation before long, commanding us to make up this +loss to Wash in silver." + +And so he went on till his breath run out, and he had to stop. I +couldn't think of anything to say just then, and so I begun to +look over the paper again. "Ay! here's another proclamation, or +something like it." + +"Another?" says Jeff; "and whose egg is it, pray?" + +I looked to the bottom of it, and read aloud, "Your obedient +servant, James Shields, Auditor." + +"Aha!" says Jeff, "one of them same three fellows again. Well +read it, and let's hear what of it." + +I read on till I came to where it says, "The object of this +measure is to suspend the collection of the revenue for the +current year." + +"Now stop, now stop!" says he; "that's a lie a'ready, and I don't +want to hear of it." + +"Oh, maybe not," says I. + +"I say it-is-a-lie. Suspend the collection, indeed! Will the +collectors, that have taken their oaths to make the collection, +dare to end it? Is there anything in law requiring them to +perjure themselves at the bidding of James Shields? + +"Will the greedy gullet of the penitentiary be satisfied with +swallowing him instead of all of them, if they should venture to +obey him? And would he not discover some 'danger of loss,' and be +off about the time it came to taking their places? + +"And suppose the people attempt to suspend, by refusing to pay; +what then? The collectors would just jerk up their horses and +cows, and the like, and sell them to the highest bidder for +silver in hand, without valuation or redemption. Why, Shields +didn't believe that story himself; it was never meant for the +truth. If it was true, why was it not writ till five days after +the proclamation? Why did n't Carlin and Carpenter sign it as +well as Shields? Answer me that, Aunt 'Becca. I say it's a lie, +and not a well told one at that. It grins out like a copper +dollar. Shields is a fool as well as a liar. With him truth is +out of the question; and as for getting a good, bright, passable +lie out of him, you might as well try to strike fire from a cake +of tallow. I stick to it, it's all an infernal Whig lie!" + +"A Whig lie! Highty tighty!" + +"Yes, a Whig lie; and it's just like everything the cursed +British Whigs do. First they'll do some divilment, and then +they'll tell a lie to hide it. And they don't care how plain a +lie it is; they think they can cram any sort of a one down the +throats of the ignorant Locofocos, as they call the Democrats." + +"Why, Jeff, you 're crazy: you don't mean to say Shields is a +Whig!" + +"Yes, I do." + +"Why, look here! the proclamation is in your own Democratic +paper, as you call it." + +"I know it; and what of that? They only printed it to let us +Democrats see the deviltry the Whigs are at." + +"Well, but Shields is the auditor of this Loco--I mean this +Democratic State." + +"So he is, and Tyler appointed him to office." + +"Tyler appointed him?" + +"Yes (if you must chaw it over), Tyler appointed him; or, if it +was n't him, it was old Granny Harrison, and that's all one. I +tell you, Aunt 'Becca, there's no mistake about his being a Whig. +Why, his very looks shows it; everything about him shows it: if I +was deaf and blind, I could tell him by the smell. I seed him +when I was down in Springfield last winter. They had a sort of a +gatherin' there one night among the grandees, they called a fair. +All the gals about town was there, and all the handsome widows +and married women, finickin' about trying to look like gals, tied +as tight in the middle, and puffed out at both ends, like bundles +of fodder that had n't been stacked yet, but wanted stackin' +pretty bad. And then they had tables all around the house +kivered over with [------] caps and pincushions and ten +thousand such little knick-knacks, tryin' to sell 'em to the +fellows that were bowin', and scrapin' and kungeerin' about 'em. +They would n't let no Democrats in, for fear they'd disgust the +ladies, or scare the little gals, or dirty the floor. I looked +in at the window, and there was this same fellow Shields floatin' +about on the air, without heft or earthly substances, just like a +lock of cat fur where cats had been fighting. + +"He was paying his money to this one, and that one, and t' other +one, and sufferin' great loss because it was n't silver instead +of State paper; and the sweet distress he seemed to be in,--his +very features, in the ecstatic agony of his soul, spoke audibly +and distinctly, 'Dear girls, it is distressing, but I cannot +marry you all. Too well I know how much you suffer; but do, do +remember, it is not my fault that I am so handsome and so +interesting.' + +"As this last was expressed by a most exquisite contortion of his +face, he seized hold of one of their hands, and squeezed, and +held on to it about a quarter of an hour. 'Oh, my good fellow!' +says I to myself, 'if that was one of our Democratic gals in the +Lost Townships, the way you 'd get a brass pin let into you would +be about up to the head.' He a Democrat! Fiddlesticks! I tell +you, Aunt 'Becca, he's a Whig, and no mistake; nobody but a Whig +could make such a conceity dunce of himself." + +"Well," says I, "maybe he is; but, if he is, I 'm mistaken the +worst sort. Maybe so, maybe so; but, if I am, I'll suffer by it; +I'll be a Democrat if it turns out that Shields is a Whig, +considerin' you shall be a Whig if he turns out a Democrat." + +"A bargain, by jingoes!" says he; "but how will we find out?" + +"Why," says I, "we'll just write and ax the printer." + +"Agreed again!" says he; "and by thunder! if it does turn out +that Shields is a Democrat, I never will __________" + +"Jefferson! Jefferson!" + +"What do you want, Peggy?" + +"Do get through your everlasting clatter some time, and bring me +a gourd of water; the child's been crying for a drink this +livelong hour." + +"Let it die, then; it may as well die for water as to be taxed to +death to fatten officers of State." + +Jeff run off to get the water, though, just like he hadn't been +saying anything spiteful, for he's a raal good-hearted fellow, +after all, once you get at the foundation of him. + +I walked into the house, and, "Why, Peggy," says I, "I declare we +like to forgot you altogether." + +"Oh, yes," says she, "when a body can't help themselves, +everybody soon forgets 'em; but, thank God! by day after to- +morrow I shall be well enough to milk the cows, and pen the +calves, and wring the contrary ones' tails for 'em, and no thanks +to nobody." + +"Good evening, Peggy," says I, and so I sloped, for I seed she +was mad at me for making Jeff neglect her so long. + +And now, Mr. Printer, will you be sure to let us know in your +next paper whether this Shields is a Whig or a Democrat? I don't +care about it for myself, for I know well enough how it is +already; but I want to convince Jeff. It may do some good to let +him, and others like him, know who and what these officers of +State are. It may help to send the present hypocritical set to +where they belong, and to fill the places they now disgrace with +men who will do more work for less pay, and take fewer airs while +they are doing it. It ain't sensible to think that the same men +who get us in trouble will change their course; and yet it's +pretty plain if some change for the better is not made, it's not +long that either Peggy or I or any of us will have a cow left to +milk, or a calf's tail to wring. + +Yours truly, + +REBECCA ____________ + + + + +INVITATION TO HENRY CLAY. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug 29, 1842. + +HON. HENRY CLAY, Lexington, Ky. + +DEAR SIR:--We hear you are to visit Indianapolis, Indiana, on the +5th Of October next. If our information in this is correct we +hope you will not deny us the pleasure of seeing you in our +State. We are aware of the toil necessarily incident to a +journey by one circumstanced as you are; but once you have +embarked, as you have already determined to do, the toil would +not be greatly augmented by extending the journey to our capital. +The season of the year will be most favorable for good roads, and +pleasant weather; and although we cannot but believe you would be +highly gratified with such a visit to the prairie-land, the +pleasure it would give us and thousands such as we is beyond all +question. You have never visited Illinois, or at least this +portion of it; and should you now yield to our request, we +promise you such a reception as shall he worthy of the man on +whom are now turned the fondest hopes of a great and suffering +nation. + +Please inform us at the earliest convenience whether we may +expect you. + +Very respectfully your obedient servants, +A. G. HENRY, A. T. BLEDSOE, +C. BIRCHALL, A. LINCOLN, +G. M. CABANNISS, ROB'T IRWIN, +P. A. SAUNDERS, J. M. ALLEN, +F. N. FRANCIS. +Executive Committee "Clay Club." + +(Clay's answer, September 6, 1842, declines with thanks.) + + + + +CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE LINCOLN-SHIELDS DUEL. + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + +ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:--I regret that my absence on public business +compelled me to postpone a matter of private consideration a +little longer than I could have desired. It will only be +necessary, however, to account for it by informing you that I +have been to Quincy on business that would not admit of delay. I +will now state briefly the reasons of my troubling you with this +communication, the disagreeable nature of which I regret, as I +had hoped to avoid any difficulty with any one in Springfield +while residing there, by endeavoring to conduct myself in such a +way amongst both my political friends and opponents as to escape +the necessity of any. Whilst thus abstaining from giving +provocation, I have become the object of slander, vituperation, +and personal abuse, which were I capable of submitting to, I +would prove myself worthy of the whole of it. + +In two or three of the last numbers of the Sangamon Journal, +articles of the most personal nature and calculated to degrade me +have made their appearance. On inquiring, I was informed by the +editor of that paper, through the medium of my friend General +Whitesides, that you are the author of those articles. This +information satisfies me that I have become by some means or +other the object of your secret hostility. I will not take the +trouble of inquiring into the reason of all this; but I will take +the liberty of requiring a full, positive, and absolute +retraction of all offensive allusions used by you in these +communications, in relation to my private character and standing +as a man, as an apology for the insults conveyed in them. + +This may prevent consequences which no one will regret more than +myself. + +Your obedient servant, JAS. SHIELDS. + + + + +TO J. SHIELDS. + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842 + +JAS. SHIELDS, ESQ.:--Your note of to-day was handed me by General +Whitesides. In that note you say you have been informed, through +the medium of the editor of the Journal, that I am the author of +certain articles in that paper which you deem personally abusive +of you; and without stopping to inquire whether I really am the +author, or to point out what is offensive in them, you demand an +unqualified retraction of all that is offensive, and then proceed +to hint at consequences. + +Now, sir, there is in this so much assumption of facts and so +much of menace as to consequences, that I cannot submit to answer +that note any further than I have, and to add that the +consequences to which I suppose you allude would be matter of as +great regret to me as it possibly could to you. + +Respectfully, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO A. LINCOLN FROM JAS. SHIELDS + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + +ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:--In reply to my note of this date, you +intimate that I assume facts and menace consequences, and that +you cannot submit to answer it further. As now, sir, you desire +it, I will be a little more particular. The editor of the +Sangamon Journal gave me to understand that you are the author of +an article which appeared, I think, in that paper of the 2d +September instant, headed "The Lost Townships," and signed +Rebecca or 'Becca. I would therefore take the liberty of asking +whether you are the author of said article, or any other over the +same signature which has appeared in any of the late numbers of +that paper. If so, I repeat my request of an absolute retraction +of all offensive allusions contained therein in relation to my +private character and standing. If you are not the author of any +of these articles, your denial will he sufficient. I will say +further, it is not my intention to menace, but to do myself +justice. + +Your obedient servant, +JAS. SHIELDS. + + + + +MEMORANDUM OF INSTRUCTIONS TO E. H. MERRYMAN, + +Lincoln's Second, + +September 19, 1842. + +In case Whitesides shall signify a wish to adjust this affair +without further difficulty, let him know that if the present +papers be withdrawn, and a note from Mr. Shields asking to know +if I am the author of the articles of which he complains, and +asking that I shall make him gentlemanly satisfaction if I am the +author, and this without menace, or dictation as to what that +satisfaction shall be, a pledge is made that the following answer +shall be given: + +"I did write the 'Lost Townships' letter which appeared in the +Journal of the 2d instant, but had no participation in any form +in any other article alluding to you. I wrote that wholly for +political effect--I had no intention of injuring your personal or +private character or standing as a man or a gentleman; and I did +not then think, and do not now think, that that article could +produce or has produced that effect against you; and had I +anticipated such an effect I would have forborne to write it. +And I will add that your conduct toward me, so far as I know, had +always been gentlemanly; and that I had no personal pique against +you, and no cause for any." + +If this should be done, I leave it with you to arrange what shall +and what shall not be published. If nothing like this is done, +the preliminaries of the fight are to be-- + +First. Weapons: Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, +precisely equal in all respects, and such as now used by the +cavalry company at Jacksonville. + +Second. Position: A plank ten feet long, and from nine to twelve +inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the ground, as the +line between us, which neither is to pass his foot over upon +forfeit of his life. Next a line drawn on the ground on either +side of said plank and parallel with it, each at the distance of +the whole length of the sword and three feet additional from the +plank; and the passing of his own such line by either party +during the fight shall be deemed a surrender of the contest. + +Third. Time: On Thursday evening at five o'clock, if you can get +it so; but in no case to be at a greater distance of time than +Friday evening at five o'clock. + +Fourth. Place: Within three miles of Alton, on the opposite side +of the river, the particular spot to be agreed on by you. + +Any preliminary details coming within the above rules you are at +liberty to make at your discretion; but you are in no case to +swerve from these rules, or to pass beyond their limits. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, October 4, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--You have heard of my duel with Shields, and I have +now to inform you that the dueling business still rages in this +city. Day before yesterday Shields challenged Butler, who +accepted, and proposed fighting next morning at sunrise in Bob +Allen's meadow, one hundred yards' distance, with rifles. To +this Whitesides, Shields's second, said "No," because of the law. +Thus ended duel No. 2. Yesterday Whitesides chose to consider +himself insulted by Dr. Merryman, so sent him a kind of quasi- +challenge, inviting him to meet him at the Planter's House in St. +Louis on the next Friday, to settle their difficulty. Merryman +made me his friend, and sent Whitesides a note, inquiring to know +if he meant his note as a challenge, and if so, that he would, +according to the law in such case made and provided, prescribe +the terms of the meeting. Whitesides returned for answer that if +Merryman would meet him at the Planter's House as desired, he +would challenge him. Merryman replied in a note that he denied +Whitesides's right to dictate time and place, but that he +(Merryman) would waive the question of time, and meet him at +Louisiana, Missouri. Upon my presenting this note to Whitesides +and stating verbally its contents, he declined receiving it, +saying he had business in St. Louis, and it was as near as +Louisiana. Merryman then directed me to notify Whitesides that +he should publish the correspondence between them, with such +comments as he thought fit. This I did. Thus it stood at +bedtime last night. This morning Whitesides, by his friend +Shields, is praying for a new trial, on the ground that he was +mistaken in Merryman's proposition to meet him at Louisiana, +Missouri, thinking it was the State of Louisiana. This Merryman +hoots at, and is preparing his publication; while the town is in +a ferment, and a street fight somewhat anticipated. + +But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but to +say something on that subject which you know to be of such +infinite solicitude to me. The immense sufferings you endured +from the first days of September till the middle of February you +never tried to conceal from me, and I well understood. You have +now been the husband of a lovely woman nearly eight months. That +you are happier now than the day you married her I well know, for +without you could not be living. But I have your word for it, +too, and the returning elasticity of spirits which is manifested +in your letters. But I want to ask a close question, "Are you +now in feeling as well as judgment glad that you are married as +you are?" From anybody but me this would be an impudent question, +not to be tolerated; but I know you will pardon it in me. Please +answer it quickly, as I am impatient to know. I have sent my +love to your Fanny so often, I fear she is getting tired of it. +However, I venture to tender it again. + +Yours forever, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JAMES S. IRWIN. + +SPRINGFIELD, +November 2, 1842. + +JAS. S. IRWIN ESQ.: + +Owing to my absence, yours of the 22nd ult. was not received +till this moment. Judge Logan and myself are willing to attend +to any business in the Supreme Court you may send us. As to +fees, it is impossible to establish a rule that will apply in +all, or even a great many cases. We believe we are never accused +of being very unreasonable in this particular; and we would +always be easily satisfied, provided we could see the money--but +whatever fees we earn at a distance, if not paid before, we have +noticed, we never hear of after the work is done. We, therefore, +are growing a little sensitive on that point. + +Yours etc., + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1843 + + +RESOLUTIONS AT A WHIG MEETING AT SPRINGFIELD, +ILLINOIS, MARCH 1, 1843. + +The object of the meeting was stated by Mr. Lincoln of +Springfield, who offered the following resolutions, which were +unanimously adopted: + +Resolved, That a tariff of duties on imported goods, producing +sufficient revenue for the payment of the necessary expenditures +of the National Government, and so adjusted as to protect +American industry, is indispensably necessary to the prosperity +of the American people. + +Resolved, That we are opposed to direct taxation for the support +of the National Government. + +Resolved, That a national bank, properly restricted, is highly +necessary and proper to the establishment and maintenance of a +sound currency, and for the cheap and safe collection, keeping, +and disbursing of the public revenue. + +Resolved, That the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of +the public lands, upon the principles of Mr. Clay's bill, accords +with the best interests of the nation, and particularly with +those of the State of Illinois. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional +district of the State to nominate and support at the approaching +election a candidate of their own principles, regardless of the +chances of success. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of all portions of the +State to adopt and rigidly adhere to the convention system of +nominating candidates. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional +district to hold a district convention on or before the first +Monday of May next, to be composed of a number of delegates from +each county equal to double the n tuber of its representatives in +the General Assembly, provided, each county shall have at least +one delegate. Said delegates to be chosen by primary meetings of +the Whigs, at such times and places as they in their respective +counties may see fit. Said district conventions each to nominate +one candidate for Congress, and one delegate to a national +convention for the purpose of nominating candidates for President +and Vice-President of the United States. The seven delegates so +nominated to a national convention to have power to add two +delegates to their own number, and to fill all vacancies. + +Resolved, That A. T. Bledsoe, S. T. Logan, and A. Lincoln be +appointed a committee to prepare an address to the people of the +State. + +Resolved, That N. W. Edwards, A. G. Henry, James H. Matheny, John +C. Doremus, and James C. Conkling be appointed a Whig Central +State Committee, with authority to fill any vacancy that may +occur in the committee. + + + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + +Address to the People of Illinois. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:-By a resolution of a meeting of such of the +Whigs of the State as are now at Springfield, we, the +undersigned, were appointed to prepare an address to you. The +performance of that task we now undertake. + +Several resolutions were adopted by the meeting; and the chief +object of this address is to show briefly the reasons for their +adoption. + +The first of those resolutions declares a tariff of duties upon +foreign importations, producing sufficient revenue for the +support of the General Government, and so adjusted as to protect +American industry, to be indispensably necessary to the +prosperity of the American people; and the second declares direct +taxation for a national revenue to be improper. Those two +resolutions are kindred in their nature, and therefore proper and +convenient to be considered together. The question of protection +is a subject entirely too broad to be crowded into a few pages +only, together with several other subjects. On that point we +therefore content ourselves with giving the following extracts +from the writings of Mr. Jefferson, General Jackson, and the +speech of Mr. Calhoun: + +"To be independent for the comforts of life, we must fabricate +them ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side +of the agriculturalist. The grand inquiry now is, Shall we make +our own comforts, or go without them at the will of a foreign +nation? He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufactures +must be for reducing us either to dependence on that foreign +nation, or to be clothed in skins and to live like wild beasts in +dens and caverns. I am not one of those; experience has taught +me that manufactures are now as necessary to our independence as +to our comfort." Letter of Mr. Jefferson to Benjamin Austin. + +"I ask, What is the real situation of the agriculturalist? Where +has the American farmer a market for his surplus produce? Except +for cotton, he has neither a foreign nor a home market. Does not +this clearly prove, when there is no market at home or abroad, +that there [is] too much labor employed in agriculture? Common +sense at once points out the remedy. Take from agriculture six +hundred thousand men, women, and children, and you will at once +give a market for more breadstuffs than all Europe now furnishes. +In short, we have been too long subject to the policy of British +merchants. It is time we should become a little more +Americanized, and instead of feeding the paupers and laborers of +England, feed our own; or else in a short time, by continuing our +present policy, we shall all be rendered paupers ourselves." -- +General Jackson's Letter to Dr. Coleman. + +"When our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they +soon will be, under the fostering care of government, the farmer +will find a ready market for his surplus produce, and--what is of +equal consequence--a certain and cheap supply of all he wants; +his prosperity will diffuse itself to every class of the +community." Speech of Hon. J. C. Calhoun on the Tariff. + +The question of revenue we will now briefly consider. For +several years past the revenues of the government have been +unequal to its expenditures, and consequently loan after loan, +sometimes direct and sometimes indirect in form, has been +resorted to. By this means a new national debt has been created, +and is still growing on us with a rapidity fearful to +contemplate--a rapidity only reasonably to be expected in time of +war. This state of things has been produced by a prevailing +unwillingness either to increase the tariff or resort to direct +taxation. But the one or the other must come. Coming +expenditures must be met, and the present debt must be paid; and +money cannot always be borrowed for these objects. The system of +loans is but temporary in its nature, and must soon explode. It +is a system not only ruinous while it lasts, but one that must +soon fail and leave us destitute. As an individual who +undertakes to live by borrowing soon finds his original means +devoured by interest, and, next, no one left to borrow from, so +must it be with a government. + +We repeat, then, that a tariff sufficient for revenue, or a +direct tax, must soon be resorted to; and, indeed, we believe +this alternative is now denied by no one. But which system shall +be adopted? Some of our opponents, in theory, admit the propriety +of a tariff sufficient for a revenue, but even they will not in +practice vote for such a tariff; while others boldly advocate +direct taxation. Inasmuch, therefore, as some of them boldly +advocate direct taxation, and all the rest--or so nearly all as +to make exceptions needless--refuse to adopt the tariff, we think +it is doing them no injustice to class them all as advocates of +direct taxation. Indeed, we believe they are only delaying an +open avowal of the system till they can assure themselves that +the people will tolerate it. Let us, then, briefly compare the +two systems. The tariff is the cheaper system, because the +duties, being collected in large parcels at a few commercial +points, will require comparatively few officers in their +collection; while by the direct-tax system the land must be +literally covered with assessors and collectors, going forth like +swarms of Egyptian locusts, devouring every blade of grass and +other green thing. And, again, by the tariff system the whole +revenue is paid by the consumers of foreign goods, and those +chiefly the luxuries, and not the necessaries, of life. By this +system the man who contents himself to live upon the products of +his own country pays nothing at all. And surely that country is +extensive enough, and its products abundant and varied enough, to +answer all the real wants of its people. In short, by this +system the burthen of revenue falls almost entirely on the +wealthy and luxurious few, while the substantial and laboring +many who live at home, and upon home products, go entirely free. +By the direct-tax system none can escape. However strictly the +citizen may exclude from his premises all foreign luxuries,--fine +cloths, fine silks, rich wines, golden chains, and diamond +rings,--still, for the possession of his house, his barn, and his +homespun, he is to be perpetually haunted and harassed by the +tax-gatherer. With these views we leave it to be determined +whether we or our opponents are the more truly democratic on the +subject. + +The third resolution declares the necessity and propriety of a +national bank. During the last fifty years so much has been said +and written both as to the constitutionality and expediency of +such an institution, that we could not hope to improve in the +least on former discussions of the subject, were we to undertake +it. We, therefore, upon the question of constitutionality +content ourselves with remarking the facts that the first +national bank was established chiefly by the same men who formed +the Constitution, at a time when that instrument was but two +years old, and receiving the sanction, as President, of the +immortal Washington; that the second received the sanction, as +President, of Mr. Madison, to whom common consent has awarded the +proud title of "Father of the Constitution"; and subsequently the +sanction of the Supreme Court, the most enlightened judicial +tribunal in the world. Upon the question of expediency, we only +ask you to examine the history of the times during the existence +of the two banks, and compare those times with the miserable +present. + +The fourth resolution declares the expediency of Mr. Clay's land +bill. Much incomprehensible jargon is often used against the +constitutionality of this measure. We forbear, in this place, +attempting an answer to it, simply because, in our opinion, those +who urge it are through party zeal resolved not to see or +acknowledge the truth. The question of expediency, at least so +far as Illinois is concerned, seems to us the clearest +imaginable. By the bill we are to receive annually a large sum +of money, no part of which we otherwise receive. The precise +annual sum cannot be known in advance; it doubtless will vary in +different years. Still it is something to know that in the last +year--a year of almost unparalleled pecuniary pressure--it +amounted to more than forty thousand dollars. This annual +income, in the midst of our almost insupportable difficulties, in +the days of our severest necessity, our political opponents are +furiously resolving to take and keep from us. And for what? +Many silly reasons are given, as is usual in cases where a single +good one is not to be found. One is that by giving us the +proceeds of the lands we impoverish the national treasury, and +thereby render necessary an increase of the tariff. This may be +true; but if so, the amount of it only is that those whose pride, +whose abundance of means, prompt them to spurn the manufactures +of our country, and to strut in British cloaks and coats and +pantaloons, may have to pay a few cents more on the yard for the +cloth that makes them. A terrible evil, truly, to the Illinois +farmer, who never wore, nor ever expects to wear, a single yard +of British goods in his whole life. Another of their reasons is +that by the passage and continuance of Mr. Clay's bill, we +prevent the passage of a bill which would give us more. This, if +it were sound in itself, is waging destructive war with the +former position; for if Mr. Clay's bill impoverishes the treasury +too much, what shall be said of one that impoverishes it still +more? But it is not sound in itself. It is not true that Mr. +Clay's bill prevents the passage of one more favorable to us of +the new States. Considering the strength and opposite interest +of the old States, the wonder is that they ever permitted one to +pass so favorable as Mr. Clay's. The last twenty-odd years' +efforts to reduce the price of the lands, and to pass graduation +bills and cession bills, prove the assertion to be true; and if +there were no experience in support of it, the reason itself is +plain. The States in which none, or few, of the public lands +lie, and those consequently interested against parting with them +except for the best price, are the majority; and a moment's +reflection will show that they must ever continue the majority, +because by the time one of the original new States (Ohio, for +example) becomes populous and gets weight in Congress, the public +lands in her limits are so nearly sold out that in every point +material to this question she becomes an old State. She does not +wish the price reduced, because there is none left for her +citizens to buy; she does not wish them ceded to the States in +which they lie, because they no longer lie in her limits, and she +will get nothing by the cession. In the nature of things, the +States interested in the reduction of price, in graduation, in +cession, and in all similar projects, never can be the majority. +Nor is there reason to hope that any of them can ever succeed as +a Democratic party measure, because we have heretofore seen that +party in full power, year after year, with many of their leaders +making loud professions in favor of these projects, and yet doing +nothing. What reason, then, is there to believe they will +hereafter do better? In every light in which we can view this +question, it amounts simply to this: Shall we accept our share of +the proceeds under Mr. Clay's bill, or shall we rather reject +that and get nothing? + +The fifth resolution recommends that a Whig candidate for +Congress be run in every district, regardless of the chances of +success. We are aware that it is sometimes a temporary +gratification, when a friend cannot succeed, to be able to choose +between opponents; but we believe that that gratification is the +seed-time which never fails to be followed by a most abundant +harvest of bitterness. By this policy we entangle ourselves. By +voting for our opponents, such of us as do it in some measure +estop ourselves to complain of their acts, however glaringly +wrong we may believe them to be. By this policy no one portion +of our friends can ever be certain as to what course another +portion may adopt; and by this want of mutual and perfect +understanding our political identity is partially frittered away +and lost. And, again, those who are thus elected by our aid ever +become our bitterest persecutors. Take a few prominent examples. +In 1830 Reynolds was elected Governor; in 1835 we exerted our +whole strength to elect Judge Young to the United States Senate, +which effort, though failing, gave him the prominence that +subsequently elected him; in 1836 General Ewing, was so elected +to the United States Senate; and yet let us ask what three men +have been more perseveringly vindictive in their assaults upon +all our men and measures than they? During the last summer the +whole State was covered with pamphlet editions of +misrepresentations against us, methodized into chapters and +verses, written by two of these same men,--Reynolds and Young, in +which they did not stop at charging us with error merely, but +roundly denounced us as the designing enemies of human liberty, +itself. If it be the will of Heaven that such men shall +politically live, be it so; but never, never again permit them to +draw a particle of their sustenance from us. + +The sixth resolution recommends the adoption of the convention +system for the nomination of candidates. This we believe to be +of the very first importance. Whether the system is right in +itself we do not stop to inquire; contenting ourselves with +trying to show that, while our opponents use it, it is madness in +us not to defend ourselves with it. Experience has shown that we +cannot successfully defend ourselves without it. For examples, +look at the elections of last year. Our candidate for governor, +with the approbation of a large portion of the party, took the +field without a nomination, and in open opposition to the system. +Wherever in the counties the Whigs had held conventions and +nominated candidates for the Legislature, the aspirants who were +not nominated were induced to rebel against the nominations, and +to become candidates, as is said, "on their own hook." And, go +where you would into a large Whig county, you were sure to find +the Whigs not contending shoulder to shoulder against the common +enemy, but divided into factions, and fighting furiously with one +another. The election came, and what was the result? The +governor beaten, the Whig vote being decreased many thousands +since 1840, although the Democratic vote had not increased any. +Beaten almost everywhere for members of the Legislature,-- +Tazewell, with her four hundred Whig majority, sending a +delegation half Democratic; Vermillion, with her five hundred, +doing the same; Coles, with her four hundred, sending two out of +three; and Morgan, with her two hundred and fifty, sending three +out of four,--and this to say nothing of the numerous other less +glaring examples; the whole winding up with the aggregate number +of twenty-seven Democratic representatives sent from Whig +counties. As to the senators, too, the result was of the same +character. And it is most worthy to be remembered that of all +the Whigs in the State who ran against the regular nominees, a +single one only was elected. Although they succeeded in +defeating the nominees almost by scores, they too were defeated, +and the spoils chucklingly borne off by the common enemy. + +We do not mention the fact of many of the Whigs opposing the +convention system heretofore for the purpose of censuring them. +Far from it. We expressly protest against such a conclusion. We +know they were generally, perhaps universally, as good and true +Whigs as we ourselves claim to be. + +We mention it merely to draw attention to the disastrous result +it produced, as an example forever hereafter to be avoided. That +"union is strength" is a truth that has been known, illustrated, +and declared in various ways and forms in all ages of the world. +That great fabulist and philosopher Aesop illustrated it by his +fable of the bundle of sticks; and he whose wisdom surpasses that +of all philosophers has declared that "a house divided against +itself cannot stand." It is to induce our friends to act upon +this important and universally acknowledged truth that we urge +the adoption of the convention system. Reflection will prove +that there is no other way of practically applying it. In its +application we know there will be incidents temporarily painful; +but, after all, those incidents will be fewer and less intense +with than without the system. If two friends aspire to the same +office it is certain that both cannot succeed. Would it not, +then, be much less painful to have the question decided by mutual +friends some time before, than to snarl and quarrel until the day +of election, and then both be beaten by the common enemy? + +Before leaving this subject, we think proper to remark that we do +not understand the resolution as intended to recommend the +application of the convention system to the nomination of +candidates for the small offices no way connected with politics; +though we must say we do not perceive that such an application. +of it would be wrong. + +The seventh resolution recommends the holding of district +conventions in May next, for the purpose of nominating candidates +for Congress. The propriety of this rests upon the same reasons +with that of the sixth, and therefore needs no further +discussion. + +The eighth and ninth also relate merely to the practical +application of the foregoing, and therefore need no discussion. + +Before closing, permit us to add a few reflections on the present +condition and future prospects of the Whig party. In almost all +the States we have fallen into the minority, and despondency +seems to prevail universally among us. Is there just cause for +this? In 1840 we carried the nation by more than a hundred and +forty thousand majority. Our opponents charged that we did it by +fraudulent voting; but whatever they may have believed, we know +the charge to be untrue. Where, now, is that mighty host? Have +they gone over to the enemy? Let the results of the late +elections answer. Every State which has fallen off from the Whig +cause since 1840 has done so not by giving more Democratic votes +than they did then, but by giving fewer Whig. Bouck, who was +elected Democratic Governor of New York last fall by more than +15,000 majority, had not then as many votes as he had in 1840, +when he was beaten by seven or eight thousand. And so has it +been in all the other States which have fallen away from our +cause. From this it is evident that tens of thousands in the +late elections have not voted at all. Who and what are they? is +an important question, as respects the future. They can come +forward and give us the victory again. That all, or nearly all, +of them are Whigs is most apparent. Our opponents, stung to +madness by the defeat of 1840, have ever since rallied with more +than their usual unanimity. It has not been they that have been +kept from the polls. These facts show what the result must be, +once the people again rally in their entire strength. Proclaim +these facts, and predict this result; and although unthinking +opponents may smile at us, the sagacious ones will "believe and +tremble." And why shall the Whigs not all rally again? Are +their principles less dear now than in 1840? Have any of their +doctrines since then been discovered to be untrue? It is true, +the victory of 1840 did not produce the happy results +anticipated; but it is equally true, as we believe, that the +unfortunate death of General Harrison was the cause of the +failure. It was not the election of General Harrison that was +expected to produce happy effects, but the measures to be adopted +by his administration. By means of his death, and the unexpected +course of his successor, those measures were never adopted. How +could the fruits follow? The consequences we always predicted +would follow the failure of those measures have followed, and are +now upon us in all their horrors. By the course of Mr. Tyler the +policy of our opponents has continued in operation, still leaving +them with the advantage of charging all its evils upon us as the +results of a Whig administration. Let none be deceived by this +somewhat plausible, though entirely false charge. If they ask us +for the sufficient and sound currency we promised, let them be +answered that we only promised it through the medium of a +national bank, which they, aided by Mr. Tyler, prevented our +establishing. And let them be reminded, too, that their own +policy in relation to the currency has all the time been, and +still is, in full operation. Let us then again come forth in our +might, and by a second victory accomplish that which death +prevented in the first. We can do it. When did the Whigs ever +fail if they were fully aroused and united? Even in single +States, under such circumstances, defeat seldom overtakes them. +Call to mind the contested elections within the last few years, +and particularly those of Moore and Letcher from Kentucky, +Newland and Graham from North Carolina, and the famous New Jersey +case. In all these districts Locofocoism had stalked omnipotent +before; but when the whole people were aroused by its enormities +on those occasions, they put it down, never to rise again. + +We declare it to be our solemn conviction, that the Whigs are +always a majority of this nation; and that to make them always +successful needs but to get them all to the polls and to vote +unitedly. This is the great desideratum. Let us make every +effort to attain it. At every election, let every Whig act as +though he knew the result to depend upon his action. In the +great contest of 1840 some more than twenty one hundred thousand +votes were cast, and so surely as there shall be that many, with +the ordinary increase added, cast in 1844 that surely will a Whig +be elected President of the United States. + +A. LINCOLN. +S. T. LOGAN. +A. T. BLEDSOE. + +March 4, 1843. + + + + +TO JOHN BENNETT. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 7, 1843. + +FRIEND BENNETT: + +Your letter of this day was handed me by Mr. Miles. It is too +late now to effect the object you desire. On yesterday morning +the most of the Whig members from this district got together and +agreed to hold the convention at Tremont in Tazewell County. I +am sorry to hear that any of the Whigs of your county, or indeed +of any county, should longer be against conventions. On last +Wednesday evening a meeting of all the Whigs then here from all +parts of the State was held, and the question of the propriety. +of conventions was brought up and fully discussed, and at the end +of the discussion a resolution recommending the system of +conventions to all the Whigs of the State was unanimously +adopted. Other resolutions were also passed, all of which will +appear in the next Journal. The meeting also appointed a +committee to draft an address to the people of the State, which +address will also appear in the next journal. + +In it you will find a brief argument in favor of conventions--and +although I wrote it myself I will say to you that it is +conclusive upon the point and can not be reasonably answered. +The right way for you to do is hold your meeting and appoint +delegates any how, and if there be any who will not take part, +let it be so. The matter will work so well this time that even +they who now oppose will come in next time. + +The convention is to be held at Tremont on the 5th of April and +according to the rule we have adopted your county is to have +delegates--being double your representation. + +If there be any good Whig who is disposed to stick out against +conventions get him at least to read the arguement in their +favor in the address. + +Yours as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 24, 1843. + +DEAR SPEED:--We had a meeting of the Whigs of the county here on +last Monday to appoint delegates to a district convention; and +Baker beat me, and got the delegation instructed to go for him. +The meeting, in spite of my attempt to decline it, appointed me +one of the delegates; so that in getting Baker the nomination I +shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow who is made a groomsman +to a man that has cut him out and is marrying his own dear "gal." +About the prospects of your having a namesake at our town, can't +say exactly yet. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., March 26, 1843. + +FRIEND MORRIS: + +Your letter of the a 3 d, was received on yesterday morning, and +for which (instead of an excuse, which you thought proper to ask) +I tender you my sincere thanks. It is truly gratifying to me to +learn that, while the people of Sangamon have cast me off, my old +friends of Menard, who have known me longest and best, stick to +me. It would astonish, if not amuse, the older citizens to learn +that I (a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, +working on a flatboat at ten dollars per month) have been put +down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic +family distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, too, +the strangest combination of church influence against me. Baker +is a Campbellite; and therefore, as I suppose, with few +exceptions got all that church. My wife has some relations in +the Presbyterian churches, and some with the Episcopal churches; +and therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set down as either +the one or the other, while it was everywhere contended that no +Christian ought to go for me, because I belonged to no church, +was suspected of being a deist, and had talked about fighting a +duel. With all these things, Baker, of course, had nothing to +do. Nor do I complain of them. As to his own church going for +him, I think that was right enough, and as to the influences I +have spoken of in the other, though they were very strong, it +would be grossly untrue and unjust to charge that they acted upon +them in a body or were very near so. I only mean that those +influences levied a tax of a considerable per cent. upon my +strength throughout the religious controversy. But enough of +this. + +You say that in choosing a candidate for Congress you have an +equal right with Sangamon, and in this you are undoubtedly +correct. In agreeing to withdraw if the Whigs of Sangamon should +go against me, I did not mean that they alone were worth +consulting, but that if she, with her heavy delegation, should be +against me, it would be impossible for me to succeed, and +therefore I had as well decline. And in relation to Menard +having rights, permit me fully to recognize them, and to express +the opinion that, if she and Mason act circumspectly, they will +in the convention be able so far to enforce their rights as to +decide absolutely which one of the candidates shall be +successful. Let me show the reason of this. Hardin, or some +other Morgan candidate, will get Putnam, Marshall, Woodford, +Tazewell, and Logan--making sixteen. Then you and Mason, having +three, can give the victory to either side. + +You say you shall instruct your delegates for me, unless I +object. I certainly shall not object. That would be too +pleasant a compliment for me to tread in the dust. And besides, +if anything should happen (which, however, is not probable) by +which Baker should be thrown out of the fight, I would be at +liberty to accept the nomination if I could get it. I do, +however, feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from +getting the nomination. I should despise myself were I to +attempt it. I think, then, it would be proper for your meeting +to appoint three delegates and to instruct them to go for some +one as the first choice, some one else as a second, and perhaps +some one as a third; and if in those instructions I were named as +the first choice, it would gratify me very much. If you wish to +hold the balance of power, it is important for you to attend to +and secure the vote of Mason also: You should be sure to have men +appointed delegates that you know you can safely confide in. If +yourself and James Short were appointed from your county, all +would be safe; but whether Jim's woman affair a year ago might +not be in the way of his appointment is a question. I don't know +whether you know it, but I know him to be as honorable a man as +there is in the world. You have my permission, and even request, +to show this letter to Short; but to no one else, unless it be a +very particular friend who you know will not speak of it. + +Yours as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + +P. S Will you write me again? + + + + +TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + +April 14, 1843. + +FRIEND MORRIS: + +I have heard it intimated that Baker has been attempting to get +you or Miles, or both of you, to violate the instructions of the +meeting that appointed you, and to go for him. I have insisted, +and still insist, that this cannot be true. Surely Baker would +not do the like. As well might Hardin ask me to vote for him in +the convention. Again, it is said there will be an attempt to +get up instructions in your county requiring you to go for Baker. +This is all wrong. Upon the same rule, Why might not I fly from +the decision against me in Sangamon, and get up instructions to +their delegates to go for me? There are at least twelve hundred +Whigs in the county that took no part, and yet I would as soon +put my head in the fire as to attempt it. Besides, if any one +should get the nomination by such extraordinary means, all +harmony in the district would inevitably be lost. Honest Whigs +(and very nearly all of them are honest) would not quietly abide +such enormities. I repeat, such an attempt on Baker's part +cannot be true. Write me at Springfield how the matter is. +Don't show or speak of this letter. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +TO GEN. J. J. HARDIN. + +SPRINGFIELD, May 11, 1843. + +FRIEND HARDIN: + +Butler informs me that he received a letter from you, in which +you expressed some doubt whether the Whigs of Sangamon will +support you cordially. You may, at once, dismiss all fears on +that subject. We have already resolved to make a particular +effort to give you the very largest majority possible in our +county. From this, no Whig of the county dissents. We have many +objects for doing it. We make it a matter of honor and pride to +do it; we do it because we love the Whig cause; we do it because +we like you personally; and last, we wish to convince you that we +do not bear that hatred to Morgan County that you people have so +long seemed to imagine. You will see by the journals of this +week that we propose, upon pain of losing a barbecue, to give you +twice as great a majority in this county as you shall receive in +your own. I got up the proposal. + +Who of the five appointed is to write the district address? I +did the labor of writing one address this year, and got thunder +for my reward. Nothing new here. + +Yours as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + +P. S.--I wish you would measure one of the largest of those +swords we took to Alton and write me the length of it, from tip +of the point to tip of the hilt, in feet and inches. I have a +dispute about the length. + +A. L. + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Writings of Lincoln, v1 +By Abraham Lincoln + diff --git a/old/1linc11.zip b/old/1linc11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..027da56 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1linc11.zip diff --git a/old/20060816.2653.txt b/old/20060816.2653.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d9eb779 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20060816.2653.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8097 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 1 +by Abraham Lincoln + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 1 + +Author: Abraham Lincoln + +Release Date: August 16, 2006 [EBook #2653] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WRITINGS OF LINCOLN *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION + + + +VOLUME 1. + + +INTRODUCTORY + +Immediately after Lincoln's re-election to the Presidency, in an off-hand +speech, delivered in response to a serenade by some of his admirers on +the evening of November 10, 1864, he spoke as follows: + +"It has long been a grave question whether any government not too strong +for the liberties of its people can be strong enough to maintain its +existence in great emergencies. On this point, the present rebellion +brought our republic to a severe test, and the Presidential election, +occurring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a little to +the strain.... The strife of the election is but human nature +practically applied to the facts in the case. What has occurred in this +case must ever occur in similar cases. Human nature will not change. In +any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall +have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. +Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn +wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.... Now that the +election is over, may not all having a common interest reunite in a +common fort to save our common country? For my own part, I have striven +and shall strive to avoid placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I +have been here, I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. +While I am deeply sensible to the high compliment of a re-election and +duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God for having directed my +countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think for their own good, it adds +nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed or +pained by the result." + +This speech has not attracted much general attention, yet it is in a +peculiar degree both illustrative and typical of the great statesman who +made it, alike in its strong common-sense and in its lofty standard of +morality. Lincoln's life, Lincoln's deeds and words, are not only of +consuming interest to the historian, but should be intimately known to +every man engaged in the hard practical work of American political life. +It is difficult to overstate how much it means to a nation to have as the +two foremost figures in its history men like Washington and Lincoln. It +is good for every man in any way concerned in public life to feel that +the highest ambition any American can possibly have will be gratified +just in proportion as he raises himself toward the standards set by these +two men. + +It is a very poor thing, whether for nations or individuals, to advance +the history of great deeds done in the past as an excuse for doing poorly +in the present; but it is an excellent thing to study the history of the +great deeds of the past, and of the great men who did them, with an +earnest desire to profit thereby so as to render better service in the +present. In their essentials, the men of the present day are much like +the men of the past, and the live issues of the present can be faced to +better advantage by men who have in good faith studied how the leaders of +the nation faced the dead issues of the past. Such a study of Lincoln's +life will enable us to avoid the twin gulfs of immorality and +inefficiency--the gulfs which always lie one on each side of the careers +alike of man and of nation. It helps nothing to have avoided one if +shipwreck is encountered in the other. The fanatic, the well-meaning +moralist of unbalanced mind, the parlor critic who condemns others but +has no power himself to do good and but little power to do ill--all these +were as alien to Lincoln as the vicious and unpatriotic themselves. His +life teaches our people that they must act with wisdom, because otherwise +adherence to right will be mere sound and fury without substance; and +that they must also act high-mindedly, or else what seems to be wisdom +will in the end turn out to be the most destructive kind of folly. + +Throughout his entire life, and especially after he rose to leadership in +his party, Lincoln was stirred to his depths by the sense of fealty to a +lofty ideal; but throughout his entire life, he also accepted human +nature as it is, and worked with keen, practical good sense to achieve +results with the instruments at hand. It is impossible to conceive of a +man farther removed from baseness, farther removed from corruption, from +mere self-seeking; but it is also impossible to conceive of a man of more +sane and healthy mind--a man less under the influence of that fantastic +and diseased morality (so fantastic and diseased as to be in reality +profoundly immoral) which makes a man in this work-a-day world refuse to +do what is possible because he cannot accomplish the impossible. + +In the fifth volume of Lecky's History of England, the historian draws an +interesting distinction between the qualities needed for a successful +political career in modern society and those which lead to eminence in +the spheres of pure intellect or pure moral effort. He says: + +"....the moral qualities that are required in the higher spheres of +statesmanship [are not] those of a hero or a saint. Passionate +earnestness and self-devotion, complete concentration of every faculty on +an unselfish aim, uncalculating daring, a delicacy of conscience and a +loftiness of aim far exceeding those of the average of men, are here +likely to prove rather a hindrance than an assistance. The politician +deals very largely with the superficial and the commonplace; his art is +in a great measure that of skilful compromise, and in the conditions of +modern life, the statesman is likely to succeed best who possesses +secondary qualities to an unusual degree, who is in the closest +intellectual and moral sympathy with the average of the intelligent men +of his time, and who pursues common ideals with more than common +ability.... Tact, business talent, knowledge of men, resolution, +promptitude and sagacity in dealing with immediate emergencies, a +character which lends itself easily to conciliation, diminishes friction +and inspires confidence, are especially needed, and they are more likely +to be found among shrewd and enlightened men of the world than among men +of great original genius or of an heroic type of character." + +The American people should feel profoundly grateful that the greatest +American statesman since Washington, the statesman who in this absolutely +democratic republic succeeded best, was the very man who actually +combined the two sets of qualities which the historian thus puts in +antithesis. Abraham Lincoln, the rail-splitter, the Western country +lawyer, was one of the shrewdest and most enlightened men of the world, +and he had all the practical qualities which enable such a man to guide +his countrymen; and yet he was also a genius of the heroic type, a leader +who rose level to the greatest crisis through which this nation or any +other nation had to pass in the nineteenth century. + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +SAGAMORE HILL, OYSTER BAY, N. Y., September 22, 1905. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE + +"I have endured," wrote Lincoln not long before his death, "a great deal +of ridicule without much malice, and have received a great deal of +kindness not quite free from ridicule." On Easter Day, 1865, the world +knew how little this ridicule, how much this kindness, had really +signified. Thereafter, Lincoln the man became Lincoln the hero, year by +year more heroic, until to-day, with the swift passing of those who knew +him, his figure grows ever dimmer, less real. This should not be. For +Lincoln the man, patient, wise, set in a high resolve, is worth far more +than Lincoln the hero, vaguely glorious. Invaluable is the example of +the man, intangible that of the hero. + +And, though it is not for us, as for those who in awed stillness listened +at Gettysburg with inspired perception, to know Abraham Lincoln, yet +there is for us another way whereby we may attain such knowledge--through +his words--uttered in all sincerity to those who loved or hated him. +Cold, unsatisfying they may seem, these printed words, while we can yet +speak with those who knew him, and look into eyes that once looked into +his. But in truth it is here that we find his simple greatness, his +great simplicity, and though no man tried less so to show his power, no +man has so shown it more clearly. + +Thus these writings of Abraham Lincoln are associated with those of +Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, and of the other "Founders of the +Republic," not that Lincoln should become still more of the past, but, +rather, that he with them should become still more of the present. +However faint and mythical may grow the story of that Great Struggle, the +leader, Lincoln, at least should remain a real, living American. No +matter how clearly, how directly, Lincoln has shown himself in his +writings, we yet should not forget those men whose minds, from their +various view-points, have illumined for us his character. As this nation +owes a great debt to Lincoln, so, also, Lincoln's memory owes a great +debt to a nation which, as no other nation could have done, has been able +to appreciate his full worth. Among the many who have brought about this +appreciation, those only whose estimates have been placed in these +volumes may be mentioned here. To President Roosevelt, to Mr. Schurz and +to Mr. Choate, the editor, for himself, for the publishers, and on behalf +of the readers, wishes to offer his sincere acknowledgments. + +Thanks are also due, for valuable and sympathetic assistance rendered in +the preparation of this work, to Mr. Gilbert A. Tracy, of Putnam, Conn., +Major William H. Lambert, of Philadelphia, and Mr. C. F. Gunther, of +Chicago, to the Chicago Historical Association and personally to its +capable Secretary, Miss McIlvaine, to Major Henry S. Burrage, of +Portland, Me., and to General Thomas J. Henderson, of Illinois. + +For various courtesies received, the editor is furthermore indebted to +the Librarian of the Library of Congress; to Messrs. McClure, Phillips & +Co., D. Appleton & Co., Macmillan & Co., Dodd, Mead & Co., and Harper +Brothers, of New York; to Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Dana, Estes & Co., and +L. C. Page & Co., of Boston; to A. C. McClure & Co., of Chicago; to The +Robert Clarke Co., of Cincinnati, and to the J. B. Lippincott Co., of +Philadelphia. + +It is hardly necessary to add that every effort has been made by the +editor to bring into these volumes whatever material may there properly +belong, material much of which is widely scattered in public libraries +and in private collections. He has been fortunate in securing certain +interesting correspondence and papers which had not before come into +print in book form. Information concerning some of these papers had +reached him too late to enable the papers to find place in their proper +chronological order in the set. Rather, however, than not to present +these papers to the readers they have been included in the seventh volume +of the set, which concludes the "Writings." + +[These later papers are, in this etext, re-arranged into chronologic +order. D.W.] + +October, 1905, +A. B. L. + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN: + +AN ESSAY BY CARL SHURZ + +No American can study the character and career of Abraham Lincoln without +being carried away by sentimental emotions. We are always inclined to +idealize that which we love,--a state of mind very unfavorable to the +exercise of sober critical judgment. It is therefore not surprising that +most of those who have written or spoken on that extraordinary man, even +while conscientiously endeavoring to draw a lifelike portraiture of his +being, and to form a just estimate of his public conduct, should have +drifted into more or less indiscriminating eulogy, painting his great +features in the most glowing colors, and covering with tender shadings +whatever might look like a blemish. + +But his standing before posterity will not be exalted by mere praise of +his virtues and abilities, nor by any concealment of his limitations and +faults. The stature of the great man, one of whose peculiar charms +consisted in his being so unlike all other great men, will rather lose +than gain by the idealization which so easily runs into the commonplace. +For it was distinctly the weird mixture of qualities and forces in him, +of the lofty with the common, the ideal with the uncouth, of that which +he had become with that which he had not ceased to be, that made him so +fascinating a character among his fellow-men, gave him his singular power +over their minds and hearts, and fitted him to be the greatest leader in +the greatest crisis of our national life. + +His was indeed a marvellous growth. The statesman or the military hero +born and reared in a log cabin is a familiar figure in American history; +but we may search in vain among our celebrities for one whose origin and +early life equalled Abraham Lincoln's in wretchedness. He first saw the +light in a miserable hovel in Kentucky, on a farm consisting of a few +barren acres in a dreary neighborhood; his father a typical "poor +Southern white," shiftless and without ambition for himself or his +children, constantly looking for a new piece of land on which he might +make a living without much work; his mother, in her youth handsome and +bright, grown prematurely coarse in feature and soured in mind by daily +toil and care; the whole household squalid, cheerless, and utterly void +of elevating inspirations... Only when the family had "moved" into the +malarious backwoods of Indiana, the mother had died, and a stepmother, a +woman of thrift and energy, had taken charge of the children, the +shaggy-headed, ragged, barefooted, forlorn boy, then seven years old, +"began to feel like a human being." Hard work was his early lot. When a +mere boy he had to help in supporting the family, either on his father's +clearing, or hired out to other farmers to plough, or dig ditches, or +chop wood, or drive ox teams; occasionally also to "tend the baby," when +the farmer's wife was otherwise engaged. He could regard it as an +advancement to a higher sphere of activity when he obtained work in a +"crossroads store," where he amused the customers by his talk over the +counter; for he soon distinguished himself among the backwoods folk as +one who had something to say worth listening to. To win that +distinction, he had to draw mainly upon his wits; for, while his thirst +for knowledge was great, his opportunities for satisfying that thirst +were wofully slender. + +In the log schoolhouse, which he could visit but little, he was taught +only reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic. Among the people of +the settlement, bush farmers and small tradesmen, he found none of +uncommon intelligence or education; but some of them had a few books, +which he borrowed eagerly. Thus he read and reread, AEsop's Fables, +learning to tell stories with a point and to argue by parables; he read +Robinson Crusoe, The Pilgrim's Progress, a short history of the United +States, and Weems's Life of Washington. To the town constable's he went +to read the Revised Statutes of Indiana. Every printed page that fell +into his hands he would greedily devour, and his family and friends +watched him with wonder, as the uncouth boy, after his daily work, +crouched in a corner of the log cabin or outside under a tree, absorbed +in a book while munching his supper of corn bread. In this manner he +began to gather some knowledge, and sometimes he would astonish the girls +with such startling remarks as that the earth was moving around the sun, +and not the sun around the earth, and they marvelled where "Abe" could +have got such queer notions. Soon he also felt the impulse to write; not +only making extracts from books he wished to remember, but also composing +little essays of his own. First he sketched these with charcoal on a +wooden shovel scraped white with a drawing-knife, or on basswood +shingles. Then he transferred them to paper, which was a scarce +commodity in the Lincoln household; taking care to cut his expressions +close, so that they might not cover too much space,--a style-forming +method greatly to be commended. Seeing boys put a burning coal on the +back of a wood turtle, he was moved to write on cruelty to animals. +Seeing men intoxicated with whiskey, he wrote on temperance. In +verse-making, too, he tried himself, and in satire on persons offensive +to him or others,--satire the rustic wit of which was not always fit for +ears polite. Also political thoughts he put upon paper, and some of his +pieces were even deemed good enough for publication in the county weekly. + +Thus he won a neighborhood reputation as a clever young man, which he +increased by his performances as a speaker, not seldom drawing upon +himself the dissatisfaction of his employers by mounting a stump in the +field, and keeping the farm hands from their work by little speeches in a +jocose and sometimes also a serious vein. At the rude social frolics of +the settlement he became an important person, telling funny, stories, +mimicking the itinerant preachers who had happened to pass by, and making +his mark at wrestling matches, too; for at the age of seventeen he had +attained his full height, six feet four inches in his stockings, if he +had any, and a terribly muscular clodhopper he was. But he was known +never to use his extraordinary strength to the injury or humiliation of +others; rather to do them a kindly turn, or to enforce justice and fair +dealing between them. All this made him a favorite in backwoods society, +although in some things he appeared a little odd, to his friends. Far +more than any of them, he was given not only to reading, but to fits of +abstraction, to quiet musing with himself, and also to strange spells of +melancholy, from which he often would pass in a moment to rollicking +outbursts of droll humor. But on the whole he was one of the people +among whom he lived; in appearance perhaps even a little more uncouth +than most of them,--a very tall, rawboned youth, with large features, +dark, shrivelled skin, and rebellious hair; his arms and legs long, out +of proportion; clad in deerskin trousers, which from frequent exposure to +the rain had shrunk so as to sit tightly on his limbs, leaving several +inches of bluish shin exposed between their lower end and the heavy +tan-colored shoes; the nether garment held usually by only one suspender, +that was strung over a coarse homemade shirt; the head covered in winter +with a coonskin cap, in summer with a rough straw hat of uncertain shape, +without a band. + +It is doubtful whether he felt himself much superior to his surroundings, +although he confessed to a yearning for some knowledge of the world +outside of the circle in which he lived. This wish was gratified; but +how? At the age of nineteen he went down the Mississippi to New Orleans +as a flatboat hand, temporarily joining a trade many members of which at +that time still took pride in being called "half horse and half +alligator." After his return he worked and lived in the old way until the +spring of 1830, when his father "moved again," this time to Illinois; and +on the journey of fifteen days "Abe" had to drive the ox wagon which +carried the household goods. Another log cabin was built, and then, +fencing a field, Abraham Lincoln split those historic rails which were +destined to play so picturesque a part in the Presidential campaign +twenty-eight years later. + +Having come of age, Lincoln left the family, and "struck out for +himself." He had to "take jobs whenever he could get them." The first +of these carried him again as a flatboat hand to New Orleans. There +something happened that made a lasting impression upon his soul: he +witnessed a slave auction. "His heart bled," wrote one of his +companions; "said nothing much; was silent; looked bad. I can say, +knowing it, that it was on this trip that he formed his opinion on +slavery. It run its iron in him then and there, May, 1831. I have heard +him say so often." Then he lived several years at New Salem, in +Illinois, a small mushroom village, with a mill, some "stores" and +whiskey shops, that rose quickly, and soon disappeared again. It was a +desolate, disjointed, half-working and half-loitering life, without any +other aim than to gain food and shelter from day to day. He served as +pilot on a steamboat trip, then as clerk in a store and a mill; business +failing, he was adrift for some time. Being compelled to measure his +strength with the chief bully of the neighborhood, and overcoming him, he +became a noted person in that muscular community, and won the esteem and +friendship of the ruling gang of ruffians to such a degree that, when the +Black Hawk war broke out, they elected him, a young man of twenty-three, +captain of a volunteer company, composed mainly of roughs of their kind. +He took the field, and his most noteworthy deed of valor consisted, not +in killing an Indian, but in protecting against his own men, at the peril +of his own life, the life of an old savage who had strayed into his camp. + +The Black Hawk war over, he turned to politics. The step from the +captaincy of a volunteer company to a candidacy for a seat in the +Legislature seemed a natural one. But his popularity, although great in +New Salem, had not spread far enough over the district, and he was +defeated. Then the wretched hand-to-mouth struggle began again. He "set +up in store-business" with a dissolute partner, who drank whiskey while +Lincoln was reading books. The result was a disastrous failure and a +load of debt. Thereupon he became a deputy surveyor, and was appointed +postmaster of New Salem, the business of the post-office being so small +that he could carry the incoming and outgoing mail in his hat. All this +could not lift him from poverty, and his surveying instruments and horse +and saddle were sold by the sheriff for debt. + +But while all this misery was upon him his ambition rose to higher aims. +He walked many miles to borrow from a schoolmaster a grammar with which +to improve his language. A lawyer lent him a copy of Blackstone, and he +began to study law. + +People would look wonderingly at the grotesque figure lying in the grass, +"with his feet up a tree," or sitting on a fence, as, absorbed in a book, +he learned to construct correct sentences and made himself a jurist. At +once he gained a little practice, pettifogging before a justice of the +peace for friends, without expecting a fee. Judicial functions, too, +were thrust upon him, but only at horse-races or wrestling matches, where +his acknowledged honesty and fairness gave his verdicts undisputed +authority. His popularity grew apace, and soon he could be a candidate +for the Legislature again. Although he called himself a Whig, an ardent +admirer of Henry Clay, his clever stump speeches won him the election in +the strongly Democratic district. Then for the first time, perhaps, he +thought seriously of his outward appearance. So far he had been content +with a garb of "Kentucky jeans," not seldom ragged, usually patched, and +always shabby. Now, he borrowed some money from a friend to buy a new +suit of clothes--"store clothes" fit for a Sangamon County statesman; and +thus adorned he set out for the state capital, Vandalia, to take his seat +among the lawmakers. + +His legislative career, which stretched over several sessions--for he +was thrice re-elected, in 1836, 1838, and 1840--was not remarkably +brilliant. He did, indeed, not lack ambition. He dreamed even of making +himself "the De Witt Clinton of Illinois," and he actually distinguished +himself by zealous and effective work in those "log-rolling" operations +by which the young State received "a general system of internal +improvements" in the shape of railroads, canals, and banks,--a reckless +policy, burdening the State with debt, and producing the usual crop of +political demoralization, but a policy characteristic of the time and the +impatiently enterprising spirit of the Western people. Lincoln, no doubt +with the best intentions, but with little knowledge of the subject, +simply followed the popular current. The achievement in which, perhaps, +he gloried most was the removal of the State government from Vandalia to +Springfield; one of those triumphs of political management which are apt +to be the pride of the small politician's statesmanship. One thing, +however, he did in which his true nature asserted itself, and which gave +distinct promise of the future pursuit of high aims. Against an +overwhelming preponderance of sentiment in the Legislature, followed by +only one other member, he recorded his protest against a proslavery +resolution,--that protest declaring "the institution of slavery to be +founded on both injustice and bad policy." This was not only the +irrepressible voice of his conscience; it was true moral valor, too; for +at that time, in many parts of the West, an abolitionist was regarded as +little better than a horse-thief, and even "Abe Lincoln" would hardly +have been forgiven his antislavery principles, had he not been known as +such an "uncommon good fellow." But here, in obedience to the great +conviction of his life, he manifested his courage to stand alone, that +courage which is the first requisite of leadership in a great cause. + +Together with his reputation and influence as a politician grew his law +practice, especially after he had removed from New Salem to Springfield, +and associated himself with a practitioner of good standing. He had now +at last won a fixed position in society. He became a successful lawyer, +less, indeed, by his learning as a jurist than by his effectiveness as an +advocate and by the striking uprightness of his character; and it may +truly be said that his vivid sense of truth and justice had much to do +with his effectiveness as an advocate. He would refuse to act as the +attorney even of personal friends when he saw the right on the other +side. He would abandon cases, even during trial, when the testimony +convinced him that his client was in the wrong. He would dissuade those +who sought his service from pursuing an obtainable advantage when their +claims seemed to him unfair. Presenting his very first case in the United +States Circuit Court, the only question being one of authority, he +declared that, upon careful examination, he found all the authorities on +the other side, and none on his. Persons accused of crime, when he +thought them guilty, he would not defend at all, or, attempting their +defence, he was unable to put forth his powers. One notable exception is +on record, when his personal sympathies had been strongly aroused. But +when he felt himself to be the protector of innocence, the defender of +justice, or the prosecutor of wrong, he frequently disclosed such +unexpected resources of reasoning, such depth of feeling, and rose to +such fervor of appeal as to astonish and overwhelm his hearers, and make +him fairly irresistible. Even an ordinary law argument, coming from him, +seldom failed to produce the impression that he was profoundly convinced +of the soundness of his position. It is not surprising that the mere +appearance of so conscientious an attorney in any case should have +carried, not only to juries, but even to judges, almost a presumption of +right on his side, and that the people began to call him, sincerely +meaning it, "honest Abe Lincoln." + +In the meantime he had private sorrows and trials of a painfully +afflicting nature. He had loved and been loved by a fair and estimable +girl, Ann Rutledge, who died in the flower of her youth and beauty, and +he mourned her loss with such intensity of grief that his friends feared +for his reason. Recovering from his morbid depression, he bestowed what +he thought a new affection upon another lady, who refused him. And +finally, moderately prosperous in his worldly affairs, and having +prospects of political distinction before him, he paid his addresses to +Mary Todd, of Kentucky, and was accepted. But then tormenting doubts of +the genuineness of his own affection for her, of the compatibility of +their characters, and of their future happiness came upon him. His +distress was so great that he felt himself in danger of suicide, and +feared to carry a pocket-knife with him; and he gave mortal offence to +his bride by not appearing on the appointed wedding day. Now the +torturing consciousness of the wrong he had done her grew unendurable. +He won back her affection, ended the agony by marrying her, and became a +faithful and patient husband and a good father. But it was no secret to +those who knew the family well that his domestic life was full of trials. +The erratic temper of his wife not seldom put the gentleness of his +nature to the severest tests; and these troubles and struggles, which +accompanied him through all the vicissitudes of his life from the modest +home in Springfield to the White House at Washington, adding untold +private heart-burnings to his public cares, and sometimes precipitating +upon him incredible embarrassments in the discharge of his public duties, +form one of the most pathetic features of his career. + +He continued to "ride the circuit," read books while travelling in his +buggy, told funny stories to his fellow-lawyers in the tavern, chatted +familiarly with his neighbors around the stove in the store and at the +post-office, had his hours of melancholy brooding as of old, and became +more and more widely known and trusted and beloved among the people of +his State for his ability as a lawyer and politician, for the uprightness +of his character and the overflowing spring of sympathetic kindness in +his heart. His main ambition was confessedly that of political +distinction; but hardly any one would at that time have seen in him the +man destined to lead the nation through the greatest crisis of the +century. + +His time had not yet come when, in 1846, he was elected to Congress. In +a clever speech in the House of Representatives he denounced President +Polk for having unjustly forced war upon Mexico, and he amused the +Committee of the Whole by a witty attack upon General Cass. More +important was the expression he gave to his antislavery impulses by +offering a bill looking to the emancipation of the slaves in the District +of Columbia, and by his repeated votes for the famous Wilmot Proviso, +intended to exclude slavery from the Territories acquired from Mexico. +But when, at the expiration of his term, in March, 1849, he left his +seat, he gloomily despaired of ever seeing the day when the cause nearest +to his heart would be rightly grasped by the people, and when he would be +able to render any service to his country in solving the great problem. +Nor had his career as a member of Congress in any sense been such as to +gratify his ambition. Indeed, if he ever had any belief in a great +destiny for himself, it must have been weak at that period; for he +actually sought to obtain from the new Whig President, General Taylor, +the place of Commissioner of the General Land Office; willing to bury +himself in one of the administrative bureaus of the government. +Fortunately for the country, he failed; and no less fortunately, when, +later, the territorial governorship of Oregon was offered to him, Mrs. +Lincoln's protest induced him to decline it. Returning to Springfield, he +gave himself with renewed zest to his law practice, acquiesced in the +Compromise of 1850 with reluctance and a mental reservation, supported in +the Presidential campaign of 1852 the Whig candidate in some spiritless +speeches, and took but a languid interest in the politics of the day. +But just then his time was drawing near. + +The peace promised, and apparently inaugurated, by the Compromise of 1850 +was rudely broken by the introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in +1854. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, opening the Territories of +the United States, the heritage of coming generations, to the invasion of +slavery, suddenly revealed the whole significance of the slavery question +to the people of the free States, and thrust itself into the politics of +the country as the paramount issue. Something like an electric shock +flashed through the North. Men who but a short time before had been +absorbed by their business pursuits, and deprecated all political +agitation, were startled out of their security by a sudden alarm, and +excitedly took sides. That restless trouble of conscience about slavery, +which even in times of apparent repose had secretly disturbed the souls +of Northern people, broke forth in an utterance louder than ever. The +bonds of accustomed party allegiance gave way. Antislavery Democrats and +antislavery Whigs felt themselves drawn together by a common overpowering +sentiment, and soon they began to rally in a new organization. The +Republican party sprang into being to meet the overruling call of the +hour. Then Abraham Lincoln's time was come. He rapidly advanced to a +position of conspicuous championship in the struggle. This, however, was +not owing to his virtues and abilities alone. Indeed, the slavery +question stirred his soul in its profoundest depths; it was, as one of +his intimate friends said, "the only one on which he would become +excited"; it called forth all his faculties and energies. Yet there were +many others who, having long and arduously fought the antislavery battle +in the popular assembly, or in the press, or in the halls of Congress, +far surpassed him in prestige, and compared with whom he was still an +obscure and untried man. His reputation, although highly honorable and +well earned, had so far been essentially local. As a stump-speaker in +Whig canvasses outside of his State he had attracted comparatively little +attention; but in Illinois he had been recognized as one of the foremost +men of the Whig party. Among the opponents of the Nebraska Bill he +occupied in his State so important a position, that in 1856 he was the +choice of a large majority of the "Anti-Nebraska men" in the Legislature +for a seat in the Senate of the United States which then became vacant; +and when he, an old Whig, could not obtain the votes of the Anti-Nebraska +Democrats necessary to make a majority, he generously urged his friends +to transfer their votes to Lyman Trumbull, who was then elected. Two +years later, in the first national convention of the Republican party, +the delegation from Illinois brought him forward as a candidate for the +vice-presidency, and he received respectable support. Still, the name of +Abraham Lincoln was not widely known beyond the boundaries of his own +State. But now it was this local prominence in Illinois that put him in +a position of peculiar advantage on the battlefield of national politics. +In the assault on the Missouri Compromise which broke down all legal +barriers to the spread of slavery Stephen Arnold Douglas was the +ostensible leader and central figure; and Douglas was a Senator from +Illinois, Lincoln's State. Douglas's national theatre of action was the +Senate, but in his constituency in Illinois were the roots of his +official position and power. What he did in the Senate he had to justify +before the people of Illinois, in order to maintain himself in place; and +in Illinois all eyes turned to Lincoln as Douglas's natural antagonist. + +As very young men they had come to Illinois, Lincoln from Indiana, +Douglas from Vermont, and had grown up together in public life, Douglas +as a Democrat, Lincoln as a Whig. They had met first in Vandalia, in +1834, when Lincoln was in the Legislature and Douglas in the lobby; and +again in 1836, both as members of the Legislature. Douglas, a very able +politician, of the agile, combative, audacious, "pushing" sort, rose in +political distinction with remarkable rapidity. In quick succession he +became a member of the Legislature, a State's attorney, secretary of +state, a judge on the supreme bench of Illinois, three times a +Representative in Congress, and a Senator of the United States when only +thirty-nine years old. In the National Democratic convention of 1852 he +appeared even as an aspirant to the nomination for the Presidency, as the +favorite of "young America," and received a respectable vote. He had far +outstripped Lincoln in what is commonly called political success and in +reputation. But it had frequently happened that in political campaigns +Lincoln felt himself impelled, or was selected by his Whig friends, to +answer Douglas's speeches; and thus the two were looked upon, in a large +part of the State at least, as the representative combatants of their +respective parties in the debates before popular meetings. As soon, +therefore, as, after the passage of his Kansas-Nebraska Bill, Douglas +returned to Illinois to defend his cause before his constituents, +Lincoln, obeying not only his own impulse, but also general expectation, +stepped forward as his principal opponent. Thus the struggle about the +principles involved in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, or, in a broader sense, +the struggle between freedom and slavery, assumed in Illinois the outward +form of a personal contest between Lincoln and Douglas; and, as it +continued and became more animated, that personal contest in Illinois was +watched with constantly increasing interest by the whole country. When, +in 1858, Douglas's senatorial term being about to expire, Lincoln was +formally designated by the Republican convention of Illinois as their +candidate for the Senate, to take Douglas's place, and the two +contestants agreed to debate the questions at issue face to face in a +series of public meetings, the eyes of the whole American people were +turned eagerly to that one point: and the spectacle reminded one of those +lays of ancient times telling of two armies, in battle array, standing +still to see their two principal champions fight out the contested cause +between the lines in single combat. + +Lincoln had then reached the full maturity of his powers. His equipment +as a statesman did not embrace a comprehensive knowledge of public +affairs. What he had studied he had indeed made his own, with the eager +craving and that zealous tenacity characteristic of superior minds +learning under difficulties. But his narrow opportunities and the +unsteady life he had led during his younger years had not permitted the +accumulation of large stores in his mind. It is true, in political +campaigns he had occasionally spoken on the ostensible issues between the +Whigs and the Democrats, the tariff, internal improvements, banks, and so +on, but only in a perfunctory manner. Had he ever given much serious +thought and study to these subjects, it is safe to assume that a mind so +prolific of original conceits as his would certainly have produced some +utterance upon them worth remembering. His soul had evidently never been +deeply stirred by such topics. But when his moral nature was aroused, +his brain developed an untiring activity until it had mastered all the +knowledge within reach. As soon as the repeal of the Missouri Compromise +had thrust the slavery question into politics as the paramount issue, +Lincoln plunged into an arduous study of all its legal, historical, and +moral aspects, and then his mind became a complete arsenal of argument. +His rich natural gifts, trained by long and varied practice, had made him +an orator of rare persuasiveness. In his immature days, he had pleased +himself for a short period with that inflated, high-flown style which, +among the uncultivated, passes for "beautiful speaking." His inborn +truthfulness and his artistic instinct soon overcame that aberration and +revealed to him the noble beauty and strength of simplicity. He +possessed an uncommon power of clear and compact statement, which might +have reminded those who knew the story of his early youth of the efforts +of the poor boy, when he copied his compositions from the scraped wooden +shovel, carefully to trim his expressions in order to save paper. His +language had the energy of honest directness and he was a master of +logical lucidity. He loved to point and enliven his reasoning by +humorous illustrations, usually anecdotes of Western life, of which he +had an inexhaustible store at his command. These anecdotes had not +seldom a flavor of rustic robustness about them, but he used them with +great effect, while amusing the audience, to give life to an abstraction, +to explode an absurdity, to clinch an argument, to drive home an +admonition. The natural kindliness of his tone, softening prejudice and +disarming partisan rancor, would often open to his reasoning a way into +minds most unwilling to receive it. + +Yet his greatest power consisted in the charm of his individuality. That +charm did not, in the ordinary way, appeal to the ear or to the eye. His +voice was not melodious; rather shrill and piercing, especially when it +rose to its high treble in moments of great animation. His figure was +unhandsome, and the action of his unwieldy limbs awkward. He commanded +none of the outward graces of oratory as they are commonly understood. +His charm was of a different kind. It flowed from the rare depth and +genuineness of his convictions and his sympathetic feelings. Sympathy was +the strongest element in his nature. One of his biographers, who knew +him before he became President, says: "Lincoln's compassion might be +stirred deeply by an object present, but never by an object absent and +unseen. In the former case he would most likely extend relief, with +little inquiry into the merits of the case, because, as he expressed it +himself, it `took a pain out of his own heart.'" Only half of this is +correct. It is certainly true that he could not witness any individual +distress or oppression, or any kind of suffering, without feeling a pang +of pain himself, and that by relieving as much as he could the suffering +of others he put an end to his own. This compassionate impulse to help +he felt not only for human beings, but for every living creature. As in +his boyhood he angrily reproved the boys who tormented a wood turtle by +putting a burning coal on its back, so, we are told, he would, when a +mature man, on a journey, dismount from his buggy and wade waist-deep in +mire to rescue a pig struggling in a swamp. Indeed, appeals to his +compassion were so irresistible to him, and he felt it so difficult to +refuse anything when his refusal could give pain, that he himself +sometimes spoke of his inability to say "no" as a positive weakness. But +that certainly does not prove that his compassionate feeling was confined +to individual cases of suffering witnessed with his own eyes. As the boy +was moved by the aspect of the tortured wood turtle to compose an essay +against cruelty to animals in general, so the aspect of other cases of +suffering and wrong wrought up his moral nature, and set his mind to work +against cruelty, injustice, and oppression in general. + +As his sympathy went forth to others, it attracted others to him. +Especially those whom he called the "plain people" felt themselves drawn +to him by the instinctive feeling that he understood, esteemed, and +appreciated them. He had grown up among the poor, the lowly, the +ignorant. He never ceased to remember the good souls he had met among +them, and the many kindnesses they had done him. Although in his mental +development he had risen far above them, he never looked down upon them. +How they felt and how they reasoned he knew, for so he had once felt and +reasoned himself. How they could be moved he knew, for so he had once +been moved himself and practised moving others. His mind was much larger +than theirs, but it thoroughly comprehended theirs; and while he thought +much farther than they, their thoughts were ever present to him. Nor had +the visible distance between them grown as wide as his rise in the world +would seem to have warranted. Much of his backwoods speech and manners +still clung to him. Although he had become "Mr. Lincoln" to his later +acquaintances, he was still "Abe" to the "Nats" and "Billys" and "Daves" +of his youth; and their familiarity neither appeared unnatural to them, +nor was it in the least awkward to him. He still told and enjoyed +stories similar to those he had told and enjoyed in the Indiana +settlement and at New Salem. His wants remained as modest as they had +ever been; his domestic habits had by no means completely accommodated +themselves to those of his more highborn wife; and though the "Kentucky +jeans" apparel had long been dropped, his clothes of better material and +better make would sit ill sorted on his gigantic limbs. His cotton +umbrella, without a handle, and tied together with a coarse string to +keep it from flapping, which he carried on his circuit rides, is said to +be remembered still by some of his surviving neighbors. This rusticity +of habit was utterly free from that affected contempt of refinement and +comfort which self-made men sometimes carry into their more affluent +circumstances. To Abraham Lincoln it was entirely natural, and all those +who came into contact with him knew it to be so. In his ways of thinking +and feeling he had become a gentleman in the highest sense, but the +refining process had polished but little the outward form. The plain +people, therefore, still considered "honest Abe Lincoln" one of +themselves; and when they felt, which they no doubt frequently did, that +his thoughts and aspirations moved in a sphere above their own, they were +all the more proud of him, without any diminution of fellow-feeling. It +was this relation of mutual sympathy and understanding between Lincoln +and the plain people that gave him his peculiar power as a public man, +and singularly fitted him, as we shall see, for that leadership which was +preeminently required in the great crisis then coming on,--the leadership +which indeed thinks and moves ahead of the masses, but always remains +within sight and sympathetic touch of them. + +He entered upon the campaign of 1858 better equipped than he had ever +been before. He not only instinctively felt, but he had convinced +himself by arduous study, that in this struggle against the spread of +slavery he had right, justice, philosophy, the enlightened opinion of +mankind, history, the Constitution, and good policy on his side. It was +observed that after he began to discuss the slavery question his speeches +were pitched in a much loftier key than his former oratorical efforts. +While he remained fond of telling funny stories in private conversation, +they disappeared more and more from his public discourse. He would still +now and then point his argument with expressions of inimitable +quaintness, and flash out rays of kindly humor and witty irony; but his +general tone was serious, and rose sometimes to genuine solemnity. His +masterly skill in dialectical thrust and parry, his wealth of knowledge, +his power of reasoning and elevation of sentiment, disclosed in language +of rare precision, strength, and beauty, not seldom astonished his old +friends. + +Neither of the two champions could have found a more formidable +antagonist than each now met in the other. Douglas was by far the most +conspicuous member of his party. His admirers had dubbed him "the Little +Giant," contrasting in that nickname the greatness of his mind with the +smallness of his body. But though of low stature, his broad-shouldered +figure appeared uncommonly sturdy, and there was something lion-like in +the squareness of his brow and jaw, and in the defiant shake of his long +hair. His loud and persistent advocacy of territorial expansion, in the +name of patriotism and "manifest destiny," had given him an enthusiastic +following among the young and ardent. Great natural parts, a highly +combative temperament, and long training had made him a debater +unsurpassed in a Senate filled with able men. He could be as forceful in +his appeals to patriotic feelings as he was fierce in denunciation and +thoroughly skilled in all the baser tricks of parliamentary pugilism. +While genial and rollicking in his social intercourse--the idol of the +"boys" he felt himself one of the most renowned statesmen of his time, +and would frequently meet his opponents with an overbearing haughtiness, +as persons more to be pitied than to be feared. In his speech opening +the campaign of 1858, he spoke of Lincoln, whom the Republicans had dared +to advance as their candidate for "his" place in the Senate, with an air +of patronizing if not contemptuous condescension, as "a kind, amiable, +and intelligent gentleman and a good citizen." The Little Giant would +have been pleased to pass off his antagonist as a tall dwarf. He knew +Lincoln too well, however, to indulge himself seriously in such a +delusion. But the political situation was at that moment in a curious +tangle, and Douglas could expect to derive from the confusion great +advantage over his opponent. + +By the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, opening the Territories to the +ingress of slavery, Douglas had pleased the South, but greatly alarmed +the North. He had sought to conciliate Northern sentiment by appending +to his Kansas-Nebraska Bill the declaration that its intent was "not to +legislate slavery into any State or Territory, nor to exclude it +therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and +regulate their institutions in their own way, subject only to the +Constitution of the United States." This he called "the great principle +of popular sovereignty." When asked whether, under this act, the people +of a Territory, before its admission as a State, would have the right to +exclude slavery, he answered, "That is a question for the courts to +decide." Then came the famous "Dred Scott decision," in which the +Supreme Court held substantially that the right to hold slaves as +property existed in the Territories by virtue of the Federal +Constitution, and that this right could not be denied by any act of a +territorial government. This, of course, denied the right of the people +of any Territory to exclude slavery while they were in a territorial +condition, and it alarmed the Northern people still more. Douglas +recognized the binding force of the decision of the Supreme Court, at the +same time maintaining, most illogically, that his great principle of +popular sovereignty remained in force nevertheless. Meanwhile, the +proslavery people of western Missouri, the so-called "border ruffians," +had invaded Kansas, set up a constitutional convention, made a +constitution of an extreme pro-slavery type, the "Lecompton +Constitution," refused to submit it fairly to a vote of the people of +Kansas, and then referred it to Congress for acceptance,--seeking thus to +accomplish the admission of Kansas as a slave State. Had Douglas +supported such a scheme, he would have lost all foothold in the North. +In the name of popular sovereignty he loudly declared his opposition to +the acceptance of any constitution not sanctioned by a formal popular +vote. He "did not care," he said, "whether slavery be voted up or down," +but there must be a fair vote of the people. Thus he drew upon himself +the hostility of the Buchanan administration, which was controlled by the +proslavery interest, but he saved his Northern following. More than +this, not only did his Democratic admirers now call him "the true +champion of freedom," but even some Republicans of large influence, +prominent among them Horace Greeley, sympathizing with Douglas in his +fight against the Lecompton Constitution, and hoping to detach him +permanently from the proslavery interest and to force a lasting breach in +the Democratic party, seriously advised the Republicans of Illinois to +give up their opposition to Douglas, and to help re-elect him to the +Senate. Lincoln was not of that opinion. He believed that great popular +movements can succeed only when guided by their faithful friends, and +that the antislavery cause could not safely be entrusted to the keeping +of one who "did not care whether slavery be voted up or down." This +opinion prevailed in Illinois; but the influences within the Republican +party over which it prevailed yielded only a reluctant acquiescence, if +they acquiesced at all, after having materially strengthened Douglas's +position. Such was the situation of things when the campaign of 1858 +between Lincoln and Douglas began. + +Lincoln opened the campaign on his side at the convention which nominated +him as the Republican candidate for the senatorship, with a memorable +saying which sounded like a shout from the watchtower of history: "A +house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government +cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the +Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but I expect it +will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. +Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and +place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the +course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward, +till it shall become alike lawful in all the States,--old as well as new, +North as well as South." Then he proceeded to point out that the +Nebraska doctrine combined with the Dred Scott decision worked in the +direction of making the nation "all slave." Here was the "irrepressible +conflict" spoken of by Seward a short time later, in a speech made famous +mainly by that phrase. If there was any new discovery in it, the right +of priority was Lincoln's. This utterance proved not only his +statesmanlike conception of the issue, but also, in his situation as a +candidate, the firmness of his moral courage. The friends to whom he had +read the draught of this speech before he delivered it warned him +anxiously that its delivery might be fatal to his success in the +election. This was shrewd advice, in the ordinary sense. While a +slaveholder could threaten disunion with impunity, the mere suggestion +that the existence of slavery was incompatible with freedom in the Union +would hazard the political chances of any public man in the North. But +Lincoln was inflexible. "It is true," said he, "and I will deliver it as +written.... I would rather be defeated with these expressions in my +speech held up and discussed before the people than be victorious without +them." The statesman was right in his far-seeing judgment and his +conscientious statement of the truth, but the practical politicians were +also right in their prediction of the immediate effect. Douglas +instantly seized upon the declaration that a house divided against itself +cannot stand as the main objective point of his attack, interpreting it +as an incitement to a "relentless sectional war," and there is no doubt +that the persistent reiteration of this charge served to frighten not a +few timid souls. + +Lincoln constantly endeavored to bring the moral and philosophical side +of the subject to the foreground. "Slavery is wrong" was the keynote of +all his speeches. To Douglas's glittering sophism that the right of the +people of a Territory to have slavery or not, as they might desire, was +in accordance with the principle of true popular sovereignty, he made the +pointed answer: "Then true popular sovereignty, according to Senator +Douglas, means that, when one man makes another man his slave, no third +man shall be allowed to object." To Douglas's argument that the +principle which demanded that the people of a Territory should be +permitted to choose whether they would have slavery or not "originated +when God made man, and placed good and evil before him, allowing him to +choose upon his own responsibility," Lincoln solemnly replied: "No; +God--did not place good and evil before man, telling him to make his +choice. On the contrary, God did tell him there was one tree of the +fruit of which he should not eat, upon pain of death." He did not, +however, place himself on the most advanced ground taken by the radical +anti-slavery men. He admitted that, under the Constitution, "the +Southern people were entitled to a Congressional fugitive slave law," +although he did not approve the fugitive slave law then existing. He +declared also that, if slavery were kept out of the Territories during +their territorial existence, as it should be, and if then the people of +any Territory, having a fair chance and a clear field, should do such an +extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave constitution, uninfluenced by the +actual presence of the institution among them, he saw no alternative but +to admit such a Territory into the Union. He declared further that, +while he should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abolished in the +District of Columbia, he would, as a member of Congress, with his present +views, not endeavor to bring on that abolition except on condition that +emancipation be gradual, that it be approved by the decision of a +majority of voters in the District, and that compensation be made to +unwilling owners. On every available occasion, he pronounced himself in +favor of the deportation and colonization of the blacks, of course with +their consent. He repeatedly disavowed any wish on his part to have +social and political equality established between whites and blacks. On +this point he summed up his views in a reply to Douglas's assertion that +the Declaration of Independence, in speaking of all men as being created +equal, did not include the negroes, saying: "I do not understand the +Declaration of Independence to mean that all men were created equal in +all respects. They are not equal in color. But I believe that it does +mean to declare that all men are equal in some respects; they are equal +in their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." + +With regard to some of these subjects Lincoln modified his position at a +later period, and it has been suggested that he would have professed more +advanced principles in his debates with Douglas, had he not feared +thereby to lose votes. This view can hardly be sustained. Lincoln had +the courage of his opinions, but he was not a radical. The man who +risked his election by delivering, against the urgent protest of his +friends, the speech about "the house divided against itself" would not +have shrunk from the expression of more extreme views, had he really +entertained them. It is only fair to assume that he said what at the +time he really thought, and that if, subsequently, his opinions changed, +it was owing to new conceptions of good policy and of duty brought forth +by an entirely new set of circumstances and exigencies. It is +characteristic that he continued to adhere to the impracticable +colonization plan even after the Emancipation Proclamation had already +been issued. + +But in this contest Lincoln proved himself not only a debater, but also a +political strategist of the first order. The "kind, amiable, and +intelligent gentleman," as Douglas had been pleased to call him, was by +no means as harmless as a dove. He possessed an uncommon share of that +worldly shrewdness which not seldom goes with genuine simplicity of +character; and the political experience gathered in the Legislature and +in Congress, and in many election campaigns, added to his keen +intuitions, had made him as far-sighted a judge of the probable effects +of a public man's sayings or doings upon the popular mind, and as +accurate a calculator in estimating political chances and forecasting +results, as could be found among the party managers in Illinois. And now +he perceived keenly the ugly dilemma in which Douglas found himself, +between the Dred Scott decision, which declared the right to hold slaves +to exist in the Territories by virtue of the Federal Constitution, and +his "great principle of popular sovereignty," according to which the +people of a Territory, if they saw fit, were to have the right to exclude +slavery therefrom. Douglas was twisting and squirming to the best of his +ability to avoid the admission that the two were incompatible. The +question then presented itself if it would be good policy for Lincoln to +force Douglas to a clear expression of his opinion as to whether, the +Dred Scott decision notwithstanding, "the people of a Territory could in +any lawful way exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of +a State constitution." Lincoln foresaw and predicted what Douglas would +answer: that slavery could not exist in a Territory unless the people +desired it and gave it protection by territorial legislation. In an +improvised caucus the policy of pressing the interrogatory on Douglas was +discussed. Lincoln's friends unanimously advised against it, because the +answer foreseen would sufficiently commend Douglas to the people of +Illinois to insure his re-election to the Senate. But Lincoln persisted. +"I am after larger game," said he. "If Douglas so answers, he can never +be President, and the battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this." The +interrogatory was pressed upon Douglas, and Douglas did answer that, no +matter what the decision of the Supreme Court might be on the abstract +question, the people of a Territory had the lawful means to introduce or +exclude slavery by territorial legislation friendly or unfriendly to the +institution. Lincoln found it easy to show the absurdity of the +proposition that, if slavery were admitted to exist of right in the +Territories by virtue of the supreme law, the Federal Constitution, it +could be kept out or expelled by an inferior law, one made by a +territorial Legislature. Again the judgment of the politicians, having +only the nearest object in view, proved correct: Douglas was reelected to +the Senate. But Lincoln's judgment proved correct also: Douglas, by +resorting to the expedient of his "unfriendly legislation doctrine," +forfeited his last chance of becoming President of the United States. He +might have hoped to win, by sufficient atonement, his pardon from the +South for his opposition to the Lecompton Constitution; but that he +taught the people of the Territories a trick by which they could defeat +what the proslavery men considered a constitutional right, and that he +called that trick lawful, this the slave power would never forgive. The +breach between the Southern and the Northern Democracy was thenceforth +irremediable and fatal. + +The Presidential election of 1860 approached. The struggle in Kansas, +and the debates in Congress which accompanied it, and which not +unfrequently provoked violent outbursts, continually stirred the popular +excitement. Within the Democratic party raged the war of factions. The +national Democratic convention met at Charleston on the 23d of April, +1860. After a struggle of ten days between the adherents and the +opponents of Douglas, during which the delegates from the cotton States +had withdrawn, the convention adjourned without having nominated any +candidates, to meet again in Baltimore on the 18th of June. There was no +prospect, however, of reconciling the hostile elements. It appeared very +probable that the Baltimore convention would nominate Douglas, while the +seceding Southern Democrats would set up a candidate of their own, +representing extreme proslavery principles. + +Meanwhile, the national Republican convention assembled at Chicago on the +16th of May, full of enthusiasm and hope. The situation was easily +understood. The Democrats would have the South. In order to succeed in +the election, the Republicans had to win, in addition to the States +carried by Fremont in 1856, those that were classed as "doubtful,"--New +Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, or Illinois in the place of either New +Jersey or Indiana. The most eminent Republican statesmen and leaders of +the time thought of for the Presidency were Seward and Chase, both +regarded as belonging to the more advanced order of antislavery men. Of +the two, Seward had the largest following, mainly from New York, New +England, and the Northwest. Cautious politicians doubted seriously +whether Seward, to whom some phrases in his speeches had undeservedly +given the reputation of a reckless radical, would be able to command the +whole Republican vote in the doubtful States. Besides, during his long +public career he had made enemies. It was evident that those who thought +Seward's nomination too hazardous an experiment would consider Chase +unavailable for the same reason. They would then look round for an +"available" man; and among the "available" men Abraham Lincoln was easily +discovered to stand foremost. His great debate with Douglas had given +him a national reputation. The people of the East being eager to see the +hero of so dramatic a contest, he had been induced to visit several +Eastern cities, and had astonished and delighted large and distinguished +audiences with speeches of singular power and originality. An address +delivered by him in the Cooper Institute in New York, before an audience +containing a large number of important persons, was then, and has ever +since been, especially praised as one of the most logical and convincing +political speeches ever made in this country. The people of the West had +grown proud of him as a distinctively Western great man, and his +popularity at home had some peculiar features which could be expected to +exercise a potent charm. Nor was Lincoln's name as that of an available +candidate left to the chance of accidental discovery. It is indeed not +probable that he thought of himself as a Presidential possibility, during +his contest with Douglas for the senatorship. As late as April, 1859, he +had written to a friend who had approached him on the subject that he did +not think himself fit for the Presidency. The Vice-Presidency was then +the limit of his ambition. But some of his friends in Illinois took the +matter seriously in hand, and Lincoln, after some hesitation, then +formally authorized "the use of his name." The matter was managed with +such energy and excellent judgment that, in the convention, he had not +only the whole vote of Illinois to start with, but won votes on all sides +without offending any rival. A large majority of the opponents of Seward +went over to Abraham Lincoln, and gave him the nomination on the third +ballot. As had been foreseen, Douglas was nominated by one wing of the +Democratic party at Baltimore, while the extreme proslavery wing put +Breckinridge into the field as its candidate. After a campaign conducted +with the energy of genuine enthusiasm on the antislavery side the united +Republicans defeated the divided Democrats, and Lincoln was elected +President by a majority of fifty-seven votes in the electoral colleges. + +The result of the election had hardly been declared when the disunion +movement in the South, long threatened and carefully planned and +prepared, broke out in the shape of open revolt, and nearly a month +before Lincoln could be inaugurated as President of the United States +seven Southern States had adopted ordinances of secession, formed an +independent confederacy, framed a constitution for it, and elected +Jefferson Davis its president, expecting the other slaveholding States +soon to join them. On the 11th of February, 1861, Lincoln left +Springfield for Washington; having, with characteristic simplicity, asked +his law partner not to change the sign of the firm "Lincoln and Herndon" +during the four years unavoidable absence of the senior partner, and +having taken an affectionate and touching leave of his neighbors. + +The situation which confronted the new President was appalling: the +larger part of the South in open rebellion, the rest of the slaveholding +States wavering preparing to follow; the revolt guided by determined, +daring, and skillful leaders; the Southern people, apparently full of +enthusiasm and military spirit, rushing to arms, some of the forts and +arsenals already in their possession; the government of the Union, before +the accession of the new President, in the hands of men some of whom +actively sympathized with the revolt, while others were hampered by their +traditional doctrines in dealing with it, and really gave it aid and +comfort by their irresolute attitude; all the departments full of +"Southern sympathizers" and honeycombed with disloyalty; the treasury +empty, and the public credit at the lowest ebb; the arsenals ill supplied +with arms, if not emptied by treacherous practices; the regular army of +insignificant strength, dispersed over an immense surface, and deprived +of some of its best officers by defection; the navy small and antiquated. +But that was not all. The threat of disunion had so often been resorted +to by the slave power in years gone by that most Northern people had +ceased to believe in its seriousness. But, when disunion actually +appeared as a stern reality, something like a chill swept through the +whole Northern country. A cry for union and peace at any price rose on +all sides. Democratic partisanship reiterated this cry with vociferous +vehemence, and even many Republicans grew afraid of the victory they had +just achieved at the ballot-box, and spoke of compromise. The country +fairly resounded with the noise of "anticoercion meetings." Expressions +of firm resolution from determined antislavery men were indeed not +wanting, but they were for a while almost drowned by a bewildering +confusion of discordant voices. Even this was not all. Potent +influences in Europe, with an ill-concealed desire for the permanent +disruption of the American Union, eagerly espoused the cause of the +Southern seceders, and the two principal maritime powers of the Old World +seemed only to be waiting for a favorable opportunity to lend them a +helping hand. + +This was the state of things to be mastered by "honest Abe Lincoln" when +he took his seat in the Presidential chair,--"honest Abe Lincoln," who +was so good-natured that he could not say "no"; the greatest achievement +in whose life had been a debate on the slavery question; who had never +been in any position of power; who was without the slightest experience +of high executive duties, and who had only a speaking acquaintance with +the men upon whose counsel and cooperation he was to depend. Nor was his +accession to power under such circumstances greeted with general +confidence even by the members of his party. While he had indeed won +much popularity, many Republicans, especially among those who had +advocated Seward's nomination for the Presidency, saw the simple +"Illinois lawyer" take the reins of government with a feeling little +short of dismay. The orators and journals of the opposition were +ridiculing and lampooning him without measure. Many people actually +wondered how such a man could dare to undertake a task which, as he +himself had said to his neighbors in his parting speech, was "more +difficult than that of Washington himself had been." + +But Lincoln brought to that task, aside from other uncommon qualities, +the first requisite,--an intuitive comprehension of its nature. While he +did not indulge in the delusion that the Union could be maintained or +restored without a conflict of arms, he could indeed not foresee all the +problems he would have to solve. He instinctively understood, however, +by what means that conflict would have to be conducted by the government +of a democracy. He knew that the impending war, whether great or small, +would not be like a foreign war, exciting a united national enthusiasm, +but a civil war, likely to fan to uncommon heat the animosities of party +even in the localities controlled by the government; that this war would +have to be carried on not by means of a ready-made machinery, ruled by an +undisputed, absolute will, but by means to be furnished by the voluntary +action of the people:--armies to be formed by voluntary enlistments; +large sums of money to be raised by the people, through representatives, +voluntarily taxing themselves; trust of extraordinary power to be +voluntarily granted; and war measures, not seldom restricting the rights +and liberties to which the citizen was accustomed, to be voluntarily +accepted and submitted to by the people, or at least a large majority of +them; and that this would have to be kept up not merely during a short +period of enthusiastic excitement; but possibly through weary years of +alternating success and disaster, hope and despondency. He knew that in +order to steer this government by public opinion successfully through all +the confusion created by the prejudices and doubts and differences of +sentiment distracting the popular mind, and so to propitiate, inspire, +mould, organize, unite, and guide the popular will that it might give +forth all the means required for the performance of his great task, he +would have to take into account all the influences strongly affecting the +current of popular thought and feeling, and to direct while appearing to +obey. + +This was the kind of leadership he intuitively conceived to be needed +when a free people were to be led forward en masse to overcome a great +common danger under circumstances of appalling difficulty, the leadership +which does not dash ahead with brilliant daring, no matter who follows, +but which is intent upon rallying all the available forces, gathering in +the stragglers, closing up the column, so that the front may advance well +supported. For this leadership Abraham Lincoln was admirably fitted, +better than any other American statesman of his day; for he understood +the plain people, with all their loves and hates, their prejudices and +their noble impulses, their weaknesses and their strength, as he +understood himself, and his sympathetic nature was apt to draw their +sympathy to him. + +His inaugural address foreshadowed his official course in characteristic +manner. Although yielding nothing in point of principle, it was by no +means a flaming antislavery manifesto, such as would have pleased the +more ardent Republicans. It was rather the entreaty of a sorrowing +father speaking to his wayward children. In the kindliest language he +pointed out to the secessionists how ill advised their attempt at +disunion was, and why, for their own sakes, they should desist. Almost +plaintively, he told them that, while it was not their duty to destroy +the Union, it was his sworn duty to preserve it; that the least he could +do, under the obligations of his oath, was to possess and hold the +property of the United States; that he hoped to do this peaceably; that +he abhorred war for any purpose, and that they would have none unless +they themselves were the aggressors. It was a masterpiece of +persuasiveness, and while Lincoln had accepted many valuable amendments +suggested by Seward, it was essentially his own. Probably Lincoln +himself did not expect his inaugural address to have any effect upon the +secessionists, for he must have known them to be resolved upon disunion +at any cost. But it was an appeal to the wavering minds in the North, +and upon them it made a profound impression. Every candid man, however +timid and halting, had to admit that the President was bound by his oath +to do his duty; that under that oath he could do no less than he said he +would do; that if the secessionists resisted such an appeal as the +President had made, they were bent upon mischief, and that the government +must be supported against them. The partisan sympathy with the Southern +insurrection which still existed in the North did indeed not disappear, +but it diminished perceptibly under the influence of such reasoning. +Those who still resisted it did so at the risk of appearing unpatriotic. + +It must not be supposed, however, that Lincoln at once succeeded in +pleasing everybody, even among his friends,--even among those nearest to +him. In selecting his cabinet, which he did substantially before he left +Springfield for Washington, he thought it wise to call to his assistance +the strong men of his party, especially those who had given evidence of +the support they commanded as his competitors in the Chicago convention. +In them he found at the same time representatives of the different shades +of opinion within the party, and of the different elements--former Whigs +and former Democrats--from which the party had recruited itself. This +was sound policy under the circumstances. It might indeed have been +foreseen that among the members of a cabinet so composed, troublesome +disagreements and rivalries would break out. But it was better for the +President to have these strong and ambitious men near him as his +co-operators than to have them as his critics in Congress, where their +differences might have been composed in a common opposition to him. As +members of his cabinet he could hope to control them, and to keep them +busily employed in the service of a common purpose, if he had the +strength to do so. Whether he did possess this strength was soon tested +by a singularly rude trial. + +There can be no doubt that the foremost members of his cabinet, Seward +and Chase, the most eminent Republican statesmen, had felt themselves +wronged by their party when in its national convention it preferred to +them for the Presidency a man whom, not unnaturally, they thought greatly +their inferior in ability and experience as well as in service. The +soreness of that disappointment was intensified when they saw this +Western man in the White House, with so much of rustic manner and speech +as still clung to him, meeting his fellow-citizens, high and low, on a +footing of equality, with the simplicity of his good nature unburdened by +any conventional dignity of deportment, and dealing with the great +business of state in an easy-going, unmethodical, and apparently somewhat +irreverent way. They did not understand such a man. Especially Seward, +who, as Secretary of State, considered himself next to the Chief +Executive, and who quickly accustomed himself to giving orders and making +arrangements upon his own motion, thought it necessary that he should +rescue the direction of public affairs from hands so unskilled, and take +full charge of them himself. At the end of the first month of the +administration he submitted a "memorandum" to President Lincoln, which +has been first brought to light by Nicolay and Hay, and is one of their +most valuable contributions to the history of those days. In that paper +Seward actually told the President that at the end of a month's +administration the government was still without a policy, either domestic +or foreign; that the slavery question should be eliminated from the +struggle about the Union; that the matter of the maintenance of the forts +and other possessions in the South should be decided with that view; that +explanations should be demanded categorically from the governments of +Spain and France, which were then preparing, one for the annexation of +San Domingo, and both for the invasion of Mexico; that if no satisfactory +explanations were received war should be declared against Spain and +France by the United States; that explanations should also be sought from +Russia and Great Britain, and a vigorous continental spirit of +independence against European intervention be aroused all over the +American continent; that this policy should be incessantly pursued and +directed by somebody; that either the President should devote himself +entirely to it, or devolve the direction on some member of his cabinet, +whereupon all debate on this policy must end. + +This could be understood only as a formal demand that the President +should acknowledge his own incompetency to perform his duties, content +himself with the amusement of distributing post-offices, and resign his +power as to all important affairs into the hands of his Secretary of +State. It seems to-day incomprehensible how a statesman of Seward's +calibre could at that period conceive a plan of policy in which the +slavery question had no place; a policy which rested upon the utterly +delusive assumption that the secessionists, who had already formed their +Southern Confederacy and were with stern resolution preparing to fight +for its independence, could be hoodwinked back into the Union by some +sentimental demonstration against European interference; a policy which, +at that critical moment, would have involved the Union in a foreign war, +thus inviting foreign intervention in favor of the Southern Confederacy, +and increasing tenfold its chances in the struggle for independence. But +it is equally incomprehensible how Seward could fail to see that this +demand of an unconditional surrender was a mortal insult to the head of +the government, and that by putting his proposition on paper he delivered +himself into the hands of the very man he had insulted; for, had Lincoln, +as most Presidents would have done, instantly dismissed Seward, and +published the true reason for that dismissal, it would inevitably have +been the end of Seward's career. But Lincoln did what not many of the +noblest and greatest men in history would have been noble and great +enough to do. He considered that Seward was still capable of rendering +great service to his country in the place in which he was, if rightly +controlled. He ignored the insult, but firmly established his +superiority. In his reply, which he forthwith despatched, he told Seward +that the administration had a domestic policy as laid down in the +inaugural address with Seward's approval; that it had a foreign policy as +traced in Seward's despatches with the President's approval; that if any +policy was to be maintained or changed, he, the President, was to direct +that on his responsibility; and that in performing that duty the +President had a right to the advice of his secretaries. Seward's +fantastic schemes of foreign war and continental policies Lincoln brushed +aside by passing them over in silence. Nothing more was said. Seward +must have felt that he was at the mercy of a superior man; that his +offensive proposition had been generously pardoned as a temporary +aberration of a great mind, and that he could atone for it only by +devoted personal loyalty. This he did. He was thoroughly subdued, and +thenceforth submitted to Lincoln his despatches for revision and +amendment without a murmur. The war with European nations was no longer +thought of; the slavery question found in due time its proper place in +the struggle for the Union; and when, at a later period, the dismissal of +Seward was demanded by dissatisfied senators, who attributed to him the +shortcomings of the administration, Lincoln stood stoutly by his faithful +Secretary of State. + +Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, a man of superb presence, of +eminent ability and ardent patriotism, of great natural dignity and a +certain outward coldness of manner, which made him appear more difficult +of approach than he really was, did not permit his disappointment to +burst out in such extravagant demonstrations. But Lincoln's ways were so +essentially different from his that they never became quite intelligible, +and certainly not congenial to him. It might, perhaps, have been better +had there been, at the beginning of the administration, some decided +clash between Lincoln and Chase, as there was between Lincoln and Seward, +to bring on a full mutual explanation, and to make Chase appreciate the +real seriousness of Lincoln's nature. But, as it was, their relations +always remained somewhat formal, and Chase never felt quite at ease under +a chief whom he could not understand, and whose character and powers he +never learned to esteem at their true value. At the same time, he +devoted himself zealously to the duties of his department, and did the +country arduous service under circumstances of extreme difficulty. Nobody +recognized this more heartily than Lincoln himself, and they managed to +work together until near the end of Lincoln's first Presidential term, +when Chase, after some disagreements concerning appointments to office, +resigned from the treasury; and, after Taney's death, the President made +him Chief Justice. + +The rest of the cabinet consisted of men of less eminence, who +subordinated themselves more easily. In January, 1862, Lincoln found it +necessary to bow Cameron out of the war office, and to put in his place +Edwin M. Stanton, a man of intensely practical mind, vehement impulses, +fierce positiveness, ruthless energy, immense working power, lofty +patriotism, and severest devotion to duty. He accepted the war office +not as a partisan, for he had never been a Republican, but only to do all +he could in "helping to save the country." The manner in which Lincoln +succeeded in taming this lion to his will, by frankly recognizing his +great qualities, by giving him the most generous confidence, by aiding +him in his work to the full of his power, by kindly concession or +affectionate persuasiveness in cases of differing opinions, or, when it +was necessary, by firm assertions of superior authority, bears the +highest testimony to his skill in the management of men. Stanton, who +had entered the service with rather a mean opinion of Lincoln's character +and capacity, became one of his warmest, most devoted, and most admiring +friends, and with none of his secretaries was Lincoln's intercourse more +intimate. To take advice with candid readiness, and to weigh it without +any pride of his own opinion, was one of Lincoln's preeminent virtues; +but he had not long presided over his cabinet council when his was felt +by all its members to be the ruling mind. + +The cautious policy foreshadowed in his inaugural address, and pursued +during the first period of the civil war, was far from satisfying all his +party friends. The ardent spirits among the Union men thought that the +whole North should at once be called to arms, to crush the rebellion by +one powerful blow. The ardent spirits among the antislavery men insisted +that, slavery having brought forth the rebellion, this powerful blow +should at once be aimed at slavery. Both complained that the +administration was spiritless, undecided, and lamentably slow in its +proceedings. Lincoln reasoned otherwise. The ways of thinking and +feeling of the masses, of the plain people, were constantly present to +his mind. The masses, the plain people, had to furnish the men for the +fighting, if fighting was to be done. He believed that the plain people +would be ready to fight when it clearly appeared necessary, and that they +would feel that necessity when they felt themselves attacked. He +therefore waited until the enemies of the Union struck the first blow. +As soon as, on the 12th of April, 1861, the first gun was fired in +Charleston harbor on the Union flag upon Fort Sumter, the call was +sounded, and the Northern people rushed to arms. + +Lincoln knew that the plain people were now indeed ready to fight in +defence of the Union, but not yet ready to fight for the destruction of +slavery. He declared openly that he had a right to summon the people to +fight for the Union, but not to summon them to fight for the abolition of +slavery as a primary object; and this declaration gave him numberless +soldiers for the Union who at that period would have hesitated to do +battle against the institution of slavery. For a time he succeeded in +rendering harmless the cry of the partisan opposition that the Republican +administration were perverting the war for the Union into an "abolition +war." But when he went so far as to countermand the acts of some +generals in the field, looking to the emancipation of the slaves in the +districts covered by their commands, loud complaints arose from earnest +antislavery men, who accused the President of turning his back upon the +antislavery cause. Many of these antislavery men will now, after a calm +retrospect, be willing to admit that it would have been a hazardous +policy to endanger, by precipitating a demonstrative fight against +slavery, the success of the struggle for the Union. + +Lincoln's views and feelings concerning slavery had not changed. Those +who conversed with him intimately upon the subject at that period know +that he did not expect slavery long to survive the triumph of the Union, +even if it were not immediately destroyed by the war. In this he was +right. Had the Union armies achieved a decisive victory in an early +period of the conflict, and had the seceded States been received back +with slavery, the "slave power" would then have been a defeated power, +defeated in an attempt to carry out its most effective threat. It would +have lost its prestige. Its menaces would have been hollow sound, and +ceased to make any one afraid. It could no longer have hoped to expand, +to maintain an equilibrium in any branch of Congress, and to control the +government. The victorious free States would have largely overbalanced +it. It would no longer have been able to withstand the onset of a +hostile age. It could no longer have ruled,--and slavery had to rule in +order to live. It would have lingered for a while, but it would surely +have been "in the course of ultimate extinction." A prolonged war +precipitated the destruction of slavery; a short war might only have +prolonged its death struggle. Lincoln saw this clearly; but he saw also +that, in a protracted death struggle, it might still have kept disloyal +sentiments alive, bred distracting commotions, and caused great mischief +to the country. He therefore hoped that slavery would not survive the +war. + +But the question how he could rightfully employ his power to bring on its +speedy destruction was to him not a question of mere sentiment. He +himself set forth his reasoning upon it, at a later period, in one of his +inimitable letters. "I am naturally antislavery," said he. "If slavery +is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember the time when I did +not so think and feel. And yet I have never understood that the +Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act upon that +judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the +best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the 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 that power. I understood, too, that, in ordinary civil +administration, this oath even forbade me practically to indulge my +private abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I did +understand, however, also, that my oath imposed upon me the duty of +preserving, to the best of my ability, by every indispensable means, that +government, that nation, of which the Constitution was the organic law. +I could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tied to +preserve the Constitution--if, to save slavery, or any minor matter, I +should permit the wreck of government, country, and Constitution all +together." In other words, if the salvation of the government, the +Constitution, and the Union demanded the destruction of slavery, he felt +it to be not only his right, but his sworn duty to destroy it. Its +destruction became a necessity of the war for the Union. + +As the war dragged on and disaster followed disaster, the sense of that +necessity steadily grew upon him. Early in 1862, as some of his friends +well remember, he saw, what Seward seemed not to see, that to give the +war for the Union an antislavery character was the surest means to +prevent the recognition of the Southern Confederacy as an independent +nation by European powers; that, slavery being abhorred by the moral +sense of civilized mankind, no European government would dare to offer so +gross an insult to the public opinion of its people as openly to favor +the creation of a state founded upon slavery to the prejudice of an +existing nation fighting against slavery. He saw also that slavery +untouched was to the rebellion an element of power, and that in order to +overcome that power it was necessary to turn it into an element of +weakness. Still, he felt no assurance that the plain people were +prepared for so radical a measure as the emancipation of the slaves by +act of the government, and he anxiously considered that, if they were +not, this great step might, by exciting dissension at the North, injure +the cause of the Union in one quarter more than it would help it in +another. He heartily welcomed an effort made in New York to mould and +stimulate public sentiment on the slavery question by public meetings +boldly pronouncing for emancipation. At the same time he himself +cautiously advanced with a recommendation, expressed in a special message +to Congress, that the United States should co-operate with any State +which might adopt the gradual abolishment of slavery, giving such State +pecuniary aid to compensate the former owners of emancipated slaves. The +discussion was started, and spread rapidly. Congress adopted the +resolution recommended, and soon went a step farther in passing a bill to +abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. The plain people began to +look at emancipation on a larger scale as a thing to be considered +seriously by patriotic citizens; and soon Lincoln thought that the time +was ripe, and that the edict of freedom could be ventured upon without +danger of serious confusion in the Union ranks. + +The failure of McClellan's movement upon Richmond increased immensely the +prestige of the enemy. The need of some great act to stimulate the +vitality of the Union cause seemed to grow daily more pressing. On July +21, 1862, Lincoln surprised his cabinet with the draught of a +proclamation declaring free the slaves in all the States that should be +still in rebellion against the United States on the 1st of January,1863. +As to the matter itself he announced that he had fully made up his mind; +he invited advice only concerning the form and the time of publication. +Seward suggested that the proclamation, if then brought out, amidst +disaster and distress, would sound like the last shriek of a perishing +cause. Lincoln accepted the suggestion, and the proclamation was +postponed. Another defeat followed, the second at Bull Run. But when, +after that battle, the Confederate army, under Lee, crossed the Potomac +and invaded Maryland, Lincoln vowed in his heart that, if the Union army +were now blessed with success, the decree of freedom should surely be +issued. The victory of Antietam was won on September 17, and the +preliminary Emancipation Proclamation came forth on the a 22d. It was +Lincoln's own resolution and act; but practically it bound the nation, +and permitted no step backward. In spite of its limitations, it was the +actual abolition of slavery. Thus he wrote his name upon the books of +history with the title dearest to his heart, the liberator of the slave. + +It is true, the great proclamation, which stamped the war as one for +"union and freedom," did not at once mark the turning of the tide on the +field of military operations. There were more disasters, Fredericksburg +and Chancellorsville. But with Gettysburg and Vicksburg the whole aspect +of the war changed. Step by step, now more slowly, then more rapidly, but +with increasing steadiness, the flag of the Union advanced from field to +field toward the final consummation. The decree of emancipation was +naturally followed by the enlistment of emancipated negroes in the Union +armies. This measure had a anther reaching effect than merely giving the +Union armies an increased supply of men. The laboring force of the +rebellion was hopelessly disorganized. The war became like a problem of +arithmetic. As the Union armies pushed forward, the area from which the +Southern Confederacy could draw recruits and supplies constantly grew +smaller, while the area from which the Union recruited its strength +constantly grew larger; and everywhere, even within the Southern lines, +the Union had its allies. The fate of the rebellion was then virtually +decided; but it still required much bloody work to convince the brave +warriors who fought for it that they were really beaten. + +Neither did the Emancipation Proclamation forthwith command universal +assent among the people who were loyal to the Union. There were even +signs of a reaction against the administration in the fall elections of +1862, seemingly justifying the opinion, entertained by many, that the +President had really anticipated the development of popular feeling. The +cry that the war for the Union had been turned into an "abolition war" +was raised again by the opposition, and more loudly than ever. But the +good sense and patriotic instincts of the plain people gradually +marshalled themselves on Lincoln's side, and he lost no opportunity to +help on this process by personal argument and admonition. There never +has been a President in such constant and active contact with the public +opinion of the country, as there never has been a President who, while at +the head of the government, remained so near to the people. Beyond the +circle of those who had long known him the feeling steadily grew that the +man in the White House was "honest Abe Lincoln" still, and that every +citizen might approach him with complaint, expostulation, or advice, +without danger of meeting a rebuff from power-proud authority, or +humiliating condescension; and this privilege was used by so many and +with such unsparing freedom that only superhuman patience could have +endured it all. There are men now living who would to-day read with +amazement, if not regret, what they ventured to say or write to him. But +Lincoln repelled no one whom he believed to speak to him in good faith +and with patriotic purpose. No good advice would go unheeded. No candid +criticism would offend him. No honest opposition, while it might pain +him, would produce a lasting alienation of feeling between him and the +opponent. It may truly be said that few men in power have ever been +exposed to more daring attempts to direct their course, to severer +censure of their acts, and to more cruel misrepresentation of their +motives: And all this he met with that good-natured humor peculiarly his +own, and with untiring effort to see the right and to impress it upon +those who differed from him. The conversations he had and the +correspondence he carried on upon matters of public interest, not only +with men in official position, but with private citizens, were almost +unceasing, and in a large number of public letters, written ostensibly to +meetings, or committees, or persons of importance, he addressed himself +directly to the popular mind. Most of these letters stand among the +finest monuments of our political literature. Thus he presented the +singular spectacle of a President who, in the midst of a great civil war, +with unprecedented duties weighing upon him, was constantly in person +debating the great features of his policy with the people. + +While in this manner he exercised an ever-increasing influence upon the +popular understanding, his sympathetic nature endeared him more and more +to the popular heart. In vain did journals and speakers of the +opposition represent him as a lightminded trifler, who amused himself +with frivolous story-telling and coarse jokes, while the blood of the +people was flowing in streams. The people knew that the man at the head +of affairs, on whose haggard face the twinkle of humor so frequently +changed into an expression of profoundest sadness, was more than any +other deeply distressed by the suffering he witnessed; that he felt the +pain of every wound that was inflicted on the battlefield, and the +anguish of every woman or child who had lost husband or father; that +whenever he could he was eager to alleviate sorrow, and that his mercy +was never implored in vain. They looked to him as one who was with them +and of them in all their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows, who +laughed with them and wept with them; and as his heart was theirs; so +their hearts turned to him. His popularity was far different from that +of Washington, who was revered with awe, or that of Jackson, the +unconquerable hero, for whom party enthusiasm never grew weary of +shouting. To Abraham Lincoln the people became bound by a genuine +sentimental attachment. It was not a matter of respect, or confidence, +or party pride, for this feeling spread far beyond the boundary lines of +his party; it was an affair of the heart, independent of mere reasoning. +When the soldiers in the field or their folks at home spoke of "Father +Abraham," there was no cant in it. They felt that their President was +really caring for them as a father would, and that they could go to him, +every one of them, as they would go to a father, and talk to him of what +troubled them, sure to find a willing ear and tender sympathy. Thus, +their President, and his cause, and his endeavors, and his success +gradually became to them almost matters of family concern. And this +popularity carried him triumphantly through the Presidential election of +1864, in spite of an opposition within his own party which at first +seemed very formidable. + +Many of the radical antislavery men were never quite satisfied with +Lincoln's ways of meeting the problems of the time. They were very +earnest and mostly very able men, who had positive ideas as to "how this +rebellion should be put down." They would not recognize the necessity of +measuring the steps of the government according to the progress of +opinion among the plain people. They criticised Lincoln's cautious +management as irresolute, halting, lacking in definite purpose and in +energy; he should not have delayed emancipation so long; he should not +have confided important commands to men of doubtful views as to slavery; +he should have authorized military commanders to set the slaves free as +they went on; he dealt too leniently with unsuccessful generals; he +should have put down all factious opposition with a strong hand instead +of trying to pacify it; he should have given the people accomplished +facts instead of arguing with them, and so on. It is true, these +criticisms were not always entirely unfounded. Lincoln's policy had, +with the virtues of democratic government, some of its weaknesses, which +in the presence of pressing exigencies were apt to deprive governmental +action of the necessary vigor; and his kindness of heart, his disposition +always to respect the feelings of others, frequently made him recoil from +anything like severity, even when severity was urgently called for. But +many of his radical critics have since then revised their judgment +sufficiently to admit that Lincoln's policy was, on the whole, the wisest +and safest; that a policy of heroic methods, while it has sometimes +accomplished great results, could in a democracy like ours be maintained +only by constant success; that it would have quickly broken down under +the weight of disaster; that it might have been successful from the +start, had the Union, at the beginning of the conflict, had its Grants +and Shermans and Sheridans, its Farraguts and Porters, fully matured at +the head of its forces; but that, as the great commanders had to be +evolved slowly from the developments of the war, constant success could +not be counted upon, and it was best to follow a policy which was in +friendly contact with the popular force, and therefore more fit to stand +trial of misfortune on the battlefield. But at that period they thought +differently, and their dissatisfaction with Lincoln's doings was greatly +increased by the steps he took toward the reconstruction of rebel States +then partially in possession of the Union forces. + +In December, 1863, Lincoln issued an amnesty proclamation, offering +pardon to all implicated in the rebellion, with certain specified +exceptions, on condition of their taking and maintaining an oath to +support the Constitution and obey the laws of the United States and the +proclamations of the President with regard to slaves; and also promising +that when, in any of the rebel States, a number of citizens equal to one +tenth of the voters in 1860 should re-establish a state government in +conformity with the oath above mentioned, such should be recognized by +the Executive as the true government of the State. The proclamation +seemed at first to be received with general favor. But soon another +scheme of reconstruction, much more stringent in its provisions, was put +forward in the House of Representatives by Henry Winter Davis. Benjamin +Wade championed it in the Senate. It passed in the closing moments of +the session in July, 1864, and Lincoln, instead of making it a law by his +signature, embodied the text of it in a proclamation as a plan of +reconstruction worthy of being earnestly considered. The differences of +opinion concerning this subject had only intensified the feeling against +Lincoln which had long been nursed among the radicals, and some of them +openly declared their purpose of resisting his re-election to the +Presidency. Similar sentiments were manifested by the advanced +antislavery men of Missouri, who, in their hot faction-fight with the +"conservatives" of that State, had not received from Lincoln the active +support they demanded. Still another class of Union men, mainly in the +East, gravely shook their heads when considering the question whether +Lincoln should be re-elected. They were those who cherished in their +minds an ideal of statesmanship and of personal bearing in high office +with which, in their opinion, Lincoln's individuality was much out of +accord. They were shocked when they heard him cap an argument upon grave +affairs of state with a story about "a man out in Sangamon County,"--a +story, to be sure, strikingly clinching his point, but sadly lacking in +dignity. They could not understand the man who was capable, in opening a +cabinet meeting, of reading to his secretaries a funny chapter from a +recent book of Artemus Ward, with which in an unoccupied moment he had +relieved his care-burdened mind, and who then solemnly informed the +executive council that he had vowed in his heart to issue a proclamation +emancipating the slaves as soon as God blessed the Union arms with +another victory. They were alarmed at the weakness of a President who +would indeed resist the urgent remonstrances of statesmen against his +policy, but could not resist the prayer of an old woman for the pardon of +a soldier who was sentenced to be shot for desertion. Such men, mostly +sincere and ardent patriots, not only wished, but earnestly set to work, +to prevent Lincoln's renomination. Not a few of them actually believed, +in 1863, that, if the national convention of the Union party were held +then, Lincoln would not be supported by the delegation of a single State. +But when the convention met at Baltimore, in June, 1864, the voice of the +people was heard. On the first ballot Lincoln received the votes of the +delegations from all the States except Missouri; and even the Missourians +turned over their votes to him before the result of the ballot was +declared. + +But even after his renomination the opposition to Lincoln within the +ranks of the Union party did not subside. A convention, called by the +dissatisfied radicals in Missouri, and favored by men of a similar way of +thinking in other States, had been held already in May, and had nominated +as its candidate for the Presidency General Fremont. He, indeed, did not +attract a strong following, but opposition movements from different +quarters appeared more formidable. Henry Winter Davis and Benjamin Wade +assailed Lincoln in a flaming manifesto. Other Union men, of undoubted +patriotism and high standing, persuaded themselves, and sought to +persuade the people, that Lincoln's renomination was ill advised and +dangerous to the Union cause. As the Democrats had put off their +convention until the 29th of August, the Union party had, during the +larger part of the summer, no opposing candidate and platform to attack, +and the political campaign languished. Neither were the tidings from the +theatre of war of a cheering character. The terrible losses suffered by +Grant's army in the battles of the Wilderness spread general gloom. +Sherman seemed for a while to be in a precarious position before Atlanta. +The opposition to Lincoln within the Union party grew louder in its +complaints and discouraging predictions. Earnest demands were heard that +his candidacy should be withdrawn. Lincoln himself, not knowing how +strongly the masses were attached to him, was haunted by dark forebodings +of defeat. Then the scene suddenly changed as if by magic. + +The Democrats, in their national convention, declared the war a failure, +demanded, substantially, peace at any price, and nominated on such a +platform General McClellan as their candidate. Their convention had +hardly adjourned when the capture of Atlanta gave a new aspect to the +military situation. It was like a sun-ray bursting through a dark cloud. +The rank and file of the Union party rose with rapidly growing +enthusiasm. The song "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred +thousand strong," resounded all over the land. Long before the decisive +day arrived, the result was beyond doubt, and Lincoln was re-elected +President by overwhelming majorities. The election over even his +severest critics found themselves forced to admit that Lincoln was the +only possible candidate for the Union party in 1864, and that neither +political combinations nor campaign speeches, nor even victories in the +field, were needed to insure his success. The plain people had all the +while been satisfied with Abraham Lincoln: they confided in him; they +loved him; they felt themselves near to him; they saw personified in him +the cause of Union and freedom; and they went to the ballot-box for him +in their strength. + +The hour of triumph called out the characteristic impulses of his nature. +The opposition within the Union party had stung him to the quick. Now he +had his opponents before him, baffled and humiliated. Not a moment did +he lose to stretch out the hand of friendship to all. "Now that the +election is over," he said, in response to a serenade, "may not all, +having a common interest, reunite in a common effort to save our common +country? For my own part, I have striven, and will strive, to place no +obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here I have not willingly +planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am deeply sensible to the +high compliment of a re-election, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that +any other man may be pained or disappointed by the result. May I ask +those who were with me to join with me in the same spirit toward those +who were against me?" This was Abraham Lincoln's character as tested in +the furnace of prosperity. + +The war was virtually decided, but not yet ended. Sherman was +irresistibly carrying the Union flag through the South. Grant had his +iron hand upon the ramparts of Richmond. The days of the Confederacy +were evidently numbered. Only the last blow remained to be struck. Then +Lincoln's second inauguration came, and with it his second inaugural +address. Lincoln's famous "Gettysburg speech" has been much and justly +admired. But far greater, as well as far more characteristic, was that +inaugural in which he poured out the whole devotion and tenderness of his +great soul. It had all the solemnity of a father's last admonition and +blessing to his children before he lay down to die. These were its +closing words: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty +scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue +until all the wealth piled up by the bondman's two hundred and fifty +years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood +drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was +said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, `The judgments +of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' With malice toward none, +with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see +the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in; to bind up the +nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for +his widow and his orphan; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just +and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." + +This was like a sacred poem. No American President had ever spoken words +like these to the American people. America never had a President who +found such words in the depth of his heart. + +Now followed the closing scenes of the war. The Southern armies fought +bravely to the last, but all in vain. Richmond fell. Lincoln himself +entered the city on foot, accompanied only by a few officers and a squad +of sailors who had rowed him ashore from the flotilla in the James River, +a negro picked up on the way serving as a guide. Never had the world +seen a more modest conqueror and a more characteristic triumphal +procession, no army with banners and drums, only a throng of those who +had been slaves, hastily run together, escorting the victorious chief +into the capital of the vanquished foe. We are told that they pressed +around him, kissed his hands and his garments, and shouted and danced for +joy, while tears ran down the President's care-furrowed cheeks. + +A few days more brought the surrender of Lee's army, and peace was +assured. The people of the North were wild with joy. Everywhere festive +guns were booming, bells pealing, the churches ringing with +thanksgivings, and jubilant multitudes thronging the thoroughfares, when +suddenly the news flashed over the land that Abraham Lincoln had been +murdered. The people were stunned by the blow. Then a wail of sorrow +went up such as America had never heard before. Thousands of Northern +households grieved as if they had lost their dearest member. Many a +Southern man cried out in his heart that his people had been robbed of +their best friend in their humiliation and distress, when Abraham Lincoln +was struck down. It was as if the tender affection which his countrymen +bore him had inspired all nations with a common sentiment. All civilized +mankind stood mourning around the coffin of the dead President. Many of +those, here and abroad, who not long before had ridiculed and reviled him +were among the first to hasten on with their flowers of eulogy, and in +that universal chorus of lamentation and praise there was not a voice +that did not tremble with genuine emotion. Never since Washington's +death had there been such unanimity of judgment as to a man's virtues and +greatness; and even Washington's death, although his name was held in +greater reverence, did not touch so sympathetic a chord in the people's +hearts. + +Nor can it be said that this was owing to the tragic character of +Lincoln's end. It is true, the death of this gentlest and most merciful +of rulers by the hand of a mad fanatic was well apt to exalt him beyond +his merits in the estimation of those who loved him, and to make his +renown the object of peculiarly tender solicitude. But it is also true +that the verdict pronounced upon him in those days has been affected +little by time, and that historical inquiry has served rather to increase +than to lessen the appreciation of his virtues, his abilities, his +services. Giving the fullest measure of credit to his great +ministers,--to Seward for his conduct of foreign affairs, to Chase for +the management of the finances under terrible difficulties, to Stanton +for the performance of his tremendous task as war secretary,--and readily +acknowledging that without the skill and fortitude of the great +commanders, and the heroism of the soldiers and sailors under them, +success could not have been achieved, the historian still finds that +Lincoln's judgment and will were by no means governed by those around +him; that the most important steps were owing to his initiative; that his +was the deciding and directing mind; and that it was pre-eminently he +whose sagacity and whose character enlisted for the administration in its +struggles the countenance, the sympathy, and the support of the people. +It is found, even, that his judgment on military matters was +astonishingly acute, and that the advice and instructions he gave to the +generals commanding in the field would not seldom have done honor to the +ablest of them. History, therefore, without overlooking, or palliating, +or excusing any of his shortcomings or mistakes, continues to place him +foremost among the saviours of the Union and the liberators of the slave. +More than that, it awards to him the merit of having accomplished what +but few political philosophers would have recognized as possible,--of +leading the republic through four years of furious civil conflict without +any serious detriment to its free institutions. + +He was, indeed, while President, violently denounced by the opposition as +a tyrant and a usurper, for having gone beyond his constitutional powers +in authorizing or permitting the temporary suppression of newspapers, and +in wantonly suspending the writ of habeas corpus and resorting to +arbitrary arrests. 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 demanded by +necessity, should never be permitted to pass without a protest on the one +hand, and without an apology on the other. It is well they did not so +pass during our civil war. That arbitrary measures were resorted to is +true. That they were resorted to most sparingly, and only when the +government thought them absolutely required by the safety of the +republic, will now hardly be denied. But certain it is that the history +of the world does not furnish a single example of a government passing +through so tremendous a crisis as our civil war was with so small a +record of arbitrary acts, and so little interference with the ordinary +course of law outside the field of military operations. No American +President ever wielded such power as that which was thrust into Lincoln's +hands. It is to be hoped that no American President ever will have to be +entrusted with such power again. But no man was ever entrusted with it +to whom its seductions were less dangerous than they proved to be to +Abraham Lincoln. With scrupulous care he endeavored, even under the most +trying circumstances, to remain strictly within the constitutional +limitations of his authority; and whenever the boundary became +indistinct, or when the dangers of the situation forced him to cross it, +he was equally careful to mark his acts as exceptional measures, +justifiable only by the imperative necessities of the civil war, so that +they might not pass into history as precedents for similar acts in time +of peace. It is an unquestionable fact that during the reconstruction +period which followed the war, more things were done capable of serving +as dangerous precedents than during the war itself. Thus it may truly be +said of him not only that under his guidance the republic was saved from +disruption and the country was purified of the blot of slavery, but that, +during the stormiest and most perilous crisis in our history, he so +conducted the government and so wielded his almost dictatorial power as +to leave essentially intact our free institutions in all things that +concern the rights and liberties of the citizens. He understood well the +nature of the problem. In his first message to Congress he defined it in +admirably pointed language: "Must a government be of necessity too strong +for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own +existence? Is there in all republics this inherent weakness?" This +question he answered in the name of the great American republic, as no +man could have answered it better, with a triumphant "No...." + +It has been said that Abraham Lincoln died at the right moment for his +fame. However that may be, he had, at the time of his death, certainly +not exhausted his usefulness to his country. He was probably the only +man who could have guided the nation through the perplexities of the +reconstruction period in such a manner as to prevent in the work of peace +the revival of the passions of the war. He would indeed not have escaped +serious controversy as to details of policy; but he could have weathered +it far better than any other statesman of his time, for his prestige with +the active politicians had been immensely strengthened by his triumphant +re-election; and, what is more important, he would have been supported by +the confidence of the victorious Northern people that he would do all to +secure the safety of the Union and the rights of the emancipated negro, +and at the same time by the confidence of the defeated Southern people +that nothing would be done by him from motives of vindictiveness, or of +unreasoning fanaticism, or of a selfish party spirit. "With malice +toward none, with charity for all," the foremost of the victors would +have personified in himself the genius of reconciliation. + +He might have rendered the country a great service in another direction. +A few days after the fall of Richmond, he pointed out to a friend the +crowd of office-seekers besieging his door. "Look at that," said he. +"Now we have conquered the rebellion, but here you see something that may +become more dangerous to this republic than the rebellion itself." It is +true, Lincoln as President did not profess what we now call civil service +reform principles. He used the patronage of the government in many cases +avowedly to reward party work, in many others to form combinations and to +produce political effects advantageous to the Union cause, and in still +others simply to put the right man into the right place. But in his +endeavors to strengthen the Union cause, and in his search for able and +useful men for public duties, he frequently went beyond the limits of his +party, and gradually accustomed himself to the thought that, while party +service had its value, considerations of the public interest were, as to +appointments to office, of far greater consequence. Moreover, there had +been such a mingling of different political elements in support of the +Union during the civil war that Lincoln, standing at the head of that +temporarily united motley mass, hardly felt himself, in the narrow sense +of the term, a party man. And as he became strongly impressed with the +dangers brought upon the republic by the use of public offices as party +spoils, it is by no means improbable that, had he survived the +all-absorbing crisis and found time to turn to other objects, one of the +most important reforms of later days would have been pioneered by his +powerful authority. This was not to be. But the measure of his +achievements was full enough for immortality. + +To the younger generation Abraham Lincoln has already become a +half-mythical figure, which, in the haze of historic distance, grows to +more and more heroic proportions, but also loses in distinctness of +outline and feature. This is indeed the common lot of popular heroes; +but the Lincoln legend will be more than ordinarily apt to become +fanciful, as his individuality, assembling seemingly incongruous +qualities and forces in a character at the same time grand and most +lovable, was so unique, and his career so abounding in startling +contrasts. As the state of society in which Abraham Lincoln grew up +passes away, the world will read with increasing wonder of the man who, +not only of the humblest origin, but remaining the simplest and most +unpretending of citizens, was raised to a position of power unprecedented +in our history; who was the gentlest and most peace-loving of mortals, +unable to see any creature suffer without a pang in his own breast, and +suddenly found himself called to conduct the greatest and bloodiest of +our wars; who wielded the power of government when stern resolution and +relentless force were the order of the day and then won and ruled the +popular mind and heart by the tender sympathies of his nature; who was a +cautious conservative by temperament and mental habit, and led the most +sudden and sweeping social revolution of our time; who, preserving his +homely speech and rustic manner even in the most conspicuous position of +that period, drew upon himself the scoffs of polite society, and then +thrilled the soul of mankind with utterances of wonderful beauty and +grandeur; who, in his heart the best friend of the defeated South, was +murdered because a crazy fanatic took him for its most cruel enemy; who, +while in power, was beyond measure lampooned and maligned by sectional +passion and an excited party spirit, and around whose bier friend and foe +gathered to praise him which they have since never ceased to do--as one +of the greatest of Americans and the best of men. + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +BY JOSEPH H. CHOATE + +[This Address was delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical +Institution, November 13, 1900. It is included in this set with the +courteous permission of the author and of Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell & +Company.] + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +When you asked me to deliver the Inaugural Address on this occasion, I +recognized that I owed this compliment to the fact that I was the +official representative of America, and in selecting a subject I ventured +to think that I might interest you for an hour in a brief study in +popular government, as illustrated by the life of the most American of +all Americans. I therefore offer no apology for asking your attention to +Abraham Lincoln--to his unique character and the part he bore in two +important achievements of modern history: the preservation of the +integrity of the American Union and the emancipation of the colored race. + +During his brief term of power he was probably the object of more abuse, +vilification, and ridicule than any other man in the world; but when he +fell by the hand of an assassin, at the very moment of his stupendous +victory, all the nations of the earth vied with one another in paying +homage to his character, and the thirty-five years that have since +elapsed have established his place in history as one of the great +benefactors not of his own country alone, but of the human race. + +One of many noble utterances upon the occasion of his death was that in +which 'Punch' made its magnanimous recantation of the spirit with which +it had pursued him: + + "Beside this corpse that bears for winding sheet + The stars and stripes he lived to rear anew, + Between the mourners at his head and feet, + Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? + + ................... + + "Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, + To lame my pencil, and confute my pen + To make me own this hind--of princes peer, + This rail-splitter--a true born king of men." + +Fiction can furnish no match for the romance of his life, and biography +will be searched in vain for such startling vicissitudes of fortune, so +great power and glory won out of such humble beginnings and adverse +circumstances. + +Doubtless you are all familiar with the salient points of his +extraordinary career. In the zenith of his fame he was the wise, +patient, courageous, successful ruler of men; exercising more power than +any monarch of his time, not for himself, but for the good of the people +who had placed it in his hands; commander-in-chief of a vast military +power, which waged with ultimate success the greatest war of the century; +the triumphant champion of popular government, the deliverer of four +millions of his fellowmen from bondage; honored by mankind as Statesman, +President, and Liberator. + +Let us glance now at the first half of the brief life of which this was +the glorious and happy consummation. Nothing could be more squalid and +miserable than the home in which Abraham Lincoln was born--a one-roomed +cabin without floor or window in what was then the wilderness of +Kentucky, in the heart of that frontier life which swiftly moved westward +from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, always in advance of schools and +churches, of books and money, of railroads and newspapers, of all things +which are generally regarded as the comforts and even necessaries of +life. His father, ignorant, needy, and thriftless, content if he could +keep soul and body together for himself and his family, was ever seeking, +without success, to better his unhappy condition by moving on from one +such scene of dreary desolation to another. The rude society which +surrounded them was not much better. The struggle for existence was +hard, and absorbed all their energies. They were fighting the forest, the +wild beast, and the retreating savage. From the time when he could +barely handle tools until he attained his majority, Lincoln's life was +that of a simple farm laborer, poorly clad, housed, and fed, at work +either on his father's wretched farm or hired out to neighboring farmers. +But in spite, or perhaps by means, of this rude environment, he grew to +be a stalwart giant, reaching six feet four at nineteen, and fabulous +stories are told of his feats of strength. With the growth of this +mighty frame began that strange education which in his ripening years was +to qualify him for the great destiny that awaited him, and the +development of those mental faculties and moral endowments which, by the +time he reached middle life, were to make him the sagacious, patient, and +triumphant leader of a great nation in the crisis of its fate. His whole +schooling, obtained during such odd times as could be spared from +grinding labor, did not amount in all to as much as one year, and the +quality of the teaching was of the lowest possible grade, including only +the elements of reading, writing, and ciphering. But out of these simple +elements, when rightly used by the right man, education is achieved, and +Lincoln knew how to use them. As so often happens, he seemed to take +warning from his father's unfortunate example. Untiring industry, an +insatiable thirst for knowledge, and an ever-growing desire to rise above +his surroundings, were early manifestations of his character. + +Books were almost unknown in that community, but the Bible was in every +house, and somehow or other Pilgrim's Progress, AEsop's Fables, a History +of the United States, and a Life of Washington fell into his hands. He +trudged on foot many miles through the wilderness to borrow an English +Grammar, and is said to have devoured greedily the contents of the +Statutes of Indiana that fell in his way. These few volumes he read and +reread--and his power of assimilation was great. To be shut in with a +few books and to master them thoroughly sometimes does more for the +development of character than freedom to range at large, in a cursory and +indiscriminate way, through wide domains of literature. This youth's +mind, at any rate, was thoroughly saturated with Biblical knowledge and +Biblical language, which, in after life, he used with great readiness and +effect. But it was the constant use of the little knowledge which he had +that developed and exercised his mental powers. After the hard day's +work was done, while others slept, he toiled on, always reading or +writing. From an early age he did his own thinking and made up his own +mind--invaluable traits in the future President. Paper was such a scarce +commodity that, by the evening firelight, he would write and cipher on +the back of a wooden shovel, and then shave it off to make room for more. +By and by, as he approached manhood, he began speaking in the rude +gatherings of the neighborhood, and so laid the foundation of that art of +persuading his fellow-men which was one rich result of his education, and +one great secret of his subsequent success. + +Accustomed as we are in these days of steam and telegraphs to have every +intelligent boy survey the whole world each morning before breakfast, and +inform himself as to what is going on in every nation, it is hardly +possible to conceive how benighted and isolated was the condition of the +community at Pigeon Creek in Indiana, of which the family of Lincoln's +father formed a part, or how eagerly an ambitious and high-spirited boy, +such as he, must have yearned to escape. The first glimpse that he ever +got of any world beyond the narrow confines of his home was in 1828, at +the age of nineteen, when a neighbor employed him to accompany his son +down the river to New Orleans to dispose of a flatboat of produce--a +commission which he discharged with great success. + +Shortly after his return from this his first excursion into the outer +world, his father, tired of failure in Indiana, packed his family and all +his worldly goods into a single wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, and +after a fourteen days' tramp through the wilderness, pitched his camp +once more, in Illinois. Here Abraham, having come of age and being now +his own master, rendered the last service of his minority by ploughing +the fifteen-acre lot and splitting from the tall walnut trees of the +primeval forest enough rails to surround the little clearing with a +fence. Such was the meagre outfit of this coming leader of men, at the +age when the future British Prime Minister or statesman emerges from the +university as a double first or senior wrangler, with every advantage +that high training and broad culture and association with the wisest and +the best of men and women can give, and enters upon some form of public +service on the road to usefulness and honor, the University course being +only the first stage of the public training. So Lincoln, at twenty-one, +had just begun his preparation for the public life to which he soon began +to aspire. For some years yet he must continue to earn his daily bread +by the sweat of his brow, having absolutely no means, no home, no friend +to consult. More farm work as a hired hand, a clerkship in a village +store, the running of a mill, another trip to New Orleans on a flatboat +of his own contriving, a pilot's berth on the river--these were the means +by which he subsisted until, in the summer of 1832, when he was +twenty-three years of age, an event occurred which gave him public +recognition. + +The Black Hawk war broke out, and, the Governor of Illinois calling for +volunteers to repel the band of savages whose leader bore that name, +Lincoln enlisted and was elected captain by his comrades, among whom he +had already established his supremacy by signal feats of strength and +more than one successful single combat. During the brief hostilities he +was engaged in no battle and won no military glory, but his local +leadership was established. The same year he offered himself as a +candidate for the Legislature of Illinois, but failed at the polls. Yet +his vast popularity with those who knew him was manifest. The district +consisted of several counties, but the unanimous vote of the people of +his own county was for Lincoln. Another unsuccessful attempt at +store-keeping was followed by better luck at surveying, until his horse +and instruments were levied upon under execution for the debts of his +business adventure. + +I have been thus detailed in sketching his early years because upon these +strange foundations the structure of his great fame and service was +built. In the place of a school and university training fortune +substituted these trials, hardships, and struggles as a preparation for +the great work which he had to do. It turned out to be exactly what the +emergency required. Ten years instead at the public school and the +university certainly never could have fitted this man for the unique work +which was to be thrown upon him. Some other Moses would have had to lead +us to our Jordan, to the sight of our promised land of liberty. + +At the age of twenty-five he became a member of the Legislature of +Illinois, and so continued for eight years, and, in the meantime, +qualified himself by reading such law books as he could borrow at +random--for he was too poor to buy any to be called to the Bar. For his +second quarter of a century--during which a single term in Congress +introduced him into the arena of national questions--he gave himself up +to law and politics. In spite of his soaring ambition, his two years in +Congress gave him no premonition of the great destiny that awaited +him,--and at its close, in 1849, we find him an unsuccessful applicant to +the President for appointment as Commissioner of the General Land +Office--a purely administrative bureau; a fortunate escape for himself +and for his country. Year by year his knowledge and power, his +experience and reputation extended, and his mental faculties seemed to +grow by what they fed on. His power of persuasion, which had always been +marked, was developed to an extraordinary degree, now that he became +engaged in congenial questions and subjects. Little by little he rose to +prominence at the Bar, and became the most effective public speaker in +the West. Not that he possessed any of the graces of the orator; but his +logic was invincible, and his clearness and force of statement impressed +upon his hearers the convictions of his honest mind, while his broad +sympathies and sparkling and genial humor made him a universal favorite +as far and as fast as his acquaintance extended. + +These twenty years that elapsed from the time of his establishment as a +lawyer and legislator in Springfield, the new capital of Illinois, +furnished a fitting theatre for the development and display of his great +faculties, and, with his new and enlarged opportunities, he obviously +grew in mental stature in this second period of his career, as if to +compensate for the absolute lack of advantages under which he had +suffered in youth. As his powers enlarged, his reputation extended, for +he was always before the people, felt a warm sympathy with all that +concerned them, took a zealous part in the discussion of every public +question, and made his personal influence ever more widely and deeply +felt. + +My brethren of the legal profession will naturally ask me, how could +this rough backwoodsman, whose youth had been spent in the forest or on +the farm and the flatboat, without culture or training, education or +study, by the random reading, on the wing, of a few miscellaneous law +books, become a learned and accomplished lawyer? Well, he never did. He +never would have earned his salt as a 'Writer' for the 'Signet', nor have +won a place as advocate in the Court of Session, where the technique of +the profession has reached its highest perfection, and centuries of +learning and precedent are involved in the equipment of a lawyer. Dr. +Holmes, when asked by an anxious young mother, "When should the education +of a child begin?" replied, "Madam, at least two centuries before it is +born!" and so I am sure it is with the Scots lawyer. + +But not so in Illinois in 1840. Between 1830 and 1880 its population +increased twenty-fold, and when Lincoln began practising law in +Springfield in 1837, life in Illinois was very crude and simple, and so +were the courts and the administration of justice. Books and libraries +were scarce. But the people loved justice, upheld the law, and followed +the courts, and soon found their favorites among the advocates. The +fundamental principles of the common law, as set forth by Blackstone and +Chitty, were not so difficult to acquire; and brains, common sense, force +of character, tenacity of purpose, ready wit and power of speech did the +rest, and supplied all the deficiencies of learning. + +The lawsuits of those days were extremely simple, and the principles of +natural justice were mainly relied on to dispose of them at the Bar and +on the Bench, without resort to technical learning. Railroads, +corporations absorbing the chief business of the community, combined and +inherited wealth, with all the subtle and intricate questions they breed, +had not yet come in--and so the professional agents and the equipment +which they require were not needed. But there were many highly educated +and powerful men at the Bar of Illinois, even in those early days, whom +the spirit of enterprise had carried there in search of fame and fortune. +It was by constant contact and conflict with these that Lincoln acquired +professional strength and skill. Every community and every age creates +its own Bar, entirely adequate for its present uses and necessities. So +in Illinois, as the population and wealth of the State kept on doubling +and quadrupling, its Bar presented a growing abundance of learning and +science and technical skill. The early practitioners grew with its +growth and mastered the requisite knowledge. Chicago soon grew to be one +of the largest and richest and certainly the most intensely active city +on the continent, and if any of my professional friends here had gone +there in Lincoln's later years, to try or argue a cause, or transact +other business, with any idea that Edinburgh or London had a monopoly of +legal learning, science, or subtlety, they would certainly have found +their mistake. + +In those early days in the West, every lawyer, especially every court +lawyer, was necessarily a politician, constantly engaged in the public +discussion of the many questions evolved from the rapid development of +town, county, State, and Federal affairs. Then and there, in this regard, +public discussion supplied the place which the universal activity of the +press has since monopolized, and the public speaker who, by clearness, +force, earnestness, and wit; could make himself felt on the questions of +the day would rapidly come to the front. In the absence of that immense +variety of popular entertainments which now feed the public taste and +appetite, the people found their chief amusement in frequenting the +courts and public and political assemblies. In either place, he who +impressed, entertained, and amused them most was the hero of the hour. +They did not discriminate very carefully between the eloquence of the +forum and the eloquence of the hustings. Human nature ruled in both +alike, and he who was the most effective speaker in a political harangue +was often retained as most likely to win in a cause to be tried or +argued. And I have no doubt in this way many retainers came to Lincoln. +Fees, money in any form, had no charms for him--in his eager pursuit of +fame he could not afford to make money. He was ambitious to distinguish +himself by some great service to mankind, and this ambition for fame and +real public service left no room for avarice in his composition. However +much he earned, he seems to have ended every year hardly richer than he +began it, and yet, as the years passed, fees came to him freely. One of +L 1,000 is recorded--a very large professional fee at that time, even in +any part of America, the paradise of lawyers. I lay great stress on +Lincoln's career as a lawyer--much more than his biographers do because +in America a state of things exists wholly different from that which +prevails in Great Britain. The profession of the law always has been and +is to this day the principal avenue to public life; and I am sure that +his training and experience in the courts had much to do with the +development of those forces of intellect and character which he soon +displayed on a broader arena. + +It was in political controversy, of course, that he acquired his wide +reputation, and made his deep and lasting impression upon the people of +what had now become the powerful State of Illinois, and upon the people +of the Great West, to whom the political power and control of the United +States were already surely and swiftly passing from the older Eastern +States. It was this reputation and this impression, and the familiar +knowledge of his character which had come to them from his local +leadership, that happily inspired the people of the West to present him +as their candidate, and to press him upon the Republican convention of +1860 as the fit and necessary leader in the struggle for life which was +before the nation. + +That struggle, as you all know, arose out of the terrible question of +slavery--and I must trust to your general knowledge of the history of +that question to make intelligible the attitude and leadership of Lincoln +as the champion of the hosts of freedom in the final contest. Negro +slavery had been firmly established in the Southern States from an early +period of their history. In 1619, the year before the Mayflower landed +our Pilgrim Fathers upon Plymouth Rock, a Dutch ship had discharged a +cargo of African slaves at Jamestown in Virginia: All through the +colonial period their importation had continued. A few had found their +way into the Northern States, but none of them in sufficient numbers to +constitute danger or to afford a basis for political power. At the time +of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, there is no doubt that the +principal members of the convention not only condemned slavery as a +moral, social, and political evil, but believed that by the suppression +of the slave trade it was in the course of gradual extinction in the +South, as it certainly was in the North. Washington, in his will, +provided for the emancipation of his own slaves, and said to Jefferson +that it "was among his first wishes to see some plan adopted by which +slavery in his country might be abolished." Jefferson said, referring to +the institution: "I tremble for my country when I think that God is just; +that His justice cannot sleep forever,"--and Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, +and Patrick Henry were all utterly opposed to it. But it was made the +subject of a fatal compromise in the Federal Constitution, whereby its +existence was recognized in the States as a basis of representation, the +prohibition of the importation of slaves was postponed for twenty years, +and the return of fugitive slaves provided for. But no imminent danger +was apprehended from it till, by the invention of the cotton gin in 1792, +cotton culture by negro labor became at once and forever the leading +industry of the South, and gave a new impetus to the importation of +slaves, so that in 1808, when the constitutional prohibition took effect, +their numbers had vastly increased. From that time forward slavery +became the basis of a great political power, and the Southern States, +under all circumstances and at every opportunity, carried on a brave and +unrelenting struggle for its maintenance and extension. + +The conscience of the North was slow to rise against it, though bitter +controversies from time to time took place. The Southern leaders +threatened disunion if their demands were not complied with. To save the +Union, compromise after compromise was made, but each one in the end was +broken. The Missouri Compromise, made in 1820 upon the occasion of the +admission of Missouri into the Union as a slave State, whereby, in +consideration of such admission, slavery was forever excluded from the +Northwest Territory, was ruthlessly repealed in 1854, by a Congress +elected in the interests of the slave power, the intent being to force +slavery into that vast territory which had so long been dedicated to +freedom. This challenge at last aroused the slumbering conscience and +passion of the North, and led to the formation of the Republican party +for the avowed purpose of preventing, by constitutional methods, the +further extension of slavery. + +In its first campaign, in 1856, though it failed to elect its candidates; +it received a surprising vote and carried many of the States. No one +could any longer doubt that the North had made up its mind that no +threats of disunion should deter it from pressing its cherished purpose +and performing its long neglected duty. From the outset, Lincoln was one +of the most active and effective leaders and speakers of the new party, +and the great debates between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858, as the +respective champions of the restriction and extension of slavery, +attracted the attention of the whole country. Lincoln's powerful +arguments carried conviction everywhere. His moral nature was thoroughly +aroused his conscience was stirred to the quick. Unless slavery was +wrong, nothing was wrong. Was each man, of whatever color, entitled to +the fruits of his own labor, or could one man live in idle luxury by the +sweat of another's brow, whose skin was darker? He was an implicit +believer in that principle of the Declaration of Independence that all +men are vested with certain inalienable rights the equal rights to life, +liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. On this doctrine he staked his +case and carried it. We have time only for one or two sentences in which +he struck the keynote of the contest. + +"The real issue in this country is the eternal struggle between these two +principles--right and wrong--throughout the world. They are the two +principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and +will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, +and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in +whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, 'You +work and toil and earn bread and I'll eat it.'" + +He foresaw with unerring vision that the conflict was inevitable and +irrepressible--that one or the other, the right or the wrong, freedom or +slavery, must ultimately prevail and wholly prevail, throughout the +country; and this was the principle that carried the war, once begun, to +a finish. + +One sentence of his is immortal: + +"Under the operation of the policy of compromise, the slavery agitation +has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it +will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A +house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government +cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the +Union to be 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 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." + +During the entire decade from 1850 to 1860 the agitation of the slavery +question was at the boiling point, and events which have become +historical continually indicated the near approach of the overwhelming +storm. No sooner had the Compromise Acts of 1850 resulted in a temporary +peace, which everybody said must be final and perpetual, than new +outbreaks came. The forcible carrying away of fugitive slaves by Federal +troops from Boston agitated that ancient stronghold of freedom to its +foundations. The publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which truly exposed +the frightful possibilities of the slave system; the reckless attempts by +force and fraud to establish it in Kansas against the will of the vast +majority of the settlers; the beating of Summer in the Senate Chamber for +words spoken in debate; the Dred Scott decision in the Supreme Court, +which made the nation realize that the slave power had at last reached +the fountain of Federal justice; and finally the execution of John Brown, +for his wild raid into Virginia, to invite the slaves to rally to the +standard of freedom which he unfurled:--all these events tend to +illustrate and confirm Lincoln's contention that the nation could not +permanently continue half slave and half free, but must become all one +thing or all the other. When John Brown lay under sentence of death he +declared that now he was sure that slavery must be wiped out in blood; +but neither he nor his executioners dreamt that within four years a +million soldiers would be marching across the country for its final +extirpation, to the music of the war-song of the great conflict: + + "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, + But his soul is marching on." + +And now, at the age of fifty-one, this child of the wilderness, this farm +laborer, rail-sputter, flatboatman, this surveyor, lawyer, orator, +statesman, and patriot, found himself elected by the great party which +was pledged to prevent at all hazards the further extension of slavery, +as the chief magistrate of the Republic, bound to carry out that purpose, +to be the leader and ruler of the nation in its most trying hour. + +Those who believe that there is a living Providence that overrules and +conducts the affairs of nations, find in the elevation of this plain man +to this extraordinary fortune and to this great duty, which he so fitly +discharged, a signal vindication of their faith. Perhaps to this +philosophical institution the judgment of our philosopher Emerson will +commend itself as a just estimate of Lincoln's historical place. + +"His occupying the chair of state was a triumph of the good sense of +mankind and of the public conscience. He grew according to the need; his +mind mastered the problem of the day: and as the problem grew, so did his +comprehension of it. In the war there was no place for holiday +magistrate, nor fair-weather sailor. The new pilot was hurried to the +helm in a tornado. In four years--four years of battle days--his +endurance, his fertility of resource, his magnanimity, were sorely tried, +and never found wanting. There, by his courage, his justice, his even +temper, his fertile counsel, his humanity, he stood a heroic figure in +the centre of a heroic epoch. He is the true history of the American +people in his time, the true representative of this continent--father of +his country, the pulse of twenty millions throbbing in his heart, the +thought of their mind--articulated in his tongue." + +He was born great, as distinguished from those who achieve greatness or +have it thrust upon them, and his inherent capacity, mental, moral, and +physical, having been recognized by the educated intelligence of a free +people, they happily chose him for their ruler in a day of deadly peril. + +It is now forty years since I first saw and heard Abraham Lincoln, but +the impression which he left on my mind is ineffaceable. After his great +successes in the West he came to New York to make a political address. +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 struggle; his deep-set +eyes looked sad and anxious; his countenance in repose gave little +evidence of that brain power which had raised him from the lowest to the +highest station among his countrymen; 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, clergymen, statesmen, lawyers, merchants, +critics. They were all very curious to hear him. His fame as a powerful +speaker had preceded him, and exaggerated rumor of his wit--the worst +forerunner of an orator--had reached the East. When Mr. Bryant +presented him, on the high platform of the Cooper Institute, 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 pretence, he spoke straight to the point. +If any came expecting 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 marvellous 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 Constitution in order to form a more perfect +union, to establish justice, and 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 those 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 wrong 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 congratulations, and he who had +come as a stranger departed with the laurels of great triumph. + +Alas! in five years from that exulting night I saw him again, for the +last time, in the same city, borne in his coffin through its draped +streets. With tears and lamentations a heart-broken people accompanied +him from Washington, the scene of his martyrdom, to his last +resting-place in the young city of the West where he had worked his way +to fame. + +Never was a new ruler in a more desperate plight than Lincoln when he +entered office on the fourth of March, 1861, four months after his +election, and took his oath to support the Constitution and the Union. +The intervening time had been busily employed by the Southern States in +carrying out their threat of disunion in the event of his election. As +soon as the fact was ascertained, seven of them had seceded and had +seized upon the forts, arsenals, navy yards, and other public property of +the United States within their boundaries, and were making every +preparation for war. In the meantime the retiring President, who had +been elected by the slave power, and who thought the seceding States +could not lawfully be coerced, had done absolutely nothing. Lincoln found +himself, by the Constitution, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of +the United States, but with only a remnant of either at hand. Each was +to be created on a great scale out of the unknown resources of a nation +untried in war. + +In his mild and conciliatory inaugural address, while appealing to the +seceding States to return to their allegiance, he avowed his purpose to +keep the solemn oath he had taken that day, to see that the laws of the +Union were faithfully executed, and to use the troops to recover the +forts, navy yards, and other property belonging to the government. It is +probable, however, that neither side actually realized that war was +inevitable, and that the other was determined to fight, until the assault +on Fort Sumter presented the South as the first aggressor and roused the +North to use every possible resource to maintain the government and the +imperilled Union, and to vindicate the supremacy of the flag over every +inch of the territory of the United States. The fact that Lincoln's +first proclamation called for only 75,000 troops, to serve for three +months, shows how inadequate was even his idea of what the future had in +store. But from that moment Lincoln and his loyal supporters never +faltered in their purpose. They knew they could win, that it was their +duty to win, and that for America the whole hope of the future depended +upon their winning; for now by the acts of the seceding States the issue +of the election to secure or prevent the extension of slavery--stood +transformed into a struggle to preserve or to destroy the Union. + +We cannot follow this contest. You know its gigantic proportions; that +it lasted four years instead of three months; that in its progress, +instead of 75,000 men, more than 2,000,000 were enrolled on the side of +the government alone; that the aggregate cost and loss to the nation +approximated to 1,000,000,000 pounds sterling, and that not less than +300,000 brave and precious lives were sacrificed on each side. History +has recorded how Lincoln bore himself during these four frightful years; +that he was the real President, the responsible and actual head of the +government, through it all; that he listened to all advice, heard all +parties, and then, always realizing his responsibility to God and the +nation, decided every great executive question for himself. His absolute +honesty had become proverbial long before he was President. "Honest Abe +Lincoln" was the name by which he had been known for years. His every +act attested it. + +In all the grandeur of the vast power that he wielded, he never ceased to +be one of the plain people, as he always called them, never lost or +impaired his perfect sympathy with them, was always in perfect touch with +them and open to their appeals; and here lay the very secret of his +personality and of his power, for the people in turn gave him their +absolute confidence. His courage, his fortitude, his patience, his +hopefulness, were sorely tried but never exhausted. + +He was true as steel to his generals, but had frequent occasion to change +them, as he found them inadequate. This serious and painful duty rested +wholly upon him, and was perhaps his most important function as +Commander-in-Chief; but when, at last, he recognized in General Grant the +master of the situation, the man who could and would bring the war to a +triumphant end, he gave it all over to him and upheld him with all his +might. Amid all the pressure and distress that the burdens of office +brought upon him, his unfailing sense of humor saved him; probably it +made it possible for him to live under the burden. He had always been +the great story-teller of the West, and he used and cultivated this +faculty to relieve the weight of the load he bore. + +It enabled him to keep the wonderful record of never having lost his +temper, no matter what agony he had to bear. A whole night might be +spent in recounting the stories of his wit, humor, and harmless sarcasm. +But I will recall only two of his sayings, both about General Grant, who +always found plenty of enemies and critics to urge the President to oust +him from his command. One, I am sure, will interest all Scotchmen. They +repeated with malicious intent the gossip that Grant drank. "What does +he drink?" asked Lincoln. "Whiskey," was, of course, the answer; +doubtless you can guess the brand. "Well," said the President, "just +find out what particular kind he uses and I'll send a barrel to each of +my other generals." The other must be as pleasing to the British as to +the American ear. When pressed again on other grounds to get rid of +Grant, he declared, "I can't spare that man, he fights!" + +He was tender-hearted to a fault, and never could resist the appeals of +wives and mothers of soldiers who had got into trouble and were under +sentence of death for their offences. His Secretary of War and other +officials complained that they never could get deserters shot. As surely +as the women of the culprit's family could get at him he always gave way. +Certainly you will all appreciate his exquisite sympathy with the +suffering relatives of those who had fallen in battle. His heart bled +with theirs. Never was there a more gentle and tender utterance than his +letter to a mother who had given all her sons to her country, written at +a time when the angel of death had visited almost every household in the +land, and was already hovering over him. + +"I have been shown," he says, "in the files of the War Department a +statement 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 your grief for a loss so +overwhelming but I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation +which 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 the lost, and +the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice +upon the altar of freedom." + +Hardly could your illustrious sovereign, from the depths of her queenly +and womanly heart, have spoken words more touching and tender to soothe +the stricken mothers of her own soldiers. + +The Emancipation Proclamation, with which Mr. Lincoln delighted the +country and the world on the first of January, 1863, will doubtless +secure for him a foremost place in history among the philanthropists and +benefactors of the race, as it rescued, from hopeless and degrading +slavery, so many millions of his fellow-beings described in the law and +existing in fact as "chattels-personal, in the hands of their owners and +possessors, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever." +Rarely does the happy fortune come to one man to render such a service to +his kind--to proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the +inhabitants thereof. + +Ideas rule the world, and never was there a more signal instance of this +triumph of an idea than here. William Lloyd Garrison, who thirty years +before had begun his crusade for the abolition of slavery, and had lived +to see this glorious and unexpected consummation of the hopeless cause to +which he had devoted his life, well described the proclamation as a +"great historic event, sublime in its magnitude, momentous and beneficent +in its far-reaching consequences, and eminently just and right alike to +the oppressor and the oppressed." + +Lincoln had always been heart and soul opposed to slavery. Tradition says +that on the trip on the flatboat to New Orleans he formed his first and +last opinion of slavery at the sight of negroes chained and scourged, and +that then and there the iron entered into his soul. No boy could grow to +manhood in those days as a poor white in Kentucky and Indiana, in close +contact with slavery or in its neighborhood, without a growing +consciousness of its blighting effects on free labor, as well as of its +frightful injustice and cruelty. In the Legislature of Illinois, where +the public sentiment was all for upholding the institution and violently +against every movement for its abolition or restriction, upon the passage +of resolutions to that effect he had the courage with one companion to +put on record his protest, "believing that the institution of slavery is +founded both in injustice and bad policy." No great demonstration of +courage, you will say; but that was at a time when Garrison, for his +abolition utterances, had been dragged by an angry mob through the +streets of Boston with a rope around his body, and in the very year that +Lovejoy in the same State of Illinois was slain by rioters while +defending his press, from which he had printed antislavery appeals. + +In Congress he brought in a bill for gradual abolition in the District of +Columbia, with compensation to the owners, for until they raised +treasonable hands against the life of the nation he always maintained +that the property of the slaveholders, into which they had come by two +centuries of descent, without fault on their part, ought not to be taken +away from them without just compensation. He used to say that, one way +or another, he had voted forty-two times for the Wilmot Proviso, which +Mr. Wilmot of Pennsylvania moved as an addition to every bill which +affected United States territory, "that neither slavery nor involuntary +servitude shall ever exist in any part of the said territory," and it is +evident that his condemnation of the system, on moral grounds as a crime +against the human race, and on political grounds as a cancer that was +sapping the vitals of the nation, and must master its whole being or be +itself extirpated, grew steadily upon him until it culminated in his +great speeches in the Illinois debate. + +By the mere election of Lincoln to the Presidency, the further extension +of slavery into the Territories was rendered forever impossible--Vox +populi, vox Dei. Revolutions never go backward, and when founded on a +great moral sentiment stirring the heart of an indignant people their +edicts are irresistible and final. Had the slave power acquiesced in +that election, had the Southern States remained under the Constitution +and within the Union, and relied upon their constitutional and legal +rights, their favorite institution, immoral as it was, blighting and +fatal as it was, might have endured for another century. The great party +that had elected him, unalterably determined against its extension, was +nevertheless pledged not to interfere with its continuance in the States +where it already existed. Of course, when new regions were forever +closed against it, from its very nature it must have begun to shrink and +to dwindle; and probably gradual and compensated emancipation, which +appealed very strongly to the new President's sense of justice and +expediency, would, in the progress of time, by a reversion to the ideas +of the founders of the Republic, have found a safe outlet for both +masters and slaves. But whom the gods wish to destroy they first make +mad, and when seven States, afterwards increased to eleven, openly +seceded from the Union, when they declared and began the war upon the +nation, and challenged its mighty power to the desperate and protracted +struggle for its life, and for the maintenance of its authority as a +nation over its territory, they gave to Lincoln and to freedom the +sublime opportunity of history. + +In his first inaugural address, when as yet not a drop of precious blood +had been shed, while he held out to them the olive branch in one hand, in +the other he presented the guarantees of the Constitution, and after +reciting the emphatic resolution of the convention that nominated him, +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 of our +political fabric depend," he reiterated this sentiment, and declared, +with no mental reservation, "that all the protection which, consistently +with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully +given to all the States when lawfully demanded for whatever cause as +cheerfully to one section as to another." + +When, however, these magnanimous overtures for peace and reunion were +rejected; when the seceding States defied the Constitution and every +clause and principle of it; when they persisted in staying out of the +Union from which they had seceded, and proceeded to carve out of its +territory a new and hostile empire based on slavery; when they flew at +the throat of the nation and plunged it into the bloodiest war of the +nineteenth century the tables were turned, and the belief gradually came +to the mind of the President that if the Rebellion was not soon subdued +by force of arms, if the war must be fought out to the bitter end, then +to reach that end the salvation of the nation itself might require the +destruction of slavery wherever it existed; that if the war was to +continue on one side for Disunion, for no other purpose than to preserve +slavery, it must continue on the other side for the Union, to destroy +slavery. + +As he said, "Events control me; I cannot control events," and as the +dreadful war progressed and became more deadly and dangerous, the +unalterable conviction was forced upon him that, in order that the +frightful sacrifice of life and treasure on both sides might not be all +in vain, it had become his duty as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, as a +necessary war measure, to strike a blow at the Rebellion which, all +others failing, would inevitably lead to its annihilation, by +annihilating the very thing for which it was contending. His own words +are the best: + +"I understood that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my +ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving by every indispensable +means that government--that nation--of which that Constitution was the +organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the +Constitution? By general law, life and limb must be protected, yet often +a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given +to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional might +become lawful by becoming 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 ever 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." + +And so, at last, when in his judgment the indispensable necessity had +come, he struck the fatal blow, and signed the proclamation which has +made his name immortal. By it, the President, as Commander-in-Chief in +time of actual armed rebellion, and as a fit and necessary war measure +for suppressing the rebellion, proclaimed all persons held as slaves in +the States and parts of States then in rebellion to be thenceforward +free, and declared that the executive, with the army and navy, would +recognize and maintain their freedom. + +In the other great steps of the government, which led to the triumphant +prosecution of the war, he necessarily shared the responsibility and the +credit with the great statesmen who stayed up his hands in his cabinet, +with Seward, Chase and Stanton, and the rest,--and with his generals and +admirals, his soldiers and sailors, but this great act was absolutely his +own. The conception and execution were exclusively his. He laid it +before his cabinet as a measure on which his mind was made up and could +not be changed, asking them only for suggestions as to details. He chose +the time and the circumstances under which the Emancipation should be +proclaimed and when it should take effect. + +It came not an hour too soon; but public opinion in the North would not +have sustained it earlier. In the first eighteen months of the war its +ravages had extended from the Atlantic to beyond the Mississippi. Many +victories in the West had been balanced and paralyzed by inaction and +disasters in Virginia, only partially redeemed by the bloody and +indecisive battle of Antietam; a reaction had set in from the general +enthusiasm which had swept the Northern States after the assault upon +Sumter. It could not truly be said that they had lost heart, but faction +was raising its head. Heard through the land like the blast of a bugle, +the proclamation rallied the patriotism of the country to fresh +sacrifices and renewed ardor. It was a step that could not be revoked. +It relieved the conscience of the nation from an incubus that had +oppressed it from its birth. The United States were rescued from the +false predicament in which they had been from the beginning, and the +great popular heart leaped with new enthusiasm for "Liberty and Union, +henceforth and forever, one and inseparable." It brought not only moral +but material support to the cause of the government, for within two years +120,000 colored troops were enlisted in the military service and +following the national flag, supported by all the loyalty of the North, +and led by its choicest spirits. One mother said, when her son was +offered the command of the first colored regiment, "If he accepts it I +shall be as proud as if I had heard that he was shot." He was shot +heading a gallant charge of his regiment.... The Confederates replied to +a request of his friends for his body that they had "buried him under a +layer of his niggers...;" but that mother has lived to enjoy thirty-six +years of his glory, and Boston has erected its noblest monument to his +memory. + +The effect of the proclamation upon the actual progress of the war was +not immediate, but wherever the Federal armies advanced they carried +freedom with them, and when the summer came round the new spirit and +force which had animated the heart of the government and people were +manifest. In the first week of July the decisive battle of Gettysburg +turned the tide of war, and the fall of Vicksburg made the great river +free from its source to the Gulf. + +On foreign nations the influence of the proclamation and of these new +victories was of great importance. In those days, when there was no +cable, it was not easy for foreign observers to appreciate what was +really going on; they could not see clearly the true state of affairs, as +in the last year of the nineteenth century we have been able, by our new +electric vision, to watch every event at the antipodes and observe its +effect. The Rebel emissaries, sent over to solicit intervention, spared +no pains to impress upon the minds of public and private men and upon the +press their own views of the character of the contest. The prospects of +the Confederacy were always better abroad than at home. The stock +markets of the world gambled upon its chances, and its bonds at one time +were high in favor. + +Such ideas as these were seriously held: that the North was fighting for +empire and the South for independence; that the Southern States, instead +of being the grossest oligarchies, essentially despotisms, founded on the +right of one man to appropriate the fruit of other men's toil and to +exclude them from equal rights, were real republics, feebler to be sure +than their Northern rivals, but representing the same idea of freedom, +and that the mighty strength of the nation was being put forth to crush +them; that Jefferson Davis and the Southern leaders had created a nation; +that the republican experiment had failed and the Union had ceased to +exist. But the crowning argument to foreign minds was that it was an +utter impossibility for the government to win in the contest; that the +success of the Southern States, so far as separation was concerned, was +as certain as any event yet future and contingent could be; that the +subjugation of the South by the North, even if it could be accomplished, +would prove a calamity to the United States and the world, and especially +calamitous to the negro race; and that such a victory would necessarily +leave the people of the South for many generations cherishing deadly +hostility against the government and the North, and plotting always to +recover their independence. + +When Lincoln issued his proclamation he knew that all these ideas were +founded in error; that the national resources were inexhaustible; that +the government could and would win, and that if slavery were once finally +disposed of, the only cause of difference being out of the way, the North +and South would come together again, and by and by be as good friends as +ever. In many quarters abroad the proclamation was welcomed with +enthusiasm by the friends of America; but I think the demonstrations in +its favor that brought more gladness to Lincoln's heart than any other +were the meetings held in the manufacturing centres, by the very +operatives upon whom the war bore the hardest, expressing the most +enthusiastic sympathy with the proclamation, while they bore with heroic +fortitude the grievous privations which the war entailed upon them. Mr. +Lincoln's expectation when he announced to the world that all slaves in +all States then in rebellion were set free must have been that the avowed +position of his government, that the continuance of the war now meant the +annihilation of slavery, would make intervention impossible for any +foreign nation whose people were lovers of liberty--and so the result +proved. + +The growth and development of Lincoln's mental power and moral force, of +his intense and magnetic personality, after the vast responsibilities of +government were thrown upon him at the age of fifty-two, furnish a rare +and striking illustration of the marvellous capacity and adaptability of +the human intellect--of the sound mind in the sound body. He came to the +discharge of the great duties of the Presidency with absolutely no +experience in the administration of government, or of the vastly varied +and complicated questions of foreign and domestic policy which +immediately arose, and continued to press upon him during the rest of his +life; but he mastered each as it came, apparently with the facility of a +trained and experienced ruler. As Clarendon said of Cromwell, "His parts +seemed to be raised by the demands of great station." His life through +it all was one of intense labor, anxiety, and distress, without one hour +of peaceful repose from first to last. But he rose to every occasion. +He led public opinion, but did not march so far in advance of it as to +fail of its effective support in every great emergency. He knew the +heart and thought of the people, as no man not in constant and absolute +sympathy with them could have known it, and so holding their confidence, +he triumphed through and with them. Not only was there this steady +growth of intellect, but the infinite delicacy of his nature and its +capacity for refinement developed also, as exhibited in the purity and +perfection of his language and style of speech. The rough backwoodsman, +who had never seen the inside of a university, became in the end, by +self-training and the exercise of his own powers of mind, heart, and +soul, a master of style, and some of his utterances will rank with the +best, the most perfectly adapted to the occasion which produced them. + +Have you time to listen to his two-minutes speech at Gettysburg, at the +dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery? His whole soul was in it: + +"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a +great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived +and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great 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 cannot consecrate--we cannot +hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here +have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The +world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here but it can +never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be +dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have +thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to +the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take +increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full +measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall +not have died in vain--that this nation under God shall have a new birth +of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, and for the +people shall not perish from the earth." + +He lived to see his work indorsed by an overwhelming majority of his +countrymen. In his second inaugural address, pronounced just forty days +before his death, there is a single passage which well displays his +indomitable will and at the same time his deep religious feeling, his +sublime charity to the enemies of his country, and his broad and catholic +humanity: + +"If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offences which +in the Providence of God must needs come, but which, having continued +through the 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 offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those +divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to +Him? Fondly do we 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 bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of +unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with +the lash shall be paid with another drawn by the sword, as was said three +thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'the judgments of the Lord +are true and righteous altogether.' + +"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the +right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the +work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall +have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan to do all which +may achieve, and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and +with all nations." + +His prayer was answered. The forty days of life that remained to him +were crowned with great historic events. He lived to see his +Proclamation of Emancipation embodied in an amendment of the +Constitution, adopted by Congress, and submitted to the States for +ratification. The mighty scourge of war did speedily pass away, for it +was given him to witness the surrender of the Rebel army and the fall of +their capital, and the starry flag that he loved waving in triumph over +the national soil. When he died by the madman's hand in the supreme hour +of victory, the vanquished lost their best friend, and the human race one +of its noblest examples; and all the friends of freedom and justice, in +whose cause he lived and died, joined hands as mourners at his grave. + + + + +THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +1832-1843 + + + + +1832 +ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON 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 according with an established custom and the principles of true +Republicanism 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 +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 objection arises from the want of ability to pay. + +With respect to the County of Sangamon, some.... + +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....... + +What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to say. It is probable, +however, that it would not be greater 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 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 on 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 dictate 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 +histories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate +the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object of vital +importance, 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 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 something 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. Many 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; 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. + +New Salem, March 9, 1832. + + + + +1833 +TO E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + +NEW SALEM, Aug. 10, 1833 +E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + +Dear Sir:--In regard to the time David Rankin served the enclosed +discharge shows correctly--as well as I can recollect--having no writing +to refer. The transfer of Rankin from my company occurred as follows: +Rankin having lost his horse at Dixon's ferry and having acquaintance in +one of the foot companies who were going down the river was desirous to +go with them, and one Galishen being an acquaintance of mine and +belonging to the company in which Rankin wished to go wished to leave it +and join mine, this being the case it was agreed that they should +exchange places and answer to each other's names--as it was expected we +all would be discharged in very few days. As to a blanket--I have no +knowledge of Rankin ever getting any. The above embraces all the facts +now in my recollection which are pertinent to the case. + +I shall take pleasure in giving any further information in my power +should you call on me. + +Your friend, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR POSTAGE RECEIPT + +TO Mr. SPEARS. + +Mr. SPEARS: + +At your request I send you a receipt for the postage on your paper. I am +somewhat surprised at your request. I will, however, comply with it. +The law requires newspaper postage to be paid in advance, and now that I +have waited a full year you choose to wound my feelings by insinuating +that unless you get a receipt I will probably make you pay it again. + +Respectfully, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1836 +ANNOUNCEMENT OF POLITICAL VIEWS. + +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 +constituents, as well those that oppose as those that support me. + +While acting as their representative, I shall be governed 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 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. + +Very respectfully, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO POLITICAL SMEAR + +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 you said. +I am flattered with the personal regard you manifested for me; 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. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MISS MARY OWENS. + +VANDALIA, December 13, 1836. + +MARY:--I have been sick ever since my arrival, or I should have written +sooner. It is but little difference, however, as I have very little even +yet to write. And more, the longer I can avoid the mortification of +looking in the post-office for your letter and not finding it, the +better. You see I am mad about that old letter yet. I don't like very +well to risk you again. I'll try you once more, anyhow. + +The new State House is not yet finished, and consequently the Legislature +is doing little or nothing. The governor delivered an inflammatory +political message, and it is expected there will be some sparring between +the parties about it as soon as the two Houses get to business. Taylor +delivered up his petition for the new county to one of our members this +morning. I am told he despairs of its success, on account of all the +members from Morgan County opposing it. There are names enough on the +petition, I think, to justify the members from our county in going for +it; but if the members from Morgan oppose it, which they say they will, +the chance will be bad. + +Our chance to take the seat of government to Springfield is better than I +expected. An internal-improvement convention was held there since we +met, which recommended a loan of several millions of dollars, on the +faith of the State, to construct railroads. Some of the Legislature are +for it, and some against it; which has the majority I cannot tell. There +is great strife and struggling for the office of the United States +Senator here at this time. It is probable we shall ease their pains in a +few days. The opposition men have no candidate of their own, and +consequently they will smile as complacently at the angry snarl of the +contending Van Buren candidates and their respective friends as the +Christian does at Satan's rage. You recollect that I mentioned at the +outset of this letter that I had been unwell. That is the fact, though I +believe I am about well now; but that, with other things I cannot account +for, have conspired, and have gotten my spirits so low that I feel that I +would rather be any place in the world than here. I really cannot endure +the thought of staying here ten weeks. Write back as soon as you get +this, and, if possible, say something that will please me, for really I +have not been pleased since I left you. This letter is so dry and stupid +that I am ashamed to send it, but with my present feelings I cannot do +any better. + +Give my best respects to Mr. and Mrs. Able and family. + +Your friend, LINCOLN + + + + +1837 +SPEECH IN ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +January [?], 1837 + +Mr. CHAIRMAN:--Lest I should fall into the too common error of being +mistaken in regard to which side I design to be upon, I shall make it my +first care to remove all doubt on that point, by declaring that I am +opposed to the resolution under consideration, in toto. Before I proceed +to the body of the subject, I will further remark, that it is not without +a considerable degree of apprehension that I venture to cross the track +of the gentleman from Coles [Mr. Linder]. Indeed, I do not believe I +could muster a sufficiency of courage to come in contact with that +gentleman, were it not for the fact that he, some days since, most +graciously condescended to assure us that he would never be found wasting +ammunition on small game. On the same fortunate occasion, he further +gave us to understand, that he regarded himself as being decidedly the +superior of our common friend from Randolph [Mr. Shields]; and feeling, +as I really do, that I, to say the most of myself, am nothing more than +the peer of our friend from Randolph, I shall regard the gentleman from +Coles as decidedly my superior also, and consequently, in the course of +what I shall have to say, whenever I shall have occasion to allude to +that gentleman, I shall endeavor to adopt that kind of court language +which I understand to be due to decided superiority. In one faculty, at +least, there can be no dispute of the gentleman's superiority over me and +most other men, and that is, the faculty of entangling a subject, so that +neither himself, or any other man, can find head or tail to it. Here he +has introduced a resolution embracing ninety-nine printed lines across +common writing paper, and yet more than one half of his opening speech +has been made upon subjects about which there is not one word said in his +resolution. + +Though his resolution embraces nothing in regard to the constitutionality +of the Bank, much of what he has said has been with a view to make the +impression that it was unconstitutional in its inception. Now, although +I am satisfied that an ample field may be found within the pale of the +resolution, at least for small game, yet, as the gentleman has traveled +out of it, I feel that I may, with all due humility, venture to follow +him. The gentleman has discovered that some gentleman at Washington city +has been upon the very eve of deciding our Bank unconstitutional, and +that he would probably have completed his very authentic decision, had +not some one of the Bank officers placed his hand upon his mouth, and +begged him to withhold it. The fact that the individuals composing our +Supreme Court have, in an official capacity, decided in favor of the +constitutionality of the Bank, would, in my mind, seem a sufficient +answer to this. It is a fact known to all, that the members of the +Supreme Court, together with the Governor, form a Council of Revision, +and that this Council approved this Bank charter. I ask, then, if the +extra-judicial decision not quite but almost made by the gentleman at +Washington, before whom, by the way, the question of the +constitutionality of our Bank never has, nor never can come--is to be +taken as paramount to a decision officially made by that tribunal, by +which, and which alone, the constitutionality of the Bank can ever be +settled? But, aside from this view of the subject, I would ask, if the +committee which this resolution proposes to appoint are to examine into +the Constitutionality of the Bank? Are they to be clothed with power to +send for persons and papers, for this object? And after they have found +the bank to be unconstitutional, and decided it so, how are they to +enforce their decision? What will their decision amount to? They cannot +compel the Bank to cease operations, or to change the course of its +operations. What good, then, can their labors result in? Certainly none. + +The gentleman asks, if we, without an examination, shall, by giving the +State deposits to the Bank, and by taking the stock reserved for the +State, legalize its former misconduct. Now I do not pretend to possess +sufficient legal knowledge to decide whether a legislative enactment +proposing to, and accepting from, the Bank, certain terms, would have the +effect to legalize or wipe out its former errors, or not; but I can +assure the gentleman, if such should be the effect, he has already got +behind the settlement of accounts; for it is well known to all, that the +Legislature, at its last session, passed a supplemental Bank charter, +which the Bank has since accepted, and which, according to his doctrine, +has legalized all the alleged violations of its original charter in the +distribution of its stock. + +I now proceed to the resolution. By examination it will be found that +the first thirty-three lines, being precisely one third of the whole, +relate exclusively to the distribution of the stock by the commissioners +appointed by the State. Now, Sir, it is clear that no question can arise +on this portion of the resolution, except a question between capitalists +in regard to the ownership of stock. Some gentlemen have their stock in +their hands, while others, who have more money than they know what to do +with, want it; and this, and this alone, is the question, to settle which +we are called on to squander thousands of the people's money. What +interest, let me ask, have the people in the settlement of this question? +What difference is it to them whether the stock is owned by Judge Smith +or Sam Wiggins? If any gentleman be entitled to stock in the Bank, which +he is kept out of possession of by others, let him assert his right in +the Supreme Court, and let him or his antagonist, whichever may be found +in the wrong, pay the costs of suit. It is an old maxim, and a very +sound one, that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. Now, Sir, +in the present case, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden to them, +choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the people's money +being used to pay the fiddler. No one can doubt that the examination +proposed by this resolution must cost the State some ten or twelve +thousand dollars; and all this to settle a question in which the people +have no interest, and about which they care nothing. These capitalists +generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people, and now +that they have got into a quarrel with themselves we are called upon to +appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel. + +I leave this part of the resolution and proceed to the remainder. It will +be found that no charge in the remaining part of the resolution, if true, +amounts to the violation of the Bank charter, except one, which I will +notice in due time. It might seem quite sufficient to say no more upon +any of these charges or insinuations than enough to show they are not +violations of the charter; yet, as they are ingeniously framed and +handled, with a view to deceive and mislead, I will notice in their order +all the most prominent of them. The first of these is in relation to a +connection between our Bank and several banking institutions in other +States. Admitting this connection to exist, I should like to see the +gentleman from Coles, or any other gentleman, undertake to show that +there is any harm in it. What can there be in such a connection, that +the people of Illinois are willing to pay their money to get a peep into? +By a reference to the tenth section of the Bank charter, any gentleman +can see that the framers of the act contemplated the holding of stock in +the institutions of other corporations. Why, then, is it, when neither +law nor justice forbids it, that we are asked to spend our time and money +in inquiring into its truth? + +The next charge, in the order of time, is, that some officer, director, +clerk or servant of the Bank, has been required to take an oath of +secrecy in relation to the affairs of said Bank. Now, I do not know +whether this be true or false--neither do I believe any honest man cares. +I know that the seventh section of the charter expressly guarantees to +the Bank the right of making, under certain restrictions, such by-laws as +it may think fit; and I further know that the requiring an oath of +secrecy would not transcend those restrictions. What, then, if the Bank +has chosen to exercise this right? Whom can it injure? Does not every +merchant have his secret mark? and who is ever silly enough to complain +of it? I presume if the Bank does require any such oath of secrecy, it +is done through a motive of delicacy to those individuals who deal with +it. Why, Sir, not many days since, one gentleman upon this floor, who, +by the way, I have no doubt is now ready to join this hue and cry against +the Bank, indulged in a philippic against one of the Bank officials, +because, as he said, he had divulged a secret. + +Immediately following this last charge, there are several insinuations in +the resolution, which are too silly to require any sort of notice, were +it not for the fact that they conclude by saying, "to the great injury of +the people at large." In answer to this I would say that it is strange +enough, that the people are suffering these "great injuries," and yet are +not sensible of it! Singular indeed that the people should be writhing +under oppression and injury, and yet not one among them to be found to +raise the voice of complaint. If the Bank be inflicting injury upon the +people, why is it that not a single petition is presented to this body on +the subject? If the Bank really be a grievance, why is it that no one of +the real people is found to ask redress of it? The truth is, no such +oppression exists. If it did, our people would groan with memorials and +petitions, and we would not be permitted to rest day or night, till we +had put it down. The people know their rights, and they are never slow +to assert and maintain them, when they are invaded. Let them call for an +investigation, and I shall ever stand ready to respond to the call. But +they have made no such call. I make the assertion boldly, and without +fear of contradiction, that no man, who does not hold an office, or does +not aspire to one, has ever found any fault of the Bank. It has doubled +the prices of the products of their farms, and filled their pockets with +a sound circulating medium, and they are all well pleased with its +operations. No, Sir, it is the politician who is the first to sound the +alarm (which, by the way, is a false one.) It is he, who, by these +unholy means, is endeavoring to blow up a storm that he may ride upon and +direct. It is he, and he alone, that here proposes to spend thousands of +the people's public treasure, for no other advantage to them than to make +valueless in their pockets the reward of their industry. Mr. Chairman, +this work is exclusively the work of politicians; a set of men who have +interests aside from the interests of the people, and who, to say the +most of them, are, taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from +honest men. I say this with the greater freedom, because, being a +politician myself, none can regard it as personal. + +Again, it is charged, or rather insinuated, that officers of the Bank +have loaned money at usurious rates of interest. Suppose this to be +true, are we to send a committee of this House to inquire into it? +Suppose the committee should find it true, can they redress the injured +individuals? Assuredly not. If any individual had been injured in this +way, is there not an ample remedy to be found in the laws of the land? +Does the gentleman from Coles know that there is a statute standing in +full force making it highly penal for an individual to loan money at a +higher rate of interest than twelve per cent? If he does not he is too +ignorant to be placed at the head of the committee which his resolution +purposes and if he does, his neglect to mention it shows him to be too +uncandid to merit the respect or confidence of any one. + +But besides all this, if the Bank were struck from existence, could not +the owners of the capital still loan it usuriously, as well as now? +whatever the Bank, or its officers, may have done, I know that usurious +transactions were much more frequent and enormous before the commencement +of its operations than they have ever been since. + +The next insinuation is, that the Bank has refused specie payments. +This, if true is a violation of the charter. But there is not the least +probability of its truth; because, if such had been the fact, the +individual to whom payment was refused would have had an interest in +making it public, by suing for the damages to which the charter entitles +him. Yet no such thing has been done; and the strong presumption is, +that the insinuation is false and groundless. + +From this to the end of the resolution, there is nothing that merits +attention--I therefore drop the particular examination of it. + +By a general view of the resolution, it will be seen that a principal +object of the committee is to examine into, and ferret out, a mass of +corruption supposed to have been committed by the commissioners who +apportioned the stock of the Bank. I believe it is universally +understood and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly unless +they have a motive to do otherwise. If this be true, we can only suppose +that the commissioners acted corruptly by also supposing that they were +bribed to do so. Taking this view of the subject, I would ask if the Bank +is likely to find it more difficult to bribe the committee of seven, +which, we are about to appoint, than it may have found it to bribe the +commissioners? + +(Here Mr. Linder called to order. The Chair decided that Mr. Lincoln was +not out of order. Mr. Linder appealed to the House, but, before the +question was put, withdrew his appeal, saying he preferred to let the +gentleman go on; he thought he would break his own neck. Mr. Lincoln +proceeded:) + +Another gracious condescension! I acknowledge it with gratitude. I know +I was not out of order; and I know every sensible man in the House knows +it. I was not saying that the gentleman from Coles could be bribed, nor, +on the other hand, will I say he could not. In that particular I leave +him where I found him. I was only endeavoring to show that there was at +least as great a probability of any seven members that could be selected +from this House being bribed to act corruptly, as there was that the +twenty-four commissioners had been so bribed. By a reference to the +ninth section of the Bank charter, it will be seen that those +commissioners were John Tilson, Robert K. McLaughlin, Daniel Warm, A.G. +S. Wight, John C. Riley, W. H. Davidson, Edward M. Wilson, Edward L. +Pierson, Robert R. Green, Ezra Baker, Aquilla Wren, John Taylor, Samuel +C. Christy, Edmund Roberts, Benjamin Godfrey, Thomas Mather, A. M. +Jenkins, W. Linn, W. S. Gilman, Charles Prentice, Richard I. Hamilton, +A.H. Buckner, W. F. Thornton, and Edmund D. Taylor. + +These are twenty-four of the most respectable men in the State. Probably +no twenty-four men could be selected in the State with whom the people +are better acquainted, or in whose honor and integrity they would more +readily place confidence. And I now repeat, that there is less +probability that those men have been bribed and corrupted, than that any +seven men, or rather any six men, that could be selected from the members +of this House, might be so bribed and corrupted, even though they were +headed and led on by "decided superiority" himself. + +In all seriousness, I ask every reasonable man, if an issue be joined by +these twenty-four commissioners, on the one part, and any other seven +men, on the other part, and the whole depend upon the honor and integrity +of the contending parties, to which party would the greatest degree of +credit be due? Again: Another consideration is, that we have no right to +make the examination. What I shall say upon this head I design +exclusively for the law-loving and law-abiding part of the House. To +those who claim omnipotence for the Legislature, and who in the plenitude +of their assumed powers are disposed to disregard the Constitution, law, +good faith, moral right, and everything else, I have not a word to say. +But to the law-abiding part I say, examine the Bank charter, go examine +the Constitution, go examine the acts that the General Assembly of this +State has passed, and you will find just as much authority given in each +and every of them to compel the Bank to bring its coffers to this hall +and to pour their contents upon this floor, as to compel it to submit to +this examination which this resolution proposes. Why, Sir, the gentleman +from Coles, the mover of this resolution, very lately denied on this +floor that the Legislature had any right to repeal or otherwise meddle +with its own acts, when those acts were made in the nature of contracts, +and had been accepted and acted on by other parties. Now I ask if this +resolution does not propose, for this House alone, to do what he, but the +other day, denied the right of the whole Legislature to do? He must +either abandon the position he then took, or he must now vote against his +own resolution. It is no difference to me, and I presume but little to +any one else, which he does. + +I am by no means the special advocate of the Bank. I have long thought +that it would be well for it to report its condition to the General +Assembly, and that cases might occur, when it might be proper to make an +examination of its affairs by a committee. Accordingly, during the last +session, while a bill supplemental to the Bank charter was pending before +the House, I offered an amendment to the same, in these words: "The said +corporation shall, at the next session of the General Assembly, and at +each subsequent General Session, during the existence of its charter, +report to the same the amount of debts due from said corporation; the +amount of debts due to the same; the amount of specie in its vaults, and +an account of all lands then owned by the same, and the amount for which +such lands have been taken; and moreover, if said corporation shall at +any time neglect or refuse to submit its books, papers, and all and +everything necessary for a full and fair examination of its affairs, to +any person or persons appointed by the General Assembly, for the purpose +of making such examination, the said corporation shall forfeit its +charter." + +This amendment was negatived by a vote of 34 to 15. Eleven of the 34 who +voted against it are now members of this House; and though it would be +out of order to call their names, I hope they will all recollect +themselves, and not vote for this examination to be made without +authority, inasmuch as they refused to receive the authority when it was +in their power to do so. + +I have said that cases might occur, when an examination might be proper; +but I do not believe any such case has now occurred; and if it has, I +should still be opposed to making an examination without legal authority. +I am opposed to encouraging that lawless and mobocratic spirit, whether +in relation to the Bank or anything else, which is already abroad in the +land and is spreading with rapid and fearful impetuosity, to the ultimate +overthrow of every institution, of every moral principle, in which +persons and property have hitherto found security. + +But supposing we had the authority, I would ask what good can result from +the examination? Can we declare the Bank unconstitutional, and compel it +to desist from the abuses of its power, provided we find such abuses to +exist? Can we repair the injuries which it may have done to individuals? +Most certainly we can do none of these things. Why then shall we spend +the public money in such employment? Oh, say the examiners, we can +injure the credit of the Bank, if nothing else, Please tell me, +gentlemen, who will suffer most by that? You cannot injure, to any +extent, the stockholders. They are men of wealth--of large capital; and +consequently, beyond the power of malice. But by injuring the credit of +the Bank, you will depreciate the value of its paper in the hands of the +honest and unsuspecting farmer and mechanic, and that is all you can do. +But suppose you could effect your whole purpose; suppose you could wipe +the Bank from existence, which is the grand ultimatum of the project, +what would be the consequence? why, Sir, we should spend several thousand +dollars of the public treasure in the operation, annihilate the currency +of the State, render valueless in the hands of our people that reward of +their former labors, and finally be once more under the comfortable +obligation of paying the Wiggins loan, principal and interest. + + + + +OPPOSITION TO MOB-RULE + +ADDRESS BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN'S LYCEUM OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. + +January 27, 1837. + +As a subject for the remarks of the evening, "The Perpetuation of our +Political Institutions" is selected. + +In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American +people, find our account running under date of the nineteenth century of +the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the +fairest portion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility of +soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government +of a system of political institutions conducing more essentially to the +ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of +former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found +ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled +not in the acquirement or establishment of them; they are a legacy +bequeathed us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and +departed, race of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they +performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves us, of this +goodly land, and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys a political +edifice of liberty and equal rights; it is ours only to transmit +these--the former unprofaned by the foot of an invader, the latter +undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation--to the latest +generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task gratitude +to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our +species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform. + +How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach +of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect +some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a +blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with +all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, +with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from +the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand +years. + +At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer: +If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from +abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and +finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die +by suicide. + +I hope I am over-wary; but if I am not, there is even now something of +ill omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which +pervades the country--the growing disposition to substitute the wild and +furious passions in lieu of the sober judgment of courts, and the worse +than savage mobs for the executive ministers of justice. This +disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists +in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation +of truth and an insult to our intelligence to deny. Accounts of outrages +committed by mobs form the everyday news of the times. They have pervaded +the country from New England to Louisiana; they are neither peculiar to +the eternal snows of the former nor the burning suns of the latter; they +are not the creature of climate, neither are they confined to the slave +holding or the non-slave holding States. Alike they spring up among the +pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving +citizens of the land of steady habits. Whatever then their cause may be, +it is common to the whole country. + +It would be tedious as well as useless to recount the horrors of all of +them. Those happening in the State of Mississippi and at St. Louis are +perhaps the most dangerous in example and revolting to humanity. In the +Mississippi case they first commenced by hanging the regular gamblers--a +set of men certainly not following for a livelihood a very useful or very +honest occupation, but one which, so far from being forbidden by the +laws, was actually licensed by an act of the Legislature passed but a +single year before. Next, negroes suspected of conspiring to raise an +insurrection were caught up and hanged in all parts of the State; then, +white men supposed to be leagued with the negroes; and finally, strangers +from neighboring States, going thither on business, were in many +instances subjected to the same fate. Thus went on this process of +hanging, from gamblers to negroes, from negroes to white citizens, and +from these to strangers, till dead men were seen literally dangling from +the boughs of trees upon every roadside, and in numbers almost sufficient +to rival the native Spanish moss of the country as a drapery of the +forest. + +Turn then to that horror-striking scene at St. Louis. A single victim +only was sacrificed there. This story is very short, and is perhaps the +most highly tragic of anything of its length that has ever been witnessed +in real life. A mulatto man by the name of McIntosh was seized in the +street, dragged to the suburbs of the city, chained to a tree, and +actually burned to death; and all within a single hour from the time he +had been a freeman attending to his own business and at peace with the +world. + +Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the scenes becoming more +and more frequent in this land so lately famed for love of law and order, +and the stories of which have even now grown too familiar to attract +anything more than an idle remark. + +But you are perhaps ready to ask, "What has this to do with the +perpetuation of our political institutions?" I answer, It has much to do +with it. Its direct consequences are, comparatively speaking, but a +small evil, and much of its danger consists in the proneness of our minds +to regard its direct as its only consequences. Abstractly considered, +the hanging of the gamblers at Vicksburg was of but little consequence. +They constitute a portion of population that is worse than useless in any +community; and their death, if no pernicious example be set by it, is +never matter of reasonable regret with any one. If they were annually +swept from the stage of existence by the plague or smallpox, honest men +would perhaps be much profited by the operation. Similar too is the +correct reasoning in regard to the burning of the negro at St. Louis. +He had forfeited his life by the perpetration of an outrageous murder +upon one of the most worthy and respectable citizens of the city, and had +he not died as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the law in a +very short time afterwards. As to him alone, it was as well the way it +was as it could otherwise have been. But the example in either case was +fearful. When men take it in their heads to-day to hang gamblers or burn +murderers, they should recollect that in the confusion usually attending +such transactions they will be as likely to hang or burn some one who is +neither a gambler nor a murderer as one who is, and that, acting upon the +example they set, the mob of to-morrow may, and probably will, hang or +burn some of them by the very same mistake. And not only so: the +innocent, those who have ever set their faces against violations of law +in every shape, alike with the guilty fall victims to the ravages of mob +law; and thus it goes on, step by step, till all the walls erected for +the defense of the persons and property of individuals are trodden down +and disregarded. But all this, even, is not the full extent of the evil. +By such examples, by instances of the perpetrators of such acts going +unpunished, the lawless in spirit are encouraged to become lawless in +practice; and having been used to no restraint but dread of punishment, +they thus become absolutely unrestrained. Having ever regarded +government as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of the suspension +of its operations, and pray for nothing so much as its total +annihilation. While, on the other hand, good men, men who love +tranquillity, who desire to abide by the laws and enjoy their benefits, +who would gladly spill their blood in the defense of their country, +seeing their property destroyed, their families insulted, and their lives +endangered, their persons injured, and seeing nothing in prospect that +forebodes a change for the better, become tired of and disgusted with a +government that offers them no protection, and are not much averse to a +change in which they imagine they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by +the operation of this mobocratic spirit which all must admit is now +abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of any government, and +particularly of those constituted like ours, may effectually be broken +down and destroyed--I mean the attachment of the people. Whenever this +effect shall be produced among us; whenever the vicious portion of +population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and +thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision-stores, throw +printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious +persons at pleasure and with impunity, depend on it, this government +cannot last. By such things the feelings of the best citizens will +become more or less alienated from it, and thus it will be left without +friends, or with too few, and those few too weak to make their friendship +effectual. At such a time, and under such circumstances, men of +sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the +opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric which for the +last half century has been the fondest hope of the lovers of freedom +throughout the world. + +I know the American people are much attached to their government; I know +they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils long +and patiently before they would ever think of exchanging it for +another,--yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually +despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons +and property are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the +alienation of their affections from the government is the natural +consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it must come. + +Here, then, is one point at which danger may be expected. + +The question recurs, How shall we fortify against it? The answer is +simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to +his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in +the least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their +violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support +of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution +and laws let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred +honor. Let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on +the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his +children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every +American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be +taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in +primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the +pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of +justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the +nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave +and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, sacrifice +unceasingly upon its altars. + +While ever a state of feeling such as this shall universally or even very +generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and +fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national freedom. + +When, I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, let me +not be understood as saying there are no bad laws, or that grievances may +not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I +mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, +if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they +continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously +observed. So also in unprovided cases. If such arise, let proper legal +provisions be made for them with the least possible delay, but till then +let them, if not too intolerable, be borne with. + +There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. In any +case that may arise, as, for instance, the promulgation of abolitionism, +one of two positions is necessarily true--that is, the thing is right +within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of all law and all +good citizens, or it is wrong, and therefore proper to be prohibited by +legal enactments; and in neither case is the interposition of mob law +either necessary, justifiable, or excusable. + +But it may be asked, Why suppose danger to our political institutions? +Have we not preserved them for more than fifty years? And why may we not +for fifty times as long? + +We hope there is no sufficient reason. We hope all danger may be +overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be +extremely dangerous. There are now, and will hereafter be, many causes, +dangerous in their tendency, which have not existed heretofore, and which +are not too insignificant to merit attention. That our government should +have been maintained in its original form, from its establishment until +now, is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it +through that period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through +that period it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now it is +understood to be a successful one. Then, all that sought celebrity and +fame and distinction expected to find them in the success of that +experiment. Their all was staked upon it; their destiny was inseparably +linked with it. Their ambition aspired to display before an admiring +world a practical demonstration of the truth of a proposition which had +hitherto been considered at best no better than problematical--namely, +the capability of a people to govern themselves. If they succeeded they +were to be immortalized; their names were to be transferred to counties, +and cities, and rivers, and mountains; and to be revered and sung, +toasted through all time. If they failed, they were to be called knaves +and fools, and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink and be +forgotten. They succeeded. The experiment is successful, and thousands +have won their deathless names in making it so. But the game is caught; +and I believe it is true that with the catching end the pleasures of the +chase. This field of glory is harvested, and the crop is already +appropriated. But new reapers will arise, and they too will seek a +field. It is to deny what the history of the world tells us is true, to +suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up +amongst us. And when they do, they will as naturally seek the +gratification of their ruling passion as others have done before them. +The question then is, Can that gratification be found in supporting and +in maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others? Most certainly +it cannot. Many great and good men, sufficiently qualified for any task +they should undertake, may ever be found whose ambition would aspire to +nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a Gubernatorial or a Presidential +chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion, or the tribe of the +eagle. What! think you these places would satisfy an Alexander, a +Caesar, or a Napoleon? Never! Towering genius disdains a beaten path. +It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no distinction in adding +story to story upon the monuments of fame erected to the memory of +others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It +scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. +It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it will have it, +whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen. Is +it unreasonable, then, to expect that some man possessed of the loftiest +genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost +stretch, will at some time spring up among us? And when such an one does +it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the +government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate +his designs. + +Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as +willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, yet, that +opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of +building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down. + +Here then is a probable case, highly dangerous, and such an one as could +not have well existed heretofore. + +Another reason which once was, but which, to the same extent, is now no +more, has done much in maintaining our institutions thus far. I mean the +powerful influence which the interesting scenes of the Revolution had +upon the passions of the people as distinguished from their judgment. By +this influence, the jealousy, envy, and avarice incident to our nature, +and so common to a state of peace, prosperity, and conscious strength, +were for the time in a great measure smothered and rendered inactive, +while the deep-rooted principles of hate, and the powerful motive of +revenge, instead of being turned against each other, were directed +exclusively against the British nation. And thus, from the force of +circumstances, the basest principles of our nature were either made to +lie dormant, or to become the active agents in the advancement of the +noblest of causes--that of establishing and maintaining civil and +religious liberty. + +But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has faded, with the +circumstances that produced it. + +I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolution are now or ever +will be entirely forgotten, but that, like everything else, they must +fade upon the memory of the world, and grow more and more dim by the +lapse of time. In history, we hope, they will be read of, and recounted, +so long as the Bible shall be read; but even granting that they will, +their influence cannot be what it heretofore has been. Even then they +cannot be so universally known nor so vividly felt as they were by the +generation just gone to rest. At the close of that struggle, nearly +every adult male had been a participator in some of its scenes. The +consequence was that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, +a son, or a brother, a living history was to be found in every family--a +history bearing the indubitable testimonies of its own authenticity, in +the limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received, in the midst of the +very scenes related--a history, too, that could be read and understood +alike by all, the wise and the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned. +But those histories are gone. They can be read no more forever. They +were a fortress of strength; but what invading foeman could never do the +silent artillery of time has done--the leveling of its walls. They are +gone. They were a forest of giant oaks; but the all-restless hurricane +has swept over them, and left only here and there a lonely trunk, +despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, unshading and unshaded, +to murmur in a few more gentle breezes, and to combat with its mutilated +limbs a few more ruder storms, then to sink and be no more. + +They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they have +crumbled away that temple must fall unless we, their descendants, supply +their places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober +reason. Passion has helped us, but can do so no more. It will in future +be our enemy. Reason cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason--must +furnish all the materials for our future support and defense. Let those +materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and in +particular, a reverence for the Constitution and laws; and that we +improved to the last, that we remained free to the last, that we revered +his name to the last, that during his long sleep we permitted no hostile +foot to pass over or desecrate his resting place, shall be that which to +learn the last trump shall awaken our Washington. + +Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its +basis; and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, +"the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." + + + + +PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE ON THE +SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. + +March 3, 1837. + +The following protest was presented to the House, which was read and +ordered to be spread in the journals, to wit: + +"Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having 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 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 said +resolutions is their reason for entering this protest. + +"DAN STONE, + +"A. LINCOLN, + +"Representatives from the County of Sangamon." + + + + +TO MISS MARY OWENS. + +SPRINGFIELD, May 7, 1837. +MISS MARY S. OWENS. + +FRIEND MARY:--I have commenced two letters to send you before this, both +of which displeased me before I got half done, and so I tore them up. +The first I thought was not serious enough, and the second was on the +other extreme. I shall send this, turn out as it may. + +This thing of living in Springfield is rather a dull business, after all; +at least it is so to me. I am quite as lonesome here as I ever was +anywhere in my life. I have been spoken to by but one woman since I have +been here, and should not have been by her if she could have avoided it. +I 've never been to church yet, and probably shall not be soon. I stay +away because I am conscious I should not know how to behave myself. + +I am often thinking of what we said about your coming to live at +Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There is a great +deal of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would be your doom +to see without sharing it. You would have to be poor, without the means +of hiding your poverty. Do you believe you could bear that patiently? +Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is +my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented; and +there is nothing I can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to +fail in the effort. I know I should be much happier with you than the +way I am, provided I saw no signs of discontent in you. What you have +said to me may have been in the way of jest, or I may have misunderstood +you. If so, then let it be forgotten; if otherwise, I much wish you +would think seriously before you decide. What I have said I will most +positively abide by, provided you wish it. My opinion is that you had +better not do it. You have not been accustomed to hardship, and it may +be more severe than you now imagine. I know you are capable of thinking +correctly on any subject, and if you deliberate maturely upon this +subject before you decide, then I am willing to abide your decision. + +You must write me a good long letter after you get this. You have +nothing else to do, and though it might not seem interesting to you after +you had written it, it would be a good deal of company to me in this +"busy wilderness." Tell your sister I don't want to hear any more about +selling out and moving. That gives me the "hypo" whenever I think of it. + +Yours, etc., +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOHN BENNETT. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug. 5, 1837. +JOHN BENNETT, ESQ. + +DEAR SIR:-Mr. Edwards tells me you wish to know whether the act to which +your own incorporation provision was attached passed into a law. It did. +You can organize under the general incorporation law as soon as you +choose. + +I also tacked a provision onto a fellow's bill to authorize the +relocation of the road from Salem down to your town, but I am not certain +whether or not the bill passed, neither do I suppose I can ascertain +before the law will be published, if it is a law. Bowling Greene, +Bennette Abe? and yourself are appointed to make the change. No news. No +excitement except a little about the election of Monday next. + +I suppose, of course, our friend Dr. Heney stands no chance in your +diggings. + +Your friend and humble servant, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MARY OWENS. + +SPRINGFIELD, Aug. 16, 1837 + +FRIEND MARY: You will no doubt think it rather strange that I should +write you a letter on the same day on which we parted, and I can only +account for it by supposing that seeing you lately makes me think of you +more than usual; while at our late meeting we had but few expressions of +thoughts. You must know that I cannot see you, or think of you, with +entire indifference; and yet it may be that you are mistaken in regard to +what my real feelings toward you are. + +If I knew you were not, I should not have troubled you with this letter. +Perhaps any other man would know enough without information; but I +consider it my peculiar right to plead ignorance, and your bounden duty +to allow the plea. + +I want in all cases to do right; and most particularly so in all cases +with women. + +I want, at this particular time, more than any thing else to do right +with you; and if I knew it would be doing right, as I rather suspect it +would, to let you alone I would do it. And, for the purpose of making +the matter as plain as possible, I now say that you can drop the subject, +dismiss your thoughts (if you ever had any) from me for ever and leave +this letter unanswered without calling forth one accusing murmur from me. +And I will even go further and say that, if it will add anything to your +comfort or peace of mind to do so, it is my sincere wish that you should. +Do not understand by this that I wish to cut your acquaintance. I mean +no such thing. What I do wish is that our further acquaintance shall +depend upon yourself. If such further acquaintance would contribute +nothing to your happiness, I am sure it would not to mine. If you feel +yourself in any degree bound to me, I am now willing to release you, +provided you wish it; while on the other hand I am willing and even +anxious to bind you faster if I can be convinced that it will, in any +considerable degree, add to your happiness. This, indeed, is the whole +question with me. Nothing would make me more miserable than to believe +you miserable, nothing more happy than to know you were so. + +In what I have now said, I think I cannot be misunderstood; and to make +myself understood is the only object of this letter. + +If it suits you best not to answer this, farewell. A long life and a +merry one attend you. But, if you conclude to write back, speak as +plainly as I do. There can neither be harm nor danger in saying to me +anything you think, just in the manner you think it. My respects to your +sister. + +Your friend, +LINCOLN. + + + + +LEGAL SUIT OF WIDOW v.s. Gen. ADAMS + +TO THE PEOPLE. + +"SANGAMON JOURNAL," SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug. 19, 1837. + +In accordance with our determination, as expressed last week, we present +to the reader the articles which were published in hand-bill form, in +reference to the case of the heirs of Joseph Anderson vs. James Adams. +These articles can now be read uninfluenced by personal or party feeling, +and with the sole motive of learning the truth. When that is done, the +reader can pass his own judgment on the matters at issue. + +We only regret in this case, that the publications were not made some +weeks before the election. Such a course might have prevented the +expressions of regret, which have often been heard since, from different +individuals, on account of the disposition they made of their votes. + +To the Public: + +It is well known to most of you, that there is existing at this time +considerable excitement in regard to Gen. Adams's titles to certain +tracts of land, and the manner in which he acquired them. As I +understand, the Gen. charges that the whole has been gotten up by a knot +of lawyers to injure his election; and as I am one of the knot to which +he refers, and as I happen to be in possession of facts connected with +the matter, I will, in as brief a manner as possible, make a statement of +them, together with the means by which I arrived at the knowledge of +them. + +Sometime in May or June last, a widow woman, by the name of Anderson, and +her son, who resides in Fulton county, came to Springfield, for the +purpose as they said of selling a ten acre lot of ground lying near town, +which they claimed as the property of the deceased husband and father. + +When they reached town they found the land was claimed by Gen. Adams. +John T. Stuart and myself were employed to look into the matter, and if +it was thought we could do so with any prospect of success, to commence a +suit for the land. I went immediately to the recorder's office to +examine Adams's title, and found that the land had been entered by one +Dixon, deeded by Dixon to Thomas, by Thomas to one Miller, and by Miller +to Gen. Adams. The oldest of these three deeds was about ten or eleven +years old, and the latest more than five, all recorded at the same time, +and that within less than one year. This I thought a suspicious +circumstance, and I was thereby induced to examine the deeds very +closely, with a view to the discovery of some defect by which to overturn +the title, being almost convinced then it was founded in fraud. I +discovered that in the deed from Thomas to Miller, although Miller's name +stood in a sort of marginal note on the record book, it was nowhere in +the deed itself. I told the fact to Talbott, the recorder, and proposed +to him that he should go to Gen. Adams's and get the original deed, and +compare it with the record, and thereby ascertain whether the defect was +in the original or there was merely an error in the recording. As +Talbott afterwards told me, he went to the General's, but not finding him +at home, got the deed from his son, which, when compared with the record, +proved what we had discovered was merely an error of the recorder. After +Mr. Talbott corrected the record, be brought the original to our office, +as I then thought and think yet, to show us that it was right. When he +came into the room he handed the deed to me, remarking that the fault was +all his own. On opening it, another paper fell out of it, which on +examination proved to be an assignment of a judgment in the Circuit Court +of Sangamon County from Joseph Anderson, the late husband of the widow +above named, to James Adams, the judgment being in favor of said Anderson +against one Joseph Miller. Knowing that this judgment had some +connection with the land affair, I immediately took a copy of it, which +is word for word, letter for letter and cross for cross as follows: + +Joseph Anderson, vs. Joseph Miller. + +Judgment in Sangamon Circuit Court against Joseph Miller obtained on a +note originally 25 dolls and interest thereon accrued. I assign all my +right, title and interest to James Adams which is in consideration of a +debt I owe said Adams. + +his JOSEPH x ANDERSON. mark. + +As the copy shows, it bore date May 10, 1827; although the judgment +assigned by it was not obtained until the October afterwards, as may be +seen by any one on the records of the Circuit Court. Two other strange +circumstances attended it which cannot be represented by a copy. One of +them was, that the date "1827" had first been made "1837" and, without +the figure "3," being fully obliterated, the figure "2" had afterwards +been made on top of it; the other was that, although the date was ten +years old, the writing on it, from the freshness of its appearance, was +thought by many, and I believe by all who saw it, not to be more than a +week old. The paper on which it was written had a very old appearance; +and there were some old figures on the back of it which made the +freshness of the writing on the face of it much more striking than I +suppose it otherwise might have been. The reader's curiosity is no doubt +excited to know what connection this assignment had with the land in +question. The story is this: Dixon sold and deeded the land to Thomas; +Thomas sold it to Anderson; but before he gave a deed, Anderson sold it +to Miller, and took Miller's note for the purchase money. When this note +became due, Anderson sued Miller on it, and Miller procured an injunction +from the Court of Chancery to stay the collection of the money until he +should get a deed for the land. Gen. Adams was employed as an attorney +by Anderson in this chancery suit, and at the October term, 1827, the +injunction was dissolved, and a judgment given in favor of Anderson +against Miller; and it was provided that Thomas was to execute a deed for +the land in favor of Miller and deliver it to Gen. Adams, to be held up +by him till Miller paid the judgment, and then to deliver it to him. +Miller left the county without paying the judgment. Anderson moved to +Fulton county, where he has since died When the widow came to +Springfield last May or June, as before mentioned, and found the land +deeded to Gen. Adams by Miller, she was naturally led to inquire why the +money due upon the judgment had not been sent to them, inasmuch as he, +Gen. Adams, had no authority to deliver Thomas's deed to Miller until the +money was paid. Then it was the General told her, or perhaps her son, +who came with her, that Anderson, in his lifetime, had assigned the +judgment to him, Gen. Adams. I am now told that the General is +exhibiting an assignment of the same judgment bearing date "1828" and in +other respects differing from the one described; and that he is asserting +that no such assignment as the one copied by me ever existed; or if there +did, it was forged between Talbott and the lawyers, and slipped into his +papers for the purpose of injuring him. Now, I can only say that I know +precisely such a one did exist, and that Ben. Talbott, Wm. Butler, C.R. +Matheny, John T. Stuart, Judge Logan, Robert Irwin, P. C. Canedy and +S. M. Tinsley, all saw and examined it, and that at least one half of +them will swear that IT WAS IN GENERAL ADAMS'S HANDWRITING!! And +further, I know that Talbott will swear that he got it out of the +General's possession, and returned it into his possession again. The +assignment which the General is now exhibiting purports to have been by +Anderson in writing. The one I copied was signed with a cross. + +I am told that Gen. Neale says that he will swear that he heard Gen. +Adams tell young Anderson that the assignment made by his father was +signed with a cross. + +The above are 'facts,' as stated. I leave them without comment. I have +given the names of persons who have knowledge of these facts, in order +that any one who chooses may call on them and ascertain how far they will +corroborate my statements. I have only made these statements because I +am known by many to be one of the individuals against whom the charge of +forging the assignment and slipping it into the General's papers has been +made, and because our silence might be construed into a confession of its +truth. I shall not subscribe my name; but I hereby authorize the editor +of the Journal to give it up to any one that may call for it. + + + + +LINCOLN AND TALBOTT IN REPLY TO GEN. ADAMS. + +"SANGAMON JOURNAL," SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Oct. 28, 1837. + +In the Republican of this morning a publication of Gen. Adams's appears, +in which my name is used quite unreservedly. For this I thank the +General. I thank him because it gives me an opportunity, without +appearing obtrusive, of explaining a part of a former publication of +mine, which appears to me to have been misunderstood by many. + +In the former publication alluded to, I stated, in substance, that Mr. +Talbott got a deed from a son of Gen. Adams's for the purpose of +correcting a mistake that had occurred on the record of the said deed in +the recorder's office; that he corrected the record, and brought the deed +and handed it to me, and that on opening the deed, another paper, being +the assignment of a judgment, fell out of it. This statement Gen. Adams +and the editor of the Republican have seized upon as a most palpable +evidence of fabrication and falsehood. They set themselves gravely about +proving that the assignment could not have been in the deed when Talbott +got it from young Adams, as he, Talbott, would have seen it when he +opened the deed to correct the record. Now, the truth is, Talbott did see +the assignment when he opened the deed, or at least he told me he did on +the same day; and I only omitted to say so, in my former publication, +because it was a matter of such palpable and necessary inference. I had +stated that Talbott had corrected the record by the deed; and of course +he must have opened it; and, just as the General and his friends argue, +must have seen the assignment. I omitted to state the fact of Talbott's +seeing the assignment, because its existence was so necessarily connected +with other facts which I did state, that I thought the greatest dunce +could not but understand it. Did I say Talbott had not seen it? Did I +say anything that was inconsistent with his having seen it before? Most +certainly I did neither; and if I did not, what becomes of the argument? +These logical gentlemen can sustain their argument only by assuming that +I did say negatively everything that I did not say affirmatively; and +upon the same assumption, we may expect to find the General, if a little +harder pressed for argument, saying that I said Talbott came to our +office with his head downward, not that I actually said so, but because I +omitted to say he came feet downward. + +In his publication to-day, the General produces the affidavit of Reuben +Radford, in which it is said that Talbott told Radford that he did not +find the assignment in the deed, in the recording of which the error was +committed, but that he found it wrapped in another paper in the +recorder's office, upon which statement the Genl. comments as follows, +to wit: "If it be true as stated by Talbott to Radford, that he found the +assignment wrapped up in another paper at his office, that contradicts +the statement of Lincoln that it fell out of the deed." + +Is common sense to be abused with such sophistry? Did I say what Talbott +found it in? If Talbott did find it in another paper at his office, is +that any reason why he could not have folded it in a deed and brought it +to my office? Can any one be so far duped as to be made believe that +what may have happened at Talbot's office at one time is inconsistent +with what happened at my office at another time? + +Now Talbott's statement of the case as he makes it to me is this, that he +got a bunch of deeds from young Adams, and that he knows he found the +assignment in the bunch, but he is not certain which particular deed it +was in, nor is he certain whether it was folded in the same deed out of +which it was taken, or another one, when it was brought to my office. Is +this a mysterious story? Is there anything suspicious about it? + +"But it is useless to dwell longer on this point. Any man who is not +wilfully blind can see at a flash, that there is no discrepancy, and +Lincoln has shown that they are not only inconsistent with truth, but +each other"--I can only say, that I have shown that he has done no such +thing; and if the reader is disposed to require any other evidence than +the General's assertion, he will be of my opinion. + +Excepting the General's most flimsy attempt at mystification, in regard +to a discrepance between Talbott and myself, he has not denied a single +statement that I made in my hand-bill. Every material statement that I +made has been sworn to by men who, in former times, were thought as +respectable as General Adams. I stated that an assignment of a judgment, +a copy of which I gave, had existed--Benj. Talbott, C. R. Matheny, Wm. +Butler, and Judge Logan swore to its existence. I stated that it was +said to be in Gen. Adams's handwriting--the same men swore it was in his +handwriting. I stated that Talbott would swear that he got it out of +Gen. Adams's possession--Talbott came forward and did swear it. + +Bidding adieu to the former publication, I now propose to examine the +General's last gigantic production. I now propose to point out some +discrepancies in the General's address; and such, too, as he shall not be +able to escape from. Speaking of the famous assignment, the General +says: "This last charge, which was their last resort, their dying effort +to render my character infamous among my fellow citizens, was +manufactured at a certain lawyer's office in the town, printed at the +office of the Sangamon Journal, and found its way into the world some +time between two days just before the last election." Now turn to Mr. +Keys' affidavit, in which you will find the following, viz.: "I certify +that some time in May or the early part of June, 1837, I saw at +Williams's corner a paper purporting to be an assignment from Joseph +Anderson to James Adams, which assignment was signed by a mark to +Anderson's name," etc. Now mark, if Keys saw the assignment on the last +of May or first of June, Gen. Adams tells a falsehood when he says it was +manufactured just before the election, which was on the 7th of August; +and if it was manufactured just before the election, Keys tells a +falsehood when he says he saw it on the last of May or first of June. +Either Keys or the General is irretrievably in for it; and in the +General's very condescending language, I say "Let them settle it between +them." + +Now again, let the reader, bearing in mind that General Adams has +unequivocally said, in one part of his address, that the charge in +relation to the assignment was manufactured just before the election, +turn to the affidavit of Peter S. Weber, where the following will be +found viz.: "I, Peter S. Weber, do certify that from the best of my +recollection, on the day or day after Gen. Adams started for the Illinois +Rapids, in May last, that I was at the house of Gen. Adams, sitting in +the kitchen, situated on the back part of the house, it being in the +afternoon, and that Benjamin Talbott came around the house, back into the +kitchen, and appeared wild and confused, and that he laid a package of +papers on the kitchen table and requested that they should be handed to +Lucian. He made no apology for coming to the kitchen, nor for not +handing them to Lucian himself, but showed the token of being frightened +and confused both in demeanor and speech and for what cause I could not +apprehend." + +Commenting on Weber's affidavit, Gen. Adams asks, "Why this fright and +confusion?" I reply that this is a question for the General himself. +Weber says that it was in May, and if so, it is most clear that Talbott +was not frightened on account of the assignment, unless the General lies +when he says the assignment charge was manufactured just before the +election. Is it not a strong evidence, that the General is not traveling +with the pole-star of truth in his front, to see him in one part of his +address roundly asserting that the assignment was manufactured just +before the election, and then, forgetting that position, procuring +Weber's most foolish affidavit, to prove that Talbott had been engaged in +manufacturing it two months before? + +In another part of his address, Gen. Adams says: "That I hold an +assignment of said judgment, dated the 20th of May, 1828, and signed by +said Anderson, I have never pretended to deny or conceal, but stated that +fact in one of my circulars previous to the election, and also in answer +to a bill in chancery." Now I pronounce this statement unqualifiedly +false, and shall not rely on the word or oath of any man to sustain me in +what I say; but will let the whole be decided by reference to the +circular and answer in chancery of which the General speaks. In his +circular he did speak of an assignment; but he did not say it bore date +20th of May, 1828; nor did he say it bore any date. In his answer in +chancery, he did say that he had an assignment; but he did not say that +it bore date the 20th May, 1828; but so far from it, he said on oath (for +he swore to the answer) that as well as recollected, he obtained it in +1827. If any one doubts, let him examine the circular and answer for +himself. They are both accessible. + +It will readily be observed that the principal part of Adams's defense +rests upon the argument that if he had been base enough to forge an +assignment he would not have been fool enough to forge one that would not +cover the case. This argument he used in his circular before the +election. The Republican has used it at least once, since then; and +Adams uses it again in his publication of to-day. Now I pledge myself to +show that he is just such a fool that he and his friends have contended +it was impossible for him to be. Recollect--he says he has a genuine +assignment; and that he got Joseph Klein's affidavit, stating that he had +seen it, and that he believed the signature to have been executed by the +same hand that signed Anderson's name to the answer in chancery. Luckily +Klein took a copy of this genuine assignment, which I have been permitted +to see; and hence I know it does not cover the case. In the first place +it is headed "Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph Miller," and heads off +"Judgment in Sangamon Circuit Court." Now, mark, there never was a case +in Sangamon Circuit Court entitled Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph Miller. +The case mentioned in my former publication, and the only one between +these parties that ever existed in the Circuit Court, was entitled Joseph +Miller vs. Joseph Anderson, Miller being the plaintiff. What then +becomes of all their sophistry about Adams not being fool enough to forge +an assignment that would not cover the case? It is certain that the +present one does not cover the case; and if he got it honestly, it is +still clear that he was fool enough to pay for an assignment that does +not cover the case. + +The General asks for the proof of disinterested witnesses. Whom does he +consider disinterested? None can be more so than those who have already +testified against him. No one of them had the least interest on earth, +so far as I can learn, to injure him. True, he says they had conspired +against him; but if the testimony of an angel from Heaven were introduced +against him, he would make the same charge of conspiracy. And now I put +the question to every reflecting man, Do you believe that Benjamin +Talbott, Chas. R. Matheny, William Butler and Stephen T. Logan, all +sustaining high and spotless characters, and justly proud of them, would +deliberately perjure themselves, without any motive whatever, except to +injure a man's election; and that, too, a man who had been a candidate, +time out of mind, and yet who had never been elected to any office? + +Adams's assurance, in demanding disinterested testimony, is surpassing. +He brings in the affidavit of his own son, and even of Peter S. Weber, +with whom I am not acquainted, but who, I suppose, is some black or +mulatto boy, from his being kept in the kitchen, to prove his points; but +when such a man as Talbott, a man who, but two years ago, ran against +Gen. Adams for the office of Recorder and beat him more than four votes +to one, is introduced against him, he asks the community, with all the +consequence of a lord, to reject his testimony. + +I might easily write a volume, pointing out inconsistencies between the +statements in Adams's last address with one another, and with other known +facts; but I am aware the reader must already be tired with the length of +this article. His opening statements, that he was first accused of being +a Tory, and that he refuted that; that then the Sampson's ghost story was +got up, and he refuted that; that as a last resort, a dying effort, the +assignment charge was got up is all as false as hell, as all this +community must know. Sampson's ghost first made its appearance in print, +and that, too, after Keys swears he saw the assignment, as any one may +see by reference to the files of papers; and Gen. Adams himself, in reply +to the Sampson's ghost story, was the first man that raised the cry of +toryism, and it was only by way of set-off, and never in seriousness, +that it was bandied back at him. His effort is to make the impression +that his enemies first made the charge of toryism and he drove them from +that, then Sampson's ghost, he drove them from that, then finally the +assignment charge was manufactured just before election. Now, the only +general reply he ever made to the Sampson's ghost and tory charges he +made at one and the same time, and not in succession as he states; and +the date of that reply will show, that it was made at least a month after +the date on which Keys swears he saw the Anderson assignment. But +enough. In conclusion I will only say that I have a character to defend +as well as Gen. Adams, but I disdain to whine about it as he does. It is +true I have no children nor kitchen boys; and if I had, I should scorn to +lug them in to make affidavits for me. + +A. LINCOLN, September 6, 1837. + + + + +Gen. ADAMS CONTROVERSY--CONTINUED + +TO THE PUBLIC. + +"SANGAMON JOURNAL," Springfield, Ill, Oct.28, 1837. + +Such is the turn which things have taken lately, that when Gen. Adams +writes a book, I am expected to write a commentary on it. In the +Republican of this morning he has presented the world with a new work of +six columns in length; in consequence of which I must beg the room of one +column in the Journal. It is obvious that a minute reply cannot be made +in one column to everything that can be said in six; and, consequently, I +hope that expectation will be answered if I reply to such parts of the +General's publication as are worth replying to. + +It may not be improper to remind the reader that in his publication of +Sept. 6th General Adams said that the assignment charge was manufactured +just before the election; and that in reply I proved that statement to be +false by Keys, his own witness. Now, without attempting to explain, he +furnishes me with another witness (Tinsley) by which the same thing is +proved, to wit, that the assignment was not manufactured just before the +election; but that it was some weeks before. Let it be borne in mind +that Adams made this statement--has himself furnished two witnesses to +prove its falsehood, and does not attempt to deny or explain it. Before +going farther, let a pin be stuck here, labeled "One lie proved and +confessed." On the 6th of September he said he had before stated in the +hand-bill that he held an assignment dated May 20th, 1828, which in reply +I pronounced to be false, and referred to the hand-bill for the truth of +what I said. This week he forgets to make any explanation of this. Let +another pin be stuck here, labelled as before. I mention these things +because, if, when I convict him in one falsehood, he is permitted to +shift his ground and pass it by in silence, there can be no end to this +controversy. + +The first thing that attracts my attention in the General's present +production is the information he is pleased to give to "those who are +made to suffer at his (my) hands." + +Under present circumstances, this cannot apply to me, for I am not a +widow nor an orphan: nor have I a wife or children who might by +possibility become such. Such, however, I have no doubt, have been, and +will again be made to suffer at his hands! Hands! Yes, they are the +mischievous agents. The next thing I shall notice is his favorite +expression, "not of lawyers, doctors and others," which he is so fond of +applying to all who dare expose his rascality. Now, let it be remembered +that when he first came to this country he attempted to impose himself +upon the community as a lawyer, and actually carried the attempt so far +as to induce a man who was under a charge of murder to entrust the +defence of his life in his hands, and finally took his money and got him +hanged. Is this the man that is to raise a breeze in his favor by +abusing lawyers? If he is not himself a lawyer, it is for the lack of +sense, and not of inclination. If he is not a lawyer, he is a liar, for +he proclaimed himself a lawyer, and got a man hanged by depending on him. + +Passing over such parts of the article as have neither fact nor argument +in them, I come to the question asked by Adams whether any person ever +saw the assignment in his possession. This is an insult to common sense. +Talbott has sworn once and repeated time and again, that he got it out of +Adams's possession and returned it into the same possession. Still, as +though he was addressing fools, he has assurance to ask if any person +ever saw it in his possession. + +Next I quote a sentence, "Now my son Lucian swears that when Talbott +called for the deed, that he, Talbott, opened it and pointed out the +error." True. His son Lucian did swear as he says; and in doing so, he +swore what I will prove by his own affidavit to be a falsehood. Turn to +Lucian's affidavit, and you will there see that Talbott called for the +deed by which to correct an error on the record. Thus it appears that +the error in question was on the record, and not in the deed. How then +could Talbott open the deed and point out the error? Where a thing is +not, it cannot be pointed out. The error was not in the deed, and of +course could not be pointed out there. This does not merely prove that +the error could not be pointed out, as Lucian swore it was; but it +proves, too, that the deed was not opened in his presence with a special +view to the error, for if it had been, he could not have failed to see +that there was no error in it. It is easy enough to see why Lucian swore +this. His object was to prove that the assignment was not in the deed +when Talbott got it: but it was discovered he could not swear this +safely, without first swearing the deed was opened--and if he swore it +was opened, he must show a motive for opening it, and the conclusion with +him and his father was that the pointing out the error would appear the +most plausible. + +For the purpose of showing that the assignment was not in the bundle when +Talbott got it, is the story introduced into Lucian's affidavit that the +deeds were counted. It is a remarkable fact, and one that should stand +as a warning to all liars and fabricators, that in this short affidavit +of Lucian's he only attempted to depart from the truth, so far as I have +the means of knowing, in two points, to wit, in the opening the deed and +pointing out the error and the counting of the deeds,--and in both of +these he caught himself. About the counting, he caught himself +thus--after saying the bundle contained five deeds and a lease, he +proceeds, "and I saw no other papers than the said deed and lease." +First he has six papers, and then he saw none but two; for "my son +Lucian's" benefit, let a pin be stuck here. + +Adams again adduces the argument, that he could not have forged the +assignment, for the reason that he could have had no motive for it. With +those that know the facts there is no absence of motive. Admitting the +paper which he has filed in the suit to be genuine, it is clear that it +cannot answer the purpose for which he designs it. Hence his motive for +making one that he supposed would answer is obvious. His making the date +too old is also easily enough accounted for. The records were not in his +hands, and then, there being some considerable talk upon this particular +subject, he knew he could not examine the records to ascertain the +precise dates without subjecting himself to suspicion; and hence he +concluded to try it by guess, and, as it turned out, missed it a little. +About Miller's deposition I have a word to say. In the first place, +Miller's answer to the first question shows upon its face that he had +been tampered with, and the answer dictated to him. He was asked if he +knew Joel Wright and James Adams; and above three-fourths of his answer +consists of what he knew about Joseph Anderson, a man about whom nothing +had been asked, nor a word said in the question--a fact that can only be +accounted for upon the supposition that Adams had secretly told him what +he wished him to swear to. + +Another of Miller's answers I will prove both by common sense and the +Court of Record is untrue. To one question he answers, "Anderson brought +a suit against me before James Adams, then an acting justice of the peace +in Sangamon County, before whom he obtained a judgment. + +"Q.--Did you remove the same by injunction to the Sangamon Circuit Court? +Ans.--I did remove it." + +Now mark--it is said he removed it by injunction. The word "injunction" +in common language imports a command that some person or thing shall not +move or be removed; in law it has the same meaning. An injunction +issuing out of chancery to a justice of the peace is a command to him to +stop all proceedings in a named case until further orders. It is not an +order to remove but to stop or stay something that is already moving. +Besides this, the records of the Sangamon Circuit Court show that the +judgment of which Miller swore was never removed into said Court by +injunction or otherwise. + +I have now to take notice of a part of Adams's address which in the order +of time should have been noticed before. It is in these words: "I have +now shown, in the opinion of two competent judges, that the handwriting +of the forged assignment differed from mine, and by one of them that it +could not be mistaken for mine." That is false. Tinsley no doubt is the +judge referred to; and by reference to his certificate it will be seen +that he did not say the handwriting of the assignment could not be +mistaken for Adams's--nor did he use any other expression substantially, +or anything near substantially, the same. But if Tinsley had said the +handwriting could not be mistaken for Adams's, it would have been equally +unfortunate for Adams: for it then would have contradicted Keys, who +says, "I looked at the writing and judged it the said Adams's or a good +imitation." + +Adams speaks with much apparent confidence of his success on attending +lawsuits, and the ultimate maintenance of his title to the land in +question. Without wishing to disturb the pleasure of his dream, I would +say to him that it is not impossible that he may yet be taught to sing a +different song in relation to the matter. + +At the end of Miller's deposition, Adams asks, "Will Mr. Lincoln now say +that he is almost convinced my title to this ten acre tract of land is +founded in fraud?" I answer, I will not. I will now change the +phraseology so as to make it run--I am quite convinced, &c. I cannot +pass in silence Adams's assertion that he has proved that the forged +assignment was not in the deed when it came from his house by Talbott, +the recorder. In this, although Talbott has sworn that the assignment +was in the bundle of deeds when it came from his house, Adams has the +unaccountable assurance to say that he has proved the contrary by +Talbott. Let him or his friends attempt to show wherein he proved any +such thing by Talbott. + +In his publication of the 6th of September he hinted to Talbott, that he +might be mistaken. In his present, speaking of Talbott and me he says +"They may have been imposed upon." Can any man of the least penetration +fail to see the object of this? After he has stormed and raged till he +hopes and imagines he has got us a little scared he wishes to softly +whisper in our ears, "If you'll quit I will." If he could get us to say +that some unknown, undefined being had slipped the assignment into our +hands without our knowledge, not a doubt remains but that he would +immediately discover that we were the purest men on earth. This is the +ground he evidently wishes us to understand he is willing to compromise +upon. But we ask no such charity at his hands. We are neither mistaken +nor imposed upon. We have made the statements we have because we know +them to be true and we choose to live or die by them. + +Esq. Carter, who is Adams's friend, personal and political, will +recollect, that, on the 5th of this month, he (Adams), with a great +affectation of modesty, declared that he would never introduce his own +child as a witness. Notwithstanding this affectation of modesty, he has +in his present publication introduced his child as witness; and as if to +show with how much contempt he could treat his own declaration, he has +had this same Esq. Carter to administer the oath to him. And so +important a witness does he consider him, and so entirely does the whole +of his entire present production depend upon the testimony of his child, +that in it he has mentioned "my son," "my son Lucian," "Lucian, my son," +and the like expressions no less than fifteen different times. Let it be +remembered here, that I have shown the affidavit of "my darling son +Lucian" to be false by the evidence apparent on its own face; and I now +ask if that affidavit be taken away what foundation will the fabric have +left to stand upon? + +General Adams's publications and out-door maneuvering, taken in +connection with the editorial articles of the Republican, are not more +foolish and contradictory than they are ludicrous and amusing. One week +the Republican notifies the public that Gen. Adams is preparing an +instrument that will tear, rend, split, rive, blow up, confound, +overwhelm, annihilate, extinguish, exterminate, burst asunder, and grind +to powder all its slanderers, and particularly Talbott and Lincoln--all +of which is to be done in due time. + +Then for two or three weeks all is calm--not a word said. Again the +Republican comes forth with a mere passing remark that "public" opinion +has decided in favor of Gen. Adams, and intimates that he will give +himself no more trouble about the matter. In the meantime Adams himself +is prowling about and, as Burns says of the devil, "For prey, and holes +and corners tryin'," and in one instance goes so far as to take an old +acquaintance of mine several steps from a crowd and, apparently weighed +down with the importance of his business, gravely and solemnly asks him +if "he ever heard Lincoln say he was a deist." + +Anon the Republican comes again. "We invite the attention of the public +to General Adams's communication," &c. "The victory is a great one, the +triumph is overwhelming." I really believe the editor of the Illinois +Republican is fool enough to think General Adams leads off--"Authors most +egregiously mistaken &c. Most woefully shall their presumption be +punished," &c. (Lord have mercy on us.) "The hour is yet to come, yea, +nigh at hand--(how long first do you reckon?)--when the Journal and its +junto shall say, I have appeared too early." "Their infamy shall be laid +bare to the public gaze." Suddenly the General appears to relent at the +severity with which he is treating us and he exclaims: "The condemnation +of my enemies is the inevitable result of my own defense." For your +health's sake, dear Gen., do not permit your tenderness of heart to +afflict you so much on our account. For some reason (perhaps because we +are killed so quickly) we shall never be sensible of our suffering. + +Farewell, General. I will see you again at court if not before--when +and where we will settle the question whether you or the widow shall have +the land. + +A. LINCOLN. October 18, 1837. + + + + +1838 + +TO Mrs. O. H. BROWNING--A FARCE + +SPRINGFIELD, April 1, 1838. + +DEAR MADAM:--Without apologizing for being egotistical, 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 and suffered +since I saw you, I shall necessarily have to relate some that happened +before. + +It was, then, in the autumn of 1836 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 despatch. I, of course, accepted the proposal, for you know I +could not have done otherwise had I really been averse to it; but +privately, between 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 company, 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 ever 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 mentioned. In a few days we had an +interview, and, although 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-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 had 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 coming 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 continually repenting the rashness which +had led me to make it. Through life, I have been in no bondage, either +real or imaginary, from the thraldom of which I so much desired to be +free. After my return home, I saw nothing to change my opinions of her +in any particular. She was the same, and so was I. I now spent my time +in planning how I might get along through 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 Irishman does the halter. + +After all my suffering upon this deeply interesting subject, here I am, +wholly, unexpectedly, completely, out of the "scrape"; and now I 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 her 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 endurance. I was mortified, it seemed to +me, in a hundred different ways. My vanity was deeply wounded by the +reflection that I had 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. But let it all go. I'll try and outlive it. +Others have been made fools of by the girls, but this can never with +truth be said of me. I most emphatically in this instance, 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 any one 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. LINCOLN. + + + + +1839 +REMARKS ON SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS + +IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, January 17, 1839. + +Mr. Lincoln, from Committee on Finance, to which the subject was +referred, made a report on the subject of purchasing of the United States +all the unsold lands lying within the limits of the State of Illinois, +accompanied by resolutions that this State propose to purchase all unsold +lands at twenty-five cents per acre, and pledging the faith of the State +to carry the proposal into effect if the government accept the same +within two years. + +Mr. Lincoln thought the resolutions ought to be seriously considered. In +reply to the gentleman from Adams, he said that it was not to enrich the +State. The price of the lands may be raised, it was thought by some; by +others, that it would be reduced. The conclusion in his mind was that +the representatives in this Legislature from the country in which the +lands lie would be opposed to raising the price, because it would operate +against the settlement of the lands. He referred to the lands in the +military tract. They had fallen into the hands of large speculators in +consequence of the low price. He was opposed to a low price of land. He +thought it was adverse to the interests of the poor settler, because +speculators buy them up. He was opposed to a reduction of the price of +public lands. + +Mr. Lincoln referred to some official documents emanating from Indiana, +and compared the progressive population of the two States. Illinois had +gained upon that State under the public land system as it is. His +conclusion was that ten years from this time Illinois would have no more +public land unsold than Indiana now has. He referred also to Ohio. That +State had sold nearly all her public lands. She was but twenty years +ahead of us, and as our lands were equally salable--more so, as he +maintained--we should have no more twenty years from now than she has at +present. + +Mr. Lincoln referred to the canal lands, and supposed that the policy of +the State would be different in regard to them, if the representatives +from that section of country could themselves choose the policy; but the +representatives from other parts of the State had a veto upon it, and +regulated the policy. He thought that if the State had all the lands, +the policy of the Legislature would be more liberal to all sections. + +He referred to the policy of the General Government. He thought that if +the national debt had not been paid, the expenses of the government would +not have doubled, as they had done since that debt was paid. + + + + +TO _________ ROW. + +SPRINGFIELD, June 11, 1839 +DEAR ROW: + +Mr. Redman informs me that you wish me to write you the particulars of a +conversation between Dr. Felix and myself relative to you. The Dr. +overtook me between Rushville and Beardstown. + +He, after learning that I had lived at Springfield, asked if I was +acquainted with you. I told him I was. He said you had lately been +elected constable in Adams, but that you never would be again. I asked +him why. He said the people there had found out that you had been +sheriff or deputy sheriff in Sangamon County, and that you came off and +left your securities to suffer. He then asked me if I did not know such +to be the fact. I told him I did not think you had ever been sheriff or +deputy sheriff in Sangamon, but that I thought you had been constable. I +further told him that if you had left your securities to suffer in that +or any other case, I had never heard of it, and that if it had been so, I +thought I would have heard of it. + +If the Dr. is telling that I told him anything against you whatever, I +authorize you to contradict it flatly. We have no news here. + +Your friend, as ever, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +SPEECH ON NATIONAL BANK + +IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, December 20, 1839. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--It is peculiarly embarrassing to me to attempt a +continuance of the discussion, on this evening, which has been conducted +in this hall on several preceding ones. It is so because on each of +those evenings there was a much fuller attendance than now, without any +reason for its being so, except the greater interest the community feel +in the speakers who addressed them then than they do in him who is to do +so now. I am, indeed, apprehensive that the few who have attended have +done so more to spare me mortification than in the hope of being +interested in anything I may be able to say. This circumstance casts a +damp upon my spirits, which I am sure I shall be unable to overcome +during the evening. But enough of preface. + +The subject heretofore and now to be discussed is the subtreasury scheme +of the present administration, as a means of collecting, safe-keeping, +transferring, and disbursing, the revenues of the nation, as contrasted +with a national bank for the same purposes. Mr. Douglas has said that we +(the Whigs) have not dared to meet them (the Locos) in argument on this +question. I protest against this assertion. I assert that we have again +and again, during this discussion, urged facts and arguments against the +subtreasury which they have neither dared to deny nor attempted to +answer. But lest some may be led to believe that we really wish to avoid +the question, I now propose, in my humble way, to urge those arguments +again; at the same time begging the audience to mark well the positions I +shall take and the proof I shall offer to sustain them, and that they +will not again permit Mr. Douglas or his friends to escape the force of +them by a round and groundless assertion that we "dare not meet them in +argument." + +Of the subtreasury, then, as contrasted with a national bank for the +before-enumerated purposes, I lay down the following propositions, to +wit: (1) It will injuriously affect the community by its operation on the +circulating medium. (2) It will be a more expensive fiscal agent. (3) +It will be a less secure depository of the public money. To show the +truth of the first proposition, let us take a short review of our +condition under the operation of a national bank. It was the depository +of the public revenues. Between the collection of those revenues and the +disbursement of them by the government, the bank was permitted to and did +actually loan them out to individuals, and hence the large amount of +money actually collected for revenue purposes, which by any other plan +would have been idle a great portion of the time, was kept almost +constantly in circulation. Any person who will reflect that money is only +valuable while in circulation will readily perceive that any device which +will keep the government revenues in constant circulation, instead of +being locked up in idleness, is no inconsiderable advantage. By the +subtreasury the revenue is to be collected and kept in iron boxes until +the government wants it for disbursement; thus robbing the people of the +use of it, while the government does not itself need it, and while the +money is performing no nobler office than that of rusting in iron boxes. +The natural effect of this change of policy, every one will see, is to +reduce the quantity of money in circulation. But, again, by the +subtreasury scheme the revenue is to be collected in specie. I +anticipate that this will be disputed. I expect to hear it said that it +is not the policy of the administration to collect the revenue in specie. +If it shall, I reply that Mr. Van Buren, in his message recommending the +subtreasury, expended nearly a column of that document in an attempt to +persuade Congress to provide for the collection of the revenue in specie +exclusively; and he concludes with these words: + +"It may be safely assumed that no motive of convenience to the citizens +requires the reception of bank paper." In addition to this, Mr. Silas +Wright, Senator from New York, and the political, personal and +confidential friend of Mr. Van Buren, drafted and introduced into the +Senate the first subtreasury bill, and that bill provided for ultimately +collecting the revenue in specie. It is true, I know, that that clause +was stricken from the bill, but it was done by the votes of the Whigs, +aided by a portion only of the Van Buren senators. No subtreasury bill +has yet become a law, though two or three have been considered by +Congress, some with and some without the specie clause; so that I admit +there is room for quibbling upon the question of whether the +administration favor the exclusive specie doctrine or not; but I take it +that the fact that the President at first urged the specie doctrine, and +that under his recommendation the first bill introduced embraced it, +warrants us in charging it as the policy of the party until their head as +publicly recants it as he at first espoused it. I repeat, then, that by +the subtreasury the revenue is to be collected in specie. Now mark what +the effect of this must be. By all estimates ever made there are but +between sixty and eighty millions of specie in the United States. The +expenditures of the Government for the year 1838--the last for which we +have had the report--were forty millions. Thus it is seen that if the +whole revenue be collected in specie, it will take more than half of all +the specie in the nation to do it. By this means more than half of all +the specie belonging to the fifteen millions of souls who compose the +whole population of the country is thrown into the hands of the public +office-holders, and other public creditors comprising in number perhaps +not more than one quarter of a million, leaving the other fourteen +millions and three quarters to get along as they best can, with less than +one half of the specie of the country, and whatever rags and shinplasters +they may be able to put, and keep, in circulation. By this means, every +office-holder and other public creditor may, and most likely will, set up +shaver; and a most glorious harvest will the specie-men have of it,--each +specie-man, upon a fair division, having to his share the fleecing of +about fifty-nine rag-men. In all candor let me ask, was such a system +for benefiting the few at the expense of the many ever before devised? +And was the sacred name of Democracy ever before made to indorse such an +enormity against the rights of the people? + +I have already said that the subtreasury will reduce the quantity of +money in circulation. This position is strengthened by the recollection +that the revenue is to be collected in Specie, so that the mere amount of +revenue is not all that is withdrawn, but the amount of paper circulation +that the forty millions would serve as a basis to is withdrawn, which +would be in a sound state at least one hundred millions. When one +hundred millions, or more, of the circulation we now have shall be +withdrawn, who can contemplate without terror the distress, ruin, +bankruptcy, and beggary that must follow? The man who has purchased any +article--say a horse--on credit, at one hundred dollars, when there are +two hundred millions circulating in the country, if the quantity be +reduced to one hundred millions by the arrival of pay-day, will find the +horse but sufficient to pay half the debt; and the other half must either +be paid out of his other means, and thereby become a clear loss to him, +or go unpaid, and thereby become a clear loss to his creditor. What I +have here said of a single case of the purchase of a horse will hold good +in every case of a debt existing at the time a reduction in the quantity +of money occurs, by whomsoever, and for whatsoever, it may have been +contracted. It may be said that what the debtor loses the creditor gains +by this operation; but on examination this will be found true only to a +very limited extent. It is more generally true that all lose by it--the +creditor by losing more of his debts than he gains by the increased value +of those he collects; the debtor by either parting with more of his +property to pay his debts than he received in contracting them, or by +entirely breaking up his business, and thereby being thrown upon the +world in idleness. + +The general distress thus created will, to be sure, be temporary, +because, whatever change may occur in the quantity of money in any +community, time will adjust the derangement produced; but while that +adjustment is progressing, all suffer more or less, and very many lose +everything that renders life desirable. Why, then, shall we suffer a +severe difficulty, even though it be but temporary, unless we receive +some equivalent for it? + +What I have been saying as to the effect produced by a reduction of the +quantity of money relates to the whole country. I now propose to show +that it would produce a peculiar and permanent hardship upon the citizens +of those States and Territories in which the public lands lie. The +land-offices in those States and Territories, as all know, form the great +gulf by which all, or nearly all, the money in them is swallowed up. +When the quantity of money shall be reduced, and consequently everything +under individual control brought down in proportion, the price of those +lands, being fixed by law, will remain as now. Of necessity it will +follow that the produce or labor that now raises money sufficient to +purchase eighty acres will then raise but sufficient to purchase forty, +or perhaps not that much; and this difficulty and hardship will last as +long, in some degree, as any portion of these lands shall remain +undisposed of. Knowing, as I well do, the difficulty that poor people +now encounter in procuring homes, I hesitate not to say that when the +price of the public lands shall be doubled or trebled, or, which is the +same thing, produce and labor cut down to one half or one third of their +present prices, it will be little less than impossible for them to +procure those homes at all.... + +Well, then, what did become of him? (Postmaster General Barry) Why, the +President immediately expressed his high disapprobation of his almost +unequaled incapacity and corruption by appointing him to a foreign +mission, with a salary and outfit of $18,000 a year! The party now +attempt to throw Barry off, and to avoid the responsibility of his sins. +Did not the President indorse those sins when, on the very heel of their +commission, he appointed their author to the very highest and most +honorable office in his gift, and which is but a single step behind the +very goal of American political ambition? + +I return to another of Mr. Douglas's excuses for the expenditures of +1838, at the same time announcing the pleasing intelligence that this is +the last one. He says that ten millions of that year's expenditure was a +contingent appropriation, to prosecute an anticipated war with Great +Britain on the Maine boundary question. Few words will settle this. +First, that the ten millions appropriated was not made till 1839, and +consequently could not have been expended in 1838; second, although it +was appropriated, it has never been expended at all. Those who heard Mr. +Douglas recollect that he indulged himself in a contemptuous expression +of pity for me. "Now he's got me," thought I. But when he went on to +say that five millions of the expenditure of 1838 were payments of the +French indemnities, which I knew to be untrue; that five millions had +been for the post-office, which I knew to be untrue; that ten millions +had been for the Maine boundary war, which I not only knew to be untrue, +but supremely ridiculous also; and when I saw that he was stupid enough +to hope that I would permit such groundless and audacious assertions to +go unexposed,--I readily consented that, on the score both of veracity +and sagacity, the audience should judge whether he or I were the more +deserving of the world's contempt. + +Mr. Lamborn insists that the difference between the Van Buren party and +the Whigs is that, although the former sometimes err in practice, they +are always correct in principle, whereas the latter are wrong in +principle; and, better to impress this proposition, he uses a figurative +expression in these words: "The Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, but +they are sound in the head and the heart." The first branch of the +figure--that is, that the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel--I admit +is not merely figuratively, but literally true. Who that looks but for a +moment at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their Harringtons, and their +hundreds of others, scampering away with the public money to Texas, to +Europe, and to every spot of the earth where a villain may hope to find +refuge from justice, can at all doubt that they are most distressingly +affected in their heels with a species of "running itch"? It seems that +this malady of their heels operates on these sound-headed and +honest-hearted creatures very much like the cork leg in the comic song +did on its owner: which, when he had once got started on it, the more he +tried to stop it, the more it would run away. At the hazard of wearing +this point threadbare, I will relate an anecdote which seems too +strikingly in point to be omitted. A witty Irish soldier, who was always +boasting of his bravery when no danger was near, but who invariably +retreated without orders at the first charge of an engagement, being +asked by his captain why he did so, replied: "Captain, I have as brave a +heart as Julius Caesar ever had; but, somehow or other, whenever danger +approaches, my cowardly legs will run away with it." So with Mr. +Lamborn's party. They take the public money into their hand for the most +laudable purpose that wise heads and honest hearts can dictate; but +before they can possibly get it out again, their rascally "vulnerable +heels" will run away with them. + +Seriously this proposition of Mr. Lamborn is nothing more or less than a +request that his party may be tried by their professions instead of their +practices. Perhaps no position that the party assumes is more liable to +or more deserving of exposure than this very modest request; and nothing +but the unwarrantable length to which I have already extended these +remarks forbids me now attempting to expose it. For the reason given, I +pass it by. + +I shall advert to but one more point. Mr. Lamborn refers to the late +elections in the States, and from their results confidently predicts that +every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the next +Presidential election. Address that argument to cowards and to knaves; +with the free and the brave it will effect nothing. It may be true; if +it must, let it. Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours +may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was +the last to desert, but that I never deserted her. I know that the great +volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that +reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political corruption in a +current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over +the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave unscathed +no green spot or living thing; while on its bosom are riding, like demons +on the waves of hell, the imps of that evil spirit, and fiendishly +taunting all those who dare resist its destroying course with the +hopelessness of their effort; and, knowing this, I cannot deny that all +may be swept away. Broken by it I, too, may be; bow to it I never will. +The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us +from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me. +If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions +not wholly unworthy of its almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate +the cause of my country deserted by all the world beside, and I standing +up boldly and alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. +Here, without contemplating consequences, before high heaven and in the +face of the world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem +it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love. And who that thinks +with me will not fearlessly adopt the oath that I take? Let none falter +who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall +fail, be it so. We still shall have the proud consolation of saying to +our consciences, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that +the cause approved of our judgment, and adored of our hearts, in +disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered in +defending. + + + + +TO JOHN T. STUART. + +SPRINGFIELD, December 23, 1839. +DEAR STUART: + +Dr. Henry will write you all the political news. I write this about +some little matters of business. You recollect you told me you had drawn +the Chicago Masark money, and sent it to the claimants. A hawk-billed +Yankee is here besetting me at every turn I take, saying that Robert +Kinzie never received the eighty dollars to which he was entitled. Can +you tell me anything about the matter? Again, old Mr. Wright, who lives +up South Fork somewhere, is teasing me continually about some deeds which +he says he left with you, but which I can find nothing of. Can you tell +me where they are? The Legislature is in session and has suffered the +bank to forfeit its charter without benefit of clergy. There seems to be +little disposition to resuscitate it. + +Whenever a letter comes from you to Mrs.____________ I carry it to her, +and then I see Betty; she is a tolerable nice "fellow" now. Maybe I will +write again when I get more time. + +Your friend as ever, A. LINCOLN + +P. S.--The Democratic giant is here, but he is not much worth talking +about. A.L. + + + + +1840 +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + +Confidential. + +January [1?], 1840. + +To MESSRS ________ + +GENTLEMEN:--In obedience to a resolution of the Whig State convention, we +have appointed you the Central Whig Committee of your county. The trust +confided to you will be one of watchfulness and labor; but we hope the +glory of having contributed to the overthrow of the corrupt powers that +now control our beloved country will be a sufficient reward for the time +and labor you will devote to it. Our Whig brethren throughout the Union +have met in convention, and after due deliberation and mutual concessions +have elected candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency not only +worthy of our cause, but worthy of the support of every true patriot who +would have our country redeemed, and her institutions honestly and +faithfully administered. To overthrow the trained bands that are opposed +to us whose salaried officers are ever on the watch, and whose misguided +followers are ever ready to obey their smallest commands, every Whig must +not only know his duty, but must firmly resolve, whatever of time and +labor it may cost, boldly and faithfully to do it. Our intention is to +organize the whole State, so that every Whig can be brought to the polls +in the coming Presidential contest. We cannot do this, however, without +your co-operation; and as we do our duty, so we shall expect you to do +yours. After due deliberation, the following is the plan of +organization, and the duties required of each county committee: + +(1) To divide their county into small districts, and to appoint in each a +subcommittee, whose duty it shall be to make a perfect list of all the +voters in their respective districts, and to ascertain with certainty for +whom they will vote. If they meet with men who are doubtful as to the +man they will support, such voters should be designated in separate +lines, with the name of the man they will probably support. + +(2) It will be the duty of said subcommittee to keep a constant watch on +the doubtful voters, and from time to time have them talked to by those +in whom they have the most confidence, and also to place in their hands +such documents as will enlighten and influence them. + +(3) It will also be their duty to report to you, at least once a month, +the progress they are making, and on election days see that every Whig is +brought to the polls. + +(4) The subcommittees should be appointed immediately; and by the last of +April, at least, they should make their first report. + +(5) On the first of each month hereafter we shall expect to hear from +you. After the first report of your subcommittees, unless there should +be found a great many doubtful voters, you can tell pretty accurately the +manner in which your county will vote. In each of your letters to us, you +will state the number of certain votes both for and against us, as well +as the number of doubtful votes, with your opinion of the manner in which +they will be cast. + +(6) When we have heard from all the counties, we shall be able to tell +with similar accuracy the political complexion of the State. This +information will be forwarded to you as soon as received. + +(7) Inclosed is a prospectus for a newspaper to be continued until after +the Presidential election. It will be superintended by ourselves, and +every Whig in the State must take it. It will be published so low that +every one can afford it. You must raise a fund and forward us for extra +copies,--every county ought to send--fifty or one hundred dollars,--and +the copies will be forwarded to you for distribution among our political +opponents. The paper will be devoted exclusively to the great cause in +which we are engaged. Procure subscriptions, and forward them to us +immediately. + +(8) Immediately after any election in your county, you must inform us of +its results; and as early as possible after any general election we will +give you the like information. + +(9) A senator in Congress is to be elected by our next Legislature. Let +no local interests divide you, but select candidates that can succeed. + +(10) Our plan of operations will of course be concealed from every one +except our good friends who of right ought to know them. + +Trusting much in our good cause, the strength of our candidates, and the +determination of the Whigs everywhere to do their duty, we go to the work +of organization in this State confident of success. We have the numbers, +and if properly organized and exerted, with the gallant Harrison at our +head, we shall meet our foes and conquer them in all parts of the Union. + +Address your letters to Dr. A. G. Henry, R. F, Barrett; A. Lincoln, E. D. +Baker, J. F. Speed. + + + + +TO JOHN T. STUART. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 1, 1840 +DEAR STUART: + +I have never seen the prospects of our party so bright in these parts as +they are now. We shall carry this county by a larger majority than we +did in 1836, when you ran against May. I do not think my prospects, +individually, are very flattering, for I think it probable I shall not be +permitted to be a candidate; but the party ticket will succeed +triumphantly. Subscriptions to the "Old Soldier" pour in without +abatement. This morning I took from the post office a letter from Dubois +enclosing the names of sixty subscribers, and on carrying it to Francis I +found he had received one hundred and forty more from other quarters by +the same day's mail. That is but an average specimen of every day's +receipts. Yesterday Douglas, having chosen to consider himself insulted +by something in the Journal, undertook to cane Francis in the street. +Francis caught him by the hair and jammed him back against a market cart +where the matter ended by Francis being pulled away from him. The whole +affair was so ludicrous that Francis and everybody else (Douglass +excepted) have been laughing about it ever since. + +I send you the names of some of the V.B. men who have come out for +Harrison about town, and suggest that you send them some documents. + +Moses Coffman (he let us appoint him a delegate yesterday), Aaron +Coffman, George Gregory, H. M. Briggs, Johnson (at Birchall's +Bookstore), Michael Glyn, Armstrong (not Hosea nor Hugh, but a +carpenter), Thomas Hunter, Moses Pileher (he was always a Whig and +deserves attention), Matthew Crowder Jr., Greenberry Smith; John Fagan, +George Fagan, William Fagan (these three fell out with us about Early, +and are doubtful now), John M. Cartmel, Noah Rickard, John Rickard, +Walter Marsh. + +The foregoing should be addressed at Springfield. + +Also send some to Solomon Miller and John Auth at Salisbury. Also to +Charles Harper, Samuel Harper, and B. C. Harper, and T. J. Scroggins, +John Scroggins at Pulaski, Logan County. + +Speed says he wrote you what Jo Smith said about you as he passed here. +We will procure the names of some of his people here, and send them to +you before long. Speed also says you must not fail to send us the New +York Journal he wrote for some time since. + +Evan Butler is jealous that you never send your compliments to him. You +must not neglect him next time. + +Your friend, as ever, A. LINCOLN + + + + +RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +November 28, 1840. + +In the Illinois House of Representatives, November 28, 1840, Mr. Lincoln +offered the following: + +Resolved, That so much of the governor's message as relates to fraudulent +voting, and other fraudulent practices at elections, be referred to the +Committee on Elections, with instructions to said committee to prepare +and report to the House a bill for such an act as may in their judgment +afford the greatest possible protection of the elective franchise against +all frauds of all sorts whatever. + + + + +RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +December 2, 1840. + +Resolved, That the Committee on Education be instructed to inquire into +the expediency of providing by law for the examination as to the +qualification of persons offering themselves as school teachers, that no +teacher shall receive any part of the public school fund who shall not +have successfully passed such examination, and that they report by bill +or otherwise. + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +December 4, 1840 + +In the House of Representatives, Illinois, December 4, 1840, on +presentation of a report respecting petition of H. N. Purple, claiming +the seat of Mr. Phelps from Peoria, Mr. Lincoln moved that the House +resolve itself into Committee of the Whole on the question, and take it +up immediately. Mr. Lincoln considered the question of the highest +importance whether an individual had a right to sit in this House or not. +The course he should propose would be to take up the evidence and decide +upon the facts seriatim. + +Mr. Drummond wanted time; they could not decide in the heat of debate, +etc. + +Mr. Lincoln thought that the question had better be gone into now. In +courts of law jurors were required to decide on evidence, without +previous study or examination. They were required to know nothing of the +subject until the evidence was laid before them for their immediate +decision. He thought that the heat of party would be augmented by delay. + +The Speaker called Mr. Lincoln to order as being irrelevant; no mention +had been made of party heat. + +Mr. Drummond said he had only spoken of debate. Mr. Lincoln asked what +caused the heat, if it was not party? Mr. Lincoln concluded by urging +that the question would be decided now better than hereafter, and he +thought with less heat and excitement. + +(Further debate, in which Lincoln participated.) + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +December 4, 1840. + +In the Illinois House of Representatives, December 4, 1840, House in +Committee of the Whole on the bill providing for payment of interest on +the State debt,--Mr. Lincoln moved to strike out the body and amendments +of the bill, and insert in lieu thereof an amendment which in substance +was that the governor be authorized to issue bonds for the payment of the +interest; that these be called "interest bonds"; that the taxes accruing +on Congress lands as they become taxable be irrevocably set aside and +devoted as a fund to the payment of the interest bonds. Mr. Lincoln went +into the reasons which appeared to him to render this plan preferable to +that of hypothecating the State bonds. By this course we could get along +till the next meeting of the Legislature, which was of great importance. +To the objection which might be urged that these interest bonds could not +be cashed, he replied that if our other bonds could, much more could +these, which offered a perfect security, a fund being irrevocably set +aside to provide for their redemption. To another objection, that we +should be paying compound interest, he would reply that the rapid growth +and increase of our resources was in so great a ratio as to outstrip the +difficulty; that his object was to do the best that could be done in the +present emergency. All agreed that the faith of the State must be +preserved; this plan appeared to him preferable to a hypothecation of +bonds, which would have to be redeemed and the interest paid. How this +was to be done, he could not see; therefore he had, after turning the +matter over in every way, devised this measure, which would carry us on +till the next Legislature. + +(Mr. Lincoln spoke at some length, advocating his measure.) + +Lincoln advocated his measure, December 11, 1840. + +December 12, 1840, he had thought some permanent provision ought to be +made for the bonds to be hypothecated, but was satisfied taxation and +revenue could not be connected with it now. + + + + +1841 +TO JOHN T. STUART--ON DEPRESSION + +SPRINGFIELD, Jan 23, 1841 + +DEAR STUART: I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were +equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one +cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell; I +awfully forbode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must +die or be better, as it appears to me.... I fear I shall be unable to +attend any business here, and a change of scene might help me. If I +could be myself, I would rather remain at home with Judge Logan. I can +write no more. + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +January 23, 1841 + +In the House of Representatives January 23, 1841, while discussing the +continuation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Mr. Moore was afraid the +holders of the "scrip" would lose. + +Mr. Napier thought there was no danger of that; and Mr. Lincoln said he +had not examined to see what amount of scrip would probably be needed. +The principal point in his mind was this, that nobody was obliged to take +these certificates. It is altogether voluntary on their part, and if +they apprehend it will fall in their hands they will not take it. +Further the loss, if any there be, will fall on the citizens of that +section of the country. + +This scrip is not going to circulate over an extensive range of country, +but will be confined chiefly to the vicinity of the canal. Now, we find +the representatives of that section of the country are all in favor of +the bill. + +When we propose to protect their interests, they say to us: Leave us to +take care of ourselves; we are willing to run the risk. And this is +reasonable; we must suppose they are competent to protect their own +interests, and it is only fair to let them do it. + + + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + +February 9, 1841. + +Appeal to the People of the State of Illinois. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--When the General Assembly, now about adjourning, +assembled in November last, from the bankrupt state of the public +treasury, the pecuniary embarrassments prevailing in every department of +society, the dilapidated state of the public works, and the impending +danger of the degradation of the State, you had a right to expect that +your representatives would lose no time in devising and adopting measures +to avert threatened calamities, alleviate the distresses of the people, +and allay the fearful apprehensions in regard to the future prosperity of +the State. It was not expected by you that the spirit of party would +take the lead in the councils of the State, and make every interest bend +to its demands. Nor was it expected that any party would assume to +itself the entire control of legislation, and convert the means and +offices of the State, and the substance of the people, into aliment for +party subsistence. Neither could it have been expected by you that party +spirit, however strong its desires and unreasonable its demands, would +have passed the sanctuary of the Constitution, and entered with its +unhallowed and hideous form into the formation of the judiciary system. + +At the early period of the session, measures were adopted by the dominant +party to take possession of the State, to fill all public offices with +party men, and make every measure affecting the interests of the people +and the credit of the State operate in furtherance of their party views. +The merits of men and measures therefore became the subject of discussion +in caucus, instead of the halls of legislation, and decisions there made +by a minority of the Legislature have been executed and carried into +effect by the force of party discipline, without any regard whatever to +the rights of the people or the interests of the State. The Supreme +Court of the State was organized, and judges appointed, according to the +provisions of the Constitution, in 1824. The people have never +complained of the organization of that court; no attempt has ever before +been made to change that department. Respect for public opinion, and +regard for the rights and liberties of the people, have hitherto +restrained the spirit of party from attacks upon the independence and +integrity of the judiciary. The same judges have continued in office +since 1824; their decisions have not been the subject of complaint among +the people; the integrity and honesty of the court have not been +questioned, and it has never been supposed that the court has ever +permitted party prejudice or party considerations to operate upon their +decisions. The court was made to consist of four judges, and by the +Constitution two form a quorum for the transaction of business. With +this tribunal, thus constituted, the people have been satisfied for near +sixteen years. The same law which organized the Supreme Court in 1824 +also established and organized circuit courts to be held in each county +in the State, and five circuit judges were appointed to hold those +courts. In 1826 the Legislature abolished these circuit courts, repealed +the judges out of office, and required the judges of the Supreme Court to +hold the circuit courts. The reasons assigned for this change were, +first, that the business of the country could be better attended to by +the four judges of the Supreme Court than by the two sets of judges; and, +second, the state of the public treasury forbade the employment of +unnecessary officers. In 1828 a circuit was established north of the +Illinois River, in order to meet the wants of the people, and a circuit +judge was appointed to hold the courts in that circuit. + +In 1834 the circuit-court system was again established throughout the +State, circuit judges appointed to hold the courts, and the judges of the +Supreme Court were relieved from the performance of circuit court duties. +The change was recommended by the then acting governor of the State, +General W. L. D. Ewing, in the following terms: + +"The augmented population of the State, the multiplied number of +organized counties, as well as the increase of business in all, has long +since convinced every one conversant with this department of our +government of the indispensable necessity of an alteration in our +judiciary system, and the subject is therefore recommended to the earnest +patriotic consideration of the Legislature. The present system has never +been exempt from serious and weighty objections. The idea of appealing +from the circuit court to the same judges in the Supreme Court is +recommended by little hopes of redress to the injured party below. The +duties of the circuit, too, it may be added, consume one half of the +year, leaving a small and inadequate portion of time (when that required +for domestic purposes is deducted) to erect, in the decisions of the +Supreme Court, a judicial monument of legal learning and research, which +the talent and ability of the court might otherwise be entirely competent +to." + +With this organization of circuit courts the people have never +complained. The only complaints which we have heard have come from +circuits which were so large that the judges could not dispose of the +business, and the circuits in which Judges Pearson and Ralston lately +presided. + +Whilst the honor and credit of the State demanded legislation upon the +subject of the public debt, the canal, the unfinished public works, and +the embarrassments of the people, the judiciary stood upon a basis which +required no change--no legislative action. Yet the party in power, +neglecting every interest requiring legislative action, and wholly +disregarding the rights, wishes, and interests of the people, has, for +the unholy purpose of providing places for its partisans and supplying +them with large salaries, disorganized that department of the government. +Provision is made for the election of five party judges of the Supreme +Court, the proscription of four circuit judges, and the appointment of +party clerks in more than half the counties of the State. Men professing +respect for public opinion, and acknowledged to be leaders of the party, +have avowed in the halls of legislation that the change in the judiciary +was intended to produce political results favorable to their party and +party friends. The immutable principles of justice are to make way for +party interests, and the bonds of social order are to be rent in twain, +in order that a desperate faction may be sustained at the expense of the +people. The change proposed in the judiciary was supported upon grounds +so destructive to the institutions of the country, and so entirely at war +with the rights and liberties of the people, that the party could not +secure entire unanimity in its support, three Democrats of the Senate and +five of the House voting against the measure. They were unwilling to see +the temples of justice and the seats of independent judges occupied by +the tools of faction. The declarations of the party leaders, the +selection of party men for judges, and the total disregard for the public +will in the adoption of the measure, prove conclusively that the object +has been not reform, but destruction; not the advancement of the highest +interests of the State, but the predominance of party. + +We cannot in this manner undertake to point out all the objections to +this party measure; we present you with those stated by the Council of +Revision upon returning the bill, and we ask for them a candid +consideration. + +Believing that the independence of the judiciary has been +destroyed, that hereafter our courts will be independent of the +people, and entirely dependent upon the Legislature; that our +rights of property and liberty of conscience can no longer be +regarded as safe from the encroachments of unconstitutional +legislation; and knowing of no other remedy which can be adopted +consistently with the peace and good order of society, we call +upon you to avail yourselves of the opportunity afforded, and, at +the next general election, vote for a convention of the people. + + S. H. LITTLE, + E. D. BAKER, + J. J. HARDIN, + E. B. WEBS, + A. LINCOLN, + J. GILLESPIE, + + Committee on behalf of the Whig members of the Legislature. + + + + +EXTRACT FROM A PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE AGAINST THE +REORGANIZATION OF THE JUDICIARY. + +February 26, 1841 + +For the reasons thus presented, and for others no less apparent, the +undersigned cannot assent to the passage of the bill, or permit it to +become a law, without this evidence of their disapprobation; and they now +protest against the reorganization of the judiciary, because--(1) It +violates the great principles of free government by subjecting the +judiciary to the Legislature. (2) It is a fatal blow at the independence +of the judges and the constitutional term of their office. (3) It is a +measure not asked for, or wished for, by the people. (4) It will greatly +increase the expense of our courts, or else greatly diminish their +utility. (5) It will give our courts a political and partisan character, +thereby impairing public confidence in their decisions. (6) It will +impair our standing with other States and the world. (7)It is a party +measure for party purposes, from which no practical good to the people +can possibly arise, but which may be the source of immeasurable evils. + +The undersigned are well aware that this protest will be altogether +unavailing with the majority of this body. The blow has already fallen, +and we are compelled to stand by, the mournful spectators of the ruin it +will cause. + +[Signed by 35 members, among whom was Abraham Lincoln.] + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--MURDER CASE + +SPRINGFIELD June 19, 1841. + +DEAR SPEED:--We have had the highest state of excitement here for a week +past that our community has ever witnessed; and, although the public +feeling is somewhat allayed, the curious affair which aroused it is very +far from being even yet cleared of mystery. It would take a quire of +paper to give you anything like a full account of it, and I therefore +only propose a brief outline. The chief personages in the drama are +Archibald Fisher, supposed to be murdered, and Archibald Trailor, Henry +Trailor, and William Trailor, supposed to have murdered him. The three +Trailors are brothers: the first, Arch., as you know, lives in town; the +second, Henry, in Clary's Grove; and the third, William, in Warren +County; and Fisher, the supposed murdered, being without a family, had +made his home with William. On Saturday evening, being the 29th of May, +Fisher and William came to Henry's in a one-horse dearborn, and there +stayed over Sunday; and on Monday all three came to Springfield (Henry on +horseback) and joined Archibald at Myers's, the Dutch carpenter. That +evening at supper Fisher was missing, and so next morning some +ineffectual search was made for him; and on Tuesday, at one o'clock P.M., +William and Henry started home without him. In a day or two Henry and +one or two of his Clary-Grove neighbors came back for him again, and +advertised his disappearance in the papers. The knowledge of the matter +thus far had not been general, and here it dropped entirely, till about +the 10th instant, when Keys received a letter from the postmaster in +Warren County, that William had arrived at home, and was telling a very +mysterious and improbable story about the disappearance of Fisher, which +induced the community there to suppose he had been disposed of unfairly. +Keys made this letter public, which immediately set the whole town and +adjoining county agog. And so it has continued until yesterday. The +mass of the people commenced a systematic search for the dead body, while +Wickersham was despatched to arrest Henry Trailor at the Grove, and Jim +Maxcy to Warren to arrest William. On Monday last, Henry was brought in, +and showed an evident inclination to insinuate that he knew Fisher to be +dead, and that Arch. and William had killed him. He said he guessed the +body could be found in Spring Creek, between the Beardstown road and +Hickox's mill. Away the people swept like a herd of buffalo, and cut +down Hickox's mill-dam nolens volens, to draw the water out of the pond, +and then went up and down and down and up the creek, fishing and raking, +and raking and ducking and diving for two days, and, after all, no dead +body found. + +In the meantime a sort of scuffling-ground had been found in the brush in +the angle, or point, where the road leading into the woods past the +brewery and the one leading in past the brick-yard meet. From the +scuffle-ground was the sign of something about the size of a man having +been dragged to the edge of the thicket, where it joined the track of +some small-wheeled carriage drawn by one horse, as shown by the +road-tracks. The carriage-track led off toward Spring Creek. Near this +drag-trail Dr. Merryman found two hairs, which, after a long scientific +examination, he pronounced to be triangular human hairs, which term, he +says, includes within it the whiskers, the hair growing under the arms +and on other parts of the body; and he judged that these two were of the +whiskers, because the ends were cut, showing that they had flourished in +the neighborhood of the razor's operations. On Thursday last Jim Maxcy +brought in William Trailor from Warren. On the same day Arch. was +arrested and put in jail. Yesterday (Friday) William was put upon his +examining trial before May and Lovely. Archibald and Henry were both +present. Lamborn prosecuted, and Logan, Baker, and your humble servant +defended. A great many witnesses were introduced and examined, but I +shall only mention those whose testimony seemed most important. The +first of these was Captain Ransdell. He swore that when William and +Henry left Springfield for home on Tuesday before mentioned they did not +take the direct route,--which, you know, leads by the butcher shop,--but +that they followed the street north until they got opposite, or nearly +opposite, May's new house, after which he could not see them from where +he stood; and it was afterwards proved that in about an hour after they +started, they came into the street by the butcher shop from toward the +brickyard. Dr. Merryman and others swore to what is stated about the +scuffle-ground, drag-trail, whiskers, and carriage tracks. Henry was +then introduced by the prosecution. He swore that when they started for +home they went out north, as Ransdell stated, and turned down west by the +brick-yard into the woods, and there met Archibald; that they proceeded a +small distance farther, when he was placed as a sentinel to watch for and +announce the approach of any one that might happen that way; that William +and Arch. took the dearborn out of the road a small distance to the edge +of the thicket, where they stopped, and he saw them lift the body of a +man into it; that they then moved off with the carriage in the direction +of Hickox's mill, and he loitered about for something like an hour, when +William returned with the carriage, but without Arch., and said they had +put him in a safe place; that they went somehow he did not know exactly +how--into the road close to the brewery, and proceeded on to Clary's +Grove. He also stated that some time during the day William told him +that he and Arch. had killed Fisher the evening before; that the way +they did it was by him William knocking him down with a club, and Arch. +then choking him to death. + +An old man from Warren, called Dr. Gilmore, was then introduced on the +part of the defense. He swore that he had known Fisher for several +years; that Fisher had resided at his house a long time at each of two +different spells--once while he built a barn for him, and once while he +was doctored for some chronic disease; that two or three years ago Fisher +had a serious hurt in his head by the bursting of a gun, since which he +had been subject to continued bad health and occasional aberration of +mind. He also stated that on last Tuesday, being the same day that Maxcy +arrested William Trailor, he (the doctor) was from home in the early part +of the day, and on his return, about eleven o'clock, found Fisher at his +house in bed, and apparently very unwell; that he asked him how he came +from Springfield; that Fisher said he had come by Peoria, and also told +of several other places he had been at more in the direction of Peoria, +which showed that he at the time of speaking did not know where he had +been wandering about in a state of derangement. He further stated that +in about two hours he received a note from one of Trailor's friends, +advising him of his arrest, and requesting him to go on to Springfield as +a witness, to testify as to the state of Fisher's health in former times; +that he immediately set off, calling up two of his neighbors as company, +and, riding all evening and all night, overtook Maxcy and William at +Lewiston in Fulton County; that Maxcy refusing to discharge Trailor upon +his statement, his two neighbors returned and he came on to Springfield. +Some question being made as to whether the doctor's story was not a +fabrication, several acquaintances of his (among whom was the same +postmaster who wrote Keys, as before mentioned) were introduced as sort +of compurgators, who swore that they knew the doctor to be of good +character for truth and veracity, and generally of good character in +every way. + +Here the testimony ended, and the Trailors were discharged, Arch. and +William expressing both in word and manner their entire confidence that +Fisher would be found alive at the doctor's by Galloway, Mallory, and +Myers, who a day before had been despatched for that purpose; which Henry +still protested that no power on earth could ever show Fisher alive. +Thus stands this curious affair. When the doctor's story was first made +public, it was amusing to scan and contemplate the countenances and hear +the remarks of those who had been actively in search for the dead body: +some looked quizzical, some melancholy, and some furiously angry. +Porter, who had been very active, swore he always knew the man was not +dead, and that he had not stirred an inch to hunt for him; Langford, who +had taken the lead in cutting down Hickox's mill-dam, and wanted to hang +Hickox for objecting, looked most awfully woebegone: he seemed the +"victim of unrequited affection," as represented in the comic almanacs we +used to laugh over; and Hart, the little drayman that hauled Molly home +once, said it was too damned bad to have so much trouble, and no hanging +after all. + +I commenced this letter on yesterday, since which I received yours of the +13th. I stick to my promise to come to Louisville. Nothing new here +except what I have written. I have not seen ______ since my last trip, +and I am going out there as soon as I mail this letter. + +Yours forever, LINCOLN. + + + + +STATEMENT ABOUT HARRY WILTON. + +June 25, 1841 + +It having been charged in some of the public prints that Harry Wilton, +late United States marshal for the district of Illinois, had used his +office for political effect, in the appointment of deputies for the +taking of the census for the year 1840, we, the undersigned, were called +upon by Mr. Wilton to examine the papers in his possession relative to +these appointments, and to ascertain therefrom the correctness or +incorrectness of such charge. We accompanied Mr. Wilton to a room, and +examined the matter as fully as we could with the means afforded us. The +only sources of information bearing on the subject which were submitted +to us were the letters, etc., recommending and opposing the various +appointments made, and Mr. Wilton's verbal statements concerning the +same. From these letters, etc., it appears that in some instances +appointments were made in accordance with the recommendations of leading +Whigs, and in opposition to those of leading Democrats; among which +instances the appointments at Scott, Wayne, Madison, and Lawrence are the +strongest. According to Mr. Wilton's statement of the seventy-six +appointments we examined, fifty-four were of Democrats, eleven of Whigs, +and eleven of unknown politics. + +The chief ground of complaint against Mr. Wilton, as we had understood +it, was because of his appointment of so many Democratic candidates for +the Legislature, thus giving them a decided advantage over their Whig +opponents; and consequently our attention was directed rather +particularly to that point. We found that there were many such +appointments, among which were those in Tazewell, McLean, Iroquois, +Coles, Menard, Wayne, Washington, Fayette, etc.; and we did not learn +that there was one instance in which a Whig candidate for the Legislature +had been appointed. There was no written evidence before us showing us at +what time those appointments were made; but Mr. Wilton stated that they +all with one exception were made before those appointed became candidates +for the Legislature, and the letters, etc., recommending them all bear +date before, and most of them long before, those appointed were publicly +announced candidates. + +We give the foregoing naked facts and draw no conclusions from them. +BEND. S. EDWARDS, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MISS MARY SPEED--PRACTICAL SLAVERY + +BLOOMINGTON, ILL., September 27, 1841. + +Miss Mary Speed, Louisville, Ky. + +MY FRIEND: By the way, a fine example was presented on board the boat for +contemplating the effect of condition upon human happiness. A gentleman +had purchased twelve negroes in different 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 fastened to the main chain by a shorter one, at a convenient +distance from the others, so that the negroes were strung together +precisely like so many fish upon a trotline. 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 ruthless 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 offence for which he had +been sold was an overfondness 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 Springfield 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. + +Your sincere friend, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1842 +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--ON MARRIAGE + +January 30, 1842. + +MY DEAR SPEED:--Feeling, as you know I do, the deepest solicitude for the +success of the enterprise you are engaged in, I adopt this as the last +method I can adopt to aid you, in case (which God forbid!) you shall need +any aid. I do not place what I am going to say on paper because I can +say it better that way than I could by word of mouth, but, were I to say +it orally before we part, most likely you would forget it at the very +time when it might do you some good. As I think it reasonable that you +will feel very badly some time between this and the final consummation of +your purpose, it is intended that you shall read this just at such a +time. Why I say it is reasonable that you will feel very badly yet, is +because of three special causes added to the general one which I shall +mention. + +The general cause is, that you are naturally of a nervous temperament; +and this I say from what I have seen of you personally, and what you have +told me concerning your mother at various times, and concerning your +brother William at the time his wife died. The first special cause is +your exposure to bad weather on your journey, which my experience clearly +proves to be very severe on defective nerves. The second is the absence +of all business and conversation of friends, which might divert your +mind, give it occasional rest from the intensity of thought which will +sometimes wear the sweetest idea threadbare and turn it to the bitterness +of death. The third is the rapid and near approach of that crisis on +which all your thoughts and feelings concentrate. + +If from all these causes you shall escape and go through triumphantly, +without another "twinge of the soul," I shall be most happily but most +egregiously deceived. If, on the contrary, you shall, as I expect you +will at sometime, be agonized and distressed, let me, who have some +reason to speak with judgment on such a subject, beseech you to ascribe +it to the causes I have mentioned, and not to some false and ruinous +suggestion of the Devil. + +"But," you will say, "do not your causes apply to every one engaged in a +like undertaking?" By no means. The particular causes, to a greater or +less extent, perhaps do apply in all cases; but the general one,--nervous +debility, which is the key and conductor of all the particular ones, and +without which they would be utterly harmless,--though it does pertain to +you, does not pertain to one in a thousand. It is out of this that the +painful difference between you and the mass of the world springs. + +I know what the painful point with you is at all times when you are +unhappy; it is an apprehension that you do not love her as you should. +What nonsense! How came you to court her? Was it because you thought +she deserved it, and that you had given her reason to expect it? If it +was for that why did not the same reason make you court Ann Todd, and at +least twenty others of whom you can think, and to whom it would apply +with greater force than to her? Did you court her for her wealth? Why, +you know she had none. But you say you reasoned yourself into it. What +do you mean by that? Was it not that you found yourself unable to reason +yourself out of it? Did you not think, and partly form the purpose, of +courting her the first time you ever saw her or heard of her? What had +reason to do with it at that early stage? There was nothing at that time +for reason to work upon. Whether she was moral, amiable, sensible, or +even of good character, you did not, nor could then know, except, +perhaps, you might infer the last from the company you found her in. + +All you then did or could know of her was her personal appearance and +deportment; and these, if they impress at all, impress the heart, and not +the head. + +Say candidly, were not those heavenly black eyes the whole basis of all +your early reasoning on the subject? After you and I had once been at +the residence, did you not go and take me all the way to Lexington and +back, for no other purpose but to get to see her again, on our return on +that evening to take a trip for that express object? What earthly +consideration would you take to find her scouting and despising you, and +giving herself up to another? But of this you have no apprehension; and +therefore you cannot bring it home to your feelings. + +I shall be so anxious about you that I shall want you to write by every +mail. + +Your friend, +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 3, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Your letter of the 25th January came to hand to-day. You +well know that I do not feel my own sorrows much more keenly than I do +yours, when I know of them; and yet I assure you I was not much hurt by +what you wrote me of your excessively bad feeling at the time you wrote. +Not that I am less capable of sympathizing with you now than ever, not +that I am less your friend than ever, but because I hope and believe that +your present anxiety and distress about her health and her life must and +will forever banish those horrid doubts which I know you sometimes felt +as to the truth of your affection for her. If they can once and forever +be removed (and I almost feel a presentiment that the Almighty has sent +your present affliction expressly for that object), surely nothing can +come in their stead to fill their immeasurable measure of misery. The +death-scenes of those we love are surely painful enough; but these we are +prepared for and expect to see: they happen to all, and all know they +must happen. Painful as they are, they are not an unlooked for sorrow. +Should she, as you fear, be destined to an early grave, it is indeed a +great consolation to know that she is so well prepared to meet it. Her +religion, which you once disliked so much, I will venture you now prize +most highly. But I hope your melancholy bodings as to her early death +are not well founded. I even hope that ere this reaches you she will +have returned with improved and still improving health, and that you will +have met her, and forgotten the sorrows of the past in the enjoyments of +the present. I would say more if I could, but it seems that I have said +enough. It really appears to me that you yourself ought to rejoice, and +not sorrow, at this indubitable evidence of your undying affection for +her. Why, Speed, if you did not love her although you might not wish her +death, you would most certainly be resigned to it. Perhaps this point is +no longer a question with you, and my pertinacious dwelling upon it is a +rude intrusion upon your feelings. If so, you must pardon me. You know +the hell I have suffered on that point, and how tender I am upon it. You +know I do not mean wrong. I have been quite clear of "hypo" since you +left, even better than I was along in the fall. I have seen ______ but +once. She seemed very cheerful, and so I said nothing to her about what +we spoke of. + +Old Uncle Billy Herndon is dead, and it is said this evening that Uncle +Ben Ferguson will not live. This, I believe, is all the news, and enough +at that unless it were better. Write me immediately on the receipt of +this. + +Your friend, as ever, +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--ON DEPRESSION + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 13, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 1st instant came to hand three or four days +ago. When this shall reach you, you will have been Fanny's husband +several days. You know my desire to befriend you is everlasting; that I +will never cease while I know how to do anything. But you will always +hereafter be on ground that I have never occupied, and consequently, if +advice were needed, I might advise wrong. I do fondly hope, however, +that you will never again need any comfort from abroad. But should I be +mistaken in this, should excessive pleasure still be accompanied with a +painful counterpart at times, still let me urge you, as I have ever done, +to remember, in the depth and even agony of despondency, that very +shortly you are to feel well again. I am now fully convinced that you +love her as ardently as you are capable of loving. Your ever being happy +in her presence, and your intense anxiety about her health, if there were +nothing else, would place this beyond all dispute in my mind. I incline +to think it probable that your nerves will fail you occasionally for a +while; but once you get them firmly guarded now that trouble is over +forever. I think, if I were you, in case my mind were not exactly right, +I would avoid being idle. I would immediately engage in some business, +or go to making preparations for it, which would be the same thing. If +you went through the ceremony calmly, or even with sufficient composure +not to excite alarm in any present, you are safe beyond question, and in +two or three months, to say the most, will be the happiest of men. + +I would desire you to give my particular respects to Fanny; but perhaps +you will not wish her to know you have received this, lest she should +desire to see it. Make her write me an answer to my last letter to her; +at any rate I would set great value upon a note or letter from her. +Write me whenever you have leisure. Yours forever, A. LINCOLN. P. S.--I +have been quite a man since you left. + + + + +TO G. B. SHELEDY. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Feb. 16, 1842. +G. B. SHELEDY, ESQ.: + +Yours of the 10th is duly received. Judge Logan and myself are doing +business together now, and we are willing to attend to your cases as you +propose. As to the terms, we are willing to attend each case you prepare +and send us for $10 (when there shall be no opposition) to be sent in +advance, or you to know that it is safe. It takes $5.75 of cost to start +upon, that is, $1.75 to clerk, and $2 to each of two publishers of +papers. Judge Logan thinks it will take the balance of $20 to carry a +case through. This must be advanced from time to time as the services are +performed, as the officers will not act without. I do not know whether +you can be admitted an attorney of the Federal court in your absence or +not; nor is it material, as the business can be done in our names. + +Thinking it may aid you a little, I send you one of our blank forms of +Petitions. It, you will see, is framed to be sworn to before the Federal +court clerk, and, in your cases, will have [to] be so far changed as to +be sworn to before the clerk of your circuit court; and his certificate +must be accompanied with his official seal. The schedules, too, must be +attended to. Be sure that they contain the creditors' names, their +residences, the amounts due each, the debtors' names, their residences, +and the amounts they owe, also all property and where located. + +Also be sure that the schedules are all signed by the applicants as well +as the Petition. Publication will have to be made here in one paper, and +in one nearest the residence of the applicant. Write us in each case +where the last advertisement is to be sent, whether to you or to what +paper. + +I believe I have now said everything that can be of any advantage. Your +friend as ever, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GEORGE E. PICKETT--ADVICE TO YOUTH + +February 22, 1842. + +I never encourage deceit, and falsehood, especially if you have got a bad +memory, is the worst enemy a fellow can have. The fact is truth is your +truest friend, no matter what the circumstances are. Notwithstanding +this copy-book preamble, my boy, I am inclined to suggest a little +prudence on your part. You see I have a congenital aversion to failure, +and the sudden announcement to your Uncle Andrew of the success of your +"lamp rubbing" might possibly prevent your passing the severe physical +examination to which you will be subjected in order to enter the Military +Academy. You see I should like to have a perfect soldier credited to +dear old Illinois--no broken bones, scalp wounds, etc. So I think it +might be wise to hand this letter from me in to your good uncle through +his room-window after he has had a comfortable dinner, and watch its +effect from the top of the pigeon-house. + +I have just told the folks here in Springfield on this 111th anniversary +of the birth of him whose name, mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, +still mightiest in the cause of moral reformation, we mention in solemn +awe, in naked, deathless splendor, that the one victory we can ever call +complete will be that one which proclaims that there is not one slave or +one drunkard on the face of God's green earth. Recruit for this victory. + +Now, boy, on your march, don't you go and forget the old maxim that "one +drop of honey catches more flies than a half-gallon of gall." Load your +musket with this maxim, and smoke it in your pipe. + + + + +ADDRESS BEFORE THE SPRINGFIELD WASHINGTONIAN +TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 22, 1842. + +Although the temperance cause has been in progress for near twenty years, +it is apparent to all that it is just now being crowned with a degree of +success hitherto unparalleled. + +The list of its friends is daily swelled by the additions of fifties, of +hundreds, and of thousands. The cause itself seems suddenly transformed +from a cold abstract theory to a living, breathing, active, and powerful +chieftain, going forth "conquering and to conquer." The citadels of his +great adversary are daily being stormed and dismantled; his temple and +his altars, where the rites of his idolatrous worship have long been +performed, and where human sacrifices have long been wont to be made, are +daily desecrated and deserted. The triumph of the conqueror's fame is +sounding from hill to hill, from sea to sea, and from land to land, and +calling millions to his standard at a blast. + +For this new and splendid success we heartily rejoice. That that success +is so much greater now than heretofore is doubtless owing to rational +causes; and if we would have it continue, we shall do well to inquire +what those causes are. + +The warfare heretofore waged against the demon intemperance has somehow +or other been erroneous. Either the champions engaged or the tactics +they adopted have not been the most proper. These champions for the most +part have been preachers, lawyers, and hired agents. Between these and +the mass of mankind there is a want of approachability, if the term be +admissible, partially, at least, fatal to their success. They are +supposed to have no sympathy of feeling or interest with those very +persons whom it is their object to convince and persuade. + +And again, it is so common and so easy to ascribe motives to men of these +classes other than those they profess to act upon. The preacher, it is +said, advocates temperance because he is a fanatic, and desires a union +of the Church and State; the lawyer from his pride and vanity of hearing +himself speak; and the hired agent for his salary. But when one who has +long been known as a victim of intemperance bursts the fetters that have +bound him, and appears before his neighbors "clothed and in his right +mind," a redeemed specimen of long-lost humanity, and stands up, with +tears of joy trembling in his eyes, to tell of the miseries once endured, +now to be endured no more forever; of his once naked and starving +children, now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife long weighed down with +woe, weeping, and a broken heart, now restored to health, happiness, and +a renewed affection; and how easily it is all done, once it is resolved +to be done; how simple his language! there is a logic and an eloquence in +it that few with human feelings can resist. They cannot say that he +desires a union of Church and State, for he is not a church member; they +cannot say he is vain of hearing himself speak, for his whole demeanor +shows he would gladly avoid speaking at all; they cannot say he speaks +for pay, for he receives none, and asks for none. Nor can his sincerity +in any way be doubted, or his sympathy for those he would persuade to +imitate his example be denied. + +In my judgment, it is to the battles of this new class of champions that +our late success is greatly, perhaps chiefly, owing. But, had the +old-school champions themselves been of the most wise selecting, was +their system of tactics the most judicious? It seems to me it was not. +Too much denunciation against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers was indulged +in. This I think was both impolitic and unjust. It was impolitic, +because it is not much in the nature of man to be driven to anything; +still less to be driven about that which is exclusively his own business; +and least of all where such driving is to be submitted to at the expense +of pecuniary interest or burning appetite. When the dram-seller and +drinker were incessantly told not in accents of entreaty and persuasion, +diffidently addressed by erring man to an erring brother, but in the +thundering tones of anathema and denunciation with which the lordly judge +often groups together all the crimes of the felon's life, and thrusts +them in his face just ere he passes sentence of death upon him that they +were the authors of all the vice and misery and crime in the land; that +they were the manufacturers and material of all the thieves and robbers +and murderers that infest the earth; that their houses were the workshops +of the devil; and that their persons should be shunned by all the good +and virtuous, as moral pestilences--I say, when they were told all this, +and in this way, it is not wonderful that they were slow to acknowledge +the truth of such denunciations, and to join the ranks of their +denouncers in a hue and cry against themselves. + +To have expected them to do otherwise than they did to have expected them +not to meet denunciation with denunciation, crimination with crimination, +and anathema with anathema--was to expect a reversal of human nature, +which is God's decree and can never be reversed. + +When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, +unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true +maxim that "a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall." +So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him +that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches +his heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his reason; +and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in +convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed that +cause really be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his +judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned +and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues +to his head and his heart; and though your cause be naked truth itself, +transformed to the heaviest lance, harder than steel, and sharper than +steel can be made, and though you throw it with more than herculean force +and precision, you shall be no more able to pierce him than to penetrate +the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, and so must +he be understood by those who would lead him, even to his own best +interests. + +On this point the Washingtonians greatly excel the temperance advocates +of former times. Those whom they desire to convince and persuade are +their old friends and companions. They know they are not demons, nor +even the worst of men; they know that generally they are kind, generous, +and charitable even beyond the example of their more staid and sober +neighbors. They are practical philanthropists; and they glow with a +generous and brotherly zeal that mere theorizers are incapable of +feeling. Benevolence and charity possess their hearts entirely; and out +of the abundance of their hearts their tongues give utterance; "love +through all their actions runs, and all their words are mild." In this +spirit they speak and act, and in the same they are heard and regarded. +And when such is the temper of the advocate, and such of the audience, no +good cause can be unsuccessful. But I have said that denunciations +against dramsellers and dram-drinkers are unjust, as well as impolitic. +Let us see. I have not inquired at what period of time the use of +intoxicating liquors commenced; nor is it important to know. It is +sufficient that, to all of us who now inhabit the world, the practice of +drinking them is just as old as the world itself that is, we have seen +the one just as long as we have seen the other. When all such of us as +have now reached the years of maturity first opened our eyes upon the +stage of existence, we found intoxicating liquor recognized by everybody, +used by everybody, repudiated by nobody. It commonly entered into the +first draught of the infant and the last draught of the dying man. From +the sideboard of the parson down to the ragged pocket of the houseless +loafer, it was constantly found. Physicians proscribed it in this, that, +and the other disease; government provided it for soldiers and sailors; +and to have a rolling or raising, a husking or "hoedown," anywhere about +without it was positively insufferable. So, too, it was everywhere a +respectable article of manufacture and merchandise. The making of it was +regarded as an honorable livelihood, and he who could make most was the +most enterprising and respectable. Large and small manufactories of it +were everywhere erected, in which all the earthly goods of their owners +were invested. Wagons drew it from town to town; boats bore it from +clime to clime, and the winds wafted it from nation to nation; and +merchants bought and sold it, by wholesale and retail, with precisely the +same feelings on the part of the seller, buyer, and bystander as are felt +at the selling and buying of ploughs, beef, bacon, or any other of the +real necessaries of life. Universal public opinion not only tolerated +but recognized and adopted its use. + +It is true that even then it was known and acknowledged that many were +greatly injured by it; but none seemed to think the injury arose from the +use of a bad thing, but from the abuse of a very good thing. The victims +of it were to be pitied and compassionated, just as are the heirs of +consumption and other hereditary diseases. Their failing was treated as +a misfortune, and not as a crime, or even as a disgrace. If, then, what +I have been saying is true, is it wonderful that some should think and +act now as all thought and acted twenty years ago? and is it just to +assail, condemn, or despise them for doing so? The universal sense of +mankind on any subject is an argument, or at least an influence, not +easily overcome. The success of the argument in favor of the existence +of an overruling Providence mainly depends upon that sense; and men ought +not in justice to be denounced for yielding to it in any case, or giving +it up slowly, especially when they are backed by interest, fixed habits, +or burning appetites. + +Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reformers fell, was +the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly incorrigible, and +therefore must be turned adrift and damned without remedy in order that +the grace of temperance might abound, to the temperate then, and to all +mankind some hundreds of years thereafter. There is in this some thing +so repugnant to humanity, so uncharitable, so cold-blooded and +feelingless, that it, never did nor ever can enlist the enthusiasm of a +popular cause. We could not love the man who taught it we could not hear +him with patience. The heart could not throw open its portals to it, the +generous man could not adopt it--it could not mix with his blood. It +looked so fiendishly selfish, so like throwing fathers and brothers +overboard to lighten the boat for our security, that the noble-minded +shrank from the manifest meanness of the thing. And besides this, the +benefits of a reformation to be effected by such a system were too remote +in point of time to warmly engage many in its behalf. Few can be induced +to labor exclusively for posterity, and none will do it enthusiastically. +--Posterity has done nothing for us; and, theorize on it as we may, +practically we shall do very little for it, unless we are made to think +we are at the same time doing something for ourselves. + +What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit to ask or to expect a +whole community to rise up and labor for the temporal happiness of +others, after themselves shall be consigned to the dust, a majority of +which community take no pains whatever to secure their own eternal +welfare at no more distant day! Great distance in either time or space +has wonderful power to lull and render quiescent the human mind. +Pleasures to be enjoyed, or pains to be endured, after we shall be dead +and gone are but little regarded even in our own cases, and much less in +the cases of others. Still, in addition to this there is something so +ludicrous in promises of good or threats of evil a great way off as to +render the whole subject with which they are connected easily turned into +ridicule. "Better lay down that spade you are stealing, Paddy; if you +don't you'll pay for it at the day of judgment." "Be the powers, if +ye'll credit me so long I'll take another jist." + +By the Washingtonians this system of consigning the habitual drunkard to +hopeless ruin is repudiated. They adopt a more enlarged philanthropy; +they go for present as well as future good. They labor for all now +living, as well as hereafter to live. They teach hope to all-despair +to none. As applying to their cause, they deny the doctrine of +unpardonable sin; as in Christianity it is taught, so in this they +teach--"While--While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may +return." And, what is a matter of more profound congratulation, they, by +experiment upon experiment and example upon example, prove the maxim to +be no less true in the one case than in the other. On every hand we +behold those who but yesterday were the chief of sinners, now the chief +apostles of the cause. Drunken devils are cast out by ones, by sevens, +by legions; and their unfortunate victims, like the poor possessed who +were redeemed from their long and lonely wanderings in the tombs, are +publishing to the ends of the earth how great things have been done for +them. + +To these new champions and this new system of tactics our late success is +mainly owing, and to them we must mainly look for the final consummation. +The ball is now rolling gloriously on, and none are so able as they to +increase its speed and its bulk, to add to its momentum and its +magnitude--even though unlearned in letters, for this task none are so +well educated. To fit them for this work they have been taught in the +true school. They have been in that gulf from which they would teach +others the means of escape. They have passed that prison wall which +others have long declared impassable; and who that has not shall dare to +weigh opinions with them as to the mode of passing? + +But if it be true, as I have insisted, that those who have suffered by +intemperance personally, and have reformed, are the most powerful and +efficient instruments to push the reformation to ultimate success, it +does not follow that those who have not suffered have no part left them +to perform. Whether or not the world would be vastly benefited by a +total and final banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks seems to me +not now an open question. Three fourths of mankind confess the +affirmative with their tongues, and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge +it in their hearts. + +Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing what good the good of the +whole demands? Shall he who cannot do much be for that reason excused if +he do nothing? "But," says one, "what good can I do by signing the +pledge? I never drank, even without signing." This question has already +been asked and answered more than a million of times. Let it be answered +once more. For the man suddenly or in any other way to break off from +the use of drams, who has indulged in them for a long course of years and +until his appetite for them has grown ten or a hundredfold stronger and +more craving than any natural appetite can be, requires a most powerful +moral effort. In such an undertaking he needs every moral support and +influence that can possibly be brought to his aid and thrown around him. +And not only so, but every moral prop should be taken from whatever +argument might rise in his mind to lure him to his backsliding. When he +casts his eyes around him, he should be able to see all that he respects, +all that he admires, all that he loves, kindly and anxiously pointing him +onward, and none beckoning him back to his former miserable "wallowing in +the mire." + +But it is said by some that men will think and act for themselves; that +none will disuse spirits or anything else because his neighbors do; and +that moral influence is not that powerful engine contended for. Let us +examine this. Let me ask the man who could maintain this position most +stiffly, what compensation he will accept to go to church some Sunday and +sit during the sermon with his wife's bonnet upon his head? Not a +trifle, I'll venture. And why not? There would be nothing irreligious +in it, nothing immoral, nothing uncomfortable--then why not? Is it not +because there would be something egregiously unfashionable in it? Then +it is the influence of fashion; and what is the influence of fashion but +the influence that other people's actions have on our actions--the strong +inclination each of us feels to do as we see all our neighbors do? Nor +is the influence of fashion confined to any particular thing or class of +things; it is just as strong on one subject as another. Let us make it as +unfashionable to withhold our names from the temperance cause as for +husbands to wear their wives' bonnets to church, and instances will be +just as rare in the one case as the other. + +"But," say some, "we are no drunkards, and we shall not acknowledge +ourselves such by joining a reformed drunkard's society, whatever our +influence might be." Surely no Christian will adhere to this objection. +If they believe as they profess, that Omnipotence condescended to take on +himself the form of sinful man, and as such to die an ignominious death +for their sakes, surely they will not refuse submission to the infinitely +lesser condescension, for the temporal, and perhaps eternal, salvation of +a large, erring, and unfortunate class of their fellow-creatures. Nor is +the condescension very great. In my judgment such of us as have never +fallen victims have been spared more by the absence of appetite than from +any mental or moral superiority over those who have. Indeed, I believe +if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts +will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. There +seems ever to have been a proneness in the brilliant and warm-blooded to +fall into this vice--the demon of intemperance ever seems to have +delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity. What one of +us but can call to mind some relative, more promising in youth than all +his fellows, who has fallen a sacrifice to his rapacity? He ever seems +to have gone forth like the Egyptian angel of death, commissioned to +slay, if not the first, the fairest born of every family. Shall he now +be arrested in his desolating career? In that arrest all can give aid +that will; and who shall be excused that can and will not? Far around as +human breath has ever blown he keeps our fathers, our brothers, our sons, +and our friends prostrate in the chains of moral death. To all the +living everywhere we cry, "Come sound the moral trump, that these may +rise and stand up an exceeding great army." "Come from the four winds, O +breath! and breathe upon these slain that they may live." If the +relative grandeur of revolutions shall be estimated by the great amount +of human misery they alleviate, and the small amount they inflict, then +indeed will this be the grandest the world shall ever have seen. + +Of our political revolution of '76 we are all justly proud. It has given +us a degree of political freedom far exceeding that of any other nation +of the earth. In it the world has found a solution of the long-mooted +problem as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the +germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the +universal liberty of mankind. But, with all these glorious results, +past, present, and to come, it had its evils too. It breathed forth +famine, swam in blood, and rode in fire; and long, long after, the +orphan's cry and the widow's wail continued to break the sad silence that +ensued. These were the price, the inevitable price, paid for the +blessings it bought. + +Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find a stronger +bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed; in +it, more of want supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow assuaged. By +it no Orphans starving, no widows weeping. By it none wounded in +feeling, none injured in interest; even the drammaker and dram-seller +will have glided into other occupations so gradually as never to have +felt the change, and will stand ready to join all others in the universal +song of gladness. And what a noble ally this to the cause of political +freedom, with such an aid its march cannot fail to be on and on, till +every son of earth shall drink in rich fruition the sorrow-quenching +draughts of perfect liberty. Happy day when-all appetites controlled, +all poisons subdued, all matter subjected-mind, all-conquering mind, +shall live and move, the monarch of the world. Glorious consummation! +Hail, fall of fury! Reign of reason, all hail! + +And when the victory shall be complete, when there shall be neither a +slave nor a drunkard on the earth, how proud the title of that land which +may truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both those +revolutions that shall have ended in that victory. How nobly +distinguished that people who shall have planted and nurtured to maturity +both the political and moral freedom of their species. + +This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of +Washington; we are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the +mightiest name of earth long since mightiest in the cause of civil +liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy is +expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the +name of Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn +awe pronounce the name, and in its naked deathless splendor leave it +shining on. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, February 25, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 16th instant, announcing that Miss Fanny and +you are "no more twain, but one flesh," reached me this morning. I have +no way of telling you how much happiness I wish you both, though I +believe you both can conceive it. I feel somewhat jealous of both of you +now: you will be so exclusively concerned for one another, that I shall +be forgotten entirely. My acquaintance with Miss Fanny (I call her this, +lest you should think I am speaking of your mother) was too short for me +to reasonably hope to long be remembered by her; and still I am sure I +shall not forget her soon. Try if you cannot remind her of that debt she +owes me--and be sure you do not interfere to prevent her paying it. + +I regret to learn that you have resolved to not return to Illinois. I +shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably things seem to be +arranged in this world! If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and +if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the +loss. I did hope she and you would make your home here; but I own I have +no right to insist. You owe obligations to her ten thousand times more +sacred than you can owe to others, and in that light let them be +respected and observed. It is natural that she should desire to remain +with her relatives and friends. As to friends, however, she could not +need them anywhere: she would have them in abundance here. + +Give my kind remembrance to Mr. Williamson and his family, particularly +Miss Elizabeth; also to your mother, brother, and sisters. Ask little +Eliza Davis if she will ride to town with me if I come there again. And +finally, give Fanny a double reciprocation of all the love she sent me. +Write me often, and believe me + +Yours forever, +LINCOLN. + +P. S. Poor Easthouse is gone at last. He died awhile before day this +morning. They say he was very loath to die.... + +L. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--ON MARRIAGE CONCERNS + +SPRINGFIELD, February 25,1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--I received yours of the 12th written the day you went down +to William's place, some days since, but delayed answering it till I +should receive the promised one of the 16th, which came last night. I +opened the letter with intense anxiety and trepidation; so much so, that, +although it turned out better than I expected, I have hardly yet, at a +distance of ten hours, become calm. + +I tell you, Speed, our forebodings (for which you and I are peculiar) are +all the worst sort of nonsense. I fancied, from the time I received your +letter of Saturday, that the one of Wednesday was never to come, and yet +it did come, and what is more, it is perfectly clear, both from its tone +and handwriting, that you were much happier, or, if you think the term +preferable, less miserable, when you wrote it than when you wrote the +last one before. You had so obviously improved at the very time I so +much fancied you would have grown worse. You say that something +indescribably horrible and alarming still haunts you. You will not say +that three months from now, I will venture. When your nerves once get +steady now, the whole trouble will be over forever. Nor should you +become impatient at their being even very slow in becoming steady. Again +you say, you much fear that that Elysium of which you have dreamed so +much is never to be realized. Well, if it shall not, I dare swear it +will not be the fault of her who is now your wife. I now have no doubt +that it is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of +Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly can realize. Far short +of your dreams as you may be, no woman could do more to realize them than +that same black-eyed Fanny. If you could but contemplate her through my +imagination, it would appear ridiculous to you that any one should for a +moment think of being unhappy with her. My old father used to have a +saying that "If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter"; and it +occurs to me that if the bargain you have just closed can possibly be +called a bad one, it is certainly the most pleasant one for applying that +maxim to which my fancy can by any effort picture. + +I write another letter, enclosing this, which you can show her, if she +desires it. I do this because she would think strangely, perhaps, should +you tell her that you received no letters from me, or, telling her you +do, refuse to let her see them. I close this, entertaining the confident +hope that every successive letter I shall have from you (which I here +pray may not be few, nor far between) may show you possessing a more +steady hand and cheerful heart than the last preceding it. As ever, your +friend, +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 27, 1842 + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 10th instant was received three or four days +since. You know I am sincere when I tell you the pleasure its contents +gave me was, and is, inexpressible. As to your farm matter, I have no +sympathy with you. I have no farm, nor ever expect to have, and +consequently have not studied the subject enough to be much interested +with it. I can only say that I am glad you are satisfied and pleased +with it. But on that other subject, to me of the most intense interest +whether in joy or sorrow, I never had the power to withhold my sympathy +from you. It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you +say you are "far happier than you ever expected to be." That much I know +is enough. I know you too well to suppose your expectations were not, at +least, sometimes extravagant, and if the reality exceeds them all, I say, +Enough, dear Lord. I am not going beyond the truth when I tell you that +the short space it took me to read your last letter gave me more pleasure +than the total sum of all I have enjoyed since the fatal 1st of January, +1841. Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely happy, but +for the never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy whom I have +contributed to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot but reproach +myself for even wishing to be happy while she is otherwise. She +accompanied a large party on the railroad cars to Jacksonville last +Monday, and on her return spoke, so that I heard of it, of having enjoyed +the trip exceedingly. God be praised for that. + +You know with what sleepless vigilance I have watched you ever since the +commencement of your affair; and although I am almost confident it is +useless, I cannot forbear once more to say that I think it is even yet +possible for your spirits to flag down and leave you miserable. If they +should, don't fail to remember that they cannot long remain so. One +thing I can tell you which I know you will be glad to hear, and that is +that I have seen--and scrutinized her feelings as well as I could, and am +fully convinced she is far happier now than she has been for the last +fifteen months past. + +You will see by the last Sangamon Journal, that I made a temperance +speech on the 22d of February, which I claim that Fanny and you shall +read as an act of charity to me; for I cannot learn that anybody else has +read it, or is likely to. Fortunately it is not very long, and I shall +deem it a sufficient compliance with my request if one of you listens +while the other reads it. + +As to your Lockridge matter, it is only necessary to say that there has +been no court since you left, and that the next commences to-morrow +morning, during which I suppose we cannot fail to get a judgment. + +I wish you would learn of Everett what he would take, over and above a +discharge for all the trouble we have been at, to take his business out +of our hands and give it to somebody else. It is impossible to collect +money on that or any other claim here now; and although you know I am not +a very petulant man, I declare I am almost out of patience with Mr. +Everett's importunity. It seems like he not only writes all the letters +he can himself, but gets everybody else in Louisville and vicinity to be +constantly writing to us about his claim. I have always said that Mr. +Everett is a very clever fellow, and I am very sorry he cannot be +obliged; but it does seem to me he ought to know we are interested to +collect his claim, and therefore would do it if we could. + +I am neither joking nor in a pet when I say we would thank him to +transfer his business to some other, without any compensation for what we +have done, provided he will see the court cost paid, for which we are +security. + +The sweet violet you inclosed came safely to hand, but it was so dry, and +mashed so flat, that it crumbled to dust at the first attempt to handle +it. The juice that mashed out of it stained a place in the letter, which +I mean to preserve and cherish for the sake of her who procured it to be +sent. My renewed good wishes to her in particular, and generally to all +such of your relations who know me. + +As ever, +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, July 4, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 16th June was received only a day or two since. +It was not mailed at Louisville till the 25th. You speak of the great +time that has elapsed since I wrote you. Let me explain that. Your +letter reached here a day or two after I started on the circuit. I was +gone five or six weeks, so that I got the letters only a few weeks before +Butler started to your country. I thought it scarcely worth while to +write you the news which he could and would tell you more in detail. On +his return he told me you would write me soon, and so I waited for your +letter. As to my having been displeased with your advice, surely you +know better than that. I know you do, and therefore will not labor to +convince you. True, that subject is painful to me; but it is not your +silence, or the silence of all the world, that can make me forget it. I +acknowledge the correctness of your advice too; but before I resolve to +do the one thing or the other, I must gain my confidence in my own +ability to keep my resolves when they are made. In that ability you know +I once prided myself as the only or chief gem of my character; that gem I +lost--how and where you know too well. I have not yet regained it; and +until I do, I cannot trust myself in any matter of much importance. I +believe now that had you understood my case at the time as well as I +understand yours afterward, by the aid you would have given me I should +have sailed through clear, but that does not now afford me sufficient +confidence to begin that or the like of that again. + +You make a kind acknowledgment of your obligations to me for your present +happiness. I am pleased with that acknowledgment. But a thousand times +more am I pleased to know that you enjoy a degree of happiness worthy of +an acknowledgment. The truth is, I am not sure that there was any merit +with me in the part I took in your difficulty; I was drawn to it by a +fate. If I would I could not have done less than I did. I always was +superstitious; I believe God made me one of the instruments of bringing +your Fanny and you together, which union I have no doubt He had +fore-ordained. Whatever He designs He will do for me yet. "Stand still, +and see the salvation of the Lord" is my text just now. If, as you say, +you have told Fanny all, I should have no objection to her seeing this +letter, but for its reference to our friend here: let her seeing it +depend upon whether she has ever known anything of my affairs; and if she +has not, do not let her. + +I do not think I can come to Kentucky this season. I am so poor and make +so little headway in the world, that I drop back in a month of idleness +as much as I gain in a year's sowing. I should like to visit you again. +I should like to see that "sis" of yours that was absent when I was +there, though I suppose she would run away again if she were to hear I +was coming. + +My respects and esteem to all your friends there, and, by your +permission, my love to your Fanny. + +Ever yours, +LINCOLN. + + + + +A LETTER FROM THE LOST TOWNSHIPS + +Article written by Lincoln for the Sangamon Journal in ridicule of James +Shields, who, as State Auditor, had declined to receive State Bank notes +in payment of taxes. The above letter purported to come from a poor +widow who, though supplied with State Bank paper, could not obtain a +receipt for her tax bill. This, and another subsequent letter by Mary +Todd, brought about the "Lincoln-Shields Duel." + + + + +LOST TOWNSHIPS + +August 27, 1842. + +DEAR Mr. PRINTER: + +I see you printed that long letter I sent you a spell ago. I 'm quite +encouraged by it, and can't keep from writing again. I think the +printing of my letters will be a good thing all round--it will give me +the benefit of being known by the world, and give the world the advantage +of knowing what's going on in the Lost Townships, and give your paper +respectability besides. So here comes another. Yesterday afternoon I +hurried through cleaning up the dinner dishes and stepped over to +neighbor S______ to see if his wife Peggy was as well as mout be +expected, and hear what they called the baby. Well, when I got there and +just turned round the corner of his log cabin, there he was, setting on +the doorstep reading a newspaper. "How are you, Jeff?" says I. He +sorter started when he heard me, for he hadn't seen me before. "Why," +says he, "I 'm mad as the devil, Aunt 'Becca!" "What about?" says I; +"ain't its hair the right color? None of that nonsense, Jeff; there +ain't an honester woman in the Lost Townships than..."--"Than who?" says +he; "what the mischief are you about?" I began to see I was running the +wrong trail, and so says I, "Oh! nothing: I guess I was mistaken a +little, that's all. But what is it you 're mad about?" + +"Why," says he, "I've been tugging ever since harvest, getting out wheat +and hauling it to the river to raise State Bank paper enough to pay my +tax this year and a little school debt I owe; and now, just as I 've got +it, here I open this infernal Extra Register, expecting to find it full +of 'Glorious Democratic Victories' and 'High Comb'd Cocks,' when, lo and +behold! I find a set of fellows, calling themselves officers of the +State, have forbidden the tax collectors, and school commissioners to +receive State paper at all; and so here it is dead on my hands. I don't +now believe all the plunder I've got will fetch ready cash enough to pay +my taxes and that school debt." + +I was a good deal thunderstruck myself; for that was the first I had +heard of the proclamation, and my old man was pretty much in the same fix +with Jeff. We both stood a moment staring at one another without knowing +what to say. At last says I, "Mr. S______ let me look at that paper." +He handed it to me, when I read the proclamation over. + +"There now," says he, "did you ever see such a piece of impudence and +imposition as that?" I saw Jeff was in a good tune for saying some +ill-natured things, and so I tho't I would just argue a little on the +contrary side, and make him rant a spell if I could. "Why," says I, +looking as dignified and thoughtful as I could, "it seems pretty tough, +to be sure, to have to raise silver where there's none to be raised; but +then, you see, 'there will be danger of loss' if it ain't done." + +"Loss! damnation!" says he. "I defy Daniel Webster, I defy King Solomon, +I defy the world--I defy--I defy--yes, I defy even you, Aunt 'Becca, to +show how the people can lose anything by paying their taxes in State +paper." + +"Well," says I, "you see what the officers of State say about it, and +they are a desarnin' set of men. But," says I, "I guess you 're mistaken +about what the proclamation says. It don't say the people will lose +anything by the paper money being taken for taxes. It only says 'there +will be danger of loss'; and though it is tolerable plain that the people +can't lose by paying their taxes in something they can get easier than +silver, instead of having to pay silver; and though it's just as plain +that the State can't lose by taking State Bank paper, however low it may +be, while she owes the bank more than the whole revenue, and can pay that +paper over on her debt, dollar for dollar;--still there is danger of loss +to the 'officers of State'; and you know, Jeff, we can't get along +without officers of State." + +"Damn officers of State!" says he; "that's what Whigs are always +hurrahing for." + +"Now, don't swear so, Jeff," says I, "you know I belong to the meetin', +and swearin' hurts my feelings." + +"Beg pardon, Aunt 'Becca," says he; "but I do say it's enough to make Dr. +Goddard swear, to have tax to pay in silver, for nothing only that Ford +may get his two thousand a year, and Shields his twenty-four hundred a +year, and Carpenter his sixteen hundred a year, and all without 'danger +of loss' by taking it in State paper. Yes, yes: it's plain enough now +what these officers of State mean by 'danger of loss.' Wash, I s'pose, +actually lost fifteen hundred dollars out of the three thousand that two +of these 'officers of State' let him steal from the treasury, by being +compelled to take it in State paper. Wonder if we don't have a +proclamation before long, commanding us to make up this loss to Wash in +silver." + +And so he went on till his breath run out, and he had to stop. I +couldn't think of anything to say just then, and so I begun to look over +the paper again. "Ay! here's another proclamation, or something like +it." + +"Another?" says Jeff; "and whose egg is it, pray?" + +I looked to the bottom of it, and read aloud, "Your obedient servant, +James Shields, Auditor." + +"Aha!" says Jeff, "one of them same three fellows again. Well read it, +and let's hear what of it." + +I read on till I came to where it says, "The object of this measure is to +suspend the collection of the revenue for the current year." + +"Now stop, now stop!" says he; "that's a lie a'ready, and I don't want to +hear of it." + +"Oh, maybe not," says I. + +"I say it-is-a-lie. Suspend the collection, indeed! Will the +collectors, that have taken their oaths to make the collection, dare to +end it? Is there anything in law requiring them to perjure themselves at +the bidding of James Shields? + +"Will the greedy gullet of the penitentiary be satisfied with swallowing +him instead of all of them, if they should venture to obey him? And +would he not discover some 'danger of loss,' and be off about the time it +came to taking their places? + +"And suppose the people attempt to suspend, by refusing to pay; what +then? The collectors would just jerk up their horses and cows, and the +like, and sell them to the highest bidder for silver in hand, without +valuation or redemption. Why, Shields didn't believe that story himself; +it was never meant for the truth. If it was true, why was it not writ +till five days after the proclamation? Why did n't Carlin and Carpenter +sign it as well as Shields? Answer me that, Aunt 'Becca. I say it's a +lie, and not a well told one at that. It grins out like a copper dollar. +Shields is a fool as well as a liar. With him truth is out of the +question; and as for getting a good, bright, passable lie out of him, you +might as well try to strike fire from a cake of tallow. I stick to it, +it's all an infernal Whig lie!" + +"A Whig lie! Highty tighty!" + +"Yes, a Whig lie; and it's just like everything the cursed British Whigs +do. First they'll do some divilment, and then they'll tell a lie to hide +it. And they don't care how plain a lie it is; they think they can cram +any sort of a one down the throats of the ignorant Locofocos, as they +call the Democrats." + +"Why, Jeff, you 're crazy: you don't mean to say Shields is a Whig!" + +"Yes, I do." + +"Why, look here! the proclamation is in your own Democratic paper, as you +call it." + +"I know it; and what of that? They only printed it to let us Democrats +see the deviltry the Whigs are at." + +"Well, but Shields is the auditor of this Loco--I mean this Democratic +State." + +"So he is, and Tyler appointed him to office." + +"Tyler appointed him?" + +"Yes (if you must chaw it over), Tyler appointed him; or, if it was n't +him, it was old Granny Harrison, and that's all one. I tell you, Aunt +'Becca, there's no mistake about his being a Whig. Why, his very looks +shows it; everything about him shows it: if I was deaf and blind, I could +tell him by the smell. I seed him when I was down in Springfield last +winter. They had a sort of a gatherin' there one night among the +grandees, they called a fair. All the gals about town was there, and all +the handsome widows and married women, finickin' about trying to look +like gals, tied as tight in the middle, and puffed out at both ends, like +bundles of fodder that had n't been stacked yet, but wanted stackin' +pretty bad. And then they had tables all around the house kivered over +with [------] caps and pincushions and ten thousand such little +knick-knacks, tryin' to sell 'em to the fellows that were bowin', and +scrapin' and kungeerin' about 'em. They would n't let no Democrats in, +for fear they'd disgust the ladies, or scare the little gals, or dirty +the floor. I looked in at the window, and there was this same fellow +Shields floatin' about on the air, without heft or earthly substances, +just like a lock of cat fur where cats had been fighting. + +"He was paying his money to this one, and that one, and t' other one, and +sufferin' great loss because it was n't silver instead of State paper; +and the sweet distress he seemed to be in,--his very features, in the +ecstatic agony of his soul, spoke audibly and distinctly, 'Dear girls, it +is distressing, but I cannot marry you all. Too well I know how much you +suffer; but do, do remember, it is not my fault that I am so handsome and +so interesting.' + +"As this last was expressed by a most exquisite contortion of his face, +he seized hold of one of their hands, and squeezed, and held on to it +about a quarter of an hour. 'Oh, my good fellow!' says I to myself, 'if +that was one of our Democratic gals in the Lost Townships, the way you 'd +get a brass pin let into you would be about up to the head.' He a +Democrat! Fiddlesticks! I tell you, Aunt 'Becca, he's a Whig, and no +mistake; nobody but a Whig could make such a conceity dunce of himself." + +"Well," says I, "maybe he is; but, if he is, I 'm mistaken the worst +sort. Maybe so, maybe so; but, if I am, I'll suffer by it; I'll be a +Democrat if it turns out that Shields is a Whig, considerin' you shall be +a Whig if he turns out a Democrat." + +"A bargain, by jingoes!" says he; "but how will we find out?" + +"Why," says I, "we'll just write and ax the printer." + +"Agreed again!" says he; "and by thunder! if it does turn out that +Shields is a Democrat, I never will __________" + +"Jefferson! Jefferson!" + +"What do you want, Peggy?" + +"Do get through your everlasting clatter some time, and bring me a gourd +of water; the child's been crying for a drink this livelong hour." + +"Let it die, then; it may as well die for water as to be taxed to death +to fatten officers of State." + +Jeff run off to get the water, though, just like he hadn't been saying +anything spiteful, for he's a raal good-hearted fellow, after all, once +you get at the foundation of him. + +I walked into the house, and, "Why, Peggy," says I, "I declare we like to +forgot you altogether." + +"Oh, yes," says she, "when a body can't help themselves, everybody soon +forgets 'em; but, thank God! by day after to-morrow I shall be well +enough to milk the cows, and pen the calves, and wring the contrary ones' +tails for 'em, and no thanks to nobody." + +"Good evening, Peggy," says I, and so I sloped, for I seed she was mad at +me for making Jeff neglect her so long. + +And now, Mr. Printer, will you be sure to let us know in your next paper +whether this Shields is a Whig or a Democrat? I don't care about it for +myself, for I know well enough how it is already; but I want to convince +Jeff. It may do some good to let him, and others like him, know who and +what these officers of State are. It may help to send the present +hypocritical set to where they belong, and to fill the places they now +disgrace with men who will do more work for less pay, and take fewer airs +while they are doing it. It ain't sensible to think that the same men +who get us in trouble will change their course; and yet it's pretty plain +if some change for the better is not made, it's not long that either +Peggy or I or any of us will have a cow left to milk, or a calf's tail to +wring. + +Yours truly, +REBECCA ____________. + + + + +INVITATION TO HENRY CLAY. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug 29, 1842. + +HON. HENRY CLAY, Lexington, Ky. + +DEAR SIR:--We hear you are to visit Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 5th Of +October next. If our information in this is correct we hope you will not +deny us the pleasure of seeing you in our State. We are aware of the +toil necessarily incident to a journey by one circumstanced as you are; +but once you have embarked, as you have already determined to do, the +toil would not be greatly augmented by extending the journey to our +capital. The season of the year will be most favorable for good roads, +and pleasant weather; and although we cannot but believe you would be +highly gratified with such a visit to the prairie-land, the pleasure it +would give us and thousands such as we is beyond all question. You have +never visited Illinois, or at least this portion of it; and should you +now yield to our request, we promise you such a reception as shall be +worthy of the man on whom are now turned the fondest hopes of a great and +suffering nation. + +Please inform us at the earliest convenience whether we may expect you. + +Very respectfully your obedient servants, + + A. G. HENRY, A. T. BLEDSOE, + C. BIRCHALL, A. LINCOLN, + G. M. CABANNISS, ROB'T IRWIN, + P. A. SAUNDERS, J. M. ALLEN, + F. N. FRANCIS. + Executive Committee "Clay Club." + +(Clay's answer, September 6, 1842, declines with thanks.) + + + + +CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE LINCOLN-SHIELDS DUEL. + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + +ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:--I regret that my absence on public business +compelled me to postpone a matter of private consideration a little +longer than I could have desired. It will only be necessary, however, to +account for it by informing you that I have been to Quincy on business +that would not admit of delay. I will now state briefly the reasons of +my troubling you with this communication, the disagreeable nature of +which I regret, as I had hoped to avoid any difficulty with any one in +Springfield while residing there, by endeavoring to conduct myself in +such a way amongst both my political friends and opponents as to escape +the necessity of any. Whilst thus abstaining from giving provocation, I +have become the object of slander, vituperation, and personal abuse, +which were I capable of submitting to, I would prove myself worthy of the +whole of it. + +In two or three of the last numbers of the Sangamon Journal, articles of +the most personal nature and calculated to degrade me have made their +appearance. On inquiring, I was informed by the editor of that paper, +through the medium of my friend General Whitesides, that you are the +author of those articles. This information satisfies me that I have +become by some means or other the object of your secret hostility. I +will not take the trouble of inquiring into the reason of all this; but I +will take the liberty of requiring a full, positive, and absolute +retraction of all offensive allusions used by you in these +communications, in relation to my private character and standing as a +man, as an apology for the insults conveyed in them. + +This may prevent consequences which no one will regret more than myself. + +Your obedient servant, JAS. SHIELDS. + + + + +TO J. SHIELDS. + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842 + +JAS. SHIELDS, ESQ.:--Your note of to-day was handed me by General +Whitesides. In that note you say you have been informed, through the +medium of the editor of the Journal, that I am the author of certain +articles in that paper which you deem personally abusive of you; and +without stopping to inquire whether I really am the author, or to point +out what is offensive in them, you demand an unqualified retraction of +all that is offensive, and then proceed to hint at consequences. + +Now, sir, there is in this so much assumption of facts and so much of +menace as to consequences, that I cannot submit to answer that note any +further than I have, and to add that the consequences to which I suppose +you allude would be matter of as great regret to me as it possibly could +to you. + +Respectfully, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO A. LINCOLN FROM JAS. SHIELDS + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + +ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:--In reply to my note of this date, you intimate that +I assume facts and menace consequences, and that you cannot submit to +answer it further. As now, sir, you desire it, I will be a little more +particular. The editor of the Sangamon Journal gave me to understand +that you are the author of an article which appeared, I think, in that +paper of the 2d September instant, headed "The Lost Townships," and +signed Rebecca or 'Becca. I would therefore take the liberty of asking +whether you are the author of said article, or any other over the same +signature which has appeared in any of the late numbers of that paper. +If so, I repeat my request of an absolute retraction of all offensive +allusions contained therein in relation to my private character and +standing. If you are not the author of any of these articles, your +denial will be sufficient. I will say further, it is not my intention to +menace, but to do myself justice. + +Your obedient servant, JAS. SHIELDS. + + + + +MEMORANDUM OF INSTRUCTIONS TO E. H. MERRYMAN, + +Lincoln's Second, + +September 19, 1842. + +In case Whitesides shall signify a wish to adjust this affair without +further difficulty, let him know that if the present papers be withdrawn, +and a note from Mr. Shields asking to know if I am the author of the +articles of which he complains, and asking that I shall make him +gentlemanly satisfaction if I am the author, and this without menace, or +dictation as to what that satisfaction shall be, a pledge is made that +the following answer shall be given: + +"I did write the 'Lost Townships' letter which appeared in the Journal of +the 2d instant, but had no participation in any form in any other article +alluding to you. I wrote that wholly for political effect--I had no +intention of injuring your personal or private character or standing as a +man or a gentleman; and I did not then think, and do not now think, that +that article could produce or has produced that effect against you; and +had I anticipated such an effect I would have forborne to write it. And I +will add that your conduct toward me, so far as I know, had always been +gentlemanly; and that I had no personal pique against you, and no cause +for any." + +If this should be done, I leave it with you to arrange what shall and +what shall not be published. If nothing like this is done, the +preliminaries of the fight are to be-- + +First. Weapons: Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, precisely equal +in all respects, and such as now used by the cavalry company at +Jacksonville. + +Second. Position: A plank ten feet long, and from nine to twelve inches +broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the ground, as the line between us, +which neither is to pass his foot over upon forfeit of his life. Next a +line drawn on the ground on either side of said plank and parallel with +it, each at the distance of the whole length of the sword and three feet +additional from the plank; and the passing of his own such line by either +party during the fight shall be deemed a surrender of the contest. + +Third. Time: On Thursday evening at five o'clock, if you can get it so; +but in no case to be at a greater distance of time than Friday evening at +five o'clock. + +Fourth. Place: Within three miles of Alton, on the opposite side of the +river, the particular spot to be agreed on by you. + +Any preliminary details coming within the above rules you are at liberty +to make at your discretion; but you are in no case to swerve from these +rules, or to pass beyond their limits. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, October 4, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--You have heard of my duel with Shields, and I have now to +inform you that the dueling business still rages in this city. Day +before yesterday Shields challenged Butler, who accepted, and proposed +fighting next morning at sunrise in Bob Allen's meadow, one hundred +yards' distance, with rifles. To this Whitesides, Shields's second, said +"No," because of the law. Thus ended duel No. 2. Yesterday Whitesides +chose to consider himself insulted by Dr. Merryman, so sent him a kind +of quasi-challenge, inviting him to meet him at the Planter's House in +St. Louis on the next Friday, to settle their difficulty. Merryman made +me his friend, and sent Whitesides a note, inquiring to know if he meant +his note as a challenge, and if so, that he would, according to the law +in such case made and provided, prescribe the terms of the meeting. +Whitesides returned for answer that if Merryman would meet him at the +Planter's House as desired, he would challenge him. Merryman replied in +a note that he denied Whitesides's right to dictate time and place, but +that he (Merryman) would waive the question of time, and meet him at +Louisiana, Missouri. Upon my presenting this note to Whitesides and +stating verbally its contents, he declined receiving it, saying he had +business in St. Louis, and it was as near as Louisiana. Merryman then +directed me to notify Whitesides that he should publish the +correspondence between them, with such comments as he thought fit. This +I did. Thus it stood at bedtime last night. This morning Whitesides, by +his friend Shields, is praying for a new trial, on the ground that he was +mistaken in Merryman's proposition to meet him at Louisiana, Missouri, +thinking it was the State of Louisiana. This Merryman hoots at, and is +preparing his publication; while the town is in a ferment, and a street +fight somewhat anticipated. + +But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but to say +something on that subject which you know to be of such infinite +solicitude to me. The immense sufferings you endured from the first days +of September till the middle of February you never tried to conceal from +me, and I well understood. You have now been the husband of a lovely +woman nearly eight months. That you are happier now than the day you +married her I well know, for without you could not be living. But I have +your word for it, too, and the returning elasticity of spirits which is +manifested in your letters. But I want to ask a close question, "Are you +now in feeling as well as judgment glad that you are married as you are?" +From anybody but me this would be an impudent question, not to be +tolerated; but I know you will pardon it in me. Please answer it +quickly, as I am impatient to know. I have sent my love to your Fanny so +often, I fear she is getting tired of it. However, I venture to tender it +again. + +Yours forever, +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JAMES S. IRWIN. + +SPRINGFIELD, November 2, 1842. +JAS. S. IRWIN ESQ.: + +Owing to my absence, yours of the 22nd ult. was not received till this +moment. Judge Logan and myself are willing to attend to any business in +the Supreme Court you may send us. As to fees, it is impossible to +establish a rule that will apply in all, or even a great many cases. +We believe we are never accused of being very unreasonable in this +particular; and we would always be easily satisfied, provided we could +see the money--but whatever fees we earn at a distance, if not paid +before, we have noticed, we never hear of after the work is done. We, +therefore, are growing a little sensitive on that point. + +Yours etc., +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1843 + +RESOLUTIONS AT A WHIG MEETING AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, MARCH 1, 1843. + +The object of the meeting was stated by Mr. Lincoln of Springfield, who +offered the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted: + +Resolved, That a tariff of duties on imported goods, producing sufficient +revenue for the payment of the necessary expenditures of the National +Government, and so adjusted as to protect American industry, is +indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the American people. + +Resolved, That we are opposed to direct taxation for the support of the +National Government. + +Resolved, That a national bank, properly restricted, is highly necessary +and proper to the establishment and maintenance of a sound currency, and +for the cheap and safe collection, keeping, and disbursing of the public +revenue. + +Resolved, That the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the +public lands, upon the principles of Mr. Clay's bill, accords with the +best interests of the nation, and particularly with those of the State of +Illinois. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional district +of the State to nominate and support at the approaching election a +candidate of their own principles, regardless of the chances of success. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of all portions of the State to +adopt and rigidly adhere to the convention system of nominating +candidates. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional district +to hold a district convention on or before the first Monday of May next, +to be composed of a number of delegates from each county equal to double +the n tuber of its representatives in the General Assembly, provided, +each county shall have at least one delegate. Said delegates to be +chosen by primary meetings of the Whigs, at such times and places as they +in their respective counties may see fit. Said district conventions each +to nominate one candidate for Congress, and one delegate to a national +convention for the purpose of nominating candidates for President and +Vice-President of the United States. The seven delegates so nominated to +a national convention to have power to add two delegates to their own +number, and to fill all vacancies. + +Resolved, That A. T. Bledsoe, S. T. Logan, and A. Lincoln be appointed a +committee to prepare an address to the people of the State. + +Resolved, That N. W. Edwards, A. G. Henry, James H. Matheny, John C. +Doremus, and James C. Conkling be appointed a Whig Central State +Committee, with authority to fill any vacancy that may occur in the +committee. + + + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + +Address to the People of Illinois. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:-By a resolution of a meeting of such of the Whigs of the +State as are now at Springfield, we, the undersigned, were appointed to +prepare an address to you. The performance of that task we now +undertake. + +Several resolutions were adopted by the meeting; and the chief object of +this address is to show briefly the reasons for their adoption. + +The first of those resolutions declares a tariff of duties upon foreign +importations, producing sufficient revenue for the support of the General +Government, and so adjusted as to protect American industry, to be +indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the American people; and the +second declares direct taxation for a national revenue to be improper. +Those two resolutions are kindred in their nature, and therefore proper +and convenient to be considered together. The question of protection is +a subject entirely too broad to be crowded into a few pages only, +together with several other subjects. On that point we therefore content +ourselves with giving the following extracts from the writings of Mr. +Jefferson, General Jackson, and the speech of Mr. Calhoun: + +"To be independent for the comforts of life, we must fabricate them +ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side of the +agriculturalist. The grand inquiry now is, Shall we make our own +comforts, or go without them at the will of a foreign nation? He, +therefore, who is now against domestic manufactures must be for reducing +us either to dependence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in skins +and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am not one of those; +experience has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to our +independence as to our comfort." Letter of Mr. Jefferson to Benjamin +Austin. + +"I ask, What is the real situation of the agriculturalist? Where has the +American farmer a market for his surplus produce? Except for cotton, he +has neither a foreign nor a home market. Does not this clearly prove, +when there is no market at home or abroad, that there [is] too much labor +employed in agriculture? Common sense at once points out the remedy. +Take from agriculture six hundred thousand men, women, and children, and +you will at once give a market for more breadstuffs than all Europe now +furnishes. In short, we have been too long subject to the policy of +British merchants. It is time we should become a little more +Americanized, and instead of feeding the paupers and laborers of England, +feed our own; or else in a short time, by continuing our present policy, +we shall all be rendered paupers ourselves."--General Jackson's Letter +to Dr. Coleman. + +"When our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they soon +will be, under the fostering care of government, the farmer will find a +ready market for his surplus produce, and--what is of equal +consequence--a certain and cheap supply of all he wants; his prosperity +will diffuse itself to every class of the community." Speech of Hon. J. +C. Calhoun on the Tariff. + +The question of revenue we will now briefly consider. For several years +past the revenues of the government have been unequal to its +expenditures, and consequently loan after loan, sometimes direct and +sometimes indirect in form, has been resorted to. By this means a new +national debt has been created, and is still growing on us with a +rapidity fearful to contemplate--a rapidity only reasonably to be +expected in time of war. This state of things has been produced by a +prevailing unwillingness either to increase the tariff or resort to +direct taxation. But the one or the other must come. Coming +expenditures must be met, and the present debt must be paid; and money +cannot always be borrowed for these objects. The system of loans is but +temporary in its nature, and must soon explode. It is a system not only +ruinous while it lasts, but one that must soon fail and leave us +destitute. As an individual who undertakes to live by borrowing soon +finds his original means devoured by interest, and, next, no one left to +borrow from, so must it be with a government. + +We repeat, then, that a tariff sufficient for revenue, or a direct tax, +must soon be resorted to; and, indeed, we believe this alternative is now +denied by no one. But which system shall be adopted? Some of our +opponents, in theory, admit the propriety of a tariff sufficient for a +revenue, but even they will not in practice vote for such a tariff; while +others boldly advocate direct taxation. Inasmuch, therefore, as some of +them boldly advocate direct taxation, and all the rest--or so nearly all +as to make exceptions needless--refuse to adopt the tariff, we think it +is doing them no injustice to class them all as advocates of direct +taxation. Indeed, we believe they are only delaying an open avowal of +the system till they can assure themselves that the people will tolerate +it. Let us, then, briefly compare the two systems. The tariff is the +cheaper system, because the duties, being collected in large parcels at a +few commercial points, will require comparatively few officers in their +collection; while by the direct-tax system the land must be literally +covered with assessors and collectors, going forth like swarms of +Egyptian locusts, devouring every blade of grass and other green thing. +And, again, by the tariff system the whole revenue is paid by the +consumers of foreign goods, and those chiefly the luxuries, and not the +necessaries, of life. By this system the man who contents himself to +live upon the products of his own country pays nothing at all. And +surely that country is extensive enough, and its products abundant and +varied enough, to answer all the real wants of its people. In short, by +this system the burthen of revenue falls almost entirely on the wealthy +and luxurious few, while the substantial and laboring many who live at +home, and upon home products, go entirely free. By the direct-tax system +none can escape. However strictly the citizen may exclude from his +premises all foreign luxuries,--fine cloths, fine silks, rich wines, +golden chains, and diamond rings,--still, for the possession of his +house, his barn, and his homespun, he is to be perpetually haunted and +harassed by the tax-gatherer. With these views we leave it to be +determined whether we or our opponents are the more truly democratic on +the subject. + +The third resolution declares the necessity and propriety of a national +bank. During the last fifty years so much has been said and written both +as to the constitutionality and expediency of such an institution, that +we could not hope to improve in the least on former discussions of the +subject, were we to undertake it. We, therefore, upon the question of +constitutionality content ourselves with remarking the facts that the +first national bank was established chiefly by the same men who formed +the Constitution, at a time when that instrument was but two years old, +and receiving the sanction, as President, of the immortal Washington; +that the second received the sanction, as President, of Mr. Madison, to +whom common consent has awarded the proud title of "Father of the +Constitution"; and subsequently the sanction of the Supreme Court, the +most enlightened judicial tribunal in the world. Upon the question of +expediency, we only ask you to examine the history of the times during +the existence of the two banks, and compare those times with the +miserable present. + +The fourth resolution declares the expediency of Mr. Clay's land bill. +Much incomprehensible jargon is often used against the constitutionality +of this measure. We forbear, in this place, attempting an answer to it, +simply because, in our opinion, those who urge it are through party zeal +resolved not to see or acknowledge the truth. The question of +expediency, at least so far as Illinois is concerned, seems to us the +clearest imaginable. By the bill we are to receive annually a large sum +of money, no part of which we otherwise receive. The precise annual sum +cannot be known in advance; it doubtless will vary in different years. +Still it is something to know that in the last year--a year of almost +unparalleled pecuniary pressure--it amounted to more than forty thousand +dollars. This annual income, in the midst of our almost insupportable +difficulties, in the days of our severest necessity, our political +opponents are furiously resolving to take and keep from us. And for +what? Many silly reasons are given, as is usual in cases where a single +good one is not to be found. One is that by giving us the proceeds of +the lands we impoverish the national treasury, and thereby render +necessary an increase of the tariff. This may be true; but if so, the +amount of it only is that those whose pride, whose abundance of means, +prompt them to spurn the manufactures of our country, and to strut in +British cloaks and coats and pantaloons, may have to pay a few cents more +on the yard for the cloth that makes them. A terrible evil, truly, to +the Illinois farmer, who never wore, nor ever expects to wear, a single +yard of British goods in his whole life. Another of their reasons is +that by the passage and continuance of Mr. Clay's bill, we prevent the +passage of a bill which would give us more. This, if it were sound in +itself, is waging destructive war with the former position; for if Mr. +Clay's bill impoverishes the treasury too much, what shall be said of one +that impoverishes it still more? But it is not sound in itself. It is +not true that Mr. Clay's bill prevents the passage of one more favorable +to us of the new States. Considering the strength and opposite interest +of the old States, the wonder is that they ever permitted one to pass so +favorable as Mr. Clay's. The last twenty-odd years' efforts to reduce +the price of the lands, and to pass graduation bills and cession bills, +prove the assertion to be true; and if there were no experience in +support of it, the reason itself is plain. The States in which none, or +few, of the public lands lie, and those consequently interested against +parting with them except for the best price, are the majority; and a +moment's reflection will show that they must ever continue the majority, +because by the time one of the original new States (Ohio, for example) +becomes populous and gets weight in Congress, the public lands in her +limits are so nearly sold out that in every point material to this +question she becomes an old State. She does not wish the price reduced, +because there is none left for her citizens to buy; she does not wish +them ceded to the States in which they lie, because they no longer lie in +her limits, and she will get nothing by the cession. In the nature of +things, the States interested in the reduction of price, in graduation, +in cession, and in all similar projects, never can be the majority. Nor +is there reason to hope that any of them can ever succeed as a Democratic +party measure, because we have heretofore seen that party in full power, +year after year, with many of their leaders making loud professions in +favor of these projects, and yet doing nothing. What reason, then, is +there to believe they will hereafter do better? In every light in which +we can view this question, it amounts simply to this: Shall we accept our +share of the proceeds under Mr. Clay's bill, or shall we rather reject +that and get nothing? + +The fifth resolution recommends that a Whig candidate for Congress be run +in every district, regardless of the chances of success. We are aware +that it is sometimes a temporary gratification, when a friend cannot +succeed, to be able to choose between opponents; but we believe that that +gratification is the seed-time which never fails to be followed by a most +abundant harvest of bitterness. By this policy we entangle ourselves. +By voting for our opponents, such of us as do it in some measure estop +ourselves to complain of their acts, however glaringly wrong we may +believe them to be. By this policy no one portion of our friends can +ever be certain as to what course another portion may adopt; and by this +want of mutual and perfect understanding our political identity is +partially frittered away and lost. And, again, those who are thus +elected by our aid ever become our bitterest persecutors. Take a few +prominent examples. In 1830 Reynolds was elected Governor; in 1835 we +exerted our whole strength to elect Judge Young to the United States +Senate, which effort, though failing, gave him the prominence that +subsequently elected him; in 1836 General Ewing, was so elected to the +United States Senate; and yet let us ask what three men have been more +perseveringly vindictive in their assaults upon all our men and measures +than they? During the last summer the whole State was covered with +pamphlet editions of misrepresentations against us, methodized into +chapters and verses, written by two of these same men,--Reynolds and +Young, in which they did not stop at charging us with error merely, but +roundly denounced us as the designing enemies of human liberty, itself. +If it be the will of Heaven that such men shall politically live, be it +so; but never, never again permit them to draw a particle of their +sustenance from us. + +The sixth resolution recommends the adoption of the convention system for +the nomination of candidates. This we believe to be of the very first +importance. Whether the system is right in itself we do not stop to +inquire; contenting ourselves with trying to show that, while our +opponents use it, it is madness in us not to defend ourselves with it. +Experience has shown that we cannot successfully defend ourselves without +it. For examples, look at the elections of last year. Our candidate for +governor, with the approbation of a large portion of the party, took the +field without a nomination, and in open opposition to the system. +Wherever in the counties the Whigs had held conventions and nominated +candidates for the Legislature, the aspirants who were not nominated were +induced to rebel against the nominations, and to become candidates, as is +said, "on their own hook." And, go where you would into a large Whig +county, you were sure to find the Whigs not contending shoulder to +shoulder against the common enemy, but divided into factions, and +fighting furiously with one another. The election came, and what was the +result? The governor beaten, the Whig vote being decreased many +thousands since 1840, although the Democratic vote had not increased any. +Beaten almost everywhere for members of the Legislature,--Tazewell, with +her four hundred Whig majority, sending a delegation half Democratic; +Vermillion, with her five hundred, doing the same; Coles, with her four +hundred, sending two out of three; and Morgan, with her two hundred and +fifty, sending three out of four,--and this to say nothing of the +numerous other less glaring examples; the whole winding up with the +aggregate number of twenty-seven Democratic representatives sent from +Whig counties. As to the senators, too, the result was of the same +character. And it is most worthy to be remembered that of all the Whigs +in the State who ran against the regular nominees, a single one only was +elected. Although they succeeded in defeating the nominees almost by +scores, they too were defeated, and the spoils chucklingly borne off by +the common enemy. + +We do not mention the fact of many of the Whigs opposing the convention +system heretofore for the purpose of censuring them. Far from it. We +expressly protest against such a conclusion. We know they were +generally, perhaps universally, as good and true Whigs as we ourselves +claim to be. + +We mention it merely to draw attention to the disastrous result it +produced, as an example forever hereafter to be avoided. That "union is +strength" is a truth that has been known, illustrated, and declared in +various ways and forms in all ages of the world. That great fabulist and +philosopher Aesop illustrated it by his fable of the bundle of sticks; +and he whose wisdom surpasses that of all philosophers has declared that +"a house divided against itself cannot stand." It is to induce our +friends to act upon this important and universally acknowledged truth +that we urge the adoption of the convention system. Reflection will +prove that there is no other way of practically applying it. In its +application we know there will be incidents temporarily painful; but, +after all, those incidents will be fewer and less intense with than +without the system. If two friends aspire to the same office it is +certain that both cannot succeed. Would it not, then, be much less +painful to have the question decided by mutual friends some time before, +than to snarl and quarrel until the day of election, and then both be +beaten by the common enemy? + +Before leaving this subject, we think proper to remark that we do not +understand the resolution as intended to recommend the application of the +convention system to the nomination of candidates for the small offices +no way connected with politics; though we must say we do not perceive +that such an application of it would be wrong. + +The seventh resolution recommends the holding of district conventions in +May next, for the purpose of nominating candidates for Congress. The +propriety of this rests upon the same reasons with that of the sixth, and +therefore needs no further discussion. + +The eighth and ninth also relate merely to the practical application of +the foregoing, and therefore need no discussion. + +Before closing, permit us to add a few reflections on the present +condition and future prospects of the Whig party. In almost all the +States we have fallen into the minority, and despondency seems to prevail +universally among us. Is there just cause for this? In 1840 we carried +the nation by more than a hundred and forty thousand majority. Our +opponents charged that we did it by fraudulent voting; but whatever they +may have believed, we know the charge to be untrue. Where, now, is that +mighty host? Have they gone over to the enemy? Let the results of the +late elections answer. Every State which has fallen off from the Whig +cause since 1840 has done so not by giving more Democratic votes than +they did then, but by giving fewer Whig. Bouck, who was elected +Democratic Governor of New York last fall by more than 15,000 majority, +had not then as many votes as he had in 1840, when he was beaten by seven +or eight thousand. And so has it been in all the other States which have +fallen away from our cause. From this it is evident that tens of +thousands in the late elections have not voted at all. Who and what are +they? is an important question, as respects the future. They can come +forward and give us the victory again. That all, or nearly all, of them +are Whigs is most apparent. Our opponents, stung to madness by the +defeat of 1840, have ever since rallied with more than their usual +unanimity. It has not been they that have been kept from the polls. +These facts show what the result must be, once the people again rally in +their entire strength. Proclaim these facts, and predict this result; +and although unthinking opponents may smile at us, the sagacious ones +will "believe and tremble." And why shall the Whigs not all rally again? +Are their principles less dear now than in 1840? Have any of their +doctrines since then been discovered to be untrue? It is true, the +victory of 1840 did not produce the happy results anticipated; but it is +equally true, as we believe, that the unfortunate death of General +Harrison was the cause of the failure. It was not the election of +General Harrison that was expected to produce happy effects, but the +measures to be adopted by his administration. By means of his death, and +the unexpected course of his successor, those measures were never +adopted. How could the fruits follow? The consequences we always +predicted would follow the failure of those measures have followed, and +are now upon us in all their horrors. By the course of Mr. Tyler the +policy of our opponents has continued in operation, still leaving them +with the advantage of charging all its evils upon us as the results of a +Whig administration. Let none be deceived by this somewhat plausible, +though entirely false charge. If they ask us for the sufficient and +sound currency we promised, let them be answered that we only promised it +through the medium of a national bank, which they, aided by Mr. Tyler, +prevented our establishing. And let them be reminded, too, that their +own policy in relation to the currency has all the time been, and still +is, in full operation. Let us then again come forth in our might, and by +a second victory accomplish that which death prevented in the first. We +can do it. When did the Whigs ever fail if they were fully aroused and +united? Even in single States, under such circumstances, defeat seldom +overtakes them. Call to mind the contested elections within the last few +years, and particularly those of Moore and Letcher from Kentucky, Newland +and Graham from North Carolina, and the famous New Jersey case. In all +these districts Locofocoism had stalked omnipotent before; but when the +whole people were aroused by its enormities on those occasions, they put +it down, never to rise again. + +We declare it to be our solemn conviction, that the Whigs are always a +majority of this nation; and that to make them always successful needs +but to get them all to the polls and to vote unitedly. This is the great +desideratum. Let us make every effort to attain it. At every election, +let every Whig act as though he knew the result to depend upon his +action. In the great contest of 1840 some more than twenty one hundred +thousand votes were cast, and so surely as there shall be that many, with +the ordinary increase added, cast in 1844 that surely will a Whig be +elected President of the United States. + +A. LINCOLN. S. T. LOGAN. A. T. BLEDSOE. + +March 4, 1843. + + + + +TO JOHN BENNETT. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 7, 1843. +FRIEND BENNETT: + +Your letter of this day was handed me by Mr. Miles. It is too late now +to effect the object you desire. On yesterday morning the most of the +Whig members from this district got together and agreed to hold the +convention at Tremont in Tazewell County. I am sorry to hear that any of +the Whigs of your county, or indeed of any county, should longer be +against conventions. On last Wednesday evening a meeting of all the +Whigs then here from all parts of the State was held, and the question of +the propriety of conventions was brought up and fully discussed, and at +the end of the discussion a resolution recommending the system of +conventions to all the Whigs of the State was unanimously adopted. Other +resolutions were also passed, all of which will appear in the next +Journal. The meeting also appointed a committee to draft an address to +the people of the State, which address will also appear in the next +journal. + +In it you will find a brief argument in favor of conventions--and +although I wrote it myself I will say to you that it is conclusive upon +the point and can not be reasonably answered. The right way for you to do +is hold your meeting and appoint delegates any how, and if there be any +who will not take part, let it be so. The matter will work so well this +time that even they who now oppose will come in next time. + +The convention is to be held at Tremont on the 5th of April and according +to the rule we have adopted your county is to have delegates--being +double your representation. + +If there be any good Whig who is disposed to stick out against +conventions get him at least to read the arguement in their favor in the +address. + +Yours as ever, +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 24, 1843. + +DEAR SPEED:--We had a meeting of the Whigs of the county here on last +Monday to appoint delegates to a district convention; and Baker beat me, +and got the delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite of +my attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates; so that in +getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow +who is made a groomsman to a man that has cut him out and is marrying his +own dear "gal." About the prospects of your having a namesake at our +town, can't say exactly yet. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., March 26, 1843. +FRIEND MORRIS: + +Your letter of the a 3 d, was received on yesterday morning, and for +which (instead of an excuse, which you thought proper to ask) I tender +you my sincere thanks. It is truly gratifying to me to learn that, while +the people of Sangamon have cast me off, my old friends of Menard, who +have known me longest and best, stick to me. It would astonish, if not +amuse, the older citizens to learn that I (a stranger, friendless, +uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars per +month) have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and +aristocratic family distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, +too, the strangest combination of church influence against me. Baker is +a Campbellite; and therefore, as I suppose, with few exceptions got all +that church. My wife has some relations in the Presbyterian churches, +and some with the Episcopal churches; and therefore, wherever it would +tell, I was set down as either the one or the other, while it was +everywhere contended that no Christian ought to go for me, because I +belonged to no church, was suspected of being a deist, and had talked +about fighting a duel. With all these things, Baker, of course, had +nothing to do. Nor do I complain of them. As to his own church going +for him, I think that was right enough, and as to the influences I have +spoken of in the other, though they were very strong, it would be grossly +untrue and unjust to charge that they acted upon them in a body or were +very near so. I only mean that those influences levied a tax of a +considerable per cent. upon my strength throughout the religious +controversy. But enough of this. + +You say that in choosing a candidate for Congress you have an equal right +with Sangamon, and in this you are undoubtedly correct. In agreeing to +withdraw if the Whigs of Sangamon should go against me, I did not mean +that they alone were worth consulting, but that if she, with her heavy +delegation, should be against me, it would be impossible for me to +succeed, and therefore I had as well decline. And in relation to Menard +having rights, permit me fully to recognize them, and to express the +opinion that, if she and Mason act circumspectly, they will in the +convention be able so far to enforce their rights as to decide absolutely +which one of the candidates shall be successful. Let me show the reason +of this. Hardin, or some other Morgan candidate, will get Putnam, +Marshall, Woodford, Tazewell, and Logan--making sixteen. Then you and +Mason, having three, can give the victory to either side. + +You say you shall instruct your delegates for me, unless I object. I +certainly shall not object. That would be too pleasant a compliment for +me to tread in the dust. And besides, if anything should happen (which, +however, is not probable) by which Baker should be thrown out of the +fight, I would be at liberty to accept the nomination if I could get it. +I do, however, feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from +getting the nomination. I should despise myself were I to attempt it. I +think, then, it would be proper for your meeting to appoint three +delegates and to instruct them to go for some one as the first choice, +some one else as a second, and perhaps some one as a third; and if in +those instructions I were named as the first choice, it would gratify me +very much. If you wish to hold the balance of power, it is important for +you to attend to and secure the vote of Mason also: You should be sure to +have men appointed delegates that you know you can safely confide in. If +yourself and James Short were appointed from your county, all would be +safe; but whether Jim's woman affair a year ago might not be in the way +of his appointment is a question. I don't know whether you know it, but +I know him to be as honorable a man as there is in the world. You have +my permission, and even request, to show this letter to Short; but to no +one else, unless it be a very particular friend who you know will not +speak of it. + +Yours as ever, +A. LINCOLN. + +P. S Will you write me again? + + + + +TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + +April 14, 1843. +FRIEND MORRIS: + +I have heard it intimated that Baker has been attempting to get you or +Miles, or both of you, to violate the instructions of the meeting that +appointed you, and to go for him. I have insisted, and still insist, +that this cannot be true. Surely Baker would not do the like. As well +might Hardin ask me to vote for him in the convention. Again, it is said +there will be an attempt to get up instructions in your county requiring +you to go for Baker. This is all wrong. Upon the same rule, Why might +not I fly from the decision against me in Sangamon, and get up +instructions to their delegates to go for me? There are at least twelve +hundred Whigs in the county that took no part, and yet I would as soon +put my head in the fire as to attempt it. Besides, if any one should get +the nomination by such extraordinary means, all harmony in the district +would inevitably be lost. Honest Whigs (and very nearly all of them are +honest) would not quietly abide such enormities. I repeat, such an +attempt on Baker's part cannot be true. Write me at Springfield how the +matter is. Don't show or speak of this letter. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +TO GEN. J. J. HARDIN. + +SPRINGFIELD, May 11, 1843. +FRIEND HARDIN: + +Butler informs me that he received a letter from you, in which you +expressed some doubt whether the Whigs of Sangamon will support you +cordially. You may, at once, dismiss all fears on that subject. We have +already resolved to make a particular effort to give you the very largest +majority possible in our county. From this, no Whig of the county +dissents. We have many objects for doing it. We make it a matter of +honor and pride to do it; we do it because we love the Whig cause; we do +it because we like you personally; and last, we wish to convince you that +we do not bear that hatred to Morgan County that you people have so long +seemed to imagine. You will see by the journals of this week that we +propose, upon pain of losing a barbecue, to give you twice as great a +majority in this county as you shall receive in your own. I got up the +proposal. + +Who of the five appointed is to write the district address? I did the +labor of writing one address this year, and got thunder for my reward. +Nothing new here. + +Yours as ever, +A. LINCOLN. + +P. S.--I wish you would measure one of the largest of those swords we +took to Alton and write me the length of it, from tip of the point to tip +of the hilt, in feet and inches. I have a dispute about the length. + +A. L. A. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume One + Constitutional Edition + +Author: Abraham Lincoln + +Commentator: Theodore Roosevelt, Carl Schurz, and Joseph Choate + +Editor: Arthur Brooks Lapsley + +Release Date: July 4, 2009 [EBook #2653] +Last Updated: October 29,2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S PAPERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + </h1> + <h2> + VOLUME ONE + </h2> + <h3> + CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION + </h3> + <h4> + Edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley <br /><br /> + + With an Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt <br /><br /> + + The Essay on Lincoln by Carl Schurz <br /><br /> + + The Address on Lincoln by Joseph Choate <br /> <br /> + </h4> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>VOLUME 1.</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> INTRODUCTORY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> INTRODUCTORY NOTE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> ABRAHAM LINCOLN: AN ESSAY BY CARL SHURZ </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BY JOSEPH H. CHOATE </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> <big><b>THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, + 1832-1843</b></big> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> <b>1832</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON COUNTY. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> <b>1833</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> TO E. C. BLANKENSHIP. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR POSTAGE RECEIPT </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> <b>1836</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> ANNOUNCEMENT OF POLITICAL VIEWS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> RESPONSE TO POLITICAL SMEAR </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> TO MISS MARY OWENS. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> <b>1837</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> SPEECH IN ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> OPPOSITION TO MOB-RULE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE ON THE + SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> TO MISS MARY OWENS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> TO JOHN BENNETT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> TO MARY OWENS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> LEGAL SUIT OF WIDOW v.s. Gen. ADAMS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> LINCOLN AND TALBOTT IN REPLY TO GEN. ADAMS. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> Gen. ADAMS CONTROVERSY—CONTINUED </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> <b>1838</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> TO Mrs. O. H. BROWNING—A FARCE </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> <b>1839</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> REMARKS ON SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> TO ——— ROW. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> SPEECH ON NATIONAL BANK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> TO JOHN T. STUART. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0033"> <b>1840</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0034"> CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0035"> TO JOHN T. STUART. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0036"> RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0037"> RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0038"> REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0039"> REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0040"> <b>1841</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0041"> TO JOHN T. STUART—ON DEPRESSION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0043"> CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0044"> AGAINST THE REORGANIZATION OF THE JUDICIARY. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0045"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—MURDER CASE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0046"> STATEMENT ABOUT HARRY WILTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0047"> TO MISS MARY SPEED—PRACTICAL SLAVERY + </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0048"> <b>1842</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0049"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON MARRIAGE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0050"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0051"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON DEPRESSION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0052"> TO G. B. SHELEDY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0053"> TO GEORGE E. PICKETT—ADVICE TO YOUTH + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0054"> ADDRESS BEFORE THE SPRINGFIELD WASHINGTONIAN + TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0055"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0056"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON MARRIAGE CONCERNS + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0057"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0058"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0059"> A LETTER FROM THE LOST TOWNSHIPS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0060"> LOST TOWNSHIPS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0061"> INVITATION TO HENRY CLAY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0062"> CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE LINCOLN-SHIELDS DUEL. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0063"> TO J. SHIELDS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0064"> TO A. LINCOLN FROM JAS. SHIELDS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0065"> MEMORANDUM OF INSTRUCTIONS TO E. H. MERRYMAN, + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0066"> TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0067"> TO JAMES S. IRWIN. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0068"> <b>1843</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0069"> RESOLUTIONS AT A WHIG MEETING AT SPRINGFIELD, + ILLINOIS, MARCH 1, 1843. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0070"> CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0071"> TO JOHN BENNETT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0072"> JOSHUA F. SPEED. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0073"> TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0074"> TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0075"> TO GEN. J. J. HARDIN. </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + VOLUME 1. + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INTRODUCTORY + </h2> + <p> + Immediately after Lincoln's re-election to the Presidency, in an off-hand + speech, delivered in response to a serenade by some of his admirers on the + evening of November 10, 1864, he spoke as follows: + </p> + <p> + "It has long been a grave question whether any government not too strong + for the liberties of its people can be strong enough to maintain its + existence in great emergencies. On this point, the present rebellion + brought our republic to a severe test, and the Presidential election, + occurring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a little to + the strain.... The strife of the election is but human nature practically + applied to the facts in the case. What has occurred in this case must ever + occur in similar cases. Human nature will not change. In any future great + national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and + as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore + study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn wisdom from and none of + them as wrongs to be avenged.... Now that the election is over, may not + all having a common interest reunite in a common fort to save our common + country? For my own part, I have striven and shall strive to avoid placing + any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here, I have not willingly + planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am deeply sensible to the high + compliment of a re-election and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God + for having directed my countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think for + their own good, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may + be disappointed or pained by the result." + </p> + <p> + This speech has not attracted much general attention, yet it is in a + peculiar degree both illustrative and typical of the great statesman who + made it, alike in its strong common-sense and in its lofty standard of + morality. Lincoln's life, Lincoln's deeds and words, are not only of + consuming interest to the historian, but should be intimately known to + every man engaged in the hard practical work of American political life. + It is difficult to overstate how much it means to a nation to have as the + two foremost figures in its history men like Washington and Lincoln. It is + good for every man in any way concerned in public life to feel that the + highest ambition any American can possibly have will be gratified just in + proportion as he raises himself toward the standards set by these two men. + </p> + <p> + It is a very poor thing, whether for nations or individuals, to advance + the history of great deeds done in the past as an excuse for doing poorly + in the present; but it is an excellent thing to study the history of the + great deeds of the past, and of the great men who did them, with an + earnest desire to profit thereby so as to render better service in the + present. In their essentials, the men of the present day are much like the + men of the past, and the live issues of the present can be faced to better + advantage by men who have in good faith studied how the leaders of the + nation faced the dead issues of the past. Such a study of Lincoln's life + will enable us to avoid the twin gulfs of immorality and inefficiency—the + gulfs which always lie one on each side of the careers alike of man and of + nation. It helps nothing to have avoided one if shipwreck is encountered + in the other. The fanatic, the well-meaning moralist of unbalanced mind, + the parlor critic who condemns others but has no power himself to do good + and but little power to do ill—all these were as alien to Lincoln as + the vicious and unpatriotic themselves. His life teaches our people that + they must act with wisdom, because otherwise adherence to right will be + mere sound and fury without substance; and that they must also act + high-mindedly, or else what seems to be wisdom will in the end turn out to + be the most destructive kind of folly. + </p> + <p> + Throughout his entire life, and especially after he rose to leadership in + his party, Lincoln was stirred to his depths by the sense of fealty to a + lofty ideal; but throughout his entire life, he also accepted human nature + as it is, and worked with keen, practical good sense to achieve results + with the instruments at hand. It is impossible to conceive of a man + farther removed from baseness, farther removed from corruption, from mere + self-seeking; but it is also impossible to conceive of a man of more sane + and healthy mind—a man less under the influence of that fantastic + and diseased morality (so fantastic and diseased as to be in reality + profoundly immoral) which makes a man in this work-a-day world refuse to + do what is possible because he cannot accomplish the impossible. + </p> + <p> + In the fifth volume of Lecky's History of England, the historian draws an + interesting distinction between the qualities needed for a successful + political career in modern society and those which lead to eminence in the + spheres of pure intellect or pure moral effort. He says: + </p> + <p> + "....the moral qualities that are required in the higher spheres of + statesmanship [are not] those of a hero or a saint. Passionate earnestness + and self-devotion, complete concentration of every faculty on an unselfish + aim, uncalculating daring, a delicacy of conscience and a loftiness of aim + far exceeding those of the average of men, are here likely to prove rather + a hindrance than an assistance. The politician deals very largely with the + superficial and the commonplace; his art is in a great measure that of + skilful compromise, and in the conditions of modern life, the statesman is + likely to succeed best who possesses secondary qualities to an unusual + degree, who is in the closest intellectual and moral sympathy with the + average of the intelligent men of his time, and who pursues common ideals + with more than common ability.... Tact, business talent, knowledge of men, + resolution, promptitude and sagacity in dealing with immediate + emergencies, a character which lends itself easily to conciliation, + diminishes friction and inspires confidence, are especially needed, and + they are more likely to be found among shrewd and enlightened men of the + world than among men of great original genius or of an heroic type of + character." + </p> + <p> + The American people should feel profoundly grateful that the greatest + American statesman since Washington, the statesman who in this absolutely + democratic republic succeeded best, was the very man who actually combined + the two sets of qualities which the historian thus puts in antithesis. + Abraham Lincoln, the rail-splitter, the Western country lawyer, was one of + the shrewdest and most enlightened men of the world, and he had all the + practical qualities which enable such a man to guide his countrymen; and + yet he was also a genius of the heroic type, a leader who rose level to + the greatest crisis through which this nation or any other nation had to + pass in the nineteenth century. + </p> + <p> + THEODORE ROOSEVELT + </p> + <p> + SAGAMORE HILL, OYSTER BAY, N. Y., September 22, 1905. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INTRODUCTORY NOTE + </h2> + <p> + "I have endured," wrote Lincoln not long before his death, "a great deal + of ridicule without much malice, and have received a great deal of + kindness not quite free from ridicule." On Easter Day, 1865, the world + knew how little this ridicule, how much this kindness, had really + signified. Thereafter, Lincoln the man became Lincoln the hero, year by + year more heroic, until to-day, with the swift passing of those who knew + him, his figure grows ever dimmer, less real. This should not be. For + Lincoln the man, patient, wise, set in a high resolve, is worth far more + than Lincoln the hero, vaguely glorious. Invaluable is the example of the + man, intangible that of the hero. + </p> + <p> + And, though it is not for us, as for those who in awed stillness listened + at Gettysburg with inspired perception, to know Abraham Lincoln, yet there + is for us another way whereby we may attain such knowledge—through + his words—uttered in all sincerity to those who loved or hated him. + Cold, unsatisfying they may seem, these printed words, while we can yet + speak with those who knew him, and look into eyes that once looked into + his. But in truth it is here that we find his simple greatness, his great + simplicity, and though no man tried less so to show his power, no man has + so shown it more clearly. + </p> + <p> + Thus these writings of Abraham Lincoln are associated with those of + Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, and of the other "Founders of the + Republic," not that Lincoln should become still more of the past, but, + rather, that he with them should become still more of the present. However + faint and mythical may grow the story of that Great Struggle, the leader, + Lincoln, at least should remain a real, living American. No matter how + clearly, how directly, Lincoln has shown himself in his writings, we yet + should not forget those men whose minds, from their various view-points, + have illumined for us his character. As this nation owes a great debt to + Lincoln, so, also, Lincoln's memory owes a great debt to a nation which, + as no other nation could have done, has been able to appreciate his full + worth. Among the many who have brought about this appreciation, those only + whose estimates have been placed in these volumes may be mentioned here. + To President Roosevelt, to Mr. Schurz and to Mr. Choate, the editor, for + himself, for the publishers, and on behalf of the readers, wishes to offer + his sincere acknowledgments. + </p> + <p> + Thanks are also due, for valuable and sympathetic assistance rendered in + the preparation of this work, to Mr. Gilbert A. Tracy, of Putnam, Conn., + Major William H. Lambert, of Philadelphia, and Mr. C. F. Gunther, of + Chicago, to the Chicago Historical Association and personally to its + capable Secretary, Miss McIlvaine, to Major Henry S. Burrage, of Portland, + Me., and to General Thomas J. Henderson, of Illinois. + </p> + <p> + For various courtesies received, the editor is furthermore indebted to the + Librarian of the Library of Congress; to Messrs. McClure, Phillips & + Co., D. Appleton & Co., Macmillan & Co., Dodd, Mead & Co., and + Harper Brothers, of New York; to Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Dana, Estes + & Co., and L. C. Page & Co., of Boston; to A. C. McClure & + Co., of Chicago; to The Robert Clarke Co., of Cincinnati, and to the J. B. + Lippincott Co., of Philadelphia. + </p> + <p> + It is hardly necessary to add that every effort has been made by the + editor to bring into these volumes whatever material may there properly + belong, material much of which is widely scattered in public libraries and + in private collections. He has been fortunate in securing certain + interesting correspondence and papers which had not before come into print + in book form. Information concerning some of these papers had reached him + too late to enable the papers to find place in their proper chronological + order in the set. Rather, however, than not to present these papers to the + readers they have been included in the seventh volume of the set, which + concludes the "Writings." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + [These later papers are, in this etext, re-arranged into chronologic + order. D.W.] +</pre> + <p> + October, 1905, A. B. L. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ABRAHAM LINCOLN: AN ESSAY BY CARL SHURZ + </h2> + <p> + No American can study the character and career of Abraham Lincoln without + being carried away by sentimental emotions. We are always inclined to + idealize that which we love,—a state of mind very unfavorable to the + exercise of sober critical judgment. It is therefore not surprising that + most of those who have written or spoken on that extraordinary man, even + while conscientiously endeavoring to draw a lifelike portraiture of his + being, and to form a just estimate of his public conduct, should have + drifted into more or less indiscriminating eulogy, painting his great + features in the most glowing colors, and covering with tender shadings + whatever might look like a blemish. + </p> + <p> + But his standing before posterity will not be exalted by mere praise of + his virtues and abilities, nor by any concealment of his limitations and + faults. The stature of the great man, one of whose peculiar charms + consisted in his being so unlike all other great men, will rather lose + than gain by the idealization which so easily runs into the commonplace. + For it was distinctly the weird mixture of qualities and forces in him, of + the lofty with the common, the ideal with the uncouth, of that which he + had become with that which he had not ceased to be, that made him so + fascinating a character among his fellow-men, gave him his singular power + over their minds and hearts, and fitted him to be the greatest leader in + the greatest crisis of our national life. + </p> + <p> + His was indeed a marvellous growth. The statesman or the military hero + born and reared in a log cabin is a familiar figure in American history; + but we may search in vain among our celebrities for one whose origin and + early life equalled Abraham Lincoln's in wretchedness. He first saw the + light in a miserable hovel in Kentucky, on a farm consisting of a few + barren acres in a dreary neighborhood; his father a typical "poor Southern + white," shiftless and without ambition for himself or his children, + constantly looking for a new piece of land on which he might make a living + without much work; his mother, in her youth handsome and bright, grown + prematurely coarse in feature and soured in mind by daily toil and care; + the whole household squalid, cheerless, and utterly void of elevating + inspirations... Only when the family had "moved" into the malarious + backwoods of Indiana, the mother had died, and a stepmother, a woman of + thrift and energy, had taken charge of the children, the shaggy-headed, + ragged, barefooted, forlorn boy, then seven years old, "began to feel like + a human being." Hard work was his early lot. When a mere boy he had to + help in supporting the family, either on his father's clearing, or hired + out to other farmers to plough, or dig ditches, or chop wood, or drive ox + teams; occasionally also to "tend the baby," when the farmer's wife was + otherwise engaged. He could regard it as an advancement to a higher sphere + of activity when he obtained work in a "crossroads store," where he amused + the customers by his talk over the counter; for he soon distinguished + himself among the backwoods folk as one who had something to say worth + listening to. To win that distinction, he had to draw mainly upon his + wits; for, while his thirst for knowledge was great, his opportunities for + satisfying that thirst were wofully slender. + </p> + <p> + In the log schoolhouse, which he could visit but little, he was taught + only reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic. Among the people of the + settlement, bush farmers and small tradesmen, he found none of uncommon + intelligence or education; but some of them had a few books, which he + borrowed eagerly. Thus he read and reread, AEsop's Fables, learning to + tell stories with a point and to argue by parables; he read Robinson + Crusoe, The Pilgrim's Progress, a short history of the United States, and + Weems's Life of Washington. To the town constable's he went to read the + Revised Statutes of Indiana. Every printed page that fell into his hands + he would greedily devour, and his family and friends watched him with + wonder, as the uncouth boy, after his daily work, crouched in a corner of + the log cabin or outside under a tree, absorbed in a book while munching + his supper of corn bread. In this manner he began to gather some + knowledge, and sometimes he would astonish the girls with such startling + remarks as that the earth was moving around the sun, and not the sun + around the earth, and they marvelled where "Abe" could have got such queer + notions. Soon he also felt the impulse to write; not only making extracts + from books he wished to remember, but also composing little essays of his + own. First he sketched these with charcoal on a wooden shovel scraped + white with a drawing-knife, or on basswood shingles. Then he transferred + them to paper, which was a scarce commodity in the Lincoln household; + taking care to cut his expressions close, so that they might not cover too + much space,—a style-forming method greatly to be commended. Seeing + boys put a burning coal on the back of a wood turtle, he was moved to + write on cruelty to animals. Seeing men intoxicated with whiskey, he wrote + on temperance. In verse-making, too, he tried himself, and in satire on + persons offensive to him or others,—satire the rustic wit of which + was not always fit for ears polite. Also political thoughts he put upon + paper, and some of his pieces were even deemed good enough for publication + in the county weekly. + </p> + <p> + Thus he won a neighborhood reputation as a clever young man, which he + increased by his performances as a speaker, not seldom drawing upon + himself the dissatisfaction of his employers by mounting a stump in the + field, and keeping the farm hands from their work by little speeches in a + jocose and sometimes also a serious vein. At the rude social frolics of + the settlement he became an important person, telling funny, stories, + mimicking the itinerant preachers who had happened to pass by, and making + his mark at wrestling matches, too; for at the age of seventeen he had + attained his full height, six feet four inches in his stockings, if he had + any, and a terribly muscular clodhopper he was. But he was known never to + use his extraordinary strength to the injury or humiliation of others; + rather to do them a kindly turn, or to enforce justice and fair dealing + between them. All this made him a favorite in backwoods society, although + in some things he appeared a little odd, to his friends. Far more than any + of them, he was given not only to reading, but to fits of abstraction, to + quiet musing with himself, and also to strange spells of melancholy, from + which he often would pass in a moment to rollicking outbursts of droll + humor. But on the whole he was one of the people among whom he lived; in + appearance perhaps even a little more uncouth than most of them,—a + very tall, rawboned youth, with large features, dark, shrivelled skin, and + rebellious hair; his arms and legs long, out of proportion; clad in + deerskin trousers, which from frequent exposure to the rain had shrunk so + as to sit tightly on his limbs, leaving several inches of bluish shin + exposed between their lower end and the heavy tan-colored shoes; the + nether garment held usually by only one suspender, that was strung over a + coarse homemade shirt; the head covered in winter with a coonskin cap, in + summer with a rough straw hat of uncertain shape, without a band. + </p> + <p> + It is doubtful whether he felt himself much superior to his surroundings, + although he confessed to a yearning for some knowledge of the world + outside of the circle in which he lived. This wish was gratified; but how? + At the age of nineteen he went down the Mississippi to New Orleans as a + flatboat hand, temporarily joining a trade many members of which at that + time still took pride in being called "half horse and half alligator." + After his return he worked and lived in the old way until the spring of + 1830, when his father "moved again," this time to Illinois; and on the + journey of fifteen days "Abe" had to drive the ox wagon which carried the + household goods. Another log cabin was built, and then, fencing a field, + Abraham Lincoln split those historic rails which were destined to play so + picturesque a part in the Presidential campaign twenty-eight years later. + </p> + <p> + Having come of age, Lincoln left the family, and "struck out for himself." + He had to "take jobs whenever he could get them." The first of these + carried him again as a flatboat hand to New Orleans. There something + happened that made a lasting impression upon his soul: he witnessed a + slave auction. "His heart bled," wrote one of his companions; "said + nothing much; was silent; looked bad. I can say, knowing it, that it was + on this trip that he formed his opinion on slavery. It run its iron in him + then and there, May, 1831. I have heard him say so often." Then he lived + several years at New Salem, in Illinois, a small mushroom village, with a + mill, some "stores" and whiskey shops, that rose quickly, and soon + disappeared again. It was a desolate, disjointed, half-working and + half-loitering life, without any other aim than to gain food and shelter + from day to day. He served as pilot on a steamboat trip, then as clerk in + a store and a mill; business failing, he was adrift for some time. Being + compelled to measure his strength with the chief bully of the + neighborhood, and overcoming him, he became a noted person in that + muscular community, and won the esteem and friendship of the ruling gang + of ruffians to such a degree that, when the Black Hawk war broke out, they + elected him, a young man of twenty-three, captain of a volunteer company, + composed mainly of roughs of their kind. He took the field, and his most + noteworthy deed of valor consisted, not in killing an Indian, but in + protecting against his own men, at the peril of his own life, the life of + an old savage who had strayed into his camp. + </p> + <p> + The Black Hawk war over, he turned to politics. The step from the + captaincy of a volunteer company to a candidacy for a seat in the + Legislature seemed a natural one. But his popularity, although great in + New Salem, had not spread far enough over the district, and he was + defeated. Then the wretched hand-to-mouth struggle began again. He "set up + in store-business" with a dissolute partner, who drank whiskey while + Lincoln was reading books. The result was a disastrous failure and a load + of debt. Thereupon he became a deputy surveyor, and was appointed + postmaster of New Salem, the business of the post-office being so small + that he could carry the incoming and outgoing mail in his hat. All this + could not lift him from poverty, and his surveying instruments and horse + and saddle were sold by the sheriff for debt. + </p> + <p> + But while all this misery was upon him his ambition rose to higher aims. + He walked many miles to borrow from a schoolmaster a grammar with which to + improve his language. A lawyer lent him a copy of Blackstone, and he began + to study law. + </p> + <p> + People would look wonderingly at the grotesque figure lying in the grass, + "with his feet up a tree," or sitting on a fence, as, absorbed in a book, + he learned to construct correct sentences and made himself a jurist. At + once he gained a little practice, pettifogging before a justice of the + peace for friends, without expecting a fee. Judicial functions, too, were + thrust upon him, but only at horse-races or wrestling matches, where his + acknowledged honesty and fairness gave his verdicts undisputed authority. + His popularity grew apace, and soon he could be a candidate for the + Legislature again. Although he called himself a Whig, an ardent admirer of + Henry Clay, his clever stump speeches won him the election in the strongly + Democratic district. Then for the first time, perhaps, he thought + seriously of his outward appearance. So far he had been content with a + garb of "Kentucky jeans," not seldom ragged, usually patched, and always + shabby. Now, he borrowed some money from a friend to buy a new suit of + clothes—"store clothes" fit for a Sangamon County statesman; and + thus adorned he set out for the state capital, Vandalia, to take his seat + among the lawmakers. + </p> + <p> + His legislative career, which stretched over several sessions—for he + was thrice re-elected, in 1836, 1838, and 1840—was not remarkably + brilliant. He did, indeed, not lack ambition. He dreamed even of making + himself "the De Witt Clinton of Illinois," and he actually distinguished + himself by zealous and effective work in those "log-rolling" operations by + which the young State received "a general system of internal improvements" + in the shape of railroads, canals, and banks,—a reckless policy, + burdening the State with debt, and producing the usual crop of political + demoralization, but a policy characteristic of the time and the + impatiently enterprising spirit of the Western people. Lincoln, no doubt + with the best intentions, but with little knowledge of the subject, simply + followed the popular current. The achievement in which, perhaps, he + gloried most was the removal of the State government from Vandalia to + Springfield; one of those triumphs of political management which are apt + to be the pride of the small politician's statesmanship. One thing, + however, he did in which his true nature asserted itself, and which gave + distinct promise of the future pursuit of high aims. Against an + overwhelming preponderance of sentiment in the Legislature, followed by + only one other member, he recorded his protest against a proslavery + resolution,—that protest declaring "the institution of slavery to be + founded on both injustice and bad policy." This was not only the + irrepressible voice of his conscience; it was true moral valor, too; for + at that time, in many parts of the West, an abolitionist was regarded as + little better than a horse-thief, and even "Abe Lincoln" would hardly have + been forgiven his antislavery principles, had he not been known as such an + "uncommon good fellow." But here, in obedience to the great conviction of + his life, he manifested his courage to stand alone, that courage which is + the first requisite of leadership in a great cause. + </p> + <p> + Together with his reputation and influence as a politician grew his law + practice, especially after he had removed from New Salem to Springfield, + and associated himself with a practitioner of good standing. He had now at + last won a fixed position in society. He became a successful lawyer, less, + indeed, by his learning as a jurist than by his effectiveness as an + advocate and by the striking uprightness of his character; and it may + truly be said that his vivid sense of truth and justice had much to do + with his effectiveness as an advocate. He would refuse to act as the + attorney even of personal friends when he saw the right on the other side. + He would abandon cases, even during trial, when the testimony convinced + him that his client was in the wrong. He would dissuade those who sought + his service from pursuing an obtainable advantage when their claims seemed + to him unfair. Presenting his very first case in the United States Circuit + Court, the only question being one of authority, he declared that, upon + careful examination, he found all the authorities on the other side, and + none on his. Persons accused of crime, when he thought them guilty, he + would not defend at all, or, attempting their defence, he was unable to + put forth his powers. One notable exception is on record, when his + personal sympathies had been strongly aroused. But when he felt himself to + be the protector of innocence, the defender of justice, or the prosecutor + of wrong, he frequently disclosed such unexpected resources of reasoning, + such depth of feeling, and rose to such fervor of appeal as to astonish + and overwhelm his hearers, and make him fairly irresistible. Even an + ordinary law argument, coming from him, seldom failed to produce the + impression that he was profoundly convinced of the soundness of his + position. It is not surprising that the mere appearance of so + conscientious an attorney in any case should have carried, not only to + juries, but even to judges, almost a presumption of right on his side, and + that the people began to call him, sincerely meaning it, "honest Abe + Lincoln." + </p> + <p> + In the meantime he had private sorrows and trials of a painfully + afflicting nature. He had loved and been loved by a fair and estimable + girl, Ann Rutledge, who died in the flower of her youth and beauty, and he + mourned her loss with such intensity of grief that his friends feared for + his reason. Recovering from his morbid depression, he bestowed what he + thought a new affection upon another lady, who refused him. And finally, + moderately prosperous in his worldly affairs, and having prospects of + political distinction before him, he paid his addresses to Mary Todd, of + Kentucky, and was accepted. But then tormenting doubts of the genuineness + of his own affection for her, of the compatibility of their characters, + and of their future happiness came upon him. His distress was so great + that he felt himself in danger of suicide, and feared to carry a + pocket-knife with him; and he gave mortal offence to his bride by not + appearing on the appointed wedding day. Now the torturing consciousness of + the wrong he had done her grew unendurable. He won back her affection, + ended the agony by marrying her, and became a faithful and patient husband + and a good father. But it was no secret to those who knew the family well + that his domestic life was full of trials. The erratic temper of his wife + not seldom put the gentleness of his nature to the severest tests; and + these troubles and struggles, which accompanied him through all the + vicissitudes of his life from the modest home in Springfield to the White + House at Washington, adding untold private heart-burnings to his public + cares, and sometimes precipitating upon him incredible embarrassments in + the discharge of his public duties, form one of the most pathetic features + of his career. + </p> + <p> + He continued to "ride the circuit," read books while travelling in his + buggy, told funny stories to his fellow-lawyers in the tavern, chatted + familiarly with his neighbors around the stove in the store and at the + post-office, had his hours of melancholy brooding as of old, and became + more and more widely known and trusted and beloved among the people of his + State for his ability as a lawyer and politician, for the uprightness of + his character and the overflowing spring of sympathetic kindness in his + heart. His main ambition was confessedly that of political distinction; + but hardly any one would at that time have seen in him the man destined to + lead the nation through the greatest crisis of the century. + </p> + <p> + His time had not yet come when, in 1846, he was elected to Congress. In a + clever speech in the House of Representatives he denounced President Polk + for having unjustly forced war upon Mexico, and he amused the Committee of + the Whole by a witty attack upon General Cass. More important was the + expression he gave to his antislavery impulses by offering a bill looking + to the emancipation of the slaves in the District of Columbia, and by his + repeated votes for the famous Wilmot Proviso, intended to exclude slavery + from the Territories acquired from Mexico. But when, at the expiration of + his term, in March, 1849, he left his seat, he gloomily despaired of ever + seeing the day when the cause nearest to his heart would be rightly + grasped by the people, and when he would be able to render any service to + his country in solving the great problem. Nor had his career as a member + of Congress in any sense been such as to gratify his ambition. Indeed, if + he ever had any belief in a great destiny for himself, it must have been + weak at that period; for he actually sought to obtain from the new Whig + President, General Taylor, the place of Commissioner of the General Land + Office; willing to bury himself in one of the administrative bureaus of + the government. Fortunately for the country, he failed; and no less + fortunately, when, later, the territorial governorship of Oregon was + offered to him, Mrs. Lincoln's protest induced him to decline it. + Returning to Springfield, he gave himself with renewed zest to his law + practice, acquiesced in the Compromise of 1850 with reluctance and a + mental reservation, supported in the Presidential campaign of 1852 the + Whig candidate in some spiritless speeches, and took but a languid + interest in the politics of the day. But just then his time was drawing + near. + </p> + <p> + The peace promised, and apparently inaugurated, by the Compromise of 1850 + was rudely broken by the introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854. + The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, opening the Territories of the + United States, the heritage of coming generations, to the invasion of + slavery, suddenly revealed the whole significance of the slavery question + to the people of the free States, and thrust itself into the politics of + the country as the paramount issue. Something like an electric shock + flashed through the North. Men who but a short time before had been + absorbed by their business pursuits, and deprecated all political + agitation, were startled out of their security by a sudden alarm, and + excitedly took sides. That restless trouble of conscience about slavery, + which even in times of apparent repose had secretly disturbed the souls of + Northern people, broke forth in an utterance louder than ever. The bonds + of accustomed party allegiance gave way. Antislavery Democrats and + antislavery Whigs felt themselves drawn together by a common overpowering + sentiment, and soon they began to rally in a new organization. The + Republican party sprang into being to meet the overruling call of the + hour. Then Abraham Lincoln's time was come. He rapidly advanced to a + position of conspicuous championship in the struggle. This, however, was + not owing to his virtues and abilities alone. Indeed, the slavery question + stirred his soul in its profoundest depths; it was, as one of his intimate + friends said, "the only one on which he would become excited"; it called + forth all his faculties and energies. Yet there were many others who, + having long and arduously fought the antislavery battle in the popular + assembly, or in the press, or in the halls of Congress, far surpassed him + in prestige, and compared with whom he was still an obscure and untried + man. His reputation, although highly honorable and well earned, had so far + been essentially local. As a stump-speaker in Whig canvasses outside of + his State he had attracted comparatively little attention; but in Illinois + he had been recognized as one of the foremost men of the Whig party. Among + the opponents of the Nebraska Bill he occupied in his State so important a + position, that in 1856 he was the choice of a large majority of the + "Anti-Nebraska men" in the Legislature for a seat in the Senate of the + United States which then became vacant; and when he, an old Whig, could + not obtain the votes of the Anti-Nebraska Democrats necessary to make a + majority, he generously urged his friends to transfer their votes to Lyman + Trumbull, who was then elected. Two years later, in the first national + convention of the Republican party, the delegation from Illinois brought + him forward as a candidate for the vice-presidency, and he received + respectable support. Still, the name of Abraham Lincoln was not widely + known beyond the boundaries of his own State. But now it was this local + prominence in Illinois that put him in a position of peculiar advantage on + the battlefield of national politics. In the assault on the Missouri + Compromise which broke down all legal barriers to the spread of slavery + Stephen Arnold Douglas was the ostensible leader and central figure; and + Douglas was a Senator from Illinois, Lincoln's State. Douglas's national + theatre of action was the Senate, but in his constituency in Illinois were + the roots of his official position and power. What he did in the Senate he + had to justify before the people of Illinois, in order to maintain himself + in place; and in Illinois all eyes turned to Lincoln as Douglas's natural + antagonist. + </p> + <p> + As very young men they had come to Illinois, Lincoln from Indiana, Douglas + from Vermont, and had grown up together in public life, Douglas as a + Democrat, Lincoln as a Whig. They had met first in Vandalia, in 1834, when + Lincoln was in the Legislature and Douglas in the lobby; and again in + 1836, both as members of the Legislature. Douglas, a very able politician, + of the agile, combative, audacious, "pushing" sort, rose in political + distinction with remarkable rapidity. In quick succession he became a + member of the Legislature, a State's attorney, secretary of state, a judge + on the supreme bench of Illinois, three times a Representative in + Congress, and a Senator of the United States when only thirty-nine years + old. In the National Democratic convention of 1852 he appeared even as an + aspirant to the nomination for the Presidency, as the favorite of "young + America," and received a respectable vote. He had far outstripped Lincoln + in what is commonly called political success and in reputation. But it had + frequently happened that in political campaigns Lincoln felt himself + impelled, or was selected by his Whig friends, to answer Douglas's + speeches; and thus the two were looked upon, in a large part of the State + at least, as the representative combatants of their respective parties in + the debates before popular meetings. As soon, therefore, as, after the + passage of his Kansas-Nebraska Bill, Douglas returned to Illinois to + defend his cause before his constituents, Lincoln, obeying not only his + own impulse, but also general expectation, stepped forward as his + principal opponent. Thus the struggle about the principles involved in the + Kansas-Nebraska Bill, or, in a broader sense, the struggle between freedom + and slavery, assumed in Illinois the outward form of a personal contest + between Lincoln and Douglas; and, as it continued and became more + animated, that personal contest in Illinois was watched with constantly + increasing interest by the whole country. When, in 1858, Douglas's + senatorial term being about to expire, Lincoln was formally designated by + the Republican convention of Illinois as their candidate for the Senate, + to take Douglas's place, and the two contestants agreed to debate the + questions at issue face to face in a series of public meetings, the eyes + of the whole American people were turned eagerly to that one point: and + the spectacle reminded one of those lays of ancient times telling of two + armies, in battle array, standing still to see their two principal + champions fight out the contested cause between the lines in single + combat. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln had then reached the full maturity of his powers. His equipment as + a statesman did not embrace a comprehensive knowledge of public affairs. + What he had studied he had indeed made his own, with the eager craving and + that zealous tenacity characteristic of superior minds learning under + difficulties. But his narrow opportunities and the unsteady life he had + led during his younger years had not permitted the accumulation of large + stores in his mind. It is true, in political campaigns he had occasionally + spoken on the ostensible issues between the Whigs and the Democrats, the + tariff, internal improvements, banks, and so on, but only in a perfunctory + manner. Had he ever given much serious thought and study to these + subjects, it is safe to assume that a mind so prolific of original + conceits as his would certainly have produced some utterance upon them + worth remembering. His soul had evidently never been deeply stirred by + such topics. But when his moral nature was aroused, his brain developed an + untiring activity until it had mastered all the knowledge within reach. As + soon as the repeal of the Missouri Compromise had thrust the slavery + question into politics as the paramount issue, Lincoln plunged into an + arduous study of all its legal, historical, and moral aspects, and then + his mind became a complete arsenal of argument. His rich natural gifts, + trained by long and varied practice, had made him an orator of rare + persuasiveness. In his immature days, he had pleased himself for a short + period with that inflated, high-flown style which, among the uncultivated, + passes for "beautiful speaking." His inborn truthfulness and his artistic + instinct soon overcame that aberration and revealed to him the noble + beauty and strength of simplicity. He possessed an uncommon power of clear + and compact statement, which might have reminded those who knew the story + of his early youth of the efforts of the poor boy, when he copied his + compositions from the scraped wooden shovel, carefully to trim his + expressions in order to save paper. His language had the energy of honest + directness and he was a master of logical lucidity. He loved to point and + enliven his reasoning by humorous illustrations, usually anecdotes of + Western life, of which he had an inexhaustible store at his command. These + anecdotes had not seldom a flavor of rustic robustness about them, but he + used them with great effect, while amusing the audience, to give life to + an abstraction, to explode an absurdity, to clinch an argument, to drive + home an admonition. The natural kindliness of his tone, softening + prejudice and disarming partisan rancor, would often open to his reasoning + a way into minds most unwilling to receive it. + </p> + <p> + Yet his greatest power consisted in the charm of his individuality. That + charm did not, in the ordinary way, appeal to the ear or to the eye. His + voice was not melodious; rather shrill and piercing, especially when it + rose to its high treble in moments of great animation. His figure was + unhandsome, and the action of his unwieldy limbs awkward. He commanded + none of the outward graces of oratory as they are commonly understood. His + charm was of a different kind. It flowed from the rare depth and + genuineness of his convictions and his sympathetic feelings. Sympathy was + the strongest element in his nature. One of his biographers, who knew him + before he became President, says: "Lincoln's compassion might be stirred + deeply by an object present, but never by an object absent and unseen. In + the former case he would most likely extend relief, with little inquiry + into the merits of the case, because, as he expressed it himself, it `took + a pain out of his own heart.'" Only half of this is correct. It is + certainly true that he could not witness any individual distress or + oppression, or any kind of suffering, without feeling a pang of pain + himself, and that by relieving as much as he could the suffering of others + he put an end to his own. This compassionate impulse to help he felt not + only for human beings, but for every living creature. As in his boyhood he + angrily reproved the boys who tormented a wood turtle by putting a burning + coal on its back, so, we are told, he would, when a mature man, on a + journey, dismount from his buggy and wade waist-deep in mire to rescue a + pig struggling in a swamp. Indeed, appeals to his compassion were so + irresistible to him, and he felt it so difficult to refuse anything when + his refusal could give pain, that he himself sometimes spoke of his + inability to say "no" as a positive weakness. But that certainly does not + prove that his compassionate feeling was confined to individual cases of + suffering witnessed with his own eyes. As the boy was moved by the aspect + of the tortured wood turtle to compose an essay against cruelty to animals + in general, so the aspect of other cases of suffering and wrong wrought up + his moral nature, and set his mind to work against cruelty, injustice, and + oppression in general. + </p> + <p> + As his sympathy went forth to others, it attracted others to him. + Especially those whom he called the "plain people" felt themselves drawn + to him by the instinctive feeling that he understood, esteemed, and + appreciated them. He had grown up among the poor, the lowly, the ignorant. + He never ceased to remember the good souls he had met among them, and the + many kindnesses they had done him. Although in his mental development he + had risen far above them, he never looked down upon them. How they felt + and how they reasoned he knew, for so he had once felt and reasoned + himself. How they could be moved he knew, for so he had once been moved + himself and practised moving others. His mind was much larger than theirs, + but it thoroughly comprehended theirs; and while he thought much farther + than they, their thoughts were ever present to him. Nor had the visible + distance between them grown as wide as his rise in the world would seem to + have warranted. Much of his backwoods speech and manners still clung to + him. Although he had become "Mr. Lincoln" to his later acquaintances, he + was still "Abe" to the "Nats" and "Billys" and "Daves" of his youth; and + their familiarity neither appeared unnatural to them, nor was it in the + least awkward to him. He still told and enjoyed stories similar to those + he had told and enjoyed in the Indiana settlement and at New Salem. His + wants remained as modest as they had ever been; his domestic habits had by + no means completely accommodated themselves to those of his more highborn + wife; and though the "Kentucky jeans" apparel had long been dropped, his + clothes of better material and better make would sit ill sorted on his + gigantic limbs. His cotton umbrella, without a handle, and tied together + with a coarse string to keep it from flapping, which he carried on his + circuit rides, is said to be remembered still by some of his surviving + neighbors. This rusticity of habit was utterly free from that affected + contempt of refinement and comfort which self-made men sometimes carry + into their more affluent circumstances. To Abraham Lincoln it was entirely + natural, and all those who came into contact with him knew it to be so. In + his ways of thinking and feeling he had become a gentleman in the highest + sense, but the refining process had polished but little the outward form. + The plain people, therefore, still considered "honest Abe Lincoln" one of + themselves; and when they felt, which they no doubt frequently did, that + his thoughts and aspirations moved in a sphere above their own, they were + all the more proud of him, without any diminution of fellow-feeling. It + was this relation of mutual sympathy and understanding between Lincoln and + the plain people that gave him his peculiar power as a public man, and + singularly fitted him, as we shall see, for that leadership which was + preeminently required in the great crisis then coming on,—the + leadership which indeed thinks and moves ahead of the masses, but always + remains within sight and sympathetic touch of them. + </p> + <p> + He entered upon the campaign of 1858 better equipped than he had ever been + before. He not only instinctively felt, but he had convinced himself by + arduous study, that in this struggle against the spread of slavery he had + right, justice, philosophy, the enlightened opinion of mankind, history, + the Constitution, and good policy on his side. It was observed that after + he began to discuss the slavery question his speeches were pitched in a + much loftier key than his former oratorical efforts. While he remained + fond of telling funny stories in private conversation, they disappeared + more and more from his public discourse. He would still now and then point + his argument with expressions of inimitable quaintness, and flash out rays + of kindly humor and witty irony; but his general tone was serious, and + rose sometimes to genuine solemnity. His masterly skill in dialectical + thrust and parry, his wealth of knowledge, his power of reasoning and + elevation of sentiment, disclosed in language of rare precision, strength, + and beauty, not seldom astonished his old friends. + </p> + <p> + Neither of the two champions could have found a more formidable antagonist + than each now met in the other. Douglas was by far the most conspicuous + member of his party. His admirers had dubbed him "the Little Giant," + contrasting in that nickname the greatness of his mind with the smallness + of his body. But though of low stature, his broad-shouldered figure + appeared uncommonly sturdy, and there was something lion-like in the + squareness of his brow and jaw, and in the defiant shake of his long hair. + His loud and persistent advocacy of territorial expansion, in the name of + patriotism and "manifest destiny," had given him an enthusiastic following + among the young and ardent. Great natural parts, a highly combative + temperament, and long training had made him a debater unsurpassed in a + Senate filled with able men. He could be as forceful in his appeals to + patriotic feelings as he was fierce in denunciation and thoroughly skilled + in all the baser tricks of parliamentary pugilism. While genial and + rollicking in his social intercourse—the idol of the "boys" he felt + himself one of the most renowned statesmen of his time, and would + frequently meet his opponents with an overbearing haughtiness, as persons + more to be pitied than to be feared. In his speech opening the campaign of + 1858, he spoke of Lincoln, whom the Republicans had dared to advance as + their candidate for "his" place in the Senate, with an air of patronizing + if not contemptuous condescension, as "a kind, amiable, and intelligent + gentleman and a good citizen." The Little Giant would have been pleased to + pass off his antagonist as a tall dwarf. He knew Lincoln too well, + however, to indulge himself seriously in such a delusion. But the + political situation was at that moment in a curious tangle, and Douglas + could expect to derive from the confusion great advantage over his + opponent. + </p> + <p> + By the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, opening the Territories to the + ingress of slavery, Douglas had pleased the South, but greatly alarmed the + North. He had sought to conciliate Northern sentiment by appending to his + Kansas-Nebraska Bill the declaration that its intent was "not to legislate + slavery into any State or Territory, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to + leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their + institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the + United States." This he called "the great principle of popular + sovereignty." When asked whether, under this act, the people of a + Territory, before its admission as a State, would have the right to + exclude slavery, he answered, "That is a question for the courts to + decide." Then came the famous "Dred Scott decision," in which the Supreme + Court held substantially that the right to hold slaves as property existed + in the Territories by virtue of the Federal Constitution, and that this + right could not be denied by any act of a territorial government. This, of + course, denied the right of the people of any Territory to exclude slavery + while they were in a territorial condition, and it alarmed the Northern + people still more. Douglas recognized the binding force of the decision of + the Supreme Court, at the same time maintaining, most illogically, that + his great principle of popular sovereignty remained in force nevertheless. + Meanwhile, the proslavery people of western Missouri, the so-called + "border ruffians," had invaded Kansas, set up a constitutional convention, + made a constitution of an extreme pro-slavery type, the "Lecompton + Constitution," refused to submit it fairly to a vote of the people of + Kansas, and then referred it to Congress for acceptance,—seeking + thus to accomplish the admission of Kansas as a slave State. Had Douglas + supported such a scheme, he would have lost all foothold in the North. In + the name of popular sovereignty he loudly declared his opposition to the + acceptance of any constitution not sanctioned by a formal popular vote. He + "did not care," he said, "whether slavery be voted up or down," but there + must be a fair vote of the people. Thus he drew upon himself the hostility + of the Buchanan administration, which was controlled by the proslavery + interest, but he saved his Northern following. More than this, not only + did his Democratic admirers now call him "the true champion of freedom," + but even some Republicans of large influence, prominent among them Horace + Greeley, sympathizing with Douglas in his fight against the Lecompton + Constitution, and hoping to detach him permanently from the proslavery + interest and to force a lasting breach in the Democratic party, seriously + advised the Republicans of Illinois to give up their opposition to + Douglas, and to help re-elect him to the Senate. Lincoln was not of that + opinion. He believed that great popular movements can succeed only when + guided by their faithful friends, and that the antislavery cause could not + safely be entrusted to the keeping of one who "did not care whether + slavery be voted up or down." This opinion prevailed in Illinois; but the + influences within the Republican party over which it prevailed yielded + only a reluctant acquiescence, if they acquiesced at all, after having + materially strengthened Douglas's position. Such was the situation of + things when the campaign of 1858 between Lincoln and Douglas began. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln opened the campaign on his side at the convention which nominated + him as the Republican candidate for the senatorship, with a memorable + saying which sounded like a shout from the watchtower of history: "A house + divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot + endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to + be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but I expect it will + cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either + the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place + it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course + of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward, till it + shall become alike lawful in all the States,—old as well as new, + North as well as South." Then he proceeded to point out that the Nebraska + doctrine combined with the Dred Scott decision worked in the direction of + making the nation "all slave." Here was the "irrepressible conflict" + spoken of by Seward a short time later, in a speech made famous mainly by + that phrase. If there was any new discovery in it, the right of priority + was Lincoln's. This utterance proved not only his statesmanlike conception + of the issue, but also, in his situation as a candidate, the firmness of + his moral courage. The friends to whom he had read the draught of this + speech before he delivered it warned him anxiously that its delivery might + be fatal to his success in the election. This was shrewd advice, in the + ordinary sense. While a slaveholder could threaten disunion with impunity, + the mere suggestion that the existence of slavery was incompatible with + freedom in the Union would hazard the political chances of any public man + in the North. But Lincoln was inflexible. "It is true," said he, "and I + will deliver it as written.... I would rather be defeated with these + expressions in my speech held up and discussed before the people than be + victorious without them." The statesman was right in his far-seeing + judgment and his conscientious statement of the truth, but the practical + politicians were also right in their prediction of the immediate effect. + Douglas instantly seized upon the declaration that a house divided against + itself cannot stand as the main objective point of his attack, + interpreting it as an incitement to a "relentless sectional war," and + there is no doubt that the persistent reiteration of this charge served to + frighten not a few timid souls. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln constantly endeavored to bring the moral and philosophical side of + the subject to the foreground. "Slavery is wrong" was the keynote of all + his speeches. To Douglas's glittering sophism that the right of the people + of a Territory to have slavery or not, as they might desire, was in + accordance with the principle of true popular sovereignty, he made the + pointed answer: "Then true popular sovereignty, according to Senator + Douglas, means that, when one man makes another man his slave, no third + man shall be allowed to object." To Douglas's argument that the principle + which demanded that the people of a Territory should be permitted to + choose whether they would have slavery or not "originated when God made + man, and placed good and evil before him, allowing him to choose upon his + own responsibility," Lincoln solemnly replied: "No; God—did not + place good and evil before man, telling him to make his choice. On the + contrary, God did tell him there was one tree of the fruit of which he + should not eat, upon pain of death." He did not, however, place himself on + the most advanced ground taken by the radical anti-slavery men. He + admitted that, under the Constitution, "the Southern people were entitled + to a Congressional fugitive slave law," although he did not approve the + fugitive slave law then existing. He declared also that, if slavery were + kept out of the Territories during their territorial existence, as it + should be, and if then the people of any Territory, having a fair chance + and a clear field, should do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt a + slave constitution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of the institution + among them, he saw no alternative but to admit such a Territory into the + Union. He declared further that, while he should be exceedingly glad to + see slavery abolished in the District of Columbia, he would, as a member + of Congress, with his present views, not endeavor to bring on that + abolition except on condition that emancipation be gradual, that it be + approved by the decision of a majority of voters in the District, and that + compensation be made to unwilling owners. On every available occasion, he + pronounced himself in favor of the deportation and colonization of the + blacks, of course with their consent. He repeatedly disavowed any wish on + his part to have social and political equality established between whites + and blacks. On this point he summed up his views in a reply to Douglas's + assertion that the Declaration of Independence, in speaking of all men as + being created equal, did not include the negroes, saying: "I do not + understand the Declaration of Independence to mean that all men were + created equal in all respects. They are not equal in color. But I believe + that it does mean to declare that all men are equal in some respects; they + are equal in their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." + </p> + <p> + With regard to some of these subjects Lincoln modified his position at a + later period, and it has been suggested that he would have professed more + advanced principles in his debates with Douglas, had he not feared thereby + to lose votes. This view can hardly be sustained. Lincoln had the courage + of his opinions, but he was not a radical. The man who risked his election + by delivering, against the urgent protest of his friends, the speech about + "the house divided against itself" would not have shrunk from the + expression of more extreme views, had he really entertained them. It is + only fair to assume that he said what at the time he really thought, and + that if, subsequently, his opinions changed, it was owing to new + conceptions of good policy and of duty brought forth by an entirely new + set of circumstances and exigencies. It is characteristic that he + continued to adhere to the impracticable colonization plan even after the + Emancipation Proclamation had already been issued. + </p> + <p> + But in this contest Lincoln proved himself not only a debater, but also a + political strategist of the first order. The "kind, amiable, and + intelligent gentleman," as Douglas had been pleased to call him, was by no + means as harmless as a dove. He possessed an uncommon share of that + worldly shrewdness which not seldom goes with genuine simplicity of + character; and the political experience gathered in the Legislature and in + Congress, and in many election campaigns, added to his keen intuitions, + had made him as far-sighted a judge of the probable effects of a public + man's sayings or doings upon the popular mind, and as accurate a + calculator in estimating political chances and forecasting results, as + could be found among the party managers in Illinois. And now he perceived + keenly the ugly dilemma in which Douglas found himself, between the Dred + Scott decision, which declared the right to hold slaves to exist in the + Territories by virtue of the Federal Constitution, and his "great + principle of popular sovereignty," according to which the people of a + Territory, if they saw fit, were to have the right to exclude slavery + therefrom. Douglas was twisting and squirming to the best of his ability + to avoid the admission that the two were incompatible. The question then + presented itself if it would be good policy for Lincoln to force Douglas + to a clear expression of his opinion as to whether, the Dred Scott + decision notwithstanding, "the people of a Territory could in any lawful + way exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State + constitution." Lincoln foresaw and predicted what Douglas would answer: + that slavery could not exist in a Territory unless the people desired it + and gave it protection by territorial legislation. In an improvised caucus + the policy of pressing the interrogatory on Douglas was discussed. + Lincoln's friends unanimously advised against it, because the answer + foreseen would sufficiently commend Douglas to the people of Illinois to + insure his re-election to the Senate. But Lincoln persisted. "I am after + larger game," said he. "If Douglas so answers, he can never be President, + and the battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this." The interrogatory was + pressed upon Douglas, and Douglas did answer that, no matter what the + decision of the Supreme Court might be on the abstract question, the + people of a Territory had the lawful means to introduce or exclude slavery + by territorial legislation friendly or unfriendly to the institution. + Lincoln found it easy to show the absurdity of the proposition that, if + slavery were admitted to exist of right in the Territories by virtue of + the supreme law, the Federal Constitution, it could be kept out or + expelled by an inferior law, one made by a territorial Legislature. Again + the judgment of the politicians, having only the nearest object in view, + proved correct: Douglas was reelected to the Senate. But Lincoln's + judgment proved correct also: Douglas, by resorting to the expedient of + his "unfriendly legislation doctrine," forfeited his last chance of + becoming President of the United States. He might have hoped to win, by + sufficient atonement, his pardon from the South for his opposition to the + Lecompton Constitution; but that he taught the people of the Territories a + trick by which they could defeat what the proslavery men considered a + constitutional right, and that he called that trick lawful, this the slave + power would never forgive. The breach between the Southern and the + Northern Democracy was thenceforth irremediable and fatal. + </p> + <p> + The Presidential election of 1860 approached. The struggle in Kansas, and + the debates in Congress which accompanied it, and which not unfrequently + provoked violent outbursts, continually stirred the popular excitement. + Within the Democratic party raged the war of factions. The national + Democratic convention met at Charleston on the 23d of April, 1860. After a + struggle of ten days between the adherents and the opponents of Douglas, + during which the delegates from the cotton States had withdrawn, the + convention adjourned without having nominated any candidates, to meet + again in Baltimore on the 18th of June. There was no prospect, however, of + reconciling the hostile elements. It appeared very probable that the + Baltimore convention would nominate Douglas, while the seceding Southern + Democrats would set up a candidate of their own, representing extreme + proslavery principles. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, the national Republican convention assembled at Chicago on the + 16th of May, full of enthusiasm and hope. The situation was easily + understood. The Democrats would have the South. In order to succeed in the + election, the Republicans had to win, in addition to the States carried by + Fremont in 1856, those that were classed as "doubtful,"—New Jersey, + Pennsylvania, and Indiana, or Illinois in the place of either New Jersey + or Indiana. The most eminent Republican statesmen and leaders of the time + thought of for the Presidency were Seward and Chase, both regarded as + belonging to the more advanced order of antislavery men. Of the two, + Seward had the largest following, mainly from New York, New England, and + the Northwest. Cautious politicians doubted seriously whether Seward, to + whom some phrases in his speeches had undeservedly given the reputation of + a reckless radical, would be able to command the whole Republican vote in + the doubtful States. Besides, during his long public career he had made + enemies. It was evident that those who thought Seward's nomination too + hazardous an experiment would consider Chase unavailable for the same + reason. They would then look round for an "available" man; and among the + "available" men Abraham Lincoln was easily discovered to stand foremost. + His great debate with Douglas had given him a national reputation. The + people of the East being eager to see the hero of so dramatic a contest, + he had been induced to visit several Eastern cities, and had astonished + and delighted large and distinguished audiences with speeches of singular + power and originality. An address delivered by him in the Cooper Institute + in New York, before an audience containing a large number of important + persons, was then, and has ever since been, especially praised as one of + the most logical and convincing political speeches ever made in this + country. The people of the West had grown proud of him as a distinctively + Western great man, and his popularity at home had some peculiar features + which could be expected to exercise a potent charm. Nor was Lincoln's name + as that of an available candidate left to the chance of accidental + discovery. It is indeed not probable that he thought of himself as a + Presidential possibility, during his contest with Douglas for the + senatorship. As late as April, 1859, he had written to a friend who had + approached him on the subject that he did not think himself fit for the + Presidency. The Vice-Presidency was then the limit of his ambition. But + some of his friends in Illinois took the matter seriously in hand, and + Lincoln, after some hesitation, then formally authorized "the use of his + name." The matter was managed with such energy and excellent judgment + that, in the convention, he had not only the whole vote of Illinois to + start with, but won votes on all sides without offending any rival. A + large majority of the opponents of Seward went over to Abraham Lincoln, + and gave him the nomination on the third ballot. As had been foreseen, + Douglas was nominated by one wing of the Democratic party at Baltimore, + while the extreme proslavery wing put Breckinridge into the field as its + candidate. After a campaign conducted with the energy of genuine + enthusiasm on the antislavery side the united Republicans defeated the + divided Democrats, and Lincoln was elected President by a majority of + fifty-seven votes in the electoral colleges. + </p> + <p> + The result of the election had hardly been declared when the disunion + movement in the South, long threatened and carefully planned and prepared, + broke out in the shape of open revolt, and nearly a month before Lincoln + could be inaugurated as President of the United States seven Southern + States had adopted ordinances of secession, formed an independent + confederacy, framed a constitution for it, and elected Jefferson Davis its + president, expecting the other slaveholding States soon to join them. On + the 11th of February, 1861, Lincoln left Springfield for Washington; + having, with characteristic simplicity, asked his law partner not to + change the sign of the firm "Lincoln and Herndon" during the four years + unavoidable absence of the senior partner, and having taken an + affectionate and touching leave of his neighbors. + </p> + <p> + The situation which confronted the new President was appalling: the larger + part of the South in open rebellion, the rest of the slaveholding States + wavering preparing to follow; the revolt guided by determined, daring, and + skillful leaders; the Southern people, apparently full of enthusiasm and + military spirit, rushing to arms, some of the forts and arsenals already + in their possession; the government of the Union, before the accession of + the new President, in the hands of men some of whom actively sympathized + with the revolt, while others were hampered by their traditional doctrines + in dealing with it, and really gave it aid and comfort by their irresolute + attitude; all the departments full of "Southern sympathizers" and + honeycombed with disloyalty; the treasury empty, and the public credit at + the lowest ebb; the arsenals ill supplied with arms, if not emptied by + treacherous practices; the regular army of insignificant strength, + dispersed over an immense surface, and deprived of some of its best + officers by defection; the navy small and antiquated. But that was not + all. The threat of disunion had so often been resorted to by the slave + power in years gone by that most Northern people had ceased to believe in + its seriousness. But, when disunion actually appeared as a stern reality, + something like a chill swept through the whole Northern country. A cry for + union and peace at any price rose on all sides. Democratic partisanship + reiterated this cry with vociferous vehemence, and even many Republicans + grew afraid of the victory they had just achieved at the ballot-box, and + spoke of compromise. The country fairly resounded with the noise of + "anticoercion meetings." Expressions of firm resolution from determined + antislavery men were indeed not wanting, but they were for a while almost + drowned by a bewildering confusion of discordant voices. Even this was not + all. Potent influences in Europe, with an ill-concealed desire for the + permanent disruption of the American Union, eagerly espoused the cause of + the Southern seceders, and the two principal maritime powers of the Old + World seemed only to be waiting for a favorable opportunity to lend them a + helping hand. + </p> + <p> + This was the state of things to be mastered by "honest Abe Lincoln" when + he took his seat in the Presidential chair,—"honest Abe Lincoln," + who was so good-natured that he could not say "no"; the greatest + achievement in whose life had been a debate on the slavery question; who + had never been in any position of power; who was without the slightest + experience of high executive duties, and who had only a speaking + acquaintance with the men upon whose counsel and cooperation he was to + depend. Nor was his accession to power under such circumstances greeted + with general confidence even by the members of his party. While he had + indeed won much popularity, many Republicans, especially among those who + had advocated Seward's nomination for the Presidency, saw the simple + "Illinois lawyer" take the reins of government with a feeling little short + of dismay. The orators and journals of the opposition were ridiculing and + lampooning him without measure. Many people actually wondered how such a + man could dare to undertake a task which, as he himself had said to his + neighbors in his parting speech, was "more difficult than that of + Washington himself had been." + </p> + <p> + But Lincoln brought to that task, aside from other uncommon qualities, the + first requisite,—an intuitive comprehension of its nature. While he + did not indulge in the delusion that the Union could be maintained or + restored without a conflict of arms, he could indeed not foresee all the + problems he would have to solve. He instinctively understood, however, by + what means that conflict would have to be conducted by the government of a + democracy. He knew that the impending war, whether great or small, would + not be like a foreign war, exciting a united national enthusiasm, but a + civil war, likely to fan to uncommon heat the animosities of party even in + the localities controlled by the government; that this war would have to + be carried on not by means of a ready-made machinery, ruled by an + undisputed, absolute will, but by means to be furnished by the voluntary + action of the people:—armies to be formed by voluntary enlistments; + large sums of money to be raised by the people, through representatives, + voluntarily taxing themselves; trust of extraordinary power to be + voluntarily granted; and war measures, not seldom restricting the rights + and liberties to which the citizen was accustomed, to be voluntarily + accepted and submitted to by the people, or at least a large majority of + them; and that this would have to be kept up not merely during a short + period of enthusiastic excitement; but possibly through weary years of + alternating success and disaster, hope and despondency. He knew that in + order to steer this government by public opinion successfully through all + the confusion created by the prejudices and doubts and differences of + sentiment distracting the popular mind, and so to propitiate, inspire, + mould, organize, unite, and guide the popular will that it might give + forth all the means required for the performance of his great task, he + would have to take into account all the influences strongly affecting the + current of popular thought and feeling, and to direct while appearing to + obey. + </p> + <p> + This was the kind of leadership he intuitively conceived to be needed when + a free people were to be led forward en masse to overcome a great common + danger under circumstances of appalling difficulty, the leadership which + does not dash ahead with brilliant daring, no matter who follows, but + which is intent upon rallying all the available forces, gathering in the + stragglers, closing up the column, so that the front may advance well + supported. For this leadership Abraham Lincoln was admirably fitted, + better than any other American statesman of his day; for he understood the + plain people, with all their loves and hates, their prejudices and their + noble impulses, their weaknesses and their strength, as he understood + himself, and his sympathetic nature was apt to draw their sympathy to him. + </p> + <p> + His inaugural address foreshadowed his official course in characteristic + manner. Although yielding nothing in point of principle, it was by no + means a flaming antislavery manifesto, such as would have pleased the more + ardent Republicans. It was rather the entreaty of a sorrowing father + speaking to his wayward children. In the kindliest language he pointed out + to the secessionists how ill advised their attempt at disunion was, and + why, for their own sakes, they should desist. Almost plaintively, he told + them that, while it was not their duty to destroy the Union, it was his + sworn duty to preserve it; that the least he could do, under the + obligations of his oath, was to possess and hold the property of the + United States; that he hoped to do this peaceably; that he abhorred war + for any purpose, and that they would have none unless they themselves were + the aggressors. It was a masterpiece of persuasiveness, and while Lincoln + had accepted many valuable amendments suggested by Seward, it was + essentially his own. Probably Lincoln himself did not expect his inaugural + address to have any effect upon the secessionists, for he must have known + them to be resolved upon disunion at any cost. But it was an appeal to the + wavering minds in the North, and upon them it made a profound impression. + Every candid man, however timid and halting, had to admit that the + President was bound by his oath to do his duty; that under that oath he + could do no less than he said he would do; that if the secessionists + resisted such an appeal as the President had made, they were bent upon + mischief, and that the government must be supported against them. The + partisan sympathy with the Southern insurrection which still existed in + the North did indeed not disappear, but it diminished perceptibly under + the influence of such reasoning. Those who still resisted it did so at the + risk of appearing unpatriotic. + </p> + <p> + It must not be supposed, however, that Lincoln at once succeeded in + pleasing everybody, even among his friends,—even among those nearest + to him. In selecting his cabinet, which he did substantially before he + left Springfield for Washington, he thought it wise to call to his + assistance the strong men of his party, especially those who had given + evidence of the support they commanded as his competitors in the Chicago + convention. In them he found at the same time representatives of the + different shades of opinion within the party, and of the different + elements—former Whigs and former Democrats—from which the + party had recruited itself. This was sound policy under the circumstances. + It might indeed have been foreseen that among the members of a cabinet so + composed, troublesome disagreements and rivalries would break out. But it + was better for the President to have these strong and ambitious men near + him as his co-operators than to have them as his critics in Congress, + where their differences might have been composed in a common opposition to + him. As members of his cabinet he could hope to control them, and to keep + them busily employed in the service of a common purpose, if he had the + strength to do so. Whether he did possess this strength was soon tested by + a singularly rude trial. + </p> + <p> + There can be no doubt that the foremost members of his cabinet, Seward and + Chase, the most eminent Republican statesmen, had felt themselves wronged + by their party when in its national convention it preferred to them for + the Presidency a man whom, not unnaturally, they thought greatly their + inferior in ability and experience as well as in service. The soreness of + that disappointment was intensified when they saw this Western man in the + White House, with so much of rustic manner and speech as still clung to + him, meeting his fellow-citizens, high and low, on a footing of equality, + with the simplicity of his good nature unburdened by any conventional + dignity of deportment, and dealing with the great business of state in an + easy-going, unmethodical, and apparently somewhat irreverent way. They did + not understand such a man. Especially Seward, who, as Secretary of State, + considered himself next to the Chief Executive, and who quickly accustomed + himself to giving orders and making arrangements upon his own motion, + thought it necessary that he should rescue the direction of public affairs + from hands so unskilled, and take full charge of them himself. At the end + of the first month of the administration he submitted a "memorandum" to + President Lincoln, which has been first brought to light by Nicolay and + Hay, and is one of their most valuable contributions to the history of + those days. In that paper Seward actually told the President that at the + end of a month's administration the government was still without a policy, + either domestic or foreign; that the slavery question should be eliminated + from the struggle about the Union; that the matter of the maintenance of + the forts and other possessions in the South should be decided with that + view; that explanations should be demanded categorically from the + governments of Spain and France, which were then preparing, one for the + annexation of San Domingo, and both for the invasion of Mexico; that if no + satisfactory explanations were received war should be declared against + Spain and France by the United States; that explanations should also be + sought from Russia and Great Britain, and a vigorous continental spirit of + independence against European intervention be aroused all over the + American continent; that this policy should be incessantly pursued and + directed by somebody; that either the President should devote himself + entirely to it, or devolve the direction on some member of his cabinet, + whereupon all debate on this policy must end. + </p> + <p> + This could be understood only as a formal demand that the President should + acknowledge his own incompetency to perform his duties, content himself + with the amusement of distributing post-offices, and resign his power as + to all important affairs into the hands of his Secretary of State. It + seems to-day incomprehensible how a statesman of Seward's calibre could at + that period conceive a plan of policy in which the slavery question had no + place; a policy which rested upon the utterly delusive assumption that the + secessionists, who had already formed their Southern Confederacy and were + with stern resolution preparing to fight for its independence, could be + hoodwinked back into the Union by some sentimental demonstration against + European interference; a policy which, at that critical moment, would have + involved the Union in a foreign war, thus inviting foreign intervention in + favor of the Southern Confederacy, and increasing tenfold its chances in + the struggle for independence. But it is equally incomprehensible how + Seward could fail to see that this demand of an unconditional surrender + was a mortal insult to the head of the government, and that by putting his + proposition on paper he delivered himself into the hands of the very man + he had insulted; for, had Lincoln, as most Presidents would have done, + instantly dismissed Seward, and published the true reason for that + dismissal, it would inevitably have been the end of Seward's career. But + Lincoln did what not many of the noblest and greatest men in history would + have been noble and great enough to do. He considered that Seward was + still capable of rendering great service to his country in the place in + which he was, if rightly controlled. He ignored the insult, but firmly + established his superiority. In his reply, which he forthwith despatched, + he told Seward that the administration had a domestic policy as laid down + in the inaugural address with Seward's approval; that it had a foreign + policy as traced in Seward's despatches with the President's approval; + that if any policy was to be maintained or changed, he, the President, was + to direct that on his responsibility; and that in performing that duty the + President had a right to the advice of his secretaries. Seward's fantastic + schemes of foreign war and continental policies Lincoln brushed aside by + passing them over in silence. Nothing more was said. Seward must have felt + that he was at the mercy of a superior man; that his offensive proposition + had been generously pardoned as a temporary aberration of a great mind, + and that he could atone for it only by devoted personal loyalty. This he + did. He was thoroughly subdued, and thenceforth submitted to Lincoln his + despatches for revision and amendment without a murmur. The war with + European nations was no longer thought of; the slavery question found in + due time its proper place in the struggle for the Union; and when, at a + later period, the dismissal of Seward was demanded by dissatisfied + senators, who attributed to him the shortcomings of the administration, + Lincoln stood stoutly by his faithful Secretary of State. + </p> + <p> + Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, a man of superb presence, of eminent + ability and ardent patriotism, of great natural dignity and a certain + outward coldness of manner, which made him appear more difficult of + approach than he really was, did not permit his disappointment to burst + out in such extravagant demonstrations. But Lincoln's ways were so + essentially different from his that they never became quite intelligible, + and certainly not congenial to him. It might, perhaps, have been better + had there been, at the beginning of the administration, some decided clash + between Lincoln and Chase, as there was between Lincoln and Seward, to + bring on a full mutual explanation, and to make Chase appreciate the real + seriousness of Lincoln's nature. But, as it was, their relations always + remained somewhat formal, and Chase never felt quite at ease under a chief + whom he could not understand, and whose character and powers he never + learned to esteem at their true value. At the same time, he devoted + himself zealously to the duties of his department, and did the country + arduous service under circumstances of extreme difficulty. Nobody + recognized this more heartily than Lincoln himself, and they managed to + work together until near the end of Lincoln's first Presidential term, + when Chase, after some disagreements concerning appointments to office, + resigned from the treasury; and, after Taney's death, the President made + him Chief Justice. + </p> + <p> + The rest of the cabinet consisted of men of less eminence, who + subordinated themselves more easily. In January, 1862, Lincoln found it + necessary to bow Cameron out of the war office, and to put in his place + Edwin M. Stanton, a man of intensely practical mind, vehement impulses, + fierce positiveness, ruthless energy, immense working power, lofty + patriotism, and severest devotion to duty. He accepted the war office not + as a partisan, for he had never been a Republican, but only to do all he + could in "helping to save the country." The manner in which Lincoln + succeeded in taming this lion to his will, by frankly recognizing his + great qualities, by giving him the most generous confidence, by aiding him + in his work to the full of his power, by kindly concession or affectionate + persuasiveness in cases of differing opinions, or, when it was necessary, + by firm assertions of superior authority, bears the highest testimony to + his skill in the management of men. Stanton, who had entered the service + with rather a mean opinion of Lincoln's character and capacity, became one + of his warmest, most devoted, and most admiring friends, and with none of + his secretaries was Lincoln's intercourse more intimate. To take advice + with candid readiness, and to weigh it without any pride of his own + opinion, was one of Lincoln's preeminent virtues; but he had not long + presided over his cabinet council when his was felt by all its members to + be the ruling mind. + </p> + <p> + The cautious policy foreshadowed in his inaugural address, and pursued + during the first period of the civil war, was far from satisfying all his + party friends. The ardent spirits among the Union men thought that the + whole North should at once be called to arms, to crush the rebellion by + one powerful blow. The ardent spirits among the antislavery men insisted + that, slavery having brought forth the rebellion, this powerful blow + should at once be aimed at slavery. Both complained that the + administration was spiritless, undecided, and lamentably slow in its + proceedings. Lincoln reasoned otherwise. The ways of thinking and feeling + of the masses, of the plain people, were constantly present to his mind. + The masses, the plain people, had to furnish the men for the fighting, if + fighting was to be done. He believed that the plain people would be ready + to fight when it clearly appeared necessary, and that they would feel that + necessity when they felt themselves attacked. He therefore waited until + the enemies of the Union struck the first blow. As soon as, on the 12th of + April, 1861, the first gun was fired in Charleston harbor on the Union + flag upon Fort Sumter, the call was sounded, and the Northern people + rushed to arms. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln knew that the plain people were now indeed ready to fight in + defence of the Union, but not yet ready to fight for the destruction of + slavery. He declared openly that he had a right to summon the people to + fight for the Union, but not to summon them to fight for the abolition of + slavery as a primary object; and this declaration gave him numberless + soldiers for the Union who at that period would have hesitated to do + battle against the institution of slavery. For a time he succeeded in + rendering harmless the cry of the partisan opposition that the Republican + administration were perverting the war for the Union into an "abolition + war." But when he went so far as to countermand the acts of some generals + in the field, looking to the emancipation of the slaves in the districts + covered by their commands, loud complaints arose from earnest antislavery + men, who accused the President of turning his back upon the antislavery + cause. Many of these antislavery men will now, after a calm retrospect, be + willing to admit that it would have been a hazardous policy to endanger, + by precipitating a demonstrative fight against slavery, the success of the + struggle for the Union. + </p> + <p> + Lincoln's views and feelings concerning slavery had not changed. Those who + conversed with him intimately upon the subject at that period know that he + did not expect slavery long to survive the triumph of the Union, even if + it were not immediately destroyed by the war. In this he was right. Had + the Union armies achieved a decisive victory in an early period of the + conflict, and had the seceded States been received back with slavery, the + "slave power" would then have been a defeated power, defeated in an + attempt to carry out its most effective threat. It would have lost its + prestige. Its menaces would have been hollow sound, and ceased to make any + one afraid. It could no longer have hoped to expand, to maintain an + equilibrium in any branch of Congress, and to control the government. The + victorious free States would have largely overbalanced it. It would no + longer have been able to withstand the onset of a hostile age. It could no + longer have ruled,—and slavery had to rule in order to live. It + would have lingered for a while, but it would surely have been "in the + course of ultimate extinction." A prolonged war precipitated the + destruction of slavery; a short war might only have prolonged its death + struggle. Lincoln saw this clearly; but he saw also that, in a protracted + death struggle, it might still have kept disloyal sentiments alive, bred + distracting commotions, and caused great mischief to the country. He + therefore hoped that slavery would not survive the war. + </p> + <p> + But the question how he could rightfully employ his power to bring on its + speedy destruction was to him not a question of mere sentiment. He himself + set forth his reasoning upon it, at a later period, in one of his + inimitable letters. "I am naturally antislavery," said he. "If slavery is + not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember the time when I did not so + think and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency + conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act upon that judgment and + feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the best of my + ability, preserve, protect, and defend the 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 + that power. I understood, too, that, in ordinary civil administration, + this oath even forbade me practically to indulge my private abstract + judgment on the moral question of slavery. I did understand, however, + also, that my oath imposed upon me the duty of preserving, to the best of + my ability, by every indispensable means, that government, that nation, of + which the Constitution was the organic law. I could not feel that, to the + best of my ability, I had even tied to preserve the Constitution—if, + to save slavery, or any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of + government, country, and Constitution all together." In other words, if + the salvation of the government, the Constitution, and the Union demanded + the destruction of slavery, he felt it to be not only his right, but his + sworn duty to destroy it. Its destruction became a necessity of the war + for the Union. + </p> + <p> + As the war dragged on and disaster followed disaster, the sense of that + necessity steadily grew upon him. Early in 1862, as some of his friends + well remember, he saw, what Seward seemed not to see, that to give the war + for the Union an antislavery character was the surest means to prevent the + recognition of the Southern Confederacy as an independent nation by + European powers; that, slavery being abhorred by the moral sense of + civilized mankind, no European government would dare to offer so gross an + insult to the public opinion of its people as openly to favor the creation + of a state founded upon slavery to the prejudice of an existing nation + fighting against slavery. He saw also that slavery untouched was to the + rebellion an element of power, and that in order to overcome that power it + was necessary to turn it into an element of weakness. Still, he felt no + assurance that the plain people were prepared for so radical a measure as + the emancipation of the slaves by act of the government, and he anxiously + considered that, if they were not, this great step might, by exciting + dissension at the North, injure the cause of the Union in one quarter more + than it would help it in another. He heartily welcomed an effort made in + New York to mould and stimulate public sentiment on the slavery question + by public meetings boldly pronouncing for emancipation. At the same time + he himself cautiously advanced with a recommendation, expressed in a + special message to Congress, that the United States should co-operate with + any State which might adopt the gradual abolishment of slavery, giving + such State pecuniary aid to compensate the former owners of emancipated + slaves. The discussion was started, and spread rapidly. Congress adopted + the resolution recommended, and soon went a step farther in passing a bill + to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. The plain people began to + look at emancipation on a larger scale as a thing to be considered + seriously by patriotic citizens; and soon Lincoln thought that the time + was ripe, and that the edict of freedom could be ventured upon without + danger of serious confusion in the Union ranks. + </p> + <p> + The failure of McClellan's movement upon Richmond increased immensely the + prestige of the enemy. The need of some great act to stimulate the + vitality of the Union cause seemed to grow daily more pressing. On July + 21, 1862, Lincoln surprised his cabinet with the draught of a proclamation + declaring free the slaves in all the States that should be still in + rebellion against the United States on the 1st of January,1863. As to the + matter itself he announced that he had fully made up his mind; he invited + advice only concerning the form and the time of publication. Seward + suggested that the proclamation, if then brought out, amidst disaster and + distress, would sound like the last shriek of a perishing cause. Lincoln + accepted the suggestion, and the proclamation was postponed. Another + defeat followed, the second at Bull Run. But when, after that battle, the + Confederate army, under Lee, crossed the Potomac and invaded Maryland, + Lincoln vowed in his heart that, if the Union army were now blessed with + success, the decree of freedom should surely be issued. The victory of + Antietam was won on September 17, and the preliminary Emancipation + Proclamation came forth on the a 22d. It was Lincoln's own resolution and + act; but practically it bound the nation, and permitted no step backward. + In spite of its limitations, it was the actual abolition of slavery. Thus + he wrote his name upon the books of history with the title dearest to his + heart, the liberator of the slave. + </p> + <p> + It is true, the great proclamation, which stamped the war as one for + "union and freedom," did not at once mark the turning of the tide on the + field of military operations. There were more disasters, Fredericksburg + and Chancellorsville. But with Gettysburg and Vicksburg the whole aspect + of the war changed. Step by step, now more slowly, then more rapidly, but + with increasing steadiness, the flag of the Union advanced from field to + field toward the final consummation. The decree of emancipation was + naturally followed by the enlistment of emancipated negroes in the Union + armies. This measure had a anther reaching effect than merely giving the + Union armies an increased supply of men. The laboring force of the + rebellion was hopelessly disorganized. The war became like a problem of + arithmetic. As the Union armies pushed forward, the area from which the + Southern Confederacy could draw recruits and supplies constantly grew + smaller, while the area from which the Union recruited its strength + constantly grew larger; and everywhere, even within the Southern lines, + the Union had its allies. The fate of the rebellion was then virtually + decided; but it still required much bloody work to convince the brave + warriors who fought for it that they were really beaten. + </p> + <p> + Neither did the Emancipation Proclamation forthwith command universal + assent among the people who were loyal to the Union. There were even signs + of a reaction against the administration in the fall elections of 1862, + seemingly justifying the opinion, entertained by many, that the President + had really anticipated the development of popular feeling. The cry that + the war for the Union had been turned into an "abolition war" was raised + again by the opposition, and more loudly than ever. But the good sense and + patriotic instincts of the plain people gradually marshalled themselves on + Lincoln's side, and he lost no opportunity to help on this process by + personal argument and admonition. There never has been a President in such + constant and active contact with the public opinion of the country, as + there never has been a President who, while at the head of the government, + remained so near to the people. Beyond the circle of those who had long + known him the feeling steadily grew that the man in the White House was + "honest Abe Lincoln" still, and that every citizen might approach him with + complaint, expostulation, or advice, without danger of meeting a rebuff + from power-proud authority, or humiliating condescension; and this + privilege was used by so many and with such unsparing freedom that only + superhuman patience could have endured it all. There are men now living + who would to-day read with amazement, if not regret, what they ventured to + say or write to him. But Lincoln repelled no one whom he believed to speak + to him in good faith and with patriotic purpose. No good advice would go + unheeded. No candid criticism would offend him. No honest opposition, + while it might pain him, would produce a lasting alienation of feeling + between him and the opponent. It may truly be said that few men in power + have ever been exposed to more daring attempts to direct their course, to + severer censure of their acts, and to more cruel misrepresentation of + their motives: And all this he met with that good-natured humor peculiarly + his own, and with untiring effort to see the right and to impress it upon + those who differed from him. The conversations he had and the + correspondence he carried on upon matters of public interest, not only + with men in official position, but with private citizens, were almost + unceasing, and in a large number of public letters, written ostensibly to + meetings, or committees, or persons of importance, he addressed himself + directly to the popular mind. Most of these letters stand among the finest + monuments of our political literature. Thus he presented the singular + spectacle of a President who, in the midst of a great civil war, with + unprecedented duties weighing upon him, was constantly in person debating + the great features of his policy with the people. + </p> + <p> + While in this manner he exercised an ever-increasing influence upon the + popular understanding, his sympathetic nature endeared him more and more + to the popular heart. In vain did journals and speakers of the opposition + represent him as a lightminded trifler, who amused himself with frivolous + story-telling and coarse jokes, while the blood of the people was flowing + in streams. The people knew that the man at the head of affairs, on whose + haggard face the twinkle of humor so frequently changed into an expression + of profoundest sadness, was more than any other deeply distressed by the + suffering he witnessed; that he felt the pain of every wound that was + inflicted on the battlefield, and the anguish of every woman or child who + had lost husband or father; that whenever he could he was eager to + alleviate sorrow, and that his mercy was never implored in vain. They + looked to him as one who was with them and of them in all their hopes and + fears, their joys and sorrows, who laughed with them and wept with them; + and as his heart was theirs; so their hearts turned to him. His popularity + was far different from that of Washington, who was revered with awe, or + that of Jackson, the unconquerable hero, for whom party enthusiasm never + grew weary of shouting. To Abraham Lincoln the people became bound by a + genuine sentimental attachment. It was not a matter of respect, or + confidence, or party pride, for this feeling spread far beyond the + boundary lines of his party; it was an affair of the heart, independent of + mere reasoning. When the soldiers in the field or their folks at home + spoke of "Father Abraham," there was no cant in it. They felt that their + President was really caring for them as a father would, and that they + could go to him, every one of them, as they would go to a father, and talk + to him of what troubled them, sure to find a willing ear and tender + sympathy. Thus, their President, and his cause, and his endeavors, and his + success gradually became to them almost matters of family concern. And + this popularity carried him triumphantly through the Presidential election + of 1864, in spite of an opposition within his own party which at first + seemed very formidable. + </p> + <p> + Many of the radical antislavery men were never quite satisfied with + Lincoln's ways of meeting the problems of the time. They were very earnest + and mostly very able men, who had positive ideas as to "how this rebellion + should be put down." They would not recognize the necessity of measuring + the steps of the government according to the progress of opinion among the + plain people. They criticised Lincoln's cautious management as irresolute, + halting, lacking in definite purpose and in energy; he should not have + delayed emancipation so long; he should not have confided important + commands to men of doubtful views as to slavery; he should have authorized + military commanders to set the slaves free as they went on; he dealt too + leniently with unsuccessful generals; he should have put down all factious + opposition with a strong hand instead of trying to pacify it; he should + have given the people accomplished facts instead of arguing with them, and + so on. It is true, these criticisms were not always entirely unfounded. + Lincoln's policy had, with the virtues of democratic government, some of + its weaknesses, which in the presence of pressing exigencies were apt to + deprive governmental action of the necessary vigor; and his kindness of + heart, his disposition always to respect the feelings of others, + frequently made him recoil from anything like severity, even when severity + was urgently called for. But many of his radical critics have since then + revised their judgment sufficiently to admit that Lincoln's policy was, on + the whole, the wisest and safest; that a policy of heroic methods, while + it has sometimes accomplished great results, could in a democracy like + ours be maintained only by constant success; that it would have quickly + broken down under the weight of disaster; that it might have been + successful from the start, had the Union, at the beginning of the + conflict, had its Grants and Shermans and Sheridans, its Farraguts and + Porters, fully matured at the head of its forces; but that, as the great + commanders had to be evolved slowly from the developments of the war, + constant success could not be counted upon, and it was best to follow a + policy which was in friendly contact with the popular force, and therefore + more fit to stand trial of misfortune on the battlefield. But at that + period they thought differently, and their dissatisfaction with Lincoln's + doings was greatly increased by the steps he took toward the + reconstruction of rebel States then partially in possession of the Union + forces. + </p> + <p> + In December, 1863, Lincoln issued an amnesty proclamation, offering pardon + to all implicated in the rebellion, with certain specified exceptions, on + condition of their taking and maintaining an oath to support the + Constitution and obey the laws of the United States and the proclamations + of the President with regard to slaves; and also promising that when, in + any of the rebel States, a number of citizens equal to one tenth of the + voters in 1860 should re-establish a state government in conformity with + the oath above mentioned, such should be recognized by the Executive as + the true government of the State. The proclamation seemed at first to be + received with general favor. But soon another scheme of reconstruction, + much more stringent in its provisions, was put forward in the House of + Representatives by Henry Winter Davis. Benjamin Wade championed it in the + Senate. It passed in the closing moments of the session in July, 1864, and + Lincoln, instead of making it a law by his signature, embodied the text of + it in a proclamation as a plan of reconstruction worthy of being earnestly + considered. The differences of opinion concerning this subject had only + intensified the feeling against Lincoln which had long been nursed among + the radicals, and some of them openly declared their purpose of resisting + his re-election to the Presidency. Similar sentiments were manifested by + the advanced antislavery men of Missouri, who, in their hot faction-fight + with the "conservatives" of that State, had not received from Lincoln the + active support they demanded. Still another class of Union men, mainly in + the East, gravely shook their heads when considering the question whether + Lincoln should be re-elected. They were those who cherished in their minds + an ideal of statesmanship and of personal bearing in high office with + which, in their opinion, Lincoln's individuality was much out of accord. + They were shocked when they heard him cap an argument upon grave affairs + of state with a story about "a man out in Sangamon County,"—a story, + to be sure, strikingly clinching his point, but sadly lacking in dignity. + They could not understand the man who was capable, in opening a cabinet + meeting, of reading to his secretaries a funny chapter from a recent book + of Artemus Ward, with which in an unoccupied moment he had relieved his + care-burdened mind, and who then solemnly informed the executive council + that he had vowed in his heart to issue a proclamation emancipating the + slaves as soon as God blessed the Union arms with another victory. They + were alarmed at the weakness of a President who would indeed resist the + urgent remonstrances of statesmen against his policy, but could not resist + the prayer of an old woman for the pardon of a soldier who was sentenced + to be shot for desertion. Such men, mostly sincere and ardent patriots, + not only wished, but earnestly set to work, to prevent Lincoln's + renomination. Not a few of them actually believed, in 1863, that, if the + national convention of the Union party were held then, Lincoln would not + be supported by the delegation of a single State. But when the convention + met at Baltimore, in June, 1864, the voice of the people was heard. On the + first ballot Lincoln received the votes of the delegations from all the + States except Missouri; and even the Missourians turned over their votes + to him before the result of the ballot was declared. + </p> + <p> + But even after his renomination the opposition to Lincoln within the ranks + of the Union party did not subside. A convention, called by the + dissatisfied radicals in Missouri, and favored by men of a similar way of + thinking in other States, had been held already in May, and had nominated + as its candidate for the Presidency General Fremont. He, indeed, did not + attract a strong following, but opposition movements from different + quarters appeared more formidable. Henry Winter Davis and Benjamin Wade + assailed Lincoln in a flaming manifesto. Other Union men, of undoubted + patriotism and high standing, persuaded themselves, and sought to persuade + the people, that Lincoln's renomination was ill advised and dangerous to + the Union cause. As the Democrats had put off their convention until the + 29th of August, the Union party had, during the larger part of the summer, + no opposing candidate and platform to attack, and the political campaign + languished. Neither were the tidings from the theatre of war of a cheering + character. The terrible losses suffered by Grant's army in the battles of + the Wilderness spread general gloom. Sherman seemed for a while to be in a + precarious position before Atlanta. The opposition to Lincoln within the + Union party grew louder in its complaints and discouraging predictions. + Earnest demands were heard that his candidacy should be withdrawn. Lincoln + himself, not knowing how strongly the masses were attached to him, was + haunted by dark forebodings of defeat. Then the scene suddenly changed as + if by magic. + </p> + <p> + The Democrats, in their national convention, declared the war a failure, + demanded, substantially, peace at any price, and nominated on such a + platform General McClellan as their candidate. Their convention had hardly + adjourned when the capture of Atlanta gave a new aspect to the military + situation. It was like a sun-ray bursting through a dark cloud. The rank + and file of the Union party rose with rapidly growing enthusiasm. The song + "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand strong," resounded + all over the land. Long before the decisive day arrived, the result was + beyond doubt, and Lincoln was re-elected President by overwhelming + majorities. The election over even his severest critics found themselves + forced to admit that Lincoln was the only possible candidate for the Union + party in 1864, and that neither political combinations nor campaign + speeches, nor even victories in the field, were needed to insure his + success. The plain people had all the while been satisfied with Abraham + Lincoln: they confided in him; they loved him; they felt themselves near + to him; they saw personified in him the cause of Union and freedom; and + they went to the ballot-box for him in their strength. + </p> + <p> + The hour of triumph called out the characteristic impulses of his nature. + The opposition within the Union party had stung him to the quick. Now he + had his opponents before him, baffled and humiliated. Not a moment did he + lose to stretch out the hand of friendship to all. "Now that the election + is over," he said, in response to a serenade, "may not all, having a + common interest, reunite in a common effort to save our common country? + For my own part, I have striven, and will strive, to place no obstacle in + the way. So long as I have been here I have not willingly planted a thorn + in any man's bosom. While I am deeply sensible to the high compliment of a + re-election, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be + pained or disappointed by the result. May I ask those who were with me to + join with me in the same spirit toward those who were against me?" This + was Abraham Lincoln's character as tested in the furnace of prosperity. + </p> + <p> + The war was virtually decided, but not yet ended. Sherman was irresistibly + carrying the Union flag through the South. Grant had his iron hand upon + the ramparts of Richmond. The days of the Confederacy were evidently + numbered. Only the last blow remained to be struck. Then Lincoln's second + inauguration came, and with it his second inaugural address. Lincoln's + famous "Gettysburg speech" has been much and justly admired. But far + greater, as well as far more characteristic, was that inaugural in which + he poured out the whole devotion and tenderness of his great soul. It had + all the solemnity of a father's last admonition and blessing to his + children before he lay down to die. These were its closing words: "Fondly + do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may + speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth + piled up by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil + shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be + paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years + ago, so still it must be said, `The judgments of the Lord are true and + righteous altogether.' With malice toward none, with charity for all, with + firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive 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." + </p> + <p> + This was like a sacred poem. No American President had ever spoken words + like these to the American people. America never had a President who found + such words in the depth of his heart. + </p> + <p> + Now followed the closing scenes of the war. The Southern armies fought + bravely to the last, but all in vain. Richmond fell. Lincoln himself + entered the city on foot, accompanied only by a few officers and a squad + of sailors who had rowed him ashore from the flotilla in the James River, + a negro picked up on the way serving as a guide. Never had the world seen + a more modest conqueror and a more characteristic triumphal procession, no + army with banners and drums, only a throng of those who had been slaves, + hastily run together, escorting the victorious chief into the capital of + the vanquished foe. We are told that they pressed around him, kissed his + hands and his garments, and shouted and danced for joy, while tears ran + down the President's care-furrowed cheeks. + </p> + <p> + A few days more brought the surrender of Lee's army, and peace was + assured. The people of the North were wild with joy. Everywhere festive + guns were booming, bells pealing, the churches ringing with thanksgivings, + and jubilant multitudes thronging the thoroughfares, when suddenly the + news flashed over the land that Abraham Lincoln had been murdered. The + people were stunned by the blow. Then a wail of sorrow went up such as + America had never heard before. Thousands of Northern households grieved + as if they had lost their dearest member. Many a Southern man cried out in + his heart that his people had been robbed of their best friend in their + humiliation and distress, when Abraham Lincoln was struck down. It was as + if the tender affection which his countrymen bore him had inspired all + nations with a common sentiment. All civilized mankind stood mourning + around the coffin of the dead President. Many of those, here and abroad, + who not long before had ridiculed and reviled him were among the first to + hasten on with their flowers of eulogy, and in that universal chorus of + lamentation and praise there was not a voice that did not tremble with + genuine emotion. Never since Washington's death had there been such + unanimity of judgment as to a man's virtues and greatness; and even + Washington's death, although his name was held in greater reverence, did + not touch so sympathetic a chord in the people's hearts. + </p> + <p> + Nor can it be said that this was owing to the tragic character of + Lincoln's end. It is true, the death of this gentlest and most merciful of + rulers by the hand of a mad fanatic was well apt to exalt him beyond his + merits in the estimation of those who loved him, and to make his renown + the object of peculiarly tender solicitude. But it is also true that the + verdict pronounced upon him in those days has been affected little by + time, and that historical inquiry has served rather to increase than to + lessen the appreciation of his virtues, his abilities, his services. + Giving the fullest measure of credit to his great ministers,—to + Seward for his conduct of foreign affairs, to Chase for the management of + the finances under terrible difficulties, to Stanton for the performance + of his tremendous task as war secretary,—and readily acknowledging + that without the skill and fortitude of the great commanders, and the + heroism of the soldiers and sailors under them, success could not have + been achieved, the historian still finds that Lincoln's judgment and will + were by no means governed by those around him; that the most important + steps were owing to his initiative; that his was the deciding and + directing mind; and that it was pre-eminently he whose sagacity and whose + character enlisted for the administration in its struggles the + countenance, the sympathy, and the support of the people. It is found, + even, that his judgment on military matters was astonishingly acute, and + that the advice and instructions he gave to the generals commanding in the + field would not seldom have done honor to the ablest of them. History, + therefore, without overlooking, or palliating, or excusing any of his + shortcomings or mistakes, continues to place him foremost among the + saviours of the Union and the liberators of the slave. More than that, it + awards to him the merit of having accomplished what but few political + philosophers would have recognized as possible,—of leading the + republic through four years of furious civil conflict without any serious + detriment to its free institutions. + </p> + <p> + He was, indeed, while President, violently denounced by the opposition as + a tyrant and a usurper, for having gone beyond his constitutional powers + in authorizing or permitting the temporary suppression of newspapers, and + in wantonly suspending the writ of habeas corpus and resorting to + arbitrary arrests. 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 demanded by necessity, + should never be permitted to pass without a protest on the one hand, and + without an apology on the other. It is well they did not so pass during + our civil war. That arbitrary measures were resorted to is true. That they + were resorted to most sparingly, and only when the government thought them + absolutely required by the safety of the republic, will now hardly be + denied. But certain it is that the history of the world does not furnish a + single example of a government passing through so tremendous a crisis as + our civil war was with so small a record of arbitrary acts, and so little + interference with the ordinary course of law outside the field of military + operations. No American President ever wielded such power as that which + was thrust into Lincoln's hands. It is to be hoped that no American + President ever will have to be entrusted with such power again. But no man + was ever entrusted with it to whom its seductions were less dangerous than + they proved to be to Abraham Lincoln. With scrupulous care he endeavored, + even under the most trying circumstances, to remain strictly within the + constitutional limitations of his authority; and whenever the boundary + became indistinct, or when the dangers of the situation forced him to + cross it, he was equally careful to mark his acts as exceptional measures, + justifiable only by the imperative necessities of the civil war, so that + they might not pass into history as precedents for similar acts in time of + peace. It is an unquestionable fact that during the reconstruction period + which followed the war, more things were done capable of serving as + dangerous precedents than during the war itself. Thus it may truly be said + of him not only that under his guidance the republic was saved from + disruption and the country was purified of the blot of slavery, but that, + during the stormiest and most perilous crisis in our history, he so + conducted the government and so wielded his almost dictatorial power as to + leave essentially intact our free institutions in all things that concern + the rights and liberties of the citizens. He understood well the nature of + the problem. In his first message to Congress he defined it in admirably + pointed language: "Must a government be of necessity too strong for the + liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence? Is + there in all republics this inherent weakness?" This question he answered + in the name of the great American republic, as no man could have answered + it better, with a triumphant "No...." + </p> + <p> + It has been said that Abraham Lincoln died at the right moment for his + fame. However that may be, he had, at the time of his death, certainly not + exhausted his usefulness to his country. He was probably the only man who + could have guided the nation through the perplexities of the + reconstruction period in such a manner as to prevent in the work of peace + the revival of the passions of the war. He would indeed not have escaped + serious controversy as to details of policy; but he could have weathered + it far better than any other statesman of his time, for his prestige with + the active politicians had been immensely strengthened by his triumphant + re-election; and, what is more important, he would have been supported by + the confidence of the victorious Northern people that he would do all to + secure the safety of the Union and the rights of the emancipated negro, + and at the same time by the confidence of the defeated Southern people + that nothing would be done by him from motives of vindictiveness, or of + unreasoning fanaticism, or of a selfish party spirit. "With malice toward + none, with charity for all," the foremost of the victors would have + personified in himself the genius of reconciliation. + </p> + <p> + He might have rendered the country a great service in another direction. A + few days after the fall of Richmond, he pointed out to a friend the crowd + of office-seekers besieging his door. "Look at that," said he. "Now we + have conquered the rebellion, but here you see something that may become + more dangerous to this republic than the rebellion itself." It is true, + Lincoln as President did not profess what we now call civil service reform + principles. He used the patronage of the government in many cases avowedly + to reward party work, in many others to form combinations and to produce + political effects advantageous to the Union cause, and in still others + simply to put the right man into the right place. But in his endeavors to + strengthen the Union cause, and in his search for able and useful men for + public duties, he frequently went beyond the limits of his party, and + gradually accustomed himself to the thought that, while party service had + its value, considerations of the public interest were, as to appointments + to office, of far greater consequence. Moreover, there had been such a + mingling of different political elements in support of the Union during + the civil war that Lincoln, standing at the head of that temporarily + united motley mass, hardly felt himself, in the narrow sense of the term, + a party man. And as he became strongly impressed with the dangers brought + upon the republic by the use of public offices as party spoils, it is by + no means improbable that, had he survived the all-absorbing crisis and + found time to turn to other objects, one of the most important reforms of + later days would have been pioneered by his powerful authority. This was + not to be. But the measure of his achievements was full enough for + immortality. + </p> + <p> + To the younger generation Abraham Lincoln has already become a + half-mythical figure, which, in the haze of historic distance, grows to + more and more heroic proportions, but also loses in distinctness of + outline and feature. This is indeed the common lot of popular heroes; but + the Lincoln legend will be more than ordinarily apt to become fanciful, as + his individuality, assembling seemingly incongruous qualities and forces + in a character at the same time grand and most lovable, was so unique, and + his career so abounding in startling contrasts. As the state of society in + which Abraham Lincoln grew up passes away, the world will read with + increasing wonder of the man who, not only of the humblest origin, but + remaining the simplest and most unpretending of citizens, was raised to a + position of power unprecedented in our history; who was the gentlest and + most peace-loving of mortals, unable to see any creature suffer without a + pang in his own breast, and suddenly found himself called to conduct the + greatest and bloodiest of our wars; who wielded the power of government + when stern resolution and relentless force were the order of the day and + then won and ruled the popular mind and heart by the tender sympathies of + his nature; who was a cautious conservative by temperament and mental + habit, and led the most sudden and sweeping social revolution of our time; + who, preserving his homely speech and rustic manner even in the most + conspicuous position of that period, drew upon himself the scoffs of + polite society, and then thrilled the soul of mankind with utterances of + wonderful beauty and grandeur; who, in his heart the best friend of the + defeated South, was murdered because a crazy fanatic took him for its most + cruel enemy; who, while in power, was beyond measure lampooned and + maligned by sectional passion and an excited party spirit, and around + whose bier friend and foe gathered to praise him which they have since + never ceased to do—as one of the greatest of Americans and the best + of men. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BY JOSEPH H. CHOATE + </h2> + <p> + [This Address was delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical + Institution, November 13, 1900. It is included in this set with the + courteous permission of the author and of Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell & + Company.] + </p> + <p> + ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + When you asked me to deliver the Inaugural Address on this occasion, I + recognized that I owed this compliment to the fact that I was the official + representative of America, and in selecting a subject I ventured to think + that I might interest you for an hour in a brief study in popular + government, as illustrated by the life of the most American of all + Americans. I therefore offer no apology for asking your attention to + Abraham Lincoln—to his unique character and the part he bore in two + important achievements of modern history: the preservation of the + integrity of the American Union and the emancipation of the colored race. + </p> + <p> + During his brief term of power he was probably the object of more abuse, + vilification, and ridicule than any other man in the world; but when he + fell by the hand of an assassin, at the very moment of his stupendous + victory, all the nations of the earth vied with one another in paying + homage to his character, and the thirty-five years that have since elapsed + have established his place in history as one of the great benefactors not + of his own country alone, but of the human race. + </p> + <p> + One of many noble utterances upon the occasion of his death was that in + which 'Punch' made its magnanimous recantation of the spirit with which it + had pursued him: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Beside this corpse that bears for winding sheet + The stars and stripes he lived to rear anew, + Between the mourners at his head and feet, + Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? + + ................... + + "Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, + To lame my pencil, and confute my pen + To make me own this hind—of princes peer, + This rail-splitter—a true born king of men." +</pre> + <p> + Fiction can furnish no match for the romance of his life, and biography + will be searched in vain for such startling vicissitudes of fortune, so + great power and glory won out of such humble beginnings and adverse + circumstances. + </p> + <p> + Doubtless you are all familiar with the salient points of his + extraordinary career. In the zenith of his fame he was the wise, patient, + courageous, successful ruler of men; exercising more power than any + monarch of his time, not for himself, but for the good of the people who + had placed it in his hands; commander-in-chief of a vast military power, + which waged with ultimate success the greatest war of the century; the + triumphant champion of popular government, the deliverer of four millions + of his fellowmen from bondage; honored by mankind as Statesman, President, + and Liberator. + </p> + <p> + Let us glance now at the first half of the brief life of which this was + the glorious and happy consummation. Nothing could be more squalid and + miserable than the home in which Abraham Lincoln was born—a + one-roomed cabin without floor or window in what was then the wilderness + of Kentucky, in the heart of that frontier life which swiftly moved + westward from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, always in advance of + schools and churches, of books and money, of railroads and newspapers, of + all things which are generally regarded as the comforts and even + necessaries of life. His father, ignorant, needy, and thriftless, content + if he could keep soul and body together for himself and his family, was + ever seeking, without success, to better his unhappy condition by moving + on from one such scene of dreary desolation to another. The rude society + which surrounded them was not much better. The struggle for existence was + hard, and absorbed all their energies. They were fighting the forest, the + wild beast, and the retreating savage. From the time when he could barely + handle tools until he attained his majority, Lincoln's life was that of a + simple farm laborer, poorly clad, housed, and fed, at work either on his + father's wretched farm or hired out to neighboring farmers. But in spite, + or perhaps by means, of this rude environment, he grew to be a stalwart + giant, reaching six feet four at nineteen, and fabulous stories are told + of his feats of strength. With the growth of this mighty frame began that + strange education which in his ripening years was to qualify him for the + great destiny that awaited him, and the development of those mental + faculties and moral endowments which, by the time he reached middle life, + were to make him the sagacious, patient, and triumphant leader of a great + nation in the crisis of its fate. His whole schooling, obtained during + such odd times as could be spared from grinding labor, did not amount in + all to as much as one year, and the quality of the teaching was of the + lowest possible grade, including only the elements of reading, writing, + and ciphering. But out of these simple elements, when rightly used by the + right man, education is achieved, and Lincoln knew how to use them. As so + often happens, he seemed to take warning from his father's unfortunate + example. Untiring industry, an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and an + ever-growing desire to rise above his surroundings, were early + manifestations of his character. + </p> + <p> + Books were almost unknown in that community, but the Bible was in every + house, and somehow or other Pilgrim's Progress, AEsop's Fables, a History + of the United States, and a Life of Washington fell into his hands. He + trudged on foot many miles through the wilderness to borrow an English + Grammar, and is said to have devoured greedily the contents of the + Statutes of Indiana that fell in his way. These few volumes he read and + reread—and his power of assimilation was great. To be shut in with a + few books and to master them thoroughly sometimes does more for the + development of character than freedom to range at large, in a cursory and + indiscriminate way, through wide domains of literature. This youth's mind, + at any rate, was thoroughly saturated with Biblical knowledge and Biblical + language, which, in after life, he used with great readiness and effect. + But it was the constant use of the little knowledge which he had that + developed and exercised his mental powers. After the hard day's work was + done, while others slept, he toiled on, always reading or writing. From an + early age he did his own thinking and made up his own mind—invaluable + traits in the future President. Paper was such a scarce commodity that, by + the evening firelight, he would write and cipher on the back of a wooden + shovel, and then shave it off to make room for more. By and by, as he + approached manhood, he began speaking in the rude gatherings of the + neighborhood, and so laid the foundation of that art of persuading his + fellow-men which was one rich result of his education, and one great + secret of his subsequent success. + </p> + <p> + Accustomed as we are in these days of steam and telegraphs to have every + intelligent boy survey the whole world each morning before breakfast, and + inform himself as to what is going on in every nation, it is hardly + possible to conceive how benighted and isolated was the condition of the + community at Pigeon Creek in Indiana, of which the family of Lincoln's + father formed a part, or how eagerly an ambitious and high-spirited boy, + such as he, must have yearned to escape. The first glimpse that he ever + got of any world beyond the narrow confines of his home was in 1828, at + the age of nineteen, when a neighbor employed him to accompany his son + down the river to New Orleans to dispose of a flatboat of produce—a + commission which he discharged with great success. + </p> + <p> + Shortly after his return from this his first excursion into the outer + world, his father, tired of failure in Indiana, packed his family and all + his worldly goods into a single wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, and after + a fourteen days' tramp through the wilderness, pitched his camp once more, + in Illinois. Here Abraham, having come of age and being now his own + master, rendered the last service of his minority by ploughing the + fifteen-acre lot and splitting from the tall walnut trees of the primeval + forest enough rails to surround the little clearing with a fence. Such was + the meagre outfit of this coming leader of men, at the age when the future + British Prime Minister or statesman emerges from the university as a + double first or senior wrangler, with every advantage that high training + and broad culture and association with the wisest and the best of men and + women can give, and enters upon some form of public service on the road to + usefulness and honor, the University course being only the first stage of + the public training. So Lincoln, at twenty-one, had just begun his + preparation for the public life to which he soon began to aspire. For some + years yet he must continue to earn his daily bread by the sweat of his + brow, having absolutely no means, no home, no friend to consult. More farm + work as a hired hand, a clerkship in a village store, the running of a + mill, another trip to New Orleans on a flatboat of his own contriving, a + pilot's berth on the river—these were the means by which he + subsisted until, in the summer of 1832, when he was twenty-three years of + age, an event occurred which gave him public recognition. + </p> + <p> + The Black Hawk war broke out, and, the Governor of Illinois calling for + volunteers to repel the band of savages whose leader bore that name, + Lincoln enlisted and was elected captain by his comrades, among whom he + had already established his supremacy by signal feats of strength and more + than one successful single combat. During the brief hostilities he was + engaged in no battle and won no military glory, but his local leadership + was established. The same year he offered himself as a candidate for the + Legislature of Illinois, but failed at the polls. Yet his vast popularity + with those who knew him was manifest. The district consisted of several + counties, but the unanimous vote of the people of his own county was for + Lincoln. Another unsuccessful attempt at store-keeping was followed by + better luck at surveying, until his horse and instruments were levied upon + under execution for the debts of his business adventure. + </p> + <p> + I have been thus detailed in sketching his early years because upon these + strange foundations the structure of his great fame and service was built. + In the place of a school and university training fortune substituted these + trials, hardships, and struggles as a preparation for the great work which + he had to do. It turned out to be exactly what the emergency required. Ten + years instead at the public school and the university certainly never + could have fitted this man for the unique work which was to be thrown upon + him. Some other Moses would have had to lead us to our Jordan, to the + sight of our promised land of liberty. + </p> + <p> + At the age of twenty-five he became a member of the Legislature of + Illinois, and so continued for eight years, and, in the meantime, + qualified himself by reading such law books as he could borrow at random—for + he was too poor to buy any to be called to the Bar. For his second quarter + of a century—during which a single term in Congress introduced him + into the arena of national questions—he gave himself up to law and + politics. In spite of his soaring ambition, his two years in Congress gave + him no premonition of the great destiny that awaited him,—and at its + close, in 1849, we find him an unsuccessful applicant to the President for + appointment as Commissioner of the General Land Office—a purely + administrative bureau; a fortunate escape for himself and for his country. + Year by year his knowledge and power, his experience and reputation + extended, and his mental faculties seemed to grow by what they fed on. His + power of persuasion, which had always been marked, was developed to an + extraordinary degree, now that he became engaged in congenial questions + and subjects. Little by little he rose to prominence at the Bar, and + became the most effective public speaker in the West. Not that he + possessed any of the graces of the orator; but his logic was invincible, + and his clearness and force of statement impressed upon his hearers the + convictions of his honest mind, while his broad sympathies and sparkling + and genial humor made him a universal favorite as far and as fast as his + acquaintance extended. + </p> + <p> + These twenty years that elapsed from the time of his establishment as a + lawyer and legislator in Springfield, the new capital of Illinois, + furnished a fitting theatre for the development and display of his great + faculties, and, with his new and enlarged opportunities, he obviously grew + in mental stature in this second period of his career, as if to compensate + for the absolute lack of advantages under which he had suffered in youth. + As his powers enlarged, his reputation extended, for he was always before + the people, felt a warm sympathy with all that concerned them, took a + zealous part in the discussion of every public question, and made his + personal influence ever more widely and deeply felt. + </p> + <p> + My brethren of the legal profession will naturally ask me, how could this + rough backwoodsman, whose youth had been spent in the forest or on the + farm and the flatboat, without culture or training, education or study, by + the random reading, on the wing, of a few miscellaneous law books, become + a learned and accomplished lawyer? Well, he never did. He never would have + earned his salt as a 'Writer' for the 'Signet', nor have won a place as + advocate in the Court of Session, where the technique of the profession + has reached its highest perfection, and centuries of learning and + precedent are involved in the equipment of a lawyer. Dr. Holmes, when + asked by an anxious young mother, "When should the education of a child + begin?" replied, "Madam, at least two centuries before it is born!" and so + I am sure it is with the Scots lawyer. + </p> + <p> + But not so in Illinois in 1840. Between 1830 and 1880 its population + increased twenty-fold, and when Lincoln began practising law in + Springfield in 1837, life in Illinois was very crude and simple, and so + were the courts and the administration of justice. Books and libraries + were scarce. But the people loved justice, upheld the law, and followed + the courts, and soon found their favorites among the advocates. The + fundamental principles of the common law, as set forth by Blackstone and + Chitty, were not so difficult to acquire; and brains, common sense, force + of character, tenacity of purpose, ready wit and power of speech did the + rest, and supplied all the deficiencies of learning. + </p> + <p> + The lawsuits of those days were extremely simple, and the principles of + natural justice were mainly relied on to dispose of them at the Bar and on + the Bench, without resort to technical learning. Railroads, corporations + absorbing the chief business of the community, combined and inherited + wealth, with all the subtle and intricate questions they breed, had not + yet come in—and so the professional agents and the equipment which + they require were not needed. But there were many highly educated and + powerful men at the Bar of Illinois, even in those early days, whom the + spirit of enterprise had carried there in search of fame and fortune. It + was by constant contact and conflict with these that Lincoln acquired + professional strength and skill. Every community and every age creates its + own Bar, entirely adequate for its present uses and necessities. So in + Illinois, as the population and wealth of the State kept on doubling and + quadrupling, its Bar presented a growing abundance of learning and science + and technical skill. The early practitioners grew with its growth and + mastered the requisite knowledge. Chicago soon grew to be one of the + largest and richest and certainly the most intensely active city on the + continent, and if any of my professional friends here had gone there in + Lincoln's later years, to try or argue a cause, or transact other + business, with any idea that Edinburgh or London had a monopoly of legal + learning, science, or subtlety, they would certainly have found their + mistake. + </p> + <p> + In those early days in the West, every lawyer, especially every court + lawyer, was necessarily a politician, constantly engaged in the public + discussion of the many questions evolved from the rapid development of + town, county, State, and Federal affairs. Then and there, in this regard, + public discussion supplied the place which the universal activity of the + press has since monopolized, and the public speaker who, by clearness, + force, earnestness, and wit; could make himself felt on the questions of + the day would rapidly come to the front. In the absence of that immense + variety of popular entertainments which now feed the public taste and + appetite, the people found their chief amusement in frequenting the courts + and public and political assemblies. In either place, he who impressed, + entertained, and amused them most was the hero of the hour. They did not + discriminate very carefully between the eloquence of the forum and the + eloquence of the hustings. Human nature ruled in both alike, and he who + was the most effective speaker in a political harangue was often retained + as most likely to win in a cause to be tried or argued. And I have no + doubt in this way many retainers came to Lincoln. Fees, money in any form, + had no charms for him—in his eager pursuit of fame he could not + afford to make money. He was ambitious to distinguish himself by some + great service to mankind, and this ambition for fame and real public + service left no room for avarice in his composition. However much he + earned, he seems to have ended every year hardly richer than he began it, + and yet, as the years passed, fees came to him freely. One of L 1,000 is + recorded—a very large professional fee at that time, even in any + part of America, the paradise of lawyers. I lay great stress on Lincoln's + career as a lawyer—much more than his biographers do because in + America a state of things exists wholly different from that which prevails + in Great Britain. The profession of the law always has been and is to this + day the principal avenue to public life; and I am sure that his training + and experience in the courts had much to do with the development of those + forces of intellect and character which he soon displayed on a broader + arena. + </p> + <p> + It was in political controversy, of course, that he acquired his wide + reputation, and made his deep and lasting impression upon the people of + what had now become the powerful State of Illinois, and upon the people of + the Great West, to whom the political power and control of the United + States were already surely and swiftly passing from the older Eastern + States. It was this reputation and this impression, and the familiar + knowledge of his character which had come to them from his local + leadership, that happily inspired the people of the West to present him as + their candidate, and to press him upon the Republican convention of 1860 + as the fit and necessary leader in the struggle for life which was before + the nation. + </p> + <p> + That struggle, as you all know, arose out of the terrible question of + slavery—and I must trust to your general knowledge of the history of + that question to make intelligible the attitude and leadership of Lincoln + as the champion of the hosts of freedom in the final contest. Negro + slavery had been firmly established in the Southern States from an early + period of their history. In 1619, the year before the Mayflower landed our + Pilgrim Fathers upon Plymouth Rock, a Dutch ship had discharged a cargo of + African slaves at Jamestown in Virginia: All through the colonial period + their importation had continued. A few had found their way into the + Northern States, but none of them in sufficient numbers to constitute + danger or to afford a basis for political power. At the time of the + adoption of the Federal Constitution, there is no doubt that the principal + members of the convention not only condemned slavery as a moral, social, + and political evil, but believed that by the suppression of the slave + trade it was in the course of gradual extinction in the South, as it + certainly was in the North. Washington, in his will, provided for the + emancipation of his own slaves, and said to Jefferson that it "was among + his first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in his country + might be abolished." Jefferson said, referring to the institution: "I + tremble for my country when I think that God is just; that His justice + cannot sleep forever,"—and Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, and Patrick + Henry were all utterly opposed to it. But it was made the subject of a + fatal compromise in the Federal Constitution, whereby its existence was + recognized in the States as a basis of representation, the prohibition of + the importation of slaves was postponed for twenty years, and the return + of fugitive slaves provided for. But no imminent danger was apprehended + from it till, by the invention of the cotton gin in 1792, cotton culture + by negro labor became at once and forever the leading industry of the + South, and gave a new impetus to the importation of slaves, so that in + 1808, when the constitutional prohibition took effect, their numbers had + vastly increased. From that time forward slavery became the basis of a + great political power, and the Southern States, under all circumstances + and at every opportunity, carried on a brave and unrelenting struggle for + its maintenance and extension. + </p> + <p> + The conscience of the North was slow to rise against it, though bitter + controversies from time to time took place. The Southern leaders + threatened disunion if their demands were not complied with. To save the + Union, compromise after compromise was made, but each one in the end was + broken. The Missouri Compromise, made in 1820 upon the occasion of the + admission of Missouri into the Union as a slave State, whereby, in + consideration of such admission, slavery was forever excluded from the + Northwest Territory, was ruthlessly repealed in 1854, by a Congress + elected in the interests of the slave power, the intent being to force + slavery into that vast territory which had so long been dedicated to + freedom. This challenge at last aroused the slumbering conscience and + passion of the North, and led to the formation of the Republican party for + the avowed purpose of preventing, by constitutional methods, the further + extension of slavery. + </p> + <p> + In its first campaign, in 1856, though it failed to elect its candidates; + it received a surprising vote and carried many of the States. No one could + any longer doubt that the North had made up its mind that no threats of + disunion should deter it from pressing its cherished purpose and + performing its long neglected duty. From the outset, Lincoln was one of + the most active and effective leaders and speakers of the new party, and + the great debates between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858, as the respective + champions of the restriction and extension of slavery, attracted the + attention of the whole country. Lincoln's powerful arguments carried + conviction everywhere. His moral nature was thoroughly aroused his + conscience was stirred to the quick. Unless slavery was wrong, nothing was + wrong. Was each man, of whatever color, entitled to the fruits of his own + labor, or could one man live in idle luxury by the sweat of another's + brow, whose skin was darker? He was an implicit believer in that principle + of the Declaration of Independence that all men are vested with certain + inalienable rights the equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of + happiness. On this doctrine he staked his case and carried it. We have + time only for one or two sentences in which he struck the keynote of the + contest. + </p> + <p> + "The real issue in this country is the eternal struggle between these two + principles—right and wrong—throughout the world. They are the + two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, + and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of + humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same + principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that + says, 'You work and toil and earn bread and I'll eat it.'" + </p> + <p> + He foresaw with unerring vision that the conflict was inevitable and + irrepressible—that one or the other, the right or the wrong, freedom + or slavery, must ultimately prevail and wholly prevail, throughout the + country; and this was the principle that carried the war, once begun, to a + finish. + </p> + <p> + One sentence of his is immortal: + </p> + <p> + "Under the operation of the policy of compromise, the slavery agitation + has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it + will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A house + divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot + endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to + be 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 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." + </p> + <p> + During the entire decade from 1850 to 1860 the agitation of the slavery + question was at the boiling point, and events which have become historical + continually indicated the near approach of the overwhelming storm. No + sooner had the Compromise Acts of 1850 resulted in a temporary peace, + which everybody said must be final and perpetual, than new outbreaks came. + The forcible carrying away of fugitive slaves by Federal troops from + Boston agitated that ancient stronghold of freedom to its foundations. The + publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which truly exposed the frightful + possibilities of the slave system; the reckless attempts by force and + fraud to establish it in Kansas against the will of the vast majority of + the settlers; the beating of Summer in the Senate Chamber for words spoken + in debate; the Dred Scott decision in the Supreme Court, which made the + nation realize that the slave power had at last reached the fountain of + Federal justice; and finally the execution of John Brown, for his wild + raid into Virginia, to invite the slaves to rally to the standard of + freedom which he unfurled:—all these events tend to illustrate and + confirm Lincoln's contention that the nation could not permanently + continue half slave and half free, but must become all one thing or all + the other. When John Brown lay under sentence of death he declared that + now he was sure that slavery must be wiped out in blood; but neither he + nor his executioners dreamt that within four years a million soldiers + would be marching across the country for its final extirpation, to the + music of the war-song of the great conflict: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, + But his soul is marching on." +</pre> + <p> + And now, at the age of fifty-one, this child of the wilderness, this farm + laborer, rail-sputter, flatboatman, this surveyor, lawyer, orator, + statesman, and patriot, found himself elected by the great party which was + pledged to prevent at all hazards the further extension of slavery, as the + chief magistrate of the Republic, bound to carry out that purpose, to be + the leader and ruler of the nation in its most trying hour. + </p> + <p> + Those who believe that there is a living Providence that overrules and + conducts the affairs of nations, find in the elevation of this plain man + to this extraordinary fortune and to this great duty, which he so fitly + discharged, a signal vindication of their faith. Perhaps to this + philosophical institution the judgment of our philosopher Emerson will + commend itself as a just estimate of Lincoln's historical place. + </p> + <p> + "His occupying the chair of state was a triumph of the good sense of + mankind and of the public conscience. He grew according to the need; his + mind mastered the problem of the day: and as the problem grew, so did his + comprehension of it. In the war there was no place for holiday magistrate, + nor fair-weather sailor. The new pilot was hurried to the helm in a + tornado. In four years—four years of battle days—his + endurance, his fertility of resource, his magnanimity, were sorely tried, + and never found wanting. There, by his courage, his justice, his even + temper, his fertile counsel, his humanity, he stood a heroic figure in the + centre of a heroic epoch. He is the true history of the American people in + his time, the true representative of this continent—father of his + country, the pulse of twenty millions throbbing in his heart, the thought + of their mind—articulated in his tongue." + </p> + <p> + He was born great, as distinguished from those who achieve greatness or + have it thrust upon them, and his inherent capacity, mental, moral, and + physical, having been recognized by the educated intelligence of a free + people, they happily chose him for their ruler in a day of deadly peril. + </p> + <p> + It is now forty years since I first saw and heard Abraham Lincoln, but the + impression which he left on my mind is ineffaceable. After his great + successes in the West he came to New York to make a political address. 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 struggle; his deep-set + eyes looked sad and anxious; his countenance in repose gave little + evidence of that brain power which had raised him from the lowest to the + highest station among his countrymen; 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, clergymen, statesmen, lawyers, merchants, + critics. They were all very curious to hear him. His fame as a powerful + speaker had preceded him, and exaggerated rumor of his wit—the worst + forerunner of an orator—had reached the East. When Mr. Bryant + presented him, on the high platform of the Cooper Institute, 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 pretence, he spoke straight to the point. If any came expecting 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 + marvellous 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 Constitution in order to form a more perfect + union, to establish justice, and 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 those 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 wrong 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 congratulations, and he who had come as a stranger departed + with the laurels of great triumph. + </p> + <p> + Alas! in five years from that exulting night I saw him again, for the last + time, in the same city, borne in his coffin through its draped streets. + With tears and lamentations a heart-broken people accompanied him from + Washington, the scene of his martyrdom, to his last resting-place in the + young city of the West where he had worked his way to fame. + </p> + <p> + Never was a new ruler in a more desperate plight than Lincoln when he + entered office on the fourth of March, 1861, four months after his + election, and took his oath to support the Constitution and the Union. The + intervening time had been busily employed by the Southern States in + carrying out their threat of disunion in the event of his election. As + soon as the fact was ascertained, seven of them had seceded and had seized + upon the forts, arsenals, navy yards, and other public property of the + United States within their boundaries, and were making every preparation + for war. In the meantime the retiring President, who had been elected by + the slave power, and who thought the seceding States could not lawfully be + coerced, had done absolutely nothing. Lincoln found himself, by the + Constitution, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United + States, but with only a remnant of either at hand. Each was to be created + on a great scale out of the unknown resources of a nation untried in war. + </p> + <p> + In his mild and conciliatory inaugural address, while appealing to the + seceding States to return to their allegiance, he avowed his purpose to + keep the solemn oath he had taken that day, to see that the laws of the + Union were faithfully executed, and to use the troops to recover the + forts, navy yards, and other property belonging to the government. It is + probable, however, that neither side actually realized that war was + inevitable, and that the other was determined to fight, until the assault + on Fort Sumter presented the South as the first aggressor and roused the + North to use every possible resource to maintain the government and the + imperilled Union, and to vindicate the supremacy of the flag over every + inch of the territory of the United States. The fact that Lincoln's first + proclamation called for only 75,000 troops, to serve for three months, + shows how inadequate was even his idea of what the future had in store. + But from that moment Lincoln and his loyal supporters never faltered in + their purpose. They knew they could win, that it was their duty to win, + and that for America the whole hope of the future depended upon their + winning; for now by the acts of the seceding States the issue of the + election to secure or prevent the extension of slavery—stood + transformed into a struggle to preserve or to destroy the Union. + </p> + <p> + We cannot follow this contest. You know its gigantic proportions; that it + lasted four years instead of three months; that in its progress, instead + of 75,000 men, more than 2,000,000 were enrolled on the side of the + government alone; that the aggregate cost and loss to the nation + approximated to 1,000,000,000 pounds sterling, and that not less than + 300,000 brave and precious lives were sacrificed on each side. History has + recorded how Lincoln bore himself during these four frightful years; that + he was the real President, the responsible and actual head of the + government, through it all; that he listened to all advice, heard all + parties, and then, always realizing his responsibility to God and the + nation, decided every great executive question for himself. His absolute + honesty had become proverbial long before he was President. "Honest Abe + Lincoln" was the name by which he had been known for years. His every act + attested it. + </p> + <p> + In all the grandeur of the vast power that he wielded, he never ceased to + be one of the plain people, as he always called them, never lost or + impaired his perfect sympathy with them, was always in perfect touch with + them and open to their appeals; and here lay the very secret of his + personality and of his power, for the people in turn gave him their + absolute confidence. His courage, his fortitude, his patience, his + hopefulness, were sorely tried but never exhausted. + </p> + <p> + He was true as steel to his generals, but had frequent occasion to change + them, as he found them inadequate. This serious and painful duty rested + wholly upon him, and was perhaps his most important function as + Commander-in-Chief; but when, at last, he recognized in General Grant the + master of the situation, the man who could and would bring the war to a + triumphant end, he gave it all over to him and upheld him with all his + might. Amid all the pressure and distress that the burdens of office + brought upon him, his unfailing sense of humor saved him; probably it made + it possible for him to live under the burden. He had always been the great + story-teller of the West, and he used and cultivated this faculty to + relieve the weight of the load he bore. + </p> + <p> + It enabled him to keep the wonderful record of never having lost his + temper, no matter what agony he had to bear. A whole night might be spent + in recounting the stories of his wit, humor, and harmless sarcasm. But I + will recall only two of his sayings, both about General Grant, who always + found plenty of enemies and critics to urge the President to oust him from + his command. One, I am sure, will interest all Scotchmen. They repeated + with malicious intent the gossip that Grant drank. "What does he drink?" + asked Lincoln. "Whiskey," was, of course, the answer; doubtless you can + guess the brand. "Well," said the President, "just find out what + particular kind he uses and I'll send a barrel to each of my other + generals." The other must be as pleasing to the British as to the American + ear. When pressed again on other grounds to get rid of Grant, he declared, + "I can't spare that man, he fights!" + </p> + <p> + He was tender-hearted to a fault, and never could resist the appeals of + wives and mothers of soldiers who had got into trouble and were under + sentence of death for their offences. His Secretary of War and other + officials complained that they never could get deserters shot. As surely + as the women of the culprit's family could get at him he always gave way. + Certainly you will all appreciate his exquisite sympathy with the + suffering relatives of those who had fallen in battle. His heart bled with + theirs. Never was there a more gentle and tender utterance than his letter + to a mother who had given all her sons to her country, written at a time + when the angel of death had visited almost every household in the land, + and was already hovering over him. + </p> + <p> + "I have been shown," he says, "in the files of the War Department a + statement 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 your grief for a loss so + overwhelming but I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation + which 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 the lost, and the + solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon + the altar of freedom." + </p> + <p> + Hardly could your illustrious sovereign, from the depths of her queenly + and womanly heart, have spoken words more touching and tender to soothe + the stricken mothers of her own soldiers. + </p> + <p> + The Emancipation Proclamation, with which Mr. Lincoln delighted the + country and the world on the first of January, 1863, will doubtless secure + for him a foremost place in history among the philanthropists and + benefactors of the race, as it rescued, from hopeless and degrading + slavery, so many millions of his fellow-beings described in the law and + existing in fact as "chattels-personal, in the hands of their owners and + possessors, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever." + Rarely does the happy fortune come to one man to render such a service to + his kind—to proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the + inhabitants thereof. + </p> + <p> + Ideas rule the world, and never was there a more signal instance of this + triumph of an idea than here. William Lloyd Garrison, who thirty years + before had begun his crusade for the abolition of slavery, and had lived + to see this glorious and unexpected consummation of the hopeless cause to + which he had devoted his life, well described the proclamation as a "great + historic event, sublime in its magnitude, momentous and beneficent in its + far-reaching consequences, and eminently just and right alike to the + oppressor and the oppressed." + </p> + <p> + Lincoln had always been heart and soul opposed to slavery. Tradition says + that on the trip on the flatboat to New Orleans he formed his first and + last opinion of slavery at the sight of negroes chained and scourged, and + that then and there the iron entered into his soul. No boy could grow to + manhood in those days as a poor white in Kentucky and Indiana, in close + contact with slavery or in its neighborhood, without a growing + consciousness of its blighting effects on free labor, as well as of its + frightful injustice and cruelty. In the Legislature of Illinois, where the + public sentiment was all for upholding the institution and violently + against every movement for its abolition or restriction, upon the passage + of resolutions to that effect he had the courage with one companion to put + on record his protest, "believing that the institution of slavery is + founded both in injustice and bad policy." No great demonstration of + courage, you will say; but that was at a time when Garrison, for his + abolition utterances, had been dragged by an angry mob through the streets + of Boston with a rope around his body, and in the very year that Lovejoy + in the same State of Illinois was slain by rioters while defending his + press, from which he had printed antislavery appeals. + </p> + <p> + In Congress he brought in a bill for gradual abolition in the District of + Columbia, with compensation to the owners, for until they raised + treasonable hands against the life of the nation he always maintained that + the property of the slaveholders, into which they had come by two + centuries of descent, without fault on their part, ought not to be taken + away from them without just compensation. He used to say that, one way or + another, he had voted forty-two times for the Wilmot Proviso, which Mr. + Wilmot of Pennsylvania moved as an addition to every bill which affected + United States territory, "that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude + shall ever exist in any part of the said territory," and it is evident + that his condemnation of the system, on moral grounds as a crime against + the human race, and on political grounds as a cancer that was sapping the + vitals of the nation, and must master its whole being or be itself + extirpated, grew steadily upon him until it culminated in his great + speeches in the Illinois debate. + </p> + <p> + By the mere election of Lincoln to the Presidency, the further extension + of slavery into the Territories was rendered forever impossible—Vox + populi, vox Dei. Revolutions never go backward, and when founded on a + great moral sentiment stirring the heart of an indignant people their + edicts are irresistible and final. Had the slave power acquiesced in that + election, had the Southern States remained under the Constitution and + within the Union, and relied upon their constitutional and legal rights, + their favorite institution, immoral as it was, blighting and fatal as it + was, might have endured for another century. The great party that had + elected him, unalterably determined against its extension, was + nevertheless pledged not to interfere with its continuance in the States + where it already existed. Of course, when new regions were forever closed + against it, from its very nature it must have begun to shrink and to + dwindle; and probably gradual and compensated emancipation, which appealed + very strongly to the new President's sense of justice and expediency, + would, in the progress of time, by a reversion to the ideas of the + founders of the Republic, have found a safe outlet for both masters and + slaves. But whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad, and when + seven States, afterwards increased to eleven, openly seceded from the + Union, when they declared and began the war upon the nation, and + challenged its mighty power to the desperate and protracted struggle for + its life, and for the maintenance of its authority as a nation over its + territory, they gave to Lincoln and to freedom the sublime opportunity of + history. + </p> + <p> + In his first inaugural address, when as yet not a drop of precious blood + had been shed, while he held out to them the olive branch in one hand, in + the other he presented the guarantees of the Constitution, and after + reciting the emphatic resolution of the convention that nominated him, + 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 of our + political fabric depend," he reiterated this sentiment, and declared, with + no mental reservation, "that all the protection which, consistently with + the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to + all the States when lawfully demanded for whatever cause as cheerfully to + one section as to another." + </p> + <p> + When, however, these magnanimous overtures for peace and reunion were + rejected; when the seceding States defied the Constitution and every + clause and principle of it; when they persisted in staying out of the + Union from which they had seceded, and proceeded to carve out of its + territory a new and hostile empire based on slavery; when they flew at the + throat of the nation and plunged it into the bloodiest war of the + nineteenth century the tables were turned, and the belief gradually came + to the mind of the President that if the Rebellion was not soon subdued by + force of arms, if the war must be fought out to the bitter end, then to + reach that end the salvation of the nation itself might require the + destruction of slavery wherever it existed; that if the war was to + continue on one side for Disunion, for no other purpose than to preserve + slavery, it must continue on the other side for the Union, to destroy + slavery. + </p> + <p> + As he said, "Events control me; I cannot control events," and as the + dreadful war progressed and became more deadly and dangerous, the + unalterable conviction was forced upon him that, in order that the + frightful sacrifice of life and treasure on both sides might not be all in + vain, it had become his duty as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, as a + necessary war measure, to strike a blow at the Rebellion which, all others + failing, would inevitably lead to its annihilation, by annihilating the + very thing for which it was contending. His own words are the best: + </p> + <p> + "I understood that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my + ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving by every indispensable + means that government—that nation—of which that Constitution + was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve + the Constitution? By general law, life and limb must be protected, yet + often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely + given to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional + might become lawful by becoming 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 ever 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." + </p> + <p> + And so, at last, when in his judgment the indispensable necessity had + come, he struck the fatal blow, and signed the proclamation which has made + his name immortal. By it, the President, as Commander-in-Chief in time of + actual armed rebellion, and as a fit and necessary war measure for + suppressing the rebellion, proclaimed all persons held as slaves in the + States and parts of States then in rebellion to be thenceforward free, and + declared that the executive, with the army and navy, would recognize and + maintain their freedom. + </p> + <p> + In the other great steps of the government, which led to the triumphant + prosecution of the war, he necessarily shared the responsibility and the + credit with the great statesmen who stayed up his hands in his cabinet, + with Seward, Chase and Stanton, and the rest,—and with his generals + and admirals, his soldiers and sailors, but this great act was absolutely + his own. The conception and execution were exclusively his. He laid it + before his cabinet as a measure on which his mind was made up and could + not be changed, asking them only for suggestions as to details. He chose + the time and the circumstances under which the Emancipation should be + proclaimed and when it should take effect. + </p> + <p> + It came not an hour too soon; but public opinion in the North would not + have sustained it earlier. In the first eighteen months of the war its + ravages had extended from the Atlantic to beyond the Mississippi. Many + victories in the West had been balanced and paralyzed by inaction and + disasters in Virginia, only partially redeemed by the bloody and + indecisive battle of Antietam; a reaction had set in from the general + enthusiasm which had swept the Northern States after the assault upon + Sumter. It could not truly be said that they had lost heart, but faction + was raising its head. Heard through the land like the blast of a bugle, + the proclamation rallied the patriotism of the country to fresh sacrifices + and renewed ardor. It was a step that could not be revoked. It relieved + the conscience of the nation from an incubus that had oppressed it from + its birth. The United States were rescued from the false predicament in + which they had been from the beginning, and the great popular heart leaped + with new enthusiasm for "Liberty and Union, henceforth and forever, one + and inseparable." It brought not only moral but material support to the + cause of the government, for within two years 120,000 colored troops were + enlisted in the military service and following the national flag, + supported by all the loyalty of the North, and led by its choicest + spirits. One mother said, when her son was offered the command of the + first colored regiment, "If he accepts it I shall be as proud as if I had + heard that he was shot." He was shot heading a gallant charge of his + regiment.... The Confederates replied to a request of his friends for his + body that they had "buried him under a layer of his niggers...;" but that + mother has lived to enjoy thirty-six years of his glory, and Boston has + erected its noblest monument to his memory. + </p> + <p> + The effect of the proclamation upon the actual progress of the war was not + immediate, but wherever the Federal armies advanced they carried freedom + with them, and when the summer came round the new spirit and force which + had animated the heart of the government and people were manifest. In the + first week of July the decisive battle of Gettysburg turned the tide of + war, and the fall of Vicksburg made the great river free from its source + to the Gulf. + </p> + <p> + On foreign nations the influence of the proclamation and of these new + victories was of great importance. In those days, when there was no cable, + it was not easy for foreign observers to appreciate what was really going + on; they could not see clearly the true state of affairs, as in the last + year of the nineteenth century we have been able, by our new electric + vision, to watch every event at the antipodes and observe its effect. The + Rebel emissaries, sent over to solicit intervention, spared no pains to + impress upon the minds of public and private men and upon the press their + own views of the character of the contest. The prospects of the + Confederacy were always better abroad than at home. The stock markets of + the world gambled upon its chances, and its bonds at one time were high in + favor. + </p> + <p> + Such ideas as these were seriously held: that the North was fighting for + empire and the South for independence; that the Southern States, instead + of being the grossest oligarchies, essentially despotisms, founded on the + right of one man to appropriate the fruit of other men's toil and to + exclude them from equal rights, were real republics, feebler to be sure + than their Northern rivals, but representing the same idea of freedom, and + that the mighty strength of the nation was being put forth to crush them; + that Jefferson Davis and the Southern leaders had created a nation; that + the republican experiment had failed and the Union had ceased to exist. + But the crowning argument to foreign minds was that it was an utter + impossibility for the government to win in the contest; that the success + of the Southern States, so far as separation was concerned, was as certain + as any event yet future and contingent could be; that the subjugation of + the South by the North, even if it could be accomplished, would prove a + calamity to the United States and the world, and especially calamitous to + the negro race; and that such a victory would necessarily leave the people + of the South for many generations cherishing deadly hostility against the + government and the North, and plotting always to recover their + independence. + </p> + <p> + When Lincoln issued his proclamation he knew that all these ideas were + founded in error; that the national resources were inexhaustible; that the + government could and would win, and that if slavery were once finally + disposed of, the only cause of difference being out of the way, the North + and South would come together again, and by and by be as good friends as + ever. In many quarters abroad the proclamation was welcomed with + enthusiasm by the friends of America; but I think the demonstrations in + its favor that brought more gladness to Lincoln's heart than any other + were the meetings held in the manufacturing centres, by the very + operatives upon whom the war bore the hardest, expressing the most + enthusiastic sympathy with the proclamation, while they bore with heroic + fortitude the grievous privations which the war entailed upon them. Mr. + Lincoln's expectation when he announced to the world that all slaves in + all States then in rebellion were set free must have been that the avowed + position of his government, that the continuance of the war now meant the + annihilation of slavery, would make intervention impossible for any + foreign nation whose people were lovers of liberty—and so the result + proved. + </p> + <p> + The growth and development of Lincoln's mental power and moral force, of + his intense and magnetic personality, after the vast responsibilities of + government were thrown upon him at the age of fifty-two, furnish a rare + and striking illustration of the marvellous capacity and adaptability of + the human intellect—of the sound mind in the sound body. He came to + the discharge of the great duties of the Presidency with absolutely no + experience in the administration of government, or of the vastly varied + and complicated questions of foreign and domestic policy which immediately + arose, and continued to press upon him during the rest of his life; but he + mastered each as it came, apparently with the facility of a trained and + experienced ruler. As Clarendon said of Cromwell, "His parts seemed to be + raised by the demands of great station." His life through it all was one + of intense labor, anxiety, and distress, without one hour of peaceful + repose from first to last. But he rose to every occasion. He led public + opinion, but did not march so far in advance of it as to fail of its + effective support in every great emergency. He knew the heart and thought + of the people, as no man not in constant and absolute sympathy with them + could have known it, and so holding their confidence, he triumphed through + and with them. Not only was there this steady growth of intellect, but the + infinite delicacy of his nature and its capacity for refinement developed + also, as exhibited in the purity and perfection of his language and style + of speech. The rough backwoodsman, who had never seen the inside of a + university, became in the end, by self-training and the exercise of his + own powers of mind, heart, and soul, a master of style, and some of his + utterances will rank with the best, the most perfectly adapted to the + occasion which produced them. + </p> + <p> + Have you time to listen to his two-minutes speech at Gettysburg, at the + dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery? His whole soul was in it: + </p> + <p> + "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this + continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the + proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great + civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so + dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great 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 cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow + this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have + consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will + little note, nor long remember, what we say here but it can never forget + what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here + to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly + advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task + remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased + devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of + devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have + died in vain—that this nation under God shall have a new birth of + freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, and for + the people shall not perish from the earth." + </p> + <p> + He lived to see his work indorsed by an overwhelming majority of his + countrymen. In his second inaugural address, pronounced just forty days + before his death, there is a single passage which well displays his + indomitable will and at the same time his deep religious feeling, his + sublime charity to the enemies of his country, and his broad and catholic + humanity: + </p> + <p> + "If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offences which + in the Providence of God must needs come, but which, having continued + through the 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 offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine + attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? + Fondly do we 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 bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited + toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash + shall be paid with another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand + years ago, so still it must be said, 'the judgments of the Lord are true + and righteous altogether.' + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + His prayer was answered. The forty days of life that remained to him were + crowned with great historic events. He lived to see his Proclamation of + Emancipation embodied in an amendment of the Constitution, adopted by + Congress, and submitted to the States for ratification. The mighty scourge + of war did speedily pass away, for it was given him to witness the + surrender of the Rebel army and the fall of their capital, and the starry + flag that he loved waving in triumph over the national soil. When he died + by the madman's hand in the supreme hour of victory, the vanquished lost + their best friend, and the human race one of its noblest examples; and all + the friends of freedom and justice, in whose cause he lived and died, + joined hands as mourners at his grave. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1832-1843 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1832 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON COUNTY. + </h2> + <h3> + March 9, 1832. + </h3> + <p> + FELLOW CITIZENS:—Having become a candidate for the honorable office + of one of your Representatives in the next General Assembly of this State, + in according with an established custom and the principles of true + Republicanism it becomes my duty to make known to you, the people whom I + propose to represent, my sentiments with regard to local affairs. + </p> + <p> + 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 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 + objection arises from the want of ability to pay. + </p> + <p> + With respect to the County of Sangamon, some.... + </p> + <p> + 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....... + </p> + <p> + What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to say. It is probable, + however, that it would not be greater 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 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 on 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. + </p> + <p> + Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate 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 histories + of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value + of our free institutions, appears to be an object of vital importance, + 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. + </p> + <p> + For my 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 something to the advancement of any measure which + might have a tendency to accelerate that happy period. + </p> + <p> + With regard to existing laws, some alterations are thought to be + necessary. Many 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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; 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. + </p> + <p> + Your friend and fellow-citizen, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + New Salem, March 9, 1832. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1833 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + </h2> + <h3> + NEW SALEM, Aug. 10, 1833 + </h3> + <p> + E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + </p> + <p> + Dear Sir:—In regard to the time David Rankin served the enclosed + discharge shows correctly—as well as I can recollect—having no + writing to refer. The transfer of Rankin from my company occurred as + follows: Rankin having lost his horse at Dixon's ferry and having + acquaintance in one of the foot companies who were going down the river + was desirous to go with them, and one Galishen being an acquaintance of + mine and belonging to the company in which Rankin wished to go wished to + leave it and join mine, this being the case it was agreed that they should + exchange places and answer to each other's names—as it was expected + we all would be discharged in very few days. As to a blanket—I have + no knowledge of Rankin ever getting any. The above embraces all the facts + now in my recollection which are pertinent to the case. + </p> + <p> + I shall take pleasure in giving any further information in my power should + you call on me. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR POSTAGE RECEIPT + </h2> + <h3> + TO Mr. SPEARS. + </h3> + <p> + Mr. SPEARS: + </p> + <p> + At your request I send you a receipt for the postage on your paper. I am + somewhat surprised at your request. I will, however, comply with it. The + law requires newspaper postage to be paid in advance, and now that I have + waited a full year you choose to wound my feelings by insinuating that + unless you get a receipt I will probably make you pay it again. + </p> + <p> + Respectfully, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1836 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ANNOUNCEMENT OF POLITICAL VIEWS. + </h2> + <h3> + New Salem, June 13, 1836. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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). + </p> + <p> + If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon my constituents, + as well those that oppose as those that support me. + </p> + <p> + While acting as their representative, I shall be governed 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 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. + </p> + <p> + Very respectfully, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESPONSE TO POLITICAL SMEAR + </h2> + <h3> + TO ROBERT ALLEN + </h3> + <p> + New Salem, June 21, 1836 + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 you said. + I am flattered with the personal regard you manifested for me; 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. + </p> + <p> + Very respectfully, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO MISS MARY OWENS. + </h2> + <h3> + VANDALIA, December 13, 1836. + </h3> + <p> + MARY:—I have been sick ever since my arrival, or I should have + written sooner. It is but little difference, however, as I have very + little even yet to write. And more, the longer I can avoid the + mortification of looking in the post-office for your letter and not + finding it, the better. You see I am mad about that old letter yet. I + don't like very well to risk you again. I'll try you once more, anyhow. + </p> + <p> + The new State House is not yet finished, and consequently the Legislature + is doing little or nothing. The governor delivered an inflammatory + political message, and it is expected there will be some sparring between + the parties about it as soon as the two Houses get to business. Taylor + delivered up his petition for the new county to one of our members this + morning. I am told he despairs of its success, on account of all the + members from Morgan County opposing it. There are names enough on the + petition, I think, to justify the members from our county in going for it; + but if the members from Morgan oppose it, which they say they will, the + chance will be bad. + </p> + <p> + Our chance to take the seat of government to Springfield is better than I + expected. An internal-improvement convention was held there since we met, + which recommended a loan of several millions of dollars, on the faith of + the State, to construct railroads. Some of the Legislature are for it, and + some against it; which has the majority I cannot tell. There is great + strife and struggling for the office of the United States Senator here at + this time. It is probable we shall ease their pains in a few days. The + opposition men have no candidate of their own, and consequently they will + smile as complacently at the angry snarl of the contending Van Buren + candidates and their respective friends as the Christian does at Satan's + rage. You recollect that I mentioned at the outset of this letter that I + had been unwell. That is the fact, though I believe I am about well now; + but that, with other things I cannot account for, have conspired, and have + gotten my spirits so low that I feel that I would rather be any place in + the world than here. I really cannot endure the thought of staying here + ten weeks. Write back as soon as you get this, and, if possible, say + something that will please me, for really I have not been pleased since I + left you. This letter is so dry and stupid that I am ashamed to send it, + but with my present feelings I cannot do any better. + </p> + <p> + Give my best respects to Mr. and Mrs. Able and family. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, LINCOLN + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1837 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SPEECH IN ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + </h2> + <h3> + January [?], 1837 + </h3> + <p> + Mr. CHAIRMAN:—Lest I should fall into the too common error of being + mistaken in regard to which side I design to be upon, I shall make it my + first care to remove all doubt on that point, by declaring that I am + opposed to the resolution under consideration, in toto. Before I proceed + to the body of the subject, I will further remark, that it is not without + a considerable degree of apprehension that I venture to cross the track of + the gentleman from Coles [Mr. Linder]. Indeed, I do not believe I could + muster a sufficiency of courage to come in contact with that gentleman, + were it not for the fact that he, some days since, most graciously + condescended to assure us that he would never be found wasting ammunition + on small game. On the same fortunate occasion, he further gave us to + understand, that he regarded himself as being decidedly the superior of + our common friend from Randolph [Mr. Shields]; and feeling, as I really + do, that I, to say the most of myself, am nothing more than the peer of + our friend from Randolph, I shall regard the gentleman from Coles as + decidedly my superior also, and consequently, in the course of what I + shall have to say, whenever I shall have occasion to allude to that + gentleman, I shall endeavor to adopt that kind of court language which I + understand to be due to decided superiority. In one faculty, at least, + there can be no dispute of the gentleman's superiority over me and most + other men, and that is, the faculty of entangling a subject, so that + neither himself, or any other man, can find head or tail to it. Here he + has introduced a resolution embracing ninety-nine printed lines across + common writing paper, and yet more than one half of his opening speech has + been made upon subjects about which there is not one word said in his + resolution. + </p> + <p> + Though his resolution embraces nothing in regard to the constitutionality + of the Bank, much of what he has said has been with a view to make the + impression that it was unconstitutional in its inception. Now, although I + am satisfied that an ample field may be found within the pale of the + resolution, at least for small game, yet, as the gentleman has traveled + out of it, I feel that I may, with all due humility, venture to follow + him. The gentleman has discovered that some gentleman at Washington city + has been upon the very eve of deciding our Bank unconstitutional, and that + he would probably have completed his very authentic decision, had not some + one of the Bank officers placed his hand upon his mouth, and begged him to + withhold it. The fact that the individuals composing our Supreme Court + have, in an official capacity, decided in favor of the constitutionality + of the Bank, would, in my mind, seem a sufficient answer to this. It is a + fact known to all, that the members of the Supreme Court, together with + the Governor, form a Council of Revision, and that this Council approved + this Bank charter. I ask, then, if the extra-judicial decision not quite + but almost made by the gentleman at Washington, before whom, by the way, + the question of the constitutionality of our Bank never has, nor never can + come—is to be taken as paramount to a decision officially made by + that tribunal, by which, and which alone, the constitutionality of the + Bank can ever be settled? But, aside from this view of the subject, I + would ask, if the committee which this resolution proposes to appoint are + to examine into the Constitutionality of the Bank? Are they to be clothed + with power to send for persons and papers, for this object? And after they + have found the bank to be unconstitutional, and decided it so, how are + they to enforce their decision? What will their decision amount to? They + cannot compel the Bank to cease operations, or to change the course of its + operations. What good, then, can their labors result in? Certainly none. + </p> + <p> + The gentleman asks, if we, without an examination, shall, by giving the + State deposits to the Bank, and by taking the stock reserved for the + State, legalize its former misconduct. Now I do not pretend to possess + sufficient legal knowledge to decide whether a legislative enactment + proposing to, and accepting from, the Bank, certain terms, would have the + effect to legalize or wipe out its former errors, or not; but I can assure + the gentleman, if such should be the effect, he has already got behind the + settlement of accounts; for it is well known to all, that the Legislature, + at its last session, passed a supplemental Bank charter, which the Bank + has since accepted, and which, according to his doctrine, has legalized + all the alleged violations of its original charter in the distribution of + its stock. + </p> + <p> + I now proceed to the resolution. By examination it will be found that the + first thirty-three lines, being precisely one third of the whole, relate + exclusively to the distribution of the stock by the commissioners + appointed by the State. Now, Sir, it is clear that no question can arise + on this portion of the resolution, except a question between capitalists + in regard to the ownership of stock. Some gentlemen have their stock in + their hands, while others, who have more money than they know what to do + with, want it; and this, and this alone, is the question, to settle which + we are called on to squander thousands of the people's money. What + interest, let me ask, have the people in the settlement of this question? + What difference is it to them whether the stock is owned by Judge Smith or + Sam Wiggins? If any gentleman be entitled to stock in the Bank, which he + is kept out of possession of by others, let him assert his right in the + Supreme Court, and let him or his antagonist, whichever may be found in + the wrong, pay the costs of suit. It is an old maxim, and a very sound + one, that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. Now, Sir, in the + present case, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden to them, choose to + lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the people's money being used + to pay the fiddler. No one can doubt that the examination proposed by this + resolution must cost the State some ten or twelve thousand dollars; and + all this to settle a question in which the people have no interest, and + about which they care nothing. These capitalists generally act + harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people, and now that they have + got into a quarrel with themselves we are called upon to appropriate the + people's money to settle the quarrel. + </p> + <p> + I leave this part of the resolution and proceed to the remainder. It will + be found that no charge in the remaining part of the resolution, if true, + amounts to the violation of the Bank charter, except one, which I will + notice in due time. It might seem quite sufficient to say no more upon any + of these charges or insinuations than enough to show they are not + violations of the charter; yet, as they are ingeniously framed and + handled, with a view to deceive and mislead, I will notice in their order + all the most prominent of them. The first of these is in relation to a + connection between our Bank and several banking institutions in other + States. Admitting this connection to exist, I should like to see the + gentleman from Coles, or any other gentleman, undertake to show that there + is any harm in it. What can there be in such a connection, that the people + of Illinois are willing to pay their money to get a peep into? By a + reference to the tenth section of the Bank charter, any gentleman can see + that the framers of the act contemplated the holding of stock in the + institutions of other corporations. Why, then, is it, when neither law nor + justice forbids it, that we are asked to spend our time and money in + inquiring into its truth? + </p> + <p> + The next charge, in the order of time, is, that some officer, director, + clerk or servant of the Bank, has been required to take an oath of secrecy + in relation to the affairs of said Bank. Now, I do not know whether this + be true or false—neither do I believe any honest man cares. I know + that the seventh section of the charter expressly guarantees to the Bank + the right of making, under certain restrictions, such by-laws as it may + think fit; and I further know that the requiring an oath of secrecy would + not transcend those restrictions. What, then, if the Bank has chosen to + exercise this right? Whom can it injure? Does not every merchant have his + secret mark? and who is ever silly enough to complain of it? I presume if + the Bank does require any such oath of secrecy, it is done through a + motive of delicacy to those individuals who deal with it. Why, Sir, not + many days since, one gentleman upon this floor, who, by the way, I have no + doubt is now ready to join this hue and cry against the Bank, indulged in + a philippic against one of the Bank officials, because, as he said, he had + divulged a secret. + </p> + <p> + Immediately following this last charge, there are several insinuations in + the resolution, which are too silly to require any sort of notice, were it + not for the fact that they conclude by saying, "to the great injury of the + people at large." In answer to this I would say that it is strange enough, + that the people are suffering these "great injuries," and yet are not + sensible of it! Singular indeed that the people should be writhing under + oppression and injury, and yet not one among them to be found to raise the + voice of complaint. If the Bank be inflicting injury upon the people, why + is it that not a single petition is presented to this body on the subject? + If the Bank really be a grievance, why is it that no one of the real + people is found to ask redress of it? The truth is, no such oppression + exists. If it did, our people would groan with memorials and petitions, + and we would not be permitted to rest day or night, till we had put it + down. The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and + maintain them, when they are invaded. Let them call for an investigation, + and I shall ever stand ready to respond to the call. But they have made no + such call. I make the assertion boldly, and without fear of contradiction, + that no man, who does not hold an office, or does not aspire to one, has + ever found any fault of the Bank. It has doubled the prices of the + products of their farms, and filled their pockets with a sound circulating + medium, and they are all well pleased with its operations. No, Sir, it is + the politician who is the first to sound the alarm (which, by the way, is + a false one.) It is he, who, by these unholy means, is endeavoring to blow + up a storm that he may ride upon and direct. It is he, and he alone, that + here proposes to spend thousands of the people's public treasure, for no + other advantage to them than to make valueless in their pockets the reward + of their industry. Mr. Chairman, this work is exclusively the work of + politicians; a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of + the people, and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, at + least one long step removed from honest men. I say this with the greater + freedom, because, being a politician myself, none can regard it as + personal. + </p> + <p> + Again, it is charged, or rather insinuated, that officers of the Bank have + loaned money at usurious rates of interest. Suppose this to be true, are + we to send a committee of this House to inquire into it? Suppose the + committee should find it true, can they redress the injured individuals? + Assuredly not. If any individual had been injured in this way, is there + not an ample remedy to be found in the laws of the land? Does the + gentleman from Coles know that there is a statute standing in full force + making it highly penal for an individual to loan money at a higher rate of + interest than twelve per cent? If he does not he is too ignorant to be + placed at the head of the committee which his resolution purposes and if + he does, his neglect to mention it shows him to be too uncandid to merit + the respect or confidence of any one. + </p> + <p> + But besides all this, if the Bank were struck from existence, could not + the owners of the capital still loan it usuriously, as well as now? + whatever the Bank, or its officers, may have done, I know that usurious + transactions were much more frequent and enormous before the commencement + of its operations than they have ever been since. + </p> + <p> + The next insinuation is, that the Bank has refused specie payments. This, + if true is a violation of the charter. But there is not the least + probability of its truth; because, if such had been the fact, the + individual to whom payment was refused would have had an interest in + making it public, by suing for the damages to which the charter entitles + him. Yet no such thing has been done; and the strong presumption is, that + the insinuation is false and groundless. + </p> + <p> + From this to the end of the resolution, there is nothing that merits + attention—I therefore drop the particular examination of it. + </p> + <p> + By a general view of the resolution, it will be seen that a principal + object of the committee is to examine into, and ferret out, a mass of + corruption supposed to have been committed by the commissioners who + apportioned the stock of the Bank. I believe it is universally understood + and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly unless they have a + motive to do otherwise. If this be true, we can only suppose that the + commissioners acted corruptly by also supposing that they were bribed to + do so. Taking this view of the subject, I would ask if the Bank is likely + to find it more difficult to bribe the committee of seven, which, we are + about to appoint, than it may have found it to bribe the commissioners? + </p> + <p> + (Here Mr. Linder called to order. The Chair decided that Mr. Lincoln was + not out of order. Mr. Linder appealed to the House, but, before the + question was put, withdrew his appeal, saying he preferred to let the + gentleman go on; he thought he would break his own neck. Mr. Lincoln + proceeded:) + </p> + <p> + Another gracious condescension! I acknowledge it with gratitude. I know I + was not out of order; and I know every sensible man in the House knows it. + I was not saying that the gentleman from Coles could be bribed, nor, on + the other hand, will I say he could not. In that particular I leave him + where I found him. I was only endeavoring to show that there was at least + as great a probability of any seven members that could be selected from + this House being bribed to act corruptly, as there was that the + twenty-four commissioners had been so bribed. By a reference to the ninth + section of the Bank charter, it will be seen that those commissioners were + John Tilson, Robert K. McLaughlin, Daniel Warm, A.G. S. Wight, John C. + Riley, W. H. Davidson, Edward M. Wilson, Edward L. Pierson, Robert R. + Green, Ezra Baker, Aquilla Wren, John Taylor, Samuel C. Christy, Edmund + Roberts, Benjamin Godfrey, Thomas Mather, A. M. Jenkins, W. Linn, W. S. + Gilman, Charles Prentice, Richard I. Hamilton, A.H. Buckner, W. F. + Thornton, and Edmund D. Taylor. + </p> + <p> + These are twenty-four of the most respectable men in the State. Probably + no twenty-four men could be selected in the State with whom the people are + better acquainted, or in whose honor and integrity they would more readily + place confidence. And I now repeat, that there is less probability that + those men have been bribed and corrupted, than that any seven men, or + rather any six men, that could be selected from the members of this House, + might be so bribed and corrupted, even though they were headed and led on + by "decided superiority" himself. + </p> + <p> + In all seriousness, I ask every reasonable man, if an issue be joined by + these twenty-four commissioners, on the one part, and any other seven men, + on the other part, and the whole depend upon the honor and integrity of + the contending parties, to which party would the greatest degree of credit + be due? Again: Another consideration is, that we have no right to make the + examination. What I shall say upon this head I design exclusively for the + law-loving and law-abiding part of the House. To those who claim + omnipotence for the Legislature, and who in the plenitude of their assumed + powers are disposed to disregard the Constitution, law, good faith, moral + right, and everything else, I have not a word to say. But to the + law-abiding part I say, examine the Bank charter, go examine the + Constitution, go examine the acts that the General Assembly of this State + has passed, and you will find just as much authority given in each and + every of them to compel the Bank to bring its coffers to this hall and to + pour their contents upon this floor, as to compel it to submit to this + examination which this resolution proposes. Why, Sir, the gentleman from + Coles, the mover of this resolution, very lately denied on this floor that + the Legislature had any right to repeal or otherwise meddle with its own + acts, when those acts were made in the nature of contracts, and had been + accepted and acted on by other parties. Now I ask if this resolution does + not propose, for this House alone, to do what he, but the other day, + denied the right of the whole Legislature to do? He must either abandon + the position he then took, or he must now vote against his own resolution. + It is no difference to me, and I presume but little to any one else, which + he does. + </p> + <p> + I am by no means the special advocate of the Bank. I have long thought + that it would be well for it to report its condition to the General + Assembly, and that cases might occur, when it might be proper to make an + examination of its affairs by a committee. Accordingly, during the last + session, while a bill supplemental to the Bank charter was pending before + the House, I offered an amendment to the same, in these words: "The said + corporation shall, at the next session of the General Assembly, and at + each subsequent General Session, during the existence of its charter, + report to the same the amount of debts due from said corporation; the + amount of debts due to the same; the amount of specie in its vaults, and + an account of all lands then owned by the same, and the amount for which + such lands have been taken; and moreover, if said corporation shall at any + time neglect or refuse to submit its books, papers, and all and everything + necessary for a full and fair examination of its affairs, to any person or + persons appointed by the General Assembly, for the purpose of making such + examination, the said corporation shall forfeit its charter." + </p> + <p> + This amendment was negatived by a vote of 34 to 15. Eleven of the 34 who + voted against it are now members of this House; and though it would be out + of order to call their names, I hope they will all recollect themselves, + and not vote for this examination to be made without authority, inasmuch + as they refused to receive the authority when it was in their power to do + so. + </p> + <p> + I have said that cases might occur, when an examination might be proper; + but I do not believe any such case has now occurred; and if it has, I + should still be opposed to making an examination without legal authority. + I am opposed to encouraging that lawless and mobocratic spirit, whether in + relation to the Bank or anything else, which is already abroad in the land + and is spreading with rapid and fearful impetuosity, to the ultimate + overthrow of every institution, of every moral principle, in which persons + and property have hitherto found security. + </p> + <p> + But supposing we had the authority, I would ask what good can result from + the examination? Can we declare the Bank unconstitutional, and compel it + to desist from the abuses of its power, provided we find such abuses to + exist? Can we repair the injuries which it may have done to individuals? + Most certainly we can do none of these things. Why then shall we spend the + public money in such employment? Oh, say the examiners, we can injure the + credit of the Bank, if nothing else, Please tell me, gentlemen, who will + suffer most by that? You cannot injure, to any extent, the stockholders. + They are men of wealth—of large capital; and consequently, beyond + the power of malice. But by injuring the credit of the Bank, you will + depreciate the value of its paper in the hands of the honest and + unsuspecting farmer and mechanic, and that is all you can do. But suppose + you could effect your whole purpose; suppose you could wipe the Bank from + existence, which is the grand ultimatum of the project, what would be the + consequence? why, Sir, we should spend several thousand dollars of the + public treasure in the operation, annihilate the currency of the State, + render valueless in the hands of our people that reward of their former + labors, and finally be once more under the comfortable obligation of + paying the Wiggins loan, principal and interest. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + OPPOSITION TO MOB-RULE + </h2> + <h3> + ADDRESS BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN'S LYCEUM OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. + </h3> + <p> + January 27, 1837. + </p> + <p> + As a subject for the remarks of the evening, "The Perpetuation of our + Political Institutions" is selected. + </p> + <p> + In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American + people, find our account running under date of the nineteenth century of + the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the + fairest portion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility of + soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government of + a system of political institutions conducing more essentially to the ends + of civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of former + times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves + the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the + acquirement or establishment of them; they are a legacy bequeathed us by a + once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed, race of + ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess + themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land, and to uprear + upon its hills and its valleys a political edifice of liberty and equal + rights; it is ours only to transmit these—the former unprofaned by + the foot of an invader, the latter undecayed by the lapse of time and + untorn by usurpation—to the latest generation that fate shall permit + the world to know. This task gratitude to our fathers, justice to + ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all + imperatively require us faithfully to perform. + </p> + <p> + How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach + of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some + transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? + Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the + treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a + Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio + or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. + </p> + <p> + At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer: If + it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. + If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As + a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide. + </p> + <p> + I hope I am over-wary; but if I am not, there is even now something of ill + omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades + the country—the growing disposition to substitute the wild and + furious passions in lieu of the sober judgment of courts, and the worse + than savage mobs for the executive ministers of justice. This disposition + is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, + though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth + and an insult to our intelligence to deny. Accounts of outrages committed + by mobs form the everyday news of the times. They have pervaded the + country from New England to Louisiana; they are neither peculiar to the + eternal snows of the former nor the burning suns of the latter; they are + not the creature of climate, neither are they confined to the slave + holding or the non-slave holding States. Alike they spring up among the + pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving citizens + of the land of steady habits. Whatever then their cause may be, it is + common to the whole country. + </p> + <p> + It would be tedious as well as useless to recount the horrors of all of + them. Those happening in the State of Mississippi and at St. Louis are + perhaps the most dangerous in example and revolting to humanity. In the + Mississippi case they first commenced by hanging the regular gamblers—a + set of men certainly not following for a livelihood a very useful or very + honest occupation, but one which, so far from being forbidden by the laws, + was actually licensed by an act of the Legislature passed but a single + year before. Next, negroes suspected of conspiring to raise an + insurrection were caught up and hanged in all parts of the State; then, + white men supposed to be leagued with the negroes; and finally, strangers + from neighboring States, going thither on business, were in many instances + subjected to the same fate. Thus went on this process of hanging, from + gamblers to negroes, from negroes to white citizens, and from these to + strangers, till dead men were seen literally dangling from the boughs of + trees upon every roadside, and in numbers almost sufficient to rival the + native Spanish moss of the country as a drapery of the forest. + </p> + <p> + Turn then to that horror-striking scene at St. Louis. A single victim only + was sacrificed there. This story is very short, and is perhaps the most + highly tragic of anything of its length that has ever been witnessed in + real life. A mulatto man by the name of McIntosh was seized in the street, + dragged to the suburbs of the city, chained to a tree, and actually burned + to death; and all within a single hour from the time he had been a freeman + attending to his own business and at peace with the world. + </p> + <p> + Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the scenes becoming more and + more frequent in this land so lately famed for love of law and order, and + the stories of which have even now grown too familiar to attract anything + more than an idle remark. + </p> + <p> + But you are perhaps ready to ask, "What has this to do with the + perpetuation of our political institutions?" I answer, It has much to do + with it. Its direct consequences are, comparatively speaking, but a small + evil, and much of its danger consists in the proneness of our minds to + regard its direct as its only consequences. Abstractly considered, the + hanging of the gamblers at Vicksburg was of but little consequence. They + constitute a portion of population that is worse than useless in any + community; and their death, if no pernicious example be set by it, is + never matter of reasonable regret with any one. If they were annually + swept from the stage of existence by the plague or smallpox, honest men + would perhaps be much profited by the operation. Similar too is the + correct reasoning in regard to the burning of the negro at St. Louis. He + had forfeited his life by the perpetration of an outrageous murder upon + one of the most worthy and respectable citizens of the city, and had he + not died as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the law in a very + short time afterwards. As to him alone, it was as well the way it was as + it could otherwise have been. But the example in either case was fearful. + When men take it in their heads to-day to hang gamblers or burn murderers, + they should recollect that in the confusion usually attending such + transactions they will be as likely to hang or burn some one who is + neither a gambler nor a murderer as one who is, and that, acting upon the + example they set, the mob of to-morrow may, and probably will, hang or + burn some of them by the very same mistake. And not only so: the innocent, + those who have ever set their faces against violations of law in every + shape, alike with the guilty fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and + thus it goes on, step by step, till all the walls erected for the defense + of the persons and property of individuals are trodden down and + disregarded. But all this, even, is not the full extent of the evil. By + such examples, by instances of the perpetrators of such acts going + unpunished, the lawless in spirit are encouraged to become lawless in + practice; and having been used to no restraint but dread of punishment, + they thus become absolutely unrestrained. Having ever regarded government + as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of the suspension of its + operations, and pray for nothing so much as its total annihilation. While, + on the other hand, good men, men who love tranquillity, who desire to + abide by the laws and enjoy their benefits, who would gladly spill their + blood in the defense of their country, seeing their property destroyed, + their families insulted, and their lives endangered, their persons + injured, and seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the + better, become tired of and disgusted with a government that offers them + no protection, and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine + they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocratic + spirit which all must admit is now abroad in the land, the strongest + bulwark of any government, and particularly of those constituted like + ours, may effectually be broken down and destroyed—I mean the + attachment of the people. Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; + whenever the vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in + bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob + provision-stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and + hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunity, depend on + it, this government cannot last. By such things the feelings of the best + citizens will become more or less alienated from it, and thus it will be + left without friends, or with too few, and those few too weak to make + their friendship effectual. At such a time, and under such circumstances, + men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the + opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric which for the + last half century has been the fondest hope of the lovers of freedom + throughout the world. + </p> + <p> + I know the American people are much attached to their government; I know + they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils long + and patiently before they would ever think of exchanging it for another,—yet, + notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually despised and + disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and property + are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of + their affections from the government is the natural consequence; and to + that, sooner or later, it must come. + </p> + <p> + Here, then, is one point at which danger may be expected. + </p> + <p> + The question recurs, How shall we fortify against it? The answer is + simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to + his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the + least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their + violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of + the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and + laws let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred + honor. Let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the + blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children's + liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother + to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, + in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling + books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in + legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let + it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the + young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay of all sexes and + tongues and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. + </p> + <p> + While ever a state of feeling such as this shall universally or even very + generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and + fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national freedom. + </p> + <p> + When, I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, let me not + be understood as saying there are no bad laws, or that grievances may not + arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean + to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they + exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue + in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed. So + also in unprovided cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be + made for them with the least possible delay, but till then let them, if + not too intolerable, be borne with. + </p> + <p> + There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. In any + case that may arise, as, for instance, the promulgation of abolitionism, + one of two positions is necessarily true—that is, the thing is right + within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of all law and all + good citizens, or it is wrong, and therefore proper to be prohibited by + legal enactments; and in neither case is the interposition of mob law + either necessary, justifiable, or excusable. + </p> + <p> + But it may be asked, Why suppose danger to our political institutions? + Have we not preserved them for more than fifty years? And why may we not + for fifty times as long? + </p> + <p> + We hope there is no sufficient reason. We hope all danger may be overcome; + but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely + dangerous. There are now, and will hereafter be, many causes, dangerous in + their tendency, which have not existed heretofore, and which are not too + insignificant to merit attention. That our government should have been + maintained in its original form, from its establishment until now, is not + much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that + period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that period it + was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now it is understood to be + a successful one. Then, all that sought celebrity and fame and distinction + expected to find them in the success of that experiment. Their all was + staked upon it; their destiny was inseparably linked with it. Their + ambition aspired to display before an admiring world a practical + demonstration of the truth of a proposition which had hitherto been + considered at best no better than problematical—namely, the + capability of a people to govern themselves. If they succeeded they were + to be immortalized; their names were to be transferred to counties, and + cities, and rivers, and mountains; and to be revered and sung, toasted + through all time. If they failed, they were to be called knaves and fools, + and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink and be forgotten. They + succeeded. The experiment is successful, and thousands have won their + deathless names in making it so. But the game is caught; and I believe it + is true that with the catching end the pleasures of the chase. This field + of glory is harvested, and the crop is already appropriated. But new + reapers will arise, and they too will seek a field. It is to deny what the + history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and + talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. And when they do, they + will as naturally seek the gratification of their ruling passion as others + have done before them. The question then is, Can that gratification be + found in supporting and in maintaining an edifice that has been erected by + others? Most certainly it cannot. Many great and good men, sufficiently + qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found whose + ambition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a + Gubernatorial or a Presidential chair; but such belong not to the family + of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What! think you these places would + satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon? Never! Towering genius + disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no + distinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected to + the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any + chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however + illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it + will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving + freemen. Is it unreasonable, then, to expect that some man possessed of + the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its + utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us? And when such an one + does it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to + the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully + frustrate his designs. + </p> + <p> + Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as + willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, yet, that + opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building + up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down. + </p> + <p> + Here then is a probable case, highly dangerous, and such an one as could + not have well existed heretofore. + </p> + <p> + Another reason which once was, but which, to the same extent, is now no + more, has done much in maintaining our institutions thus far. I mean the + powerful influence which the interesting scenes of the Revolution had upon + the passions of the people as distinguished from their judgment. By this + influence, the jealousy, envy, and avarice incident to our nature, and so + common to a state of peace, prosperity, and conscious strength, were for + the time in a great measure smothered and rendered inactive, while the + deep-rooted principles of hate, and the powerful motive of revenge, + instead of being turned against each other, were directed exclusively + against the British nation. And thus, from the force of circumstances, the + basest principles of our nature were either made to lie dormant, or to + become the active agents in the advancement of the noblest of causes—that + of establishing and maintaining civil and religious liberty. + </p> + <p> + But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has faded, with the + circumstances that produced it. + </p> + <p> + I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolution are now or ever + will be entirely forgotten, but that, like everything else, they must fade + upon the memory of the world, and grow more and more dim by the lapse of + time. In history, we hope, they will be read of, and recounted, so long as + the Bible shall be read; but even granting that they will, their influence + cannot be what it heretofore has been. Even then they cannot be so + universally known nor so vividly felt as they were by the generation just + gone to rest. At the close of that struggle, nearly every adult male had + been a participator in some of its scenes. The consequence was that of + those scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, a son, or a brother, a + living history was to be found in every family—a history bearing the + indubitable testimonies of its own authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in + the scars of wounds received, in the midst of the very scenes related—a + history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, the wise and + the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned. But those histories are gone. + They can be read no more forever. They were a fortress of strength; but + what invading foeman could never do the silent artillery of time has done—the + leveling of its walls. They are gone. They were a forest of giant oaks; + but the all-restless hurricane has swept over them, and left only here and + there a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, + unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle breezes, and to + combat with its mutilated limbs a few more ruder storms, then to sink and + be no more. + </p> + <p> + They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they have + crumbled away that temple must fall unless we, their descendants, supply + their places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober + reason. Passion has helped us, but can do so no more. It will in future be + our enemy. Reason cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason—must + furnish all the materials for our future support and defense. Let those + materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and in + particular, a reverence for the Constitution and laws; and that we + improved to the last, that we remained free to the last, that we revered + his name to the last, that during his long sleep we permitted no hostile + foot to pass over or desecrate his resting place, shall be that which to + learn the last trump shall awaken our Washington. + </p> + <p> + Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its basis; + and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, "the gates + of hell shall not prevail against it." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. + </h2> + <h3> + March 3, 1837. + </h3> + <p> + The following protest was presented to the House, which was read and + ordered to be spread in the journals, to wit: + </p> + <p> + "Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both + branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the undersigned + hereby protest against the passage of the same. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "The difference between these opinions and those contained in the said + resolutions is their reason for entering this protest. + </p> + <p> + "DAN STONE, "A. LINCOLN, + </p> + <p> + "Representatives from the County of Sangamon." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO MISS MARY OWENS. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, May 7, 1837. + </h3> + <p> + MISS MARY S. OWENS. + </p> + <p> + FRIEND MARY:—I have commenced two letters to send you before this, + both of which displeased me before I got half done, and so I tore them up. + The first I thought was not serious enough, and the second was on the + other extreme. I shall send this, turn out as it may. + </p> + <p> + This thing of living in Springfield is rather a dull business, after all; + at least it is so to me. I am quite as lonesome here as I ever was + anywhere in my life. I have been spoken to by but one woman since I have + been here, and should not have been by her if she could have avoided it. I + 've never been to church yet, and probably shall not be soon. I stay away + because I am conscious I should not know how to behave myself. + </p> + <p> + I am often thinking of what we said about your coming to live at + Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There is a great deal + of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would be your doom to see + without sharing it. You would have to be poor, without the means of hiding + your poverty. Do you believe you could bear that patiently? Whatever woman + may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to + do all in my power to make her happy and contented; and there is nothing I + can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the effort. I + know I should be much happier with you than the way I am, provided I saw + no signs of discontent in you. What you have said to me may have been in + the way of jest, or I may have misunderstood you. If so, then let it be + forgotten; if otherwise, I much wish you would think seriously before you + decide. What I have said I will most positively abide by, provided you + wish it. My opinion is that you had better not do it. You have not been + accustomed to hardship, and it may be more severe than you now imagine. I + know you are capable of thinking correctly on any subject, and if you + deliberate maturely upon this subject before you decide, then I am willing + to abide your decision. + </p> + <p> + You must write me a good long letter after you get this. You have nothing + else to do, and though it might not seem interesting to you after you had + written it, it would be a good deal of company to me in this "busy + wilderness." Tell your sister I don't want to hear any more about selling + out and moving. That gives me the "hypo" whenever I think of it. + </p> + <p> + Yours, etc., LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOHN BENNETT. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug. 5, 1837. JOHN BENNETT, ESQ. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SIR:-Mr. Edwards tells me you wish to know whether the act to which + your own incorporation provision was attached passed into a law. It did. + You can organize under the general incorporation law as soon as you + choose. + </p> + <p> + I also tacked a provision onto a fellow's bill to authorize the relocation + of the road from Salem down to your town, but I am not certain whether or + not the bill passed, neither do I suppose I can ascertain before the law + will be published, if it is a law. Bowling Greene, Bennette Abe? and + yourself are appointed to make the change. No news. No excitement except a + little about the election of Monday next. + </p> + <p> + I suppose, of course, our friend Dr. Heney stands no chance in your + diggings. + </p> + <p> + Your friend and humble servant, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO MARY OWENS. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Aug. 16, 1837 + </h3> + <p> + FRIEND MARY: You will no doubt think it rather strange that I should write + you a letter on the same day on which we parted, and I can only account + for it by supposing that seeing you lately makes me think of you more than + usual; while at our late meeting we had but few expressions of thoughts. + You must know that I cannot see you, or think of you, with entire + indifference; and yet it may be that you are mistaken in regard to what my + real feelings toward you are. + </p> + <p> + If I knew you were not, I should not have troubled you with this letter. + Perhaps any other man would know enough without information; but I + consider it my peculiar right to plead ignorance, and your bounden duty to + allow the plea. + </p> + <p> + I want in all cases to do right; and most particularly so in all cases + with women. + </p> + <p> + I want, at this particular time, more than any thing else to do right with + you; and if I knew it would be doing right, as I rather suspect it would, + to let you alone I would do it. And, for the purpose of making the matter + as plain as possible, I now say that you can drop the subject, dismiss + your thoughts (if you ever had any) from me for ever and leave this letter + unanswered without calling forth one accusing murmur from me. And I will + even go further and say that, if it will add anything to your comfort or + peace of mind to do so, it is my sincere wish that you should. Do not + understand by this that I wish to cut your acquaintance. I mean no such + thing. What I do wish is that our further acquaintance shall depend upon + yourself. If such further acquaintance would contribute nothing to your + happiness, I am sure it would not to mine. If you feel yourself in any + degree bound to me, I am now willing to release you, provided you wish it; + while on the other hand I am willing and even anxious to bind you faster + if I can be convinced that it will, in any considerable degree, add to + your happiness. This, indeed, is the whole question with me. Nothing would + make me more miserable than to believe you miserable, nothing more happy + than to know you were so. + </p> + <p> + In what I have now said, I think I cannot be misunderstood; and to make + myself understood is the only object of this letter. + </p> + <p> + If it suits you best not to answer this, farewell. A long life and a merry + one attend you. But, if you conclude to write back, speak as plainly as I + do. There can neither be harm nor danger in saying to me anything you + think, just in the manner you think it. My respects to your sister. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LEGAL SUIT OF WIDOW v.s. Gen. ADAMS + </h2> + <h3> + TO THE PEOPLE. + </h3> + <p> + "SANGAMON JOURNAL," SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug. 19, 1837. + </p> + <p> + In accordance with our determination, as expressed last week, we present + to the reader the articles which were published in hand-bill form, in + reference to the case of the heirs of Joseph Anderson vs. James Adams. + These articles can now be read uninfluenced by personal or party feeling, + and with the sole motive of learning the truth. When that is done, the + reader can pass his own judgment on the matters at issue. + </p> + <p> + We only regret in this case, that the publications were not made some + weeks before the election. Such a course might have prevented the + expressions of regret, which have often been heard since, from different + individuals, on account of the disposition they made of their votes. + </p> + <p> + To the Public: + </p> + <p> + It is well known to most of you, that there is existing at this time + considerable excitement in regard to Gen. Adams's titles to certain tracts + of land, and the manner in which he acquired them. As I understand, the + Gen. charges that the whole has been gotten up by a knot of lawyers to + injure his election; and as I am one of the knot to which he refers, and + as I happen to be in possession of facts connected with the matter, I + will, in as brief a manner as possible, make a statement of them, together + with the means by which I arrived at the knowledge of them. + </p> + <p> + Sometime in May or June last, a widow woman, by the name of Anderson, and + her son, who resides in Fulton county, came to Springfield, for the + purpose as they said of selling a ten acre lot of ground lying near town, + which they claimed as the property of the deceased husband and father. + </p> + <p> + When they reached town they found the land was claimed by Gen. Adams. John + T. Stuart and myself were employed to look into the matter, and if it was + thought we could do so with any prospect of success, to commence a suit + for the land. I went immediately to the recorder's office to examine + Adams's title, and found that the land had been entered by one Dixon, + deeded by Dixon to Thomas, by Thomas to one Miller, and by Miller to Gen. + Adams. The oldest of these three deeds was about ten or eleven years old, + and the latest more than five, all recorded at the same time, and that + within less than one year. This I thought a suspicious circumstance, and I + was thereby induced to examine the deeds very closely, with a view to the + discovery of some defect by which to overturn the title, being almost + convinced then it was founded in fraud. I discovered that in the deed from + Thomas to Miller, although Miller's name stood in a sort of marginal note + on the record book, it was nowhere in the deed itself. I told the fact to + Talbott, the recorder, and proposed to him that he should go to Gen. + Adams's and get the original deed, and compare it with the record, and + thereby ascertain whether the defect was in the original or there was + merely an error in the recording. As Talbott afterwards told me, he went + to the General's, but not finding him at home, got the deed from his son, + which, when compared with the record, proved what we had discovered was + merely an error of the recorder. After Mr. Talbott corrected the record, + he brought the original to our office, as I then thought and think yet, to + show us that it was right. When he came into the room he handed the deed + to me, remarking that the fault was all his own. On opening it, another + paper fell out of it, which on examination proved to be an assignment of a + judgment in the Circuit Court of Sangamon County from Joseph Anderson, the + late husband of the widow above named, to James Adams, the judgment being + in favor of said Anderson against one Joseph Miller. Knowing that this + judgment had some connection with the land affair, I immediately took a + copy of it, which is word for word, letter for letter and cross for cross + as follows: + </p> + <p> + Joseph Anderson, vs. Joseph Miller. + </p> + <p> + Judgment in Sangamon Circuit Court against Joseph Miller obtained on a + note originally 25 dolls and interest thereon accrued. I assign all my + right, title and interest to James Adams which is in consideration of a + debt I owe said Adams. + </p> + <p> + his JOSEPH x ANDERSON. mark. + </p> + <p> + As the copy shows, it bore date May 10, 1827; although the judgment + assigned by it was not obtained until the October afterwards, as may be + seen by any one on the records of the Circuit Court. Two other strange + circumstances attended it which cannot be represented by a copy. One of + them was, that the date "1827" had first been made "1837" and, without the + figure "3," being fully obliterated, the figure "2" had afterwards been + made on top of it; the other was that, although the date was ten years + old, the writing on it, from the freshness of its appearance, was thought + by many, and I believe by all who saw it, not to be more than a week old. + The paper on which it was written had a very old appearance; and there + were some old figures on the back of it which made the freshness of the + writing on the face of it much more striking than I suppose it otherwise + might have been. The reader's curiosity is no doubt excited to know what + connection this assignment had with the land in question. The story is + this: Dixon sold and deeded the land to Thomas; Thomas sold it to + Anderson; but before he gave a deed, Anderson sold it to Miller, and took + Miller's note for the purchase money. When this note became due, Anderson + sued Miller on it, and Miller procured an injunction from the Court of + Chancery to stay the collection of the money until he should get a deed + for the land. Gen. Adams was employed as an attorney by Anderson in this + chancery suit, and at the October term, 1827, the injunction was + dissolved, and a judgment given in favor of Anderson against Miller; and + it was provided that Thomas was to execute a deed for the land in favor of + Miller and deliver it to Gen. Adams, to be held up by him till Miller paid + the judgment, and then to deliver it to him. Miller left the county + without paying the judgment. Anderson moved to Fulton county, where he has + since died When the widow came to Springfield last May or June, as before + mentioned, and found the land deeded to Gen. Adams by Miller, she was + naturally led to inquire why the money due upon the judgment had not been + sent to them, inasmuch as he, Gen. Adams, had no authority to deliver + Thomas's deed to Miller until the money was paid. Then it was the General + told her, or perhaps her son, who came with her, that Anderson, in his + lifetime, had assigned the judgment to him, Gen. Adams. I am now told that + the General is exhibiting an assignment of the same judgment bearing date + "1828" and in other respects differing from the one described; and that he + is asserting that no such assignment as the one copied by me ever existed; + or if there did, it was forged between Talbott and the lawyers, and + slipped into his papers for the purpose of injuring him. Now, I can only + say that I know precisely such a one did exist, and that Ben. Talbott, Wm. + Butler, C.R. Matheny, John T. Stuart, Judge Logan, Robert Irwin, P. C. + Canedy and S. M. Tinsley, all saw and examined it, and that at least one + half of them will swear that IT WAS IN GENERAL ADAMS'S HANDWRITING!! And + further, I know that Talbott will swear that he got it out of the + General's possession, and returned it into his possession again. The + assignment which the General is now exhibiting purports to have been by + Anderson in writing. The one I copied was signed with a cross. + </p> + <p> + I am told that Gen. Neale says that he will swear that he heard Gen. Adams + tell young Anderson that the assignment made by his father was signed with + a cross. + </p> + <p> + The above are 'facts,' as stated. I leave them without comment. I have + given the names of persons who have knowledge of these facts, in order + that any one who chooses may call on them and ascertain how far they will + corroborate my statements. I have only made these statements because I am + known by many to be one of the individuals against whom the charge of + forging the assignment and slipping it into the General's papers has been + made, and because our silence might be construed into a confession of its + truth. I shall not subscribe my name; but I hereby authorize the editor of + the Journal to give it up to any one that may call for it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LINCOLN AND TALBOTT IN REPLY TO GEN. ADAMS. + </h2> + <h3> + "SANGAMON JOURNAL," SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Oct. 28, 1837. + </h3> + <p> + In the Republican of this morning a publication of Gen. Adams's appears, + in which my name is used quite unreservedly. For this I thank the General. + I thank him because it gives me an opportunity, without appearing + obtrusive, of explaining a part of a former publication of mine, which + appears to me to have been misunderstood by many. + </p> + <p> + In the former publication alluded to, I stated, in substance, that Mr. + Talbott got a deed from a son of Gen. Adams's for the purpose of + correcting a mistake that had occurred on the record of the said deed in + the recorder's office; that he corrected the record, and brought the deed + and handed it to me, and that on opening the deed, another paper, being + the assignment of a judgment, fell out of it. This statement Gen. Adams + and the editor of the Republican have seized upon as a most palpable + evidence of fabrication and falsehood. They set themselves gravely about + proving that the assignment could not have been in the deed when Talbott + got it from young Adams, as he, Talbott, would have seen it when he opened + the deed to correct the record. Now, the truth is, Talbott did see the + assignment when he opened the deed, or at least he told me he did on the + same day; and I only omitted to say so, in my former publication, because + it was a matter of such palpable and necessary inference. I had stated + that Talbott had corrected the record by the deed; and of course he must + have opened it; and, just as the General and his friends argue, must have + seen the assignment. I omitted to state the fact of Talbott's seeing the + assignment, because its existence was so necessarily connected with other + facts which I did state, that I thought the greatest dunce could not but + understand it. Did I say Talbott had not seen it? Did I say anything that + was inconsistent with his having seen it before? Most certainly I did + neither; and if I did not, what becomes of the argument? These logical + gentlemen can sustain their argument only by assuming that I did say + negatively everything that I did not say affirmatively; and upon the same + assumption, we may expect to find the General, if a little harder pressed + for argument, saying that I said Talbott came to our office with his head + downward, not that I actually said so, but because I omitted to say he + came feet downward. + </p> + <p> + In his publication to-day, the General produces the affidavit of Reuben + Radford, in which it is said that Talbott told Radford that he did not + find the assignment in the deed, in the recording of which the error was + committed, but that he found it wrapped in another paper in the recorder's + office, upon which statement the Genl. comments as follows, to wit: "If it + be true as stated by Talbott to Radford, that he found the assignment + wrapped up in another paper at his office, that contradicts the statement + of Lincoln that it fell out of the deed." + </p> + <p> + Is common sense to be abused with such sophistry? Did I say what Talbott + found it in? If Talbott did find it in another paper at his office, is + that any reason why he could not have folded it in a deed and brought it + to my office? Can any one be so far duped as to be made believe that what + may have happened at Talbot's office at one time is inconsistent with what + happened at my office at another time? + </p> + <p> + Now Talbott's statement of the case as he makes it to me is this, that he + got a bunch of deeds from young Adams, and that he knows he found the + assignment in the bunch, but he is not certain which particular deed it + was in, nor is he certain whether it was folded in the same deed out of + which it was taken, or another one, when it was brought to my office. Is + this a mysterious story? Is there anything suspicious about it? + </p> + <p> + "But it is useless to dwell longer on this point. Any man who is not + wilfully blind can see at a flash, that there is no discrepancy, and + Lincoln has shown that they are not only inconsistent with truth, but each + other"—I can only say, that I have shown that he has done no such + thing; and if the reader is disposed to require any other evidence than + the General's assertion, he will be of my opinion. + </p> + <p> + Excepting the General's most flimsy attempt at mystification, in regard to + a discrepance between Talbott and myself, he has not denied a single + statement that I made in my hand-bill. Every material statement that I + made has been sworn to by men who, in former times, were thought as + respectable as General Adams. I stated that an assignment of a judgment, a + copy of which I gave, had existed—Benj. Talbott, C. R. Matheny, Wm. + Butler, and Judge Logan swore to its existence. I stated that it was said + to be in Gen. Adams's handwriting—the same men swore it was in his + handwriting. I stated that Talbott would swear that he got it out of Gen. + Adams's possession—Talbott came forward and did swear it. + </p> + <p> + Bidding adieu to the former publication, I now propose to examine the + General's last gigantic production. I now propose to point out some + discrepancies in the General's address; and such, too, as he shall not be + able to escape from. Speaking of the famous assignment, the General says: + "This last charge, which was their last resort, their dying effort to + render my character infamous among my fellow citizens, was manufactured at + a certain lawyer's office in the town, printed at the office of the + Sangamon Journal, and found its way into the world some time between two + days just before the last election." Now turn to Mr. Keys' affidavit, in + which you will find the following, viz.: "I certify that some time in May + or the early part of June, 1837, I saw at Williams's corner a paper + purporting to be an assignment from Joseph Anderson to James Adams, which + assignment was signed by a mark to Anderson's name," etc. Now mark, if + Keys saw the assignment on the last of May or first of June, Gen. Adams + tells a falsehood when he says it was manufactured just before the + election, which was on the 7th of August; and if it was manufactured just + before the election, Keys tells a falsehood when he says he saw it on the + last of May or first of June. Either Keys or the General is irretrievably + in for it; and in the General's very condescending language, I say "Let + them settle it between them." + </p> + <p> + Now again, let the reader, bearing in mind that General Adams has + unequivocally said, in one part of his address, that the charge in + relation to the assignment was manufactured just before the election, turn + to the affidavit of Peter S. Weber, where the following will be found + viz.: "I, Peter S. Weber, do certify that from the best of my + recollection, on the day or day after Gen. Adams started for the Illinois + Rapids, in May last, that I was at the house of Gen. Adams, sitting in the + kitchen, situated on the back part of the house, it being in the + afternoon, and that Benjamin Talbott came around the house, back into the + kitchen, and appeared wild and confused, and that he laid a package of + papers on the kitchen table and requested that they should be handed to + Lucian. He made no apology for coming to the kitchen, nor for not handing + them to Lucian himself, but showed the token of being frightened and + confused both in demeanor and speech and for what cause I could not + apprehend." + </p> + <p> + Commenting on Weber's affidavit, Gen. Adams asks, "Why this fright and + confusion?" I reply that this is a question for the General himself. Weber + says that it was in May, and if so, it is most clear that Talbott was not + frightened on account of the assignment, unless the General lies when he + says the assignment charge was manufactured just before the election. Is + it not a strong evidence, that the General is not traveling with the + pole-star of truth in his front, to see him in one part of his address + roundly asserting that the assignment was manufactured just before the + election, and then, forgetting that position, procuring Weber's most + foolish affidavit, to prove that Talbott had been engaged in manufacturing + it two months before? + </p> + <p> + In another part of his address, Gen. Adams says: "That I hold an + assignment of said judgment, dated the 20th of May, 1828, and signed by + said Anderson, I have never pretended to deny or conceal, but stated that + fact in one of my circulars previous to the election, and also in answer + to a bill in chancery." Now I pronounce this statement unqualifiedly + false, and shall not rely on the word or oath of any man to sustain me in + what I say; but will let the whole be decided by reference to the circular + and answer in chancery of which the General speaks. In his circular he did + speak of an assignment; but he did not say it bore date 20th of May, 1828; + nor did he say it bore any date. In his answer in chancery, he did say + that he had an assignment; but he did not say that it bore date the 20th + May, 1828; but so far from it, he said on oath (for he swore to the + answer) that as well as recollected, he obtained it in 1827. If any one + doubts, let him examine the circular and answer for himself. They are both + accessible. + </p> + <p> + It will readily be observed that the principal part of Adams's defense + rests upon the argument that if he had been base enough to forge an + assignment he would not have been fool enough to forge one that would not + cover the case. This argument he used in his circular before the election. + The Republican has used it at least once, since then; and Adams uses it + again in his publication of to-day. Now I pledge myself to show that he is + just such a fool that he and his friends have contended it was impossible + for him to be. Recollect—he says he has a genuine assignment; and + that he got Joseph Klein's affidavit, stating that he had seen it, and + that he believed the signature to have been executed by the same hand that + signed Anderson's name to the answer in chancery. Luckily Klein took a + copy of this genuine assignment, which I have been permitted to see; and + hence I know it does not cover the case. In the first place it is headed + "Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph Miller," and heads off "Judgment in Sangamon + Circuit Court." Now, mark, there never was a case in Sangamon Circuit + Court entitled Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph Miller. The case mentioned in my + former publication, and the only one between these parties that ever + existed in the Circuit Court, was entitled Joseph Miller vs. Joseph + Anderson, Miller being the plaintiff. What then becomes of all their + sophistry about Adams not being fool enough to forge an assignment that + would not cover the case? It is certain that the present one does not + cover the case; and if he got it honestly, it is still clear that he was + fool enough to pay for an assignment that does not cover the case. + </p> + <p> + The General asks for the proof of disinterested witnesses. Whom does he + consider disinterested? None can be more so than those who have already + testified against him. No one of them had the least interest on earth, so + far as I can learn, to injure him. True, he says they had conspired + against him; but if the testimony of an angel from Heaven were introduced + against him, he would make the same charge of conspiracy. And now I put + the question to every reflecting man, Do you believe that Benjamin + Talbott, Chas. R. Matheny, William Butler and Stephen T. Logan, all + sustaining high and spotless characters, and justly proud of them, would + deliberately perjure themselves, without any motive whatever, except to + injure a man's election; and that, too, a man who had been a candidate, + time out of mind, and yet who had never been elected to any office? + </p> + <p> + Adams's assurance, in demanding disinterested testimony, is surpassing. He + brings in the affidavit of his own son, and even of Peter S. Weber, with + whom I am not acquainted, but who, I suppose, is some black or mulatto + boy, from his being kept in the kitchen, to prove his points; but when + such a man as Talbott, a man who, but two years ago, ran against Gen. + Adams for the office of Recorder and beat him more than four votes to one, + is introduced against him, he asks the community, with all the consequence + of a lord, to reject his testimony. + </p> + <p> + I might easily write a volume, pointing out inconsistencies between the + statements in Adams's last address with one another, and with other known + facts; but I am aware the reader must already be tired with the length of + this article. His opening statements, that he was first accused of being a + Tory, and that he refuted that; that then the Sampson's ghost story was + got up, and he refuted that; that as a last resort, a dying effort, the + assignment charge was got up is all as false as hell, as all this + community must know. Sampson's ghost first made its appearance in print, + and that, too, after Keys swears he saw the assignment, as any one may see + by reference to the files of papers; and Gen. Adams himself, in reply to + the Sampson's ghost story, was the first man that raised the cry of + toryism, and it was only by way of set-off, and never in seriousness, that + it was bandied back at him. His effort is to make the impression that his + enemies first made the charge of toryism and he drove them from that, then + Sampson's ghost, he drove them from that, then finally the assignment + charge was manufactured just before election. Now, the only general reply + he ever made to the Sampson's ghost and tory charges he made at one and + the same time, and not in succession as he states; and the date of that + reply will show, that it was made at least a month after the date on which + Keys swears he saw the Anderson assignment. But enough. In conclusion I + will only say that I have a character to defend as well as Gen. Adams, but + I disdain to whine about it as he does. It is true I have no children nor + kitchen boys; and if I had, I should scorn to lug them in to make + affidavits for me. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN, September 6, 1837. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Gen. ADAMS CONTROVERSY—CONTINUED + </h2> + <h3> + TO THE PUBLIC. + </h3> + <p> + "SANGAMON JOURNAL," Springfield, Ill, Oct.28, 1837. + </p> + <p> + Such is the turn which things have taken lately, that when Gen. Adams + writes a book, I am expected to write a commentary on it. In the + Republican of this morning he has presented the world with a new work of + six columns in length; in consequence of which I must beg the room of one + column in the Journal. It is obvious that a minute reply cannot be made in + one column to everything that can be said in six; and, consequently, I + hope that expectation will be answered if I reply to such parts of the + General's publication as are worth replying to. + </p> + <p> + It may not be improper to remind the reader that in his publication of + Sept. 6th General Adams said that the assignment charge was manufactured + just before the election; and that in reply I proved that statement to be + false by Keys, his own witness. Now, without attempting to explain, he + furnishes me with another witness (Tinsley) by which the same thing is + proved, to wit, that the assignment was not manufactured just before the + election; but that it was some weeks before. Let it be borne in mind that + Adams made this statement—has himself furnished two witnesses to + prove its falsehood, and does not attempt to deny or explain it. Before + going farther, let a pin be stuck here, labeled "One lie proved and + confessed." On the 6th of September he said he had before stated in the + hand-bill that he held an assignment dated May 20th, 1828, which in reply + I pronounced to be false, and referred to the hand-bill for the truth of + what I said. This week he forgets to make any explanation of this. Let + another pin be stuck here, labelled as before. I mention these things + because, if, when I convict him in one falsehood, he is permitted to shift + his ground and pass it by in silence, there can be no end to this + controversy. + </p> + <p> + The first thing that attracts my attention in the General's present + production is the information he is pleased to give to "those who are made + to suffer at his (my) hands." + </p> + <p> + Under present circumstances, this cannot apply to me, for I am not a widow + nor an orphan: nor have I a wife or children who might by possibility + become such. Such, however, I have no doubt, have been, and will again be + made to suffer at his hands! Hands! Yes, they are the mischievous agents. + The next thing I shall notice is his favorite expression, "not of lawyers, + doctors and others," which he is so fond of applying to all who dare + expose his rascality. Now, let it be remembered that when he first came to + this country he attempted to impose himself upon the community as a + lawyer, and actually carried the attempt so far as to induce a man who was + under a charge of murder to entrust the defence of his life in his hands, + and finally took his money and got him hanged. Is this the man that is to + raise a breeze in his favor by abusing lawyers? If he is not himself a + lawyer, it is for the lack of sense, and not of inclination. If he is not + a lawyer, he is a liar, for he proclaimed himself a lawyer, and got a man + hanged by depending on him. + </p> + <p> + Passing over such parts of the article as have neither fact nor argument + in them, I come to the question asked by Adams whether any person ever saw + the assignment in his possession. This is an insult to common sense. + Talbott has sworn once and repeated time and again, that he got it out of + Adams's possession and returned it into the same possession. Still, as + though he was addressing fools, he has assurance to ask if any person ever + saw it in his possession. + </p> + <p> + Next I quote a sentence, "Now my son Lucian swears that when Talbott + called for the deed, that he, Talbott, opened it and pointed out the + error." True. His son Lucian did swear as he says; and in doing so, he + swore what I will prove by his own affidavit to be a falsehood. Turn to + Lucian's affidavit, and you will there see that Talbott called for the + deed by which to correct an error on the record. Thus it appears that the + error in question was on the record, and not in the deed. How then could + Talbott open the deed and point out the error? Where a thing is not, it + cannot be pointed out. The error was not in the deed, and of course could + not be pointed out there. This does not merely prove that the error could + not be pointed out, as Lucian swore it was; but it proves, too, that the + deed was not opened in his presence with a special view to the error, for + if it had been, he could not have failed to see that there was no error in + it. It is easy enough to see why Lucian swore this. His object was to + prove that the assignment was not in the deed when Talbott got it: but it + was discovered he could not swear this safely, without first swearing the + deed was opened—and if he swore it was opened, he must show a motive + for opening it, and the conclusion with him and his father was that the + pointing out the error would appear the most plausible. + </p> + <p> + For the purpose of showing that the assignment was not in the bundle when + Talbott got it, is the story introduced into Lucian's affidavit that the + deeds were counted. It is a remarkable fact, and one that should stand as + a warning to all liars and fabricators, that in this short affidavit of + Lucian's he only attempted to depart from the truth, so far as I have the + means of knowing, in two points, to wit, in the opening the deed and + pointing out the error and the counting of the deeds,—and in both of + these he caught himself. About the counting, he caught himself thus—after + saying the bundle contained five deeds and a lease, he proceeds, "and I + saw no other papers than the said deed and lease." First he has six + papers, and then he saw none but two; for "my son Lucian's" benefit, let a + pin be stuck here. + </p> + <p> + Adams again adduces the argument, that he could not have forged the + assignment, for the reason that he could have had no motive for it. With + those that know the facts there is no absence of motive. Admitting the + paper which he has filed in the suit to be genuine, it is clear that it + cannot answer the purpose for which he designs it. Hence his motive for + making one that he supposed would answer is obvious. His making the date + too old is also easily enough accounted for. The records were not in his + hands, and then, there being some considerable talk upon this particular + subject, he knew he could not examine the records to ascertain the precise + dates without subjecting himself to suspicion; and hence he concluded to + try it by guess, and, as it turned out, missed it a little. About Miller's + deposition I have a word to say. In the first place, Miller's answer to + the first question shows upon its face that he had been tampered with, and + the answer dictated to him. He was asked if he knew Joel Wright and James + Adams; and above three-fourths of his answer consists of what he knew + about Joseph Anderson, a man about whom nothing had been asked, nor a word + said in the question—a fact that can only be accounted for upon the + supposition that Adams had secretly told him what he wished him to swear + to. + </p> + <p> + Another of Miller's answers I will prove both by common sense and the + Court of Record is untrue. To one question he answers, "Anderson brought a + suit against me before James Adams, then an acting justice of the peace in + Sangamon County, before whom he obtained a judgment. + </p> + <p> + "Q.—Did you remove the same by injunction to the Sangamon Circuit + Court? Ans.—I did remove it." + </p> + <p> + Now mark—it is said he removed it by injunction. The word + "injunction" in common language imports a command that some person or + thing shall not move or be removed; in law it has the same meaning. An + injunction issuing out of chancery to a justice of the peace is a command + to him to stop all proceedings in a named case until further orders. It is + not an order to remove but to stop or stay something that is already + moving. Besides this, the records of the Sangamon Circuit Court show that + the judgment of which Miller swore was never removed into said Court by + injunction or otherwise. + </p> + <p> + I have now to take notice of a part of Adams's address which in the order + of time should have been noticed before. It is in these words: "I have now + shown, in the opinion of two competent judges, that the handwriting of the + forged assignment differed from mine, and by one of them that it could not + be mistaken for mine." That is false. Tinsley no doubt is the judge + referred to; and by reference to his certificate it will be seen that he + did not say the handwriting of the assignment could not be mistaken for + Adams's—nor did he use any other expression substantially, or + anything near substantially, the same. But if Tinsley had said the + handwriting could not be mistaken for Adams's, it would have been equally + unfortunate for Adams: for it then would have contradicted Keys, who says, + "I looked at the writing and judged it the said Adams's or a good + imitation." + </p> + <p> + Adams speaks with much apparent confidence of his success on attending + lawsuits, and the ultimate maintenance of his title to the land in + question. Without wishing to disturb the pleasure of his dream, I would + say to him that it is not impossible that he may yet be taught to sing a + different song in relation to the matter. + </p> + <p> + At the end of Miller's deposition, Adams asks, "Will Mr. Lincoln now say + that he is almost convinced my title to this ten acre tract of land is + founded in fraud?" I answer, I will not. I will now change the phraseology + so as to make it run—I am quite convinced, &c. I cannot pass in + silence Adams's assertion that he has proved that the forged assignment + was not in the deed when it came from his house by Talbott, the recorder. + In this, although Talbott has sworn that the assignment was in the bundle + of deeds when it came from his house, Adams has the unaccountable + assurance to say that he has proved the contrary by Talbott. Let him or + his friends attempt to show wherein he proved any such thing by Talbott. + </p> + <p> + In his publication of the 6th of September he hinted to Talbott, that he + might be mistaken. In his present, speaking of Talbott and me he says + "They may have been imposed upon." Can any man of the least penetration + fail to see the object of this? After he has stormed and raged till he + hopes and imagines he has got us a little scared he wishes to softly + whisper in our ears, "If you'll quit I will." If he could get us to say + that some unknown, undefined being had slipped the assignment into our + hands without our knowledge, not a doubt remains but that he would + immediately discover that we were the purest men on earth. This is the + ground he evidently wishes us to understand he is willing to compromise + upon. But we ask no such charity at his hands. We are neither mistaken nor + imposed upon. We have made the statements we have because we know them to + be true and we choose to live or die by them. + </p> + <p> + Esq. Carter, who is Adams's friend, personal and political, will + recollect, that, on the 5th of this month, he (Adams), with a great + affectation of modesty, declared that he would never introduce his own + child as a witness. Notwithstanding this affectation of modesty, he has in + his present publication introduced his child as witness; and as if to show + with how much contempt he could treat his own declaration, he has had this + same Esq. Carter to administer the oath to him. And so important a witness + does he consider him, and so entirely does the whole of his entire present + production depend upon the testimony of his child, that in it he has + mentioned "my son," "my son Lucian," "Lucian, my son," and the like + expressions no less than fifteen different times. Let it be remembered + here, that I have shown the affidavit of "my darling son Lucian" to be + false by the evidence apparent on its own face; and I now ask if that + affidavit be taken away what foundation will the fabric have left to stand + upon? + </p> + <p> + General Adams's publications and out-door maneuvering, taken in connection + with the editorial articles of the Republican, are not more foolish and + contradictory than they are ludicrous and amusing. One week the Republican + notifies the public that Gen. Adams is preparing an instrument that will + tear, rend, split, rive, blow up, confound, overwhelm, annihilate, + extinguish, exterminate, burst asunder, and grind to powder all its + slanderers, and particularly Talbott and Lincoln—all of which is to + be done in due time. + </p> + <p> + Then for two or three weeks all is calm—not a word said. Again the + Republican comes forth with a mere passing remark that "public" opinion + has decided in favor of Gen. Adams, and intimates that he will give + himself no more trouble about the matter. In the meantime Adams himself is + prowling about and, as Burns says of the devil, "For prey, and holes and + corners tryin'," and in one instance goes so far as to take an old + acquaintance of mine several steps from a crowd and, apparently weighed + down with the importance of his business, gravely and solemnly asks him if + "he ever heard Lincoln say he was a deist." + </p> + <p> + Anon the Republican comes again. "We invite the attention of the public to + General Adams's communication," &c. "The victory is a great one, the + triumph is overwhelming." I really believe the editor of the Illinois + Republican is fool enough to think General Adams leads off—"Authors + most egregiously mistaken &c. Most woefully shall their presumption be + punished," &c. (Lord have mercy on us.) "The hour is yet to come, yea, + nigh at hand—(how long first do you reckon?)—when the Journal + and its junto shall say, I have appeared too early." "Their infamy shall + be laid bare to the public gaze." Suddenly the General appears to relent + at the severity with which he is treating us and he exclaims: "The + condemnation of my enemies is the inevitable result of my own defense." + For your health's sake, dear Gen., do not permit your tenderness of heart + to afflict you so much on our account. For some reason (perhaps because we + are killed so quickly) we shall never be sensible of our suffering. + </p> + <p> + Farewell, General. I will see you again at court if not before—when + and where we will settle the question whether you or the widow shall have + the land. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. October 18, 1837. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1838 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO Mrs. O. H. BROWNING—A FARCE + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, April 1, 1838. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR MADAM:—Without apologizing for being egotistical, 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 and + suffered since I saw you, I shall necessarily have to relate some that + happened before. + </p> + <p> + It was, then, in the autumn of 1836 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 despatch. I, of course, accepted the proposal, for you know I + could not have done otherwise had I really been averse to it; but + privately, between 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 company, 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 ever 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 mentioned. In a few days we had an + interview, and, although 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-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 had 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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + Shortly after this, without coming 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. + </p> + <p> + All this while, although I was fixed, "firm as the surge-repelling rock," + in my resolution, I found I was continually repenting the rashness which + had led me to make it. Through life, I have been in no bondage, either + real or imaginary, from the thraldom of which I so much desired to be + free. After my return home, I saw nothing to change my opinions of her in + any particular. She was the same, and so was I. I now spent my time in + planning how I might get along through 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 Irishman does the halter. + </p> + <p> + After all my suffering upon this deeply interesting subject, here I am, + wholly, unexpectedly, completely, out of the "scrape"; and now I 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 her 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. + </p> + <p> + I finally was forced to give it up; at which I very unexpectedly found + myself mortified almost beyond endurance. I was mortified, it seemed to + me, in a hundred different ways. My vanity was deeply wounded by the + reflection that I had 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. But let it all go. I'll try and outlive it. Others have + been made fools of by the girls, but this can never with truth be said of + me. I most emphatically in this instance, 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 any one who would be blockhead + enough to have me. + </p> + <p> + When you receive this, write me a long yarn about something to amuse me. + Give my respects to Mr. Browning. + </p> + <p> + Your sincere friend, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1839 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REMARKS ON SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS + </h2> + <h3> + IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, January 17, 1839. + </h3> + <p> + Mr. Lincoln, from Committee on Finance, to which the subject was referred, + made a report on the subject of purchasing of the United States all the + unsold lands lying within the limits of the State of Illinois, accompanied + by resolutions that this State propose to purchase all unsold lands at + twenty-five cents per acre, and pledging the faith of the State to carry + the proposal into effect if the government accept the same within two + years. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Lincoln thought the resolutions ought to be seriously considered. In + reply to the gentleman from Adams, he said that it was not to enrich the + State. The price of the lands may be raised, it was thought by some; by + others, that it would be reduced. The conclusion in his mind was that the + representatives in this Legislature from the country in which the lands + lie would be opposed to raising the price, because it would operate + against the settlement of the lands. He referred to the lands in the + military tract. They had fallen into the hands of large speculators in + consequence of the low price. He was opposed to a low price of land. He + thought it was adverse to the interests of the poor settler, because + speculators buy them up. He was opposed to a reduction of the price of + public lands. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Lincoln referred to some official documents emanating from Indiana, + and compared the progressive population of the two States. Illinois had + gained upon that State under the public land system as it is. His + conclusion was that ten years from this time Illinois would have no more + public land unsold than Indiana now has. He referred also to Ohio. That + State had sold nearly all her public lands. She was but twenty years ahead + of us, and as our lands were equally salable—more so, as he + maintained—we should have no more twenty years from now than she has + at present. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Lincoln referred to the canal lands, and supposed that the policy of + the State would be different in regard to them, if the representatives + from that section of country could themselves choose the policy; but the + representatives from other parts of the State had a veto upon it, and + regulated the policy. He thought that if the State had all the lands, the + policy of the Legislature would be more liberal to all sections. + </p> + <p> + He referred to the policy of the General Government. He thought that if + the national debt had not been paid, the expenses of the government would + not have doubled, as they had done since that debt was paid. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO ——— ROW. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, June 11, 1839 DEAR ROW: + </h3> + <p> + Mr. Redman informs me that you wish me to write you the particulars of a + conversation between Dr. Felix and myself relative to you. The Dr. + overtook me between Rushville and Beardstown. + </p> + <p> + He, after learning that I had lived at Springfield, asked if I was + acquainted with you. I told him I was. He said you had lately been elected + constable in Adams, but that you never would be again. I asked him why. He + said the people there had found out that you had been sheriff or deputy + sheriff in Sangamon County, and that you came off and left your securities + to suffer. He then asked me if I did not know such to be the fact. I told + him I did not think you had ever been sheriff or deputy sheriff in + Sangamon, but that I thought you had been constable. I further told him + that if you had left your securities to suffer in that or any other case, + I had never heard of it, and that if it had been so, I thought I would + have heard of it. + </p> + <p> + If the Dr. is telling that I told him anything against you whatever, I + authorize you to contradict it flatly. We have no news here. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, as ever, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SPEECH ON NATIONAL BANK + </h2> + <h3> + IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, December 20, 1839. + </p> + <p> + FELLOW-CITIZENS:—It is peculiarly embarrassing to me to attempt a + continuance of the discussion, on this evening, which has been conducted + in this hall on several preceding ones. It is so because on each of those + evenings there was a much fuller attendance than now, without any reason + for its being so, except the greater interest the community feel in the + speakers who addressed them then than they do in him who is to do so now. + I am, indeed, apprehensive that the few who have attended have done so + more to spare me mortification than in the hope of being interested in + anything I may be able to say. This circumstance casts a damp upon my + spirits, which I am sure I shall be unable to overcome during the evening. + But enough of preface. + </p> + <p> + The subject heretofore and now to be discussed is the subtreasury scheme + of the present administration, as a means of collecting, safe-keeping, + transferring, and disbursing, the revenues of the nation, as contrasted + with a national bank for the same purposes. Mr. Douglas has said that we + (the Whigs) have not dared to meet them (the Locos) in argument on this + question. I protest against this assertion. I assert that we have again + and again, during this discussion, urged facts and arguments against the + subtreasury which they have neither dared to deny nor attempted to answer. + But lest some may be led to believe that we really wish to avoid the + question, I now propose, in my humble way, to urge those arguments again; + at the same time begging the audience to mark well the positions I shall + take and the proof I shall offer to sustain them, and that they will not + again permit Mr. Douglas or his friends to escape the force of them by a + round and groundless assertion that we "dare not meet them in argument." + </p> + <p> + Of the subtreasury, then, as contrasted with a national bank for the + before-enumerated purposes, I lay down the following propositions, to wit: + (1) It will injuriously affect the community by its operation on the + circulating medium. (2) It will be a more expensive fiscal agent. (3) It + will be a less secure depository of the public money. To show the truth of + the first proposition, let us take a short review of our condition under + the operation of a national bank. It was the depository of the public + revenues. Between the collection of those revenues and the disbursement of + them by the government, the bank was permitted to and did actually loan + them out to individuals, and hence the large amount of money actually + collected for revenue purposes, which by any other plan would have been + idle a great portion of the time, was kept almost constantly in + circulation. Any person who will reflect that money is only valuable while + in circulation will readily perceive that any device which will keep the + government revenues in constant circulation, instead of being locked up in + idleness, is no inconsiderable advantage. By the subtreasury the revenue + is to be collected and kept in iron boxes until the government wants it + for disbursement; thus robbing the people of the use of it, while the + government does not itself need it, and while the money is performing no + nobler office than that of rusting in iron boxes. The natural effect of + this change of policy, every one will see, is to reduce the quantity of + money in circulation. But, again, by the subtreasury scheme the revenue is + to be collected in specie. I anticipate that this will be disputed. I + expect to hear it said that it is not the policy of the administration to + collect the revenue in specie. If it shall, I reply that Mr. Van Buren, in + his message recommending the subtreasury, expended nearly a column of that + document in an attempt to persuade Congress to provide for the collection + of the revenue in specie exclusively; and he concludes with these words: + </p> + <p> + "It may be safely assumed that no motive of convenience to the citizens + requires the reception of bank paper." In addition to this, Mr. Silas + Wright, Senator from New York, and the political, personal and + confidential friend of Mr. Van Buren, drafted and introduced into the + Senate the first subtreasury bill, and that bill provided for ultimately + collecting the revenue in specie. It is true, I know, that that clause was + stricken from the bill, but it was done by the votes of the Whigs, aided + by a portion only of the Van Buren senators. No subtreasury bill has yet + become a law, though two or three have been considered by Congress, some + with and some without the specie clause; so that I admit there is room for + quibbling upon the question of whether the administration favor the + exclusive specie doctrine or not; but I take it that the fact that the + President at first urged the specie doctrine, and that under his + recommendation the first bill introduced embraced it, warrants us in + charging it as the policy of the party until their head as publicly + recants it as he at first espoused it. I repeat, then, that by the + subtreasury the revenue is to be collected in specie. Now mark what the + effect of this must be. By all estimates ever made there are but between + sixty and eighty millions of specie in the United States. The expenditures + of the Government for the year 1838—the last for which we have had + the report—were forty millions. Thus it is seen that if the whole + revenue be collected in specie, it will take more than half of all the + specie in the nation to do it. By this means more than half of all the + specie belonging to the fifteen millions of souls who compose the whole + population of the country is thrown into the hands of the public + office-holders, and other public creditors comprising in number perhaps + not more than one quarter of a million, leaving the other fourteen + millions and three quarters to get along as they best can, with less than + one half of the specie of the country, and whatever rags and shinplasters + they may be able to put, and keep, in circulation. By this means, every + office-holder and other public creditor may, and most likely will, set up + shaver; and a most glorious harvest will the specie-men have of it,—each + specie-man, upon a fair division, having to his share the fleecing of + about fifty-nine rag-men. In all candor let me ask, was such a system for + benefiting the few at the expense of the many ever before devised? And was + the sacred name of Democracy ever before made to indorse such an enormity + against the rights of the people? + </p> + <p> + I have already said that the subtreasury will reduce the quantity of money + in circulation. This position is strengthened by the recollection that the + revenue is to be collected in Specie, so that the mere amount of revenue + is not all that is withdrawn, but the amount of paper circulation that the + forty millions would serve as a basis to is withdrawn, which would be in a + sound state at least one hundred millions. When one hundred millions, or + more, of the circulation we now have shall be withdrawn, who can + contemplate without terror the distress, ruin, bankruptcy, and beggary + that must follow? The man who has purchased any article—say a horse—on + credit, at one hundred dollars, when there are two hundred millions + circulating in the country, if the quantity be reduced to one hundred + millions by the arrival of pay-day, will find the horse but sufficient to + pay half the debt; and the other half must either be paid out of his other + means, and thereby become a clear loss to him, or go unpaid, and thereby + become a clear loss to his creditor. What I have here said of a single + case of the purchase of a horse will hold good in every case of a debt + existing at the time a reduction in the quantity of money occurs, by + whomsoever, and for whatsoever, it may have been contracted. It may be + said that what the debtor loses the creditor gains by this operation; but + on examination this will be found true only to a very limited extent. It + is more generally true that all lose by it—the creditor by losing + more of his debts than he gains by the increased value of those he + collects; the debtor by either parting with more of his property to pay + his debts than he received in contracting them, or by entirely breaking up + his business, and thereby being thrown upon the world in idleness. + </p> + <p> + The general distress thus created will, to be sure, be temporary, because, + whatever change may occur in the quantity of money in any community, time + will adjust the derangement produced; but while that adjustment is + progressing, all suffer more or less, and very many lose everything that + renders life desirable. Why, then, shall we suffer a severe difficulty, + even though it be but temporary, unless we receive some equivalent for it? + </p> + <p> + What I have been saying as to the effect produced by a reduction of the + quantity of money relates to the whole country. I now propose to show that + it would produce a peculiar and permanent hardship upon the citizens of + those States and Territories in which the public lands lie. The + land-offices in those States and Territories, as all know, form the great + gulf by which all, or nearly all, the money in them is swallowed up. When + the quantity of money shall be reduced, and consequently everything under + individual control brought down in proportion, the price of those lands, + being fixed by law, will remain as now. Of necessity it will follow that + the produce or labor that now raises money sufficient to purchase eighty + acres will then raise but sufficient to purchase forty, or perhaps not + that much; and this difficulty and hardship will last as long, in some + degree, as any portion of these lands shall remain undisposed of. Knowing, + as I well do, the difficulty that poor people now encounter in procuring + homes, I hesitate not to say that when the price of the public lands shall + be doubled or trebled, or, which is the same thing, produce and labor cut + down to one half or one third of their present prices, it will be little + less than impossible for them to procure those homes at all.... + </p> + <p> + Well, then, what did become of him? (Postmaster General Barry) Why, the + President immediately expressed his high disapprobation of his almost + unequaled incapacity and corruption by appointing him to a foreign + mission, with a salary and outfit of $18,000 a year! The party now attempt + to throw Barry off, and to avoid the responsibility of his sins. Did not + the President indorse those sins when, on the very heel of their + commission, he appointed their author to the very highest and most + honorable office in his gift, and which is but a single step behind the + very goal of American political ambition? + </p> + <p> + I return to another of Mr. Douglas's excuses for the expenditures of 1838, + at the same time announcing the pleasing intelligence that this is the + last one. He says that ten millions of that year's expenditure was a + contingent appropriation, to prosecute an anticipated war with Great + Britain on the Maine boundary question. Few words will settle this. First, + that the ten millions appropriated was not made till 1839, and + consequently could not have been expended in 1838; second, although it was + appropriated, it has never been expended at all. Those who heard Mr. + Douglas recollect that he indulged himself in a contemptuous expression of + pity for me. "Now he's got me," thought I. But when he went on to say that + five millions of the expenditure of 1838 were payments of the French + indemnities, which I knew to be untrue; that five millions had been for + the post-office, which I knew to be untrue; that ten millions had been for + the Maine boundary war, which I not only knew to be untrue, but supremely + ridiculous also; and when I saw that he was stupid enough to hope that I + would permit such groundless and audacious assertions to go unexposed,—I + readily consented that, on the score both of veracity and sagacity, the + audience should judge whether he or I were the more deserving of the + world's contempt. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Lamborn insists that the difference between the Van Buren party and + the Whigs is that, although the former sometimes err in practice, they are + always correct in principle, whereas the latter are wrong in principle; + and, better to impress this proposition, he uses a figurative expression + in these words: "The Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, but they are + sound in the head and the heart." The first branch of the figure—that + is, that the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel—I admit is not + merely figuratively, but literally true. Who that looks but for a moment + at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their Harringtons, and their hundreds + of others, scampering away with the public money to Texas, to Europe, and + to every spot of the earth where a villain may hope to find refuge from + justice, can at all doubt that they are most distressingly affected in + their heels with a species of "running itch"? It seems that this malady of + their heels operates on these sound-headed and honest-hearted creatures + very much like the cork leg in the comic song did on its owner: which, + when he had once got started on it, the more he tried to stop it, the more + it would run away. At the hazard of wearing this point threadbare, I will + relate an anecdote which seems too strikingly in point to be omitted. A + witty Irish soldier, who was always boasting of his bravery when no danger + was near, but who invariably retreated without orders at the first charge + of an engagement, being asked by his captain why he did so, replied: + "Captain, I have as brave a heart as Julius Caesar ever had; but, somehow + or other, whenever danger approaches, my cowardly legs will run away with + it." So with Mr. Lamborn's party. They take the public money into their + hand for the most laudable purpose that wise heads and honest hearts can + dictate; but before they can possibly get it out again, their rascally + "vulnerable heels" will run away with them. + </p> + <p> + Seriously this proposition of Mr. Lamborn is nothing more or less than a + request that his party may be tried by their professions instead of their + practices. Perhaps no position that the party assumes is more liable to or + more deserving of exposure than this very modest request; and nothing but + the unwarrantable length to which I have already extended these remarks + forbids me now attempting to expose it. For the reason given, I pass it + by. + </p> + <p> + I shall advert to but one more point. Mr. Lamborn refers to the late + elections in the States, and from their results confidently predicts that + every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the next + Presidential election. Address that argument to cowards and to knaves; + with the free and the brave it will effect nothing. It may be true; if it + must, let it. Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may + lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the + last to desert, but that I never deserted her. I know that the great + volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that reigns + there, is belching forth the lava of political corruption in a current + broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole + length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave unscathed no green + spot or living thing; while on its bosom are riding, like demons on the + waves of hell, the imps of that evil spirit, and fiendishly taunting all + those who dare resist its destroying course with the hopelessness of their + effort; and, knowing this, I cannot deny that all may be swept away. + Broken by it I, too, may be; bow to it I never will. The probability that + we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a + cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me. If ever I feel the + soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy + of its almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my + country deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly and + alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, without + contemplating consequences, before high heaven and in the face of the + world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the + land of my life, my liberty, and my love. And who that thinks with me will + not fearlessly adopt the oath that I take? Let none falter who thinks he + is right, and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so. + We still shall have the proud consolation of saying to our consciences, + and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that the cause + approved of our judgment, and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in + chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered in defending. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOHN T. STUART. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, December 23, 1839. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR STUART: + </p> + <p> + Dr. Henry will write you all the political news. I write this about some + little matters of business. You recollect you told me you had drawn the + Chicago Masark money, and sent it to the claimants. A hawk-billed Yankee + is here besetting me at every turn I take, saying that Robert Kinzie never + received the eighty dollars to which he was entitled. Can you tell me + anything about the matter? Again, old Mr. Wright, who lives up South Fork + somewhere, is teasing me continually about some deeds which he says he + left with you, but which I can find nothing of. Can you tell me where they + are? The Legislature is in session and has suffered the bank to forfeit + its charter without benefit of clergy. There seems to be little + disposition to resuscitate it. + </p> + <p> + Whenever a letter comes from you to Mrs.____________ I carry it to her, + and then I see Betty; she is a tolerable nice "fellow" now. Maybe I will + write again when I get more time. + </p> + <p> + Your friend as ever, A. LINCOLN + </p> + <p> + P. S.—The Democratic giant is here, but he is not much worth talking + about. A.L. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1840 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + </h2> + <h3> + Confidential. + </h3> + <p> + January [1?], 1840. + </p> + <p> + To MESSRS ——— + </p> + <p> + GENTLEMEN:—In obedience to a resolution of the Whig State + convention, we have appointed you the Central Whig Committee of your + county. The trust confided to you will be one of watchfulness and labor; + but we hope the glory of having contributed to the overthrow of the + corrupt powers that now control our beloved country will be a sufficient + reward for the time and labor you will devote to it. Our Whig brethren + throughout the Union have met in convention, and after due deliberation + and mutual concessions have elected candidates for the Presidency and + Vice-Presidency not only worthy of our cause, but worthy of the support of + every true patriot who would have our country redeemed, and her + institutions honestly and faithfully administered. To overthrow the + trained bands that are opposed to us whose salaried officers are ever on + the watch, and whose misguided followers are ever ready to obey their + smallest commands, every Whig must not only know his duty, but must firmly + resolve, whatever of time and labor it may cost, boldly and faithfully to + do it. Our intention is to organize the whole State, so that every Whig + can be brought to the polls in the coming Presidential contest. We cannot + do this, however, without your co-operation; and as we do our duty, so we + shall expect you to do yours. After due deliberation, the following is the + plan of organization, and the duties required of each county committee: + </p> + <p> + (1) To divide their county into small districts, and to appoint in each a + subcommittee, whose duty it shall be to make a perfect list of all the + voters in their respective districts, and to ascertain with certainty for + whom they will vote. If they meet with men who are doubtful as to the man + they will support, such voters should be designated in separate lines, + with the name of the man they will probably support. + </p> + <p> + (2) It will be the duty of said subcommittee to keep a constant watch on + the doubtful voters, and from time to time have them talked to by those in + whom they have the most confidence, and also to place in their hands such + documents as will enlighten and influence them. + </p> + <p> + (3) It will also be their duty to report to you, at least once a month, + the progress they are making, and on election days see that every Whig is + brought to the polls. + </p> + <p> + (4) The subcommittees should be appointed immediately; and by the last of + April, at least, they should make their first report. + </p> + <p> + (5) On the first of each month hereafter we shall expect to hear from you. + After the first report of your subcommittees, unless there should be found + a great many doubtful voters, you can tell pretty accurately the manner in + which your county will vote. In each of your letters to us, you will state + the number of certain votes both for and against us, as well as the number + of doubtful votes, with your opinion of the manner in which they will be + cast. + </p> + <p> + (6) When we have heard from all the counties, we shall be able to tell + with similar accuracy the political complexion of the State. This + information will be forwarded to you as soon as received. + </p> + <p> + (7) Inclosed is a prospectus for a newspaper to be continued until after + the Presidential election. It will be superintended by ourselves, and + every Whig in the State must take it. It will be published so low that + every one can afford it. You must raise a fund and forward us for extra + copies,—every county ought to send—fifty or one hundred + dollars,—and the copies will be forwarded to you for distribution + among our political opponents. The paper will be devoted exclusively to + the great cause in which we are engaged. Procure subscriptions, and + forward them to us immediately. + </p> + <p> + (8) Immediately after any election in your county, you must inform us of + its results; and as early as possible after any general election we will + give you the like information. + </p> + <p> + (9) A senator in Congress is to be elected by our next Legislature. Let no + local interests divide you, but select candidates that can succeed. + </p> + <p> + (10) Our plan of operations will of course be concealed from every one + except our good friends who of right ought to know them. + </p> + <p> + Trusting much in our good cause, the strength of our candidates, and the + determination of the Whigs everywhere to do their duty, we go to the work + of organization in this State confident of success. We have the numbers, + and if properly organized and exerted, with the gallant Harrison at our + head, we shall meet our foes and conquer them in all parts of the Union. + </p> + <p> + Address your letters to Dr. A. G. Henry, R. F, Barrett; A. Lincoln, E. D. + Baker, J. F. Speed. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0035" id="link2H_4_0035"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOHN T. STUART. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, March 1, 1840 + </h3> + <p> + DEAR STUART: + </p> + <p> + I have never seen the prospects of our party so bright in these parts as + they are now. We shall carry this county by a larger majority than we did + in 1836, when you ran against May. I do not think my prospects, + individually, are very flattering, for I think it probable I shall not be + permitted to be a candidate; but the party ticket will succeed + triumphantly. Subscriptions to the "Old Soldier" pour in without + abatement. This morning I took from the post office a letter from Dubois + enclosing the names of sixty subscribers, and on carrying it to Francis I + found he had received one hundred and forty more from other quarters by + the same day's mail. That is but an average specimen of every day's + receipts. Yesterday Douglas, having chosen to consider himself insulted by + something in the Journal, undertook to cane Francis in the street. Francis + caught him by the hair and jammed him back against a market cart where the + matter ended by Francis being pulled away from him. The whole affair was + so ludicrous that Francis and everybody else (Douglass excepted) have been + laughing about it ever since. + </p> + <p> + I send you the names of some of the V.B. men who have come out for + Harrison about town, and suggest that you send them some documents. + </p> + <p> + Moses Coffman (he let us appoint him a delegate yesterday), Aaron Coffman, + George Gregory, H. M. Briggs, Johnson (at Birchall's Bookstore), Michael + Glyn, Armstrong (not Hosea nor Hugh, but a carpenter), Thomas Hunter, + Moses Pileher (he was always a Whig and deserves attention), Matthew + Crowder Jr., Greenberry Smith; John Fagan, George Fagan, William Fagan + (these three fell out with us about Early, and are doubtful now), John M. + Cartmel, Noah Rickard, John Rickard, Walter Marsh. + </p> + <p> + The foregoing should be addressed at Springfield. + </p> + <p> + Also send some to Solomon Miller and John Auth at Salisbury. Also to + Charles Harper, Samuel Harper, and B. C. Harper, and T. J. Scroggins, John + Scroggins at Pulaski, Logan County. + </p> + <p> + Speed says he wrote you what Jo Smith said about you as he passed here. We + will procure the names of some of his people here, and send them to you + before long. Speed also says you must not fail to send us the New York + Journal he wrote for some time since. + </p> + <p> + Evan Butler is jealous that you never send your compliments to him. You + must not neglect him next time. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, as ever, A. LINCOLN + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0036" id="link2H_4_0036"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + </h2> + <h3> + November 28, 1840. + </h3> + <p> + In the Illinois House of Representatives, November 28, 1840, Mr. Lincoln + offered the following: + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That so much of the governor's message as relates to fraudulent + voting, and other fraudulent practices at elections, be referred to the + Committee on Elections, with instructions to said committee to prepare and + report to the House a bill for such an act as may in their judgment afford + the greatest possible protection of the elective franchise against all + frauds of all sorts whatever. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0037" id="link2H_4_0037"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + </h2> + <h3> + December 2, 1840. + </h3> + <p> + Resolved, That the Committee on Education be instructed to inquire into + the expediency of providing by law for the examination as to the + qualification of persons offering themselves as school teachers, that no + teacher shall receive any part of the public school fund who shall not + have successfully passed such examination, and that they report by bill or + otherwise. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0038" id="link2H_4_0038"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + </h2> + <h3> + December 4, 1840 + </h3> + <p> + In the House of Representatives, Illinois, December 4, 1840, on + presentation of a report respecting petition of H. N. Purple, claiming the + seat of Mr. Phelps from Peoria, Mr. Lincoln moved that the House resolve + itself into Committee of the Whole on the question, and take it up + immediately. Mr. Lincoln considered the question of the highest importance + whether an individual had a right to sit in this House or not. The course + he should propose would be to take up the evidence and decide upon the + facts seriatim. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Drummond wanted time; they could not decide in the heat of debate, + etc. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Lincoln thought that the question had better be gone into now. In + courts of law jurors were required to decide on evidence, without previous + study or examination. They were required to know nothing of the subject + until the evidence was laid before them for their immediate decision. He + thought that the heat of party would be augmented by delay. + </p> + <p> + The Speaker called Mr. Lincoln to order as being irrelevant; no mention + had been made of party heat. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Drummond said he had only spoken of debate. Mr. Lincoln asked what + caused the heat, if it was not party? Mr. Lincoln concluded by urging that + the question would be decided now better than hereafter, and he thought + with less heat and excitement. + </p> + <p> + (Further debate, in which Lincoln participated.) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0039" id="link2H_4_0039"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + </h2> + <h3> + December 4, 1840. + </h3> + <p> + In the Illinois House of Representatives, December 4, 1840, House in + Committee of the Whole on the bill providing for payment of interest on + the State debt,—Mr. Lincoln moved to strike out the body and + amendments of the bill, and insert in lieu thereof an amendment which in + substance was that the governor be authorized to issue bonds for the + payment of the interest; that these be called "interest bonds"; that the + taxes accruing on Congress lands as they become taxable be irrevocably set + aside and devoted as a fund to the payment of the interest bonds. Mr. + Lincoln went into the reasons which appeared to him to render this plan + preferable to that of hypothecating the State bonds. By this course we + could get along till the next meeting of the Legislature, which was of + great importance. To the objection which might be urged that these + interest bonds could not be cashed, he replied that if our other bonds + could, much more could these, which offered a perfect security, a fund + being irrevocably set aside to provide for their redemption. To another + objection, that we should be paying compound interest, he would reply that + the rapid growth and increase of our resources was in so great a ratio as + to outstrip the difficulty; that his object was to do the best that could + be done in the present emergency. All agreed that the faith of the State + must be preserved; this plan appeared to him preferable to a hypothecation + of bonds, which would have to be redeemed and the interest paid. How this + was to be done, he could not see; therefore he had, after turning the + matter over in every way, devised this measure, which would carry us on + till the next Legislature. + </p> + <p> + (Mr. Lincoln spoke at some length, advocating his measure.) + </p> + <p> + Lincoln advocated his measure, December 11, 1840. + </p> + <p> + December 12, 1840, he had thought some permanent provision ought to be + made for the bonds to be hypothecated, but was satisfied taxation and + revenue could not be connected with it now. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0040" id="link2H_4_0040"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1841 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0041" id="link2H_4_0041"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOHN T. STUART—ON DEPRESSION + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Jan 23, 1841 + </h3> + <p> + DEAR STUART: I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were + equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one + cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell; I + awfully forbode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die + or be better, as it appears to me.... I fear I shall be unable to attend + any business here, and a change of scene might help me. If I could be + myself, I would rather remain at home with Judge Logan. I can write no + more. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0042" id="link2H_4_0042"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + </h2> + <h3> + January 23, 1841 + </h3> + <p> + In the House of Representatives January 23, 1841, while discussing the + continuation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Mr. Moore was afraid the + holders of the "scrip" would lose. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Napier thought there was no danger of that; and Mr. Lincoln said he + had not examined to see what amount of scrip would probably be needed. The + principal point in his mind was this, that nobody was obliged to take + these certificates. It is altogether voluntary on their part, and if they + apprehend it will fall in their hands they will not take it. Further the + loss, if any there be, will fall on the citizens of that section of the + country. + </p> + <p> + This scrip is not going to circulate over an extensive range of country, + but will be confined chiefly to the vicinity of the canal. Now, we find + the representatives of that section of the country are all in favor of the + bill. + </p> + <p> + When we propose to protect their interests, they say to us: Leave us to + take care of ourselves; we are willing to run the risk. And this is + reasonable; we must suppose they are competent to protect their own + interests, and it is only fair to let them do it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0043" id="link2H_4_0043"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + </h2> + <h3> + February 9, 1841. + </h3> + <p> + Appeal to the People of the State of Illinois. + </p> + <p> + FELLOW-CITIZENS:—When the General Assembly, now about adjourning, + assembled in November last, from the bankrupt state of the public + treasury, the pecuniary embarrassments prevailing in every department of + society, the dilapidated state of the public works, and the impending + danger of the degradation of the State, you had a right to expect that + your representatives would lose no time in devising and adopting measures + to avert threatened calamities, alleviate the distresses of the people, + and allay the fearful apprehensions in regard to the future prosperity of + the State. It was not expected by you that the spirit of party would take + the lead in the councils of the State, and make every interest bend to its + demands. Nor was it expected that any party would assume to itself the + entire control of legislation, and convert the means and offices of the + State, and the substance of the people, into aliment for party + subsistence. Neither could it have been expected by you that party spirit, + however strong its desires and unreasonable its demands, would have passed + the sanctuary of the Constitution, and entered with its unhallowed and + hideous form into the formation of the judiciary system. + </p> + <p> + At the early period of the session, measures were adopted by the dominant + party to take possession of the State, to fill all public offices with + party men, and make every measure affecting the interests of the people + and the credit of the State operate in furtherance of their party views. + The merits of men and measures therefore became the subject of discussion + in caucus, instead of the halls of legislation, and decisions there made + by a minority of the Legislature have been executed and carried into + effect by the force of party discipline, without any regard whatever to + the rights of the people or the interests of the State. The Supreme Court + of the State was organized, and judges appointed, according to the + provisions of the Constitution, in 1824. The people have never complained + of the organization of that court; no attempt has ever before been made to + change that department. Respect for public opinion, and regard for the + rights and liberties of the people, have hitherto restrained the spirit of + party from attacks upon the independence and integrity of the judiciary. + The same judges have continued in office since 1824; their decisions have + not been the subject of complaint among the people; the integrity and + honesty of the court have not been questioned, and it has never been + supposed that the court has ever permitted party prejudice or party + considerations to operate upon their decisions. The court was made to + consist of four judges, and by the Constitution two form a quorum for the + transaction of business. With this tribunal, thus constituted, the people + have been satisfied for near sixteen years. The same law which organized + the Supreme Court in 1824 also established and organized circuit courts to + be held in each county in the State, and five circuit judges were + appointed to hold those courts. In 1826 the Legislature abolished these + circuit courts, repealed the judges out of office, and required the judges + of the Supreme Court to hold the circuit courts. The reasons assigned for + this change were, first, that the business of the country could be better + attended to by the four judges of the Supreme Court than by the two sets + of judges; and, second, the state of the public treasury forbade the + employment of unnecessary officers. In 1828 a circuit was established + north of the Illinois River, in order to meet the wants of the people, and + a circuit judge was appointed to hold the courts in that circuit. + </p> + <p> + In 1834 the circuit-court system was again established throughout the + State, circuit judges appointed to hold the courts, and the judges of the + Supreme Court were relieved from the performance of circuit court duties. + The change was recommended by the then acting governor of the State, + General W. L. D. Ewing, in the following terms: + </p> + <p> + "The augmented population of the State, the multiplied number of organized + counties, as well as the increase of business in all, has long since + convinced every one conversant with this department of our government of + the indispensable necessity of an alteration in our judiciary system, and + the subject is therefore recommended to the earnest patriotic + consideration of the Legislature. The present system has never been exempt + from serious and weighty objections. The idea of appealing from the + circuit court to the same judges in the Supreme Court is recommended by + little hopes of redress to the injured party below. The duties of the + circuit, too, it may be added, consume one half of the year, leaving a + small and inadequate portion of time (when that required for domestic + purposes is deducted) to erect, in the decisions of the Supreme Court, a + judicial monument of legal learning and research, which the talent and + ability of the court might otherwise be entirely competent to." + </p> + <p> + With this organization of circuit courts the people have never complained. + The only complaints which we have heard have come from circuits which were + so large that the judges could not dispose of the business, and the + circuits in which Judges Pearson and Ralston lately presided. + </p> + <p> + Whilst the honor and credit of the State demanded legislation upon the + subject of the public debt, the canal, the unfinished public works, and + the embarrassments of the people, the judiciary stood upon a basis which + required no change—no legislative action. Yet the party in power, + neglecting every interest requiring legislative action, and wholly + disregarding the rights, wishes, and interests of the people, has, for the + unholy purpose of providing places for its partisans and supplying them + with large salaries, disorganized that department of the government. + Provision is made for the election of five party judges of the Supreme + Court, the proscription of four circuit judges, and the appointment of + party clerks in more than half the counties of the State. Men professing + respect for public opinion, and acknowledged to be leaders of the party, + have avowed in the halls of legislation that the change in the judiciary + was intended to produce political results favorable to their party and + party friends. The immutable principles of justice are to make way for + party interests, and the bonds of social order are to be rent in twain, in + order that a desperate faction may be sustained at the expense of the + people. The change proposed in the judiciary was supported upon grounds so + destructive to the institutions of the country, and so entirely at war + with the rights and liberties of the people, that the party could not + secure entire unanimity in its support, three Democrats of the Senate and + five of the House voting against the measure. They were unwilling to see + the temples of justice and the seats of independent judges occupied by the + tools of faction. The declarations of the party leaders, the selection of + party men for judges, and the total disregard for the public will in the + adoption of the measure, prove conclusively that the object has been not + reform, but destruction; not the advancement of the highest interests of + the State, but the predominance of party. + </p> + <p> + We cannot in this manner undertake to point out all the objections to this + party measure; we present you with those stated by the Council of Revision + upon returning the bill, and we ask for them a candid consideration. + </p> + <p> + Believing that the independence of the judiciary has been destroyed, that + hereafter our courts will be independent of the people, and entirely + dependent upon the Legislature; that our rights of property and liberty of + conscience can no longer be regarded as safe from the encroachments of + unconstitutional legislation; and knowing of no other remedy which can be + adopted consistently with the peace and good order of society, we call + upon you to avail yourselves of the opportunity afforded, and, at the next + general election, vote for a convention of the people. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + S. H. LITTLE, + E. D. BAKER, + J. J. HARDIN, + E. B. WEBS, + A. LINCOLN, + J. GILLESPIE, + + Committee on behalf of the Whig members of the Legislature. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0044" id="link2H_4_0044"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + AGAINST THE REORGANIZATION OF THE JUDICIARY. + </h2> + <h3> + EXTRACT FROM A PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE + </h3> + <p> + February 26, 1841 + </p> + <p> + For the reasons thus presented, and for others no less apparent, the + undersigned cannot assent to the passage of the bill, or permit it to + become a law, without this evidence of their disapprobation; and they now + protest against the reorganization of the judiciary, because—(1) It + violates the great principles of free government by subjecting the + judiciary to the Legislature. (2) It is a fatal blow at the independence + of the judges and the constitutional term of their office. (3) It is a + measure not asked for, or wished for, by the people. (4) It will greatly + increase the expense of our courts, or else greatly diminish their + utility. (5) It will give our courts a political and partisan character, + thereby impairing public confidence in their decisions. (6) It will impair + our standing with other States and the world. (7)It is a party measure for + party purposes, from which no practical good to the people can possibly + arise, but which may be the source of immeasurable evils. + </p> + <p> + The undersigned are well aware that this protest will be altogether + unavailing with the majority of this body. The blow has already fallen, + and we are compelled to stand by, the mournful spectators of the ruin it + will cause. + </p> + <p> + [Signed by 35 members, among whom was Abraham Lincoln.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0045" id="link2H_4_0045"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—MURDER CASE + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD June 19, 1841. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—We have had the highest state of excitement here for a + week past that our community has ever witnessed; and, although the public + feeling is somewhat allayed, the curious affair which aroused it is very + far from being even yet cleared of mystery. It would take a quire of paper + to give you anything like a full account of it, and I therefore only + propose a brief outline. The chief personages in the drama are Archibald + Fisher, supposed to be murdered, and Archibald Trailor, Henry Trailor, and + William Trailor, supposed to have murdered him. The three Trailors are + brothers: the first, Arch., as you know, lives in town; the second, Henry, + in Clary's Grove; and the third, William, in Warren County; and Fisher, + the supposed murdered, being without a family, had made his home with + William. On Saturday evening, being the 29th of May, Fisher and William + came to Henry's in a one-horse dearborn, and there stayed over Sunday; and + on Monday all three came to Springfield (Henry on horseback) and joined + Archibald at Myers's, the Dutch carpenter. That evening at supper Fisher + was missing, and so next morning some ineffectual search was made for him; + and on Tuesday, at one o'clock P.M., William and Henry started home + without him. In a day or two Henry and one or two of his Clary-Grove + neighbors came back for him again, and advertised his disappearance in the + papers. The knowledge of the matter thus far had not been general, and + here it dropped entirely, till about the 10th instant, when Keys received + a letter from the postmaster in Warren County, that William had arrived at + home, and was telling a very mysterious and improbable story about the + disappearance of Fisher, which induced the community there to suppose he + had been disposed of unfairly. Keys made this letter public, which + immediately set the whole town and adjoining county agog. And so it has + continued until yesterday. The mass of the people commenced a systematic + search for the dead body, while Wickersham was despatched to arrest Henry + Trailor at the Grove, and Jim Maxcy to Warren to arrest William. On Monday + last, Henry was brought in, and showed an evident inclination to insinuate + that he knew Fisher to be dead, and that Arch. and William had killed him. + He said he guessed the body could be found in Spring Creek, between the + Beardstown road and Hickox's mill. Away the people swept like a herd of + buffalo, and cut down Hickox's mill-dam nolens volens, to draw the water + out of the pond, and then went up and down and down and up the creek, + fishing and raking, and raking and ducking and diving for two days, and, + after all, no dead body found. + </p> + <p> + In the meantime a sort of scuffling-ground had been found in the brush in + the angle, or point, where the road leading into the woods past the + brewery and the one leading in past the brick-yard meet. From the + scuffle-ground was the sign of something about the size of a man having + been dragged to the edge of the thicket, where it joined the track of some + small-wheeled carriage drawn by one horse, as shown by the road-tracks. + The carriage-track led off toward Spring Creek. Near this drag-trail Dr. + Merryman found two hairs, which, after a long scientific examination, he + pronounced to be triangular human hairs, which term, he says, includes + within it the whiskers, the hair growing under the arms and on other parts + of the body; and he judged that these two were of the whiskers, because + the ends were cut, showing that they had flourished in the neighborhood of + the razor's operations. On Thursday last Jim Maxcy brought in William + Trailor from Warren. On the same day Arch. was arrested and put in jail. + Yesterday (Friday) William was put upon his examining trial before May and + Lovely. Archibald and Henry were both present. Lamborn prosecuted, and + Logan, Baker, and your humble servant defended. A great many witnesses + were introduced and examined, but I shall only mention those whose + testimony seemed most important. The first of these was Captain Ransdell. + He swore that when William and Henry left Springfield for home on Tuesday + before mentioned they did not take the direct route,—which, you + know, leads by the butcher shop,—but that they followed the street + north until they got opposite, or nearly opposite, May's new house, after + which he could not see them from where he stood; and it was afterwards + proved that in about an hour after they started, they came into the street + by the butcher shop from toward the brickyard. Dr. Merryman and others + swore to what is stated about the scuffle-ground, drag-trail, whiskers, + and carriage tracks. Henry was then introduced by the prosecution. He + swore that when they started for home they went out north, as Ransdell + stated, and turned down west by the brick-yard into the woods, and there + met Archibald; that they proceeded a small distance farther, when he was + placed as a sentinel to watch for and announce the approach of any one + that might happen that way; that William and Arch. took the dearborn out + of the road a small distance to the edge of the thicket, where they + stopped, and he saw them lift the body of a man into it; that they then + moved off with the carriage in the direction of Hickox's mill, and he + loitered about for something like an hour, when William returned with the + carriage, but without Arch., and said they had put him in a safe place; + that they went somehow he did not know exactly how—into the road + close to the brewery, and proceeded on to Clary's Grove. He also stated + that some time during the day William told him that he and Arch. had + killed Fisher the evening before; that the way they did it was by him + William knocking him down with a club, and Arch. then choking him to + death. + </p> + <p> + An old man from Warren, called Dr. Gilmore, was then introduced on the + part of the defense. He swore that he had known Fisher for several years; + that Fisher had resided at his house a long time at each of two different + spells—once while he built a barn for him, and once while he was + doctored for some chronic disease; that two or three years ago Fisher had + a serious hurt in his head by the bursting of a gun, since which he had + been subject to continued bad health and occasional aberration of mind. He + also stated that on last Tuesday, being the same day that Maxcy arrested + William Trailor, he (the doctor) was from home in the early part of the + day, and on his return, about eleven o'clock, found Fisher at his house in + bed, and apparently very unwell; that he asked him how he came from + Springfield; that Fisher said he had come by Peoria, and also told of + several other places he had been at more in the direction of Peoria, which + showed that he at the time of speaking did not know where he had been + wandering about in a state of derangement. He further stated that in about + two hours he received a note from one of Trailor's friends, advising him + of his arrest, and requesting him to go on to Springfield as a witness, to + testify as to the state of Fisher's health in former times; that he + immediately set off, calling up two of his neighbors as company, and, + riding all evening and all night, overtook Maxcy and William at Lewiston + in Fulton County; that Maxcy refusing to discharge Trailor upon his + statement, his two neighbors returned and he came on to Springfield. Some + question being made as to whether the doctor's story was not a + fabrication, several acquaintances of his (among whom was the same + postmaster who wrote Keys, as before mentioned) were introduced as sort of + compurgators, who swore that they knew the doctor to be of good character + for truth and veracity, and generally of good character in every way. + </p> + <p> + Here the testimony ended, and the Trailors were discharged, Arch. and + William expressing both in word and manner their entire confidence that + Fisher would be found alive at the doctor's by Galloway, Mallory, and + Myers, who a day before had been despatched for that purpose; which Henry + still protested that no power on earth could ever show Fisher alive. Thus + stands this curious affair. When the doctor's story was first made public, + it was amusing to scan and contemplate the countenances and hear the + remarks of those who had been actively in search for the dead body: some + looked quizzical, some melancholy, and some furiously angry. Porter, who + had been very active, swore he always knew the man was not dead, and that + he had not stirred an inch to hunt for him; Langford, who had taken the + lead in cutting down Hickox's mill-dam, and wanted to hang Hickox for + objecting, looked most awfully woebegone: he seemed the "victim of + unrequited affection," as represented in the comic almanacs we used to + laugh over; and Hart, the little drayman that hauled Molly home once, said + it was too damned bad to have so much trouble, and no hanging after all. + </p> + <p> + I commenced this letter on yesterday, since which I received yours of the + 13th. I stick to my promise to come to Louisville. Nothing new here except + what I have written. I have not seen ______ since my last trip, and I am + going out there as soon as I mail this letter. + </p> + <p> + Yours forever, LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0046" id="link2H_4_0046"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + STATEMENT ABOUT HARRY WILTON. + </h2> + <h3> + June 25, 1841 + </h3> + <p> + It having been charged in some of the public prints that Harry Wilton, + late United States marshal for the district of Illinois, had used his + office for political effect, in the appointment of deputies for the taking + of the census for the year 1840, we, the undersigned, were called upon by + Mr. Wilton to examine the papers in his possession relative to these + appointments, and to ascertain therefrom the correctness or incorrectness + of such charge. We accompanied Mr. Wilton to a room, and examined the + matter as fully as we could with the means afforded us. The only sources + of information bearing on the subject which were submitted to us were the + letters, etc., recommending and opposing the various appointments made, + and Mr. Wilton's verbal statements concerning the same. From these + letters, etc., it appears that in some instances appointments were made in + accordance with the recommendations of leading Whigs, and in opposition to + those of leading Democrats; among which instances the appointments at + Scott, Wayne, Madison, and Lawrence are the strongest. According to Mr. + Wilton's statement of the seventy-six appointments we examined, fifty-four + were of Democrats, eleven of Whigs, and eleven of unknown politics. + </p> + <p> + The chief ground of complaint against Mr. Wilton, as we had understood it, + was because of his appointment of so many Democratic candidates for the + Legislature, thus giving them a decided advantage over their Whig + opponents; and consequently our attention was directed rather particularly + to that point. We found that there were many such appointments, among + which were those in Tazewell, McLean, Iroquois, Coles, Menard, Wayne, + Washington, Fayette, etc.; and we did not learn that there was one + instance in which a Whig candidate for the Legislature had been appointed. + There was no written evidence before us showing us at what time those + appointments were made; but Mr. Wilton stated that they all with one + exception were made before those appointed became candidates for the + Legislature, and the letters, etc., recommending them all bear date + before, and most of them long before, those appointed were publicly + announced candidates. + </p> + <p> + We give the foregoing naked facts and draw no conclusions from them. + </p> + <p> + BEND. S. EDWARDS, A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0047" id="link2H_4_0047"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO MISS MARY SPEED—PRACTICAL SLAVERY + </h2> + <h3> + BLOOMINGTON, ILL., September 27, 1841. + </h3> + <p> + Miss Mary Speed, Louisville, Ky. + </p> + <p> + MY FRIEND: By the way, a fine example was presented on board the boat for + contemplating the effect of condition upon human happiness. A gentleman + had purchased twelve negroes in different 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 + fastened to the main chain by a shorter one, at a convenient distance from + the others, so that the negroes were strung together precisely like so + many fish upon a trotline. 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 ruthless and unrelenting than any other; 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 + offence for which he had been sold was an overfondness 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 Springfield 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. + </p> + <p> + Your sincere friend, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0048" id="link2H_4_0048"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1842 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0049" id="link2H_4_0049"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON MARRIAGE + </h2> + <h3> + January 30, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + MY DEAR SPEED:—Feeling, as you know I do, the deepest solicitude for + the success of the enterprise you are engaged in, I adopt this as the last + method I can adopt to aid you, in case (which God forbid!) you shall need + any aid. I do not place what I am going to say on paper because I can say + it better that way than I could by word of mouth, but, were I to say it + orally before we part, most likely you would forget it at the very time + when it might do you some good. As I think it reasonable that you will + feel very badly some time between this and the final consummation of your + purpose, it is intended that you shall read this just at such a time. Why + I say it is reasonable that you will feel very badly yet, is because of + three special causes added to the general one which I shall mention. + </p> + <p> + The general cause is, that you are naturally of a nervous temperament; and + this I say from what I have seen of you personally, and what you have told + me concerning your mother at various times, and concerning your brother + William at the time his wife died. The first special cause is your + exposure to bad weather on your journey, which my experience clearly + proves to be very severe on defective nerves. The second is the absence of + all business and conversation of friends, which might divert your mind, + give it occasional rest from the intensity of thought which will sometimes + wear the sweetest idea threadbare and turn it to the bitterness of death. + The third is the rapid and near approach of that crisis on which all your + thoughts and feelings concentrate. + </p> + <p> + If from all these causes you shall escape and go through triumphantly, + without another "twinge of the soul," I shall be most happily but most + egregiously deceived. If, on the contrary, you shall, as I expect you will + at sometime, be agonized and distressed, let me, who have some reason to + speak with judgment on such a subject, beseech you to ascribe it to the + causes I have mentioned, and not to some false and ruinous suggestion of + the Devil. + </p> + <p> + "But," you will say, "do not your causes apply to every one engaged in a + like undertaking?" By no means. The particular causes, to a greater or + less extent, perhaps do apply in all cases; but the general one,—nervous + debility, which is the key and conductor of all the particular ones, and + without which they would be utterly harmless,—though it does pertain + to you, does not pertain to one in a thousand. It is out of this that the + painful difference between you and the mass of the world springs. + </p> + <p> + I know what the painful point with you is at all times when you are + unhappy; it is an apprehension that you do not love her as you should. + What nonsense! How came you to court her? Was it because you thought she + deserved it, and that you had given her reason to expect it? If it was for + that why did not the same reason make you court Ann Todd, and at least + twenty others of whom you can think, and to whom it would apply with + greater force than to her? Did you court her for her wealth? Why, you know + she had none. But you say you reasoned yourself into it. What do you mean + by that? Was it not that you found yourself unable to reason yourself out + of it? Did you not think, and partly form the purpose, of courting her the + first time you ever saw her or heard of her? What had reason to do with it + at that early stage? There was nothing at that time for reason to work + upon. Whether she was moral, amiable, sensible, or even of good character, + you did not, nor could then know, except, perhaps, you might infer the + last from the company you found her in. + </p> + <p> + All you then did or could know of her was her personal appearance and + deportment; and these, if they impress at all, impress the heart, and not + the head. + </p> + <p> + Say candidly, were not those heavenly black eyes the whole basis of all + your early reasoning on the subject? After you and I had once been at the + residence, did you not go and take me all the way to Lexington and back, + for no other purpose but to get to see her again, on our return on that + evening to take a trip for that express object? What earthly consideration + would you take to find her scouting and despising you, and giving herself + up to another? But of this you have no apprehension; and therefore you + cannot bring it home to your feelings. + </p> + <p> + I shall be so anxious about you that I shall want you to write by every + mail. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0050" id="link2H_4_0050"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 3, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—Your letter of the 25th January came to hand to-day. You + well know that I do not feel my own sorrows much more keenly than I do + yours, when I know of them; and yet I assure you I was not much hurt by + what you wrote me of your excessively bad feeling at the time you wrote. + Not that I am less capable of sympathizing with you now than ever, not + that I am less your friend than ever, but because I hope and believe that + your present anxiety and distress about her health and her life must and + will forever banish those horrid doubts which I know you sometimes felt as + to the truth of your affection for her. If they can once and forever be + removed (and I almost feel a presentiment that the Almighty has sent your + present affliction expressly for that object), surely nothing can come in + their stead to fill their immeasurable measure of misery. The death-scenes + of those we love are surely painful enough; but these we are prepared for + and expect to see: they happen to all, and all know they must happen. + Painful as they are, they are not an unlooked for sorrow. Should she, as + you fear, be destined to an early grave, it is indeed a great consolation + to know that she is so well prepared to meet it. Her religion, which you + once disliked so much, I will venture you now prize most highly. But I + hope your melancholy bodings as to her early death are not well founded. I + even hope that ere this reaches you she will have returned with improved + and still improving health, and that you will have met her, and forgotten + the sorrows of the past in the enjoyments of the present. I would say more + if I could, but it seems that I have said enough. It really appears to me + that you yourself ought to rejoice, and not sorrow, at this indubitable + evidence of your undying affection for her. Why, Speed, if you did not + love her although you might not wish her death, you would most certainly + be resigned to it. Perhaps this point is no longer a question with you, + and my pertinacious dwelling upon it is a rude intrusion upon your + feelings. If so, you must pardon me. You know the hell I have suffered on + that point, and how tender I am upon it. You know I do not mean wrong. I + have been quite clear of "hypo" since you left, even better than I was + along in the fall. I have seen ______ but once. She seemed very cheerful, + and so I said nothing to her about what we spoke of. + </p> + <p> + Old Uncle Billy Herndon is dead, and it is said this evening that Uncle + Ben Ferguson will not live. This, I believe, is all the news, and enough + at that unless it were better. Write me immediately on the receipt of + this. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, as ever, LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0051" id="link2H_4_0051"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON DEPRESSION + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 13, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—Yours of the 1st instant came to hand three or four days + ago. When this shall reach you, you will have been Fanny's husband several + days. You know my desire to befriend you is everlasting; that I will never + cease while I know how to do anything. But you will always hereafter be on + ground that I have never occupied, and consequently, if advice were + needed, I might advise wrong. I do fondly hope, however, that you will + never again need any comfort from abroad. But should I be mistaken in + this, should excessive pleasure still be accompanied with a painful + counterpart at times, still let me urge you, as I have ever done, to + remember, in the depth and even agony of despondency, that very shortly + you are to feel well again. I am now fully convinced that you love her as + ardently as you are capable of loving. Your ever being happy in her + presence, and your intense anxiety about her health, if there were nothing + else, would place this beyond all dispute in my mind. I incline to think + it probable that your nerves will fail you occasionally for a while; but + once you get them firmly guarded now that trouble is over forever. I + think, if I were you, in case my mind were not exactly right, I would + avoid being idle. I would immediately engage in some business, or go to + making preparations for it, which would be the same thing. If you went + through the ceremony calmly, or even with sufficient composure not to + excite alarm in any present, you are safe beyond question, and in two or + three months, to say the most, will be the happiest of men. + </p> + <p> + I would desire you to give my particular respects to Fanny; but perhaps + you will not wish her to know you have received this, lest she should + desire to see it. Make her write me an answer to my last letter to her; at + any rate I would set great value upon a note or letter from her. Write me + whenever you have leisure. Yours forever, A. LINCOLN. P. S.—I have + been quite a man since you left. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0052" id="link2H_4_0052"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO G. B. SHELEDY. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Feb. 16, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + G. B. SHELEDY, ESQ.: + </p> + <p> + Yours of the 10th is duly received. Judge Logan and myself are doing + business together now, and we are willing to attend to your cases as you + propose. As to the terms, we are willing to attend each case you prepare + and send us for $10 (when there shall be no opposition) to be sent in + advance, or you to know that it is safe. It takes $5.75 of cost to start + upon, that is, $1.75 to clerk, and $2 to each of two publishers of papers. + Judge Logan thinks it will take the balance of $20 to carry a case + through. This must be advanced from time to time as the services are + performed, as the officers will not act without. I do not know whether you + can be admitted an attorney of the Federal court in your absence or not; + nor is it material, as the business can be done in our names. + </p> + <p> + Thinking it may aid you a little, I send you one of our blank forms of + Petitions. It, you will see, is framed to be sworn to before the Federal + court clerk, and, in your cases, will have [to] be so far changed as to be + sworn to before the clerk of your circuit court; and his certificate must + be accompanied with his official seal. The schedules, too, must be + attended to. Be sure that they contain the creditors' names, their + residences, the amounts due each, the debtors' names, their residences, + and the amounts they owe, also all property and where located. + </p> + <p> + Also be sure that the schedules are all signed by the applicants as well + as the Petition. Publication will have to be made here in one paper, and + in one nearest the residence of the applicant. Write us in each case where + the last advertisement is to be sent, whether to you or to what paper. + </p> + <p> + I believe I have now said everything that can be of any advantage. Your + friend as ever, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0053" id="link2H_4_0053"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GEORGE E. PICKETT—ADVICE TO YOUTH + </h2> + <h3> + February 22, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + I never encourage deceit, and falsehood, especially if you have got a bad + memory, is the worst enemy a fellow can have. The fact is truth is your + truest friend, no matter what the circumstances are. Notwithstanding this + copy-book preamble, my boy, I am inclined to suggest a little prudence on + your part. You see I have a congenital aversion to failure, and the sudden + announcement to your Uncle Andrew of the success of your "lamp rubbing" + might possibly prevent your passing the severe physical examination to + which you will be subjected in order to enter the Military Academy. You + see I should like to have a perfect soldier credited to dear old Illinois—no + broken bones, scalp wounds, etc. So I think it might be wise to hand this + letter from me in to your good uncle through his room-window after he has + had a comfortable dinner, and watch its effect from the top of the + pigeon-house. + </p> + <p> + I have just told the folks here in Springfield on this 111th anniversary + of the birth of him whose name, mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, + still mightiest in the cause of moral reformation, we mention in solemn + awe, in naked, deathless splendor, that the one victory we can ever call + complete will be that one which proclaims that there is not one slave or + one drunkard on the face of God's green earth. Recruit for this victory. + </p> + <p> + Now, boy, on your march, don't you go and forget the old maxim that "one + drop of honey catches more flies than a half-gallon of gall." Load your + musket with this maxim, and smoke it in your pipe. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0054" id="link2H_4_0054"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ADDRESS BEFORE THE SPRINGFIELD WASHINGTONIAN TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, + </h2> + <h3> + FEBRUARY 22, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + Although the temperance cause has been in progress for near twenty years, + it is apparent to all that it is just now being crowned with a degree of + success hitherto unparalleled. + </p> + <p> + The list of its friends is daily swelled by the additions of fifties, of + hundreds, and of thousands. The cause itself seems suddenly transformed + from a cold abstract theory to a living, breathing, active, and powerful + chieftain, going forth "conquering and to conquer." The citadels of his + great adversary are daily being stormed and dismantled; his temple and his + altars, where the rites of his idolatrous worship have long been + performed, and where human sacrifices have long been wont to be made, are + daily desecrated and deserted. The triumph of the conqueror's fame is + sounding from hill to hill, from sea to sea, and from land to land, and + calling millions to his standard at a blast. + </p> + <p> + For this new and splendid success we heartily rejoice. That that success + is so much greater now than heretofore is doubtless owing to rational + causes; and if we would have it continue, we shall do well to inquire what + those causes are. + </p> + <p> + The warfare heretofore waged against the demon intemperance has somehow or + other been erroneous. Either the champions engaged or the tactics they + adopted have not been the most proper. These champions for the most part + have been preachers, lawyers, and hired agents. Between these and the mass + of mankind there is a want of approachability, if the term be admissible, + partially, at least, fatal to their success. They are supposed to have no + sympathy of feeling or interest with those very persons whom it is their + object to convince and persuade. + </p> + <p> + And again, it is so common and so easy to ascribe motives to men of these + classes other than those they profess to act upon. The preacher, it is + said, advocates temperance because he is a fanatic, and desires a union of + the Church and State; the lawyer from his pride and vanity of hearing + himself speak; and the hired agent for his salary. But when one who has + long been known as a victim of intemperance bursts the fetters that have + bound him, and appears before his neighbors "clothed and in his right + mind," a redeemed specimen of long-lost humanity, and stands up, with + tears of joy trembling in his eyes, to tell of the miseries once endured, + now to be endured no more forever; of his once naked and starving + children, now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife long weighed down with + woe, weeping, and a broken heart, now restored to health, happiness, and a + renewed affection; and how easily it is all done, once it is resolved to + be done; how simple his language! there is a logic and an eloquence in it + that few with human feelings can resist. They cannot say that he desires a + union of Church and State, for he is not a church member; they cannot say + he is vain of hearing himself speak, for his whole demeanor shows he would + gladly avoid speaking at all; they cannot say he speaks for pay, for he + receives none, and asks for none. Nor can his sincerity in any way be + doubted, or his sympathy for those he would persuade to imitate his + example be denied. + </p> + <p> + In my judgment, it is to the battles of this new class of champions that + our late success is greatly, perhaps chiefly, owing. But, had the + old-school champions themselves been of the most wise selecting, was their + system of tactics the most judicious? It seems to me it was not. Too much + denunciation against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers was indulged in. This + I think was both impolitic and unjust. It was impolitic, because it is not + much in the nature of man to be driven to anything; still less to be + driven about that which is exclusively his own business; and least of all + where such driving is to be submitted to at the expense of pecuniary + interest or burning appetite. When the dram-seller and drinker were + incessantly told not in accents of entreaty and persuasion, diffidently + addressed by erring man to an erring brother, but in the thundering tones + of anathema and denunciation with which the lordly judge often groups + together all the crimes of the felon's life, and thrusts them in his face + just ere he passes sentence of death upon him that they were the authors + of all the vice and misery and crime in the land; that they were the + manufacturers and material of all the thieves and robbers and murderers + that infest the earth; that their houses were the workshops of the devil; + and that their persons should be shunned by all the good and virtuous, as + moral pestilences—I say, when they were told all this, and in this + way, it is not wonderful that they were slow to acknowledge the truth of + such denunciations, and to join the ranks of their denouncers in a hue and + cry against themselves. + </p> + <p> + To have expected them to do otherwise than they did to have expected them + not to meet denunciation with denunciation, crimination with crimination, + and anathema with anathema—was to expect a reversal of human nature, + which is God's decree and can never be reversed. + </p> + <p> + When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, + unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true + maxim that "a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall." So + with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that + you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his + heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his reason; and + which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing + his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause really be + a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his judgment, or to + command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and + he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his + heart; and though your cause be naked truth itself, transformed to the + heaviest lance, harder than steel, and sharper than steel can be made, and + though you throw it with more than herculean force and precision, you + shall be no more able to pierce him than to penetrate the hard shell of a + tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, and so must he be understood by + those who would lead him, even to his own best interests. + </p> + <p> + On this point the Washingtonians greatly excel the temperance advocates of + former times. Those whom they desire to convince and persuade are their + old friends and companions. They know they are not demons, nor even the + worst of men; they know that generally they are kind, generous, and + charitable even beyond the example of their more staid and sober + neighbors. They are practical philanthropists; and they glow with a + generous and brotherly zeal that mere theorizers are incapable of feeling. + Benevolence and charity possess their hearts entirely; and out of the + abundance of their hearts their tongues give utterance; "love through all + their actions runs, and all their words are mild." In this spirit they + speak and act, and in the same they are heard and regarded. And when such + is the temper of the advocate, and such of the audience, no good cause can + be unsuccessful. But I have said that denunciations against dramsellers + and dram-drinkers are unjust, as well as impolitic. Let us see. I have not + inquired at what period of time the use of intoxicating liquors commenced; + nor is it important to know. It is sufficient that, to all of us who now + inhabit the world, the practice of drinking them is just as old as the + world itself that is, we have seen the one just as long as we have seen + the other. When all such of us as have now reached the years of maturity + first opened our eyes upon the stage of existence, we found intoxicating + liquor recognized by everybody, used by everybody, repudiated by nobody. + It commonly entered into the first draught of the infant and the last + draught of the dying man. From the sideboard of the parson down to the + ragged pocket of the houseless loafer, it was constantly found. Physicians + proscribed it in this, that, and the other disease; government provided it + for soldiers and sailors; and to have a rolling or raising, a husking or + "hoedown," anywhere about without it was positively insufferable. So, too, + it was everywhere a respectable article of manufacture and merchandise. + The making of it was regarded as an honorable livelihood, and he who could + make most was the most enterprising and respectable. Large and small + manufactories of it were everywhere erected, in which all the earthly + goods of their owners were invested. Wagons drew it from town to town; + boats bore it from clime to clime, and the winds wafted it from nation to + nation; and merchants bought and sold it, by wholesale and retail, with + precisely the same feelings on the part of the seller, buyer, and + bystander as are felt at the selling and buying of ploughs, beef, bacon, + or any other of the real necessaries of life. Universal public opinion not + only tolerated but recognized and adopted its use. + </p> + <p> + It is true that even then it was known and acknowledged that many were + greatly injured by it; but none seemed to think the injury arose from the + use of a bad thing, but from the abuse of a very good thing. The victims + of it were to be pitied and compassionated, just as are the heirs of + consumption and other hereditary diseases. Their failing was treated as a + misfortune, and not as a crime, or even as a disgrace. If, then, what I + have been saying is true, is it wonderful that some should think and act + now as all thought and acted twenty years ago? and is it just to assail, + condemn, or despise them for doing so? The universal sense of mankind on + any subject is an argument, or at least an influence, not easily overcome. + The success of the argument in favor of the existence of an overruling + Providence mainly depends upon that sense; and men ought not in justice to + be denounced for yielding to it in any case, or giving it up slowly, + especially when they are backed by interest, fixed habits, or burning + appetites. + </p> + <p> + Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reformers fell, was + the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly incorrigible, and + therefore must be turned adrift and damned without remedy in order that + the grace of temperance might abound, to the temperate then, and to all + mankind some hundreds of years thereafter. There is in this some thing so + repugnant to humanity, so uncharitable, so cold-blooded and feelingless, + that it, never did nor ever can enlist the enthusiasm of a popular cause. + We could not love the man who taught it we could not hear him with + patience. The heart could not throw open its portals to it, the generous + man could not adopt it—it could not mix with his blood. It looked so + fiendishly selfish, so like throwing fathers and brothers overboard to + lighten the boat for our security, that the noble-minded shrank from the + manifest meanness of the thing. And besides this, the benefits of a + reformation to be effected by such a system were too remote in point of + time to warmly engage many in its behalf. Few can be induced to labor + exclusively for posterity, and none will do it enthusiastically. —Posterity + has done nothing for us; and, theorize on it as we may, practically we + shall do very little for it, unless we are made to think we are at the + same time doing something for ourselves. + </p> + <p> + What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit to ask or to expect a + whole community to rise up and labor for the temporal happiness of others, + after themselves shall be consigned to the dust, a majority of which + community take no pains whatever to secure their own eternal welfare at no + more distant day! Great distance in either time or space has wonderful + power to lull and render quiescent the human mind. Pleasures to be + enjoyed, or pains to be endured, after we shall be dead and gone are but + little regarded even in our own cases, and much less in the cases of + others. Still, in addition to this there is something so ludicrous in + promises of good or threats of evil a great way off as to render the whole + subject with which they are connected easily turned into ridicule. "Better + lay down that spade you are stealing, Paddy; if you don't you'll pay for + it at the day of judgment." "Be the powers, if ye'll credit me so long + I'll take another jist." + </p> + <p> + By the Washingtonians this system of consigning the habitual drunkard to + hopeless ruin is repudiated. They adopt a more enlarged philanthropy; they + go for present as well as future good. They labor for all now living, as + well as hereafter to live. They teach hope to all-despair to none. As + applying to their cause, they deny the doctrine of unpardonable sin; as in + Christianity it is taught, so in this they teach—"While—While + the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return." And, what is a + matter of more profound congratulation, they, by experiment upon + experiment and example upon example, prove the maxim to be no less true in + the one case than in the other. On every hand we behold those who but + yesterday were the chief of sinners, now the chief apostles of the cause. + Drunken devils are cast out by ones, by sevens, by legions; and their + unfortunate victims, like the poor possessed who were redeemed from their + long and lonely wanderings in the tombs, are publishing to the ends of the + earth how great things have been done for them. + </p> + <p> + To these new champions and this new system of tactics our late success is + mainly owing, and to them we must mainly look for the final consummation. + The ball is now rolling gloriously on, and none are so able as they to + increase its speed and its bulk, to add to its momentum and its magnitude—even + though unlearned in letters, for this task none are so well educated. To + fit them for this work they have been taught in the true school. They have + been in that gulf from which they would teach others the means of escape. + They have passed that prison wall which others have long declared + impassable; and who that has not shall dare to weigh opinions with them as + to the mode of passing? + </p> + <p> + But if it be true, as I have insisted, that those who have suffered by + intemperance personally, and have reformed, are the most powerful and + efficient instruments to push the reformation to ultimate success, it does + not follow that those who have not suffered have no part left them to + perform. Whether or not the world would be vastly benefited by a total and + final banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks seems to me not now an + open question. Three fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with their + tongues, and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts. + </p> + <p> + Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing what good the good of the + whole demands? Shall he who cannot do much be for that reason excused if + he do nothing? "But," says one, "what good can I do by signing the pledge? + I never drank, even without signing." This question has already been asked + and answered more than a million of times. Let it be answered once more. + For the man suddenly or in any other way to break off from the use of + drams, who has indulged in them for a long course of years and until his + appetite for them has grown ten or a hundredfold stronger and more craving + than any natural appetite can be, requires a most powerful moral effort. + In such an undertaking he needs every moral support and influence that can + possibly be brought to his aid and thrown around him. And not only so, but + every moral prop should be taken from whatever argument might rise in his + mind to lure him to his backsliding. When he casts his eyes around him, he + should be able to see all that he respects, all that he admires, all that + he loves, kindly and anxiously pointing him onward, and none beckoning him + back to his former miserable "wallowing in the mire." + </p> + <p> + But it is said by some that men will think and act for themselves; that + none will disuse spirits or anything else because his neighbors do; and + that moral influence is not that powerful engine contended for. Let us + examine this. Let me ask the man who could maintain this position most + stiffly, what compensation he will accept to go to church some Sunday and + sit during the sermon with his wife's bonnet upon his head? Not a trifle, + I'll venture. And why not? There would be nothing irreligious in it, + nothing immoral, nothing uncomfortable—then why not? Is it not + because there would be something egregiously unfashionable in it? Then it + is the influence of fashion; and what is the influence of fashion but the + influence that other people's actions have on our actions—the strong + inclination each of us feels to do as we see all our neighbors do? Nor is + the influence of fashion confined to any particular thing or class of + things; it is just as strong on one subject as another. Let us make it as + unfashionable to withhold our names from the temperance cause as for + husbands to wear their wives' bonnets to church, and instances will be + just as rare in the one case as the other. + </p> + <p> + "But," say some, "we are no drunkards, and we shall not acknowledge + ourselves such by joining a reformed drunkard's society, whatever our + influence might be." Surely no Christian will adhere to this objection. If + they believe as they profess, that Omnipotence condescended to take on + himself the form of sinful man, and as such to die an ignominious death + for their sakes, surely they will not refuse submission to the infinitely + lesser condescension, for the temporal, and perhaps eternal, salvation of + a large, erring, and unfortunate class of their fellow-creatures. Nor is + the condescension very great. In my judgment such of us as have never + fallen victims have been spared more by the absence of appetite than from + any mental or moral superiority over those who have. Indeed, I believe if + we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will + bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. There seems + ever to have been a proneness in the brilliant and warm-blooded to fall + into this vice—the demon of intemperance ever seems to have + delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity. What one of us + but can call to mind some relative, more promising in youth than all his + fellows, who has fallen a sacrifice to his rapacity? He ever seems to have + gone forth like the Egyptian angel of death, commissioned to slay, if not + the first, the fairest born of every family. Shall he now be arrested in + his desolating career? In that arrest all can give aid that will; and who + shall be excused that can and will not? Far around as human breath has + ever blown he keeps our fathers, our brothers, our sons, and our friends + prostrate in the chains of moral death. To all the living everywhere we + cry, "Come sound the moral trump, that these may rise and stand up an + exceeding great army." "Come from the four winds, O breath! and breathe + upon these slain that they may live." If the relative grandeur of + revolutions shall be estimated by the great amount of human misery they + alleviate, and the small amount they inflict, then indeed will this be the + grandest the world shall ever have seen. + </p> + <p> + Of our political revolution of '76 we are all justly proud. It has given + us a degree of political freedom far exceeding that of any other nation of + the earth. In it the world has found a solution of the long-mooted problem + as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the germ which + has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty + of mankind. But, with all these glorious results, past, present, and to + come, it had its evils too. It breathed forth famine, swam in blood, and + rode in fire; and long, long after, the orphan's cry and the widow's wail + continued to break the sad silence that ensued. These were the price, the + inevitable price, paid for the blessings it bought. + </p> + <p> + Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find a stronger + bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed; in + it, more of want supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow assuaged. By + it no Orphans starving, no widows weeping. By it none wounded in feeling, + none injured in interest; even the drammaker and dram-seller will have + glided into other occupations so gradually as never to have felt the + change, and will stand ready to join all others in the universal song of + gladness. And what a noble ally this to the cause of political freedom, + with such an aid its march cannot fail to be on and on, till every son of + earth shall drink in rich fruition the sorrow-quenching draughts of + perfect liberty. Happy day when-all appetites controlled, all poisons + subdued, all matter subjected-mind, all-conquering mind, shall live and + move, the monarch of the world. Glorious consummation! Hail, fall of fury! + Reign of reason, all hail! + </p> + <p> + And when the victory shall be complete, when there shall be neither a + slave nor a drunkard on the earth, how proud the title of that land which + may truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both those + revolutions that shall have ended in that victory. How nobly distinguished + that people who shall have planted and nurtured to maturity both the + political and moral freedom of their species. + </p> + <p> + This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of + Washington; we are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the mightiest + name of earth long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, still + mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy is expected. It + cannot be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington + is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the + name, and in its naked deathless splendor leave it shining on. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0055" id="link2H_4_0055"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, February 25, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—Yours of the 16th instant, announcing that Miss Fanny + and you are "no more twain, but one flesh," reached me this morning. I + have no way of telling you how much happiness I wish you both, though I + believe you both can conceive it. I feel somewhat jealous of both of you + now: you will be so exclusively concerned for one another, that I shall be + forgotten entirely. My acquaintance with Miss Fanny (I call her this, lest + you should think I am speaking of your mother) was too short for me to + reasonably hope to long be remembered by her; and still I am sure I shall + not forget her soon. Try if you cannot remind her of that debt she owes me—and + be sure you do not interfere to prevent her paying it. + </p> + <p> + I regret to learn that you have resolved to not return to Illinois. I + shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably things seem to be + arranged in this world! If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and if + we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss. + I did hope she and you would make your home here; but I own I have no + right to insist. You owe obligations to her ten thousand times more sacred + than you can owe to others, and in that light let them be respected and + observed. It is natural that she should desire to remain with her + relatives and friends. As to friends, however, she could not need them + anywhere: she would have them in abundance here. + </p> + <p> + Give my kind remembrance to Mr. Williamson and his family, particularly + Miss Elizabeth; also to your mother, brother, and sisters. Ask little + Eliza Davis if she will ride to town with me if I come there again. And + finally, give Fanny a double reciprocation of all the love she sent me. + Write me often, and believe me + </p> + <p> + Yours forever, LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + P. S. Poor Easthouse is gone at last. He died awhile before day this + morning. They say he was very loath to die.... + </p> + <p> + L. <a name="link2H_4_0056" id="link2H_4_0056"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED—ON MARRIAGE CONCERNS + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, February 25,1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—I received yours of the 12th written the day you went + down to William's place, some days since, but delayed answering it till I + should receive the promised one of the 16th, which came last night. I + opened the letter with intense anxiety and trepidation; so much so, that, + although it turned out better than I expected, I have hardly yet, at a + distance of ten hours, become calm. + </p> + <p> + I tell you, Speed, our forebodings (for which you and I are peculiar) are + all the worst sort of nonsense. I fancied, from the time I received your + letter of Saturday, that the one of Wednesday was never to come, and yet + it did come, and what is more, it is perfectly clear, both from its tone + and handwriting, that you were much happier, or, if you think the term + preferable, less miserable, when you wrote it than when you wrote the last + one before. You had so obviously improved at the very time I so much + fancied you would have grown worse. You say that something indescribably + horrible and alarming still haunts you. You will not say that three months + from now, I will venture. When your nerves once get steady now, the whole + trouble will be over forever. Nor should you become impatient at their + being even very slow in becoming steady. Again you say, you much fear that + that Elysium of which you have dreamed so much is never to be realized. + Well, if it shall not, I dare swear it will not be the fault of her who is + now your wife. I now have no doubt that it is the peculiar misfortune of + both you and me to dream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything + earthly can realize. Far short of your dreams as you may be, no woman + could do more to realize them than that same black-eyed Fanny. If you + could but contemplate her through my imagination, it would appear + ridiculous to you that any one should for a moment think of being unhappy + with her. My old father used to have a saying that "If you make a bad + bargain, hug it all the tighter"; and it occurs to me that if the bargain + you have just closed can possibly be called a bad one, it is certainly the + most pleasant one for applying that maxim to which my fancy can by any + effort picture. + </p> + <p> + I write another letter, enclosing this, which you can show her, if she + desires it. I do this because she would think strangely, perhaps, should + you tell her that you received no letters from me, or, telling her you do, + refuse to let her see them. I close this, entertaining the confident hope + that every successive letter I shall have from you (which I here pray may + not be few, nor far between) may show you possessing a more steady hand + and cheerful heart than the last preceding it. As ever, your friend, + LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0057" id="link2H_4_0057"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, March 27, 1842 + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—Yours of the 10th instant was received three or four + days since. You know I am sincere when I tell you the pleasure its + contents gave me was, and is, inexpressible. As to your farm matter, I + have no sympathy with you. I have no farm, nor ever expect to have, and + consequently have not studied the subject enough to be much interested + with it. I can only say that I am glad you are satisfied and pleased with + it. But on that other subject, to me of the most intense interest whether + in joy or sorrow, I never had the power to withhold my sympathy from you. + It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you say you are + "far happier than you ever expected to be." That much I know is enough. I + know you too well to suppose your expectations were not, at least, + sometimes extravagant, and if the reality exceeds them all, I say, Enough, + dear Lord. I am not going beyond the truth when I tell you that the short + space it took me to read your last letter gave me more pleasure than the + total sum of all I have enjoyed since the fatal 1st of January, 1841. + Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely happy, but for the + never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy whom I have contributed + to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot but reproach myself for + even wishing to be happy while she is otherwise. She accompanied a large + party on the railroad cars to Jacksonville last Monday, and on her return + spoke, so that I heard of it, of having enjoyed the trip exceedingly. God + be praised for that. + </p> + <p> + You know with what sleepless vigilance I have watched you ever since the + commencement of your affair; and although I am almost confident it is + useless, I cannot forbear once more to say that I think it is even yet + possible for your spirits to flag down and leave you miserable. If they + should, don't fail to remember that they cannot long remain so. One thing + I can tell you which I know you will be glad to hear, and that is that I + have seen—and scrutinized her feelings as well as I could, and am + fully convinced she is far happier now than she has been for the last + fifteen months past. + </p> + <p> + You will see by the last Sangamon Journal, that I made a temperance speech + on the 22d of February, which I claim that Fanny and you shall read as an + act of charity to me; for I cannot learn that anybody else has read it, or + is likely to. Fortunately it is not very long, and I shall deem it a + sufficient compliance with my request if one of you listens while the + other reads it. + </p> + <p> + As to your Lockridge matter, it is only necessary to say that there has + been no court since you left, and that the next commences to-morrow + morning, during which I suppose we cannot fail to get a judgment. + </p> + <p> + I wish you would learn of Everett what he would take, over and above a + discharge for all the trouble we have been at, to take his business out of + our hands and give it to somebody else. It is impossible to collect money + on that or any other claim here now; and although you know I am not a very + petulant man, I declare I am almost out of patience with Mr. Everett's + importunity. It seems like he not only writes all the letters he can + himself, but gets everybody else in Louisville and vicinity to be + constantly writing to us about his claim. I have always said that Mr. + Everett is a very clever fellow, and I am very sorry he cannot be obliged; + but it does seem to me he ought to know we are interested to collect his + claim, and therefore would do it if we could. + </p> + <p> + I am neither joking nor in a pet when I say we would thank him to transfer + his business to some other, without any compensation for what we have + done, provided he will see the court cost paid, for which we are security. + </p> + <p> + The sweet violet you inclosed came safely to hand, but it was so dry, and + mashed so flat, that it crumbled to dust at the first attempt to handle + it. The juice that mashed out of it stained a place in the letter, which I + mean to preserve and cherish for the sake of her who procured it to be + sent. My renewed good wishes to her in particular, and generally to all + such of your relations who know me. + </p> + <p> + As ever, + </p> + <p> + LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0058" id="link2H_4_0058"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, July 4, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—Yours of the 16th June was received only a day or two + since. It was not mailed at Louisville till the 25th. You speak of the + great time that has elapsed since I wrote you. Let me explain that. Your + letter reached here a day or two after I started on the circuit. I was + gone five or six weeks, so that I got the letters only a few weeks before + Butler started to your country. I thought it scarcely worth while to write + you the news which he could and would tell you more in detail. On his + return he told me you would write me soon, and so I waited for your + letter. As to my having been displeased with your advice, surely you know + better than that. I know you do, and therefore will not labor to convince + you. True, that subject is painful to me; but it is not your silence, or + the silence of all the world, that can make me forget it. I acknowledge + the correctness of your advice too; but before I resolve to do the one + thing or the other, I must gain my confidence in my own ability to keep my + resolves when they are made. In that ability you know I once prided myself + as the only or chief gem of my character; that gem I lost—how and + where you know too well. I have not yet regained it; and until I do, I + cannot trust myself in any matter of much importance. I believe now that + had you understood my case at the time as well as I understand yours + afterward, by the aid you would have given me I should have sailed through + clear, but that does not now afford me sufficient confidence to begin that + or the like of that again. + </p> + <p> + You make a kind acknowledgment of your obligations to me for your present + happiness. I am pleased with that acknowledgment. But a thousand times + more am I pleased to know that you enjoy a degree of happiness worthy of + an acknowledgment. The truth is, I am not sure that there was any merit + with me in the part I took in your difficulty; I was drawn to it by a + fate. If I would I could not have done less than I did. I always was + superstitious; I believe God made me one of the instruments of bringing + your Fanny and you together, which union I have no doubt He had + fore-ordained. Whatever He designs He will do for me yet. "Stand still, + and see the salvation of the Lord" is my text just now. If, as you say, + you have told Fanny all, I should have no objection to her seeing this + letter, but for its reference to our friend here: let her seeing it depend + upon whether she has ever known anything of my affairs; and if she has + not, do not let her. + </p> + <p> + I do not think I can come to Kentucky this season. I am so poor and make + so little headway in the world, that I drop back in a month of idleness as + much as I gain in a year's sowing. I should like to visit you again. I + should like to see that "sis" of yours that was absent when I was there, + though I suppose she would run away again if she were to hear I was + coming. + </p> + <p> + My respects and esteem to all your friends there, and, by your permission, + my love to your Fanny. + </p> + <p> + Ever yours, + </p> + <p> + LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0059" id="link2H_4_0059"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + A LETTER FROM THE LOST TOWNSHIPS + </h2> + <p> + Article written by Lincoln for the Sangamon Journal in ridicule of James + Shields, who, as State Auditor, had declined to receive State Bank notes + in payment of taxes. The above letter purported to come from a poor widow + who, though supplied with State Bank paper, could not obtain a receipt for + her tax bill. This, and another subsequent letter by Mary Todd, brought + about the "Lincoln-Shields Duel." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0060" id="link2H_4_0060"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LOST TOWNSHIPS + </h2> + <h3> + August 27, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR Mr. PRINTER: + </p> + <p> + I see you printed that long letter I sent you a spell ago. I 'm quite + encouraged by it, and can't keep from writing again. I think the printing + of my letters will be a good thing all round—it will give me the + benefit of being known by the world, and give the world the advantage of + knowing what's going on in the Lost Townships, and give your paper + respectability besides. So here comes another. Yesterday afternoon I + hurried through cleaning up the dinner dishes and stepped over to neighbor + S——— to see if his wife Peggy was as well as mout be + expected, and hear what they called the baby. Well, when I got there and + just turned round the corner of his log cabin, there he was, setting on + the doorstep reading a newspaper. "How are you, Jeff?" says I. He sorter + started when he heard me, for he hadn't seen me before. "Why," says he, "I + 'm mad as the devil, Aunt 'Becca!" "What about?" says I; "ain't its hair + the right color? None of that nonsense, Jeff; there ain't an honester + woman in the Lost Townships than..."—"Than who?" says he; "what the + mischief are you about?" I began to see I was running the wrong trail, and + so says I, "Oh! nothing: I guess I was mistaken a little, that's all. But + what is it you 're mad about?" + </p> + <p> + "Why," says he, "I've been tugging ever since harvest, getting out wheat + and hauling it to the river to raise State Bank paper enough to pay my tax + this year and a little school debt I owe; and now, just as I 've got it, + here I open this infernal Extra Register, expecting to find it full of + 'Glorious Democratic Victories' and 'High Comb'd Cocks,' when, lo and + behold! I find a set of fellows, calling themselves officers of the State, + have forbidden the tax collectors, and school commissioners to receive + State paper at all; and so here it is dead on my hands. I don't now + believe all the plunder I've got will fetch ready cash enough to pay my + taxes and that school debt." + </p> + <p> + I was a good deal thunderstruck myself; for that was the first I had heard + of the proclamation, and my old man was pretty much in the same fix with + Jeff. We both stood a moment staring at one another without knowing what + to say. At last says I, "Mr. S——— let me look at that + paper." He handed it to me, when I read the proclamation over. + </p> + <p> + "There now," says he, "did you ever see such a piece of impudence and + imposition as that?" I saw Jeff was in a good tune for saying some + ill-natured things, and so I tho't I would just argue a little on the + contrary side, and make him rant a spell if I could. "Why," says I, + looking as dignified and thoughtful as I could, "it seems pretty tough, to + be sure, to have to raise silver where there's none to be raised; but + then, you see, 'there will be danger of loss' if it ain't done." + </p> + <p> + "Loss! damnation!" says he. "I defy Daniel Webster, I defy King Solomon, I + defy the world—I defy—I defy—yes, I defy even you, Aunt + 'Becca, to show how the people can lose anything by paying their taxes in + State paper." + </p> + <p> + "Well," says I, "you see what the officers of State say about it, and they + are a desarnin' set of men. But," says I, "I guess you 're mistaken about + what the proclamation says. It don't say the people will lose anything by + the paper money being taken for taxes. It only says 'there will be danger + of loss'; and though it is tolerable plain that the people can't lose by + paying their taxes in something they can get easier than silver, instead + of having to pay silver; and though it's just as plain that the State + can't lose by taking State Bank paper, however low it may be, while she + owes the bank more than the whole revenue, and can pay that paper over on + her debt, dollar for dollar;—still there is danger of loss to the + 'officers of State'; and you know, Jeff, we can't get along without + officers of State." + </p> + <p> + "Damn officers of State!" says he; "that's what Whigs are always hurrahing + for." + </p> + <p> + "Now, don't swear so, Jeff," says I, "you know I belong to the meetin', + and swearin' hurts my feelings." + </p> + <p> + "Beg pardon, Aunt 'Becca," says he; "but I do say it's enough to make Dr. + Goddard swear, to have tax to pay in silver, for nothing only that Ford + may get his two thousand a year, and Shields his twenty-four hundred a + year, and Carpenter his sixteen hundred a year, and all without 'danger of + loss' by taking it in State paper. Yes, yes: it's plain enough now what + these officers of State mean by 'danger of loss.' Wash, I s'pose, actually + lost fifteen hundred dollars out of the three thousand that two of these + 'officers of State' let him steal from the treasury, by being compelled to + take it in State paper. Wonder if we don't have a proclamation before + long, commanding us to make up this loss to Wash in silver." + </p> + <p> + And so he went on till his breath run out, and he had to stop. I couldn't + think of anything to say just then, and so I begun to look over the paper + again. "Ay! here's another proclamation, or something like it." + </p> + <p> + "Another?" says Jeff; "and whose egg is it, pray?" + </p> + <p> + I looked to the bottom of it, and read aloud, "Your obedient servant, + James Shields, Auditor." + </p> + <p> + "Aha!" says Jeff, "one of them same three fellows again. Well read it, and + let's hear what of it." + </p> + <p> + I read on till I came to where it says, "The object of this measure is to + suspend the collection of the revenue for the current year." + </p> + <p> + "Now stop, now stop!" says he; "that's a lie a'ready, and I don't want to + hear of it." + </p> + <p> + "Oh, maybe not," says I. + </p> + <p> + "I say it-is-a-lie. Suspend the collection, indeed! Will the collectors, + that have taken their oaths to make the collection, dare to end it? Is + there anything in law requiring them to perjure themselves at the bidding + of James Shields? + </p> + <p> + "Will the greedy gullet of the penitentiary be satisfied with swallowing + him instead of all of them, if they should venture to obey him? And would + he not discover some 'danger of loss,' and be off about the time it came + to taking their places? + </p> + <p> + "And suppose the people attempt to suspend, by refusing to pay; what then? + The collectors would just jerk up their horses and cows, and the like, and + sell them to the highest bidder for silver in hand, without valuation or + redemption. Why, Shields didn't believe that story himself; it was never + meant for the truth. If it was true, why was it not writ till five days + after the proclamation? Why did n't Carlin and Carpenter sign it as well + as Shields? Answer me that, Aunt 'Becca. I say it's a lie, and not a well + told one at that. It grins out like a copper dollar. Shields is a fool as + well as a liar. With him truth is out of the question; and as for getting + a good, bright, passable lie out of him, you might as well try to strike + fire from a cake of tallow. I stick to it, it's all an infernal Whig lie!" + </p> + <p> + "A Whig lie! Highty tighty!" + </p> + <p> + "Yes, a Whig lie; and it's just like everything the cursed British Whigs + do. First they'll do some divilment, and then they'll tell a lie to hide + it. And they don't care how plain a lie it is; they think they can cram + any sort of a one down the throats of the ignorant Locofocos, as they call + the Democrats." + </p> + <p> + "Why, Jeff, you 're crazy: you don't mean to say Shields is a Whig!" + </p> + <p> + "Yes, I do." + </p> + <p> + "Why, look here! the proclamation is in your own Democratic paper, as you + call it." + </p> + <p> + "I know it; and what of that? They only printed it to let us Democrats see + the deviltry the Whigs are at." + </p> + <p> + "Well, but Shields is the auditor of this Loco—I mean this + Democratic State." + </p> + <p> + "So he is, and Tyler appointed him to office." + </p> + <p> + "Tyler appointed him?" + </p> + <p> + "Yes (if you must chaw it over), Tyler appointed him; or, if it was n't + him, it was old Granny Harrison, and that's all one. I tell you, Aunt + 'Becca, there's no mistake about his being a Whig. Why, his very looks + shows it; everything about him shows it: if I was deaf and blind, I could + tell him by the smell. I seed him when I was down in Springfield last + winter. They had a sort of a gatherin' there one night among the grandees, + they called a fair. All the gals about town was there, and all the + handsome widows and married women, finickin' about trying to look like + gals, tied as tight in the middle, and puffed out at both ends, like + bundles of fodder that had n't been stacked yet, but wanted stackin' + pretty bad. And then they had tables all around the house kivered over + with [———] caps and pincushions and ten thousand such + little knick-knacks, tryin' to sell 'em to the fellows that were bowin', + and scrapin' and kungeerin' about 'em. They would n't let no Democrats in, + for fear they'd disgust the ladies, or scare the little gals, or dirty the + floor. I looked in at the window, and there was this same fellow Shields + floatin' about on the air, without heft or earthly substances, just like a + lock of cat fur where cats had been fighting. + </p> + <p> + "He was paying his money to this one, and that one, and t' other one, and + sufferin' great loss because it was n't silver instead of State paper; and + the sweet distress he seemed to be in,—his very features, in the + ecstatic agony of his soul, spoke audibly and distinctly, 'Dear girls, it + is distressing, but I cannot marry you all. Too well I know how much you + suffer; but do, do remember, it is not my fault that I am so handsome and + so interesting.' + </p> + <p> + "As this last was expressed by a most exquisite contortion of his face, he + seized hold of one of their hands, and squeezed, and held on to it about a + quarter of an hour. 'Oh, my good fellow!' says I to myself, 'if that was + one of our Democratic gals in the Lost Townships, the way you 'd get a + brass pin let into you would be about up to the head.' He a Democrat! + Fiddlesticks! I tell you, Aunt 'Becca, he's a Whig, and no mistake; nobody + but a Whig could make such a conceity dunce of himself." + </p> + <p> + "Well," says I, "maybe he is; but, if he is, I 'm mistaken the worst sort. + Maybe so, maybe so; but, if I am, I'll suffer by it; I'll be a Democrat if + it turns out that Shields is a Whig, considerin' you shall be a Whig if he + turns out a Democrat." + </p> + <p> + "A bargain, by jingoes!" says he; "but how will we find out?" + </p> + <p> + "Why," says I, "we'll just write and ax the printer." + </p> + <p> + "Agreed again!" says he; "and by thunder! if it does turn out that Shields + is a Democrat, I never will——" + </p> + <p> + "Jefferson! Jefferson!" + </p> + <p> + "What do you want, Peggy?" + </p> + <p> + "Do get through your everlasting clatter some time, and bring me a gourd + of water; the child's been crying for a drink this livelong hour." + </p> + <p> + "Let it die, then; it may as well die for water as to be taxed to death to + fatten officers of State." + </p> + <p> + Jeff run off to get the water, though, just like he hadn't been saying + anything spiteful, for he's a raal good-hearted fellow, after all, once + you get at the foundation of him. + </p> + <p> + I walked into the house, and, "Why, Peggy," says I, "I declare we like to + forgot you altogether." + </p> + <p> + "Oh, yes," says she, "when a body can't help themselves, everybody soon + forgets 'em; but, thank God! by day after to-morrow I shall be well enough + to milk the cows, and pen the calves, and wring the contrary ones' tails + for 'em, and no thanks to nobody." + </p> + <p> + "Good evening, Peggy," says I, and so I sloped, for I seed she was mad at + me for making Jeff neglect her so long. + </p> + <p> + And now, Mr. Printer, will you be sure to let us know in your next paper + whether this Shields is a Whig or a Democrat? I don't care about it for + myself, for I know well enough how it is already; but I want to convince + Jeff. It may do some good to let him, and others like him, know who and + what these officers of State are. It may help to send the present + hypocritical set to where they belong, and to fill the places they now + disgrace with men who will do more work for less pay, and take fewer airs + while they are doing it. It ain't sensible to think that the same men who + get us in trouble will change their course; and yet it's pretty plain if + some change for the better is not made, it's not long that either Peggy or + I or any of us will have a cow left to milk, or a calf's tail to wring. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + REBECCA ———. <a name="link2H_4_0061" id="link2H_4_0061"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INVITATION TO HENRY CLAY. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug 29, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + HON. HENRY CLAY, Lexington, Ky. + </p> + <p> + DEAR SIR:—We hear you are to visit Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 5th + Of October next. If our information in this is correct we hope you will + not deny us the pleasure of seeing you in our State. We are aware of the + toil necessarily incident to a journey by one circumstanced as you are; + but once you have embarked, as you have already determined to do, the toil + would not be greatly augmented by extending the journey to our capital. + The season of the year will be most favorable for good roads, and pleasant + weather; and although we cannot but believe you would be highly gratified + with such a visit to the prairie-land, the pleasure it would give us and + thousands such as we is beyond all question. You have never visited + Illinois, or at least this portion of it; and should you now yield to our + request, we promise you such a reception as shall be worthy of the man on + whom are now turned the fondest hopes of a great and suffering nation. + </p> + <p> + Please inform us at the earliest convenience whether we may expect you. + </p> + <p> + Very respectfully your obedient servants, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + A. G. HENRY, A. T. BLEDSOE, + C. BIRCHALL, A. LINCOLN, + G. M. CABANNISS, ROB'T IRWIN, + P. A. SAUNDERS, J. M. ALLEN, + F. N. FRANCIS. + Executive Committee "Clay Club." +</pre> + <p> + (Clay's answer, September 6, 1842, declines with thanks.) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0062" id="link2H_4_0062"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE LINCOLN-SHIELDS DUEL. + </h2> + <h3> + TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:—I regret that my absence on public business + compelled me to postpone a matter of private consideration a little longer + than I could have desired. It will only be necessary, however, to account + for it by informing you that I have been to Quincy on business that would + not admit of delay. I will now state briefly the reasons of my troubling + you with this communication, the disagreeable nature of which I regret, as + I had hoped to avoid any difficulty with any one in Springfield while + residing there, by endeavoring to conduct myself in such a way amongst + both my political friends and opponents as to escape the necessity of any. + Whilst thus abstaining from giving provocation, I have become the object + of slander, vituperation, and personal abuse, which were I capable of + submitting to, I would prove myself worthy of the whole of it. + </p> + <p> + In two or three of the last numbers of the Sangamon Journal, articles of + the most personal nature and calculated to degrade me have made their + appearance. On inquiring, I was informed by the editor of that paper, + through the medium of my friend General Whitesides, that you are the + author of those articles. This information satisfies me that I have become + by some means or other the object of your secret hostility. I will not + take the trouble of inquiring into the reason of all this; but I will take + the liberty of requiring a full, positive, and absolute retraction of all + offensive allusions used by you in these communications, in relation to my + private character and standing as a man, as an apology for the insults + conveyed in them. + </p> + <p> + This may prevent consequences which no one will regret more than myself. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, JAS. SHIELDS. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0063" id="link2H_4_0063"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO J. SHIELDS. + </h2> + <h3> + TREMONT, September 17, 1842 + </h3> + <p> + JAS. SHIELDS, ESQ.:—Your note of to-day was handed me by General + Whitesides. In that note you say you have been informed, through the + medium of the editor of the Journal, that I am the author of certain + articles in that paper which you deem personally abusive of you; and + without stopping to inquire whether I really am the author, or to point + out what is offensive in them, you demand an unqualified retraction of all + that is offensive, and then proceed to hint at consequences. + </p> + <p> + Now, sir, there is in this so much assumption of facts and so much of + menace as to consequences, that I cannot submit to answer that note any + further than I have, and to add that the consequences to which I suppose + you allude would be matter of as great regret to me as it possibly could + to you. + </p> + <p> + Respectfully, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0064" id="link2H_4_0064"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO A. LINCOLN FROM JAS. SHIELDS + </h2> + <h3> + TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:—In reply to my note of this date, you intimate + that I assume facts and menace consequences, and that you cannot submit to + answer it further. As now, sir, you desire it, I will be a little more + particular. The editor of the Sangamon Journal gave me to understand that + you are the author of an article which appeared, I think, in that paper of + the 2d September instant, headed "The Lost Townships," and signed Rebecca + or 'Becca. I would therefore take the liberty of asking whether you are + the author of said article, or any other over the same signature which has + appeared in any of the late numbers of that paper. If so, I repeat my + request of an absolute retraction of all offensive allusions contained + therein in relation to my private character and standing. If you are not + the author of any of these articles, your denial will be sufficient. I + will say further, it is not my intention to menace, but to do myself + justice. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, JAS. SHIELDS. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0065" id="link2H_4_0065"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MEMORANDUM OF INSTRUCTIONS TO E. H. MERRYMAN, + </h2> + <h3> + Lincoln's Second, + </h3> + <p> + September 19, 1842. + </p> + <p> + In case Whitesides shall signify a wish to adjust this affair without + further difficulty, let him know that if the present papers be withdrawn, + and a note from Mr. Shields asking to know if I am the author of the + articles of which he complains, and asking that I shall make him + gentlemanly satisfaction if I am the author, and this without menace, or + dictation as to what that satisfaction shall be, a pledge is made that the + following answer shall be given: + </p> + <p> + "I did write the 'Lost Townships' letter which appeared in the Journal of + the 2d instant, but had no participation in any form in any other article + alluding to you. I wrote that wholly for political effect—I had no + intention of injuring your personal or private character or standing as a + man or a gentleman; and I did not then think, and do not now think, that + that article could produce or has produced that effect against you; and + had I anticipated such an effect I would have forborne to write it. And I + will add that your conduct toward me, so far as I know, had always been + gentlemanly; and that I had no personal pique against you, and no cause + for any." + </p> + <p> + If this should be done, I leave it with you to arrange what shall and what + shall not be published. If nothing like this is done, the preliminaries of + the fight are to be— + </p> + <p> + First. Weapons: Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, precisely equal + in all respects, and such as now used by the cavalry company at + Jacksonville. + </p> + <p> + Second. Position: A plank ten feet long, and from nine to twelve inches + broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the ground, as the line between us, + which neither is to pass his foot over upon forfeit of his life. Next a + line drawn on the ground on either side of said plank and parallel with + it, each at the distance of the whole length of the sword and three feet + additional from the plank; and the passing of his own such line by either + party during the fight shall be deemed a surrender of the contest. + </p> + <p> + Third. Time: On Thursday evening at five o'clock, if you can get it so; + but in no case to be at a greater distance of time than Friday evening at + five o'clock. + </p> + <p> + Fourth. Place: Within three miles of Alton, on the opposite side of the + river, the particular spot to be agreed on by you. + </p> + <p> + Any preliminary details coming within the above rules you are at liberty + to make at your discretion; but you are in no case to swerve from these + rules, or to pass beyond their limits. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0066" id="link2H_4_0066"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, October 4, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—You have heard of my duel with Shields, and I have now + to inform you that the dueling business still rages in this city. Day + before yesterday Shields challenged Butler, who accepted, and proposed + fighting next morning at sunrise in Bob Allen's meadow, one hundred yards' + distance, with rifles. To this Whitesides, Shields's second, said "No," + because of the law. Thus ended duel No. 2. Yesterday Whitesides chose to + consider himself insulted by Dr. Merryman, so sent him a kind of + quasi-challenge, inviting him to meet him at the Planter's House in St. + Louis on the next Friday, to settle their difficulty. Merryman made me his + friend, and sent Whitesides a note, inquiring to know if he meant his note + as a challenge, and if so, that he would, according to the law in such + case made and provided, prescribe the terms of the meeting. Whitesides + returned for answer that if Merryman would meet him at the Planter's House + as desired, he would challenge him. Merryman replied in a note that he + denied Whitesides's right to dictate time and place, but that he + (Merryman) would waive the question of time, and meet him at Louisiana, + Missouri. Upon my presenting this note to Whitesides and stating verbally + its contents, he declined receiving it, saying he had business in St. + Louis, and it was as near as Louisiana. Merryman then directed me to + notify Whitesides that he should publish the correspondence between them, + with such comments as he thought fit. This I did. Thus it stood at bedtime + last night. This morning Whitesides, by his friend Shields, is praying for + a new trial, on the ground that he was mistaken in Merryman's proposition + to meet him at Louisiana, Missouri, thinking it was the State of + Louisiana. This Merryman hoots at, and is preparing his publication; while + the town is in a ferment, and a street fight somewhat anticipated. + </p> + <p> + But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but to say + something on that subject which you know to be of such infinite solicitude + to me. The immense sufferings you endured from the first days of September + till the middle of February you never tried to conceal from me, and I well + understood. You have now been the husband of a lovely woman nearly eight + months. That you are happier now than the day you married her I well know, + for without you could not be living. But I have your word for it, too, and + the returning elasticity of spirits which is manifested in your letters. + But I want to ask a close question, "Are you now in feeling as well as + judgment glad that you are married as you are?" From anybody but me this + would be an impudent question, not to be tolerated; but I know you will + pardon it in me. Please answer it quickly, as I am impatient to know. I + have sent my love to your Fanny so often, I fear she is getting tired of + it. However, I venture to tender it again. + </p> + <p> + Yours forever, + </p> + <p> + LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0067" id="link2H_4_0067"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JAMES S. IRWIN. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, November 2, 1842. + </h3> + <p> + JAS. S. IRWIN ESQ.: + </p> + <p> + Owing to my absence, yours of the 22nd ult. was not received till this + moment. Judge Logan and myself are willing to attend to any business in + the Supreme Court you may send us. As to fees, it is impossible to + establish a rule that will apply in all, or even a great many cases. We + believe we are never accused of being very unreasonable in this + particular; and we would always be easily satisfied, provided we could see + the money—but whatever fees we earn at a distance, if not paid + before, we have noticed, we never hear of after the work is done. We, + therefore, are growing a little sensitive on that point. + </p> + <p> + Yours etc., + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0068" id="link2H_4_0068"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1843 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0069" id="link2H_4_0069"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESOLUTIONS AT A WHIG MEETING AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, MARCH 1, 1843. + </h2> + <p> + The object of the meeting was stated by Mr. Lincoln of Springfield, who + offered the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted: + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That a tariff of duties on imported goods, producing sufficient + revenue for the payment of the necessary expenditures of the National + Government, and so adjusted as to protect American industry, is + indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the American people. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That we are opposed to direct taxation for the support of the + National Government. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That a national bank, properly restricted, is highly necessary + and proper to the establishment and maintenance of a sound currency, and + for the cheap and safe collection, keeping, and disbursing of the public + revenue. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the public + lands, upon the principles of Mr. Clay's bill, accords with the best + interests of the nation, and particularly with those of the State of + Illinois. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional district of + the State to nominate and support at the approaching election a candidate + of their own principles, regardless of the chances of success. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of all portions of the State to + adopt and rigidly adhere to the convention system of nominating + candidates. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional district to + hold a district convention on or before the first Monday of May next, to + be composed of a number of delegates from each county equal to double the + number of its representatives in the General Assembly, provided, each + county shall have at least one delegate. Said delegates to be chosen by + primary meetings of the Whigs, at such times and places as they in their + respective counties may see fit. Said district conventions each to + nominate one candidate for Congress, and one delegate to a national + convention for the purpose of nominating candidates for President and + Vice-President of the United States. The seven delegates so nominated to a + national convention to have power to add two delegates to their own + number, and to fill all vacancies. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That A. T. Bledsoe, S. T. Logan, and A. Lincoln be appointed a + committee to prepare an address to the people of the State. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That N. W. Edwards, A. G. Henry, James H. Matheny, John C. + Doremus, and James C. Conkling be appointed a Whig Central State + Committee, with authority to fill any vacancy that may occur in the + committee. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0070" id="link2H_4_0070"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + </h2> + <h3> + Address to the People of Illinois. + </h3> + <p> + FELLOW-CITIZENS:-By a resolution of a meeting of such of the Whigs of the + State as are now at Springfield, we, the undersigned, were appointed to + prepare an address to you. The performance of that task we now undertake. + </p> + <p> + Several resolutions were adopted by the meeting; and the chief object of + this address is to show briefly the reasons for their adoption. + </p> + <p> + The first of those resolutions declares a tariff of duties upon foreign + importations, producing sufficient revenue for the support of the General + Government, and so adjusted as to protect American industry, to be + indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the American people; and the + second declares direct taxation for a national revenue to be improper. + Those two resolutions are kindred in their nature, and therefore proper + and convenient to be considered together. The question of protection is a + subject entirely too broad to be crowded into a few pages only, together + with several other subjects. On that point we therefore content ourselves + with giving the following extracts from the writings of Mr. Jefferson, + General Jackson, and the speech of Mr. Calhoun: + </p> + <p> + "To be independent for the comforts of life, we must fabricate them + ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side of the + agriculturalist. The grand inquiry now is, Shall we make our own comforts, + or go without them at the will of a foreign nation? He, therefore, who is + now against domestic manufactures must be for reducing us either to + dependence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in skins and to live + like wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am not one of those; experience + has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to our independence + as to our comfort." Letter of Mr. Jefferson to Benjamin Austin. + </p> + <p> + "I ask, What is the real situation of the agriculturalist? Where has the + American farmer a market for his surplus produce? Except for cotton, he + has neither a foreign nor a home market. Does not this clearly prove, when + there is no market at home or abroad, that there [is] too much labor + employed in agriculture? Common sense at once points out the remedy. Take + from agriculture six hundred thousand men, women, and children, and you + will at once give a market for more breadstuffs than all Europe now + furnishes. In short, we have been too long subject to the policy of + British merchants. It is time we should become a little more Americanized, + and instead of feeding the paupers and laborers of England, feed our own; + or else in a short time, by continuing our present policy, we shall all be + rendered paupers ourselves."—General Jackson's Letter to Dr. + Coleman. + </p> + <p> + "When our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they soon + will be, under the fostering care of government, the farmer will find a + ready market for his surplus produce, and—what is of equal + consequence—a certain and cheap supply of all he wants; his + prosperity will diffuse itself to every class of the community." Speech of + Hon. J. C. Calhoun on the Tariff. + </p> + <p> + The question of revenue we will now briefly consider. For several years + past the revenues of the government have been unequal to its expenditures, + and consequently loan after loan, sometimes direct and sometimes indirect + in form, has been resorted to. By this means a new national debt has been + created, and is still growing on us with a rapidity fearful to contemplate—a + rapidity only reasonably to be expected in time of war. This state of + things has been produced by a prevailing unwillingness either to increase + the tariff or resort to direct taxation. But the one or the other must + come. Coming expenditures must be met, and the present debt must be paid; + and money cannot always be borrowed for these objects. The system of loans + is but temporary in its nature, and must soon explode. It is a system not + only ruinous while it lasts, but one that must soon fail and leave us + destitute. As an individual who undertakes to live by borrowing soon finds + his original means devoured by interest, and, next, no one left to borrow + from, so must it be with a government. + </p> + <p> + We repeat, then, that a tariff sufficient for revenue, or a direct tax, + must soon be resorted to; and, indeed, we believe this alternative is now + denied by no one. But which system shall be adopted? Some of our + opponents, in theory, admit the propriety of a tariff sufficient for a + revenue, but even they will not in practice vote for such a tariff; while + others boldly advocate direct taxation. Inasmuch, therefore, as some of + them boldly advocate direct taxation, and all the rest—or so nearly + all as to make exceptions needless—refuse to adopt the tariff, we + think it is doing them no injustice to class them all as advocates of + direct taxation. Indeed, we believe they are only delaying an open avowal + of the system till they can assure themselves that the people will + tolerate it. Let us, then, briefly compare the two systems. The tariff is + the cheaper system, because the duties, being collected in large parcels + at a few commercial points, will require comparatively few officers in + their collection; while by the direct-tax system the land must be + literally covered with assessors and collectors, going forth like swarms + of Egyptian locusts, devouring every blade of grass and other green thing. + And, again, by the tariff system the whole revenue is paid by the + consumers of foreign goods, and those chiefly the luxuries, and not the + necessaries, of life. By this system the man who contents himself to live + upon the products of his own country pays nothing at all. And surely that + country is extensive enough, and its products abundant and varied enough, + to answer all the real wants of its people. In short, by this system the + burthen of revenue falls almost entirely on the wealthy and luxurious few, + while the substantial and laboring many who live at home, and upon home + products, go entirely free. By the direct-tax system none can escape. + However strictly the citizen may exclude from his premises all foreign + luxuries,—fine cloths, fine silks, rich wines, golden chains, and + diamond rings,—still, for the possession of his house, his barn, and + his homespun, he is to be perpetually haunted and harassed by the + tax-gatherer. With these views we leave it to be determined whether we or + our opponents are the more truly democratic on the subject. + </p> + <p> + The third resolution declares the necessity and propriety of a national + bank. During the last fifty years so much has been said and written both + as to the constitutionality and expediency of such an institution, that we + could not hope to improve in the least on former discussions of the + subject, were we to undertake it. We, therefore, upon the question of + constitutionality content ourselves with remarking the facts that the + first national bank was established chiefly by the same men who formed the + Constitution, at a time when that instrument was but two years old, and + receiving the sanction, as President, of the immortal Washington; that the + second received the sanction, as President, of Mr. Madison, to whom common + consent has awarded the proud title of "Father of the Constitution"; and + subsequently the sanction of the Supreme Court, the most enlightened + judicial tribunal in the world. Upon the question of expediency, we only + ask you to examine the history of the times during the existence of the + two banks, and compare those times with the miserable present. + </p> + <p> + The fourth resolution declares the expediency of Mr. Clay's land bill. + Much incomprehensible jargon is often used against the constitutionality + of this measure. We forbear, in this place, attempting an answer to it, + simply because, in our opinion, those who urge it are through party zeal + resolved not to see or acknowledge the truth. The question of expediency, + at least so far as Illinois is concerned, seems to us the clearest + imaginable. By the bill we are to receive annually a large sum of money, + no part of which we otherwise receive. The precise annual sum cannot be + known in advance; it doubtless will vary in different years. Still it is + something to know that in the last year—a year of almost + unparalleled pecuniary pressure—it amounted to more than forty + thousand dollars. This annual income, in the midst of our almost + insupportable difficulties, in the days of our severest necessity, our + political opponents are furiously resolving to take and keep from us. And + for what? Many silly reasons are given, as is usual in cases where a + single good one is not to be found. One is that by giving us the proceeds + of the lands we impoverish the national treasury, and thereby render + necessary an increase of the tariff. This may be true; but if so, the + amount of it only is that those whose pride, whose abundance of means, + prompt them to spurn the manufactures of our country, and to strut in + British cloaks and coats and pantaloons, may have to pay a few cents more + on the yard for the cloth that makes them. A terrible evil, truly, to the + Illinois farmer, who never wore, nor ever expects to wear, a single yard + of British goods in his whole life. Another of their reasons is that by + the passage and continuance of Mr. Clay's bill, we prevent the passage of + a bill which would give us more. This, if it were sound in itself, is + waging destructive war with the former position; for if Mr. Clay's bill + impoverishes the treasury too much, what shall be said of one that + impoverishes it still more? But it is not sound in itself. It is not true + that Mr. Clay's bill prevents the passage of one more favorable to us of + the new States. Considering the strength and opposite interest of the old + States, the wonder is that they ever permitted one to pass so favorable as + Mr. Clay's. The last twenty-odd years' efforts to reduce the price of the + lands, and to pass graduation bills and cession bills, prove the assertion + to be true; and if there were no experience in support of it, the reason + itself is plain. The States in which none, or few, of the public lands + lie, and those consequently interested against parting with them except + for the best price, are the majority; and a moment's reflection will show + that they must ever continue the majority, because by the time one of the + original new States (Ohio, for example) becomes populous and gets weight + in Congress, the public lands in her limits are so nearly sold out that in + every point material to this question she becomes an old State. She does + not wish the price reduced, because there is none left for her citizens to + buy; she does not wish them ceded to the States in which they lie, because + they no longer lie in her limits, and she will get nothing by the cession. + In the nature of things, the States interested in the reduction of price, + in graduation, in cession, and in all similar projects, never can be the + majority. Nor is there reason to hope that any of them can ever succeed as + a Democratic party measure, because we have heretofore seen that party in + full power, year after year, with many of their leaders making loud + professions in favor of these projects, and yet doing nothing. What + reason, then, is there to believe they will hereafter do better? In every + light in which we can view this question, it amounts simply to this: Shall + we accept our share of the proceeds under Mr. Clay's bill, or shall we + rather reject that and get nothing? + </p> + <p> + The fifth resolution recommends that a Whig candidate for Congress be run + in every district, regardless of the chances of success. We are aware that + it is sometimes a temporary gratification, when a friend cannot succeed, + to be able to choose between opponents; but we believe that that + gratification is the seed-time which never fails to be followed by a most + abundant harvest of bitterness. By this policy we entangle ourselves. By + voting for our opponents, such of us as do it in some measure estop + ourselves to complain of their acts, however glaringly wrong we may + believe them to be. By this policy no one portion of our friends can ever + be certain as to what course another portion may adopt; and by this want + of mutual and perfect understanding our political identity is partially + frittered away and lost. And, again, those who are thus elected by our aid + ever become our bitterest persecutors. Take a few prominent examples. In + 1830 Reynolds was elected Governor; in 1835 we exerted our whole strength + to elect Judge Young to the United States Senate, which effort, though + failing, gave him the prominence that subsequently elected him; in 1836 + General Ewing, was so elected to the United States Senate; and yet let us + ask what three men have been more perseveringly vindictive in their + assaults upon all our men and measures than they? During the last summer + the whole State was covered with pamphlet editions of misrepresentations + against us, methodized into chapters and verses, written by two of these + same men,—Reynolds and Young, in which they did not stop at charging + us with error merely, but roundly denounced us as the designing enemies of + human liberty, itself. If it be the will of Heaven that such men shall + politically live, be it so; but never, never again permit them to draw a + particle of their sustenance from us. + </p> + <p> + The sixth resolution recommends the adoption of the convention system for + the nomination of candidates. This we believe to be of the very first + importance. Whether the system is right in itself we do not stop to + inquire; contenting ourselves with trying to show that, while our + opponents use it, it is madness in us not to defend ourselves with it. + Experience has shown that we cannot successfully defend ourselves without + it. For examples, look at the elections of last year. Our candidate for + governor, with the approbation of a large portion of the party, took the + field without a nomination, and in open opposition to the system. Wherever + in the counties the Whigs had held conventions and nominated candidates + for the Legislature, the aspirants who were not nominated were induced to + rebel against the nominations, and to become candidates, as is said, "on + their own hook." And, go where you would into a large Whig county, you + were sure to find the Whigs not contending shoulder to shoulder against + the common enemy, but divided into factions, and fighting furiously with + one another. The election came, and what was the result? The governor + beaten, the Whig vote being decreased many thousands since 1840, although + the Democratic vote had not increased any. Beaten almost everywhere for + members of the Legislature,—Tazewell, with her four hundred Whig + majority, sending a delegation half Democratic; Vermillion, with her five + hundred, doing the same; Coles, with her four hundred, sending two out of + three; and Morgan, with her two hundred and fifty, sending three out of + four,—and this to say nothing of the numerous other less glaring + examples; the whole winding up with the aggregate number of twenty-seven + Democratic representatives sent from Whig counties. As to the senators, + too, the result was of the same character. And it is most worthy to be + remembered that of all the Whigs in the State who ran against the regular + nominees, a single one only was elected. Although they succeeded in + defeating the nominees almost by scores, they too were defeated, and the + spoils chucklingly borne off by the common enemy. + </p> + <p> + We do not mention the fact of many of the Whigs opposing the convention + system heretofore for the purpose of censuring them. Far from it. We + expressly protest against such a conclusion. We know they were generally, + perhaps universally, as good and true Whigs as we ourselves claim to be. + </p> + <p> + We mention it merely to draw attention to the disastrous result it + produced, as an example forever hereafter to be avoided. That "union is + strength" is a truth that has been known, illustrated, and declared in + various ways and forms in all ages of the world. That great fabulist and + philosopher Aesop illustrated it by his fable of the bundle of sticks; and + he whose wisdom surpasses that of all philosophers has declared that "a + house divided against itself cannot stand." It is to induce our friends to + act upon this important and universally acknowledged truth that we urge + the adoption of the convention system. Reflection will prove that there is + no other way of practically applying it. In its application we know there + will be incidents temporarily painful; but, after all, those incidents + will be fewer and less intense with than without the system. If two + friends aspire to the same office it is certain that both cannot succeed. + Would it not, then, be much less painful to have the question decided by + mutual friends some time before, than to snarl and quarrel until the day + of election, and then both be beaten by the common enemy? + </p> + <p> + Before leaving this subject, we think proper to remark that we do not + understand the resolution as intended to recommend the application of the + convention system to the nomination of candidates for the small offices no + way connected with politics; though we must say we do not perceive that + such an application of it would be wrong. + </p> + <p> + The seventh resolution recommends the holding of district conventions in + May next, for the purpose of nominating candidates for Congress. The + propriety of this rests upon the same reasons with that of the sixth, and + therefore needs no further discussion. + </p> + <p> + The eighth and ninth also relate merely to the practical application of + the foregoing, and therefore need no discussion. + </p> + <p> + Before closing, permit us to add a few reflections on the present + condition and future prospects of the Whig party. In almost all the States + we have fallen into the minority, and despondency seems to prevail + universally among us. Is there just cause for this? In 1840 we carried the + nation by more than a hundred and forty thousand majority. Our opponents + charged that we did it by fraudulent voting; but whatever they may have + believed, we know the charge to be untrue. Where, now, is that mighty + host? Have they gone over to the enemy? Let the results of the late + elections answer. Every State which has fallen off from the Whig cause + since 1840 has done so not by giving more Democratic votes than they did + then, but by giving fewer Whig. Bouck, who was elected Democratic Governor + of New York last fall by more than 15,000 majority, had not then as many + votes as he had in 1840, when he was beaten by seven or eight thousand. + And so has it been in all the other States which have fallen away from our + cause. From this it is evident that tens of thousands in the late + elections have not voted at all. Who and what are they? is an important + question, as respects the future. They can come forward and give us the + victory again. That all, or nearly all, of them are Whigs is most + apparent. Our opponents, stung to madness by the defeat of 1840, have ever + since rallied with more than their usual unanimity. It has not been they + that have been kept from the polls. These facts show what the result must + be, once the people again rally in their entire strength. Proclaim these + facts, and predict this result; and although unthinking opponents may + smile at us, the sagacious ones will "believe and tremble." And why shall + the Whigs not all rally again? Are their principles less dear now than in + 1840? Have any of their doctrines since then been discovered to be untrue? + It is true, the victory of 1840 did not produce the happy results + anticipated; but it is equally true, as we believe, that the unfortunate + death of General Harrison was the cause of the failure. It was not the + election of General Harrison that was expected to produce happy effects, + but the measures to be adopted by his administration. By means of his + death, and the unexpected course of his successor, those measures were + never adopted. How could the fruits follow? The consequences we always + predicted would follow the failure of those measures have followed, and + are now upon us in all their horrors. By the course of Mr. Tyler the + policy of our opponents has continued in operation, still leaving them + with the advantage of charging all its evils upon us as the results of a + Whig administration. Let none be deceived by this somewhat plausible, + though entirely false charge. If they ask us for the sufficient and sound + currency we promised, let them be answered that we only promised it + through the medium of a national bank, which they, aided by Mr. Tyler, + prevented our establishing. And let them be reminded, too, that their own + policy in relation to the currency has all the time been, and still is, in + full operation. Let us then again come forth in our might, and by a second + victory accomplish that which death prevented in the first. We can do it. + When did the Whigs ever fail if they were fully aroused and united? Even + in single States, under such circumstances, defeat seldom overtakes them. + Call to mind the contested elections within the last few years, and + particularly those of Moore and Letcher from Kentucky, Newland and Graham + from North Carolina, and the famous New Jersey case. In all these + districts Locofocoism had stalked omnipotent before; but when the whole + people were aroused by its enormities on those occasions, they put it + down, never to rise again. + </p> + <p> + We declare it to be our solemn conviction, that the Whigs are always a + majority of this nation; and that to make them always successful needs but + to get them all to the polls and to vote unitedly. This is the great + desideratum. Let us make every effort to attain it. At every election, let + every Whig act as though he knew the result to depend upon his action. In + the great contest of 1840 some more than twenty one hundred thousand votes + were cast, and so surely as there shall be that many, with the ordinary + increase added, cast in 1844 that surely will a Whig be elected President + of the United States. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. S. T. LOGAN. A. T. BLEDSOE. + </p> + <p> + March 4, 1843. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0071" id="link2H_4_0071"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOHN BENNETT. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, March 7, 1843. + </h3> + <p> + FRIEND BENNETT: + </p> + <p> + Your letter of this day was handed me by Mr. Miles. It is too late now to + effect the object you desire. On yesterday morning the most of the Whig + members from this district got together and agreed to hold the convention + at Tremont in Tazewell County. I am sorry to hear that any of the Whigs of + your county, or indeed of any county, should longer be against + conventions. On last Wednesday evening a meeting of all the Whigs then + here from all parts of the State was held, and the question of the + propriety of conventions was brought up and fully discussed, and at the + end of the discussion a resolution recommending the system of conventions + to all the Whigs of the State was unanimously adopted. Other resolutions + were also passed, all of which will appear in the next Journal. The + meeting also appointed a committee to draft an address to the people of + the State, which address will also appear in the next journal. + </p> + <p> + In it you will find a brief argument in favor of conventions—and + although I wrote it myself I will say to you that it is conclusive upon + the point and can not be reasonably answered. The right way for you to do + is hold your meeting and appoint delegates any how, and if there be any + who will not take part, let it be so. The matter will work so well this + time that even they who now oppose will come in next time. + </p> + <p> + The convention is to be held at Tremont on the 5th of April and according + to the rule we have adopted your county is to have delegates—being + double your representation. + </p> + <p> + If there be any good Whig who is disposed to stick out against conventions + get him at least to read the arguement in their favor in the address. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0072" id="link2H_4_0072"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + JOSHUA F. SPEED. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, March 24, 1843. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SPEED:—We had a meeting of the Whigs of the county here on last + Monday to appoint delegates to a district convention; and Baker beat me, + and got the delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite of + my attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates; so that in + getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow + who is made a groomsman to a man that has cut him out and is marrying his + own dear "gal." About the prospects of your having a namesake at our town, + can't say exactly yet. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0073" id="link2H_4_0073"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILL., March 26, 1843. + </h3> + <p> + FRIEND MORRIS: + </p> + <p> + Your letter of the a 3 d, was received on yesterday morning, and for which + (instead of an excuse, which you thought proper to ask) I tender you my + sincere thanks. It is truly gratifying to me to learn that, while the + people of Sangamon have cast me off, my old friends of Menard, who have + known me longest and best, stick to me. It would astonish, if not amuse, + the older citizens to learn that I (a stranger, friendless, uneducated, + penniless boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars per month) have been + put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family + distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, too, the strangest + combination of church influence against me. Baker is a Campbellite; and + therefore, as I suppose, with few exceptions got all that church. My wife + has some relations in the Presbyterian churches, and some with the + Episcopal churches; and therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set down + as either the one or the other, while it was everywhere contended that no + Christian ought to go for me, because I belonged to no church, was + suspected of being a deist, and had talked about fighting a duel. With all + these things, Baker, of course, had nothing to do. Nor do I complain of + them. As to his own church going for him, I think that was right enough, + and as to the influences I have spoken of in the other, though they were + very strong, it would be grossly untrue and unjust to charge that they + acted upon them in a body or were very near so. I only mean that those + influences levied a tax of a considerable per cent. upon my strength + throughout the religious controversy. But enough of this. + </p> + <p> + You say that in choosing a candidate for Congress you have an equal right + with Sangamon, and in this you are undoubtedly correct. In agreeing to + withdraw if the Whigs of Sangamon should go against me, I did not mean + that they alone were worth consulting, but that if she, with her heavy + delegation, should be against me, it would be impossible for me to + succeed, and therefore I had as well decline. And in relation to Menard + having rights, permit me fully to recognize them, and to express the + opinion that, if she and Mason act circumspectly, they will in the + convention be able so far to enforce their rights as to decide absolutely + which one of the candidates shall be successful. Let me show the reason of + this. Hardin, or some other Morgan candidate, will get Putnam, Marshall, + Woodford, Tazewell, and Logan—making sixteen. Then you and Mason, + having three, can give the victory to either side. + </p> + <p> + You say you shall instruct your delegates for me, unless I object. I + certainly shall not object. That would be too pleasant a compliment for me + to tread in the dust. And besides, if anything should happen (which, + however, is not probable) by which Baker should be thrown out of the + fight, I would be at liberty to accept the nomination if I could get it. I + do, however, feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from getting + the nomination. I should despise myself were I to attempt it. I think, + then, it would be proper for your meeting to appoint three delegates and + to instruct them to go for some one as the first choice, some one else as + a second, and perhaps some one as a third; and if in those instructions I + were named as the first choice, it would gratify me very much. If you wish + to hold the balance of power, it is important for you to attend to and + secure the vote of Mason also: You should be sure to have men appointed + delegates that you know you can safely confide in. If yourself and James + Short were appointed from your county, all would be safe; but whether + Jim's woman affair a year ago might not be in the way of his appointment + is a question. I don't know whether you know it, but I know him to be as + honorable a man as there is in the world. You have my permission, and even + request, to show this letter to Short; but to no one else, unless it be a + very particular friend who you know will not speak of it. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + P. S Will you write me again? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0074" id="link2H_4_0074"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + </h2> + <h3> + April 14, 1843. + </h3> + <p> + FRIEND MORRIS: + </p> + <p> + I have heard it intimated that Baker has been attempting to get you or + Miles, or both of you, to violate the instructions of the meeting that + appointed you, and to go for him. I have insisted, and still insist, that + this cannot be true. Surely Baker would not do the like. As well might + Hardin ask me to vote for him in the convention. Again, it is said there + will be an attempt to get up instructions in your county requiring you to + go for Baker. This is all wrong. Upon the same rule, Why might not I fly + from the decision against me in Sangamon, and get up instructions to their + delegates to go for me? There are at least twelve hundred Whigs in the + county that took no part, and yet I would as soon put my head in the fire + as to attempt it. Besides, if any one should get the nomination by such + extraordinary means, all harmony in the district would inevitably be lost. + Honest Whigs (and very nearly all of them are honest) would not quietly + abide such enormities. I repeat, such an attempt on Baker's part cannot be + true. Write me at Springfield how the matter is. Don't show or speak of + this letter. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN <a name="link2H_4_0075" id="link2H_4_0075"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO GEN. J. J. HARDIN. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, May 11, 1843. + </h3> + <p> + FRIEND HARDIN: + </p> + <p> + Butler informs me that he received a letter from you, in which you + expressed some doubt whether the Whigs of Sangamon will support you + cordially. You may, at once, dismiss all fears on that subject. We have + already resolved to make a particular effort to give you the very largest + majority possible in our county. From this, no Whig of the county + dissents. We have many objects for doing it. We make it a matter of honor + and pride to do it; we do it because we love the Whig cause; we do it + because we like you personally; and last, we wish to convince you that we + do not bear that hatred to Morgan County that you people have so long + seemed to imagine. You will see by the journals of this week that we + propose, upon pain of losing a barbecue, to give you twice as great a + majority in this county as you shall receive in your own. I got up the + proposal. + </p> + <p> + Who of the five appointed is to write the district address? I did the + labor of writing one address this year, and got thunder for my reward. + Nothing new here. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + P. S.—I wish you would measure one of the largest of those swords we + took to Alton and write me the length of it, from tip of the point to tip + of the hilt, in feet and inches. I have a dispute about the length. + </p> + <p> + A. L. <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Papers And Writings Of Abraham +Lincoln, Volume One, by Abraham Lincoln + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S PAPERS *** + +***** This file should be named 2653-h.htm or 2653-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/5/2653/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume One + Constitutional Edition + +Author: Abraham Lincoln + +Commentator: Theodore Roosevelt, Carl Schurz, and Joseph Choate + +Editor: Arthur Brooks Lapsley + +Release Date: May, 2001 [EBook #2653] +Posting Date: July 4, 2009 + + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S PAPERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +VOLUME ONE + +CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION + +By Abraham Lincoln + + +Edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley + +With an Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt + +The Essay on Lincoln by Carl Schurz + +The Address on Lincoln by Joseph Choate + + + + + +VOLUME 1. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY + +Immediately after Lincoln's re-election to the Presidency, in an +off-hand speech, delivered in response to a serenade by some of his +admirers on the evening of November 10, 1864, he spoke as follows: + +"It has long been a grave question whether any government not too strong +for the liberties of its people can be strong enough to maintain its +existence in great emergencies. On this point, the present rebellion +brought our republic to a severe test, and the Presidential election, +occurring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a little +to the strain.... The strife of the election is but human nature +practically applied to the facts in the case. What has occurred in this +case must ever occur in similar cases. Human nature will not change. In +any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall +have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. +Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn +wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.... Now that the +election is over, may not all having a common interest reunite in a +common fort to save our common country? For my own part, I have striven +and shall strive to avoid placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I +have been here, I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. +While I am deeply sensible to the high compliment of a re-election +and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God for having directed my +countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think for their own good, it adds +nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed or +pained by the result." + +This speech has not attracted much general attention, yet it is in a +peculiar degree both illustrative and typical of the great statesman who +made it, alike in its strong common-sense and in its lofty standard of +morality. Lincoln's life, Lincoln's deeds and words, are not only of +consuming interest to the historian, but should be intimately known to +every man engaged in the hard practical work of American political life. +It is difficult to overstate how much it means to a nation to have as +the two foremost figures in its history men like Washington and Lincoln. +It is good for every man in any way concerned in public life to feel +that the highest ambition any American can possibly have will be +gratified just in proportion as he raises himself toward the standards +set by these two men. + +It is a very poor thing, whether for nations or individuals, to advance +the history of great deeds done in the past as an excuse for doing +poorly in the present; but it is an excellent thing to study the history +of the great deeds of the past, and of the great men who did them, with +an earnest desire to profit thereby so as to render better service in +the present. In their essentials, the men of the present day are much +like the men of the past, and the live issues of the present can be +faced to better advantage by men who have in good faith studied how the +leaders of the nation faced the dead issues of the past. Such a study of +Lincoln's life will enable us to avoid the twin gulfs of immorality and +inefficiency--the gulfs which always lie one on each side of the careers +alike of man and of nation. It helps nothing to have avoided one if +shipwreck is encountered in the other. The fanatic, the well-meaning +moralist of unbalanced mind, the parlor critic who condemns others but +has no power himself to do good and but little power to do ill--all +these were as alien to Lincoln as the vicious and unpatriotic +themselves. His life teaches our people that they must act with wisdom, +because otherwise adherence to right will be mere sound and fury without +substance; and that they must also act high-mindedly, or else what seems +to be wisdom will in the end turn out to be the most destructive kind of +folly. + +Throughout his entire life, and especially after he rose to leadership +in his party, Lincoln was stirred to his depths by the sense of fealty +to a lofty ideal; but throughout his entire life, he also accepted human +nature as it is, and worked with keen, practical good sense to achieve +results with the instruments at hand. It is impossible to conceive of a +man farther removed from baseness, farther removed from corruption, from +mere self-seeking; but it is also impossible to conceive of a man of +more sane and healthy mind--a man less under the influence of that +fantastic and diseased morality (so fantastic and diseased as to be in +reality profoundly immoral) which makes a man in this work-a-day +world refuse to do what is possible because he cannot accomplish the +impossible. + +In the fifth volume of Lecky's History of England, the historian draws +an interesting distinction between the qualities needed for a successful +political career in modern society and those which lead to eminence in +the spheres of pure intellect or pure moral effort. He says: + +"....the moral qualities that are required in the higher spheres +of statesmanship [are not] those of a hero or a saint. Passionate +earnestness and self-devotion, complete concentration of every faculty +on an unselfish aim, uncalculating daring, a delicacy of conscience and +a loftiness of aim far exceeding those of the average of men, are here +likely to prove rather a hindrance than an assistance. The politician +deals very largely with the superficial and the commonplace; his art is +in a great measure that of skilful compromise, and in the conditions +of modern life, the statesman is likely to succeed best who possesses +secondary qualities to an unusual degree, who is in the closest +intellectual and moral sympathy with the average of the intelligent +men of his time, and who pursues common ideals with more than common +ability.... Tact, business talent, knowledge of men, resolution, +promptitude and sagacity in dealing with immediate emergencies, a +character which lends itself easily to conciliation, diminishes friction +and inspires confidence, are especially needed, and they are more likely +to be found among shrewd and enlightened men of the world than among men +of great original genius or of an heroic type of character." + +The American people should feel profoundly grateful that the greatest +American statesman since Washington, the statesman who in this +absolutely democratic republic succeeded best, was the very man who +actually combined the two sets of qualities which the historian thus +puts in antithesis. Abraham Lincoln, the rail-splitter, the Western +country lawyer, was one of the shrewdest and most enlightened men of the +world, and he had all the practical qualities which enable such a man to +guide his countrymen; and yet he was also a genius of the heroic type, +a leader who rose level to the greatest crisis through which this nation +or any other nation had to pass in the nineteenth century. + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +SAGAMORE HILL, OYSTER BAY, N. Y., September 22, 1905. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE + +"I have endured," wrote Lincoln not long before his death, "a great +deal of ridicule without much malice, and have received a great deal of +kindness not quite free from ridicule." On Easter Day, 1865, the world +knew how little this ridicule, how much this kindness, had really +signified. Thereafter, Lincoln the man became Lincoln the hero, year by +year more heroic, until to-day, with the swift passing of those who knew +him, his figure grows ever dimmer, less real. This should not be. For +Lincoln the man, patient, wise, set in a high resolve, is worth far more +than Lincoln the hero, vaguely glorious. Invaluable is the example of +the man, intangible that of the hero. + +And, though it is not for us, as for those who in awed stillness +listened at Gettysburg with inspired perception, to know Abraham +Lincoln, yet there is for us another way whereby we may attain such +knowledge--through his words--uttered in all sincerity to those who +loved or hated him. Cold, unsatisfying they may seem, these printed +words, while we can yet speak with those who knew him, and look into +eyes that once looked into his. But in truth it is here that we find his +simple greatness, his great simplicity, and though no man tried less so +to show his power, no man has so shown it more clearly. + +Thus these writings of Abraham Lincoln are associated with those of +Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, and of the other "Founders of the +Republic," not that Lincoln should become still more of the past, but, +rather, that he with them should become still more of the present. +However faint and mythical may grow the story of that Great Struggle, +the leader, Lincoln, at least should remain a real, living American. +No matter how clearly, how directly, Lincoln has shown himself in his +writings, we yet should not forget those men whose minds, from their +various view-points, have illumined for us his character. As this nation +owes a great debt to Lincoln, so, also, Lincoln's memory owes a great +debt to a nation which, as no other nation could have done, has been +able to appreciate his full worth. Among the many who have brought about +this appreciation, those only whose estimates have been placed in these +volumes may be mentioned here. To President Roosevelt, to Mr. Schurz +and to Mr. Choate, the editor, for himself, for the publishers, and on +behalf of the readers, wishes to offer his sincere acknowledgments. + +Thanks are also due, for valuable and sympathetic assistance rendered in +the preparation of this work, to Mr. Gilbert A. Tracy, of Putnam, Conn., +Major William H. Lambert, of Philadelphia, and Mr. C. F. Gunther, of +Chicago, to the Chicago Historical Association and personally to +its capable Secretary, Miss McIlvaine, to Major Henry S. Burrage, of +Portland, Me., and to General Thomas J. Henderson, of Illinois. + +For various courtesies received, the editor is furthermore indebted to +the Librarian of the Library of Congress; to Messrs. McClure, Phillips +& Co., D. Appleton & Co., Macmillan & Co., Dodd, Mead & Co., and Harper +Brothers, of New York; to Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Dana, Estes & Co., +and L. C. Page & Co., of Boston; to A. C. McClure & Co., of Chicago; to +The Robert Clarke Co., of Cincinnati, and to the J. B. Lippincott Co., +of Philadelphia. + +It is hardly necessary to add that every effort has been made by the +editor to bring into these volumes whatever material may there properly +belong, material much of which is widely scattered in public libraries +and in private collections. He has been fortunate in securing certain +interesting correspondence and papers which had not before come into +print in book form. Information concerning some of these papers had +reached him too late to enable the papers to find place in their proper +chronological order in the set. Rather, however, than not to present +these papers to the readers they have been included in the seventh +volume of the set, which concludes the "Writings." + + [These later papers are, in this etext, re-arranged into chronologic + order. D.W.] + +October, 1905, A. B. L. + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN: AN ESSAY BY CARL SHURZ + +No American can study the character and career of Abraham Lincoln +without being carried away by sentimental emotions. We are always +inclined to idealize that which we love,--a state of mind very +unfavorable to the exercise of sober critical judgment. It is therefore +not surprising that most of those who have written or spoken on that +extraordinary man, even while conscientiously endeavoring to draw a +lifelike portraiture of his being, and to form a just estimate of his +public conduct, should have drifted into more or less indiscriminating +eulogy, painting his great features in the most glowing colors, and +covering with tender shadings whatever might look like a blemish. + +But his standing before posterity will not be exalted by mere praise of +his virtues and abilities, nor by any concealment of his limitations +and faults. The stature of the great man, one of whose peculiar charms +consisted in his being so unlike all other great men, will rather lose +than gain by the idealization which so easily runs into the commonplace. +For it was distinctly the weird mixture of qualities and forces in him, +of the lofty with the common, the ideal with the uncouth, of that which +he had become with that which he had not ceased to be, that made him +so fascinating a character among his fellow-men, gave him his singular +power over their minds and hearts, and fitted him to be the greatest +leader in the greatest crisis of our national life. + +His was indeed a marvellous growth. The statesman or the military hero +born and reared in a log cabin is a familiar figure in American history; +but we may search in vain among our celebrities for one whose origin and +early life equalled Abraham Lincoln's in wretchedness. He first saw the +light in a miserable hovel in Kentucky, on a farm consisting of a +few barren acres in a dreary neighborhood; his father a typical "poor +Southern white," shiftless and without ambition for himself or his +children, constantly looking for a new piece of land on which he might +make a living without much work; his mother, in her youth handsome and +bright, grown prematurely coarse in feature and soured in mind by daily +toil and care; the whole household squalid, cheerless, and utterly void +of elevating inspirations... Only when the family had "moved" into the +malarious backwoods of Indiana, the mother had died, and a stepmother, +a woman of thrift and energy, had taken charge of the children, the +shaggy-headed, ragged, barefooted, forlorn boy, then seven years old, +"began to feel like a human being." Hard work was his early lot. When a +mere boy he had to help in supporting the family, either on his father's +clearing, or hired out to other farmers to plough, or dig ditches, or +chop wood, or drive ox teams; occasionally also to "tend the baby," +when the farmer's wife was otherwise engaged. He could regard it as an +advancement to a higher sphere of activity when he obtained work in a +"crossroads store," where he amused the customers by his talk over the +counter; for he soon distinguished himself among the backwoods folk +as one who had something to say worth listening to. To win that +distinction, he had to draw mainly upon his wits; for, while his thirst +for knowledge was great, his opportunities for satisfying that thirst +were wofully slender. + +In the log schoolhouse, which he could visit but little, he was taught +only reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic. Among the people +of the settlement, bush farmers and small tradesmen, he found none of +uncommon intelligence or education; but some of them had a few books, +which he borrowed eagerly. Thus he read and reread, AEsop's Fables, +learning to tell stories with a point and to argue by parables; he read +Robinson Crusoe, The Pilgrim's Progress, a short history of the United +States, and Weems's Life of Washington. To the town constable's he went +to read the Revised Statutes of Indiana. Every printed page that fell +into his hands he would greedily devour, and his family and friends +watched him with wonder, as the uncouth boy, after his daily work, +crouched in a corner of the log cabin or outside under a tree, absorbed +in a book while munching his supper of corn bread. In this manner he +began to gather some knowledge, and sometimes he would astonish the +girls with such startling remarks as that the earth was moving around +the sun, and not the sun around the earth, and they marvelled where +"Abe" could have got such queer notions. Soon he also felt the impulse +to write; not only making extracts from books he wished to remember, but +also composing little essays of his own. First he sketched these with +charcoal on a wooden shovel scraped white with a drawing-knife, or on +basswood shingles. Then he transferred them to paper, which was a scarce +commodity in the Lincoln household; taking care to cut his expressions +close, so that they might not cover too much space,--a style-forming +method greatly to be commended. Seeing boys put a burning coal on the +back of a wood turtle, he was moved to write on cruelty to animals. +Seeing men intoxicated with whiskey, he wrote on temperance. In +verse-making, too, he tried himself, and in satire on persons offensive +to him or others,--satire the rustic wit of which was not always fit for +ears polite. Also political thoughts he put upon paper, and some of +his pieces were even deemed good enough for publication in the county +weekly. + +Thus he won a neighborhood reputation as a clever young man, which he +increased by his performances as a speaker, not seldom drawing upon +himself the dissatisfaction of his employers by mounting a stump in the +field, and keeping the farm hands from their work by little speeches in +a jocose and sometimes also a serious vein. At the rude social frolics +of the settlement he became an important person, telling funny, stories, +mimicking the itinerant preachers who had happened to pass by, and +making his mark at wrestling matches, too; for at the age of seventeen +he had attained his full height, six feet four inches in his stockings, +if he had any, and a terribly muscular clodhopper he was. But he +was known never to use his extraordinary strength to the injury or +humiliation of others; rather to do them a kindly turn, or to enforce +justice and fair dealing between them. All this made him a favorite in +backwoods society, although in some things he appeared a little odd, +to his friends. Far more than any of them, he was given not only to +reading, but to fits of abstraction, to quiet musing with himself, and +also to strange spells of melancholy, from which he often would pass in +a moment to rollicking outbursts of droll humor. But on the whole he +was one of the people among whom he lived; in appearance perhaps even +a little more uncouth than most of them,--a very tall, rawboned youth, +with large features, dark, shrivelled skin, and rebellious hair; his +arms and legs long, out of proportion; clad in deerskin trousers, which +from frequent exposure to the rain had shrunk so as to sit tightly on +his limbs, leaving several inches of bluish shin exposed between their +lower end and the heavy tan-colored shoes; the nether garment held +usually by only one suspender, that was strung over a coarse homemade +shirt; the head covered in winter with a coonskin cap, in summer with a +rough straw hat of uncertain shape, without a band. + +It is doubtful whether he felt himself much superior to his +surroundings, although he confessed to a yearning for some knowledge +of the world outside of the circle in which he lived. This wish was +gratified; but how? At the age of nineteen he went down the Mississippi +to New Orleans as a flatboat hand, temporarily joining a trade many +members of which at that time still took pride in being called "half +horse and half alligator." After his return he worked and lived in the +old way until the spring of 1830, when his father "moved again," this +time to Illinois; and on the journey of fifteen days "Abe" had to drive +the ox wagon which carried the household goods. Another log cabin was +built, and then, fencing a field, Abraham Lincoln split those historic +rails which were destined to play so picturesque a part in the +Presidential campaign twenty-eight years later. + +Having come of age, Lincoln left the family, and "struck out for +himself." He had to "take jobs whenever he could get them." The first +of these carried him again as a flatboat hand to New Orleans. There +something happened that made a lasting impression upon his soul: +he witnessed a slave auction. "His heart bled," wrote one of his +companions; "said nothing much; was silent; looked bad. I can say, +knowing it, that it was on this trip that he formed his opinion on +slavery. It run its iron in him then and there, May, 1831. I have +heard him say so often." Then he lived several years at New Salem, +in Illinois, a small mushroom village, with a mill, some "stores" and +whiskey shops, that rose quickly, and soon disappeared again. It was a +desolate, disjointed, half-working and half-loitering life, without any +other aim than to gain food and shelter from day to day. He served as +pilot on a steamboat trip, then as clerk in a store and a mill; business +failing, he was adrift for some time. Being compelled to measure his +strength with the chief bully of the neighborhood, and overcoming him, +he became a noted person in that muscular community, and won the esteem +and friendship of the ruling gang of ruffians to such a degree that, +when the Black Hawk war broke out, they elected him, a young man of +twenty-three, captain of a volunteer company, composed mainly of roughs +of their kind. He took the field, and his most noteworthy deed of valor +consisted, not in killing an Indian, but in protecting against his own +men, at the peril of his own life, the life of an old savage who had +strayed into his camp. + +The Black Hawk war over, he turned to politics. The step from the +captaincy of a volunteer company to a candidacy for a seat in the +Legislature seemed a natural one. But his popularity, although great +in New Salem, had not spread far enough over the district, and he was +defeated. Then the wretched hand-to-mouth struggle began again. He "set +up in store-business" with a dissolute partner, who drank whiskey while +Lincoln was reading books. The result was a disastrous failure and a +load of debt. Thereupon he became a deputy surveyor, and was appointed +postmaster of New Salem, the business of the post-office being so small +that he could carry the incoming and outgoing mail in his hat. All this +could not lift him from poverty, and his surveying instruments and horse +and saddle were sold by the sheriff for debt. + +But while all this misery was upon him his ambition rose to higher aims. +He walked many miles to borrow from a schoolmaster a grammar with which +to improve his language. A lawyer lent him a copy of Blackstone, and he +began to study law. + +People would look wonderingly at the grotesque figure lying in the +grass, "with his feet up a tree," or sitting on a fence, as, absorbed +in a book, he learned to construct correct sentences and made himself +a jurist. At once he gained a little practice, pettifogging before a +justice of the peace for friends, without expecting a fee. Judicial +functions, too, were thrust upon him, but only at horse-races or +wrestling matches, where his acknowledged honesty and fairness gave his +verdicts undisputed authority. His popularity grew apace, and soon +he could be a candidate for the Legislature again. Although he called +himself a Whig, an ardent admirer of Henry Clay, his clever stump +speeches won him the election in the strongly Democratic district. +Then for the first time, perhaps, he thought seriously of his outward +appearance. So far he had been content with a garb of "Kentucky jeans," +not seldom ragged, usually patched, and always shabby. Now, he borrowed +some money from a friend to buy a new suit of clothes--"store clothes" +fit for a Sangamon County statesman; and thus adorned he set out for the +state capital, Vandalia, to take his seat among the lawmakers. + +His legislative career, which stretched over several sessions--for +he was thrice re-elected, in 1836, 1838, and 1840--was not remarkably +brilliant. He did, indeed, not lack ambition. He dreamed even of making +himself "the De Witt Clinton of Illinois," and he actually distinguished +himself by zealous and effective work in those "log-rolling" operations +by which the young State received "a general system of internal +improvements" in the shape of railroads, canals, and banks,--a reckless +policy, burdening the State with debt, and producing the usual crop of +political demoralization, but a policy characteristic of the time and +the impatiently enterprising spirit of the Western people. Lincoln, +no doubt with the best intentions, but with little knowledge of the +subject, simply followed the popular current. The achievement in which, +perhaps, he gloried most was the removal of the State government from +Vandalia to Springfield; one of those triumphs of political management +which are apt to be the pride of the small politician's statesmanship. +One thing, however, he did in which his true nature asserted itself, and +which gave distinct promise of the future pursuit of high aims. Against +an overwhelming preponderance of sentiment in the Legislature, followed +by only one other member, he recorded his protest against a proslavery +resolution,--that protest declaring "the institution of slavery to +be founded on both injustice and bad policy." This was not only the +irrepressible voice of his conscience; it was true moral valor, too; for +at that time, in many parts of the West, an abolitionist was regarded +as little better than a horse-thief, and even "Abe Lincoln" would hardly +have been forgiven his antislavery principles, had he not been known +as such an "uncommon good fellow." But here, in obedience to the great +conviction of his life, he manifested his courage to stand alone, that +courage which is the first requisite of leadership in a great cause. + +Together with his reputation and influence as a politician grew his law +practice, especially after he had removed from New Salem to Springfield, +and associated himself with a practitioner of good standing. He had now +at last won a fixed position in society. He became a successful lawyer, +less, indeed, by his learning as a jurist than by his effectiveness as +an advocate and by the striking uprightness of his character; and it may +truly be said that his vivid sense of truth and justice had much to do +with his effectiveness as an advocate. He would refuse to act as the +attorney even of personal friends when he saw the right on the other +side. He would abandon cases, even during trial, when the testimony +convinced him that his client was in the wrong. He would dissuade those +who sought his service from pursuing an obtainable advantage when their +claims seemed to him unfair. Presenting his very first case in the +United States Circuit Court, the only question being one of authority, +he declared that, upon careful examination, he found all the authorities +on the other side, and none on his. Persons accused of crime, when he +thought them guilty, he would not defend at all, or, attempting their +defence, he was unable to put forth his powers. One notable exception is +on record, when his personal sympathies had been strongly aroused. But +when he felt himself to be the protector of innocence, the defender +of justice, or the prosecutor of wrong, he frequently disclosed such +unexpected resources of reasoning, such depth of feeling, and rose to +such fervor of appeal as to astonish and overwhelm his hearers, and make +him fairly irresistible. Even an ordinary law argument, coming from him, +seldom failed to produce the impression that he was profoundly convinced +of the soundness of his position. It is not surprising that the mere +appearance of so conscientious an attorney in any case should have +carried, not only to juries, but even to judges, almost a presumption +of right on his side, and that the people began to call him, sincerely +meaning it, "honest Abe Lincoln." + +In the meantime he had private sorrows and trials of a painfully +afflicting nature. He had loved and been loved by a fair and estimable +girl, Ann Rutledge, who died in the flower of her youth and beauty, and +he mourned her loss with such intensity of grief that his friends feared +for his reason. Recovering from his morbid depression, he bestowed +what he thought a new affection upon another lady, who refused him. +And finally, moderately prosperous in his worldly affairs, and having +prospects of political distinction before him, he paid his addresses to +Mary Todd, of Kentucky, and was accepted. But then tormenting doubts of +the genuineness of his own affection for her, of the compatibility +of their characters, and of their future happiness came upon him. His +distress was so great that he felt himself in danger of suicide, and +feared to carry a pocket-knife with him; and he gave mortal offence +to his bride by not appearing on the appointed wedding day. Now the +torturing consciousness of the wrong he had done her grew unendurable. +He won back her affection, ended the agony by marrying her, and became a +faithful and patient husband and a good father. But it was no secret +to those who knew the family well that his domestic life was full of +trials. The erratic temper of his wife not seldom put the gentleness +of his nature to the severest tests; and these troubles and struggles, +which accompanied him through all the vicissitudes of his life from +the modest home in Springfield to the White House at Washington, +adding untold private heart-burnings to his public cares, and sometimes +precipitating upon him incredible embarrassments in the discharge of his +public duties, form one of the most pathetic features of his career. + +He continued to "ride the circuit," read books while travelling in his +buggy, told funny stories to his fellow-lawyers in the tavern, chatted +familiarly with his neighbors around the stove in the store and at the +post-office, had his hours of melancholy brooding as of old, and became +more and more widely known and trusted and beloved among the people +of his State for his ability as a lawyer and politician, for the +uprightness of his character and the overflowing spring of sympathetic +kindness in his heart. His main ambition was confessedly that of +political distinction; but hardly any one would at that time have seen +in him the man destined to lead the nation through the greatest crisis +of the century. + +His time had not yet come when, in 1846, he was elected to Congress. In +a clever speech in the House of Representatives he denounced President +Polk for having unjustly forced war upon Mexico, and he amused the +Committee of the Whole by a witty attack upon General Cass. More +important was the expression he gave to his antislavery impulses +by offering a bill looking to the emancipation of the slaves in the +District of Columbia, and by his repeated votes for the famous Wilmot +Proviso, intended to exclude slavery from the Territories acquired from +Mexico. But when, at the expiration of his term, in March, 1849, he left +his seat, he gloomily despaired of ever seeing the day when the cause +nearest to his heart would be rightly grasped by the people, and when he +would be able to render any service to his country in solving the great +problem. Nor had his career as a member of Congress in any sense been +such as to gratify his ambition. Indeed, if he ever had any belief in a +great destiny for himself, it must have been weak at that period; for he +actually sought to obtain from the new Whig President, General Taylor, +the place of Commissioner of the General Land Office; willing to +bury himself in one of the administrative bureaus of the government. +Fortunately for the country, he failed; and no less fortunately, when, +later, the territorial governorship of Oregon was offered to him, Mrs. +Lincoln's protest induced him to decline it. Returning to Springfield, +he gave himself with renewed zest to his law practice, acquiesced in the +Compromise of 1850 with reluctance and a mental reservation, supported +in the Presidential campaign of 1852 the Whig candidate in some +spiritless speeches, and took but a languid interest in the politics of +the day. But just then his time was drawing near. + +The peace promised, and apparently inaugurated, by the Compromise of +1850 was rudely broken by the introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill +in 1854. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, opening the Territories +of the United States, the heritage of coming generations, to the +invasion of slavery, suddenly revealed the whole significance of the +slavery question to the people of the free States, and thrust itself +into the politics of the country as the paramount issue. Something like +an electric shock flashed through the North. Men who but a short time +before had been absorbed by their business pursuits, and deprecated all +political agitation, were startled out of their security by a sudden +alarm, and excitedly took sides. That restless trouble of conscience +about slavery, which even in times of apparent repose had secretly +disturbed the souls of Northern people, broke forth in an utterance +louder than ever. The bonds of accustomed party allegiance gave way. +Antislavery Democrats and antislavery Whigs felt themselves drawn +together by a common overpowering sentiment, and soon they began to +rally in a new organization. The Republican party sprang into being to +meet the overruling call of the hour. Then Abraham Lincoln's time was +come. He rapidly advanced to a position of conspicuous championship in +the struggle. This, however, was not owing to his virtues and abilities +alone. Indeed, the slavery question stirred his soul in its profoundest +depths; it was, as one of his intimate friends said, "the only one on +which he would become excited"; it called forth all his faculties and +energies. Yet there were many others who, having long and arduously +fought the antislavery battle in the popular assembly, or in the press, +or in the halls of Congress, far surpassed him in prestige, and compared +with whom he was still an obscure and untried man. His reputation, +although highly honorable and well earned, had so far been essentially +local. As a stump-speaker in Whig canvasses outside of his State he had +attracted comparatively little attention; but in Illinois he had been +recognized as one of the foremost men of the Whig party. Among the +opponents of the Nebraska Bill he occupied in his State so important +a position, that in 1856 he was the choice of a large majority of the +"Anti-Nebraska men" in the Legislature for a seat in the Senate of the +United States which then became vacant; and when he, an old Whig, could +not obtain the votes of the Anti-Nebraska Democrats necessary to make +a majority, he generously urged his friends to transfer their votes +to Lyman Trumbull, who was then elected. Two years later, in the +first national convention of the Republican party, the delegation from +Illinois brought him forward as a candidate for the vice-presidency, and +he received respectable support. Still, the name of Abraham Lincoln was +not widely known beyond the boundaries of his own State. But now it was +this local prominence in Illinois that put him in a position of peculiar +advantage on the battlefield of national politics. In the assault on the +Missouri Compromise which broke down all legal barriers to the spread +of slavery Stephen Arnold Douglas was the ostensible leader and central +figure; and Douglas was a Senator from Illinois, Lincoln's State. +Douglas's national theatre of action was the Senate, but in his +constituency in Illinois were the roots of his official position and +power. What he did in the Senate he had to justify before the people +of Illinois, in order to maintain himself in place; and in Illinois all +eyes turned to Lincoln as Douglas's natural antagonist. + +As very young men they had come to Illinois, Lincoln from Indiana, +Douglas from Vermont, and had grown up together in public life, Douglas +as a Democrat, Lincoln as a Whig. They had met first in Vandalia, in +1834, when Lincoln was in the Legislature and Douglas in the lobby; and +again in 1836, both as members of the Legislature. Douglas, a very able +politician, of the agile, combative, audacious, "pushing" sort, rose in +political distinction with remarkable rapidity. In quick succession he +became a member of the Legislature, a State's attorney, secretary +of state, a judge on the supreme bench of Illinois, three times a +Representative in Congress, and a Senator of the United States when only +thirty-nine years old. In the National Democratic convention of 1852 he +appeared even as an aspirant to the nomination for the Presidency, as +the favorite of "young America," and received a respectable vote. He had +far outstripped Lincoln in what is commonly called political success +and in reputation. But it had frequently happened that in political +campaigns Lincoln felt himself impelled, or was selected by his Whig +friends, to answer Douglas's speeches; and thus the two were looked +upon, in a large part of the State at least, as the representative +combatants of their respective parties in the debates before +popular meetings. As soon, therefore, as, after the passage of his +Kansas-Nebraska Bill, Douglas returned to Illinois to defend his cause +before his constituents, Lincoln, obeying not only his own impulse, but +also general expectation, stepped forward as his principal opponent. +Thus the struggle about the principles involved in the Kansas-Nebraska +Bill, or, in a broader sense, the struggle between freedom and slavery, +assumed in Illinois the outward form of a personal contest between +Lincoln and Douglas; and, as it continued and became more animated, +that personal contest in Illinois was watched with constantly increasing +interest by the whole country. When, in 1858, Douglas's senatorial term +being about to expire, Lincoln was formally designated by the Republican +convention of Illinois as their candidate for the Senate, to take +Douglas's place, and the two contestants agreed to debate the questions +at issue face to face in a series of public meetings, the eyes of the +whole American people were turned eagerly to that one point: and the +spectacle reminded one of those lays of ancient times telling of two +armies, in battle array, standing still to see their two principal +champions fight out the contested cause between the lines in single +combat. + +Lincoln had then reached the full maturity of his powers. His equipment +as a statesman did not embrace a comprehensive knowledge of public +affairs. What he had studied he had indeed made his own, with the eager +craving and that zealous tenacity characteristic of superior minds +learning under difficulties. But his narrow opportunities and the +unsteady life he had led during his younger years had not permitted +the accumulation of large stores in his mind. It is true, in political +campaigns he had occasionally spoken on the ostensible issues between +the Whigs and the Democrats, the tariff, internal improvements, banks, +and so on, but only in a perfunctory manner. Had he ever given much +serious thought and study to these subjects, it is safe to assume that +a mind so prolific of original conceits as his would certainly have +produced some utterance upon them worth remembering. His soul had +evidently never been deeply stirred by such topics. But when his moral +nature was aroused, his brain developed an untiring activity until it +had mastered all the knowledge within reach. As soon as the repeal of +the Missouri Compromise had thrust the slavery question into politics +as the paramount issue, Lincoln plunged into an arduous study of all +its legal, historical, and moral aspects, and then his mind became a +complete arsenal of argument. His rich natural gifts, trained by long +and varied practice, had made him an orator of rare persuasiveness. In +his immature days, he had pleased himself for a short period with that +inflated, high-flown style which, among the uncultivated, passes for +"beautiful speaking." His inborn truthfulness and his artistic instinct +soon overcame that aberration and revealed to him the noble beauty and +strength of simplicity. He possessed an uncommon power of clear and +compact statement, which might have reminded those who knew the story +of his early youth of the efforts of the poor boy, when he copied his +compositions from the scraped wooden shovel, carefully to trim his +expressions in order to save paper. His language had the energy of +honest directness and he was a master of logical lucidity. He loved +to point and enliven his reasoning by humorous illustrations, usually +anecdotes of Western life, of which he had an inexhaustible store at his +command. These anecdotes had not seldom a flavor of rustic robustness +about them, but he used them with great effect, while amusing the +audience, to give life to an abstraction, to explode an absurdity, to +clinch an argument, to drive home an admonition. The natural kindliness +of his tone, softening prejudice and disarming partisan rancor, would +often open to his reasoning a way into minds most unwilling to receive +it. + +Yet his greatest power consisted in the charm of his individuality. That +charm did not, in the ordinary way, appeal to the ear or to the eye. His +voice was not melodious; rather shrill and piercing, especially when it +rose to its high treble in moments of great animation. His figure was +unhandsome, and the action of his unwieldy limbs awkward. He commanded +none of the outward graces of oratory as they are commonly understood. +His charm was of a different kind. It flowed from the rare depth and +genuineness of his convictions and his sympathetic feelings. Sympathy +was the strongest element in his nature. One of his biographers, who +knew him before he became President, says: "Lincoln's compassion might +be stirred deeply by an object present, but never by an object absent +and unseen. In the former case he would most likely extend relief, with +little inquiry into the merits of the case, because, as he expressed it +himself, it `took a pain out of his own heart.'" Only half of this is +correct. It is certainly true that he could not witness any individual +distress or oppression, or any kind of suffering, without feeling a pang +of pain himself, and that by relieving as much as he could the suffering +of others he put an end to his own. This compassionate impulse to help +he felt not only for human beings, but for every living creature. As in +his boyhood he angrily reproved the boys who tormented a wood turtle by +putting a burning coal on its back, so, we are told, he would, when a +mature man, on a journey, dismount from his buggy and wade waist-deep +in mire to rescue a pig struggling in a swamp. Indeed, appeals to his +compassion were so irresistible to him, and he felt it so difficult +to refuse anything when his refusal could give pain, that he himself +sometimes spoke of his inability to say "no" as a positive weakness. +But that certainly does not prove that his compassionate feeling was +confined to individual cases of suffering witnessed with his own eyes. +As the boy was moved by the aspect of the tortured wood turtle to +compose an essay against cruelty to animals in general, so the aspect of +other cases of suffering and wrong wrought up his moral nature, and set +his mind to work against cruelty, injustice, and oppression in general. + +As his sympathy went forth to others, it attracted others to him. +Especially those whom he called the "plain people" felt themselves drawn +to him by the instinctive feeling that he understood, esteemed, and +appreciated them. He had grown up among the poor, the lowly, the +ignorant. He never ceased to remember the good souls he had met among +them, and the many kindnesses they had done him. Although in his mental +development he had risen far above them, he never looked down upon them. +How they felt and how they reasoned he knew, for so he had once felt and +reasoned himself. How they could be moved he knew, for so he had once +been moved himself and practised moving others. His mind was much larger +than theirs, but it thoroughly comprehended theirs; and while he thought +much farther than they, their thoughts were ever present to him. Nor had +the visible distance between them grown as wide as his rise in the world +would seem to have warranted. Much of his backwoods speech and manners +still clung to him. Although he had become "Mr. Lincoln" to his later +acquaintances, he was still "Abe" to the "Nats" and "Billys" and "Daves" +of his youth; and their familiarity neither appeared unnatural to +them, nor was it in the least awkward to him. He still told and +enjoyed stories similar to those he had told and enjoyed in the Indiana +settlement and at New Salem. His wants remained as modest as they had +ever been; his domestic habits had by no means completely accommodated +themselves to those of his more highborn wife; and though the "Kentucky +jeans" apparel had long been dropped, his clothes of better material +and better make would sit ill sorted on his gigantic limbs. His cotton +umbrella, without a handle, and tied together with a coarse string to +keep it from flapping, which he carried on his circuit rides, is said to +be remembered still by some of his surviving neighbors. This rusticity +of habit was utterly free from that affected contempt of refinement and +comfort which self-made men sometimes carry into their more affluent +circumstances. To Abraham Lincoln it was entirely natural, and all those +who came into contact with him knew it to be so. In his ways of thinking +and feeling he had become a gentleman in the highest sense, but the +refining process had polished but little the outward form. The plain +people, therefore, still considered "honest Abe Lincoln" one of +themselves; and when they felt, which they no doubt frequently did, that +his thoughts and aspirations moved in a sphere above their own, +they were all the more proud of him, without any diminution +of fellow-feeling. It was this relation of mutual sympathy and +understanding between Lincoln and the plain people that gave him his +peculiar power as a public man, and singularly fitted him, as we shall +see, for that leadership which was preeminently required in the great +crisis then coming on,--the leadership which indeed thinks and moves +ahead of the masses, but always remains within sight and sympathetic +touch of them. + +He entered upon the campaign of 1858 better equipped than he had ever +been before. He not only instinctively felt, but he had convinced +himself by arduous study, that in this struggle against the spread of +slavery he had right, justice, philosophy, the enlightened opinion of +mankind, history, the Constitution, and good policy on his side. It +was observed that after he began to discuss the slavery question his +speeches were pitched in a much loftier key than his former oratorical +efforts. While he remained fond of telling funny stories in private +conversation, they disappeared more and more from his public discourse. +He would still now and then point his argument with expressions of +inimitable quaintness, and flash out rays of kindly humor and witty +irony; but his general tone was serious, and rose sometimes to genuine +solemnity. His masterly skill in dialectical thrust and parry, his +wealth of knowledge, his power of reasoning and elevation of sentiment, +disclosed in language of rare precision, strength, and beauty, not +seldom astonished his old friends. + +Neither of the two champions could have found a more formidable +antagonist than each now met in the other. Douglas was by far the most +conspicuous member of his party. His admirers had dubbed him "the Little +Giant," contrasting in that nickname the greatness of his mind with the +smallness of his body. But though of low stature, his broad-shouldered +figure appeared uncommonly sturdy, and there was something lion-like in +the squareness of his brow and jaw, and in the defiant shake of his long +hair. His loud and persistent advocacy of territorial expansion, in the +name of patriotism and "manifest destiny," had given him an enthusiastic +following among the young and ardent. Great natural parts, a highly +combative temperament, and long training had made him a debater +unsurpassed in a Senate filled with able men. He could be as forceful in +his appeals to patriotic feelings as he was fierce in denunciation and +thoroughly skilled in all the baser tricks of parliamentary pugilism. +While genial and rollicking in his social intercourse--the idol of the +"boys" he felt himself one of the most renowned statesmen of his time, +and would frequently meet his opponents with an overbearing haughtiness, +as persons more to be pitied than to be feared. In his speech opening +the campaign of 1858, he spoke of Lincoln, whom the Republicans had +dared to advance as their candidate for "his" place in the Senate, with +an air of patronizing if not contemptuous condescension, as "a kind, +amiable, and intelligent gentleman and a good citizen." The Little Giant +would have been pleased to pass off his antagonist as a tall dwarf. He +knew Lincoln too well, however, to indulge himself seriously in such a +delusion. But the political situation was at that moment in a curious +tangle, and Douglas could expect to derive from the confusion great +advantage over his opponent. + +By the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, opening the Territories to the +ingress of slavery, Douglas had pleased the South, but greatly alarmed +the North. He had sought to conciliate Northern sentiment by appending +to his Kansas-Nebraska Bill the declaration that its intent was "not +to legislate slavery into any State or Territory, nor to exclude it +therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form +and regulate their institutions in their own way, subject only to the +Constitution of the United States." This he called "the great principle +of popular sovereignty." When asked whether, under this act, the people +of a Territory, before its admission as a State, would have the right +to exclude slavery, he answered, "That is a question for the courts +to decide." Then came the famous "Dred Scott decision," in which the +Supreme Court held substantially that the right to hold slaves +as property existed in the Territories by virtue of the Federal +Constitution, and that this right could not be denied by any act of a +territorial government. This, of course, denied the right of the people +of any Territory to exclude slavery while they were in a territorial +condition, and it alarmed the Northern people still more. Douglas +recognized the binding force of the decision of the Supreme Court, at +the same time maintaining, most illogically, that his great principle +of popular sovereignty remained in force nevertheless. Meanwhile, the +proslavery people of western Missouri, the so-called "border ruffians," +had invaded Kansas, set up a constitutional convention, made +a constitution of an extreme pro-slavery type, the "Lecompton +Constitution," refused to submit it fairly to a vote of the people of +Kansas, and then referred it to Congress for acceptance,--seeking thus +to accomplish the admission of Kansas as a slave State. Had Douglas +supported such a scheme, he would have lost all foothold in the North. +In the name of popular sovereignty he loudly declared his opposition to +the acceptance of any constitution not sanctioned by a formal popular +vote. He "did not care," he said, "whether slavery be voted up or down," +but there must be a fair vote of the people. Thus he drew upon himself +the hostility of the Buchanan administration, which was controlled by +the proslavery interest, but he saved his Northern following. More +than this, not only did his Democratic admirers now call him "the true +champion of freedom," but even some Republicans of large influence, +prominent among them Horace Greeley, sympathizing with Douglas in his +fight against the Lecompton Constitution, and hoping to detach him +permanently from the proslavery interest and to force a lasting breach +in the Democratic party, seriously advised the Republicans of Illinois +to give up their opposition to Douglas, and to help re-elect him to the +Senate. Lincoln was not of that opinion. He believed that great popular +movements can succeed only when guided by their faithful friends, and +that the antislavery cause could not safely be entrusted to the keeping +of one who "did not care whether slavery be voted up or down." This +opinion prevailed in Illinois; but the influences within the Republican +party over which it prevailed yielded only a reluctant acquiescence, if +they acquiesced at all, after having materially strengthened Douglas's +position. Such was the situation of things when the campaign of 1858 +between Lincoln and Douglas began. + +Lincoln opened the campaign on his side at the convention which +nominated him as the Republican candidate for the senatorship, with +a memorable saying which sounded like a shout from the watchtower of +history: "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this +government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not +expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but +I expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or +all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further +spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the +belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates +will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the +States,--old as well as new, North as well as South." Then he proceeded +to point out that the Nebraska doctrine combined with the Dred Scott +decision worked in the direction of making the nation "all slave." Here +was the "irrepressible conflict" spoken of by Seward a short time later, +in a speech made famous mainly by that phrase. If there was any new +discovery in it, the right of priority was Lincoln's. This utterance +proved not only his statesmanlike conception of the issue, but also, +in his situation as a candidate, the firmness of his moral courage. +The friends to whom he had read the draught of this speech before he +delivered it warned him anxiously that its delivery might be fatal to +his success in the election. This was shrewd advice, in the ordinary +sense. While a slaveholder could threaten disunion with impunity, the +mere suggestion that the existence of slavery was incompatible with +freedom in the Union would hazard the political chances of any public +man in the North. But Lincoln was inflexible. "It is true," said he, +"and I will deliver it as written.... I would rather be defeated with +these expressions in my speech held up and discussed before the people +than be victorious without them." The statesman was right in his +far-seeing judgment and his conscientious statement of the truth, but +the practical politicians were also right in their prediction of the +immediate effect. Douglas instantly seized upon the declaration that a +house divided against itself cannot stand as the main objective point of +his attack, interpreting it as an incitement to a "relentless sectional +war," and there is no doubt that the persistent reiteration of this +charge served to frighten not a few timid souls. + +Lincoln constantly endeavored to bring the moral and philosophical side +of the subject to the foreground. "Slavery is wrong" was the keynote of +all his speeches. To Douglas's glittering sophism that the right of the +people of a Territory to have slavery or not, as they might desire, was +in accordance with the principle of true popular sovereignty, he made +the pointed answer: "Then true popular sovereignty, according to Senator +Douglas, means that, when one man makes another man his slave, no +third man shall be allowed to object." To Douglas's argument that +the principle which demanded that the people of a Territory should be +permitted to choose whether they would have slavery or not "originated +when God made man, and placed good and evil before him, allowing him +to choose upon his own responsibility," Lincoln solemnly replied: "No; +God--did not place good and evil before man, telling him to make his +choice. On the contrary, God did tell him there was one tree of the +fruit of which he should not eat, upon pain of death." He did not, +however, place himself on the most advanced ground taken by the radical +anti-slavery men. He admitted that, under the Constitution, "the +Southern people were entitled to a Congressional fugitive slave law," +although he did not approve the fugitive slave law then existing. He +declared also that, if slavery were kept out of the Territories during +their territorial existence, as it should be, and if then the people of +any Territory, having a fair chance and a clear field, should do such +an extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave constitution, uninfluenced by +the actual presence of the institution among them, he saw no alternative +but to admit such a Territory into the Union. He declared further that, +while he should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abolished in the +District of Columbia, he would, as a member of Congress, with his +present views, not endeavor to bring on that abolition except on +condition that emancipation be gradual, that it be approved by the +decision of a majority of voters in the District, and that compensation +be made to unwilling owners. On every available occasion, he pronounced +himself in favor of the deportation and colonization of the blacks, of +course with their consent. He repeatedly disavowed any wish on his part +to have social and political equality established between whites and +blacks. On this point he summed up his views in a reply to Douglas's +assertion that the Declaration of Independence, in speaking of all men +as being created equal, did not include the negroes, saying: "I do not +understand the Declaration of Independence to mean that all men were +created equal in all respects. They are not equal in color. But I +believe that it does mean to declare that all men are equal in some +respects; they are equal in their right to life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness." + +With regard to some of these subjects Lincoln modified his position at +a later period, and it has been suggested that he would have professed +more advanced principles in his debates with Douglas, had he not feared +thereby to lose votes. This view can hardly be sustained. Lincoln had +the courage of his opinions, but he was not a radical. The man who +risked his election by delivering, against the urgent protest of his +friends, the speech about "the house divided against itself" would not +have shrunk from the expression of more extreme views, had he really +entertained them. It is only fair to assume that he said what at the +time he really thought, and that if, subsequently, his opinions changed, +it was owing to new conceptions of good policy and of duty brought +forth by an entirely new set of circumstances and exigencies. It +is characteristic that he continued to adhere to the impracticable +colonization plan even after the Emancipation Proclamation had already +been issued. + +But in this contest Lincoln proved himself not only a debater, but +also a political strategist of the first order. The "kind, amiable, and +intelligent gentleman," as Douglas had been pleased to call him, was by +no means as harmless as a dove. He possessed an uncommon share of that +worldly shrewdness which not seldom goes with genuine simplicity of +character; and the political experience gathered in the Legislature +and in Congress, and in many election campaigns, added to his keen +intuitions, had made him as far-sighted a judge of the probable effects +of a public man's sayings or doings upon the popular mind, and as +accurate a calculator in estimating political chances and forecasting +results, as could be found among the party managers in Illinois. And +now he perceived keenly the ugly dilemma in which Douglas found himself, +between the Dred Scott decision, which declared the right to hold slaves +to exist in the Territories by virtue of the Federal Constitution, and +his "great principle of popular sovereignty," according to which the +people of a Territory, if they saw fit, were to have the right to +exclude slavery therefrom. Douglas was twisting and squirming to +the best of his ability to avoid the admission that the two were +incompatible. The question then presented itself if it would be good +policy for Lincoln to force Douglas to a clear expression of his opinion +as to whether, the Dred Scott decision notwithstanding, "the people of a +Territory could in any lawful way exclude slavery from its limits prior +to the formation of a State constitution." Lincoln foresaw and predicted +what Douglas would answer: that slavery could not exist in a Territory +unless the people desired it and gave it protection by territorial +legislation. In an improvised caucus the policy of pressing the +interrogatory on Douglas was discussed. Lincoln's friends unanimously +advised against it, because the answer foreseen would sufficiently +commend Douglas to the people of Illinois to insure his re-election to +the Senate. But Lincoln persisted. "I am after larger game," said he. +"If Douglas so answers, he can never be President, and the battle of +1860 is worth a hundred of this." The interrogatory was pressed upon +Douglas, and Douglas did answer that, no matter what the decision of +the Supreme Court might be on the abstract question, the people of +a Territory had the lawful means to introduce or exclude slavery by +territorial legislation friendly or unfriendly to the institution. +Lincoln found it easy to show the absurdity of the proposition that, if +slavery were admitted to exist of right in the Territories by virtue +of the supreme law, the Federal Constitution, it could be kept out or +expelled by an inferior law, one made by a territorial Legislature. +Again the judgment of the politicians, having only the nearest object in +view, proved correct: Douglas was reelected to the Senate. But Lincoln's +judgment proved correct also: Douglas, by resorting to the expedient +of his "unfriendly legislation doctrine," forfeited his last chance of +becoming President of the United States. He might have hoped to win, by +sufficient atonement, his pardon from the South for his opposition +to the Lecompton Constitution; but that he taught the people of the +Territories a trick by which they could defeat what the proslavery men +considered a constitutional right, and that he called that trick +lawful, this the slave power would never forgive. The breach between +the Southern and the Northern Democracy was thenceforth irremediable and +fatal. + +The Presidential election of 1860 approached. The struggle in Kansas, +and the debates in Congress which accompanied it, and which not +unfrequently provoked violent outbursts, continually stirred the popular +excitement. Within the Democratic party raged the war of factions. The +national Democratic convention met at Charleston on the 23d of April, +1860. After a struggle of ten days between the adherents and the +opponents of Douglas, during which the delegates from the cotton States +had withdrawn, the convention adjourned without having nominated any +candidates, to meet again in Baltimore on the 18th of June. There was no +prospect, however, of reconciling the hostile elements. It appeared very +probable that the Baltimore convention would nominate Douglas, while +the seceding Southern Democrats would set up a candidate of their own, +representing extreme proslavery principles. + +Meanwhile, the national Republican convention assembled at Chicago on +the 16th of May, full of enthusiasm and hope. The situation was easily +understood. The Democrats would have the South. In order to succeed +in the election, the Republicans had to win, in addition to the States +carried by Fremont in 1856, those that were classed as "doubtful,"--New +Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, or Illinois in the place of either +New Jersey or Indiana. The most eminent Republican statesmen and leaders +of the time thought of for the Presidency were Seward and Chase, both +regarded as belonging to the more advanced order of antislavery men. +Of the two, Seward had the largest following, mainly from New York, +New England, and the Northwest. Cautious politicians doubted seriously +whether Seward, to whom some phrases in his speeches had undeservedly +given the reputation of a reckless radical, would be able to command the +whole Republican vote in the doubtful States. Besides, during his long +public career he had made enemies. It was evident that those who thought +Seward's nomination too hazardous an experiment would consider Chase +unavailable for the same reason. They would then look round for an +"available" man; and among the "available" men Abraham Lincoln was +easily discovered to stand foremost. His great debate with Douglas had +given him a national reputation. The people of the East being eager +to see the hero of so dramatic a contest, he had been induced to visit +several Eastern cities, and had astonished and delighted large and +distinguished audiences with speeches of singular power and originality. +An address delivered by him in the Cooper Institute in New York, before +an audience containing a large number of important persons, was then, +and has ever since been, especially praised as one of the most logical +and convincing political speeches ever made in this country. The people +of the West had grown proud of him as a distinctively Western great man, +and his popularity at home had some peculiar features which could be +expected to exercise a potent charm. Nor was Lincoln's name as that of +an available candidate left to the chance of accidental discovery. It +is indeed not probable that he thought of himself as a Presidential +possibility, during his contest with Douglas for the senatorship. As +late as April, 1859, he had written to a friend who had approached him +on the subject that he did not think himself fit for the Presidency. +The Vice-Presidency was then the limit of his ambition. But some of +his friends in Illinois took the matter seriously in hand, and Lincoln, +after some hesitation, then formally authorized "the use of his name." +The matter was managed with such energy and excellent judgment that, +in the convention, he had not only the whole vote of Illinois to start +with, but won votes on all sides without offending any rival. A large +majority of the opponents of Seward went over to Abraham Lincoln, and +gave him the nomination on the third ballot. As had been foreseen, +Douglas was nominated by one wing of the Democratic party at Baltimore, +while the extreme proslavery wing put Breckinridge into the field as +its candidate. After a campaign conducted with the energy of genuine +enthusiasm on the antislavery side the united Republicans defeated the +divided Democrats, and Lincoln was elected President by a majority of +fifty-seven votes in the electoral colleges. + +The result of the election had hardly been declared when the disunion +movement in the South, long threatened and carefully planned and +prepared, broke out in the shape of open revolt, and nearly a month +before Lincoln could be inaugurated as President of the United States +seven Southern States had adopted ordinances of secession, formed an +independent confederacy, framed a constitution for it, and elected +Jefferson Davis its president, expecting the other slaveholding +States soon to join them. On the 11th of February, 1861, Lincoln left +Springfield for Washington; having, with characteristic simplicity, +asked his law partner not to change the sign of the firm "Lincoln +and Herndon" during the four years unavoidable absence of the senior +partner, and having taken an affectionate and touching leave of his +neighbors. + +The situation which confronted the new President was appalling: the +larger part of the South in open rebellion, the rest of the slaveholding +States wavering preparing to follow; the revolt guided by determined, +daring, and skillful leaders; the Southern people, apparently full of +enthusiasm and military spirit, rushing to arms, some of the forts +and arsenals already in their possession; the government of the Union, +before the accession of the new President, in the hands of men some of +whom actively sympathized with the revolt, while others were hampered by +their traditional doctrines in dealing with it, and really gave it aid +and comfort by their irresolute attitude; all the departments full of +"Southern sympathizers" and honeycombed with disloyalty; the treasury +empty, and the public credit at the lowest ebb; the arsenals ill +supplied with arms, if not emptied by treacherous practices; the regular +army of insignificant strength, dispersed over an immense surface, and +deprived of some of its best officers by defection; the navy small and +antiquated. But that was not all. The threat of disunion had so often +been resorted to by the slave power in years gone by that most Northern +people had ceased to believe in its seriousness. But, when disunion +actually appeared as a stern reality, something like a chill swept +through the whole Northern country. A cry for union and peace at any +price rose on all sides. Democratic partisanship reiterated this cry +with vociferous vehemence, and even many Republicans grew afraid of +the victory they had just achieved at the ballot-box, and spoke of +compromise. The country fairly resounded with the noise of "anticoercion +meetings." Expressions of firm resolution from determined antislavery +men were indeed not wanting, but they were for a while almost drowned +by a bewildering confusion of discordant voices. Even this was not +all. Potent influences in Europe, with an ill-concealed desire for the +permanent disruption of the American Union, eagerly espoused the cause +of the Southern seceders, and the two principal maritime powers of the +Old World seemed only to be waiting for a favorable opportunity to lend +them a helping hand. + +This was the state of things to be mastered by "honest Abe Lincoln" when +he took his seat in the Presidential chair,--"honest Abe Lincoln," who +was so good-natured that he could not say "no"; the greatest achievement +in whose life had been a debate on the slavery question; who had never +been in any position of power; who was without the slightest experience +of high executive duties, and who had only a speaking acquaintance with +the men upon whose counsel and cooperation he was to depend. Nor was +his accession to power under such circumstances greeted with general +confidence even by the members of his party. While he had indeed won +much popularity, many Republicans, especially among those who had +advocated Seward's nomination for the Presidency, saw the simple +"Illinois lawyer" take the reins of government with a feeling little +short of dismay. The orators and journals of the opposition were +ridiculing and lampooning him without measure. Many people actually +wondered how such a man could dare to undertake a task which, as he +himself had said to his neighbors in his parting speech, was "more +difficult than that of Washington himself had been." + +But Lincoln brought to that task, aside from other uncommon qualities, +the first requisite,--an intuitive comprehension of its nature. While +he did not indulge in the delusion that the Union could be maintained or +restored without a conflict of arms, he could indeed not foresee all the +problems he would have to solve. He instinctively understood, however, +by what means that conflict would have to be conducted by the government +of a democracy. He knew that the impending war, whether great or small, +would not be like a foreign war, exciting a united national enthusiasm, +but a civil war, likely to fan to uncommon heat the animosities of party +even in the localities controlled by the government; that this war would +have to be carried on not by means of a ready-made machinery, ruled +by an undisputed, absolute will, but by means to be furnished by the +voluntary action of the people:--armies to be formed by voluntary +enlistments; large sums of money to be raised by the people, through +representatives, voluntarily taxing themselves; trust of extraordinary +power to be voluntarily granted; and war measures, not seldom +restricting the rights and liberties to which the citizen was +accustomed, to be voluntarily accepted and submitted to by the people, +or at least a large majority of them; and that this would have to be +kept up not merely during a short period of enthusiastic excitement; but +possibly through weary years of alternating success and disaster, hope +and despondency. He knew that in order to steer this government by +public opinion successfully through all the confusion created by the +prejudices and doubts and differences of sentiment distracting the +popular mind, and so to propitiate, inspire, mould, organize, unite, and +guide the popular will that it might give forth all the means required +for the performance of his great task, he would have to take into +account all the influences strongly affecting the current of popular +thought and feeling, and to direct while appearing to obey. + +This was the kind of leadership he intuitively conceived to be needed +when a free people were to be led forward en masse to overcome a +great common danger under circumstances of appalling difficulty, the +leadership which does not dash ahead with brilliant daring, no matter +who follows, but which is intent upon rallying all the available forces, +gathering in the stragglers, closing up the column, so that the front +may advance well supported. For this leadership Abraham Lincoln was +admirably fitted, better than any other American statesman of his day; +for he understood the plain people, with all their loves and hates, +their prejudices and their noble impulses, their weaknesses and their +strength, as he understood himself, and his sympathetic nature was apt +to draw their sympathy to him. + +His inaugural address foreshadowed his official course in characteristic +manner. Although yielding nothing in point of principle, it was by no +means a flaming antislavery manifesto, such as would have pleased the +more ardent Republicans. It was rather the entreaty of a sorrowing +father speaking to his wayward children. In the kindliest language +he pointed out to the secessionists how ill advised their attempt at +disunion was, and why, for their own sakes, they should desist. Almost +plaintively, he told them that, while it was not their duty to destroy +the Union, it was his sworn duty to preserve it; that the least he +could do, under the obligations of his oath, was to possess and hold the +property of the United States; that he hoped to do this peaceably; that +he abhorred war for any purpose, and that they would have none +unless they themselves were the aggressors. It was a masterpiece of +persuasiveness, and while Lincoln had accepted many valuable amendments +suggested by Seward, it was essentially his own. Probably Lincoln +himself did not expect his inaugural address to have any effect upon the +secessionists, for he must have known them to be resolved upon disunion +at any cost. But it was an appeal to the wavering minds in the North, +and upon them it made a profound impression. Every candid man, however +timid and halting, had to admit that the President was bound by his oath +to do his duty; that under that oath he could do no less than he said +he would do; that if the secessionists resisted such an appeal as +the President had made, they were bent upon mischief, and that the +government must be supported against them. The partisan sympathy with +the Southern insurrection which still existed in the North did indeed +not disappear, but it diminished perceptibly under the influence of such +reasoning. Those who still resisted it did so at the risk of appearing +unpatriotic. + +It must not be supposed, however, that Lincoln at once succeeded in +pleasing everybody, even among his friends,--even among those nearest to +him. In selecting his cabinet, which he did substantially before he left +Springfield for Washington, he thought it wise to call to his assistance +the strong men of his party, especially those who had given evidence of +the support they commanded as his competitors in the Chicago convention. +In them he found at the same time representatives of the +different shades of opinion within the party, and of the different +elements--former Whigs and former Democrats--from which the party had +recruited itself. This was sound policy under the circumstances. It +might indeed have been foreseen that among the members of a cabinet so +composed, troublesome disagreements and rivalries would break out. But +it was better for the President to have these strong and ambitious +men near him as his co-operators than to have them as his critics in +Congress, where their differences might have been composed in a common +opposition to him. As members of his cabinet he could hope to control +them, and to keep them busily employed in the service of a common +purpose, if he had the strength to do so. Whether he did possess this +strength was soon tested by a singularly rude trial. + +There can be no doubt that the foremost members of his cabinet, Seward +and Chase, the most eminent Republican statesmen, had felt themselves +wronged by their party when in its national convention it preferred +to them for the Presidency a man whom, not unnaturally, they thought +greatly their inferior in ability and experience as well as in service. +The soreness of that disappointment was intensified when they saw this +Western man in the White House, with so much of rustic manner and speech +as still clung to him, meeting his fellow-citizens, high and low, on a +footing of equality, with the simplicity of his good nature unburdened +by any conventional dignity of deportment, and dealing with the great +business of state in an easy-going, unmethodical, and apparently +somewhat irreverent way. They did not understand such a man. Especially +Seward, who, as Secretary of State, considered himself next to the +Chief Executive, and who quickly accustomed himself to giving orders and +making arrangements upon his own motion, thought it necessary that he +should rescue the direction of public affairs from hands so unskilled, +and take full charge of them himself. At the end of the first month of +the administration he submitted a "memorandum" to President Lincoln, +which has been first brought to light by Nicolay and Hay, and is one of +their most valuable contributions to the history of those days. In that +paper Seward actually told the President that at the end of a month's +administration the government was still without a policy, either +domestic or foreign; that the slavery question should be eliminated from +the struggle about the Union; that the matter of the maintenance of the +forts and other possessions in the South should be decided with that +view; that explanations should be demanded categorically from the +governments of Spain and France, which were then preparing, one for the +annexation of San Domingo, and both for the invasion of Mexico; that +if no satisfactory explanations were received war should be declared +against Spain and France by the United States; that explanations should +also be sought from Russia and Great Britain, and a vigorous continental +spirit of independence against European intervention be aroused all over +the American continent; that this policy should be incessantly pursued +and directed by somebody; that either the President should devote +himself entirely to it, or devolve the direction on some member of his +cabinet, whereupon all debate on this policy must end. + +This could be understood only as a formal demand that the President +should acknowledge his own incompetency to perform his duties, content +himself with the amusement of distributing post-offices, and resign his +power as to all important affairs into the hands of his Secretary of +State. It seems to-day incomprehensible how a statesman of Seward's +calibre could at that period conceive a plan of policy in which the +slavery question had no place; a policy which rested upon the utterly +delusive assumption that the secessionists, who had already formed their +Southern Confederacy and were with stern resolution preparing to fight +for its independence, could be hoodwinked back into the Union by some +sentimental demonstration against European interference; a policy which, +at that critical moment, would have involved the Union in a foreign war, +thus inviting foreign intervention in favor of the Southern Confederacy, +and increasing tenfold its chances in the struggle for independence. But +it is equally incomprehensible how Seward could fail to see that this +demand of an unconditional surrender was a mortal insult to the head +of the government, and that by putting his proposition on paper he +delivered himself into the hands of the very man he had insulted; for, +had Lincoln, as most Presidents would have done, instantly dismissed +Seward, and published the true reason for that dismissal, it would +inevitably have been the end of Seward's career. But Lincoln did what +not many of the noblest and greatest men in history would have been +noble and great enough to do. He considered that Seward was still +capable of rendering great service to his country in the place in +which he was, if rightly controlled. He ignored the insult, but +firmly established his superiority. In his reply, which he forthwith +despatched, he told Seward that the administration had a domestic policy +as laid down in the inaugural address with Seward's approval; that +it had a foreign policy as traced in Seward's despatches with the +President's approval; that if any policy was to be maintained or +changed, he, the President, was to direct that on his responsibility; +and that in performing that duty the President had a right to the +advice of his secretaries. Seward's fantastic schemes of foreign war +and continental policies Lincoln brushed aside by passing them over in +silence. Nothing more was said. Seward must have felt that he was at +the mercy of a superior man; that his offensive proposition had been +generously pardoned as a temporary aberration of a great mind, and that +he could atone for it only by devoted personal loyalty. This he did. +He was thoroughly subdued, and thenceforth submitted to Lincoln his +despatches for revision and amendment without a murmur. The war with +European nations was no longer thought of; the slavery question found in +due time its proper place in the struggle for the Union; and when, at +a later period, the dismissal of Seward was demanded by dissatisfied +senators, who attributed to him the shortcomings of the administration, +Lincoln stood stoutly by his faithful Secretary of State. + +Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, a man of superb presence, of +eminent ability and ardent patriotism, of great natural dignity and a +certain outward coldness of manner, which made him appear more difficult +of approach than he really was, did not permit his disappointment to +burst out in such extravagant demonstrations. But Lincoln's ways were +so essentially different from his that they never became quite +intelligible, and certainly not congenial to him. It might, perhaps, +have been better had there been, at the beginning of the administration, +some decided clash between Lincoln and Chase, as there was between +Lincoln and Seward, to bring on a full mutual explanation, and to make +Chase appreciate the real seriousness of Lincoln's nature. But, as it +was, their relations always remained somewhat formal, and Chase never +felt quite at ease under a chief whom he could not understand, and whose +character and powers he never learned to esteem at their true value. +At the same time, he devoted himself zealously to the duties of his +department, and did the country arduous service under circumstances of +extreme difficulty. Nobody recognized this more heartily than Lincoln +himself, and they managed to work together until near the end of +Lincoln's first Presidential term, when Chase, after some disagreements +concerning appointments to office, resigned from the treasury; and, +after Taney's death, the President made him Chief Justice. + +The rest of the cabinet consisted of men of less eminence, who +subordinated themselves more easily. In January, 1862, Lincoln found it +necessary to bow Cameron out of the war office, and to put in his place +Edwin M. Stanton, a man of intensely practical mind, vehement impulses, +fierce positiveness, ruthless energy, immense working power, lofty +patriotism, and severest devotion to duty. He accepted the war office +not as a partisan, for he had never been a Republican, but only to +do all he could in "helping to save the country." The manner in +which Lincoln succeeded in taming this lion to his will, by frankly +recognizing his great qualities, by giving him the most generous +confidence, by aiding him in his work to the full of his power, by +kindly concession or affectionate persuasiveness in cases of differing +opinions, or, when it was necessary, by firm assertions of superior +authority, bears the highest testimony to his skill in the management of +men. Stanton, who had entered the service with rather a mean opinion +of Lincoln's character and capacity, became one of his warmest, most +devoted, and most admiring friends, and with none of his secretaries +was Lincoln's intercourse more intimate. To take advice with candid +readiness, and to weigh it without any pride of his own opinion, was one +of Lincoln's preeminent virtues; but he had not long presided over his +cabinet council when his was felt by all its members to be the ruling +mind. + +The cautious policy foreshadowed in his inaugural address, and pursued +during the first period of the civil war, was far from satisfying all +his party friends. The ardent spirits among the Union men thought that +the whole North should at once be called to arms, to crush the rebellion +by one powerful blow. The ardent spirits among the antislavery men +insisted that, slavery having brought forth the rebellion, this powerful +blow should at once be aimed at slavery. Both complained that the +administration was spiritless, undecided, and lamentably slow in its +proceedings. Lincoln reasoned otherwise. The ways of thinking and +feeling of the masses, of the plain people, were constantly present to +his mind. The masses, the plain people, had to furnish the men for the +fighting, if fighting was to be done. He believed that the plain people +would be ready to fight when it clearly appeared necessary, and that +they would feel that necessity when they felt themselves attacked. He +therefore waited until the enemies of the Union struck the first blow. +As soon as, on the 12th of April, 1861, the first gun was fired in +Charleston harbor on the Union flag upon Fort Sumter, the call was +sounded, and the Northern people rushed to arms. + +Lincoln knew that the plain people were now indeed ready to fight in +defence of the Union, but not yet ready to fight for the destruction of +slavery. He declared openly that he had a right to summon the people to +fight for the Union, but not to summon them to fight for the abolition +of slavery as a primary object; and this declaration gave him numberless +soldiers for the Union who at that period would have hesitated to do +battle against the institution of slavery. For a time he succeeded +in rendering harmless the cry of the partisan opposition that the +Republican administration were perverting the war for the Union into an +"abolition war." But when he went so far as to countermand the acts of +some generals in the field, looking to the emancipation of the slaves +in the districts covered by their commands, loud complaints arose from +earnest antislavery men, who accused the President of turning his back +upon the antislavery cause. Many of these antislavery men will now, +after a calm retrospect, be willing to admit that it would have been +a hazardous policy to endanger, by precipitating a demonstrative fight +against slavery, the success of the struggle for the Union. + +Lincoln's views and feelings concerning slavery had not changed. Those +who conversed with him intimately upon the subject at that period know +that he did not expect slavery long to survive the triumph of the Union, +even if it were not immediately destroyed by the war. In this he was +right. Had the Union armies achieved a decisive victory in an early +period of the conflict, and had the seceded States been received back +with slavery, the "slave power" would then have been a defeated power, +defeated in an attempt to carry out its most effective threat. It would +have lost its prestige. Its menaces would have been hollow sound, and +ceased to make any one afraid. It could no longer have hoped to expand, +to maintain an equilibrium in any branch of Congress, and to control the +government. The victorious free States would have largely overbalanced +it. It would no longer have been able to withstand the onset of a +hostile age. It could no longer have ruled,--and slavery had to rule in +order to live. It would have lingered for a while, but it would surely +have been "in the course of ultimate extinction." A prolonged war +precipitated the destruction of slavery; a short war might only have +prolonged its death struggle. Lincoln saw this clearly; but he saw also +that, in a protracted death struggle, it might still have kept disloyal +sentiments alive, bred distracting commotions, and caused great mischief +to the country. He therefore hoped that slavery would not survive the +war. + +But the question how he could rightfully employ his power to bring on +its speedy destruction was to him not a question of mere sentiment. He +himself set forth his reasoning upon it, at a later period, in one +of his inimitable letters. "I am naturally antislavery," said he. "If +slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember the time when +I did not so think and feel. And yet I have never understood that the +Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act upon that +judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the +best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the 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 that power. I understood, too, that, in ordinary civil +administration, this oath even forbade me practically to indulge my +private abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I did +understand, however, also, that my oath imposed upon me the duty of +preserving, to the best of my ability, by every indispensable means, +that government, that nation, of which the Constitution was the organic +law. I could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tied +to preserve the Constitution--if, to save slavery, or any minor matter, +I should permit the wreck of government, country, and Constitution +all together." In other words, if the salvation of the government, the +Constitution, and the Union demanded the destruction of slavery, he +felt it to be not only his right, but his sworn duty to destroy it. Its +destruction became a necessity of the war for the Union. + +As the war dragged on and disaster followed disaster, the sense of that +necessity steadily grew upon him. Early in 1862, as some of his friends +well remember, he saw, what Seward seemed not to see, that to give +the war for the Union an antislavery character was the surest means to +prevent the recognition of the Southern Confederacy as an independent +nation by European powers; that, slavery being abhorred by the moral +sense of civilized mankind, no European government would dare to offer +so gross an insult to the public opinion of its people as openly to +favor the creation of a state founded upon slavery to the prejudice of +an existing nation fighting against slavery. He saw also that slavery +untouched was to the rebellion an element of power, and that in order +to overcome that power it was necessary to turn it into an element +of weakness. Still, he felt no assurance that the plain people were +prepared for so radical a measure as the emancipation of the slaves by +act of the government, and he anxiously considered that, if they were +not, this great step might, by exciting dissension at the North, injure +the cause of the Union in one quarter more than it would help it in +another. He heartily welcomed an effort made in New York to mould and +stimulate public sentiment on the slavery question by public meetings +boldly pronouncing for emancipation. At the same time he himself +cautiously advanced with a recommendation, expressed in a special +message to Congress, that the United States should co-operate with any +State which might adopt the gradual abolishment of slavery, giving +such State pecuniary aid to compensate the former owners of emancipated +slaves. The discussion was started, and spread rapidly. Congress adopted +the resolution recommended, and soon went a step farther in passing a +bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. The plain people +began to look at emancipation on a larger scale as a thing to be +considered seriously by patriotic citizens; and soon Lincoln thought +that the time was ripe, and that the edict of freedom could be ventured +upon without danger of serious confusion in the Union ranks. + +The failure of McClellan's movement upon Richmond increased immensely +the prestige of the enemy. The need of some great act to stimulate the +vitality of the Union cause seemed to grow daily more pressing. On +July 21, 1862, Lincoln surprised his cabinet with the draught of a +proclamation declaring free the slaves in all the States that should be +still in rebellion against the United States on the 1st of January,1863. +As to the matter itself he announced that he had fully made up his mind; +he invited advice only concerning the form and the time of publication. +Seward suggested that the proclamation, if then brought out, amidst +disaster and distress, would sound like the last shriek of a perishing +cause. Lincoln accepted the suggestion, and the proclamation was +postponed. Another defeat followed, the second at Bull Run. But when, +after that battle, the Confederate army, under Lee, crossed the Potomac +and invaded Maryland, Lincoln vowed in his heart that, if the Union army +were now blessed with success, the decree of freedom should surely +be issued. The victory of Antietam was won on September 17, and the +preliminary Emancipation Proclamation came forth on the a 22d. It was +Lincoln's own resolution and act; but practically it bound the nation, +and permitted no step backward. In spite of its limitations, it was the +actual abolition of slavery. Thus he wrote his name upon the books of +history with the title dearest to his heart, the liberator of the slave. + +It is true, the great proclamation, which stamped the war as one for +"union and freedom," did not at once mark the turning of the tide on the +field of military operations. There were more disasters, Fredericksburg +and Chancellorsville. But with Gettysburg and Vicksburg the whole aspect +of the war changed. Step by step, now more slowly, then more rapidly, +but with increasing steadiness, the flag of the Union advanced from +field to field toward the final consummation. The decree of emancipation +was naturally followed by the enlistment of emancipated negroes in the +Union armies. This measure had a anther reaching effect than merely +giving the Union armies an increased supply of men. The laboring force +of the rebellion was hopelessly disorganized. The war became like a +problem of arithmetic. As the Union armies pushed forward, the area +from which the Southern Confederacy could draw recruits and supplies +constantly grew smaller, while the area from which the Union recruited +its strength constantly grew larger; and everywhere, even within the +Southern lines, the Union had its allies. The fate of the rebellion +was then virtually decided; but it still required much bloody work to +convince the brave warriors who fought for it that they were really +beaten. + +Neither did the Emancipation Proclamation forthwith command universal +assent among the people who were loyal to the Union. There were even +signs of a reaction against the administration in the fall elections of +1862, seemingly justifying the opinion, entertained by many, that the +President had really anticipated the development of popular feeling. The +cry that the war for the Union had been turned into an "abolition war" +was raised again by the opposition, and more loudly than ever. But +the good sense and patriotic instincts of the plain people gradually +marshalled themselves on Lincoln's side, and he lost no opportunity to +help on this process by personal argument and admonition. There never +has been a President in such constant and active contact with the public +opinion of the country, as there never has been a President who, while +at the head of the government, remained so near to the people. Beyond +the circle of those who had long known him the feeling steadily grew +that the man in the White House was "honest Abe Lincoln" still, and +that every citizen might approach him with complaint, expostulation, or +advice, without danger of meeting a rebuff from power-proud authority, +or humiliating condescension; and this privilege was used by so many +and with such unsparing freedom that only superhuman patience could +have endured it all. There are men now living who would to-day read with +amazement, if not regret, what they ventured to say or write to him. But +Lincoln repelled no one whom he believed to speak to him in good faith +and with patriotic purpose. No good advice would go unheeded. No candid +criticism would offend him. No honest opposition, while it might pain +him, would produce a lasting alienation of feeling between him and the +opponent. It may truly be said that few men in power have ever been +exposed to more daring attempts to direct their course, to severer +censure of their acts, and to more cruel misrepresentation of their +motives: And all this he met with that good-natured humor peculiarly his +own, and with untiring effort to see the right and to impress it +upon those who differed from him. The conversations he had and the +correspondence he carried on upon matters of public interest, not only +with men in official position, but with private citizens, were almost +unceasing, and in a large number of public letters, written ostensibly +to meetings, or committees, or persons of importance, he addressed +himself directly to the popular mind. Most of these letters stand among +the finest monuments of our political literature. Thus he presented the +singular spectacle of a President who, in the midst of a great civil +war, with unprecedented duties weighing upon him, was constantly in +person debating the great features of his policy with the people. + +While in this manner he exercised an ever-increasing influence upon the +popular understanding, his sympathetic nature endeared him more and +more to the popular heart. In vain did journals and speakers of the +opposition represent him as a lightminded trifler, who amused himself +with frivolous story-telling and coarse jokes, while the blood of the +people was flowing in streams. The people knew that the man at the head +of affairs, on whose haggard face the twinkle of humor so frequently +changed into an expression of profoundest sadness, was more than any +other deeply distressed by the suffering he witnessed; that he felt +the pain of every wound that was inflicted on the battlefield, and the +anguish of every woman or child who had lost husband or father; that +whenever he could he was eager to alleviate sorrow, and that his mercy +was never implored in vain. They looked to him as one who was with them +and of them in all their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows, who +laughed with them and wept with them; and as his heart was theirs; so +their hearts turned to him. His popularity was far different from +that of Washington, who was revered with awe, or that of Jackson, +the unconquerable hero, for whom party enthusiasm never grew weary +of shouting. To Abraham Lincoln the people became bound by a genuine +sentimental attachment. It was not a matter of respect, or confidence, +or party pride, for this feeling spread far beyond the boundary lines of +his party; it was an affair of the heart, independent of mere reasoning. +When the soldiers in the field or their folks at home spoke of "Father +Abraham," there was no cant in it. They felt that their President was +really caring for them as a father would, and that they could go to him, +every one of them, as they would go to a father, and talk to him of what +troubled them, sure to find a willing ear and tender sympathy. Thus, +their President, and his cause, and his endeavors, and his success +gradually became to them almost matters of family concern. And this +popularity carried him triumphantly through the Presidential election +of 1864, in spite of an opposition within his own party which at first +seemed very formidable. + +Many of the radical antislavery men were never quite satisfied with +Lincoln's ways of meeting the problems of the time. They were very +earnest and mostly very able men, who had positive ideas as to "how this +rebellion should be put down." They would not recognize the necessity +of measuring the steps of the government according to the progress +of opinion among the plain people. They criticised Lincoln's cautious +management as irresolute, halting, lacking in definite purpose and in +energy; he should not have delayed emancipation so long; he should not +have confided important commands to men of doubtful views as to slavery; +he should have authorized military commanders to set the slaves free +as they went on; he dealt too leniently with unsuccessful generals; he +should have put down all factious opposition with a strong hand instead +of trying to pacify it; he should have given the people accomplished +facts instead of arguing with them, and so on. It is true, these +criticisms were not always entirely unfounded. Lincoln's policy had, +with the virtues of democratic government, some of its weaknesses, which +in the presence of pressing exigencies were apt to deprive governmental +action of the necessary vigor; and his kindness of heart, his +disposition always to respect the feelings of others, frequently made +him recoil from anything like severity, even when severity was urgently +called for. But many of his radical critics have since then revised +their judgment sufficiently to admit that Lincoln's policy was, on the +whole, the wisest and safest; that a policy of heroic methods, while it +has sometimes accomplished great results, could in a democracy like +ours be maintained only by constant success; that it would have quickly +broken down under the weight of disaster; that it might have been +successful from the start, had the Union, at the beginning of the +conflict, had its Grants and Shermans and Sheridans, its Farraguts and +Porters, fully matured at the head of its forces; but that, as the great +commanders had to be evolved slowly from the developments of the war, +constant success could not be counted upon, and it was best to follow +a policy which was in friendly contact with the popular force, and +therefore more fit to stand trial of misfortune on the battlefield. But +at that period they thought differently, and their dissatisfaction with +Lincoln's doings was greatly increased by the steps he took toward the +reconstruction of rebel States then partially in possession of the Union +forces. + +In December, 1863, Lincoln issued an amnesty proclamation, offering +pardon to all implicated in the rebellion, with certain specified +exceptions, on condition of their taking and maintaining an oath to +support the Constitution and obey the laws of the United States and the +proclamations of the President with regard to slaves; and also promising +that when, in any of the rebel States, a number of citizens equal to one +tenth of the voters in 1860 should re-establish a state government in +conformity with the oath above mentioned, such should be recognized +by the Executive as the true government of the State. The proclamation +seemed at first to be received with general favor. But soon another +scheme of reconstruction, much more stringent in its provisions, was put +forward in the House of Representatives by Henry Winter Davis. Benjamin +Wade championed it in the Senate. It passed in the closing moments of +the session in July, 1864, and Lincoln, instead of making it a law by +his signature, embodied the text of it in a proclamation as a plan of +reconstruction worthy of being earnestly considered. The differences of +opinion concerning this subject had only intensified the feeling against +Lincoln which had long been nursed among the radicals, and some of +them openly declared their purpose of resisting his re-election to +the Presidency. Similar sentiments were manifested by the advanced +antislavery men of Missouri, who, in their hot faction-fight with the +"conservatives" of that State, had not received from Lincoln the active +support they demanded. Still another class of Union men, mainly in the +East, gravely shook their heads when considering the question whether +Lincoln should be re-elected. They were those who cherished in their +minds an ideal of statesmanship and of personal bearing in high office +with which, in their opinion, Lincoln's individuality was much out of +accord. They were shocked when they heard him cap an argument upon grave +affairs of state with a story about "a man out in Sangamon County,"--a +story, to be sure, strikingly clinching his point, but sadly lacking in +dignity. They could not understand the man who was capable, in opening +a cabinet meeting, of reading to his secretaries a funny chapter from a +recent book of Artemus Ward, with which in an unoccupied moment he had +relieved his care-burdened mind, and who then solemnly informed the +executive council that he had vowed in his heart to issue a proclamation +emancipating the slaves as soon as God blessed the Union arms with +another victory. They were alarmed at the weakness of a President who +would indeed resist the urgent remonstrances of statesmen against his +policy, but could not resist the prayer of an old woman for the pardon +of a soldier who was sentenced to be shot for desertion. Such men, +mostly sincere and ardent patriots, not only wished, but earnestly set +to work, to prevent Lincoln's renomination. Not a few of them actually +believed, in 1863, that, if the national convention of the Union party +were held then, Lincoln would not be supported by the delegation of a +single State. But when the convention met at Baltimore, in June, 1864, +the voice of the people was heard. On the first ballot Lincoln received +the votes of the delegations from all the States except Missouri; and +even the Missourians turned over their votes to him before the result of +the ballot was declared. + +But even after his renomination the opposition to Lincoln within the +ranks of the Union party did not subside. A convention, called by the +dissatisfied radicals in Missouri, and favored by men of a similar +way of thinking in other States, had been held already in May, and +had nominated as its candidate for the Presidency General Fremont. He, +indeed, did not attract a strong following, but opposition movements +from different quarters appeared more formidable. Henry Winter Davis and +Benjamin Wade assailed Lincoln in a flaming manifesto. Other Union men, +of undoubted patriotism and high standing, persuaded themselves, and +sought to persuade the people, that Lincoln's renomination was ill +advised and dangerous to the Union cause. As the Democrats had put off +their convention until the 29th of August, the Union party had, during +the larger part of the summer, no opposing candidate and platform to +attack, and the political campaign languished. Neither were the tidings +from the theatre of war of a cheering character. The terrible losses +suffered by Grant's army in the battles of the Wilderness spread general +gloom. Sherman seemed for a while to be in a precarious position before +Atlanta. The opposition to Lincoln within the Union party grew louder in +its complaints and discouraging predictions. Earnest demands were heard +that his candidacy should be withdrawn. Lincoln himself, not knowing +how strongly the masses were attached to him, was haunted by dark +forebodings of defeat. Then the scene suddenly changed as if by magic. + +The Democrats, in their national convention, declared the war a failure, +demanded, substantially, peace at any price, and nominated on such a +platform General McClellan as their candidate. Their convention had +hardly adjourned when the capture of Atlanta gave a new aspect to the +military situation. It was like a sun-ray bursting through a dark +cloud. The rank and file of the Union party rose with rapidly growing +enthusiasm. The song "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred +thousand strong," resounded all over the land. Long before the decisive +day arrived, the result was beyond doubt, and Lincoln was re-elected +President by overwhelming majorities. The election over even his +severest critics found themselves forced to admit that Lincoln was the +only possible candidate for the Union party in 1864, and that neither +political combinations nor campaign speeches, nor even victories in the +field, were needed to insure his success. The plain people had all the +while been satisfied with Abraham Lincoln: they confided in him; they +loved him; they felt themselves near to him; they saw personified in him +the cause of Union and freedom; and they went to the ballot-box for him +in their strength. + +The hour of triumph called out the characteristic impulses of his +nature. The opposition within the Union party had stung him to the +quick. Now he had his opponents before him, baffled and humiliated. Not +a moment did he lose to stretch out the hand of friendship to all. "Now +that the election is over," he said, in response to a serenade, "may not +all, having a common interest, reunite in a common effort to save our +common country? For my own part, I have striven, and will strive, to +place no obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here I have not +willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am deeply +sensible to the high compliment of a re-election, it adds nothing to +my satisfaction that any other man may be pained or disappointed by the +result. May I ask those who were with me to join with me in the same +spirit toward those who were against me?" This was Abraham Lincoln's +character as tested in the furnace of prosperity. + +The war was virtually decided, but not yet ended. Sherman was +irresistibly carrying the Union flag through the South. Grant had his +iron hand upon the ramparts of Richmond. The days of the Confederacy +were evidently numbered. Only the last blow remained to be struck. Then +Lincoln's second inauguration came, and with it his second inaugural +address. Lincoln's famous "Gettysburg speech" has been much and justly +admired. But far greater, as well as far more characteristic, was that +inaugural in which he poured out the whole devotion and tenderness of +his great soul. It had all the solemnity of a father's last admonition +and blessing to his children before he lay down to die. These were +its closing words: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this +mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it +continue until all the wealth piled up by the bondman's two hundred and +fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of +blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, +as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, `The +judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' With malice +toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God +gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in; +to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the +battle, and for his widow and his orphan; to do all which may achieve +and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all +nations." + +This was like a sacred poem. No American President had ever spoken words +like these to the American people. America never had a President who +found such words in the depth of his heart. + +Now followed the closing scenes of the war. The Southern armies fought +bravely to the last, but all in vain. Richmond fell. Lincoln himself +entered the city on foot, accompanied only by a few officers and a +squad of sailors who had rowed him ashore from the flotilla in the James +River, a negro picked up on the way serving as a guide. Never had the +world seen a more modest conqueror and a more characteristic triumphal +procession, no army with banners and drums, only a throng of those who +had been slaves, hastily run together, escorting the victorious chief +into the capital of the vanquished foe. We are told that they pressed +around him, kissed his hands and his garments, and shouted and danced +for joy, while tears ran down the President's care-furrowed cheeks. + +A few days more brought the surrender of Lee's army, and peace was +assured. The people of the North were wild with joy. Everywhere +festive guns were booming, bells pealing, the churches ringing with +thanksgivings, and jubilant multitudes thronging the thoroughfares, when +suddenly the news flashed over the land that Abraham Lincoln had been +murdered. The people were stunned by the blow. Then a wail of sorrow +went up such as America had never heard before. Thousands of Northern +households grieved as if they had lost their dearest member. Many a +Southern man cried out in his heart that his people had been robbed +of their best friend in their humiliation and distress, when Abraham +Lincoln was struck down. It was as if the tender affection which his +countrymen bore him had inspired all nations with a common sentiment. +All civilized mankind stood mourning around the coffin of the dead +President. Many of those, here and abroad, who not long before had +ridiculed and reviled him were among the first to hasten on with their +flowers of eulogy, and in that universal chorus of lamentation and +praise there was not a voice that did not tremble with genuine emotion. +Never since Washington's death had there been such unanimity of judgment +as to a man's virtues and greatness; and even Washington's death, +although his name was held in greater reverence, did not touch so +sympathetic a chord in the people's hearts. + +Nor can it be said that this was owing to the tragic character of +Lincoln's end. It is true, the death of this gentlest and most merciful +of rulers by the hand of a mad fanatic was well apt to exalt him beyond +his merits in the estimation of those who loved him, and to make his +renown the object of peculiarly tender solicitude. But it is also true +that the verdict pronounced upon him in those days has been affected +little by time, and that historical inquiry has served rather to +increase than to lessen the appreciation of his virtues, his abilities, +his services. Giving the fullest measure of credit to his great +ministers,--to Seward for his conduct of foreign affairs, to Chase for +the management of the finances under terrible difficulties, to Stanton +for the performance of his tremendous task as war secretary,--and +readily acknowledging that without the skill and fortitude of the great +commanders, and the heroism of the soldiers and sailors under them, +success could not have been achieved, the historian still finds that +Lincoln's judgment and will were by no means governed by those around +him; that the most important steps were owing to his initiative; that +his was the deciding and directing mind; and that it was pre-eminently +he whose sagacity and whose character enlisted for the administration +in its struggles the countenance, the sympathy, and the support of the +people. It is found, even, that his judgment on military matters was +astonishingly acute, and that the advice and instructions he gave to the +generals commanding in the field would not seldom have done honor to the +ablest of them. History, therefore, without overlooking, or palliating, +or excusing any of his shortcomings or mistakes, continues to place +him foremost among the saviours of the Union and the liberators of the +slave. More than that, it awards to him the merit of having accomplished +what but few political philosophers would have recognized as +possible,--of leading the republic through four years of furious civil +conflict without any serious detriment to its free institutions. + +He was, indeed, while President, violently denounced by the opposition +as a tyrant and a usurper, for having gone beyond his constitutional +powers in authorizing or permitting the temporary suppression of +newspapers, and in wantonly suspending the writ of habeas corpus and +resorting to arbitrary arrests. 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 +demanded by necessity, should never be permitted to pass without a +protest on the one hand, and without an apology on the other. It is well +they did not so pass during our civil war. That arbitrary measures were +resorted to is true. That they were resorted to most sparingly, and only +when the government thought them absolutely required by the safety of +the republic, will now hardly be denied. But certain it is that the +history of the world does not furnish a single example of a government +passing through so tremendous a crisis as our civil war was with so +small a record of arbitrary acts, and so little interference with the +ordinary course of law outside the field of military operations. No +American President ever wielded such power as that which was thrust into +Lincoln's hands. It is to be hoped that no American President ever +will have to be entrusted with such power again. But no man was ever +entrusted with it to whom its seductions were less dangerous than they +proved to be to Abraham Lincoln. With scrupulous care he endeavored, +even under the most trying circumstances, to remain strictly within the +constitutional limitations of his authority; and whenever the boundary +became indistinct, or when the dangers of the situation forced him +to cross it, he was equally careful to mark his acts as exceptional +measures, justifiable only by the imperative necessities of the civil +war, so that they might not pass into history as precedents for similar +acts in time of peace. It is an unquestionable fact that during the +reconstruction period which followed the war, more things were done +capable of serving as dangerous precedents than during the war itself. +Thus it may truly be said of him not only that under his guidance the +republic was saved from disruption and the country was purified of the +blot of slavery, but that, during the stormiest and most perilous crisis +in our history, he so conducted the government and so wielded his almost +dictatorial power as to leave essentially intact our free institutions +in all things that concern the rights and liberties of the citizens. +He understood well the nature of the problem. In his first message to +Congress he defined it in admirably pointed language: "Must a government +be of necessity too strong for the liberties of its own people, or +too weak to maintain its own existence? Is there in all republics this +inherent weakness?" This question he answered in the name of the great +American republic, as no man could have answered it better, with a +triumphant "No...." + +It has been said that Abraham Lincoln died at the right moment for his +fame. However that may be, he had, at the time of his death, certainly +not exhausted his usefulness to his country. He was probably the only +man who could have guided the nation through the perplexities of the +reconstruction period in such a manner as to prevent in the work of +peace the revival of the passions of the war. He would indeed not have +escaped serious controversy as to details of policy; but he could have +weathered it far better than any other statesman of his time, for his +prestige with the active politicians had been immensely strengthened by +his triumphant re-election; and, what is more important, he would have +been supported by the confidence of the victorious Northern people that +he would do all to secure the safety of the Union and the rights of +the emancipated negro, and at the same time by the confidence of the +defeated Southern people that nothing would be done by him from motives +of vindictiveness, or of unreasoning fanaticism, or of a selfish party +spirit. "With malice toward none, with charity for all," the foremost +of the victors would have personified in himself the genius of +reconciliation. + +He might have rendered the country a great service in another direction. +A few days after the fall of Richmond, he pointed out to a friend the +crowd of office-seekers besieging his door. "Look at that," said he. +"Now we have conquered the rebellion, but here you see something that +may become more dangerous to this republic than the rebellion itself." +It is true, Lincoln as President did not profess what we now call civil +service reform principles. He used the patronage of the government +in many cases avowedly to reward party work, in many others to form +combinations and to produce political effects advantageous to the Union +cause, and in still others simply to put the right man into the right +place. But in his endeavors to strengthen the Union cause, and in his +search for able and useful men for public duties, he frequently went +beyond the limits of his party, and gradually accustomed himself to the +thought that, while party service had its value, considerations of +the public interest were, as to appointments to office, of far greater +consequence. Moreover, there had been such a mingling of different +political elements in support of the Union during the civil war that +Lincoln, standing at the head of that temporarily united motley mass, +hardly felt himself, in the narrow sense of the term, a party man. +And as he became strongly impressed with the dangers brought upon the +republic by the use of public offices as party spoils, it is by no means +improbable that, had he survived the all-absorbing crisis and found time +to turn to other objects, one of the most important reforms of later +days would have been pioneered by his powerful authority. This was +not to be. But the measure of his achievements was full enough for +immortality. + +To the younger generation Abraham Lincoln has already become a +half-mythical figure, which, in the haze of historic distance, grows +to more and more heroic proportions, but also loses in distinctness of +outline and feature. This is indeed the common lot of popular heroes; +but the Lincoln legend will be more than ordinarily apt to become +fanciful, as his individuality, assembling seemingly incongruous +qualities and forces in a character at the same time grand and most +lovable, was so unique, and his career so abounding in startling +contrasts. As the state of society in which Abraham Lincoln grew up +passes away, the world will read with increasing wonder of the man who, +not only of the humblest origin, but remaining the simplest and +most unpretending of citizens, was raised to a position of power +unprecedented in our history; who was the gentlest and most peace-loving +of mortals, unable to see any creature suffer without a pang in his own +breast, and suddenly found himself called to conduct the greatest and +bloodiest of our wars; who wielded the power of government when stern +resolution and relentless force were the order of the day and then won +and ruled the popular mind and heart by the tender sympathies of his +nature; who was a cautious conservative by temperament and mental habit, +and led the most sudden and sweeping social revolution of our time; +who, preserving his homely speech and rustic manner even in the most +conspicuous position of that period, drew upon himself the scoffs of +polite society, and then thrilled the soul of mankind with utterances of +wonderful beauty and grandeur; who, in his heart the best friend of the +defeated South, was murdered because a crazy fanatic took him for its +most cruel enemy; who, while in power, was beyond measure lampooned and +maligned by sectional passion and an excited party spirit, and around +whose bier friend and foe gathered to praise him which they have since +never ceased to do--as one of the greatest of Americans and the best of +men. + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BY JOSEPH H. CHOATE + +[This Address was delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical +Institution, November 13, 1900. It is included in this set with the +courteous permission of the author and of Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell & +Company.] + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +When you asked me to deliver the Inaugural Address on this occasion, +I recognized that I owed this compliment to the fact that I was the +official representative of America, and in selecting a subject I +ventured to think that I might interest you for an hour in a brief study +in popular government, as illustrated by the life of the most American +of all Americans. I therefore offer no apology for asking your attention +to Abraham Lincoln--to his unique character and the part he bore in +two important achievements of modern history: the preservation of the +integrity of the American Union and the emancipation of the colored +race. + +During his brief term of power he was probably the object of more abuse, +vilification, and ridicule than any other man in the world; but when he +fell by the hand of an assassin, at the very moment of his stupendous +victory, all the nations of the earth vied with one another in paying +homage to his character, and the thirty-five years that have since +elapsed have established his place in history as one of the great +benefactors not of his own country alone, but of the human race. + +One of many noble utterances upon the occasion of his death was that in +which 'Punch' made its magnanimous recantation of the spirit with which +it had pursued him: + + "Beside this corpse that bears for winding sheet + The stars and stripes he lived to rear anew, + Between the mourners at his head and feet, + Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? + + ................... + + "Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, + To lame my pencil, and confute my pen + To make me own this hind--of princes peer, + This rail-splitter--a true born king of men." + +Fiction can furnish no match for the romance of his life, and biography +will be searched in vain for such startling vicissitudes of fortune, +so great power and glory won out of such humble beginnings and adverse +circumstances. + +Doubtless you are all familiar with the salient points of his +extraordinary career. In the zenith of his fame he was the wise, +patient, courageous, successful ruler of men; exercising more power than +any monarch of his time, not for himself, but for the good of the people +who had placed it in his hands; commander-in-chief of a vast military +power, which waged with ultimate success the greatest war of the +century; the triumphant champion of popular government, the deliverer +of four millions of his fellowmen from bondage; honored by mankind as +Statesman, President, and Liberator. + +Let us glance now at the first half of the brief life of which this was +the glorious and happy consummation. Nothing could be more squalid and +miserable than the home in which Abraham Lincoln was born--a one-roomed +cabin without floor or window in what was then the wilderness of +Kentucky, in the heart of that frontier life which swiftly moved +westward from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, always in advance of +schools and churches, of books and money, of railroads and newspapers, +of all things which are generally regarded as the comforts and even +necessaries of life. His father, ignorant, needy, and thriftless, +content if he could keep soul and body together for himself and his +family, was ever seeking, without success, to better his unhappy +condition by moving on from one such scene of dreary desolation to +another. The rude society which surrounded them was not much better. The +struggle for existence was hard, and absorbed all their energies. They +were fighting the forest, the wild beast, and the retreating savage. +From the time when he could barely handle tools until he attained his +majority, Lincoln's life was that of a simple farm laborer, poorly clad, +housed, and fed, at work either on his father's wretched farm or hired +out to neighboring farmers. But in spite, or perhaps by means, of this +rude environment, he grew to be a stalwart giant, reaching six feet four +at nineteen, and fabulous stories are told of his feats of strength. +With the growth of this mighty frame began that strange education which +in his ripening years was to qualify him for the great destiny that +awaited him, and the development of those mental faculties and moral +endowments which, by the time he reached middle life, were to make him +the sagacious, patient, and triumphant leader of a great nation in the +crisis of its fate. His whole schooling, obtained during such odd times +as could be spared from grinding labor, did not amount in all to as much +as one year, and the quality of the teaching was of the lowest possible +grade, including only the elements of reading, writing, and ciphering. +But out of these simple elements, when rightly used by the right man, +education is achieved, and Lincoln knew how to use them. As so often +happens, he seemed to take warning from his father's unfortunate +example. Untiring industry, an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and +an ever-growing desire to rise above his surroundings, were early +manifestations of his character. + +Books were almost unknown in that community, but the Bible was in +every house, and somehow or other Pilgrim's Progress, AEsop's Fables, +a History of the United States, and a Life of Washington fell into his +hands. He trudged on foot many miles through the wilderness to borrow an +English Grammar, and is said to have devoured greedily the contents of +the Statutes of Indiana that fell in his way. These few volumes he read +and reread--and his power of assimilation was great. To be shut in with +a few books and to master them thoroughly sometimes does more for the +development of character than freedom to range at large, in a cursory +and indiscriminate way, through wide domains of literature. This youth's +mind, at any rate, was thoroughly saturated with Biblical knowledge and +Biblical language, which, in after life, he used with great readiness +and effect. But it was the constant use of the little knowledge which he +had that developed and exercised his mental powers. After the hard +day's work was done, while others slept, he toiled on, always reading or +writing. From an early age he did his own thinking and made up his own +mind--invaluable traits in the future President. Paper was such a scarce +commodity that, by the evening firelight, he would write and cipher +on the back of a wooden shovel, and then shave it off to make room for +more. By and by, as he approached manhood, he began speaking in the rude +gatherings of the neighborhood, and so laid the foundation of that art +of persuading his fellow-men which was one rich result of his education, +and one great secret of his subsequent success. + +Accustomed as we are in these days of steam and telegraphs to have every +intelligent boy survey the whole world each morning before breakfast, +and inform himself as to what is going on in every nation, it is hardly +possible to conceive how benighted and isolated was the condition of the +community at Pigeon Creek in Indiana, of which the family of Lincoln's +father formed a part, or how eagerly an ambitious and high-spirited boy, +such as he, must have yearned to escape. The first glimpse that he ever +got of any world beyond the narrow confines of his home was in 1828, at +the age of nineteen, when a neighbor employed him to accompany his son +down the river to New Orleans to dispose of a flatboat of produce--a +commission which he discharged with great success. + +Shortly after his return from this his first excursion into the outer +world, his father, tired of failure in Indiana, packed his family and +all his worldly goods into a single wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, and +after a fourteen days' tramp through the wilderness, pitched his camp +once more, in Illinois. Here Abraham, having come of age and being now +his own master, rendered the last service of his minority by ploughing +the fifteen-acre lot and splitting from the tall walnut trees of the +primeval forest enough rails to surround the little clearing with a +fence. Such was the meagre outfit of this coming leader of men, at the +age when the future British Prime Minister or statesman emerges from the +university as a double first or senior wrangler, with every advantage +that high training and broad culture and association with the wisest and +the best of men and women can give, and enters upon some form of public +service on the road to usefulness and honor, the University course being +only the first stage of the public training. So Lincoln, at twenty-one, +had just begun his preparation for the public life to which he soon +began to aspire. For some years yet he must continue to earn his daily +bread by the sweat of his brow, having absolutely no means, no home, +no friend to consult. More farm work as a hired hand, a clerkship in a +village store, the running of a mill, another trip to New Orleans on a +flatboat of his own contriving, a pilot's berth on the river--these were +the means by which he subsisted until, in the summer of 1832, when he +was twenty-three years of age, an event occurred which gave him public +recognition. + +The Black Hawk war broke out, and, the Governor of Illinois calling for +volunteers to repel the band of savages whose leader bore that name, +Lincoln enlisted and was elected captain by his comrades, among whom he +had already established his supremacy by signal feats of strength and +more than one successful single combat. During the brief hostilities +he was engaged in no battle and won no military glory, but his local +leadership was established. The same year he offered himself as a +candidate for the Legislature of Illinois, but failed at the polls. Yet +his vast popularity with those who knew him was manifest. The district +consisted of several counties, but the unanimous vote of the people +of his own county was for Lincoln. Another unsuccessful attempt at +store-keeping was followed by better luck at surveying, until his horse +and instruments were levied upon under execution for the debts of his +business adventure. + +I have been thus detailed in sketching his early years because upon +these strange foundations the structure of his great fame and service +was built. In the place of a school and university training fortune +substituted these trials, hardships, and struggles as a preparation for +the great work which he had to do. It turned out to be exactly what +the emergency required. Ten years instead at the public school and the +university certainly never could have fitted this man for the unique +work which was to be thrown upon him. Some other Moses would have had to +lead us to our Jordan, to the sight of our promised land of liberty. + +At the age of twenty-five he became a member of the Legislature of +Illinois, and so continued for eight years, and, in the meantime, +qualified himself by reading such law books as he could borrow at +random--for he was too poor to buy any to be called to the Bar. For +his second quarter of a century--during which a single term in Congress +introduced him into the arena of national questions--he gave himself up +to law and politics. In spite of his soaring ambition, his two years +in Congress gave him no premonition of the great destiny that awaited +him,--and at its close, in 1849, we find him an unsuccessful applicant +to the President for appointment as Commissioner of the General Land +Office--a purely administrative bureau; a fortunate escape for +himself and for his country. Year by year his knowledge and power, his +experience and reputation extended, and his mental faculties seemed to +grow by what they fed on. His power of persuasion, which had always been +marked, was developed to an extraordinary degree, now that he became +engaged in congenial questions and subjects. Little by little he rose to +prominence at the Bar, and became the most effective public speaker in +the West. Not that he possessed any of the graces of the orator; but his +logic was invincible, and his clearness and force of statement impressed +upon his hearers the convictions of his honest mind, while his broad +sympathies and sparkling and genial humor made him a universal favorite +as far and as fast as his acquaintance extended. + +These twenty years that elapsed from the time of his establishment as +a lawyer and legislator in Springfield, the new capital of Illinois, +furnished a fitting theatre for the development and display of his great +faculties, and, with his new and enlarged opportunities, he obviously +grew in mental stature in this second period of his career, as if +to compensate for the absolute lack of advantages under which he had +suffered in youth. As his powers enlarged, his reputation extended, +for he was always before the people, felt a warm sympathy with all that +concerned them, took a zealous part in the discussion of every public +question, and made his personal influence ever more widely and deeply +felt. + +My brethren of the legal profession will naturally ask me, how could +this rough backwoodsman, whose youth had been spent in the forest or +on the farm and the flatboat, without culture or training, education or +study, by the random reading, on the wing, of a few miscellaneous law +books, become a learned and accomplished lawyer? Well, he never did. +He never would have earned his salt as a 'Writer' for the 'Signet', +nor have won a place as advocate in the Court of Session, where the +technique of the profession has reached its highest perfection, and +centuries of learning and precedent are involved in the equipment of a +lawyer. Dr. Holmes, when asked by an anxious young mother, "When should +the education of a child begin?" replied, "Madam, at least two centuries +before it is born!" and so I am sure it is with the Scots lawyer. + +But not so in Illinois in 1840. Between 1830 and 1880 its population +increased twenty-fold, and when Lincoln began practising law in +Springfield in 1837, life in Illinois was very crude and simple, and so +were the courts and the administration of justice. Books and libraries +were scarce. But the people loved justice, upheld the law, and followed +the courts, and soon found their favorites among the advocates. The +fundamental principles of the common law, as set forth by Blackstone +and Chitty, were not so difficult to acquire; and brains, common sense, +force of character, tenacity of purpose, ready wit and power of speech +did the rest, and supplied all the deficiencies of learning. + +The lawsuits of those days were extremely simple, and the principles of +natural justice were mainly relied on to dispose of them at the Bar +and on the Bench, without resort to technical learning. Railroads, +corporations absorbing the chief business of the community, combined +and inherited wealth, with all the subtle and intricate questions they +breed, had not yet come in--and so the professional agents and the +equipment which they require were not needed. But there were many highly +educated and powerful men at the Bar of Illinois, even in those early +days, whom the spirit of enterprise had carried there in search of fame +and fortune. It was by constant contact and conflict with these that +Lincoln acquired professional strength and skill. Every community and +every age creates its own Bar, entirely adequate for its present uses +and necessities. So in Illinois, as the population and wealth of the +State kept on doubling and quadrupling, its Bar presented a growing +abundance of learning and science and technical skill. The early +practitioners grew with its growth and mastered the requisite knowledge. +Chicago soon grew to be one of the largest and richest and certainly +the most intensely active city on the continent, and if any of my +professional friends here had gone there in Lincoln's later years, to +try or argue a cause, or transact other business, with any idea that +Edinburgh or London had a monopoly of legal learning, science, or +subtlety, they would certainly have found their mistake. + +In those early days in the West, every lawyer, especially every court +lawyer, was necessarily a politician, constantly engaged in the public +discussion of the many questions evolved from the rapid development +of town, county, State, and Federal affairs. Then and there, in this +regard, public discussion supplied the place which the universal +activity of the press has since monopolized, and the public speaker who, +by clearness, force, earnestness, and wit; could make himself felt on +the questions of the day would rapidly come to the front. In the absence +of that immense variety of popular entertainments which now feed the +public taste and appetite, the people found their chief amusement in +frequenting the courts and public and political assemblies. In either +place, he who impressed, entertained, and amused them most was the +hero of the hour. They did not discriminate very carefully between the +eloquence of the forum and the eloquence of the hustings. Human nature +ruled in both alike, and he who was the most effective speaker in a +political harangue was often retained as most likely to win in a cause +to be tried or argued. And I have no doubt in this way many retainers +came to Lincoln. Fees, money in any form, had no charms for him--in +his eager pursuit of fame he could not afford to make money. He was +ambitious to distinguish himself by some great service to mankind, and +this ambition for fame and real public service left no room for avarice +in his composition. However much he earned, he seems to have ended every +year hardly richer than he began it, and yet, as the years passed, +fees came to him freely. One of L 1,000 is recorded--a very large +professional fee at that time, even in any part of America, the paradise +of lawyers. I lay great stress on Lincoln's career as a lawyer--much +more than his biographers do because in America a state of things +exists wholly different from that which prevails in Great Britain. The +profession of the law always has been and is to this day the principal +avenue to public life; and I am sure that his training and experience +in the courts had much to do with the development of those forces of +intellect and character which he soon displayed on a broader arena. + +It was in political controversy, of course, that he acquired his wide +reputation, and made his deep and lasting impression upon the people of +what had now become the powerful State of Illinois, and upon the people +of the Great West, to whom the political power and control of the United +States were already surely and swiftly passing from the older Eastern +States. It was this reputation and this impression, and the familiar +knowledge of his character which had come to them from his local +leadership, that happily inspired the people of the West to present him +as their candidate, and to press him upon the Republican convention of +1860 as the fit and necessary leader in the struggle for life which was +before the nation. + +That struggle, as you all know, arose out of the terrible question of +slavery--and I must trust to your general knowledge of the history +of that question to make intelligible the attitude and leadership of +Lincoln as the champion of the hosts of freedom in the final contest. +Negro slavery had been firmly established in the Southern States from +an early period of their history. In 1619, the year before the Mayflower +landed our Pilgrim Fathers upon Plymouth Rock, a Dutch ship had +discharged a cargo of African slaves at Jamestown in Virginia: All +through the colonial period their importation had continued. A few had +found their way into the Northern States, but none of them in sufficient +numbers to constitute danger or to afford a basis for political power. +At the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, there is no +doubt that the principal members of the convention not only condemned +slavery as a moral, social, and political evil, but believed that by +the suppression of the slave trade it was in the course of gradual +extinction in the South, as it certainly was in the North. Washington, +in his will, provided for the emancipation of his own slaves, and +said to Jefferson that it "was among his first wishes to see some plan +adopted by which slavery in his country might be abolished." Jefferson +said, referring to the institution: "I tremble for my country when I +think that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever,"--and +Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, and Patrick Henry were all utterly opposed +to it. But it was made the subject of a fatal compromise in the Federal +Constitution, whereby its existence was recognized in the States as a +basis of representation, the prohibition of the importation of slaves +was postponed for twenty years, and the return of fugitive slaves +provided for. But no imminent danger was apprehended from it till, by +the invention of the cotton gin in 1792, cotton culture by negro labor +became at once and forever the leading industry of the South, and gave +a new impetus to the importation of slaves, so that in 1808, when +the constitutional prohibition took effect, their numbers had vastly +increased. From that time forward slavery became the basis of a great +political power, and the Southern States, under all circumstances and at +every opportunity, carried on a brave and unrelenting struggle for its +maintenance and extension. + +The conscience of the North was slow to rise against it, though bitter +controversies from time to time took place. The Southern leaders +threatened disunion if their demands were not complied with. To save the +Union, compromise after compromise was made, but each one in the end was +broken. The Missouri Compromise, made in 1820 upon the occasion of +the admission of Missouri into the Union as a slave State, whereby, in +consideration of such admission, slavery was forever excluded from the +Northwest Territory, was ruthlessly repealed in 1854, by a Congress +elected in the interests of the slave power, the intent being to force +slavery into that vast territory which had so long been dedicated to +freedom. This challenge at last aroused the slumbering conscience and +passion of the North, and led to the formation of the Republican party +for the avowed purpose of preventing, by constitutional methods, the +further extension of slavery. + +In its first campaign, in 1856, though it failed to elect its +candidates; it received a surprising vote and carried many of the +States. No one could any longer doubt that the North had made up its +mind that no threats of disunion should deter it from pressing its +cherished purpose and performing its long neglected duty. From the +outset, Lincoln was one of the most active and effective leaders and +speakers of the new party, and the great debates between Lincoln and +Douglas in 1858, as the respective champions of the restriction and +extension of slavery, attracted the attention of the whole country. +Lincoln's powerful arguments carried conviction everywhere. His moral +nature was thoroughly aroused his conscience was stirred to the quick. +Unless slavery was wrong, nothing was wrong. Was each man, of whatever +color, entitled to the fruits of his own labor, or could one man live +in idle luxury by the sweat of another's brow, whose skin was darker? +He was an implicit believer in that principle of the Declaration of +Independence that all men are vested with certain inalienable rights +the equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. On this +doctrine he staked his case and carried it. We have time only for one or +two sentences in which he struck the keynote of the contest. + +"The real issue in this country is the eternal struggle between these +two principles--right and wrong--throughout the world. They are the two +principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and +will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, +and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in +whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, 'You +work and toil and earn bread and I'll eat it.'" + +He foresaw with unerring vision that the conflict was inevitable and +irrepressible--that one or the other, the right or the wrong, freedom +or slavery, must ultimately prevail and wholly prevail, throughout the +country; and this was the principle that carried the war, once begun, to +a finish. + +One sentence of his is immortal: + +"Under the operation of the policy of compromise, the slavery agitation +has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion +it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A +house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government +cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect +the Union to be 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 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." + +During the entire decade from 1850 to 1860 the agitation of the +slavery question was at the boiling point, and events which have become +historical continually indicated the near approach of the overwhelming +storm. No sooner had the Compromise Acts of 1850 resulted in a temporary +peace, which everybody said must be final and perpetual, than new +outbreaks came. The forcible carrying away of fugitive slaves by Federal +troops from Boston agitated that ancient stronghold of freedom to its +foundations. The publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which truly exposed +the frightful possibilities of the slave system; the reckless attempts +by force and fraud to establish it in Kansas against the will of the +vast majority of the settlers; the beating of Summer in the Senate +Chamber for words spoken in debate; the Dred Scott decision in the +Supreme Court, which made the nation realize that the slave power had at +last reached the fountain of Federal justice; and finally the execution +of John Brown, for his wild raid into Virginia, to invite the slaves to +rally to the standard of freedom which he unfurled:--all these events +tend to illustrate and confirm Lincoln's contention that the nation +could not permanently continue half slave and half free, but must become +all one thing or all the other. When John Brown lay under sentence of +death he declared that now he was sure that slavery must be wiped out in +blood; but neither he nor his executioners dreamt that within four years +a million soldiers would be marching across the country for its final +extirpation, to the music of the war-song of the great conflict: + + "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, + But his soul is marching on." + +And now, at the age of fifty-one, this child of the wilderness, this +farm laborer, rail-sputter, flatboatman, this surveyor, lawyer, orator, +statesman, and patriot, found himself elected by the great party which +was pledged to prevent at all hazards the further extension of slavery, +as the chief magistrate of the Republic, bound to carry out that +purpose, to be the leader and ruler of the nation in its most trying +hour. + +Those who believe that there is a living Providence that overrules and +conducts the affairs of nations, find in the elevation of this plain man +to this extraordinary fortune and to this great duty, which he so +fitly discharged, a signal vindication of their faith. Perhaps to this +philosophical institution the judgment of our philosopher Emerson will +commend itself as a just estimate of Lincoln's historical place. + +"His occupying the chair of state was a triumph of the good sense of +mankind and of the public conscience. He grew according to the need; his +mind mastered the problem of the day: and as the problem grew, so did +his comprehension of it. In the war there was no place for holiday +magistrate, nor fair-weather sailor. The new pilot was hurried to +the helm in a tornado. In four years--four years of battle days--his +endurance, his fertility of resource, his magnanimity, were sorely +tried, and never found wanting. There, by his courage, his justice, his +even temper, his fertile counsel, his humanity, he stood a heroic figure +in the centre of a heroic epoch. He is the true history of the American +people in his time, the true representative of this continent--father +of his country, the pulse of twenty millions throbbing in his heart, the +thought of their mind--articulated in his tongue." + +He was born great, as distinguished from those who achieve greatness or +have it thrust upon them, and his inherent capacity, mental, moral, and +physical, having been recognized by the educated intelligence of a free +people, they happily chose him for their ruler in a day of deadly peril. + +It is now forty years since I first saw and heard Abraham Lincoln, but +the impression which he left on my mind is ineffaceable. After his great +successes in the West he came to New York to make a political address. +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 struggle; +his deep-set eyes looked sad and anxious; his countenance in repose gave +little evidence of that brain power which had raised him from the lowest +to the highest station among his countrymen; 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, clergymen, statesmen, lawyers, merchants, +critics. They were all very curious to hear him. His fame as a powerful +speaker had preceded him, and exaggerated rumor of his wit--the worst +forerunner of an orator--had reached the East. When Mr. Bryant presented +him, on the high platform of the Cooper Institute, 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 pretence, he spoke straight to the point. If any came +expecting 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 marvellous 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 Constitution in order to form a more perfect +union, to establish justice, and 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 those 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 wrong 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 congratulations, and he who had +come as a stranger departed with the laurels of great triumph. + +Alas! in five years from that exulting night I saw him again, for the +last time, in the same city, borne in his coffin through its draped +streets. With tears and lamentations a heart-broken people accompanied +him from Washington, the scene of his martyrdom, to his last +resting-place in the young city of the West where he had worked his way +to fame. + +Never was a new ruler in a more desperate plight than Lincoln when +he entered office on the fourth of March, 1861, four months after his +election, and took his oath to support the Constitution and the Union. +The intervening time had been busily employed by the Southern States in +carrying out their threat of disunion in the event of his election. +As soon as the fact was ascertained, seven of them had seceded and had +seized upon the forts, arsenals, navy yards, and other public property +of the United States within their boundaries, and were making every +preparation for war. In the meantime the retiring President, who had +been elected by the slave power, and who thought the seceding States +could not lawfully be coerced, had done absolutely nothing. Lincoln +found himself, by the Constitution, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and +Navy of the United States, but with only a remnant of either at hand. +Each was to be created on a great scale out of the unknown resources of +a nation untried in war. + +In his mild and conciliatory inaugural address, while appealing to the +seceding States to return to their allegiance, he avowed his purpose to +keep the solemn oath he had taken that day, to see that the laws of the +Union were faithfully executed, and to use the troops to recover the +forts, navy yards, and other property belonging to the government. It +is probable, however, that neither side actually realized that war +was inevitable, and that the other was determined to fight, until the +assault on Fort Sumter presented the South as the first aggressor +and roused the North to use every possible resource to maintain the +government and the imperilled Union, and to vindicate the supremacy of +the flag over every inch of the territory of the United States. The +fact that Lincoln's first proclamation called for only 75,000 troops, to +serve for three months, shows how inadequate was even his idea of what +the future had in store. But from that moment Lincoln and his loyal +supporters never faltered in their purpose. They knew they could win, +that it was their duty to win, and that for America the whole hope +of the future depended upon their winning; for now by the acts of the +seceding States the issue of the election to secure or prevent the +extension of slavery--stood transformed into a struggle to preserve or +to destroy the Union. + +We cannot follow this contest. You know its gigantic proportions; that +it lasted four years instead of three months; that in its progress, +instead of 75,000 men, more than 2,000,000 were enrolled on the side +of the government alone; that the aggregate cost and loss to the nation +approximated to 1,000,000,000 pounds sterling, and that not less than +300,000 brave and precious lives were sacrificed on each side. History +has recorded how Lincoln bore himself during these four frightful years; +that he was the real President, the responsible and actual head of the +government, through it all; that he listened to all advice, heard all +parties, and then, always realizing his responsibility to God and the +nation, decided every great executive question for himself. His absolute +honesty had become proverbial long before he was President. "Honest Abe +Lincoln" was the name by which he had been known for years. His every +act attested it. + +In all the grandeur of the vast power that he wielded, he never ceased +to be one of the plain people, as he always called them, never lost or +impaired his perfect sympathy with them, was always in perfect touch +with them and open to their appeals; and here lay the very secret of +his personality and of his power, for the people in turn gave him their +absolute confidence. His courage, his fortitude, his patience, his +hopefulness, were sorely tried but never exhausted. + +He was true as steel to his generals, but had frequent occasion to +change them, as he found them inadequate. This serious and painful duty +rested wholly upon him, and was perhaps his most important function as +Commander-in-Chief; but when, at last, he recognized in General Grant +the master of the situation, the man who could and would bring the war +to a triumphant end, he gave it all over to him and upheld him with all +his might. Amid all the pressure and distress that the burdens of office +brought upon him, his unfailing sense of humor saved him; probably it +made it possible for him to live under the burden. He had always been +the great story-teller of the West, and he used and cultivated this +faculty to relieve the weight of the load he bore. + +It enabled him to keep the wonderful record of never having lost his +temper, no matter what agony he had to bear. A whole night might be +spent in recounting the stories of his wit, humor, and harmless sarcasm. +But I will recall only two of his sayings, both about General Grant, who +always found plenty of enemies and critics to urge the President to oust +him from his command. One, I am sure, will interest all Scotchmen. They +repeated with malicious intent the gossip that Grant drank. "What +does he drink?" asked Lincoln. "Whiskey," was, of course, the answer; +doubtless you can guess the brand. "Well," said the President, "just +find out what particular kind he uses and I'll send a barrel to each of +my other generals." The other must be as pleasing to the British as +to the American ear. When pressed again on other grounds to get rid of +Grant, he declared, "I can't spare that man, he fights!" + +He was tender-hearted to a fault, and never could resist the appeals of +wives and mothers of soldiers who had got into trouble and were under +sentence of death for their offences. His Secretary of War and other +officials complained that they never could get deserters shot. As surely +as the women of the culprit's family could get at him he always gave +way. Certainly you will all appreciate his exquisite sympathy with the +suffering relatives of those who had fallen in battle. His heart bled +with theirs. Never was there a more gentle and tender utterance than his +letter to a mother who had given all her sons to her country, written at +a time when the angel of death had visited almost every household in the +land, and was already hovering over him. + +"I have been shown," he says, "in the files of the War Department a +statement 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 your grief for a +loss so overwhelming but I cannot refrain from tendering to you the +consolation which 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 the +lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a +sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." + +Hardly could your illustrious sovereign, from the depths of her queenly +and womanly heart, have spoken words more touching and tender to soothe +the stricken mothers of her own soldiers. + +The Emancipation Proclamation, with which Mr. Lincoln delighted the +country and the world on the first of January, 1863, will doubtless +secure for him a foremost place in history among the philanthropists +and benefactors of the race, as it rescued, from hopeless and degrading +slavery, so many millions of his fellow-beings described in the law and +existing in fact as "chattels-personal, in the hands of their owners +and possessors, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever." +Rarely does the happy fortune come to one man to render such a service +to his kind--to proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the +inhabitants thereof. + +Ideas rule the world, and never was there a more signal instance of this +triumph of an idea than here. William Lloyd Garrison, who thirty years +before had begun his crusade for the abolition of slavery, and had lived +to see this glorious and unexpected consummation of the hopeless cause +to which he had devoted his life, well described the proclamation as +a "great historic event, sublime in its magnitude, momentous and +beneficent in its far-reaching consequences, and eminently just and +right alike to the oppressor and the oppressed." + +Lincoln had always been heart and soul opposed to slavery. Tradition +says that on the trip on the flatboat to New Orleans he formed his +first and last opinion of slavery at the sight of negroes chained and +scourged, and that then and there the iron entered into his soul. No +boy could grow to manhood in those days as a poor white in Kentucky and +Indiana, in close contact with slavery or in its neighborhood, without a +growing consciousness of its blighting effects on free labor, as well as +of its frightful injustice and cruelty. In the Legislature of Illinois, +where the public sentiment was all for upholding the institution and +violently against every movement for its abolition or restriction, upon +the passage of resolutions to that effect he had the courage with one +companion to put on record his protest, "believing that the institution +of slavery is founded both in injustice and bad policy." No great +demonstration of courage, you will say; but that was at a time when +Garrison, for his abolition utterances, had been dragged by an angry mob +through the streets of Boston with a rope around his body, and in +the very year that Lovejoy in the same State of Illinois was slain by +rioters while defending his press, from which he had printed antislavery +appeals. + +In Congress he brought in a bill for gradual abolition in the District +of Columbia, with compensation to the owners, for until they raised +treasonable hands against the life of the nation he always maintained +that the property of the slaveholders, into which they had come by two +centuries of descent, without fault on their part, ought not to be taken +away from them without just compensation. He used to say that, one way +or another, he had voted forty-two times for the Wilmot Proviso, which +Mr. Wilmot of Pennsylvania moved as an addition to every bill which +affected United States territory, "that neither slavery nor involuntary +servitude shall ever exist in any part of the said territory," and it is +evident that his condemnation of the system, on moral grounds as a crime +against the human race, and on political grounds as a cancer that was +sapping the vitals of the nation, and must master its whole being or +be itself extirpated, grew steadily upon him until it culminated in his +great speeches in the Illinois debate. + +By the mere election of Lincoln to the Presidency, the further extension +of slavery into the Territories was rendered forever impossible--Vox +populi, vox Dei. Revolutions never go backward, and when founded on a +great moral sentiment stirring the heart of an indignant people their +edicts are irresistible and final. Had the slave power acquiesced in +that election, had the Southern States remained under the Constitution +and within the Union, and relied upon their constitutional and legal +rights, their favorite institution, immoral as it was, blighting and +fatal as it was, might have endured for another century. The great party +that had elected him, unalterably determined against its extension, was +nevertheless pledged not to interfere with its continuance in the States +where it already existed. Of course, when new regions were forever +closed against it, from its very nature it must have begun to shrink +and to dwindle; and probably gradual and compensated emancipation, +which appealed very strongly to the new President's sense of justice and +expediency, would, in the progress of time, by a reversion to the ideas +of the founders of the Republic, have found a safe outlet for both +masters and slaves. But whom the gods wish to destroy they first make +mad, and when seven States, afterwards increased to eleven, openly +seceded from the Union, when they declared and began the war upon the +nation, and challenged its mighty power to the desperate and protracted +struggle for its life, and for the maintenance of its authority as +a nation over its territory, they gave to Lincoln and to freedom the +sublime opportunity of history. + +In his first inaugural address, when as yet not a drop of precious blood +had been shed, while he held out to them the olive branch in one hand, +in the other he presented the guarantees of the Constitution, and after +reciting the emphatic resolution of the convention that nominated +him, 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 of our +political fabric depend," he reiterated this sentiment, and declared, +with no mental reservation, "that all the protection which, consistently +with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully +given to all the States when lawfully demanded for whatever cause as +cheerfully to one section as to another." + +When, however, these magnanimous overtures for peace and reunion were +rejected; when the seceding States defied the Constitution and every +clause and principle of it; when they persisted in staying out of the +Union from which they had seceded, and proceeded to carve out of its +territory a new and hostile empire based on slavery; when they flew at +the throat of the nation and plunged it into the bloodiest war of the +nineteenth century the tables were turned, and the belief gradually came +to the mind of the President that if the Rebellion was not soon subdued +by force of arms, if the war must be fought out to the bitter end, then +to reach that end the salvation of the nation itself might require +the destruction of slavery wherever it existed; that if the war was to +continue on one side for Disunion, for no other purpose than to preserve +slavery, it must continue on the other side for the Union, to destroy +slavery. + +As he said, "Events control me; I cannot control events," and as the +dreadful war progressed and became more deadly and dangerous, the +unalterable conviction was forced upon him that, in order that the +frightful sacrifice of life and treasure on both sides might not be all +in vain, it had become his duty as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, as +a necessary war measure, to strike a blow at the Rebellion which, +all others failing, would inevitably lead to its annihilation, by +annihilating the very thing for which it was contending. His own words +are the best: + +"I understood that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of +my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving by every indispensable +means that government--that nation--of which that Constitution was the +organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the +Constitution? By general law, life and limb must be protected, yet often +a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely +given to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional +might become lawful by becoming 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 ever 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." + +And so, at last, when in his judgment the indispensable necessity had +come, he struck the fatal blow, and signed the proclamation which has +made his name immortal. By it, the President, as Commander-in-Chief in +time of actual armed rebellion, and as a fit and necessary war measure +for suppressing the rebellion, proclaimed all persons held as slaves +in the States and parts of States then in rebellion to be thenceforward +free, and declared that the executive, with the army and navy, would +recognize and maintain their freedom. + +In the other great steps of the government, which led to the triumphant +prosecution of the war, he necessarily shared the responsibility and the +credit with the great statesmen who stayed up his hands in his cabinet, +with Seward, Chase and Stanton, and the rest,--and with his generals and +admirals, his soldiers and sailors, but this great act was absolutely +his own. The conception and execution were exclusively his. He laid it +before his cabinet as a measure on which his mind was made up and could +not be changed, asking them only for suggestions as to details. He chose +the time and the circumstances under which the Emancipation should be +proclaimed and when it should take effect. + +It came not an hour too soon; but public opinion in the North would not +have sustained it earlier. In the first eighteen months of the war its +ravages had extended from the Atlantic to beyond the Mississippi. Many +victories in the West had been balanced and paralyzed by inaction +and disasters in Virginia, only partially redeemed by the bloody and +indecisive battle of Antietam; a reaction had set in from the general +enthusiasm which had swept the Northern States after the assault upon +Sumter. It could not truly be said that they had lost heart, but faction +was raising its head. Heard through the land like the blast of a +bugle, the proclamation rallied the patriotism of the country to fresh +sacrifices and renewed ardor. It was a step that could not be revoked. +It relieved the conscience of the nation from an incubus that had +oppressed it from its birth. The United States were rescued from the +false predicament in which they had been from the beginning, and the +great popular heart leaped with new enthusiasm for "Liberty and Union, +henceforth and forever, one and inseparable." It brought not only moral +but material support to the cause of the government, for within two +years 120,000 colored troops were enlisted in the military service and +following the national flag, supported by all the loyalty of the North, +and led by its choicest spirits. One mother said, when her son was +offered the command of the first colored regiment, "If he accepts it +I shall be as proud as if I had heard that he was shot." He was shot +heading a gallant charge of his regiment.... The Confederates replied to +a request of his friends for his body that they had "buried him under a +layer of his niggers...;" but that mother has lived to enjoy thirty-six +years of his glory, and Boston has erected its noblest monument to his +memory. + +The effect of the proclamation upon the actual progress of the war was +not immediate, but wherever the Federal armies advanced they carried +freedom with them, and when the summer came round the new spirit and +force which had animated the heart of the government and people were +manifest. In the first week of July the decisive battle of Gettysburg +turned the tide of war, and the fall of Vicksburg made the great river +free from its source to the Gulf. + +On foreign nations the influence of the proclamation and of these new +victories was of great importance. In those days, when there was no +cable, it was not easy for foreign observers to appreciate what was +really going on; they could not see clearly the true state of affairs, +as in the last year of the nineteenth century we have been able, by our +new electric vision, to watch every event at the antipodes and observe +its effect. The Rebel emissaries, sent over to solicit intervention, +spared no pains to impress upon the minds of public and private men +and upon the press their own views of the character of the contest. The +prospects of the Confederacy were always better abroad than at home. The +stock markets of the world gambled upon its chances, and its bonds at +one time were high in favor. + +Such ideas as these were seriously held: that the North was fighting for +empire and the South for independence; that the Southern States, instead +of being the grossest oligarchies, essentially despotisms, founded on +the right of one man to appropriate the fruit of other men's toil and to +exclude them from equal rights, were real republics, feebler to be sure +than their Northern rivals, but representing the same idea of freedom, +and that the mighty strength of the nation was being put forth to +crush them; that Jefferson Davis and the Southern leaders had created +a nation; that the republican experiment had failed and the Union had +ceased to exist. But the crowning argument to foreign minds was that +it was an utter impossibility for the government to win in the contest; +that the success of the Southern States, so far as separation was +concerned, was as certain as any event yet future and contingent could +be; that the subjugation of the South by the North, even if it could be +accomplished, would prove a calamity to the United States and the world, +and especially calamitous to the negro race; and that such a victory +would necessarily leave the people of the South for many generations +cherishing deadly hostility against the government and the North, and +plotting always to recover their independence. + +When Lincoln issued his proclamation he knew that all these ideas were +founded in error; that the national resources were inexhaustible; +that the government could and would win, and that if slavery were once +finally disposed of, the only cause of difference being out of the way, +the North and South would come together again, and by and by be as good +friends as ever. In many quarters abroad the proclamation was +welcomed with enthusiasm by the friends of America; but I think the +demonstrations in its favor that brought more gladness to Lincoln's +heart than any other were the meetings held in the manufacturing +centres, by the very operatives upon whom the war bore the hardest, +expressing the most enthusiastic sympathy with the proclamation, while +they bore with heroic fortitude the grievous privations which the war +entailed upon them. Mr. Lincoln's expectation when he announced to the +world that all slaves in all States then in rebellion were set free +must have been that the avowed position of his government, that the +continuance of the war now meant the annihilation of slavery, would make +intervention impossible for any foreign nation whose people were lovers +of liberty--and so the result proved. + +The growth and development of Lincoln's mental power and moral force, of +his intense and magnetic personality, after the vast responsibilities of +government were thrown upon him at the age of fifty-two, furnish a rare +and striking illustration of the marvellous capacity and adaptability of +the human intellect--of the sound mind in the sound body. He came to +the discharge of the great duties of the Presidency with absolutely no +experience in the administration of government, or of the vastly +varied and complicated questions of foreign and domestic policy which +immediately arose, and continued to press upon him during the rest of +his life; but he mastered each as it came, apparently with the facility +of a trained and experienced ruler. As Clarendon said of Cromwell, "His +parts seemed to be raised by the demands of great station." His life +through it all was one of intense labor, anxiety, and distress, without +one hour of peaceful repose from first to last. But he rose to every +occasion. He led public opinion, but did not march so far in advance of +it as to fail of its effective support in every great emergency. He +knew the heart and thought of the people, as no man not in constant and +absolute sympathy with them could have known it, and so holding their +confidence, he triumphed through and with them. Not only was there this +steady growth of intellect, but the infinite delicacy of his nature and +its capacity for refinement developed also, as exhibited in the +purity and perfection of his language and style of speech. The rough +backwoodsman, who had never seen the inside of a university, became in +the end, by self-training and the exercise of his own powers of mind, +heart, and soul, a master of style, and some of his utterances will rank +with the best, the most perfectly adapted to the occasion which produced +them. + +Have you time to listen to his two-minutes speech at Gettysburg, at the +dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery? His whole soul was in it: + +"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a +great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived +and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great 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 cannot consecrate--we cannot +hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here +have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The +world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here but it can +never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to +be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have +thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to +the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we +take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full +measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall +not have died in vain--that this nation under God shall have a new birth +of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, and for +the people shall not perish from the earth." + +He lived to see his work indorsed by an overwhelming majority of his +countrymen. In his second inaugural address, pronounced just forty days +before his death, there is a single passage which well displays his +indomitable will and at the same time his deep religious feeling, +his sublime charity to the enemies of his country, and his broad and +catholic humanity: + +"If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offences +which in the Providence of God must needs come, but which, having +continued through the 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 offence came, shall we discern therein any departure +from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always +ascribe to Him? Fondly do we 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 bondsmen's two hundred and +fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of +blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with another drawn by the sword, +as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'the +judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' + +"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the +right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the +work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall +have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan to do all which +may achieve, and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and +with all nations." + +His prayer was answered. The forty days of life that remained to +him were crowned with great historic events. He lived to see +his Proclamation of Emancipation embodied in an amendment of the +Constitution, adopted by Congress, and submitted to the States for +ratification. The mighty scourge of war did speedily pass away, for it +was given him to witness the surrender of the Rebel army and the fall of +their capital, and the starry flag that he loved waving in triumph over +the national soil. When he died by the madman's hand in the supreme hour +of victory, the vanquished lost their best friend, and the human race +one of its noblest examples; and all the friends of freedom and justice, +in whose cause he lived and died, joined hands as mourners at his grave. + + + + +THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1832-1843 + + + + +1832 + + + + +ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON 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 according with an established custom and the principles of true +Republicanism 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 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 objection arises from the want of ability to +pay. + +With respect to the County of Sangamon, some.... + +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....... + +What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to say. It is probable, +however, that it would not be greater 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 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 on 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 dictate 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 histories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly +appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object +of vital importance, 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 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 something 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. Many 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; 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. + +New Salem, March 9, 1832. + + + + +1833 + + + + +TO E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + +NEW SALEM, Aug. 10, 1833 + +E. C. BLANKENSHIP. + +Dear Sir:--In regard to the time David Rankin served the enclosed +discharge shows correctly--as well as I can recollect--having no writing +to refer. The transfer of Rankin from my company occurred as follows: +Rankin having lost his horse at Dixon's ferry and having acquaintance in +one of the foot companies who were going down the river was desirous +to go with them, and one Galishen being an acquaintance of mine and +belonging to the company in which Rankin wished to go wished to leave +it and join mine, this being the case it was agreed that they should +exchange places and answer to each other's names--as it was expected +we all would be discharged in very few days. As to a blanket--I have no +knowledge of Rankin ever getting any. The above embraces all the facts +now in my recollection which are pertinent to the case. + +I shall take pleasure in giving any further information in my power +should you call on me. + +Your friend, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR POSTAGE RECEIPT + +TO Mr. SPEARS. + +Mr. SPEARS: + +At your request I send you a receipt for the postage on your paper. I am +somewhat surprised at your request. I will, however, comply with it. +The law requires newspaper postage to be paid in advance, and now that +I have waited a full year you choose to wound my feelings by insinuating +that unless you get a receipt I will probably make you pay it again. + +Respectfully, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1836 + + + + +ANNOUNCEMENT OF POLITICAL VIEWS. + +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 +constituents, as well those that oppose as those that support me. + +While acting as their representative, I shall be governed 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 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. + +Very respectfully, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +RESPONSE TO POLITICAL SMEAR + +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 you +said. I am flattered with the personal regard you manifested for me; +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. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MISS MARY OWENS. + +VANDALIA, December 13, 1836. + +MARY:--I have been sick ever since my arrival, or I should have written +sooner. It is but little difference, however, as I have very little +even yet to write. And more, the longer I can avoid the mortification +of looking in the post-office for your letter and not finding it, the +better. You see I am mad about that old letter yet. I don't like very +well to risk you again. I'll try you once more, anyhow. + +The new State House is not yet finished, and consequently the +Legislature is doing little or nothing. The governor delivered an +inflammatory political message, and it is expected there will be some +sparring between the parties about it as soon as the two Houses get to +business. Taylor delivered up his petition for the new county to one +of our members this morning. I am told he despairs of its success, on +account of all the members from Morgan County opposing it. There are +names enough on the petition, I think, to justify the members from our +county in going for it; but if the members from Morgan oppose it, which +they say they will, the chance will be bad. + +Our chance to take the seat of government to Springfield is better than +I expected. An internal-improvement convention was held there since we +met, which recommended a loan of several millions of dollars, on the +faith of the State, to construct railroads. Some of the Legislature are +for it, and some against it; which has the majority I cannot tell. +There is great strife and struggling for the office of the United States +Senator here at this time. It is probable we shall ease their pains in +a few days. The opposition men have no candidate of their own, and +consequently they will smile as complacently at the angry snarl of the +contending Van Buren candidates and their respective friends as the +Christian does at Satan's rage. You recollect that I mentioned at the +outset of this letter that I had been unwell. That is the fact, though +I believe I am about well now; but that, with other things I cannot +account for, have conspired, and have gotten my spirits so low that I +feel that I would rather be any place in the world than here. I really +cannot endure the thought of staying here ten weeks. Write back as soon +as you get this, and, if possible, say something that will please me, +for really I have not been pleased since I left you. This letter is +so dry and stupid that I am ashamed to send it, but with my present +feelings I cannot do any better. + +Give my best respects to Mr. and Mrs. Able and family. + +Your friend, LINCOLN + + + + +1837 + + + + +SPEECH IN ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +January [?], 1837 + +Mr. CHAIRMAN:--Lest I should fall into the too common error of being +mistaken in regard to which side I design to be upon, I shall make it +my first care to remove all doubt on that point, by declaring that I am +opposed to the resolution under consideration, in toto. Before I proceed +to the body of the subject, I will further remark, that it is not +without a considerable degree of apprehension that I venture to cross +the track of the gentleman from Coles [Mr. Linder]. Indeed, I do not +believe I could muster a sufficiency of courage to come in contact with +that gentleman, were it not for the fact that he, some days since, +most graciously condescended to assure us that he would never be found +wasting ammunition on small game. On the same fortunate occasion, +he further gave us to understand, that he regarded himself as being +decidedly the superior of our common friend from Randolph [Mr. Shields]; +and feeling, as I really do, that I, to say the most of myself, am +nothing more than the peer of our friend from Randolph, I shall +regard the gentleman from Coles as decidedly my superior also, and +consequently, in the course of what I shall have to say, whenever I +shall have occasion to allude to that gentleman, I shall endeavor +to adopt that kind of court language which I understand to be due to +decided superiority. In one faculty, at least, there can be no dispute +of the gentleman's superiority over me and most other men, and that is, +the faculty of entangling a subject, so that neither himself, or +any other man, can find head or tail to it. Here he has introduced a +resolution embracing ninety-nine printed lines across common writing +paper, and yet more than one half of his opening speech has been made +upon subjects about which there is not one word said in his resolution. + +Though his resolution embraces nothing in regard to the +constitutionality of the Bank, much of what he has said has been with +a view to make the impression that it was unconstitutional in its +inception. Now, although I am satisfied that an ample field may be found +within the pale of the resolution, at least for small game, yet, as +the gentleman has traveled out of it, I feel that I may, with all due +humility, venture to follow him. The gentleman has discovered that some +gentleman at Washington city has been upon the very eve of deciding our +Bank unconstitutional, and that he would probably have completed his +very authentic decision, had not some one of the Bank officers placed +his hand upon his mouth, and begged him to withhold it. The fact +that the individuals composing our Supreme Court have, in an official +capacity, decided in favor of the constitutionality of the Bank, would, +in my mind, seem a sufficient answer to this. It is a fact known to all, +that the members of the Supreme Court, together with the Governor, form +a Council of Revision, and that this Council approved this Bank charter. +I ask, then, if the extra-judicial decision not quite but almost made +by the gentleman at Washington, before whom, by the way, the question of +the constitutionality of our Bank never has, nor never can come--is to +be taken as paramount to a decision officially made by that tribunal, +by which, and which alone, the constitutionality of the Bank can ever be +settled? But, aside from this view of the subject, I would ask, if the +committee which this resolution proposes to appoint are to examine into +the Constitutionality of the Bank? Are they to be clothed with power to +send for persons and papers, for this object? And after they have found +the bank to be unconstitutional, and decided it so, how are they to +enforce their decision? What will their decision amount to? They cannot +compel the Bank to cease operations, or to change the course of its +operations. What good, then, can their labors result in? Certainly none. + +The gentleman asks, if we, without an examination, shall, by giving the +State deposits to the Bank, and by taking the stock reserved for the +State, legalize its former misconduct. Now I do not pretend to possess +sufficient legal knowledge to decide whether a legislative enactment +proposing to, and accepting from, the Bank, certain terms, would have +the effect to legalize or wipe out its former errors, or not; but I can +assure the gentleman, if such should be the effect, he has already got +behind the settlement of accounts; for it is well known to all, that the +Legislature, at its last session, passed a supplemental Bank charter, +which the Bank has since accepted, and which, according to his doctrine, +has legalized all the alleged violations of its original charter in the +distribution of its stock. + +I now proceed to the resolution. By examination it will be found that +the first thirty-three lines, being precisely one third of the whole, +relate exclusively to the distribution of the stock by the commissioners +appointed by the State. Now, Sir, it is clear that no question can arise +on this portion of the resolution, except a question between capitalists +in regard to the ownership of stock. Some gentlemen have their stock in +their hands, while others, who have more money than they know what to +do with, want it; and this, and this alone, is the question, to settle +which we are called on to squander thousands of the people's money. +What interest, let me ask, have the people in the settlement of this +question? What difference is it to them whether the stock is owned by +Judge Smith or Sam Wiggins? If any gentleman be entitled to stock in the +Bank, which he is kept out of possession of by others, let him assert +his right in the Supreme Court, and let him or his antagonist, whichever +may be found in the wrong, pay the costs of suit. It is an old maxim, +and a very sound one, that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. +Now, Sir, in the present case, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden +to them, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the +people's money being used to pay the fiddler. No one can doubt that the +examination proposed by this resolution must cost the State some ten or +twelve thousand dollars; and all this to settle a question in which +the people have no interest, and about which they care nothing. These +capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the +people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves we are +called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel. + +I leave this part of the resolution and proceed to the remainder. It +will be found that no charge in the remaining part of the resolution, if +true, amounts to the violation of the Bank charter, except one, which I +will notice in due time. It might seem quite sufficient to say no more +upon any of these charges or insinuations than enough to show they are +not violations of the charter; yet, as they are ingeniously framed and +handled, with a view to deceive and mislead, I will notice in their +order all the most prominent of them. The first of these is in relation +to a connection between our Bank and several banking institutions in +other States. Admitting this connection to exist, I should like to see +the gentleman from Coles, or any other gentleman, undertake to show that +there is any harm in it. What can there be in such a connection, that +the people of Illinois are willing to pay their money to get a peep +into? By a reference to the tenth section of the Bank charter, any +gentleman can see that the framers of the act contemplated the holding +of stock in the institutions of other corporations. Why, then, is it, +when neither law nor justice forbids it, that we are asked to spend our +time and money in inquiring into its truth? + +The next charge, in the order of time, is, that some officer, director, +clerk or servant of the Bank, has been required to take an oath of +secrecy in relation to the affairs of said Bank. Now, I do not know +whether this be true or false--neither do I believe any honest man +cares. I know that the seventh section of the charter expressly +guarantees to the Bank the right of making, under certain restrictions, +such by-laws as it may think fit; and I further know that the requiring +an oath of secrecy would not transcend those restrictions. What, then, +if the Bank has chosen to exercise this right? Whom can it injure? Does +not every merchant have his secret mark? and who is ever silly enough +to complain of it? I presume if the Bank does require any such oath of +secrecy, it is done through a motive of delicacy to those individuals +who deal with it. Why, Sir, not many days since, one gentleman upon this +floor, who, by the way, I have no doubt is now ready to join this hue +and cry against the Bank, indulged in a philippic against one of the +Bank officials, because, as he said, he had divulged a secret. + +Immediately following this last charge, there are several insinuations +in the resolution, which are too silly to require any sort of notice, +were it not for the fact that they conclude by saying, "to the great +injury of the people at large." In answer to this I would say that it +is strange enough, that the people are suffering these "great injuries," +and yet are not sensible of it! Singular indeed that the people should +be writhing under oppression and injury, and yet not one among them +to be found to raise the voice of complaint. If the Bank be inflicting +injury upon the people, why is it that not a single petition is +presented to this body on the subject? If the Bank really be a +grievance, why is it that no one of the real people is found to ask +redress of it? The truth is, no such oppression exists. If it did, our +people would groan with memorials and petitions, and we would not be +permitted to rest day or night, till we had put it down. The people know +their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them, when +they are invaded. Let them call for an investigation, and I shall ever +stand ready to respond to the call. But they have made no such call. I +make the assertion boldly, and without fear of contradiction, that no +man, who does not hold an office, or does not aspire to one, has ever +found any fault of the Bank. It has doubled the prices of the products +of their farms, and filled their pockets with a sound circulating +medium, and they are all well pleased with its operations. No, Sir, it +is the politician who is the first to sound the alarm (which, by +the way, is a false one.) It is he, who, by these unholy means, is +endeavoring to blow up a storm that he may ride upon and direct. It is +he, and he alone, that here proposes to spend thousands of the people's +public treasure, for no other advantage to them than to make valueless +in their pockets the reward of their industry. Mr. Chairman, this work +is exclusively the work of politicians; a set of men who have interests +aside from the interests of the people, and who, to say the most of +them, are, taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from honest +men. I say this with the greater freedom, because, being a politician +myself, none can regard it as personal. + +Again, it is charged, or rather insinuated, that officers of the Bank +have loaned money at usurious rates of interest. Suppose this to be +true, are we to send a committee of this House to inquire into it? +Suppose the committee should find it true, can they redress the injured +individuals? Assuredly not. If any individual had been injured in this +way, is there not an ample remedy to be found in the laws of the land? +Does the gentleman from Coles know that there is a statute standing in +full force making it highly penal for an individual to loan money at a +higher rate of interest than twelve per cent? If he does not he is too +ignorant to be placed at the head of the committee which his resolution +purposes and if he does, his neglect to mention it shows him to be too +uncandid to merit the respect or confidence of any one. + +But besides all this, if the Bank were struck from existence, could +not the owners of the capital still loan it usuriously, as well as now? +whatever the Bank, or its officers, may have done, I know that +usurious transactions were much more frequent and enormous before the +commencement of its operations than they have ever been since. + +The next insinuation is, that the Bank has refused specie payments. +This, if true is a violation of the charter. But there is not the +least probability of its truth; because, if such had been the fact, the +individual to whom payment was refused would have had an interest in +making it public, by suing for the damages to which the charter entitles +him. Yet no such thing has been done; and the strong presumption is, +that the insinuation is false and groundless. + +From this to the end of the resolution, there is nothing that merits +attention--I therefore drop the particular examination of it. + +By a general view of the resolution, it will be seen that a principal +object of the committee is to examine into, and ferret out, a mass of +corruption supposed to have been committed by the commissioners +who apportioned the stock of the Bank. I believe it is universally +understood and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly unless +they have a motive to do otherwise. If this be true, we can only suppose +that the commissioners acted corruptly by also supposing that they were +bribed to do so. Taking this view of the subject, I would ask if the +Bank is likely to find it more difficult to bribe the committee of +seven, which, we are about to appoint, than it may have found it to +bribe the commissioners? + +(Here Mr. Linder called to order. The Chair decided that Mr. Lincoln +was not out of order. Mr. Linder appealed to the House, but, before the +question was put, withdrew his appeal, saying he preferred to let the +gentleman go on; he thought he would break his own neck. Mr. Lincoln +proceeded:) + +Another gracious condescension! I acknowledge it with gratitude. I know +I was not out of order; and I know every sensible man in the House knows +it. I was not saying that the gentleman from Coles could be bribed, nor, +on the other hand, will I say he could not. In that particular I leave +him where I found him. I was only endeavoring to show that there was at +least as great a probability of any seven members that could be selected +from this House being bribed to act corruptly, as there was that the +twenty-four commissioners had been so bribed. By a reference to +the ninth section of the Bank charter, it will be seen that those +commissioners were John Tilson, Robert K. McLaughlin, Daniel Warm, A.G. +S. Wight, John C. Riley, W. H. Davidson, Edward M. Wilson, Edward L. +Pierson, Robert R. Green, Ezra Baker, Aquilla Wren, John Taylor, Samuel +C. Christy, Edmund Roberts, Benjamin Godfrey, Thomas Mather, A. M. +Jenkins, W. Linn, W. S. Gilman, Charles Prentice, Richard I. Hamilton, +A.H. Buckner, W. F. Thornton, and Edmund D. Taylor. + +These are twenty-four of the most respectable men in the State. Probably +no twenty-four men could be selected in the State with whom the people +are better acquainted, or in whose honor and integrity they would +more readily place confidence. And I now repeat, that there is less +probability that those men have been bribed and corrupted, than that +any seven men, or rather any six men, that could be selected from the +members of this House, might be so bribed and corrupted, even though +they were headed and led on by "decided superiority" himself. + +In all seriousness, I ask every reasonable man, if an issue be joined +by these twenty-four commissioners, on the one part, and any other +seven men, on the other part, and the whole depend upon the honor and +integrity of the contending parties, to which party would the greatest +degree of credit be due? Again: Another consideration is, that we have +no right to make the examination. What I shall say upon this head I +design exclusively for the law-loving and law-abiding part of the House. +To those who claim omnipotence for the Legislature, and who in the +plenitude of their assumed powers are disposed to disregard the +Constitution, law, good faith, moral right, and everything else, I have +not a word to say. But to the law-abiding part I say, examine the Bank +charter, go examine the Constitution, go examine the acts that the +General Assembly of this State has passed, and you will find just as +much authority given in each and every of them to compel the Bank to +bring its coffers to this hall and to pour their contents upon this +floor, as to compel it to submit to this examination which this +resolution proposes. Why, Sir, the gentleman from Coles, the mover of +this resolution, very lately denied on this floor that the Legislature +had any right to repeal or otherwise meddle with its own acts, when +those acts were made in the nature of contracts, and had been accepted +and acted on by other parties. Now I ask if this resolution does not +propose, for this House alone, to do what he, but the other day, denied +the right of the whole Legislature to do? He must either abandon the +position he then took, or he must now vote against his own resolution. +It is no difference to me, and I presume but little to any one else, +which he does. + +I am by no means the special advocate of the Bank. I have long thought +that it would be well for it to report its condition to the General +Assembly, and that cases might occur, when it might be proper to make an +examination of its affairs by a committee. Accordingly, during the +last session, while a bill supplemental to the Bank charter was pending +before the House, I offered an amendment to the same, in these words: +"The said corporation shall, at the next session of the General +Assembly, and at each subsequent General Session, during the existence +of its charter, report to the same the amount of debts due from said +corporation; the amount of debts due to the same; the amount of specie +in its vaults, and an account of all lands then owned by the same, and +the amount for which such lands have been taken; and moreover, if said +corporation shall at any time neglect or refuse to submit its books, +papers, and all and everything necessary for a full and fair examination +of its affairs, to any person or persons appointed by the General +Assembly, for the purpose of making such examination, the said +corporation shall forfeit its charter." + +This amendment was negatived by a vote of 34 to 15. Eleven of the 34 who +voted against it are now members of this House; and though it would +be out of order to call their names, I hope they will all recollect +themselves, and not vote for this examination to be made without +authority, inasmuch as they refused to receive the authority when it was +in their power to do so. + +I have said that cases might occur, when an examination might be proper; +but I do not believe any such case has now occurred; and if it has, +I should still be opposed to making an examination without legal +authority. I am opposed to encouraging that lawless and mobocratic +spirit, whether in relation to the Bank or anything else, which is +already abroad in the land and is spreading with rapid and fearful +impetuosity, to the ultimate overthrow of every institution, of every +moral principle, in which persons and property have hitherto found +security. + +But supposing we had the authority, I would ask what good can result +from the examination? Can we declare the Bank unconstitutional, and +compel it to desist from the abuses of its power, provided we find such +abuses to exist? Can we repair the injuries which it may have done to +individuals? Most certainly we can do none of these things. Why +then shall we spend the public money in such employment? Oh, say the +examiners, we can injure the credit of the Bank, if nothing else, Please +tell me, gentlemen, who will suffer most by that? You cannot injure, to +any extent, the stockholders. They are men of wealth--of large capital; +and consequently, beyond the power of malice. But by injuring the credit +of the Bank, you will depreciate the value of its paper in the hands of +the honest and unsuspecting farmer and mechanic, and that is all you can +do. But suppose you could effect your whole purpose; suppose you could +wipe the Bank from existence, which is the grand ultimatum of the +project, what would be the consequence? why, Sir, we should spend +several thousand dollars of the public treasure in the operation, +annihilate the currency of the State, render valueless in the hands of +our people that reward of their former labors, and finally be once more +under the comfortable obligation of paying the Wiggins loan, principal +and interest. + + + + +OPPOSITION TO MOB-RULE + +ADDRESS BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN'S LYCEUM OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. + +January 27, 1837. + +As a subject for the remarks of the evening, "The Perpetuation of our +Political Institutions" is selected. + +In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American +people, find our account running under date of the nineteenth century of +the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the +fairest portion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility +of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the +government of a system of political institutions conducing more +essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which +the history of former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of +existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental +blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them; +they are a legacy bequeathed us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, +but now lamented and departed, race of ancestors. Theirs was the +task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through +themselves us, of this goodly land, and to uprear upon its hills and its +valleys a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; it is ours only +to transmit these--the former unprofaned by the foot of an invader, the +latter undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation--to the +latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task +gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and +love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully +to perform. + +How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach +of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect +some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a +blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with +all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military +chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink +from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand +years. + +At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer: +If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from +abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and +finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die +by suicide. + +I hope I am over-wary; but if I am not, there is even now something +of ill omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which +pervades the country--the growing disposition to substitute the wild and +furious passions in lieu of the sober judgment of courts, and the +worse than savage mobs for the executive ministers of justice. This +disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now +exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a +violation of truth and an insult to our intelligence to deny. Accounts +of outrages committed by mobs form the everyday news of the times. +They have pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana; they are +neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the former nor the burning suns +of the latter; they are not the creature of climate, neither are they +confined to the slave holding or the non-slave holding States. Alike +they spring up among the pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, +and the order-loving citizens of the land of steady habits. Whatever +then their cause may be, it is common to the whole country. + +It would be tedious as well as useless to recount the horrors of all of +them. Those happening in the State of Mississippi and at St. Louis are +perhaps the most dangerous in example and revolting to humanity. In the +Mississippi case they first commenced by hanging the regular gamblers--a +set of men certainly not following for a livelihood a very useful or +very honest occupation, but one which, so far from being forbidden by +the laws, was actually licensed by an act of the Legislature passed but +a single year before. Next, negroes suspected of conspiring to raise an +insurrection were caught up and hanged in all parts of the State; +then, white men supposed to be leagued with the negroes; and finally, +strangers from neighboring States, going thither on business, were in +many instances subjected to the same fate. Thus went on this process of +hanging, from gamblers to negroes, from negroes to white citizens, and +from these to strangers, till dead men were seen literally dangling +from the boughs of trees upon every roadside, and in numbers almost +sufficient to rival the native Spanish moss of the country as a drapery +of the forest. + +Turn then to that horror-striking scene at St. Louis. A single victim +only was sacrificed there. This story is very short, and is perhaps +the most highly tragic of anything of its length that has ever been +witnessed in real life. A mulatto man by the name of McIntosh was seized +in the street, dragged to the suburbs of the city, chained to a tree, +and actually burned to death; and all within a single hour from the time +he had been a freeman attending to his own business and at peace with +the world. + +Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the scenes becoming more +and more frequent in this land so lately famed for love of law and +order, and the stories of which have even now grown too familiar to +attract anything more than an idle remark. + +But you are perhaps ready to ask, "What has this to do with the +perpetuation of our political institutions?" I answer, It has much to +do with it. Its direct consequences are, comparatively speaking, but +a small evil, and much of its danger consists in the proneness of +our minds to regard its direct as its only consequences. Abstractly +considered, the hanging of the gamblers at Vicksburg was of but little +consequence. They constitute a portion of population that is worse than +useless in any community; and their death, if no pernicious example be +set by it, is never matter of reasonable regret with any one. If +they were annually swept from the stage of existence by the plague or +smallpox, honest men would perhaps be much profited by the operation. +Similar too is the correct reasoning in regard to the burning of the +negro at St. Louis. He had forfeited his life by the perpetration of an +outrageous murder upon one of the most worthy and respectable citizens +of the city, and had he not died as he did, he must have died by the +sentence of the law in a very short time afterwards. As to him alone, +it was as well the way it was as it could otherwise have been. But the +example in either case was fearful. When men take it in their heads +to-day to hang gamblers or burn murderers, they should recollect that in +the confusion usually attending such transactions they will be as likely +to hang or burn some one who is neither a gambler nor a murderer as one +who is, and that, acting upon the example they set, the mob of to-morrow +may, and probably will, hang or burn some of them by the very same +mistake. And not only so: the innocent, those who have ever set their +faces against violations of law in every shape, alike with the guilty +fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by +step, till all the walls erected for the defense of the persons and +property of individuals are trodden down and disregarded. But all this, +even, is not the full extent of the evil. By such examples, by instances +of the perpetrators of such acts going unpunished, the lawless in spirit +are encouraged to become lawless in practice; and having been used to +no restraint but dread of punishment, they thus become absolutely +unrestrained. Having ever regarded government as their deadliest bane, +they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations, and pray for +nothing so much as its total annihilation. While, on the other hand, +good men, men who love tranquillity, who desire to abide by the laws and +enjoy their benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense +of their country, seeing their property destroyed, their families +insulted, and their lives endangered, their persons injured, and seeing +nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the better, become tired +of and disgusted with a government that offers them no protection, and +are not much averse to a change in which they imagine they have nothing +to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocratic spirit which +all must admit is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of +any government, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may +effectually be broken down and destroyed--I mean the attachment of the +people. Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever the +vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in bands +of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob +provision-stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and +hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunity, depend on +it, this government cannot last. By such things the feelings of the best +citizens will become more or less alienated from it, and thus it will +be left without friends, or with too few, and those few too weak to +make their friendship effectual. At such a time, and under such +circumstances, men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting +to seize the opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric +which for the last half century has been the fondest hope of the lovers +of freedom throughout the world. + +I know the American people are much attached to their government; I know +they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils +long and patiently before they would ever think of exchanging it for +another,--yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually +despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons +and property are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, +the alienation of their affections from the government is the natural +consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it must come. + +Here, then, is one point at which danger may be expected. + +The question recurs, How shall we fortify against it? The answer is +simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to +his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate +in the least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate +their violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the +support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the +Constitution and laws let every American pledge his life, his property, +and his sacred honor. Let every man remember that to violate the law is +to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his +own and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed +by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; +let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be +written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached +from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts +of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the +nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the +grave and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, +sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. + +While ever a state of feeling such as this shall universally or even +very generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, +and fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national freedom. + +When, I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, let me +not be understood as saying there are no bad laws, or that grievances +may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been +made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although +bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, +while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be +religiously observed. So also in unprovided cases. If such arise, let +proper legal provisions be made for them with the least possible delay, +but till then let them, if not too intolerable, be borne with. + +There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. In any +case that may arise, as, for instance, the promulgation of abolitionism, +one of two positions is necessarily true--that is, the thing is right +within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of all law and all +good citizens, or it is wrong, and therefore proper to be prohibited by +legal enactments; and in neither case is the interposition of mob law +either necessary, justifiable, or excusable. + +But it may be asked, Why suppose danger to our political institutions? +Have we not preserved them for more than fifty years? And why may we not +for fifty times as long? + +We hope there is no sufficient reason. We hope all danger may be +overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be +extremely dangerous. There are now, and will hereafter be, many causes, +dangerous in their tendency, which have not existed heretofore, and +which are not too insignificant to merit attention. That our government +should have been maintained in its original form, from its establishment +until now, is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support +it through that period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through +that period it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now it is +understood to be a successful one. Then, all that sought celebrity +and fame and distinction expected to find them in the success of that +experiment. Their all was staked upon it; their destiny was inseparably +linked with it. Their ambition aspired to display before an admiring +world a practical demonstration of the truth of a proposition which had +hitherto been considered at best no better than problematical--namely, +the capability of a people to govern themselves. If they succeeded they +were to be immortalized; their names were to be transferred to counties, +and cities, and rivers, and mountains; and to be revered and sung, +toasted through all time. If they failed, they were to be called +knaves and fools, and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink and be +forgotten. They succeeded. The experiment is successful, and thousands +have won their deathless names in making it so. But the game is caught; +and I believe it is true that with the catching end the pleasures of +the chase. This field of glory is harvested, and the crop is already +appropriated. But new reapers will arise, and they too will seek a +field. It is to deny what the history of the world tells us is true, to +suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring +up amongst us. And when they do, they will as naturally seek the +gratification of their ruling passion as others have done before them. +The question then is, Can that gratification be found in supporting +and in maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others? Most +certainly it cannot. Many great and good men, sufficiently qualified for +any task they should undertake, may ever be found whose ambition would +aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a Gubernatorial or a +Presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion, or +the tribe of the eagle. What! think you these places would satisfy an +Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon? Never! Towering genius disdains +a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no +distinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected +to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve +under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, +however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if +possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves +or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable, then, to expect that some man +possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to +push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us? And +when such an one does it will require the people to be united with each +other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, +to successfully frustrate his designs. + +Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as +willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, yet, +that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of +building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down. + +Here then is a probable case, highly dangerous, and such an one as could +not have well existed heretofore. + +Another reason which once was, but which, to the same extent, is now no +more, has done much in maintaining our institutions thus far. I mean the +powerful influence which the interesting scenes of the Revolution had +upon the passions of the people as distinguished from their judgment. By +this influence, the jealousy, envy, and avarice incident to our nature, +and so common to a state of peace, prosperity, and conscious strength, +were for the time in a great measure smothered and rendered inactive, +while the deep-rooted principles of hate, and the powerful motive of +revenge, instead of being turned against each other, were directed +exclusively against the British nation. And thus, from the force of +circumstances, the basest principles of our nature were either made to +lie dormant, or to become the active agents in the advancement of +the noblest of causes--that of establishing and maintaining civil and +religious liberty. + +But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has faded, with the +circumstances that produced it. + +I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolution are now or ever +will be entirely forgotten, but that, like everything else, they must +fade upon the memory of the world, and grow more and more dim by the +lapse of time. In history, we hope, they will be read of, and recounted, +so long as the Bible shall be read; but even granting that they will, +their influence cannot be what it heretofore has been. Even then they +cannot be so universally known nor so vividly felt as they were by the +generation just gone to rest. At the close of that struggle, nearly +every adult male had been a participator in some of its scenes. The +consequence was that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a +father, a son, or a brother, a living history was to be found in +every family--a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of its own +authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received, in +the midst of the very scenes related--a history, too, that could be read +and understood alike by all, the wise and the ignorant, the learned and +the unlearned. But those histories are gone. They can be read no more +forever. They were a fortress of strength; but what invading foeman +could never do the silent artillery of time has done--the leveling of +its walls. They are gone. They were a forest of giant oaks; but the +all-restless hurricane has swept over them, and left only here and +there a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, +unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle breezes, and to +combat with its mutilated limbs a few more ruder storms, then to sink +and be no more. + +They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they have +crumbled away that temple must fall unless we, their descendants, supply +their places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober +reason. Passion has helped us, but can do so no more. It will in future +be our enemy. Reason cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason--must +furnish all the materials for our future support and defense. Let those +materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and +in particular, a reverence for the Constitution and laws; and that we +improved to the last, that we remained free to the last, that we revered +his name to the last, that during his long sleep we permitted no hostile +foot to pass over or desecrate his resting place, shall be that which to +learn the last trump shall awaken our Washington. + +Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its +basis; and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, +"the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." + + + + +PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. + +March 3, 1837. + +The following protest was presented to the House, which was read and +ordered to be spread in the journals, to wit: + +"Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having 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 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 said +resolutions is their reason for entering this protest. + +"DAN STONE, + +"A. LINCOLN, + +"Representatives from the County of Sangamon." + + + + +TO MISS MARY OWENS. + +SPRINGFIELD, May 7, 1837. + +MISS MARY S. OWENS. + +FRIEND MARY:--I have commenced two letters to send you before this, both +of which displeased me before I got half done, and so I tore them up. +The first I thought was not serious enough, and the second was on the +other extreme. I shall send this, turn out as it may. + +This thing of living in Springfield is rather a dull business, after +all; at least it is so to me. I am quite as lonesome here as I ever was +anywhere in my life. I have been spoken to by but one woman since I have +been here, and should not have been by her if she could have avoided it. +I 've never been to church yet, and probably shall not be soon. I stay +away because I am conscious I should not know how to behave myself. + +I am often thinking of what we said about your coming to live at +Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There is a great +deal of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would be your doom +to see without sharing it. You would have to be poor, without the means +of hiding your poverty. Do you believe you could bear that patiently? +Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is +my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented; and +there is nothing I can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to +fail in the effort. I know I should be much happier with you than the +way I am, provided I saw no signs of discontent in you. What you have +said to me may have been in the way of jest, or I may have misunderstood +you. If so, then let it be forgotten; if otherwise, I much wish you +would think seriously before you decide. What I have said I will most +positively abide by, provided you wish it. My opinion is that you had +better not do it. You have not been accustomed to hardship, and it may +be more severe than you now imagine. I know you are capable of thinking +correctly on any subject, and if you deliberate maturely upon this +subject before you decide, then I am willing to abide your decision. + +You must write me a good long letter after you get this. You have +nothing else to do, and though it might not seem interesting to you +after you had written it, it would be a good deal of company to me in +this "busy wilderness." Tell your sister I don't want to hear any more +about selling out and moving. That gives me the "hypo" whenever I think +of it. + +Yours, etc., LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOHN BENNETT. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug. 5, 1837. JOHN BENNETT, ESQ. + +DEAR SIR:-Mr. Edwards tells me you wish to know whether the act to which +your own incorporation provision was attached passed into a law. It +did. You can organize under the general incorporation law as soon as you +choose. + +I also tacked a provision onto a fellow's bill to authorize the +relocation of the road from Salem down to your town, but I am not +certain whether or not the bill passed, neither do I suppose I can +ascertain before the law will be published, if it is a law. Bowling +Greene, Bennette Abe? and yourself are appointed to make the change. No +news. No excitement except a little about the election of Monday next. + +I suppose, of course, our friend Dr. Heney stands no chance in your +diggings. + +Your friend and humble servant, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MARY OWENS. + +SPRINGFIELD, Aug. 16, 1837 + +FRIEND MARY: You will no doubt think it rather strange that I should +write you a letter on the same day on which we parted, and I can only +account for it by supposing that seeing you lately makes me think of you +more than usual; while at our late meeting we had but few expressions +of thoughts. You must know that I cannot see you, or think of you, with +entire indifference; and yet it may be that you are mistaken in regard +to what my real feelings toward you are. + +If I knew you were not, I should not have troubled you with this letter. +Perhaps any other man would know enough without information; but I +consider it my peculiar right to plead ignorance, and your bounden duty +to allow the plea. + +I want in all cases to do right; and most particularly so in all cases +with women. + +I want, at this particular time, more than any thing else to do right +with you; and if I knew it would be doing right, as I rather suspect it +would, to let you alone I would do it. And, for the purpose of making +the matter as plain as possible, I now say that you can drop the +subject, dismiss your thoughts (if you ever had any) from me for ever +and leave this letter unanswered without calling forth one accusing +murmur from me. And I will even go further and say that, if it will add +anything to your comfort or peace of mind to do so, it is my sincere +wish that you should. Do not understand by this that I wish to cut your +acquaintance. I mean no such thing. What I do wish is that our further +acquaintance shall depend upon yourself. If such further acquaintance +would contribute nothing to your happiness, I am sure it would not to +mine. If you feel yourself in any degree bound to me, I am now willing +to release you, provided you wish it; while on the other hand I am +willing and even anxious to bind you faster if I can be convinced +that it will, in any considerable degree, add to your happiness. This, +indeed, is the whole question with me. Nothing would make me more +miserable than to believe you miserable, nothing more happy than to know +you were so. + +In what I have now said, I think I cannot be misunderstood; and to make +myself understood is the only object of this letter. + +If it suits you best not to answer this, farewell. A long life and +a merry one attend you. But, if you conclude to write back, speak as +plainly as I do. There can neither be harm nor danger in saying to me +anything you think, just in the manner you think it. My respects to your +sister. + +Your friend, LINCOLN. + + + + +LEGAL SUIT OF WIDOW v.s. Gen. ADAMS + +TO THE PEOPLE. + +"SANGAMON JOURNAL," SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug. 19, 1837. + +In accordance with our determination, as expressed last week, we present +to the reader the articles which were published in hand-bill form, in +reference to the case of the heirs of Joseph Anderson vs. James Adams. +These articles can now be read uninfluenced by personal or party +feeling, and with the sole motive of learning the truth. When that is +done, the reader can pass his own judgment on the matters at issue. + +We only regret in this case, that the publications were not made some +weeks before the election. Such a course might have prevented the +expressions of regret, which have often been heard since, from different +individuals, on account of the disposition they made of their votes. + +To the Public: + +It is well known to most of you, that there is existing at this time +considerable excitement in regard to Gen. Adams's titles to certain +tracts of land, and the manner in which he acquired them. As I +understand, the Gen. charges that the whole has been gotten up by a knot +of lawyers to injure his election; and as I am one of the knot to which +he refers, and as I happen to be in possession of facts connected with +the matter, I will, in as brief a manner as possible, make a statement +of them, together with the means by which I arrived at the knowledge of +them. + +Sometime in May or June last, a widow woman, by the name of Anderson, +and her son, who resides in Fulton county, came to Springfield, for +the purpose as they said of selling a ten acre lot of ground lying near +town, which they claimed as the property of the deceased husband and +father. + +When they reached town they found the land was claimed by Gen. Adams. +John T. Stuart and myself were employed to look into the matter, and if +it was thought we could do so with any prospect of success, to commence +a suit for the land. I went immediately to the recorder's office to +examine Adams's title, and found that the land had been entered by one +Dixon, deeded by Dixon to Thomas, by Thomas to one Miller, and by Miller +to Gen. Adams. The oldest of these three deeds was about ten or eleven +years old, and the latest more than five, all recorded at the same +time, and that within less than one year. This I thought a suspicious +circumstance, and I was thereby induced to examine the deeds very +closely, with a view to the discovery of some defect by which to +overturn the title, being almost convinced then it was founded in fraud. +I discovered that in the deed from Thomas to Miller, although Miller's +name stood in a sort of marginal note on the record book, it was nowhere +in the deed itself. I told the fact to Talbott, the recorder, and +proposed to him that he should go to Gen. Adams's and get the original +deed, and compare it with the record, and thereby ascertain whether +the defect was in the original or there was merely an error in the +recording. As Talbott afterwards told me, he went to the General's, but +not finding him at home, got the deed from his son, which, when compared +with the record, proved what we had discovered was merely an error of +the recorder. After Mr. Talbott corrected the record, he brought the +original to our office, as I then thought and think yet, to show us +that it was right. When he came into the room he handed the deed to me, +remarking that the fault was all his own. On opening it, another paper +fell out of it, which on examination proved to be an assignment of a +judgment in the Circuit Court of Sangamon County from Joseph Anderson, +the late husband of the widow above named, to James Adams, the judgment +being in favor of said Anderson against one Joseph Miller. Knowing that +this judgment had some connection with the land affair, I immediately +took a copy of it, which is word for word, letter for letter and cross +for cross as follows: + +Joseph Anderson, vs. Joseph Miller. + +Judgment in Sangamon Circuit Court against Joseph Miller obtained on a +note originally 25 dolls and interest thereon accrued. I assign all my +right, title and interest to James Adams which is in consideration of a +debt I owe said Adams. + +his JOSEPH x ANDERSON. mark. + +As the copy shows, it bore date May 10, 1827; although the judgment +assigned by it was not obtained until the October afterwards, as may be +seen by any one on the records of the Circuit Court. Two other strange +circumstances attended it which cannot be represented by a copy. One of +them was, that the date "1827" had first been made "1837" and, without +the figure "3," being fully obliterated, the figure "2" had afterwards +been made on top of it; the other was that, although the date was ten +years old, the writing on it, from the freshness of its appearance, was +thought by many, and I believe by all who saw it, not to be more than a +week old. The paper on which it was written had a very old appearance; +and there were some old figures on the back of it which made the +freshness of the writing on the face of it much more striking than I +suppose it otherwise might have been. The reader's curiosity is no doubt +excited to know what connection this assignment had with the land in +question. The story is this: Dixon sold and deeded the land to Thomas; +Thomas sold it to Anderson; but before he gave a deed, Anderson sold it +to Miller, and took Miller's note for the purchase money. When this +note became due, Anderson sued Miller on it, and Miller procured an +injunction from the Court of Chancery to stay the collection of the +money until he should get a deed for the land. Gen. Adams was employed +as an attorney by Anderson in this chancery suit, and at the October +term, 1827, the injunction was dissolved, and a judgment given in favor +of Anderson against Miller; and it was provided that Thomas was to +execute a deed for the land in favor of Miller and deliver it to Gen. +Adams, to be held up by him till Miller paid the judgment, and then to +deliver it to him. Miller left the county without paying the judgment. +Anderson moved to Fulton county, where he has since died When the widow +came to Springfield last May or June, as before mentioned, and found the +land deeded to Gen. Adams by Miller, she was naturally led to inquire +why the money due upon the judgment had not been sent to them, inasmuch +as he, Gen. Adams, had no authority to deliver Thomas's deed to Miller +until the money was paid. Then it was the General told her, or perhaps +her son, who came with her, that Anderson, in his lifetime, had assigned +the judgment to him, Gen. Adams. I am now told that the General is +exhibiting an assignment of the same judgment bearing date "1828" and +in other respects differing from the one described; and that he is +asserting that no such assignment as the one copied by me ever existed; +or if there did, it was forged between Talbott and the lawyers, and +slipped into his papers for the purpose of injuring him. Now, I can only +say that I know precisely such a one did exist, and that Ben. Talbott, +Wm. Butler, C.R. Matheny, John T. Stuart, Judge Logan, Robert Irwin, P. +C. Canedy and S. M. Tinsley, all saw and examined it, and that at least +one half of them will swear that IT WAS IN GENERAL ADAMS'S HANDWRITING!! +And further, I know that Talbott will swear that he got it out of the +General's possession, and returned it into his possession again. The +assignment which the General is now exhibiting purports to have been by +Anderson in writing. The one I copied was signed with a cross. + +I am told that Gen. Neale says that he will swear that he heard Gen. +Adams tell young Anderson that the assignment made by his father was +signed with a cross. + +The above are 'facts,' as stated. I leave them without comment. I have +given the names of persons who have knowledge of these facts, in order +that any one who chooses may call on them and ascertain how far they +will corroborate my statements. I have only made these statements +because I am known by many to be one of the individuals against whom +the charge of forging the assignment and slipping it into the General's +papers has been made, and because our silence might be construed into +a confession of its truth. I shall not subscribe my name; but I hereby +authorize the editor of the Journal to give it up to any one that may +call for it. + + + + +LINCOLN AND TALBOTT IN REPLY TO GEN. ADAMS. + +"SANGAMON JOURNAL," SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Oct. 28, 1837. + +In the Republican of this morning a publication of Gen. Adams's appears, +in which my name is used quite unreservedly. For this I thank the +General. I thank him because it gives me an opportunity, without +appearing obtrusive, of explaining a part of a former publication of +mine, which appears to me to have been misunderstood by many. + +In the former publication alluded to, I stated, in substance, that +Mr. Talbott got a deed from a son of Gen. Adams's for the purpose of +correcting a mistake that had occurred on the record of the said deed +in the recorder's office; that he corrected the record, and brought the +deed and handed it to me, and that on opening the deed, another paper, +being the assignment of a judgment, fell out of it. This statement +Gen. Adams and the editor of the Republican have seized upon as a most +palpable evidence of fabrication and falsehood. They set themselves +gravely about proving that the assignment could not have been in the +deed when Talbott got it from young Adams, as he, Talbott, would have +seen it when he opened the deed to correct the record. Now, the truth +is, Talbott did see the assignment when he opened the deed, or at least +he told me he did on the same day; and I only omitted to say so, in +my former publication, because it was a matter of such palpable and +necessary inference. I had stated that Talbott had corrected the record +by the deed; and of course he must have opened it; and, just as the +General and his friends argue, must have seen the assignment. I omitted +to state the fact of Talbott's seeing the assignment, because its +existence was so necessarily connected with other facts which I did +state, that I thought the greatest dunce could not but understand +it. Did I say Talbott had not seen it? Did I say anything that was +inconsistent with his having seen it before? Most certainly I did +neither; and if I did not, what becomes of the argument? These logical +gentlemen can sustain their argument only by assuming that I did say +negatively everything that I did not say affirmatively; and upon the +same assumption, we may expect to find the General, if a little harder +pressed for argument, saying that I said Talbott came to our office with +his head downward, not that I actually said so, but because I omitted to +say he came feet downward. + +In his publication to-day, the General produces the affidavit of Reuben +Radford, in which it is said that Talbott told Radford that he did not +find the assignment in the deed, in the recording of which the error +was committed, but that he found it wrapped in another paper in the +recorder's office, upon which statement the Genl. comments as follows, +to wit: "If it be true as stated by Talbott to Radford, that he +found the assignment wrapped up in another paper at his office, that +contradicts the statement of Lincoln that it fell out of the deed." + +Is common sense to be abused with such sophistry? Did I say what Talbott +found it in? If Talbott did find it in another paper at his office, is +that any reason why he could not have folded it in a deed and brought +it to my office? Can any one be so far duped as to be made believe that +what may have happened at Talbot's office at one time is inconsistent +with what happened at my office at another time? + +Now Talbott's statement of the case as he makes it to me is this, that +he got a bunch of deeds from young Adams, and that he knows he found the +assignment in the bunch, but he is not certain which particular deed it +was in, nor is he certain whether it was folded in the same deed out of +which it was taken, or another one, when it was brought to my office. Is +this a mysterious story? Is there anything suspicious about it? + +"But it is useless to dwell longer on this point. Any man who is not +wilfully blind can see at a flash, that there is no discrepancy, and +Lincoln has shown that they are not only inconsistent with truth, but +each other"--I can only say, that I have shown that he has done no such +thing; and if the reader is disposed to require any other evidence than +the General's assertion, he will be of my opinion. + +Excepting the General's most flimsy attempt at mystification, in regard +to a discrepance between Talbott and myself, he has not denied a single +statement that I made in my hand-bill. Every material statement that +I made has been sworn to by men who, in former times, were thought as +respectable as General Adams. I stated that an assignment of a judgment, +a copy of which I gave, had existed--Benj. Talbott, C. R. Matheny, Wm. +Butler, and Judge Logan swore to its existence. I stated that it was +said to be in Gen. Adams's handwriting--the same men swore it was in +his handwriting. I stated that Talbott would swear that he got it out of +Gen. Adams's possession--Talbott came forward and did swear it. + +Bidding adieu to the former publication, I now propose to examine the +General's last gigantic production. I now propose to point out some +discrepancies in the General's address; and such, too, as he shall not +be able to escape from. Speaking of the famous assignment, the General +says: "This last charge, which was their last resort, their dying +effort to render my character infamous among my fellow citizens, was +manufactured at a certain lawyer's office in the town, printed at the +office of the Sangamon Journal, and found its way into the world some +time between two days just before the last election." Now turn to Mr. +Keys' affidavit, in which you will find the following, viz.: "I +certify that some time in May or the early part of June, 1837, I saw +at Williams's corner a paper purporting to be an assignment from Joseph +Anderson to James Adams, which assignment was signed by a mark to +Anderson's name," etc. Now mark, if Keys saw the assignment on the last +of May or first of June, Gen. Adams tells a falsehood when he says +it was manufactured just before the election, which was on the 7th of +August; and if it was manufactured just before the election, Keys tells +a falsehood when he says he saw it on the last of May or first of +June. Either Keys or the General is irretrievably in for it; and in the +General's very condescending language, I say "Let them settle it between +them." + +Now again, let the reader, bearing in mind that General Adams has +unequivocally said, in one part of his address, that the charge in +relation to the assignment was manufactured just before the election, +turn to the affidavit of Peter S. Weber, where the following will be +found viz.: "I, Peter S. Weber, do certify that from the best of +my recollection, on the day or day after Gen. Adams started for the +Illinois Rapids, in May last, that I was at the house of Gen. Adams, +sitting in the kitchen, situated on the back part of the house, it being +in the afternoon, and that Benjamin Talbott came around the house, back +into the kitchen, and appeared wild and confused, and that he laid a +package of papers on the kitchen table and requested that they should be +handed to Lucian. He made no apology for coming to the kitchen, nor +for not handing them to Lucian himself, but showed the token of being +frightened and confused both in demeanor and speech and for what cause I +could not apprehend." + +Commenting on Weber's affidavit, Gen. Adams asks, "Why this fright and +confusion?" I reply that this is a question for the General himself. +Weber says that it was in May, and if so, it is most clear that Talbott +was not frightened on account of the assignment, unless the General +lies when he says the assignment charge was manufactured just before the +election. Is it not a strong evidence, that the General is not traveling +with the pole-star of truth in his front, to see him in one part of +his address roundly asserting that the assignment was manufactured +just before the election, and then, forgetting that position, procuring +Weber's most foolish affidavit, to prove that Talbott had been engaged +in manufacturing it two months before? + +In another part of his address, Gen. Adams says: "That I hold an +assignment of said judgment, dated the 20th of May, 1828, and signed +by said Anderson, I have never pretended to deny or conceal, but stated +that fact in one of my circulars previous to the election, and also +in answer to a bill in chancery." Now I pronounce this statement +unqualifiedly false, and shall not rely on the word or oath of any +man to sustain me in what I say; but will let the whole be decided by +reference to the circular and answer in chancery of which the General +speaks. In his circular he did speak of an assignment; but he did not +say it bore date 20th of May, 1828; nor did he say it bore any date. In +his answer in chancery, he did say that he had an assignment; but he +did not say that it bore date the 20th May, 1828; but so far from it, he +said on oath (for he swore to the answer) that as well as recollected, +he obtained it in 1827. If any one doubts, let him examine the circular +and answer for himself. They are both accessible. + +It will readily be observed that the principal part of Adams's defense +rests upon the argument that if he had been base enough to forge an +assignment he would not have been fool enough to forge one that would +not cover the case. This argument he used in his circular before the +election. The Republican has used it at least once, since then; and +Adams uses it again in his publication of to-day. Now I pledge myself to +show that he is just such a fool that he and his friends have contended +it was impossible for him to be. Recollect--he says he has a genuine +assignment; and that he got Joseph Klein's affidavit, stating that he +had seen it, and that he believed the signature to have been executed +by the same hand that signed Anderson's name to the answer in chancery. +Luckily Klein took a copy of this genuine assignment, which I have been +permitted to see; and hence I know it does not cover the case. In the +first place it is headed "Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph Miller," and heads +off "Judgment in Sangamon Circuit Court." Now, mark, there never was +a case in Sangamon Circuit Court entitled Joseph Anderson vs. Joseph +Miller. The case mentioned in my former publication, and the only +one between these parties that ever existed in the Circuit Court, was +entitled Joseph Miller vs. Joseph Anderson, Miller being the plaintiff. +What then becomes of all their sophistry about Adams not being fool +enough to forge an assignment that would not cover the case? It is +certain that the present one does not cover the case; and if he got +it honestly, it is still clear that he was fool enough to pay for an +assignment that does not cover the case. + +The General asks for the proof of disinterested witnesses. Whom does he +consider disinterested? None can be more so than those who have already +testified against him. No one of them had the least interest on earth, +so far as I can learn, to injure him. True, he says they had conspired +against him; but if the testimony of an angel from Heaven were +introduced against him, he would make the same charge of conspiracy. +And now I put the question to every reflecting man, Do you believe that +Benjamin Talbott, Chas. R. Matheny, William Butler and Stephen T. Logan, +all sustaining high and spotless characters, and justly proud of them, +would deliberately perjure themselves, without any motive whatever, +except to injure a man's election; and that, too, a man who had been a +candidate, time out of mind, and yet who had never been elected to any +office? + +Adams's assurance, in demanding disinterested testimony, is surpassing. +He brings in the affidavit of his own son, and even of Peter S. Weber, +with whom I am not acquainted, but who, I suppose, is some black or +mulatto boy, from his being kept in the kitchen, to prove his points; +but when such a man as Talbott, a man who, but two years ago, ran +against Gen. Adams for the office of Recorder and beat him more than +four votes to one, is introduced against him, he asks the community, +with all the consequence of a lord, to reject his testimony. + +I might easily write a volume, pointing out inconsistencies between +the statements in Adams's last address with one another, and with other +known facts; but I am aware the reader must already be tired with +the length of this article. His opening statements, that he was first +accused of being a Tory, and that he refuted that; that then the +Sampson's ghost story was got up, and he refuted that; that as a last +resort, a dying effort, the assignment charge was got up is all as false +as hell, as all this community must know. Sampson's ghost first made +its appearance in print, and that, too, after Keys swears he saw the +assignment, as any one may see by reference to the files of papers; and +Gen. Adams himself, in reply to the Sampson's ghost story, was the first +man that raised the cry of toryism, and it was only by way of set-off, +and never in seriousness, that it was bandied back at him. His effort is +to make the impression that his enemies first made the charge of toryism +and he drove them from that, then Sampson's ghost, he drove them from +that, then finally the assignment charge was manufactured just before +election. Now, the only general reply he ever made to the Sampson's +ghost and tory charges he made at one and the same time, and not in +succession as he states; and the date of that reply will show, that it +was made at least a month after the date on which Keys swears he saw the +Anderson assignment. But enough. In conclusion I will only say that I +have a character to defend as well as Gen. Adams, but I disdain to whine +about it as he does. It is true I have no children nor kitchen boys; and +if I had, I should scorn to lug them in to make affidavits for me. + +A. LINCOLN, September 6, 1837. + + + + +Gen. ADAMS CONTROVERSY--CONTINUED + +TO THE PUBLIC. + +"SANGAMON JOURNAL," Springfield, Ill, Oct.28, 1837. + +Such is the turn which things have taken lately, that when Gen. Adams +writes a book, I am expected to write a commentary on it. In the +Republican of this morning he has presented the world with a new work +of six columns in length; in consequence of which I must beg the room of +one column in the Journal. It is obvious that a minute reply cannot +be made in one column to everything that can be said in six; and, +consequently, I hope that expectation will be answered if I reply to +such parts of the General's publication as are worth replying to. + +It may not be improper to remind the reader that in his publication of +Sept. 6th General Adams said that the assignment charge was manufactured +just before the election; and that in reply I proved that statement to +be false by Keys, his own witness. Now, without attempting to explain, +he furnishes me with another witness (Tinsley) by which the same thing +is proved, to wit, that the assignment was not manufactured just before +the election; but that it was some weeks before. Let it be borne in mind +that Adams made this statement--has himself furnished two witnesses to +prove its falsehood, and does not attempt to deny or explain it. Before +going farther, let a pin be stuck here, labeled "One lie proved and +confessed." On the 6th of September he said he had before stated in +the hand-bill that he held an assignment dated May 20th, 1828, which in +reply I pronounced to be false, and referred to the hand-bill for the +truth of what I said. This week he forgets to make any explanation of +this. Let another pin be stuck here, labelled as before. I mention these +things because, if, when I convict him in one falsehood, he is permitted +to shift his ground and pass it by in silence, there can be no end to +this controversy. + +The first thing that attracts my attention in the General's present +production is the information he is pleased to give to "those who are +made to suffer at his (my) hands." + +Under present circumstances, this cannot apply to me, for I am not +a widow nor an orphan: nor have I a wife or children who might by +possibility become such. Such, however, I have no doubt, have been, +and will again be made to suffer at his hands! Hands! Yes, they are +the mischievous agents. The next thing I shall notice is his favorite +expression, "not of lawyers, doctors and others," which he is so fond of +applying to all who dare expose his rascality. Now, let it be remembered +that when he first came to this country he attempted to impose himself +upon the community as a lawyer, and actually carried the attempt so +far as to induce a man who was under a charge of murder to entrust the +defence of his life in his hands, and finally took his money and got +him hanged. Is this the man that is to raise a breeze in his favor by +abusing lawyers? If he is not himself a lawyer, it is for the lack of +sense, and not of inclination. If he is not a lawyer, he is a liar, for +he proclaimed himself a lawyer, and got a man hanged by depending on +him. + +Passing over such parts of the article as have neither fact nor argument +in them, I come to the question asked by Adams whether any person ever +saw the assignment in his possession. This is an insult to common sense. +Talbott has sworn once and repeated time and again, that he got it out +of Adams's possession and returned it into the same possession. Still, +as though he was addressing fools, he has assurance to ask if any person +ever saw it in his possession. + +Next I quote a sentence, "Now my son Lucian swears that when Talbott +called for the deed, that he, Talbott, opened it and pointed out the +error." True. His son Lucian did swear as he says; and in doing so, he +swore what I will prove by his own affidavit to be a falsehood. Turn to +Lucian's affidavit, and you will there see that Talbott called for the +deed by which to correct an error on the record. Thus it appears that +the error in question was on the record, and not in the deed. How then +could Talbott open the deed and point out the error? Where a thing is +not, it cannot be pointed out. The error was not in the deed, and of +course could not be pointed out there. This does not merely prove that +the error could not be pointed out, as Lucian swore it was; but it +proves, too, that the deed was not opened in his presence with a special +view to the error, for if it had been, he could not have failed to see +that there was no error in it. It is easy enough to see why Lucian swore +this. His object was to prove that the assignment was not in the deed +when Talbott got it: but it was discovered he could not swear this +safely, without first swearing the deed was opened--and if he swore it +was opened, he must show a motive for opening it, and the conclusion +with him and his father was that the pointing out the error would appear +the most plausible. + +For the purpose of showing that the assignment was not in the bundle +when Talbott got it, is the story introduced into Lucian's affidavit +that the deeds were counted. It is a remarkable fact, and one that +should stand as a warning to all liars and fabricators, that in this +short affidavit of Lucian's he only attempted to depart from the truth, +so far as I have the means of knowing, in two points, to wit, in the +opening the deed and pointing out the error and the counting of the +deeds,--and in both of these he caught himself. About the counting, he +caught himself thus--after saying the bundle contained five deeds and +a lease, he proceeds, "and I saw no other papers than the said deed and +lease." First he has six papers, and then he saw none but two; for "my +son Lucian's" benefit, let a pin be stuck here. + +Adams again adduces the argument, that he could not have forged the +assignment, for the reason that he could have had no motive for it. With +those that know the facts there is no absence of motive. Admitting the +paper which he has filed in the suit to be genuine, it is clear that it +cannot answer the purpose for which he designs it. Hence his motive for +making one that he supposed would answer is obvious. His making the date +too old is also easily enough accounted for. The records were not in his +hands, and then, there being some considerable talk upon this particular +subject, he knew he could not examine the records to ascertain the +precise dates without subjecting himself to suspicion; and hence he +concluded to try it by guess, and, as it turned out, missed it a little. +About Miller's deposition I have a word to say. In the first place, +Miller's answer to the first question shows upon its face that he had +been tampered with, and the answer dictated to him. He was asked if he +knew Joel Wright and James Adams; and above three-fourths of his answer +consists of what he knew about Joseph Anderson, a man about whom nothing +had been asked, nor a word said in the question--a fact that can only be +accounted for upon the supposition that Adams had secretly told him what +he wished him to swear to. + +Another of Miller's answers I will prove both by common sense and the +Court of Record is untrue. To one question he answers, "Anderson brought +a suit against me before James Adams, then an acting justice of the +peace in Sangamon County, before whom he obtained a judgment. + +"Q.--Did you remove the same by injunction to the Sangamon Circuit +Court? Ans.--I did remove it." + +Now mark--it is said he removed it by injunction. The word "injunction" +in common language imports a command that some person or thing shall +not move or be removed; in law it has the same meaning. An injunction +issuing out of chancery to a justice of the peace is a command to him to +stop all proceedings in a named case until further orders. It is not an +order to remove but to stop or stay something that is already moving. +Besides this, the records of the Sangamon Circuit Court show that the +judgment of which Miller swore was never removed into said Court by +injunction or otherwise. + +I have now to take notice of a part of Adams's address which in the +order of time should have been noticed before. It is in these words: +"I have now shown, in the opinion of two competent judges, that the +handwriting of the forged assignment differed from mine, and by one of +them that it could not be mistaken for mine." That is false. Tinsley no +doubt is the judge referred to; and by reference to his certificate it +will be seen that he did not say the handwriting of the assignment +could not be mistaken for Adams's--nor did he use any other expression +substantially, or anything near substantially, the same. But if Tinsley +had said the handwriting could not be mistaken for Adams's, it would +have been equally unfortunate for Adams: for it then would have +contradicted Keys, who says, "I looked at the writing and judged it the +said Adams's or a good imitation." + +Adams speaks with much apparent confidence of his success on attending +lawsuits, and the ultimate maintenance of his title to the land in +question. Without wishing to disturb the pleasure of his dream, I would +say to him that it is not impossible that he may yet be taught to sing a +different song in relation to the matter. + +At the end of Miller's deposition, Adams asks, "Will Mr. Lincoln now say +that he is almost convinced my title to this ten acre tract of land +is founded in fraud?" I answer, I will not. I will now change the +phraseology so as to make it run--I am quite convinced, &c. I cannot +pass in silence Adams's assertion that he has proved that the forged +assignment was not in the deed when it came from his house by Talbott, +the recorder. In this, although Talbott has sworn that the assignment +was in the bundle of deeds when it came from his house, Adams has +the unaccountable assurance to say that he has proved the contrary by +Talbott. Let him or his friends attempt to show wherein he proved any +such thing by Talbott. + +In his publication of the 6th of September he hinted to Talbott, that +he might be mistaken. In his present, speaking of Talbott and me he says +"They may have been imposed upon." Can any man of the least penetration +fail to see the object of this? After he has stormed and raged till he +hopes and imagines he has got us a little scared he wishes to softly +whisper in our ears, "If you'll quit I will." If he could get us to say +that some unknown, undefined being had slipped the assignment into +our hands without our knowledge, not a doubt remains but that he would +immediately discover that we were the purest men on earth. This is the +ground he evidently wishes us to understand he is willing to compromise +upon. But we ask no such charity at his hands. We are neither mistaken +nor imposed upon. We have made the statements we have because we know +them to be true and we choose to live or die by them. + +Esq. Carter, who is Adams's friend, personal and political, will +recollect, that, on the 5th of this month, he (Adams), with a great +affectation of modesty, declared that he would never introduce his own +child as a witness. Notwithstanding this affectation of modesty, he has +in his present publication introduced his child as witness; and as if to +show with how much contempt he could treat his own declaration, he +has had this same Esq. Carter to administer the oath to him. And so +important a witness does he consider him, and so entirely does the whole +of his entire present production depend upon the testimony of his child, +that in it he has mentioned "my son," "my son Lucian," "Lucian, my son," +and the like expressions no less than fifteen different times. Let it +be remembered here, that I have shown the affidavit of "my darling son +Lucian" to be false by the evidence apparent on its own face; and I now +ask if that affidavit be taken away what foundation will the fabric have +left to stand upon? + +General Adams's publications and out-door maneuvering, taken in +connection with the editorial articles of the Republican, are not more +foolish and contradictory than they are ludicrous and amusing. One +week the Republican notifies the public that Gen. Adams is preparing +an instrument that will tear, rend, split, rive, blow up, confound, +overwhelm, annihilate, extinguish, exterminate, burst asunder, and grind +to powder all its slanderers, and particularly Talbott and Lincoln--all +of which is to be done in due time. + +Then for two or three weeks all is calm--not a word said. Again the +Republican comes forth with a mere passing remark that "public" opinion +has decided in favor of Gen. Adams, and intimates that he will give +himself no more trouble about the matter. In the meantime Adams himself +is prowling about and, as Burns says of the devil, "For prey, and holes +and corners tryin'," and in one instance goes so far as to take an old +acquaintance of mine several steps from a crowd and, apparently weighed +down with the importance of his business, gravely and solemnly asks him +if "he ever heard Lincoln say he was a deist." + +Anon the Republican comes again. "We invite the attention of the public +to General Adams's communication," &c. "The victory is a great one, the +triumph is overwhelming." I really believe the editor of the Illinois +Republican is fool enough to think General Adams leads off--"Authors +most egregiously mistaken &c. Most woefully shall their presumption be +punished," &c. (Lord have mercy on us.) "The hour is yet to come, yea, +nigh at hand--(how long first do you reckon?)--when the Journal and its +junto shall say, I have appeared too early." "Their infamy shall be laid +bare to the public gaze." Suddenly the General appears to relent at the +severity with which he is treating us and he exclaims: "The condemnation +of my enemies is the inevitable result of my own defense." For your +health's sake, dear Gen., do not permit your tenderness of heart to +afflict you so much on our account. For some reason (perhaps because we +are killed so quickly) we shall never be sensible of our suffering. + +Farewell, General. I will see you again at court if not before--when and +where we will settle the question whether you or the widow shall have +the land. + +A. LINCOLN. October 18, 1837. + + + + +1838 + + + + +TO Mrs. O. H. BROWNING--A FARCE + +SPRINGFIELD, April 1, 1838. + +DEAR MADAM:--Without apologizing for being egotistical, 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 and suffered +since I saw you, I shall necessarily have to relate some that happened +before. + +It was, then, in the autumn of 1836 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 despatch. I, of course, accepted the proposal, for you know +I could not have done otherwise had I really been averse to it; but +privately, between 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 company, 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 ever 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 mentioned. In a few days we +had an interview, and, although 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-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 had +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 coming 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 continually repenting the +rashness which had led me to make it. Through life, I have been in no +bondage, either real or imaginary, from the thraldom of which I so much +desired to be free. After my return home, I saw nothing to change my +opinions of her in any particular. She was the same, and so was I. I now +spent my time in planning how I might get along through 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 Irishman does the halter. + +After all my suffering upon this deeply interesting subject, here I am, +wholly, unexpectedly, completely, out of the "scrape"; and now I 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 her 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 endurance. I was mortified, it seemed +to me, in a hundred different ways. My vanity was deeply wounded by the +reflection that I had 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. But let it all go. I'll try and outlive it. +Others have been made fools of by the girls, but this can never with +truth be said of me. I most emphatically in this instance, 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 any one 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. LINCOLN. + + + + +1839 + + + + +REMARKS ON SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS + +IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, January 17, 1839. + +Mr. Lincoln, from Committee on Finance, to which the subject was +referred, made a report on the subject of purchasing of the United +States all the unsold lands lying within the limits of the State of +Illinois, accompanied by resolutions that this State propose to purchase +all unsold lands at twenty-five cents per acre, and pledging the faith +of the State to carry the proposal into effect if the government accept +the same within two years. + +Mr. Lincoln thought the resolutions ought to be seriously considered. In +reply to the gentleman from Adams, he said that it was not to enrich the +State. The price of the lands may be raised, it was thought by some; by +others, that it would be reduced. The conclusion in his mind was that +the representatives in this Legislature from the country in which +the lands lie would be opposed to raising the price, because it would +operate against the settlement of the lands. He referred to the lands in +the military tract. They had fallen into the hands of large speculators +in consequence of the low price. He was opposed to a low price of land. +He thought it was adverse to the interests of the poor settler, because +speculators buy them up. He was opposed to a reduction of the price of +public lands. + +Mr. Lincoln referred to some official documents emanating from Indiana, +and compared the progressive population of the two States. Illinois +had gained upon that State under the public land system as it is. His +conclusion was that ten years from this time Illinois would have no more +public land unsold than Indiana now has. He referred also to Ohio. That +State had sold nearly all her public lands. She was but twenty years +ahead of us, and as our lands were equally salable--more so, as he +maintained--we should have no more twenty years from now than she has at +present. + +Mr. Lincoln referred to the canal lands, and supposed that the policy of +the State would be different in regard to them, if the representatives +from that section of country could themselves choose the policy; but the +representatives from other parts of the State had a veto upon it, and +regulated the policy. He thought that if the State had all the lands, +the policy of the Legislature would be more liberal to all sections. + +He referred to the policy of the General Government. He thought that +if the national debt had not been paid, the expenses of the government +would not have doubled, as they had done since that debt was paid. + + + + +TO ------ ROW. + +SPRINGFIELD, June 11, 1839 DEAR ROW: + +Mr. Redman informs me that you wish me to write you the particulars of +a conversation between Dr. Felix and myself relative to you. The Dr. +overtook me between Rushville and Beardstown. + +He, after learning that I had lived at Springfield, asked if I was +acquainted with you. I told him I was. He said you had lately been +elected constable in Adams, but that you never would be again. I asked +him why. He said the people there had found out that you had been +sheriff or deputy sheriff in Sangamon County, and that you came off and +left your securities to suffer. He then asked me if I did not know such +to be the fact. I told him I did not think you had ever been sheriff or +deputy sheriff in Sangamon, but that I thought you had been constable. I +further told him that if you had left your securities to suffer in that +or any other case, I had never heard of it, and that if it had been so, +I thought I would have heard of it. + +If the Dr. is telling that I told him anything against you whatever, I +authorize you to contradict it flatly. We have no news here. + +Your friend, as ever, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +SPEECH ON NATIONAL BANK + +IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, December 20, 1839. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--It is peculiarly embarrassing to me to attempt a +continuance of the discussion, on this evening, which has been conducted +in this hall on several preceding ones. It is so because on each of +those evenings there was a much fuller attendance than now, without any +reason for its being so, except the greater interest the community feel +in the speakers who addressed them then than they do in him who is to do +so now. I am, indeed, apprehensive that the few who have attended +have done so more to spare me mortification than in the hope of being +interested in anything I may be able to say. This circumstance casts +a damp upon my spirits, which I am sure I shall be unable to overcome +during the evening. But enough of preface. + +The subject heretofore and now to be discussed is the subtreasury scheme +of the present administration, as a means of collecting, safe-keeping, +transferring, and disbursing, the revenues of the nation, as contrasted +with a national bank for the same purposes. Mr. Douglas has said that we +(the Whigs) have not dared to meet them (the Locos) in argument on this +question. I protest against this assertion. I assert that we have again +and again, during this discussion, urged facts and arguments against +the subtreasury which they have neither dared to deny nor attempted to +answer. But lest some may be led to believe that we really wish to avoid +the question, I now propose, in my humble way, to urge those arguments +again; at the same time begging the audience to mark well the positions +I shall take and the proof I shall offer to sustain them, and that they +will not again permit Mr. Douglas or his friends to escape the force of +them by a round and groundless assertion that we "dare not meet them in +argument." + +Of the subtreasury, then, as contrasted with a national bank for the +before-enumerated purposes, I lay down the following propositions, to +wit: (1) It will injuriously affect the community by its operation on +the circulating medium. (2) It will be a more expensive fiscal agent. +(3) It will be a less secure depository of the public money. To show +the truth of the first proposition, let us take a short review of our +condition under the operation of a national bank. It was the depository +of the public revenues. Between the collection of those revenues and the +disbursement of them by the government, the bank was permitted to and +did actually loan them out to individuals, and hence the large amount of +money actually collected for revenue purposes, which by any other +plan would have been idle a great portion of the time, was kept almost +constantly in circulation. Any person who will reflect that money is +only valuable while in circulation will readily perceive that any device +which will keep the government revenues in constant circulation, instead +of being locked up in idleness, is no inconsiderable advantage. By the +subtreasury the revenue is to be collected and kept in iron boxes until +the government wants it for disbursement; thus robbing the people of the +use of it, while the government does not itself need it, and while the +money is performing no nobler office than that of rusting in iron boxes. +The natural effect of this change of policy, every one will see, is +to reduce the quantity of money in circulation. But, again, by +the subtreasury scheme the revenue is to be collected in specie. I +anticipate that this will be disputed. I expect to hear it said that +it is not the policy of the administration to collect the revenue +in specie. If it shall, I reply that Mr. Van Buren, in his message +recommending the subtreasury, expended nearly a column of that document +in an attempt to persuade Congress to provide for the collection of the +revenue in specie exclusively; and he concludes with these words: + +"It may be safely assumed that no motive of convenience to the citizens +requires the reception of bank paper." In addition to this, Mr. +Silas Wright, Senator from New York, and the political, personal and +confidential friend of Mr. Van Buren, drafted and introduced into the +Senate the first subtreasury bill, and that bill provided for ultimately +collecting the revenue in specie. It is true, I know, that that clause +was stricken from the bill, but it was done by the votes of the Whigs, +aided by a portion only of the Van Buren senators. No subtreasury +bill has yet become a law, though two or three have been considered by +Congress, some with and some without the specie clause; so that I +admit there is room for quibbling upon the question of whether the +administration favor the exclusive specie doctrine or not; but I take it +that the fact that the President at first urged the specie doctrine, +and that under his recommendation the first bill introduced embraced it, +warrants us in charging it as the policy of the party until their head +as publicly recants it as he at first espoused it. I repeat, then, that +by the subtreasury the revenue is to be collected in specie. Now mark +what the effect of this must be. By all estimates ever made there are +but between sixty and eighty millions of specie in the United States. +The expenditures of the Government for the year 1838--the last for which +we have had the report--were forty millions. Thus it is seen that if the +whole revenue be collected in specie, it will take more than half of all +the specie in the nation to do it. By this means more than half of all +the specie belonging to the fifteen millions of souls who compose the +whole population of the country is thrown into the hands of the public +office-holders, and other public creditors comprising in number perhaps +not more than one quarter of a million, leaving the other fourteen +millions and three quarters to get along as they best can, with less +than one half of the specie of the country, and whatever rags and +shinplasters they may be able to put, and keep, in circulation. By +this means, every office-holder and other public creditor may, and +most likely will, set up shaver; and a most glorious harvest will the +specie-men have of it,--each specie-man, upon a fair division, having to +his share the fleecing of about fifty-nine rag-men. In all candor let me +ask, was such a system for benefiting the few at the expense of the many +ever before devised? And was the sacred name of Democracy ever before +made to indorse such an enormity against the rights of the people? + +I have already said that the subtreasury will reduce the quantity of +money in circulation. This position is strengthened by the recollection +that the revenue is to be collected in Specie, so that the mere amount +of revenue is not all that is withdrawn, but the amount of paper +circulation that the forty millions would serve as a basis to is +withdrawn, which would be in a sound state at least one hundred +millions. When one hundred millions, or more, of the circulation we +now have shall be withdrawn, who can contemplate without terror the +distress, ruin, bankruptcy, and beggary that must follow? The man +who has purchased any article--say a horse--on credit, at one hundred +dollars, when there are two hundred millions circulating in the country, +if the quantity be reduced to one hundred millions by the arrival of +pay-day, will find the horse but sufficient to pay half the debt; and +the other half must either be paid out of his other means, and thereby +become a clear loss to him, or go unpaid, and thereby become a clear +loss to his creditor. What I have here said of a single case of the +purchase of a horse will hold good in every case of a debt existing at +the time a reduction in the quantity of money occurs, by whomsoever, and +for whatsoever, it may have been contracted. It may be said that +what the debtor loses the creditor gains by this operation; but on +examination this will be found true only to a very limited extent. It is +more generally true that all lose by it--the creditor by losing more of +his debts than he gains by the increased value of those he collects; the +debtor by either parting with more of his property to pay his debts +than he received in contracting them, or by entirely breaking up his +business, and thereby being thrown upon the world in idleness. + +The general distress thus created will, to be sure, be temporary, +because, whatever change may occur in the quantity of money in any +community, time will adjust the derangement produced; but while that +adjustment is progressing, all suffer more or less, and very many lose +everything that renders life desirable. Why, then, shall we suffer a +severe difficulty, even though it be but temporary, unless we receive +some equivalent for it? + +What I have been saying as to the effect produced by a reduction of the +quantity of money relates to the whole country. I now propose to +show that it would produce a peculiar and permanent hardship upon the +citizens of those States and Territories in which the public lands lie. +The land-offices in those States and Territories, as all know, form the +great gulf by which all, or nearly all, the money in them is swallowed +up. When the quantity of money shall be reduced, and consequently +everything under individual control brought down in proportion, the +price of those lands, being fixed by law, will remain as now. Of +necessity it will follow that the produce or labor that now raises money +sufficient to purchase eighty acres will then raise but sufficient +to purchase forty, or perhaps not that much; and this difficulty and +hardship will last as long, in some degree, as any portion of these +lands shall remain undisposed of. Knowing, as I well do, the difficulty +that poor people now encounter in procuring homes, I hesitate not to say +that when the price of the public lands shall be doubled or trebled, or, +which is the same thing, produce and labor cut down to one half or one +third of their present prices, it will be little less than impossible +for them to procure those homes at all.... + +Well, then, what did become of him? (Postmaster General Barry) Why, the +President immediately expressed his high disapprobation of his almost +unequaled incapacity and corruption by appointing him to a foreign +mission, with a salary and outfit of $18,000 a year! The party now +attempt to throw Barry off, and to avoid the responsibility of his sins. +Did not the President indorse those sins when, on the very heel of +their commission, he appointed their author to the very highest and most +honorable office in his gift, and which is but a single step behind the +very goal of American political ambition? + +I return to another of Mr. Douglas's excuses for the expenditures of +1838, at the same time announcing the pleasing intelligence that this is +the last one. He says that ten millions of that year's expenditure was +a contingent appropriation, to prosecute an anticipated war with Great +Britain on the Maine boundary question. Few words will settle this. +First, that the ten millions appropriated was not made till 1839, and +consequently could not have been expended in 1838; second, although it +was appropriated, it has never been expended at all. Those who heard Mr. +Douglas recollect that he indulged himself in a contemptuous expression +of pity for me. "Now he's got me," thought I. But when he went on to +say that five millions of the expenditure of 1838 were payments of the +French indemnities, which I knew to be untrue; that five millions had +been for the post-office, which I knew to be untrue; that ten millions +had been for the Maine boundary war, which I not only knew to be untrue, +but supremely ridiculous also; and when I saw that he was stupid enough +to hope that I would permit such groundless and audacious assertions to +go unexposed,--I readily consented that, on the score both of veracity +and sagacity, the audience should judge whether he or I were the more +deserving of the world's contempt. + +Mr. Lamborn insists that the difference between the Van Buren party and +the Whigs is that, although the former sometimes err in practice, +they are always correct in principle, whereas the latter are wrong in +principle; and, better to impress this proposition, he uses a figurative +expression in these words: "The Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, +but they are sound in the head and the heart." The first branch of the +figure--that is, that the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel--I admit +is not merely figuratively, but literally true. Who that looks but for +a moment at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their Harringtons, and their +hundreds of others, scampering away with the public money to Texas, to +Europe, and to every spot of the earth where a villain may hope to find +refuge from justice, can at all doubt that they are most distressingly +affected in their heels with a species of "running itch"? It seems +that this malady of their heels operates on these sound-headed and +honest-hearted creatures very much like the cork leg in the comic song +did on its owner: which, when he had once got started on it, the more he +tried to stop it, the more it would run away. At the hazard of wearing +this point threadbare, I will relate an anecdote which seems too +strikingly in point to be omitted. A witty Irish soldier, who was always +boasting of his bravery when no danger was near, but who invariably +retreated without orders at the first charge of an engagement, being +asked by his captain why he did so, replied: "Captain, I have as brave a +heart as Julius Caesar ever had; but, somehow or other, whenever +danger approaches, my cowardly legs will run away with it." So with Mr. +Lamborn's party. They take the public money into their hand for the +most laudable purpose that wise heads and honest hearts can dictate; but +before they can possibly get it out again, their rascally "vulnerable +heels" will run away with them. + +Seriously this proposition of Mr. Lamborn is nothing more or less than +a request that his party may be tried by their professions instead of +their practices. Perhaps no position that the party assumes is more +liable to or more deserving of exposure than this very modest request; +and nothing but the unwarrantable length to which I have already +extended these remarks forbids me now attempting to expose it. For the +reason given, I pass it by. + +I shall advert to but one more point. Mr. Lamborn refers to the late +elections in the States, and from their results confidently predicts +that every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the next +Presidential election. Address that argument to cowards and to knaves; +with the free and the brave it will effect nothing. It may be true; if +it must, let it. Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours +may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was +the last to desert, but that I never deserted her. I know that the great +volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that +reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political corruption in a +current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity +over the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave +unscathed no green spot or living thing; while on its bosom are riding, +like demons on the waves of hell, the imps of that evil spirit, and +fiendishly taunting all those who dare resist its destroying course with +the hopelessness of their effort; and, knowing this, I cannot deny that +all may be swept away. Broken by it I, too, may be; bow to it I never +will. The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to +deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not +deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those +dimensions not wholly unworthy of its almighty Architect, it is when I +contemplate the cause of my country deserted by all the world beside, +and I standing up boldly and alone, and hurling defiance at her +victorious oppressors. Here, without contemplating consequences, before +high heaven and in the face of the world, I swear eternal fidelity to +the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and +my love. And who that thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt the oath +that I take? Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. +But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so. We still shall have the +proud consolation of saying to our consciences, and to the departed +shade of our country's freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment, +and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, +we never faltered in defending. + + + + +TO JOHN T. STUART. + +SPRINGFIELD, December 23, 1839. + +DEAR STUART: + +Dr. Henry will write you all the political news. I write this about some +little matters of business. You recollect you told me you had drawn the +Chicago Masark money, and sent it to the claimants. A hawk-billed Yankee +is here besetting me at every turn I take, saying that Robert Kinzie +never received the eighty dollars to which he was entitled. Can you tell +me anything about the matter? Again, old Mr. Wright, who lives up South +Fork somewhere, is teasing me continually about some deeds which he says +he left with you, but which I can find nothing of. Can you tell me where +they are? The Legislature is in session and has suffered the bank to +forfeit its charter without benefit of clergy. There seems to be little +disposition to resuscitate it. + +Whenever a letter comes from you to Mrs.____________ I carry it to her, +and then I see Betty; she is a tolerable nice "fellow" now. Maybe I will +write again when I get more time. + +Your friend as ever, A. LINCOLN + +P. S.--The Democratic giant is here, but he is not much worth talking +about. A.L. + + + + +1840 + + + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + +Confidential. + +January [1?], 1840. + +To MESSRS ------ + +GENTLEMEN:--In obedience to a resolution of the Whig State convention, +we have appointed you the Central Whig Committee of your county. The +trust confided to you will be one of watchfulness and labor; but we hope +the glory of having contributed to the overthrow of the corrupt powers +that now control our beloved country will be a sufficient reward for the +time and labor you will devote to it. Our Whig brethren throughout the +Union have met in convention, and after due deliberation and +mutual concessions have elected candidates for the Presidency and +Vice-Presidency not only worthy of our cause, but worthy of the support +of every true patriot who would have our country redeemed, and her +institutions honestly and faithfully administered. To overthrow the +trained bands that are opposed to us whose salaried officers are ever +on the watch, and whose misguided followers are ever ready to obey their +smallest commands, every Whig must not only know his duty, but must +firmly resolve, whatever of time and labor it may cost, boldly and +faithfully to do it. Our intention is to organize the whole State, so +that every Whig can be brought to the polls in the coming Presidential +contest. We cannot do this, however, without your co-operation; and +as we do our duty, so we shall expect you to do yours. After due +deliberation, the following is the plan of organization, and the duties +required of each county committee: + +(1) To divide their county into small districts, and to appoint in each +a subcommittee, whose duty it shall be to make a perfect list of all the +voters in their respective districts, and to ascertain with certainty +for whom they will vote. If they meet with men who are doubtful as to +the man they will support, such voters should be designated in separate +lines, with the name of the man they will probably support. + +(2) It will be the duty of said subcommittee to keep a constant watch on +the doubtful voters, and from time to time have them talked to by those +in whom they have the most confidence, and also to place in their hands +such documents as will enlighten and influence them. + +(3) It will also be their duty to report to you, at least once a month, +the progress they are making, and on election days see that every Whig +is brought to the polls. + +(4) The subcommittees should be appointed immediately; and by the last +of April, at least, they should make their first report. + +(5) On the first of each month hereafter we shall expect to hear from +you. After the first report of your subcommittees, unless there should +be found a great many doubtful voters, you can tell pretty accurately +the manner in which your county will vote. In each of your letters to +us, you will state the number of certain votes both for and against us, +as well as the number of doubtful votes, with your opinion of the manner +in which they will be cast. + +(6) When we have heard from all the counties, we shall be able to +tell with similar accuracy the political complexion of the State. This +information will be forwarded to you as soon as received. + +(7) Inclosed is a prospectus for a newspaper to be continued until after +the Presidential election. It will be superintended by ourselves, and +every Whig in the State must take it. It will be published so low that +every one can afford it. You must raise a fund and forward us for extra +copies,--every county ought to send--fifty or one hundred dollars,--and +the copies will be forwarded to you for distribution among our political +opponents. The paper will be devoted exclusively to the great cause +in which we are engaged. Procure subscriptions, and forward them to us +immediately. + +(8) Immediately after any election in your county, you must inform us of +its results; and as early as possible after any general election we will +give you the like information. + +(9) A senator in Congress is to be elected by our next Legislature. Let +no local interests divide you, but select candidates that can succeed. + +(10) Our plan of operations will of course be concealed from every one +except our good friends who of right ought to know them. + +Trusting much in our good cause, the strength of our candidates, and +the determination of the Whigs everywhere to do their duty, we go to +the work of organization in this State confident of success. We have +the numbers, and if properly organized and exerted, with the gallant +Harrison at our head, we shall meet our foes and conquer them in all +parts of the Union. + +Address your letters to Dr. A. G. Henry, R. F, Barrett; A. Lincoln, E. +D. Baker, J. F. Speed. + + + + +TO JOHN T. STUART. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 1, 1840 + +DEAR STUART: + +I have never seen the prospects of our party so bright in these parts +as they are now. We shall carry this county by a larger majority than +we did in 1836, when you ran against May. I do not think my prospects, +individually, are very flattering, for I think it probable I shall +not be permitted to be a candidate; but the party ticket will succeed +triumphantly. Subscriptions to the "Old Soldier" pour in without +abatement. This morning I took from the post office a letter from Dubois +enclosing the names of sixty subscribers, and on carrying it to Francis +I found he had received one hundred and forty more from other quarters +by the same day's mail. That is but an average specimen of every day's +receipts. Yesterday Douglas, having chosen to consider himself insulted +by something in the Journal, undertook to cane Francis in the street. +Francis caught him by the hair and jammed him back against a market cart +where the matter ended by Francis being pulled away from him. The +whole affair was so ludicrous that Francis and everybody else (Douglass +excepted) have been laughing about it ever since. + +I send you the names of some of the V.B. men who have come out for +Harrison about town, and suggest that you send them some documents. + +Moses Coffman (he let us appoint him a delegate yesterday), Aaron +Coffman, George Gregory, H. M. Briggs, Johnson (at Birchall's +Bookstore), Michael Glyn, Armstrong (not Hosea nor Hugh, but a +carpenter), Thomas Hunter, Moses Pileher (he was always a Whig and +deserves attention), Matthew Crowder Jr., Greenberry Smith; John Fagan, +George Fagan, William Fagan (these three fell out with us about Early, +and are doubtful now), John M. Cartmel, Noah Rickard, John Rickard, +Walter Marsh. + +The foregoing should be addressed at Springfield. + +Also send some to Solomon Miller and John Auth at Salisbury. Also to +Charles Harper, Samuel Harper, and B. C. Harper, and T. J. Scroggins, +John Scroggins at Pulaski, Logan County. + +Speed says he wrote you what Jo Smith said about you as he passed here. +We will procure the names of some of his people here, and send them to +you before long. Speed also says you must not fail to send us the New +York Journal he wrote for some time since. + +Evan Butler is jealous that you never send your compliments to him. You +must not neglect him next time. + +Your friend, as ever, A. LINCOLN + + + + +RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +November 28, 1840. + +In the Illinois House of Representatives, November 28, 1840, Mr. Lincoln +offered the following: + +Resolved, That so much of the governor's message as relates to +fraudulent voting, and other fraudulent practices at elections, be +referred to the Committee on Elections, with instructions to said +committee to prepare and report to the House a bill for such an act as +may in their judgment afford the greatest possible protection of the +elective franchise against all frauds of all sorts whatever. + + + + +RESOLUTION IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +December 2, 1840. + +Resolved, That the Committee on Education be instructed to inquire +into the expediency of providing by law for the examination as to the +qualification of persons offering themselves as school teachers, that no +teacher shall receive any part of the public school fund who shall not +have successfully passed such examination, and that they report by bill +or otherwise. + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +December 4, 1840 + +In the House of Representatives, Illinois, December 4, 1840, on +presentation of a report respecting petition of H. N. Purple, claiming +the seat of Mr. Phelps from Peoria, Mr. Lincoln moved that the House +resolve itself into Committee of the Whole on the question, and take +it up immediately. Mr. Lincoln considered the question of the highest +importance whether an individual had a right to sit in this House or +not. The course he should propose would be to take up the evidence and +decide upon the facts seriatim. + +Mr. Drummond wanted time; they could not decide in the heat of debate, +etc. + +Mr. Lincoln thought that the question had better be gone into now. +In courts of law jurors were required to decide on evidence, without +previous study or examination. They were required to know nothing of +the subject until the evidence was laid before them for their immediate +decision. He thought that the heat of party would be augmented by delay. + +The Speaker called Mr. Lincoln to order as being irrelevant; no mention +had been made of party heat. + +Mr. Drummond said he had only spoken of debate. Mr. Lincoln asked what +caused the heat, if it was not party? Mr. Lincoln concluded by urging +that the question would be decided now better than hereafter, and he +thought with less heat and excitement. + +(Further debate, in which Lincoln participated.) + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +December 4, 1840. + +In the Illinois House of Representatives, December 4, 1840, House in +Committee of the Whole on the bill providing for payment of interest on +the State debt,--Mr. Lincoln moved to strike out the body and amendments +of the bill, and insert in lieu thereof an amendment which in substance +was that the governor be authorized to issue bonds for the payment of +the interest; that these be called "interest bonds"; that the taxes +accruing on Congress lands as they become taxable be irrevocably set +aside and devoted as a fund to the payment of the interest bonds. Mr. +Lincoln went into the reasons which appeared to him to render this plan +preferable to that of hypothecating the State bonds. By this course we +could get along till the next meeting of the Legislature, which was +of great importance. To the objection which might be urged that these +interest bonds could not be cashed, he replied that if our other bonds +could, much more could these, which offered a perfect security, a fund +being irrevocably set aside to provide for their redemption. To another +objection, that we should be paying compound interest, he would reply +that the rapid growth and increase of our resources was in so great a +ratio as to outstrip the difficulty; that his object was to do the best +that could be done in the present emergency. All agreed that the faith +of the State must be preserved; this plan appeared to him preferable +to a hypothecation of bonds, which would have to be redeemed and the +interest paid. How this was to be done, he could not see; therefore he +had, after turning the matter over in every way, devised this measure, +which would carry us on till the next Legislature. + +(Mr. Lincoln spoke at some length, advocating his measure.) + +Lincoln advocated his measure, December 11, 1840. + +December 12, 1840, he had thought some permanent provision ought to be +made for the bonds to be hypothecated, but was satisfied taxation and +revenue could not be connected with it now. + + + + +1841 + + + + +TO JOHN T. STUART--ON DEPRESSION + +SPRINGFIELD, Jan 23, 1841 + +DEAR STUART: I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were +equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one +cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell; I +awfully forbode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die +or be better, as it appears to me.... I fear I shall be unable to attend +any business here, and a change of scene might help me. If I could be +myself, I would rather remain at home with Judge Logan. I can write no +more. + + + + +REMARKS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. + +January 23, 1841 + +In the House of Representatives January 23, 1841, while discussing the +continuation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Mr. Moore was afraid +the holders of the "scrip" would lose. + +Mr. Napier thought there was no danger of that; and Mr. Lincoln said he +had not examined to see what amount of scrip would probably be needed. +The principal point in his mind was this, that nobody was obliged to +take these certificates. It is altogether voluntary on their part, and +if they apprehend it will fall in their hands they will not take it. +Further the loss, if any there be, will fall on the citizens of that +section of the country. + +This scrip is not going to circulate over an extensive range of country, +but will be confined chiefly to the vicinity of the canal. Now, we find +the representatives of that section of the country are all in favor of +the bill. + +When we propose to protect their interests, they say to us: Leave us +to take care of ourselves; we are willing to run the risk. And this +is reasonable; we must suppose they are competent to protect their own +interests, and it is only fair to let them do it. + + + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + +February 9, 1841. + +Appeal to the People of the State of Illinois. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:--When the General Assembly, now about adjourning, +assembled in November last, from the bankrupt state of the public +treasury, the pecuniary embarrassments prevailing in every department +of society, the dilapidated state of the public works, and the impending +danger of the degradation of the State, you had a right to expect +that your representatives would lose no time in devising and adopting +measures to avert threatened calamities, alleviate the distresses of +the people, and allay the fearful apprehensions in regard to the future +prosperity of the State. It was not expected by you that the spirit of +party would take the lead in the councils of the State, and make every +interest bend to its demands. Nor was it expected that any party would +assume to itself the entire control of legislation, and convert the +means and offices of the State, and the substance of the people, into +aliment for party subsistence. Neither could it have been expected by +you that party spirit, however strong its desires and unreasonable +its demands, would have passed the sanctuary of the Constitution, and +entered with its unhallowed and hideous form into the formation of the +judiciary system. + +At the early period of the session, measures were adopted by the +dominant party to take possession of the State, to fill all public +offices with party men, and make every measure affecting the interests +of the people and the credit of the State operate in furtherance of +their party views. The merits of men and measures therefore became the +subject of discussion in caucus, instead of the halls of legislation, +and decisions there made by a minority of the Legislature have been +executed and carried into effect by the force of party discipline, +without any regard whatever to the rights of the people or the interests +of the State. The Supreme Court of the State was organized, and judges +appointed, according to the provisions of the Constitution, in 1824. +The people have never complained of the organization of that court; no +attempt has ever before been made to change that department. Respect for +public opinion, and regard for the rights and liberties of the people, +have hitherto restrained the spirit of party from attacks upon the +independence and integrity of the judiciary. The same judges have +continued in office since 1824; their decisions have not been the +subject of complaint among the people; the integrity and honesty of the +court have not been questioned, and it has never been supposed that +the court has ever permitted party prejudice or party considerations +to operate upon their decisions. The court was made to consist of four +judges, and by the Constitution two form a quorum for the transaction +of business. With this tribunal, thus constituted, the people have +been satisfied for near sixteen years. The same law which organized the +Supreme Court in 1824 also established and organized circuit courts +to be held in each county in the State, and five circuit judges were +appointed to hold those courts. In 1826 the Legislature abolished these +circuit courts, repealed the judges out of office, and required the +judges of the Supreme Court to hold the circuit courts. The reasons +assigned for this change were, first, that the business of the country +could be better attended to by the four judges of the Supreme Court than +by the two sets of judges; and, second, the state of the public treasury +forbade the employment of unnecessary officers. In 1828 a circuit was +established north of the Illinois River, in order to meet the wants of +the people, and a circuit judge was appointed to hold the courts in that +circuit. + +In 1834 the circuit-court system was again established throughout the +State, circuit judges appointed to hold the courts, and the judges of +the Supreme Court were relieved from the performance of circuit court +duties. The change was recommended by the then acting governor of the +State, General W. L. D. Ewing, in the following terms: + +"The augmented population of the State, the multiplied number of +organized counties, as well as the increase of business in all, has +long since convinced every one conversant with this department of +our government of the indispensable necessity of an alteration in +our judiciary system, and the subject is therefore recommended to the +earnest patriotic consideration of the Legislature. The present system +has never been exempt from serious and weighty objections. The idea of +appealing from the circuit court to the same judges in the Supreme Court +is recommended by little hopes of redress to the injured party below. +The duties of the circuit, too, it may be added, consume one half of the +year, leaving a small and inadequate portion of time (when that required +for domestic purposes is deducted) to erect, in the decisions of the +Supreme Court, a judicial monument of legal learning and research, +which the talent and ability of the court might otherwise be entirely +competent to." + +With this organization of circuit courts the people have never +complained. The only complaints which we have heard have come from +circuits which were so large that the judges could not dispose of the +business, and the circuits in which Judges Pearson and Ralston lately +presided. + +Whilst the honor and credit of the State demanded legislation upon the +subject of the public debt, the canal, the unfinished public works, and +the embarrassments of the people, the judiciary stood upon a basis +which required no change--no legislative action. Yet the party in power, +neglecting every interest requiring legislative action, and wholly +disregarding the rights, wishes, and interests of the people, has, for +the unholy purpose of providing places for its partisans and supplying +them with large salaries, disorganized that department of the +government. Provision is made for the election of five party judges +of the Supreme Court, the proscription of four circuit judges, and the +appointment of party clerks in more than half the counties of the +State. Men professing respect for public opinion, and acknowledged to be +leaders of the party, have avowed in the halls of legislation that +the change in the judiciary was intended to produce political results +favorable to their party and party friends. The immutable principles +of justice are to make way for party interests, and the bonds of social +order are to be rent in twain, in order that a desperate faction may +be sustained at the expense of the people. The change proposed in the +judiciary was supported upon grounds so destructive to the institutions +of the country, and so entirely at war with the rights and liberties +of the people, that the party could not secure entire unanimity in its +support, three Democrats of the Senate and five of the House voting +against the measure. They were unwilling to see the temples of justice +and the seats of independent judges occupied by the tools of faction. +The declarations of the party leaders, the selection of party men for +judges, and the total disregard for the public will in the adoption of +the measure, prove conclusively that the object has been not reform, but +destruction; not the advancement of the highest interests of the State, +but the predominance of party. + +We cannot in this manner undertake to point out all the objections to +this party measure; we present you with those stated by the Council +of Revision upon returning the bill, and we ask for them a candid +consideration. + +Believing that the independence of the judiciary has been destroyed, +that hereafter our courts will be independent of the people, and +entirely dependent upon the Legislature; that our rights of property +and liberty of conscience can no longer be regarded as safe from the +encroachments of unconstitutional legislation; and knowing of no other +remedy which can be adopted consistently with the peace and good order +of society, we call upon you to avail yourselves of the opportunity +afforded, and, at the next general election, vote for a convention of +the people. + + S. H. LITTLE, + E. D. BAKER, + J. J. HARDIN, + E. B. WEBS, + A. LINCOLN, + J. GILLESPIE, + + Committee on behalf of the Whig members of the Legislature. + + + + +AGAINST THE REORGANIZATION OF THE JUDICIARY. + +EXTRACT FROM A PROTEST IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE + +February 26, 1841 + +For the reasons thus presented, and for others no less apparent, the +undersigned cannot assent to the passage of the bill, or permit it to +become a law, without this evidence of their disapprobation; and they +now protest against the reorganization of the judiciary, because--(1) +It violates the great principles of free government by subjecting the +judiciary to the Legislature. (2) It is a fatal blow at the independence +of the judges and the constitutional term of their office. (3) It is a +measure not asked for, or wished for, by the people. (4) It will greatly +increase the expense of our courts, or else greatly diminish their +utility. (5) It will give our courts a political and partisan character, +thereby impairing public confidence in their decisions. (6) It will +impair our standing with other States and the world. (7)It is a party +measure for party purposes, from which no practical good to the people +can possibly arise, but which may be the source of immeasurable evils. + +The undersigned are well aware that this protest will be altogether +unavailing with the majority of this body. The blow has already fallen, +and we are compelled to stand by, the mournful spectators of the ruin it +will cause. + +[Signed by 35 members, among whom was Abraham Lincoln.] + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--MURDER CASE + +SPRINGFIELD June 19, 1841. + +DEAR SPEED:--We have had the highest state of excitement here for a week +past that our community has ever witnessed; and, although the public +feeling is somewhat allayed, the curious affair which aroused it is very +far from being even yet cleared of mystery. It would take a quire of +paper to give you anything like a full account of it, and I therefore +only propose a brief outline. The chief personages in the drama are +Archibald Fisher, supposed to be murdered, and Archibald Trailor, Henry +Trailor, and William Trailor, supposed to have murdered him. The three +Trailors are brothers: the first, Arch., as you know, lives in town; +the second, Henry, in Clary's Grove; and the third, William, in Warren +County; and Fisher, the supposed murdered, being without a family, had +made his home with William. On Saturday evening, being the 29th of May, +Fisher and William came to Henry's in a one-horse dearborn, and there +stayed over Sunday; and on Monday all three came to Springfield (Henry +on horseback) and joined Archibald at Myers's, the Dutch carpenter. +That evening at supper Fisher was missing, and so next morning some +ineffectual search was made for him; and on Tuesday, at one o'clock +P.M., William and Henry started home without him. In a day or two Henry +and one or two of his Clary-Grove neighbors came back for him again, and +advertised his disappearance in the papers. The knowledge of the matter +thus far had not been general, and here it dropped entirely, till about +the 10th instant, when Keys received a letter from the postmaster in +Warren County, that William had arrived at home, and was telling a very +mysterious and improbable story about the disappearance of Fisher, which +induced the community there to suppose he had been disposed of unfairly. +Keys made this letter public, which immediately set the whole town and +adjoining county agog. And so it has continued until yesterday. The mass +of the people commenced a systematic search for the dead body, while +Wickersham was despatched to arrest Henry Trailor at the Grove, and Jim +Maxcy to Warren to arrest William. On Monday last, Henry was brought in, +and showed an evident inclination to insinuate that he knew Fisher to be +dead, and that Arch. and William had killed him. He said he guessed the +body could be found in Spring Creek, between the Beardstown road and +Hickox's mill. Away the people swept like a herd of buffalo, and cut +down Hickox's mill-dam nolens volens, to draw the water out of the pond, +and then went up and down and down and up the creek, fishing and raking, +and raking and ducking and diving for two days, and, after all, no dead +body found. + +In the meantime a sort of scuffling-ground had been found in the brush +in the angle, or point, where the road leading into the woods past +the brewery and the one leading in past the brick-yard meet. From the +scuffle-ground was the sign of something about the size of a man having +been dragged to the edge of the thicket, where it joined the track +of some small-wheeled carriage drawn by one horse, as shown by the +road-tracks. The carriage-track led off toward Spring Creek. Near this +drag-trail Dr. Merryman found two hairs, which, after a long scientific +examination, he pronounced to be triangular human hairs, which term, he +says, includes within it the whiskers, the hair growing under the arms +and on other parts of the body; and he judged that these two were of the +whiskers, because the ends were cut, showing that they had flourished in +the neighborhood of the razor's operations. On Thursday last Jim Maxcy +brought in William Trailor from Warren. On the same day Arch. was +arrested and put in jail. Yesterday (Friday) William was put upon his +examining trial before May and Lovely. Archibald and Henry were both +present. Lamborn prosecuted, and Logan, Baker, and your humble servant +defended. A great many witnesses were introduced and examined, but I +shall only mention those whose testimony seemed most important. The +first of these was Captain Ransdell. He swore that when William and +Henry left Springfield for home on Tuesday before mentioned they did not +take the direct route,--which, you know, leads by the butcher shop,--but +that they followed the street north until they got opposite, or nearly +opposite, May's new house, after which he could not see them from where +he stood; and it was afterwards proved that in about an hour after they +started, they came into the street by the butcher shop from toward the +brickyard. Dr. Merryman and others swore to what is stated about the +scuffle-ground, drag-trail, whiskers, and carriage tracks. Henry was +then introduced by the prosecution. He swore that when they started for +home they went out north, as Ransdell stated, and turned down west +by the brick-yard into the woods, and there met Archibald; that they +proceeded a small distance farther, when he was placed as a sentinel to +watch for and announce the approach of any one that might happen that +way; that William and Arch. took the dearborn out of the road a small +distance to the edge of the thicket, where they stopped, and he saw +them lift the body of a man into it; that they then moved off with the +carriage in the direction of Hickox's mill, and he loitered about for +something like an hour, when William returned with the carriage, but +without Arch., and said they had put him in a safe place; that they went +somehow he did not know exactly how--into the road close to the brewery, +and proceeded on to Clary's Grove. He also stated that some time during +the day William told him that he and Arch. had killed Fisher the evening +before; that the way they did it was by him William knocking him down +with a club, and Arch. then choking him to death. + +An old man from Warren, called Dr. Gilmore, was then introduced on +the part of the defense. He swore that he had known Fisher for several +years; that Fisher had resided at his house a long time at each of two +different spells--once while he built a barn for him, and once while +he was doctored for some chronic disease; that two or three years ago +Fisher had a serious hurt in his head by the bursting of a gun, since +which he had been subject to continued bad health and occasional +aberration of mind. He also stated that on last Tuesday, being the same +day that Maxcy arrested William Trailor, he (the doctor) was from home +in the early part of the day, and on his return, about eleven o'clock, +found Fisher at his house in bed, and apparently very unwell; that he +asked him how he came from Springfield; that Fisher said he had come by +Peoria, and also told of several other places he had been at more in the +direction of Peoria, which showed that he at the time of speaking did +not know where he had been wandering about in a state of derangement. +He further stated that in about two hours he received a note from one of +Trailor's friends, advising him of his arrest, and requesting him to go +on to Springfield as a witness, to testify as to the state of Fisher's +health in former times; that he immediately set off, calling up two +of his neighbors as company, and, riding all evening and all night, +overtook Maxcy and William at Lewiston in Fulton County; that Maxcy +refusing to discharge Trailor upon his statement, his two neighbors +returned and he came on to Springfield. Some question being made as to +whether the doctor's story was not a fabrication, several acquaintances +of his (among whom was the same postmaster who wrote Keys, as before +mentioned) were introduced as sort of compurgators, who swore that they +knew the doctor to be of good character for truth and veracity, and +generally of good character in every way. + +Here the testimony ended, and the Trailors were discharged, Arch. and +William expressing both in word and manner their entire confidence that +Fisher would be found alive at the doctor's by Galloway, Mallory, and +Myers, who a day before had been despatched for that purpose; which +Henry still protested that no power on earth could ever show Fisher +alive. Thus stands this curious affair. When the doctor's story +was first made public, it was amusing to scan and contemplate the +countenances and hear the remarks of those who had been actively in +search for the dead body: some looked quizzical, some melancholy, and +some furiously angry. Porter, who had been very active, swore he always +knew the man was not dead, and that he had not stirred an inch to hunt +for him; Langford, who had taken the lead in cutting down Hickox's +mill-dam, and wanted to hang Hickox for objecting, looked most +awfully woebegone: he seemed the "victim of unrequited affection," as +represented in the comic almanacs we used to laugh over; and Hart, the +little drayman that hauled Molly home once, said it was too damned bad +to have so much trouble, and no hanging after all. + +I commenced this letter on yesterday, since which I received yours of +the 13th. I stick to my promise to come to Louisville. Nothing new here +except what I have written. I have not seen ______ since my last trip, +and I am going out there as soon as I mail this letter. + +Yours forever, LINCOLN. + + + + +STATEMENT ABOUT HARRY WILTON. + +June 25, 1841 + +It having been charged in some of the public prints that Harry Wilton, +late United States marshal for the district of Illinois, had used his +office for political effect, in the appointment of deputies for the +taking of the census for the year 1840, we, the undersigned, were called +upon by Mr. Wilton to examine the papers in his possession relative +to these appointments, and to ascertain therefrom the correctness or +incorrectness of such charge. We accompanied Mr. Wilton to a room, and +examined the matter as fully as we could with the means afforded us. The +only sources of information bearing on the subject which were submitted +to us were the letters, etc., recommending and opposing the various +appointments made, and Mr. Wilton's verbal statements concerning the +same. From these letters, etc., it appears that in some instances +appointments were made in accordance with the recommendations of leading +Whigs, and in opposition to those of leading Democrats; among which +instances the appointments at Scott, Wayne, Madison, and Lawrence are +the strongest. According to Mr. Wilton's statement of the seventy-six +appointments we examined, fifty-four were of Democrats, eleven of Whigs, +and eleven of unknown politics. + +The chief ground of complaint against Mr. Wilton, as we had understood +it, was because of his appointment of so many Democratic candidates for +the Legislature, thus giving them a decided advantage over their +Whig opponents; and consequently our attention was directed rather +particularly to that point. We found that there were many such +appointments, among which were those in Tazewell, McLean, Iroquois, +Coles, Menard, Wayne, Washington, Fayette, etc.; and we did not +learn that there was one instance in which a Whig candidate for the +Legislature had been appointed. There was no written evidence before +us showing us at what time those appointments were made; but Mr. Wilton +stated that they all with one exception were made before those +appointed became candidates for the Legislature, and the letters, etc., +recommending them all bear date before, and most of them long before, +those appointed were publicly announced candidates. + +We give the foregoing naked facts and draw no conclusions from them. + +BEND. S. EDWARDS, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MISS MARY SPEED--PRACTICAL SLAVERY + +BLOOMINGTON, ILL., September 27, 1841. + +Miss Mary Speed, Louisville, Ky. + +MY FRIEND: By the way, a fine example was presented on board the boat +for contemplating the effect of condition upon human happiness. A +gentleman had purchased twelve negroes in different 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 fastened to the main chain by a shorter one, at a convenient +distance from the others, so that the negroes were strung together +precisely like so many fish upon a trotline. 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 ruthless +and unrelenting than any other; 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 offence for which he +had been sold was an overfondness 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 Springfield 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. + +Your sincere friend, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1842 + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--ON MARRIAGE + +January 30, 1842. + +MY DEAR SPEED:--Feeling, as you know I do, the deepest solicitude for +the success of the enterprise you are engaged in, I adopt this as the +last method I can adopt to aid you, in case (which God forbid!) you +shall need any aid. I do not place what I am going to say on paper +because I can say it better that way than I could by word of mouth, but, +were I to say it orally before we part, most likely you would forget +it at the very time when it might do you some good. As I think it +reasonable that you will feel very badly some time between this and the +final consummation of your purpose, it is intended that you shall read +this just at such a time. Why I say it is reasonable that you will feel +very badly yet, is because of three special causes added to the general +one which I shall mention. + +The general cause is, that you are naturally of a nervous temperament; +and this I say from what I have seen of you personally, and what you +have told me concerning your mother at various times, and concerning +your brother William at the time his wife died. The first special cause +is your exposure to bad weather on your journey, which my experience +clearly proves to be very severe on defective nerves. The second is the +absence of all business and conversation of friends, which might divert +your mind, give it occasional rest from the intensity of thought which +will sometimes wear the sweetest idea threadbare and turn it to the +bitterness of death. The third is the rapid and near approach of that +crisis on which all your thoughts and feelings concentrate. + +If from all these causes you shall escape and go through triumphantly, +without another "twinge of the soul," I shall be most happily but most +egregiously deceived. If, on the contrary, you shall, as I expect you +will at sometime, be agonized and distressed, let me, who have some +reason to speak with judgment on such a subject, beseech you to ascribe +it to the causes I have mentioned, and not to some false and ruinous +suggestion of the Devil. + +"But," you will say, "do not your causes apply to every one engaged in +a like undertaking?" By no means. The particular causes, to a greater +or less extent, perhaps do apply in all cases; but the general +one,--nervous debility, which is the key and conductor of all +the particular ones, and without which they would be utterly +harmless,--though it does pertain to you, does not pertain to one in a +thousand. It is out of this that the painful difference between you and +the mass of the world springs. + +I know what the painful point with you is at all times when you are +unhappy; it is an apprehension that you do not love her as you should. +What nonsense! How came you to court her? Was it because you thought she +deserved it, and that you had given her reason to expect it? If it was +for that why did not the same reason make you court Ann Todd, and at +least twenty others of whom you can think, and to whom it would apply +with greater force than to her? Did you court her for her wealth? Why, +you know she had none. But you say you reasoned yourself into it. What +do you mean by that? Was it not that you found yourself unable to reason +yourself out of it? Did you not think, and partly form the purpose, of +courting her the first time you ever saw her or heard of her? What had +reason to do with it at that early stage? There was nothing at that time +for reason to work upon. Whether she was moral, amiable, sensible, +or even of good character, you did not, nor could then know, except, +perhaps, you might infer the last from the company you found her in. + +All you then did or could know of her was her personal appearance and +deportment; and these, if they impress at all, impress the heart, and +not the head. + +Say candidly, were not those heavenly black eyes the whole basis of all +your early reasoning on the subject? After you and I had once been at +the residence, did you not go and take me all the way to Lexington and +back, for no other purpose but to get to see her again, on our return +on that evening to take a trip for that express object? What earthly +consideration would you take to find her scouting and despising you, and +giving herself up to another? But of this you have no apprehension; and +therefore you cannot bring it home to your feelings. + +I shall be so anxious about you that I shall want you to write by every +mail. + +Your friend, LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 3, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Your letter of the 25th January came to hand to-day. You +well know that I do not feel my own sorrows much more keenly than I do +yours, when I know of them; and yet I assure you I was not much hurt by +what you wrote me of your excessively bad feeling at the time you wrote. +Not that I am less capable of sympathizing with you now than ever, not +that I am less your friend than ever, but because I hope and believe +that your present anxiety and distress about her health and her life +must and will forever banish those horrid doubts which I know you +sometimes felt as to the truth of your affection for her. If they can +once and forever be removed (and I almost feel a presentiment that the +Almighty has sent your present affliction expressly for that object), +surely nothing can come in their stead to fill their immeasurable +measure of misery. The death-scenes of those we love are surely painful +enough; but these we are prepared for and expect to see: they happen to +all, and all know they must happen. Painful as they are, they are not +an unlooked for sorrow. Should she, as you fear, be destined to an early +grave, it is indeed a great consolation to know that she is so well +prepared to meet it. Her religion, which you once disliked so much, +I will venture you now prize most highly. But I hope your melancholy +bodings as to her early death are not well founded. I even hope that +ere this reaches you she will have returned with improved and still +improving health, and that you will have met her, and forgotten the +sorrows of the past in the enjoyments of the present. I would say more +if I could, but it seems that I have said enough. It really appears +to me that you yourself ought to rejoice, and not sorrow, at this +indubitable evidence of your undying affection for her. Why, Speed, if +you did not love her although you might not wish her death, you would +most certainly be resigned to it. Perhaps this point is no longer +a question with you, and my pertinacious dwelling upon it is a rude +intrusion upon your feelings. If so, you must pardon me. You know the +hell I have suffered on that point, and how tender I am upon it. You +know I do not mean wrong. I have been quite clear of "hypo" since you +left, even better than I was along in the fall. I have seen ______ but +once. She seemed very cheerful, and so I said nothing to her about what +we spoke of. + +Old Uncle Billy Herndon is dead, and it is said this evening that Uncle +Ben Ferguson will not live. This, I believe, is all the news, and enough +at that unless it were better. Write me immediately on the receipt of +this. + +Your friend, as ever, LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--ON DEPRESSION + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, February 13, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 1st instant came to hand three or four days +ago. When this shall reach you, you will have been Fanny's husband +several days. You know my desire to befriend you is everlasting; that +I will never cease while I know how to do anything. But you will always +hereafter be on ground that I have never occupied, and consequently, +if advice were needed, I might advise wrong. I do fondly hope, however, +that you will never again need any comfort from abroad. But should I be +mistaken in this, should excessive pleasure still be accompanied with +a painful counterpart at times, still let me urge you, as I have ever +done, to remember, in the depth and even agony of despondency, that very +shortly you are to feel well again. I am now fully convinced that you +love her as ardently as you are capable of loving. Your ever being happy +in her presence, and your intense anxiety about her health, if there +were nothing else, would place this beyond all dispute in my mind. I +incline to think it probable that your nerves will fail you occasionally +for a while; but once you get them firmly guarded now that trouble is +over forever. I think, if I were you, in case my mind were not exactly +right, I would avoid being idle. I would immediately engage in some +business, or go to making preparations for it, which would be the same +thing. If you went through the ceremony calmly, or even with sufficient +composure not to excite alarm in any present, you are safe beyond +question, and in two or three months, to say the most, will be the +happiest of men. + +I would desire you to give my particular respects to Fanny; but perhaps +you will not wish her to know you have received this, lest she should +desire to see it. Make her write me an answer to my last letter to her; +at any rate I would set great value upon a note or letter from her. +Write me whenever you have leisure. Yours forever, A. LINCOLN. P. S.--I +have been quite a man since you left. + + + + +TO G. B. SHELEDY. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Feb. 16, 1842. + +G. B. SHELEDY, ESQ.: + +Yours of the 10th is duly received. Judge Logan and myself are doing +business together now, and we are willing to attend to your cases as you +propose. As to the terms, we are willing to attend each case you prepare +and send us for $10 (when there shall be no opposition) to be sent in +advance, or you to know that it is safe. It takes $5.75 of cost to +start upon, that is, $1.75 to clerk, and $2 to each of two publishers +of papers. Judge Logan thinks it will take the balance of $20 to carry +a case through. This must be advanced from time to time as the services +are performed, as the officers will not act without. I do not know +whether you can be admitted an attorney of the Federal court in your +absence or not; nor is it material, as the business can be done in our +names. + +Thinking it may aid you a little, I send you one of our blank forms of +Petitions. It, you will see, is framed to be sworn to before the Federal +court clerk, and, in your cases, will have [to] be so far changed as to +be sworn to before the clerk of your circuit court; and his certificate +must be accompanied with his official seal. The schedules, too, must +be attended to. Be sure that they contain the creditors' names, their +residences, the amounts due each, the debtors' names, their residences, +and the amounts they owe, also all property and where located. + +Also be sure that the schedules are all signed by the applicants as well +as the Petition. Publication will have to be made here in one paper, +and in one nearest the residence of the applicant. Write us in each case +where the last advertisement is to be sent, whether to you or to what +paper. + +I believe I have now said everything that can be of any advantage. Your +friend as ever, A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO GEORGE E. PICKETT--ADVICE TO YOUTH + +February 22, 1842. + +I never encourage deceit, and falsehood, especially if you have got a +bad memory, is the worst enemy a fellow can have. The fact is truth +is your truest friend, no matter what the circumstances are. +Notwithstanding this copy-book preamble, my boy, I am inclined to +suggest a little prudence on your part. You see I have a congenital +aversion to failure, and the sudden announcement to your Uncle Andrew of +the success of your "lamp rubbing" might possibly prevent your passing +the severe physical examination to which you will be subjected in order +to enter the Military Academy. You see I should like to have a perfect +soldier credited to dear old Illinois--no broken bones, scalp wounds, +etc. So I think it might be wise to hand this letter from me in to +your good uncle through his room-window after he has had a comfortable +dinner, and watch its effect from the top of the pigeon-house. + +I have just told the folks here in Springfield on this 111th anniversary +of the birth of him whose name, mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, +still mightiest in the cause of moral reformation, we mention in solemn +awe, in naked, deathless splendor, that the one victory we can ever call +complete will be that one which proclaims that there is not one slave or +one drunkard on the face of God's green earth. Recruit for this victory. + +Now, boy, on your march, don't you go and forget the old maxim that "one +drop of honey catches more flies than a half-gallon of gall." Load your +musket with this maxim, and smoke it in your pipe. + + + + +ADDRESS BEFORE THE SPRINGFIELD WASHINGTONIAN TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, + +FEBRUARY 22, 1842. + +Although the temperance cause has been in progress for near twenty +years, it is apparent to all that it is just now being crowned with a +degree of success hitherto unparalleled. + +The list of its friends is daily swelled by the additions of fifties, of +hundreds, and of thousands. The cause itself seems suddenly transformed +from a cold abstract theory to a living, breathing, active, and powerful +chieftain, going forth "conquering and to conquer." The citadels of his +great adversary are daily being stormed and dismantled; his temple and +his altars, where the rites of his idolatrous worship have long been +performed, and where human sacrifices have long been wont to be made, +are daily desecrated and deserted. The triumph of the conqueror's fame +is sounding from hill to hill, from sea to sea, and from land to land, +and calling millions to his standard at a blast. + +For this new and splendid success we heartily rejoice. That that success +is so much greater now than heretofore is doubtless owing to rational +causes; and if we would have it continue, we shall do well to inquire +what those causes are. + +The warfare heretofore waged against the demon intemperance has somehow +or other been erroneous. Either the champions engaged or the tactics +they adopted have not been the most proper. These champions for the most +part have been preachers, lawyers, and hired agents. Between these and +the mass of mankind there is a want of approachability, if the term +be admissible, partially, at least, fatal to their success. They are +supposed to have no sympathy of feeling or interest with those very +persons whom it is their object to convince and persuade. + +And again, it is so common and so easy to ascribe motives to men of +these classes other than those they profess to act upon. The preacher, +it is said, advocates temperance because he is a fanatic, and desires a +union of the Church and State; the lawyer from his pride and vanity of +hearing himself speak; and the hired agent for his salary. But when one +who has long been known as a victim of intemperance bursts the fetters +that have bound him, and appears before his neighbors "clothed and in +his right mind," a redeemed specimen of long-lost humanity, and stands +up, with tears of joy trembling in his eyes, to tell of the miseries +once endured, now to be endured no more forever; of his once naked and +starving children, now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife long weighed +down with woe, weeping, and a broken heart, now restored to health, +happiness, and a renewed affection; and how easily it is all done, once +it is resolved to be done; how simple his language! there is a logic and +an eloquence in it that few with human feelings can resist. They cannot +say that he desires a union of Church and State, for he is not a church +member; they cannot say he is vain of hearing himself speak, for his +whole demeanor shows he would gladly avoid speaking at all; they cannot +say he speaks for pay, for he receives none, and asks for none. Nor can +his sincerity in any way be doubted, or his sympathy for those he would +persuade to imitate his example be denied. + +In my judgment, it is to the battles of this new class of champions +that our late success is greatly, perhaps chiefly, owing. But, had the +old-school champions themselves been of the most wise selecting, was +their system of tactics the most judicious? It seems to me it was +not. Too much denunciation against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers +was indulged in. This I think was both impolitic and unjust. It was +impolitic, because it is not much in the nature of man to be driven to +anything; still less to be driven about that which is exclusively his +own business; and least of all where such driving is to be submitted +to at the expense of pecuniary interest or burning appetite. When the +dram-seller and drinker were incessantly told not in accents of entreaty +and persuasion, diffidently addressed by erring man to an erring +brother, but in the thundering tones of anathema and denunciation with +which the lordly judge often groups together all the crimes of the +felon's life, and thrusts them in his face just ere he passes sentence +of death upon him that they were the authors of all the vice and misery +and crime in the land; that they were the manufacturers and material of +all the thieves and robbers and murderers that infest the earth; that +their houses were the workshops of the devil; and that their persons +should be shunned by all the good and virtuous, as moral pestilences--I +say, when they were told all this, and in this way, it is not wonderful +that they were slow to acknowledge the truth of such denunciations, +and to join the ranks of their denouncers in a hue and cry against +themselves. + +To have expected them to do otherwise than they did to have expected +them not to meet denunciation with denunciation, crimination with +crimination, and anathema with anathema--was to expect a reversal of +human nature, which is God's decree and can never be reversed. + +When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, +unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true +maxim that "a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall." +So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him +that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches +his heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his +reason; and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble +in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed that +cause really be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his +judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned +and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues +to his head and his heart; and though your cause be naked truth itself, +transformed to the heaviest lance, harder than steel, and sharper than +steel can be made, and though you throw it with more than herculean +force and precision, you shall be no more able to pierce him than to +penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, +and so must he be understood by those who would lead him, even to his +own best interests. + +On this point the Washingtonians greatly excel the temperance advocates +of former times. Those whom they desire to convince and persuade are +their old friends and companions. They know they are not demons, nor +even the worst of men; they know that generally they are kind, generous, +and charitable even beyond the example of their more staid and sober +neighbors. They are practical philanthropists; and they glow with +a generous and brotherly zeal that mere theorizers are incapable of +feeling. Benevolence and charity possess their hearts entirely; and out +of the abundance of their hearts their tongues give utterance; "love +through all their actions runs, and all their words are mild." In this +spirit they speak and act, and in the same they are heard and regarded. +And when such is the temper of the advocate, and such of the audience, +no good cause can be unsuccessful. But I have said that denunciations +against dramsellers and dram-drinkers are unjust, as well as impolitic. +Let us see. I have not inquired at what period of time the use of +intoxicating liquors commenced; nor is it important to know. It is +sufficient that, to all of us who now inhabit the world, the practice of +drinking them is just as old as the world itself that is, we have seen +the one just as long as we have seen the other. When all such of us as +have now reached the years of maturity first opened our eyes upon +the stage of existence, we found intoxicating liquor recognized by +everybody, used by everybody, repudiated by nobody. It commonly entered +into the first draught of the infant and the last draught of the dying +man. From the sideboard of the parson down to the ragged pocket of the +houseless loafer, it was constantly found. Physicians proscribed it in +this, that, and the other disease; government provided it for soldiers +and sailors; and to have a rolling or raising, a husking or "hoedown," +anywhere about without it was positively insufferable. So, too, it was +everywhere a respectable article of manufacture and merchandise. The +making of it was regarded as an honorable livelihood, and he who could +make most was the most enterprising and respectable. Large and small +manufactories of it were everywhere erected, in which all the earthly +goods of their owners were invested. Wagons drew it from town to town; +boats bore it from clime to clime, and the winds wafted it from nation +to nation; and merchants bought and sold it, by wholesale and retail, +with precisely the same feelings on the part of the seller, buyer, and +bystander as are felt at the selling and buying of ploughs, beef, bacon, +or any other of the real necessaries of life. Universal public opinion +not only tolerated but recognized and adopted its use. + +It is true that even then it was known and acknowledged that many were +greatly injured by it; but none seemed to think the injury arose from +the use of a bad thing, but from the abuse of a very good thing. The +victims of it were to be pitied and compassionated, just as are the +heirs of consumption and other hereditary diseases. Their failing was +treated as a misfortune, and not as a crime, or even as a disgrace. If, +then, what I have been saying is true, is it wonderful that some should +think and act now as all thought and acted twenty years ago? and is it +just to assail, condemn, or despise them for doing so? The universal +sense of mankind on any subject is an argument, or at least an +influence, not easily overcome. The success of the argument in favor +of the existence of an overruling Providence mainly depends upon that +sense; and men ought not in justice to be denounced for yielding to it +in any case, or giving it up slowly, especially when they are backed by +interest, fixed habits, or burning appetites. + +Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reformers fell, was +the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly incorrigible, and +therefore must be turned adrift and damned without remedy in order that +the grace of temperance might abound, to the temperate then, and to all +mankind some hundreds of years thereafter. There is in this some +thing so repugnant to humanity, so uncharitable, so cold-blooded and +feelingless, that it, never did nor ever can enlist the enthusiasm of a +popular cause. We could not love the man who taught it we could not hear +him with patience. The heart could not throw open its portals to it, +the generous man could not adopt it--it could not mix with his blood. +It looked so fiendishly selfish, so like throwing fathers and brothers +overboard to lighten the boat for our security, that the noble-minded +shrank from the manifest meanness of the thing. And besides this, the +benefits of a reformation to be effected by such a system were too +remote in point of time to warmly engage many in its behalf. Few can +be induced to labor exclusively for posterity, and none will do it +enthusiastically. --Posterity has done nothing for us; and, theorize on +it as we may, practically we shall do very little for it, unless we are +made to think we are at the same time doing something for ourselves. + +What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit to ask or to expect +a whole community to rise up and labor for the temporal happiness of +others, after themselves shall be consigned to the dust, a majority +of which community take no pains whatever to secure their own eternal +welfare at no more distant day! Great distance in either time or +space has wonderful power to lull and render quiescent the human mind. +Pleasures to be enjoyed, or pains to be endured, after we shall be dead +and gone are but little regarded even in our own cases, and much less +in the cases of others. Still, in addition to this there is something so +ludicrous in promises of good or threats of evil a great way off as to +render the whole subject with which they are connected easily turned +into ridicule. "Better lay down that spade you are stealing, Paddy; if +you don't you'll pay for it at the day of judgment." "Be the powers, if +ye'll credit me so long I'll take another jist." + +By the Washingtonians this system of consigning the habitual drunkard +to hopeless ruin is repudiated. They adopt a more enlarged philanthropy; +they go for present as well as future good. They labor for all now +living, as well as hereafter to live. They teach hope to all-despair to +none. As applying to their cause, they deny the doctrine of +unpardonable sin; as in Christianity it is taught, so in this they +teach--"While--While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may +return." And, what is a matter of more profound congratulation, they, by +experiment upon experiment and example upon example, prove the maxim +to be no less true in the one case than in the other. On every hand we +behold those who but yesterday were the chief of sinners, now the chief +apostles of the cause. Drunken devils are cast out by ones, by sevens, +by legions; and their unfortunate victims, like the poor possessed who +were redeemed from their long and lonely wanderings in the tombs, are +publishing to the ends of the earth how great things have been done for +them. + +To these new champions and this new system of tactics our late +success is mainly owing, and to them we must mainly look for the final +consummation. The ball is now rolling gloriously on, and none are so +able as they to increase its speed and its bulk, to add to its momentum +and its magnitude--even though unlearned in letters, for this task none +are so well educated. To fit them for this work they have been taught in +the true school. They have been in that gulf from which they would teach +others the means of escape. They have passed that prison wall which +others have long declared impassable; and who that has not shall dare to +weigh opinions with them as to the mode of passing? + +But if it be true, as I have insisted, that those who have suffered by +intemperance personally, and have reformed, are the most powerful and +efficient instruments to push the reformation to ultimate success, it +does not follow that those who have not suffered have no part left them +to perform. Whether or not the world would be vastly benefited by a +total and final banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks seems +to me not now an open question. Three fourths of mankind confess the +affirmative with their tongues, and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge +it in their hearts. + +Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing what good the good of the +whole demands? Shall he who cannot do much be for that reason excused +if he do nothing? "But," says one, "what good can I do by signing the +pledge? I never drank, even without signing." This question has already +been asked and answered more than a million of times. Let it be answered +once more. For the man suddenly or in any other way to break off from +the use of drams, who has indulged in them for a long course of years +and until his appetite for them has grown ten or a hundredfold stronger +and more craving than any natural appetite can be, requires a most +powerful moral effort. In such an undertaking he needs every moral +support and influence that can possibly be brought to his aid and thrown +around him. And not only so, but every moral prop should be taken from +whatever argument might rise in his mind to lure him to his backsliding. +When he casts his eyes around him, he should be able to see all that he +respects, all that he admires, all that he loves, kindly and anxiously +pointing him onward, and none beckoning him back to his former miserable +"wallowing in the mire." + +But it is said by some that men will think and act for themselves; that +none will disuse spirits or anything else because his neighbors do; and +that moral influence is not that powerful engine contended for. Let us +examine this. Let me ask the man who could maintain this position most +stiffly, what compensation he will accept to go to church some Sunday +and sit during the sermon with his wife's bonnet upon his head? Not a +trifle, I'll venture. And why not? There would be nothing irreligious +in it, nothing immoral, nothing uncomfortable--then why not? Is it not +because there would be something egregiously unfashionable in it? Then +it is the influence of fashion; and what is the influence of fashion +but the influence that other people's actions have on our actions--the +strong inclination each of us feels to do as we see all our neighbors +do? Nor is the influence of fashion confined to any particular thing or +class of things; it is just as strong on one subject as another. Let us +make it as unfashionable to withhold our names from the temperance cause +as for husbands to wear their wives' bonnets to church, and instances +will be just as rare in the one case as the other. + +"But," say some, "we are no drunkards, and we shall not acknowledge +ourselves such by joining a reformed drunkard's society, whatever our +influence might be." Surely no Christian will adhere to this objection. +If they believe as they profess, that Omnipotence condescended to take +on himself the form of sinful man, and as such to die an ignominious +death for their sakes, surely they will not refuse submission to the +infinitely lesser condescension, for the temporal, and perhaps +eternal, salvation of a large, erring, and unfortunate class of their +fellow-creatures. Nor is the condescension very great. In my judgment +such of us as have never fallen victims have been spared more by the +absence of appetite than from any mental or moral superiority over those +who have. Indeed, I believe if we take habitual drunkards as a class, +their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with +those of any other class. There seems ever to have been a proneness +in the brilliant and warm-blooded to fall into this vice--the demon of +intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius +and of generosity. What one of us but can call to mind some relative, +more promising in youth than all his fellows, who has fallen a sacrifice +to his rapacity? He ever seems to have gone forth like the Egyptian +angel of death, commissioned to slay, if not the first, the fairest born +of every family. Shall he now be arrested in his desolating career? In +that arrest all can give aid that will; and who shall be excused that +can and will not? Far around as human breath has ever blown he keeps our +fathers, our brothers, our sons, and our friends prostrate in the chains +of moral death. To all the living everywhere we cry, "Come sound the +moral trump, that these may rise and stand up an exceeding great army." +"Come from the four winds, O breath! and breathe upon these slain +that they may live." If the relative grandeur of revolutions shall be +estimated by the great amount of human misery they alleviate, and the +small amount they inflict, then indeed will this be the grandest the +world shall ever have seen. + +Of our political revolution of '76 we are all justly proud. It has given +us a degree of political freedom far exceeding that of any other nation +of the earth. In it the world has found a solution of the long-mooted +problem as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the +germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the +universal liberty of mankind. But, with all these glorious results, +past, present, and to come, it had its evils too. It breathed forth +famine, swam in blood, and rode in fire; and long, long after, the +orphan's cry and the widow's wail continued to break the sad silence +that ensued. These were the price, the inevitable price, paid for the +blessings it bought. + +Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find a stronger +bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed; in +it, more of want supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow assuaged. +By it no Orphans starving, no widows weeping. By it none wounded in +feeling, none injured in interest; even the drammaker and dram-seller +will have glided into other occupations so gradually as never to +have felt the change, and will stand ready to join all others in the +universal song of gladness. And what a noble ally this to the cause of +political freedom, with such an aid its march cannot fail to be on +and on, till every son of earth shall drink in rich fruition the +sorrow-quenching draughts of perfect liberty. Happy day when-all +appetites controlled, all poisons subdued, all matter subjected-mind, +all-conquering mind, shall live and move, the monarch of the world. +Glorious consummation! Hail, fall of fury! Reign of reason, all hail! + +And when the victory shall be complete, when there shall be neither +a slave nor a drunkard on the earth, how proud the title of that land +which may truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both +those revolutions that shall have ended in that victory. How nobly +distinguished that people who shall have planted and nurtured to +maturity both the political and moral freedom of their species. + +This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of +Washington; we are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the +mightiest name of earth long since mightiest in the cause of civil +liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy +is expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the +name of Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn +awe pronounce the name, and in its naked deathless splendor leave it +shining on. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, February 25, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 16th instant, announcing that Miss Fanny and +you are "no more twain, but one flesh," reached me this morning. I +have no way of telling you how much happiness I wish you both, though I +believe you both can conceive it. I feel somewhat jealous of both of you +now: you will be so exclusively concerned for one another, that I shall +be forgotten entirely. My acquaintance with Miss Fanny (I call her this, +lest you should think I am speaking of your mother) was too short for me +to reasonably hope to long be remembered by her; and still I am sure I +shall not forget her soon. Try if you cannot remind her of that debt she +owes me--and be sure you do not interfere to prevent her paying it. + +I regret to learn that you have resolved to not return to Illinois. +I shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably things seem to be +arranged in this world! If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and +if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the +loss. I did hope she and you would make your home here; but I own I have +no right to insist. You owe obligations to her ten thousand times +more sacred than you can owe to others, and in that light let them be +respected and observed. It is natural that she should desire to remain +with her relatives and friends. As to friends, however, she could not +need them anywhere: she would have them in abundance here. + +Give my kind remembrance to Mr. Williamson and his family, particularly +Miss Elizabeth; also to your mother, brother, and sisters. Ask little +Eliza Davis if she will ride to town with me if I come there again. And +finally, give Fanny a double reciprocation of all the love she sent me. +Write me often, and believe me + +Yours forever, LINCOLN. + +P. S. Poor Easthouse is gone at last. He died awhile before day this +morning. They say he was very loath to die.... + +L. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED--ON MARRIAGE CONCERNS + +SPRINGFIELD, February 25,1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--I received yours of the 12th written the day you went down +to William's place, some days since, but delayed answering it till I +should receive the promised one of the 16th, which came last night. +I opened the letter with intense anxiety and trepidation; so much so, +that, although it turned out better than I expected, I have hardly yet, +at a distance of ten hours, become calm. + +I tell you, Speed, our forebodings (for which you and I are peculiar) +are all the worst sort of nonsense. I fancied, from the time I received +your letter of Saturday, that the one of Wednesday was never to come, +and yet it did come, and what is more, it is perfectly clear, both from +its tone and handwriting, that you were much happier, or, if you think +the term preferable, less miserable, when you wrote it than when you +wrote the last one before. You had so obviously improved at the +very time I so much fancied you would have grown worse. You say that +something indescribably horrible and alarming still haunts you. You will +not say that three months from now, I will venture. When your nerves +once get steady now, the whole trouble will be over forever. Nor should +you become impatient at their being even very slow in becoming steady. +Again you say, you much fear that that Elysium of which you have dreamed +so much is never to be realized. Well, if it shall not, I dare swear it +will not be the fault of her who is now your wife. I now have no doubt +that it is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of +Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly can realize. Far short +of your dreams as you may be, no woman could do more to realize them +than that same black-eyed Fanny. If you could but contemplate her +through my imagination, it would appear ridiculous to you that any one +should for a moment think of being unhappy with her. My old father +used to have a saying that "If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the +tighter"; and it occurs to me that if the bargain you have just closed +can possibly be called a bad one, it is certainly the most pleasant one +for applying that maxim to which my fancy can by any effort picture. + +I write another letter, enclosing this, which you can show her, if she +desires it. I do this because she would think strangely, perhaps, should +you tell her that you received no letters from me, or, telling her you +do, refuse to let her see them. I close this, entertaining the confident +hope that every successive letter I shall have from you (which I here +pray may not be few, nor far between) may show you possessing a more +steady hand and cheerful heart than the last preceding it. As ever, your +friend, LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 27, 1842 + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 10th instant was received three or four days +since. You know I am sincere when I tell you the pleasure its contents +gave me was, and is, inexpressible. As to your farm matter, I have +no sympathy with you. I have no farm, nor ever expect to have, and +consequently have not studied the subject enough to be much interested +with it. I can only say that I am glad you are satisfied and pleased +with it. But on that other subject, to me of the most intense interest +whether in joy or sorrow, I never had the power to withhold my sympathy +from you. It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you +say you are "far happier than you ever expected to be." That much I know +is enough. I know you too well to suppose your expectations were not, +at least, sometimes extravagant, and if the reality exceeds them all, I +say, Enough, dear Lord. I am not going beyond the truth when I tell you +that the short space it took me to read your last letter gave me more +pleasure than the total sum of all I have enjoyed since the fatal 1st +of January, 1841. Since then it seems to me I should have been entirely +happy, but for the never-absent idea that there is one still unhappy +whom I have contributed to make so. That still kills my soul. I cannot +but reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while she is otherwise. +She accompanied a large party on the railroad cars to Jacksonville +last Monday, and on her return spoke, so that I heard of it, of having +enjoyed the trip exceedingly. God be praised for that. + +You know with what sleepless vigilance I have watched you ever since the +commencement of your affair; and although I am almost confident it is +useless, I cannot forbear once more to say that I think it is even yet +possible for your spirits to flag down and leave you miserable. If they +should, don't fail to remember that they cannot long remain so. One +thing I can tell you which I know you will be glad to hear, and that is +that I have seen--and scrutinized her feelings as well as I could, and +am fully convinced she is far happier now than she has been for the last +fifteen months past. + +You will see by the last Sangamon Journal, that I made a temperance +speech on the 22d of February, which I claim that Fanny and you shall +read as an act of charity to me; for I cannot learn that anybody else +has read it, or is likely to. Fortunately it is not very long, and I +shall deem it a sufficient compliance with my request if one of you +listens while the other reads it. + +As to your Lockridge matter, it is only necessary to say that there +has been no court since you left, and that the next commences to-morrow +morning, during which I suppose we cannot fail to get a judgment. + +I wish you would learn of Everett what he would take, over and above a +discharge for all the trouble we have been at, to take his business out +of our hands and give it to somebody else. It is impossible to collect +money on that or any other claim here now; and although you know I am +not a very petulant man, I declare I am almost out of patience with Mr. +Everett's importunity. It seems like he not only writes all the letters +he can himself, but gets everybody else in Louisville and vicinity to +be constantly writing to us about his claim. I have always said that +Mr. Everett is a very clever fellow, and I am very sorry he cannot be +obliged; but it does seem to me he ought to know we are interested to +collect his claim, and therefore would do it if we could. + +I am neither joking nor in a pet when I say we would thank him to +transfer his business to some other, without any compensation for what +we have done, provided he will see the court cost paid, for which we are +security. + +The sweet violet you inclosed came safely to hand, but it was so dry, +and mashed so flat, that it crumbled to dust at the first attempt +to handle it. The juice that mashed out of it stained a place in the +letter, which I mean to preserve and cherish for the sake of her who +procured it to be sent. My renewed good wishes to her in particular, and +generally to all such of your relations who know me. + +As ever, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, July 4, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 16th June was received only a day or two +since. It was not mailed at Louisville till the 25th. You speak of the +great time that has elapsed since I wrote you. Let me explain that. Your +letter reached here a day or two after I started on the circuit. I +was gone five or six weeks, so that I got the letters only a few weeks +before Butler started to your country. I thought it scarcely worth while +to write you the news which he could and would tell you more in detail. +On his return he told me you would write me soon, and so I waited for +your letter. As to my having been displeased with your advice, surely +you know better than that. I know you do, and therefore will not labor +to convince you. True, that subject is painful to me; but it is not your +silence, or the silence of all the world, that can make me forget it. I +acknowledge the correctness of your advice too; but before I resolve +to do the one thing or the other, I must gain my confidence in my own +ability to keep my resolves when they are made. In that ability you know +I once prided myself as the only or chief gem of my character; that gem +I lost--how and where you know too well. I have not yet regained it; and +until I do, I cannot trust myself in any matter of much importance. I +believe now that had you understood my case at the time as well as I +understand yours afterward, by the aid you would have given me I should +have sailed through clear, but that does not now afford me sufficient +confidence to begin that or the like of that again. + +You make a kind acknowledgment of your obligations to me for your +present happiness. I am pleased with that acknowledgment. But a thousand +times more am I pleased to know that you enjoy a degree of happiness +worthy of an acknowledgment. The truth is, I am not sure that there was +any merit with me in the part I took in your difficulty; I was drawn to +it by a fate. If I would I could not have done less than I did. I always +was superstitious; I believe God made me one of the instruments of +bringing your Fanny and you together, which union I have no doubt He had +fore-ordained. Whatever He designs He will do for me yet. "Stand still, +and see the salvation of the Lord" is my text just now. If, as you say, +you have told Fanny all, I should have no objection to her seeing this +letter, but for its reference to our friend here: let her seeing it +depend upon whether she has ever known anything of my affairs; and if +she has not, do not let her. + +I do not think I can come to Kentucky this season. I am so poor and make +so little headway in the world, that I drop back in a month of idleness +as much as I gain in a year's sowing. I should like to visit you again. +I should like to see that "sis" of yours that was absent when I was +there, though I suppose she would run away again if she were to hear I +was coming. + +My respects and esteem to all your friends there, and, by your +permission, my love to your Fanny. + +Ever yours, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +A LETTER FROM THE LOST TOWNSHIPS + +Article written by Lincoln for the Sangamon Journal in ridicule of James +Shields, who, as State Auditor, had declined to receive State Bank notes +in payment of taxes. The above letter purported to come from a poor +widow who, though supplied with State Bank paper, could not obtain a +receipt for her tax bill. This, and another subsequent letter by Mary +Todd, brought about the "Lincoln-Shields Duel." + + + + +LOST TOWNSHIPS + +August 27, 1842. + +DEAR Mr. PRINTER: + +I see you printed that long letter I sent you a spell ago. I 'm quite +encouraged by it, and can't keep from writing again. I think the +printing of my letters will be a good thing all round--it will give +me the benefit of being known by the world, and give the world the +advantage of knowing what's going on in the Lost Townships, and give +your paper respectability besides. So here comes another. Yesterday +afternoon I hurried through cleaning up the dinner dishes and stepped +over to neighbor S------ to see if his wife Peggy was as well as mout be +expected, and hear what they called the baby. Well, when I got there and +just turned round the corner of his log cabin, there he was, setting on +the doorstep reading a newspaper. "How are you, Jeff?" says I. He sorter +started when he heard me, for he hadn't seen me before. "Why," says he, +"I 'm mad as the devil, Aunt 'Becca!" "What about?" says I; "ain't +its hair the right color? None of that nonsense, Jeff; there ain't an +honester woman in the Lost Townships than..."--"Than who?" says he; +"what the mischief are you about?" I began to see I was running the +wrong trail, and so says I, "Oh! nothing: I guess I was mistaken a +little, that's all. But what is it you 're mad about?" + +"Why," says he, "I've been tugging ever since harvest, getting out wheat +and hauling it to the river to raise State Bank paper enough to pay my +tax this year and a little school debt I owe; and now, just as I 've got +it, here I open this infernal Extra Register, expecting to find it full +of 'Glorious Democratic Victories' and 'High Comb'd Cocks,' when, lo +and behold! I find a set of fellows, calling themselves officers of the +State, have forbidden the tax collectors, and school commissioners to +receive State paper at all; and so here it is dead on my hands. I don't +now believe all the plunder I've got will fetch ready cash enough to pay +my taxes and that school debt." + +I was a good deal thunderstruck myself; for that was the first I had +heard of the proclamation, and my old man was pretty much in the same +fix with Jeff. We both stood a moment staring at one another without +knowing what to say. At last says I, "Mr. S------ let me look at that +paper." He handed it to me, when I read the proclamation over. + +"There now," says he, "did you ever see such a piece of impudence and +imposition as that?" I saw Jeff was in a good tune for saying some +ill-natured things, and so I tho't I would just argue a little on the +contrary side, and make him rant a spell if I could. "Why," says I, +looking as dignified and thoughtful as I could, "it seems pretty tough, +to be sure, to have to raise silver where there's none to be raised; but +then, you see, 'there will be danger of loss' if it ain't done." + +"Loss! damnation!" says he. "I defy Daniel Webster, I defy King Solomon, +I defy the world--I defy--I defy--yes, I defy even you, Aunt 'Becca, +to show how the people can lose anything by paying their taxes in State +paper." + +"Well," says I, "you see what the officers of State say about it, and +they are a desarnin' set of men. But," says I, "I guess you 're mistaken +about what the proclamation says. It don't say the people will lose +anything by the paper money being taken for taxes. It only says 'there +will be danger of loss'; and though it is tolerable plain that the +people can't lose by paying their taxes in something they can get easier +than silver, instead of having to pay silver; and though it's just as +plain that the State can't lose by taking State Bank paper, however low +it may be, while she owes the bank more than the whole revenue, and +can pay that paper over on her debt, dollar for dollar;--still there is +danger of loss to the 'officers of State'; and you know, Jeff, we can't +get along without officers of State." + +"Damn officers of State!" says he; "that's what Whigs are always +hurrahing for." + +"Now, don't swear so, Jeff," says I, "you know I belong to the meetin', +and swearin' hurts my feelings." + +"Beg pardon, Aunt 'Becca," says he; "but I do say it's enough to make +Dr. Goddard swear, to have tax to pay in silver, for nothing only +that Ford may get his two thousand a year, and Shields his twenty-four +hundred a year, and Carpenter his sixteen hundred a year, and all +without 'danger of loss' by taking it in State paper. Yes, yes: it's +plain enough now what these officers of State mean by 'danger of loss.' +Wash, I s'pose, actually lost fifteen hundred dollars out of the three +thousand that two of these 'officers of State' let him steal from the +treasury, by being compelled to take it in State paper. Wonder if we +don't have a proclamation before long, commanding us to make up this +loss to Wash in silver." + +And so he went on till his breath run out, and he had to stop. I +couldn't think of anything to say just then, and so I begun to look over +the paper again. "Ay! here's another proclamation, or something like +it." + +"Another?" says Jeff; "and whose egg is it, pray?" + +I looked to the bottom of it, and read aloud, "Your obedient servant, +James Shields, Auditor." + +"Aha!" says Jeff, "one of them same three fellows again. Well read it, +and let's hear what of it." + +I read on till I came to where it says, "The object of this measure is +to suspend the collection of the revenue for the current year." + +"Now stop, now stop!" says he; "that's a lie a'ready, and I don't want +to hear of it." + +"Oh, maybe not," says I. + +"I say it-is-a-lie. Suspend the collection, indeed! Will the collectors, +that have taken their oaths to make the collection, dare to end it? +Is there anything in law requiring them to perjure themselves at the +bidding of James Shields? + +"Will the greedy gullet of the penitentiary be satisfied with swallowing +him instead of all of them, if they should venture to obey him? And +would he not discover some 'danger of loss,' and be off about the time +it came to taking their places? + +"And suppose the people attempt to suspend, by refusing to pay; what +then? The collectors would just jerk up their horses and cows, and the +like, and sell them to the highest bidder for silver in hand, without +valuation or redemption. Why, Shields didn't believe that story himself; +it was never meant for the truth. If it was true, why was it not writ +till five days after the proclamation? Why did n't Carlin and Carpenter +sign it as well as Shields? Answer me that, Aunt 'Becca. I say it's a +lie, and not a well told one at that. It grins out like a copper dollar. +Shields is a fool as well as a liar. With him truth is out of the +question; and as for getting a good, bright, passable lie out of him, +you might as well try to strike fire from a cake of tallow. I stick to +it, it's all an infernal Whig lie!" + +"A Whig lie! Highty tighty!" + +"Yes, a Whig lie; and it's just like everything the cursed British Whigs +do. First they'll do some divilment, and then they'll tell a lie to hide +it. And they don't care how plain a lie it is; they think they can cram +any sort of a one down the throats of the ignorant Locofocos, as they +call the Democrats." + +"Why, Jeff, you 're crazy: you don't mean to say Shields is a Whig!" + +"Yes, I do." + +"Why, look here! the proclamation is in your own Democratic paper, as +you call it." + +"I know it; and what of that? They only printed it to let us Democrats +see the deviltry the Whigs are at." + +"Well, but Shields is the auditor of this Loco--I mean this Democratic +State." + +"So he is, and Tyler appointed him to office." + +"Tyler appointed him?" + +"Yes (if you must chaw it over), Tyler appointed him; or, if it was n't +him, it was old Granny Harrison, and that's all one. I tell you, Aunt +'Becca, there's no mistake about his being a Whig. Why, his very looks +shows it; everything about him shows it: if I was deaf and blind, I +could tell him by the smell. I seed him when I was down in Springfield +last winter. They had a sort of a gatherin' there one night among the +grandees, they called a fair. All the gals about town was there, and all +the handsome widows and married women, finickin' about trying to look +like gals, tied as tight in the middle, and puffed out at both ends, +like bundles of fodder that had n't been stacked yet, but wanted +stackin' pretty bad. And then they had tables all around the house +kivered over with [------] caps and pincushions and ten thousand such +little knick-knacks, tryin' to sell 'em to the fellows that were bowin', +and scrapin' and kungeerin' about 'em. They would n't let no Democrats +in, for fear they'd disgust the ladies, or scare the little gals, or +dirty the floor. I looked in at the window, and there was this same +fellow Shields floatin' about on the air, without heft or earthly +substances, just like a lock of cat fur where cats had been fighting. + +"He was paying his money to this one, and that one, and t' other one, +and sufferin' great loss because it was n't silver instead of State +paper; and the sweet distress he seemed to be in,--his very features, +in the ecstatic agony of his soul, spoke audibly and distinctly, 'Dear +girls, it is distressing, but I cannot marry you all. Too well I know +how much you suffer; but do, do remember, it is not my fault that I am +so handsome and so interesting.' + +"As this last was expressed by a most exquisite contortion of his face, +he seized hold of one of their hands, and squeezed, and held on to it +about a quarter of an hour. 'Oh, my good fellow!' says I to myself, 'if +that was one of our Democratic gals in the Lost Townships, the way you +'d get a brass pin let into you would be about up to the head.' He a +Democrat! Fiddlesticks! I tell you, Aunt 'Becca, he's a Whig, and no +mistake; nobody but a Whig could make such a conceity dunce of himself." + +"Well," says I, "maybe he is; but, if he is, I 'm mistaken the worst +sort. Maybe so, maybe so; but, if I am, I'll suffer by it; I'll be a +Democrat if it turns out that Shields is a Whig, considerin' you shall +be a Whig if he turns out a Democrat." + +"A bargain, by jingoes!" says he; "but how will we find out?" + +"Why," says I, "we'll just write and ax the printer." + +"Agreed again!" says he; "and by thunder! if it does turn out that +Shields is a Democrat, I never will----" + +"Jefferson! Jefferson!" + +"What do you want, Peggy?" + +"Do get through your everlasting clatter some time, and bring me a gourd +of water; the child's been crying for a drink this livelong hour." + +"Let it die, then; it may as well die for water as to be taxed to death +to fatten officers of State." + +Jeff run off to get the water, though, just like he hadn't been saying +anything spiteful, for he's a raal good-hearted fellow, after all, once +you get at the foundation of him. + +I walked into the house, and, "Why, Peggy," says I, "I declare we like +to forgot you altogether." + +"Oh, yes," says she, "when a body can't help themselves, everybody soon +forgets 'em; but, thank God! by day after to-morrow I shall be well +enough to milk the cows, and pen the calves, and wring the contrary +ones' tails for 'em, and no thanks to nobody." + +"Good evening, Peggy," says I, and so I sloped, for I seed she was mad +at me for making Jeff neglect her so long. + +And now, Mr. Printer, will you be sure to let us know in your next paper +whether this Shields is a Whig or a Democrat? I don't care about it for +myself, for I know well enough how it is already; but I want to convince +Jeff. It may do some good to let him, and others like him, know who +and what these officers of State are. It may help to send the present +hypocritical set to where they belong, and to fill the places they now +disgrace with men who will do more work for less pay, and take fewer +airs while they are doing it. It ain't sensible to think that the same +men who get us in trouble will change their course; and yet it's pretty +plain if some change for the better is not made, it's not long that +either Peggy or I or any of us will have a cow left to milk, or a calf's +tail to wring. + +Yours truly, + +REBECCA ------. + + + + +INVITATION TO HENRY CLAY. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Aug 29, 1842. + +HON. HENRY CLAY, Lexington, Ky. + +DEAR SIR:--We hear you are to visit Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 5th Of +October next. If our information in this is correct we hope you will +not deny us the pleasure of seeing you in our State. We are aware of the +toil necessarily incident to a journey by one circumstanced as you are; +but once you have embarked, as you have already determined to do, the +toil would not be greatly augmented by extending the journey to our +capital. The season of the year will be most favorable for good roads, +and pleasant weather; and although we cannot but believe you would be +highly gratified with such a visit to the prairie-land, the pleasure it +would give us and thousands such as we is beyond all question. You have +never visited Illinois, or at least this portion of it; and should you +now yield to our request, we promise you such a reception as shall be +worthy of the man on whom are now turned the fondest hopes of a great +and suffering nation. + +Please inform us at the earliest convenience whether we may expect you. + +Very respectfully your obedient servants, + + A. G. HENRY, A. T. BLEDSOE, + C. BIRCHALL, A. LINCOLN, + G. M. CABANNISS, ROB'T IRWIN, + P. A. SAUNDERS, J. M. ALLEN, + F. N. FRANCIS. + Executive Committee "Clay Club." + +(Clay's answer, September 6, 1842, declines with thanks.) + + + + +CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE LINCOLN-SHIELDS DUEL. + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + +ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:--I regret that my absence on public business +compelled me to postpone a matter of private consideration a little +longer than I could have desired. It will only be necessary, however, to +account for it by informing you that I have been to Quincy on business +that would not admit of delay. I will now state briefly the reasons of +my troubling you with this communication, the disagreeable nature of +which I regret, as I had hoped to avoid any difficulty with any one in +Springfield while residing there, by endeavoring to conduct myself in +such a way amongst both my political friends and opponents as to escape +the necessity of any. Whilst thus abstaining from giving provocation, +I have become the object of slander, vituperation, and personal abuse, +which were I capable of submitting to, I would prove myself worthy of +the whole of it. + +In two or three of the last numbers of the Sangamon Journal, articles +of the most personal nature and calculated to degrade me have made their +appearance. On inquiring, I was informed by the editor of that paper, +through the medium of my friend General Whitesides, that you are the +author of those articles. This information satisfies me that I have +become by some means or other the object of your secret hostility. I +will not take the trouble of inquiring into the reason of all this; +but I will take the liberty of requiring a full, positive, and +absolute retraction of all offensive allusions used by you in these +communications, in relation to my private character and standing as a +man, as an apology for the insults conveyed in them. + +This may prevent consequences which no one will regret more than myself. + +Your obedient servant, JAS. SHIELDS. + + + + +TO J. SHIELDS. + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842 + +JAS. SHIELDS, ESQ.:--Your note of to-day was handed me by General +Whitesides. In that note you say you have been informed, through the +medium of the editor of the Journal, that I am the author of certain +articles in that paper which you deem personally abusive of you; and +without stopping to inquire whether I really am the author, or to point +out what is offensive in them, you demand an unqualified retraction of +all that is offensive, and then proceed to hint at consequences. + +Now, sir, there is in this so much assumption of facts and so much of +menace as to consequences, that I cannot submit to answer that note any +further than I have, and to add that the consequences to which I suppose +you allude would be matter of as great regret to me as it possibly could +to you. + +Respectfully, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO A. LINCOLN FROM JAS. SHIELDS + +TREMONT, September 17, 1842. + +ABRA. LINCOLN, ESQ.:--In reply to my note of this date, you intimate +that I assume facts and menace consequences, and that you cannot submit +to answer it further. As now, sir, you desire it, I will be a little +more particular. The editor of the Sangamon Journal gave me to +understand that you are the author of an article which appeared, I +think, in that paper of the 2d September instant, headed "The Lost +Townships," and signed Rebecca or 'Becca. I would therefore take the +liberty of asking whether you are the author of said article, or any +other over the same signature which has appeared in any of the late +numbers of that paper. If so, I repeat my request of an absolute +retraction of all offensive allusions contained therein in relation to +my private character and standing. If you are not the author of any of +these articles, your denial will be sufficient. I will say further, it +is not my intention to menace, but to do myself justice. + +Your obedient servant, JAS. SHIELDS. + + + + +MEMORANDUM OF INSTRUCTIONS TO E. H. MERRYMAN, + +Lincoln's Second, + +September 19, 1842. + +In case Whitesides shall signify a wish to adjust this affair without +further difficulty, let him know that if the present papers be +withdrawn, and a note from Mr. Shields asking to know if I am the author +of the articles of which he complains, and asking that I shall make him +gentlemanly satisfaction if I am the author, and this without menace, or +dictation as to what that satisfaction shall be, a pledge is made that +the following answer shall be given: + +"I did write the 'Lost Townships' letter which appeared in the Journal +of the 2d instant, but had no participation in any form in any other +article alluding to you. I wrote that wholly for political effect--I had +no intention of injuring your personal or private character or standing +as a man or a gentleman; and I did not then think, and do not now think, +that that article could produce or has produced that effect against you; +and had I anticipated such an effect I would have forborne to write it. +And I will add that your conduct toward me, so far as I know, had always +been gentlemanly; and that I had no personal pique against you, and no +cause for any." + +If this should be done, I leave it with you to arrange what shall +and what shall not be published. If nothing like this is done, the +preliminaries of the fight are to be-- + +First. Weapons: Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, precisely +equal in all respects, and such as now used by the cavalry company at +Jacksonville. + +Second. Position: A plank ten feet long, and from nine to twelve inches +broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the ground, as the line between +us, which neither is to pass his foot over upon forfeit of his life. +Next a line drawn on the ground on either side of said plank and +parallel with it, each at the distance of the whole length of the sword +and three feet additional from the plank; and the passing of his own +such line by either party during the fight shall be deemed a surrender +of the contest. + +Third. Time: On Thursday evening at five o'clock, if you can get it so; +but in no case to be at a greater distance of time than Friday evening +at five o'clock. + +Fourth. Place: Within three miles of Alton, on the opposite side of the +river, the particular spot to be agreed on by you. + +Any preliminary details coming within the above rules you are at liberty +to make at your discretion; but you are in no case to swerve from these +rules, or to pass beyond their limits. + + + + +TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, October 4, 1842. + +DEAR SPEED:--You have heard of my duel with Shields, and I have now +to inform you that the dueling business still rages in this city. Day +before yesterday Shields challenged Butler, who accepted, and proposed +fighting next morning at sunrise in Bob Allen's meadow, one hundred +yards' distance, with rifles. To this Whitesides, Shields's second, said +"No," because of the law. Thus ended duel No. 2. Yesterday Whitesides +chose to consider himself insulted by Dr. Merryman, so sent him a kind +of quasi-challenge, inviting him to meet him at the Planter's House in +St. Louis on the next Friday, to settle their difficulty. Merryman made +me his friend, and sent Whitesides a note, inquiring to know if he meant +his note as a challenge, and if so, that he would, according to the +law in such case made and provided, prescribe the terms of the meeting. +Whitesides returned for answer that if Merryman would meet him at the +Planter's House as desired, he would challenge him. Merryman replied in +a note that he denied Whitesides's right to dictate time and place, but +that he (Merryman) would waive the question of time, and meet him at +Louisiana, Missouri. Upon my presenting this note to Whitesides and +stating verbally its contents, he declined receiving it, saying he had +business in St. Louis, and it was as near as Louisiana. Merryman +then directed me to notify Whitesides that he should publish the +correspondence between them, with such comments as he thought fit. This +I did. Thus it stood at bedtime last night. This morning Whitesides, by +his friend Shields, is praying for a new trial, on the ground that +he was mistaken in Merryman's proposition to meet him at Louisiana, +Missouri, thinking it was the State of Louisiana. This Merryman hoots +at, and is preparing his publication; while the town is in a ferment, +and a street fight somewhat anticipated. + +But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but to +say something on that subject which you know to be of such infinite +solicitude to me. The immense sufferings you endured from the first days +of September till the middle of February you never tried to conceal from +me, and I well understood. You have now been the husband of a lovely +woman nearly eight months. That you are happier now than the day you +married her I well know, for without you could not be living. But I have +your word for it, too, and the returning elasticity of spirits which is +manifested in your letters. But I want to ask a close question, "Are +you now in feeling as well as judgment glad that you are married as you +are?" From anybody but me this would be an impudent question, not to +be tolerated; but I know you will pardon it in me. Please answer it +quickly, as I am impatient to know. I have sent my love to your Fanny so +often, I fear she is getting tired of it. However, I venture to tender +it again. + +Yours forever, + +LINCOLN. + + + + +TO JAMES S. IRWIN. + +SPRINGFIELD, November 2, 1842. + +JAS. S. IRWIN ESQ.: + +Owing to my absence, yours of the 22nd ult. was not received till this +moment. Judge Logan and myself are willing to attend to any business +in the Supreme Court you may send us. As to fees, it is impossible to +establish a rule that will apply in all, or even a great many cases. +We believe we are never accused of being very unreasonable in this +particular; and we would always be easily satisfied, provided we could +see the money--but whatever fees we earn at a distance, if not paid +before, we have noticed, we never hear of after the work is done. We, +therefore, are growing a little sensitive on that point. + +Yours etc., + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +1843 + + + + +RESOLUTIONS AT A WHIG MEETING AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, MARCH 1, 1843. + +The object of the meeting was stated by Mr. Lincoln of Springfield, who +offered the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted: + +Resolved, That a tariff of duties on imported goods, producing +sufficient revenue for the payment of the necessary expenditures of the +National Government, and so adjusted as to protect American industry, is +indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the American people. + +Resolved, That we are opposed to direct taxation for the support of the +National Government. + +Resolved, That a national bank, properly restricted, is highly necessary +and proper to the establishment and maintenance of a sound currency, and +for the cheap and safe collection, keeping, and disbursing of the public +revenue. + +Resolved, That the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the +public lands, upon the principles of Mr. Clay's bill, accords with the +best interests of the nation, and particularly with those of the State +of Illinois. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional district +of the State to nominate and support at the approaching election a +candidate of their own principles, regardless of the chances of success. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of all portions of the State +to adopt and rigidly adhere to the convention system of nominating +candidates. + +Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each Congressional district +to hold a district convention on or before the first Monday of May next, +to be composed of a number of delegates from each county equal to double +the number of its representatives in the General Assembly, provided, +each county shall have at least one delegate. Said delegates to be +chosen by primary meetings of the Whigs, at such times and places as +they in their respective counties may see fit. Said district conventions +each to nominate one candidate for Congress, and one delegate to +a national convention for the purpose of nominating candidates for +President and Vice-President of the United States. The seven delegates +so nominated to a national convention to have power to add two delegates +to their own number, and to fill all vacancies. + +Resolved, That A. T. Bledsoe, S. T. Logan, and A. Lincoln be appointed a +committee to prepare an address to the people of the State. + +Resolved, That N. W. Edwards, A. G. Henry, James H. Matheny, John +C. Doremus, and James C. Conkling be appointed a Whig Central State +Committee, with authority to fill any vacancy that may occur in the +committee. + + + + +CIRCULAR FROM WHIG COMMITTEE. + +Address to the People of Illinois. + +FELLOW-CITIZENS:-By a resolution of a meeting of such of the Whigs of +the State as are now at Springfield, we, the undersigned, were appointed +to prepare an address to you. The performance of that task we now +undertake. + +Several resolutions were adopted by the meeting; and the chief object of +this address is to show briefly the reasons for their adoption. + +The first of those resolutions declares a tariff of duties upon foreign +importations, producing sufficient revenue for the support of the +General Government, and so adjusted as to protect American industry, to +be indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the American people; +and the second declares direct taxation for a national revenue to +be improper. Those two resolutions are kindred in their nature, and +therefore proper and convenient to be considered together. The question +of protection is a subject entirely too broad to be crowded into a +few pages only, together with several other subjects. On that point we +therefore content ourselves with giving the following extracts from +the writings of Mr. Jefferson, General Jackson, and the speech of Mr. +Calhoun: + +"To be independent for the comforts of life, we must fabricate them +ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side of the +agriculturalist. The grand inquiry now is, Shall we make our own +comforts, or go without them at the will of a foreign nation? He, +therefore, who is now against domestic manufactures must be for reducing +us either to dependence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in +skins and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am not one of +those; experience has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary +to our independence as to our comfort." Letter of Mr. Jefferson to +Benjamin Austin. + +"I ask, What is the real situation of the agriculturalist? Where has the +American farmer a market for his surplus produce? Except for cotton, he +has neither a foreign nor a home market. Does not this clearly prove, +when there is no market at home or abroad, that there [is] too much +labor employed in agriculture? Common sense at once points out the +remedy. Take from agriculture six hundred thousand men, women, and +children, and you will at once give a market for more breadstuffs than +all Europe now furnishes. In short, we have been too long subject to the +policy of British merchants. It is time we should become a little +more Americanized, and instead of feeding the paupers and laborers +of England, feed our own; or else in a short time, by continuing our +present policy, we shall all be rendered paupers ourselves."--General +Jackson's Letter to Dr. Coleman. + +"When our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they soon +will be, under the fostering care of government, the farmer will find +a ready market for his surplus produce, and--what is of equal +consequence--a certain and cheap supply of all he wants; his prosperity +will diffuse itself to every class of the community." Speech of Hon. J. +C. Calhoun on the Tariff. + +The question of revenue we will now briefly consider. For several +years past the revenues of the government have been unequal to its +expenditures, and consequently loan after loan, sometimes direct and +sometimes indirect in form, has been resorted to. By this means a +new national debt has been created, and is still growing on us with +a rapidity fearful to contemplate--a rapidity only reasonably to be +expected in time of war. This state of things has been produced by a +prevailing unwillingness either to increase the tariff or resort to +direct taxation. But the one or the other must come. Coming expenditures +must be met, and the present debt must be paid; and money cannot always +be borrowed for these objects. The system of loans is but temporary in +its nature, and must soon explode. It is a system not only ruinous while +it lasts, but one that must soon fail and leave us destitute. As an +individual who undertakes to live by borrowing soon finds his original +means devoured by interest, and, next, no one left to borrow from, so +must it be with a government. + +We repeat, then, that a tariff sufficient for revenue, or a direct tax, +must soon be resorted to; and, indeed, we believe this alternative is +now denied by no one. But which system shall be adopted? Some of our +opponents, in theory, admit the propriety of a tariff sufficient for +a revenue, but even they will not in practice vote for such a tariff; +while others boldly advocate direct taxation. Inasmuch, therefore, as +some of them boldly advocate direct taxation, and all the rest--or so +nearly all as to make exceptions needless--refuse to adopt the tariff, +we think it is doing them no injustice to class them all as advocates +of direct taxation. Indeed, we believe they are only delaying an open +avowal of the system till they can assure themselves that the people +will tolerate it. Let us, then, briefly compare the two systems. The +tariff is the cheaper system, because the duties, being collected in +large parcels at a few commercial points, will require comparatively few +officers in their collection; while by the direct-tax system the land +must be literally covered with assessors and collectors, going forth +like swarms of Egyptian locusts, devouring every blade of grass and +other green thing. And, again, by the tariff system the whole revenue is +paid by the consumers of foreign goods, and those chiefly the luxuries, +and not the necessaries, of life. By this system the man who contents +himself to live upon the products of his own country pays nothing at +all. And surely that country is extensive enough, and its products +abundant and varied enough, to answer all the real wants of its people. +In short, by this system the burthen of revenue falls almost entirely on +the wealthy and luxurious few, while the substantial and laboring many +who live at home, and upon home products, go entirely free. By the +direct-tax system none can escape. However strictly the citizen may +exclude from his premises all foreign luxuries,--fine cloths, fine +silks, rich wines, golden chains, and diamond rings,--still, for +the possession of his house, his barn, and his homespun, he is to be +perpetually haunted and harassed by the tax-gatherer. With these views +we leave it to be determined whether we or our opponents are the more +truly democratic on the subject. + +The third resolution declares the necessity and propriety of a national +bank. During the last fifty years so much has been said and written both +as to the constitutionality and expediency of such an institution, that +we could not hope to improve in the least on former discussions of the +subject, were we to undertake it. We, therefore, upon the question of +constitutionality content ourselves with remarking the facts that the +first national bank was established chiefly by the same men who formed +the Constitution, at a time when that instrument was but two years old, +and receiving the sanction, as President, of the immortal Washington; +that the second received the sanction, as President, of Mr. Madison, +to whom common consent has awarded the proud title of "Father of the +Constitution"; and subsequently the sanction of the Supreme Court, the +most enlightened judicial tribunal in the world. Upon the question of +expediency, we only ask you to examine the history of the times during +the existence of the two banks, and compare those times with the +miserable present. + +The fourth resolution declares the expediency of Mr. Clay's land bill. +Much incomprehensible jargon is often used against the constitutionality +of this measure. We forbear, in this place, attempting an answer to it, +simply because, in our opinion, those who urge it are through party +zeal resolved not to see or acknowledge the truth. The question of +expediency, at least so far as Illinois is concerned, seems to us the +clearest imaginable. By the bill we are to receive annually a large sum +of money, no part of which we otherwise receive. The precise annual sum +cannot be known in advance; it doubtless will vary in different years. +Still it is something to know that in the last year--a year of almost +unparalleled pecuniary pressure--it amounted to more than forty thousand +dollars. This annual income, in the midst of our almost insupportable +difficulties, in the days of our severest necessity, our political +opponents are furiously resolving to take and keep from us. And for +what? Many silly reasons are given, as is usual in cases where a single +good one is not to be found. One is that by giving us the proceeds +of the lands we impoverish the national treasury, and thereby render +necessary an increase of the tariff. This may be true; but if so, the +amount of it only is that those whose pride, whose abundance of means, +prompt them to spurn the manufactures of our country, and to strut in +British cloaks and coats and pantaloons, may have to pay a few cents +more on the yard for the cloth that makes them. A terrible evil, truly, +to the Illinois farmer, who never wore, nor ever expects to wear, a +single yard of British goods in his whole life. Another of their reasons +is that by the passage and continuance of Mr. Clay's bill, we prevent +the passage of a bill which would give us more. This, if it were sound +in itself, is waging destructive war with the former position; for if +Mr. Clay's bill impoverishes the treasury too much, what shall be said +of one that impoverishes it still more? But it is not sound in itself. +It is not true that Mr. Clay's bill prevents the passage of one more +favorable to us of the new States. Considering the strength and opposite +interest of the old States, the wonder is that they ever permitted one +to pass so favorable as Mr. Clay's. The last twenty-odd years' efforts +to reduce the price of the lands, and to pass graduation bills and +cession bills, prove the assertion to be true; and if there were no +experience in support of it, the reason itself is plain. The States +in which none, or few, of the public lands lie, and those consequently +interested against parting with them except for the best price, are +the majority; and a moment's reflection will show that they must ever +continue the majority, because by the time one of the original new +States (Ohio, for example) becomes populous and gets weight in Congress, +the public lands in her limits are so nearly sold out that in every +point material to this question she becomes an old State. She does not +wish the price reduced, because there is none left for her citizens +to buy; she does not wish them ceded to the States in which they lie, +because they no longer lie in her limits, and she will get nothing +by the cession. In the nature of things, the States interested in +the reduction of price, in graduation, in cession, and in all similar +projects, never can be the majority. Nor is there reason to hope that +any of them can ever succeed as a Democratic party measure, because we +have heretofore seen that party in full power, year after year, +with many of their leaders making loud professions in favor of these +projects, and yet doing nothing. What reason, then, is there to believe +they will hereafter do better? In every light in which we can view this +question, it amounts simply to this: Shall we accept our share of the +proceeds under Mr. Clay's bill, or shall we rather reject that and get +nothing? + +The fifth resolution recommends that a Whig candidate for Congress be +run in every district, regardless of the chances of success. We are +aware that it is sometimes a temporary gratification, when a friend +cannot succeed, to be able to choose between opponents; but we believe +that that gratification is the seed-time which never fails to be +followed by a most abundant harvest of bitterness. By this policy we +entangle ourselves. By voting for our opponents, such of us as do it +in some measure estop ourselves to complain of their acts, however +glaringly wrong we may believe them to be. By this policy no one portion +of our friends can ever be certain as to what course another portion +may adopt; and by this want of mutual and perfect understanding our +political identity is partially frittered away and lost. And, again, +those who are thus elected by our aid ever become our bitterest +persecutors. Take a few prominent examples. In 1830 Reynolds was elected +Governor; in 1835 we exerted our whole strength to elect Judge Young +to the United States Senate, which effort, though failing, gave him the +prominence that subsequently elected him; in 1836 General Ewing, was so +elected to the United States Senate; and yet let us ask what three men +have been more perseveringly vindictive in their assaults upon all our +men and measures than they? During the last summer the whole State +was covered with pamphlet editions of misrepresentations against us, +methodized into chapters and verses, written by two of these same +men,--Reynolds and Young, in which they did not stop at charging us with +error merely, but roundly denounced us as the designing enemies of +human liberty, itself. If it be the will of Heaven that such men shall +politically live, be it so; but never, never again permit them to draw a +particle of their sustenance from us. + +The sixth resolution recommends the adoption of the convention system +for the nomination of candidates. This we believe to be of the very +first importance. Whether the system is right in itself we do not stop +to inquire; contenting ourselves with trying to show that, while our +opponents use it, it is madness in us not to defend ourselves with +it. Experience has shown that we cannot successfully defend ourselves +without it. For examples, look at the elections of last year. Our +candidate for governor, with the approbation of a large portion of the +party, took the field without a nomination, and in open opposition to +the system. Wherever in the counties the Whigs had held conventions and +nominated candidates for the Legislature, the aspirants who were not +nominated were induced to rebel against the nominations, and to become +candidates, as is said, "on their own hook." And, go where you would +into a large Whig county, you were sure to find the Whigs not contending +shoulder to shoulder against the common enemy, but divided into +factions, and fighting furiously with one another. The election came, +and what was the result? The governor beaten, the Whig vote being +decreased many thousands since 1840, although the Democratic vote +had not increased any. Beaten almost everywhere for members of the +Legislature,--Tazewell, with her four hundred Whig majority, sending a +delegation half Democratic; Vermillion, with her five hundred, doing +the same; Coles, with her four hundred, sending two out of three; and +Morgan, with her two hundred and fifty, sending three out of four,--and +this to say nothing of the numerous other less glaring examples; the +whole winding up with the aggregate number of twenty-seven Democratic +representatives sent from Whig counties. As to the senators, too, the +result was of the same character. And it is most worthy to be remembered +that of all the Whigs in the State who ran against the regular nominees, +a single one only was elected. Although they succeeded in defeating +the nominees almost by scores, they too were defeated, and the spoils +chucklingly borne off by the common enemy. + +We do not mention the fact of many of the Whigs opposing the convention +system heretofore for the purpose of censuring them. Far from it. +We expressly protest against such a conclusion. We know they were +generally, perhaps universally, as good and true Whigs as we ourselves +claim to be. + +We mention it merely to draw attention to the disastrous result it +produced, as an example forever hereafter to be avoided. That "union is +strength" is a truth that has been known, illustrated, and declared in +various ways and forms in all ages of the world. That great fabulist and +philosopher Aesop illustrated it by his fable of the bundle of sticks; +and he whose wisdom surpasses that of all philosophers has declared +that "a house divided against itself cannot stand." It is to induce our +friends to act upon this important and universally acknowledged truth +that we urge the adoption of the convention system. Reflection will +prove that there is no other way of practically applying it. In its +application we know there will be incidents temporarily painful; but, +after all, those incidents will be fewer and less intense with than +without the system. If two friends aspire to the same office it is +certain that both cannot succeed. Would it not, then, be much less +painful to have the question decided by mutual friends some time before, +than to snarl and quarrel until the day of election, and then both be +beaten by the common enemy? + +Before leaving this subject, we think proper to remark that we do not +understand the resolution as intended to recommend the application of +the convention system to the nomination of candidates for the small +offices no way connected with politics; though we must say we do not +perceive that such an application of it would be wrong. + +The seventh resolution recommends the holding of district conventions +in May next, for the purpose of nominating candidates for Congress. The +propriety of this rests upon the same reasons with that of the sixth, +and therefore needs no further discussion. + +The eighth and ninth also relate merely to the practical application of +the foregoing, and therefore need no discussion. + +Before closing, permit us to add a few reflections on the present +condition and future prospects of the Whig party. In almost all the +States we have fallen into the minority, and despondency seems to +prevail universally among us. Is there just cause for this? In 1840 we +carried the nation by more than a hundred and forty thousand majority. +Our opponents charged that we did it by fraudulent voting; but whatever +they may have believed, we know the charge to be untrue. Where, now, is +that mighty host? Have they gone over to the enemy? Let the results of +the late elections answer. Every State which has fallen off from the +Whig cause since 1840 has done so not by giving more Democratic votes +than they did then, but by giving fewer Whig. Bouck, who was elected +Democratic Governor of New York last fall by more than 15,000 majority, +had not then as many votes as he had in 1840, when he was beaten by +seven or eight thousand. And so has it been in all the other States +which have fallen away from our cause. From this it is evident that tens +of thousands in the late elections have not voted at all. Who and what +are they? is an important question, as respects the future. They can +come forward and give us the victory again. That all, or nearly all, of +them are Whigs is most apparent. Our opponents, stung to madness by +the defeat of 1840, have ever since rallied with more than their usual +unanimity. It has not been they that have been kept from the polls. +These facts show what the result must be, once the people again rally +in their entire strength. Proclaim these facts, and predict this result; +and although unthinking opponents may smile at us, the sagacious ones +will "believe and tremble." And why shall the Whigs not all rally again? +Are their principles less dear now than in 1840? Have any of their +doctrines since then been discovered to be untrue? It is true, the +victory of 1840 did not produce the happy results anticipated; but it +is equally true, as we believe, that the unfortunate death of General +Harrison was the cause of the failure. It was not the election of +General Harrison that was expected to produce happy effects, but the +measures to be adopted by his administration. By means of his death, +and the unexpected course of his successor, those measures were never +adopted. How could the fruits follow? The consequences we always +predicted would follow the failure of those measures have followed, and +are now upon us in all their horrors. By the course of Mr. Tyler the +policy of our opponents has continued in operation, still leaving them +with the advantage of charging all its evils upon us as the results of +a Whig administration. Let none be deceived by this somewhat plausible, +though entirely false charge. If they ask us for the sufficient and +sound currency we promised, let them be answered that we only promised +it through the medium of a national bank, which they, aided by Mr. +Tyler, prevented our establishing. And let them be reminded, too, that +their own policy in relation to the currency has all the time been, and +still is, in full operation. Let us then again come forth in our might, +and by a second victory accomplish that which death prevented in the +first. We can do it. When did the Whigs ever fail if they were fully +aroused and united? Even in single States, under such circumstances, +defeat seldom overtakes them. Call to mind the contested elections +within the last few years, and particularly those of Moore and Letcher +from Kentucky, Newland and Graham from North Carolina, and the famous +New Jersey case. In all these districts Locofocoism had stalked +omnipotent before; but when the whole people were aroused by its +enormities on those occasions, they put it down, never to rise again. + +We declare it to be our solemn conviction, that the Whigs are always a +majority of this nation; and that to make them always successful needs +but to get them all to the polls and to vote unitedly. This is the great +desideratum. Let us make every effort to attain it. At every election, +let every Whig act as though he knew the result to depend upon his +action. In the great contest of 1840 some more than twenty one hundred +thousand votes were cast, and so surely as there shall be that many, +with the ordinary increase added, cast in 1844 that surely will a Whig +be elected President of the United States. + +A. LINCOLN. S. T. LOGAN. A. T. BLEDSOE. + +March 4, 1843. + + + + +TO JOHN BENNETT. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 7, 1843. + +FRIEND BENNETT: + +Your letter of this day was handed me by Mr. Miles. It is too late now +to effect the object you desire. On yesterday morning the most of the +Whig members from this district got together and agreed to hold the +convention at Tremont in Tazewell County. I am sorry to hear that any +of the Whigs of your county, or indeed of any county, should longer +be against conventions. On last Wednesday evening a meeting of all the +Whigs then here from all parts of the State was held, and the question +of the propriety of conventions was brought up and fully discussed, and +at the end of the discussion a resolution recommending the system of +conventions to all the Whigs of the State was unanimously adopted. +Other resolutions were also passed, all of which will appear in the next +Journal. The meeting also appointed a committee to draft an address +to the people of the State, which address will also appear in the next +journal. + +In it you will find a brief argument in favor of conventions--and +although I wrote it myself I will say to you that it is conclusive upon +the point and can not be reasonably answered. The right way for you to +do is hold your meeting and appoint delegates any how, and if there be +any who will not take part, let it be so. The matter will work so well +this time that even they who now oppose will come in next time. + +The convention is to be held at Tremont on the 5th of April and +according to the rule we have adopted your county is to have +delegates--being double your representation. + +If there be any good Whig who is disposed to stick out against +conventions get him at least to read the arguement in their favor in the +address. + +Yours as ever, + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +JOSHUA F. SPEED. + +SPRINGFIELD, March 24, 1843. + +DEAR SPEED:--We had a meeting of the Whigs of the county here on last +Monday to appoint delegates to a district convention; and Baker beat me, +and got the delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite +of my attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates; so that +in getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a +fellow who is made a groomsman to a man that has cut him out and is +marrying his own dear "gal." About the prospects of your having a +namesake at our town, can't say exactly yet. + +A. LINCOLN. + + + + +TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + +SPRINGFIELD, ILL., March 26, 1843. + +FRIEND MORRIS: + +Your letter of the a 3 d, was received on yesterday morning, and for +which (instead of an excuse, which you thought proper to ask) I tender +you my sincere thanks. It is truly gratifying to me to learn that, while +the people of Sangamon have cast me off, my old friends of Menard, who +have known me longest and best, stick to me. It would astonish, if +not amuse, the older citizens to learn that I (a stranger, friendless, +uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars per +month) have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and +aristocratic family distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, +too, the strangest combination of church influence against me. Baker is +a Campbellite; and therefore, as I suppose, with few exceptions got all +that church. My wife has some relations in the Presbyterian churches, +and some with the Episcopal churches; and therefore, wherever it would +tell, I was set down as either the one or the other, while it was +everywhere contended that no Christian ought to go for me, because I +belonged to no church, was suspected of being a deist, and had talked +about fighting a duel. With all these things, Baker, of course, had +nothing to do. Nor do I complain of them. As to his own church going +for him, I think that was right enough, and as to the influences I +have spoken of in the other, though they were very strong, it would be +grossly untrue and unjust to charge that they acted upon them in a body +or were very near so. I only mean that those influences levied a tax +of a considerable per cent. upon my strength throughout the religious +controversy. But enough of this. + +You say that in choosing a candidate for Congress you have an equal +right with Sangamon, and in this you are undoubtedly correct. In +agreeing to withdraw if the Whigs of Sangamon should go against me, I +did not mean that they alone were worth consulting, but that if she, +with her heavy delegation, should be against me, it would be impossible +for me to succeed, and therefore I had as well decline. And in relation +to Menard having rights, permit me fully to recognize them, and to +express the opinion that, if she and Mason act circumspectly, they will +in the convention be able so far to enforce their rights as to decide +absolutely which one of the candidates shall be successful. Let me show +the reason of this. Hardin, or some other Morgan candidate, will get +Putnam, Marshall, Woodford, Tazewell, and Logan--making sixteen. Then +you and Mason, having three, can give the victory to either side. + +You say you shall instruct your delegates for me, unless I object. I +certainly shall not object. That would be too pleasant a compliment for +me to tread in the dust. And besides, if anything should happen (which, +however, is not probable) by which Baker should be thrown out of the +fight, I would be at liberty to accept the nomination if I could get +it. I do, however, feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from +getting the nomination. I should despise myself were I to attempt it. +I think, then, it would be proper for your meeting to appoint three +delegates and to instruct them to go for some one as the first choice, +some one else as a second, and perhaps some one as a third; and if in +those instructions I were named as the first choice, it would gratify me +very much. If you wish to hold the balance of power, it is important for +you to attend to and secure the vote of Mason also: You should be sure +to have men appointed delegates that you know you can safely confide in. +If yourself and James Short were appointed from your county, all would +be safe; but whether Jim's woman affair a year ago might not be in the +way of his appointment is a question. I don't know whether you know it, +but I know him to be as honorable a man as there is in the world. You +have my permission, and even request, to show this letter to Short; but +to no one else, unless it be a very particular friend who you know will +not speak of it. + +Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN. + +P. S Will you write me again? + + + + +TO MARTIN M. MORRIS. + +April 14, 1843. + +FRIEND MORRIS: + +I have heard it intimated that Baker has been attempting to get you or +Miles, or both of you, to violate the instructions of the meeting that +appointed you, and to go for him. I have insisted, and still insist, +that this cannot be true. Surely Baker would not do the like. As well +might Hardin ask me to vote for him in the convention. Again, it is said +there will be an attempt to get up instructions in your county requiring +you to go for Baker. This is all wrong. Upon the same rule, Why +might not I fly from the decision against me in Sangamon, and get up +instructions to their delegates to go for me? There are at least twelve +hundred Whigs in the county that took no part, and yet I would as soon +put my head in the fire as to attempt it. Besides, if any one should get +the nomination by such extraordinary means, all harmony in the district +would inevitably be lost. Honest Whigs (and very nearly all of them +are honest) would not quietly abide such enormities. I repeat, such an +attempt on Baker's part cannot be true. Write me at Springfield how the +matter is. Don't show or speak of this letter. + +A. LINCOLN + + + + +TO GEN. J. J. HARDIN. + +SPRINGFIELD, May 11, 1843. + +FRIEND HARDIN: + +Butler informs me that he received a letter from you, in which you +expressed some doubt whether the Whigs of Sangamon will support you +cordially. You may, at once, dismiss all fears on that subject. We +have already resolved to make a particular effort to give you the very +largest majority possible in our county. From this, no Whig of the +county dissents. We have many objects for doing it. We make it a matter +of honor and pride to do it; we do it because we love the Whig cause; we +do it because we like you personally; and last, we wish to convince you +that we do not bear that hatred to Morgan County that you people have so +long seemed to imagine. You will see by the journals of this week that +we propose, upon pain of losing a barbecue, to give you twice as great +a majority in this county as you shall receive in your own. I got up the +proposal. + +Who of the five appointed is to write the district address? I did the +labor of writing one address this year, and got thunder for my reward. +Nothing new here. + +Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN. + +P. S.--I wish you would measure one of the largest of those swords we +took to Alton and write me the length of it, from tip of the point to +tip of the hilt, in feet and inches. I have a dispute about the length. + +A. L. A. L. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Papers And Writings Of Abraham +Lincoln, Volume One, by Abraham Lincoln + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S PAPERS *** + +***** This file should be named 2653.txt or 2653.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/5/2653/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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