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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 ***
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