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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln,
+Volume Two, by Abraham Lincoln
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Two
+       Constitutional Edition
+
+Author: Abraham Lincoln
+
+Commentator: Theodore Roosevelt, Carl Schurz, and Joseph Choate
+
+Editor: Arthur Brooks Lapsley
+
+Release Date: June, 2001 [EBook #2654]
+Posting Date: July 4, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S PAPERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
+
+VOLUME TWO
+
+CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION
+
+By Abraham Lincoln
+
+
+Edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME II., 1843-1858
+
+
+
+
+1843
+
+
+
+
+FIRST CHILD
+
+TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. SPRINGFIELD, May 18, 1843.
+
+DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 9th instant is duly received, which I do
+not meet as a "bore," but as a most welcome visitor. I will answer the
+business part of it first.
+
+In relation to our Congress matter here, you were right in supposing I
+would support the nominee. Neither Baker nor I, however, is the man, but
+Hardin, so far as I can judge from present appearances. We shall have no
+split or trouble about the matter; all will be harmony. In relation to
+the "coming events" about which Butler wrote you, I had not heard one word
+before I got your letter; but I have so much confidence in the judgment of
+Butler on such a subject that I incline to think there may be some reality
+in it. What day does Butler appoint? By the way, how do "events" of the
+same sort come on in your family? Are you possessing houses and lands, and
+oxen and asses, and men-servants and maid-servants, and begetting sons
+and daughters? We are not keeping house, but boarding at the Globe Tavern,
+which is very well kept now by a widow lady of the name of Beck. Our room
+(the same that Dr. Wallace occupied there) and boarding only costs us four
+dollars a week. Ann Todd was married something more than a year since to
+a fellow by the name of Campbell, and who, Mary says, is pretty much of
+a "dunce," though he has a little money and property. They live in
+Boonville, Missouri, and have not been heard from lately enough for me to
+say anything about her health. I reckon it will scarcely be in our
+power to visit Kentucky this year. Besides poverty and the necessity of
+attending to business, those "coming events," I suspect, would be somewhat
+in the way. I most heartily wish you and your Fanny would not fail to
+come. Just let us know the time, and we will have a room provided for you
+at our house, and all be merry together for a while. Be sure to give my
+respects to your mother and family; assure her that if ever I come near
+her, I will not fail to call and see her. Mary joins in sending love to
+your Fanny and you.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+1844
+
+
+
+
+TO Gen. J. J. HARDIN.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, May 21, 1844.
+
+DEAR HARDIN: Knowing that you have correspondents enough, I have forborne
+to trouble you heretofore; and I now only do so to get you to set a matter
+right which has got wrong with one of our best friends. It is old Uncle
+Thomas Campbell of Spring Creek--(Berlin P.O.). He has received several
+documents from you, and he says they are old newspapers and documents,
+having no sort of interest in them. He is, therefore, getting a strong
+impression that you treat him with disrespect. This, I know, is a mistaken
+impression; and you must correct it. The way, I leave to yourself. Rob't
+W. Canfield says he would like to have a document or two from you.
+
+The Locos (Democrats) here are in considerable trouble about Van Buren's
+letter on Texas, and the Virginia electors. They are growing sick of the
+Tariff question; and consequently are much confounded at V.B.'s cutting
+them off from the new Texas question. Nearly half the leaders swear they
+won't stand it. Of those are Ford, T. Campbell, Ewing, Calhoun and others.
+They don't exactly say they won't vote for V.B., but they say he will not
+be the candidate, and that they are for Texas anyhow.
+
+As ever yours,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+1845
+
+
+
+
+SELECTION OF CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES
+
+TO Gen. J. J. HARDIN, SPRINGFIELD, Jany. 19, 1845.
+
+DEAR GENERAL:
+
+I do not wish to join in your proposal of a new plan for the selection of
+a Whig candidate for Congress because:
+
+1st. I am entirely satisfied with the old system under which you and Baker
+were successively nominated and elected to Congress; and because the Whigs
+of the district are well acquainted with the system, and, so far as I know
+or believe, are well satisfied with it. If the old system be thought to be
+vague, as to all the delegates of the county voting the same way, or as
+to instructions to them as to whom they are to vote for, or as to filling
+vacancies, I am willing to join in a provision to make these matters
+certain.
+
+2d. As to your proposals that a poll shall be opened in every precinct,
+and that the whole shall take place on the same day, I do not personally
+object. They seem to me to be not unfair; and I forbear to join in
+proposing them only because I choose to leave the decision in each
+county to the Whigs of the county, to be made as their own judgment and
+convenience may dictate.
+
+3d. As to your proposed stipulation that all the candidates shall remain
+in their own counties, and restrain their friends in the same it seems
+to me that on reflection you will see the fact of your having been in
+Congress has, in various ways, so spread your name in the district as
+to give you a decided advantage in such a stipulation. I appreciate your
+desire to keep down excitement; and I promise you to "keep cool" under all
+circumstances.
+
+4th. I have already said I am satisfied with the old system under which
+such good men have triumphed and that I desire no departure from its
+principles. But if there must be a departure from it, I shall insist upon
+a more accurate and just apportionment of delegates, or representative
+votes, to the constituent body, than exists by the old, and which you
+propose to retain in your new plan. If we take the entire population of
+the counties as shown by the late census, we shall see by the old plan,
+and by your proposed new plan,
+
+   Morgan County, with a population 16,541, has but ....... 8 votes
+   While Sangamon with 18,697--2156 greater has but ....... 8  "
+   So Scott with 6553 has ................................. 4  "
+   While Tazewell with 7615 1062 greater has but .......... 4  "
+   So Mason with 3135 has ................................. 1 vote
+   While Logan with 3907, 772 greater, has but ............ 1  "
+
+And so on in a less degree the matter runs through all the counties, being
+not only wrong in principle, but the advantage of it being all manifestly
+in your favor with one slight exception, in the comparison of two counties
+not here mentioned.
+
+Again, if we take the Whig votes of the counties as shown by the late
+Presidential election as a basis, the thing is still worse.
+
+It seems to me most obvious that the old system needs adjustment in
+nothing so much as in this; and still, by your proposal, no notice is
+taken of it. I have always been in the habit of acceding to almost any
+proposal that a friend would make and I am truly sorry that I cannot in
+this. I perhaps ought to mention that some friends at different places are
+endeavoring to secure the honor of the sitting of the convention at their
+towns respectively, and I fear that they would not feel much complimented
+if we shall make a bargain that it should sit nowhere.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO ------ WILLIAMS,
+
+SPRINGFIELD, March 1, 1845.
+
+FRIEND WILLIAMS:
+
+The Supreme Court adjourned this morning for the term. Your cases of
+Reinhardt vs. Schuyler, Bunce vs. Schuyler, Dickhut vs. Dunell, and
+Sullivan vs. Andrews are continued. Hinman vs. Pope I wrote you concerning
+some time ago. McNutt et al. vs. Bean and Thompson is reversed and
+remanded.
+
+Fitzpatrick vs. Brady et al. is reversed and remanded with leave to
+complainant to amend his bill so as to show the real consideration given
+for the land.
+
+Bunce against Graves the court confirmed, wherefore, in accordance with
+your directions, I moved to have the case remanded to enable you to take a
+new trial in the court below. The court allowed the motion; of which I am
+glad, and I guess you are.
+
+This, I believe, is all as to court business. The canal men have got their
+measure through the Legislature pretty much or quite in the shape they
+desired. Nothing else now.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+ABOLITION MOVEMENT
+
+TO WILLIAMSON DURLEY.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, October 3, 1845
+
+When I saw you at home, it was agreed that I should write to you and your
+brother Madison. Until I then saw you I was not aware of your being what
+is generally called an abolitionist, or, as you call yourself, a Liberty
+man, though I well knew there were many such in your country.
+
+I was glad to hear that you intended to attempt to bring about, at the
+next election in Putnam, a Union of the Whigs proper and such of the
+Liberty men as are Whigs in principle on all questions save only that of
+slavery. So far as I can perceive, by such union neither party need
+yield anything on the point in difference between them. If the Whig
+abolitionists of New York had voted with us last fall, Mr. Clay would now
+be President, Whig principles in the ascendant, and Texas not annexed;
+whereas, by the division, all that either had at stake in the contest was
+lost. And, indeed, it was extremely probable, beforehand, that such would
+be the result. As I always understood, the Liberty men deprecated the
+annexation of Texas extremely; and this being so, why they should refuse
+to cast their votes [so] as to prevent it, even to me seemed wonderful.
+What was their process of reasoning, I can only judge from what a single
+one of them told me. It was this: "We are not to do evil that good may
+come." This general proposition is doubtless correct; but did it apply?
+If by your votes you could have prevented the extension, etc., of slavery
+would it not have been good, and not evil, so to have used your votes,
+even though it involved the casting of them for a slaveholder? By the
+fruit the tree is to be known. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit.
+If the fruit of electing Mr. Clay would have been to prevent the extension
+of slavery, could the act of electing have been evil?
+
+But I will not argue further. I perhaps ought to say that individually I
+never was much interested in the Texas question. I never could see
+much good to come of annexation, inasmuch as they were already a free
+republican people on our own model. On the other hand, I never could
+very clearly see how the annexation would augment the evil of slavery.
+It always seemed to me that slaves would be taken there in about equal
+numbers, with or without annexation. And if more were taken because of
+annexation, still there would be just so many the fewer left where
+they were taken from. It is possibly true, to some extent, that, with
+annexation, some slaves may be sent to Texas and continued in slavery that
+otherwise might have been liberated. To whatever extent this may be true,
+I think annexation an evil. I hold it to be a paramount duty of us in the
+free States, due to the Union of the States, and perhaps to liberty itself
+(paradox though it may seem), to let the slavery of the other States
+alone; while, on the other hand, I hold it to be equally clear that we
+should never knowingly lend ourselves, directly or indirectly, to prevent
+that slavery from dying a natural death--to find new places for it to
+live in when it can no longer exist in the old. Of course I am not now
+considering what would be our duty in cases of insurrection among the
+slaves. To recur to the Texas question, I understand the Liberty men to
+have viewed annexation as a much greater evil than ever I did; and I would
+like to convince you, if I could, that they could have prevented it, if
+they had chosen. I intend this letter for you and Madison together; and
+if you and he or either shall think fit to drop me a line, I shall be
+pleased.
+
+Yours with respect,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+1846
+
+
+
+
+REQUEST FOR POLITICAL SUPPORT
+
+TO Dr. ROBERT BOAL. SPRINGFIELD, January 7, 1846.
+
+Dr. ROBERT BOAL, Lacon, Ill.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR:--Since I saw you last fall, I have often thought of writing
+to you, as it was then understood I would, but, on reflection, I have
+always found that I had nothing new to tell you. All has happened as I
+then told you I expected it would--Baker's declining, Hardin's taking the
+track, and so on.
+
+If Hardin and I stood precisely equal, if neither of us had been to
+Congress, or if we both had, it would only accord with what I have always
+done, for the sake of peace, to give way to him; and I expect I should do
+it. That I can voluntarily postpone my pretensions, when they are no more
+than equal to those to which they are postponed, you have yourself seen.
+But to yield to Hardin under present circumstances seems to me as nothing
+else than yielding to one who would gladly sacrifice me altogether. This
+I would rather not submit to. That Hardin is talented, energetic, usually
+generous and magnanimous, I have before this affirmed to you and do not
+deny. You know that my only argument is that "turn about is fair play."
+This he, practically at least, denies.
+
+If it would not be taxing you too much, I wish you would write me, telling
+the aspect of things in your country, or rather your district; and also,
+send the names of some of your Whig neighbors, to whom I might, with
+propriety, write. Unless I can get some one to do this, Hardin, with his
+old franking list, will have the advantage of me. My reliance for a fair
+shake (and I want nothing more) in your country is chiefly on you, because
+of your position and standing, and because I am acquainted with so few
+others. Let me hear from you soon.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO JOHN BENNETT.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, Jan. 15, 1846.
+
+JOHN BENNETT.
+
+FRIEND JOHN:
+
+Nathan Dresser is here, and speaks as though the contest between Hardin
+and me is to be doubtful in Menard County. I know he is candid and this
+alarms me some. I asked him to tell me the names of the men that were
+going strong for Hardin, he said Morris was about as strong as any-now
+tell me, is Morris going it openly? You remember you wrote me that he
+would be neutral. Nathan also said that some man, whom he could not
+remember, had said lately that Menard County was going to decide the
+contest and that made the contest very doubtful. Do you know who that
+was? Don't fail to write me instantly on receiving this, telling me
+all--particularly the names of those who are going strong against me.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO N. J. ROCKWELL.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, January 21, 1846.
+
+DEAR SIR:--You perhaps know that General Hardin and I have a contest for
+the Whig nomination for Congress for this district.
+
+He has had a turn and my argument is "turn about is fair play."
+
+I shall be pleased if this strikes you as a sufficient argument.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO JAMES BERDAN.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, April 26, 1846.
+
+DEAR SIR:--I thank you for the promptness with which you answered my
+letter from Bloomington. I also thank you for the frankness with which you
+comment upon a certain part of my letter; because that comment affords
+me an opportunity of trying to express myself better than I did before,
+seeing, as I do, that in that part of my letter, you have not understood
+me as I intended to be understood.
+
+In speaking of the "dissatisfaction" of men who yet mean to do no wrong,
+etc., I mean no special application of what I said to the Whigs of Morgan,
+or of Morgan & Scott. I only had in my mind the fact that previous to
+General Hardin's withdrawal some of his friends and some of mine had
+become a little warm; and I felt, and meant to say, that for them now to
+meet face to face and converse together was the best way to efface any
+remnant of unpleasant feeling, if any such existed.
+
+I did not suppose that General Hardin's friends were in any greater need
+of having their feelings corrected than mine were. Since I saw you at
+Jacksonville, I have had no more suspicion of the Whigs of Morgan than
+of those of any other part of the district. I write this only to try to
+remove any impression that I distrust you and the other Whigs of your
+country.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO JAMES BERDAN.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, May 7, 1866.
+
+DEAR SIR:--It is a matter of high moral obligation, if not of necessity,
+for me to attend the Coles and Edwards courts. I have some cases in both
+of them, in which the parties have my promise, and are depending upon me.
+The court commences in Coles on the second Monday, and in Edgar on the
+third. Your court in Morgan commences on the fourth Monday; and it is my
+purpose to be with you then, and make a speech. I mention the Coles and
+Edgar courts in order that if I should not reach Jacksonville at the time
+named you may understand the reason why. I do not, however, think there is
+much danger of my being detained; as I shall go with a purpose not to be,
+and consequently shall engage in no new cases that might delay me.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+VERSES WRITTEN BY LINCOLN AFTER A VISIT TO HIS OLD HOME IN INDIANA
+
+(A FRAGMENT).
+
+[In December, 1847, when Lincoln was stumping for Clay, he crossed into
+Indiana and revisited his old home. He writes: "That part of the country
+is within itself as unpoetical as any spot on earth; but still seeing
+it and its objects and inhabitants aroused feelings in me which were
+certainly poetry; though whether my expression of these feelings is
+poetry, is quite another question."]
+
+   Near twenty years have passed away
+   Since here I bid farewell
+   To woods and fields, and scenes of play,
+   And playmates loved so well.
+
+   Where many were, but few remain
+   Of old familiar things;
+   But seeing them to mind again
+   The lost and absent brings.
+
+   The friends I left that parting day,
+   How changed, as time has sped!
+   Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray,
+   And half of all are dead.
+
+   I hear the loved survivors tell
+   How naught from death could save,
+   Till every sound appears a knell,
+   And every spot a grave.
+
+   I range the fields with pensive tread,
+   And pace the hollow rooms,
+   And feel (companion of the dead)
+   I 'm living in the tombs.
+
+   VERSES WRITTEN BY LINCOLN CONCERNING A SCHOOL-FELLOW
+   WHO BECAME INSANE--(A FRAGMENT).
+
+   And when at length the drear and long
+   Time soothed thy fiercer woes,
+   How plaintively thy mournful song
+   Upon the still night rose
+
+   I've heard it oft as if I dreamed,
+   Far distant, sweet and lone;
+   The funeral dirge it ever seemed
+   Of reason dead and gone.
+
+   Air held her breath; trees with the spell
+   Seemed sorrowing angels round,
+   Whose swelling tears in dewdrops fell
+   Upon the listening ground.
+
+   But this is past, and naught remains
+   That raised thee o'er the brute;
+   Thy piercing shrieks and soothing strains
+   Are like, forever mute.
+
+   Now fare thee well! More thou the cause
+   Than subject now of woe.
+   All mental pangs by time's kind laws
+   Hast lost the power to know.
+
+   O Death! thou awe-inspiring prince
+   That keepst the world in fear,
+   Why dost thou tear more blest ones hence,
+   And leave him lingering here?
+
+
+
+
+SECOND CHILD
+
+TO JOSHUA P. SPEED
+
+SPRINGFIELD, October 22, 1846.
+
+DEAR SPEED:--You, no doubt, assign the suspension of our correspondence to
+the true philosophic cause; though it must be confessed by both of us that
+this is rather a cold reason for allowing a friendship such as ours to
+die out by degrees. I propose now that, upon receipt of this, you shall be
+considered in my debt, and under obligations to pay soon, and that neither
+shall remain long in arrears hereafter. Are you agreed?
+
+Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for
+having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.
+
+We have another boy, born the 10th of March. He is very much such a child
+as Bob was at his age, rather of a longer order. Bob is "short and low,"
+and I expect always will be. He talks very plainly,--almost as plainly as
+anybody. He is quite smart enough. I sometimes fear that he is one of the
+little rare-ripe sort that are smarter at about five than ever after. He
+has a great deal of that sort of mischief that is the offspring of such
+animal spirits. Since I began this letter, a messenger came to tell me Bob
+was lost; but by the time I reached the house his mother had found him and
+had him whipped, and by now, very likely, he is run away again. Mary has
+read your letter, and wishes to be remembered to Mrs. Speed and you, in
+which I most sincerely join her.
+
+As ever yours,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO MORRIS AND BROWN
+
+SPRINGFIELD, October 21, 1847.
+
+MESSRS. MORRIS AND BROWN.
+
+GENTLEMEN:--Your second letter on the matter of Thornton and others, came
+to hand this morning. I went at once to see Logan, and found that he
+is not engaged against you, and that he has so sent you word by Mr.
+Butterfield, as he says. He says that some time ago, a young man (who he
+knows not) came to him, with a copy of the affidavit, to engage him to aid
+in getting the Governor to grant the warrant; and that he, Logan, told
+the man, that in his opinion, the affidavit was clearly insufficient, upon
+which the young man left, without making any engagement with him. If the
+Governor shall arrive before I leave, Logan and I will both attend to the
+matter, and he will attend to it, if he does not come till after I leave;
+all upon the condition that the Governor shall not have acted upon the
+matter, before his arrival here. I mention this condition because, I
+learned this morning from the Secretary of State, that he is forwarding to
+the Governor, at Palestine, all papers he receives in the case, as fast
+as he receives them. Among the papers forwarded will be your letter to
+the Governor or Secretary of, I believe, the same date and about the same
+contents of your last letter to me; so that the Governor will, at all
+events have your points and authorities. The case is a clear one on our
+side; but whether the Governor will view it so is another thing.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON
+
+WASHINGTON, December 5, 1847.
+
+DEAR WILLIAM:--You may remember that about a year ago a man by the name of
+Wilson (James Wilson, I think) paid us twenty dollars as an advance fee to
+attend to a case in the Supreme Court for him, against a Mr. Campbell, the
+record of which case was in the hands of Mr. Dixon of St. Louis, who never
+furnished it to us. When I was at Bloomington last fall I met a friend
+of Wilson, who mentioned the subject to me, and induced me to write to
+Wilson, telling him I would leave the ten dollars with you which had been
+left with me to pay for making abstracts in the case, so that the case may
+go on this winter; but I came away, and forgot to do it. What I want now
+is to send you the money, to be used accordingly, if any one comes on to
+start the case, or to be retained by you if no one does.
+
+There is nothing of consequence new here. Congress is to organize
+to-morrow. Last night we held a Whig caucus for the House, and nominated
+Winthrop of Massachusetts for speaker, Sargent of Pennsylvania for
+sergeant-at-arms, Homer of New Jersey door-keeper, and McCormick of
+District of Columbia postmaster. The Whig majority in the House is so
+small that, together with some little dissatisfaction, [it] leaves it
+doubtful whether we will elect them all.
+
+This paper is too thick to fold, which is the reason I send only a
+half-sheet.
+
+Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON.
+
+WASHINGTON, December 13, 1847
+
+DEAR WILLIAM:--Your letter, advising me of the receipt of our fee in the
+bank case, is just received, and I don't expect to hear another as good a
+piece of news from Springfield while I am away. I am under no obligations
+to the bank; and I therefore wish you to buy bank certificates, and pay my
+debt there, so as to pay it with the least money possible. I would as soon
+you should buy them of Mr. Ridgely, or any other person at the bank, as of
+any one else, provided you can get them as cheaply. I suppose, after the
+bank debt shall be paid, there will be some money left, out of which I
+would like to have you pay Lavely and Stout twenty dollars, and Priest and
+somebody (oil-makers) ten dollars, for materials got for house-painting.
+If there shall still be any left, keep it till you see or hear from me.
+
+I shall begin sending documents so soon as I can get them. I wrote you
+yesterday about a "Congressional Globe." As you are all so anxious for me
+to distinguish myself, I have concluded to do so before long.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+RESOLUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
+
+DECEMBER 22, 1847
+
+Whereas, The President of the United States, in his message of May 11,
+1846, has declared that "the Mexican Government not only refused to
+receive him [the envoy of the United States], or to listen to his
+propositions, but, after a long-continued series of menaces, has at last
+invaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our own
+soil";
+
+And again, in his message of December 8, 1846, that "we had ample cause of
+war against Mexico long before the breaking out of hostilities; but even
+then we forbore to take redress into our own hands until Mexico herself
+became the aggressor, by invading our soil in hostile array, and shedding
+the blood of our citizens";
+
+And yet again, in his message of December 7, 1847, that "the Mexican
+Government refused even to hear the terms of adjustment which he [our
+minister of peace] was authorized to propose, and finally, under wholly
+unjustifiable pretexts, involved the two countries in war, by invading the
+territory of the State of Texas, striking the first blow, and shedding the
+blood of our citizens on our own soil";
+
+And whereas, This House is desirous to obtain a full knowledge of all the
+facts which go to establish whether the particular spot on which the blood
+of our citizens was so shed was or was not at that time our own soil:
+therefore,
+
+Resolved, By the House of Representatives, that the President of the
+United States be respectfully requested to inform this House:
+
+First. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was shed, as
+in his message declared, was or was not within the territory of Spain, at
+least after the treaty of 1819, until the Mexican revolution.
+
+Second. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory which was
+wrested from Spain by the revolutionary government of Mexico.
+
+Third. Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement of people, which
+settlement has existed ever since long before the Texas revolution, and
+until its inhabitants fled before the approach of the United States army.
+
+Fourth. Whether that settlement is or is not isolated from any and all
+other settlements by the Gulf and the Rio Grande on the south and west,
+and by wide uninhabited regions on the north and east.
+
+Fifth. Whether the people of that settlement, or a majority of them, or
+any of them, have ever submitted themselves to the government or laws
+of Texas or of the United States, by consent or by compulsion, either by
+accepting office, or voting at elections, or paying tax, or serving on
+juries, or having process served upon them, or in any other way.
+
+Sixth. Whether the people of that settlement did or did not flee from the
+approach of the United States army, leaving unprotected their homes and
+their growing crops, before the blood was shed, as in the message stated;
+and whether the first blood, so shed, was or was not shed within the
+inclosure of one of the people who had thus fled from it.
+
+Seventh. Whether our citizens, whose blood was shed, as in his message
+declared, were or were not, at that time, armed officers and soldiers,
+sent into that settlement by the military order of the President, through
+the Secretary of War.
+
+Eighth. Whether the military force of the United States was or was not
+so sent into that settlement after General Taylor had more than once
+intimated to the War Department that, in his opinion, no such movement was
+necessary to the defence or protection of Texas.
+
+
+
+
+REMARKS IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
+
+JANUARY 5, 1848.
+
+Mr. Lincoln said he had made an effort, some few days since, to obtain the
+floor in relation to this measure [resolution to direct Postmaster-General
+to make arrangements with railroad for carrying the mails--in Committee of
+the Whole], but had failed. One of the objects he had then had in view was
+now in a great measure superseded by what had fallen from the gentleman
+from Virginia who had just taken his seat. He begged to assure his friends
+on the other side of the House that no assault whatever was meant upon the
+Postmaster-General, and he was glad that what the gentleman had now said
+modified to a great extent the impression which might have been created
+by the language he had used on a previous occasion. He wanted to state to
+gentlemen who might have entertained such impressions, that the Committee
+on the Post-office was composed of five Whigs and four Democrats, and
+their report was understood as sustaining, not impugning, the position
+taken by the Postmaster-General. That report had met with the approbation
+of all the Whigs, and of all the Democrats also, with the exception
+of one, and he wanted to go even further than this. [Intimation was
+informally given Mr. Lincoln that it was not in order to mention on the
+floor what had taken place in committee.] He then observed that if he had
+been out of order in what he had said he took it all back so far as he
+could. He had no desire, he could assure gentlemen, ever to be out of
+order--though he never could keep long in order.
+
+Mr. Lincoln went on to observe that he differed in opinion, in the present
+case, from his honorable friend from Richmond [Mr. Botts]. That gentleman,
+had begun his remarks by saying that if all prepossessions in this
+matter could be removed out of the way, but little difficulty would be
+experienced in coming to an agreement. Now, he could assure that
+gentleman that he had himself begun the examination of the subject with
+prepossessions all in his favor. He had long and often heard of him,
+and, from what he had heard, was prepossessed in his favor. Of the
+Postmaster-General he had also heard, but had no prepossessions in his
+favor, though certainly none of an opposite kind. He differed, however,
+with that gentleman in politics, while in this respect he agreed with the
+gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Botts], whom he wished to oblige whenever it
+was in his power. That gentleman had referred to the report made to the
+House by the Postmaster-General, and had intimated an apprehension that
+gentlemen would be disposed to rely, on that report alone, and derive
+their views of the case from that document alone. Now it so happened that
+a pamphlet had been slipped into his [Mr. Lincoln's] hand before he read
+the report of the Postmaster-General; so that, even in this, he had begun
+with prepossessions in favor of the gentleman from Virginia.
+
+As to the report, he had but one remark to make: he had carefully examined
+it, and he did not understand that there was any dispute as to the facts
+therein stated the dispute, if he understood it, was confined altogether
+to the inferences to be drawn from those facts. It was a difference not
+about facts, but about conclusions. The facts were not disputed. If he was
+right in this, he supposed the House might assume the facts to be as they
+were stated, and thence proceed to draw their own conclusions.
+
+The gentleman had said that the Postmaster-General had got into a personal
+squabble with the railroad company. Of this Mr. Lincoln knew nothing, nor
+did he need or desire to know anything, because it had nothing whatever to
+do with a just conclusion from the premises. But the gentleman had gone
+on to ask whether so great a grievance as the present detention of the
+Southern mail ought not to be remedied. Mr. Lincoln would assure the
+gentleman that if there was a proper way of doing it, no man was more
+anxious than he that it should be done. The report made by the committee
+had been intended to yield much for the sake of removing that grievance.
+That the grievance was very great there was no dispute in any quarter. He
+supposed that the statements made by the gentleman from Virginia to show
+this were all entirely correct in point of fact. He did suppose that the
+interruptions of regular intercourse, and all the other inconveniences
+growing out of it, were all as that gentleman had stated them to be;
+and certainly, if redress could be rendered, it was proper it should be
+rendered as soon as possible. The gentleman said that in order to effect
+this no new legislative action was needed; all that was necessary was that
+the Postmaster-General should be required to do what the law, as it stood,
+authorized and required him to do.
+
+We come then, said Mr. Lincoln, to the law. Now the Postmaster-General
+says he cannot give to this company more than two hundred and thirty-seven
+dollars and fifty cents per railroad mile of transportation, and twelve
+and a half per cent. less for transportation by steamboats. He considers
+himself as restricted by law to this amount; and he says, further, that he
+would not give more if he could, because in his apprehension it would not
+be fair and just.
+
+
+
+
+1848
+
+
+
+
+DESIRE FOR SECOND TERM IN CONGRESS
+
+TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON.
+
+WASHINGTON, January 8, 1848.
+
+DEAR WILLIAM:--Your letter of December 27 was received a day or two ago. I
+am much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken, and promise to take
+in my little business there. As to speech making, by way of getting
+the hang of the House I made a little speech two or three days ago on
+a post-office question of no general interest. I find speaking here and
+elsewhere about the same thing. I was about as badly scared, and no worse
+as I am when I speak in court. I expect to make one within a week or two,
+in which I hope to succeed well enough to wish you to see it.
+
+It is very pleasant to learn from you that there are some who desire
+that I should be reelected. I most heartily thank them for their kind
+partiality; and I can say, as Mr. Clay said of the annexation of Texas,
+that "personally I would not object" to a reelection, although I thought
+at the time, and still think, it would be quite as well for me to return
+to the law at the end of a single term. I made the declaration that I
+would not be a candidate again, more from a wish to deal fairly with
+others, to keep peace among our friends, and to keep the district from
+going to the enemy, than for any cause personal to myself; so that if it
+should so happen that nobody else wishes to be elected, I could not
+refuse the people the right of sending me again. But to enter myself as
+a competitor of others, or to authorize any one so to enter me is what my
+word and honor forbid.
+
+I got some letters intimating a probability of so much difficulty amongst
+our friends as to lose us the district; but I remember such letters were
+written to Baker when my own case was under consideration, and I trust
+there is no more ground for such apprehension now than there was then.
+Remember I am always glad to receive a letter from you.
+
+Most truly your friend,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+SPEECH ON DECLARATION OF WAR ON MEXICO
+
+SPEECH IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
+
+JANUARY 12, 1848.
+
+MR CHAIRMAN:--Some if not all the gentlemen on the other side of the House
+who have addressed the committee within the last two days have spoken
+rather complainingly, if I have rightly understood them, of the vote
+given a week or ten days ago declaring that the war with Mexico was
+unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the President. I admit
+that such a vote should not be given in mere party wantonness, and
+that the one given is justly censurable if it have no other or better
+foundation. I am one of those who joined in that vote; and I did so under
+my best impression of the truth of the case. How I got this impression,
+and how it may possibly be remedied, I will now try to show. When the war
+began, it was my opinion that all those who because of knowing too little,
+or because of knowing too much, could not conscientiously approve the
+conduct of the President in the beginning of it should nevertheless, as
+good citizens and patriots, remain silent on that point, at least till the
+war should be ended. Some leading Democrats, including ex-President Van
+Buren, have taken this same view, as I understand them; and I adhered
+to it and acted upon it, until since I took my seat here; and I think I
+should still adhere to it were it not that the President and his friends
+will not allow it to be so. Besides the continual effort of the President
+to argue every silent vote given for supplies into an indorsement of
+the justice and wisdom of his conduct; besides that singularly candid
+paragraph in his late message in which he tells us that Congress with
+great unanimity had declared that "by the act of the Republic of Mexico,
+a state of war exists between that government and the United States," when
+the same journals that informed him of this also informed him that
+when that declaration stood disconnected from the question of supplies
+sixty-seven in the House, and not fourteen merely, voted against it;
+besides this open attempt to prove by telling the truth what he could not
+prove by telling the whole truth-demanding of all who will not submit to
+be misrepresented, in justice to themselves, to speak out, besides all
+this, one of my colleagues [Mr. Richardson] at a very early day in the
+session brought in a set of resolutions expressly indorsing the original
+justice of the war on the part of the President. Upon these resolutions
+when they shall be put on their passage I shall be compelled to vote; so
+that I cannot be silent if I would. Seeing this, I went about preparing
+myself to give the vote understandingly when it should come. I carefully
+examined the President's message, to ascertain what he himself had said
+and proved upon the point. The result of this examination was to make the
+impression that, taking for true all the President states as facts, he
+falls far short of proving his justification; and that the President would
+have gone further with his proof if it had not been for the small matter
+that the truth would not permit him. Under the impression thus made I gave
+the vote before mentioned. I propose now to give concisely the process
+of the examination I made, and how I reached the conclusion I did. The
+President, in his first war message of May, 1846, declares that the soil
+was ours on which hostilities were commenced by Mexico, and he repeats
+that declaration almost in the same language in each successive annual
+message, thus showing that he deems that point a highly essential one. In
+the importance of that point I entirely agree with the President. To
+my judgment it is the very point upon which he should be justified, or
+condemned. In his message of December, 1846, it seems to have occurred to
+him, as is certainly true, that title-ownership-to soil or anything else
+is not a simple fact, but is a conclusion following on one or more simple
+facts; and that it was incumbent upon him to present the facts from which
+he concluded the soil was ours on which the first blood of the war was
+shed.
+
+Accordingly, a little below the middle of page twelve in the message last
+referred to, he enters upon that task; forming an issue and introducing
+testimony, extending the whole to a little below the middle of page
+fourteen. Now, I propose to try to show that the whole of this--issue and
+evidence--is from beginning to end the sheerest deception. The issue, as
+he presents it, is in these words: "But there are those who, conceding all
+this to be true, assume the ground that the true western boundary of Texas
+is the Nueces, instead of the Rio Grande; and that, therefore, in marching
+our army to the east bank of the latter river, we passed the Texas line
+and invaded the territory of Mexico." Now this issue is made up of two
+affirmatives and no negative. The main deception of it is that it assumes
+as true that one river or the other is necessarily the boundary; and
+cheats the superficial thinker entirely out of the idea that possibly
+the boundary is somewhere between the two, and not actually at either. A
+further deception is that it will let in evidence which a true issue would
+exclude. A true issue made by the President would be about as follows: "I
+say the soil was ours, on which the first blood was shed; there are those
+who say it was not."
+
+I now proceed to examine the President's evidence as applicable to such an
+issue. When that evidence is analyzed, it is all included in the following
+propositions:
+
+(1) That the Rio Grande was the western boundary of Louisiana as we
+purchased it of France in 1803.
+
+(2) That the Republic of Texas always claimed the Rio Grande as her
+eastern boundary.
+
+(3) That by various acts she had claimed it on paper.
+
+(4) That Santa Anna in his treaty with Texas recognized the Rio Grande as
+her boundary.
+
+(5) That Texas before, and the United States after, annexation had
+exercised jurisdiction beyond the Nueces--between the two rivers.
+
+(6) That our Congress understood the boundary of Texas to extend beyond
+the Nueces.
+
+Now for each of these in its turn. His first item is that the Rio Grande
+was the western boundary of Louisiana, as we purchased it of France in
+1803; and seeming to expect this to be disputed, he argues over the amount
+of nearly a page to prove it true, at the end of which he lets us know
+that by the treaty of 1803 we sold to Spain the whole country from the Rio
+Grande eastward to the Sabine. Now, admitting for the present that the
+Rio Grande was the boundary of Louisiana, what under heaven had that to
+do with the present boundary between us and Mexico? How, Mr. Chairman,
+the line that once divided your land from mine can still be the
+boundary between us after I have sold my land to you is to me beyond all
+comprehension. And how any man, with an honest purpose only of proving the
+truth, could ever have thought of introducing such a fact to prove such an
+issue is equally incomprehensible. His next piece of evidence is that "the
+Republic of Texas always claimed this river [Rio Grande] as her western
+boundary." That is not true, in fact. Texas has claimed it, but she has
+not always claimed it. There is at least one distinguished exception. Her
+State constitution the republic's most solemn and well-considered
+act, that which may, without impropriety, be called her last will and
+testament, revoking all others-makes no such claim. But suppose she had
+always claimed it. Has not Mexico always claimed the contrary? So that
+there is but claim against claim, leaving nothing proved until we get back
+of the claims and find which has the better foundation. Though not in the
+order in which the President presents his evidence, I now consider that
+class of his statements which are in substance nothing more than that
+Texas has, by various acts of her Convention and Congress, claimed the
+Rio Grande as her boundary, on paper. I mean here what he says about the
+fixing of the Rio Grande as her boundary in her old constitution (not her
+State constitution), about forming Congressional districts, counties, etc.
+Now all of this is but naked claim; and what I have already said about
+claims is strictly applicable to this. If I should claim your land by word
+of mouth, that certainly would not make it mine; and if I were to claim it
+by a deed which I had made myself, and with which you had had nothing to
+do, the claim would be quite the same in substance--or rather, in utter
+nothingness. I next consider the President's statement that Santa Anna in
+his treaty with Texas recognized the Rio Grande as the western boundary
+of Texas. Besides the position so often taken, that Santa Anna while a
+prisoner of war, a captive, could not bind Mexico by a treaty, which I
+deem conclusive--besides this, I wish to say something in relation to this
+treaty, so called by the President, with Santa Anna. If any man would like
+to be amused by a sight of that little thing which the President calls by
+that big name, he can have it by turning to Niles's Register, vol. 1,
+p. 336. And if any one should suppose that Niles's Register is a curious
+repository of so mighty a document as a solemn treaty between nations, I
+can only say that I learned to a tolerable degree of certainty, by inquiry
+at the State Department, that the President himself never saw it anywhere
+else. By the way, I believe I should not err if I were to declare that
+during the first ten years of the existence of that document it was
+never by anybody called a treaty--that it was never so called till the
+President, in his extremity, attempted by so calling it to wring something
+from it in justification of himself in connection with the Mexican War.
+It has none of the distinguishing features of a treaty. It does not call
+itself a treaty. Santa Anna does not therein assume to bind Mexico; he
+assumes only to act as the President--Commander-in-Chief of the Mexican
+army and navy; stipulates that the then present hostilities should cease,
+and that he would not himself take up arms, nor influence the Mexican
+people to take up arms, against Texas during the existence of the war of
+independence. He did not recognize the independence of Texas; he did not
+assume to put an end to the war, but clearly indicated his expectation
+of its continuance; he did not say one word about boundary, and, most
+probably, never thought of it. It is stipulated therein that the Mexican
+forces should evacuate the territory of Texas, passing to the other
+side of the Rio Grande; and in another article it is stipulated that, to
+prevent collisions between the armies, the Texas army should not approach
+nearer than within five leagues--of what is not said, but clearly, from
+the object stated, it is of the Rio Grande. Now, if this is a treaty
+recognizing the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas, it contains the
+singular feature of stipulating that Texas shall not go within five
+leagues of her own boundary.
+
+Next comes the evidence of Texas before annexation, and the United States
+afterwards, exercising jurisdiction beyond the Nueces and between the two
+rivers. This actual exercise of jurisdiction is the very class or quality
+of evidence we want. It is excellent so far as it goes; but does it go far
+enough? He tells us it went beyond the Nueces, but he does not tell us it
+went to the Rio Grande. He tells us jurisdiction was exercised between
+the two rivers, but he does not tell us it was exercised over all the
+territory between them. Some simple-minded people think it is possible to
+cross one river and go beyond it without going all the way to the next,
+that jurisdiction may be exercised between two rivers without covering
+all the country between them. I know a man, not very unlike myself, who
+exercises jurisdiction over a piece of land between the Wabash and the
+Mississippi; and yet so far is this from being all there is between those
+rivers that it is just one hundred and fifty-two feet long by fifty feet
+wide, and no part of it much within a hundred miles of either. He has a
+neighbor between him and the Mississippi--that is, just across the street,
+in that direction--whom I am sure he could neither persuade nor force to
+give up his habitation; but which nevertheless he could certainly annex,
+if it were to be done by merely standing on his own side of the street and
+claiming it, or even sitting down and writing a deed for it.
+
+But next the President tells us the Congress of the United States
+understood the State of Texas they admitted into the Union to extend
+beyond the Nueces. Well, I suppose they did. I certainly so understood it.
+But how far beyond? That Congress did not understand it to extend clear
+to the Rio Grande is quite certain, by the fact of their joint resolutions
+for admission expressly leaving all questions of boundary to future
+adjustment. And it may be added that Texas herself is proven to have had
+the same understanding of it that our Congress had, by the fact of the
+exact conformity of her new constitution to those resolutions.
+
+I am now through the whole of the President's evidence; and it is a
+singular fact that if any one should declare the President sent the army
+into the midst of a settlement of Mexican people who had never submitted,
+by consent or by force, to the authority of Texas or of the United States,
+and that there and thereby the first blood of the war was shed, there is
+not one word in all the which would either admit or deny the declaration.
+This strange omission it does seem to me could not have occurred but by
+design. My way of living leads me to be about the courts of justice; and
+there I have sometimes seen a good lawyer, struggling for his client's
+neck in a desperate case, employing every artifice to work round, befog,
+and cover up with many words some point arising in the case which he dared
+not admit and yet could not deny. Party bias may help to make it appear
+so, but with all the allowance I can make for such bias, it still
+does appear to me that just such, and from just such necessity, is the
+President's struggle in this case.
+
+Sometime after my colleague [Mr. Richardson] introduced the resolutions I
+have mentioned, I introduced a preamble, resolution, and interrogations,
+intended to draw the President out, if possible, on this hitherto
+untrodden ground. To show their relevancy, I propose to state my
+understanding of the true rule for ascertaining the boundary between Texas
+and Mexico. It is that wherever Texas was exercising jurisdiction was
+hers; and wherever Mexico was exercising jurisdiction was hers; and that
+whatever separated the actual exercise of jurisdiction of the one from
+that of the other was the true boundary between them. If, as is probably
+true, Texas was exercising jurisdiction along the western bank of the
+Nueces, and Mexico was exercising it along the eastern bank of the Rio
+Grande, then neither river was the boundary: but the uninhabited country
+between the two was. The extent of our territory in that region depended
+not on any treaty-fixed boundary (for no treaty had attempted it), but on
+revolution. Any people anywhere being inclined and having the power have
+the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a
+new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred
+right--a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor
+is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing
+government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can
+may revolutionize and make their own of so much of the territory as they
+inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may
+revolutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled with or near about
+them, who may oppose this movement. Such minority was precisely the case
+of the Tories of our own revolution. It is a quality of revolutions not to
+go by old lines or old laws, but to break up both, and make new ones.
+
+As to the country now in question, we bought it of France in 1803, and
+sold it to Spain in 1819, according to the President's statements. After
+this, all Mexico, including Texas, revolutionized against Spain; and still
+later Texas revolutionized against Mexico. In my view, just so far as
+she carried her resolution by obtaining the actual, willing or unwilling,
+submission of the people, so far the country was hers, and no farther.
+Now, sir, for the purpose of obtaining the very best evidence as to
+whether Texas had actually carried her revolution to the place where the
+hostilities of the present war commenced, let the President answer the
+interrogatories I proposed, as before mentioned, or some other similar
+ones. Let him answer fully, fairly, and candidly. Let him answer with
+facts and not with arguments. Let him remember he sits where Washington
+sat, and so remembering, let him answer as Washington would answer. As
+a nation should not, and the Almighty will not, be evaded, so let him
+attempt no evasion--no equivocation. And if, so answering, he can show
+that the soil was ours where the first blood of the war was shed,--that
+it was not within an inhabited country, or, if within such, that the
+inhabitants had submitted themselves to the civil authority of Texas or
+of the United States, and that the same is true of the site of Fort Brown,
+then I am with him for his justification. In that case I shall be most
+happy to reverse the vote I gave the other day. I have a selfish motive
+for desiring that the President may do this--I expect to gain some votes,
+in connection with the war, which, without his so doing, will be of
+doubtful propriety in my own judgment, but which will be free from the
+doubt if he does so. But if he can not or will not do this,--if on any
+pretence or no pretence he shall refuse or omit it then I shall be fully
+convinced of what I more than suspect already that he is deeply conscious
+of being in the wrong; that he feels the blood of this war, like the blood
+of Abel, is crying to heaven against him; that originally having some
+strong motive--what, I will not stop now to give my opinion concerning
+to involve the two countries in a war, and trusting to escape scrutiny
+by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military
+glory,--that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood, that
+serpent's eye that charms to destroy,--he plunged into it, and was swept
+on and on till, disappointed in his calculation of the ease with which
+Mexico might be subdued, he now finds himself he knows not where. How like
+the half insane mumbling of a fever dream is the whole war part of his
+late message! At one time telling us that Mexico has nothing whatever that
+we can get--but territory; at another showing us how we can support the
+war by levying contributions on Mexico. At one time urging the national
+honor, the security of the future, the prevention of foreign interference,
+and even the good of Mexico herself as among the objects of the war; at
+another telling us that "to reject indemnity, by refusing to accept a
+cession of territory, would be to abandon all our just demands, and to
+wage the war, bearing all its expenses, without a purpose or definite
+object." So then this national honor, security of the future, and
+everything but territorial indemnity may be considered the no-purposes and
+indefinite objects of the war! But, having it now settled that territorial
+indemnity is the only object, we are urged to seize, by legislation here,
+all that he was content to take a few months ago, and the whole province
+of Lower California to boot, and to still carry on the war to take all
+we are fighting for, and still fight on. Again, the President is resolved
+under all circumstances to have full territorial indemnity for the
+expenses of the war; but he forgets to tell us how we are to get the
+excess after those expenses shall have surpassed the value of the whole
+of the Mexican territory. So again, he insists that the separate national
+existence of Mexico shall be maintained; but he does not tell us how
+this can be done, after we shall have taken all her territory. Lest the
+questions I have suggested be considered speculative merely, let me be
+indulged a moment in trying to show they are not. The war has gone on some
+twenty months; for the expenses of which, together with an inconsiderable
+old score, the President now claims about one half of the Mexican
+territory, and that by far the better half, so far as concerns our ability
+to make anything out of it. It is comparatively uninhabited; so that we
+could establish land-offices in it, and raise some money in that way. But
+the other half is already inhabited, as I understand it, tolerably
+densely for the nature of the country, and all its lands, or all that are
+valuable, already appropriated as private property. How then are we to
+make anything out of these lands with this encumbrance on them? or how
+remove the encumbrance? I suppose no one would say we should kill the
+people, or drive them out, or make slaves of them, or confiscate their
+property. How, then, can we make much out of this part of the territory?
+If the prosecution of the war has in expenses already equalled the better
+half of the country, how long its future prosecution will be in equalling
+the less valuable half is not a speculative, but a practical, question,
+pressing closely upon us. And yet it is a question which the President
+seems never to have thought of. As to the mode of terminating the war and
+securing peace, the President is equally wandering and indefinite. First,
+it is to be done by a more vigorous prosecution of the war in the vital
+parts of the enemy's country; and after apparently talking himself tired
+on this point, the President drops down into a half-despairing tone,
+and tells us that "with a people distracted and divided by contending
+factions, and a government subject to constant changes by successive
+revolutions, the continued success of our arms may fail to secure a
+satisfactory peace." Then he suggests the propriety of wheedling the
+Mexican people to desert the counsels of their own leaders, and, trusting
+in our protestations, to set up a government from which we can secure
+a satisfactory peace; telling us that "this may become the only mode of
+obtaining such a peace." But soon he falls into doubt of this too; and
+then drops back on to the already half-abandoned ground of "more vigorous
+prosecution." All this shows that the President is in nowise satisfied
+with his own positions. First he takes up one, and in attempting to argue
+us into it he argues himself out of it, then seizes another and goes
+through the same process, and then, confused at being able to think of
+nothing new, he snatches up the old one again, which he has some time
+before cast off. His mind, taxed beyond its power, is running hither and
+thither, like some tortured creature on a burning surface, finding no
+position on which it can settle down and be at ease.
+
+Again, it is a singular omission in this message that it nowhere intimates
+when the President expects the war to terminate. At its beginning, General
+Scott was by this same President driven into disfavor if not disgrace, for
+intimating that peace could not be conquered in less than three or four
+months. But now, at the end of about twenty months, during which time our
+arms have given us the most splendid successes, every department and every
+part, land and water, officers and privates, regulars and volunteers,
+doing all that men could do, and hundreds of things which it had ever
+before been thought men could not do--after all this, this same President
+gives a long message, without showing us that as to the end he himself has
+even an imaginary conception. As I have before said, he knows not where he
+is. He is a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man. God grant
+he may be able to show there is not something about his conscience more
+painful than his mental perplexity.
+
+The following is a copy of the so-called "treaty" referred to in the
+speech:
+
+
+   "Articles of Agreement entered into between his Excellency
+David G. Burnet, President of the Republic of Texas, of the one part,
+and his Excellency General Santa Anna, President-General-in-Chief of the
+Mexican army, of the other part:
+
+   "Article I. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna agrees that
+he will not take up arms, nor will he exercise his influence to cause
+them to be taken up, against the people of Texas during the present war of
+independence.
+
+   "Article II. All hostilities between the Mexican and Texan
+troops will cease immediately, both by land and water.
+
+   "Article III. The Mexican troops will evacuate the territory
+of Texas, passing to the other side of the Rio Grande Del Norte.
+
+   "Article IV. The Mexican army, in its retreat, shall not
+take the property of any person without his consent and just
+indemnification, using only such articles as may be necessary for its
+subsistence, in cases when the owner may not be present, and remitting
+to the commander of the army of Texas, or to the commissioners to be
+appointed for the adjustment of such matters, an account of the value of
+the property consumed, the place where taken, and the name of the owner,
+if it can be ascertained.
+
+   "Article V. That all private property, including cattle,
+horses, negro slaves, or indentured persons, of whatever denomination,
+that may have been captured by any portion of the Mexican army, or may
+have taken refuge in the said army, since the commencement of the late
+invasion, shall be restored to the commander of the Texan army, or to such
+other persons as may be appointed by the Government of Texas to receive
+them.
+
+   "Article VI. The troops of both armies will refrain from
+coming in contact with each other; and to this end the commander of the
+army of Texas will be careful not to approach within a shorter distance
+than five leagues.
+
+   "Article VII. The Mexican army shall not make any other
+delay on its march than that which is necessary to take up their
+hospitals, baggage, etc., and to cross the rivers; any delay not necessary
+to these purposes to be considered an infraction of this agreement.
+
+   "Article VIII. By an express, to be immediately despatched,
+this agreement shall be sent to General Vincente Filisola and to General
+T. J. Rusk, commander of the Texan army, in order that they may be
+apprised of its stipulations; and to this end they will exchange
+engagements to comply with the same.
+
+   "Article IX. That all Texan prisoners now in the possession
+of the Mexican army, or its authorities, be forthwith released, and
+furnished with free passports to return to their homes; in consideration
+of which a corresponding number of Mexican prisoners, rank and file, now
+in possession of the Government of Texas shall be immediately released;
+the remainder of the Mexican prisoners that continue in the possession
+of the Government of Texas to be treated with due humanity,--any
+extraordinary comforts that may be furnished them to be at the charge of
+the Government of Mexico.
+
+   "Article X. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna will be sent
+to Vera Cruz as soon as it shall be deemed proper.
+
+   "The contracting parties sign this instrument for the abovementioned
+purposes, in duplicate, at the port of Velasco, this fourteenth day of
+May, 1836.
+
+  "DAVID G. BURNET, President,
+  "JAS. COLLINGSWORTH, Secretary of State,
+  "ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA,
+  "B. HARDIMAN, Secretary of the Treasury,
+  "P. W. GRAYSON, Attorney-General."
+
+
+
+
+REPORT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 19, 1848.
+
+Mr. Lincoln, from the Committee on the Post-office and Post Roads, made
+the following report:
+
+The Committee on the Post-office and Post Roads, to whom was referred the
+petition of Messrs. Saltmarsh and Fuller, report: That, as proved to
+their satisfaction, the mail routes from Milledgeville to Athens, and from
+Warrenton to Decatur, in the State of Georgia (numbered 2366 and 2380),
+were let to Reeside and Avery at $1300 per annum for the former and $1500
+for the latter, for the term of four years, to commence on the first day
+of January, 1835; that, previous to the time for commencing the service,
+Reeside sold his interest therein to Avery; that on the 5th of May, 1835,
+Avery sold the whole to these petitioners, Saltmarsh and Fuller, to
+take effect from the beginning, January a 1835; that at this time, the
+Assistant Postmaster-General, being called on for that purpose, consented
+to the transfer of the contracts from Reeside and Avery to these
+petitioners, and promised to have proper entries of the transfer made on
+the books of the department, which, however, was neglected to be done;
+that the petitioners, supposing all was right, in good faith commenced the
+transportation of the mail on these routes, and after difficulty arose,
+still trusting that all would be made right, continued the service
+till December a 1837; that they performed the service to the entire
+satisfaction of the department, and have never been paid anything for it
+except $----; that the difficulty occurred as follows:
+
+Mr. Barry was Postmaster-General at the times of making the contracts
+and the attempted transfer of them; Mr. Kendall succeeded Mr. Barry, and
+finding Reeside apparently in debt to the department, and these contracts
+still standing in the names of Reeside and Avery, refused to pay for the
+services under them, otherwise than by credits to Reeside; afterward,
+however, he divided the compensation, still crediting one half to Reeside,
+and directing the other to be paid to the order of Avery, who disclaimed
+all right to it. After discontinuing the service, these petitioners,
+supposing they might have legal redress against Avery, brought suit
+against him in New Orleans; in which suit they failed, on the ground
+that Avery had complied with his contract, having done so much toward the
+transfer as they had accepted and been satisfied with. Still later the
+department sued Reeside on his supposed indebtedness, and by a verdict of
+the jury it was determined that the department was indebted to him in a
+sum much beyond all the credits given him on the account above stated.
+Under these circumstances, the committee consider the petitioners clearly
+entitled to relief, and they report a bill accordingly; lest, however,
+there should be some mistake as to the amount which they have already
+received, we so frame it as that, by adjustment at the department, they
+may be paid so much as remains unpaid for services actually performed by
+them not charging them with the credits given to Reeside. The committee
+think it not improbable that the petitioners purchased the right of Avery
+to be paid for the service from the 1st of January, till their purchase
+on May 11, 1835; but, the evidence on this point being very vague, they
+forbear to report in favor of allowing it.
+
+
+
+
+TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON--LEGAL WORK
+
+WASHINGTON, January 19, 1848.
+
+DEAR WILLIAM:--Inclosed you find a letter of Louis W. Chandler. What
+is wanted is that you shall ascertain whether the claim upon the note
+described has received any dividend in the Probate Court of Christian
+County, where the estate of Mr. Overbon Williams has been administered
+on. If nothing is paid on it, withdraw the note and send it to me, so that
+Chandler can see the indorser of it. At all events write me all about it,
+till I can somehow get it off my hands. I have already been bored more
+than enough about it; not the least of which annoyance is his cursed,
+unreadable, and ungodly handwriting.
+
+I have made a speech, a copy of which I will send you by next mail.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+REGARDING SPEECH ON MEXICAN WAR
+
+TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON.
+
+WASHINGTON, February 1, 1848.
+
+DEAR WILLIAM:--Your letter of the 19th ultimo was received last night, and
+for which I am much obliged. The only thing in it that I wish to talk to
+you at once about is that because of my vote for Ashmun's amendment you
+fear that you and I disagree about the war. I regret this, not because of
+any fear we shall remain disagreed after you have read this letter, but
+because if you misunderstand I fear other good friends may also. That vote
+affirms that the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by
+the President; and I will stake my life that if you had been in my place
+you would have voted just as I did. Would you have voted what you felt
+and knew to be a lie? I know you would not. Would you have gone out of the
+House--skulked the vote? I expect not. If you had skulked one vote,
+you would have had to skulk many more before the end of the session.
+Richardson's resolutions, introduced before I made any move or gave any
+vote upon the subject, make the direct question of the justice of the war;
+so that no man can be silent if he would. You are compelled to speak; and
+your only alternative is to tell the truth or a lie. I cannot doubt which
+you would do.
+
+This vote has nothing to do in determining my votes on the questions of
+supplies. I have always intended, and still intend, to vote supplies;
+perhaps not in the precise form recommended by the President, but in a
+better form for all purposes, except Locofoco party purposes. It is in
+this particular you seem mistaken. The Locos are untiring in their efforts
+to make the impression that all who vote supplies or take part in the war
+do of necessity approve the President's conduct in the beginning of
+it; but the Whigs have from the beginning made and kept the distinction
+between the two. In the very first act nearly all the Whigs voted against
+the preamble declaring that war existed by the act of Mexico; and yet
+nearly all of them voted for the supplies. As to the Whig men who have
+participated in the war, so far as they have spoken in my hearing they
+do not hesitate to denounce as unjust the President's conduct in the
+beginning of the war. They do not suppose that such denunciation is
+directed by undying hatred to him, as The Register would have it believed.
+There are two such Whigs on this floor (Colonel Haskell and Major James)
+The former fought as a colonel by the side of Colonel Baker at Cerro
+Gordo, and stands side by side with me in the vote that you seem
+dissatisfied with. The latter, the history of whose capture with Cassius
+Clay you well know, had not arrived here when that vote was given; but,
+as I understand, he stands ready to give just such a vote whenever an
+occasion shall present. Baker, too, who is now here, says the truth is
+undoubtedly that way; and whenever he shall speak out, he will say so.
+Colonel Doniphan, too, the favorite Whig of Missouri, and who overran
+all Northern Mexico, on his return home in a public speech at St. Louis
+condemned the administration in relation to the war. If I remember, G. T.
+M. Davis, who has been through almost the whole war, declares in favor of
+Mr. Clay; from which I infer that he adopts the sentiments of Mr. Clay,
+generally at least. On the other hand, I have heard of but one Whig who
+has been to the war attempting to justify the President's conduct. That
+one was Captain Bishop, editor of the Charleston Courier, and a very
+clever fellow. I do not mean this letter for the public, but for you.
+Before it reaches you, you will have seen and read my pamphlet speech,
+and perhaps been scared anew by it. After you get over your scare, read it
+over again, sentence by sentence, and tell me honestly what you think of
+it. I condensed all I could for fear of being cut off by the hour rule,
+and when I got through I had spoken but forty-five minutes.
+
+Yours forever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON.
+
+WASHINGTON, February 2, 1848
+
+DEAR WILLIAM:--I just take my pen to say that Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, a
+little, slim, pale-faced, consumptive man, with a voice like Logan's, has
+just concluded the very best speech of an hour's length I ever heard. My
+old withered dry eyes are full of tears yet.
+
+If he writes it out anything like he delivered it, our people shall see a
+good many copies of it.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE MEXICAN WAR
+
+TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON.
+
+WASHINGTON, February 15, 1848.
+
+DEAR WILLIAM:--Your letter of the 29th January was received last night.
+Being exclusively a constitutional argument, I wish to submit some
+reflections upon it in the same spirit of kindness that I know actuates
+you. Let me first state what I understand to be your position. It is that
+if it shall become necessary to repel invasion, the President may, without
+violation of the Constitution, cross the line and invade the territory of
+another country, and that whether such necessity exists in any given case
+the President is the sole judge.
+
+Before going further consider well whether this is or is not your
+position. If it is, it is a position that neither the President himself,
+nor any friend of his, so far as I know, has ever taken. Their only
+positions are--first, that the soil was ours when the hostilities
+commenced; and second, that whether it was rightfully ours or not,
+Congress had annexed it, and the President for that reason was bound to
+defend it; both of which are as clearly proved to be false in fact as you
+can prove that your house is mine. The soil was not ours, and Congress did
+not annex or attempt to annex it. But to return to your position. Allow
+the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it
+necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may
+choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to
+make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power
+in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose. If to-day
+he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent
+the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to
+him,--"I see no probability of the British invading us"; but he will say
+to you, "Be silent: I see it, if you don't."
+
+The provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress
+was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: kings had
+always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending
+generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object.
+This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly
+oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one
+man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your
+view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have
+always stood. Write soon again.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+REPORT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
+
+MARCH 9, 1848.
+
+Mr. Lincoln, from the Committee on the Postoffice and Post Roads, made the
+following report:
+
+The Committee on the Post-office and Post Roads, to whom was referred the
+resolution of the House of Representatives entitled "An Act authorizing
+postmasters at county seats of justice to receive subscriptions for
+newspapers and periodicals, to be paid through the agency of the
+Post-office Department, and for other purposes," beg leave to submit the
+following report:
+
+The committee have reason to believe that a general wish pervades the
+community at large that some such facility as the proposed measure should
+be granted by express law, for subscribing, through the agency of the
+Post-office Department, to newspapers and periodicals which diffuse daily,
+weekly, or monthly intelligence of passing events. Compliance with
+this general wish is deemed to be in accordance with our republican
+institutions, which can be best sustained by the diffusion of knowledge
+and the due encouragement of a universal, national spirit of inquiry and
+discussion of public events through the medium of the public press. The
+committee, however, has not been insensible to its duty of guarding the
+Post-office Department against injurious sacrifices for the accomplishment
+of this object, whereby its ordinary efficacy might be impaired or
+embarrassed. It has therefore been a subject of much consideration; but
+it is now confidently hoped that the bill herewith submitted effectually
+obviates all objections which might exist with regard to a less matured
+proposition.
+
+The committee learned, upon inquiry, that the Post-office Department,
+in view of meeting the general wish on this subject, made the experiment
+through one if its own internal regulations, when the new postage system
+went into operation on the first of July, 1845, and that it was continued
+until the thirtieth of September, 1847. But this experiment, for reasons
+hereafter stated, proved unsatisfactory, and it was discontinued by
+order of the Postmaster-General. As far as the committee can at present
+ascertain, the following seem to have been the principal grounds of
+dissatisfaction in this experiment:
+
+(1) The legal responsibility of postmasters receiving newspaper
+subscriptions, or of their sureties, was not defined.
+
+(2) The authority was open to all postmasters instead of being limited to
+those of specific offices.
+
+(3) The consequence of this extension of authority was that, in
+innumerable instances, the money, without the previous knowledge or
+control of the officers of the department who are responsible for the good
+management of its finances, was deposited in offices where it was improper
+such funds should be placed; and the repayment was ordered, not by
+the financial officers, but by the postmasters, at points where it was
+inconvenient to the department so to disburse its funds.
+
+(4) The inconvenience of accumulating uncertain and fluctuating sums at
+small offices was felt seriously in consequent overpayments to contractors
+on their quarterly collecting orders; and, in case of private mail routes,
+in litigation concerning the misapplication of such funds to the special
+service of supplying mails.
+
+(5) The accumulation of such funds on draft offices could not be known
+to the financial clerks of the department in time to control it, and too
+often this rendered uncertain all their calculations of funds in hand.
+
+(6) The orders of payment were for the most part issued upon the principal
+offices, such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, etc., where
+the large offices of publishers are located, causing an illimitable and
+uncontrollable drain of the department funds from those points where
+it was essential to husband them for its own regular disbursements. In
+Philadelphia alone this drain averaged $5000 per quarter; and in other
+cities of the seaboard it was proportionate.
+
+(7) The embarrassment of the department was increased by the illimitable,
+uncontrollable, and irresponsible scattering of its funds from
+concentrated points suitable for its distributions, to remote, unsafe, and
+inconvenient offices, where they could not be again made available till
+collected by special agents, or were transferred at considerable expense
+into the principal disbursing offices again.
+
+(8) There was a vast increase of duties thrown upon the limited force
+before necessary to conduct the business of the department; and from the
+delay of obtaining vouchers impediments arose to the speedy settlement of
+accounts with present or retired post-masters, causing postponements which
+endangered the liability of sureties under the act of limitations, and
+causing much danger of an increase of such cases.
+
+(9) The most responsible postmasters (at the large offices) were ordered
+by the least responsible (at small offices) to make payments upon their
+vouchers, without having the means of ascertaining whether these vouchers
+were genuine or forged, or if genuine, whether the signers were in or out
+of office, or solvent or defaulters.
+
+(10) The transaction of this business for subscribers and publishers at
+the public expense, an the embarrassment, inconvenience, and delay of
+the department's own business occasioned by it, were not justified by any
+sufficient remuneration of revenue to sustain the department, as required
+in every other respect with regard to its agency.
+
+The committee, in view of these objections, has been solicitous to frame
+a bill which would not be obnoxious to them in principle or in practical
+effect.
+
+It is confidently believed that by limiting the offices for receiving
+subscriptions to less than one tenth of the number authorized by the
+experiment already tried, and designating the county seat in each
+county for the purpose, the control of the department will be rendered
+satisfactory; particularly as it will be in the power of the Auditor,
+who is the officer required by law to check the accounts, to approve or
+disapprove of the deposits, and to sanction not only the payments, but to
+point out the place of payment. If these payments should cause a drain
+on the principal offices of the seaboard, it will be compensated by the
+accumulation of funds at county seats, where the contractors on those
+routes can be paid to that extent by the department's drafts, with more
+local convenience to themselves than by drafts on the seaboard offices.
+
+The legal responsibility for these deposits is defined, and the
+accumulation of funds at the point of deposit, and the repayment at
+points drawn upon, being known to and controlled by the Auditor, will not
+occasion any such embarrassments as were before felt; the record kept
+by the Auditor on the passing of the certificates through his hands will
+enable him to settle accounts without the delay occasioned by vouchers
+being withheld; all doubt or uncertainty as to the genuineness of
+certificates, or the propriety of their issue, will be removed by the
+Auditor's examination and approval; and there can be no risk of loss
+of funds by transmission, as the certificate will not be payable till
+sanctioned by the Auditor, and after his sanction the payor need not pay
+it unless it is presented by the publisher or his known clerk or agent.
+
+The main principle of equivalent for the agency of the department is
+secured by the postage required to be paid upon the transmission of the
+certificates, augmenting adequately the post-office revenue.
+
+The committee, conceiving that in this report all the difficulties of the
+subject have been fully and fairly stated, and that these difficulties
+have been obviated by the plan proposed in the accompanying bill, and
+believing that the measure will satisfactorily meet the wants and wishes
+of a very large portion of the community, beg leave to recommend its
+adoption.
+
+
+
+
+REPORT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
+
+MARCH 9, 1848.
+
+Mr. Lincoln, from the Committee on the Postoffice and Post Roads, made the
+following report:
+
+The Committee on the Post-office and Post Roads, to whom was referred
+the petition of H. M. Barney, postmaster at Brimfield, Peoria County,
+Illinois, report: That they have been satisfied by evidence, that on the
+15th of December, 1847, said petitioner had his store, with some fifteen
+hundred dollars' worth of goods, together with all the papers of the
+post-office, entirely destroyed by fire; and that the specie funds of the
+office were melted down, partially lost and partially destroyed; that this
+large individual loss entirely precludes the idea of embezzlement; that
+the balances due the department of former quarters had been only about
+twenty-five dollars; and that owing to the destruction of papers, the
+exact amount due for the quarter ending December 31, 1847, cannot be
+ascertained. They therefore report a joint resolution, releasing said
+petitioner from paying anything for the quarter last mentioned.
+
+
+
+
+REMARKS IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 29, 1848.
+
+The bill for raising additional military force for limited time, etc., was
+reported from Committee on judiciary; similar bills had been reported from
+Committee on, Public Lands and Military Committee.
+
+Mr. Lincoln said if there was a general desire on the part of the House to
+pass the bill now he should be glad to have it done--concurring, as he
+did generally, with the gentleman from Arkansas [Mr. Johnson] that the
+postponement might jeopard the safety of the proposition. If, however, a
+reference was to be made, he wished to make a very few remarks in relation
+to the several subjects desired by the gentlemen to be embraced in
+amendments to the ninth section of the act of the last session of
+Congress. The first amendment desired by members of this House had for its
+only object to give bounty lands to such persons as had served for a time
+as privates, but had never been discharged as such, because promoted to
+office. That subject, and no other, was embraced in this bill. There were
+some others who desired, while they were legislating on this subject, that
+they should also give bounty lands to the volunteers of the War of 1812.
+His friend from Maryland said there were no such men. He [Mr. L.] did not
+say there were many, but he was very confident there were some. His friend
+from Kentucky near him, [Mr. Gaines] told him he himself was one.
+
+There was still another proposition touching this matter; that was, that
+persons entitled to bounty lands should by law be entitled to locate these
+lands in parcels, and not be required to locate them in one body, as was
+provided by the existing law.
+
+Now he had carefully drawn up a bill embracing these three separate
+propositions, which he intended to propose as a substitute for all these
+bills in the House, or in Committee of the Whole on the State of the
+Union, at some suitable time. If there was a disposition on the part of
+the House to act at once on this separate proposition, he repeated that,
+with the gentlemen from Arkansas, he should prefer it lest they should
+lose all. But if there was to be a reference, he desired to introduce his
+bill embracing the three propositions, thus enabling the committee and the
+House to act at the same time, whether favorably or unfavorably, upon all.
+He inquired whether an amendment was now in order.
+
+The Speaker replied in the negative.
+
+
+
+
+TO ARCHIBALD WILLIAMS.
+
+WASHINGTON, April 30, 1848.
+
+DEAR WILLIAMS:--I have not seen in the papers any evidence of a movement
+to send a delegate from your circuit to the June convention. I wish to say
+that I think it all-important that a delegate should be sent. Mr. Clay's
+chance for an election is just no chance at all. He might get New York,
+and that would have elected in 1844, but it will not now, because he must
+now, at the least, lose Tennessee, which he had then, and in addition the
+fifteen new votes of Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin. I know our good
+friend Browning is a great admirer of Mr. Clay, and I therefore fear he is
+favoring his nomination. If he is, ask him to discard feeling, and try
+if he can possibly, as a matter of judgment, count the votes necessary to
+elect him.
+
+In my judgment we can elect nobody but General Taylor; and we cannot elect
+him without a nomination. Therefore don't fail to send a delegate.
+
+Your friend as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+REMARKS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
+
+MAY 11, 1848.
+
+A bill for the admission of Wisconsin into the Union had been passed.
+
+Mr. Lincoln moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was passed.
+He stated to the House that he had made this motion for the purpose of
+obtaining an opportunity to say a few words in relation to a point raised
+in the course of the debate on this bill, which he would now proceed to
+make if in order. The point in the case to which he referred arose on the
+amendment that was submitted by the gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Collamer]
+in Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, and which was
+afterward renewed in the House, in relation to the question whether the
+reserved sections, which, by some bills heretofore passed, by which an
+appropriation of land had been made to Wisconsin, had been enhanced in
+value, should be reduced to the minimum price of the public lands. The
+question of the reduction in value of those sections was to him at this
+time a matter very nearly of indifference. He was inclined to desire that
+Wisconsin should be obliged by having it reduced. But the gentleman from
+Indiana [Mr. C. B. Smith], the chairman of the Committee on Territories,
+yesterday associated that question with the general question, which is now
+to some extent agitated in Congress, of making appropriations of alternate
+sections of land to aid the States in making internal improvements, and
+enhancing the price of the sections reserved, and the gentleman from
+Indiana took ground against that policy. He did not make any special
+argument in favor of Wisconsin, but he took ground generally against the
+policy of giving alternate sections of land, and enhancing the price of
+the reserved sections. Now he [Mr. Lincoln] did not at this time take the
+floor for the purpose of attempting to make an argument on the general
+subject. He rose simply to protest against the doctrine which the
+gentleman from Indiana had avowed in the course of what he [Mr. Lincoln]
+could not but consider an unsound argument.
+
+It might, however, be true, for anything he knew, that the gentleman
+from Indiana might convince him that his argument was sound; but he [Mr.
+Lincoln] feared that gentleman would not be able to convince a majority
+in Congress that it was sound. It was true the question appeared in a
+different aspect to persons in consequence of a difference in the point
+from which they looked at it. It did not look to persons residing east of
+the mountains as it did to those who lived among the public lands. But,
+for his part, he would state that if Congress would make a donation of
+alternate sections of public land for the purpose of internal improvements
+in his State, and forbid the reserved sections being sold at $1.25, he
+should be glad to see the appropriation made; though he should prefer
+it if the reserved sections were not enhanced in price. He repeated, he
+should be glad to have such appropriations made, even though the reserved
+sections should be enhanced in price. He did not wish to be understood
+as concurring in any intimation that they would refuse to receive such an
+appropriation of alternate sections of land because a condition enhancing
+the price of the reserved sections should be attached thereto. He believed
+his position would now be understood: if not, he feared he should not be
+able to make himself understood.
+
+But, before he took his seat, he would remark that the Senate during the
+present session had passed a bill making appropriations of land on that
+principle for the benefit of the State in which he resided the State
+of Illinois. The alternate sections were to be given for the purpose of
+constructing roads, and the reserved sections were to be enhanced in value
+in consequence. When that bill came here for the action of this House--it
+had been received, and was now before the Committee on Public Lands--he
+desired much to see it passed as it was, if it could be put in no more
+favorable form for the State of Illinois. When it should be before this
+House, if any member from a section of the Union in which these lands
+did not lie, whose interest might be less than that which he felt, should
+propose a reduction of the price of the reserved sections to $1.25, he
+should be much obliged; but he did not think it would be well for those
+who came from the section of the Union in which the lands lay to do
+so.--He wished it, then, to be understood that he did not join in the
+warfare against the principle which had engaged the minds of some members
+of Congress who were favorable to the improvements in the western country.
+There was a good deal of force, he admitted, in what fell from the
+chairman of the Committee on Territories. It might be that there was no
+precise justice in raising the price of the reserved sections to $2.50 per
+acre. It might be proper that the price should be enhanced to some extent,
+though not to double the usual price; but he should be glad to have such
+an appropriation with the reserved sections at $2.50; he should be better
+pleased to have the price of those sections at something less; and he
+should be still better pleased to have them without any enhancement at
+all.
+
+There was one portion of the argument of the gentleman from Indiana, the
+chairman of the Committee on Territories [Mr. Smith], which he wished to
+take occasion to say that he did not view as unsound. He alluded to the
+statement that the General Government was interested in these internal
+improvements being made, inasmuch as they increased the value of the lands
+that were unsold, and they enabled the government to sell the lands which
+could not be sold without them. Thus, then, the government gained by
+internal improvements as well as by the general good which the people
+derived from them, and it might be, therefore, that the lands should
+not be sold for more than $1.50 instead of the price being doubled. He,
+however, merely mentioned this in passing, for he only rose to state,
+as the principle of giving these lands for the purposes which he had
+mentioned had been laid hold of and considered favorably, and as there
+were some gentlemen who had constitutional scruples about giving money
+for these purchases who would not hesitate to give land, that he was
+not willing to have it understood that he was one of those who made
+war against that principle. This was all he desired to say, and having
+accomplished the object with which he rose, he withdrew his motion to
+reconsider.
+
+
+
+
+ON TAYLOR'S NOMINATION
+
+TO E. B. WASHBURNE.
+
+WASHINGTON, April 30,1848.
+
+DEAR WASHBURNE:
+
+I have this moment received your very short note asking me if old Taylor
+is to be used up, and who will be the nominee. My hope of Taylor's
+nomination is as high--a little higher than it was when you left. Still,
+the case is by no means out of doubt. Mr. Clay's letter has not advanced
+his interests any here. Several who were against Taylor, but not for
+anybody particularly, before, are since taking ground, some for Scott
+and some for McLean. Who will be nominated neither I nor any one else can
+tell. Now, let me pray to you in turn. My prayer is that you let nothing
+discourage or baffle you, but that, in spite of every difficulty, you send
+us a good Taylor delegate from your circuit. Make Baker, who is now with
+you, I suppose, help about it. He is a good hand to raise a breeze.
+
+General Ashley, in the Senate from Arkansas, died yesterday. Nothing else
+new beyond what you see in the papers.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN
+
+
+
+
+DEFENSE OF MEXICAN WAR POSITION
+
+TO REV. J. M. PECK
+
+WASHINGTON, May 21, 1848. DEAR SIR:
+
+....Not in view of all the facts. There are facts which you have kept out
+of view. It is a fact that the United States army in marching to the Rio
+Grande marched into a peaceful Mexican settlement, and frightened the
+inhabitants away from their homes and their growing crops. It is a fact
+that Fort Brown, opposite Matamoras, was built by that army within a
+Mexican cotton-field, on which at the time the army reached it a young
+cotton crop was growing, and which crop was wholly destroyed and the field
+itself greatly and permanently injured by ditches, embankments, and the
+like. It is a fact that when the Mexicans captured Captain Thornton and
+his command, they found and captured them within another Mexican field.
+
+Now I wish to bring these facts to your notice, and to ascertain what is
+the result of your reflections upon them. If you deny that they are
+facts, I think I can furnish proofs which shall convince you that you are
+mistaken. If you admit that they are facts, then I shall be obliged for
+a reference to any law of language, law of States, law of nations, law of
+morals, law of religions, any law, human or divine, in which an authority
+can be found for saying those facts constitute "no aggression."
+
+Possibly you consider those acts too small for notice. Would you venture
+to so consider them had they been committed by any nation on earth against
+the humblest of our people? I know you would not. Then I ask, is the
+precept "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to
+them" obsolete? of no force? of no application?
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+ON ZACHARY TAYLOR NOMINATION
+
+TO ARCHIBALD WILLIAMS.
+
+WASHINGTON, June 12, 1848.
+
+DEAR WILLIAMS:--On my return from Philadelphia, where I had been attending
+the nomination of "Old Rough," (Zachary Taylor) I found your letter in a
+mass of others which had accumulated in my absence. By many, and often, it
+had been said they would not abide the nomination of Taylor; but since the
+deed has been done, they are fast falling in, and in my opinion we shall
+have a most overwhelming, glorious triumph. One unmistakable sign is that
+all the odds and ends are with us--Barnburners, Native Americans, Tyler
+men, disappointed office-seeking Locofocos, and the Lord knows what. This
+is important, if in nothing else, in showing which way the wind blows.
+Some of the sanguine men have set down all the States as certain for
+Taylor but Illinois, and it as doubtful. Cannot something be done even in
+Illinois? Taylor's nomination takes the Locos on the blind side. It turns
+the war thunder against them. The war is now to them the gallows of
+Haman, which they built for us, and on which they are doomed to be hanged
+themselves.
+
+Excuse this short letter. I have so many to write that I cannot devote
+much time to any one.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
+
+JUNE 20, 1848.
+
+In Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, on the Civil and
+Diplomatic Appropriation Bill:
+
+Mr. CHAIRMAN:--I wish at all times in no way to practise any fraud upon
+the House or the committee, and I also desire to do nothing which may be
+very disagreeable to any of the members. I therefore state in advance that
+my object in taking the floor is to make a speech on the general subject
+of internal improvements; and if I am out of order in doing so, I give the
+chair an opportunity of so deciding, and I will take my seat.
+
+The Chair: I will not undertake to anticipate what the gentleman may say
+on the subject of internal improvements. He will, therefore, proceed in
+his remarks, and if any question of order shall be made, the chair will
+then decide it.
+
+Mr. Lincoln: At an early day of this session the President sent us what
+may properly be called an internal improvement veto message. The late
+Democratic convention, which sat at Baltimore, and which nominated General
+Cass for the Presidency, adopted a set of resolutions, now called the
+Democratic platform, among which is one in these words:
+
+"That the Constitution does not confer upon the General Government the
+power to commence and carry on a general system of internal improvements."
+
+General Cass, in his letter accepting the nomination, holds this language:
+
+"I have carefully read the resolutions of the Democratic national
+convention, laying down the platform of our political faith, and I adhere
+to them as firmly as I approve them cordially."
+
+These things, taken together, show that the question of internal
+improvements is now more distinctly made--has become more intense--than
+at any former period. The veto message and the Baltimore resolution I
+understand to be, in substance, the same thing; the latter being the more
+general statement, of which the former is the amplification the bill of
+particulars. While I know there are many Democrats, on this floor and
+elsewhere, who disapprove that message, I understand that all who voted
+for General Cass will thereafter be counted as having approved it, as
+having indorsed all its doctrines.
+
+I suppose all, or nearly all, the Democrats will vote for him. Many of
+them will do so not because they like his position on this question,
+but because they prefer him, being wrong on this, to another whom they
+consider farther wrong on other questions. In this way the internal
+improvement Democrats are to be, by a sort of forced consent, carried over
+and arrayed against themselves on this measure of policy. General Cass,
+once elected, will not trouble himself to make a constitutional argument,
+or perhaps any argument at all, when he shall veto a river or harbor bill;
+he will consider it a sufficient answer to all Democratic murmurs to point
+to Mr. Polk's message, and to the Democratic platform. This being the
+case, the question of improvements is verging to a final crisis; and the
+friends of this policy must now battle, and battle manfully, or surrender
+all. In this view, humble as I am, I wish to review, and contest as well
+as I may, the general positions of this veto message. When I say general
+positions, I mean to exclude from consideration so much as relates to the
+present embarrassed state of the treasury in consequence of the Mexican
+War.
+
+Those general positions are: that internal improvements ought not to be
+made by the General Government--First. Because they would overwhelm the
+treasury Second. Because, while their burdens would be general, their
+benefits would be local and partial, involving an obnoxious inequality;
+and Third. Because they would be unconstitutional. Fourth. Because the
+States may do enough by the levy and collection of tonnage duties; or if
+not--Fifth. That the Constitution may be amended. "Do nothing at all, lest
+you do something wrong," is the sum of these positions is the sum of
+this message. And this, with the exception of what is said about
+constitutionality, applying as forcibly to what is said about making
+improvements by State authority as by the national authority; so that we
+must abandon the improvements of the country altogether, by any and every
+authority, or we must resist and repudiate the doctrines of this message.
+Let us attempt the latter.
+
+The first position is, that a system of internal improvements would
+overwhelm the treasury. That in such a system there is a tendency to undue
+expansion, is not to be denied. Such tendency is founded in the nature
+of the subject. A member of Congress will prefer voting for a bill which
+contains an appropriation for his district, to voting for one which
+does not; and when a bill shall be expanded till every district shall be
+provided for, that it will be too greatly expanded is obvious. But is
+this any more true in Congress than in a State Legislature? If a member
+of Congress must have an appropriation for his district, so a member of
+a Legislature must have one for his county. And if one will overwhelm
+the national treasury, so the other will overwhelm the State treasury. Go
+where we will, the difficulty is the same. Allow it to drive us from the
+halls of Congress, and it will, just as easily, drive us from the State
+Legislatures. Let us, then, grapple with it, and test its strength. Let
+us, judging of the future by the past, ascertain whether there may not be,
+in the discretion of Congress, a sufficient power to limit and restrain
+this expansive tendency within reasonable and proper bounds. The President
+himself values the evidence of the past. He tells us that at a certain
+point of our history more than two hundred millions of dollars had been
+applied for to make improvements; and this he does to prove that the
+treasury would be overwhelmed by such a system. Why did he not tell us how
+much was granted? Would not that have been better evidence? Let us turn
+to it, and see what it proves. In the message the President tells us
+that "during the four succeeding years embraced by the administration of
+President Adams, the power not only to appropriate money, but to apply it,
+under the direction and authority of the General Government, as well to
+the construction of roads as to the improvement of harbors and rivers,
+was fully asserted and exercised." This, then, was the period of greatest
+enormity. These, if any, must have been the days of the two hundred
+millions. And how much do you suppose was really expended for improvements
+during that four years? Two hundred millions? One hundred? Fifty? Ten?
+Five? No, sir; less than two millions. As shown by authentic documents,
+the expenditures on improvements during 1825, 1826, 1827, and 1828
+amounted to one million eight hundred and seventy-nine thousand six
+hundred and twenty-seven dollars and one cent. These four years were the
+period of Mr. Adams's administration, nearly and substantially. This fact
+shows that when the power to make improvements "was fully asserted and
+exercised," the Congress did keep within reasonable limits; and what has
+been done, it seems to me, can be done again.
+
+Now for the second portion of the message--namely, that the burdens of
+improvements would be general, while their benefits would be local and
+partial, involving an obnoxious inequality. That there is some degree
+of truth in this position, I shall not deny. No commercial object of
+government patronage can be so exclusively general as to not be of some
+peculiar local advantage. The navy, as I understand it, was established,
+and is maintained at a great annual expense, partly to be ready for
+war when war shall come, and partly also, and perhaps chiefly, for the
+protection of our commerce on the high seas. This latter object is, for
+all I can see, in principle the same as internal improvements. The driving
+a pirate from the track of commerce on the broad ocean, and the removing
+of a snag from its more narrow path in the Mississippi River, cannot,
+I think, be distinguished in principle. Each is done to save life and
+property, and for nothing else.
+
+The navy, then, is the most general in its benefits of all this class
+of objects; and yet even the navy is of some peculiar advantage to
+Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, beyond what it
+is to the interior towns of Illinois. The next most general object I
+can think of would be improvements on the Mississippi River and its
+tributaries. They touch thirteen of our States-Pennsylvania, Virginia,
+Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois,
+Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Now I suppose it will not be denied
+that these thirteen States are a little more interested in improvements on
+that great river than are the remaining seventeen. These instances of the
+navy and the Mississippi River show clearly that there is something of
+local advantage in the most general objects. But the converse is also
+true. Nothing is so local as to not be of some general benefit. Take,
+for instance, the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Considered apart from its
+effects, it is perfectly local. Every inch of it is within the State of
+Illinois. That canal was first opened for business last April. In a very
+few days we were all gratified to learn, among other things, that sugar
+had been carried from New Orleans through this canal to Buffalo in New
+York. This sugar took this route, doubtless, because it was cheaper than
+the old route. Supposing benefit of the reduction in the cost of carriage
+to be shared between seller and the buyer, result is that the New Orleans
+merchant sold his sugar a little dearer, and the people of Buffalo
+sweetened their coffee a little cheaper, than before,--a benefit resulting
+from the canal, not to Illinois, where the canal is, but to Louisiana and
+New York, where it is not. In other transactions Illinois will, of course,
+have her share, and perhaps the larger share too, of the benefits of the
+canal; but this instance of the sugar clearly shows that the benefits of
+an improvement are by no means confined to the particular locality of
+the improvement itself. The just conclusion from all this is that if the
+nation refuse to make improvements of the more general kind because their
+benefits may be somewhat local, a State may for the same reason refuse to
+make an improvement of a local kind because its benefits may be somewhat
+general. A State may well say to the nation, "If you will do nothing for
+me, I will do nothing for you." Thus it is seen that if this argument of
+"inequality" is sufficient anywhere, it is sufficient everywhere, and puts
+an end to improvements altogether. I hope and believe that if both the
+nation and the States would, in good faith, in their respective spheres
+do what they could in the way of improvements, what of inequality might be
+produced in one place might be compensated in another, and the sum of the
+whole might not be very unequal.
+
+But suppose, after all, there should be some degree of inequality.
+Inequality is certainly never to be embraced for its own sake; but is
+every good thing to be discarded which may be inseparably connected with
+some degree of it? If so, we must discard all government. This Capitol
+is built at the public expense, for the public benefit; but does any one
+doubt that it is of some peculiar local advantage to the property-holders
+and business people of Washington? Shall we remove it for this reason?
+And if so, where shall we set it down, and be free from the difficulty?
+To make sure of our object, shall we locate it nowhere, and have Congress
+hereafter to hold its sessions, as the loafer lodged, "in spots about"?
+I make no allusion to the present President when I say there are few
+stronger cases in this world of "burden to the many and benefit to the
+few," of "inequality," than the Presidency itself is by some thought to
+be. An honest laborer digs coal at about seventy cents a day, while the
+President digs abstractions at about seventy dollars a day. The coal
+is clearly worth more than the abstractions, and yet what a monstrous
+inequality in the prices! Does the President, for this reason, propose to
+abolish the Presidency? He does not, and he ought not. The true rule, in
+determining to embrace or reject anything, is not whether it have any evil
+in it, but whether it have more of evil than of good. There are few things
+wholly evil or wholly good. Almost everything, especially of government
+policy, is an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best judgment
+of the preponderance between them is continually demanded. On this
+principle the President, his friends, and the world generally act on
+most subjects. Why not apply it, then, upon this question? Why, as to
+improvements, magnify the evil, and stoutly refuse to see any good in
+them?
+
+Mr. Chairman, on the third position of the message the constitutional
+question--I have not much to say. Being the man I am, and speaking, where
+I do, I feel that in any attempt at an original constitutional argument
+I should not be and ought not to be listened to patiently. The ablest and
+the best of men have gone over the whole ground long ago. I shall attempt
+but little more than a brief notice of what some of them have said. In
+relation to Mr. Jefferson's views, I read from Mr. Polk's veto message:
+
+"President Jefferson, in his message to Congress in 1806, recommended an
+amendment of the Constitution, with a view to apply an anticipated surplus
+in the treasury 'to the great purposes of the public education, roads,
+rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvement as it may
+be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of the federal
+powers'; and he adds: 'I suppose an amendment to the Constitution, by
+consent of the States, necessary, because the objects now recommended are
+not among those enumerated in the Constitution, and to which it permits
+the public moneys to be applied.' In 1825, he repeated in his published
+letters the opinion that no such power has been conferred upon Congress."
+
+I introduce this not to controvert just now the constitutional opinion,
+but to show that, on the question of expediency, Mr. Jefferson's opinion
+was against the present President; that this opinion of Mr. Jefferson,
+in one branch at least, is in the hands of Mr. Polk like McFingal's
+gun--"bears wide and kicks the owner over."
+
+But to the constitutional question. In 1826 Chancellor Kent first
+published his Commentaries on American law. He devoted a portion of one of
+the lectures to the question of the authority of Congress to appropriate
+public moneys for internal improvements. He mentions that the subject had
+never been brought under judicial consideration, and proceeds to give a
+brief summary of the discussion it had undergone between the legislative
+and executive branches of the government. He shows that the legislative
+branch had usually been for, and the executive against, the power, till
+the period of Mr. J.Q. Adams's administration, at which point he considers
+the executive influence as withdrawn from opposition, and added to the
+support of the power. In 1844 the chancellor published a new edition of
+his Commentaries, in which he adds some notes of what had transpired on
+the question since 1826. I have not time to read the original text on
+the notes; but the whole may be found on page 267, and the two or three
+following pages, of the first volume of the edition of 1844. As to what
+Chancellor Kent seems to consider the sum of the whole, I read from one of
+the notes:
+
+"Mr. Justice Story, in his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United
+States, Vol. II., pp. 429-440, and again pp. 519-538, has stated at
+large the arguments for and against the proposition that Congress have a
+constitutional authority to lay taxes and to apply the power to
+regulate commerce as a means directly to encourage and protect domestic
+manufactures; and without giving any opinion of his own on the contested
+doctrine, he has left the reader to draw his own conclusions. I should
+think, however, from the arguments as stated, that every mind which has
+taken no part in the discussion, and felt no prejudice or territorial bias
+on either side of the question, would deem the arguments in favor of the
+Congressional power vastly superior."
+
+It will be seen that in this extract the power to make improvements is not
+directly mentioned; but by examining the context, both of Kent and Story,
+it will be seen that the power mentioned in the extract and the power to
+make improvements are regarded as identical. It is not to be denied that
+many great and good men have been against the power; but it is insisted
+that quite as many, as great and as good, have been for it; and it is
+shown that, on a full survey of the whole, Chancellor Kent was of opinion
+that the arguments of the latter were vastly superior. This is but the
+opinion of a man; but who was that man? He was one of the ablest and most
+learned lawyers of his age, or of any age. It is no disparagement to
+Mr. Polk, nor indeed to any one who devotes much time to politics, to
+be placed far behind Chancellor Kent as a lawyer. His attitude was most
+favorable to correct conclusions. He wrote coolly, and in retirement. He
+was struggling to rear a durable monument of fame; and he well knew that
+truth and thoroughly sound reasoning were the only sure foundations. Can
+the party opinion of a party President on a law question, as this purely
+is, be at all compared or set in opposition to that of such a man, in
+such an attitude, as Chancellor Kent? This constitutional question will
+probably never be better settled than it is, until it shall pass under
+judicial consideration; but I do think no man who is clear on the
+questions of expediency need feel his conscience much pricked upon this.
+
+Mr. Chairman, the President seems to think that enough may be done, in
+the way of improvements, by means of tonnage duties under State authority,
+with the consent of the General Government. Now I suppose this matter
+of tonnage duties is well enough in its own sphere. I suppose it may be
+efficient, and perhaps sufficient, to make slight improvements and repairs
+in harbors already in use and not much out of repair. But if I have any
+correct general idea of it, it must be wholly inefficient for any general
+beneficent purposes of improvement. I know very little, or rather nothing
+at all, of the practical matter of levying and collecting tonnage
+duties; but I suppose one of its principles must be to lay a duty for the
+improvement of any particular harbor upon the tonnage coming into that
+harbor; to do otherwise--to collect money in one harbor, to be expended
+on improvements in another--would be an extremely aggravated form of that
+inequality which the President so much deprecates. If I be right in this,
+how could we make any entirely new improvement by means of tonnage duties?
+How make a road, a canal, or clear a greatly obstructed river? The idea
+that we could involves the same absurdity as the Irish bull about the new
+boots. "I shall niver git 'em on," says Patrick, "till I wear 'em a day
+or two, and stretch 'em a little." We shall never make a canal by tonnage
+duties until it shall already have been made awhile, so the tonnage can
+get into it.
+
+After all, the President concludes that possibly there may be some great
+objects of improvement which cannot be effected by tonnage duties, and
+which it therefore may be expedient for the General Government to take
+in hand. Accordingly he suggests, in case any such be discovered, the
+propriety of amending the Constitution. Amend it for what? If, like
+Mr. Jefferson, the President thought improvements expedient, but not
+constitutional, it would be natural enough for him to recommend such an
+amendment. But hear what he says in this very message:
+
+"In view of these portentous consequences, I cannot but think that this
+course of legislation should be arrested, even were there nothing to
+forbid it in the fundamental laws of our Union."
+
+For what, then, would he have the Constitution amended? With him it is a
+proposition to remove one impediment merely to be met by others which,
+in his opinion, cannot be removed, to enable Congress to do what, in his
+opinion, they ought not to do if they could.
+
+Here Mr. Meade of Virginia inquired if Mr. Lincoln understood the
+President to be opposed, on grounds of expediency, to any and every
+improvement.
+
+Mr. Lincoln answered: In the very part of his message of which I am
+speaking, I understand him as giving some vague expression in favor of
+some possible objects of improvement; but in doing so I understand him
+to be directly on the teeth of his own arguments in other parts of it.
+Neither the President nor any one can possibly specify an improvement
+which shall not be clearly liable to one or another of the objections he
+has urged on the score of expediency. I have shown, and might show again,
+that no work--no object--can be so general as to dispense its benefits
+with precise equality; and this inequality is chief among the "portentous
+consequences" for which he declares that improvements should be arrested.
+No, sir. When the President intimates that something in the way of
+improvements may properly be done by the General Government, he is
+shrinking from the conclusions to which his own arguments would force him.
+He feels that the improvements of this broad and goodly land are a mighty
+interest; and he is unwilling to confess to the people, or perhaps
+to himself, that he has built an argument which, when pressed to its
+conclusions, entirely annihilates this interest.
+
+I have already said that no one who is satisfied of the expediency of
+making improvements needs be much uneasy in his conscience about its
+constitutionality. I wish now to submit a few remarks on the general
+proposition of amending the Constitution. As a general rule, I think we
+would much better let it alone. No slight occasion should tempt us to
+touch it. Better not take the first step, which may lead to a habit
+of altering it. Better, rather, habituate ourselves to think of it as
+unalterable. It can scarcely be made better than it is. New provisions
+would introduce new difficulties, and thus create and increase appetite
+for further change. No, sir; let it stand as it is. New hands have never
+touched it. The men who made it have done their work, and have passed
+away. Who shall improve on what they did?
+
+Mr. Chairman, for the purpose of reviewing this message in the least
+possible time, as well as for the sake of distinctness, I have analyzed
+its arguments as well as I could, and reduced them to the propositions
+I have stated. I have now examined them in detail. I wish to detain the
+committee only a little while longer with some general remarks upon the
+subject of improvements. That the subject is a difficult one, cannot
+be denied. Still it is no more difficult in Congress than in the State
+Legislatures, in the counties, or in the smallest municipal districts
+which anywhere exist. All can recur to instances of this difficulty in the
+case of county roads, bridges, and the like. One man is offended because
+a road passes over his land, and another is offended because it does not
+pass over his; one is dissatisfied because the bridge for which he is
+taxed crosses the river on a different road from that which leads from his
+house to town; another cannot bear that the county should be got in debt
+for these same roads and bridges; while not a few struggle hard to have
+roads located over their lands, and then stoutly refuse to let them be
+opened until they are first paid the damages. Even between the different
+wards and streets of towns and cities we find this same wrangling and
+difficulty. Now these are no other than the very difficulties against
+which, and out of which, the President constructs his objections of
+"inequality," "speculation," and "crushing the treasury." There is but a
+single alternative about them: they are sufficient, or they are not. If
+sufficient, they are sufficient out of Congress as well as in it, and
+there is the end. We must reject them as insufficient, or lie down and do
+nothing by any authority. Then, difficulty though there be, let us meet
+and encounter it. "Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt; nothing so
+hard, but search will find it out." Determine that the thing can and shall
+be done, and then we shall find the way. The tendency to undue expansion
+is unquestionably the chief difficulty.
+
+How to do something, and still not do too much, is the desideratum. Let
+each contribute his mite in the way of suggestion. The late Silas Wright,
+in a letter to the Chicago convention, contributed his, which was worth
+something; and I now contribute mine, which may be worth nothing. At all
+events, it will mislead nobody, and therefore will do no harm. I would not
+borrow money. I am against an overwhelming, crushing system. Suppose that,
+at each session, Congress shall first determine how much money can, for
+that year, be spared for improvements; then apportion that sum to the most
+important objects. So far all is easy; but how shall we determine which
+are the most important? On this question comes the collision of interests.
+I shall be slow to acknowledge that your harbor or your river is more
+important than mine, and vice versa. To clear this difficulty, let us
+have that same statistical information which the gentleman from Ohio [Mr.
+Vinton] suggested at the beginning of this session. In that information we
+shall have a stern, unbending basis of facts--a basis in no wise subject
+to whim, caprice, or local interest. The prelimited amount of means will
+save us from doing too much, and the statistics will save us from doing
+what we do in wrong places. Adopt and adhere to this course, and, it seems
+to me, the difficulty is cleared.
+
+One of the gentlemen from South Carolina [Mr. Rhett] very much deprecates
+these statistics. He particularly objects, as I understand him, to
+counting all the pigs and chickens in the land. I do not perceive much
+force in the objection. It is true that if everything be enumerated, a
+portion of such statistics may not be very useful to this object. Such
+products of the country as are to be consumed where they are produced need
+no roads or rivers, no means of transportation, and have no very proper
+connection with this subject. The surplus--that which is produced in
+one place to be consumed in another; the capacity of each locality for
+producing a greater surplus; the natural means of transportation, and
+their susceptibility of improvement; the hindrances, delays, and losses of
+life and property during transportation, and the causes of each, would be
+among the most valuable statistics in this connection. From these it would
+readily appear where a given amount of expenditure would do the most good.
+These statistics might be equally accessible, as they would be equally
+useful, to both the nation and the States. In this way, and by these
+means, let the nation take hold of the larger works, and the States the
+smaller ones; and thus, working in a meeting direction, discreetly, but
+steadily and firmly, what is made unequal in one place may be equalized in
+another, extravagance avoided, and the whole country put on that career
+of prosperity which shall correspond with its extent of territory, its
+natural resources, and the intelligence and enterprise of its people.
+
+
+
+
+OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG POLITICIANS
+
+TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON.
+
+WASHINGTON, June 22, 1848.
+
+DEAR WILLIAM:--Last night I was attending a sort of caucus of the Whig
+members, held in relation to the coming Presidential election. The whole
+field of the nation was scanned, and all is high hope and confidence.
+Illinois is expected to better her condition in this race. Under these
+circumstances, judge how heartrending it was to come to my room and find
+and read your discouraging letter of the 15th. We have made no gains, but
+have lost "H. R. Robinson, Turner, Campbell, and four or five more."
+Tell Arney to reconsider, if he would be saved. Baker and I used to do
+something, but I think you attach more importance to our absence than is
+just. There is another cause. In 1840, for instance, we had two senators
+and five representatives in Sangamon; now we have part of one senator and
+two representatives. With quite one third more people than we had then, we
+have only half the sort of offices which are sought by men of the speaking
+sort of talent. This, I think, is the chief cause. Now, as to the young
+men. You must not wait to be brought forward by the older men. For
+instance, do you suppose that I should ever have got into notice if I had
+waited to be hunted up and pushed forward by older men? You young men get
+together and form a "Rough and Ready Club," and have regular meetings and
+speeches. Take in everybody you can get. Harrison Grimsley, L. A. Enos,
+Lee Kimball, and C. W. Matheny will do to begin the thing; but as you go
+along gather up all the shrewd, wild boys about town, whether just of age,
+or a little under age, Chris. Logan, Reddick Ridgely, Lewis Zwizler, and
+hundreds such. Let every one play the part he can play best,--some speak,
+some sing, and all "holler." Your meetings will be of evenings; the
+older men, and the women, will go to hear you; so that it will not only
+contribute to the election of "Old Zach," but will be an interesting
+pastime, and improving to the intellectual faculties of all engaged. Don't
+fail to do this.
+
+You ask me to send you all the speeches made about "Old Zach," the war,
+etc. Now this makes me a little impatient. I have regularly sent you the
+Congressional Globe and Appendix, and you cannot have examined them, or
+you would have discovered that they contain every speech made by every man
+in both houses of Congress, on every subject, during the session. Can I
+send any more? Can I send speeches that nobody has made? Thinking it would
+be most natural that the newspapers would feel interested to give at least
+some of the speeches to their readers, I at the beginning of the session
+made arrangements to have one copy of the Globe and Appendix regularly
+sent to each Whig paper of the district. And yet, with the exception of my
+own little speech, which was published in two only of the then five, now
+four, Whig papers, I do not remember having seen a single speech, or even
+extract from one, in any single one of those papers. With equal and full
+means on both sides, I will venture that the State Register has thrown
+before its readers more of Locofoco speeches in a month than all the Whig
+papers of the district have done of Whig speeches during the session.
+
+If you wish a full understanding of the war, I repeat what I believe I
+said to you in a letter once before, that the whole, or nearly so, is
+to be found in the speech of Dixon of Connecticut. This I sent you in
+pamphlet as well as in the Globe. Examine and study every sentence of that
+speech thoroughly, and you will understand the whole subject. You ask how
+Congress came to declare that war had existed by the act of Mexico. Is it
+possible you don't understand that yet? You have at least twenty speeches
+in your possession that fully explain it. I will, however, try it once
+more. The news reached Washington of the commencement of hostilities
+on the Rio Grande, and of the great peril of General Taylor's army.
+Everybody, Whigs and Democrats, was for sending them aid, in men and
+money. It was necessary to pass a bill for this. The Locos had a majority
+in both houses, and they brought in a bill with a preamble saying:
+Whereas, War exists by the act of Mexico, therefore we send General Taylor
+money. The Whigs moved to strike out the preamble, so that they could
+vote to send the men and money, without saying anything about how the
+war commenced; but being in the minority, they were voted down, and the
+preamble was retained. Then, on the passage of the bill, the question came
+upon them, Shall we vote for preamble and bill together, or against
+both together? They did not want to vote against sending help to
+General Taylor, and therefore they voted for both together. Is there any
+difficulty in understanding this? Even my little speech shows how this
+was; and if you will go to the library, you may get the Journal of
+1845-46, in which you will find the whole for yourself.
+
+We have nothing published yet with special reference to the Taylor race;
+but we soon will have, and then I will send them to everybody. I made an
+internal-improvement speech day before yesterday, which I shall send home
+as soon as I can get it written out and printed,--and which I suppose
+nobody will read.
+
+Your friend as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+SALARY OF JUDGE IN WESTERN VIRGINIA
+
+REMARKS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JUNE 28, 1848.
+
+Discussion as to salary of judge of western Virginia:--Wishing to increase
+it from $1800 to $2500.
+
+Mr. Lincoln said he felt unwilling to be either unjust or ungenerous,
+and he wanted to understand the real case of this judicial officer. The
+gentleman from Virginia had stated that he had to hold eleven courts. Now
+everybody knew that it was not the habit of the district judges of the
+United States in other States to hold anything like that number of
+courts; and he therefore took it for granted that this must happen under a
+peculiar law which required that large number of courts to be holden every
+year; and these laws, he further supposed, were passed at the request of
+the people of that judicial district. It came, then, to this: that the
+people in the western district of Virginia had got eleven courts to be
+held among them in one year, for their own accommodation; and being thus
+better accommodated than neighbors elsewhere, they wanted their judge
+to be a little better paid. In Illinois there had been until the present
+season but one district court held in the year. There were now to be two.
+Could it be that the western district of Virginia furnished more business
+for a judge than the whole State of Illinois?
+
+
+
+
+NATIONAL BANK
+
+JULY, 1848,
+
+[FRAGMENT]
+
+The question of a national bank is at rest. Were I President, I should not
+urge its reagitation upon Congress; but should Congress see fit to pass an
+act to establish such an institution, I should not arrest it by the veto,
+unless I should consider it subject to some constitutional objection from
+which I believe the two former banks to have been free.
+
+
+
+
+YOUNG v.s. OLD--POLITICAL JEALOUSY
+
+TO W. H. HERNDON.
+
+WASHINGTON, July 10, 1848.
+
+DEAR WILLIAM:
+
+Your letter covering the newspaper slips was received last night. The
+subject of that letter is exceedingly painful to me, and I cannot but
+think there is some mistake in your impression of the motives of the old
+men. I suppose I am now one of the old men; and I declare on my veracity,
+which I think is good with you, that nothing could afford me more
+satisfaction than to learn that you and others of my young friends at home
+were doing battle in the contest and endearing themselves to the people
+and taking a stand far above any I have ever been able to reach in their
+admiration. I cannot conceive that other men feel differently. Of course
+I cannot demonstrate what I say; but I was young once, and I am sure I was
+never ungenerously thrust back. I hardly know what to say. The way for a
+young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting
+that anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you that suspicion
+and jealousy never did help any man in any situation. There may sometimes
+be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed,
+too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood
+over the attempted injury. Cast about and see if this feeling has not
+injured every person you have ever known to fall into it.
+
+Now, in what I have said I am sure you will suspect nothing but sincere
+friendship. I would save you from a fatal error. You have been a studious
+young man. You are far better informed on almost all subjects than I ever
+have been. You cannot fail in any laudable object unless you allow your
+mind to be improperly directed. I have some the advantage of you in the
+world's experience, merely by being older; and it is this that induces me
+to advise. You still seem to be a little mistaken about the Congressional
+Globe and Appendix. They contain all of the speeches that are published in
+any way. My speech and Dayton's speech which you say you got in pamphlet
+form are both word for word in the Appendix. I repeat again, all are
+there.
+
+Your friend, as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+GENERAL TAYLOR AND THE VETO
+
+SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JULY 27, 1848.
+
+Mr. SPEAKER, our Democratic friends seem to be in a great distress because
+they think our candidate for the Presidency don't suit us. Most of them
+cannot find out that General Taylor has any principles at all; some,
+however, have discovered that he has one, but that one is entirely wrong.
+This one principle is his position on the veto power. The gentleman from
+Tennessee [Mr. Stanton] who has just taken his seat, indeed, has said
+there is very little, if any, difference on this question between General
+Taylor and all the Presidents; and he seems to think it sufficient
+detraction from General Taylor's position on it that it has nothing new
+in it. But all others whom I have heard speak assail it furiously. A new
+member from Kentucky [Mr. Clark], of very considerable ability, was
+in particular concerned about it. He thought it altogether novel and
+unprecedented for a President or a Presidential candidate to think of
+approving bills whose constitutionality may not be entirely clear to his
+own mind. He thinks the ark of our safety is gone unless Presidents
+shall always veto such bills as in their judgment may be of doubtful
+constitutionality. However clear Congress may be on their authority to
+pass any particular act, the gentleman from Kentucky thinks the President
+must veto it if he has doubts about it. Now I have neither time nor
+inclination to argue with the gentleman on the veto power as an original
+question; but I wish to show that General Taylor, and not he, agrees with
+the earlier statesmen on this question. When the bill chartering the
+first Bank of the United States passed Congress, its constitutionality was
+questioned. Mr. Madison, then in the House of Representatives, as well as
+others, had opposed it on that ground. General Washington, as President,
+was called on to approve or reject it. He sought and obtained on the
+constitutionality question the separate written opinions of Jefferson,
+Hamilton, and Edmund Randolph,--they then being respectively Secretary of
+State, Secretary of the Treasury, and Attorney general. Hamilton's opinion
+was for the power; while Randolph's and Jefferson's were both against
+it. Mr. Jefferson, after giving his opinion deciding only against the
+constitutionality of the bill, closes his letter with the paragraph which
+I now read:
+
+"It must be admitted, however, that unless the President's mind, on a view
+of everything which is urged for and against this bill, is tolerably clear
+that it is unauthorized by the Constitution,--if the pro and con hang
+so even as to balance his judgment, a just respect for the wisdom of the
+legislature would naturally decide the balance in favor of their opinion.
+It is chiefly for cases where they are clearly misled by error, ambition,
+or interest, that the Constitution has placed a check in the negative of
+the President.
+
+"THOMAS JEFFERSON.
+
+"February 15, 1791."
+
+
+General Taylor's opinion, as expressed in his Allison letter, is as I now
+read:
+
+"The power given by the veto is a high conservative power; but, in my
+opinion, should never be exercised except in cases of clear violation
+of the Constitution, or manifest haste and want of consideration by
+Congress."
+
+It is here seen that, in Mr. Jefferson's opinion, if on the
+constitutionality of any given bill the President doubts, he is not to
+veto it, as the gentleman from Kentucky would have him do, but is to defer
+to Congress and approve it. And if we compare the opinion of Jefferson and
+Taylor, as expressed in these paragraphs, we shall find them more exactly
+alike than we can often find any two expressions having any literal
+difference. None but interested faultfinders, I think, can discover any
+substantial variation.
+
+But gentlemen on the other side are unanimously agreed that General Taylor
+has no other principles. They are in utter darkness as to his opinions on
+any of the questions of policy which occupy the public attention. But
+is there any doubt as to what he will do on the prominent questions if
+elected? Not the least. It is not possible to know what he will or would
+do in every imaginable case, because many questions have passed away, and
+others doubtless will arise which none of us have yet thought of; but on
+the prominent questions of currency, tariff, internal improvements, and
+Wilmot Proviso, General Taylor's course is at least as well defined as is
+General Cass's. Why, in their eagerness to get at General Taylor, several
+Democratic members here have desired to know whether, in case of his
+election, a bankrupt law is to be established. Can they tell us General
+Cass's opinion on this question?
+
+[Some member answered, "He is against it."]
+
+Aye, how do you know he is? There is nothing about it in the platform, nor
+elsewhere, that I have seen. If the gentleman knows of anything which I
+do not know he can show it. But to return. General Taylor, in his Allison
+letter, says:
+
+"Upon the subject of the tariff, the currency, the improvement of our
+great highways, rivers, lakes, and harbors, the will of the people, as
+expressed through their representatives in Congress, ought to be respected
+and carried out by the executive."
+
+Now this is the whole matter. In substance, it is this: The people say to
+General Taylor, "If you are elected, shall we have a national bank?" He
+answers, "Your will, gentlemen, not mine." "What about the tariff?" "Say
+yourselves." "Shall our rivers and harbors be improved?" "Just as you
+please. If you desire a bank, an alteration of the tariff, internal
+improvements, any or all, I will not hinder you. If you do not desire
+them, I will not attempt to force them on you. Send up your members of
+Congress from the various districts, with opinions according to your own,
+and if they are for these measures, or any of them, I shall have nothing
+to oppose; if they are not for them, I shall not, by any appliances
+whatever, attempt to dragoon them into their adoption."
+
+Now can there be any difficulty in understanding this? To you Democrats
+it may not seem like principle; but surely you cannot fail to perceive the
+position plainly enough. The distinction between it and the position of
+your candidate is broad and obvious, and I admit you have a clear right to
+show it is wrong if you can; but you have no right to pretend you cannot
+see it at all. We see it, and to us it appears like principle, and the
+best sort of principle at that--the principle of allowing the people to
+do as they please with their own business. My friend from Indiana (C. B.
+Smith) has aptly asked, "Are you willing to trust the people?" Some of
+you answered substantially, "We are willing to trust the people; but the
+President is as much the representative of the people as Congress." In a
+certain sense, and to a certain extent, he is the representative of the
+people. He is elected by them, as well as Congress is; but can he, in the
+nature of things know the wants of the people as well as three hundred
+other men, coming from all the various localities of the nation? If so,
+where is the propriety of having a Congress? That the Constitution gives
+the President a negative on legislation, all know; but that this negative
+should be so combined with platforms and other appliances as to enable
+him, and in fact almost compel him, to take the whole of legislation into
+his own hands, is what we object to, is what General Taylor objects to,
+and is what constitutes the broad distinction between you and us. To thus
+transfer legislation is clearly to take it from those who understand with
+minuteness the interests of the people, and give it to one who does
+not and cannot so well understand it. I understand your idea that if a
+Presidential candidate avow his opinion upon a given question, or rather
+upon all questions, and the people, with full knowledge of this, elect
+him, they thereby distinctly approve all those opinions. By means of it,
+measures are adopted or rejected contrary to the wishes of the whole of
+one party, and often nearly half of the other. Three, four, or half a
+dozen questions are prominent at a given time; the party selects its
+candidate, and he takes his position on each of these questions. On all
+but one his positions have already been indorsed at former elections,
+and his party fully committed to them; but that one is new, and a large
+portion of them are against it. But what are they to do? The whole was
+strung together; and they must take all, or reject all. They cannot take
+what they like, and leave the rest. What they are already committed
+to being the majority, they shut their eyes, and gulp the whole. Next
+election, still another is introduced in the same way. If we run our eyes
+along the line of the past, we shall see that almost if not quite all the
+articles of the present Democratic creed have been at first forced upon
+the party in this very way. And just now, and just so, opposition to
+internal improvements is to be established if General Cass shall be
+elected. Almost half the Democrats here are for improvements; but they
+will vote for Cass, and if he succeeds, their vote will have aided in
+closing the doors against improvements. Now this is a process which we
+think is wrong. We prefer a candidate who, like General Taylor, will allow
+the people to have their own way, regardless of his private opinions;
+and I should think the internal-improvement Democrats, at least, ought to
+prefer such a candidate. He would force nothing on them which they
+don't want, and he would allow them to have improvements which their own
+candidate, if elected, will not.
+
+Mr. Speaker, I have said General Taylor's position is as well defined as
+is that of General Cass. In saying this, I admit I do not certainly know
+what he would do on the Wilmot Proviso. I am a Northern man or rather
+a Western Free-State man, with a constituency I believe to be, and with
+personal feelings I know to be, against the extension of slavery. As such,
+and with what information I have, I hope and believe General Taylor, if
+elected, would not veto the proviso. But I do not know it. Yet if I
+knew he would, I still would vote for him. I should do so because, in my
+judgment, his election alone can defeat General Cass; and because,
+should slavery thereby go to the territory we now have, just so much will
+certainly happen by the election of Cass, and in addition a course of
+policy leading to new wars, new acquisitions of territory and still
+further extensions of slavery. One of the two is to be President. Which is
+preferable?
+
+But there is as much doubt of Cass on improvements as there is of Taylor
+on the proviso. I have no doubt myself of General Cass on this question;
+but I know the Democrats differ among themselves as to his position. My
+internal-improvement colleague [Mr. Wentworth] stated on this floor the
+other day that he was satisfied Cass was for improvements, because he had
+voted for all the bills that he [Mr. Wentworth] had. So far so good. But
+Mr. Polk vetoed some of these very bills. The Baltimore convention passed
+a set of resolutions, among other things, approving these vetoes, and
+General Cass declares, in his letter accepting the nomination, that he has
+carefully read these resolutions, and that he adheres to them as firmly
+as he approves them cordially. In other words, General Cass voted for the
+bills, and thinks the President did right to veto them; and his friends
+here are amiable enough to consider him as being on one side or the
+other, just as one or the other may correspond with their own respective
+inclinations. My colleague admits that the platform declares against the
+constitutionality of a general system of improvements, and that General
+Cass indorses the platform; but he still thinks General Cass is in favor
+of some sort of improvements. Well, what are they? As he is against
+general objects, those he is for must be particular and local. Now this is
+taking the subject precisely by the wrong end. Particularity expending the
+money of the whole people for an object which will benefit only a portion
+of them--is the greatest real objection to improvements, and has been so
+held by General Jackson, Mr. Polk, and all others, I believe, till
+now. But now, behold, the objects most general--nearest free from this
+objection--are to be rejected, while those most liable to it are to be
+embraced. To return: I cannot help believing that General Cass, when he
+wrote his letter of acceptance, well understood he was to be claimed by
+the advocates of both sides of this question, and that he then closed the
+door against all further expressions of opinion purposely to retain
+the benefits of that double position. His subsequent equivocation at
+Cleveland, to my mind, proves such to have been the case.
+
+One word more, and I shall have done with this branch of the subject. You
+Democrats, and your candidate, in the main are in favor of laying down
+in advance a platform--a set of party positions--as a unit, and then of
+forcing the people, by every sort of appliance, to ratify them, however
+unpalatable some of them may be. We and our candidate are in favor of
+making Presidential elections and the legislation of the country distinct
+matters; so that the people can elect whom they please, and afterward
+legislate just as they please, without any hindrance, save only so much as
+may guard against infractions of the Constitution, undue haste, and want
+of consideration. The difference between us is clear as noonday. That
+we are right we cannot doubt. We hold the true Republican position. In
+leaving the people's business in their hands, we cannot be wrong. We are
+willing, and even anxious, to go to the people on this issue.
+
+But I suppose I cannot reasonably hope to convince you that we have any
+principles. The most I can expect is to assure you that we think we have
+and are quite contented with them. The other day one of the gentlemen from
+Georgia [Mr. Iverson], an eloquent man, and a man of learning, so far as
+I can judge, not being learned myself, came down upon us astonishingly. He
+spoke in what the 'Baltimore American' calls the "scathing and withering
+style." At the end of his second severe flash I was struck blind, and
+found myself feeling with my fingers for an assurance of my continued
+existence. A little of the bone was left, and I gradually revived. He
+eulogized Mr. Clay in high and beautiful terms, and then declared that we
+had deserted all our principles, and had turned Henry Clay out, like an
+old horse, to root. This is terribly severe. It cannot be answered
+by argument--at least I cannot so answer it. I merely wish to ask the
+gentleman if the Whigs are the only party he can think of who sometimes
+turn old horses out to root. Is not a certain Martin Van Buren an old
+horse which your own party have turned out to root? and is he not rooting
+a little to your discomfort about now? But in not nominating Mr. Clay
+we deserted our principles, you say. Ah! In what? Tell us, ye men of
+principle, what principle we violated. We say you did violate principle in
+discarding Van Buren, and we can tell you how. You violated the
+primary, the cardinal, the one great living principle of all democratic
+representative government--the principle that the representative is bound
+to carry out the known will of his constituents. A large majority of the
+Baltimore convention of 1844 were, by their constituents, instructed to
+procure Van Buren 's nomination if they could. In violation--in utter
+glaring contempt of this, you rejected him; rejected him, as the gentleman
+from New York [Mr. Birdsall] the other day expressly admitted, for
+availability--that same "general availability" which you charge upon
+us, and daily chew over here, as something exceedingly odious and
+unprincipled. But the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Iverson] gave us a
+second speech yesterday, all well considered and put down in writing, in
+which Van Buren was scathed and withered a "few" for his present position
+and movements. I cannot remember the gentleman's precise language; but
+I do remember he put Van Buren down, down, till he got him where he was
+finally to "stink" and "rot."
+
+Mr. Speaker, it is no business or inclination of mine to defend Martin
+Van Buren in the war of extermination now waging between him and his old
+admirers. I say, "Devil take the hindmost"--and the foremost. But there is
+no mistaking the origin of the breach; and if the curse of "stinking" and
+"rotting" is to fall on the first and greatest violators of principle in
+the matter, I disinterestedly suggest that the gentleman from Georgia
+and his present co-workers are bound to take it upon themselves. But the
+gentleman from Georgia further says we have deserted all our principles,
+and taken shelter under General Taylor's military coat-tail, and he seems
+to think this is exceedingly degrading. Well, as his faith is, so be it
+unto him. But can he remember no other military coat-tail under which a
+certain other party have been sheltering for near a quarter of a century?
+Has he no acquaintance with the ample military coat tail of General
+Jackson? Does he not know that his own party have run the five last
+Presidential races under that coat-tail, and that they are now running the
+sixth under the same cover? Yes, sir, that coat-tail was used not only for
+General Jackson himself, but has been clung to, with the grip of death,
+by every Democratic candidate since. You have never ventured, and dare not
+now venture, from under it. Your campaign papers have constantly been "Old
+Hickories," with rude likenesses of the old general upon them; hickory
+poles and hickory brooms your never-ending emblems; Mr. Polk himself was
+"Young Hickory," or something so; and even now your campaign paper here
+is proclaiming that Cass and Butler are of the true "Hickory stripe." Now,
+sir, you dare not give it up. Like a horde of hungry ticks you have stuck
+to the tail of the Hermitage Lion to the end of his life; and you are
+still sticking to it, and drawing a loathsome sustenance from it, after he
+is dead. A fellow once advertised that he had made a discovery by which he
+could make a new man out of an old one, and have enough of the stuff left
+to make a little yellow dog. Just such a discovery has General Jackson's
+popularity been to you. You not only twice made President of him out
+of it, but you have had enough of the stuff left to make Presidents of
+several comparatively small men since; and it is your chief reliance now
+to make still another.
+
+Mr. Speaker, old horses and military coat-tails, or tails of any sort,
+are not figures of speech such as I would be the first to introduce into
+discussions here; but as the gentleman from Georgia has thought fit to
+introduce them, he and you are welcome to all you have made, or can make
+by them. If you have any more old horses, trot them out; any more tails,
+just cock them and come at us. I repeat, I would not introduce this mode
+of discussion here; but I wish gentlemen on the other side to understand
+that the use of degrading figures is a game at which they may not find
+themselves able to take all the winnings.
+
+["We give it up!"]
+
+Aye, you give it up, and well you may; but for a very different reason
+from that which you would have us understand. The point--the power to
+hurt--of all figures consists in the truthfulness of their application;
+and, understanding this, you may well give it up. They are weapons which
+hit you, but miss us.
+
+But in my hurry I was very near closing this subject of military tails
+before I was done with it. There is one entire article of the sort I have
+not discussed yet,--I mean the military tail you Democrats are now engaged
+in dovetailing into the great Michigander [Cass]. Yes, sir; all his
+biographies (and they are legion) have him in hand, tying him to a
+military tail, like so many mischievous boys tying a dog to a bladder of
+beans. True, the material they have is very limited, but they drive at it
+might and main. He invaded Canada without resistance, and he outvaded it
+without pursuit. As he did both under orders, I suppose there was to him
+neither credit nor discredit in them; but they constitute a large part
+of the tail. He was not at Hull's surrender, but he was close by; he was
+volunteer aid to General Harrison on the day of the battle of the Thames;
+and as you said in 1840 Harrison was picking huckleberries two miles off
+while the battle was fought, I suppose it is a just conclusion with you
+to say Cass was aiding Harrison to pick huckleberries. This is about all,
+except the mooted question of the broken sword. Some authors say he broke
+it, some say he threw it away, and some others, who ought to know, say
+nothing about it. Perhaps it would be a fair historical compromise to say,
+if he did not break it, he did not do anything else with it.
+
+By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a military hero? Yes, sir; in
+the days of the Black Hawk war I fought, bled, and came away. Speaking
+of General Cass's career reminds me of my own. I was not at Stiliman's
+defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass was to Hull's surrender; and,
+like him, I saw the place very soon afterward. It is quite certain I did
+not break my sword, for I had none to break; but I bent a musket pretty
+badly on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, the idea is he broke it
+in desperation; I bent the musket by accident. If General Cass went in
+advance of me in picking huckleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges
+upon the wild onions. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it was more
+than I did; but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes,
+and although I never fainted from the loss of blood, I can truly say I was
+often very hungry. Mr. Speaker, if I should ever conclude to doff whatever
+our Democratic friends may suppose there is of black-cockade federalism
+about me, and therefore they shall take me up as their candidate for
+the Presidency, I protest they shall not make fun of me, as they have of
+General Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero.
+
+While I have General Cass in hand, I wish to say a word about his
+political principles. As a specimen, I take the record of his progress in
+the Wilmot Proviso. In the Washington Union of March 2, 1847, there is a
+report of a speech of General Cass, made the day before in the Senate, on
+the Wilmot Proviso, during the delivery of which Mr. Miller of New Jersey
+is reported to have interrupted him as follows, to wit:
+
+"Mr. Miller expressed his great surprise at the change in the sentiments
+of the Senator from Michigan, who had been regarded as the great champion
+of freedom in the Northwest, of which he was a distinguished ornament.
+Last year the Senator from Michigan was understood to be decidedly in
+favor of the Wilmot Proviso; and as no reason had been stated for the
+change, he [Mr. Miller] could not refrain from the expression of his
+extreme surprise."
+
+To this General Cass is reported to have replied as follows, to wit:
+
+"Mr. Cass said that the course of the Senator from New Jersey was
+most extraordinary. Last year he [Mr. Cass] should have voted for the
+proposition, had it come up. But circumstances had altogether changed. The
+honorable Senator then read several passages from the remarks, as given
+above, which he had committed to writing, in order to refute such a charge
+as that of the Senator from New Jersey."
+
+In the "remarks above reduced to writing" is one numbered four, as
+follows, to wit:
+
+"Fourth. Legislation now would be wholly inoperative, because no territory
+hereafter to be acquired can be governed without an act of Congress
+providing for its government; and such an act, on its passage, would open
+the whole subject, and leave the Congress called on to pass it free to
+exercise its own discretion, entirely uncontrolled by any declaration
+found on the statute-book."
+
+In Niles's Register, vol. lxxiii., p. 293, there is a letter of General
+Cass to ------ Nicholson, of Nashville, Tennessee, dated December 24, 1847,
+from which the following are correct extracts:
+
+"The Wilmot Proviso has been before the country some time. It has been
+repeatedly discussed in Congress and by the public press. I am strongly
+impressed with the opinion that a great change has been going on in the
+public mind upon this subject,--in my own as well as others',--and that
+doubts are resolving themselves into convictions that the principle it
+involves should be kept out of the national legislature, and left to
+the people of the confederacy in their respective local governments....
+Briefly, then, I am opposed to the exercise of any jurisdiction by
+Congress over this matter; and I am in favor of leaving the people of
+any territory which may be hereafter acquired the right to regulate
+it themselves, under the general principles of the Constitution.
+Because--'First. I do not see in the Constitution any grant of the
+requisite power to Congress; and I am not disposed to extend a doubtful
+precedent beyond its necessity,--the establishment of territorial
+governments when needed,--leaving to the inhabitants all the right
+compatible with the relations they bear to the confederation."
+
+These extracts show that in 1846 General Cass was for the proviso at once;
+that in March, 1847, he was still for it, but not just then; and that in
+December, 1847, he was against it altogether. This is a true index to the
+whole man. When the question was raised in 1846, he was in a blustering
+hurry to take ground for it. He sought to be in advance, and to avoid
+the uninteresting position of a mere follower; but soon he began to see
+glimpses of the great Democratic ox-goad waving in his face, and to hear
+indistinctly a voice saying, "Back! Back, sir! Back a little!" He shakes
+his head, and bats his eyes, and blunders back to his position of March,
+1847; but still the goad waves, and the voice grows more distinct and
+sharper still, "Back, sir! Back, I say! Further back!"--and back he goes
+to the position of December, 1847, at which the goad is still, and the
+voice soothingly says, "So! Stand at that!"
+
+Have no fears, gentlemen, of your candidate. He exactly suits you, and
+we congratulate you upon it. However much you may be distressed about our
+candidate, you have all cause to be contented and happy with your own. If
+elected, he may not maintain all or even any of his positions previously
+taken; but he will be sure to do whatever the party exigency for the time
+being may require; and that is precisely what you want. He and Van Buren
+are the same "manner of men"; and, like Van Buren, he will never desert
+you till you first desert him.
+
+Mr. Speaker, I adopt the suggestion of a friend, that General Cass is a
+general of splendidly successful charges--charges, to be sure, not
+upon the public enemy, but upon the public treasury. He was Governor of
+Michigan territory, and ex-officio Superintendent of Indian Affairs,
+from the 9th of October, 1813, till the 31st of July, 1831--a period of
+seventeen years, nine months, and twenty-two days. During this period
+he received from the United States treasury, for personal services and
+personal expenses, the aggregate sum of ninety-six thousand and twenty
+eight dollars, being an average of fourteen dollars and seventy-nine cents
+per day for every day of the time. This large sum was reached by assuming
+that he was doing service at several different places, and in several
+different capacities in the same place, all at the same time. By a correct
+analysis of his accounts during that period, the following propositions
+may be deduced:
+
+First. He was paid in three different capacities during the whole of the
+time: that is to say--(1) As governor a salary at the rate per year
+of $2000. (2) As estimated for office rent, clerk hire, fuel, etc., in
+superintendence of Indian affairs in Michigan, at the rate per year of
+$1500. (3) As compensation and expenses for various miscellaneous items of
+Indian service out of Michigan, an average per year of $625.
+
+Second. During part of the time--that is, from the 9th of October, 1813,
+to the 29th of May, 1822 he was paid in four different capacities; that is
+to say, the three as above, and, in addition thereto, the commutation of
+ten rations per day, amounting per year to $730.
+
+Third. During another part of the time--that is, from the beginning
+of 1822 to the 31st of July, '83 he was also paid in four different
+capacities; that is to say, the first three, as above (the rations being
+dropped after the 29th of May, 1822), and, in addition thereto, for
+superintending Indian Agencies at Piqua, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and
+Chicago, Illinois, at the rate per year of $1500. It should be observed
+here that the last item, commencing at the beginning of 1822, and the item
+of rations, ending on the 29th of May, 1822, lap on each other during so
+much of the time as lies between those two dates.
+
+Fourth. Still another part of the time--that is, from the 31st of October,
+1821, to the 29th of May, 1822--he was paid in six different capacities;
+that is to say, the three first, as above; the item of rations, as above;
+and, in addition thereto, another item of ten rations per day while at
+Washington settling his accounts, being at the rate per year of $730; and
+also an allowance for expenses traveling to and from Washington, and while
+there, of $1022, being at the rate per year of $1793.
+
+Fifth. And yet during the little portion of the time which lies between
+the 1st of January, 1822, and the 29th of May, 1822, he was paid in seven
+different capacities; that is to say, the six last mentioned, and also,
+at the rate of $1500 per year, for the Piqua, Fort Wayne, and Chicago
+service, as mentioned above.
+
+These accounts have already been discussed some here; but when we are
+amongst them, as when we are in the Patent Office, we must peep about a
+good deal before we can see all the curiosities. I shall not be tedious
+with them. As to the large item of $1500 per year--amounting in the
+aggregate to $26,715 for office rent, clerk hire, fuel, etc., I barely
+wish to remark that, so far as I can discover in the public documents,
+there is no evidence, by word or inference, either from any disinterested
+witness or of General Cass himself, that he ever rented or kept a separate
+office, ever hired or kept a clerk, or even used any extra amount of fuel,
+etc., in consequence of his Indian services. Indeed, General Cass's entire
+silence in regard to these items, in his two long letters urging his
+claims upon the government, is, to my mind, almost conclusive that no such
+claims had any real existence.
+
+But I have introduced General Cass's accounts here chiefly to show the
+wonderful physical capacities of the man. They show that he not only did
+the labor of several men at the same time, but that he often did it at
+several places, many hundreds of miles apart, at the same time. And at
+eating, too, his capacities are shown to be quite as wonderful. From
+October, 1821, to May, 1822, he eat ten rations a day in Michigan, ten
+rations a day here in Washington, and near five dollars' worth a day on
+the road between the two places! And then there is an important discovery
+in his example--the art of being paid for what one eats, instead of having
+to pay for it. Hereafter if any nice young man should owe a bill which
+he cannot pay in any other way, he can just board it out. Mr. Speaker, we
+have all heard of the animal standing in doubt between two stacks of hay
+and starving to death. The like of that would never happen to General
+Cass. Place the stacks a thousand miles apart, he would stand stock-still
+midway between them, and eat them both at once, and the green grass along
+the line would be apt to suffer some, too, at the same time. By all means
+make him President, gentlemen. He will feed you bounteously--if--if there
+is any left after he shall have helped himself.
+
+But, as General Taylor is, par excellence, the hero of the Mexican War,
+and as you Democrats say we Whigs have always opposed the war, you think
+it must be very awkward and embarrassing for us to go for General Taylor.
+The declaration that we have always opposed the war is true or false,
+according as one may understand the term "oppose the war." If to say "the
+war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the President"
+by opposing the war, then the Whigs have very generally opposed it.
+Whenever they have spoken at all, they have said this; and they have said
+it on what has appeared good reason to them. The marching an army into the
+midst of a peaceful Mexican settlement, frightening the inhabitants away,
+leaving their growing crops and other property to destruction, to you may
+appear a perfectly amiable, peaceful, unprovoking procedure; but it does
+not appear so to us. So to call such an act, to us appears no other than
+a naked, impudent absurdity, and we speak of it accordingly. But if, when
+the war had begun, and had become the cause of the country, the giving
+of our money and our blood, in common with yours, was support of the
+war, then it is not true that we have always opposed the war. With few
+individual exceptions, you have constantly had our votes here for all the
+necessary supplies. And, more than this, you have had the services, the
+blood, and the lives of our political brethren in every trial and on
+every field. The beardless boy and the mature man, the humble and the
+distinguished--you have had them. Through suffering and death, by disease
+and in battle they have endured and fought and fell with you. Clay and
+Webster each gave a son, never to be returned. From the State of my
+own residence, besides other worthy but less known Whig names, we sent
+Marshall, Morrison, Baker, and Hardin; they all fought, and one fell, and
+in the fall of that one we lost our best Whig man. Nor were the Whigs
+few in number, or laggard in the day of danger. In that fearful, bloody,
+breathless struggle at Buena Vista, where each man's hard task was to beat
+back five foes or die himself, of the five high officers who perished,
+four were Whigs.
+
+In speaking of this, I mean no odious comparison between the lion-hearted
+Whigs and the Democrats who fought there. On other occasions, and
+among the lower officers and privates on that occasion, I doubt not the
+proportion was different. I wish to do justice to all. I think of all
+those brave men as Americans, in whose proud fame, as an American, I too
+have a share. Many of them, Whigs and Democrats are my constituents and
+personal friends; and I thank them,--more than thank them,--one and all,
+for the high imperishable honor they have conferred on our common State.
+
+But the distinction between the cause of the President in beginning the
+war, and the cause of the country after it was begun, is a distinction
+which you cannot perceive. To you the President and the country seem to
+be all one. You are interested to see no distinction between them; and I
+venture to suggest that probably your interest blinds you a little. We
+see the distinction, as we think, clearly enough; and our friends who have
+fought in the war have no difficulty in seeing it also. What those who
+have fallen would say, were they alive and here, of course we can never
+know; but with those who have returned there is no difficulty. Colonel
+Haskell and Major Gaines, members here, both fought in the war, and both
+of them underwent extraordinary perils and hardships; still they, like all
+other Whigs here, vote, on the record, that the war was unnecessarily and
+unconstitutionally commenced by the President. And even General Taylor
+himself, the noblest Roman of them all, has declared that as a citizen,
+and particularly as a soldier, it is sufficient for him to know that his
+country is at war with a foreign nation, to do all in his power to
+bring it to a speedy and honorable termination by the most vigorous and
+energetic operations, without inquiry about its justice, or anything else
+connected with it.
+
+Mr. Speaker, let our Democratic friends be comforted with the assurance
+that we are content with our position, content with our company, and
+content with our candidate; and that although they, in their generous
+sympathy, think we ought to be miserable, we really are not, and that they
+may dismiss the great anxiety they have on our account.
+
+Mr. Speaker, I see I have but three minutes left, and this forces me to
+throw out one whole branch of my subject. A single word on still another.
+The Democrats are keen enough to frequently remind us that we have some
+dissensions in our ranks. Our good friend from Baltimore immediately
+before me [Mr. McLane] expressed some doubt the other day as to which
+branch of our party General Taylor would ultimately fall into the hands
+of. That was a new idea to me. I knew we had dissenters, but I did not
+know they were trying to get our candidate away from us. I would like
+to say a word to our dissenters, but I have not the time. Some such we
+certainly have; have you none, gentlemen Democrats? Is it all union and
+harmony in your ranks? no bickerings? no divisions? If there be doubt as
+to which of our divisions will get our candidate, is there no doubt as
+to which of your candidates will get your party? I have heard some things
+from New York; and if they are true, one might well say of your party
+there, as a drunken fellow once said when he heard the reading of an
+indictment for hog-stealing. The clerk read on till he got to and through
+the words, "did steal, take, and carry away ten boars, ten sows, ten
+shoats, and ten pigs," at which he exclaimed, "Well, by golly, that is
+the most equally divided gang of hogs I ever did hear of!" If there is any
+other gang of hogs more equally divided than the Democrats of New York are
+about this time, I have not heard of it.
+
+
+
+
+SPEECH DELIVERED AT WORCESTER, MASS., ON SEPT. 12, 1848.
+
+(From the Boston Advertiser.)
+
+Mr. Kellogg then introduced to the meeting the Hon. Abram Lincoln, Whig
+member of Congress from Illinois, a representative of free soil.
+
+Mr. Lincoln has a very tall and thin figure, with an intellectual face,
+showing a searching mind, and a cool judgment. He spoke in a clear and
+cool and very eloquent manner, for an hour and a half, carrying the
+audience with him in his able arguments and brilliant illustrations--only
+interrupted by warm and frequent applause. He began by expressing a real
+feeling of modesty in addressing an audience "this side of the mountains,"
+a part of the country where, in the opinion of the people of his section,
+everybody was supposed to be instructed and wise. But he had devoted his
+attention to the question of the coming Presidential election, and was
+not unwilling to exchange with all whom he might the ideas to which he
+had arrived. He then began to show the fallacy of some of the arguments
+against Gen. Taylor, making his chief theme the fashionable statement of
+all those who oppose him ("the old Locofocos as well as the new") that he
+has no principles, and that the Whig party have abandoned their principles
+by adopting him as their candidate. He maintained that Gen. Taylor
+occupied a high and unexceptionable Whig ground, and took for his first
+instance and proof of this the statement in the Allison letter--with
+regard to the bank, tariff, rivers and harbors, etc.--that the will of the
+people should produce its own results, without executive influence. The
+principle that the people should do what--under the Constitution--as they
+please, is a Whig principle. All that Gen. Taylor is not only to consent
+to, but appeal to the people to judge and act for themselves. And this was
+no new doctrine for Whigs. It was the "platform" on which they had
+fought all their battles, the resistance of executive influence, and the
+principle of enabling the people to frame the government according to
+their will. Gen. Taylor consents to be the candidate, and to assist the
+people to do what they think to be their duty, and think to be best in
+their national affairs, but because he don't want to tell what we ought to
+do, he is accused of having no principles. The Whigs here maintained for
+years that neither the influence, the duress, or the prohibition of the
+executive should control the legitimately expressed will of the people;
+and now that, on that very ground, Gen. Taylor says that he should use the
+power given him by the people to do, to the best of his judgment, the will
+of the people, he is accused of want of principle, and of inconsistency in
+position.
+
+Mr. Lincoln proceeded to examine the absurdity of an attempt to make a
+platform or creed for a national party, to all parts of which all
+must consent and agree, when it was clearly the intention and the true
+philosophy of our government, that in Congress all opinions and principles
+should be represented, and that when the wisdom of all had been compared
+and united, the will of the majority should be carried out. On this ground
+he conceived (and the audience seemed to go with him) that Gen. Taylor
+held correct, sound republican principles.
+
+Mr. Lincoln then passed to the subject of slavery in the States,
+saying that the people of Illinois agreed entirely with the people of
+Massachusetts on this subject, except perhaps that they did not keep so
+constantly thinking about it. All agreed that slavery was an evil, but
+that we were not responsible for it and cannot affect it in States of this
+Union where we do not live. But the question of the extension of slavery
+to new territories of this country is a part of our responsibility and
+care, and is under our control. In opposition to this Mr. L. believed that
+the self-named "Free Soil" party was far behind the Whigs. Both parties
+opposed the extension. As he understood it the new party had no principle
+except this opposition. If their platform held any other, it was in such
+a general way that it was like the pair of pantaloons the Yankee pedlar
+offered for sale, "large enough for any man, small enough for any boy."
+They therefore had taken a position calculated to break down their single
+important declared object. They were working for the election of either
+Gen. Cass or Gen. Taylor. The speaker then went on to show, clearly and
+eloquently, the danger of extension of slavery, likely to result from the
+election of Gen. Cass. To unite with those who annexed the new territory
+to prevent the extension of slavery in that territory seemed to him to
+be in the highest degree absurd and ridiculous. Suppose these gentlemen
+succeed in electing Mr. Van Buren, they had no specific means to prevent
+the extension of slavery to New Mexico and California, and Gen. Taylor, he
+confidently believed, would not encourage it, and would not prohibit its
+restriction. But if Gen. Cass was elected, he felt certain that the plans
+of farther extension of territory would be encouraged, and those of the
+extension of slavery would meet no check. The "Free Soil" mart in claiming
+that name indirectly attempts a deception, by implying that Whigs were
+not Free Soil men. Declaring that they would "do their duty and leave the
+consequences to God" merely gave an excuse for taking a course they were
+not able to maintain by a fair and full argument. To make this declaration
+did not show what their duty was. If it did we should have no use for
+judgment, we might as well be made without intellect; and when divine or
+human law does not clearly point out what is our duty, we have no means of
+finding out what it is but by using our most intelligent judgment of the
+consequences. If there were divine law or human law for voting for Martin
+Van Buren, or if a fair examination of the consequences and just reasoning
+would show that voting for him would bring about the ends they pretended
+to wish--then he would give up the argument. But since there was no fixed
+law on the subject, and since the whole probable result of their action
+would be an assistance in electing Gen. Cass, he must say that they were
+behind the Whigs in their advocacy of the freedom of the soil.
+
+Mr. Lincoln proceeded to rally the Buffalo convention for forbearing to
+say anything--after all the previous declarations of those members who
+were formerly Whigs--on the subject of the Mexican War, because the Van
+Burens had been known to have supported it. He declared that of all the
+parties asking the confidence of the country, this new one had less of
+principle than any other.
+
+He wondered whether it was still the opinion of these Free Soil gentlemen,
+as declared in the "whereas" at Buffalo, that the Whig and Democratic
+parties were both entirely dissolved and absorbed into their own body. Had
+the Vermont election given them any light? They had calculated on making
+as great an impression in that State as in any part of the Union, and
+there their attempts had been wholly ineffectual. Their failure was a
+greater success than they would find in any other part of the Union.
+
+Mr. Lincoln went on to say that he honestly believed that all those who
+wished to keep up the character of the Union; who did not believe
+in enlarging our field, but in keeping our fences where they are and
+cultivating our present possessions, making it a garden, improving the
+morals and education of the people, devoting the administrations to this
+purpose; all real Whigs, friends of good honest government--the race was
+ours. He had opportunities of hearing from almost every part of the Union
+from reliable sources and had not heard of a county in which we had not
+received accessions from other parties. If the true Whigs come forward
+and join these new friends, they need not have a doubt. We had a candidate
+whose personal character and principles he had already described, whom
+he could not eulogize if he would. Gen. Taylor had been constantly,
+perseveringly, quietly standing up, doing his duty and asking no praise
+or reward for it. He was and must be just the man to whom the interests,
+principles, and prosperity of the country might be safely intrusted.
+He had never failed in anything he had undertaken, although many of his
+duties had been considered almost impossible.
+
+Mr. Lincoln then went into a terse though rapid review of the origin
+of the Mexican War and the connection of the administration and General
+Taylor with it, from which he deduced a strong appeal to the Whigs present
+to do their duty in the support of General Taylor, and closed with the
+warmest aspirations for and confidence in a deserved success.
+
+At the close of his truly masterly and convincing speech, the audience
+gave three enthusiastic cheers for Illinois, and three more for the
+eloquent Whig member from the State.
+
+
+
+
+HIS FATHER'S REQUEST FOR MONEY
+
+TO THOMAS LINCOLN
+
+WASHINGTON, Dec. 24, 1848.
+
+MY DEAR FATHER:--Your letter of the 7th was received night before last.
+I very cheerfully send you the twenty dollars, which sum you say is
+necessary to save your land from sale. It is singular that you should
+have forgotten a judgment against you; and it is more singular that the
+plaintiff should have let you forget it so long; particularly as I suppose
+you always had property enough to satisfy a judgment of that amount.
+Before you pay it, it would be well to be sure you have not paid, or at
+least, that you cannot prove you have paid it.
+
+Give my love to mother and all the connections. Affectionately your son,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+1849
+
+BILL TO ABOLISH SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
+
+Resolved, That the Committee on the District of Columbia be instructed to
+report a bill in substance as follows:
+
+Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
+United States, in Congress assembled, That no person not now within the
+District of Columbia, nor now owned by any person or persons now resident
+within it, nor hereafter born within it, shall ever be held in slavery
+within said District.
+
+Sec. 2. That no person now within said District, or now owned by any
+person or persons now resident within the same, or hereafter born within
+it, shall ever be held in slavery without the limits of said District:
+Provided, That officers of the Government of the United States, being
+citizens of the slaveholding States, coming into said District on public
+business, and remaining only so long as may be reasonably necessary for
+that object, may be attended into and out of said District, and while
+there, by the necessary servants of themselves and their families, without
+their right to hold such servants in service being thereby impaired.
+
+Sec. 3. That all children born of slave mothers within said District,
+on or after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord eighteen
+hundred and fifty, shall be free; but shall be reasonably supported and
+educated by the respective owners of their mothers, or by their heirs or
+representatives, and shall owe reasonable service as apprentices to such
+owners, heirs, or representatives, until they respectively arrive at
+the age of __ years, when they shall be entirely free; and the municipal
+authorities of Washington and Georgetown, within their respective
+jurisdictional limits, are hereby empowered and required to make all
+suitable and necessary provision for enforcing obedience to this section,
+on the part of both masters and apprentices.
+
+Sec. 4. That all persons now within this District, lawfully held as
+slaves, or now owned by any person or persons now resident within said
+District, shall remain such at the will of their respective owners, their
+heirs, and legal representatives: Provided, That such owner, or his legal
+representative, may at any time receive from the Treasury of the United
+States the full value of his or her slave, of the class in this section
+mentioned, upon which such slave shall be forthwith and forever free: And
+provided further, That the President of the United States, the Secretary
+of State, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall be a board for
+determining the value of such slaves as their owners may desire to
+emancipate under this section, and whose duty it shall be to hold a
+session for the purpose on the first Monday of each calendar month, to
+receive all applications, and, on satisfactory evidence in each case that
+the person presented for valuation is a slave, and of the class in this
+section mentioned, and is owned by the applicant, shall value such slave
+at his or her full cash value, and give to the applicant an order on the
+Treasury for the amount, and also to such slave a certificate of freedom.
+
+Sec. 5. That the municipal authorities of Washington and Georgetown,
+within their respective jurisdictional limits, are hereby empowered and
+required to provide active and efficient means to arrest and deliver up to
+their owners all fugitive slaves escaping into said District.
+
+Sec. 6. That the election officers within said District of Columbia are
+hereby empowered and required to open polls, at all the usual places of
+holding elections, on the first Monday of April next, and receive the vote
+of every free white male citizen above the age of twenty-one years, having
+resided within said District for the period of one year or more next
+preceding the time of such voting for or against this act, to proceed in
+taking said votes, in all respects not herein specified, as at elections
+under the municipal laws, and with as little delay as possible to transmit
+correct statements of the votes so cast to the President of the United
+States; and it shall be the duty of the President to canvass said votes
+immediately, and if a majority of them be found to be for this act, to
+forthwith issue his proclamation giving notice of the fact; and this
+act shall only be in full force and effect on and after the day of such
+proclamation.
+
+Sec. 7. That involuntary servitude for the punishment of crime, whereof
+the party shall have been duly convicted, shall in no wise be prohibited
+by this act.
+
+Sec. 8. That for all the purposes of this act, the jurisdictional limits
+of Washington are extended to all parts of the District of Columbia not
+now included within the present limits of Georgetown.
+
+
+
+
+BILL GRANTING LANDS TO THE STATES TO MAKE RAILWAYS AND CANALS
+
+REMARKS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 13, 1849.
+
+Mr. Lincoln said he had not risen for the purpose of making a speech, but
+only for the purpose of meeting some of the objections to the bill. If he
+understood those objections, the first was that if the bill were to become
+a law, it would be used to lock large portions of the public lands from
+sale, without at last effecting the ostensible object of the bill--the
+construction of railroads in the new States; and secondly, that Congress
+would be forced to the abandonment of large portions of the public lands
+to the States for which they might be reserved, without their paying for
+them. This he understood to be the substance of the objections of the
+gentleman from Ohio to the passage of the bill.
+
+If he could get the attention of the House for a few minutes, he would ask
+gentlemen to tell us what motive could induce any State Legislature, or
+individual, or company of individuals, of the new States, to expend money
+in surveying roads which they might know they could not make.
+
+(A voice: They are not required to make the road.)
+
+Mr. Lincoln continued: That was not the case he was making. What motive
+would tempt any set of men to go into an extensive survey of a railroad
+which they did not intend to make? What good would it do? Did men act
+without motive? Did business men commonly go into an expenditure of money
+which could be of no account to them? He generally found that men who have
+money were disposed to hold on to it, unless they could see something to
+be made by its investment. He could not see what motive of advantage to
+the new States could be subserved by merely keeping the public lands out
+of market, and preventing their settlement. As far as he could see, the
+new States were wholly without any motive to do such a thing. This, then,
+he took to be a good answer to the first objection.
+
+In relation to the fact assumed, that after a while, the new States having
+got hold of the public lands to a certain extent, they would turn round
+and compel Congress to relinquish all claim to them, he had a word to say,
+by way of recurring to the history of the past. When was the time to come
+(he asked) when the States in which the public lands were situated would
+compose a majority of the representation in Congress, or anything like
+it? A majority of Representatives would very soon reside west of the
+mountains, he admitted; but would they all come from States in which
+the public lands were situated? They certainly would not; for, as these
+Western States grew strong in Congress, the public lands passed away from
+them, and they got on the other side of the question; and the gentleman
+from Ohio [Mr. Vinton] was an example attesting that fact.
+
+Mr. Vinton interrupted here to say that he had stood on this question just
+where he was now, for five and twenty years.
+
+Mr. Lincoln was not making an argument for the purpose of convicting the
+gentleman of any impropriety at all. He was speaking of a fact in history,
+of which his State was an example. He was referring to a plain principle
+in the nature of things. The State of Ohio had now grown to be a giant.
+She had a large delegation on that floor; but was she now in favor of
+granting lands to the new States, as she used to be? The New England
+States, New York, and the Old Thirteen were all rather quiet upon the
+subject; and it was seen just now that a member from one of the new States
+was the first man to rise up in opposition. And such would be with the
+history of this question for the future. There never would come a time
+when the people residing in the States embracing the public lands would
+have the entire control of this subject; and so it was a matter of
+certainty that Congress would never do more in this respect than what
+would be dictated by a just liberality. The apprehension, therefore,
+that the public lands were in danger of being wrested from the General
+Government by the strength of the delegation in Congress from the new
+States, was utterly futile. There never could be such a thing. If we take
+these lands (said he) it will not be without your consent. We can never
+outnumber you. The result is that all fear of the new States turning
+against the right of Congress to the public domain must be effectually
+quelled, as those who are opposed to that interest must always hold a vast
+majority here, and they will never surrender the whole or any part of
+the public lands unless they themselves choose to do so. That was all he
+desired to say.
+
+
+
+
+ON FEDERAL POLITICAL APPOINTMENTS
+
+TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
+
+WASHINGTON, March 9, 1849.
+
+HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
+
+DEAR SIR: Colonel R. D. Baker and myself are the only Whig members of
+Congress from Illinois of the Thirtieth, and he of the Thirty-first. We
+have reason to think the Whigs of that State hold us responsible, to some
+extent, for the appointments which may be made of our citizens. We do not
+know you personally, and our efforts to you have so far been unavailing.
+I therefore hope I am not obtrusive in saying in this way, for him
+and myself, that when a citizen of Illinois is to be appointed in
+your department, to an office either in or out of the State, we most
+respectfully ask to be heard.
+
+Your obedient servant,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+MORE POLITICAL PATRONAGE REQUESTS
+
+TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
+
+WASHINGTON, March 10, 1849.
+
+HON. SECRETARY OF STATE.
+
+SIR:--There are several applicants for the office of United States
+Marshal for the District of Illinois. Among the most prominent of them are
+Benjamin Bond, Esq., of Carlyle, and Thomas, Esq., of Galena. Mr. Bond
+I know to be personally every way worthy of the office; and he is very
+numerously and most respectably recommended. His papers I send to you; and
+I solicit for his claims a full and fair consideration.
+
+Having said this much, I add that in my individual judgment the
+appointment of Mr. Thomas would be the better.
+
+Your obedient servant,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+(Indorsed on Mr. Bond's papers.)
+
+In this and the accompanying envelope are the recommendations of about
+two hundred good citizens of all parts of Illinois, that Benjamin Bond be
+appointed marshal for that district. They include the names of nearly
+all our Whigs who now are, or have ever been, members of the State
+Legislature, besides forty-six of the Democratic members of the present
+Legislature, and many other good citizens. I add that from personal
+knowledge I consider Mr. Bond every way worthy of the office, and
+qualified to fill it. Holding the individual opinion that the appointment
+of a different gentleman would be better, I ask especial attention and
+consideration for his claims, and for the opinions expressed in his favor
+by those over whom I can claim no superiority.
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
+
+SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7, 1849
+
+HON. SECRETARY OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT.
+
+DEAR SIR:--I recommend that Walter Davis be appointed receiver of the
+land-office at this place, whenever there shall be a vacancy. I cannot
+say that Mr. Herndon, the present incumbent, has failed in the proper
+discharge of any of the duties of the office. He is a very warm partisan,
+and openly and actively opposed to the election of General Taylor. I
+also understand that since General Taylor's election he has received
+a reappointment from Mr. Polk, his old commission not having expired.
+Whether this is true the records of the department will show. I may add
+that the Whigs here almost universally desire his removal.
+
+I give no opinion of my own, but state the facts, and express the hope
+that the department will act in this as in all other cases on some proper
+general rule.
+
+Your obedient servant,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+P. S.--The land district to which this office belongs is very nearly if
+not entirely within my district; so that Colonel Baker, the other Whig
+representative, claims no voice in the appointment. A. L.
+
+
+
+
+TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7, 1849.
+
+HON. SECRETARY OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT.
+
+DEAR SIR:--I recommend that Turner R. King, now of Pekin, Illinois, be
+appointed register of the land-office at this place whenever there shall
+be a vacancy.
+
+I do not know that Mr. Barret, the present incumbent, has failed in the
+proper discharge of any of his duties in the office. He is a decided
+partisan, and openly and actively opposed the election of General Taylor.
+I understand, too, that since the election of General Taylor, Mr. Barret
+has received a reappointment from Mr. Polk, his old commission not having
+expired. Whether this be true, the records of the department will show.
+
+Whether he should be removed I give no opinion, but merely express the
+wish that the department may act upon some proper general rule, and that
+Mr. Barret's case may not be made an exception to it.
+
+Your obedient servant,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+P. S.-The land district to which this office belongs is very nearly if
+not entirely within my district; so that Colonel Baker, the other Whig
+representative, claims no voice in the appointment. A. L.
+
+
+
+
+TO THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7,1849.
+
+HON. POSTMASTER-GENERAL.
+
+DEAR Sir:--I recommend that Abner Y. Ellis be appointed postmaster at
+this place, whenever there shall be a vacancy. J. R. Diller, the present
+incumbent, I cannot say has failed in the proper discharge of any of
+the duties of the office. He, however, has been an active partisan in
+opposition to us.
+
+Located at the seat of government of the State, he has been, for part
+if not the whole of the time he has held the office, a member of the
+Democratic State Central Committee, signing his name to their addresses
+and manifestoes; and has been, as I understand, reappointed by Mr. Polk
+since General Taylor's election. These are the facts of the case as I
+understand them, and I give no opinion of mine as to whether he should
+or should not be removed. My wish is that the department may adopt some
+proper general rule for such cases, and that Mr. Diller may not be made an
+exception to it, one way or the other.
+
+Your obedient servant,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+P. S.--This office, with its delivery, is entirely within my district; so
+that Colonel Baker, the other Whig representative, claims no voice in the
+appointment.L.
+
+
+
+
+TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7, 1849.
+
+HON. SECRETARY OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT.
+
+DEAR SIR:--I recommend that William Butler be appointed pension agent
+for the Illinois agency, when the place shall be vacant. Mr. Hurst, the
+present incumbent, I believe has performed the duties very well. He is a
+decided partisan, and I believe expects to be removed. Whether he shall, I
+submit to the department. This office is not confined to my district, but
+pertains to the whole State; so that Colonel Baker has an equal right with
+myself to be heard concerning it. However, the office is located here;
+and I think it is not probable that any one would desire to remove from a
+distance to take it.
+
+Your obedient servant,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO THOMPSON.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, April 25, 1849.
+
+DEAR THOMPSON: A tirade is still kept up against me here for recommending
+T. R. King. This morning it is openly avowed that my supposed influence at
+Washington shall be broken down generally, and King's prospects defeated
+in particular. Now, what I have done in this matter I have done at the
+request of you and some other friends in Tazewell; and I therefore ask you
+to either admit it is wrong or come forward and sustain me. If the truth
+will permit, I propose that you sustain me in the following manner: copy
+the inclosed scrap in your own handwriting and get everybody (not three or
+four, but three or four hundred) to sign it, and then send it to me. Also,
+have six, eight or ten of our best known Whig friends there write to me
+individual letters, stating the truth in this matter as they understand
+it. Don't neglect or delay in the matter. I understand information of an
+indictment having been found against him about three years ago, for gaming
+or keeping a gaming house, has been sent to the department. I shall try
+to take care of it at the department till your action can be had and
+forwarded on.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.
+
+SPRINGFIELD ILLINOIS. May 10, 1849.
+
+HON. SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.
+
+DEAR SIR:--I regret troubling you so often in relation to the land-offices
+here, but I hope you will perceive the necessity of it, and excuse me. On
+the 7th of April I wrote you recommending Turner R. King for register, and
+Walter Davis for receiver. Subsequently I wrote you that, for a private
+reason, I had concluded to transpose them. That private reason was the
+request of an old personal friend who himself desired to be receiver,
+but whom I felt it my duty to refuse a recommendation. He said if I would
+transpose King and Davis he would be satisfied. I thought it a whim, but,
+anxious to oblige him, I consented. Immediately he commenced an assault
+upon King's character, intending, as I suppose, to defeat his appointment,
+and thereby secure another chance for himself. This double offence of bad
+faith to me and slander upon a good man is so totally outrageous that I
+now ask to have King and Davis placed as I originally recommended,--that
+is, King for register and Davis for receiver.
+
+An effort is being made now to have Mr. Barret, the present register,
+retained. I have already said he has done the duties of the office well,
+and I now add he is a gentleman in the true sense. Still, he submits to be
+the instrument of his party to injure us. His high character enables him
+to do it more effectually. Last year he presided at the convention which
+nominated the Democratic candidate for Congress in this district, and
+afterward ran for the State Senate himself, not desiring the seat, but
+avowedly to aid and strengthen his party. He made speech after speech with
+a degree of fierceness and coarseness against General Taylor not quite
+consistent with his habitually gentlemanly deportment. At least one (and
+I think more) of those who are now trying to have him retained was himself
+an applicant for this very office, and, failing to get my recommendation,
+now takes this turn.
+
+In writing you a third time in relation to these offices, I stated that I
+supposed charges had been forwarded to you against King, and that I would
+inquire into the truth of them. I now send you herewith what I suppose
+will be an ample defense against any such charges. I ask attention to all
+the papers, but particularly to the letters of Mr. David Mack, and the
+paper with the long list of names. There is no mistake about King's being
+a good man. After the unjust assault upon him, and considering the just
+claims of Tazewell County, as indicated in the letters I inclose you, it
+would in my opinion be injustice, and withal a blunder, not to appoint
+him, at least as soon as any one is appointed to either of the offices
+here.
+
+Your obedient servant,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO J. GILLESPIE.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, ILL., May 19, 1849.
+
+DEAR GILLESPIE:
+
+Butterfield will be commissioner of the Gen'l Land Office, unless
+prevented by strong and speedy efforts. Ewing is for him, and he is only
+not appointed yet because Old Zach. hangs fire.
+
+I have reliable information of this. Now, if you agree with me that this
+appointment would dissatisfy rather than gratify the Whigs of this
+State, that it would slacken their energies in future contests, that his
+appointment in '41 is an old sore with them which they will not patiently
+have reopened,--in a word that his appointment now would be a fatal
+blunder to the administration and our political men here in Illinois,
+write Crittenden to that effect. He can control the matter. Were you to
+write Ewing I fear the President would never hear of your letter. This may
+be mere suspicion. You might write directly to Old Zach. You will be the
+best judge of the propriety of that. Not a moment's time is to be lost.
+
+Let this be confidential except with Mr. Edwards and a few others whom you
+know I would trust just as I do you.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+REQUEST FOR GENERAL LAND-OFFICE APPPOINTMENT
+
+TO E. EMBREE.
+
+[Confidential]
+
+SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, May 25, 1849.
+
+HON. E. EMBREE
+
+DEAR SIR:--I am about to ask a favor of you, one which I hope will not
+cost you much. I understand the General Land-Office is about to be given
+to Illinois, and that Mr. Ewing desires Justin Butterfield, of Chicago, to
+be the man. I give you my word, the appointment of Mr. Butterfield will
+be an egregious political blunder. It will give offence to the whole Whig
+party here, and be worse than a dead loss to the administration of so much
+of its patronage. Now, if you can conscientiously do so, I wish you to
+write General Taylor at once, saying that either I or the man I recommend
+should in your opinion be appointed to that office, if any one from
+Illinois shall be. I restrict my request to Illinois because you may have
+a man from your own State, and I do not ask to interfere with that.
+
+Your friend as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+REQUEST FOR A PATENT
+
+IMPROVED METHOD OF LIFTING VESSELS OVER SHOALS.
+
+Application for Patent:
+
+What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by letters patent, is
+the combination of expansible buoyant chambers placed at the sides of a
+vessel with the main shaft or shafts by means of the sliding spars, which
+pass down through the buoyant chambers and are made fast to their bottoms
+and the series of ropes and pulleys or their equivalents in such a manner
+that by turning the main shaft or shafts in one direction the buoyant
+chambers will be forced downward into the water, and at the same time
+expanded and filled with air for buoying up the vessel by the displacement
+of water, and by turning the shafts in an opposite direction the buoyant
+chambers will be contracted into a small space and secured against injury.
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO THE SECRETARY OF INTERIOR.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, ILL., June 3, 1849
+
+HON. SECRETARY OF INTERIOR.
+
+DEAR SIR:--Vandalia, the receiver's office at which place is the subject
+of the within, is not in my district; and I have been much perplexed to
+express any preference between Dr. Stapp and Mr. Remann. If any one man
+is better qualified for such an office than all others, Dr. Stapp is that
+man; still, I believe a large majority of the Whigs of the district prefer
+Mr. Remann, who also is a good man. Perhaps the papers on file will enable
+you to judge better than I can. The writers of the within are good men,
+residing within the land district.
+
+Your obt. servant,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO W. H. HERNDON.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, June 5, 1849.
+
+DEAR WILLIAM:--Your two letters were received last night. I have a great
+many letters to write, and so cannot write very long ones. There must be
+some mistake about Walter Davis saying I promised him the post-office.
+I did not so promise him. I did tell him that if the distribution of the
+offices should fall into my hands, he should have something; and if
+I shall be convinced he has said any more than this, I shall be
+disappointed. I said this much to him because, as I understand, he is of
+good character, is one of the young men, is of the mechanics, and always
+faithful and never troublesome; a Whig, and is poor, with the support of a
+widow mother thrown almost exclusively on him by the death of his brother.
+If these are wrong reasons, then I have been wrong; but I have certainly
+not been selfish in it, because in my greatest need of friends he was
+against me, and for Baker.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+P. S. Let the above be confidential.
+
+
+
+
+TO J. GILLESPIE.
+
+DEAR GILLESPIE:
+
+Mr. Edwards is unquestionably offended with me in connection with the
+matter of the General Land-Office. He wrote a letter against me which was
+filed at the department.
+
+The better part of one's life consists of his friendships; and, of them,
+mine with Mr. Edwards was one of the most cherished. I have not been
+false to it. At a word I could have had the office any time before the
+department was committed to Mr. Butterfield, at least Mr. Ewing and the
+President say as much. That word I forbore to speak, partly for other
+reasons, but chiefly for Mr. Edwards' sake, losing the office (that he
+might gain it) I was always for; but to lose his friendship, by the effort
+for him, would oppress me very much, were I not sustained by the utmost
+consciousness of rectitude. I first determined to be an applicant,
+unconditionally, on the 2nd of June; and I did so then upon being informed
+by a telegraphic despatch that the question was narrowed down to Mr. B and
+myself, and that the Cabinet had postponed the appointment three weeks,
+for my benefit. Not doubting that Mr. Edwards was wholly out of the
+question I, nevertheless, would not then have become an applicant had I
+supposed he would thereby be brought to suspect me of treachery to him.
+Two or three days afterwards a conversation with Levi Davis convinced me
+Mr. Edwards was dissatisfied; but I was then too far in to get out. His
+own letter, written on the 25th of April, after I had fully informed
+him of all that had passed, up to within a few days of that time, gave
+assurance I had that entire confidence from him which I felt my uniform
+and strong friendship for him entitled me to. Among other things it says,
+"Whatever course your judgment may dictate as proper to be pursued, shall
+never be excepted to by me." I also had had a letter from Washington,
+saying Chambers, of the Republic, had brought a rumor then, that Mr. E had
+declined in my favor, which rumor I judged came from Mr. E himself, as I
+had not then breathed of his letter to any living creature. In saying
+I had never, before the 2nd of June, determined to be an applicant,
+unconditionally, I mean to admit that, before then, I had said
+substantially I would take the office rather than it should be lost to
+the State, or given to one in the State whom the Whigs did not want; but
+I aver that in every instance in which I spoke of myself, I intended to
+keep, and now believe I did keep, Mr. E above myself. Mr. Edwards' first
+suspicion was that I had allowed Baker to overreach me, as his friend,
+in behalf of Don Morrison. I knew this was a mistake; and the result has
+proved it. I understand his view now is, that if I had gone to open war
+with Baker I could have ridden him down, and had the thing all my own way.
+I believe no such thing. With Baker and some strong man from the Military
+tract & elsewhere for Morrison, and we and some strong man from the
+Wabash & elsewhere for Mr. E, it was not possible for either to succeed.
+I believed this in March, and I know it now. The only thing which gave
+either any chance was the very thing Baker & I proposed,--an adjustment
+with themselves.
+
+You may wish to know how Butterfield finally beat me. I can not tell
+you particulars now, but will when I see you. In the meantime let it be
+understood I am not greatly dissatisfied,--I wish the offer had been so
+bestowed as to encourage our friends in future contests, and I regret
+exceedingly Mr. Edwards' feelings towards me. These two things away, I
+should have no regrets,--at least I think I would not.
+
+Write me soon.
+
+Your friend, as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+RESOLUTIONS OF SYMPATHY WITH THE CAUSE OF HUNGARIAN FREEDOM,
+
+SEPTEMBER [1??], 1849.
+
+At a meeting to express sympathy with the cause of Hungarian freedom, Dr.
+Todd, Thos. Lewis, Hon. A. Lincoln, and Wm. Carpenter were appointed a
+committee to present appropriate resolutions, which reported through Hon.
+A. Lincoln the following:
+
+Resolved, That, in their present glorious struggle for liberty, the
+Hungarians command our highest admiration and have our warmest sympathy.
+
+Resolved, That they have our most ardent prayers for their speedy triumph
+and final success.
+
+Resolved, That the Government of the United States should acknowledge the
+independence of Hungary as a nation of freemen at the very earliest moment
+consistent with our amicable relations with the government against which
+they are contending.
+
+Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, the immediate
+acknowledgment of the independence of Hungary by our government is due
+from American freemen to their struggling brethren, to the general cause
+of republican liberty, and not violative of the just rights of any nation
+or people.
+
+
+
+
+TO Dr. WILLIAM FITHIAN.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, Sept. 14, 1849.
+
+Dr. WILLIAM FITHIAN, Danville, Ill.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR:--Your letter of the 9th was received a day or two ago. The
+notes and mortgages you enclosed me were duly received. I also got the
+original Blanchard mortgage from Antrim Campbell, with whom Blanchard had
+left it for you. I got a decree of foreclosure on the whole; but, owing to
+there being no redemption on the sale to be under the Blanchard mortgage,
+the court allowed Mobley till the first of March to pay the money, before
+advertising for sale. Stuart was empowered by Mobley to appear for him,
+and I had to take such decree as he would consent to, or none at all. I
+cast the matter about in my mind and concluded that as I could not get
+a decree we would put the accrued interest at interest, and thereby more
+than match the fact of throwing the Blanchard debt back from twelve to six
+per cent., it was better to do it. This is the present state of the case.
+
+I can well enough understand and appreciate your suggestions about the
+Land-Office at Danville; but in my present condition, I can do nothing.
+
+Yours, as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+SPRINGFIELD, Dec. 15, 1849.
+
+------ ESQ.
+
+DEAR SIR:--On my return from Kentucky I found your letter of the 7th of
+November, and have delayed answering it till now for the reason I now
+briefly state. From the beginning of our acquaintance I had felt the
+greatest kindness for you and had supposed it was reciprocated on your
+part. Last summer, under circumstances which I mentioned to you, I was
+painfully constrained to withhold a recommendation which you desired, and
+shortly afterwards I learned, in such a way as to believe it, that you
+were indulging in open abuse of me. Of course my feelings were wounded.
+On receiving your last letter the question occurred whether you were
+attempting to use me at the same time you would injure me, or whether you
+might not have been misrepresented to me. If the former, I ought not to
+answer you; if the latter, I ought, and so I have remained in suspense. I
+now enclose you the letter, which you may use if you see fit.
+
+Yours, etc.,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+1850
+
+
+
+
+RESOLUTIONS ON THE DEATH OF JUDGE NATHANIEL POPE.
+
+Circuit and District Court of the U. S. in and for the State and District
+of Illinois. Monday, June 3, 1850.
+
+On the opening of the Court this morning, the Hon. A. Lincoln, a member
+of the Bar of this Court, suggested the death of the Hon. Nathaniel
+Pope, late a judge of this Court, since the adjournment of the last term;
+whereupon, in token of respect for the memory of the deceased, it is
+ordered that the Court do now adjourn until to-morrow morning at ten
+o'clock.
+
+The Hon. Stephen T. Logan, the Hon. Norman H. Purple, the Hon. David L.
+Gregg, the Hon. A. Lincoln, and George W. Meeker, Esq., were appointed a
+Committee to prepare resolutions.
+
+Whereupon, the Hon. Stephen T. Logan, in behalf of the Committee,
+presented the following preamble and resolutions:
+
+Whereas The Hon. Nathaniel Pope, District Judge of the United States Court
+for the District of Illinois, having departed this life during the
+last vacation of said Court, and the members of the Bar of said Court,
+entertaining the highest veneration for his memory, a profound respect for
+his ability, great experience, and learning as a judge, and cherishing for
+his many virtues, public and private, his earnest simplicity of character
+and unostentatious deportment, both in his public and private relations,
+the most lively and affectionate recollections, have
+
+Resolved, That, as a manifestation of their deep sense of the loss
+which has been sustained in his death, they will wear the usual badge of
+mourning during the residue of the term.
+
+Resolved, That the Chairman communicate to the family of the deceased a
+copy of these proceedings, with an assurance of our sincere condolence on
+account of their heavy bereavement.
+
+Resolved, That the Hon. A. Williams, District Attorney of this Court, be
+requested in behalf of the meeting to present these proceedings to the
+Circuit Court, and respectfully to ask that they may be entered on the
+records.
+
+E. N. POWELL, Sec'y. SAMUEL H. TREAT, Ch'n.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES FOR LAW LECTURE
+
+(fragments)
+
+JULY 1, 1850
+
+DISCOURAGE LITIGATION. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you
+can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser--in
+fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peace-maker the lawyer has a
+superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business
+enough.
+
+Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one
+who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually
+over-hauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon
+to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be
+infused into the profession which should drive such men out of it.
+
+The matter of fees is important, far beyond the mere question of bread
+and butter involved. Properly attended to, fuller justice is done to both
+lawyer and client. An exorbitant fee should never be claimed. As a general
+rule never take your whole fee in advance, nor any more than a small
+retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more than a common mortal
+if you can feel the same interest in the case as if something was still in
+prospect for you, as well as for your client. And when you lack interest
+in the case the job will very likely lack skill and diligence in the
+performance. Settle the amount of fee and take a note in advance. Then you
+will feel that you are working for something, and you are sure to do your
+work faithfully and well. Never sell a fee note--at least not before
+the consideration service is performed. It leads to negligence and
+dishonesty--negligence by losing interest in the case, and dishonesty in
+refusing to refund when you have allowed the consideration to fail.
+
+This idea of a refund or reduction of charges from the lawyer in a failed
+case is a new one to me--but not a bad one.
+
+
+
+
+1851
+
+
+
+
+LETTERS TO FAMILY MEMBERS
+
+
+
+
+TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON.
+
+January 2, 1851
+
+DEAR JOHNSTON:--Your request for eighty dollars I do not think it best to
+comply with now. At the various times when I have helped you a little you
+have said to me, "We can get along very well now"; but in a very short
+time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now, this can only happen by
+some defect in your conduct. What that defect is, I think I know. You are
+not lazy, and still you are an idler. I doubt whether, since I saw you,
+you have done a good whole day's work in any one day. You do not very much
+dislike to work, and still you do not work much merely because it does
+not seem to you that you could get much for it. This habit of uselessly
+wasting time is the whole difficulty; it is vastly important to you, and
+still more so to your children, that you should break the habit. It is
+more important to them, because they have longer to live, and can keep out
+of an idle habit before they are in it, easier than they can get out after
+they are in.
+
+You are now in need of some money; and what I propose is, that you shall
+go to work, "tooth and nail," for somebody who will give you money for it.
+Let father and your boys take charge of your things at home, prepare for
+a crop, and make the crop, and you go to work for the best money wages, or
+in discharge of any debt you owe, that you can get; and, to secure you a
+fair reward for your labor, I now promise you, that for every dollar you
+will, between this and the first of May, get for your own labor, either in
+money or as your own indebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar.
+By this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you will get
+ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your work. In this I do not
+mean you shall go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines
+in California, but I mean for you to go at it for the best wages you can
+get close to home in Coles County. Now, if you will do this, you will be
+soon out of debt, and, what is better, you will have a habit that will
+keep you from getting in debt again. But, if I should now clear you out
+of debt, next year you would be just as deep in as ever. You say you would
+almost give your place in heaven for seventy or eighty dollars. Then you
+value your place in heaven very cheap, for I am sure you can, with the
+offer I make, get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months'
+work. You say if I will furnish you the money you will deed me the
+land, and, if you don't pay the money back, you will deliver possession.
+Nonsense! If you can't now live with the land, how will you then live
+without it? You have always been kind to me, and I do not mean to be
+unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow my advice, you will
+find it worth more than eighty times eighty dollars to you.
+
+Affectionately your brother,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO C. HOYT.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, Jan. 11, 1851.
+
+
+C. HOYT, ESQ.
+
+MY DEAR SIR:--Our case is decided against us. The decision was announced
+this morning. Very sorry, but there is no help. The history of the case
+since it came here is this. On Friday morning last, Mr. Joy filed his
+papers, and entered his motion for a mandamus, and urged me to take up the
+motion as soon as possible. I already had the points and authority sent me
+by you and by Mr. Goodrich, but had not studied them. I began preparing as
+fast as possible.
+
+The evening of the same day I was again urged to take up the case. I
+refused on the ground that I was not ready, and on which plea I also
+got off over Saturday. But on Monday (the 14th) I had to go into it. We
+occupied the whole day, I using the large part. I made every point and
+used every authority sent me by yourself and by Mr. Goodrich; and in
+addition all the points I could think of and all the authorities I could
+find myself. When I closed the argument on my part, a large package was
+handed me, which proved to be the plat you sent me.
+
+The court received it of me, but it was not different from the plat
+already on the record. I do not think I could ever have argued the case
+better than I did. I did nothing else, but prepare to argue and argue this
+case, from Friday morning till Monday evening. Very sorry for the result;
+but I do not think it could have been prevented.
+
+Your friend, as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, January 12, 1851
+
+DEAR BROTHER:--On the day before yesterday I received a letter from
+Harriet, written at Greenup. She says she has just returned from your
+house, and that father is very low and will hardly recover. She also says
+you have written me two letters, and that, although you do not expect me
+to come now, you wonder that I do not write.
+
+I received both your letters, and although I have not answered them it is
+not because I have forgotten them, or been uninterested about them, but
+because it appeared to me that I could write nothing which would do any
+good. You already know I desire that neither father nor mother shall be in
+want of any comfort, either in health or sickness, while they live; and I
+feel sure you have not failed to use my name, if necessary, to procure a
+doctor, or anything else for father in his present sickness. My business
+is such that I could hardly leave home now, if it was not as it is, that
+my own wife is sick abed. (It is a case of baby-sickness, and I suppose is
+not dangerous.) I sincerely hope father may recover his health, but at
+all events, tell him to remember to call upon and confide in our great and
+good and merciful Maker, who will not turn away from him in any extremity.
+He notes the fall of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads, and He
+will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him. Say to him that
+if we could meet now it is doubtful whether it would not be more painful
+than pleasant, but that if it be his lot to go now, he will soon have a
+joyous meeting with many loved ones gone before, and where the rest of us,
+through the help of God, hope ere long to join them.
+
+Write to me again when you receive this.
+
+Affectionately,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+PETITION ON BEHALF OF ONE JOSHUA GIPSON
+
+TO THE JUDGE OF THE SANGAMON COUNTY COURT,
+
+MAY 13, 1851.
+
+TO THE HONORABLE, THE JUDGE OF THE COUNTY COURT
+
+IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SANGAMON AND STATE OF ILLINOIS:
+
+Your Petitioner, Joshua Gipson, respectfully represents that on or about
+the 21st day of December, 1850, a judgment was rendered against your
+Petitioner for costs, by J. C. Spugg, one of the Justices of the Peace
+in and for said County of Sangamon, in a suit wherein your Petitioner
+was plaintiff and James L. and C. B. Gerard were defendants; that said
+judgment was not the result of negligence on the part of your Petitioner;
+that said judgment, in his opinion, is unjust and erroneous in this, that
+the defendants were at that time and are indebted to this Petitioner in
+the full amount of the principal and interest of the note sued on, the
+principal being, as affiant remembers and believes, thirty-one dollars
+and eighty two cents; and that, as affiant is informed and believes, the
+defendants succeeded in the trial of said cause by proving old claims
+against your petitioner, in set-off against said note, which claims
+had been settled, adjusted and paid before said note was executed. Your
+Petitioner further states that the reasons of his not being present at
+said trial, as he was not, and of its not being in his power to take an
+appeal in the ordinary way, as it was not, were that your Petitioner then
+resided in Edgar County about one hundred and twenty miles from where
+defendants resided; that a very short time before the suit was commenced
+your Petitioner was in Sangamon County for the purpose of collecting debts
+due him, and with the rest, the note in question, which note had then been
+given more than a year, that your Petitioner then saw the defendant J.
+L. Gerard who is the principal in said note, and solicited payment of the
+same; that said defendant then made no pretense that he did not owe the
+same, but on the contrary expressly promised that he would come into
+Springfield, in a very few days and either pay the money, or give a new
+note, payable by the then next Christmas; that your Petitioner accordingly
+left said note with said J. C. Spugg, with directions to give defendant
+full time to pay the money or give the new note as above, and if he did
+neither to sue; and then affiant came home to Edgar County, not having the
+slightest suspicion that if suit should be brought, the defendants would
+make any defense whatever; and your Petitioner never did in any way learn
+that said suit had been commenced until more than twenty days after it had
+been decided against him. He therefore prays for a writ of Certiorari.
+
+   HIS
+ JOSHUA x GIPSON
+   MARK
+
+
+
+
+TO J. D. JOHNSTON.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, Aug. 31, 1851
+
+DEAR BROTHER: Inclosed is the deed for the land. We are all well, and
+have nothing in the way of news. We have had no Cholera here for about two
+weeks.
+
+Give my love to all, and especially to Mother.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO J. D. JOHNSTON.
+
+SHELBYVILLE, Nov. 4, 1851
+
+DEAR BROTHER:
+
+When I came into Charleston day before yesterday I learned that you are
+anxious to sell the land where you live, and move to Missouri. I have been
+thinking of this ever since, and cannot but think such a notion is utterly
+foolish. What can you do in Missouri better than here? Is the land richer?
+Can you there, any more than here, raise corn and wheat and oats without
+work? Will anybody there, any more than here, do your work for you? If you
+intend to go to work, there is no better place than right where you
+are; if you do not intend to go to work you cannot get along anywhere.
+Squirming and crawling about from place to place can do no good. You have
+raised no crop this year, and what you really want is to sell the land,
+get the money and spend it. Part with the land you have, and, my life upon
+it, you will never after own a spot big enough to bury you in. Half you
+will get for the land you spend in moving to Missouri, and the other half
+you will eat and drink and wear out, and no foot of land will be bought.
+Now I feel it is my duty to have no hand in such a piece of foolery. I
+feel that it is so even on your own account, and particularly on Mother's
+account. The eastern forty acres I intend to keep for Mother while she
+lives; if you will not cultivate it, it will rent for enough to support
+her; at least it will rent for something. Her dower in the other two
+forties she can let you have, and no thanks to me.
+
+Now do not misunderstand this letter. I do not write it in any unkindness.
+I write it in order, if possible, to get you to face the truth, which
+truth is, you are destitute because you have idled away all your time.
+Your thousand pretenses for not getting along better are all nonsense;
+they deceive nobody but yourself. Go to work is the only cure for your
+case.
+
+A word for Mother: Chapman tells me he wants you to go and live with him.
+If I were you I would try it awhile. If you get tired of it (as I think
+you will not) you can return to your own home. Chapman feels very kindly
+to you; and I have no doubt he will make your situation very pleasant.
+
+Sincerely yours,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+Nov. 4, 1851
+
+DEAR MOTHER:
+
+Chapman tells me he wants you to go and live with him. If I were you I
+would try it awhile. If you get tired of it (as I think you will not) you
+can return to your own home. Chapman feels very kindly to you; and I have
+no doubt he will make your situation very pleasant.
+
+Sincerely your son,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON.
+
+SHELBYVILLE, November 9, 1851
+
+DEAR BROTHER:--When I wrote you before, I had not received your letter.
+I still think as I did, but if the land can be sold so that I get three
+hundred dollars to put to interest for Mother, I will not object, if she
+does not. But before I will make a deed, the money must be had, or secured
+beyond all doubt, at ten per cent.
+
+As to Abram, I do not want him, on my own account; but I understand he
+wants to live with me, so that he can go to school and get a fair start in
+the world, which I very much wish him to have. When I reach home, if I can
+make it convenient to take, I will take him, provided there is no mistake
+between us as to the object and terms of my taking him. In haste, as ever,
+
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, November 25, 1851.
+
+DEAR BROTHER:--Your letter of the 22d is just received. Your proposal
+about selling the east forty acres of land is all that I want or could
+claim for myself; but I am not satisfied with it on Mother's account--I
+want her to have her living, and I feel that it is my duty, to some
+extent, to see that she is not wronged. She had a right of dower (that is,
+the use of one-third for life) in the other two forties; but, it seems,
+she has already let you take that, hook and line. She now has the use of
+the whole of the east forty, as long as she lives; and if it be sold, of
+course she is entitled to the interest on all the money it brings, as long
+as she lives; but you propose to sell it for three hundred dollars, take
+one hundred away with you, and leave her two hundred at 8 per cent.,
+making her the enormous sum of 16 dollars a year. Now, if you are
+satisfied with treating her in that way, I am not. It is true that you are
+to have that forty for two hundred dollars, at Mother's death, but you are
+not to have it before. I am confident that land can be made to produce for
+Mother at least $30 a year, and I can not, to oblige any living person,
+consent that she shall be put on an allowance of sixteen dollars a year.
+
+Yours, etc.,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+1852
+
+
+
+
+EULOGY ON HENRY CLAY,
+
+DELIVERED IN THE STATE HOUSE AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, JULY 16, 1852.
+
+On the fourth day of July, 1776, the people of a few feeble and oppressed
+colonies of Great Britain, inhabiting a portion of the Atlantic coast of
+North America, publicly declared their national independence, and made
+their appeal to the justice of their cause and to the God of battles for
+the maintenance of that declaration. That people were few in number and
+without resources, save only their wise heads and stout hearts. Within the
+first year of that declared independence, and while its maintenance was
+yet problematical, while the bloody struggle between those resolute rebels
+and their haughty would-be masters was still waging,--of undistinguished
+parents and in an obscure district of one of those colonies Henry Clay
+was born. The infant nation and the infant child began the race of life
+together. For three quarters of a century they have travelled hand in
+hand. They have been companions ever. The nation has passed its perils,
+and it is free, prosperous, and powerful. The child has reached his
+manhood, his middle age, his old age, and is dead. In all that has
+concerned the nation the man ever sympathized; and now the nation mourns
+the man.
+
+The day after his death one of the public journals, opposed to him
+politically, held the following pathetic and beautiful language, which I
+adopt partly because such high and exclusive eulogy, originating with a
+political friend, might offend good taste, but chiefly because I could not
+in any language of my own so well express my thoughts:
+
+"Alas, who can realize that Henry Clay is dead! Who can realize that never
+again that majestic form shall rise in the council-chambers of his country
+to beat back the storms of anarchy which may threaten, or pour the oil of
+peace upon the troubled billows as they rage and menace around! Who
+can realize that the workings of that mighty mind have ceased, that the
+throbbings of that gallant heart are stilled, that the mighty sweep of
+that graceful arm will be felt no more, and the magic of that eloquent
+tongue, which spake as spake no other tongue besides, is hushed hushed for
+ever! Who can realize that freedom's champion, the champion of a civilized
+world and of all tongues and kindreds of people, has indeed fallen! Alas,
+in those dark hours of peril and dread which our land has experienced, and
+which she may be called to experience again, to whom now may her people
+look up for that counsel and advice which only wisdom and experience and
+patriotism can give, and which only the undoubting confidence of a nation
+will receive? Perchance in the whole circle of the great and gifted of
+our land there remains but one on whose shoulders the mighty mantle of
+the departed statesman may fall; one who while we now write is doubtless
+pouring his tears over the bier of his brother and friend brother, friend,
+ever, yet in political sentiment as far apart as party could make them.
+Ah, it is at times like these that the petty distinctions of mere party
+disappear. We see only the great, the grand, the noble features of the
+departed statesman; and we do not even beg permission to bow at his
+feet and mingle our tears with those who have ever been his political
+adherents--we do [not] beg this permission, we claim it as a right, though
+we feel it as a privilege. Henry Clay belonged to his country--to the
+world; mere party cannot claim men like him. His career has been national,
+his fame has filled the earth, his memory will endure to the last syllable
+of recorded time.
+
+"Henry Clay is dead! He breathed his last on yesterday, at twenty minutes
+after eleven, in his chamber at Washington. To those who followed his lead
+in public affairs, it more appropriately belongs to pronounce his eulogy
+and pay specific honors to the memory of the illustrious dead. But all
+Americans may show the grief which his death inspires, for his character
+and fame are national property. As on a question of liberty he knew no
+North, no South, no East, no West, but only the Union which held them all
+in its sacred circle, so now his countrymen will know no grief that is not
+as wide-spread as the bounds of the confederacy. The career of Henry Clay
+was a public career. From his youth he has been devoted to the public
+service, at a period, too, in the world's history justly regarded as a
+remarkable era in human affairs. He witnessed in the beginning the throes
+of the French Revolution. He saw the rise and fall of Napoleon. He was
+called upon to legislate for America and direct her policy when all Europe
+was the battlefield of contending dynasties, and when the struggle for
+supremacy imperilled the rights of all neutral nations. His voice spoke
+war and peace in the contest with Great Britain.
+
+"When Greece rose against the Turks and struck for liberty, his name was
+mingled with the battle-cry of freedom. When South America threw off the
+thraldom of Spain, his speeches were read at the head of her armies by
+Bolivar. His name has been, and will continue to be, hallowed in two
+hemispheres, for it is
+
+     "'One of the few, the immortal names
+      That were not born to die!'
+
+"To the ardent patriot and profound statesman he added a quality possessed
+by few of the gifted on earth. His eloquence has not been surpassed. In
+the effective power to move the heart of man, Clay was without an equal,
+and the heaven-born endowment, in the spirit of its origin, has been
+most conspicuously exhibited against intestine feud. On at least three
+important occasions he has quelled our civil commotions by a power and
+influence which belonged to no other statesman of his age and times. And
+in our last internal discord, when this Union trembled to its centre, in
+old age he left the shades of private life, and gave the death-blow to
+fraternal strife, with the vigor of his earlier years, in a series
+of senatorial efforts which in themselves would bring immortality by
+challenging comparison with the efforts of any statesman in any age. He
+exorcised the demon which possessed the body politic, and gave peace to a
+distracted land. Alas! the achievement cost him his life. He sank day by
+day to the tomb his pale but noble brow bound with a triple wreath, put
+there by a grateful country. May his ashes rest in peace, while his spirit
+goes to take its station among the great and good men who preceded him."
+
+While it is customary and proper upon occasions like the present to give
+a brief sketch of the life of the deceased, in the case of Mr. Clay it is
+less necessary than most others; for his biography has been written and
+rewritten and read and reread for the last twenty-five years; so that,
+with the exception of a few of the latest incidents of his life, all is
+as well known as it can be. The short sketch which I give is, therefore,
+merely to maintain the connection of this discourse.
+
+Henry Clay was born on the twelfth day of April, 1777, in Hanover County,
+Virginia. Of his father, who died in the fourth or fifth year of Henry's
+age, little seems to be known, except that he was a respectable man and
+a preacher of the Baptist persuasion. Mr. Clay's education to the end of
+life was comparatively limited. I say "to the end of life," because I
+have understood that from time to time he added something to his education
+during the greater part of his whole life. Mr. Clay's lack of a more
+perfect early education, however it may be regretted generally, teaches
+at least one profitable lesson: it teaches that in this country one
+can scarcely be so poor but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient
+education to get through the world respectably. In his twenty-third
+year Mr. Clay was licensed to practise law, and emigrated to Lexington,
+Kentucky. Here he commenced and continued the practice till the year
+1803, when he was first elected to the Kentucky Legislature. By successive
+elections he was continued in the Legislature till the latter part of
+1806, when he was elected to fill a vacancy of a single session in the
+United States Senate. In 1807 he was again elected to the Kentucky House
+of Representatives, and by that body chosen Speaker. In 1808 he was
+re-elected to the same body. In 1809 he was again chosen to fill a vacancy
+of two years in the United States Senate. In 1811 he was elected to the
+United States House of Representatives, and on the first day of taking his
+seat in that body he was chosen its Speaker. In 1813 he was again elected
+Speaker. Early in 1814, being the period of our last British war, Mr. Clay
+was sent as commissioner, with others, to negotiate a treaty of peace,
+which treaty was concluded in the latter part of the same year. On his
+return from Europe he was again elected to the lower branch of Congress,
+and on taking his seat in December, 1815, was called to his old post-the
+Speaker's chair, a position in which he was retained by successive
+elections, with one brief intermission, till the inauguration of John
+Quincy Adams, in March, 1825. He was then appointed Secretary of State,
+and occupied that important station till the inauguration of General
+Jackson, in March, 1829. After this he returned to Kentucky, resumed the
+practice of law, and continued it till the autumn of 1831, when he was by
+the Legislature of Kentucky again placed in the United States Senate. By
+a reelection he was continued in the Senate till he resigned his seat and
+retired, in March, 1848. In December, 1849, he again took his seat in the
+Senate, which he again resigned only a few months before his death.
+
+By the foregoing it is perceived that the period from the beginning of Mr.
+Clay's official life in 1803 to the end of 1852 is but one year short
+of half a century, and that the sum of all the intervals in it will not
+amount to ten years. But mere duration of time in office constitutes the
+smallest part of Mr. Clay's history. Throughout that long period he has
+constantly been the most loved and most implicitly followed by friends,
+and the most dreaded by opponents, of all living American politicians. In
+all the great questions which have agitated the country, and particularly
+in those fearful crises, the Missouri question, the nullification
+question, and the late slavery question, as connected with the newly
+acquired territory, involving and endangering the stability of the Union,
+his has been the leading and most conspicuous part. In 1824 he was first
+a candidate for the Presidency, and was defeated; and, although he was
+successively defeated for the same office in 1832 and in 1844, there has
+never been a moment since 1824 till after 1848 when a very large portion
+of the American people did not cling to him with an enthusiastic hope and
+purpose of still elevating him to the Presidency. With other men, to
+be defeated was to be forgotten; but with him defeat was but a trifling
+incident, neither changing him nor the world's estimate of him. Even those
+of both political parties who have been preferred to him for the highest
+office have run far briefer courses than he, and left him still shining
+high in the heavens of the political world. Jackson, Van Buren, Harnson,
+Polk, and Taylor all rose after, and set long before him. The spell--the
+long-enduring spell--with which the souls of men were bound to him is a
+miracle. Who can compass it? It is probably true he owed his pre-eminence
+to no one quality, but to a fortunate combination of several. He was
+surpassingly eloquent; but many eloquent men fail utterly, and they are
+not, as a class, generally successful. His judgment was excellent;
+but many men of good judgment live and die unnoticed. His will was
+indomitable; but this quality often secures to its owner nothing better
+than a character for useless obstinacy. These, then, were Mr. Clay's
+leading qualities. No one of them is very uncommon; but all together are
+rarely combined in a single individual, and this is probably the reason
+why such men as Henry Clay are so rare in the world.
+
+Mr. Clay's eloquence did not consist, as many fine specimens of eloquence
+do, of types and figures, of antithesis and elegant arrangement of words
+and sentences, but rather of that deeply earnest and impassioned tone
+and manner which can proceed only from great sincerity, and a thorough
+conviction in the speaker of the justice and importance of his cause. This
+it is that truly touches the chords of sympathy; and those who heard
+Mr. Clay never failed to be moved by it, or ever afterward forgot the
+impression. All his efforts were made for practical effect. He never spoke
+merely to be heard. He never delivered a Fourth of July oration, or a
+eulogy on an occasion like this. As a politician or statesman, no one was
+so habitually careful to avoid all sectional ground. Whatever he did he
+did for the whole country. In the construction of his measures, he
+ever carefully surveyed every part of the field, and duly weighed every
+conflicting interest. Feeling as he did, and as the truth surely is, that
+the world's best hope depended on the continued union of these States,
+he was ever jealous of and watchful for whatever might have the slightest
+tendency to separate them.
+
+Mr. Clay's predominant sentiment, from first to last, was a deep devotion
+to the cause of human liberty--a strong sympathy with the oppressed
+everywhere, and an ardent wish for their elevation. With him this was a
+primary and all-controlling passion. Subsidiary to this was the conduct
+of his whole life. He loved his country partly because it was his own
+country, and mostly because it was a free country; and he burned with a
+zeal for its advancement, prosperity, and glory, because he saw in such
+the advancement, prosperity, and glory of human liberty, human right, and
+human nature. He desired the prosperity of his countrymen, partly because
+they were his countrymen, but chiefly to show to the world that free men
+could be prosperous.
+
+That his views and measures were always the wisest needs not to be
+affirmed; nor should it be on this occasion, where so many thinking
+differently join in doing honor to his memory. A free people in times of
+peace and quiet when pressed by no common danger-naturally divide into
+parties. At such times the man who is of neither party is not, cannot be,
+of any consequence. Mr. Clay therefore was of a party. Taking a prominent
+part, as he did, in all the great political questions of his country for
+the last half century, the wisdom of his course on many is doubted and
+denied by a large portion of his countrymen; and of such it is not now
+proper to speak particularly. But there are many others, about his course
+upon which there is little or no disagreement amongst intelligent and
+patriotic Americans. Of these last are the War of 1812, the Missouri
+question, nullification, and the now recent compromise measures. In 1812
+Mr. Clay, though not unknown, was still a young man. Whether we should
+go to war with Great Britain being the question of the day, a minority
+opposed the declaration of war by Congress, while the majority, though
+apparently inclined to war, had for years wavered, and hesitated to act
+decisively. Meanwhile British aggressions multiplied, and grew more daring
+and aggravated. By Mr. Clay more than any other man the struggle was
+brought to a decision in Congress. The question, being now fully before
+Congress, came up in a variety of ways in rapid succession, on most of
+which occasions Mr. Clay spoke. Adding to all the logic of which the
+subject was susceptible that noble inspiration which came to him as it
+came to no other, he aroused and nerved and inspired his friends, and
+confounded and bore down all opposition. Several of his speeches on these
+occasions were reported and are still extant, but the best of them all
+never was. During its delivery the reporters forgot their vocation,
+dropped their pens, and sat enchanted from near the beginning to quite the
+close. The speech now lives only in the memory of a few old men, and the
+enthusiasm with which they cherish their recollection of it is absolutely
+astonishing. The precise language of this speech we shall never know; but
+we do know we cannot help knowing--that with deep pathos it pleaded the
+cause of the injured sailor, that it invoked the genius of the Revolution,
+that it apostrophized the names of Otis, of Henry, and of Washington, that
+it appealed to the interests, the pride, the honor, and the glory of
+the nation, that it shamed and taunted the timidity of friends, that it
+scorned and scouted and withered the temerity of domestic foes, that
+it bearded and defied the British lion, and, rising and swelling and
+maddening in its course, it sounded the onset, till the charge, the shock,
+the steady struggle, and the glorious victory all passed in vivid review
+before the entranced hearers.
+
+Important and exciting as was the war question of 1812, it never so
+alarmed the sagacious statesmen of the country for the safety of the
+Republic as afterward did the Missouri question. This sprang from
+that unfortunate source of discord--negro slavery. When our Federal
+Constitution was adopted, we owned no territory beyond the limits or
+ownership of the States, except the territory northwest of the River Ohio
+and east of the Mississippi. What has since been formed into the States
+of Maine, Kentucky and Tennessee, was, I believe, within the limits of
+or owned by Massachusetts, Virginia, and North Carolina. As to the
+Northwestern Territory, provision had been made even before the adoption
+of the Constitution that slavery should never go there. On the admission
+of States into the Union, carved from the territory we owned before the
+Constitution, no question, or at most no considerable question, arose
+about slavery--those which were within the limits of or owned by the old
+States following respectively the condition of the parent State, and those
+within the Northwest Territory following the previously made provision.
+But in 1803 we purchased Louisiana of the French, and it included with
+much more what has since been formed into the State of Missouri. With
+regard to it, nothing had been done to forestall the question of slavery.
+When, therefore, in 1819, Missouri, having formed a State constitution
+without excluding slavery, and with slavery already actually existing
+within its limits, knocked at the door of the Union for admission, almost
+the entire representation of the non-slaveholding States objected. A
+fearful and angry struggle instantly followed. This alarmed thinking
+men more than any previous question, because, unlike all the former,
+it divided the country by geographical lines. Other questions had their
+opposing partisans in all localities of the country and in almost every
+family, so that no division of the Union could follow such without a
+separation of friends to quite as great an extent as that of opponents.
+Not so with the Missouri question. On this a geographical line could be
+traced, which in the main would separate opponents only. This was the
+danger. Mr. Jefferson, then in retirement, wrote:
+
+"I had for a long time ceased to read newspapers or to pay any attention
+to public affairs, confident they were in good hands and content to be a
+passenger in our bark to the shore from which I am not distant. But this
+momentous question, like a firebell in the night, awakened and filled
+me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is
+hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final
+sentence. A geographical line coinciding with a marked principle, moral
+and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men,
+will never be obliterated, and every irritation will mark it deeper and
+deeper. I can say with conscious truth that there is not a man on earth
+who would sacrifice more than I would to relieve us from this heavy
+reproach in any practicable way.
+
+"The cession of that kind of property--for it is so misnamed--is a
+bagatelle which would not cost me a second thought if in that way a
+general emancipation and expatriation could be effected, and gradually and
+with due sacrifices I think it might be. But as it is, we have the wolf by
+the ears, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is in
+one scale, and self-preservation in the other."
+
+Mr. Clay was in Congress, and, perceiving the danger, at once engaged his
+whole energies to avert it. It began, as I have said, in 1819; and it did
+not terminate till 1821. Missouri would not yield the point; and Congress
+that is, a majority in Congress--by repeated votes showed a determination
+not to admit the State unless it should yield. After several failures,
+and great labor on the part of Mr. Clay to so present the question that a
+majority could consent to the admission, it was by a vote rejected, and,
+as all seemed to think, finally. A sullen gloom hung over the nation. All
+felt that the rejection of Missouri was equivalent to a dissolution of the
+Union, because those States which already had what Missouri was rejected
+for refusing to relinquish would go with Missouri. All deprecated and
+deplored this, but none saw how to avert it. For the judgment of members
+to be convinced of the necessity of yielding was not the whole difficulty;
+each had a constituency to meet and to answer to. Mr. Clay, though worn
+down and exhausted, was appealed to by members to renew his efforts at
+compromise. He did so, and by some judicious modifications of his plan,
+coupled with laborious efforts with individual members and his own
+overmastering eloquence upon that floor, he finally secured the admission
+of the State. Brightly and captivating as it had previously shown, it was
+now perceived that his great eloquence was a mere embellishment, or at
+most but a helping hand to his inventive genius and his devotion to his
+country in the day of her extreme peril.
+
+After the settlement of the Missouri question, although a portion of the
+American people have differed with Mr. Clay, and a majority even
+appear generally to have been opposed to him on questions of ordinary
+administration, he seems constantly to have been regarded by all as the
+man for the crisis. Accordingly, in the days of nullification, and more
+recently in the reappearance of the slavery question connected with
+our territory newly acquired of Mexico, the task of devising a mode of
+adjustment seems to have been cast upon Mr. Clay by common consent--and
+his performance of the task in each case was little else than a literal
+fulfilment of the public expectation.
+
+Mr. Clay's efforts in behalf of the South Americans, and afterward in
+behalf of the Greeks, in the times of their respective struggles for civil
+liberty, are among the finest on record, upon the noblest of all themes,
+and bear ample corroboration of what I have said was his ruling passion--a
+love of liberty and right, unselfishly, and for their own sakes.
+
+Having been led to allude to domestic slavery so frequently already, I am
+unwilling to close without referring more particularly to Mr. Clay's
+views and conduct in regard to it. He ever was on principle and in feeling
+opposed to slavery. The very earliest, and one of the latest, public
+efforts of his life, separated by a period of more than fifty years, were
+both made in favor of gradual emancipation. He did not perceive that on
+a question of human right the negroes were to be excepted from the human
+race. And yet Mr. Clay was the owner of slaves. Cast into life when
+slavery was already widely spread and deeply seated, he did not perceive,
+as I think no wise man has perceived, how it could be at once eradicated
+without producing a greater evil even to the cause of human liberty
+itself. His feeling and his judgment, therefore, ever led him to oppose
+both extremes of opinion on the subject. Those who would shiver into
+fragments the Union of these States, tear to tatters its now venerated
+Constitution, and even burn the last copy of the Bible, rather than
+slavery should continue a single hour, together with all their more
+halting sympathizers, have received, and are receiving, their just
+execration; and the name and opinions and influence of Mr. Clay are fully
+and, as I trust, effectually and enduringly arrayed against them. But I
+would also, if I could, array his name, opinions, and influence against
+the opposite extreme--against a few but an increasing number of men who,
+for the sake of perpetuating slavery, are beginning to assail and to
+ridicule the white man's charter of freedom, the declaration that "all men
+are created free and equal." So far as I have learned, the first American
+of any note to do or attempt this was the late John C. Calhoun; and if I
+mistake not, it soon after found its way into some of the messages of the
+Governor of South Carolina. We, however, look for and are not much shocked
+by political eccentricities and heresies in South Carolina. But only
+last year I saw with astonishment what purported to be a letter of a very
+distinguished and influential clergyman of Virginia, copied, with apparent
+approbation, into a St. Louis newspaper, containing the following to me
+very unsatisfactory language:
+
+"I am fully aware that there is a text in some Bibles that is not in mine.
+Professional abolitionists have made more use of it than of any passage in
+the Bible. It came, however, as I trace it, from Saint Voltaire, and was
+baptized by Thomas Jefferson, and since almost universally regarded as
+canonical authority`All men are born free and equal.'
+
+"This is a genuine coin in the political currency of our generation. I am
+sorry to say that I have never seen two men of whom it is true. But I must
+admit I never saw the Siamese Twins, and therefore will not dogmatically
+say that no man ever saw a proof of this sage aphorism."
+
+This sounds strangely in republican America. The like was not heard in the
+fresher days of the republic. Let us contrast with it the language of that
+truly national man whose life and death we now commemorate and lament: I
+quote from a speech of Mr. Clay delivered before the American Colonization
+Society in 1827:
+
+"We are reproached with doing mischief by the agitation of this question.
+The society goes into no household to disturb its domestic tranquillity.
+It addresses itself to no slaves to weaken their obligations of obedience.
+It seeks to affect no man's property. It neither has the power nor the
+will to affect the property of any one contrary to his consent. The
+execution of its scheme would augment instead of diminishing the value of
+property left behind. The society, composed of free men, conceals itself
+only with the free. Collateral consequences we are not responsible for.
+It is not this society which has produced the great moral revolution which
+the age exhibits. What would they who thus reproach us have done? If they
+would repress all tendencies toward liberty and ultimate emancipation,
+they must do more than put down the benevolent efforts of this society.
+They must go back to the era of our liberty and independence, and muzzle
+the cannon which thunders its annual joyous return. They must renew the
+slave trade, with all its train of atrocities. They must suppress the
+workings of British philanthropy, seeking to meliorate the condition of
+the unfortunate West Indian slave. They must arrest the career of South
+American deliverance from thraldom. They must blow out the moral lights
+around us and extinguish that greatest torch of all which America presents
+to a benighted world--pointing the way to their rights, their liberties,
+and their happiness. And when they have achieved all those purposes their
+work will be yet incomplete. They must penetrate the human soul, and
+eradicate the light of reason and the love of liberty. Then, and not till
+then, when universal darkness and despair prevail, can you perpetuate
+slavery and repress all sympathy and all humane and benevolent efforts
+among free men in behalf of the unhappy portion of our race doomed to
+bondage."
+
+The American Colonization Society was organized in 1816. Mr. Clay, though
+not its projector, was one of its earliest members; and he died, as for
+many preceding years he had been, its president. It was one of the
+most cherished objects of his direct care and consideration, and the
+association of his name with it has probably been its very greatest
+collateral support. He considered it no demerit in the society that it
+tended to relieve the slave-holders from the troublesome presence of
+the free negroes; but this was far from being its whole merit in his
+estimation. In the same speech from which we have quoted he says:
+
+"There is a moral fitness in the idea of returning to Africa her children,
+whose ancestors have been torn from her by the ruthless hand of fraud and
+violence. Transplanted in a foreign land, they will carry back to their
+native soil the rich fruits of religion, civilization, law, and liberty.
+May it not be one of the great designs of the Ruler of the universe, whose
+ways are often inscrutable by short-sighted mortals, thus to transform an
+original crime into a signal blessing to that most unfortunate portion of
+the globe?"
+
+This suggestion of the possible ultimate redemption of the African race
+and African continent was made twenty-five years ago. Every succeeding
+year has added strength to the hope of its realization. May it indeed be
+realized. Pharaoh's country was cursed with plagues, and his hosts were
+lost in the Red Sea, for striving to retain a captive people who had
+already served them more than four hundred years. May like disasters never
+befall us! If, as the friends of colonization hope, the present and coming
+generations of our countrymen shall by any means succeed in freeing our
+land from the dangerous presence of slavery, and at the same time in
+restoring a captive people to their long-lost fatherland with bright
+prospects for the future, and this too so gradually that neither races
+nor individuals shall have suffered by the change, it will indeed be a
+glorious consummation. And if to such a consummation the efforts of Mr.
+Clay shall have contributed, it will be what he most ardently wished, and
+none of his labors will have been more valuable to his country and his
+kind.
+
+But Henry Clay is dead. His long and eventful life is closed. Our country
+is prosperous and powerful; but could it have been quite all it has
+been, and is, and is to be, without Henry Clay? Such a man the times have
+demanded, and such in the providence of God was given us. But he is gone.
+Let us strive to deserve, as far as mortals may, the continued care of
+Divine Providence, trusting that in future national emergencies He will
+not fail to provide us the instruments of safety and security.
+
+NOTE. We are indebted for a copy of this speech to the courtesy of Major
+Wm. H. Bailhache, formerly one of the proprietors of the Illinois State
+Journal.
+
+
+
+
+CHALLENGED VOTERS
+
+OPINION ON THE ILLINOIS ELECTION LAW.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, November 1, 1852
+
+A leading article in the Daily Register of this morning has induced some
+of our friends to request our opinion on the election laws as applicable
+to challenged voters. We have examined the present constitution of the
+State, the election law of 1849, and the unrepealed parts of the election
+law in the revised code of 1845; and we are of the opinion that any person
+taking the oath prescribed in the act of 1849 is entitled to vote unless
+counter-proof be made satisfactory to a majority of the judges that such
+oath is untrue; and that for the purpose of obtaining such counter-proof,
+the proposed voter may be asked questions in the way of cross-examination,
+and other independent testimony may be received. We base our opinion as
+to receiving counter-proof upon the unrepealed Section nineteen of the
+election law in the revised code.
+
+
+   A. LINCOLN,
+   B. S. EDWARDS
+   S. T. LOGAN.
+   S. H. TREAT
+
+
+
+
+1853
+
+
+
+
+LEGAL OFFICE WORK
+
+
+
+
+TO JOSHUA R. STANFORD.
+
+PEKIN, MAY 12, 1853
+
+Mr. JOSHUA R. STANFORD.
+
+SIR:--I hope the subject-matter of this letter will appear a sufficient
+apology to you for the liberty I, a total stranger, take in addressing
+you. The persons here holding two lots under a conveyance made by you, as
+the attorney of Daniel M. Baily, now nearly twenty-two years ago, are in
+great danger of losing the lots, and very much, perhaps all, is to depend
+on the testimony you give as to whether you did or did not account to
+Baily for the proceeds received by you on this sale of the lots. I,
+therefore, as one of the counsel, beg of you to fully refresh your
+recollection by any means in your power before the time you may be called
+on to testify. If persons should come about you, and show a disposition to
+pump you on the subject, it may be no more than prudent to remember that
+it may be possible they design to misrepresent you and embarrass the real
+testimony you may ultimately give. It may be six months or a year before
+you are called on to testify.
+
+Respectfully,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+1854
+
+TO O. L. DAVIS.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, June 22, 1854.
+
+O. L. DAVIS, ESQ.
+
+DEAR SIR:--You, no doubt, remember the enclosed memorandum being handed me
+in your office. I have just made the desired search, and find that no such
+deed has ever been here. Campbell, the auditor, says that if it were here,
+it would be in his office, and that he has hunted for it a dozen times,
+and could never find it. He says that one time and another, he has heard
+much about the matter, that it was not a deed for Right of Way, but a
+deed, outright, for Depot-ground--at least, a sale for Depot-ground, and
+there may never have been a deed. He says, if there is a deed, it is most
+probable General Alexander, of Paris, has it.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+NEBRASKA MEASURE
+
+TO J. M. PALMER
+
+[Confidential]
+
+SPRINGFIELD, Sept. 7, 1854.
+
+HON. J. M. PALMER.
+
+DEAR SIR:--You know how anxious I am that this Nebraska measure shall be
+rebuked and condemned everywhere. Of course I hope something from your
+position; yet I do not expect you to do anything which may be wrong in
+your own judgment; nor would I have you do anything personally injurious
+to yourself. You are, and always have been, honestly and sincerely a
+Democrat; and I know how painful it must be to an honest, sincere man to
+be urged by his party to the support of a measure which in his conscience
+he believes to be wrong. You have had a severe struggle with yourself, and
+you have determined not to swallow the wrong. Is it not just to yourself
+that you should, in a few public speeches, state your reasons, and thus
+justify yourself? I wish you would; and yet I say, don't do it, if you
+think it will injure you. You may have given your word to vote for Major
+Harris; and if so, of course you will stick to it. But allow me to suggest
+that you should avoid speaking of this; for it probably would induce some
+of your friends in like manner to cast their votes. You understand. And
+now let me beg your pardon for obtruding this letter upon you, to whom
+I have ever been opposed in politics. Had your party omitted to make
+Nebraska a test of party fidelity, you probably would have been the
+Democratic candidate for Congress in the district. You deserved it, and
+I believe it would have been given you. In that case I should have been
+quite happy that Nebraska was to be rebuked at all events. I still should
+have voted for the Whig candidate; but I should have made no speeches,
+written no letters; and you would have been elected by at least a thousand
+majority.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO A. B. MOREAU.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, September 7, 1854
+
+A. B. MOREAU, ESQ.
+
+SIR:--Stranger though I am, personally, being a brother in the faith, I
+venture to write you. Yates can not come to your court next week. He
+is obliged to be at Pike court where he has a case, with a fee of five
+hundred dollars, two hundred dollars already paid. To neglect it would be
+unjust to himself, and dishonest to his client. Harris will be with you,
+head up and tail up, for Nebraska. You must have some one to make an
+anti-Nebraska speech. Palmer is the best, if you can get him, I think. Jo.
+Gillespie, if you can not get Palmer, and somebody anyhow, if you can
+get neither. But press Palmer hard. It is in his Senatorial district, I
+believe.
+
+Yours etc.,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+REPLY TO SENATOR DOUGLAS--PEORIA SPEECH
+
+SPEECH AT PEORIA, ILLINOIS, IN REPLY TO SENATOR DOUGLAS,
+
+OCTOBER 16, 1854.
+
+I do not rise to speak now, if I can stipulate with the audience to meet
+me here at half-past six or at seven o'clock. It is now several minutes
+past five, and Judge Douglas has spoken over three hours. If you hear me
+at all, I wish you to hear me through. It will take me as long as it has
+taken him. That will carry us beyond eight o'clock at night. Now, every
+one of you who can remain that long can just as well get his supper,
+meet me at seven, and remain an hour or two later. The Judge has already
+informed you that he is to have an hour to reply to me. I doubt not but
+you have been a little surprised to learn that I have consented to give
+one of his high reputation and known ability this advantage of me. Indeed,
+my consenting to it, though reluctant, was not wholly unselfish, for I
+suspected, if it were understood that the Judge was entirely done, you
+Democrats would leave and not hear me; but by giving him the close, I felt
+confident you would stay for the fun of hearing him skin me.
+
+The audience signified their assent to the arrangement, and adjourned to
+seven o'clock P.M., at which time they reassembled, and Mr. Lincoln spoke
+substantially as follows:
+
+The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the propriety of its
+restoration, constitute the subject of what I am about to say. As I desire
+to present my own connected view of this subject, my remarks will not
+be specifically an answer to Judge Douglas; yet, as I proceed, the main
+points he has presented will arise, and will receive such respectful
+attention as I may be able to give them. I wish further to say that I do
+not propose to question the patriotism or to assail the motives of any man
+or class of men, but rather to confine myself strictly to the naked
+merits of the question. I also wish to be no less than national in all
+the positions I may take, and whenever I take ground which others have
+thought, or may think, narrow, sectional, and dangerous to the Union, I
+hope to give a reason which will appear sufficient, at least to some, why
+I think differently.
+
+And as this subject is no other than part and parcel of the larger general
+question of domestic slavery, I wish to make and to keep the distinction
+between the existing institution and the extension of it so broad and
+so clear that no honest man can misunderstand me, and no dishonest one
+successfully misrepresent me.
+
+In order to a clear understanding of what the Missouri Compromise is, a
+short history of the preceding kindred subjects will perhaps be proper.
+
+When we established our independence, we did not own or claim the
+country to which this compromise applies. Indeed, strictly speaking, the
+Confederacy then owned no country at all; the States respectively owned
+the country within their limits, and some of them owned territory
+beyond their strict State limits. Virginia thus owned the Northwestern
+Territory--the country out of which the principal part of Ohio, all
+Indiana, all Illinois, all Michigan, and all Wisconsin have since been
+formed. She also owned (perhaps within her then limits) what has since
+been formed into the State of Kentucky. North Carolina thus owned what
+is now the State of Tennessee; and South Carolina and Georgia owned,
+in separate parts, what are now Mississippi and Alabama. Connecticut, I
+think, owned the little remaining part of Ohio, being the same where they
+now send Giddings to Congress and beat all creation in making cheese.
+
+These territories, together with the States themselves, constitute all the
+country over which the Confederacy then claimed any sort of jurisdiction.
+We were then living under the Articles of Confederation, which were
+superseded by the Constitution several years afterward. The question of
+ceding the territories to the General Government was set on foot. Mr.
+Jefferson,--the author of the Declaration of Independence, and otherwise
+a chief actor in the Revolution; then a delegate in Congress; afterward,
+twice President; who was, is, and perhaps will continue to be, the
+most distinguished politician of our history; a Virginian by birth and
+continued residence, and withal a slaveholder,--conceived the idea of
+taking that occasion to prevent slavery ever going into the Northwestern
+Territory. He prevailed on the Virginia Legislature to adopt his views,
+and to cede the Territory, making the prohibition of slavery therein
+a condition of the deed. (Jefferson got only an understanding, not a
+condition of the deed to this wish.) Congress accepted the cession with
+the condition; and the first ordinance (which the acts of Congress were
+then called) for the government of the Territory provided that slavery
+should never be permitted therein. This is the famed "Ordinance of '87,"
+so often spoken of.
+
+Thenceforward for sixty-one years, and until, in 1848, the last scrap of
+this Territory came into the Union as the State of Wisconsin, all parties
+acted in quiet obedience to this ordinance. It is now what Jefferson
+foresaw and intended--the happy home of teeming millions of free, white,
+prosperous people, and no slave among them.
+
+Thus, with the author of the Declaration of Independence, the policy of
+prohibiting slavery in new territory originated. Thus, away back to the
+Constitution, in the pure, fresh, free breath of the Revolution, the State
+of Virginia and the national Congress put that policy into practice. Thus,
+through more than sixty of the best years of the republic, did that policy
+steadily work to its great and beneficent end. And thus, in those five
+States, and in five millions of free, enterprising people, we have before
+us the rich fruits of this policy.
+
+But now new light breaks upon us. Now Congress declares this ought never
+to have been, and the like of it must never be again. The sacred right of
+self-government is grossly violated by it. We even find some men who drew
+their first breath--and every other breath of their lives--under this very
+restriction, now live in dread of absolute suffocation if they should
+be restricted in the "sacred right" of taking slaves to Nebraska. That
+perfect liberty they sigh for--the liberty of making slaves of other
+people, Jefferson never thought of, their own fathers never thought of,
+they never thought of themselves, a year ago. How fortunate for them they
+did not sooner become sensible of their great misery! Oh, how difficult it
+is to treat with respect such assaults upon all we have ever really held
+sacred!
+
+But to return to history. In 1803 we purchased what was then called
+Louisiana, of France. It included the present States of Louisiana,
+Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa; also the Territory of Minnesota, and the
+present bone of contention, Kansas and Nebraska. Slavery already existed
+among the French at New Orleans, and to some extent at St. Louis. In 1812
+Louisiana came into the Union as a slave State, without controversy. In
+1818 or '19, Missouri showed signs of a wish to come in with slavery. This
+was resisted by Northern members of Congress; and thus began the first
+great slavery agitation in the nation. This controversy lasted several
+months, and became very angry and exciting--the House of Representatives
+voting steadily for the prohibition of slavery in Missouri, and the Senate
+voting as steadily against it. Threats of the breaking up of the Union
+were freely made, and the ablest public men of the day became seriously
+alarmed. At length a compromise was made, in which, as in all compromises,
+both sides yielded something. It was a law, passed on the 6th of March,
+1820, providing that Missouri might come into the Union with slavery, but
+that in all the remaining part of the territory purchased of France
+which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude,
+slavery should never be permitted. This provision of law is the "Missouri
+Compromise." In excluding slavery north of the line, the same language
+is employed as in the Ordinance of 1787. It directly applied to Iowa,
+Minnesota, and to the present bone of contention, Kansas and Nebraska.
+Whether there should or should not be slavery south of that line, nothing
+was said in the law. But Arkansas constituted the principal remaining
+part south of the line; and it has since been admitted as a slave State,
+without serious controversy. More recently, Iowa, north of the line, came
+in as a free State without controversy. Still later, Minnesota, north
+of the line, had a territorial organization without controversy. Texas,
+principally south of the line, and west of Arkansas, though originally
+within the purchase from France, had, in 1819, been traded off to Spain
+in our treaty for the acquisition of Florida. It had thus become a part
+of Mexico. Mexico revolutionized and became independent of Spain. American
+citizens began settling rapidly with their slaves in the southern part
+of Texas. Soon they revolutionized against Mexico, and established an
+independent government of their own, adopting a constitution with slavery,
+strongly resembling the constitutions of our slave States. By still
+another rapid move, Texas, claiming a boundary much farther west than when
+we parted with her in 1819, was brought back to the United States, and
+admitted into the Union as a slave State. Then there was little or no
+settlement in the northern part of Texas, a considerable portion of which
+lay north of the Missouri line; and in the resolutions admitting her into
+the Union, the Missouri restriction was expressly extended westward across
+her territory. This was in 1845, only nine years ago.
+
+Thus originated the Missouri Compromise; and thus has it been respected
+down to 1845. And even four years later, in 1849, our distinguished
+Senator, in a public address, held the following language in relation to
+it:
+
+"The Missouri Compromise has been in practical operation for about a
+quarter of a century, and has received the sanction and approbation of men
+of all parties in every section of the Union. It has allayed all sectional
+jealousies and irritations growing out of this vexed question, and
+harmonized and tranquillized the whole country. It has given to Henry
+Clay, as its prominent champion, the proud sobriquet of the 'Great
+Pacificator,' and by that title, and for that service, his political
+friends had repeatedly appealed to the people to rally under his standard
+as a Presidential candidate, as the man who had exhibited the patriotism
+and power to suppress an unholy and treasonable agitation, and preserve
+the Union. He was not aware that any man or any party, from any section
+of the Union, had ever urged as an objection to Mr. Clay that he was the
+great champion of the Missouri Compromise. On the contrary, the effort was
+made by the opponents of Mr. Clay to prove that he was not entitled to the
+exclusive merit of that great patriotic measure, and that the honor was
+equally due to others, as well as to him, for securing its adoption;
+that it had its origin in the hearts of all patriotic men, who desired
+to preserve and perpetuate the blessings of our glorious Union--an origin
+akin to that of the Constitution of the United States, conceived in the
+same spirit of fraternal affection, and calculated to remove forever the
+only danger which seemed to threaten, at some distant day, to sever the
+social bond of union. All the evidences of public opinion at that day
+seemed to indicate that this compromise had been canonized in the hearts
+of the American people, as a sacred thing which no ruthless hand would
+ever be reckless enough to disturb."
+
+I do not read this extract to involve Judge Douglas in an inconsistency.
+If he afterward thought he had been wrong, it was right for him to change.
+I bring this forward merely to show the high estimate placed on the
+Missouri Compromise by all parties up to so late as the year 1849.
+
+But going back a little in point of time. Our war with Mexico broke out
+in 1846. When Congress was about adjourning that session, President Polk
+asked them to place two millions of dollars under his control, to be used
+by him in the recess, if found practicable and expedient, in negotiating
+a treaty of peace with Mexico, and acquiring some part of her territory. A
+bill was duly gotten up for the purpose, and was progressing swimmingly in
+the House of Representatives, when a member by the name of David Wilmot, a
+Democrat from Pennsylvania, moved as an amendment, "Provided, that in any
+territory thus acquired there never shall be slavery."
+
+This is the origin of the far-famed Wilmot Proviso. It created a great
+flutter; but it stuck like wax, was voted into the bill, and the bill
+passed with it through the House. The Senate, however, adjourned without
+final action on it, and so both appropriation and proviso were lost for
+the time. The war continued, and at the next session the President renewed
+his request for the appropriation, enlarging the amount, I think, to
+three millions. Again came the proviso, and defeated the measure. Congress
+adjourned again, and the war went on. In December, 1847, the new Congress
+assembled. I was in the lower House that term. The Wilmot Proviso, or the
+principle of it, was constantly coming up in some shape or other, and I
+think I may venture to say I voted for it at least forty times during
+the short time I was there. The Senate, however, held it in check, and it
+never became a law. In the spring of 1848 a treaty of peace was made
+with Mexico, by which we obtained that portion of her country which now
+constitutes the Territories of New Mexico and Utah and the present State
+of California. By this treaty the Wilmot Proviso was defeated, in so far
+as it was intended to be a condition of the acquisition of territory.
+Its friends, however, were still determined to find some way to restrain
+slavery from getting into the new country. This new acquisition lay
+directly west of our old purchase from France, and extended west to the
+Pacific Ocean, and was so situated that if the Missouri line should be
+extended straight west, the new country would be divided by such extended
+line, leaving some north and some south of it. On Judge Douglas's motion,
+a bill, or provision of a bill, passed the Senate to so extend the
+Missouri line. The proviso men in the House, including myself, voted it
+down, because, by implication, it gave up the southern part to slavery,
+while we were bent on having it all free.
+
+In the fall of 1848 the gold-mines were discovered in California. This
+attracted people to it with unprecedented rapidity, so that on, or soon
+after, the meeting of the new Congress in December, 1849, she already had
+a population of nearly a hundred thousand, had called a convention, formed
+a State constitution excluding slavery, and was knocking for admission
+into the Union. The proviso men, of course, were for letting her in,
+but the Senate, always true to the other side, would not consent to her
+admission, and there California stood, kept out of the Union because
+she would not let slavery into her borders. Under all the circumstances,
+perhaps, this was not wrong. There were other points of dispute connected
+with the general question of Slavery, which equally needed adjustment. The
+South clamored for a more efficient fugitive slave law. The North clamored
+for the abolition of a peculiar species of slave trade in the District
+of Columbia, in connection with which, in view from the windows of the
+Capitol, a sort of negro livery-stable, where droves of negroes were
+collected, temporarily kept, and finally taken to Southern markets,
+precisely like droves of horses, had been openly maintained for fifty
+years. Utah and New Mexico needed territorial governments; and whether
+slavery should or should not be prohibited within them was another
+question. The indefinite western boundary of Texas was to be settled. She
+was a slave State, and consequently the farther west the slavery men could
+push her boundary, the more slave country they secured; and the farther
+east the slavery opponents could thrust the boundary back, the less slave
+ground was secured. Thus this was just as clearly a slavery question as
+any of the others.
+
+These points all needed adjustment, and they were held up, perhaps wisely,
+to make them help adjust one another. The Union now, as in 1820, was
+thought to be in danger, and devotion to the Union rightfully inclined
+men to yield somewhat in points where nothing else could have so inclined
+them. A compromise was finally effected. The South got their new fugitive
+slave law, and the North got California, (by far the best part of our
+acquisition from Mexico) as a free State. The South got a provision that
+New Mexico and Utah, when admitted as States, may come in with or without
+slavery as they may then choose; and the North got the slave trade
+abolished in the District of Columbia.. The North got the western boundary
+of Texas thrown farther back eastward than the South desired; but, in
+turn, they gave Texas ten millions of dollars with which to pay her old
+debts. This is the Compromise of 1850.
+
+Preceding the Presidential election of 1852, each of the great political
+parties, Democrats and Whigs, met in convention and adopted resolutions
+indorsing the Compromise of '50, as a "finality," a final settlement, so
+far as these parties could make it so, of all slavery agitation. Previous
+to this, in 1851, the Illinois Legislature had indorsed it.
+
+During this long period of time, Nebraska (the Nebraska Territory, not
+the State of as we know it now) had remained substantially an uninhabited
+country, but now emigration to and settlement within it began to take
+place. It is about one third as large as the present United States,
+and its importance, so long overlooked, begins to come into view. The
+restriction of slavery by the Missouri Compromise directly applies to
+it--in fact was first made, and has since been maintained expressly for
+it. In 1853, a bill to give it a territorial government passed the House
+of Representatives, and, in the hands of Judge Douglas, failed of passing
+only for want of time. This bill contained no repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise. Indeed, when it was assailed because it did not contain such
+repeal, Judge Douglas defended it in its existing form. On January 4,
+1854, Judge Douglas introduces a new bill to give Nebraska territorial
+government. He accompanies this bill with a report, in which last he
+expressly recommends that the Missouri Compromise shall neither be
+affirmed nor repealed. Before long the bill is so modified as to make two
+territories instead of one, calling the southern one Kansas.
+
+Also, about a month after the introduction of the bill, on the Judge's own
+motion it is so amended as to declare the Missouri Compromise inoperative
+and void; and, substantially, that the people who go and settle there may
+establish slavery, or exclude it, as they may see fit. In this shape the
+bill passed both branches of Congress and became a law.
+
+This is the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The foregoing history
+may not be precisely accurate in every particular, but I am sure it is
+sufficiently so for all the use I shall attempt to make of it, and in
+it we have before us the chief material enabling us to judge correctly
+whether the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is right or wrong. I think,
+and shall try to show, that it is wrong--wrong in its direct effect,
+letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska, and wrong in its prospective
+principle, allowing it to spread to every other part of the wide world
+where men can be found inclined to take it.
+
+This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert real zeal,
+for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the
+monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our
+republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies
+of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites; causes
+the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; and especially because
+it forces so many good men among ourselves into an open war with the very
+fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticizing the Declaration of
+Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but
+self-interest.
+
+Before proceeding let me say that I think I have no prejudice against the
+Southern people. They are just what we would be in their situation. If
+slavery did not now exist among them, they would not introduce it. If it
+did now exist among us, we should not instantly give it up. This I believe
+of the masses North and South. Doubtless there are individuals on both
+sides who would not hold slaves under any circumstances, and others who
+would gladly introduce slavery anew if it were out of existence. We know
+that some Southern men do free their slaves, go North and become tip-top
+abolitionists, while some Northern ones go South and become most cruel
+slave masters.
+
+When Southern people tell us that they are no more responsible for the
+origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said
+that the institution exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid of
+it in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I
+surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do
+myself. If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do
+as to the existing institution. My first impulse would be to free all the
+slaves, and send them to Liberia, to their own native land. But a moment's
+reflection would convince me that whatever of high hope (as I think
+there is) there may be in this in the long run, its sudden execution is
+impossible. If they were all landed there in a day, they would all perish
+in the next ten days; and there are not surplus shipping and surplus money
+enough to carry them there in many times ten days. What then? Free them
+all, and keep them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain that this
+betters their condition? I think I would not hold one in slavery at any
+rate, yet the point is not clear enough for me to denounce people upon.
+What next? Free them, and make them politically and socially our equals?
+My own feelings will not admit of this, and if mine would, we well know
+that those of the great mass of whites will not. Whether this feeling
+accords with justice and sound judgment is not the sole question, if
+indeed it is any part of it. A universal feeling, whether well or ill
+founded, cannot be safely disregarded. We cannot then make them equals. It
+does seem to me that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted, but
+for their tardiness in this I will not undertake to judge our brethren of
+the South.
+
+When they remind us of their constitutional rights, I acknowledge
+them--not grudgingly, but fully and fairly; and I would give them any
+legislation for the reclaiming of their fugitives which should not in
+its stringency be more likely to carry a free man into slavery than our
+ordinary criminal laws are to hang an innocent one.
+
+But all this, to my judgment, furnishes no more excuse for permitting
+slavery to go into our own free territory than it would for reviving the
+African slave trade by law. The law which forbids the bringing of slaves
+from Africa, and that which has so long forbidden the taking of them
+into Nebraska, can hardy be distinguished on any moral principle, and the
+repeal of the former could find quite as plausible excuses as that of the
+latter.
+
+The arguments by which the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is sought to
+be justified are these:
+
+First. That the Nebraska country needed a territorial government.
+
+Second. That in various ways the public had repudiated that compromise and
+demanded the repeal, and therefore should not now complain of it.
+
+ And, lastly, That the repeal establishes a principle which is
+intrinsically right.
+
+I will attempt an answer to each of them in its turn.
+
+First, then: If that country was in need of a territorial organization,
+could it not have had it as well without as with a repeal? Iowa and
+Minnesota, to both of which the Missouri restriction applied, had, without
+its repeal, each in succession, territorial organizations. And even the
+year before, a bill for Nebraska itself was within an ace of passing
+without the repealing clause, and this in the hands of the same men who
+are now the champions of repeal. Why no necessity then for repeal? But
+still later, when this very bill was first brought in, it contained
+no repeal. But, say they, because the people had demanded, or rather
+commanded, the repeal, the repeal was to accompany the organization
+whenever that should occur.
+
+Now, I deny that the public ever demanded any such thing--ever repudiated
+the Missouri Compromise, ever commanded its repeal. I deny it, and call
+for the proof. It is not contended, I believe, that any such command has
+ever been given in express terms. It is only said that it was done in
+principle. The support of the Wilmot Proviso is the first fact mentioned
+to prove that the Missouri restriction was repudiated in principle, and
+the second is the refusal to extend the Missouri line over the country
+acquired from Mexico. These are near enough alike to be treated together.
+The one was to exclude the chances of slavery from the whole new
+acquisition by the lump, and the other was to reject a division of it, by
+which one half was to be given up to those chances. Now, whether this was
+a repudiation of the Missouri line in principle depends upon whether the
+Missouri law contained any principle requiring the line to be extended
+over the country acquired from Mexico. I contend it did not. I insist
+that it contained no general principle, but that it was, in every sense,
+specific. That its terms limit it to the country purchased from France is
+undenied and undeniable. It could have no principle beyond the intention
+of those who made it. They did not intend to extend the line to country
+which they did not own. If they intended to extend it in the event of
+acquiring additional territory, why did they not say so? It was just as
+easy to say that "in all the country west of the Mississippi which we now
+own, or may hereafter acquire, there shall never be slavery," as to say
+what they did say; and they would have said it if they had meant it. An
+intention to extend the law is not only not mentioned in the law, but is
+not mentioned in any contemporaneous history. Both the law itself, and the
+history of the times, are a blank as to any principle of extension; and
+by neither the known rules of construing statutes and contracts, nor by
+common sense, can any such principle be inferred.
+
+Another fact showing the specific character of the Missouri law--showing
+that it intended no more than it expressed, showing that the line was not
+intended as a universal dividing line between Free and Slave territory,
+present and prospective, north of which slavery could never go--is the
+fact that by that very law Missouri came in as a slave State, north of the
+line. If that law contained any prospective principle, the whole law must
+be looked to in order to ascertain what the principle was. And by this
+rule the South could fairly contend that, inasmuch as they got one slave
+State north of the line at the inception of the law, they have the right
+to have another given them north of it occasionally, now and then, in the
+indefinite westward extension of the line. This demonstrates the absurdity
+of attempting to deduce a prospective principle from the Missouri
+Compromise line.
+
+When we voted for the Wilmot Proviso we were voting to keep slavery out
+of the whole Mexican acquisition, and little did we think we were thereby
+voting to let it into Nebraska lying several hundred miles distant. When
+we voted against extending the Missouri line, little did we think we were
+voting to destroy the old line, then of near thirty years' standing.
+
+To argue that we thus repudiated the Missouri Compromise is no less absurd
+than it would be to argue that because we have so far forborne to acquire
+Cuba, we have thereby, in principle, repudiated our former acquisitions
+and determined to throw them out of the Union. No less absurd than it
+would be to say that because I may have refused to build an addition to
+my house, I thereby have decided to destroy the existing house! And if
+I catch you setting fire to my house, you will turn upon me and say I
+instructed you to do it!
+
+The most conclusive argument, however, that while for the Wilmot Proviso,
+and while voting against the extension of the Missouri line, we never
+thought of disturbing the original Missouri Compromise, is found in the
+fact that there was then, and still is, an unorganized tract of fine
+country, nearly as large as the State of Missouri, lying immediately west
+of Arkansas and south of the Missouri Compromise line, and that we never
+attempted to prohibit slavery as to it. I wish particular attention to
+this. It adjoins the original Missouri Compromise line by its northern
+boundary, and consequently is part of the country into which by
+implication slavery was permitted to go by that compromise. There it has
+lain open ever s, and there it still lies, and yet no effort has been made
+at any time to wrest it from the South. In all our struggles to prohibit
+slavery within our Mexican acquisitions, we never so much as lifted a
+finger to prohibit it as to this tract. Is not this entirely conclusive
+that at all times we have held the Missouri Compromise as a sacred thing,
+even when against ourselves as well as when for us?
+
+Senator Douglas sometimes says the Missouri line itself was in principle
+only an extension of the line of the Ordinance of '87--that is to say, an
+extension of the Ohio River. I think this is weak enough on its face. I
+will remark, however, that, as a glance at the map will show, the Missouri
+line is a long way farther south than the Ohio, and that if our Senator in
+proposing his extension had stuck to the principle of jogging southward,
+perhaps it might not have been voted down so readily.
+
+But next it is said that the compromises of '50, and the ratification of
+them by both political parties in '52, established a new principle which
+required the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. This again I deny. I deny
+it, and demand the proof. I have already stated fully what the compromises
+of '50 are. That particular part of those measures from which the virtual
+repeal of the Missouri Compromise is sought to be inferred (for it is
+admitted they contain nothing about it in express terms) is the provision
+in the Utah and New Mexico laws which permits them when they seek
+admission into the Union as States to come in with or without slavery, as
+they shall then see fit. Now I insist this provision was made for Utah
+and New Mexico, and for no other place whatever. It had no more direct
+reference to Nebraska than it had to the territories of the moon. But,
+say they, it had reference to Nebraska in principle. Let us see. The
+North consented to this provision, not because they considered it right in
+itself, but because they were compensated--paid for it.
+
+They at the same time got California into the Union as a free State. This
+was far the best part of all they had struggled for by the Wilmot Proviso.
+They also got the area of slavery somewhat narrowed in the settlement
+of the boundary of Texas. Also they got the slave trade abolished in the
+District of Columbia.
+
+For all these desirable objects the North could afford to yield something;
+and they did yield to the South the Utah and New Mexico provision. I do
+not mean that the whole North, or even a majority, yielded, when the law
+passed; but enough yielded--when added to the vote of the South, to
+carry the measure. Nor can it be pretended that the principle of this
+arrangement requires us to permit the same provision to be applied to
+Nebraska, without any equivalent at all. Give us another free State; press
+the boundary of Texas still farther back; give us another step toward the
+destruction of slavery in the District, and you present us a similar case.
+But ask us not to repeat, for nothing, what you paid for in the first
+instance. If you wish the thing again, pay again. That is the principle of
+the compromises of '50, if, indeed, they had any principles beyond their
+specific terms--it was the system of equivalents.
+
+Again, if Congress, at that time, intended that all future Territories
+should, when admitted as States, come in with or without slavery at their
+own option, why did it not say so? With such a universal provision, all
+know the bills could not have passed. Did they, then--could they-establish
+a principle contrary to their own intention? Still further, if they
+intended to establish the principle that, whenever Congress had control,
+it should be left to the people to do as they thought fit with slavery,
+why did they not authorize the people of the District of Columbia, at
+their option, to abolish slavery within their limits?
+
+I personally know that this has not been left undone because it was
+unthought of. It was frequently spoken of by members of Congress, and by
+citizens of Washington, six years ago; and I heard no one express a doubt
+that a system of gradual emancipation, with compensation to owners,
+would meet the approbation of a large majority of the white people of the
+District. But without the action of Congress they could say nothing; and
+Congress said "No." In the measures of 1850, Congress had the subject of
+slavery in the District expressly on hand. If they were then establishing
+the principle of allowing the people to do as they please with slavery,
+why did they not apply the principle to that people?
+
+Again it is claimed that by the resolutions of the Illinois Legislature,
+passed in 1851, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was demanded. This
+I deny also. Whatever may be worked out by a criticism of the language of
+those resolutions, the people have never understood them as being any
+more than an indorsement of the compromises of 1850, and a release of our
+senators from voting for the Wilmot Proviso. The whole people are living
+witnesses that this only was their view. Finally, it is asked, "If we
+did not mean to apply the Utah and New Mexico provision to all future
+territories, what did we mean when we, in 1852, indorsed the compromises
+of 1850?"
+
+For myself I can answer this question most easily. I meant not to ask a
+repeal or modification of the Fugitive Slave law. I meant not to ask
+for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. I meant not to
+resist the admission of Utah and New Mexico, even should they ask to come
+in as slave States. I meant nothing about additional Territories, because,
+as I understood, we then had no Territory whose character as to slavery
+was not already settled. As to Nebraska, I regarded its character as being
+fixed by the Missouri Compromise for thirty years--as unalterably fixed
+as that of my own home in Illinois. As to new acquisitions, I said,
+"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." When we make new
+acquisitions, we will, as heretofore, try to manage them somehow. That is
+my answer; that is what I meant and said; and I appeal to the people to
+say each for himself whether that is not also the universal meaning of the
+free States.
+
+And now, in turn, let me ask a few questions. If, by any or all these
+matters, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was commanded, why was not
+the command sooner obeyed? Why was the repeal omitted in the Nebraska
+Bill of 1853? Why was it omitted in the original bill of 1854? Why in the
+accompanying report was such a repeal characterized as a departure from
+the course pursued in 1850 and its continued omission recommended?
+
+I am aware Judge Douglas now argues that the subsequent express repeal is
+no substantial alteration of the bill. This argument seems wonderful to
+me. It is as if one should argue that white and black are not different.
+He admits, however, that there is a literal change in the bill, and that
+he made the change in deference to other senators who would not support
+the bill without. This proves that those other senators thought the
+change a substantial one, and that the Judge thought their opinions worth
+deferring to. His own opinions, therefore, seem not to rest on a very firm
+basis, even in his own mind; and I suppose the world believes, and will
+continue to believe, that precisely on the substance of that change this
+whole agitation has arisen.
+
+I conclude, then, that the public never demanded the repeal of the
+Missouri Compromise.
+
+I now come to consider whether the appeal with its avowed principles, is
+intrinsically right. I insist that it is not. Take the particular case. A
+controversy had arisen between the advocates and opponents of slavery,
+in relation to its establishment within the country we had purchased of
+France. The southern, and then best, part of the purchase was already in
+as a slave State. The controversy was settled by also letting Missouri
+in as a slave State; but with the agreement that within all the remaining
+part of the purchase, north of a certain line, there should never be
+slavery. As to what was to be done with the remaining part, south of the
+line, nothing was said; but perhaps the fair implication was, it should
+come in with slavery if it should so choose. The southern part, except a
+portion heretofore mentioned, afterward did come in with slavery, as the
+State of Arkansas. All these many years, since 1820, the northern part
+had remained a wilderness. At length settlements began in it also. In due
+course Iowa came in as a free State, and Minnesota was given a territorial
+government, without removing the slavery restriction. Finally, the
+sole remaining part north of the line--Kansas and Nebraska--was to be
+organized; and it is proposed, and carried, to blot out the old dividing
+line of thirty-four years' standing, and to open the whole of that country
+to the introduction of slavery. Now this, to my mind, is manifestly
+unjust. After an angry and dangerous controversy, the parties made friends
+by dividing the bone of contention. The one party first appropriates her
+own share, beyond all power to be disturbed in the possession of it, and
+then seizes the share of the other party. It is as if two starving men had
+divided their only loaf, the one had hastily swallowed his half, and then
+grabbed the other's half just as he was putting it to his mouth.
+
+Let me here drop the main argument, to notice what I consider rather
+an inferior matter. It is argued that slavery will not go to Kansas and
+Nebraska, in any event. This is a palliation, a lullaby. I have some hope
+that it will not; but let us not be too confident. As to climate, a glance
+at the map shows that there are five slave States--Delaware, Maryland,
+Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, and also the District of Columbia, all
+north of the Missouri Compromise line. The census returns of 1850 show
+that within these there are eight hundred and sixty-seven thousand two
+hundred and seventy-six slaves, being more than one fourth of all the
+slaves in the nation.
+
+It is not climate, then, that will keep slavery out of these Territories.
+Is there anything in the peculiar nature of the country? Missouri adjoins
+these Territories by her entire western boundary, and slavery is already
+within every one of her western counties. I have even heard it said that
+there are more slaves in proportion to whites in the northwestern county
+of Missouri than within any other county in the State. Slavery pressed
+entirely up to the old western boundary of the State, and when rather
+recently a part of that boundary at the northwest was moved out a little
+farther west, slavery followed on quite up to the new line. Now, when the
+restriction is removed, what is to prevent it from going still farther?
+Climate will not, no peculiarity of the country will, nothing in nature
+will. Will the disposition of the people prevent it? Those nearest the
+scene are all in favor of the extension. The Yankees who are opposed to it
+may be most flumerous; but, in military phrase, the battlefield is too far
+from their base of operations.
+
+But it is said there now is no law in Nebraska on the subject of slavery,
+and that, in such case, taking a slave there operates his freedom. That is
+good book-law, but it is not the rule of actual practice. Wherever slavery
+is it has been first introduced without law. The oldest laws we find
+concerning it are not laws introducing it, but regulating it as an already
+existing thing. A white man takes his slave to Nebraska now. Who will
+inform the negro that he is free? Who will take him before court to test
+the question of his freedom? In ignorance of his legal emancipation he is
+kept chopping, splitting, and plowing. Others are brought, and move on in
+the same track. At last, if ever the time for voting comes on the question
+of slavery the institution already, in fact, exists in the country, and
+cannot well be removed. The fact of its presence, and the difficulty of
+its removal, will carry the vote in its favor. Keep it out until a vote is
+taken, and a vote in favor of it cannot be got in any population of forty
+thousand on earth, who have been drawn together by the ordinary motives of
+emigration and settlement. To get slaves into the Territory simultaneously
+with the whites in the incipient stages of settlement is the precise stake
+played for and won in this Nebraska measure.
+
+The question is asked us: "If slaves will go in notwithstanding the
+general principle of law liberates them, why would they not equally go in
+against positive statute law--go in, even if the Missouri restriction were
+maintained!" I answer, because it takes a much bolder man to venture
+in with his property in the latter case than in the former; because the
+positive Congressional enactment is known to and respected by all, or
+nearly all, whereas the negative principle that no law is free law is not
+much known except among lawyers. We have some experience of this practical
+difference. In spite of the Ordinance of '87, a few negroes were brought
+into Illinois, and held in a state of quasi-slavery, not enough, however,
+to carry a vote of the people in favor of the institution when they came
+to form a constitution. But into the adjoining Missouri country, where
+there was no Ordinance of '87,--was no restriction,--they were carried
+ten times, nay, a hundred times, as fast, and actually made a slave State.
+This is fact-naked fact.
+
+Another lullaby argument is that taking slaves to new countries does not
+increase their number, does not make any one slave who would otherwise
+be free. There is some truth in this, and I am glad of it; but it is not
+wholly true. The African slave trade is not yet effectually suppressed;
+and, if we make a reasonable deduction for the white people among us who
+are foreigners and the descendants of foreigners arriving here since 1808,
+we shall find the increase of the black population outrunning that of the
+white to an extent unaccountable, except by supposing that some of them,
+too, have been coming from Africa. If this be so, the opening of new
+countries to the institution increases the demand for and augments the
+price of slaves, and so does, in fact, make slaves of freemen, by causing
+them to be brought from Africa and sold into bondage.
+
+But however this may be, we know the opening of new countries to slavery
+tends to the perpetuation of the institution, and so does keep men in
+slavery who would otherwise be free. This result we do not feel like
+favoring, and we are under no legal obligation to suppress our feelings in
+this respect.
+
+Equal justice to the South, it is said, requires us to consent to the
+extension of slavery to new countries. That is to say, inasmuch as you do
+not object to my taking my hog to Nebraska, therefore I must not object
+to your taking your slave. Now, I admit that this is perfectly logical
+if there is no difference between hogs and negroes. But while you thus
+require me to deny the humanity of the negro, I wish to ask whether you of
+the South, yourselves, have ever been willing to do as much? It is kindly
+provided that of all those who come into the world only a small percentage
+are natural tyrants. That percentage is no larger in the slave States
+than in the free. The great majority South, as well as North, have human
+sympathies, of which they can no more divest themselves than they can of
+their sensibility to physical pain. These sympathies in the bosoms of
+the Southern people manifest, in many ways, their sense of the wrong of
+slavery, and their consciousness that, after all, there is humanity in the
+negro. If they deny this, let me address them a few plain questions. In
+1820 you (the South) joined the North, almost unanimously, in declaring
+the African slave trade piracy, and in annexing to it the punishment of
+death. Why did you do this? If you did not feel that it was wrong, why did
+you join in providing that men should be hung for it? The practice was no
+more than bringing wild negroes from Africa to such as would buy them.
+But you never thought of hanging men for catching and selling wild horses,
+wild buffaloes, or wild bears.
+
+Again, you have among you a sneaking individual of the class of native
+tyrants known as the "slavedealer." He watches your necessities, and
+crawls up to buy your slave, at a speculating price. If you cannot help
+it, you sell to him; but if you can help it, you drive him from your door.
+You despise him utterly. You do not recognize him as a friend, or even
+as an honest man. Your children must not play with his; they may rollick
+freely with the little negroes, but not with the slave-dealer's children.
+If you are obliged to deal with him, you try to get through the job
+without so much as touching him. It is common with you to join hands
+with the men you meet, but with the slave-dealer you avoid the
+ceremony--instinctively shrinking from the snaky contact. If he grows rich
+and retires from business, you still remember him, and still keep up the
+ban of non-intercourse upon him and his family. Now, why is this? You do
+not so treat the man who deals in corn, cotton, or tobacco.
+
+And yet again: There are in the United States and Territories, including
+the District of Columbia, 433,643 free blacks. At five hundred dollars per
+head they are worth over two hundred millions of dollars. How comes this
+vast amount of property to be running about without owners? We do not see
+free horses or free cattle running at large. How is this? All these free
+blacks are the descendants of slaves, or have been slaves themselves; and
+they would be slaves now but for something which has operated on their
+white owners, inducing them at vast pecuniary sacrifice to liberate them.
+What is that something? Is there any mistaking it? In all these cases it
+is your sense of justice and human sympathy continually telling you that
+the poor negro has some natural right to himself--that those who deny it
+and make mere merchandise of him deserve kickings, contempt, and death.
+
+And now why will you ask us to deny the humanity of the slave, and
+estimate him as only the equal of the hog? Why ask us to do what you will
+not do yourselves? Why ask us to do for nothing what two hundred millions
+of dollars could not induce you to do?
+
+But one great argument in support of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise
+is still to come. That argument is "the sacred right of self-government."
+It seems our distinguished Senator has found great difficulty in getting
+his antagonists, even in the Senate, to meet him fairly on this argument.
+Some poet has said:
+
+"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
+
+At the hazard of being thought one of the fools of this quotation, I
+meet that argument--I rush in--I take that bull by the horns. I trust I
+understand and truly estimate the right of self-government. My faith in
+the proposition that each man should do precisely as he pleases with
+all which is exclusively his own lies at the foundation of the sense of
+justice there is in me. I extend the principle to communities of men as
+well as to individuals. I so extend it because it is politically wise, as
+well as naturally just; politically wise in saving us from broils about
+matters which do not concern us. Here, or at Washington, I would not
+trouble myself with the oyster laws of Virginia, or the cranberry laws
+of Indiana. The doctrine of self-government is right,--absolutely and
+eternally right,--but it has no just application as here attempted. Or
+perhaps I should rather say that whether it has such application depends
+upon whether a negro is or is not a man. If he is not a man, in that case
+he who is a man may as a matter of self-government do just what he pleases
+with him. But if the negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total
+destruction of self-government to say that he too shall not govern
+himself? When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but
+when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than
+self-government--that is despotism. If the negro is a man, why, then, my
+ancient faith teaches me that "all men are created equal," and that there
+can be no moral right in connection with one man's making a slave of
+another.
+
+Judge Douglas frequently, with bitter irony and sarcasm, paraphrases
+our argument by saying: "The white people of Nebraska are good enough to
+govern themselves, but they are not good enough to govern a few miserable
+negroes!"
+
+Well, I doubt not that the people of Nebraska are and will continue to
+be as good as the average of people elsewhere. I do not say the contrary.
+What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man
+without that other's consent. I say this is the leading principle, the
+sheet-anchor of American republicanism. Our Declaration of Independence
+says:
+
+"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal;
+that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights;
+that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to
+secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, DERIVING THEIR
+JUST POWERS PROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED."
+
+I have quoted so much at this time merely to show that, according to our
+ancient faith, the just powers of government are derived from the consent
+of the governed. Now the relation of master and slave is pro tanto a total
+violation of this principle. The master not only governs the slave without
+his consent, but he governs him by a set of rules altogether different
+from those which he prescribes for himself. Allow all the governed
+an equal voice in the government, and that, and that only, is
+self-government.
+
+Let it not be said that I am contending for the establishment of political
+and social equality between the whites and blacks. I have already said the
+contrary. I am not combating the argument of necessity, arising from the
+fact that the blacks are already among us; but I am combating what is set
+up as moral argument for allowing them to be taken where they have never
+yet been--arguing against the extension of a bad thing, which, where it
+already exists, we must of necessity manage as we best can.
+
+In support of his application of the doctrine of self-government, Senator
+Douglas has sought to bring to his aid the opinions and examples of our
+Revolutionary fathers. I am glad he has done this. I love the sentiments
+of those old-time men, and shall be most happy to abide by their opinions.
+He shows us that when it was in contemplation for the colonies to break
+off from Great Britain, and set up a new government for themselves,
+several of the States instructed their delegates to go for the measure,
+provided each State should be allowed to regulate its domestic concerns in
+its own way. I do not quote; but this in substance. This was right; I see
+nothing objectionable in it. I also think it probable that it had some
+reference to the existence of slavery among them. I will not deny that
+it had. But had it any reference to the carrying of slavery into new
+countries? That is the question, and we will let the fathers themselves
+answer it.
+
+This same generation of men, and mostly the same individuals of the
+generation who declared this principle, who declared independence,
+who fought the war of the Revolution through, who afterward made the
+Constitution under which we still live--these same men passed the
+Ordinance of '87, declaring that slavery should never go to the Northwest
+Territory.
+
+I have no doubt Judge Douglas thinks they were very inconsistent in this.
+It is a question of discrimination between them and him. But there is
+not an inch of ground left for his claiming that their opinions, their
+example, their authority, are on his side in the controversy.
+
+Again, is not Nebraska, while a Territory, a part of us? Do we not own the
+country? And if we surrender the control of it, do we not surrender the
+right of self-government? It is part of ourselves. If you say we shall not
+control it, because it is only part, the same is true of every other part;
+and when all the parts are gone, what has become of the whole? What
+is then left of us? What use for the General Government, when there is
+nothing left for it to govern?
+
+But you say this question should be left to the people of Nebraska,
+because they are more particularly interested. If this be the rule, you
+must leave it to each individual to say for himself whether he will have
+slaves. What better moral right have thirty-one citizens of Nebraska to
+say that the thirty-second shall not hold slaves than the people of
+the thirty-one States have to say that slavery shall not go into the
+thirty-second State at all?
+
+But if it is a sacred right for the people of Nebraska to take and hold
+slaves there, it is equally their sacred right to buy them where they can
+buy them cheapest; and that, undoubtedly, will be on the coast of Africa,
+provided you will consent not to hang them for going there to buy
+them. You must remove this restriction, too, from the sacred right of
+self-government. I am aware you say that taking slaves from the States to
+Nebraska does not make slaves of freemen; but the African slave-trader can
+say just as much. He does not catch free negroes and bring them here.
+He finds them already slaves in the hands of their black captors, and he
+honestly buys them at the rate of a red cotton handkerchief a head.
+This is very cheap, and it is a great abridgment of the sacred right of
+self-government to hang men for engaging in this profitable trade.
+
+Another important objection to this application of the right of
+self-government is that it enables the first few to deprive the succeeding
+many of a free exercise of the right of self-government. The first few
+may get slavery in, and the subsequent many cannot easily get it out. How
+common is the remark now in the slave States, "If we were only clear
+of our slaves, how much better it would be for us." They are actually
+deprived of the privilege of governing themselves as they would, by the
+action of a very few in the beginning. The same thing was true of the
+whole nation at the time our Constitution was formed.
+
+Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska, or other new Territories, is not
+a matter of exclusive concern to the people who may go there. The whole
+nation is interested that the best use shall be made of these Territories.
+We want them for homes of free white people. This they cannot be, to any
+considerable extent, if slavery shall be planted within them. Slave States
+are places for poor white people to remove from, not to remove to. New
+free States are the places for poor people to go to, and better their
+condition. For this use the nation needs these Territories.
+
+Still further: there are constitutional relations between the slave
+and free States which are degrading to the latter. We are under legal
+obligations to catch and return their runaway slaves to them: a sort
+of dirty, disagreeable job, which, I believe, as a general rule, the
+slaveholders will not perform for one another. Then again, in the control
+of the government--the management of the partnership affairs--they have
+greatly the advantage of us. By the Constitution each State has two
+senators, each has a number of representatives in proportion to the number
+of its people, and each has a number of Presidential electors equal to
+the whole number of its senators and representatives together. But in
+ascertaining the number of the people for this purpose, five slaves are
+counted as being equal to three whites. The slaves do not vote; they are
+only counted and so used as to swell the influence of the white people's
+votes. The practical effect of this is more aptly shown by a comparison
+of the States of South Carolina and Maine. South Carolina has six
+representatives, and so has Maine; South Carolina has eight Presidential
+electors, and so has Maine. This is precise equality so far; and of course
+they are equal in senators, each having two. Thus in the control of the
+government the two States are equals precisely. But how are they in the
+number of their white people? Maine has 581,813, while South Carolina has
+274,567; Maine has twice as many as South Carolina, and 32,679 over. Thus,
+each white man in South Carolina is more than the double of any man in
+Maine. This is all because South Carolina, besides her free people, has
+384,984 slaves. The South Carolinian has precisely the same advantage over
+the white man in every other free State as well as in Maine. He is more
+than the double of any one of us in this crowd. The same advantage, but
+not to the same extent, is held by all the citizens of the slave States
+over those of the free; and it is an absolute truth, without an exception,
+that there is no voter in any slave State but who has more legal power in
+the government than any voter in any free State. There is no instance
+of exact equality; and the disadvantage is against us the whole chapter
+through. This principle, in the aggregate, gives the slave States in the
+present Congress twenty additional representatives, being seven more than
+the whole majority by which they passed the Nebraska Bill.
+
+Now all this is manifestly unfair; yet I do not mention it to complain of
+it, in so far as it is already settled. It is in the Constitution, and I
+do not for that cause, or any other cause, propose to destroy, or alter,
+or disregard the Constitution. I stand to it, fairly, fully, and firmly.
+
+But when I am told I must leave it altogether to other people to say
+whether new partners are to be bred up and brought into the firm, on
+the same degrading terms against me, I respectfully demur. I insist that
+whether I shall be a whole man or only the half of one, in comparison with
+others is a question in which I am somewhat concerned, and one which no
+other man can have a sacred right of deciding for me. If I am wrong in
+this, if it really be a sacred right of self-government in the man who
+shall go to Nebraska to decide whether he will be the equal of me or the
+double of me, then, after he shall have exercised that right, and thereby
+shall have reduced me to a still smaller fraction of a man than I already
+am, I should like for some gentleman, deeply skilled in the mysteries of
+sacred rights, to provide himself with a microscope, and peep about, and
+find out, if he can, what has become of my sacred rights. They will surely
+be too small for detection with the naked eye.
+
+Finally, I insist that if there is anything which it is the duty of the
+whole people to never intrust to any hands but their own, that thing is
+the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and institutions.
+And if they shall think as I do, that the extension of slavery endangers
+them more than any or all other causes, how recreant to themselves if
+they submit The question, and with it the fate of their country, to a mere
+handful of men bent only on seif-interest. If this question of slavery
+extension were an insignificant one, one having no power to do harm--it
+might be shuffled aside in this way; and being, as it is, the great
+Behemoth of danger, shall the strong grip of the nation be loosened upon
+him, to intrust him to the hands of such feeble keepers?
+
+I have done with this mighty argument of self-government. Go, sacred
+thing! Go in peace.
+
+But Nebraska is urged as a great Union-saving measure. Well, I too go for
+saving the Union. Much as I hate slavery, I would consent to the extension
+of it rather than see the Union dissolved, just as I would consent to any
+great evil to avoid a greater one. But when I go to Union-saving, I must
+believe, at least, that the means I employ have some adaptation to the
+end. To my mind, Nebraska has no such adaptation.
+
+"It hath no relish of salvation in it."
+
+It is an aggravation, rather, of the only one thing which ever endangers
+the Union. When it came upon us, all was peace and quiet. The nation was
+looking to the forming of new bends of union, and a long course of peace
+and prosperity seemed to lie before us. In the whole range of possibility,
+there scarcely appears to me to have been anything out of which the
+slavery agitation could have been revived, except the very project of
+repealing the Missouri Compromise. Every inch of territory we owned
+already had a definite settlement of the slavery question, by which all
+parties were pledged to abide. Indeed, there was no uninhabited country on
+the continent which we could acquire, if we except some extreme northern
+regions which are wholly out of the question.
+
+In this state of affairs the Genius of Discord himself could scarcely have
+invented a way of again setting us by the ears but by turning back and
+destroying the peace measures of the past. The counsels of that Genius
+seem to have prevailed. The Missouri Compromise was repealed; and here
+we are in the midst of a new slavery agitation, such, I think, as we have
+never seen before. Who is responsible for this? Is it those who resist
+the measure, or those who causelessly brought it forward, and pressed it
+through, having reason to know, and in fact knowing, it must and would be
+so resisted? It could not but be expected by its author that it would be
+looked upon as a measure for the extension of slavery, aggravated by a
+gross breach of faith.
+
+Argue as you will and long as you will, this is the naked front and aspect
+of the measure. And in this aspect it could not but produce agitation.
+Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature--opposition to it in
+his love of justice. These principles are at eternal antagonism, and
+when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them,
+shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the
+Missouri Compromise, repeal all compromises, repeal the Declaration of
+Independence, repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human
+nature. It still will be the abundance of man's heart that slavery
+extension is wrong, and out of the abundance of his heart his mouth will
+continue to speak.
+
+The structure, too, of the Nebraska Bill is very peculiar. The people are
+to decide the question of slavery for themselves; but when they are to
+decide, or how they are to decide, or whether, when the question is
+once decided, it is to remain so or is to be subject to an indefinite
+succession of new trials, the law does not say. Is it to be decided by the
+first dozen settlers who arrive there, or is it to await the arrival of
+a hundred? Is it to be decided by a vote of the people or a vote of the
+Legislature, or, indeed, by a vote of any sort? To these questions the law
+gives no answer. There is a mystery about this; for when a member proposed
+to give the Legislature express authority to exclude slavery, it was
+hooted down by the friends of the bill. This fact is worth remembering.
+Some Yankees in the East are sending emigrants to Nebraska to exclude
+slavery from it; and, so far as I can judge, they expect the question to
+be decided by voting in some way or other. But the Missourians are awake,
+too. They are within a stone's-throw of the contested ground. They hold
+meetings and pass resolutions, in which not the slightest allusion to
+voting is made. They resolve that slavery already exists in the Territory;
+that more shall go there; that they, remaining in Missouri, will protect
+it, and that abolitionists shall be hung or driven away. Through all this
+bowie knives and six-shooters are seen plainly enough, but never a glimpse
+of the ballot-box.
+
+And, really, what is the result of all this? Each party within having
+numerous and determined backers without, is it not probable that the
+contest will come to blows and bloodshed? Could there be a more apt
+invention to bring about collision and violence on the slavery question
+than this Nebraska project is? I do not charge or believe that such was
+intended by Congress; but if they had literally formed a ring and placed
+champions within it to fight out the controversy, the fight could be no
+more likely to come off than it is. And if this fight should begin, is it
+likely to take a very peaceful, Union-saving turn? Will not the first drop
+of blood so shed be the real knell of the Union?
+
+The Missouri Compromise ought to be restored. For the sake of the Union,
+it ought to be restored. We ought to elect a House of Representatives
+which will vote its restoration. If by any means we omit to do this, what
+follows? Slavery may or may not be established in Nebraska. But whether
+it be or not, we shall have repudiated--discarded from the councils of the
+nation--the spirit of compromise; for who, after this, will ever trust in
+a national compromise? The spirit of mutual concession--that spirit which
+first gave us the Constitution, and which has thrice saved the Union--we
+shall have strangled and cast from us forever. And what shall we have
+in lieu of it? The South flushed with triumph and tempted to excess;
+the North, betrayed as they believe, brooding on wrong and burning for
+revenge. One side will provoke, the other resent. The one will taunt,
+the other defy; one aggresses, the other retaliates. Already a few in
+the North defy all constitutional restraints, resist the execution of
+the Fugitive Slave law, and even menace the institution of slavery in
+the States where it exists. Already a few in the South claim the
+constitutional right to take and to hold slaves in the free States, demand
+the revival of the slave trade, and demand a treaty with Great Britain by
+which fugitive slaves may be reclaimed from Canada. As yet they are but
+few on either side. It is a grave question for lovers of the union whether
+the final destruction of the Missouri Compromise, and with it the spirit
+of all compromise, will or will not embolden and embitter each of these,
+and fatally increase the number of both.
+
+But restore the compromise, and what then? We thereby restore the national
+faith, the national confidence, the national feeling of brotherhood. We
+thereby reinstate the spirit of concession and compromise, that spirit
+which has never failed us in past perils, and which may be safely trusted
+for all the future. The South ought to join in doing this. The peace of
+the nation is as dear to them as to us. In memories of the past and hopes
+of the future, they share as largely as we. It would be on their part a
+great act--great in its spirit, and great in its effect. It would be worth
+to the nation a hundred years purchase of peace and prosperity. And what
+of sacrifice would they make? They only surrender to us what they gave
+us for a consideration long, long ago; what they have not now asked for,
+struggled or cared for; what has been thrust upon them, not less to their
+astonishment than to ours.
+
+But it is said we cannot restore it; that though we elect every member of
+the lower House, the Senate is still against us. It is quite true that of
+the senators who passed the Nebraska Bill a majority of the whole Senate
+will retain their seats in spite of the elections of this and the next
+year. But if at these elections their several constituencies shall clearly
+express their will against Nebraska, will these senators disregard their
+will? Will they neither obey nor make room for those who will?
+
+But even if we fail to technically restore the compromise, it is still a
+great point to carry a popular vote in favor of the restoration. The
+moral weight of such a vote cannot be estimated too highly. The authors
+of Nebraska are not at all satisfied with the destruction of the
+compromise--an indorsement of this principle they proclaim to be the
+great object. With them, Nebraska alone is a small matter--to establish a
+principle for future use is what they particularly desire.
+
+The future use is to be the planting of slavery wherever in the wide world
+local and unorganized opposition cannot prevent it. Now, if you wish to
+give them this indorsement, if you wish to establish this principle, do
+so. I shall regret it, but it is your right. On the contrary, if you are
+opposed to the principle,--intend to give it no such indorsement, let no
+wheedling, no sophistry, divert you from throwing a direct vote against
+it.
+
+Some men, mostly Whigs, who condemn the repeal of the Missouri Compromise,
+nevertheless hesitate to go for its restoration, lest they be thrown in
+company with the abolitionists. Will they allow me, as an old Whig, to
+tell them, good-humoredly, that I think this is very silly? Stand with
+anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part
+with him when he goes wrong. Stand with the abolitionist in restoring the
+Missouri Compromise, and stand against him when he attempts to repeal
+the Fugitive Slave law. In the latter case you stand with the Southern
+disunionist. What of that? You are still right. In both cases you are
+right. In both cases you oppose the dangerous extremes. In both you stand
+on middle ground, and hold the ship level and steady. In both you are
+national, and nothing less than national. This is the good old Whig
+ground. To desert such ground because of any company is to be less than a
+Whig--less than a man--less than an American.
+
+I particularly object to the new position which the avowed principle of
+this Nebraska law gives to slavery in the body politic. I object to it
+because it assumes that there can be moral right in the enslaving of
+one man by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a free
+people--a sad evidence that, feeling prosperity, we forget right; that
+liberty, as a principle, we have ceased to revere. I object to it because
+the fathers of the republic eschewed and rejected it. The argument of
+"necessity" was the only argument they ever admitted in favor of slavery;
+and so far, and so far only, as it carried them did they ever go. They
+found the institution existing among us, which they could not help,
+and they cast blame upon the British king for having permitted its
+introduction.
+
+The royally appointed Governor of Georgia in the early 1700's was
+threatened by the King with removal if he continued to oppose slavery in
+his colony--at that time the King of England made a small profit on every
+slave imported to the colonies. The later British criticism of the United
+States for not eradicating slavery in the early 1800's, combined with
+their tacit support of the 'Confederacy' during the Civil War is a prime
+example of the irony and hypocrisy of politics: that self-interest will
+ever overpower right.
+
+Before the Constitution they prohibited its introduction into the
+Northwestern Territory, the only country we owned then free from it. At
+the framing and adoption of the Constitution, they forbore to so much
+as mention the word "slave" or "slavery" in the whole instrument. In
+the provision for the recovery of fugitives, the slave is spoken of as a
+"person held to service or labor." In that prohibiting the abolition of
+the African slave trade for twenty years, that trade is spoken of as "the
+migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing
+shall think proper to admit," etc. These are the only provisions alluding
+to slavery. Thus the thing is hid away in the Constitution, just as an
+afflicted man hides away a wen or cancer which he dares not cut out at
+once, lest he bleed to death,--with the promise, nevertheless, that the
+cutting may begin at a certain time. Less than this our fathers could not
+do, and more they would not do. Necessity drove them so far, and farther
+they would not go. But this is not all. The earliest Congress under the
+Constitution took the same view of slavery. They hedged and hemmed it in
+to the narrowest limits of necessity.
+
+In 1794 they prohibited an outgoing slave trade--that is, the taking
+of slaves from the United States to sell. In 1798 they prohibited the
+bringing of slaves from Africa into the Mississippi Territory, this
+Territory then comprising what are now the States of Mississippi and
+Alabama. This was ten years before they had the authority to do the same
+thing as to the States existing at the adoption of the Constitution. In
+1800 they prohibited American citizens from trading in slaves between
+foreign countries, as, for instance, from Africa to Brazil. In 1803 they
+passed a law in aid of one or two slave-State laws in restraint of the
+internal slave trade. In 1807, in apparent hot haste, they passed the law,
+nearly a year in advance,--to take effect the first day of 1808, the very
+first day the Constitution would permit, prohibiting the African slave
+trade by heavy pecuniary and corporal penalties. In 1820, finding these
+provisions ineffectual, they declared the slave trade piracy, and annexed
+to it the extreme penalty of death. While all this was passing in the
+General Government, five or six of the original slave States had adopted
+systems of gradual emancipation, by which the institution was rapidly
+becoming extinct within their limits. Thus we see that the plain,
+unmistakable spirit of that age toward slavery was hostility to the
+principle and toleration only by necessity.
+
+But now it is to be transformed into a "sacred right." Nebraska brings it
+forth, places it on the highroad to extension and perpetuity, and with a
+pat on its back says to it, "Go, and God speed you." Henceforth it is
+to be the chief jewel of the nation the very figure-head of the ship of
+state. Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have
+been giving up the old for the new faith. Near eighty years ago we began
+by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning
+we have run down to the other declaration, that for some men to enslave
+others is a "sacred right of self-government." These principles cannot
+stand together. They are as opposite as God and Mammon; and who ever holds
+to the one must despise the other. When Pettit, in connection with his
+support of the Nebraska Bill, called the Declaration of Independence "a
+self-evident lie," he only did what consistency and candor require all
+other Nebraska men to do. Of the forty-odd Nebraska senators who sat
+present and heard him, no one rebuked him. Nor am I apprised that any
+Nebraska newspaper, or any Nebraska orator, in the whole nation has ever
+yet rebuked him. If this had been said among Marion's men, Southerners
+though they were, what would have become of the man who said it? If this
+had been said to the men who captured Andre, the man who said it would
+probably have been hung sooner than Andre was. If it had been said in old
+Independence Hall seventy-eight years ago, the very doorkeeper would have
+throttled the man and thrust him into the street. Let no one be
+deceived. The spirit of seventy-six and the spirit of Nebraska are utter
+antagonisms; and the former is being rapidly displaced by the latter.
+
+Fellow-countrymen, Americans, South as well as North, shall we make no
+effort to arrest this? Already the liberal party throughout the world
+express the apprehension that "the one retrograde institution in America
+is undermining the principles of progress, and fatally violating the
+noblest political system the world ever saw." This is not the taunt of
+enemies, but the warning of friends. Is it quite safe to disregard
+it--to despise it? Is there no danger to liberty itself in discarding the
+earliest practice and first precept of our ancient faith? In our greedy
+chase to make profit of the negro, let us beware lest we "cancel and tear
+in pieces" even the white man's charter of freedom.
+
+Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify
+it. Let us turn and wash it white in the spirit, if not the blood, of the
+Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims of "moral right," back
+upon its existing legal rights and its arguments of "necessity." Let us
+return it to the position our fathers gave it, and there let it rest in
+peace. Let us readopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it the
+practices and policy which harmonize with it. Let North and South, let all
+Americans--let all lovers of liberty everywhere join in the great and good
+work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union, but we shall
+have so saved it as to make and to keep it forever worthy of the saving.
+We shall have so saved it that the succeeding millions of free happy
+people the world over shall rise up and call us blessed to the latest
+generations.
+
+At Springfield, twelve days ago, where I had spoken substantially as I
+have here, Judge Douglas replied to me; and as he is to reply to me here,
+I shall attempt to anticipate him by noticing some of the points he made
+there. He commenced by stating I had assumed all the way through that the
+principle of the Nebraska Bill would have the effect of extending slavery.
+He denied that this was intended or that this effect would follow.
+
+I will not reopen the argument upon this point. That such was the
+intention the world believed at the start, and will continue to believe.
+This was the countenance of the thing, and both friends and enemies
+instantly recognized it as such. That countenance cannot now be changed by
+argument. You can as easily argue the color out of the negro's skin. Like
+the "bloody hand," you may wash it and wash it, the red witness of guilt
+still sticks and stares horribly at you.
+
+Next he says that Congressional intervention never prevented slavery
+anywhere; that it did not prevent it in the Northwestern Territory, nor
+in Illinois; that, in fact, Illinois came into the Union as a slave State;
+that the principle of the Nebraska Bill expelled it from Illinois, from
+several old States, from everywhere.
+
+Now this is mere quibbling all the way through. If the Ordinance of '87
+did not keep slavery out of the Northwest Territory, how happens it that
+the northwest shore of the Ohio River is entirely free from it, while the
+southeast shore, less than a mile distant, along nearly the whole length
+of the river, is entirely covered with it?
+
+If that ordinance did not keep it out of Illinois, what was it that made
+the difference between Illinois and Missouri? They lie side by side, the
+Mississippi River only dividing them, while their early settlements were
+within the same latitude. Between 1810 and 1820 the number of slaves in
+Missouri increased 7211, while in Illinois in the same ten years they
+decreased 51. This appears by the census returns. During nearly all of
+that ten years both were Territories, not States. During this time the
+ordinance forbade slavery to go into Illinois, and nothing forbade it to
+go into Missouri. It did go into Missouri, and did not go into Illinois.
+That is the fact. Can any one doubt as to the reason of it? But he says
+Illinois came into the Union as a slave State. Silence, perhaps, would
+be the best answer to this flat contradiction of the known history of the
+country. What are the facts upon which this bold assertion is based? When
+we first acquired the country, as far back as 1787, there were some slaves
+within it held by the French inhabitants of Kaskaskia. The territorial
+legislation admitted a few negroes from the slave States as indentured
+servants. One year after the adoption of the first State constitution,
+the whole number of them was--what do you think? Just one hundred and
+seventeen, while the aggregate free population was 55,094,--about four
+hundred and seventy to one. Upon this state of facts the people framed
+their constitution prohibiting the further introduction of slavery, with
+a sort of guaranty to the owners of the few indentured servants, giving
+freedom to their children to be born thereafter, and making no mention
+whatever of any supposed slave for life. Out of this small matter the
+Judge manufactures his argument that Illinois came into the Union as a
+slave State. Let the facts be the answer to the argument.
+
+The principles of the Nebraska Bill, he says, expelled slavery from
+Illinois. The principle of that bill first planted it here--that is, it
+first came because there was no law to prevent it, first came before we
+owned the country; and finding it here, and having the Ordinance of '87 to
+prevent its increasing, our people struggled along, and finally got rid of
+it as best they could.
+
+But the principle of the Nebraska Bill abolished slavery in several of the
+old States. Well, it is true that several of the old States, in the last
+quarter of the last century, did adopt systems of gradual emancipation by
+which the institution has finally become extinct within their limits; but
+it may or may not be true that the principle of the Nebraska Bill was
+the cause that led to the adoption of these measures. It is now more
+than fifty years since the last of these States adopted its system of
+emancipation.
+
+If the Nebraska Bill is the real author of the benevolent works, it
+is rather deplorable that it has for so long a time ceased working
+altogether. Is there not some reason to suspect that it was the principle
+of the Revolution, and not the principle of the Nebraska Bill, that led
+to emancipation in these old States? Leave it to the people of these old
+emancipating States, and I am quite certain they will decide that neither
+that nor any other good thing ever did or ever will come of the Nebraska
+Bill.
+
+In the course of my main argument, Judge Douglas interrupted me to say
+that the principle of the Nebraska Bill was very old; that it originated
+when God made man, and placed good and evil before him, allowing him to
+choose for himself, being responsible for the choice he should make. At
+the time I thought this was merely playful, and I answered it accordingly.
+But in his reply to me he renewed it as a serious argument. In
+seriousness, then, the facts of this proposition are not true as stated.
+God did not place good and evil before man, telling him to make his
+choice. On the contrary, he did tell him there was one tree of the fruit
+of which he should not eat, upon pain of certain death. I should scarcely
+wish so strong a prohibition against slavery in Nebraska.
+
+But this argument strikes me as not a little remarkable in another
+particular--in its strong resemblance to the old argument for the "divine
+right of kings." By the latter, the king is to do just as he pleases with
+his white subjects, being responsible to God alone. By the former,
+the white man is to do just as he pleases with his black slaves, being
+responsible to God alone. The two things are precisely alike, and it is
+but natural that they should find similar arguments to sustain them.
+
+I had argued that the application of the principle of self-government, as
+contended for, would require the revival of the African slave trade; that
+no argument could be made in favor of a man's right to take slaves to
+Nebraska which could not be equally well made in favor of his right
+to bring them from the coast of Africa. The Judge replied that the
+Constitution requires the suppression of the foreign slave trade, but
+does not require the prohibition of slavery in the Territories. That is a
+mistake in point of fact. The Constitution does not require the action of
+Congress in either case, and it does authorize it in both. And so there is
+still no difference between the cases.
+
+In regard to what I have said of the advantage the slave States have over
+the free in the matter of representation, the Judge replied that we in
+the free States count five free negroes as five white people, while in
+the slave States they count five slaves as three whites only; and that the
+advantage, at last, was on the side of the free States.
+
+Now, in the slave States they count free negroes just as we do; and it so
+happens that, besides their slaves, they have as many free negroes as we
+have, and thirty thousand over. Thus, their free negroes more than balance
+ours; and their advantage over us, in consequence of their slaves, still
+remains as I stated it.
+
+In reply to my argument that the compromise measures of 1850 were a system
+of equivalents, and that the provisions of no one of them could fairly
+be carried to other subjects without its corresponding equivalent being
+carried with it, the Judge denied outright that these measures had any
+connection with or dependence upon each other. This is mere desperation.
+If they had no connection, why are they always spoken of in connection?
+Why has he so spoken of them a thousand times? Why has he constantly
+called them a series of measures? Why does everybody call them a
+compromise? Why was California kept out of the Union six or seven months,
+if it was not because of its connection with the other measures? Webster's
+leading definition of the verb "to compromise" is "to adjust and settle
+a difference, by mutual agreement, with concessions of claims by the
+parties." This conveys precisely the popular understanding of the word
+"compromise."
+
+We knew, before the Judge told us, that these measures passed separately,
+and in distinct bills, and that no two of them were passed by the votes of
+precisely the same members. But we also know, and so does he know, that
+no one of them could have passed both branches of Congress but for the
+understanding that the others were to pass also. Upon this understanding,
+each got votes which it could have got in no other way. It is this fact
+which gives to the measures their true character; and it is the universal
+knowledge of this fact that has given them the name of "compromises," so
+expressive of that true character.
+
+I had asked: "If, in carrying the Utah and New Mexico laws to Nebraska,
+you could clear away other objection, how could you leave Nebraska
+'perfectly free' to introduce slavery before she forms a constitution,
+during her territorial government, while the Utah and New Mexico laws
+only authorize it when they form constitutions and are admitted into the
+Union?" To this Judge Douglas answered that the Utah and New Mexico laws
+also authorized it before; and to prove this he read from one of their
+laws, as follows: "That the legislative power of said Territory shall
+extend to all rightful subjects of legislation, consistent with the
+Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act."
+
+Now it is perceived from the reading of this that there is nothing express
+upon the subject, but that the authority is sought to be implied merely
+for the general provision of "all rightful subjects of legislation." In
+reply to this I insist, as a legal rule of construction, as well as the
+plain, popular view of the matter, that the express provision for Utah and
+New Mexico coming in with slavery, if they choose, when they shall form
+constitutions, is an exclusion of all implied authority on the same
+subject; that Congress having the subject distinctly in their minds
+when they made the express provision, they therein expressed their whole
+meaning on that subject.
+
+The Judge rather insinuated that I had found it convenient to forget the
+Washington territorial law passed in 1853. This was a division of Oregon,
+organizing the northern part as the Territory of Washington. He asserted
+that by this act the Ordinance of '87, theretofore existing in Oregon, was
+repealed; that nearly all the members of Congress voted for it, beginning
+in the House of Representatives with Charles Allen of Massachusetts, and
+ending with Richard Yates of Illinois; and that he could not understand
+how those who now opposed the Nebraska Bill so voted there, unless it was
+because it was then too soon after both the great political parties had
+ratified the compromises of 1850, and the ratification therefore was too
+fresh to be then repudiated.
+
+Now I had seen the Washington act before, and I have carefully examined it
+since; and I aver that there is no repeal of the Ordinance of '87, or of
+any prohibition of slavery, in it. In express terms, there is absolutely
+nothing in the whole law upon the subject--in fact, nothing to lead a
+reader to think of the subject. To my judgment it is equally free from
+everything from which repeal can be legally implied; but, however this
+may be, are men now to be entrapped by a legal implication, extracted from
+covert language, introduced perhaps for the very purpose of entrapping
+them? I sincerely wish every man could read this law quite through,
+carefully watching every sentence and every line for a repeal of the
+Ordinance of '87, or anything equivalent to it.
+
+Another point on the Washington act: If it was intended to be modeled
+after the Utah and New Mexico acts, as Judge Douglas insists, why was it
+not inserted in it, as in them, that Washington was to come in with or
+without slavery as she may choose at the adoption of her constitution?
+It has no such provision in it; and I defy the ingenuity of man to give a
+reason for the omission, other than that it was not intended to follow the
+Utah and New Mexico laws in regard to the question of slavery.
+
+The Washington act not only differs vitally from the Utah and New Mexico
+acts, but the Nebraska act differs vitally from both. By the latter
+act the people are left "perfectly free" to regulate their own domestic
+concerns, etc.; but in all the former, all their laws are to be submitted
+to Congress, and if disapproved are to be null. The Washington act goes
+even further; it absolutely prohibits the territorial Legislature, by very
+strong and guarded language, from establishing banks or borrowing money on
+the faith of the Territory. Is this the sacred right of self-government
+we hear vaunted so much? No, sir; the Nebraska Bill finds no model in the
+acts of '50 or the Washington act. It finds no model in any law from Adam
+till to-day. As Phillips says of Napoleon, the Nebraska act is grand,
+gloomy and peculiar, wrapped in the solitude of its own originality,
+without a model and without a shadow upon the earth.
+
+In the course of his reply Senator Douglas remarked in substance that he
+had always considered this government was made for the white people and
+not for the negroes. Why, in point of mere fact, I think so too. But in
+this remark of the Judge there is a significance which I think is the key
+to the great mistake (if there is any such mistake) which he has made
+in this Nebraska measure. It shows that the Judge has no very vivid
+impression that the negro is human, and consequently has no idea that
+there can be any moral question in legislating about him. In his view the
+question of whether a new country shall be slave or free is a matter of as
+utter indifference as it is whether his neighbor shall plant his farm with
+tobacco or stock it with horned cattle. Now, whether this view is right
+or wrong, it is very certain that the great mass of mankind take a totally
+different view. They consider slavery a great moral wrong, and their
+feeling against it is not evanescent, but eternal. It lies at the very
+foundation of their sense of justice, and it cannot be trifled with. It
+is a great and durable element of popular action, and I think no statesman
+can safely disregard it.
+
+Our Senator also objects that those who oppose him in this matter do not
+entirely agree with one another. He reminds me that in my firm adherence
+to the constitutional rights of the slave States I differ widely from
+others who are cooperating with me in opposing the Nebraska Bill, and he
+says it is not quite fair to oppose him in this variety of ways. He should
+remember that he took us by surprise--astounded us by this measure. We
+were thunderstruck and stunned, and we reeled and fell in utter confusion.
+But we rose, each fighting, grasping whatever he could first reach--a
+scythe, a pitchfork, a chopping-ax, or a butcher's cleaver. We struck in
+the direction of the sound, and we were rapidly closing in upon him. He
+must not think to divert us from our purpose by showing us that our drill,
+our dress, and our weapons are not entirely perfect and uniform. When the
+storm shall be past he shall find us still Americans, no less devoted to
+the continued union and prosperity of the country than heretofore.
+
+Finally, the Judge invokes against me the memory of Clay and Webster, They
+were great men, and men of great deeds. But where have I assailed them?
+For what is it that their lifelong enemy shall now make profit by assuming
+to defend them against me, their lifelong friend? I go against the repeal
+of the Missouri Compromise; did they ever go for it? They went for the
+Compromise of 1850; did I ever go against them? They were greatly devoted
+to the Union; to the small measure of my ability was I ever less so? Clay
+and Webster were dead before this question arose; by what authority shall
+our Senator say they would espouse his side of it if alive? Mr. Clay was
+the leading spirit in making the Missouri Compromise; is it very credible
+that if now alive he would take the lead in the breaking of it? The truth
+is that some support from Whigs is now a necessity with the Judge, and for
+this it is that the names of Clay and Webster are invoked. His old friends
+have deserted him in such numbers as to leave too few to live by. He
+came to his own, and his own received him not; and lo! he turns unto the
+Gentiles.
+
+A word now as to the Judge's desperate assumption that the compromises of
+1850 had no connection with one another; that Illinois came into the Union
+as a slave State, and some other similar ones. This is no other than a
+bold denial of the history of the country. If we do not know that the
+compromises of 1850 were dependent on each other; if we do not know that
+Illinois came into the Union as a free State,--we do not know anything.
+If we do not know these things, we do not know that we ever had a
+Revolutionary War or such a chief as Washington. To deny these things is
+to deny our national axioms,--or dogmas, at least,--and it puts an end to
+all argument. If a man will stand up and assert, and repeat and reassert,
+that two and two do not make four, I know nothing in the power of argument
+that can stop him. I think I can answer the Judge so long as he sticks to
+the premises; but when he flies from them, I cannot work any argument into
+the consistency of a mental gag and actually close his mouth with it. In
+such a case I can only commend him to the seventy thousand answers just in
+from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.
+
+
+
+
+REQUEST FOR SENATE SUPPORT
+
+TO CHARLES HOYT
+
+CLINTON, De WITT Co., Nov. 10, 1854
+
+DEAR SIR:--You used to express a good deal of partiality for me, and if
+you are still so, now is the time. Some friends here are really for me for
+the U.S. Senate, and I should be very grateful if you could make a mark
+for me among your members. Please write me at all events, giving me the
+names, post-offices, and "political position" of members round about you.
+Direct to Springfield.
+
+Let this be confidential.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO T. J. HENDERSON.
+
+SPRINGFIELD,
+
+November 27, 1854 T. J. HENDERSON, ESQ.
+
+MY DEAR SIR:--It has come round that a whig may, by possibility, be
+elected to the United States Senate, and I want the chance of being the
+man. You are a member of the Legislature, and have a vote to give. Think
+it over, and see whether you can do better than to go for me.
+
+Write me, at all events; and let this be confidential.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO J. GILLESPIE.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, Dec. 1, 1854.
+
+DEAR SIR:--I have really got it into my head to try to be United States
+Senator, and, if I could have your support, my chances would be reasonably
+good. But I know, and acknowledge, that you have as just claims to the
+place as I have; and therefore I cannot ask you to yield to me, if you are
+thinking of becoming a candidate, yourself. If, however, you are not, then
+I should like to be remembered affectionately by you; and also to have you
+make a mark for me with the Anti-Nebraska members down your way.
+
+If you know, and have no objection to tell, let me know whether Trumbull
+intends to make a push. If he does, I suppose the two men in St. Clair,
+and one, or both, in Madison, will be for him. We have the Legislature,
+clearly enough, on joint ballot, but the Senate is very close, and Cullom
+told me to-day that the Nebraska men will stave off the election, if they
+can. Even if we get into joint vote, we shall have difficulty to unite our
+forces. Please write me, and let this be confidential.
+
+Your friend, as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+POLITICAL REFERENCES
+
+TO JUSTICE MCLEAN.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, ILL., December 6, 1854.
+
+SIR:--I understand it is in contemplation to displace the present clerk
+and appoint a new one for the Circuit and District Courts of Illinois. I
+am very friendly to the present incumbent, and, both for his own sake and
+that of his family, I wish him to be retained so long as it is possible
+for the court to do so.
+
+In the contingency of his removal, however, I have recommended William
+Butler as his successor, and I do not wish what I write now to be taken as
+any abatement of that recommendation.
+
+William J. Black is also an applicant for the appointment, and I write
+this at the solicitation of his friends to say that he is every way worthy
+of the office, and that I doubt not the conferring it upon him will give
+great satisfaction.
+
+Your ob't servant,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO T. J. HENDERSON.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, December 15. 1854
+
+HON. T. J. HENDERSON.
+
+DEAR SIR:--Yours of the 11th was received last night, and for which I
+thank you. Of course I prefer myself to all others; yet it is neither in
+my heart nor my conscience to say I am any better man than Mr. Williams.
+We shall have a terrible struggle with our adversaries. They are desperate
+and bent on desperate deeds. I accidentally learned of one of the leaders
+here writing to a member south of here, in about the following language:
+
+We are beaten. They have a clean majority of at least nine, on joint
+ballot. They outnumber us, but we must outmanage them. Douglas must be
+sustained. We must elect the Speaker; and we must elect a Nebraska United
+States Senator, or "elect none at all." Similar letters, no doubt, are
+written to every Nebraska member. Be considering how we can best meet, and
+foil, and beat them. I send you, by mail, a copy of my Peoria speech. You
+may have seen it before, or you may not think it worth seeing now.
+
+Do not speak of the Nebraska letter mentioned above; I do not wish it to
+become public, that I received such information.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+1855
+
+
+
+
+LOSS OF PRIMARY FOR SENATOR
+
+TO E. B. WASHBURNE.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, February 9, 1855 MY DEAR SIR:
+
+I began with 44 votes, Shields 41, and Trumbull 5,--yet Trumbull was
+elected. In fact 47 different members voted for me,--getting three new
+ones on the second ballot, and losing four old ones. How came my 47
+to yield to Trumbull's 5? It was Governor Matteson's work. He has been
+secretly a candidate ever since (before, even) the fall election.
+
+All the members round about the canal were Anti-Nebraska, but were
+nevertheless nearly all Democrats and old personal friends of his. His
+plan was to privately impress them with the belief that he was as good
+Anti-Nebraska as any one else--at least could be secured to be so by
+instructions, which could be easily passed.
+
+The Nebraska men, of course, were not for Matteson; but when they found
+they could elect no avowed Nebraska man, they tardily determined to let
+him get whomever of our men he could, by whatever means he could, and ask
+him no questions.
+
+The Nebraska men were very confident of the election of Matteson, though
+denying that he was a candidate, and we very much believing also that they
+would elect him. But they wanted first to make a show of good faith to
+Shields by voting for him a few times, and our secret Matteson men also
+wanted to make a show of good faith by voting with us a few times. So
+we led off. On the seventh ballot, I think, the signal was given to the
+Nebraska men to turn to Matteson, which they acted on to a man, with one
+exception. . . Next ballot the remaining Nebraska man and one pretended
+Anti went over to him, giving him 46. The next still another, giving him
+47, wanting only three of an election. In the meantime our friends, with
+a view of detaining our expected bolters, had been turning from me to
+Trumbull till he had risen to 35 and I had been reduced to 15. These would
+never desert me except by my direction; but I became satisfied that if we
+could prevent Matteson's election one or two ballots more, we could not
+possibly do so a single ballot after my friends should begin to return
+to me from Trumbull. So I determined to strike at once, and accordingly
+advised my remaining friends to go for him, which they did and elected him
+on the tenth ballot.
+
+Such is the way the thing was done. I think you would have done the same
+under the circumstances.
+
+I could have headed off every combination and been elected, had it not
+been for Matteson's double game--and his defeat now gives me more pleasure
+than my own gives me pain. On the whole, it is perhaps as well for our
+general cause that Trumbull is elected. The Nebraska men confess that
+they hate it worse than anything that could have happened. It is a great
+consolation to see them worse whipped than I am.
+
+Yours forever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+RETURN TO LAW PROFESSION
+
+TO SANFORD, PORTER, AND STRIKER, NEW YORK.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, MARCH 10, 1855
+
+GENTLEMEN:--Yours of the 5th is received, as also was that of 15th Dec,
+last, inclosing bond of Clift to Pray. When I received the bond I was
+dabbling in politics, and of course neglecting business. Having since been
+beaten out I have gone to work again.
+
+As I do not practice in Rushville, I to-day open a correspondence with
+Henry E. Dummer, Esq., of Beardstown, Ill., with the view of getting the
+job into his hands. He is a good man if he will undertake it.
+
+Write me whether I shall do this or return the bond to you.
+
+Yours respectfully,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO O. H. BROWNING.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, March 23, 1855.
+
+HON. O. H. BROWNING.
+
+MY DEAR SIR:--Your letter to Judge Logan has been shown to us by him; and,
+with his consent, we answer it. When it became probable that there would
+be a vacancy on the Supreme Bench, public opinion, on this side of the
+river, seemed to be universally directed to Logan as the proper man to
+fill it. I mean public opinion on our side in politics, with very small
+manifestation in any different direction by the other side. The result is,
+that he has been a good deal pressed to allow his name to be used, and he
+has consented to it, provided it can be done with perfect cordiality and
+good feeling on the part of all our own friends. We, the undersigned, are
+very anxious for it; and the more so now that he has been urged, until
+his mind is turned upon the matter. We, therefore are very glad of your
+letter, with the information it brings us, mixed only with a regret that
+we can not elect Logan and Walker both. We shall be glad, if you will
+hoist Logan's name, in your Quincy papers.
+
+Very truly your friends,
+
+
+A. LINCOLN, B. S. EWARDS, JOHN T. STUART.
+
+
+
+
+TO H. C. WHITNEY.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, June 7, 1855.
+
+H. C. WHITNEY, ESQ.
+
+MY DEAR SIR:--Your note containing election news is received; and for
+which I thank you. It is all of no use, however. Logan is worse beaten
+than any other man ever was since elections were invented--beaten more
+than twelve hundred in this county. It is conceded on all hands that the
+Prohibitory law is also beaten.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+RESPONSE TO A PRO-SLAVERY FRIEND
+
+TO JOSHUA. F. SPEED.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, August 24, 1855
+
+DEAR SPEED:--You know what a poor correspondent I am. Ever since I
+received your very agreeable letter of the 22d of May, I have been
+intending to write you an answer to it. You suggest that in political
+action, now, you and I would differ. I suppose we would; not quite as
+much, however, as you may think. You know I dislike slavery, and you fully
+admit the abstract wrong of it. So far there is no cause of difference.
+But you say that sooner than yield your legal right to the slave,
+especially at the bidding of those who are not themselves interested, you
+would see the Union dissolved. I am not aware that any one is bidding you
+yield that right; very certainly I am not. I leave that matter entirely
+to yourself. I also acknowledge your rights and my obligations under the
+Constitution in regard to your slaves. I confess I hate to see the poor
+creatures hunted down and caught and carried back to their stripes and
+unrequited toil; but I bite my lips and keep quiet. In 1841 you and I had
+together a tedious low-water trip on a steamboat from Louisville to St.
+Louis. You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth
+of the Ohio there were on board ten or a dozen slaves shackled together
+with irons. That sight was a continued torment to me, and I see something
+like it every time I touch the Ohio or any other slave border. It is not
+fair for you to assume that I have no interest in a thing which has, and
+continually exercises, the power of making me miserable. You ought rather
+to appreciate how much the great body of the Northern people do crucify
+their feelings, in order to maintain their loyalty to the Constitution and
+the Union. I do oppose the extension of slavery because my judgment and
+feeling so prompt me, and I am under no obligations to the contrary.
+If for this you and I must differ, differ we must. You say, if you were
+President, you would send an army and hang the leaders of the Missouri
+outrages upon the Kansas elections; still, if Kansas fairly votes herself
+a slave State she must be admitted or the Union must be dissolved. But how
+if she votes herself a slave State unfairly, that is, by the very means
+for which you say you would hang men? Must she still be admitted, or the
+Union dissolved? That will be the phase of the question when it first
+becomes a practical one. In your assumption that there may be a fair
+decision of the slavery question in Kansas, I plainly see you and I would
+differ about the Nebraska law. I look upon that enactment not as a law,
+but as a violence from the beginning. It was conceived in violence, is
+maintained in violence, and is being executed in violence. I say it was
+conceived in violence, because the destruction of the Missouri Compromise,
+under the circumstances, was nothing less than violence. It was passed in
+violence because it could not have passed at all but for the votes of
+many members in violence of the known will of their constituents. It is
+maintained in violence, because the elections since clearly demand its
+repeal; and the demand is openly disregarded.
+
+You say men ought to be hung for the way they are executing the law; I say
+the way it is being executed is quite as good as any of its antecedents.
+It is being executed in the precise way which was intended from the first,
+else why does no Nebraska man express astonishment or condemnation? Poor
+Reeder is the only public man who has been silly enough to believe
+that anything like fairness was ever intended, and he has been bravely
+undeceived.
+
+That Kansas will form a slave constitution, and with it will ask to be
+admitted into the Union, I take to be already a settled question, and so
+settled by the very means you so pointedly condemn. By every principle of
+law ever held by any court North or South, every negro taken to Kansas
+is free; yet, in utter disregard of this,--in the spirit of violence
+merely,--that beautiful Legislature gravely passes a law to hang any
+man who shall venture to inform a negro of his legal rights. This is the
+subject and real object of the law. If, like Haman, they should hang upon
+the gallows of their own building, I shall not be among the mourners for
+their fate. In my humble sphere, I shall advocate the restoration of the
+Missouri Compromise so long as Kansas remains a Territory, and when, by
+all these foul means, it seeks to come into the Union as a slave State, I
+shall oppose it. I am very loath in any case to withhold my assent to
+the enjoyment of property acquired or located in good faith; but I do not
+admit that good faith in taking a negro to Kansas to be held in slavery
+is a probability with any man. Any man who has sense enough to be the
+controller of his own property has too much sense to misunderstand the
+outrageous character of the whole Nebraska business. But I digress. In my
+opposition to the admission of Kansas I shall have some company, but we
+may be beaten. If we are, I shall not on that account attempt to dissolve
+the Union. I think it probable, however, we shall be beaten. Standing as
+a unit among yourselves, You can, directly and indirectly, bribe enough
+of our men to carry the day, as you could on the open proposition to
+establish a monarchy. Get hold of some man in the North whose position and
+ability is such that he can make the support of your measure, whatever it
+may be, a Democratic party necessity, and the thing is done. Apropos of
+this, let me tell you an anecdote. Douglas introduced the Nebraska Bill in
+January. In February afterward there was a called session of the Illinois
+Legislature. Of the one hundred members composing the two branches of that
+body, about seventy were Democrats. These latter held a caucus in which
+the Nebraska Bill was talked of, if not formally discussed. It was thereby
+discovered that just three, and no more, were in favor of the measure. In
+a day or two Douglas's orders came on to have resolutions passed approving
+the bill; and they were passed by large majorities!!!! The truth of this
+is vouched for by a bolting Democratic member. The masses, too, Democratic
+as well as Whig, were even nearer unanimous against it; but, as soon
+as the party necessity of supporting it became apparent, the way the
+Democrats began to see the wisdom and justice of it was perfectly
+astonishing.
+
+You say that if Kansas fairly votes herself a free State, as a Christian
+you will rejoice at it. All decent slaveholders talk that way, and I
+do not doubt their candor. But they never vote that way. Although in
+a private letter or conversation you will express your preference that
+Kansas shall be free, you would vote for no man for Congress who would say
+the same thing publicly. No such man could be elected from any district
+in a slave State. You think Stringfellow and company ought to be hung; and
+yet at the next Presidential election you will vote for the exact type and
+representative of Stringfellow. The slave-breeders and slave-traders are
+a small, odious, and detested class among you; and yet in politics they
+dictate the course of all of you, and are as completely your masters as
+you are the master of your own negroes. You inquire where I now stand.
+That is a disputed point. I think I am a Whig; but others say there are
+no Whigs, and that I am an Abolitionist. When I was at Washington, I voted
+for the Wilmot Proviso as good as forty times; and I never heard of any
+one attempting to un-Whig me for that. I now do no more than oppose the
+extension of slavery. I am not a Know-Nothing; that is certain. How could
+I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes be in favor of
+degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to
+me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that "all men
+are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal,
+except negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men
+are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it
+comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make
+no pretense of loving liberty,--to Russia, for instance, where despotism
+can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.
+
+Mary will probably pass a day or two in Louisville in October. My kindest
+regards to Mrs. Speed. On the leading subject of this letter I have more
+of her sympathy than I have of yours; and yet let me say I am,
+
+Your friend forever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+1856
+
+
+
+
+REQUEST FOR A RAILWAY PASS
+
+TO R. P. MORGAN
+
+SPRINGFIELD, February 13, 1856.
+
+R. P. MORGAN, ESQ.:
+
+Says Tom to John, "Here's your old rotten wheelbarrow. I've broke it usin'
+on it. I wish you would mend it, 'case I shall want to borrow it this
+arternoon." Acting on this as a precedent, I say, "Here's your old
+'chalked hat,--I wish you would take it and send me a new one, 'case I
+shall want to use it the first of March."
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+(A 'chalked hat' was the common term, at that time, for a railroad pass.)
+
+
+
+
+SPEECH DELIVERED BEFORE THE FIRST REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION
+
+OF ILLINOIS, HELD AT BLOOMINGTON, ON MAY 29, 1856.
+
+[From the Report by William C. Whitney.]
+
+(Mr. Whitney's notes were made at the time, but not written out until
+1896. He does not claim that the speech, as here reported, is literally
+correct only that he has followed the argument, and that in many cases the
+sentences are as Mr. Lincoln spoke them.)
+
+Mr. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN: I was over at [Cries of "Platform!" "Take
+the platform!"]--I say, that while I was at Danville Court, some of our
+friends of Anti-Nebraska got together in Springfield and elected me as one
+delegate to represent old Sangamon with them in this convention, and I
+am here certainly as a sympathizer in this movement and by virtue of that
+meeting and selection. But we can hardly be called delegates strictly,
+inasmuch as, properly speaking, we represent nobody but ourselves. I think
+it altogether fair to say that we have no Anti-Nebraska party in Sangamon,
+although there is a good deal of Anti-Nebraska feeling there; but I say
+for myself, and I think I may speak also for my colleagues, that we who
+are here fully approve of the platform and of all that has been done [A
+voice, "Yes!"], and even if we are not regularly delegates, it will be
+right for me to answer your call to speak. I suppose we truly stand for
+the public sentiment of Sangamon on the great question of the repeal,
+although we do not yet represent many numbers who have taken a distinct
+position on the question.
+
+We are in a trying time--it ranges above mere party--and this movement
+to call a halt and turn our steps backward needs all the help and good
+counsels it can get; for unless popular opinion makes itself very strongly
+felt, and a change is made in our present course, blood will flow on
+account of Nebraska, and brother's hands will be raised against brother!
+
+[The last sentence was uttered in such an earnest, impressive, if not,
+indeed, tragic, manner, as to make a cold chill creep over me. Others gave
+a similar experience.]
+
+I have listened with great interest to the earnest appeal made to Illinois
+men by the gentleman from Lawrence [James S. Emery] who has just addressed
+us so eloquently and forcibly. I was deeply moved by his statement of the
+wrongs done to free-State men out there. I think it just to say that all
+true men North should sympathize with them, and ought to be willing to
+do any possible and needful thing to right their wrongs. But we must not
+promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot;
+we must be calm and moderate, and consider the whole difficulty, and
+determine what is possible and just. We must not be led by excitement
+and passion to do that which our sober judgments would not approve in our
+cooler moments. We have higher aims; we will have more serious business
+than to dally with temporary measures.
+
+We are here to stand firmly for a principle--to stand firmly for a right.
+We know that great political and moral wrongs are done, and outrages
+committed, and we denounce those wrongs and outrages, although we cannot,
+at present, do much more. But we desire to reach out beyond those personal
+outrages and establish a rule that will apply to all, and so prevent any
+future outrages.
+
+We have seen to-day that every shade of popular opinion is represented
+here, with Freedom, or rather Free Soil, as the basis. We have come
+together as in some sort representatives of popular opinion against the
+extension of slavery into territory now free in fact as well as by law,
+and the pledged word of the statesmen of the nation who are now no more.
+We come--we are here assembled together--to protest as well as we can
+against a great wrong, and to take measures, as well as we now can, to
+make that wrong right; to place the nation, as far as it may be possible
+now, as it was before the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; and the plain
+way to do this is to restore the Compromise, and to demand and determine
+that Kansas shall be free! [Immense applause.] While we affirm, and
+reaffirm, if necessary, our devotion to the principles of the Declaration
+of Independence, let our practical work here be limited to the above. We
+know that there is not a perfect agreement of sentiment here on the public
+questions which might be rightfully considered in this convention, and
+that the indignation which we all must feel cannot be helped; but all of
+us must give up something for the good of the cause. There is one desire
+which is uppermost in the mind, one wish common to us all, to which no
+dissent will be made; and I counsel you earnestly to bury all resentment,
+to sink all personal feeling, make all things work to a common purpose in
+which we are united and agreed about, and which all present will agree is
+absolutely necessary--which must be done by any rightful mode if there
+be such: Slavery must be kept out of Kansas! [Applause.] The test--the
+pinch--is right there. If we lose Kansas to freedom, an example will be
+set which will prove fatal to freedom in the end. We, therefore, in
+the language of the Bible, must "lay the axe to the root of the tree."
+Temporizing will not do longer; now is the time for decision--for firm,
+persistent, resolute action. [Applause.]
+
+The Nebraska Bill, or rather Nebraska law, is not one of wholesome
+legislation, but was and is an act of legislative usurpation, whose
+result, if not indeed intention, is to make slavery national; and unless
+headed off in some effective way, we are in a fair way to see this land
+of boasted freedom converted into a land of slavery in fact. [Sensation.]
+Just open your two eyes, and see if this be not so. I need do no more than
+state, to command universal approval, that almost the entire North, as
+well as a large following in the border States, is radically opposed to
+the planting of slavery in free territory. Probably in a popular vote
+throughout the nation nine tenths of the voters in the free States, and
+at least one-half in the border States, if they could express their
+sentiments freely, would vote NO on such an issue; and it is safe to say
+that two thirds of the votes of the entire nation would be opposed to it.
+And yet, in spite of this overbalancing of sentiment in this free country,
+we are in a fair way to see Kansas present itself for admission as a slave
+State. Indeed, it is a felony, by the local law of Kansas, to deny that
+slavery exists there even now. By every principle of law, a negro in
+Kansas is free; yet the bogus Legislature makes it an infamous crime to
+tell him that he is free!
+
+Statutes of Kansas, 1555, chapter 151, Sec. 12: If any free person, by
+speaking or by writing, assert or maintain that persons have not the right
+to hold slaves in this Territory, or shall introduce into this Territory,
+print, publish, write, circulate . . . any book, paper, magazine,
+pamphlet, or circular containing any denial of the right of persons
+to hold slaves in this Territory such person shall be deemed guilty of
+felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term of not
+less than two years. Sec. 13. No person who is conscientiously opposed
+to holding slaves, or who does not admit the right to hold slaves in this
+Territory, shall sit as a juror on the trial of any prosecution for any
+violation of any Sections of this Act.
+
+The party lash and the fear of ridicule will overawe justice and liberty;
+for it is a singular fact, but none the less a fact, and well known by the
+most common experience, that men will do things under the terror of the
+party lash that they would not on any account or for any consideration
+do otherwise; while men who will march up to the mouth of a loaded cannon
+without shrinking will run from the terrible name of "Abolitionist,"
+even when pronounced by a worthless creature whom they, with good reason,
+despise. For instance--to press this point a little--Judge Douglas
+introduced his Nebraska Bill in January; and we had an extra session of
+our Legislature in the succeeding February, in which were seventy-five
+Democrats; and at a party caucus, fully attended, there were just three
+votes, out of the whole seventy-five, for the measure. But in a few days
+orders came on from Washington, commanding them to approve the measure;
+the party lash was applied, and it was brought up again in caucus,
+and passed by a large majority. The masses were against it, but party
+necessity carried it; and it was passed through the lower house of
+Congress against the will of the people, for the same reason. Here is
+where the greatest danger lies that, while we profess to be a government
+of law and reason, law will give way to violence on demand of this
+awful and crushing power. Like the great Juggernaut--I think that is the
+name--the great idol, it crushes everything that comes in its way, and
+makes a [?]--or, as I read once, in a blackletter law book, "a slave is
+a human being who is legally not a person but a thing." And if the
+safeguards to liberty are broken down, as is now attempted, when they have
+made things of all the free negroes, how long, think you, before they
+will begin to make things of poor white men? [Applause.] Be not deceived.
+Revolutions do not go backward. The founder of the Democratic party
+declared that all men were created equal. His successor in the leadership
+has written the word "white" before men, making it read "all white men are
+created equal." Pray, will or may not the Know-Nothings, if they should
+get in power, add the word "Protestant," making it read "all Protestant
+white men...?"
+
+Meanwhile the hapless negro is the fruitful subject of reprisals in other
+quarters. John Pettit, whom Tom Benton paid his respects to, you will
+recollect, calls the immortal Declaration "a self-evident lie"; while at
+the birthplace of freedom--in the shadow of Bunker Hill and of the "cradle
+of liberty," at the home of the Adamses and Warren and Otis--Choate,
+from our side of the house, dares to fritter away the birthday promise
+of liberty by proclaiming the Declaration to be "a string of glittering
+generalities"; and the Southern Whigs, working hand in hand with
+proslavery Democrats, are making Choate's theories practical. Thomas
+Jefferson, a slaveholder, mindful of the moral element in slavery,
+solemnly declared that he trembled for his country when he remembered that
+God is just; while Judge Douglas, with an insignificant wave of the hand,
+"don't care whether slavery is voted up or voted down." Now, if slavery
+is right, or even negative, he has a right to treat it in this trifling
+manner. But if it is a moral and political wrong, as all Christendom
+considers it to be, how can he answer to God for this attempt to spread
+and fortify it? [Applause.]
+
+But no man, and Judge Douglas no more than any other, can maintain a
+negative, or merely neutral, position on this question; and, accordingly,
+he avows that the Union was made by white men and for white men and their
+descendants. As matter of fact, the first branch of the proposition is
+historically true; the government was made by white men, and they were
+and are the superior race. This I admit. But the corner-stone of the
+government, so to speak, was the declaration that "all men are created
+equal," and all entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
+[Applause.]
+
+And not only so, but the framers of the Constitution were particular
+to keep out of that instrument the word "slave," the reason being that
+slavery would ultimately come to an end, and they did not wish to have any
+reminder that in this free country human beings were ever prostituted to
+slavery. [Applause.] Nor is it any argument that we are superior and the
+negro inferior--that he has but one talent while we have ten. Let the
+negro possess the little he has in independence; if he has but one talent,
+he should be permitted to keep the little he has. [Applause:] But slavery
+will endure no test of reason or logic; and yet its advocates, like
+Douglas, use a sort of bastard logic, or noisy assumption it might better
+be termed, like the above, in order to prepare the mind for the gradual,
+but none the less certain, encroachments of the Moloch of slavery upon the
+fair domain of freedom. But however much you may argue upon it, or smother
+it in soft phrase, slavery can only be maintained by force--by violence.
+The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was by violence. It was a violation
+of both law and the sacred obligations of honor, to overthrow and trample
+under foot a solemn compromise, obtained by the fearful loss to freedom of
+one of the fairest of our Western domains. Congress violated the will and
+confidence of its constituents in voting for the bill; and while public
+sentiment, as shown by the elections of 1854, demanded the restoration of
+this compromise, Congress violated its trust by refusing simply because it
+had the force of numbers to hold on to it. And murderous violence is being
+used now, in order to force slavery on to Kansas; for it cannot be done in
+any other way. [Sensation.]
+
+The necessary result was to establish the rule of violence--force, instead
+of the rule of law and reason; to perpetuate and spread slavery, and
+in time to make it general. We see it at both ends of the line. In
+Washington, on the very spot where the outrage was started, the fearless
+Sumner is beaten to insensibility, and is now slowly dying; while senators
+who claim to be gentlemen and Christians stood by, countenancing the
+act, and even applauding it afterward in their places in the Senate. Even
+Douglas, our man, saw it all and was within helping distance, yet let the
+murderous blows fall unopposed. Then, at the other end of the line, at the
+very time Sumner was being murdered, Lawrence was being destroyed for
+the crime of freedom. It was the most prominent stronghold of liberty in
+Kansas, and must give way to the all-dominating power of slavery. Only
+two days ago, Judge Trumbull found it necessary to propose a bill in the
+Senate to prevent a general civil war and to restore peace in Kansas.
+
+We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect
+some new disaster with each newspaper we read. Are we in a healthful
+political state? Are not the tendencies plain? Do not the signs of the
+times point plainly the way in which we are going? [Sensation.]
+
+In the early days of the Constitution slavery was recognized, by South and
+North alike, as an evil, and the division of sentiment about it was not
+controlled by geographical lines or considerations of climate, but by
+moral and philanthropic views. Petitions for the abolition of slavery were
+presented to the very first Congress by Virginia and Massachusetts alike.
+To show the harmony which prevailed, I will state that a fugitive slave
+law was passed in 1793, with no dissenting voice in the Senate, and
+but seven dissenting votes in the House. It was, however, a wise law,
+moderate, and, under the Constitution, a just one. Twenty-five years
+later, a more stringent law was proposed and defeated; and thirty-five
+years after that, the present law, drafted by Mason of Virginia, was
+passed by Northern votes. I am not, just now, complaining of this law, but
+I am trying to show how the current sets; for the proposed law of 1817 was
+far less offensive than the present one. In 1774 the Continental Congress
+pledged itself, without a dissenting vote, to wholly discontinue the slave
+trade, and to neither purchase nor import any slave; and less than three
+months before the passage of the Declaration of Independence, the same
+Congress which adopted that declaration unanimously resolved "that no
+slave be imported into any of the thirteen United Colonies." [Great
+applause.]
+
+On the second day of July, 1776, the draft of a Declaration of
+Independence was reported to Congress by the committee, and in it the
+slave trade was characterized as "an execrable commerce," as "a piratical
+warfare," as the "opprobrium of infidel powers," and as "a cruel war
+against human nature." [Applause.] All agreed on this except South
+Carolina and Georgia, and in order to preserve harmony, and from the
+necessity of the case, these expressions were omitted. Indeed, abolition
+societies existed as far south as Virginia; and it is a well-known fact
+that Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lee, Henry, Mason, and Pendleton were
+qualified abolitionists, and much more radical on that subject than we
+of the Whig and Democratic parties claim to be to-day. On March 1, 1784,
+Virginia ceded to the confederation all its lands lying northwest of the
+Ohio River. Jefferson, Chase of Maryland, and Howell of Rhode Island, as
+a committee on that and territory thereafter to be ceded, reported that
+no slavery should exist after the year 1800. Had this report been adopted,
+not only the Northwest, but Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi
+also would have been free; but it required the assent of nine States to
+ratify it. North Carolina was divided, and thus its vote was lost; and
+Delaware, Georgia, and New Jersey refused to vote. In point of fact, as it
+was, it was assented to by six States. Three years later on a square vote
+to exclude slavery from the Northwest, only one vote, and that from New
+York, was against it. And yet, thirty-seven years later, five thousand
+citizens of Illinois, out of a voting mass of less than twelve thousand,
+deliberately, after a long and heated contest, voted to introduce slavery
+in Illinois; and, to-day, a large party in the free State of Illinois are
+willing to vote to fasten the shackles of slavery on the fair domain of
+Kansas, notwithstanding it received the dowry of freedom long before its
+birth as a political community. I repeat, therefore, the question: Is it
+not plain in what direction we are tending? [Sensation.] In the colonial
+time, Mason, Pendleton, and Jefferson were as hostile to slavery in
+Virginia as Otis, Ames, and the Adamses were in Massachusetts; and
+Virginia made as earnest an effort to get rid of it as old Massachusetts
+did. But circumstances were against them and they failed; but not that the
+good will of its leading men was lacking. Yet within less than fifty years
+Virginia changed its tune, and made negro-breeding for the cotton and
+sugar States one of its leading industries. [Laughter and applause.]
+
+In the Constitutional Convention, George Mason of Virginia made a more
+violent abolition speech than my friends Lovejoy or Codding would desire
+to make here to-day--a speech which could not be safely repeated anywhere
+on Southern soil in this enlightened year. But, while there were some
+differences of opinion on this subject even then, discussion was allowed;
+but as you see by the Kansas slave code, which, as you know, is the
+Missouri slave code, merely ferried across the river, it is a felony
+to even express an opinion hostile to that foul blot in the land of
+Washington and the Declaration of Independence. [Sensation.]
+
+In Kentucky--my State--in 1849, on a test vote, the mighty influence
+of Henry Clay and many other good then there could not get a symptom of
+expression in favor of gradual emancipation on a plain issue of marching
+toward the light of civilization with Ohio and Illinois; but the State of
+Boone and Hardin and Henry Clay, with a nigger under each arm, took the
+black trail toward the deadly swamps of barbarism. Is there--can there
+be--any doubt about this thing? And is there any doubt that we must all
+lay aside our prejudices and march, shoulder to shoulder, in the great
+army of Freedom? [Applause.]
+
+Every Fourth of July our young orators all proclaim this to be "the land
+of the free and the home of the brave!" Well, now, when you orators get
+that off next year, and, may be, this very year, how would you like some
+old grizzled farmer to get up in the grove and deny it? [Laughter.] How
+would you like that? But suppose Kansas comes in as a slave State, and
+all the "border ruffians" have barbecues about it, and free-State men come
+trailing back to the dishonored North, like whipped dogs with their tails
+between their legs, it is--ain't it?--evident that this is no more the
+"land of the free"; and if we let it go so, we won't dare to say "home of
+the brave" out loud. [Sensation and confusion.]
+
+Can any man doubt that, even in spite of the people's will, slavery will
+triumph through violence, unless that will be made manifest and enforced?
+Even Governor Reeder claimed at the outset that the contest in Kansas was
+to be fair, but he got his eyes open at last; and I believe that, as a
+result of this moral and physical violence, Kansas will soon apply for
+admission as a slave State. And yet we can't mistake that the people
+don't want it so, and that it is a land which is free both by natural
+and political law. No law, is free law! Such is the understanding of all
+Christendom. In the Somerset case, decided nearly a century ago, the great
+Lord Mansfield held that slavery was of such a nature that it must take
+its rise in positive (as distinguished from natural) law; and that in no
+country or age could it be traced back to any other source. Will some
+one please tell me where is the positive law that establishes slavery in
+Kansas? [A voice: "The bogus laws."] Aye, the bogus laws! And, on the same
+principle, a gang of Missouri horse-thieves could come into Illinois and
+declare horse-stealing to be legal [Laughter], and it would be just as
+legal as slavery is in Kansas. But by express statute, in the land of
+Washington and Jefferson, we may soon be brought face to face with the
+discreditable fact of showing to the world by our acts that we prefer
+slavery to freedom--darkness to light! [Sensation.]
+
+It is, I believe, a principle in law that when one party to a contract
+violates it so grossly as to chiefly destroy the object for which it is
+made, the other party may rescind it. I will ask Browning if that ain't
+good law. [Voices: "Yes!"] Well, now if that be right, I go for rescinding
+the whole, entire Missouri Compromise and thus turning Missouri into a
+free State; and I should like to know the difference--should like for
+any one to point out the difference--between our making a free State of
+Missouri and their making a slave State of Kansas. [Great applause.] There
+ain't one bit of difference, except that our way would be a great mercy
+to humanity. But I have never said, and the Whig party has never said, and
+those who oppose the Nebraska Bill do not as a body say, that they
+have any intention of interfering with slavery in the slave States. Our
+platform says just the contrary. We allow slavery to exist in the slave
+States, not because slavery is right or good, but from the necessities of
+our Union. We grant a fugitive slave law because it is so "nominated in
+the bond"; because our fathers so stipulated--had to--and we are bound to
+carry out this agreement. But they did not agree to introduce slavery in
+regions where it did not previously exist. On the contrary, they said by
+their example and teachings that they did not deem it expedient--did n't
+consider it right--to do so; and it is wise and right to do just as
+they did about it. [Voices: "Good!"] And that it what we propose--not to
+interfere with slavery where it exists (we have never tried to do it),
+and to give them a reasonable and efficient fugitive slave law. [A voice:
+"No!"] I say YES! [Applause.] It was part of the bargain, and I 'm for
+living up to it; but I go no further; I'm not bound to do more, and I
+won't agree any further. [Great applause.]
+
+We, here in Illinois, should feel especially proud of the provision of
+the Missouri Compromise excluding slavery from what is now Kansas; for an
+Illinois man, Jesse B. Thomas, was its father. Henry Clay, who is credited
+with the authorship of the Compromise in general terms, did not even vote
+for that provision, but only advocated the ultimate admission by a second
+compromise; and Thomas was, beyond all controversy, the real author of the
+"slavery restriction" branch of the Compromise. To show the generosity of
+the Northern members toward the Southern side: on a test vote to exclude
+slavery from Missouri, ninety voted not to exclude, and eighty-seven to
+exclude, every vote from the slave States being ranged with the former and
+fourteen votes from the free States, of whom seven were from New England
+alone; while on a vote to exclude slavery from what is now Kansas, the
+vote was one hundred and thirty-four for, to forty-two against. The
+scheme, as a whole, was, of course, a Southern triumph. It is idle to
+contend otherwise, as is now being done by the Nebraskites; it was
+so shown by the votes and quite as emphatically by the expressions of
+representative men. Mr. Lowndes of South Carolina was never known to
+commit a political mistake; his was the great judgment of that section;
+and he declared that this measure "would restore tranquillity to the
+country--a result demanded by every consideration of discretion, of
+moderation, of wisdom, and of virtue." When the measure came before
+President Monroe for his approval, he put to each member of his cabinet
+this question: "Has Congress the constitutional power to prohibit slavery
+in a Territory?" And John C. Calhoun and William H. Crawford from the
+South, equally with John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Rush, and Smith
+Thompson from the North, alike answered, "Yes!" without qualification or
+equivocation; and this measure, of so great consequence to the South, was
+passed; and Missouri was, by means of it, finally enabled to knock at the
+door of the Republic for an open passage to its brood of slaves. And, in
+spite of this, Freedom's share is about to be taken by violence--by the
+force of misrepresentative votes, not called for by the popular will.
+What name can I, in common decency, give to this wicked transaction?
+[Sensation.]
+
+But even then the contest was not over; for when the Missouri constitution
+came before Congress for its approval, it forbade any free negro or
+mulatto from entering the State. In short, our Illinois "black laws" were
+hidden away in their constitution [Laughter], and the controversy was thus
+revived. Then it was that Mr. Clay's talents shone out conspicuously, and
+the controversy that shook the union to its foundation was finally settled
+to the satisfaction of the conservative parties on both sides of the line,
+though not to the extremists on either, and Missouri was admitted by the
+small majority of six in the lower House. How great a majority, do you
+think, would have been given had Kansas also been secured for slavery?
+[A voice: "A majority the other way."] "A majority the other way," is
+answered. Do you think it would have been safe for a Northern man to have
+confronted his constituents after having voted to consign both
+Missouri and Kansas to hopeless slavery? And yet this man Douglas, who
+misrepresents his constituents and who has exerted his highest talents in
+that direction, will be carried in triumph through the State and hailed
+with honor while applauding that act. [Three groans for "Dug!"] And this
+shows whither we are tending. This thing of slavery is more powerful than
+its supporters--even than the high priests that minister at its altar.
+It debauches even our greatest men. It gathers strength, like a rolling
+snowball, by its own infamy. Monstrous crimes are committed in its name by
+persons collectively which they would not dare to commit as individuals.
+Its aggressions and encroachments almost surpass belief. In a despotism,
+one might not wonder to see slavery advance steadily and remorselessly
+into new dominions; but is it not wonderful, is it not even alarming, to
+see its steady advance in a land dedicated to the proposition that "all
+men are created equal"? [Sensation.]
+
+It yields nothing itself; it keeps all it has, and gets all it can
+besides. It really came dangerously near securing Illinois in 1824; it
+did get Missouri in 1821. The first proposition was to admit what is now
+Arkansas and Missouri as one slave State. But the territory was divided
+and Arkansas came in, without serious question, as a slave State; and
+afterwards Missouri, not, as a sort of equality, free, but also as a slave
+State. Then we had Florida and Texas; and now Kansas is about to be forced
+into the dismal procession. [Sensation.] And so it is wherever you look.
+We have not forgotten--it is but six years since--how dangerously near
+California came to being a slave State. Texas is a slave State, and four
+other slave States may be carved from its vast domain. And yet, in the
+year 1829, slavery was abolished throughout that vast region by a royal
+decree of the then sovereign of Mexico. Will you please tell me by what
+right slavery exists in Texas to-day? By the same right as, and no higher
+or greater than, slavery is seeking dominion in Kansas: by political
+force--peaceful, if that will suffice; by the torch (as in Kansas) and the
+bludgeon (as in the Senate chamber), if required. And so history repeats
+itself; and even as slavery has kept its course by craft, intimidation,
+and violence in the past, so it will persist, in my judgment, until met
+and dominated by the will of a people bent on its restriction.
+
+We have, this very afternoon, heard bitter denunciations of Brooks in
+Washington, and Titus, Stringfellow, Atchison, Jones, and Shannon in
+Kansas--the battle-ground of slavery. I certainly am not going to advocate
+or shield them; but they and their acts are but the necessary outcome of
+the Nebraska law. We should reserve our highest censure for the authors
+of the mischief, and not for the catspaws which they use. I believe it was
+Shakespeare who said, "Where the offence lies, there let the axe fall";
+and, in my opinion, this man Douglas and the Northern men in Congress
+who advocate "Nebraska" are more guilty than a thousand Joneses and
+Stringfellows, with all their murderous practices, can be. [Applause.]
+
+We have made a good beginning here to-day. As our Methodist friends would
+say, "I feel it is good to be here." While extremists may find some fault
+with the moderation of our platform, they should recollect that "the
+battle is not always to the strong, nor the race to the swift." In grave
+emergencies, moderation is generally safer than radicalism; and as this
+struggle is likely to be long and earnest, we must not, by our action,
+repel any who are in sympathy with us in the main, but rather win all that
+we can to our standard. We must not belittle nor overlook the facts of our
+condition--that we are new and comparatively weak, while our enemies are
+entrenched and relatively strong. They have the administration and the
+political power; and, right or wrong, at present they have the numbers.
+Our friends who urge an appeal to arms with so much force and eloquence
+should recollect that the government is arrayed against us, and that the
+numbers are now arrayed against us as well; or, to state it nearer to the
+truth, they are not yet expressly and affirmatively for us; and we should
+repel friends rather than gain them by anything savoring of revolutionary
+methods. As it now stands, we must appeal to the sober sense and
+patriotism of the people. We will make converts day by day; we will grow
+strong by calmness and moderation; we will grow strong by the violence and
+injustice of our adversaries. And, unless truth be a mockery and justice
+a hollow lie, we will be in the majority after a while, and then the
+revolution which we will accomplish will be none the less radical from
+being the result of pacific measures. The battle of freedom is to be
+fought out on principle. Slavery is a violation of the eternal right. We
+have temporized with it from the necessities of our condition; but as sure
+as God reigns and school children read, THAT BLACK FOUL LIE CAN NEVER
+BE CONSECRATED INTO GOD'S HALLOWED TRUTH! [Immense applause lasting some
+time.]
+
+One of our greatest difficulties is, that men who know that slavery is a
+detestable crime and ruinous to the nation are compelled, by our peculiar
+condition and other circumstances, to advocate it concretely, though
+damning it in the raw. Henry Clay was a brilliant example of this
+tendency; others of our purest statesmen are compelled to do so; and thus
+slavery secures actual support from those who detest it at heart. Yet
+Henry Clay perfected and forced through the compromise which secured to
+slavery a great State as well as a political advantage. Not that he hated
+slavery less, but that he loved the whole Union more. As long as slavery
+profited by his great compromise, the hosts of proslavery could not
+sufficiently cover him with praise; but now that this compromise stands in
+their way--
+
+   "....they never mention him,
+   His name is never heard:
+   Their lips are now forbid to speak
+   That once familiar word."
+
+They have slaughtered one of his most cherished measures, and his ghost
+would arise to rebuke them. [Great applause.]
+
+Now, let us harmonize, my friends, and appeal to the moderation and
+patriotism of the people: to the sober second thought; to the awakened
+public conscience. The repeal of the sacred Missouri Compromise has
+installed the weapons of violence: the bludgeon, the incendiary torch, the
+death-dealing rifle, the bristling cannon--the weapons of kingcraft, of
+the inquisition, of ignorance, of barbarism, of oppression. We see its
+fruits in the dying bed of the heroic Sumner; in the ruins of the "Free
+State" hotel; in the smoking embers of the Herald of Freedom; in the
+free-State Governor of Kansas chained to a stake on freedom's soil like a
+horse-thief, for the crime of freedom. [Applause.] We see it in Christian
+statesmen, and Christian newspapers, and Christian pulpits applauding the
+cowardly act of a low bully, WHO CRAWLED UPON HIS VICTIM BEHIND HIS BACK
+AND DEALT THE DEADLY BLOW. [Sensation and applause.] We note our political
+demoralization in the catch-words that are coming into such common use;
+on the one hand, "freedom-shriekers," and sometimes "freedom-screechers"
+[Laughter], and, on the other hand, "border-ruffians," and that fully
+deserved. And the significance of catch-words cannot pass unheeded, for
+they constitute a sign of the times. Everything in this world "jibes" in
+with everything else, and all the fruits of this Nebraska Bill are like
+the poisoned source from which they come. I will not say that we may not
+sooner or later be compelled to meet force by force; but the time has not
+yet come, and, if we are true to ourselves, may never come. Do not mistake
+that the ballot is stronger than the bullet. Therefore let the legions
+of slavery use bullets; but let us wait patiently till November and fire
+ballots at them in return; and by that peaceful policy I believe we shall
+ultimately win. [Applause.]
+
+It was by that policy that here in Illinois the early fathers fought the
+good fight and gained the victory. In 1824 the free men of our State, led
+by Governor Coles (who was a native of Maryland and President Madison's
+private secretary), determined that those beautiful groves should never
+re-echo the dirge of one who has no title to himself. By their resolute
+determination, the winds that sweep across our broad prairies shall never
+cool the parched brow, nor shall the unfettered streams that bring joy and
+gladness to our free soil water the tired feet, of a slave; but so long as
+those heavenly breezes and sparkling streams bless the land, or the groves
+and their fragrance or memory remain, the humanity to which they minister
+SHALL BE FOREVER FREE! [Great applause] Palmer, Yates, Williams, Browning,
+and some more in this convention came from Kentucky to Illinois (instead
+of going to Missouri), not only to better their conditions, but also to
+get away from slavery. They have said so to me, and it is understood among
+us Kentuckians that we don't like it one bit. Now, can we, mindful of the
+blessings of liberty which the early men of Illinois left to us, refuse a
+like privilege to the free men who seek to plant Freedom's banner on our
+Western outposts? ["No!" "No!"] Should we not stand by our neighbors who
+seek to better their conditions in Kansas and Nebraska? ["Yes!" "Yes!"]
+Can we as Christian men, and strong and free ourselves, wield the sledge
+or hold the iron which is to manacle anew an already oppressed race?
+["No!" "No!"] "Woe unto them," it is written, "that decree unrighteous
+decrees and that write grievousness which they have prescribed." Can we
+afford to sin any more deeply against human liberty? ["No!" "No!"]
+
+One great trouble in the matter is, that slavery is an insidious and
+crafty power, and gains equally by open violence of the brutal as well as
+by sly management of the peaceful. Even after the Ordinance of 1787, the
+settlers in Indiana and Illinois (it was all one government then) tried to
+get Congress to allow slavery temporarily, and petitions to that end were
+sent from Kaskaskia, and General Harrison, the Governor, urged it from
+Vincennes, the capital. If that had succeeded, good-bye to liberty here.
+But John Randolph of Virginia made a vigorous report against it; and
+although they persevered so well as to get three favorable reports for it,
+yet the United States Senate, with the aid of some slave States, finally
+squelched if for good. [Applause.] And that is why this hall is to-day a
+temple for free men instead of a negro livery-stable. [Great applause and
+laughter.] Once let slavery get planted in a locality, by ever so weak or
+doubtful a title, and in ever so small numbers, and it is like the Canada
+thistle or Bermuda grass--you can't root it out. You yourself may detest
+slavery; but your neighbor has five or six slaves, and he is an excellent
+neighbor, or your son has married his daughter, and they beg you to help
+save their property, and you vote against your interests and principle to
+accommodate a neighbor, hoping that your vote will be on the losing side.
+And others do the same; and in those ways slavery gets a sure foothold.
+And when that is done the whole mighty Union--the force of the nation--is
+committed to its support. And that very process is working in Kansas
+to-day. And you must recollect that the slave property is worth a billion
+of dollars; while free-State men must work for sentiment alone. Then there
+are "blue lodges"--as they call them--everywhere doing their secret and
+deadly work.
+
+It is a very strange thing, and not solvable by any moral law that I know
+of, that if a man loses his horse, the whole country will turn out to
+help hang the thief; but if a man but a shade or two darker than I am is
+himself stolen, the same crowd will hang one who aids in restoring him to
+liberty. Such are the inconsistencies of slavery, where a horse is more
+sacred than a man; and the essence of squatter or popular sovereignty--I
+don't care how you call it--is that if one man chooses to make a slave of
+another, no third man shall be allowed to object. And if you can do this
+in free Kansas, and it is allowed to stand, the next thing you will see is
+shiploads of negroes from Africa at the wharf at Charleston, for one thing
+is as truly lawful as the other; and these are the bastard notions we have
+got to stamp out, else they will stamp us out. [Sensation and applause.]
+
+Two years ago, at Springfield, Judge Douglas avowed that Illinois came
+into the Union as a slave State, and that slavery was weeded out by
+the operation of his great, patent, everlasting principle of "popular
+sovereignty." [Laughter.] Well, now, that argument must be answered, for
+it has a little grain of truth at the bottom. I do not mean that it is
+true in essence, as he would have us believe. It could not be essentially
+true if the Ordinance of '87 was valid. But, in point of fact, there
+were some degraded beings called slaves in Kaskaskia and the other French
+settlements when our first State constitution was adopted; that is a fact,
+and I don't deny it. Slaves were brought here as early as 1720, and were
+kept here in spite of the Ordinance of 1787 against it. But slavery did
+not thrive here. On the contrary, under the influence of the ordinance the
+number decreased fifty-one from 1810 to 1820; while under the influence of
+squatter sovereignty, right across the river in Missouri, they increased
+seven thousand two hundred and eleven in the same time; and slavery
+finally faded out in Illinois, under the influence of the law of freedom,
+while it grew stronger and stronger in Missouri, under the law or practice
+of "popular sovereignty." In point of fact there were but one hundred and
+seventeen slaves in Illinois one year after its admission, or one to every
+four hundred and seventy of its population; or, to state it in another
+way, if Illinois was a slave State in 1820, so were New York and New
+Jersey much greater slave States from having had greater numbers, slavery
+having been established there in very early times. But there is this vital
+difference between all these States and the Judge's Kansas experiment:
+that they sought to disestablish slavery which had been already
+established, while the Judge seeks, so far as he can, to disestablish
+freedom, which had been established there by the Missouri Compromise.
+[Voices: "Good!"]
+
+The Union is under-going a fearful strain; but it is a stout old ship, and
+has weathered many a hard blow, and "the stars in their courses," aye, an
+invisible Power, greater than the puny efforts of men, will fight for us.
+But we ourselves must not decline the burden of responsibility, nor take
+counsel of unworthy passions. Whatever duty urges us to do or to omit must
+be done or omitted; and the recklessness with which our adversaries break
+the laws, or counsel their violation, should afford no example for us.
+Therefore, let us revere the Declaration of Independence; let us continue
+to obey the Constitution and the laws; let us keep step to the music of
+the Union. Let us draw a cordon, so to speak, around the slave States, and
+the hateful institution, like a reptile poisoning itself, will perish by
+its own infamy. [Applause.]
+
+But we cannot be free men if this is, by our national choice, to be a
+land of slavery. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for
+themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.[Loud
+applause.]
+
+Did you ever, my friends, seriously reflect upon the speed with which we
+are tending downwards? Within the memory of men now present the leading
+statesman of Virginia could make genuine, red-hot abolitionist speeches in
+old Virginia! and, as I have said, now even in "free Kansas" it is a crime
+to declare that it is "free Kansas." The very sentiments that I and others
+have just uttered would entitle us, and each of us, to the ignominy and
+seclusion of a dungeon; and yet I suppose that, like Paul, we were "free
+born." But if this thing is allowed to continue, it will be but one step
+further to impress the same rule in Illinois. [Sensation.]
+
+The conclusion of all is, that we must restore the Missouri Compromise.
+We must highly resolve that Kansas must be free! [Great applause.] We
+must reinstate the birthday promise of the Republic; we must reaffirm the
+Declaration of Independence; we must make good in essence as well as in
+form Madison's avowal that "the word slave ought not to appear in the
+Constitution"; and we must even go further, and decree that only local
+law, and not that time-honored instrument, shall shelter a slaveholder. We
+must make this a land of liberty in fact, as it is in name. But in seeking
+to attain these results--so indispensable if the liberty which is our
+pride and boast shall endure--we will be loyal to the Constitution and
+to the "flag of our Union," and no matter what our grievance--even though
+Kansas shall come in as a slave State; and no matter what theirs--even if
+we shall restore the compromise--WE WILL SAY TO THE SOUTHERN DISUNIONISTS,
+WE WON'T GO OUT OF THE UNION, AND YOU SHAN'T!
+
+[This was the climax; the audience rose to its feet en masse, applauded,
+stamped, waved handkerchiefs, threw hats in the air, and ran riot for
+several minutes. The arch-enchanter who wrought this transformation
+looked, meanwhile, like the personification of political justice.]
+
+But let us, meanwhile, appeal to the sense and patriotism of the people,
+and not to their prejudices; let us spread the floods of enthusiasm here
+aroused all over these vast prairies, so suggestive of freedom. Let us
+commence by electing the gallant soldier Governor (Colonel) Bissell
+who stood for the honor of our State alike on the plains and amidst the
+chaparral of Mexico and on the floor of Congress, while he defied the
+Southern Hotspur; and that will have a greater moral effect than all the
+border ruffians can accomplish in all their raids on Kansas. There is both
+a power and a magic in popular opinion. To that let us now appeal;
+and while, in all probability, no resort to force will be needed, our
+moderation and forbearance will stand US in good stead when, if ever, WE
+MUST MAKE AN APPEAL TO BATTLE AND TO THE GOD OF HOSTS! [Immense applause
+and a rush for the orator.]
+
+One can realize with this ability to move people's minds that the Southern
+Conspiracy were right to hate this man. He, better than any at the time
+was able to uncover their stratagems and tear down their sophisms and
+contradictions.
+
+
+
+
+POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE
+
+TO W. C. WHITNEY.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, July 9, 1856.
+
+DEAR WHITNEY:--I now expect to go to Chicago on the 15th, and I probably
+shall remain there or thereabouts for about two weeks.
+
+It turned me blind when I first heard Swett was beaten and Lovejoy
+nominated; but, after much reflection, I really believe it is best to let
+it stand. This, of course, I wish to be confidential.
+
+Lamon did get your deeds. I went with him to the office, got them, and put
+them in his hands myself.
+
+Yours very truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+ON OUT-OF-STATE CAMPAIGNERS
+
+TO WILLIAM GRIMES.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, July 12, 1856
+
+Your's of the 29th of June was duly received. I did not answer it because
+it plagued me. This morning I received another from Judd and Peck, written
+by consultation with you. Now let me tell you why I am plagued:
+
+1. I can hardly spare the time.
+
+2. I am superstitious. I have scarcely known a party preceding an election
+to call in help from the neighboring States but they lost the State. Last
+fall, our friends had Wade, of Ohio, and others, in Maine; and they lost
+the State. Last spring our adversaries had New Hampshire full of South
+Carolinians, and they lost the State. And so, generally, it seems to stir
+up more enemies than friends.
+
+Have the enemy called in any foreign help? If they have a foreign champion
+there I should have no objection to drive a nail in his track. I shall
+reach Chicago on the night of the 15th, to attend to a little business
+in court. Consider the things I have suggested, and write me at Chicago.
+Especially write me whether Browning consents to visit you.
+
+Your obedient servant,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN SPEECH
+
+FRAGMENT OF SPEECH AT GALENA, ILLINOIS, IN THE FREMONT CAMPAIGN,
+
+AUGUST 1, 1856.
+
+You further charge us with being disunionists. If you mean that it is
+our aim to dissolve the Union, I for myself answer that it is untrue; for
+those who act with me I answer that it is untrue. Have you heard us assert
+that as our aim? Do you really believe that such is our aim? Do you find
+it in our platform, our speeches, our conventions, or anywhere? If not,
+withdraw the charge.
+
+But you may say that, though it is not our aim, it will be the result
+if we succeed, and that we are therefore disunionists in fact. This is a
+grave charge you make against us, and we certainly have a right to demand
+that you specify in what way we are to dissolve the Union. How are we to
+effect this?
+
+The only specification offered is volunteered by Mr. Fillmore in
+his Albany speech. His charge is that if we elect a President and
+Vice-President both from the free States, it will dissolve the Union.
+This is open folly. The Constitution provides that the President and
+Vice-President of the United States shall be of different States, but says
+nothing as to the latitude and longitude of those States. In 1828 Andrew
+Jackson, of Tennessee, and John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, were
+elected President and Vice-President, both from slave States; but no one
+thought of dissolving the Union then on that account. In 1840 Harrison, of
+Ohio, and Tyler, of Virginia, were elected. In 1841 Harrison died and John
+Tyler succeeded to the Presidency, and William R. King, of Alabama, was
+elected acting Vice-President by the Senate; but no one supposed that the
+Union was in danger. In fact, at the very time Mr. Fillmore uttered this
+idle charge, the state of things in the United States disproved it. Mr.
+Pierce, of New Hampshire, and Mr. Bright, of Indiana, both from free
+States, are President and Vice-President, and the Union stands and will
+stand. You do not pretend that it ought to dissolve the Union, and the
+facts show that it won't; therefore the charge may be dismissed without
+further consideration.
+
+No other specification is made, and the only one that could be made is
+that the restoration of the restriction of 1820, making the United States
+territory free territory, would dissolve the Union. Gentlemen, it will
+require a decided majority to pass such an act. We, the majority, being
+able constitutionally to do all that we purpose, would have no desire to
+dissolve the Union. Do you say that such restriction of slavery would
+be unconstitutional, and that some of the States would not submit to its
+enforcement? I grant you that an unconstitutional act is not a law; but
+I do not ask and will not take your construction of the Constitution.
+The Supreme Court of the United States is the tribunal to decide such a
+question, and we will submit to its decisions; and if you do also,
+there will be an end of the matter. Will you? If not, who are the
+disunionists--you or we? We, the majority, would not strive to dissolve
+the Union; and if any attempt is made, it must be by you, who so loudly
+stigmatize us as disunionists. But the Union, in any event, will not be
+dissolved. We don't want to dissolve it, and if you attempt it we won't
+let you. With the purse and sword, the army and navy and treasury, in our
+hands and at our command, you could not do it. This government would be
+very weak indeed if a majority with a disciplined army and navy and
+a well-filled treasury could not preserve itself when attacked by an
+unarmed, undisciplined, unorganized minority. All this talk about the
+dissolution of the Union is humbug, nothing but folly. We do not want to
+dissolve the Union; you shall not.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE DANGER OF THIRD-PARTIES
+
+TO JOHN BENNETT.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, AUG. 4, 1856
+
+DEAR SIR:--I understand you are a Fillmore man. If, as between Fremont
+and Buchanan, you really prefer the election of Buchanan, then burn this
+without reading a line further. But if you would like to defeat Buchanan
+and his gang, allow me a word with you: Does any one pretend that Fillmore
+can carry the vote of this State? I have not heard a single man pretend
+so. Every vote taken from Fremont and given to Fillmore is just so much
+in favor of Buchanan. The Buchanan men see this; and hence their great
+anxiety in favor of the Fillmore movement. They know where the shoe
+pinches. They now greatly prefer having a man of your character go for
+Fillmore than for Buchanan because they expect several to go with you, who
+would go for Fremont if you were to go directly for Buchanan.
+
+I think I now understand the relative strength of the three parties in
+this State as well as any one man does, and my opinion is that to-day
+Buchanan has alone 85,000, Fremont 78,000, and Fillmore 21,000.
+
+This gives B. the State by 7000 and leaves him in the minority of the
+whole 14,000.
+
+Fremont and Fillmore men being united on Bissell, as they already are,
+he cannot be beaten. This is not a long letter, but it contains the whole
+story.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO JESSE K. DUBOIS.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, Aug. 19, 1856.
+
+DEAR DUBOIS: Your letter on the same sheet with Mr. Miller's is just
+received. I have been absent four days. I do not know when your court
+sits.
+
+Trumbull has written the committee here to have a set of appointments
+made for him commencing here in Springfield, on the 11th of Sept., and
+to extend throughout the south half of the State. When he goes to
+Lawrenceville, as he will, I will strain every nerve to be with you and
+him. More than that I cannot promise now.
+
+Yours as truly as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO HARRISON MALTBY.
+
+[Confidential]
+
+SPRINGFIELD, September 8, 1856.
+
+DEAR SIR:--I understand you are a Fillmore man. Let me prove to you that
+every vote withheld from Fremont and given to Fillmore in this State
+actually lessens Fillmore's chance of being President. Suppose Buchanan
+gets all the slave States and Pennsylvania, and any other one State
+besides; then he is elected, no matter who gets all the rest. But suppose
+Fillmore gets the two slave States of Maryland and Kentucky; then Buchanan
+is not elected; Fillmore goes into the House of Representatives, and may
+be made President by a compromise. But suppose, again, Fillmore's friends
+throw away a few thousand votes on him in Indiana and Illinois; it will
+inevitably give these States to Buchanan, which will more than compensate
+him for the loss of Maryland and Kentucky, will elect him, and leave
+Fillmore no chance in the House of Representatives or out of it.
+
+This is as plain as adding up the weight of three small hogs. As Mr.
+Fillmore has no possible chance to carry Illinois for himself, it is
+plainly to his interest to let Fremont take it, and thus keep it out of
+the hands of Buchanan. Be not deceived. Buchanan is the hard horse to beat
+in this race. Let him have Illinois, and nothing can beat him; and he will
+get Illinois if men persist in throwing away votes upon Mr. Fillmore.
+Does some one persuade you that Mr. Fillmore can carry Illinois? Nonsense!
+There are over seventy newspapers in Illinois opposing Buchanan, only
+three or four of which support Mr. Fillmore, all the rest going for
+Fremont. Are not these newspapers a fair index of the proportion of the
+votes? If not, tell me why.
+
+Again, of these three or four Fillmore newspapers, two, at least, are
+supported in part by the Buchanan men, as I understand. Do not they know
+where the shoe pinches? They know the Fillmore movement helps them, and
+therefore they help it. Do think these things over, and then act according
+to your judgment.
+
+Yours very truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO Dr. R. BOAL.
+
+Sept. 14, 1856.
+
+Dr. R. BOAL, Lacon, Ill.
+
+MY DEAR SIR:--Yours of the 8th inviting me to be with [you] at Lacon on
+the 30th is received. I feel that I owe you and our friends of Marshall a
+good deal, and I will come if I can; and if I do not get there, it will be
+because I shall think my efforts are now needed farther south.
+
+Present my regards to Mrs. Boal, and believe [me], as ever,
+
+Your friend,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO HENRY O'CONNER, MUSCATINE, IOWA.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, Sept. 14, 1856.
+
+DEAR SIR:--Yours, inviting me to attend a mass-meeting on the 23d inst.,
+is received. It would be very pleasant to strike hands with the Fremonters
+of Iowa, who have led the van so splendidly, in this grand charge which
+we hope and believe will end in a most glorious victory. All thanks, all
+honor to Iowa! But Iowa is out of all danger, and it is no time for us,
+when the battle still rages, to pay holiday visits to Iowa. I am sure you
+will excuse me for remaining in Illinois, where much hard work is still to
+be done.
+
+Yours very truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+AFTER THE DEMOCRATIC VICTORY OF BUCHANAN
+
+FRAGMENT OF SPEECH AT A REPUBLICAN BANQUET IN CHICAGO, DECEMBER 10, 1856.
+
+We have another annual Presidential message. Like a rejected lover making
+merry at the wedding of his rival, the President felicitates himself
+hugely over the late Presidential election. He considers the result a
+signal triumph of good principles and good men, and a very pointed rebuke
+of bad ones. He says the people did it. He forgets that the "people," as
+he complacently calls only those who voted for Buchanan, are in a minority
+of the whole people by about four hundred thousand votes--one full tenth
+of all the votes. Remembering this, he might perceive that the "rebuke"
+may not be quite as durable as he seems to think--that the majority may
+not choose to remain permanently rebuked by that minority.
+
+The President thinks the great body of us Fremonters, being ardently
+attached to liberty, in the abstract, were duped by a few wicked and
+designing men. There is a slight difference of opinion on this. We think
+he, being ardently attached to the hope of a second term, in the concrete,
+was duped by men who had liberty every way. He is the cat's-paw. By much
+dragging of chestnuts from the fire for others to eat, his claws are burnt
+off to the gristle, and he is thrown aside as unfit for further use.
+As the fool said of King Lear, when his daughters had turned him out of
+doors, "He 's a shelled peascod" ("That 's a sheal'd peascod").
+
+So far as the President charges us "with a desire to change the domestic
+institutions of existing States," and of "doing everything in our power to
+deprive the Constitution and the laws of moral authority," for the whole
+party on belief, and for myself on knowledge, I pronounce the charge an
+unmixed and unmitigated falsehood.
+
+Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion
+can change the government practically just so much. Public opinion, on any
+subject, always has a "central idea," from which all its minor thoughts
+radiate. That "central idea" in our political public opinion at the
+beginning was, and until recently has continued to be, "the equality
+of men." And although it has always submitted patiently to whatever of
+inequality there seemed to be as matter of actual necessity, its constant
+working has been a steady progress toward the practical equality of all
+men. The late Presidential election was a struggle by one party to discard
+that central idea and to substitute for it the opposite idea that slavery
+is right in the abstract, the workings of which as a central idea may be
+the perpetuity of human slavery and its extension to all countries and
+colors. Less than a year ago the Richmond Enquirer, an avowed advocate of
+slavery, regardless of color, in order to favor his views, invented the
+phrase "State equality," and now the President, in his message, adopts
+the Enquirer's catch-phrase, telling us the people "have asserted the
+constitutional equality of each and all of the States of the Union as
+States." The President flatters himself that the new central idea is
+completely inaugurated; and so indeed it is, so far as the mere fact of a
+Presidential election can inaugurate it. To us it is left to know that the
+majority of the people have not yet declared for it, and to hope that they
+never will.
+
+All of us who did not vote for Mr. Buchanan, taken together, are a
+majority of four hundred thousand. But in the late contest we were divided
+between Fremont and Fillmore. Can we not come together for the future? Let
+every one who really believes and is resolved that free society is not and
+shall not be a failure, and who can conscientiously declare that in the
+last contest he has done only what he thought best--let every such one
+have charity to believe that every other one can say as much. Thus let
+bygones be bygones; let past differences as nothing be; and with steady
+eye on the real issue let us reinaugurate the good old "central idea" of
+the republic. We can do it. The human heart is with us; God is with us. We
+shall again be able, not to declare that "all States as States are equal,"
+nor yet that "all citizens as citizens are equal," but to renew the
+broader, better declaration, including both these and much more, that "all
+men are created equal."
+
+
+
+
+TO Dr. R. BOAL.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, Dec. 25, 1856.
+
+DEAR SIR:-When I was at Chicago two weeks ago I saw Mr. Arnold, and from
+a remark of his I inferred he was thinking of the speakership, though
+I think he was not anxious about it. He seemed most anxious for harmony
+generally, and particularly that the contested seats from Peoria and
+McDonough might be rightly determined. Since I came home I had a talk with
+Cullom, one of our American representatives here, and he says he is for
+you for Speaker and also that he thinks all the Americans will be for you,
+unless it be Gorin, of Macon, of whom he cannot speak. If you would like
+to be Speaker go right up and see Arnold. He is talented, a practised
+debater, and, I think, would do himself more credit on the floor than in
+the Speaker's seat. Go and see him; and if you think fit, show him this
+letter.
+
+Your friend as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+1857
+
+TO JOHN E. ROSETTE. Private.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, ILL., February 10, 1857.
+
+DEAR SIR:--Your note about the little paragraph in the Republican was
+received yesterday, since which time I have been too unwell to notice
+it. I had not supposed you wrote or approved it. The whole originated
+in mistake. You know by the conversation with me that I thought the
+establishment of the paper unfortunate, but I always expected to throw
+no obstacle in its way, and to patronize it to the extent of taking and
+paying for one copy. When the paper was brought to my house, my wife said
+to me, "Now are you going to take another worthless little paper?" I said
+to her evasively, "I have not directed the paper to be left." From this,
+in my absence, she sent the message to the carrier. This is the whole
+story.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+RESPONSE TO A DOUGLAS SPEECH
+
+SPEECH IN SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, JUNE 26, 1857.
+
+FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I am here to-night partly by the invitation of some of
+you, and partly by my own inclination. Two weeks ago Judge Douglas spoke
+here on the several subjects of Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, and Utah.
+I listened to the speech at the time, and have the report of it since.
+It was intended to controvert opinions which I think just, and to assail
+(politically, not personally) those men who, in common with me, entertain
+those opinions. For this reason I wished then, and still wish, to make
+some answer to it, which I now take the opportunity of doing.
+
+I begin with Utah. If it prove to be true, as is probable, that the people
+of Utah are in open rebellion to the United States, then Judge Douglas is
+in favor of repealing their territorial organization, and attaching them
+to the adjoining States for judicial purposes. I say, too, if they are in
+rebellion, they ought to be somehow coerced to obedience; and I am not now
+prepared to admit or deny that the Judge's mode of coercing them is not
+as good as any. The Republicans can fall in with it without taking back
+anything they have ever said. To be sure, it would be a considerable
+backing down by Judge Douglas from his much-vaunted doctrine of
+self-government for the Territories; but this is only additional proof
+of what was very plain from the beginning, that that doctrine was a mere
+deceitful pretense for the benefit of slavery. Those who could not
+see that much in the Nebraska act itself, which forced governors, and
+secretaries, and judges on the people of the Territories without their
+choice or consent, could not be made to see, though one should rise from
+the dead.
+
+But in all this it is very plain the Judge evades the only question the
+Republicans have ever pressed upon the Democracy in regard to Utah. That
+question the Judge well knew to be this: "If the people of Utah peacefully
+form a State constitution tolerating polygamy, will the Democracy admit
+them into the Union?" There is nothing in the United States Constitution
+or law against polygamy; and why is it not a part of the Judge's "sacred
+right of self-government" for the people to have it, or rather to keep
+it, if they choose? These questions, so far as I know, the Judge never
+answers. It might involve the Democracy to answer them either way, and
+they go unanswered.
+
+As to Kansas. The substance of the Judge's speech on Kansas is an effort
+to put the free-State men in the wrong for not voting at the election of
+delegates to the constitutional convention. He says:
+
+"There is every reason to hope and believe that the law will be fairly
+interpreted and impartially executed, so as to insure to every bona fide
+inhabitant the free and quiet exercise of the elective franchise."
+
+It appears extraordinary that Judge Douglas should make such a statement.
+He knows that, by the law, no one can vote who has not been registered;
+and he knows that the free-State men place their refusal to vote on the
+ground that but few of them have been registered. It is possible that this
+is not true, but Judge Douglas knows it is asserted to be true in letters,
+newspapers, and public speeches, and borne by every mail and blown by
+every breeze to the eyes and ears of the world. He knows it is boldly
+declared that the people of many whole counties, and many whole
+neighborhoods in others, are left unregistered; yet he does not venture
+to contradict the declaration, or to point out how they can vote without
+being registered; but he just slips along, not seeming to know there is
+any such question of fact, and complacently declares:
+
+ "There is every reason to hope and believe that the law will be
+fairly and impartially executed, so as to insure to every bona fide
+inhabitant the free and quiet exercise of the elective franchise."
+
+I readily agree that if all had a chance to vote they ought to have voted.
+If, on the contrary, as they allege, and Judge Douglas ventures not to
+particularly contradict, few only of the free-State men had a chance to
+vote, they were perfectly right in staying from the polls in a body.
+
+By the way, since the Judge spoke, the Kansas election has come off. The
+Judge expressed his confidence that all the Democrats in Kansas would
+do their duty-including "free-State Democrats," of course. The returns
+received here as yet are very incomplete; but so far as they go, they
+indicate that only about one sixth of the registered voters have really
+voted; and this, too, when not more, perhaps, than one half of the
+rightful voters have been registered, thus showing the thing to have
+been altogether the most exquisite farce ever enacted. I am watching with
+considerable interest to ascertain what figure "the free-State Democrats"
+cut in the concern. Of course they voted,--all Democrats do their
+duty,--and of course they did not vote for slave-State candidates. We soon
+shall know how many delegates they elected, how many candidates they had
+pledged to a free State, and how many votes were cast for them.
+
+Allow me to barely whisper my suspicion that there were no such things in
+Kansas as "free-State Democrats"--that they were altogether mythical, good
+only to figure in newspapers and speeches in the free States. If there
+should prove to be one real living free-State Democrat in Kansas, I
+suggest that it might be well to catch him, and stuff and preserve his
+skin as an interesting specimen of that soon-to-be extinct variety of the
+genus Democrat.
+
+And now as to the Dred Scott decision. That decision declares two
+propositions--first, that a negro cannot sue in the United States courts;
+and secondly, that Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the Territories. It
+was made by a divided court dividing differently on the different points.
+Judge Douglas does not discuss the merits of the decision, and in that
+respect I shall follow his example, believing I could no more improve on
+McLean and Curtis than he could on Taney.
+
+He denounces all who question the correctness of that decision, as
+offering violent resistance to it. But who resists it? Who has, in spite
+of the decision, declared Dred Scott free, and resisted the authority of
+his master over him?
+
+Judicial decisions have two uses--first, to absolutely determine the case
+decided, and secondly, to indicate to the public how other similar cases
+will be decided when they arise. For the latter use, they are called
+"precedents" and "authorities."
+
+We believe as much as Judge Douglas (perhaps more) in obedience to, and
+respect for, the judicial department of government. We think its decisions
+on constitutional questions, when fully settled, should control not only
+the particular cases decided, but the general policy of the country,
+subject to be disturbed only by amendments of the Constitution as provided
+in that instrument itself. More than this would be revolution. But we
+think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it
+has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have
+it to overrule this. We offer no resistance to it.
+
+Judicial decisions are of greater or less authority as precedents
+according to circumstances. That this should be so accords both with
+common sense and the customary understanding of the legal profession.
+
+If this important decision had been made by the unanimous concurrence of
+the judges, and without any apparent partisan bias, and in accordance with
+legal public expectation and with the steady practice of the departments
+throughout our history, and had been in no part based on assumed
+historical facts which are not really true; or, if wanting in some of
+these, it had been before the court more than once, and had there been
+affirmed and reaffirmed through a course of years, it then might be,
+perhaps would be, factious, nay, even revolutionary, not to acquiesce in
+it as a precedent.
+
+But when, as is true, we find it wanting in all these claims to the public
+confidence, it is not resistance, it is not factious, it is not even
+disrespectful, to treat it as not having yet quite established a settled
+doctrine for the country. But Judge Douglas considers this view awful.
+Hear him:
+
+"The courts are the tribunals prescribed by the Constitution and created
+by the authority of the people to determine, expound, and enforce the law.
+Hence, whoever resists the final decision of the highest judicial tribunal
+aims a deadly blow at our whole republican system of government--a blow
+which, if successful, would place all our rights and liberties at the
+mercy of passion, anarchy, and violence. I repeat, therefore, that if
+resistance to the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, in
+a matter like the points decided in the Dred Scott case, clearly within
+their jurisdiction as defined by the Constitution, shall be forced upon
+the country as a political issue, it will become a distinct and naked
+issue between the friends and enemies of the Constitution--the friends and
+the enemies of the supremacy of the laws."
+
+Why, this same Supreme Court once decided a national bank to be
+constitutional; but General Jackson, as President of the United States,
+disregarded the decision, and vetoed a bill for a recharter, partly on
+constitutional ground, declaring that each public functionary must support
+the Constitution "as he understands it." But hear the General's own words.
+Here they are, taken from his veto message:
+
+"It is maintained by the advocates of the bank that its constitutionality,
+in all its features, ought to be considered as settled by precedent, and
+by the decision of the Supreme Court. To this conclusion I cannot assent.
+Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority, and should not be
+regarded as deciding questions of constitutional power, except where
+the acquiescence of the people and the States can be considered as well
+settled. So far from this being the case on this subject, an argument
+against the bank might be based on precedent. One Congress, in 1791,
+decided in favor of a bank; another, in 1811, decided against it. One
+Congress, in 1815, decided against a bank; another, in 1816, decided in
+its favor. Prior to the present Congress, therefore, the precedents drawn
+from that course were equal. If we resort to the States, the expressions
+of legislative, judicial, and executive opinions against the bank have
+been probably to those in its favor as four to one. There is nothing in
+precedent, therefore, which, if its authority were admitted, ought to
+weigh in favor of the act before me."
+
+I drop the quotations merely to remark that all there ever was in the way
+of precedent up to the Dred Scott decision, on the points therein decided,
+had been against that decision. But hear General Jackson further:
+
+"If the opinion of the Supreme Court covered the whole ground of this act,
+it ought not to control the coordinate authorities of this government. The
+Congress, the executive, and the courts must, each for itself, be guided
+by its own opinion of the Constitution. Each public officer who takes
+an oath to support the Constitution swears that he will support it as he
+understands it, and not as it is understood by others."
+
+Again and again have I heard Judge Douglas denounce that bank decision and
+applaud General Jackson for disregarding it. It would be interesting
+for him to look over his recent speech, and see how exactly his fierce
+philippics against us for resisting Supreme Court decisions fall upon his
+own head. It will call to mind a long and fierce political war in this
+country, upon an issue which, in his own language, and, of course, in his
+own changeless estimation, "was a distinct issue between the friends and
+the enemies of the Constitution," and in which war he fought in the ranks
+of the enemies of the Constitution.
+
+I have said, in substance, that the Dred Scott decision was in part based
+on assumed historical facts which were not really true, and I ought not to
+leave the subject without giving some reasons for saying this; I therefore
+give an instance or two, which I think fully sustain me. Chief Justice
+Taney, in delivering the opinion of the majority of the court, insists at
+great length that negroes were no part of the people who made, or for
+whom was made, the Declaration of Independence, or the Constitution of the
+United States.
+
+On the contrary, Judge Curtis, in his dissenting opinion, shows that in
+five of the then thirteen States--to wit, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
+New York, New Jersey, and North Carolina--free negroes were voters, and in
+proportion to their numbers had the same part in making the Constitution
+that the white people had. He shows this with so much particularity as to
+leave no doubt of its truth; and as a sort of conclusion on that point,
+holds the following language:
+
+"The Constitution was ordained and established by the people of the United
+States, through the action, in each State, of those persons who were
+qualified by its laws to act thereon in behalf of themselves and all other
+citizens of the State. In some of the States, as we have seen, colored
+persons were among those qualified by law to act on the subject. These
+colored persons were not only included in the body of 'the people of the
+United States' by whom the Constitution was ordained and established; but
+in at least five of the States they had the power to act, and doubtless
+did act, by their suffrages, upon the question of its adoption."
+
+Again, Chief Justice Taney says:
+
+"It is difficult at this day to realize the state of public opinion, in
+relation to that unfortunate race, which prevailed in the civilized
+and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of
+Independence, and when the Constitution of the United States was framed
+and adopted."
+
+And again, after quoting from the Declaration, he says:
+
+"The general words above quoted would seem to include the whole human
+family, and if they were used in a similar instrument at this day, would
+be so understood."
+
+In these the Chief Justice does not directly assert, but plainly assumes
+as a fact, that the public estimate of the black man is more favorable now
+than it was in the days of the Revolution. This assumption is a mistake.
+In some trifling particulars the condition of that race has been
+ameliorated; but as a whole, in this country, the change between then
+and now is decidedly the other way, and their ultimate destiny has never
+appeared so hopeless as in the last three or four years. In two of the
+five States--New Jersey and North Carolina--that then gave the free
+negro the right of voting, the right has since been taken away, and in
+a third--New York--it has been greatly abridged; while it has not been
+extended, so far as I know, to a single additional State, though
+the number of the States has more than doubled. In those days, as I
+understand, masters could, at their own pleasure, emancipate their slaves;
+but since then such legal restraints have been made upon emancipation
+as to amount almost to prohibition. In those days Legislatures held the
+unquestioned power to abolish slavery in their respective States, but now
+it is becoming quite fashionable for State constitutions to withhold that
+power from the Legislatures. In those days, by common consent, the spread
+of the black man's bondage to the new countries was prohibited, but
+now Congress decides that it will not continue the prohibition, and the
+Supreme Court decides that it could not if it would. In those days our
+Declaration of Independence was held sacred by all, and thought to include
+all; but now, to aid in making the bondage of the negro universal and
+eternal, it is assailed and sneered at and construed and hawked at and
+torn, till, if its framers could rise from their graves, they could not at
+all recognize it. All the powers of earth seem rapidly combining against
+him. Mammon is after him, ambition follows, philosophy follows, and the
+theology of the day fast joining the cry. They have him in his prison
+house; they have searched his person, and left no prying instrument with
+him. One after another they have closed the heavy iron doors upon him;
+and now they have him, as it were, bolted in with a lock of hundred keys,
+which can never be unlocked without the concurrence of every key--the keys
+in the hands of a hundred different men, and they scattered to hundred
+different and distant places; and they stand musing as to what invention,
+in all the dominions of mind and matter, can be produced to make the
+impossibility of his escape more complete than it is.
+
+It is grossly incorrect to say or assume that the public estimate of the
+negro is more favorable now than it was at the origin of the government.
+
+Three years and a half ago, Judge Douglas brought forward his famous
+Nebraska Bill. The country was at once in a blaze. He scorned all
+opposition, and carried it through Congress. Since then he has seen
+himself superseded in a Presidential nomination by one indorsing the
+general doctrine of his measure, but at the same time standing clear
+of the odium of its untimely agitation and its gross breach of national
+faith; and he has seen that successful rival constitutionally elected, not
+by the strength of friends, but by the division of adversaries, being in
+a popular minority of nearly four hundred thousand votes. He has seen his
+chief aids in his own State, Shields and Richardson, politically speaking,
+successively tried, convicted, and executed for an offence not their own
+but his. And now he sees his own case standing next on the docket for
+trial.
+
+There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people at the
+idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races; and
+Judge Douglas evidently is basing his chief hope upon the chances of his
+being able to appropriate the benefit of this disgust to himself. If he
+can, by much drumming and repeating, fasten the odium of that idea upon
+his adversaries, he thinks he can struggle through the storm. He therefore
+clings to this hope, as a drowning man to the last plank. He makes an
+occasion for lugging it in from the opposition to the Dred Scott decision.
+He finds the Republicans insisting that the Declaration of Independence
+includes all men, black as well as white, and forthwith he boldly denies
+that it includes negroes at all, and proceeds to argue gravely that all
+who contend it does, do so only because they want to vote, and eat,
+and sleep, and marry with negroes. He will have it that they cannot
+be consistent else. Now I protest against the counterfeit logic which
+concludes that, because I do not want a black woman for a slave I must
+necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either. I can
+just leave her alone. In some respects she certainly is not my equal;
+but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands,
+without asking leave of any one else, she is my equal and the equal of all
+others.
+
+Chief Justice Taney, in his opinion in the Dred Scott case, admits that
+the language of the Declaration is broad enough to include the whole human
+family, but he and Judge Douglas argue that the authors of that instrument
+did not intend to include negroes, by the fact that they did not at
+once actually place them on an equality with the whites. Now this grave
+argument comes to just nothing at all, by the other fact that they did not
+at once, or ever afterward, actually place all white people on an equality
+with one another. And this is the staple argument of both the Chief
+Justice and the Senator for doing this obvious violence to the plain,
+unmistakable language of the Declaration.
+
+I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all
+men, but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects.
+They did not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral
+developments, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness
+in what respects they did consider all men created equal--equal with
+"certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the
+pursuit of happiness." This they said, and this they meant. They did not
+mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying
+that equality, nor yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon
+them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply
+to declare the right, so that enforcement of it might follow as fast as
+circumstances should permit.
+
+They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be
+familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly
+labored for, and, even though never perfectly attained, constantly
+approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence
+and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors
+everywhere. The assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no
+practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain; and it was
+placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use. Its authors
+meant it to be--as thank God, it is now proving itself--stumbling-block
+to all those who in after times might seek to turn a free people back into
+the hateful paths of despotism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to
+breed tyrants, and they meant when such should reappear in this fair land
+and commence their vocation, they should find left for them at least one
+hard nut to crack.
+
+I have now briefly expressed my view of the meaning and object of that
+part of the Declaration of Independence which declares that "all men are
+created equal."
+
+Now let us hear Judge Douglas's view of the same subject, as I find it in
+the printed report of his late speech. Here it is:
+
+"No man can vindicate the character, motives, and conduct of the signers
+of the Declaration of Independence, except upon the hypothesis that
+they referred to the white race alone, and not to the African, when they
+declared all men to have been created equal; that they were speaking of
+British subjects on this continent being equal to British subjects
+born and residing in Great Britain; that they were entitled to the same
+inalienable rights, and among them were enumerated life, liberty, and
+the pursuit of happiness. The Declaration was adopted for the purpose of
+justifying the colonists in the eyes of the civilized world in withdrawing
+their allegiance from the British crown, and dissolving their connection
+with the mother country."
+
+My good friends, read that carefully over some leisure hour, and ponder
+well upon it; see what a mere wreck--mangled ruin--it makes of our once
+glorious Declaration.
+
+"They were speaking of British subjects on this continent being equal to
+British subjects born and residing in Great Britain"! Why, according
+to this, not only negroes but white people outside of Great Britain and
+America were not spoken of in that instrument. The English, Irish, and
+Scotch, along with white Americans, were included, to be sure, but the
+French, Germans, and other white people of the world are all gone to pot
+along with the Judge's inferior races!
+
+I had thought the Declaration promised something better than the condition
+of British subjects; but no, it only meant that we should be equal to them
+in their own oppressed and unequal condition. According to that, it gave
+no promise that, having kicked off the king and lords of Great Britain, we
+should not at once be saddled with a king and lords of our own.
+
+I had thought the Declaration contemplated the progressive improvement in
+the condition of all men everywhere; but no, it merely "was adopted for
+the purpose of justifying the colonists in the eyes of the civilized world
+in withdrawing their allegiance from the British crown, and dissolving
+their connection with the mother country." Why, that object having been
+effected some eighty years ago, the Declaration is of no practical use
+now--mere rubbish--old wadding left to rot on the battlefield after the
+victory is won.
+
+I understand you are preparing to celebrate the "Fourth," to-morrow week.
+What for? The doings of that day had no reference to the present; and
+quite half of you are not even descendants of those who were referred to
+at that day. But I suppose you will celebrate, and will even go so far
+as to read the Declaration. Suppose, after you read it once in the
+old-fashioned way, you read it once more with Judge Douglas's version. It
+will then run thus:
+
+"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all British subjects who
+were on this continent eighty-one years ago were created equal to all
+British subjects born and then residing in Great Britain."
+
+And now I appeal to all--to Democrats as well as others--are you really
+willing that the Declaration shall thus be frittered away?--thus left no
+more, at most, than an interesting memorial of the dead past?--thus shorn
+of its vitality and practical value, and left without the germ or even the
+suggestion of the individual rights of man in it?
+
+But Judge Douglas is especially horrified at the thought of the mixing
+of blood by the white and black races. Agreed for once--a thousand times
+agreed. There are white men enough to marry all the white women and black
+men enough to many all the black women; and so let them be married. On
+this point we fully agree with the Judge, and when he shall show that his
+policy is better adapted to prevent amalgamation than ours, we shall drop
+ours and adopt his. Let us see. In 1850 there were in the United States
+405,751 mulattoes. Very few of these are the offspring of whites and free
+blacks; nearly all have sprung from black slaves and white masters. A
+separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation;
+but as an immediate separation is impossible, the next best thing is to
+keep them apart where they are not already together. If white and black
+people never get together in Kansas, they will never mix blood in Kansas.
+That is at least one self-evident truth. A few free colored persons
+may get into the free States, in any event; but their number is too
+insignificant to amount to much in the way of mixing blood. In 1850 there
+were in the free States 56,649 mulattoes; but for the most part they were
+not born there--they came from the slave States, ready made up. In the
+same year the slave States had 348,874 mulattoes, all of home production.
+The proportion of free mulattoes to free blacks--the only colored classes
+in the free States is much greater in the slave than in the free States.
+It is worthy of note, too, that among the free States those which make the
+colored man the nearest equal to the white have proportionably the fewest
+mulattoes, the least of amalgamation. In New Hampshire, the State which
+goes farthest toward equality between the races, there are just 184
+mulattoes, while there are in Virginia--how many do you think?--79,775,
+being 23,126 more than in all the free States together.
+
+These statistics show that slavery is the greatest source of amalgamation,
+and next to it, not the elevation, but the degradation of the free
+blacks. Yet Judge Douglas dreads the slightest restraints on the spread
+of slavery, and the slightest human recognition of the negro, as tending
+horribly to amalgamation!
+
+The very Dred Scott case affords a strong test as to which party most
+favors amalgamation, the Republicans or the dear Union-saving Democracy.
+Dred Scott, his wife, and two daughters were all involved in the suit. We
+desired the court to have held that they were citizens so far at least
+as to entitle them to a hearing as to whether they were free or not; and
+then, also, that they were in fact and in law really free. Could we have
+had our way, the chances of these black girls ever mixing their blood with
+that of white people would have been diminished at least to the extent
+that it could not have been without their consent. But Judge Douglas is
+delighted to have them decided to be slaves, and not human enough to have
+a hearing, even if they were free, and thus left subject to the forced
+concubinage of their masters, and liable to become the mothers of
+mulattoes in spite of themselves: the very state of case that produces
+nine tenths of all the mulattoes all the mixing of blood in the nation.
+
+Of course, I state this case as an illustration only, not meaning to say
+or intimate that the master of Dred Scott and his family, or any more
+than a percentage of masters generally, are inclined to exercise this
+particular power which they hold over their female slaves.
+
+I have said that the separation of the races is the only perfect
+preventive of amalgamation. I have no right to say all the members of the
+Republican party are in favor of this, nor to say that as a party they
+are in favor of it. There is nothing in their platform directly on the
+subject. But I can say a very large proportion of its members are for it,
+and that the chief plank in their platform--opposition to the spread of
+slavery--is most favorable to that separation.
+
+Such separation, if ever effected at all, must be effected by
+colonization; and no political party, as such, is now doing anything
+directly for colonization. Party operations at present only favor or
+retard colonization incidentally. The enterprise is a difficult one; but
+"where there is a will there is a way," and what colonization needs most
+is a hearty will. Will springs from the two elements of moral sense and
+self-interest. Let us be brought to believe it is morally right, and
+at the same time favorable to, or at least not against, our interest to
+transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall find a way to do
+it, however great the task may be. The children of Israel, to such numbers
+as to include four hundred thousand fighting men, went out of Egyptian
+bondage in a body.
+
+How differently the respective courses of the Democratic and Republican
+parties incidentally, bear on the question of forming a will--a public
+sentiment--for colonization, is easy to see. The Republicans inculcate,
+with whatever of ability they can, that the negro is a man, that his
+bondage is cruelly wrong, and that the field of his oppression ought
+not to be enlarged. The Democrats deny his manhood; deny, or dwarf to
+insignificance, the wrong of his bondage; so far as possible crush all
+sympathy for him, and cultivate and excite hatred and disgust against
+him; compliment themselves as Union-savers for doing so; and call
+the indefinite outspreading of his bondage "a sacred right of
+self-government."
+
+The plainest print cannot be read through a gold eagle; and it will be
+ever hard to find many men who will send a slave to Liberia, and pay
+his passage, while they can send him to a new country--Kansas, for
+instance--and sell him for fifteen hundred dollars, and the rise.
+
+
+
+
+TO WILLIAM GRIMES.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, August, 1857
+
+DEAR SIR:--Yours of the 14th is received, and I am much obliged for the
+legal information you give.
+
+You can scarcely be more anxious than I that the next election in Iowa
+should result in favor of the Republicans. I lost nearly all the working
+part of last year, giving my time to the canvass; and I am altogether
+too poor to lose two years together. I am engaged in a suit in the United
+States Court at Chicago, in which the Rock Island Bridge Company is a
+party. The trial is to commence on the 8th of September, and probably will
+last two or three weeks. During the trial it is not improbable that
+all hands may come over and take a look at the bridge, and, if it were
+possible to make it hit right, I could then speak at Davenport. My courts
+go right on without cessation till late in November. Write me again,
+pointing out the more striking points of difference between your old and
+new constitutions, and also whether Democratic and Republican party
+lines were drawn in the adoption of it, and which were for and which were
+against it. If, by possibility, I could get over among you it might be of
+some advantage to know these things in advance.
+
+Yours very truly,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+ARGUMENT IN THE ROCK ISLAND BRIDGE CASE.
+
+(From the Daily Press of Chicago, Sept. 24, 1857.)
+
+Hurd et al. vs Railroad Bridge Co.
+
+United States Circuit Court, Hon. John McLean, Presiding Judge.
+
+13th day, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 1857.
+
+Mr. A. Lincoln addressed the jury. He said he did not purpose to assail
+anybody, that he expected to grow earnest as he proceeded but not
+ill-natured. "There is some conflict of testimony in the case," he said,
+"but one quarter of such a number of witnesses seldom agree, and even if
+all were on one side some discrepancy might be expected. We are to try and
+reconcile them, and to believe that they are not intentionally erroneous
+as long as we can." He had no prejudice, he said, against steamboats or
+steamboat men nor any against St. Louis, for he supposed they went about
+this matter as other people would do in their situation. "St. Louis," he
+continued, "as a commercial place may desire that this bridge should not
+stand, as it is adverse to her commerce, diverting a portion of it from
+the river; and it may be that she supposes that the additional cost of
+railroad transportation upon the productions of Iowa will force them to
+go to St. Louis if this bridge is removed. The meetings in St. Louis are
+connected with this case only as some witnesses are in it, and thus has
+some prejudice added color to their testimony." The last thing that would
+be pleasing to him, Mr. Lincoln said, would be to have one of these great
+channels, extending almost from where it never freezes to where it never
+thaws, blocked up, but there is a travel from east to west whose demands
+are not less important than those of the river. It is growing larger and
+larger, building up new countries with a rapidity never before seen in the
+history of the world. He alluded to the astonishing growth of Illinois,
+having grown within his memory to a population of a million and a half; to
+Iowa and the other young rising communities of the Northwest.
+
+"This current of travel," said he, "has its rights as well as that of
+north and south. If the river had not the advantage in priority and
+legislation we could enter into free competition with it and we could
+surpass it. This particular railroad line has a great importance and the
+statement of its business during a little less than a year shows this
+importance. It is in evidence that from September 8, 1856, to August 8,
+1857, 12,586 freight cars and 74,179 passengers passed over this bridge.
+Navigation was closed four days short of four months last year, and
+during this time while the river was of no use this road and bridge were
+valuable. There is, too, a considerable portion of time when floating or
+thin ice makes the river useless while the bridge is as useful as ever.
+This shows that this bridge must be treated with respect in this court and
+is not to be kicked about with contempt. The other day Judge Wead alluded
+to the strike of the contending interest and even a dissolution of the
+Union. The proper mode for all parties in this affair is to 'live and let
+live,' and then we will find a cessation of this trouble about the bridge.
+What mood were the steamboat men in when this bridge was burned? Why,
+there was a shouting and ringing of bells and whistling on all the boats
+as it fell. It was a jubilee, a greater celebration than follows an
+excited election. The first thing I will proceed to is the record of Mr.
+Gurney and the complaint of Judge Wead that the record did not extend back
+over all the time from the completion of the bridge. The principal part of
+the navigation after the bridge was burned passed through the span. When
+the bridge was repaired and the boats were a second time confined to the
+draw it was provided that this record should be kept. That is the simple
+history of that book.
+
+"From April 19th, 1856, to May 6th--seventeen days--there were twenty
+accidents and all the time since then there have been but twenty hits,
+including seven accidents, so that the dangers of this place are tapering
+off and as the boatmen get cool the accidents get less. We may soon expect
+if this ratio is kept up that there will be no accidents at all.
+
+"Judge Wead said, while admitting that the floats went straight through,
+there was a difference between a float and a boat, but I do not remember
+that he indulged us with an argument in support of this statement. Is it
+because there is a difference in size? Will not a small body and a large
+one float the same way under the same influence? True a flatboat will
+float faster than an egg shell and the egg shell might be blown away by
+the wind, but if under the same influence they would go the same way.
+Logs, floats, boards, various things the witnesses say all show the same
+current. Then is not this test reliable? At all depths too the direction
+of the current is the same. A series of these floats would make a line as
+long as a boat and would show any influence upon any part and all parts of
+the boat.
+
+"I will now speak of the angular position of the piers. What is the amount
+of the angle? The course of the river is a curve and the pier is straight.
+If a line is produced from the upper end of the long pier straight with
+the pier to a distance of 350 feet, and a line is drawn from a point in
+the channel opposite this point to the head of the pier, Colonel Nason
+says they will form an angle of twenty degrees. But the angle if measured
+at the pier is seven degrees; that is, we would have to move the pier
+seven degrees to make it exactly straight with the current. Would that
+make the navigation better or worse? The witnesses of the plaintiff seem
+to think it was only necessary to say that the pier formed an angle with
+the current and that settled the matter. Our more careful and accurate
+witnesses say that, though they had been accustomed to seeing the piers
+placed straight with the current, yet they could see that here the current
+had been made straight by us in having made this slight angle; that the
+water now runs just right, that it is straight and cannot be improved.
+They think that if the pier was changed the eddy would be divided and the
+navigation improved.
+
+"I am not now going to discuss the question what is a material
+obstruction. We do not greatly differ about the law. The cases produced
+here are, I suppose, proper to be taken into consideration by the court in
+instructing a jury. Some of them I think are not exactly in point, but
+I am still willing to trust his honor, Judge McLean, and take his
+instructions as law. What is reasonable skill and care? This is a thing
+of which the jury are to judge. I differ from the other side when it says
+that they are bound to exercise no more care than was taken before the
+building of the bridge. If we are allowed by the Legislature to build the
+bridge which will require them to do more than before, when a pilot comes
+along, it is unreasonable for him to dash on heedless of this structure
+which has been legally put there. The Afton came there on the 5th and lay
+at Rock Island until next morning. When a boat lies up the pilot has a
+holiday, and would not any of these jurors have then gone around to the
+bridge and gotten acquainted with the place? Pilot Parker has shown here
+that he does not understand the draw. I heard him say that the fall from
+the head to the foot of the pier was four feet; he needs information. He
+could have gone there that day and seen there was no such fall. He should
+have discarded passion and the chances are that he would have had no
+disaster at all. He was bound to make himself acquainted with the place.
+
+"McCammon says that the current and the swell coming from the long pier
+drove her against the long pier. In other words drove her toward the very
+pier from which the current came! It is an absurdity, an impossibility.
+The only recollection I can find for this contradiction is in a current
+which White says strikes out from the long pier and then like a ram's horn
+turns back, and this might have acted somehow in this manner.
+
+"It is agreed by all that the plaintiff's boat was destroyed and that it
+was destroyed upon the head of the short pier; that she moved from the
+channel where she was with her bow above the head of the long pier, till
+she struck the short one, swung around under the bridge and there was
+crowded and destroyed.
+
+"I shall try to prove that the average velocity of the current through the
+draw with the boat in it should be five and a half miles an hour; that it
+is slowest at the head of the pier and swiftest at the foot of the pier.
+Their lowest estimate in evidence is six miles an hour, their highest
+twelve miles. This was the testimony of men who had made no experiment,
+only conjecture. We have adopted the most exact means. The water runs
+swiftest in high water and we have taken the point of nine feet above low
+water. The water when the Afton was lost was seven feet above low water,
+or at least a foot lower than our time. Brayton and his assistants timed
+the instruments, the best instruments known in measuring currents. They
+timed them under various circumstances and they found the current five
+miles an hour and no more. They found that the water at the upper end ran
+slower than five miles; that below it was swifter than five miles, but
+that the average was five miles. Shall men who have taken no care, who
+conjecture, some of whom speak of twenty miles an hour, be believed
+against those who have had such a favorable and well improved opportunity?
+They should not even qualify the result. Several men have given their
+opinion as to the distance of the steamboat Carson, and I suppose if one
+should go and measure that distance you would believe him in preference to
+all of them.
+
+"These measurements were made when the boat was not in the draw. It has
+been ascertained what is the area of the cross section of this stream and
+the area of the face of the piers, and the engineers say that the piers
+being put there will increase the current proportionally as the space
+is decreased. So with the boat in the draw. The depth of the channel was
+twenty-two feet, the width one hundred and sixteen feet; multiply these
+and you have the square-feet across the water of the draw, viz.: 2552
+feet. The Afton was 35 feet wide and drew 5 feet, making a fourteenth
+of the sum. Now, one-fourteenth of five miles is five-fourteenths of one
+mile--about one third of a mile--the increase of the current. We will call
+the current five and a half miles per hour. The next thing I will try to
+prove is that the plaintiff's (?) boat had power to run six miles an hour
+in that current. It had been testified that she was a strong, swift boat,
+able to run eight miles an hour up stream in a current of four miles an
+hour, and fifteen miles down stream. Strike the average and you will find
+what is her average--about eleven and a half miles. Take the five and a
+half miles which is the speed of the current in the draw and it leaves the
+power of that boat in that draw at six miles an hour, 528 feet per minute
+and 8 4/5 feet to the second.
+
+"Next I propose to show that there are no cross currents. I know their
+witnesses say that there are cross currents--that, as one witness says,
+there were three cross currents and two eddies; so far as mere statement,
+without experiment, and mingled with mistakes, can go, they have proved.
+But can these men's testimony be compared with the nice, exact, thorough
+experiments of our witnesses? Can you believe that these floats go across
+the currents? It is inconceivable that they could not have discovered
+every possible current. How do boats find currents that floats cannot
+discover? We assume the position then that those cross currents are not
+there. My next proposition is that the Afton passed between the S. B.
+Carson and the Iowa shore. That is undisputed.
+
+"Next I shall show that she struck first the short pier, then the long
+pier, then the short one again and there she stopped." Mr. Lincoln then
+cited the testimony of eighteen witnesses on this point.
+
+"How did the boat strike when she went in? Here is an endless variety of
+opinion. But ten of them say what pier she struck; three of them testify
+that she struck first the short, then the long and then the short for the
+last time. None of the rest substantially contradict this. I assume that
+these men have got the truth because I believe it an established fact.
+My next proposition is that after she struck the short and long pier and
+before she got back to the short pier the boat got right with her bow
+up. So says the pilot Parker--that he got her through until her starboard
+wheel passed the short pier. This would make her head about even with the
+head of the long pier. He says her head was as high or higher than the
+head of the long pier. Other witnesses confirmed this one. The final
+stroke was in the splash door aft the wheel. Witnesses differ, but the
+majority say that she struck thus."
+
+Court adjourned.
+
+
+14th day, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 1857.
+
+Mr. A. LINCOLN resumed. He said he should conclude as soon as possible.
+He said the colored map of the plaintiff which was brought in during one
+stage of the trial showed itself that the cross currents alleged did not
+exist. That the current as represented would drive an ascending boat to
+the long pier but not to the short pier, as they urge. He explained from a
+model of a boat where the splash door is, just behind the wheel. The boat
+struck on the lower shoulder of the short pier as she swung around in the
+splash door; then as she went on around she struck the point or end of
+the pier, where she rested. "Her engineers," said Mr. Lincoln, "say the
+starboard wheel then was rushing around rapidly. Then the boat must have
+struck the upper point of the pier so far back as not to disturb the
+wheel. It is forty feet from the stern of the Afton to the splash door,
+and thus it appears that she had but forty feet to go to clear the pier.
+How was it that the Afton with all her power flanked over from the channel
+to the short pier without moving one foot ahead? Suppose she was in the
+middle of the draw, her wheel would have been 31 feet from the short pier.
+The reason she went over thus is her starboard wheel was not working. I
+shall try to establish the fact that the wheel was not running and that
+after she struck she went ahead strong on this same wheel. Upon the last
+point the witnesses agree, that the starboard wheel was running after she
+struck, and no witnesses say that it was running while she was out in the
+draw flanking over."
+
+Mr. Lincoln read from the testimonies of various witnesses to prove that
+the starboard wheel was not working while the Afton was out in the stream.
+
+"Other witnesses show that the captain said something of the machinery of
+the wheel, and the inference is that he knew the wheel was not working.
+The fact is undisputed that she did not move one inch ahead while she was
+moving this 31 feet sideways. There is evidence proving that the current
+there is only five miles an hour, and the only explanation is that her
+power was not all used--that only one wheel was working. The pilot says
+he ordered the engineers to back her up. The engineers differ from him
+and said they kept on going ahead. The bow was so swung that the current
+pressed it over; the pilot pressed the stern over with the rudder, though
+not so fast but that the bow gained on it, and only one wheel being
+in motion the boat nearly stood still so far as motion up and down is
+concerned, and thus she was thrown upon this pier. The Afton came into the
+draw after she had just passed the Carson, and as the Carson no doubt kept
+the true course the Afton going around her got out of the proper way, got
+across the current into the eddy which is west of a straight line drawn
+down from the long pier, was compelled to resort to these changes of
+wheels, which she did not do with sufficient adroitness to save her. Was
+it not her own fault that she entered wrong, so far wrong that she never
+got right? Is the defence to blame for that?
+
+"For several days we were entertained with depositions about boats
+'smelling a bar.' Why did the Afton then, after she had come up smelling
+so close to the long pier sheer off so strangely. When she got to the
+centre of the very nose she was smelling she seemed suddenly to have lost
+her sense of smell and to have flanked over to the short pier."
+
+Mr. Lincoln said there was no practicability in the project of building
+a tunnel under the river, for there "is not a tunnel that is a successful
+project in this world. A suspension bridge cannot be built so high but
+that the chimneys of the boats will grow up till they cannot pass. The
+steamboat men will take pains to make them grow. The cars of a railroad
+cannot without immense expense rise high enough to get even with a
+suspension bridge or go low enough to get through a tunnel; such expense
+is unreasonable.
+
+"The plaintiffs have to establish that the bridge is a material
+obstruction and that they have managed their boat with reasonable care and
+skill. As to the last point high winds have nothing to do with it, for it
+was not a windy day. They must show due skill and care. Difficulties going
+down stream will not do, for they were going up stream. Difficulties
+with barges in tow have nothing to do with the accident, for they had no
+barge." Mr. Lincoln said he had much more to say, many things he could
+suggest to the jury, but he wished to close to save time.
+
+
+
+
+TO JESSE K. DUBOIS.
+
+DEAR DUBOIS:
+
+BLOOMINGTON, Dec. 19, 1857.
+
+J. M. Douglas of the I. C. R. R. Co. is here and will carry this letter.
+He says they have a large sum (near $90,000) which they will pay into the
+treasury now, if they have an assurance that they shall not be sued
+before Jan., 1859--otherwise not. I really wish you could consent to this.
+Douglas says they cannot pay more, and I believe him.
+
+I do not write this as a lawyer seeking an advantage for a client; but
+only as a friend, only urging you to do what I think I would do if I were
+in your situation. I mean this as private and confidential only, but I
+feel a good deal of anxiety about it.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO JOSEPH GILLESPIE.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, Jan. 19, 1858.
+
+MY DEAR SIR: This morning Col. McClernand showed me a petition for a
+mandamus against the Secretary of State to compel him to certify the
+apportionment act of last session; and he says it will be presented to the
+court to-morrow morning. We shall be allowed three or four days to get up
+a return, and I, for one, want the benefit of consultation with you.
+
+Please come right up.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO J. GILLESPIE.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, Feb 7, 1858
+
+MY DEAR SIR: Yesterday morning the court overruled the demurrer to Hatches
+return in the mandamus case. McClernand was present; said nothing about
+pleading over; and so I suppose the matter is ended.
+
+The court gave no reason for the decision; but Peck tells me
+confidentially that they were unanimous in the opinion that even if the
+Gov'r had signed the bill purposely, he had the right to scratch his name
+off so long as the bill remained in his custody and control.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+TO H. C. WHITNEY.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, December 18, 1857.
+
+HENRY C. WHITNEY, ESQ.
+
+MY DEAR SIR:--Coming home from Bloomington last night I found your letter
+of the 15th.
+
+I know of no express statute or decisions as to what a J. P. upon the
+expiration of his term shall do with his docket books, papers, unfinished
+business, etc., but so far as I know, the practice has been to hand over
+to the successor, and to cease to do anything further whatever, in perfect
+analogy to Sections 110 and 112, and I have supposed and do suppose this
+is the law. I think the successor may forthwith do whatever the retiring
+J. P. might have done. As to the proviso to Section 114 I think it was put
+in to cover possible cases, by way of caution, and not to authorize the J.
+P. to go forward and finish up whatever might have been begun by him.
+
+The view I take, I believe, is the Common law principle, as to retiring
+officers and their successors, to which I remember but one exception,
+which is the case of Sheriff and ministerial officers of that class.
+
+I have not had time to examine this subject fully, but I have great
+confidence I am right. You must not think of offering me pay for this.
+
+Mr. John O. Johnson is my friend; I gave your name to him. He is doing the
+work of trying to get up a Republican organization. I do not suppose "Long
+John" ever saw or heard of him. Let me say to you confidentially, that I
+do not entirely appreciate what the Republican papers of Chicago are
+so constantly saying against "Long John." I consider those papers truly
+devoted to the Republican cause, and not unfriendly to me; but I do think
+that more of what they say against "Long John" is dictated by personal
+malice than themselves are conscious of. We can not afford to lose the
+services of "Long John" and I do believe the unrelenting warfare made upon
+him is injuring our cause. I mean this to be confidential.
+
+If you quietly co-operate with Mr. J. O. Johnson on getting up an
+organization, I think it will be right.
+
+Your friend as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+1858
+
+
+
+
+ANOTHER POLITICAL PATRONAGE REFERENCE
+
+TO EDWARD G. MINER.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, Feb.19, 1858.
+
+MY DEAR SIR:
+
+Mr. G. A. Sutton is an applicant for superintendent of the addition of the
+Insane Asylum, and I understand it partly depends on you whether he gets
+it.
+
+Sutton is my fellow-townsman and friend, and I therefore wish to say for
+him that he is a man of sterling integrity and as a master mechanic and
+builder not surpassed by any in our city, or any I have known anywhere, as
+far as I can judge. I hope you will consider me as being really interested
+for Mr. Sutton and not as writing merely to relieve myself of importunity.
+Please show this to Col. William Ross and let him consider it as much
+intended for him as for yourself.
+
+Your friend as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
+
+TO W. H. LAMON, ESQ.
+
+SPRINGFIELD, JUNE 11, 1858
+
+DEAR SIR:--Yours of the 9th written at Joliet is just received. Two or
+three days ago I learned that McLean had appointed delegates in favor
+of Lovejoy, and thenceforward I have considered his renomination a fixed
+fact. My opinion--if my opinion is of any consequence in this case, in
+which it is no business of mine to interfere--remains unchanged, that
+running an independent candidate against Lovejoy will not do; that it will
+result in nothing but disaster all round. In the first place, whosoever
+so runs will be beaten and will be spotted for life; in the second place,
+while the race is in progress, he will be under the strongest temptation
+to trade with the Democrats, and to favor the election of certain of their
+friends to the Legislature; thirdly, I shall be held responsible for it,
+and Republican members of the Legislature who are partial to Lovejoy will
+for that purpose oppose us; and lastly, it will in the end lose us the
+district altogether. There is no safe way but a convention; and if in that
+convention, upon a common platform which all are willing to stand upon,
+one who has been known as an abolitionist, but who is now occupying none
+but common ground, can get the majority of the votes to which all look for
+an election, there is no safe way but to submit.
+
+As to the inclination of some Republicans to favor Douglas, that is one of
+the chances I have to run, and which I intend to run with patience.
+
+I write in the court room. Court has opened, and I must close.
+
+Yours as ever,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+BRIEF AUTOBIOGRAPHY,
+
+JUNE 15, 1858.
+
+The compiler of the Dictionary of Congress states that while preparing
+that work for publication, in 1858, he sent to Mr. Lincoln the usual
+request for a sketch of his life, and received the following reply:
+
+   Born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky.
+   Education, defective.
+   Profession, a lawyer.
+   Have been a captain of volunteers in Black Hawk war.
+   Postmaster at a very small office.
+   Four times a member of the Illinois Legislature and was
+   a member of the lower house of Congress.
+
+Yours, etc.,
+
+A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Papers And Writings Of Abraham
+Lincoln, Volume Two, by Abraham Lincoln
+
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