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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2654-h.zip b/2654-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6932a9a --- /dev/null +++ b/2654-h.zip diff --git a/2654-h/2654-h.htm b/2654-h/2654-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91cf5f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/2654-h/2654-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11414 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Two + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +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: July 4, 2009 [EBook #2654] +Last Updated: October 29, 2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S PAPERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + </h1> + <h2> + VOLUME TWO + </h2> + <h3> + CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION + </h3> + <h4> + Edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley + </h4> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <big><b>VOLUME II., 1843-1858</b></big> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> <b>1843</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> FIRST CHILD </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> <b>1844</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> TO Gen. J. J. HARDIN. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> <b>1845</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> SELECTION OF CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> TO ——— WILLIAMS, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> ABOLITION MOVEMENT </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> <b>1846</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> REQUEST FOR POLITICAL SUPPORT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> TO JOHN BENNETT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> TO N. J. ROCKWELL. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> TO JAMES BERDAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> TO JAMES BERDAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> VERSES WRITTEN BY LINCOLN AFTER A VISIT TO HIS + OLD HOME IN INDIANA </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> SECOND CHILD </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> TO MORRIS AND BROWN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> RESOLUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF + REPRESENTATIVES, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> REMARKS IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF + REPRESENTATIVES, </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> <b>1848</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> DESIRE FOR SECOND TERM IN CONGRESS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> SPEECH ON DECLARATION OF WAR ON MEXICO </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> REPORT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, + JANUARY 19, 1848. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON—LEGAL WORK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> REGARDING SPEECH ON MEXICAN WAR </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> ON THE MEXICAN WAR </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> REPORT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> REPORT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0033"> REMARKS IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF + REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 29, 1848. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0034"> TO ARCHIBALD WILLIAMS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0035"> REMARKS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0036"> ON TAYLOR'S NOMINATION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0037"> DEFENSE OF MEXICAN WAR POSITION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0038"> ON ZACHARY TAYLOR NOMINATION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0039"> SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0040"> OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG POLITICIANS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0041"> SALARY OF JUDGE IN WESTERN VIRGINIA </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> NATIONAL BANK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0043"> YOUNG v.s. OLD—POLITICAL JEALOUSY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0044"> GENERAL TAYLOR AND THE VETO </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0045"> SPEECH DELIVERED AT WORCESTER, MASS., ON SEPT. + 12, 1848. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0046"> HIS FATHER'S REQUEST FOR MONEY </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0047"> <b>1849</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0048"> BILL GRANTING LANDS TO THE STATES TO MAKE + RAILWAYS AND CANALS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0049"> ON FEDERAL POLITICAL APPOINTMENTS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0050"> MORE POLITICAL PATRONAGE REQUESTS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0051"> TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0052"> TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0053"> TO THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0054"> TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0055"> TO THOMPSON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0056"> TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0057"> TO J. GILLESPIE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0058"> REQUEST FOR GENERAL LAND-OFFICE APPPOINTMENT + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0059"> REQUEST FOR A PATENT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0060"> TO THE SECRETARY OF INTERIOR. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0061"> TO W. H. HERNDON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0062"> TO J. GILLESPIE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0063"> RESOLUTIONS OF SYMPATHY WITH THE CAUSE OF + HUNGARIAN FREEDOM, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0064"> TO Dr. WILLIAM FITHIAN. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0065"> SPRINGFIELD, Dec. 15, 1849. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0066"> <b>1850</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0067"> RESOLUTIONS ON THE DEATH OF JUDGE NATHANIEL + POPE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_NOTE"> NOTES FOR LAW LECTURE </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0069"> <b>1851</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0070"> LETTERS TO FAMILY MEMBERS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0071"> TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0072"> TO C. HOYT. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0073"> TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0074"> PETITION ON BEHALF OF ONE JOSHUA GIPSON </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0075"> TO J. D. JOHNSTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0076"> TO J. D. JOHNSTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0077"> Nov. 4, 1851 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0078"> TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0079"> TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0080"> <b>1852</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0081"> EULOGY ON HENRY CLAY, </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0082"> CHALLENGED VOTERS </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0083"> <b>1853</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0084"> LEGAL OFFICE WORK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0085"> TO JOSHUA R. STANFORD. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0086"> <b>1854</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0087"> NEBRASKA MEASURE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0088"> TO A. B. MOREAU. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0089"> REPLY TO SENATOR DOUGLAS—PEORIA SPEECH + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0090"> REQUEST FOR SENATE SUPPORT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0091"> TO T. J. HENDERSON. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0092"> TO J. GILLESPIE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0093"> POLITICAL REFERENCES </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0094"> TO T. J. HENDERSON. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0095"> <b>1855</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0096"> LOSS OF PRIMARY FOR SENATOR </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0097"> RETURN TO LAW PROFESSION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0098"> TO O. H. BROWNING. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0099"> TO H. C. WHITNEY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0100"> RESPONSE TO A PRO-SLAVERY FRIEND </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0101"> <b>1856</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0102"> REQUEST FOR A RAILWAY PASS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0103"> SPEECH DELIVERED BEFORE THE FIRST REPUBLICAN + STATE CONVENTION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0104"> POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0105"> ON OUT-OF-STATE CAMPAIGNERS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0106"> REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN SPEECH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0107"> ON THE DANGER OF THIRD-PARTIES </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0108"> TO JESSE K. DUBOIS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0109"> TO HARRISON MALTBY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0110"> TO Dr. R. BOAL. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0111"> TO HENRY O'CONNER, MUSCATINE, IOWA. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0112"> AFTER THE DEMOCRATIC VICTORY OF BUCHANAN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0113"> TO Dr. R. BOAL. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0114"> <b>1857</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0115"> RESPONSE TO A DOUGLAS SPEECH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0116"> TO WILLIAM GRIMES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0117"> ARGUMENT IN THE ROCK ISLAND BRIDGE CASE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0118"> TO JESSE K. DUBOIS. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0119"> TO JOSEPH GILLESPIE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0120"> TO J. GILLESPIE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0121"> TO H. C. WHITNEY. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0122"> <b>1858</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0123"> ANOTHER POLITICAL PATRONAGE REFERENCE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0124"> POLITICAL COMMUNICATION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0125"> BRIEF AUTOBIOGRAPHY, </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + VOLUME II., 1843-1858 + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1843 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FIRST CHILD + </h2> + <h3> + TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. SPRINGFIELD, May 18, 1843. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1844 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO Gen. J. J. HARDIN. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, May 21, 1844. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + As ever yours, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1845 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SELECTION OF CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES + </h2> + <h3> + TO Gen. J. J. HARDIN, SPRINGFIELD, Jany. 19, 1845. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR GENERAL: + </p> + <p> + I do not wish to join in your proposal of a new plan for the selection of + a Whig candidate for Congress because: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 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 " +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO ——— WILLIAMS, + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, March 1, 1845. + </h3> + <p> + FRIEND WILLIAMS: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ABOLITION MOVEMENT + </h2> + <h3> + TO WILLIAMSON DURLEY. + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, October 3, 1845 + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours with respect, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1846 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REQUEST FOR POLITICAL SUPPORT + </h2> + <h3> + TO Dr. ROBERT BOAL. SPRINGFIELD, January 7, 1846. + </h3> + <p> + Dr. ROBERT BOAL, Lacon, Ill. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOHN BENNETT. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Jan. 15, 1846. + </h3> + <p> + JOHN BENNETT. FRIEND JOHN: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO N. J. ROCKWELL. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, January 21, 1846. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SIR:—You perhaps know that General Hardin and I have a contest + for the Whig nomination for Congress for this district. + </p> + <p> + He has had a turn and my argument is "turn about is fair play." + </p> + <p> + I shall be pleased if this strikes you as a sufficient argument. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JAMES BERDAN. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, April 26, 1846. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JAMES BERDAN. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, May 7, 1866. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VERSES WRITTEN BY LINCOLN AFTER A VISIT TO HIS OLD HOME IN INDIANA + </h2> + <h3> + (A FRAGMENT). + </h3> + <p> + [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."] + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 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? +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECOND CHILD + </h2> + <h3> + TO JOSHUA P. SPEED + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, October 22, 1846. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + As ever yours, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO MORRIS AND BROWN + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, October 21, 1847. + </h3> + <p> + MESSRS. MORRIS AND BROWN. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, December 5, 1847. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + This paper is too thick to fold, which is the reason I send only a + half-sheet. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, December 13, 1847 + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESOLUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, + </h2> + <h3> + DECEMBER 22, 1847 + </h3> + <p> + 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"; + </p> + <p> + 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"; + </p> + <p> + 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"; + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> + <p> + Resolved, By the House of Representatives, that the President of the + United States be respectfully requested to inform this House: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Second. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory which was + wrested from Spain by the revolutionary government of Mexico. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REMARKS IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, + </h2> + <h3> + JANUARY 5, 1848. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1848 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + DESIRE FOR SECOND TERM IN CONGRESS + </h2> + <h3> + TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON. + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, January 8, 1848. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Most truly your friend, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SPEECH ON DECLARATION OF WAR ON MEXICO + </h2> + <h3> + SPEECH IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, + </h3> + <p> + JANUARY 12, 1848. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + (1) That the Rio Grande was the western boundary of Louisiana as we + purchased it of France in 1803. + </p> + <p> + (2) That the Republic of Texas always claimed the Rio Grande as her + eastern boundary. + </p> + <p> + (3) That by various acts she had claimed it on paper. + </p> + <p> + (4) That Santa Anna in his treaty with Texas recognized the Rio Grande as + her boundary. + </p> + <p> + (5) That Texas before, and the United States after, annexation had + exercised jurisdiction beyond the Nueces—between the two rivers. + </p> + <p> + (6) That our Congress understood the boundary of Texas to extend beyond + the Nueces. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + The following is a copy of the so-called "treaty" referred to in the + speech: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "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." +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REPORT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 19, 1848. + </h2> + <p> + Mr. Lincoln, from the Committee on the Post-office and Post Roads, made + the following report: + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON—LEGAL WORK + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, January 19, 1848. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + I have made a speech, a copy of which I will send you by next mail. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REGARDING SPEECH ON MEXICAN WAR + </h2> + <h3> + TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON. + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, February 1, 1848. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours forever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, February 2, 1848 + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + If he writes it out anything like he delivered it, our people shall see a + good many copies of it. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON THE MEXICAN WAR + </h2> + <h3> + TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON. + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, February 15, 1848. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REPORT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, + </h2> + <h3> + MARCH 9, 1848. + </h3> + <p> + Mr. Lincoln, from the Committee on the Postoffice and Post Roads, made the + following report: + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + (1) The legal responsibility of postmasters receiving newspaper + subscriptions, or of their sureties, was not defined. + </p> + <p> + (2) The authority was open to all postmasters instead of being limited to + those of specific offices. + </p> + <p> + (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. + </p> + <p> + (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. + </p> + <p> + (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. + </p> + <p> + (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. + </p> + <p> + (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. + </p> + <p> + (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. + </p> + <p> + (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. + </p> + <p> + (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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REPORT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, + </h2> + <h3> + MARCH 9, 1848. + </h3> + <p> + Mr. Lincoln, from the Committee on the Postoffice and Post Roads, made the + following report: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REMARKS IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 29, 1848. + </h2> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + The Speaker replied in the negative. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO ARCHIBALD WILLIAMS. + </h2> + <h3> + WASHINGTON, April 30, 1848. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your friend as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0035" id="link2H_4_0035"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REMARKS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, + </h2> + <h3> + MAY 11, 1848. + </h3> + <p> + A bill for the admission of Wisconsin into the Union had been passed. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0036" id="link2H_4_0036"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON TAYLOR'S NOMINATION + </h2> + <h3> + TO E. B. WASHBURNE. + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, April 30,1848. + </p> + <p> + DEAR WASHBURNE: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + General Ashley, in the Senate from Arkansas, died yesterday. Nothing else + new beyond what you see in the papers. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN <a name="link2H_4_0037" id="link2H_4_0037"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + DEFENSE OF MEXICAN WAR POSITION + </h2> + <h3> + TO REV. J. M. PECK + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, May 21, 1848. DEAR SIR: + </p> + <p> + ....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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0038" id="link2H_4_0038"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON ZACHARY TAYLOR NOMINATION + </h2> + <h3> + TO ARCHIBALD WILLIAMS. + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, June 12, 1848. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Excuse this short letter. I have so many to write that I cannot devote + much time to any one. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0039" id="link2H_4_0039"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, + </h2> + <h3> + JUNE 20, 1848. + </h3> + <p> + In Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, on the Civil and + Diplomatic Appropriation Bill: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "That the Constitution does not confer upon the General Government the + power to commence and carry on a general system of internal improvements." + </p> + <p> + General Cass, in his letter accepting the nomination, holds this language: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Here Mr. Meade of Virginia inquired if Mr. Lincoln understood the + President to be opposed, on grounds of expediency, to any and every + improvement. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0040" id="link2H_4_0040"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG POLITICIANS + </h2> + <h3> + TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON. + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, June 22, 1848. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your friend as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0041" id="link2H_4_0041"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SALARY OF JUDGE IN WESTERN VIRGINIA + </h2> + <h3> + REMARKS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JUNE 28, 1848. + </h3> + <p> + Discussion as to salary of judge of western Virginia:—Wishing to + increase it from $1800 to $2500. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0042" id="link2H_4_0042"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NATIONAL BANK + </h2> + <h3> + JULY, 1848, + </h3> + <p> + [FRAGMENT] + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0043" id="link2H_4_0043"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + YOUNG v.s. OLD—POLITICAL JEALOUSY + </h2> + <h3> + TO W. H. HERNDON. + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, July 10, 1848. + </p> + <p> + DEAR WILLIAM: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0044" id="link2H_4_0044"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + GENERAL TAYLOR AND THE VETO + </h2> + <h3> + SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JULY 27, 1848. + </h3> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "THOMAS JEFFERSON. + </p> + <p> + "February 15, 1791." + </p> + <p> + General Taylor's opinion, as expressed in his Allison letter, is as I now + read: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + [Some member answered, "He is against it."] + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + ["We give it up!"] + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + To this General Cass is reported to have replied as follows, to wit: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + In the "remarks above reduced to writing" is one numbered four, as + follows, to wit: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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!" + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0045" id="link2H_4_0045"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SPEECH DELIVERED AT WORCESTER, MASS., ON SEPT. 12, 1848. + </h2> + <h3> + (From the Boston Advertiser.) + </h3> + <p> + Mr. Kellogg then introduced to the meeting the Hon. Abram Lincoln, Whig + member of Congress from Illinois, a representative of free soil. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0046" id="link2H_4_0046"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + HIS FATHER'S REQUEST FOR MONEY + </h2> + <h3> + TO THOMAS LINCOLN + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, Dec. 24, 1848. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Give my love to mother and all the connections. Affectionately your son, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0047" id="link2H_4_0047"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1849 + </h2> + <h3> + BILL TO ABOLISH SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA + </h3> + <p> + Resolved, That the Committee on the District of Columbia be instructed to + report a bill in substance as follows: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0048" id="link2H_4_0048"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BILL GRANTING LANDS TO THE STATES TO MAKE RAILWAYS AND CANALS + </h2> + <h3> + REMARKS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 13, 1849. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + (A voice: They are not required to make the road.) + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Vinton interrupted here to say that he had stood on this question just + where he was now, for five and twenty years. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0049" id="link2H_4_0049"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON FEDERAL POLITICAL APPOINTMENTS + </h2> + <h3> + TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, March 9, 1849. + </p> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0050" id="link2H_4_0050"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MORE POLITICAL PATRONAGE REQUESTS + </h2> + <h3> + TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE. + </h3> + <p> + WASHINGTON, March 10, 1849. + </p> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF STATE. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Having said this much, I add that in my individual judgment the + appointment of Mr. Thomas would be the better. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + (Indorsed on Mr. Bond's papers.) + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0051" id="link2H_4_0051"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7, 1849 + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0052" id="link2H_4_0052"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7, 1849. + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0053" id="link2H_4_0053"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7,1849. + </h3> + <p> + HON. POSTMASTER-GENERAL. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0054" id="link2H_4_0054"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, April 7, 1849. + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0055" id="link2H_4_0055"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO THOMPSON. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, April 25, 1849. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0056" id="link2H_4_0056"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD ILLINOIS. May 10, 1849. + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0057" id="link2H_4_0057"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO J. GILLESPIE. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILL., May 19, 1849. + </h3> + <p> + DEAR GILLESPIE: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Let this be confidential except with Mr. Edwards and a few others whom you + know I would trust just as I do you. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0058" id="link2H_4_0058"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REQUEST FOR GENERAL LAND-OFFICE APPPOINTMENT + </h2> + <h3> + TO E. EMBREE. + </h3> + <p> + [Confidential] + </p> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, May 25, 1849. + </p> + <p> + HON. E. EMBREE + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your friend as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0059" id="link2H_4_0059"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REQUEST FOR A PATENT + </h2> + <h3> + IMPROVED METHOD OF LIFTING VESSELS OVER SHOALS. + </h3> + <p> + Application for Patent: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0060" id="link2H_4_0060"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO THE SECRETARY OF INTERIOR. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILL., June 3, 1849 + </h3> + <p> + HON. SECRETARY OF INTERIOR. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your obt. servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0061" id="link2H_4_0061"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO W. H. HERNDON. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, June 5, 1849. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + P. S. Let the above be confidential. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0062" id="link2H_4_0062"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO J. GILLESPIE. + </h2> + <h3> + DEAR GILLESPIE: + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Write me soon. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0063" id="link2H_4_0063"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESOLUTIONS OF SYMPATHY WITH THE CAUSE OF HUNGARIAN FREEDOM, + </h2> + <h3> + SEPTEMBER [1??], 1849. + </h3> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That, in their present glorious struggle for liberty, the + Hungarians command our highest admiration and have our warmest sympathy. + </p> + <p> + Resolved, That they have our most ardent prayers for their speedy triumph + and final success. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0064" id="link2H_4_0064"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO Dr. WILLIAM FITHIAN. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Sept. 14, 1849. + </h3> + <p> + Dr. WILLIAM FITHIAN, Danville, Ill. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + I can well enough understand and appreciate your suggestions about the + Land-Office at Danville; but in my present condition, I can do nothing. + </p> + <p> + Yours, as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0065" id="link2H_4_0065"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SPRINGFIELD, Dec. 15, 1849. + </h2> + <h3> + ——— ESQ. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0066" id="link2H_4_0066"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1850 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0067" id="link2H_4_0067"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESOLUTIONS ON THE DEATH OF JUDGE NATHANIEL POPE. + </h2> + <p> + Circuit and District Court of the U. S. in and for the State and District + of Illinois. Monday, June 3, 1850. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Whereupon, the Hon. Stephen T. Logan, in behalf of the Committee, + presented the following preamble and resolutions: + </p> + <p> + 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 + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + E. N. POWELL, Sec'y. SAMUEL H. TREAT, Ch'n. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_NOTE" id="link2H_NOTE"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NOTES FOR LAW LECTURE + </h2> + <h3> + (fragments) + </h3> + <p> + JULY 1, 1850 + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0069" id="link2H_4_0069"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1851 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0070" id="link2H_4_0070"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LETTERS TO FAMILY MEMBERS + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0071" id="link2H_4_0071"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON. + </h2> + <h3> + January 2, 1851 + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Affectionately your brother, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0072" id="link2H_4_0072"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO C. HOYT. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Jan. 11, 1851. + </h3> + <p> + C. HOYT, ESQ. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0073" id="link2H_4_0073"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, January 12, 1851 + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Write to me again when you receive this. + </p> + <p> + Affectionately, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0074" id="link2H_4_0074"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PETITION ON BEHALF OF ONE JOSHUA GIPSON + </h2> + <h3> + TO THE JUDGE OF THE SANGAMON COUNTY COURT, + </h3> + <p> + MAY 13, 1851. TO THE HONORABLE, THE JUDGE OF THE COUNTY COURT IN AND FOR + THE COUNTY OF SANGAMON AND STATE OF ILLINOIS: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + HIS + JOSHUA x GIPSON + MARK +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0075" id="link2H_4_0075"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO J. D. JOHNSTON. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Aug. 31, 1851 + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Give my love to all, and especially to Mother. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0076" id="link2H_4_0076"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO J. D. JOHNSTON. + </h2> + <h3> + SHELBYVILLE, Nov. 4, 1851 + </h3> + <p> + DEAR BROTHER: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Sincerely yours, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0077" id="link2H_4_0077"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Nov. 4, 1851 + </h2> + <h3> + DEAR MOTHER: + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Sincerely your son, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0078" id="link2H_4_0078"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON. + </h2> + <h3> + SHELBYVILLE, November 9, 1851 + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0079" id="link2H_4_0079"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOHN D. JOHNSTON. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, November 25, 1851. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0080" id="link2H_4_0080"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1852 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0081" id="link2H_4_0081"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + EULOGY ON HENRY CLAY, + </h2> + <h3> + DELIVERED IN THE STATE HOUSE AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, JULY 16, 1852. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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 + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "'One of the few, the immortal names + That were not born to die!' +</pre> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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.' + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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?" + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0082" id="link2H_4_0082"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHALLENGED VOTERS + </h2> + <h3> + OPINION ON THE ILLINOIS ELECTION LAW. + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, November 1, 1852 + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + A. LINCOLN, + B. S. EDWARDS + S. T. LOGAN. + S. H. TREAT +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0083" id="link2H_4_0083"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1853 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0084" id="link2H_4_0084"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LEGAL OFFICE WORK + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0085" id="link2H_4_0085"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOSHUA R. STANFORD. + </h2> + <h3> + PEKIN, MAY 12, 1853 + </h3> + <p> + Mr. JOSHUA R. STANFORD. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Respectfully, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0086" id="link2H_4_0086"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1854 + </h2> + <h3> + TO O. L. DAVIS. + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, June 22, 1854. + </p> + <p> + O. L. DAVIS, ESQ. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0087" id="link2H_4_0087"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + NEBRASKA MEASURE + </h2> + <h3> + TO J. M. PALMER + </h3> + <p> + [Confidential] + </p> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, Sept. 7, 1854. + </p> + <p> + HON. J. M. PALMER. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0088" id="link2H_4_0088"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO A. B. MOREAU. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, September 7, 1854 + </h3> + <p> + A. B. MOREAU, ESQ. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours etc., + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0089" id="link2H_4_0089"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REPLY TO SENATOR DOUGLAS—PEORIA SPEECH + </h2> + <h3> + SPEECH AT PEORIA, ILLINOIS, IN REPLY TO SENATOR DOUGLAS, + </h3> + <p> + OCTOBER 16, 1854. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + In order to a clear understanding of what the Missouri Compromise is, a + short history of the preceding kindred subjects will perhaps be proper. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + The arguments by which the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is sought to + be justified are these: + </p> + <p> + First. That the Nebraska country needed a territorial government. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +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. +</pre> + <p> + I will attempt an answer to each of them in its turn. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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?" + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + I conclude, then, that the public never demanded the repeal of the + Missouri Compromise. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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!" + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + I have done with this mighty argument of self-government. Go, sacred + thing! Go in peace. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + "It hath no relish of salvation in it." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0090" id="link2H_4_0090"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REQUEST FOR SENATE SUPPORT + </h2> + <h3> + TO CHARLES HOYT + </h3> + <p> + CLINTON, De WITT Co., Nov. 10, 1854 + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Let this be confidential. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0091" id="link2H_4_0091"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO T. J. HENDERSON. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, + </h3> + <p> + November 27, 1854 T. J. HENDERSON, ESQ. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Write me, at all events; and let this be confidential. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0092" id="link2H_4_0092"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO J. GILLESPIE. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Dec. 1, 1854. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your friend, as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0093" id="link2H_4_0093"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + POLITICAL REFERENCES + </h2> + <h3> + TO JUSTICE MCLEAN. + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, ILL., December 6, 1854. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your ob't servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0094" id="link2H_4_0094"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO T. J. HENDERSON. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, December 15. 1854 + </h3> + <p> + HON. T. J. HENDERSON. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Do not speak of the Nebraska letter mentioned above; I do not wish it to + become public, that I received such information. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0095" id="link2H_4_0095"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1855 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0096" id="link2H_4_0096"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LOSS OF PRIMARY FOR SENATOR + </h2> + <h3> + TO E. B. WASHBURNE. + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, February 9, 1855 MY DEAR SIR: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Such is the way the thing was done. I think you would have done the same + under the circumstances. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours forever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0097" id="link2H_4_0097"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RETURN TO LAW PROFESSION + </h2> + <h3> + TO SANFORD, PORTER, AND STRIKER, NEW YORK. + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, MARCH 10, 1855 + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Write me whether I shall do this or return the bond to you. + </p> + <p> + Yours respectfully, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0098" id="link2H_4_0098"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO O. H. BROWNING. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, March 23, 1855. + </h3> + <p> + HON. O. H. BROWNING. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Very truly your friends, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN, B. S. EWARDS, JOHN T. STUART. <a name="link2H_4_0099" + id="link2H_4_0099"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO H. C. WHITNEY. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, June 7, 1855. + </h3> + <p> + H. C. WHITNEY, ESQ. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0100" id="link2H_4_0100"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESPONSE TO A PRO-SLAVERY FRIEND + </h2> + <h3> + TO JOSHUA. F. SPEED. + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, August 24, 1855 + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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, + </p> + <p> + Your friend forever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0101" id="link2H_4_0101"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1856 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0102" id="link2H_4_0102"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REQUEST FOR A RAILWAY PASS + </h2> + <h3> + TO R. P. MORGAN + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, February 13, 1856. + </p> + <p> + R. P. MORGAN, ESQ.: + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. + </p> + <p> + (A 'chalked hat' was the common term, at that time, for a railroad pass.) + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0103" id="link2H_4_0103"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SPEECH DELIVERED BEFORE THE FIRST REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION + </h2> + <h3> + OF ILLINOIS, HELD AT BLOOMINGTON, ON MAY 29, 1856. + </h3> + <p> + [From the Report by William C. Whitney.] + </p> + <p> + (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.) + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + [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.] + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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...?" + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "....they never mention him, + His name is never heard: + Their lips are now forbid to speak + That once familiar word." +</pre> + <p> + They have slaughtered one of his most cherished measures, and his ghost + would arise to rebuke them. [Great applause.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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!"] + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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!"] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + [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.] + </p> + <p> + 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.] + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0104" id="link2H_4_0104"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE + </h2> + <h3> + TO W. C. WHITNEY. + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, July 9, 1856. + </p> + <p> + DEAR WHITNEY:—I now expect to go to Chicago on the 15th, and I + probably shall remain there or thereabouts for about two weeks. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Lamon did get your deeds. I went with him to the office, got them, and put + them in his hands myself. + </p> + <p> + Yours very truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0105" id="link2H_4_0105"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON OUT-OF-STATE CAMPAIGNERS + </h2> + <h3> + TO WILLIAM GRIMES. + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, July 12, 1856 + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + 1. I can hardly spare the time. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0106" id="link2H_4_0106"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN SPEECH + </h2> + <h3> + FRAGMENT OF SPEECH AT GALENA, ILLINOIS, IN THE FREMONT CAMPAIGN, + </h3> + <p> + AUGUST 1, 1856. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0107" id="link2H_4_0107"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ON THE DANGER OF THIRD-PARTIES + </h2> + <h3> + TO JOHN BENNETT. + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, AUG. 4, 1856 + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + This gives B. the State by 7000 and leaves him in the minority of the + whole 14,000. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0108" id="link2H_4_0108"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JESSE K. DUBOIS. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Aug. 19, 1856. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours as truly as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0109" id="link2H_4_0109"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO HARRISON MALTBY. + </h2> + <h3> + [Confidential] + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, September 8, 1856. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours very truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0110" id="link2H_4_0110"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO Dr. R. BOAL. + </h2> + <h3> + Sept. 14, 1856. + </h3> + <p> + Dr. R. BOAL, Lacon, Ill. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Present my regards to Mrs. Boal, and believe [me], as ever, + </p> + <p> + Your friend, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0111" id="link2H_4_0111"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO HENRY O'CONNER, MUSCATINE, IOWA. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Sept. 14, 1856. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours very truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0112" id="link2H_4_0112"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + AFTER THE DEMOCRATIC VICTORY OF BUCHANAN + </h2> + <h3> + FRAGMENT OF SPEECH AT A REPUBLICAN BANQUET IN CHICAGO, DECEMBER 10, 1856. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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"). + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0113" id="link2H_4_0113"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO Dr. R. BOAL. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Dec. 25, 1856. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your friend as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0114" id="link2H_4_0114"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1857 + </h2> + <h3> + TO JOHN E. ROSETTE. Private. + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, ILL., February 10, 1857. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0115" id="link2H_4_0115"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + RESPONSE TO A DOUGLAS SPEECH + </h2> + <h3> + SPEECH IN SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, JUNE 26, 1857. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +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." +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + Again, Chief Justice Taney says: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + And again, after quoting from the Declaration, he says: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + "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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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: + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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? + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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! + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0116" id="link2H_4_0116"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO WILLIAM GRIMES. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, August, 1857 + </h3> + <p> + DEAR SIR:—Yours of the 14th is received, and I am much obliged for + the legal information you give. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours very truly, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0117" id="link2H_4_0117"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ARGUMENT IN THE ROCK ISLAND BRIDGE CASE. + </h2> + <h3> + (From the Daily Press of Chicago, Sept. 24, 1857.) + </h3> + <p> + Hurd et al. vs Railroad Bridge Co. + </p> + <p> + United States Circuit Court, Hon. John McLean, Presiding Judge. + </p> + <p> + 13th day, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 1857. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + Court adjourned. + </p> + <p> + 14th day, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 1857. + </p> + <p> + 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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + "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? + </p> + <p> + "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." + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + "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. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0118" id="link2H_4_0118"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JESSE K. DUBOIS. + </h2> + <h3> + DEAR DUBOIS: + </h3> + <p> + BLOOMINGTON, Dec. 19, 1857. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0119" id="link2H_4_0119"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO JOSEPH GILLESPIE. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Jan. 19, 1858. + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Please come right up. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0120" id="link2H_4_0120"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO J. GILLESPIE. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, Feb 7, 1858 + </h3> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0121" id="link2H_4_0121"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TO H. C. WHITNEY. + </h2> + <h3> + SPRINGFIELD, December 18, 1857. + </h3> + <p> + HENRY C. WHITNEY, ESQ. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR:—Coming home from Bloomington last night I found your + letter of the 15th. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + If you quietly co-operate with Mr. J. O. Johnson on getting up an + organization, I think it will be right. + </p> + <p> + Your friend as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0122" id="link2H_4_0122"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + 1858 + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0123" id="link2H_4_0123"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ANOTHER POLITICAL PATRONAGE REFERENCE + </h2> + <h3> + TO EDWARD G. MINER. + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, Feb.19, 1858. + </p> + <p> + MY DEAR SIR: + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Your friend as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0124" id="link2H_4_0124"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + POLITICAL COMMUNICATION + </h2> + <h3> + TO W. H. LAMON, ESQ. + </h3> + <p> + SPRINGFIELD, JUNE 11, 1858 + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + I write in the court room. Court has opened, and I must close. + </p> + <p> + Yours as ever, + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <a name="link2H_4_0125" id="link2H_4_0125"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BRIEF AUTOBIOGRAPHY, + </h2> + <h3> + JUNE 15, 1858. + </h3> + <p> + 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: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 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. +</pre> + <p> + Yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + A. LINCOLN. <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Papers And Writings Of Abraham +Lincoln, Volume Two, by Abraham Lincoln + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S PAPERS *** + +***** This file should be named 2654-h.htm or 2654-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/5/2654/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S PAPERS *** + +***** This file should be named 2654.txt or 2654.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/5/2654/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..08a876c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #2654 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2654) diff --git a/old/20060816.2654.txt b/old/20060816.2654.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..208bbdf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20060816.2654.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9404 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 2, +1843-1858, by Abraham Lincoln + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 2, 1843-1858 + +Author: Abraham Lincoln + +Release Date: August 16, 2006 [EBook #2654] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WRITINGS OF LINCOLN *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + +CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION + + + + +WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN VOLUME II. + +1843-1858 + + + + +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 [12??], 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 Writings of Abraham Lincoln, +Volume 2, 1843-1858, by Abraham Lincoln + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WRITINGS OF LINCOLN *** + +***** This file should be named 2654.txt or 2654.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.net/2/6/5/2654/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared for Gutenberg by David Widger, widger@cecomet.net + + + + + +WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN VOLUME II. + + + +1843-1858 + + + + +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 +thL, 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 o f 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 +a a th 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 1`837; 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 th 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 exel1ence, 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" be 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: Co1onel 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-OFICE 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 [12?], 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, entertainmg 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 18O7 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 hypocracy 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 +stipu1ated--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 1aws" 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 negoes. 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 analogo 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 Project Gutenberg Etext of The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Vol 2 + diff --git a/old/2linc10.zip b/old/2linc10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4ac566 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2linc10.zip diff --git a/old/2linc11.txt b/old/2linc11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16b5341 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2linc11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10443 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, v2 +#2 in our series of the Writings of Abraham Lincoln + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other +Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your +own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future +readers. Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. 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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 o f 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 exellence, 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: Co1onel 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-OFICE 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 [12??], 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, entertainmg 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 18O7 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 hypocracy 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 1aws" 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 negoes. 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 analogo 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 this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Writings of Lincoln, v2 +By Abraham Lincoln + diff --git a/old/2linc11.zip b/old/2linc11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..431c191 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2linc11.zip |