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i'n 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 To me there is no greater example in the history of 
 the human rare of nutffnifieent leadership 
 
 and patriotism than that of Abraham, ^ ^ (^ 
 
 Lincoln during that contest ~^ 
 
 SPEECH OF 
 
 HON. JOSEPH G. GA"^^' 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 CHAMBER OF COMMEPiCE 
 PITTSBURG, PA. 
 
 PEBRUARY 12, 1910 
 
 
 ^F 
 
 30902—8796 
 
 'W" A-SH iisr G-T o:Nr 
 
 1910 
 
 ^?Lt (^ 
 
b4 5n 
 .S 
 
SPEECH 
 
 Off 
 
 HO^. JOSEPH a. CAISTNON 
 
 [The following speech, delivered by Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, of 
 Illinois, before the Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburg, Pa., on Lincoln's 
 Birthday, February 12, 1910, is printed pursuant to unanimous consent.] 
 
 Speaker CANNON said: 
 
 Mr. ToASTMASTER, Mr. President : It is now 20 minutes 
 of 11 o'cloclv. I am not going to apologize to this virile audi- 
 ence, young men all; and if there are any who have had their 
 threescore and ten years I can not sit them out. So, if I talk 
 thirty minutes, and talk too long, signify it. [Laughter.] 
 
 It has been said that I had the honor of a personal acquaint- 
 ance with Lincoln. Yes; and yet I can tell you but little that 
 is new touching Abraham Lincoln. The survivors of the twenty- 
 two hundred thousand men who in the hell of the four years' 
 great contest followed him through evil and through good report 
 know of his magnificent leadership. It is not necessary that I 
 should say anything to them about Lincoln personally. • 
 
 "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" was the ques- 
 tion asked almost two thousand years ago; and they said, 
 " Come and see." The Master came out of Nazareth. The 
 world received Him ; the world crucified Him upon the cruel 
 cross. He had His followers. That great character, with His 
 philosophy and His great, kind, human, and divine heart, felt 
 that He could afford to wait, and yet how He would have gotten 
 along without St, Paul, I do not know, nor can any man tell. 
 
 St. Paul broke away from the Jews, broke away from their 
 prejudices. His love for his Master made him carry the teach- 
 ings of the Master not only to Jews, but to Gentiles, and in the 
 most prosperous portions of the earth we have the theology, the 
 philosophj^ the teachings of the Master represented in our 
 Christian civilization. He was of humble origin. Matthew 
 traced back his ancestry to Abraham, but he was of humble 
 origin, born in a manger. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, human, of humble but honorable parentage, 
 born of forbears humble but honorable, who in Massachusetts, 
 in New Jersey, in Pennsylvania, in Virginia, across the moun- 
 tains to the " dark and bloody ground." contributed their mite 
 amongst the other pioneers to the founding and the i)reservation 
 of Commonwealths. In the humble cabin in which he was 
 born no man could have proiihesied without derision as to how 
 he should lead the American people. His father was not a 
 slaveholder, and the great contest that was then ahead was a 
 contest between servile and free labor — servile labor down 
 south of Mason and Dixon's line — and while Lincoln's father, 
 Thomas, may not have fully realized why he crossed the Ohio 
 30992— 879G 3 
 
and sojourned in Indiana and toolv the family, Abraham amongst 
 tliem, to Illinois; wlaile he may not have reasoned it out. lie 
 acted in common with the forbears of many of us south of 
 Mason and Dixon's line. Quakers, Moravians, English, Scotch, 
 Irish, German, the nonslaveholders, moved out under that 
 same impulse that actuated Thomas Lincoln to cross Mason and 
 Dixon's line — that their children and their children's children 
 might be in that part of our common heritage v^-here labor was 
 honorable and free from degradation by coming in competition 
 with servile labor. 
 
 LIFE ON THE FRONTIER. 
 
 It was fortunate for all of ns that Lincoln had this early 
 training and humble beginning. 
 
 The college and the university did not exist in the great 
 IMiddle West. There was no institution of learning there at 
 that time that was as good as a common high school now, of 
 which multiplied thousands abound throughout the length and 
 breadth of the Republic. He grew and became a clerk in a 
 little country store, and sold all kinds of things, amongst others, 
 with the civilization as they had it then, whisky, Douglas 
 taunted him with it, and Lincoln said : 
 
 Yes, I did ; but it takes two to make a bargain. I vras inside the 
 couuter and Douglas was outside. 
 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Then he was a surveyor. He was patriotic. In the fierce 
 contest that the pioneers had with the aborigines, he made 
 haste as a volunteer in the Black Hawk war. 
 
 Back again in Illinois, he had few text-books, but under very 
 discouraging circumstances he acquired something of the knowl- 
 edge of his chosen profession — that of the law. 
 ( Lincoln was always a iwlitician, always a partisan. There 
 'were no Carnegie libraries. Books were scarce. A copy of the 
 Bible, Buuyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Josephus, PiOllius's Ancient 
 History, and perhaps one copy of Shakespeare to a township 
 were the books he had access to. In the law ofiice which 
 loaned him books there was a copy of The Federalist. He early 
 became a follower of Alexander Hamilton. Ambitious to take 
 part in politics, he became a candidate for the legislature in 
 18.32 in the county of Sangamon. Ilis opponent was Peter 
 Cartwright, that virile, devoted Methodist minister, who at a 
 conference in Nasliville happened to meet Andrew Jackson; and 
 as I heard him tell it — and it is recorded in his biograpliy — all 
 that country of the great Middle West, reaching out as far as 
 the white man had trod, the ministers, in their hunting shirts 
 made of homespun, gathered at Nashville. Cartwright did not 
 like Ba scorn. 
 
 Bascom afterwards became a bishop in the Methodist Church. 
 Cartwright, in referring to him, said he was a dandy. They 
 met, and being in charge of the church at Nashville, Cartwright 
 was not asked to preach; and as he told the story the brethren 
 rebelled, and he said: 
 
 Bascom felt like he h.id to call on mo, and he said : " Peter Cart- 
 wright will preach at this house to-morrow morning at 6 o'clock." 
 
 Said he: 
 
 I sprang to my feet and I said : " Brethren, get up, come before 
 breakfast, and we" will have services in this house, and l>y the grace of 
 God, aided by your presence, we will have such an outpouring of the 
 Bpii'it of God as this conference has not witnessed." 
 30992—8796 
 
 Gift 
 
He told the story further that as the congregation .sathererl — • 
 The tail of my huntins shirt was jerked, and Bascom said to me : 
 "Be lieerfiil. General Jackson is coming down the aisle; " and I turned 
 on him, and I said: "Who is General Jackson? If he doi-sn't repent 
 and receive forgiveness, God Almighty would damn his soul as quick 
 as he would that of a Guinea nigger." 
 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 And Bascom said : " .Jackson will cut off your ears."' 
 But as the congregation disbursed Jackson made his way 
 
 down the aisle and he took from his iK)cket a coin that was 
 
 equal in value to a $5 gold piece, and he said: 
 
 I want to contribute this to the Lord's work. You are my kind of 
 a man. 
 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Of course, Peter Cartwright in those early days remained a 
 Democrat up to the time of his death, except when the great 
 struggle came between servile labor and free labor, for the tirst 
 time he became a follower of the man whom he had defeated iu 
 1832. 
 
 LINCOLN IN POLITICS. 
 
 Somebody has said: "Beware of the man who has but one 
 book." That is a very good saying, because the man who reads 
 but one book criticises it, thinks about it, gets outside of it, 
 makes it his own, and is more competent than the man who 
 reads a thousand books with a hop, skip, and a jump, so that 
 what he reads feeds in and feeds out, without leaving any- 
 thing in him. So Ijncoln. from his early law reading, knew 
 something of Hamilton, and I have here his first platform, on 
 which he ran for the legislature In 1834 and was elected. 
 
 I am for a national bank : I am for a high protective tariff and the 
 system of internal improvements. 
 
 These are my sentiments and political principles. 
 
 [Applause.] 
 
 Democracy was triumphant, and yet lancoln was elected. 
 He had many terms in the legislature. In 1843, speaking for 
 his Whig brethren in the legislature and getting ready for the 
 great contest of 1844, he proposed this resolution, which was 
 adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That a tariff of duties on imported goods producing suffi- 
 cient revenue for the payment of the necessary expenses of the National 
 Government and so adjusted as to protect American industry is indis- 
 pensably necessary to the prosperity of the American people. 
 
 [Applause.] 
 
 His advocacy of a " protective tariff" was notlimited by time 
 or conditions. He demanded protection to xVmerican industry, 
 not in the infant stage or any other stage, but as a permanent 
 policy of advantage, if not of necessity, for the development and 
 advancement of the United States among the nations of the 
 earth. He proclaimed his belief in the doctrine of Alexander 
 Hamilton at a time when it seemed that the popularity of 
 Jackson had given the Democratic party a perpetual lease on the 
 will of the majority. 
 
 There was another re.^olution in which he voiced his opposi- 
 tion and that of those who followed him at that time to the 
 extension of servile labor iuto any Territory of the United 
 States. 
 
 30992—8796 
 
He practiced law on a country circuit. lie was easily the 
 leader of tlie bar on that circuit— the okl ninth circuit. David 
 Davis, the nisi prius judse, was afterwards nominated by T^in- 
 coln for justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 He was a great friend of Lincoln. Both of them were Whigs. 
 I say he was easily the leader of the l)ar, but all the time he 
 was talking politics. Even after I went to Illinois the only 
 amusement they had was when twice a year they held the 
 circuit court, which was the nisi prius court of common-law 
 jurisdiction, law, and equity. Twice a year tlie lawyers would 
 come riding in on horses. A little later on some of the county 
 towns were reached by railroad, and, of course, they were 
 utilized, and the jurors and the witnesses would come to the 
 county seat. There were no theaters and few circuses. Van 
 Ambei-g did run a great moral menagerie once in a while 
 [Laughter.] I was 20 years old before I ever saw any other 
 amusement. They came together to visit. They filled up the 
 houses in the little county town. Some of them camped out 
 in tents, some slept in their wagons while they, were in attend- 
 ance upon the court. They Iinew the merits and the power of 
 the lawyers as they addressed the court and wrestled for 
 verdicts." But at least one time in the day, sometimes at the 
 hour of adjournment at noon and sometimes in the evening, 
 the lawyers in attendance would address the people from 
 the political standpoint. Lincoln was always ready under those 
 conditions. 
 
 I am not going to weary you by reminiscing. I am tolerably 
 careful about that. It is the weakness of men past three 
 score and ten to reminisce. Sometimes we begin and we say, 
 "Well, now, it was the year of the big snow." [Laughter.] 
 " It was the year of the shooting stars. I guess that was 1832, 
 or maybe it was 1382." [Laughter.] And so it runs. There- 
 fore l' rarely indulge in reminiscences. I am doing more of it 
 to-night than I ever expect to do again in my life. We are 
 living in the present. It is well to refer to the past just enough 
 to profit by its experiences, so that we plant our footsteps in 
 wisd<mi now, and prophesy for the future. When the Master 
 was bidding for recruits and one said to Him, " Lord, suffer 
 me first to go out and bury my father," He turned and said to 
 him, " Let the dead bury their dead." And as the life of a 
 generation is less than forty years, that was very good advice. 
 Therefore tell me if you grow weary of my reminiscences. 
 [Laughter and applause and cries of " Go on."] 
 
 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 
 
 Away back in 1820 Missouri was admitted, the southern 
 boundarv, 36° 30' north latitude. It was a sad day for people 
 who were devoted to free labor. It was a great contest, and 
 that compromise was made, and it was therein written that in 
 the future, at least in spirit if not in letter, that in the States 
 formed from the territory north of 36° 30' there should be free 
 labor, that they should come in free; substantially the same 
 stipulation that was made in the ordinance of 1787 as to the 
 great Northwest Territory. 
 
 The conflict was thickening and growing, slave labor upon one 
 side and free labor upon the other, and the compromise was 
 made that Missouri might come in, stretching away up to the 
 30992—8796 
 
southern boundary of what is now Iowa, but that never there- 
 after should it hapiien apiin. and that as to territory south of 
 that line, it should be left to the people. I should weary you 
 if I should tell you about the repeal of that compromise in 1S54. 
 I should weary you if I told you that following that repeal the 
 Supreme Court of the Tnited States, by a majority vote, by an 
 obiter — the question not being involved in the decision of the 
 case — decided that, under the Constitution, slaves were property, 
 and decided expressly that they might go into all the Territories 
 and be protected under the Constitution, and decided, in prin- 
 ciple, that they might go anywhere in the United States. The 
 country was aflame. You, Bishop Smith, sitting here by me, 
 were old enough to recollect it. Not only were the Whigs aflame, 
 but the free-soil Democrats also. To describe it by the single 
 expression that we sometimes use farther West, " there was 
 blood on the face of the political moon." A great contest in 
 Illinois resulted in the election of Trumbull for Senator. 
 Lincoln was the idol of the AVhigs. They had lacked 5 votes 
 of enough to elect Lincoln. There were 5 free-soil Democrats 
 who would not vote for him and, under the advice of Lincoln, 
 they elected Trumliull. Lincoln cared but little for political 
 preferment. He saw the great contest coming. Two years later 
 the great canvass was made between Lincoln and Douglas in 
 Illinois, of which canvass the whole country took note. Lincoln 
 was nominated by a popular convention, and he announced his 
 platform upon which to make that contest with Senator Douglas. 
 I have it here. It is brief. Listen : 
 
 A house divided against itself can not stand. I believe this Govern- 
 ment can not endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not 
 expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, 
 hut I expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing 
 or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the fur- 
 ther spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the 
 iDelief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates 
 will push It forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, 
 old as well as new, North as well as South. 
 
 In 1858 I went to Illinois from Indiana. It was not a long 
 journey. About 60 miles. I settled in the new county of Doug- 
 las. The prairie stretched away. In the little county town 
 there were not over a dozen houses, and beyond on the prairie, 
 as far as the eye could reach, there was but a single house. 
 The Illinois Central Railroad had just been constructed. 
 
 I heard two of those debates, one at Sullivan, 111., and one at 
 Charleston, 111. I think I should have journeyed over the State 
 to hear the others if the walking had not been poor. [Laughter.] 
 It was a wonderful contest — between giants. Douglas, born in 
 Vermont, a great politician, of national and world-wide reputa- 
 tion, was remarkably strong and resourceful. In point of fact 
 his heart beat true to human freedom, but as he was a member 
 of that great party that was dominated by servile labor his am- 
 bition created the desire to be President. The contest was 
 fought out. Lincoln failed to reach the Senate, but the whole 
 country was aflame, and at tue end of those great debates he 
 had a national if not a world-wide reputation. 
 
 KOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT. 
 
 Then came the Cooper Union speech. Then came the cam- 
 paign in Ohio in 18.50, and, when 1800 came, Illinois concluded 
 to present him as her candidate for the nomination for the 
 30992—8796 
 
Presidency. In the northern part of the State, especially In 
 Chicago, there was much of settlement from New York ; some- 
 thing from New England. They were greatly attached to 
 Seward, who was a great man, a man of culture. We met in 
 Decatur, 111. I was a delegate in that convention ; drove there 
 in a farm wagon GO miles across the prairie. 
 
 The convention was held in a structure erected between two 
 brick buildings, with posts cut from the forest, stringers cut 
 from the forest, and covered with boughs cut from the forest, 
 and the ends open. The multiplied thousands gathered — earn- 
 est, determined men. Just about the time the convention was 
 organized, a voice came, " Make way for Dick Oglesby and 
 John Hanks." After much of effort a narrow passage was 
 made, and they passed through it, bearing two old walnut rails. 
 They were set up, and there was a legend on a strip of cotton, 
 "These two rails were made by John Hanks and Abraham 
 Lincoln in 1S30." There was great enthusiasm. Lincoln was 
 a great lawyer; had won his spurs in the famous debate which 
 attracted the attention of the whole country ; but the Ameri- 
 can people, always reaching out for something that will touch 
 the popular heart, found it there. The crowd closed up, and 
 the cry came for I^incoln. He could not get through; and 
 great, tall, gaunt man as he was, they literally picked him up 
 and passed him over their heads. He did not talk much. 
 Somebody asked him, an hour before, if it was proper for him 
 to be there, as he was a candidate for the Presidency ; and a 
 queer expression came over his face, and he said, " The truth 
 is. Arch."— it was Mr. Archibald Van Deeren to whom lie was 
 talking — " I am most too much of a candidate to be here, but 
 hardly enough to stay away." [Laughter.] 
 
 The audience were wild with enthusiasm. He talked a little, 
 not to exceed five minutes. Somebody sang out, " Abe, did you 
 make those rails?" his reply came "John Hanks says we made 
 those rails. I do not know whether we did or not, but I have 
 made many better ones than those." [Laughter.] 
 
 The Seward people in that convention were swept off their 
 feet, and a delegation unanimously chosen by that convention, 
 consisting of the personal and political friends of Abraham 
 Lincoln, went to the convention held in the wigwam a week or 
 two later at Chicago. You all luiow the result. 
 
 Then came the campaign. Lincoln behaved very well. He 
 did not make speeches. He did not make a campaign. He 
 answered a few letters. If you want to know what was the 
 platform adopted at Chicago, read the last Republican plat- 
 form ; and you have everything in that platform that was in 
 the platform adopted in ISOO. touching economic questions, and 
 which platform the pen of Abraham Lincoln drew. [Applause.] 
 
 The campaign that followed was a fierce one. " Black Re- 
 publican." "i)o you want your daughter to marry a nigger?" 
 "Abolitionist." AH that kind of thing. 
 
 Liucohi was not an abolitionist, he was a lawyer. Up to that 
 time and after he became President he was not a follower of 
 Garrison. They would have swept slavery with a strong hand, 
 by revolution or otherwise. Some of them would have been 
 willing to see two governments, in order that we might be rid 
 of slavery. Lincoln voiced his platform and his true feelings 
 30992— S79G 
 
when he said that he would not, as man. citizen, or lawyer, 
 interfere with sfnvery where it then existed; but that if it was 
 coutiued to its then limits, in the fullness of time it would dis- 
 apiiear. You may say that was the politician's view. It was 
 good politics for votes, and as the world was not made in a day, 
 and as in a government of the people you can not make prog- 
 ress except as yon keep the majority of the people with you. 
 It was good all around. 
 
 Elected President, the threat of secession came. He re- 
 mained at Springfield, and after the campaign I saw him once, 
 when he was on his way, in a day coach, without a companion, 
 to go to Charleston, 111., to meet, for the last time in his life, 
 the old step-mother, who called him "my boy Alie" up to the 
 time of his death, and she lived longer than Lincoln lived. She 
 was an illiterate, plain, homespun woman, but good stuff. She 
 had been kind to Lincoln, and gloried iji his success. She died 
 calling him " my boy Abe." 
 
 lixcoln's first inaugural address. 
 
 The contest came. Yon recollect his first message, the inau- 
 gural. Let me read a little. If I am talking too long, stop 
 me. [Cries of "Go on!"] In his first inaugural address, he 
 said : 
 
 Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A 
 liiajority held In restraint by constitutional checks and limitations — 
 
 He spoke of constitutional checks and limitations. There was 
 nowhere in that inaugural, or in any state paper, or in any 
 statement, or in the mind of Lincoln, that the Chief Executive 
 could do anything except that which was authorized in a gov- 
 ernment of the people by law [applause] ; and it remains for 
 wild-eyed sons of destiny of a later day to say that the Execu- 
 tive can do anj-fhing that is not expressly prohibited by the 
 letter of the law. But I will read the rest of it : 
 
 A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, 
 and all this" changing easily with deliberate changes of public opinion 
 and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Wlioever 
 rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity 
 is impossiljle. The rule of a minority as a permanent arrangement is 
 wholly inadmissible ; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy 
 or despotism in some form is all that is left. 
 
 The South seceded. We went to the limit to prevent seces- 
 sion. Just before Lincoln was inaugurated a constitutional 
 amendment, called the " thirteenth amendment " to the Consti- 
 tution, was passed in the House, which was Republican, and in 
 the Senate, which was also Republican, because many of the 
 Senators and Representatives from the Southland had already 
 journej-ed out of Congress. They submitted that thirteenth 
 amendment, which provided that in the future the Constitution 
 should never be amended so as to interfere with slavery where 
 it then existed. Lincoln, after his inauguration, sent that 
 amendment to the States. Referring to it in his inaugural 
 message, he said in substance that as the express terms of the 
 amendment were, in his judgment, implied in the Constitution 
 as it was, he did not see any objection to making the e.xpress 
 amendment. He went to the limit. He was urged by the radi- 
 cals in the far North, away from the border land, to make all the 
 concessions possible to prevent secession, and he did. He said 
 30992—8796 
 
10 
 
 to Greeley, in that famous letter of his, " I will preserve the 
 Union; with slavery as it exists now if I must; without 
 slavery if I can, hut I will preserve the Union." [Applause.] 
 
 LINCOLN THE LEADER OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Men in this workl must be practical. Civilizations must be 
 practical. Majorities must he practical. Lincoln kuew that 
 the radical element in the Northland was away from iNIasou 
 and Dixon's line. He knew that the radical element in the 
 Southland was in the Gulf States. The theater of that great 
 contest was to he in the border land and of the border land. 
 Born in Kentucky, living in Illinois, the southern and central 
 parts of Illinois and Indiana having been principally settled 
 from Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, whose 
 people had gone there to get away from slavery, the hearth- 
 stone was back in the old home, the kin were there, and they 
 had something of the prejudices against servile labor that 
 necessarily would linger with them. 
 
 They were willing to follow Lincoln in his contest for free- 
 dom in the Territories; but when the cry of "Abolitionist" was 
 raised many of them wavered. I do not know, I do not affirm 
 or dispute, that God raised up Abraham Lincoln to lead the 
 people of this country to the preservation of the Union. Some- 
 times I think under the first law that He imposed upon the 
 race after the fall we have been operating without special 
 Providences since. I do not affirm or deny it, but I do know 
 that Abraham Lincoln was a leader in that great contest, and 
 knew how far he could go and how fast he could go and keep 
 in supporting distance of the people who lived in Kentucky, and 
 Missouri, and Virginia, "and the southern parts of the States of 
 Indiana, and Illinois, and Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and Mary- 
 land, upon the border laud. All he had to do was to place his 
 hand upon his pulse and count his heart beats, and when he 
 got the answer he kuew that he had the answer of a majority 
 of that people whom he was leading upon the theater of that 
 great contest. [Applause.] 
 
 " On to liichmond ! " was the cry. Yon older people recollect 
 it. Greeley in his Tribune, and the metropolitan press gen- 
 erally, took command of the army. " On to Richmond ! We will 
 bring this great contest at once to a close." The battle of Bull 
 Kun came, and with it came defeat, and, lo, how the tune 
 changed. 
 
 I have great respect for the press. It reaches the people 
 once or twice daily. I have great respect for the periodicals 
 called " magazines." They reach the people weekly or semi- 
 monthly or monthly ; but as I recollect the past, I may be par- 
 doned when they cry, " Do this or that or the other." if I in- 
 quire first, at least in my own mind, whether my judgment and 
 your judgment is content to follow the orders that are given. 
 [Applause.] Because no sooner had Bull Run come than Hor- 
 ace Greeley, whose pen I used to think was touched with in- 
 spiration — I read Greeley's Tribune out on the Wabash once a 
 week from boyhood up to that time — wrote his letter to Lin- 
 coln and said, " Make peace upon the best terms you can get." 
 And then the New York Times proposed that the President 
 should be superseded, and the Chicago Times, and quite gener- 
 ally the metropolitan press, proposed to throw up the sponge. 
 30992—8796 
 
11 
 
 We think now that the sensational press is pretty bad, hnt I 
 think you wicked people will understand when I say to you, 
 from my recollections of the press then, that the press of that 
 day could give cards and spades to the sensational i)ress of 
 to.-day and beat them at the snuie. [Ai)plause and laughter.] 
 ',So the war waged on. Cartoons! Oh, we have vicious car- 
 toons. [Laughter.] That great cartoonist, Davenport, cov- 
 ered Mark Hanua with dollar marks for the gold that was paid 
 him by Hearst. I never quarreled with Davenport. He must 
 live. He repented in sackcloth and ashes; and now that Mark 
 Hanna has crossed over, there is no man of any party through- 
 out the Republic who would accuse him of a dislionorable act 
 in private or public life. [Apjilause.] If you will go back 
 and look at the cartoons of Lincoln's day you will wonder 
 whether art is not brutalizing instead of ennobling. 
 
 MORTON AND YATES. 
 
 Thea came the contest of 1SG2. No two men ever worshipped 
 the same god, or ever will. Our idea of Deity does not change 
 Deity. He is to each individual according to the conception 
 of the individual. There was conflict amongst our brethren. 
 The church South prayed for slavery and sustained secession. 
 The church North in part sustained Lincoln, in part criticised 
 him and denounced him. I am not speaking disrespectfully of 
 the church. The Christian church is a great power tor the up- 
 building of civilization. It does not make any difference 
 whether you or I have faith or not, the average man is a re- 
 ligious animal, and he will have some kind of religion ; and 
 there is no religion that ever existed in the tide of time that 
 equals the Christian religion. [Applause.] People who believe 
 in it, howes'er they may disbelieve in minor matters, come near 
 enough to believing so that they cooperate; but the churches 
 grew quite uneasy about Lincoln. They sent delegations down 
 to Washington. There were some of tliem who went from 
 Chicago, and with great concern instructed him, " Thus saith 
 the Lord." You recollect Lincoln's answer. He said : 
 
 There is no human bcina; living who is more anxious to know whnt 
 the Lord would have me do than I am. I am clothed with responsi- 
 bility, and it seems to me if He is willing to accord His command to 
 anyone, that He would give it to me. 
 
 That was a few days before the notice of the emancipation 
 pro'^'lamation, which was given in Seiitember, 1SG2. That proc- 
 lamation had been written for three months, and Lincoln, with 
 his great desire to save the Republic, with his great knowledge, 
 with his great courage, was waiting, waiting, waiting, until 
 the boys in blue might gain a victory or two; waiting until 
 their letters sliould come from the southland, where they were 
 fighting the battles of the Re!)ublic, to their brothers and par- 
 ents and friends, that tliey might also make converts; waiting 
 for the people to rise up and sing against the opposition of the 
 sensational press and the cowardly w<iuld-be leaders; waiting 
 for them to sing, " "\^'e're coming. Father Abraham, three hun- 
 dred thou.«and more." [Applause.] 
 
 Within a week after the Chicago ministers returned to Chi- 
 cago Lincoln issued that proclamation, and gave notice that if 
 the forces in rebellion did not lay down their arms by the Lst 
 of January, under the war power of the Government, under the 
 30992—8796 
 
12 
 
 mnxim that in time of war all laws are silent, he would pro- 
 claim freedom to the slaves. Then there were hard times in 
 Illinois and Indiana. Those two States had great, stalwart, 
 patriotic governors. Measuring my words, if there had not heen 
 a Lincoln, I believe Oliver P. Morton would have been more 
 nearly like Lincoln than any other man who lived at that time. 
 The Indiana elections came. Copperhead legislatures were 
 chosen in both States, and by legislation and refusal to legislate 
 they did all they could to weaken the federal arms. They with- 
 held appropriations in Indiana; and from that time until an- 
 other legislature was elected in 18G4, Oliver P. Morton could 
 oidy carry on the state government in Indiana, could only en- 
 list and clothe and forward to the front the patriotic sons of 
 that great State by pledging his personal credit with that of 
 Kewnian and others, through Winslow, Lanier & Co., of New 
 York, to obtain the money necessary to carry on the state gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 In the constitution of Illinois there is power, when the senate 
 and house disagree about the day for ad.lournmont, that the 
 governor may prorogue the legislature. I do not know whether 
 there was such a disagreement as the .constitution of the^State 
 of Illinois contemplated or not, but here was a legislature doing 
 all it could by its counsel to promote desertions and. by refusing 
 necessary legislation, to embarrass the cause of the Union. The 
 house passed a resolution fixing a day for adjournment. The 
 sen.'ite disagreed and sent it back to the house. Governor Yates 
 said that that authorized him to prorogue the legislature, and 
 he did it on the double-quick. [Laughter.] The governor set 
 sentinels at the doors of the statehouse, and the legislature 
 met in a church. Camp Yates was 3 miles away, and he sent 
 an orderly with a message to that rump legislature, as he called 
 it. that if they did not disperse he would disperse them at the 
 point of the bayonet, and they got ! [Laughter.] 
 
 And all the while, with all the abuse, with the quarrels in 
 the Cal)inet, with the premier suggesting that the conduct of 
 the war had better be left to him: with the failures of generals; 
 witli the universal criticism of generals, of colonels, and even of 
 captains; with the false reports that were sent by wire and 
 correspondence; with doubt and fear; with the credit of the 
 Republic disappearing, this tall, gaunt, sad-faced man, born of 
 the children of toil, kept his courage. To me there is no greater 
 exami)le in the history of the human race of magnificent leader- 
 ship and patriotism than that of Abraham Lincoln during that 
 contest. 
 
 George William Curtis in notifying liincoln of his second nom- 
 ination said : 
 
 Amid the bitter taunts of eager friends and the fierce denunciation 
 of enemies, now moving too fast for some, now too slow for others, 
 they have seen you throughout tliis tremendous contest patient, sa- 
 gacious, faithful, just, leaning upon the heart of the groat mass of the 
 people and satisfied to he moved by its mighty pulsations. 
 
 In that one sentence Mr. Curtis expressed the great qualities 
 of Lincoln and the secret of his success as a leader of the 
 American people. 
 
 Moses was a great character. He led his people over the 
 desert for forty years to the in-omised land ; but, in my judgment, 
 speaking respectfully, I believe that Abraham Lincoln was the 
 30992— 879G 
 
13 
 
 greatest leader that tliis world ever ri'^^cl'uwd, and in that great 
 struggle for a government of the people, and for free men and 
 freedom, he laid a foundation upon which I trust and holieve 
 the Republic will endure through the ages. [Applause.] 
 
 THREE PRESIDENTS ASSASSINATED. 
 
 Lincoln was assassinated. That wild egotist, Booth, assassin- 
 ated him. Later on Garfield was assassinated, and later on Mc- 
 Kinley. All were assassinated by egotists; in my judgment all 
 those assassins were unbalanced. I do not mention the names 
 of ])apei-s or men. I have searclied and searched in vain for 
 any great conspiracy that led to the assassination of those three 
 Presidents. My deiiljerate opinion is that a sensational press 
 that was making an advertisement for the sale of its wares in- 
 spired those unbalanced egotists to assassination. [Applause.] 
 
 Do not let anybody say I am abusing the press. I am not. 
 I am condemning the abuse of the press. If I had supreme 
 power I would not suppress it, because in the day of the tele- 
 graph and the telephone, in our exceedingly busy life and civi- 
 lization, headlines are about all that many of us can read. If 
 we read the dispatches, frequently we find that the headlines 
 are a lie if the dispatches are true. [Laughter.] ^Yell, are 
 they to destroy the Republic? Nay, nay. Uncomfortable, yes; 
 but a free people, competent for self-government in the ful- 
 ness of time, when they see a sheet of paper that yesterday 
 was blank and that last night ran through a press and now is 
 covered with ink, will learn to think twice and inquire whether 
 or no what is said on that sheet of paper is true. [Applause.] 
 
 In conclusion, my fellow-citizens, I want to say two things. 
 In a government of the people, as contradistinguished from an 
 absolute monarchy or a limited monarchy, government can only 
 be had by and through a majority. Why, the churches under- 
 stand that if they did not organize they would not be Avorth a 
 song sung iu a hurricane. [Laughter.] They have their or- 
 ganization. Take your Masonic lodges, your benevolent socie- 
 ties, your business organizations, your school districts, your 
 townships, your counties, your States, by whom are they gov- 
 erned? The wild-eyed son of destin5'' who does not agree with 
 anybody turns out and says, " God and one are a majority," 
 forgetting that God is a majority without him. [Laughter and 
 applause.] 
 
 Perfection is not to be found anywhere, except with Deity ; 
 but you must have organization. And in our Government or- 
 ganization is had through parties. Sometimes parties make 
 mistakes. Sometimes you have graft. Some individual gets 
 iu and steals something. That is very bad. That happens 
 sometimes in school districts, municipalities, townships, coun- 
 ties, States, and iu the Federal Government. That is very, 
 very bad: but so long as in the fullness of time the people, be- 
 coming informed, choose officials who are actuated by soimd 
 and just public sentiments, who are not guilty of graft, who 
 will see to it that the laws are enforced, so long as that bap- 
 pens we need have no fear of the perpetuity of the Republic. 
 [Applause.] One swallow does not make a summer. 
 
 GREATEST MONUMENT TO LINCOLN. 
 
 One of the greatest achievements of Lincoln was that, through 
 his partisanship, being a practical man, he led iu the formation 
 30992—8796 
 
14 
 
 of the Republican party, that party which has been longer in 
 power than any other in the history of the Republic. Its poli- 
 cies, which were Lincoln's policies, have dominated the Re- 
 public, save in one instance, where the opposition party came 
 hito complete control of the executive and both branches of 
 the legislative departments, and after four years of that, the 
 erring prodigal children of the Republic came back to the old 
 home with joy. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 For more than a generation poets, orators, liistorians, artists, 
 and architects have been trying to build enduring monuments 
 to Lincoln, as men of less ability and pretension have been grop- 
 ing after means for expressing their appreciation in that way 
 which touches all levels of humanity, a treasured memory of 
 a plain man who was equal in wisdom, courage, and humanity 
 to meet all the responsibilities placed upon him by his fellow- 
 men ; but to me the most fitting monument to Lincoln is the 
 party he helped organize, and the achievements of the policies 
 he helped develop for the lasting benefit of the whole country, 
 East and West, North and South, white and black. 
 
 The party of Lincoln has had longer life, longer control of 
 the Government than any other party, and under its adminis- 
 tration has been written the most marvelous history of human 
 achievements ever recorded by any people in any time since the 
 beginning. 
 
 Lincoln was one of the founders of the Republican party, 
 its first great leader, and the principles embodied in the first 
 platform are still the principles of the party. 
 
 Lincoln will always be known as the first and foremost Re- 
 publican, as he will ever be known as second to no other Amer- 
 ican. He was a party man, battling for principles which his 
 party represented, which he believed of vital interest to the 
 American people. 
 
 The Territories which Lincoln sought to save from slavery 
 have surpassed the wildest speculation and prophecy in 1860, 
 and the homestead act, passed in Lincoln's administration on 
 his recommendation, has converted the Staked Plains and the 
 Great American Desert into an agricultural empire that has not 
 a parallel anywhere, with the most independent, the most pros- 
 perous, and the richest people per capita to be found on this 
 continent. That newer West has to-day double the total wealth 
 of the United States at the time Lincoln was elected, and one- 
 third the whole wealth of the country to-day, which is one-third 
 the wealth of the whole civilized world. 
 
 But, even more than this, the policies of Lincoln have brought 
 a new life to the Soutli that rebelled against the Union. In the 
 last decade that section has had the most remarkable develop- 
 ment that has been recorded by the Census Office — greater than 
 New England, greater than the jMiddle Atlantic or the Middle 
 States, and even greater than the West, which was the special 
 care of Lincoln — until in its prosiierity the South is almost 
 ready to admit that " the stone rejected by the builders shall 
 become the chief corner stone of the temple." They have found 
 prosperity and happiness in Lincoln's policies. The scars of 
 war have disappeared. Furnaces and factories have sprung into 
 existence as if by magic. 
 30092—8796 
 
15 
 
 There are few men in the Sontli to-clay who will not admit 
 that Lincoln's policies saved the South from its own errors and 
 started that section of the country on the real road to pros- 
 perity. These men would not go back to the servile labor for 
 which they rebelled against the authority of the majority and 
 fought against it for four long years. 
 
 They have seen the light, and this achievement of a united 
 country, with the same interests, making it a homogeneous 
 country, as it never was before, justify my assertion that the 
 lleimblican party and what has been wrought under its i)olicies 
 in this half century make the most fitting monument to Lincoln, 
 under whose leadership the slave was made free, and what is 
 of far greater importance, the white man was set free. 
 
 THE rUTUEE OF OUE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 I have no fears about the perpetuity of our respective state 
 governments and of the National Government. We have to be 
 vigilant. The people must be intelligent. Men of force must 
 take part in government, because they are sovereign. But how 
 magnificently we are meeting the conditions. This day in the 
 great Republic there are 10,000,000 children in the common 
 schools, and for the education of the oncoming sovereign who 
 is to control the destinies of the Republic we are spending half 
 of all the money that is spent for education in the whole civil- 
 ized world. Expensive, do you say? Yes. This is not a cheap 
 Government. [Laughter.] As long as a government of the 
 people remains, it never will be a cheap Government, because 
 as the old feed out and the new feed iu they must needs be not 
 only patriotic but intelligent. 
 
 ]\Ien of the Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburg, I look into 
 your faces, intelligent, virile, leaders in production, men who 
 own and represent capital,' which is necessary for production. 
 I do not know your genesis, personally; but I will guess that 
 in nine cases out of ten, on an average, less than a half a 
 century ago you were the bright-faced school boys in the com- 
 mon schools, building your castles in Spain. You will never 
 live in them, but the effort to live in them, makes civilization. 
 You can not produce by your capital alone. Money will not 
 work by itself. Money expended, striking hands with labor, 
 becomes production. Edward Atkinson has said that if all 
 production should cease, and you could convert all the wealth 
 of the world into subsistence, in three years it would all be 
 gone. Fifty years from now, when this chamber of commerce 
 holds a meeting to celebrate the birthday anniversary of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln, and perchance the Speaker of the National House 
 of Representatives, and the eminent commoner from Massa- 
 chusetts, and the magnificent governor of the great Keystone 
 State comes to assist you, do you want to know who will be 
 the Speaker and the commoner and the governor, and the members 
 of your Chamber of Commerce, who will assemble in this or some 
 similar room? Go to the public schools and find the children of 
 the sons of toil who under God's fiat are living iu the sweat of 
 their faces, and there behold your successors. [Applause.] 
 30092—8706 
 

 

 
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