Qass Book. ; -n Copyright }^"_i CrDFXRKGin' DEPOSm f^^ .//''//■/ ABRAHAM LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE FROM HIS FIRST SPEECH IN PAPPSVILLE, ILL. 1832, TO HIS LAST ADDRESS IN WASHINGTON, APRIL II, 1865; INCLUDING CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES; CELE- BRATED DEBATES WITH SENATOR DOUGLAS; ^^ SPEECHES ON HIS WAY FROM SPRING- I FIELD TO WASHINGTON; IN- - AUGURALS; WONDERFUL ADDRESS AT GETTYS- BURG, ETC. ETC. CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED AND /' r ILLUSTRATSfo \ FES r 1892 "And that the Government of the people, by^tte people, and fo^'t'^' .eople, shall not pensh from the earth. ■■_L:.coL.. in Getfysburg address - ^ EDITED BY J. B. McCLURE, M. A. Compiler of ..Lincoln's Stories;- "Gen Garfield, from Cabin to the S et^L^^^^^^^^ ;^^^^^^-°fI°g-oll;".MoodysAnecdotes;--Storiesand Sketches of Gen, Grant;'' "Edison and His Inventions;" "Poetic Pearls" etc CHICAGO Rhodes & McClure Publishing Co. 1891 v^HGalNlA^^A Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, by Rhodes & McClure Publishing Company, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. All Rights reserved. / & For the first time — strange to say — and in this vohime, are presented to the pubhc, the speeches of Abraham Lincoln, as full and complete as is possible for any one to collate them; and in this form we gladly dedicate them to all lovers of liberty, and place them in her ma- jestic temple, where they will certainly impart more glory than they can possibly receive. "Lincoln," says Secretary Usher, "was one of the greatest men who ever lived. It has now been many years since I was in his Cabinet ^ ^^ but his extraordinary personality is one of the most distinct things in my memory." "The name of Lincoln" says Merl de Aubigne, "will remain one of the greatest that history has to in- scribe on its annals." "Of all the men I ever met," said Gen. Sherman, "Lincoln seemed to possess more of the elements of greatness, combined with goodness, than any other." "Lincoln," says Emilo Castelar, "is the hum- blest of the humble before his conscience, the greatest of the great before history." "The greatest man of rebellion times/' says Gen. Longstreet, "the one matchless among forty millions for (4) PREFACE. 5 the peculiar difficulties of the period." "He believed in the great laws of truth," said the Hon. Leonard Swett, "and the rigid discharge of duty, accountability to God, the ultimate triumph of the right, and the overthrow of wrong." "A great and powerful lover of mankind," says a biographer, "especially of those not favored by fortune." "Lincoln," said Gen. Grant, after having met the rulers of almost every civilized country in the world, "impresses me as the greatest intellectual force with which I have ever come in contact." Abraham Lincoln, in his great speeches, still lives, and must forever live as a power for good among men. Whatever may attach to his mere biography, that reveals a life of struggle, and disadvantage in early years — un- paralleled in fact, in this respect — the truth is, the MAN LINCOLN is not in the "early cabin home," but in words that never die, in the compiled utterances of this volume, that reveal and perpetuate the soul life of him who spoke so often, so fully, and truly, of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and of a government "that is of the people, by the people, and for the people!" J. B. McCLURE. Chicago, July 4, 1891. Lincoln's First Speech : _ _ _ Showing His Hand : _ _ _ - Forquer's Lightning Rod Struck : The Perpetuity of Our Free Institutions First Speech in the Supreme Court : Exculpating THE Whigs : National Banks vs. Sub-Treasury : The Mexican War : _ _ - - The Issue, ------ Claim Against Claim, - - - - The So-called Treaty, - - - - A Singular Fact, - - - - - A Feverish Dream, - . - - How Shall the War Terminate ? Speech on Internal Improvements : General Positions, - - - - Improvements on the Mississippi River, - Tonnage Duties, - - - - - "I shall never get 'em on," - - - The General Proposition, Improvements, _ - - - - Speech om the Presidency and Politics : The National Issue, - - - - A Presidency for the People, - - - [6] 17 17 18 19 23 23 24 28 30 32 33 36 39 41 44 46 49 55 56 57 58 62 64 65 CONTENTS. / Gen. Taylor and the Wilirot Proviso, - - 68 Platforms, ------- yo Henry Clay, - - - - - - - 71 Lincoln as a Military Hero, - - - - 72 Physical Capacities of Gen, Cass, - - - 79 Clay and Webster each loses a Son in the War, yy An Important Distinction, - - - - y^ The Missouri Compromise : - - - - 80 The Great Northwest, ----- 83 Valuable History, ------ 84 New Mexico, Utah and California, - - - 86 How California was kept out of the Union, - 88 The Compromise of 1850, - - - - 89 Kansas and the Repeal, - - - - 90 Lincoln's Objection to Slavery, - - - 91 Lincoln's Views, ------ 92 The Arguments, ------ 94 What Lincoln Voted For, - - - - 96 Congress Said *'No," ----- 99 ''The Stake Played For," - - _ _ 104 Human Sympathy, ----- 107 The Sacred Right of Self Government, - - 109 A Whole Man or a Half Man, - - - 116 The Preservation of Our Liberties, - - - 117 You Cannot Repeal Human Nature, - - 118 Bowie Knives and Six-Shooters, - - - 119 Standby the Right, - - - - - 123 A String of Important Facts, - - - 124 The Ordinance of '87, - - - - - 128 How Illinois came into the Union, - - - 129 The Age is Not Dead : - - - - - 139 J5 CONTENTS. The World Moves, - - - - - I39 The Ballot vs. the Bullet : - - - - i39 Let There be Peace, - - - = - 140 In Reply TO Judge Douglas : - - - - 141 Kansas, - - - - - - - 143 Gen. Jackson, - - - - - - 146 The Declaration of Independence, - - 150 The Whole Human Family, - - - - 152 * 'All Men are Created Equal," - - - 153 Firing Solid Shot at Douglas, - - -154 Lincoln "Linked to Truth :" - - - 160 "The House Divided Against Itself Speech :" 161 A Few Important Facts, - - - - 162 Voting it Up or Voting it Down, - - - 164 Working Points, - - - -- - - 165 A String of Facts, - - - - - 166 Power of State, - - - - - - 168 "A Living Dog is Better tiian a Dead Lion," - 170 But We Shall Not Fail ; the Victory is Sure, - 171 Lincoln's Reply to Douglas in Chicago : - 173 The Alleged Alliance, - - - - - 173 What is Popular Sovereignty.^ - - - 176 Half Slave and Half Free, - - - - 182 Self Government, - - - - - 184 Dred Scott Decision, - - - - - 185 "Three Cheers for Lincoln," - - - - 188 A Mighty Mation, - - - - - - 189 The Sentiment of Liberty, - - - - 190 Inequalities of THE Contest : - - - 192 We Must Fight the Battle on Principle, - - 194 Seven Interrogatories Answered : - - 205' CONTENTS. 9 Lincoln's Position Fully Defined, - - - 208 Lincoln's First Speech in Ohio: - - 211 Correcting the Editor, - - - 212 The Little Giant, - - - - - 215 Genuine Sovereignty, - - - - - 218 The State vs. the Territory, - - - 224 'T Tremble for my Country when I Remember God is Just," -----_ 227 What the Dash of a Pen Can Do, - - 230 How Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wis- consin were Admitted into the Union, - - 234 The Constitution of the United States, - 235 Revolutionary Heroes and Freedom, - - 236 A Rifle Shot, - ----- - 238 A Paradox, ______ 239 Making the Most Money out of the Old Horse, - 240 Squinting, _ _ ^ _ _ _ _ 241 Constitutional Powers, _ _ _ _ 243 Public Sentiment, - - - - - 250 Henry Clay's Views, - - - - - 251 Lincoln's Speech to the Kentuckians: - 253 Shooting Over the Line, _ _ _ _ 256 The Issue, - - - - - - - 258 Sharers in the Declaration of Independence, - 262 A Great Change, _ _ _ . _ 263 A Running Fire, _ _ _ _ . 266 Scope of the Constitution, - - _ _ 267 What we Mean to Do, - - - - 277 What Will You Do.? - - - - - 277 Will you Make War? ----- 278 Relation of Capital and Labor, _ _ _ 287 lO CONTENTS. Lincoln's Experience as a Laboring Man, - 289 Lincoln's Views on Labor, _ - - - 290 Lincoln's Position, _ _ _ _ . 293 Anxious for the Whole Union, _ _ _ 294 Lincoln's First Proclamation of Freedom: - 296 The Great Cooper Institute Speech, New York: 297 Our Fathers and the Constitution, - - 297 The Great Issue, _ _ _ _ - 298 The First Congress, _ _ _ _ ^ 300 George Washington, - - - - -301 The Louisiana Country, _ _ _ _ 302 Views of the Fathers, ----- 304 Amendments to the Constitution, - - 307 What is Conservatism? - - - - 313 Rails, and Making Rails: _ _ - - 326 First Talk After Reviewing Telegram of his Nomination for the Presidency: - - 327 First Speech AFTER Nomination: - - - 327 Way-Side Speeches from Springfield to Wash- ington: ------- 329 Bidding Home Friends Adieu, • - - 329 Speech at Tolono, 111., - - - - 330 Speech at Indianapolis, - - - - 330 Second Speech at Indianapolis, _ _ - 332 Speech at Cincinnati, _ - _ - 334 To the Germans, _ _ - - - 337 Speech at Columbus, _ _ - _ 337 Speech at Steubenville, - - - - 339 Speech at Pittsburg, - - - - - 339 Speech at Cleveland, .._--- 344 Speech at Buffalo, - - - - - 347 CONTENTS. I I Speech at Rochester, ----- 349 Speech at Syracuse, - - - - - 3 50 Speech at Albany, - - - - - 351 Speech at Troy, - - - - - -355 Speech at Hudson, - - - - -355 Speech at Poughkeepsie, - - - - 35^ Speech at Peekskill, - - - - - 357 Speeches in New York City, - - - - 358 In Jersey City, ___-_- 363 In Newark, ------- 364 Speeches at Trenton, ----- 364 Speeches in Philadelphia, - -" - - 368 Speech at Lancaster, - - - = -373 Speech at Harrisburg, - - - - - 374 Speech at Washington,, - _ _ _ 377 Lincoln's First Inaugural Address : - - 381 Position Stated, ------ 382 Union of States Perpetual, - -. - - 384 What Shall be Done? ----- 386 To Those Who Love the Union, - - - 387 The Majorities vs. the Minorities, - - - 388 We Cannot Separate, - - - - - 39i The People, ------- 391 "My Countrymen One and All," - _ - 392 Gradual Emancipation : _ - _ - 395 Shielding Gen. McClellan : - - _ 398 To A Deputation From Chicago : - - - 401 The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation : 406 Preliminary Proclamation Speech .^ - - 410 The FfNAL Emancipation Proclamation : - 412 To The Working Men : - - - - - 415 12 CONTENTS. To CONKLING, - - - - - - 416 A Fourth OF July Speech: - - - --418 Lincoln's Wonderful Speech at Gettysburg: 420 "God Bless THE Women OF America:" - - 422 Man Proposes and God Disposes: - - - 423 Speech on the War: _ _ _ _ - 426 Speech After the Battle of the Wilderness: 428 Speech to a Delegation of Clergymen: - - 429 Speech on his Renomination for the Presidency: 430 Speech TO THE Ohio Delegation: - - - 431 Response to the National League: - - 432 On Accepting the Renomination: - - - 433 Speech to Ohio Soldiers: - - - - 435 To THE 148TH Ohio Regiment: - - - 437 To THE Marylanders: - - - - - 438 Speech on the Night of Presidential Election: 441 Address After His Second Election: - - 442 Gen. Sherman's March to the Sea: - - 444 A Vase of Leaves from Gettysburg: - - 445 Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address: - - 447 "With Mal0.ce Towards None, with Charity for all," -------- 447 Retrospective, ------ 448 Let us Judge Not, _ - - - - 449 Speech to the 140TH Indiana Regiment. - - 450 On the Capture OF THE Tune "Dixie:" - - 452 Not Wishing to Make Mistakes: - - - 453 Lincoln's Last Speech: ----- 454 Secretary Usher's Reminiscences of Lincoln: 461 Lincoln's Ambition, _ _ - _ - 462 Lincoln's Nature, ------ 462 CONTENTS. I 3 Lincoln and the Ladies: _ - = - 463 Lincoln's Temper, _ _ - - - 464 Lincoln's Sadness, _ _ = - - 465 Lincoln's Kindness, - - - - - 4^5 Seward and Lincoln, ----- 466 How Lincoln Became President, - - - 4^7 Careless of His Life, . _ - - - 468 Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction, - : 468 The Assassination of President Lincoln: - 469 The Effects of the President's Death, - - 4/2 Funeral Ceremonies, ----- - 475 O infers V5^^^!^ERi|5-<" K'^^ ^ No- Abraham Lincoln, — 1860, First Campaign Photo. .. i Abraham Lincoln, — 1860, A Favorite Photograph with Mr. Lincoln's Intimate Friends 2 A. Lincoln, the i6th President of the United States 3 Birth Place of Abraham Lincoln, 4 Lincoln's Early Home in Kentucky, 5 Lincoln's Early Home in Indiana, 6 Lincoln's Early Home in Illinois 7 John Hanks, 8 Mrs. Sarah Bush Lincoln, — Lincoln's Stepmother,. . .9 Lincoln's Residence at Springfield, 111 10 Old State House, Where Lincoln had a Law Office and Headquarters in i860, 11 Lincoln's Law Office Book Case, and Library, . . . . 12 Lincoln's Law Office Chair, 13 Lincoln's Law Office Inkstand, 14 W. S. Herndon, — Lincoln's Law Partner, Spring- field, 111., .15 Tomb of Lincoln's Father, Thomas, near Farming- ton, Coles County, 111. , 16 Wigwam Building, Chicago, where Mr. Lincoln Was Nominated in 1860 for the Presidency, 17 (14) illustrations; 15 Passenger Station, Great Western Railway, Spring- field, Where Lincoln Delivered his Farewell Speech, Feb. 12th, 1861, 18 Lincoln Raising the old Flag at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, 19 Inauguration of President Lincoln at Washington, 1861, 20 President Lincoln and His Family, 21 Peterson House — Washington, 22 Final Funeral Cermonies at Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, 23 Lincoln's Monument in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, 24 Groups of Statuary, etc., Lincoln's Monument, 25 ABRABAM LINCOLN. THE LAWra*. i ABRAHAM LINCOLN, — 1860. "One day," says the Artist — Mr. Hesler, of Chicago — "when it was known that Mr. Lincoln might be a candidate for the Presidency, some of his Chicago friends brought him into my gallery for a picture. Mr. Lincoln could not understand it, and insisted that a photograph of as homely a man as he was, could not be of any consequence, but he finallv took the chair, with the above result, — the first campaign photograph." ABRAHAM LINCOLN, I 860. "Come down to Springfield," said Mr. Lincoln, jocosely to his Chicago artist "and I will dress up and you may get a better picture," — referring to the one Mr. Hesler had taken as the first campaign photo. Accordingly later on, Mr. Hesler went down to Springfield and found Mr. Lincoln "dressed up" as shown in the above photograph taken from the original negative. It is a favorite picture. // ABRAHAM LINCOLN. The 1 6th President of the United States. EARLY HOME OF A. LINCOLN, NEAR ELIZABETHTOWN, KY. "His Father built this Cabin and moved into it when Abraham was an infant, and resided there till he was seven years of age when he removed to Indiana." LINCOLN S EARLY HOME IN ILLINOIS. Located in Macon County in the Sangamon Valley about ten miles from Decatur. It was while living here that Lincoln and John Hanks split several thousand rails. JOHN HANKS, Lincoln's Rail Splitting Companion. ■mM^'w^^^p MRS. SARAH BUSH LINCOLN. Lincoln's Beloved Stepmother. Lincoln's love for his second mother was most filial and affectionate. In a letter of Nov. 4, 1851, just after the death of his father, he writes to her as follows: "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." Lincoln's law office library, book case, desk and GHAIR; SPRINGFIELD, ILL. Lincoln's LxWV office chair, spkingfield, ill. Lincoln's law office inkstand, Springfield, ill. W. H. HERNDON, Lincoln's Law Partner, Springfield, 111 It was Mr. Lincoln's intention to return from Washington and con- tinue the practice of law with Mr. Herndon. In their last interview in the office, referring to their sign-board, Lincoln said: "Let it hang there undisturbed. Give our clients to understand that the election of a Presi- dent makes no change in the firm of Lincoln and Herndon. If I live I'm coming back sometime, and then we'll go right on practicing law as if nothing had ever happened." TOMB OF Lincoln's father, at farmington, ill. X Cu W Q < X (^ J < X w u Q w W Q < < Q hJ O W H O m n ^ Wujl PETERSON HOUSE WASHINGTON. LINCOLN S TOMB IN OAK RIDGE CEMETERY, SPRINGFIELD. GROUPS OF STATUARY, ETC., LINCOLN'S MONUMENT LINCOLN'S SPEECHES, COMPLETE, FROM BOYHOOD TO THE GRAVE, LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH. [Delivered in 1832, at Pappsville, near Springfield, 111., just after the close of a " public sale," at which time and place, speaking, in those .early- days, -was in order, Mr. Lincoln, at this time was only 23 years of age. Being loudly called for, he mounted a stump, and spoke as follows:] Gentlemen and Fellow-Citizens: — I presume you all know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become a candi- date for the legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman's dance. I am in favor of a National Bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement sys- tem, and a high protective tariff. These are my senti- ments, and political principles. If elected, I shall be thankful; if not, it will be all the same. SHOWING HIS HAND. [ Delivered at New Salem, 111. June 13, 1836, to the voters of Sanga- mon county. 111., after being called upon to " show his hand." ] Fellow-Citizens: — The candidates are called upon, I see, to show their hands. Here is mine. I go for all (17) I8 sharing the privileges of government who assist in bear- ing its burdens. Consequently, I go for -admitting all the whites to the rights of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms, by no means excluding the females. If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sanga- mon county my constituents, as well those who op- pose, as those who support me. While acting as their Representative, I shall be governed by their will on all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what their will is; and upon all others, I shall do what my judgment tells me will best advance their interests. Whether elected or not, I go for distributing the pro- ceeds of the sales of the public lands to the several States, to enable our State, in common with others, to dig canals and construct railroads without borrowing money and paying the interest on it. If alive on the first day in November, I shall vote for Hugh L. White for President. FORQUER'S LIGHTNING ROD IS STRUCK. [ Lincoln's opponent for the Legislature in 1836 was the Hon. Geo. Forquer, of Springfield, 111., who was celebrated for having "changed his coat" politically, and as having introduced the first and only lightning-rod in Springfield at this time. He said in a speech, in Lincoln's presence, ' ' this young man (Lincoln) would have to be taken down, and I am sorry the task devolves upon me;" and then proceeded to try and " take him down." Mr. Lincoln made a reply, and in closing, turned to the crowd and made these remarks: Fellow^-Citizens: — It is for you, not for me, to say whether I am up, or down. The gentlemen has alluded to my being a young man; I am older in years than I am in the tricks and trades of politicians. I desire to live, and I desire place and distinction as a politician; but L THE PERPETUITY OF OUR FREE INSTITUTIONS. 19 would rather die now than, like the gentleman, live to see the day that I would have to erect a lightning rod to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God. THE PERPETUITY OF OUR FREE INSTI- TUTIONS . [Delivered before the Springfield, 111. Lyceum, in January, 1837 when 28 years of age. Coming, as he did upon this occasion, before a literary society, Mr. Lincoln's Websterian diction is more observable.] Ladies and Gentlemen: — In the great journal ot things happening under the sun, we, the American peo- ple, find our account running under date of the nine- teenth century of the Christian era.// We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the gov- ernment of a system of political institutions conducing more essentially to the ends of civic and religious liberty than any of which history of former times tell us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found our- selves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquisition or establishment of them; they are a legacy bequeathed to us by a once hardy, brave and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they per- formed it) to possess themselves, and, through themselves, us, of this goodly land to uprear upon its hills and val- leys, a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; 'tis ours to transmit these — the former unprofaned by the foot of an intruder, the latter undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation — to the generation that 20 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. fate shall pi ^rmit the world to know. This task, grati- tude to our iathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity — all impera tively require us faithfully to perform. How then shall we perform it ? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger ? Shall we expect that E»me trans-Atlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow ? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa co mbined, with all the treasures of the earth (our own ex.cepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a "commander, could not, by force, take a -drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. 'I At what point, then, is this approach of danger to' be expected 1 I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If de- struction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide. ' ' I hope I am not over-wary; but, if I am not, there is even now something of ill omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country, the disposition to substitute the wild and furi- ous passions in lieu of the sober judgement of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the executive minis- ters of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful in any community, and that it now exists in ours, though grat- ing to our feelings to admit it, it would be a violation of truth and an insult to deny, ^i Accounts of outrages com- mitted by niobs form the every day news of the times. They have pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana they are neither peculiar to the eternal snows „ THE PERPETUITY OF OUR FREE INSTITUTIONS. 21 of the former, nor the burning sun of the latter. They are not the creature of chmate, neithf ;r are they confined to the slave-holding or non-slaveho\ding States. Alike they spring up among the pleasunj-hunting masters of Southern slaves and the order-lovir ig citizens of the land of steady habits. Whatever, ther^i, their cause may be, it is common to the whole courjl-ry. Many great and good men, su fficiently qualified for QMy task they may undertake, may ever be found, whose am- bition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial, or a presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What! Think you these places would satisfy an Alex- ander, a Caesar, Qr a Napoleon .? Never! Towering- genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto' unexplored. It sees no distinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame, erected to the memo- ry of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footpaths o£ any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction, and if pos sible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating the slaves, or enslaving free- men. Another reason which once was, but which, to the same extent, is now uo more, has done much in main- taining our institutions thus fan I mean the powerful influence which the interesting scenes of the Revolution had upon the passions of the people, as distinguished from their judgment. But these histories are gone. They can be read no more forever. They were a fortress of strength. But 22 Lincoln's speeches complete. what the invading foeman could never do, the silent ar- tillery of time has done — the levelling of its w^alls. They were a forest of giant oaks; but the all-resistless hurricane has swept over them and left only here and there a lone trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, un- shading and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle breezes and to combat with its mutilated limxbs a few more rude storms, then to sink and be no more. They were the pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they have crumbled away, that temple must fall, unless we, the descendants, supply the places with pillars hewn from the same solid quarry of sober reason. Passion has helped us, but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. 'Reason — cold, calculatmg, unimpassioned reason — must furnish all the materials for our support and de- fense. Let those materials be moulded into general in- telligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and the laws; and then our country shall continue to improve, and our nation, revering his name, and permitting no hostile foot to pass or desecrate his resting place, shall be that to hear the last trump that shall awaken our Washington. Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest as the rock of its basis, and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, **The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH IN THE SUPREME COURT. [The case being called, Mr. Lincoln appeared for appellant, and ac- cording to Judge Treat, spoke as follows:] Your Honor: — This is the first case I have ever had in this court, and I have examined it with great care. As the court will perceive by looking at the abstract of the record, the only question in the case is one of authority. I have not been able to find any authority sustaining my side of the case, but I have found several cases directly in point on the other side. I will now give the citations and then submit the case. EXCULPATING THE WHIGS FROM THE CHARGE OF ARISTOCRACY. [Being so much as is on record of a reply to Col. Dick Taylor, a Dem- ocrat, who had characterized the Whigs as being pretentious "lords," and very aristocratic, etc., delivered, says Hon. Ninian W. Edwards, in 1840: Gentlemen: — While he (Col. Taylor) was making these charges against the whigs riding in fine carriages, wearing ruffled shirts, kid gloves, massive gold watch chains, with large seals, and flourishing a heavy gold- headed cane, I (Lincoln) was a poor boy, hired on a flat- boat at eight dollars a month, and had only one pair of breeches, and they were buckskin — and if you know the nature of buckskin, when wet, and dried by the sun, they shrink — and mine kept shrinking until they left several inches of my legs bare between the tops of my socks and the lower part of my breeches; and whilst I was growing taller, they were becoming shorter, and so much tighter, (23) 24 Lincoln's speeches complete. that they left a blue streak around my legs that can be seen to this day. If you call this aristocracy, I plead guilty to Uie charge. NATIONAL BANK VS. SUB-TREASURY. [Delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Ills., and published in the "Sangamon Journal, " March 6, 1840. The debaters on the question were Messrs. Logan, Baker, Browning and Lincoln, against Douglas, Calhoun, Laraborn and Thomas:] Fellow Citizens: — It is peculiarly embarrassing to me to attempt a continuance of the discussion, on this evening, which has been conducted in this hall on sever- al preceding ones. It is so, because on each of these evenings there was a much fuller attendance than now, without any reason for its being so, except the greater interest the community feel in the speaker, who ad- dressed them then, than they do in him who addresses them now. I am, indeed, apprehensive that the few who have attended, have done so more to spare me of mortification, than in the hope of being interested in anything I may be able to say. This circumstance casts a damp upon my spirits which I am sure I shall be unable to overcome during the evening. The subject heretofore and now to be discussed, is the sub-treasury scheme of the present administration, as a means of collecting, safe-keeping, transferring, and dis- bursing the revenues of the nation as contrasted with a National Bank for the same purpose. Mr. Douglas has said that we (the Whigs) have not dared to meet them (the Locos) in argument on this question. I protest NATIONAL BANK VS. SUB-TREASURY. 25 'against this assertion. I say, we have again and again, during this discussion, urged facts and arguments against the sub-treasury which they have neither dared to deny nor attempted to answer. But lest some may be led to believe that we really wish to avoid the question, I now propose, in my humble way, to urge these arguments again; at the same time begging the audience to mark well the positions I shall take, and the proofs I shall offer to sustain them, and that they will not allow Mr. Doug- las or his friends to escape the force of them by a round of groundless assertions that we dare not meet them in argument. First. It will injuriously affect the community by its operation on the circulating medium. Second. It will be a more expensive fiscal agent. Third. It will be a less secure depository for the pub- lic money. Mr. Lamborn insists tiiat the difference between the Van Buren party and the Whigs is, that although the former sometimes err in practice, they are always correct in principle, whereas the latter are wrong in principle; and the better to impress this proposition he uses a fig- urative expression in these words: '' The Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, but they are sound in the heart and head." The first branch of the figure — that the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel — I admit is not merely figurative, but literally true. Who that looks for a moment at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their Har- ringtons, and their hundreds of others scampering away with the public money to Texas, to Europe, and to every spot on earth where a villian may hope to find refuge from justice, can at all doubt that they are most distress- 26 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. ingly affected in their heels with a species of running itch. It seems that this malady of their heels operates on the sound headed and honest hearted creatures very much like the cork leg in the comic song did on its own- er, which when he had once got started on it, the more he tried to stop it, the more it would run away. At the hazard of wearing this point threadbare, I will relate an anecdote which is too strikingly in point, to be omitted. A witty Irish soldier was always boasting of his brav- ery when no danger was near, who invaribly retreated without orders at the first charge of the engagement, be- ing asked by the captain why he did so, replied, *' Cap- tain, I have as brave a heart as Julius Caesar ever had, but somehow or other, whenever danger approaches, my cowardly legs will run away with it. " So with Mr. Lamborn's party. They take the public money into their own hands for the most laudible purpose that wise heads and willing hearts can dictate; but, before they can pos- sibly get it out, again, there rascally vulnerable heels will run away with them. Mr. Lamborn refers to the late elections in the States, and from the results, confidentially predicts every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the next Presidential election. Address that argument to cowards and knaves; with the free and the brave it will affect nothing. It may be true; if it must, let it. Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but, if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her. I know that the great volcano at Washington, aroused and di- rected hy the civil spirits that reign there, is belching forth NATIONAL BANK VS. SUB-TREASURY. 2/ the laws of political corruption in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living thing; while on its bosom are riding, like demons on the wave of hell, the imps of that evil spirit, fiendishly taunting all those who dare resist its destroying course with hopelessness of their efforts; and knowing this, I cannot deny that all may be swept away. Broken by it, I, too, may be; bow to it, I never will. The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a course we believe to be just. It shall not deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions, not wholly unworthy of its Almighty architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly alone, hurling defiance at her victori- ous opposers. Here, without contemplating the consequences, before Heaven and in the face of the world, I swear enternal fealty to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love. And who that thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt that oath that I take ? Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if after all, we may fail, be it so; we still shall have the proud consolation of saying to our conscience, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment and adored of our hearts in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered in defending. THE MEXICAN WAR. [Delivered in Congress, 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 unconstitutional- ly 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 oth- er or better foundation. I am one of those who joined in that vote; and did so under my best impression of the truth of the case. How I got this impression, and how it may be possibly removed, 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 (inthe beginning of it), should, nevertheless, as good citizens and patriots, remain silent on the 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 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 endorsement of the justice and wisdom of his conduct; besides that (28) THE MEXICAN WAR. 29 singurlarly candid paragraph in his late message, in which he tells us that Congress, with great unanimity (only two in the senate and fourteen in the House dis- senting) had declared that * ' by the act of the Republic of Mexico, a state of war exists between that Govern- ment 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 sup- plies, 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 permit them- selves to be misrepresented, in justice to themselves, to speak out; beside^s all this, one of my colleagues (Mr. Richardson), at a very early day in the session, brought in a set of resolutic^ns, expressly endorsing 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 can- not be silent if I would. Seeing this, I went about pre- paring myself to .give the vote understandingly, when it should come. I carefully examined the President's mes- sage, to ascertain what he had himself said and proved upon the point. The result of this examination was to make the impression, that, taking for true all the Presi- dent states as facts, he falls far short of proving his jus- tification; and that the President would have gone far- ther with his proofs if it had not been for the small matter that 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 examination I 30 Lincoln's speeches complete. made and how I reached the conclusion that I did. The President, in his first message of May, 1846, de- clares 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 esteems 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 con- demned. In his message of December, 1846, it seems to have occurred to him, as is certainly true, that title, ownership of soil, or anything else, is not a simple fact; 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 war was shed. Accordingly, a little below the middle of page twelve in the message last referred to, he enters upon the 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. The issue, as he presents it, is in the following 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 Texan line, and in- vaded the territory of Mexico." THE MEXfCAN WAR. 3>^' Now this issue is made of two affirmatives and no neg-] atives. The' iiiain deception of it is, to assume as trme that one river or the Othef i^ necessarily the boundary, and cheats the superficial thinker entirely out of the idea that possibly the boundary is somewhere betweem the two, and not actually at either. A further decep- tion is, that it will let in evidence which a true issae 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; and 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. analyized, it is all included in the following propo- sitions: I 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 western boundary. 3. That by various acts, she had claimed it oa paper. 4. That Santa Anna, in his treaty with Texas, recog- nized 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. THE BOUNDARY LINE. His first item is, that the Rio Grande was the western 32 Lincoln's speeches complete. 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 18 19, we sold to Spain the whole country, from the Rio Grande eastward to the Sabine. Now, admit- ting 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 prov- ing the truth, could ever have thought of introducing such a fact to prove such an issue, is equally incompre- hensible. The outrage upon common right, of seizing as our own what we have once sold, merely because it was ours before we sold it, is only equalled by the out- rage on common sense of any attempt to justify it. ■ claim against claim. The President's 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 public'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 con- trary ? So that there is but claim against claim, leaving THE MEXICAN WAR. 33 nothing proved until we get back of the claims, and find that which has the better foundation. THE SO-CALLED TREATY. Though not in the order in which the President pre- sents his evidence, I now consider that class of his state- ments, 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 dis- tricts, counties, etc. Now, all this is but naked claim; and what I have already said about claims is 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 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 prison- er 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, sp called by the President, with Santa Anna. If any man would like to be amused by the sight of a little thing, which the Presi- dent calls by that big name, he can have it by turning to Niles' Register, volume 50, page 336. And if any one should suppose that Niles* Register is a curious reposi- tory of so mighty a document as a solemn treaty between 34 ' Lincoln's speeches complete. nations, I can only say that I learned, to a tolerable de- gree 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 docu- ment, it was never by anybody called a treaty; that it was never so called till the President, in his extremity, at- tempted by so calling it, to wring something from it in justification of himself in 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 President, commander-in-chief of the Mexican army and navy; stip- ulates 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, dur- ing 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 very probably never thought of it. It is stipulated that to prevent collisions between the armies, the Texan army should not approach nearer than within five leagues — of what is not said — but clearly from the ob- ject 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 she shall not go within five leagues of her own boundary. JURISDICTION. Next comes the evidence of Texas before annexation and the United States afterWard, exercising jurisdiction THE MEXICAN WAR. 35 beyond the Nueces, and between the two rivers. The 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 tell 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 possible to cross one river and go beyond without going all the way to the next; that juris- diction 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 hun- dred and fifty-two feet long by fifty feet in width, 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 ad- mitted 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 under- stand it to extend clear to the Rio Grande, is quite cer- 36 Lincoln's speeches complete. tain by the fact of their joint resolutions for admission expressly leaving all questions of boundary to future ad- justment. And, it may be added, that Texas herself proved 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. A SINGULAR FACT. I am now through the whole of the President's evi- dence; 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 the United States, and that there, and thereby, the first blood of the war was shed, there is not one word in all the President has said which would either admit or deny the declaration. In this strange omission chiefly con- sists the deception of the President's evidence — an omission which it does not seem to me, could scarcely 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 arti- fice to work round, befog, and cover up with many vv^ords some position pressed upon him by the prosecu- tion, which he dared not admit, and yet could not de- ny. 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, are the President's struggles in this case. Sometime after my colleague (Mr. Richardson) intro- The MEXICAN WAR. 37 duced the resolutions I have mentioned, I introduced a preamble, resolution and interrogatories, 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, washers; and that whatever separated the actual exercise of juris- diction of the one from that of the other, was the true boundary between them. If, as 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^.jio treaty had at- tempted it) but on revolution. ^*^ny 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 valua- ble and sacred right — a right, which we hope and be lieve, is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing govern- ment 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 revo* lutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled with, or near about them, who may oppose their movements. 38 Lincoln's speeches complete. 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 18 19, accord- ing to the President's statement. 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 revolution, by obtaining the actual, willing or unwilling sudmission of the people, so far the country was hers; and no farther. LINCOLN DEMANDS AN ANSWER FROM THE PRESIDENT. Now, sir, for the purpose of obtaining the very best evidence as to whether Texas had actually carried out her revolution to the place where the hostilities of the present war commenced, let the President answer the interroga- tories I proposed, 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 remem- bering, let him answer as Washington would answer. As a nation should not, and the Almighty will not be evad- ed, 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 in 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 justification. In that case, I shall be most THE MEXICAN WAR. 39 happy to reverse the vote I gave honestly the other day. THE BLOOD OF ABEL. I have a selfish motive for desiring that the President may do this; I expect to give my votes, in connection with the war, which, without his so doing, will be of doubtful propriety, in my judgment, but which will be free from doubt, if he does so. But if he can not or will not do this — if, on any pretense, or no pretense, 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 Abel, is crying to heaven against him; that he ordered General Taylor into the midst of a peaceful Mexican set- tlement, purposely to bring on a war; that originally having some strong motive — what, I will not stop to give my opinion concerning — to involve the two countries in a war, and trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the pub- lic 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 has swept on and on, till, disap-. pointed in his calculation of the case with which Mexico might be subdued, he now finds himself, he knows not where. A FEVERISH DREAM. How like the half insane mumblings of a fever dream is the whole war part of the message! At one time tell- ing us that Mexico has nothing whatever we can get but territory; at another, showing us how we can support the war by levying contributions on Mexico. At one 40 Lincoln's speeches complete. 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 w^ar; at another, telling us that, '' to reject indemnity by refus- ino- n c^^c^-'^n-n of ^'^rnfory^ would be to abandon all our j c.^!o che war, bearing all its ex- penses, without a purpose or definite object." So, then, the national honor, the security of the future, and every- thing but territorial indemnity, may be considered the no purpose and indefinite objects of the war! But hav- ing 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 circum- stances, to have full territorial indemnity for the ex- penses of the war; but he forgets to tell us how we are to get the excess after those expenses shall have sur- passed 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 here suggest be consider- ed speculative merely, let me be indulged in a moment in trying to show they are not. The war has gone on some twenty months, for the ex- pense 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 THE MEXICAN WAR. 41 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, tolerable densely for the nature of the country; and all its lands, or all that are valuable, already appropria- ted as private property. How then are we to make any- thing out of these lands with this incumbrance upon them, or how remove the incumbrance .? I suppose no one will say we should kill the people, or drive them out, or make slaves of them, or even confiscate their prop- erty ! How then can we make much out of this part of the territory ? If the prosecution of the war has, in ex- ptmses, already equalled the better half of the country, 'how long its future prosecution will be in equalling the less v«.luable 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. HOW SHALL THE WAR TERMINATE.? As to the mode of terminating the war and securing peace, the President is equally vague 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 Presi- dent drops down into a half despairing tone, and tells us •that ' ' with a people distracted and divided by contend- ing factions, and a government subject to constant (Changes, by successive revolutions the continued success 52 Lincoln's speeches complete. whether it have more of evil than of good. There are a few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost every- thing, especially of governmental policy, is an insepara- ble compound of the two; so that our" best judgment of preponderance between them is continually demanded. On this principle the President, his Mends, 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 positiori of the message, (the constitutional question,) I have much to say. Be- ing the man I am, and speaking when 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 little more than a brief notice of what some of them have said. In rela- tion to Mr. Jefferson's views, I read from Mr. Polfe. veto message: " President Jefferson, in his message to Congress in 1806, recotatnen- ded an amendment of the Constitution, with a view to apply an anticiipated surplus in the treasury, ' to the great purposes of the public edvjacation, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvecaents as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeraljdn of the Federal powers.' And he adds: ' I suppose an amendment, tp the Con stitution, 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 re- peated, iu his public letters, the opinion that no such power has been conferred upon Congress." I introduce this, not to controvert, just now, the con- stitutional opinion, but to show, that on the question of INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 53 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 McPingal's gun: "Bears wide and kicks the owner over." But, to the constitutional question. In 1826, Chan- cellor Kent first published his Commentaries on Ameri- can Law. He devoted a portion of one of the lectures to the question of the authority of Congress to appropri- ate public moneys for internal improvements. He men- tions that the question had never been under judicial consideration, and proceeds to give a brief summary of the discussions 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' 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, or 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 what Chancellor Kent seems to consider the sum of the whole, I read from one of the notes: CHANCELLOR KENT. " Mr. Justice Story, in his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, vol. 2, page 429-440, and again, page 519-538, has stated at large the arguments for and against the proposition that Congress have 54 Lincoln's speeches complete. a constitutional authority to lay taxes, and to apply the power to regulate commerce, as a means directly to encourage and protect domestic manu- factures; 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 whiclf has taken no part in the discussions, and felt no prejudice or territorial bias on the question, would deem the arguments in favor of the Congres- sional power vastly superior." It will be seen, that in this extract, the power to make improvements is not directly mentioned; but by examin- ing the context, both of Kent and of Story, it will ap- pear 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 the 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 w«ell knew that truth and thoroughly sound reason 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 ? The constitutional question will probabl}^ never be INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 55 better settled than it is, until it shall pass under ju- dicial consideration; but I do think no man who is clear on this question of expediency need feel his conscience much pricked upon this. TONNAGE DUTIES. Mr. Chairman, the President seems to think that enough may be done in the way of improvements by way 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 im- provements 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 insufficient for any generally beneficient purposes of improvement. I know very little, or rather nothing at all, of the prac- ^cal matter of levying and collecting tonnage duties; but I suppose one of its principles must be, to lay a duty, for the improvement of an}^ particular harbor, upon the tonnage coming into that harbor. To do otherwise — to collect money in one harbor to be expended on im- provements in another — would be an extremely aggra- vated form of that inequality which the President so much deprecates. If it be right in this, how could we make entirely new improvements 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 of the Irish bull about the new boots: 56 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. '*I SHALL NIVER GET '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 a while, so the tonnage can get into it. After all, the President concludes that possibly there may be some great objects of improvements which can- not be effected by tonnage duties, and which, therefore, may be expedient for the General Government to take in hand. Accordingly he suggests in case any such be dis- covered, the propriety of amending the Constitution. Amend it for what ? If, like Mr. Jefferson, the Presi- nent thought improvements expedient, but not constitu- tional, 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, can not 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. L. un- derstood the President to be opposed, on grounds of ex- pediency, to any and every improvement i'] To which Mr. Lincoln answered: In the very part of his message of which I am now speaking, I understand him as giving some vague expressions in favor of some INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 5/ possible objects of improvements; but, in doing so, I un- derstand him to be directly in the teeth of his own argu- ments 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 ob- jections 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 argu- ment, which, when pressed to its conclusion, entirely annihilates this interest. I have already said that no one who is satisfied of the expediency of making improvements, need be much un- easy in his conscience about its constitutionality. I wish now to submit a few remarks on the general proposition of amending the Constitution. THE GENERAL PROPOSITION. As a general rule, I think we would do much better to 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 our- 58 Lincoln's speeches complete. selves to think of it as unalterable. It can scarcely be made better than it is. New provisions would in- troduce new difficulties, and thus create and increase appetite for still further changes. 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 had analyized 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 im- provements. improvements. That the subject is a difficult one, can not be denied. Still, it is no more difficult in Congress than in the State Legislatures, in the counties or in the smiallest municipal districts which an3^where exist. All can recur to in- stances 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 be- cause it does not pass over his; one is dissatisfied be- cause the bridge, for which he is taxed, crosses the river on a different road from that which leads from his house to town; another one cannot bear that the county should get 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, un- INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 59 til they are first paid the damages. Even between the different wards and streets of towns and cities we find this same wrangHng and difficulty. Now, these are no other than the very difiiculties against which, and out of w^hich, the President constructs his objections of "inequal- ity, -speculation," and -crushing the treasury." There is but a single alternative about them— they are sufii- cient, 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 insufiicient, or lie down and do nothing by any authority. Then, difiiculty though there be, let us meet and overcome it. " Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt; Nothing so hard, but searcn will find it out." Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way. The tendency to undue ex- pansion is unquestionably the chief difficulty. How to do something and still not do too much is the disideratum. Let each contribute his mite in the way of suggestion. The late Silas Wright, in a letter to the Chicago Con- vention, contributed his, which was worth something; and I now contribute mine, which may be worth noth- ing. 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 at each session Congress shall 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 col- ision of interests. I shall be slow to acknowledge that 6o llncoln's speeches complete. your harbor or your river is more important than mine, and vice versa. To clear this difBculty, 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, un- bending bias of facts — a bias in nowise subject to whim, caprice, or local interest. The pre-hmited amount of means will save us from doing too much, and the statis- tics 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 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 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 con- nection with this subject. The surplus, that whi^ch is produced in one place to be consumed in another; the capacity of each locality for producing a greater surplus; the natural means of trans- portion, and the susceptibility of improvement; the hin- drances, delays, and losses of life and proprty 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 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 6 1 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 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. SPEECH ON THE PRESIDENCY AND GENERAL POLITICS. Delivered in the House, July 27, 1848.] Mr. Speaker: — Our Democratic friends seem to be in great distress because they think our candidate for the Presidency don't suit us. Most of them can not 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 be- tween Gen. Taylor and all the Presidents; and he seems to think it sufficient detraction from Gen. Taylor's po- sition on it, that it has nothing new in it. But all others, whomi have heard speak, assail it furiously. A new member from Kentucky (Mr. Clarke), of very considerable ability, was in particular concern about it. He thoughtit 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 Pres- ident shall always veto such bills as, in their judgment, may be of doubtful Constitutionality. However clear Con- (62) PRESIDENCY AND POLITICS. 63 gress may be of their authority to pass any particular act, the gentleman from Kentucky thinks the President must veto 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 earliest "statesmen on this question. When the bill chartering the first Bank of the United States passed Congress, its Constitutionality was ques- tioned; Mr. Madison, then in the House of Representa- tives, as well as others, opposed it on that ground. Gen. Washington, as President, was called on to approve or reject it. He sought and obtained, on the Constitution- al question, the separate written opinion of Jefferson, Hamilton and Edmund Randolph, they then being re- spectively Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and Attorney General. Hamilton's opinion v/as for the power; while Randolph's and Jefferson's were both against it. Mr. Jefferson, after giving his opinion de- cidedly against the Constitutionality of that bill, closed his letter with the paragraph I now read: ' ' It must be admitted, however, that unless the Presi- ident's mind, on a view of everything which is urged for and against this bill, is tolerably clear that it is unau- thorized by the Constitution; if the pro and the 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 in- terest, that the Constitution has placed a check in the 64 Lincoln's speches complete. negative of the President. Thomas Jefferson.' February 15, i79i-" Gen. Taylor's opinion, as expressed in his Alhson let^ ter, 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 Constitutioiij of manifest haste and want of consideration by Congtess/^ It is here seen that, in Mr. Jefferson's opinion, if, oil the Constitutionality of any given bill, the President doubts, he is not to veto it, as the gentleman from Ken- tucky would have him to do, but is to defer to Congress and approve it. And if we comparie the opinions 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 fault-finders can discover any sub- stantial variation. THE NATIONAL ISSUE. But gentlemen on the other side are unanimously agreed that Gen. Taylor has no other principle. 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 t^x^ry imaginable case; because many questions havQ. passed; away, and others doubtless will arise which !^n^ of us , have yet thought of; but on the prominent ques-tions of.; currency, tariff, internal improvemer^i;s^ and \yilniQt^ PRESIDENCY AND POLITCS. 65 proviso, Gen. Taylor's course is at least as well defined as is Gen. Cass'. Why, in their eagerness to get at Gen. 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 Gen. Cass' opinion on this question.? (Some member answered: "He's against it.") Aye, how do you know he is.? There is nothing about it in the platform, or elsewhere, that I have seen. If the gentleman knows anything which I do not, he can show it. But to return: General Tay- lor, in his Allison letter, says: " Upon the subject of the tariff, the currency, the im- provement of our great highways, rivers, lakes, and har- bors, the will of the people, as expressed through their Representatives in Congress, ought to be respected and carried out by the Executive." A PRESIDENCY FOR THE PEOPLE. Now, this is the whole matter — in substance, it is this: The people say to Gen. 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 altera- tion 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 ac- cording to your own, and if they are for these measures, 66 Lincoln's speeches complete. or any of them, I shall have nothing to oppose; if they are not for them, I shall not, by any appliances whatev- er, 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 can not 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 can not 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 (Mr. 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 repre- sentative 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 in- to his own hands, is what we object to — is what Gen. Taylor objects to — and is what constitutes the broad distinction between you and us. ' To thus transfer legis- PRESIDENCY AND POLITCS. 6/ lation is clearly to take it from those who understand with minuteness the interest 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 candi- date 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. This, though plausible, is a most per- nicious deception. 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. The process is this: Three, four, or a half dozen questions are prom- inent at a given time; thi party selects its candidate, and he takes his position on each of these questions. On all but one of 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 are strung together, and they must take all or reject all. They can not 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 pres- ent Democratic creed have been at first forced upon the party in this very way. And just now, and just so, op- position to internal improvements is to be estab- lished if Gen. Cass shall be elected. Almost half the Democrats here are for improvements, but they will vote for Cass, and if he succeds, their votes will have aided in 68 Lincoln's speeches complete. closing the doors against improvements. Now, this is a process which we think is wrong. We prefer a candidate who, hke Gen. Taylor, will allow the people to have their own way regardless of his private opinion; 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 al- low them to have improvements, which their oWn can- didate, if elected, will not. GEN. TAYLOR AND THE WILMOT PROVISO. Mr. Speaker, I have said that Gen, Taylor s position is as well defined as is that of Gen. Cass. In saying this, I admit I do not certainly know w^hat 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 w^ith personal feelings I know to be, against the extension of slavery. As such, and with what infor- mation I have, I hope, and believe, Gen. Taylor, if elec- ted, 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 Gen. Cass; and because, should slavery thereby go into the territory we now have, just so much will certainly happen by the election of Cass; and in ad- dition, a course of policy leading to new wars, new ac- quisitions of territory, and still further extension of slavery. One of the two is to be ' President; which is preferable ? But there is as much doubt about of Cass on improve- ments as there is of Taylor on the proviso. I have no PRESIDFNCY AND POLITICS. 69 doubt of Gen. Cass on this question, btit I know the Democrats differ among them.selves as to his position. My internal improvement colleague (Mr. Wentworth) stated on this floor the othcir day, that he was satisfied Cass was for improvemen ts, because he had voted for all the bills that he (Mr. W.) had. So far so good. But Mr. Polk vetoed some of these very bills; the Balti- more Convention passed a set of resolutions, among oth- er things, approving these vetoes, and Cass declares in his letter accepting the nomination, that he has carefully read these resolutions, a:nd that he adheres to them as firmly as he approves them cordially. In other words, Gen. 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 oth- er, just as one or the otheir many correspond with their own respective inclinations. My colleague admits t'hat the platform declares against the Constitutionality of a general system of improvements, and that G sn. Cass indorses the plat- form; but he still thinks Gen. 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 p.eople for an object which will, benefit only a portion of them, is the greatest objection to improvements, and has been so held by Gen. Jackson, Mr. Polk, and all others, I believe, till now. But now behold, the objects most general, near- est free from this objection, are to be rejected, while 70 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. those most liable to it are to be embraced. To return: I cannot help believing that Gen. 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 doors against all further ex- pressions 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. PLATFORMS. One word more, and I shall have done with this branch of the subject. You Democrats, and your candi- date, in the main are in favor of laying down, in ad- vance, a platform — a set of party positions, as a unit; and then of enforcing the people, b^ every sort of appli- ance, to ratify them, however unAlatable 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, with- out 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 noon-day. That we are right we cannot doubt. We hold the true Re- publican position. In leavingjthe people's business in their hands, we cannot be wrong. We are willing, and even anxious, to go to the people on this issue. MR. clay's defeat AND DEMOCRATIC SYMPATHIES. But I suppose I can not reasonably hope to convince PRESIDENCY AND POLITICS. 7 1. 3^ou that we have any principles. The most I can ex- pect 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 * ' scath- ing and withering style. " At the end of his second se- vere flash I was struck blind, and found myself feeling with my fingers for an assurance of my continued physical 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 party turned out to root ? and is he not rooting 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 principles, what principle we violated ? We say you did violate principle in discarding Van Buren, and we can tell you how. Yoo 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 72 Lincoln's speeches complete. 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 on us, and daily chew over here, as something exceedingly odious and unprincipled. But the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Iverson), gave us a second speech yester- terday, 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 can not remem- ber the gentleman's precise language, but I do remember he put Van Buren down, down, till he got him where he was finally to "sink" and "rot." Lincoln's description of himself as a military hero. By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a mili- tary hero ? Yes, sir, in the days of the Black Hawk war I fought, bled, and came away. Speaking of Gen. Cass's career, reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass to Hull's sur- render; and like him, I saw the place very soon after- ward. 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 acci- dent. If Gen. Cass went in advance of me in picking whortleberries, 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 mosquitos; and although I never PRESIDENCY AND POLITICS. 73 fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hunggry. Mr. Speaker, if I should ever conclude to doff whatev- er our Democratic friends may suppose there is of black- cockade Federalism about me, and, thereupon, they should take me up as their candidate for the Presidency, I protest they shall not make fun of me as they have of Gen. Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero. CASS ON THE WILMOT PROVISO. While I have Gen. Cass in hand, I wish to say a word about his political principles. As a specimen, I take the record of his progress on the Wilmot Proviso. In the the Washington Union, of March 2, 1847, there is a re- port of the speech of Gen. 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 North-west 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 sur- prise." To this Gen. Cass is reported to have replied as fol- lows, t.o-wit: Mr. Cass said, that the course of the Senator from New Jersey was most extraordinary. Last year he (Mr. 74 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 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 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 committed to writing," is one numbered 4, as follows, to-wit: ' ' 4th. Legislation would now be wholly imperative, because no territory hereafter to be acquired can be gov- erned without an act of Congress providing for its gov- ernment. 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 un- controlled by any declaration found in the statute book.' In Niles' Register, vol. 73, page 293, there is a letter of Gen. Cass to A. O. P. Nicholson, of Nashville, Tennes- see, 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 Con- gress, 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 peo- ple of the Confederacy in their respective local gov- ernments. ' ' Briefly, then, I am opposed to the exercise of any jurisdiction by Congress over this matter; and I am in PRESIDENCY AND POLITICS. 75 favor of leaving the people of any territory which maybe hereafter acquired, the right to regulate it themselves, under the general principles of the Constitution. Be- cause, - I do not see in the Constitution any grant of the re- ouisite power to Congress; and I am not disposed to ex- 4nd a doubtful precedent beyond its necessity — the es- tabhshment of territorial governments when needed — leaving to the inhabitants all the rights compatible with the relations they bear to the Confederation. ' AN OBEDIENT DEMOCRAT. These extracts show that, in 1846, Gen. 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, 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 a ghmpse of the great Democratic ox-gad 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; and still the gad waves, and the voice grows more distinct, and sharper still --back, sir! back, I say! further back! nnd back he goes to the position of December, 1847; at which the gad is still, and the voice soothingly says, -So! stand still at that." Have no fears, gentlemen, of your candidate; he ex- actly suits you, and we congratulate you upon it. How- ever much you may be distressed about our candidate "j^ Lincoln's speeches complete. 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 re- quire: 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. WONDERFUL PHYSICAL CAPACITIES OF GEN. CASS. But I have introduced Gen. Cass' accounts here, chief- ly 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 hundred 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 ate ten rations a day in Michigan, ten rations a day here in Washington, and near five dollars' worth a day besides, partly 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 man shall owe a bill which he can not 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 hap- pen to Gen. Cass. Place the stacks a thousand miles apart, he would stand stock-still, midway between them, and eat both at once; and the green grass along the line would be apt to suffer some, too, at the same time. By PRESIDENCY AND POLITICS. 'J'J 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 Gen. 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 awk- ward and embarrassing for us to go for Gen. Taylor. The declaration that we have always opposed the war, is true or false accordingly as one may understand the term '' opposing the war." If to say *' the war was un- necessarily 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 of 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 ap- pear a perfectly amiable, peaceful, unprovoking proced- ure; but it does not appear so to us. So to call such an act, to us appears no other than a naked, impudent ab_ surdity, and we speak of it accordingly. But if, when the war had begun, and 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 h ave always opposed the war. With few individual exceptions, you have constantly had our votes here for all the necessary supplies. ^ CLAY AND WEESTFR EACH LOST A SON IN THE MEXICAN,' WAR. And, more than this, you have had the services, the 7S Lincoln's speeches complete. 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 fallen with you. Clay and Webster each gave a son, never to be re- turned. 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 be- tween the lion-hearted Whigs and Democrats who fought there. On other occasions, and among the lower officers and privates on that occasion, I doubt not the propor- tion 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. AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION. But the distinction between the cause of the President in beginning the war, and the cause of the country after PRESIDENCY AND POLITICS. 79 it was begun, is a distinction which you can not per- ceive. To you, the President and the country seem to be all one. You are interested to see no distinction be- tween them; and I venture to suggest that possibly 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. Col. Haskell and Major Gaines, members here, both fought in the war; and one of them underwent extraordinary perils and hardships; still they, like all other Whigs here, vote on the record that the w^ar was unnecessarily and uncon- stitationally commenced by the President. And even Gen. Taylor, himself, the noblest Roman of them all, has declared that, as a citizen, and particularly as a sol- dier, 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 terminati p, by the most vigorous and energetic operations, without inquir- ing 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 candi- date; and that although they, in their generous sympa- thy, think we ought to be miserable, we really are not, and that they may dismiss the great anxiety they have on our account. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. Delivered at Peora, 111., October, i6, 1854, in a reply to Judge Douglas. On Monday, October, 16, Senator Douglas, by appointment, addressed a large audience at Peoria. When he closed, he was greeted with six- hearty cheers, and the band in attendance played a stirring air. The crowd then began to call for Lincoln, who, as Judge Douglas had an- nounced, was, by agreement, to answer him. Mr. Lincoln then took the stand, and said: Fellow-Citizens: — 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 re- main one hour or two later. The judge has already in- formed 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 un- selfish, 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 (80) THE MISSOtJRr COMPROMISE. 8 1 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 re-assembled, and Mr. Lincoln spoke as follows: The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the pro- priety 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 at- tention as I may be able to give them. I wish further to say that I do not propose to question the patriotism, or 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 posi- tions 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 exist- ing 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 Mis- souri Compromise is, a short history of the preceeding kindred subjects will be proper. 82 ' Lincoln's speeches complete. important history ''ordinance of '^'j.'' When we established our independence, we did not own or claim the country to which this compromise ap- plies. Indeed, strictly speaking, the Confederacy then owned no country at all; the States respectfully 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 Illi- inois, all Michigan, and all Wisconsin, have since been formed. She also owned (perhaps within her then lim- its 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 Missisippi and Alabama. Connecticut, I think, owned the little re-, maining part of Ohio — being the same where they now send Giddings to Congress, and beat all creation at mak- ing cheese. These territories, together with the States themselves constituted all the country over which the Confederacy then claimed any sort of jurisdiction. We were then living under the Articles of Confederation, which were superceded by the Constitution several years afterward. The question of ceding these territories to the General Government was set on foot. Mr. Jefferson — the au- thor of the Declaration of Independence, and otherwise a chief actor in the Revolution; then a delegate in Con- gress; afterward, twice President; who was, is, and per- haps will continue to be, the most distinguished politi- cian of our history; a Virginian by birth and continued THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 83 residence, and withal, a slaveholder — conceived the idea of taking that occasion to prevent slavery ever go- ing into the Northwestern Territory. He prevailed on the Virginia Legislature to adopt his viev^s, and to cede the territory, making the prohibition of slavery therein a condition of the deed. Congress accepted the cession with the condition; and in the first ordinance (which the acts of Congress were then called) for the government of of the territory, provided that slavery should never be permitted therein. This is the famed '' Ordinance of 'Sy,'' so often spoken of. THE GREAT NORTHWEST. Thenceforward for sixty-one years, and until, 1848 the last scrap of this territory came into the Union as the State of Wisconsin, all parties acted in quiet obedi- ence 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 Inde- pendence, the policy of prohibiting slavery in new terri- tory originated. Thus, away back of the Constitution, in the pure, fresh, free breath of the Revolution, the State of Virginia and the National Congress put that pol- icy in practice. Thus, through more than sixty of the best years of the Republic, did that policy steadity work to its great and beneficent end. And thus, in those five States, and 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 Hke of it f>4 Lincoln's speeches complete. must never be a^ain. The sacred right of self-p;(wern- ment is j^rossly 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 ri{;ht " of takiuf:^ slaves to Nebraska. That perfect liberty they sigh for — the liberty of mak- ing 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! O, how difficult it is to treat with respect such assaults up- on all we have ever really held sacred. MOKE valuable IIISTOKY. But to return to history. In 1803 we purchased what was then called Louisiana, of France. It included the l)resent States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa; also the territcuy of Minnesota, and the present bone of contention, Kansas and Nebraska. Slavery al- ready existed among the French at New Orleans; and to some extent, at St. Louis. In 1812, Louisiana came into \\\c Union as a shi\-e State, without controversy. In t8iS or [9, 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 agita- tson in the nalicui. The 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 breaking up the Union were free- THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 85 ly 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 day of March, 1820, providing that Missouri might come into the Union with slavery, but that in all the remaining part of the territory pur- chased 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 ^7. It directly applied to Iowa, Minnesota and 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, By still another rapid move, Texas, claiming a boundary much further west than when we parted with her in 18 19, was brought back to the United States, and admitted in- to the Union as a slave State. Then there was little or no settlement in the northern part of Texas, a considera- ble portion of which lay north of the Missouri line; and in the resolutions admitting her into the Union, the Mis- souri 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 pub- lic address, held the following language in relation to it: 86 Lincoln's speeches complete. VIEWS OF Lincoln's opponent. " The Missouri Compromise had been in practical operation for about a quarter of a century, and had received the sanction and the approba- tion of men of all parties in every section of the Union. It had allayed all sectional jealousies and irritations,- growing out of this vexed question, and harmonized and tranquilized the whole country. It had given to Henry Clay, as its prominent champion, the proud sobriquet of the 'Great Pacificator,' and by that title, and for that service, his politicpl friends had repeatedly appealed to the people to rally under his standai^d, as a Presidential candidate, as the man who had exhibited the patriotism and the power to surpress an unholy and treasonable agitation, and pre- serve 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 patri- otic men, who desired to preserve and perpetute the blessings of our glor- ious 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 pub- lic 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 destroy." 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 for- ward merely to show the high estimate placed on the Mis- souri Compromise by all parties up to so late as the year 1849- new MEXICO, UTAH AND CALIFORNIA. 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 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 8/ Mexico and Utah, and the present State of CaHfornia. By this treaty the '^Wilmot Proviso " was defeated, in so far as it was intended to be a condition of the acqui- sition of territory. Its friends, however, were still deter- mined to find some way to restrain slavery from getting into the new country. This new acquisition lay direct- ly 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' motion, a bill, or provision of a bill, passed the Senate to 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. But going back a little, in a point of time. Our war with Mexico broke out in 1 846. 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 of, and was progressing swimmingly in the House of Representatives, when a mem- ber by the name of David Wilmot, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, moved as an amendment, ''Provided, that in any territory thus acquired, there shall never be slavery. " . ,, This is the origin of the far-famed ''Wilmot Pioviso. It created a great flutter; but it stuck Hke wax, was voted 88 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 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 appro- priation, enlarging the amount, 1 think, to three mil- lions. Again came the Proviso, and defeated the meas- ure. 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. HOW CALIFORNIA V^AS KEPT OUT OF THE UNION. 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 net let slavery into her bor- ders. Under all the circumstances, perhaps this was not wrong. There were other points of dispute connected with the general question of slavery, which equally need- THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 89 ed adjustment. The South clamored for a more efficient fugitive slave law. The North clamored for the aboli- tion 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 west- ern boundary of Texas was to be settled. She was a slave State, and consequently the farther west the slav- ery men could push her boundary, the more slave ground was secured; and the farther east the slavery op- ponents 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. ^ THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. Thesr points all needed adjustment; and they were all held up, perhaps wisely, to make them help to adjust one another. The Union now, as in 1820, was thought to be in danger; and devotion to the Union rightfully in- clined men to yield somewhat, in points, where nothing else could have so inclined them. A compromise was finally affected. The South got their new fugitive slave lawi 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 admit- ted as States, may come in with or without slavery as 90 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. they may then choose; and the North got the slave-trade abohshed in the District of Columbia. The North got the western boundary of Texas thrown farther back east- ward 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. Preceeding 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 ag- itation. Previous to this, in 185 1, the Illinois Legisla- ture had indorsed it. KANSAS AND THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. During this long period of time, Nebraska had re- mained 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 ex- pressly for it. In 1853, a bill to give it a territorial government was passed by the House of Representatives, and, in the hands of Judge Douglas, failed or passing only for want of time. This bill contained no repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Indeed, when it was assailed because it did contain such repeal, Judge Douglas defend- ed it in its existing form. On January 4, 1854, Judge Douglas introduces a new bill to give Nebraska a terri- THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 9 1 torial government. He accompanies this bill with a re- port, in which last, he expressly recommends that the Missouri Compromise shall neither be affirmed nor repeated. Before long the bill is so modified as to make two ter- ritories 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 de- clare the MissouriCompromise in operative and void; and, substantiall}^ 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 history may not be precisely accurate in every particu- lar; but I am sure it is sufficiently so, for all the use I shall attempt to make of it; and in it we have the chief material enabling us to judge correctly whether the re- peal 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 Ne- braska, 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. WHY LINCOLN HATED SLAVERY. This declared indifference, but as I must think, cov- ert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it for 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 ivee 92 Lincoln's speeches complete. institutions, with plausibility to taunt us at hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; and especially because it forces so many really good men among ourselves into an open war with the very funda- mental principles of civil liberty, criticising the Declara- tion of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self interest. Before proceeding, let me say I think I have no prej- udice against Southern people. They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now ex- ist 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. Doubt- less there are individuals, on both sides, who v^ould 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 abolition- ists; while some Northern ones go south, and become most cruel slave-masters. When Southern people tell us they are no more re- sponsible for the origin of slavary than we are, I ac- knowledge 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. Lincoln's views. If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution. My first im- pulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 93 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 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 n'ext } 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 white people will not. Wheth- er this feeling accords wdth 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, can not be; safely disregarded. We can not, 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 bxQthren of the. South. When they remind us of their constitutional rights^ I acknowledge them, not grudgingly, but fully and fair- ly; and I would give them any legislation for the re- claiming of their fugitives, which should not in its strin- gency be more likely to carry a free man into slavery, than our ordinary criminal laws are to hang^ an innocent Qne. But all this, to my judgment,, f'tjrnishes no more ex- 94 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. cuse for permitting slavery to go into our own free terri- tory, 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 hardly be distinguished on any moral principle; and the repeal of the former could find quite as plausible excuses as that of the later. THE ARGUMENTS. The arguments by which the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is sought to be justified, are these: First. That the Nebraska country needed a territori- al government. Second. That in various ways, the public had repu- diated that Compromise, and demanded the repeal, and therefore, should not now complain of it. And, lastly. That the repeal establishes a principle and this in the hands of the same men who are now the champions of repeal. Why no necessity then for the repeal ? But still later, when this very bill was first brought in, it contained no repeal. But, say that, be- cause the people had demanded, or rather commanded the repeal, the repeal was to accompany the organiza- tion, whenever that should occur. '' I DENY IT." 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 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 95 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 Compromise line, in principle, depends up- on whether the Missouri law contained any principle requiring the line to be extended over the country ac- quired from Mexico. I contend it did not. I insist 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 intend to ex- tend it, in the event of acquiring additional territory, why did they not say so ? It was just as easy to say 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 -the 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 g6 Lincoln's speeches complete. within an ace of passing, without the repeaHng clause; 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 ex- tend 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 for construing statutes and contracts, nor by com- mon 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, ngrth 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 a 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 Com- promise line. WHAT LINCOLN VOTED FOR. When we voted for the Wilmot Proviso, we were vot- ing to keep slavery out of the whole Mexican acquisi- THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 97 tion; and little did we think that we were thereby voting to let it into Nebraska, lying several hundred miles dis- tant. When we voted against extending the Missouri line, little did we think that we were voting to destroy the old line, then of near thirty years standing. To argue that we thus repudiated the Missouri Com- promise 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 acqui- sitions, and determined to throw them out of the Union. No less absurd than it would be to say that, becaase I 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 voting 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 Mis- souri, lying immediately west of Arkansas, and south of the Missouri Compromise line: and that we never at- tempted to prohibit slavery as to it. I wish particular attention to this. It adjoins the original Missouri Com- promise 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 since, 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 9$ Lincoln's speeches complete. 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 our- selves as well as when for us .? Senator Douglas sometimes says the Missouri line it- self, was, in principle, only an extension of the line of the ordinance of '^y — 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 ex- tension, had stuck to the principle of jogging southward, perhaps it might not have been voted down so readily. **THIS AGAIN I DENY." But next it is said that the Compromise of '50, and the the ratification of them by both political parties in '52, established a new principle, which required the re- peal 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. The particular part of those measures from which the viritual repeal of the Missouji 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 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 99 territories of the moon. But, say they, it had reference to Nebraska, in principle. Let us see. The North con- sented 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 down in thej settlement of the boundary of Texas. Also, they got the slave-trade abolished in the Districa 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. Now can it be pretended that the principle of this arrange- ment requires us to permit the same provision to be ap- plied to Nebraska, withomt any equivalent at all ? Give us another free State; press the boundary of Texas still further back; give us another step toward .the destruc- tion of slavery in the Di.strict, and you present us a sim- ilar case. But ask us n(Dt to repeat, for nothing, what you paid for in the first instance. If you wish the thing again, pay again. Thai; is the principle of the Compro- mise of '50, if indeed they had any principles beyond their specific terms — it was the system of equivalents. CONGRESS SAID **N0." Again, if Congress , at that time, intended that all fu- 100 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. ture territories should, when admitted as States, come with or without slavery, at their own option, why did it not say so ? With such an universal provision, all know the bills could not have passed. Did they, then — could they — establish a principle contrary to their own inten- tion ? Still further; if they intended to establish the prin- ciple that wherever 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 a.bolish slavery within their limits ? I personally know this has not been left undone be- cause it was unthought of. It was frequently spoken of by members of Congress, and by citize-ns of Washington, six years ago; and I heard no one express a doubt that a S3^stem of gradual emancipatioB, with compensation to owners, would meet the approbation of a large majority of the white people of the Distinct. 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 expressl}^ 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 th: it people ? Again, it is claimed that by tl le Resolutions of the Illinois Legislature, passed in 1 851, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was demanded. This I deny also. Whatever may be worked out by a criticism of the lan- guage of those resolutions, the people have never un- derstood them as being any more tha n an indorsement of the Compromise of 1850; and a rci^ease of our Sena- THE MISSOURI COMPR(DMISE. lOI tors 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 185^2, indorsed the Com- promises of 1840.^" WHAT THE COMPROMISES OF 1850 MEANT. For myself, I can answer this question most easily. I m.eant not to ask a repeal or modification of the fugi- tive slave law. I meant not to ask for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. I meant not to re- sist 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, "suffi- cient 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 was not also the universal mean- ing 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 Com- promise 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, 102 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 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 sub- sequent 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 be- lieve, that precisely on the substance of that change this whole agitation has arisen. I conclude, then, that the pubHc never demanded the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. INTRINSICALLY NOT RIGHT. I now come to consider whether the repeal, 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 oponents 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 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. I ©3 be done with the remaining part south of the line noth- ing was said; but perhaps the fair inpHcation was, that it should come in with slavery, if it should so choose. The southern part, except a portion heretofore men- tioned, 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 be- gan 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 dividnig 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 con- troversy, 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 into his mouth. A LULLABY. 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 cli- mate, a glance at the map shows that there are five slave I04 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. states — Deleware, 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 na- ture 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 with- in any other county in the state. Slavery pressed en- tirely 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 re- striction is removed, what is to prevent it from going still farther.!* Climate will not — no peculiarty of the country will — nothing in nature will. Will the disposi- tion 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 numerous; but, in military phrase, the battle-field is too far from their base of oper- otions; ' 'THE STAKE PLAYED FOR. " 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 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 105 is not the rule of actual practice. Wherever slavery is it has been first introduced w^ithout law. The oldest laws we find concerning it, are not law^s introducing it, but regulating it as an already existing thing. A v/hite 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 can not well be removed. The fact of its presence, and the difficulty of its removal, v/ill carry the vote in its favor. Keep it out until a vote is taken, and a vote in favor of it can not 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 simul- taneously with the whites, in the incipient stages of set- tlement, is the precise stake played for, and won, in this Nebraska measure. A NAKED FACT. The question is asked us: **If slaves will go in, not- withstanding the general principle of law liberates them, why would they not equally go in against positive stat- ute law — go in, even if the Missouri restrictions 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, 106 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 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 Illi- nois, aud 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, in the adjoining Missouri country, where there was no ordinance of 'Sy — 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. Another lullaby argument is, that taking slaves to new countries does not increase their number — does not make any one slave who otherwise would 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 effectu- ally 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 out- running 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 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. lO/ 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 tak- ing my hog to Nebraska, therefore I must not object to you taking your slave. Now, I admit that this is per- fectly logical, if there is no difference between hogs and negroes. But while you thus require me to deny the hamanity of the negro, I wish to ask whether you of the South, yourselves, have ever been willing to do as much? It is kindiy 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. HUMAN SYMPATHY. 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 th e 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 ad- dress them a few plain questions. In 1820, you joined the North, almost unanimoulsy, 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 sell to such as would buy them. But you never thought of hanging men for I08 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. catching and selling wild horses, wild buffaloes, or wild bears. ''WHY IS THIS?" Again: you have among you a sneaking individual of the class of native t3Tants, known as the ' 'slave-dealer. " He watches your necessities, and crawls up to buy your slave, at a speculating price. If you can not 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 re- cogonize him as a friend or even as an honest man. Your children must not play with his; they may rollick freely with 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-dealers 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, cattle or tobacco. 'WHAT IS THAT SOMETHING And yet again: There are in the United States and territories, including the District of Columbia, 433,643 free blacks. At $500 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 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 109 o{ slaves, OT have been slaves themselves; and they would be slaves now, but for something which has oper- ated on their white owners, inducing them at vast pecuniary sacrifices 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, con- tempt, 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.? THE SACRED RIGHT OF SELF GOVERNMENT. But one great argument in the support of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is still to come. That argu- ment 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 the 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 110 LlNCOLN^S SPEECHES COMPLETE. communities of men, as well as to individuals. I so ex:- tend 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 Wash- ington, 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 just application, depends upon whether a negro is nt)t or is 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 de- struction 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 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 con- nection with one man's making a slave of another. Judge Douglas frequently, with bitter irony and sar- casm, paraphrases our argument by saying: "The white people of Nebraska are good enough to govern them- selves, but they are not good enough to govern a few miserable negroes!" THE SHEET-ANCHOR OF AMERICAN REPUBLICANISM. Well, I doubt not that the people of Nebraska are, and will continue to be as good as the average of people else- where . I do not say the contrary. What I do say is THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 1 I I that no man is good enought 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, de- riving their just powers from 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 governments are derived from the consent of the gov- erned. Now, the relation of master and slave is pro tanto a total violation of their 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 gov- erned an equal voice in the government; and that, and that only, is self-government. Let it not be said I am contending for the establish- ment of political and social equality between the whites and blacks. I have already said the contrary. I am not now 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 opinions the and examples of our Revolutionary I I 2 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. fathers. I am glad he has done this. I love the senti- ments 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 them- selves, several of the states instructed their delegates to go for the measure, providing 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 has 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 them- selves answer it. The same generation of men, and mostly the. same individuals of the generation who declared this princi- ple, who declared independence, who fought the war of the Revolution through, who afterwards made the Consti- tution under which we still live — these same men passed the ordinance of 'Sy, 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 this controversy. THE PART VS. THE WHOLE. Again, is not Nebraska, while a territory, a part of us.? Do we not own the country.? And if we surrender the THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. II 3 Control of it, do we not surrender the right of self-gov- ernment? 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 to govern.? But you say this question should be left to the people of Nebraska, because they are more particularly interest- ed. If this be the rule, you must leave it to each individ- ual 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 tak- ing 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 about 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 profit- table trade. Another important objection to this applica- 114 Lincoln's SPEECHES complete. tion of the right of self government, is, that it enables the first few to deprive the succeeding many of a free ex- ercise of the right of self-government. The first few may get slavery in, and the subsequent many can not 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. THR VV^HOLE NATION INTERESTED. * Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska, or other new territories, is not a matter of exclusive concern to the peo- ple who may go there. The whole nation is interested that the best use shall be made of these territories. We want them for the homes of free white people. This they can not 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 dirt}^ disagreeable job which I believe, as a general rule, the slave holders will not perform for one another. Then again, in the control of the government — the management of the partnership THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. II 5 affairs — they have greatly the advantage of us. By the Constitution each state has two senators, each has a num- ber 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 representa- tives 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 pre- cisely. 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 double any man in Maine. This is all be- cause South Carolina, besides her free people has 384,984 slaves. The South Carolinian has precisely the same ad- vantage 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 Il6 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 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 slaves in the present Congress, twenty additional repre- sentatives, being seven more than the whole majority by which they passed the Nebraska bill. A WHOLE MAN OR A HALF MAN. 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 disre- gard the Constitution. I stand to it, fairly, fully, and firmly. . But when I am told I must leave it altogether to oth- er 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 part of one, in com- parison with others, is a question in which I am some- what 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 shall go to Nebraska, to decide whether he will be the equal of me or the double of me, then, after he shall have ex- ercised 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 mi- croscope, and find out, if he can, what has become of my THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 11/ sacred rights! They will surely be too small for detection with the naked eye. THE PRESERVATION OF OUR LIBERTIES. 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 perpet- uity of their own liberties and institutions. And if they shall think, as I do, that the extension of slavery endan- gers them, more than any or all other causes, how re- creant to themselves if they submit the question, and with it the fate of the country, to a mere handful of men, bent only on temporary self-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; but being, as it is, the great Behemoth of danger, shall the strong gripe 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-govern- ment. Go, sacred thing! Go, in peace. But Nebraska is urged as a great Union-saving meas- ure. Well, I too, go for saving the Union. Much as I h^te slavery,! 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 agravation, rather, of the only one thing which ever endangered the Union, When it came upon us, all ii8 Lincoln's speeches complete. was peace and quiet. The nation was looking to the forming of new bonds 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 th^ slavery question, by which all parties were pledged to abide. In- deed, there was no uninhabited country on the continent which we could acquire; if we except some extreme north- ern 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 getting us by the ears, but by turning back, and destroying the peace measures of the past. The councils 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 re- sponsible 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 resisted.? It could only 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. YOU CANNOT REPEAL HUMAN NATURE. Argue as you will, and long as you will, this is the na- ked front and aspect of the measure. . And in this aspect, it could not but produce agitation. Slavery is founded in 119 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. the selfishness of man's nature — opposition to it, in his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antago- nism; and when brought into collision so fiercly as slavery extension brings them, shocks, and throes, and convul- sions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Com- promise — repeal all compromise — repeal the Declaration of Independence — repeal all past history — you still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man,s heart that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance his his heart, his mouth will continue to speak. The structure, too, of the Nebraska bill is very pecu- liar. 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 de- cided, it is to remain so, or is to be subject to an indefi- nite 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 arival of a hundred? Is it to be de- cided 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 ex- press authority to exclude slavery, it was hooted down by the friends of the bill. This fact is worth remembering. BOWIE-KNIVES AND SIX-SHOOTERS ARE USED. 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. LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 120 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 to be the result of this.!* Each party within, having numerous and determined backers with- out, is it not probable that the contest will come to blows and blood-shed.? Could there be a more apt invention to bring about collision and violence, on the slavery ques- tion, 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 be- gin, 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 res- toration. If, by any means, we omit to do this, what follows.? Slavery may or may not, be established in Ne- braska. But whether it be or not, we shall have repudi- ated — 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 conces- sion — that spirit which first gave us the Constitution, and which has thrice saved the Union — we shall have stran- gled and cast from us forever. 121 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. And what shall we have in lieu of it? The South, flushed with triumph and tempted to excesses; the North, betray- ed as they believe, brooding on wrong and burning for re- venge. One side will provoke, the other resent. The one will taunt, the other defy; one aggravates, the other retaliates. Already a few in the North defy all constitu- tional restraints, resist the execution of fugitive law, and even menace the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. Already a few in the South claim the constitu- tional right to take to and hold slaves in the free states — demand the revival of the stave-trade — and demand a treaty with Great Britain, by which fugitive slaves may be reclaimed from Canada. As yet they are but a few on either side. It is a grave question for the 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 fa- tally increase the number of both. NATIONAL FAITH AND CONFIDENCE. But restore the compromise, and what then.^* We thereby restore the national faith, the national confidence, the national feeling of brotherhood. We thereby rein- state the spirit of concession and compromise — that spir- it 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 122 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. a hundred years of peace and prosperity. And what of sacrifice would they make? They only surrender to us what they gave to us for a consideration long, long ago; what they have uot now asked for, struggled, or cared for; what has been thrust upon them, uot less to their own astonishment than to ours. RESTORE THE COMPROMISE. But it is said we can not 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, there 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 compro- mise, it is still a great point to carry a popular vote in favor of the restoration. The moral weight of such a vote can not be estimated too highly. The authors of Ne- braska are not satisfied with the destruction of the com- promise — 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. That future use is to be the planting of slavery wher- ever in the wide world local and unorganized opposition can not 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 con- THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 1 23 trary, 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. STAND BY THE RIGHT. 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 Abolitionist. 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 Abolitionists in restoring the Missouri Compromise, and stand against him when he attempts to repeal the fugitive slave law. In the lat- ter 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. 124 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. I object to it, because the fathers of the republic eschew- ed 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. Be- fore 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 forebore to so much as to mention the '•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 pro- hibiting the abolition of the African slave-trade for twen- ty years, that trade is spoken of as "The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now ex- isting 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 the end of 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 narrow- est limits of necessity. A STRING OF IMPORTANT FACTS. In 1794, they prohibited an out-going slave-trade — THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 12^ that is, th6 taking of slaves from the United States to sell. In 1798, they prohibited the bringing of slaves from Africa into the Mississippi Territory — this teritory then comprising what are now the states of Mississippi and Alabama. This was ten years before they had the au- thority to do the same thing as to the states existing at the adoption of the Constitution, In 1800, they prohibited American citizens from trad- ing in slaves between foreign countries, as, for instance, from Afri:a 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 1 808 — the very first day the Constitution would permit — prohibiting the African slave-trade by heavy pecuniary and corporal penalties. lu 1820, finding these provisions ineffectual, they de- clared the slave-trade piracy, and annexed to it the ex- treme 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 with- in these limits. Thus we see the plain, unmistakable spirit of that age, toward slavery, was hostility to the principal, and toler- ation only by necessity. Patting a so called * 'sacred right" on its back. But now it is to be transformed into a ''sacred^ right.'* Nebraska brings it forth, places it on the hig^h road to ex- 126 ' Lincoln's speeches complete. tension 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 de- claring 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 principals can not stand together. They are as opposite as God and Mammon; and whoever holds to the one must despise the other. When Pettit, in connection with his support of the Nebraska bill, call- ed ther 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 Sena- tors 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 rebuk- ed him. If this had been said among Marion's men, Southerners though they were, what would have be- come 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 door-keeper would have throttled the man and thrust him into the street. Lincoln' s earnest appeal. Let no one be deceived. The spirit of seventy-six and the spirit of Nebraska are utter antagonism; and the for- mer is being rapidly displaced by the latter. THE MISSOURI COMPROxMlSE. 127 Fellow-countrym-en: Americans South as well as North, shall we make no effort to arrest this? Already the lib- eral party throughout the world express the apprehension ' 'that the one retrograde institution in America is under- ,' mining 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 easliest 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 to pieces" even the white man's chart- er of freedom. TRAILED IN THE DUST. Our republican robe is soiled, and trailed in the dust. Let us re-purify it. Let us turn and wash it white, in the spirit, if not in the blood, of the Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its "moral rights" back upon its ex- isting 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 every where — 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 gen- erations. 128 Lincoln's speeches complete. 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 re- cognized it as such. That countenance cannot now be changed by argument. You can as easily argue the color 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, Congressional intervention never pre- vented 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. THE ORDINANCE OF 8/. Now this is mere quibbling all the way through. If the ordinance of ^y 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 Mis- THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 129 souri? They lie side by side, the Mississippi river only dividing them; while their early settlements were within the same latitude. Between iSioand 1820, the number of slaves in Missouri increased 7,211; while in lUinois, in the same ten years, they decreased 51. This appears by the census returns. During nearly all of ihat ten years both, were territories — not states. During this time, the ordinance forbade slavery to go into Illinois; and nothing forbade it go into Missouri. It did go into Missouri, and did not go into IlHnois. 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 coun- try. What are the facts upon which this bold assertion is based.? HOW ILLINOIS CAME INTO THE UNION. 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 legis- lation admitted a few negroes from the slave states, as indentured servants. One year after the adoption of the the first State Constitution, the whole number of them was — what do you think.? Just 117 — while the aggre- gate free population was 55,094 — about 470 to i. Upon this state of facts, the people framed their Constitution, prohibiting the further introduction of slavery with a sort of guarantee to the owners of the few indentured servants, giving freedom to their children to be born thereafter, and making no mention whatever of any sup- pos'ed slave for life. Out of this small matter, the judge 130 Lincoln's speeches co.rpLETE. 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 the 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 emancipa- tion. If the Nebraska bill is the real author of the benevo- lent 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 Revo- lution, and not the principle of the Nebraska bill, that led to emancipation in these old states.? Leave it to the people of those old emancipation states, and I am quite certain that they will decide that neither that nor any other good thing ever did or ever will come of the Ne- braska bill. In the course of my main argument, Judge Douglas THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 131 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 re- ply 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. THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS. 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 former the white man is to do just as he pleases with his white subjects, being responsible to God alone. By the latter, the white man is to do just as he pleases with 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 re- vival of the African slave trade — that no argument could be made in favor ot a man's right to take slaves to Ne- braska, wich 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 suppres- 132 Lincoln's speeches complete. sion of the foreign slave-trade; but does not require the prohibition of slavery in the territories. That is a mis- take, in point of fact. The Constitution does not require the action of Congress in either case; and it does autho- rize it in both. And so, there is still no difference be- tw^een the cases. In regard to w^hat I had said of the advantage the slave states have over the free, in the matter of represent- ation, 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- three thousand over. Thus, their free negroes more than balance ours; and their advantage over us, in con- sequence of their ^aves, still remains as I stated it. Webster's definition of ''compromise." In reply to my argument, that the Compromise Meas- ures 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 be- ing 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 connec- tion.? Why has he so spoken of them a thousand times.? Why has he constantly called them a series of measures.? Why does every body call them a compromise.? Why THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 133 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 par- ties. ''This conveys precisely the popular understand- ing 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 would have got in no other way. Is is this fact that gives to the measures their true character; and it is the universal knowedge of this fact, that has given them the name of "Compromises," so expressive of that true character. UTAH AND NEW MEXICO. I had asked, ' 'if in carrying the provisions of the Utah nnd New Mexico laws to Nebraska, you could clear away other objection, how can you leave Nebraska "per- fectly free" to introdiye slavery before she forms a constitution, during her territorial government.^ while the Utah and New Mexico laws only authorized 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 134 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 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 au- thority is sought to be impHed merely, for the general provisions 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 Con- stitutions, is an exclusion of all implied authority on the" same subject; that Congress having the subject distinct- ly in their minds, when they made the express provision, they therein expressed their whole meaning on that sub- ject. OREGON AND WASHINGTON. The judge rather insinuated that I had found it con- venient 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 as- serted, that by this act the ordinance of ^y, theretofore existing in Oregon, was repealed; that nearly all the members of Congress voted for it. beginging in the House of Representatives; witfi Charles Allen, of Massachusetts, and ending with Richard Yates of Ill- inois; and that he could not understand how those who now oppose the Nebraska bill, so voted there, un- less it was because it was then too soon after both the great political parties had ratified the Compromises of 1850, and the ratification therefore too fresh to be then repudiated. Now I had seen the Washington act before; and I THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. I 3 5 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 nothmg m the whole law upon the subject; in fact, nothing to lead a reader to think of the subject. To my judgement it is equally free from everything from which repeal can be legally imphed; but, however this may be, are men now to be entrapped by a legal implication, extracting from covert language, introduced , perhaps, for the very pur- pose of entraping them.? I sincerely wish every man could read this law quite through, carefully watching every sentence, and every line for a repeal of the ordi- nance of '87, or anything equivalent to it. Another point on the Washington act. If it was in- tended 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 omis- sion, 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 con- cerns, 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 pro- 136 Lincoln's speeches complete. hibits the territorial legislation by very strong and guard- ed 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. FOR WHOM V^AS OUR COUNTRY MADE } In the course of his reply, Senator Douglas remarked^ in substance, that he had always considered this govern- ment 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 im- pression that the negro is a human; and consequently has no idea that there can be any moral question in leg- islating about him. In his view, the questions 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 cat- tle. Now whether this view be 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 very evanescent, but eternal. It lies at the very foundation of their sense of justice, and it cannot be trifled with. It is a great THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 137 and durable element of popular action, and I think, no statesman can safely disregard it. PITCHFORKING DOUGLAS. Our Senator also objects that those who oppose him in this measure do not entirely agree with one another. He reminds me that in my firm adherence to the Consti- tutional rights of the slave states. I differ widely from others who are co-operating 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, grasp- ing whatever he could first reach — a scythe — a pitch- fork — a chopping-ax, or a butcher's cleaver. We struck in the direction of the sound; and we are 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 passed, he shall find us still Americans; no less devoted to the continued union and prosperity of the country than heretofore. THE MEMORY OF CLAY AND WEBSTER. Finally, the judge invokes against me the memory of Clay and of Webster. They were great men, and men of great deeds. But where have I assailed them .? For what is it that their life-long enemy shall now make profit by assuming to defend them against me, their life-long friend.? I go against the repeal of the Mis- souri Compromise; did they ever go for it.? They went 138 Lincoln's speeches complete. for the Compromises 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 break- ing of it? The truth is that some support from Whigs is now a necessity with the judge, and for this is it that the names of Clay and Webster are now 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 FINAL WORD ON A DESPERATE ASSUMPTION. A word now as to the judge's desperate assumption that the Compromises of 1850 has 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 de- pendent 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 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 1 39 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 an argument into the consistency of i maternal 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. ''THE AGEIS NOT DEAD." [Delivered in the Court House at Springfield, 111. in 1855, to only three persons. Mr. Herndon got out huge posters, announcing the event, employed a band to parade the streets and drum up a crowd, and bells were rung, but only three persons were present. Mr. Lincoln was to have spoken on the slavery question.] Gentlemen: — This meeting is larger than I knew it would be, as I knew Herndon, (Lincoln's partner) and myself would come, but I did not know that any one else would be here; and yet another has come — you John Paine, (the Janitor.) These are bad times, and seem out of joint. All seems dead, dead, dead; but the age is not yet dead; it liveth as sure as our Maker liveth. Under all this seeming want of life and motion, the world does move nevertheless. Be hopeful. And now let us adjourn and appeal to the people. THE BALLET vs. THE BULLET. (Delivered to a Delegation at Springfield, 111. that proposed to visit Kansas Territory in the physical defence of freedom, in 1856. Hon. W. H. Herndon was in this Delegation.) I40 Lincoln's speeches complete. Friends: — I agree with you in Providence. I believe in the providence of the most men, the largest purse, and the longest cannon. You are in the minority — in a sad minority; and you can't hope to succeed, reason- ing from all human experience. You would rebel against the Government, and redden your hands in the blood of your countrymen. If you are in the minority, as you are, you can't succeed I say again and again, against the Government, with a great majority of its best citizens backing it, and when they have the most men, the longest purse, and the biggest cannon you can't succeed. If you have the majority, as some say you have, you can succeed with the ballot, throwing away the bullet. You can peacably then redeem the Government, and preserve the liberties of mankind, through your votes and voice and moral influence. Let there be peace. In a democracy, where the ma- jority rule by by the ballot through the forms of law, these physical rebellions and bloody resistances, are radically wrong; unconstitutional, and are treason. Better bear the ills you have than fly to those you know not of. Our own Declaration of Independence says that governments long established, for trivial causes should not be resisted. Revolutionize through the ballot-box, and restore the government once more to the affiections and hearts of men, by making it express; as it was in- tended to do, the highest spirit of justice and liberty. Your attempt, if there be such, to resist the laws of Kansas by force, is criminal and wicked; and all your feeble attempts will be follies, and end in bringing sorrow on your heads, and ruin the cause you would freely die to perserve. IN REPLY TO JUDGE DOUGLAS. (Delivered in Representatives' Hall, Springfield, 111., June 26, 1857.) Fellow-Citizens: — I am here to-night, partly by the invitation of some of you, and partly by my own inclina- tion. 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 read the report of it since. It was intended to contro- vert opinions which I think just, and to assail (politi- cally, 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. UTAH. I begin with Utah. If it prove to be true, as is prob- able, that the people of Utah are in oben 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 some- how 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 [141] 142 llncoln's speeches complete. 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 Secre- taries, and Judges, on the people of the territories, with- out 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 shall peacefully form a State Constitution tolerating polygamy, will the Democracy admit them into the Union.^" There is nothing in the United States Con- stitution 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. KANSAS. 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 fida inhabitant the free and quiet exercise of the elective franchise." It appears extraordinary that Judge Douglas should THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 1 43 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 reg- istered. It is possible this is not true, but Judge Doug- las 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 with- out being registered; but he just slips along, not seeming to know there is any such question of fact and compla- cently declares: ' '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 fida 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 contra- dict, few only of the Free State men had a chance to vote, they were perfectly right in staying from the polls in a body. KANSAS ELECTION. 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 — in- cluding * '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 144 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 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 suspicions that there were no such things in Kansas as * 'Free State Demo- crats" — 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 Cj.tch him, and stuff and perserve his skin as an interest- ing specimen of that soon to be extinct variety of the genus Democrat. DRED SCOTT DECISION. And now as to the Dred Scott decision. That decision declares two propositions — first that a negro can not sue in the United States Courts; and secondly, that Congress can not 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 ex- ample, believing I could no more improve on McLean and Curtis, than he could on Taney. He denounces all who question the correctness of that THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 14^ 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 tv^o 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 ''prece- dents" and ''authorities." We believe as much as Judge Douglas (perhaps more) in obedience to, and respect for, the judicial department of governor. 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 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 custom- ary understanding of the legal profession. If this important decision had been made by the unan- imous concurrence of the judges, and without any appa- rent partisan bias, and in accordance with legal public expectation, and with the steady practice of the depart- ments throughout our history, and had been, in no part, bassed on assumed historical facts which are not really 146 LlNCOLN^S SPEECHES COMPLETE. true; or, if wanting in some of these, it has been before the court more than once, and has there been affirmed and reaffirmed through a course of years, it then might be, perhaps would be, factious, nay, even revokitionary, not to acquiesce in it as a precedent. But when, as it 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 consideres 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 to 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 re- sistance to the decision 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 be- tween the friends and enemies of the Constitution — the friends and the enemies of the supremacy of the laws. GEN. JACKSON. Why, this same Supreme Court once decided a na- tional bank to be constitutional; but General Jackson, as President of the United States, disregarded the decision, and vetoed a bill for a re-charter, partly on constitu- tional 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 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 147 in all its features, ought to be considered as settled by precedent, and by the decision of the Supreme Court. To this conclusion I can not assent. Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority, and should not be re- garded as deciding questions of constitutional power, except where the ac- quiescence of the people and the States can be considered as well as 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 181 1, decided against it. One Congress in 18 1 5 decided against a bank; another, in 18 16, decided in its favor. Prior to the present Congress, therefore, the precedents drawn from that source were equal. If we resort to the states, the expressions of legislative, *udicial, and executive opinions against the bank have been probably to those in its favor as four to one. There is nothing in prece- dent, therefore, which, if its authority we^e admitted, ought to weigh in favor of the act before me." I drop the quotation merely to remark, that all there ever was, in the way of precedent up to the Dred Scott decision, on the points therein decided, has 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 co-ordinate authorities of this Government. The Congress, the executive, and the Court, must each for itseelf be guided by its own opinions 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 dis- regarding it. It would be interesting for him to look over his recent speech, and see how exactly his fierce philip- ics 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 change- less estimation, was ' 'a distinct issue between the friends and the enemies of the Constitution," and in which war 14^' LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. he fought In the. ranks of the enemies of the Constitu- tion. I have said, in substance, that the Dred Scott deci- sioil 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 1 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. JUDGE CURTIS. On the contrary. Judge Curtis, in his dissenting opin- ion, 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 mak- ing 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 per- sons were among these qualified by law to act on the subject. These colored persons were not only included in the body 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." CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY. Again, Chief Justice Taney says: REPLY TO DOUGLAS. T49 "It is difficult, at this day, to realize the state of public opinion in re- lation to that unfortunate race, which prevailed in the civilized and en- lightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, 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 mis- take. In some trifling particulars, the condition of that race has been ameliorated; but as a whole, in this coun- try, the change between then and now is decidedly the other way; and their ultimate destiny has never ap- peared 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 thdr own pleasure, emancipate their slaves; but since then, such legal restraints have been made upon emanci- pation, as to amount almost to prohibition. In those da3^s, Legislatures held the unquestioned power to abolish slavery in their respective states; but now it is becoming quite fashionable for State Constitutions to withhold Lincoln's speeches complete. 150 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. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 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 haw^ked 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 is fast joining the cry. They have him in his prison house; they have searched his person, and left no prying instruments 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 a hundred keys, w'hich can never be unlocked v/ithout the concurrence of every key; the keys in the hands of a hundred different men. and they scattered to a hundred different and distant places; and they stand musing as to what invention, in all the do- minions 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 pub- lic estimate of the negro is more favorable now than it was at the orgin of the Government. Three years and a half ago, Judge Douglas brought REPLY TO DOUGLAS. I51 forward his fanous 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 superceded in a Presidential nomination, by one indors- ing the general doctrine of his measure, but at the same time standing clear of the odium of its untimely agita- tion, and its gross breach of national faith; and he has seen that successful rival constitutionally elected, not by 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, suc- cessively tried, convicted; and executed, for an offense 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, to the idea of an indiscrimate amalgama- tion 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 repeat- ing, fasten the odium of that idea upon his adversaries, he thinks he can struggle through the storm. He there- fore 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 Independ- ence 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 152 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. sleep, and marry with negroes! He will have it that they can not 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 cer- tainly 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. THE WHOLE HUMAN FAMILY. 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 afterwards, 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 intend- ed 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 develop- ments, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness, in what respects they did consider all men created equal — equal with ' 'certain inalienable rights, REPLY TO DOUGLAS. I 53 among which are life, Hberty, and the pursuit of happi- ness." 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 the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit. <*ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL." They meant to set np a standard maxim for free socie- ty, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approxima- ted, 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, a 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 prone- ness 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 Independ- ence which declares that ''all men are created equal." Now let us hear Judge Douglas's view of the same 154 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 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 resid-ng in Great Britain — that they were entitled to the same inalien- able rights, and among them were enumerated life, liberty, and the pur- suit 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." FIRING SOLID SHOT AT DOUGLAS. 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 Declara- tion. "They were speaking of British subjects on this con- tinent 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 plot 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 REPLY TO DOUGLAS. I 5 5 with a king and lords of our own in these United States. I had thought the Declaration contemplated the pro- gressive improvement in the condition of all men every- where; 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 bat- tle-field 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 re- ferred to at that da}^ But I suppose you will celebrate; and will even go so far as to read the Declaration. Sup- pose, 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 rpan in it.? But Judge Douglas is especially horrified at the thought I5p LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. of the mixing 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 marry 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 white; 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, bnt as an immediate separation is im- possible, 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. SOME FIGURES. 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 kEPLY TO DOUGLAS. 1^7 white, have proportionally 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 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 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. ANOTHER SHOT. 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 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 mother 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. 158 Lincoln's speeches complete. 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 mas- ters 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 sub- ject. But I can say, a very large proportion of its mem- bers are for it, and that the chief plank in their platform — opposition to the spread of slavery — is most favorable to that separation. ADVISABILITY OF COLONIZATION. 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 opera- tions, at present, only favor or retard colonization inci- dentally. 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 Egyp- tian bondage in a body. How differently the respective courses of the Demo- REPLY TO DOUGLAS. 1 59 cratic and Republican parties incidentally bear on the question of forming a will — a public sentiment — for col- onization 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 insignif- icance, the wrong of his bondage; so far as possible, crush all sympathy for him, and cultivate and excite hatred and disgust against hfm; compliment themselves as Union-savers for doing so; and call the indefinite out- spreading of his bondage '*a sacred right of self-govern- ment. A GOLD EAGLE NOT TRANSLUCENT. The plainest print cannot be read through a gold eagle; and it will ever be hard to find many men who will send a slave to Liberia, and pay his passage, while they can send them to a new country — Kansas for instance — and sell him for fifteen hundred dollars, and the rise. LINCOLN "LINKED TO TRUTH. " [spoken in the Library of the State House at Springfield, Illinois, to a few friends who wanted the sentence "A house divided against itself cannot stand, " expunged from the great speech known now as the "House Div- vided Against Itself Speech." Lincoln had submitted the manuscript for their criticism before the great speech was delivered] Friends: — I have thought about this matter a great deal, have weighed the question well from all corners, and am thoroughly convinced the time has come when it should be uttered; and if it must be that I must go down because of this speech, then let me go down linked to truth, die in the advocacy of what is right and just. This nation cannot live on injustice. ''A house divided against itself cannot stand," I say again and again; the proposition is true and has been true for six thousand years, and I will deliver it as it is written. [This celebrated speech is given in full, commencing on the following page. It should be stated that before going to the Hall of Representatives, where it was de- livered, Mr. Lincoln turned aside and entered his law of- fice, where Mr. Herndon, his partner, was sitting, and turned the key against all intrusion. Taking out his manuscript he read to Mr. Herndon the first paragraph of his speech, and asked him for his opinion of it. Mr. Herndon replied that it was all true, but he doubted whether it was good policy to give it utterance at that time. "That makes no difference," responded Mr. Lin- coln. "It is the truth, and the nation is entitled to it." Then, alluding to a quotation which he had made from the Bible — "A house divided against itself cannot stand,'' he said that he wished to give an illustration familiar to all, "that he who runs may read."] (i6o) LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH IN THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN -THE HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF SPEECH." (Delivered at Springfield 111. June i6. 1858 Before the Republican State Convention. It is known as one of Lincoln's greatest speeches.) Gentlemen of the Convention; — "If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and con^ fident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. ' 'A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall —but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the op- ponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its ad- vocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike [161] 1 62 Lincoln's speeches coMPLEtE. lawful in all the states, old as well as new — North as well as South. "Have we no tendency to the latter condition? "Let anyone who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combination — piece of ma- chinery, so to speak — compounded of the Nebraska doc- trine, and the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider not only what work the machinery is adapted to do, and how well adapted; but also let him study the history of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidences of design and concert of action among its chief architects, from the beginning. A FEW^ IMPORTANT FACTS. "The new year of 1844 found slavery excluded from more than half the states by State Constitutions, and from most of the national territory by Congressional pro- hibition. Four days later, commenced the struggle which ended in repealing that Congressional prohibition. This opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the first point gained. "But, so far, Congress had acted; and an indorsement by the people, real or apparent, was indispensable, to save the point already gained, and give chance for more. "This necessity had not been overlooked; but had been provided for, as well as might be, in the notable argu- ment of 'squatter sovereignty,' otherwise called 'sacred right of self-government,' which latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this: That if any one man choose to enslave an- other, no third man shall be allowed to object. That THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. j5, argument was incorporated into the Nebraska bill itself m the language which follows: -It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom; but to leave he people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate heir domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States.' Then opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of 'squatter sover- eignty, and 'sacred right of self-government ' 'But ' said opposition members, 'let us amend the bill so as to ex pressly declare that the people of the territory may ex- clude slavery. • 'Not we, ' said the friends of the measure- and down they voted the amendment. "While the Nebraska bill was passing through Con- gress, a law case involving the question of a negro's free- dom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first into a free state and then into a territory covered by he Congressional prohibition, and held him as a' slave for along time in each, was passing through the United States Circuit Court for the district of Missouri; and both Nebraska bill and lawsuit were brought to a decision in the same month of May, ,854. The negro's name was Dred Scott, which name now designates the decision fina !y made in the case. Before the then next presi- dental election, the law case came to, and was argued in the Supreme Court of the United States, but the decision' ot It was deferred until after the election. Still, before the election, Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate requested the leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his opinion whether the people of a territory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and the 1 64 Lincoln's speeches complete. latter answers: 'That is a question for the Supreme Court.' 'The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the indorsement, such as it was, secured. That was the second point gained. The indorsement, however, fell short of a clear popular majority by nearly four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory. The outgoing President, in his last annual message, as impressively as possible echoed back upon the people the weight and authority of the in- dorsement. The Supreme Court met again; did not an- nounce their decision, but ordered a re-argument. The presidential inauguration came, and still no decision of the court; but the incoming President in his inaugural address fervently exhorted the people to abide by the forthcoming decision, whatever it might be. Then, in a few days, came the decision. "The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an early occasion to make a speech at this capital indorsing the Dred Scott decision, and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it. The new President, too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse and strongly construe that decision, and to express his aston- ishment that any different view has ever been entertained! VOTING IT UP OR VOTING IT DOWN. ' 'At length a squabble springs up between the President and the author of the Nebraska bill, on the mere question of fact, whether the Lecompton Constitution was or was not, in any just sense, made by the people of Kansas; and in that quarrel the latter declares that all he wants is a fair vote for the people and that he cares not whether THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. 165 slavery be voted down or voted up. I do not understand his declaration that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up to be intended by him other than an apt definition of the policy he would impress upon the public mind— the principle for which he declares he has suffered so much, and is ready to suffer to the end. And well may he cling to that principle. If he has any parent- al feelings, well may he cling to it. That principle is the only shred left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred Scott decision squatter sovereignty squatted out of existence, tumbled down like temporary scaffolding- like the mould at the foundry, served through one blast and fell back into loose sand— helped to carry an election and then was kicked to the winds. His late joint struggle with the republicans, against the Lecompton Constitution, involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was made on a point— the right of a people to make their own constitution — upon which he and the re- publicans have never differed. "The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection with Senator Douglas' 'care not' policy, con- stitute the piece of machinery, in its present state of ad- vancement. This was the third point gained. WORKING POINTS. The working points of that machinery are: "First, That no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, and no descendant of such slave, can ever be a citizen of any state, in the sense of that term as used in the Constitution of the United States. This point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible event, of the benefit of that provision of the United iGG LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. States Constitution, which declares that 'The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immuni- ties of citizens in the several states.' "Secondly, That 'subject to the Constitution of the United States,' neither. Congress nor a territorial legis- lature can exclude slavery from any United States terri- tory. This point is made in order that individual men may fill up the territories with slaves, without danger of losing them as property, and thus to enhance the chances of permanency to the institution through all the future. "Thirdly, That whether the holding the negro in actual slavery in a free state, makes him free, as against the holder, the United States courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the courts of any slave state the negro may be forced into by the master. This point is made, not to be pressed immediately; but, if acquiesced in for a while, and apparently indorsed by the people at an election, then to sustain the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott't master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free state of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one, or one thousand slaves, or in any other free state. "Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what isleftof it, is to educate and mould public opinion, at least northern public opinion, not to care whether slavery is voted down or voted up. This shows exactly where we now are; and partially, also, whither we are tending. A STRING OF HISTORICAL FACTS. "It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back and run the mind over the string of historical facts al- 15/ THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. ready stated. Several things will now appear less dark and mysterious than theydid when they were transpiring. The people were to be left 'perfectly free,' subject only to the Constitution.' What the Constitution had to do with it, outsiders could not then see. Plainly enough now, it was an exactly fitted niche, for the Dred Scott decision to afterward come in, and declare the perfect freedom of the people to be just no freedom at all. Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people voted down.? Plain enough now: the adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott de- cision. Why was the court decision held up.? Why even a senator's individual opinion withheld, till after the presidential election.? Plainly enough now: the speaking out then would have damaged the perfectly free argument upon which the election was to be carried. Why the out-going President's felicitation on the indorse- ment.? Why the delay of a re-argument.? Why the in- coming President's advance exhortation in favor of the decision.? These things look like the cautious patting and petting of a spirited horse preparatory to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a fall. And why the hasty after-indorsement of the decision by the President and others.? '* We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places and by different workmen — Stephen, Franklin, Roger and James, for instance — and when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the Lincoln's speeches complete. 168 frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortices ' exactly adapted, and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few — not omit- ting even scaffolding — or, if a single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring such a piece in — in such a case, we find it im- possible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn up before the first blow was struck. POWER OF A STATE. ' ' It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska bill, the people of a state as well as territory, were to be left 'perfectly free,' subject only to the Constitution.' Why mention a state.? They were legislating for territo- ries, and not for or about states. Certainly the people of a state are or ought to be subject to the Constitution of the United States; but why is mention of this lugged into this merely territorial law.^* Why are the people of a territory and the people of a state therein lumped to- gether, and their relation to the Constitution therein treated as being precisely the same? While the opinions of the court, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, and the seperate opinions of all the concurring judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the United States neither permits Congress nor a territorial legislature to exclude slavery from any United States ter- ritory, they all omit to declare whether or not the same Constitution permits a state, or the people of a state, to exclude it. Possibly, this is a mere omission; but who 1 69 THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. can be quite sure, if Mc Lean or Curtis had songht to get into the opinion a declaration of unHmited power in the people of a state to exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Mace sought to get such declaration, in be- half of the people of a territory, into the Nebraska bill; — I ask, who can be quite sure that it would not have been voted down in the one case as it had been in the other. The nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a state over slavery, is made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more than once, using the precise idea, and almost the language, too, of the Nebraska act. On one occasion his exact language is, ' except in cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of the United States, the law of the state is supreme over the subject of slavery within its jurisdiction.' In what cases the power of the states is so restrained by the United States Constitution, is left an open question, precisely as the same question as to the restraint on the power of the territories was left open in the Nebraska act. Put this and that together, and we have another nice little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a state to exclude Slavery from its limits. And this may especially be expected if the doctrine of 'care not whether slavery be voted down or voted up,' sball gain upon the public mind sufficiently to give promise that such a decision can be maintained when made. '' Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the states. Welcome, or unwelcome such decision is probably coming, and will soon be up- 170 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. on US, unless the power of the present pohtical dynasty shall be met and^overthrown. We shall lie down pleas- antly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the very verge of making their state free, and we shall awake to the reality instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave state. To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty, is the work now before all those who would prevent that consummation. That is what we have to do. How can we best do it.^ ' 'A LIVING DOG IS BETTER THAN A DEAD LION. " ' 'There are those who denounce us openly to their friends, and yet whisper us softly that Senator Douglas is the aptest instrument there is with which to effect that object. They wish us to infer all, from the fact that he now has a little quarrel with the present head of the dy- nasty; and that he has regularly voted with us on a single point, upon which he and we have never differed. They remind us that he is a great man, and that the largest of us are very small ones. Let this be granted. But ' a living dog is better than a dead lion.' Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion, for this work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of sla- very.-* He don't care anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing the 'public heart' to care nothing about it. A leading Douglas democratic newspaper thinks Douglas' superior talent will be rfeeded to resist the revival of the African slave trade. Does Douglas be- lieve an effort to revive that trade is approaching.^ He has not said so. Does he really think so.-^ But if it is, how can he resist it.^^ For years he has labored to prove it a sacred right of white men to take negro slaves into J 71 THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. the new territories. Can he possibly show that it is less a sacred right to buy them where they can be bought the cheapest.^ And unquestionably they can be bought cheap- er in Africa than Virginia. He has done all in his power to reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere right of property; and as such, how can he oppose the foreign slave trade — how can he refuse that trade in that 'property' shall be 'perfectly free' — unless he does it as a protection to the home production.? And as the home producers will probably not ask the protection, he will be wholly without a ground of opposition. DOUGLAS IS NOT WTTH US. < 'Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may rightfully be wiser to-day than he was yesterday — that he may rightfully change when he finds himself wrong. But can we, for that reason, run ahead, aud infer that he will make any particular change of which he himself has giv- en no intimation.? Can we safely base our action upon any such vague inference.? Now, as ever, I wish not to misrepresent Judge Douglas' position, question his mo- tives, or do aught that can be personally offensive to him. Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together on prin- ciple so that our cause may have assistance from his great ability, I hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle^ But clearly, he is not now with us — he does not pretend to be — he does not pretend ever to be. BUT WE SHALL NOT FAIL; THE VICTORY IS SURE. Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own undoubted friends — those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work — who do care for the result. Two years ago the Republicans of the nation 172 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. mustered over thirteen thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common dan- ger, with every external circumstances against us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gath- ered from the four winds, and formed and fought the bat- tle through, under the constant hot fire of a diciplined, proud and pampered enemy. Did we brave all then, to falter nowi^ — now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered and belligerent.? — The result is not doubtful- We shall not fail — if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come. " MR. LINCOLN'S REPLY TO DOUGLAS. (Delivered at Chicago , on the evening of July, lo, 1858.) My Fellow-Citizens; On yesterday evening, upon the occasion of [the reception given to Senator Douglas, I was furnished with a seat very convenient for hearing him, and was otherwise very courteously treated by him and his friends, for which I thank him and them. Dur- ing the course of his remarks my name was mentioned in such a way as, I suppose, renders it at least not im- proper that I should make some sort of reply to him, I shall not attempt to follow him in the precise order in which he addressed the assembled multitude upon that occasion, though I shall perhaps do so in the main. THE ALLEGED ALLLANCE. There was one question to which he asked the atten- tion of the crowd, which I deem of somewhat less impor- tance — at least of propriety for me to dwell upon — than the others, which he brought in near the close of his speech, and which I think it would not be entirely proper for me to omit attending to, and yet if I were not to give some attention to it now, I should probably forget it al- together. While I am upon this subject, allow me to say that I do not intend to indulge in inconvenient modes sometimes adopted in public speaking, of reading from documents; but I shall depart from that rule so far as to [173] 174 Lincoln's speeches complete. read a little scrap from his speech, which notices this first topic of which I speak — that is, provided I can find it in the paper. [Examines the morning's paper, and reads:] '' I have made up my mind to appeal to the people against the combination that has been made against me! the Republican leaders having formed an alliance, an un- holy and unnatural alliance with a portion of unscrupu- lous federal office-holders. I intend to fight that allied army wherever I meet them. I know they deny the al- liance, but yet these men who are trying to divide the Democratic party for the purpose of electing a Republi- can Senator in my place, are just as much the agents and tools of the supporters of Mr. Lincoln. Hence I shall deal with this allied army just as the Russians deal with the allies at Sebastopol — that is, the Russians did not stop to inquire when they fired a broadside, whether it hit an Englishman, a Frenchman or a Turk. Nor will I stop to enquire, nor shall I hesitate, whether my blows shall hit these Republican leaders or their allies^ who are holding the federal offices and yet acting in con- cert with them." Well, now, gentlemen, is not that very alarming.? Just to think of it! right at the outset of his canvass, I a poor, kind, amiable, intelligent gentleman, I am to be slain in this way. Why, my friends, the Judge, is not only, as it turns out, not a dead lion, nor even a living one — he is the rugged Russian Bear! [Laughter and applause.] But if they will have it — for he says that we deny it — that there is any alliance, as he says there is — and I don't propose hanging very much upon this question of veracity 175 'THE SENATORIAL CAMPArCN. • — but if he will have it that there is such an alliance— that the Administration men and we are allied, and we stand in the attitude of English, French, and Turk, he occupying the position of the Russian, in that case, I beg that he will indulge us while we barely suggest to him that these allies took Sebastopol. [Great aplause.] Gentlemen, only a few more words as to this alliance. For my part, I have to say, that whether there be such an alliance, depends, so far as I know, upon what may be a right definition of the term alliance, If for the Re- publican party to see the other great party to w^hich they are opposed divided among ^themselves, and not try to stop the division and rather be glad of it — if that is an alliance, I confess I am in; but if it is meant to be said that the Republicans had formed an alliance going be- yond that, by which there is contribution of money or sacrifice of principle on the one side or other, so far as the Republican party is concerned, if there be any such thing, I protest that I neither know any thing of it, nor do I believe it. I will, however, say — as I think this branch of the argument is lugged in — I would before I leave it, state, for the benefit of those concerned, that one of those same Buchanan men did once tell me of an argument that he made for his opposition to Judge Doug- las. He said that a friend of our Senator Douglas had been talking to him, and had among other things said to him: *'Why, you don't want to beat Douglas.^"" "Yes," said he. "I do want to beat him, and I will tell you why. I believe his original Nebraska Bill was right in the abstract, but it was wrong in the time that it was brought forward. It was wrong in the application to a 176 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. Territory in regard to which the question had been settled; it was tendered to the South when the South had not asked for it, but when they could not refuse it. And for this same reason he forced that question upon our party; it has sunk the best men all over the nation, every- where; and now when our President, struggling with the difficulties of this man's getting up, has reached the very hardest point to turn in the case, he deserts him, and I am for putting him where he will trouble us no more. Now, gentlemen, that is not my argument at all. I have only been stating to you the argument of a Buchan- an man. You will judge if there is any force in it. WHAT IS POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. Popular sovereignty! everlasting popular sovereignty Let us for a moment inquire into the vast matter of popu- lar sovereignty. What is popular sovereignty.? We re- collect that in an early period in the history of this strug- gle, there was another name for the same thing — Squat- ter Sovereignty. It was not exactly Popular Sovereignty but Squatter Sovereignty. What do those terms mean.? What do those terms mean when used now.? And vast credit is taken by our friend, the judge, in regard to his support to it, when he declares the last years of his life have been and all the future years shall be, devoted to this matter of popular sovereignty. What is it.? Why it is the sovereignty of the people! What was Squatter Sovereignty.? I suppose if it had any significance at all it was the right of the people to govern themselves, to be soverign in their own affairs while they had squatted on a Territory that did not belong to them, in the sense that a State belongs to the people who inhabit it — when THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. I 77 it belonged to the nation — such right to govern them- selves was called ''Squatter Sovereignty." Nov^ I wish you to mark. What has become of that Squatter Sovereignty? What has become of it.? Can you get any body to tell you now that the people of a Territory have any authority to govern themselves, in re- gard th this mooted question of slavery, before they form a State Constitution.? No such thing at all, although there is a general running fire, and although there has been a hurrah made in every speech on that side, assum- ing that policy had given the people of a Territory the right to govern themselves upon this question; yet the point is dodged. To-day it has been decided — no more than a year ago it had been decided by the Supreme court of the United States, and is insisted upon to-day, that the people of a Territory have no right to exclude slavery from a Territory, that if any one man chooses to take slaves into a Territory, all the rest of the people have no right to keep them out. This being so, and this decision being made one of the points that the judge ap- proved, and one in the approval of which he says he means to keep me down — put me down I should not say for I have never been up, he says he is in favor of it, and sticks to it and expects to win his battle on that de- cision, which says there is no such thing as Squatter Sovereignty; but that anyone man may take slaves into a Territory, and all the men may be opposed to it, and yet by reason of the Constitution they cannot prohibit it. When that is so, how much is left of this matter of Squatter Sovereignty I should like to know.? [a voice *'It is all gone."] 17S llncoln's speeches complete. When we get back, we get to the point of the right of the people to make a Constitution. Kansas was settled, for example, in 1854. It was a Territory yet, without having formed a Constitution, in a very regular way, for three years. All this time negro slavery could be taken in by any few individuals, and by that decision of the Supreme Court, which the judges approves, all the rest of the people cannot keep it out; but when they come to make a Constitution they may say they will not have slavery. But it is there; they are obliged to tolerate it some way, and all experience shows it will be so — for they will not take negro slaves and absolutely deprive the owners of them. All experience shows this to be so. All that space of time that runs from the beginning of the settlement of the Territory until there is sufficiency of people to make a State Constitution — all that portion of time popular sovereignty is given up. The seal is absolutely put down upon it by the Court decision, and Judge Douglas puts his on the top of that, yet he is ap- pealing to the people to give him vast credit for his de- votion to popular sovereignty. [Applause.] Again, when we get to the question of the right of people to form a State Constitution as they please, to form with slavery or without slavery — if that is anything new, I confess I don't know it. Has there ever been a time when anybody said that any other than the people of a Territory itself should form a Constitution. ^^ What is now in it that Judge Douglas should have fought several years of his life, and pledge himself to light all the re- maining years of his life for.^^ Can Judge Douglas find anybody on earth that said that anybody else should TliE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. I 79 form a Constitution for a people? [A voice, "yes."] Well, I should like you to name him; I should like to know who he was [same voice, "John Calhoun."] Mr, Lincoln — No, Sir, I never heard of even John Cal- houn saying such a thing. He insisted on the same prin- ciple as Judge Douglas; but his mode of applying it in fact, was wrong. It is enough for my purpose to ask this crowd, when ever a Republican said anything against it.^ They never said anything against it, but they have con- stantly • spoken for it; and whosoever will undertake to examine the platform, and the speeches of responsible men of the party, and of irresponsible men, too, if you please, will be unable to find one word from any body in the Republican ranks, opposed to that Popular Sov- ereignty which Judge Douglas thinks that he has invent- ed. [Aplause.] I suppose that Judge Douglas will claim in a little while, that he is the inventor of the idea that the people should govern themselves; that no body ever thought of such a thing until he brought it forward. We do remember, that in the old Declaration of Independence, it is said that "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 from the consent of the governed. " There is the origin of Popular Sovereignty. [Loud applause.] Who, then, shall come in at this day and claim that he invented it.? [After referring, in appropriate terms, to the credit I80 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. claimed by Douglas for defeating the Lecompton policy Mr. Lincoln proceeds.] I defy you to show a printed resolution passed in a Democratic meeting — I take it upon myself to defy any man to show a printed resolution of a Democratic meet- ing, large or small, in favor of Judge Trumbull, or any of the five to one Republicans who beat that bill. Every thing must be for the Democrats! They did every thing, and the five to the one that really did the thing, they snub over, and they do not seem to remenberthat they have an existence upon the face of earth. LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS THE PERVERTED ISSUES. Gentlemen, I fear that I shall become tedious. I leave this branch of the subject to take hold of another. I take up that part of Judge Douglas speech in which he re- spectfully attended to me. A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CANNOT STAND. Judge Douglas made two points upon my recent speech at Springfield. He says they are to be the issues of this campaign. The first one of these points he bases upon: the language in a speech which I delivered at Springfield, which I believe I can quote correctly from memory. I said there that " we are now far on in the fifth year since a policy was instituted for the avowed object, and with the confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation; under the operation of that policy, that agita- tion had not only not ceased, but had constantly augment- ed. I believe it will not cease untill a crisis shall have' been reached and passed. A House divided against itself can not stand. I believe this Government can not endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. l8l the Union to be dissolved" — lam quoting from my speech '' I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it Avill cease to be divided. It will come all one thing or the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extin- tion, or its advocates will push it forward until it shall have become alike lawful in all the States, North as well as South." In this paragraph which I have quoted in your hear- ing, and to which I ask the attention of all. Judge Doug- las thinks he discovers great political heresy. I want your attention particularly to what he has inferred from it. He says I am in favor of making all the States of the Union uniform. He draws this inference from the language I have quoted to you. He says that I am in fa- vor of making war by the North upon the South for the extinction of slavery; that I am also in favor of inviting, as he expresses it, the South to a war upon the North, for the purpose of nationahzing slavery. Now, it is sin- gular enough, if you will carefully read that passage over, that I did not say that I was in favor of any such thing in it. I only said what I expected would take place. I made a prediction only — it may have been a foolish one perhaps. I did not even say that I desired that slavery should be put in course of ultimate extinction. I do say so now, however, so there need be no longer any difficul- ty about that. It may be written down in the next speech. Gentlemen, Judge Douglas informed you that this speech of mine was probably carefully prepared. I ad- mit that it was. I am not master of languag^e; I have 152 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. not a fine education; I am not capable of entering into a disquisition upon dialects, as I believe you call it; but I don't believe the language lemployed bears any such con- struction as Judge Dougla puts upon it. But I don't care about a quibble in regard to words. I know what I meant, and 1 will not leave this crowd in doubt, if I can explain it to them, what I realy meant in the use of that paragraph. HALF SLAVE AND HALF FREE. I am not, in the first place, unaware that this Govern- ment has endured eighty-two years, half slave and half free. I know that. I am tolerably well acquainted with the history of the country, and I know that it has endured eighty-two years, half slave and half free. I believe — and that is what I meant to allude to there — I believe it has endured, because during all that time, until the introduc- tion of the Nebraska bill, the public mind did rest all the time in the belief that slavery was in cOurse of ultimate extinction. That was what gave us the rest that we had through that period of eighty-two years; at least, so I be- lieve. I have always hated slavery, I think, as much as any Aboltionist. I have been an Old Line Whig. I have always hated it, but I have always been quiet about it until this new era of the introduction of the Nebraska Bill began. I always believed that everybody was against it, and that it was in course of ultimate extinction. [Pointing to Mr. Browning, who stood nearby:] Brown- ing thought so; the great mass of the nation have rested in the belief that slavery was in course of ultimate extinc- tion. They had reason so to believe. The adoption of the Constitution and its attendant I S3 THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. history led the people to believe so; and that such was the belief of the framers of the Constitution itself. Why did those old men, about the time of the adoption of the Constitution, decree that slavery should not go into the new territory, where it had not already gone? Why de- clare that within twenty years the African slave-trade, by which slaves are supplied, might be cut off by Con- gress? Why were all these acts? I might enumerate more of such acts — but enough. What were they but a clear indication that the framers of the Constitution in- tended and expected the ultimate extinction of that insti- tution? [Cheers.] And now when I say, as I said in this speech that Judge Douglas has quoted from, when I say that I think the opponents of slavery will resist the fur- ther spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest with the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, I only meant to say, that they will place it where the foundation of this Government originally pl-aced it. I have said a hundred times, I have no inclination to take it back, that I believe there is no right, and ought to be no inclination in the people of the free States to en- ter into the slave States, and to interfere with the ques- tion of slavery at all. I have said that always. Judge Douglas has heard me say it — if not quite a hundred times, at least as good as a hundred times; and when it is said that I am in favor of interfering with slavery where it exists, I know that it is unwarranted by anything I have ever intended, and, as I believe, by anything I have ever used language which could fairly be so constructed (as however, 1 believe I never have ), I now correct it. 1 84 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. So much, then, for the inference that Judge Douglas draws, that I am in favor of setting the sections at war with one another. I know that I never meant any such thing, and I beheve that no fair mind can infer any such thing, from anything I have ever said. SELF-GOVERNMENT. Now in relation to his inference that I am in favor of a general consolidation of all the local institutions of the various States, I will attend to that for a little while, and try to inquire, if I can, how on earth it could be that any man could draw such an inference from any thing I said. I have said, very many times, in Judge Douglas's hearing, that no man believed more than I in the principle of self-government, from beginning to end. I have denied that his use of that term applied properly- But for the thing itself, I deny that any man has gone ahead of me in his devotion to the principle, whatever he may have done in efficiency in advocating it. I think that I have said in your hearing — that I belive each in- dividual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with him- self and the fruit of his labor, so far as it in no wise inter- feres with any other man's rights — [applause] that each community, or a State, has a right to do exactly as it pleases with all the concerns within that State that inter- fere with the right of no other State, and that the Gen- eral Government, upon principle, has no right to inter- fere with any thing other than that general class of things that does concern the whole. I have said that at all times. I have said as illustrations, that I do not believe in the right of Illinois' to interfere with the cranberry laws of Indiana, the oyster laws of Virginia, or the liquor TAE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. 1 8$ laws of Maine. I have said these things over and over again, and I repeat them here as my sentiments. So much then as to my disposition — my v^ish — to have all the State Legislatures blotted out, and to have one consolidated government, and a uniformity of domestic regulations in all the States; by which I suppose it is meant, if we raise corn here, we must make sugar-cane too, and we must make those which grow North grow in the South. All this I suppose he understands, I am in favor of doing. Now so much for all this nonsense — for I must call it so. The Judge can have no isue with me on a question of established uniformity in the domestic regulations of the State. DRED SCOTT DECISION. A little now on the other point — the Dred Scott decision. Another of the issues he says that is to be made with me, is upon his devotion to the Dred Scott decision, and my opposition to it. I have expressed heretofore, and I now repeat my op- position to the Dred Scott decision, but I should be al- lowed to state the nature of that opposition, and I ask your indulgence while I do so. What is fairly implied by the term Judge Douglas has used, "resistance to the decision.^" I do not resist it. If I wanted to take Dred Scott from his master, I would be interfering with property, and that terrible difficulty that Judge Douglas speaks of, of interfering with property would arise. But I am doing no such thing as that, but all that I am doing is refusing to obey it as a political rule. If I were in Congress, and a vote should come up on a question whether slavery should be prohibited in a new Territory, I S6 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. in spite of the Dred Scott decision, I would vote that it should. That is what I would do. Judge Douglas said last night, that before the decision he might advance his opinion, and it might be contrary to the decision when it was made; but after it was made he would abide by it until it was reversed. Just so! We let this property abide by the decision, but we will try to reverse that de- cision. [Loud applause.] We will try to put it where Judge Douglas will not object, for he says he will obey it until it is reversed. Somebody has to reverse that de- cision, since it was made, and we mean to reverse it, and we mean to do it peaceably. What are the uses of decisions of courts.!^ They have two uses. As rules of property they have two uses. First^ — ^they decide upon the question before the court. They decide in this case that Dred Scott is a slave. No- body resists that. Not only that, but they say to every- body else, that persons standing just as Dred Scott stands, is as he is. That is, they say that when a question comes up upon another person, it will be so decided again unless the court decides in another way, unless the court everrules its decision. [Renewed applause.] Well, we mean to do what we can to have the court decide the other way. That is one thing we mean to try to do. The sacredness that Judge Douglas throws around this decision, is a degree of sacredness that has never been be- fore thrown around any other decision. I have never heard of such a thing. Why, decisions apparently con- trary to that decision, or good lawyers thought were con- trary to that decision, have been made by that very court 18/ THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. before. It is the first of its kind; it is an astonisher in legal history. It is a new wonder of the world. It is based on falsehoods in the main as to the facts — allega- tions of facts upon which it stands are not facts at all in many instances, and no decision made on any question — the first instance of a decision made under so many un- favorable circumstances — thus placed, as ever been held by the profession as law, and it has always needed con- firmation before the lawyers regarded it as settled law. But Judge Douglas will have it that all hands must take this extraordinary decision, made under these extraordi- nary circumstances, and give their vote in Congress in accordance with it, yield to it and obey it in every pos- sible sense. Circumstances alter cases. Do not gentle- men here remember the case of that Supreme Court, twenty-five or thirty years ago, deciding that a National Bank was Constitutional.? I ask, if somebody does not remember that a National Bank was declared to be Con- stitutional.? Such is the truth, whether it be remembered or not. The Bank charter ran out, and a re-charter was granted by Congress. That re-charter was laid before General Jackson. It was urged upon him, when he denied the Constitutionality of the Bank, that the Supreme Court had decided that it was Constitutional; and that General Jackson then said that the Supreme Court had no right to lay down a rule to govern a co-ordinate branch of the Government, the members of which have sworn to sup- port the Constitution — that each member had sworn to support that Constitution as he understood it. I will venture here to say, that I have heard Judge Douglas say that he approved of General Jackson for that act, What I 88 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPCETE. has now become of all his tirade about ''resistance to the L__Supreme Court?" THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. We were often — more than once, at least — in the course of Judge Douglas's speech last night, reminded that this Government was made for white men — that he believed it was made for white men. Well that is putting it into a shape in which no one wants to deny it; but the judge then goes into his passion for drawing inferences that are not warranted. I protest, now and forever, against that counterfeit logic which presumes that be- cause I did not want a negro woman for a slave, I do nec- essarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I need not have her for either; but as God made us sep- arate, we can leave one another alone, and do one an- other much good thereby. There are white men enough to marry all the white women, and enough black men to marry all the black women, and in God's name let them be so married. The judge regales us with the terrible enormities that take place by the mixture of races; that the inferior race bears the superior down. Why, judge if you do not let them get together in the Territories they won't mix there. A voice — "Three cheers for Lincoln." (The cheers were given with a hearty good will. Mr. L. — I should say at least that this is a self evident truth. Now, it happens that we meet together once every year, some time about the Fourth of July, for some reason or other. These Fourth of July gatherings I sup- pose have their uses. If you will indulge me, I will state THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. 1^9 wbat I suppose to be some of them. A MIGHTY NATION. We are now a mighty nation; we are thirty; or about thirty milHons of people, and we own and inhabit about one-fifteenth part of the dry land of the whole earth. We run our memory back over the pages of history for about eighty-two years, and we discover that we were then a very small people in point of numbers, vastly inferior to what we are now, with a vastly less extent of country, with vastly less of everything we deem desirable among men— we look upon the change as exceedingly advan- tageous to us and to our posterity, and we fix upon some- thing that happened away back, as in some way or other being connected with this rise of prosperity. We find a race of men living in that day whom we claim as our fathers and grandfathers; they were iron men; they fought for the principle that they were contending for; and we understood that by what they then did it has followed that the degree of prosperity which we now enjoy has come to us. We hold this annual celebration to remind ourselves of all the good done in this process of time, of how it was done and who did it, and how we are histori- cally connected with it; and we go from these meetings in better humor with ourselves — we feel more attached the one to the other, and more firmly bound to the country we inhabit. In every way we are better men in the age, and race, and country in which we live, for these celebra- tions. But after we have done all this, we have not yet reached the whole. There is something else connected with it. We have, besides these— men descended by blood i90 Lincoln's speech£s complete. from our ancestors — those among us, perhaps half ouf people, who are not descendants at all of these men; they are men who have come from Europe — German, Irish, French and Scandinavian — men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things. If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none; they cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel they are part of us; but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence, they find that those old men say that ' 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," and then they feel that that moral sentiment, taught on that day, evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration [loud and long-continued applause,] and so they are. That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world. [Applause.] RUBBING OUT THE SENTIMENT OF LIBERTY. Now, sirs, for the purpose of squaring things with this idea or "don't care if slavery is voted up or voted down," for sustaining the Dred Scott decision, for holding that the Declaration of Independence did not mean anything at all, we have Judge Douglas giving his exposition of THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. IQI what the Declaration of Independence means and we have him saying that the people of America are equal to the people of England. According to his construction, you Germans are not connected with it. Now I ask you in all soberness, if all these things, if indulged in, if ratified if confirmed and indorsed, if taught to our children and repeated to them, do not tend to rub out the sentiment of Hberty in the country, and to transform this Govern- ment into a government of some other form. These arguments that are made, that the inferior race are to be treated with as much allowance as they are cap- able of enjoying; that as much is to be done for them as their condition will allow — what are these arguments.^ they are the arguments that Kings have made for enslav- ing the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all the arguments in favor of King-craft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the .people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden. That is their argument, and this argument of the judge is the same old serpent that says: You work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn it whatever way you will — whether it comes from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his couutry, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent, and I hold if that course of argumentation that is made for the purpose of convincing the public mind that we should not care about this, should be granted, it does not stop with the negro. I should like to know, if taking this old Declaration of In- dependence, which declares that all men are equal upon 192 Lincoln's speeches complete. principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where you will stop? 'If one man says it does not mean a negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man ? If that declaration is not the truth, let us get the statute book, in which we find it, and tear it out! Who is so bold as to do it! If it is not true, let us tear it out! [cries of ''no, no']; let us stick to it then; let us stand firmly by it then. [Applause,] It may be argued that there are certain conditions that make necessities and impose them upon us, and to the extent that a necessity is imposed upon a man, he must submit to it. I think that was the condition in which we found ourselves when we established this Government. We have slaves among us; we could not get our Constitu- tion unless we permitted them to remain in slavery; we could not secure the good we did secure if we grasped for more; and having, by necessity, submitted to that much, it does not destroy the principle that is the charter of our liberties. Let that charter stand as our standard. LET us STAND FIRMLY BY EACH OTHER. My friend has said to me that I am a poor hand to quote Scripture. « I will try it again however. It is said in one of the admonitions of our Lord: "As your Father in Heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect." The Saviour, I suppose, did not expect that any human creature could be perfect as the Father in Heaven; but He said: As your Father in heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect. " He set that up as a standard, and he who did most toward reaching that standard, attained the highest degree of moral perfection. So I say in relation to the principle that all men are created equal, let it be as nearly reached THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN 1 93 as we can. If we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other creature. [Applause.] Let us then turn this Govern- ment back into the channel in which the framers of the Constitution originally placed it. Let us stand firmly by each other. If we do not do so we are turning in the contrary direction, that our friend Judge Douglas pro- poses — not intentionally — as working in the traces tends to make this one universal slave nation. He is one that runs in that direction, and as such I resist him. My friends, I have detained 3^ou about as long as I de- sire to do, and I have only to say, let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man — this race and that race and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position — discarding our standard that we have left us. Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people through- out this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal. My friends, I could not, without launching off upon some new topic, which would detain you too long, con- tinue to-night. I thank you for this most extensive audience that you have furnished me to-night. I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal. INEQUALITIES OF THE CONTEST. [Delivered at Springfield, 111. July 17, 1858.] Fellow Citizems: — Another election, which is deemed an important one, is approaching, and, as I suppose, the Repubhcan party will; without much difficulty, elect their State Ticket. But in regard to the Legislature, we the Republicans, labor under some disadvantages. In the first place, we have a Legislature to elect upon an apportionment of the representation made several years ago, when the proportion of the population was far greater in the South (as compared with the North) than it now is; and inasmuch as our opponents hold almost entire sway in the South, and we a correspondingly large ma- jority in the North, the fact that we are now to be repre- sented as we were years ago, when the population was different, is' to us a very great disadvantage. We had in the year 1855, according to a law, or enum- eration of the inhabitants, taken for the purpose of a new apportionment of representation upon that census would give us. We know that it could not, if fairly made, fail to give the Republican party from six to ten more members of the Legislature than they can probably get as the law now stands. It so happened at the last session of the Legislature, that our opponents, holding the con- trol of both branches of the Legislature, steadily refused to give us such an apportionment as we were rightly en- [194] THE CONTEST. 195 titled to have upon the census already taken. The Leg- islature would pass no bill upon that subject, except such as was at least as unfair to us as the old one, and in which in some instances, two men from the Democratic regions were allowed to go as far toward sending a member to the Legislature as three were in the Republican regions. Comparsion was made at the time as to representative and senatorial districts, which completely demonstrated that such was the fact. Such a bill was passed, and tendered to the Republican Governor for his signature; but principally for the reasons I have stated, he withheld his approval, and the bill fell without becoming a law. Another disadvantage under which we labor is, that there are one or two Democratic Senators who will be members of the next Legislature, and will vote for the election of Senator, who are holding over in districts in which we could, on all reasonable calculation, elect men of our own, if we only had the chance of an election. When we consider that there are but twenty-five Sena- tors in the Senate, taking two from the side where they rightly belong, and adding them to the other, is to us a disadvantage not to be rightly regarded. Still, so it, is; we have this to contend with. Perhaps there is no ground of complaint on our part. In attending to the many things involved in »the last general election for President, Governor, Auditor, Treasurer, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Members of Congress and of the Legislature, County OfBcers, and so on, we allowed these things to happen for want of sufficient attention, and we have no cause to complain of our adversaries, so far as this matter is concerned. But we have some cause to 196 Lincoln's speeches complete. complain of the refusal to give us a fair apportionment. WE MUST FIGHT THE BATTLE ON PRINCIPLE. There is still another disadvantage under which we labor, and to which I will ask your attention. It arises out of the relative position of the two persons who stand before the State as candidates for the Senate. Senator Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the anxious pol- iticians of his party, or who have been of his party for years past, have been looking upon him as certainly, at no distant day, to be the President of the United States. They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post of- fices, land offices, marshalships, and cabinet appoint- ments, chargeships and foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out in wonderful luxuriance, ready to be laid hold of by their greedy hands. [Great laughter.] And as they have been gazing upon this attractive picture so long, they cannot, in the little distraction that has taken place in the party, bring themselves to give up the charm- ing hope; but with greedier anxiety they rush about him, sustain him, and give him marches, triumphal entries, and receptions, beyond what even in the days of his highest prosperity they could have brought about in his favor. On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face, nobody has ever seen that cabbages were sprouting out. [Cheer- ing and laughter.] These are disadvantages all, that the Republicans labor under. We have to fight this battle upon principle, and upon principle alone. I am, in a certain sense, made the standard-bearer in behalf of the Repbulicans. I was made so merely because there had THE CONTEST. 197 to be some one so placed — I being in no wise preferable to any other one of the twenty-five — perhaps a hundred we have in the Republican ranks. Then I say I wish it to be distinctly understood and borne in mind, that we have to fight this battle without many — perhaps without any — of the external aids which are brought to bear against us. So I hope those with whom I am surrounded have principle enough to nerve themselves for the task, and leave nothing undone, that can be fairly done, to bring about the right result. THE DOUGLAS PROGRAMME. After Senator Douglas left Washington, as his move- ments were made known py the public prints, he tarried a considerable time in the city of New York; and it was heralded that, like another Napoleon, he was lying by and framing the plan of his campaign. It was telegraph- ed to Washington city, and published in the Union, that he was framing his plan for the purpose of going to Illinois to pounce upon and annihilate the treasonable and disunion speech which Lincoln had made here on the i6thof June. Now, I do suppose the judge really spent some time in New York maturing the plan of the campaign, as his friends heralded for him. I have been able, by noting his movements since his arrival in Illinois, to discover evidences confirmatory of that allegation. I think I have been able to see what are the material points of that plan. I will, for a little while, ask your attention to some of them. What I shall point out. though not showing the whole plan, are nevertheless, the main points, as I suppose. They are not very numerous. The first is popular 198 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. sovereignty. The second and third are attacks upon my speech made on the i6th of June. Out of these three points — drawing within the range of popular sovereignty the question of the Lecompton Constitution — he makes his principle assault. Upon these his successive speeches are substantially one and the same. On this matter of popular sovereignity I wish to be a little careful. Auxi- liary to these main points, to be sure, are their thunder- ings of cannon, their marching and music, their fizzle- gigs and fire-works; but I will not waste time with them. They are but the little trappings of the campaign. POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. Coming to the substance — the first point — ''popular sovereignty." It is to be labeled upon the cars in which he travels; put upon the hacks he rides in; to be flaunted upon the arches he passes under, and the banners which waves over him. It is to be dished up in as many varie- ties as a French cook can. produce soups from potatoes. Now, as this is so great a staple of the plan of the cam- paign, it is worth while to examine it carefully; and if we examine only a very little, and do not allow ourselves to be misled, we shall be able to see that the whole thing is the most arrant Quixotism that was ever enacted be- fore a community. What is this matter of popular sov- ereignty.? The first thing, in order to understand it, is to get a good definition of what it is, and after that to see how it is applied. I suppose almost every one knows, that in this con- troversy, whatever has been said has had reference to the question of negro slavery. We have not been in a controversy about the right of the people to govern them- THE CONTEST. 1 99 selves in the ordinary matters of domestic concern in the States and Territories. Mr. Buchanan, in one of his late messages (I think when he sent up the Lecompton Constitution,) urged that the main point to which the public attention has been directed, was not in regard to the great variety of small domestic matters but it was directed to the question of negro slavery; and he asserts, that if the people had had a fair chance to vote on that question, there was no reasonable ground of objection in regard to minor questions. Now, while I think that the people had not had given, or offered them, a fair chance upon that slavery question; still, if their had been a fair submission to a vote upon that main question, the Presi- dent's proposition would have been true to the utter- most. Hence, when hereafter I speak of popular sove- reignty, I wish to be understood as applying what I say to the question of slavery only, not ^to other minor do- mestic matters of a Territory or a State. Does Judge Douglas, when he says that several of the past years of his life have been devoted to the question of "popular sovereignty," and that all the remainder of his life shall be devoted to it, does he mean to say that he has been devoting his life to securing to the people of the Territories, the right to exclude slavery from the Territories.? If he means so to say, he means to deceive; because he and everyone knows that the decision of the Supreme Court, which he approves and makes an especial ground of attack upon me for disapproving, forbids the people of a Territory to exclude slavery. This covers the whole ground, from the settlement of a Territory till it reaches the degree of maturity entitling it to form a 200 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. State Constitution. So far as all that ground is con- cerned, the judge is not sustaining popular sovereignty, but absolutely opposing it. He sustains the decision which declares that the popular will of the Territories has no Constitutional power to exclude slavery during their Territorial existence. [Cheers.] This being so, the period of time, from the first settlement of Territory till it reaches the point of forming a State Constitution, is not the thing that the judge has fought for, and is fighting for, the thing that annihilates and crushes out that same popular sovereignty. Well, so much being disposed of, what is left.? Why, he is contending for the right of the people, when they come to make a State Constitution, to make it for them- selves, and precisely as best suits themselves. I say again, that is Quixotic. I defy contradiction, when I declare that the judge can find no one to oppose him on that proposition. . I repeat, there is nobody opposing that proposition on principle. Let me not be misunder- stood. I know that, with reference to the Lecompton Constitution, I may be misunderstood; but when you understand me correctly, my proposition will be true and accurate. Nobody is opposing, or has opposed, the right of the people, when they form a Constitution, to form it for themselves. Mr. Buchanan and his friends have not done it; they, too, as well as the Republicans and the Anti-Lecompton Democrats have not done it; but, on the contrary, they together have insisted on the right of the people to form a Constitution for them- selves. The difference between the Buchanan men, on the one hand, and the Douglas men and the Republicans THE CONTEST. 20I on the other, has not been on a question of principle, but on a question of fact. The dispute was upon the question of fact, whether the Lecompton Constitution had been fairly formed by the people, or not. Mr. Buchanan and his friends have not contended for the contrary principle, any more than the Douglas men or the Republicans. They have insist- ed, that whatever of small irregularities existed in getting up the Lecompton Constitution, were such as happen in the settlement of all new Territories. The qestion was, was it a fair emanation of the people.^ It was a question of fact, and not of principle. As to the principle, all were agreed. Judge Douglas voted with the Republicans upon that matter of fact. He and they, by their voices and votes, denied that it was a fair emanation of the people. The Administration affirmed that it was. With respect to the evidence bear- ing upon that question of fact, I readily agree that Judge Douglas and the Republicans had the right on their side, and that the Administration was wrong. But I state again that, as a matter of principle, there is no dispute upon the right of a people in a Territory, merging into a State, to form a Constitution for themselves, without outside interference from any quarter. This being so, what is Judge Douglas going to spend his life for.? Is he going to spend his life in maintaining a principle that nobody on earth opposes.? [Cheers.] Does he expect to stand up in majestic dignity, and go through his apotheosis, and become a god, in the maintaining of a principle which neither man nor mouse, in all God's creation, is opposing.? [Great applause.] :202 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. How will he prove that we have ever occupied a diff- erent position in regard to the Lecompton Constitution, or any principle in it? He says he did not make his op- position on the ground as to whether it was a free or a slave Constitution, and he would have you understand that the Republicans made their opposition because it ultimately became a slave Constitution. To make proof in favor of himself on this point, he reminds us that he opposed Lecompton before the vote was taken declaring whether the State was to be free or slave. But he for- gets to say, that our Republican Senator, Trumbull, made a speech against Lecompton even before he did. Why did he oppose it.^ Partly, as he declares, because the members of the Convention who framed it were not fairly elected by the people; that the people were not allowed to vote unless they had been registered; and that the people of whole counties, in some instances, were not registered. For these reasons he declares the Con- stitution was not an emanation, in any true sense, from the people. He also has an additional objection as to the mode of submitting the Constitution back to the people. But bearing on the question of whether the delegates were fairly elected, a speech of his made some- thing more than twelve months ago, from fhis stand, be- comes important. It was made a little while before the election of the delegates who made Lecompton. In that speech he declared there was every reason to hope and believe the election would be fair; and if anyone failed to vote it would be his own fault. I, a few days after, made a sort of answer to that speech, In that answer, I made, substa.ntially, the very THE CONTEST. 203 argument with which he combated his Lecompton ad- versaries in the Senate last winter. I pointed to the fact that the people could not vote without being regis- tered, and that the time for registering had gone by. I commented on it as wonderful that Judge Douglas could be ignorant of these facts, which every one else in the nation so well knew. He charges, in substance, that I invite a war of sections; that I propose that all the local institutions of the dif- ferent States shall become consolidated and uniform. What is there in the language of that speech which ex- presses such purpose, or bears such construction.^ I have again and again said that I would not enter into any of the States to disturb the institution of slavery. Judge Douglas said, at Bloomington, that I used language most able and ingenious for conceaHng what I really meant; and that, while I had protested against entering into the slave States, I nevertheless did mean to go on the banks of the Ohio and throw missiles into Kentucky, to disturb the people there in their domestic institutions. I said in that speech, and I meant no more, that the institution of slavery ought to be placed in the very atti- tude where the framers of this Government placed it, and left it. I do not understand that the framers of our Constitution left the people of the free States in the atti- tude of firing bombs or shells into the slave States. I was not using that passage for the purpose for which he infers I did use it. Now you all see, from that quotation, I did not express my wish on anything. In that passage I indicated no wish or purpose of my own; I simply ex- pressed my expectation. 204 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. Mr. Brooks, of South Carolina, in one of his speeches, when they were presenting him canes, silver plate, gold pitchers and the like, for assaulting Senator Sumner, distinctly affirmed his opinion that when this Constitution was formed, it was the belief of no man that slavery would last to the present day. He said, what I think, that the framers of our Con- stitution placed the institution of slavery where the public mind rested in the hope that it was in the course of ultimate extinction. But he went on to say that the men of the present age, by their experience, have become wiser than the framers of the Constitution; and the in- vention of the cotton-gin had made the perpetuity of slavery a necessity in this country. Now, I wish to know what the judge can charge upon me, with respect to decisions of the Supreme Court, which does not lie in all its length, breadth and proportion at his own door. The plain truth is simply this: Judge Douglas is for Supreme Court decisions when he likes and against them when he does not like them. He is for the Dred Scott decision because it intends to nation- alize slavery — because it is part of the original combina- tion for that object. It so happened, singularly enough, that I never stood opposed to a decision of the Supreme Court till this. On the contrary, I have no recollection that he was ever particularly in favor of one till this. He never was in favor of any, nor I opposed to any, till the present one, which helps to nationalize slavery. Free men of Sangamon — free men of Illinois — free men everywhere — ^judge ye between him and me, upon this issue. SEVEN INTERROGATORIES ANSWERED. (Delivered at Freeport, 111 July, 1858,) Ladies and Gentlemen: — On Saturday last, Judge Douglas and myself first met in public discussion. He spoke one hour, I an hour and a half, and he replied for half an hour. The order is now reversed. I am to speak an hour, he an hour and a half, and then I am to reply for half an hour. I propose to devote myself during the first hour to the scope of what was brought within the range of his half-hour speech at Ottawa. Of course there was brought within the scope of that half-hour's speech something of his own opening speech. In the course of that opening argument Judge Douglas proposed to me seven distinct interrogatories. In my speech of an hour and a half, I attended to some other parts of his speech, and incidentally, as I thought, answered one of the interrogatories then. I then distinctly intimated to him that I would answer the rest of his interrogatories on condition only that he should a- gree to answer as many for me. He made no intimation at the time of the proposition, nor did he in his reply allude at all to that suggestion of mine. I do him no in- justice in saying that he occupied at least half of his re- ply in dealing with me as though I had refused to answer his interrogatories. I now propose that I will answer any of the interrogatories, upon condition that he will an- [205] 2o6 Lincoln's speeches complete. swer questions from me not exceeding the same number. I give him an opportunity to respond. The Judge remained silent. I now say that I will answer his interrogatories, whether he answers mine or not [applause]; and that after I have done so, I shall propound mine to him. [Applause.] I have supposed myself, since the organization of the Republican party at Bloomington, in May, 1856, bound as a party man by the platform of the party, then and since. If in any interrogatories which I shall answer I go beyond the scope of what is within these platforms, it will be perceived that no one is responsible but myself. Having said thus much, I will take up the Judge's in- terrogatories as I find them printed in the Chicago Times, and answer them seriatim. In order that there may be no mistake about it, I have copied the interrogatories in writing, and also my answers to them. The first one of these interrogatories is in these words: Q. I. ''I desire to know whether Lincoln to-day stands, as he did in 1854, in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law.^" Answer. I do not now, nor never did. stand in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. Q. 2. "I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, against the admission of any more slave States into the Union, even if the people want them.? A. I do not now, nor never did, stand pledged against the admission of any more slave States into the Union. Q. 3. ''I want to know whether he stands pledged a- gainst the admission of a new State into the Union with SEVEN INTERROGATORIES. 20/ such a Constitution as the people of that State may see fit to make? " A. I do not stand pledged against the admission of a new State into the Union, with such a constitution as the people of that State may see fit to make. Q. 4 '' I want to know whether he stands to-day pledged to the aboHtion of slavery in the District of Columbia.?" A. I do not stand to-day pledged to the abolition of slvaery in the District of Columbia. Q. 5. ''I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade between the different States.? " A, I do not stand pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade between the different States. Q. 6. I desire to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit slavery in all the Territories of the United States, North as well as South of the Missouri Compromise hne.?" A. I am imphedly, if not expressly, pledged to a be- lief in the right, and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United States Territories. [Great applause.] Q. 7. ' 'I desire to know whether he is opposed to the ac- quisition of any new territory unless slavery is first pro- hibited therein.? " A. I am not generally opposed to honest acquisition of territory; and, in any given case, I would or would not oppose such acquisition, accordingly as I might think such acquisition would or would not agitate the slavery question among ourselves. Now, my friends, it will be perceived upon an exami- nation of these questions and answers, that so far I have 208 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. only answered that I was not pledged to this, that or the other. The Judge has not framed his interrogatories to ask me any thing more than this, and I have answered in strict accordance with the interrogatories, and have answered truly that I am not pledged at all upon any of the points to which I have answered. But I am not dis- posed to hang upon the exact form of his interrogatory. I am rather disposed to take up at least some of these ques- tions, and state what I really think upon them. Lincoln's position more fully defined. As to the first one, in regard to the Fugitive Slave law, I have never hesitated to say, and I do not now hesitate to say, that I think, under the Constitution of the United States, the people of the Southern States are entitled to a Congressional Slave law. Having said that, I have noth- ing to say in regard to the existing Fugitive Slave law, further than that I think it should have been framed so as to be free from some of the objections that pertain to it, without lessening its effiiciency. And in as much as we are not now in an agitation upon the general question of slavery. In regard to the other question, of whether I am pledged to the admission of any more slave States into the Union, I state to you frankly that I would be ex- ceedingly sorry ever to be put in a position of having to pass upon that question. I should be exceedingly glad to know that there would never be another slave State admitted into the Union; but I must add, that if slavery shall be kept out of the Territories during the Territorial existence of any one given Territory, and then the peo- ple shall, having a fair chance and a clear field, when SEVEN INTERROGATORIES. 209 when they come to adopt the Constitution, do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt the Constitution, unin- fluenced by the actual presence of the institution among them, I see no alternative if we own the country, but to admit them into the Union. [Applause.] The third interrogatory is answered by the answer to the second, it being, as I conceive, the same as the second. The fourth one is in regard to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. In relation to that, I have my mind very distinctly made up. I should be exceed- ingly glad to see slavery abolished in the District of Col- umbia. I believe that Congress possesses the Constitu- tional power to abolish it. Yet as a member of Con- gress, I should not with my present views be in favor of endeavoring to abolish slavery in the District of Colum- bia, unless it would be upon these conditions: First, that the abolition should be gradual; second, that it should be on a vote of the majority of qualified voters in the District; and third, that compensation should be made to unwilling owners. With these three conditions, I con- fess I would be exceedingly glad to see Congress abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and in the language of Henry Clay, ''sweep from our Capital that foul blot upon our nation." In regard to the fifth interrogatory, I must say that as to the question of abolition of the slave-trade between the different States, I can truly answer,' as I have, that I am pledged to nothing about it. It is a subject to which I have not given that mature consideration that would make me feel authorized to state a position so as to hold my- 2 10 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. self entirely bound by it. In other words, that question has never been prominently enough before me to induce me to investigate whether we really have the Constitu- tional power to do it. I could investigate if I had suffi- cient time to bring myself to a conclusion upon that sub- ject; but I have not done so, and I say so frankly fo you here, and to Judge Douglas. I must say, however, that if I should be of the opinion that Congress does possess the Constitutional power to abolish slave-trading among the different States, I should still not be in favor of that power unless upon some conservative principle as I con- ceive it, akin to what I have said in relation to the abo- lution of slavery in fhe Distric of Columbia. My answer as to whether I desire that slavery should be prohibited iu all Territories of the United States, is full and explicit within itself, and can not be made clearer by any comments of mine. So I suppose in re- gard to the question whether I am opposed to the acqui- sition of any more territory unless slavery is such that I could add nothing by way of illustration, or making myself better understood, than the answer, which I have placed in writing. Now in all this, the Judge has me, and he has me on the record, I suppose he had flattered himself that I • was really entertaining one set of opinions for one place and another set for another place — that I was afraid to say at one place what I uttered at another. What I am saying here I suppose I say to a vast audience in the State of Illinois, and I believe I am saying that which, if it would be offensive to any persons and render them enemies to myself, would be offensive to persons in this audience. LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH IN OHIO. THE SITUATION. Delivered at Columbus, Ohio, September, 1859, Fellow-sitizens of the State of ohio: I can not fail to remember that I appear for the first time before an audience in this now great State— an audience that is accustomed to hear such speakers as Corwin, and Chase, and Wade, and many other renownd men; and remember- ing this, I feel .that it will be well for you, as for me, that you should not raise your expectations to that standard to which you would have been justified in raising them had one of these distinguised men appeared before you. You would perhaps be only preparing a disappointment for yourselves, and, as a consequence of your disappoint- ment, mortification to me. I hope, therefore, that you vv'ill commence with very moderate expectations; and perhaps, if you will give me your attention, I shall be able to interest you to a moderate degree. HIS SUBJECT. Appearing here for the first time in my life, I have been somewhat embarrassedfor a topic by way of intro- duction to my speech; but I have been relieved from that embarrassment by an introduction which the Ohio States- men newspaper gave me this morning. In this paper, I [211] 212 Lincoln's speeches complete. have read an article, in which, among other statements, I find the following: "In debating with Senator Douglas during the memorable contest of last fall, Mr Lincoln declared in favor of negro suffrage, and attempted to defend that vile conception against the Little Giant. HE CORRECTS THE EDITOR. I mention this now, at the opening of my remarks, for the purpose of making three comments upon it. The first I have already announced — it furnishes me an in- troductory topic; the second is to show that the gentle- man is mistaken; thirdly, to give him an opportunity to correct it. In the first place, in regard to this matter being a mis- take. 1 have found that it is not entirely safe, when one is misrepresented under his own nose, to allow the mis- representation to go uncontradicted. I therefore propose here, at the outset, not only to say that this is a misrep- resentation, but to show conclusively that it is so; and you will bear with me while I read a couple of extracts from that very "memorable" debate with Judge Douglas last year, to which this newspaper refers. In the first pitched battle which Senator Douglas and myself had, at the town of Ottawa, I used the language which I will now read. Having been previously reading an extract, I con- tinued as follows: "Now, gentlemen, I don't want to read at any greater length, but this is the true complexion of all I have ever said in regard to the institution of slavery and the black race. This is the whole of it, and anything that argues me into his idea of perfect social and political equality with the negro, is but a specious and fantastic arrange- THE SITUATION. 213 ment of words, by which a man can prove a horsechest- nut to be a chestnut horse. I will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no purpose directly or indirect- ly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two which, in my judgement, will probably forbid their ever living together upon the footing of per- fect equality; and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence— the right of life, liberty, and the pur- suit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas, he is not my equal in many respects— certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowments, but in the right to eat the bread, without leave of anybody else, which his own hands earn, he is my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man." LINCOLN'S VIEWS OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE, ETC. Upon a subsequent occasion, when the reason for mak- ing a statement like this recurred, I said: ' 'While I was at the hotel to-day, an elderly gentle- man called upon me to know whether I was really in 214 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. favor of producing perfect equality between the negroes and the white people. While I had not proposed to my- self on this occasion to say much on the subject, yet as the question was asked me, I thought I would occupy per- haps five minutes in saying something in regard to it. I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equal- ity of the white and the black races — that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of ne- groes nor of qualifying them to hold office, or intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and the black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equal- ity. And inasmuch as they can not so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior posi- tion, the negro should be denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave, that I must necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone. I am now in my fiftieth year, and I certainly never have had a black woman for either a slave or a wife. So it seems to me quite possible for us to get along without making either slaves or wives of negroes. I will add to this that I have never seen to my knowledge a man, woman, or child, who was in favor of producing perfect equality, social and political, between negroes and white THE SITUATION. 21 5 men. I recollect of but one distinguished instance that I ever heard of so frequently as to be satisfied of its cor- rectness — and that is the case of Judge Douglas's old friend, Colonel Richard M. Johnson. I will also add to the remarks I have made (for I am not going to enter at large upon this subject,) that I have never had the least apprehension that I or my friends would marry negroes, if there was no law to keep them from it; but as Judge Douglas and his friends seem to be in great apprehension that they might, if there were no law to keep them from it I give him the most solemn pledge that I will, to the very, last, stand by the law of the state, which forbids the marrying of white people with negroes." There, my friends, you have briefly what I have, on former occasions, said upon the subject to which this newspaper, to the extent of its abihty, has drawn the public attention. In it you not only perceive, as a prob- ability, that in that contest I did not at any time say I was in favor of negro suffrage, but the absolute proof that twice, once substantially and once expressly, I de- clared against it. Having shown you this, there remains but a word of comment upon that newspaper article. It is this, that I presume the editor of that paper is an honest truth-loving man, and that he will be greatly obliged to me for furnishing him thus early an opportun- ity to correct the misrepresentation he has made, before it has run so long that malicous people can call him a liar. THE LITTLE GIANT. The Giant himself has been here recently. I have seen a brief report of his speech. If it were otherwise 2 I 6 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. unpleasant to me to introduce the subject of the negro as a topic of discussion, I might be somewhat reheved by the fact that he dealt exclusively in the subject while he was here. I shall, therefore, without much hesitation or diffidence, enter upon this subject. The American people, on the first day of January, 1854, found the African slave-trade prohibited by a law of Con- gress. In a majority of the states of this Union, they found African slavery, or any other sort of slavery, pro- hibited by State Constitutions. They also found a law existing, supposed to be valid, by which slavery was exclud- ed from almost all the territory the United States then owned. This was the condition of the country, with reference to the institution of slavery, on the first of Jan- uary, 1854, A few days after that, a bill was introduced into Con- gress, which ran through its regular course in the two branches of the National Legislature, and finally passed into a law in the month of May, by which the act of Congress prohibiting slavery from going into the Terri- tories of the United States was repealed. In connection with the law itself, and, in fact, in the terms of the law, and then existing prohibition was not only repealed, but there was a declaration of purpose on the part of Congress never thereafter to exercise any power that they might have, real or supposed, to prohibit the extension or spread of slavery. This was a very great change; for the law thus repealed was of more than thirty years' standing. Following rapidly upon the heels of this action of Congress, a decision of the Supreme Court is made, by which it is declared that Congress, if THE SITUATION. 2 1/ it desires to prohibit the spread of slavery into the terri- tories, has no constitutional power to do so. Not only so, but that decision lays down principles, which, if pushed to their logical conclusion — would decide that the Constitutions of free states, forbidding slavery, are them- selves unconstitutional. Mark me, I do not say the judge said this, and let no man say I affirm the judge used these words; but I only say it is my opinion that what they did say, if pressed to its logical conclusion, will in- evitably result thus. Looking at these things, the Republican party, as I un- derstand its principles and policy, believe that there is great danger of the institution of slavery being spread out and extended, until it is ultimately made alike lawful in all the states of this Union; so believing, to prevent that incidental consummation, is the original and chief purpose of the Republican organization. I say ' 'chief purpose" of the Republican organization; for it is certain- ly true that if the national house shall fall into the hands of the Republicans, they will have to attend to all the other matters of national housekeepings as well as this. The chief and real purpose of the Republican party is eminently conservative. It proposes nothing save and except to restore this government to its original tone in regard to this element of slavery, and there to main- tain it, looking for no further change in reference to it, than that which the original framers of the government themselves expected and looked forward to. The chief danger to this purpose of the Republican party is not just now the revival of the African slave- trade, or the passage of a Congressional slave code, or the 2l8 LINCOLINS SPEECHES COMPLETE. declaring of a second Dred Scott decision, making sla- very lawful in all the states. These are not pressing us just now. They are not quite ready yet. The anthors of these measures know that we are too strong for them; but but they will be upon us in due time, and we will be grappling with them hand in hand, if they are not now headed off. They are not now the chief danger to the purpose of the Republican organization; but the most im- minent danger that now threatens that purpose is that insidious Douglas popular sovereignty. This is the miner and sapper. While it does not propose to revive the African slave-trade, nor to pass a slave code, nor to make a second Dred Scott decision, it is prepar- ing us for the onslaught and charge of these uitimate enemies when they shall be ready to come on, and the word of command for them to advance shall be given. I say this Douglas popular sovereignty — for there is a broad distinction, as I now understand it, between that article and a genuine popular sovereignty. GENUINE POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. I believe there is a genuine popular sovereignty. I think a definition of genuine popular sovereignty, in the abstract, would be about this: That each man should do precisely as he pleases with himself, and with all those things which exclusively con- cern him. Applied to government, this principle would be, that a General Government should do all those things which pertain to it, and all the local governments shall do precisely as they please in respect to those mat- ters which exclusively concern them. I understand that this government of the United States, under which we THE SITUATION. 219 live is based upon this principle; and I am misunderstood if it is supposed that I have any war to make upon that principle. A FALSE POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. Now what is Judge Douglas's popular sovereignty? It is, as a principle, no other than that, if one man chooses to make a slave of another man, neither that man nor any body else has a right to object. Applied in Government, as he seeks to apply it, it is this: If, in a new territory into which a few people are beginning to enter for the purpose of making their homes, they choose to either exclude slavery from their limits, or to establish it there, however one or the other may affect the persons to be enslaved, or the infinitely greater number of persons who are afterward to inhabit that territory, or the other members of the families of com- munities, of which they are but an incipient member, or the general head of the family of states as parent of all however their action may affect one or the other of these, there is no power or right to interfere. That is Douglas's popular suvereignty applied. He has a good deal of trouble with popular sovereignty. His explanations explanatory of explanations explained are interminable. The most lengthy, and, as I suppose, the most maturely considered of his long series of explana- tions, is his great essay in Harper's Magazine. I will not attempt to enter on any very thorough investigation of his argument, as there made and presented. I will occupy a good portion of your time here in drawing your attention to certain points in it. 220 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. THERE IS DANGER. Such of you as may have read this document will have perceived that the Judge, early in the document, quotes from two persons belonging to the Republican party, without naming them, but who can readly be recognized as being Governor Seward, of New York, and myself. It is true, that exactly fiffeen months ago this day, I believe, I, for the first time, expressed a sentiment upon this subject, and in such a manner that it should get into print, that the public might see it beyond the circle of my hearers; and my expression of it at that time is the quotation that Judge Douglas makes. He has not made the quotation with accuracy, but justice to him requires me to say that it is sufficiently accurate not to change its sense. AN ELEMENT OF DISCORD. The sense of that quotation condensed is this — that this slavery element is a durable element of discord among us, and that we shall probably not have perfect peace in this country with it, until either it masters the free principle in our government, or is so far mastered by the free principle as for the public mind to rest in the belief that it is going to its end. This sentiment, which I now express in this way, was, at no great distance of time, perhaps in different language, and in connection with some colateral ideas, expressed by Governor Seward. Judge Douglas has been so much annoyed by the express- ion of the sentiment that he has constantly, I believe, in almost all his speeches since it was uttered, been referr- to it. I find he alluded to it in his speech here as well as in the copy-right essay. THE SITUATION. 221 I do not now enter upon this for the purpose of making an elaborate argument to show that we were right in the ex- pression of that sentiment. In other w^ords, I shall not stop to say all that might properly be said upon this point; but I only ask your attention to it for the purpose of making one or two points upon it. If you will read the copy-right essay, you will discover that Judge Douglas himself says a controversy between the American colonies and the government of Great Britain began on the slavery question in 1699, and con- tinued from that time until the revolution; and, while he did not say so, we all know that it has continued with more or less violence ever since the revolution. Then we need not appeal to history, to the declaration of the framers of the government, but we know from Judge Douglas himself that slavery began to be an ele- ment of discord among the wdiite people of this country as far back as 1699, or one hundred and sixty years ago, or five generations of men — counting thirty years to a generation. Now it would seem to me that it might have occurred to Judge Douglas, or anybody who had turned his attention to these facts, that there was some- thing in the nature of that thing, slavery, somewhat durable for mischief and discord. A TIME OF PEACE, AND WHY.? There is another point I desire to make in regard to this matter, before I leave it. From the adoption of the Constitution down to 1820 is the precise period of our history when we had comparative peace upon this question — the precise period of time when we came nearer to having peace about it than any other time of 222 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. that entire one hundred and sixty years, in which he says it began, or of the eighty years of our own Constitution. Then it would be worth our while to stop and examine into the probable reason of our coming nearer to having peace then than at any other time. This was the precise period of time in which our fathers adopted, and during which they followed, a policy restricting the spread of slavery, and the whole Union was acquiescing in it. The whole country looked forward to the ultimate extinction of the institution. It was when a policy had been adopt- ed and was prevailing, which led all just and right-mind- ed men to suppose that slavery was gradually coming to an end, and that they might be quiet about it. watching it as it expired. I think Judge Douglas might have preceived that too, and whether he did or not, it is worth the attention of fair-minded men, here and elsewhere, to consider wheth- er that is not the truth of the case. If he had looked at these two facts, that this matter has been an element of discord for one hundred and sixty years among this people, and that the only comparative peace we have had about it was when that policy prevailed in this government which he now wars upon, he might then, perhaps, have been brought to a more just appreciation of what I said fifteen months ago — a house divided against itself can not stand. " I DO NOT EXPECT THE UNION TO DISSOLVE." I believe that this government can not endure per- manently half slave and half free. I do not expect the house to fall. I do not expect the Union to dissolve; THE SITUATION. 22 3 but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will be- come all one thing or all the other. Either the oppo- nents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind will rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, until it shall become alike lawful in all its states, old as well as new. North as well as South. That was my sentiment at that time. In con- nection with it, I said, "We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was inaugurated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation, Under the operation of the policy, that agita- tion has not ceased, but has constantly augmented." I now say to you here that we are advanced still fur- ther into the sixth year since that policy of Judge Doug- las — that popular sovereignty of his, for quieting the slavery question — was made the national policy. Fifteen months more have been added since I uttered that senti- ment, and I call upon you, and all other right-minded men, to say whether that fifteen months have belied or corroborated my words. Whlie I am here upon this subject, I cannot but ex- press gratitude that this true view of this element of dis- cord among us — as I believe it is — is attracting more and more attention. I do not believe, that Governor Seward uttered that sentiment because I had done so be- fore, but because he reflected upon this subject, and saw the truth of it. Nor do I believe, because Governor Seward or I uttered it, that Mr. Hickman, of Pennsyl- vania, in different language, since that time, has declar- ed his belief in the utter antagonism which exists be- 224 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. tween the principles of liberty and slavery. You see we are multiplying. "THREE CHEERS FOR HICKMAN." Now, while I am speaking of Hickman, let me say, I khow but little about him. I have never seen him, and know scarcely anything about the man; but I will say this much of him: Of all the anti-Lecompton Democracy that have been brought to my notice, he alone has the true, genuine ring of the metal. And now, without in- dorsing anything else he has said, I will ask this audi- ence to give three cheers for Hickman. (The audience responded with three rousing cheers for Hickman.) Another point in the copy-right essay to which I would ask your attention, is rather a feature to be extracted from the whole thing, than from any express declara- tion of it at any point. It is a general feature of that document, and indeed, of all of Judge Douglas's discuss- ions of this question, that the territories of the United States, and the states of this Union, are exactly alike — that there is no difference between them at all — that the Constitution applies to the territories precisely as it does to the states — and that the United States Govern- ment, under the Constitution, may not do in a state what it may do in a territory. Gentlemen, is that a true view of the case.-^ It is necessary for this squatter sovereignty; but is it true.^ THE STATE VS. THE TERRITORY. Let us consider. What does it depend upon.? It de- pends altogether upon the position that the State must, without the interference of the General Government do all those things that pertain exclusively to themselves — - THE SITUATION. 22 5 that are local in their nature, that have no connection with the General Government. After Judge Douglas has established this proposition, which nobody disputes or ever has disputed, he proceeds to assume, without proving it, that slavery is one of those little, unimpor- tant, trivial matters which are of just about as much consequence as the question would be to me, whether my neighbor should raise horned cattle or plant tobacco; that there is no moral question about it, but that it is altogether a matter of dollars and cents; that when a new territory is opened for settlement, the first man who goes into it may plant there a thing which, like the Canada thistle or some other of those pets of the soil can not be dug out by the millions of men who will come thereafter; that it is one of those little things that is so trivial in its nature that it has no effect upon anybody save the few men who first plant upon the soil; that it is not a thing which in any way affects the family of com- munities composing these state's, nor any way endangeres the General Government. Judge Douglas ignores al- together the very well known fact, that we have never had a serious menace to our political existence, except to spring from this thing, which he chooses to regard as only upon a par with onions and potatoes. ANOTHER VIEW OF IT. Turn it and contemplate it in another view. He says that according to his popular sovereignty, the General Government may give to the territories governors, judges, marshals, secretaries, and all the other chief men to govern them, but the}'^ must not touch upon this other question. Why.^ The question of who shall be governor 226 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. of a territory for a year or two, and pass away, without his track being left upon the soil, or an act which he did for good or for evil being left behind, is a question of vast national magnitude. It is so much opposed^ in its nature to locality, that the nation itself must decide it; while this other matter of planting slavery upon a soil — a thing which once planted can not be eradicated by the succeeding millions who have as much right there as the first comers, or if eradicated, not without infinite difficulty and a long struggle — he considers the power to prohibit it as one of these little, local, trivial things, that the nation ought not to say a word about; that it affects no- body save the few men who are there. Take these two things and consider them together; present the question of planting a state with the institu- tion of slavery by the side of a question of who shall be governor of Kansas for a year or two, and is there a man here — is there a man on earth — who would not say the governor question is the little one, and the slavery ques- tion is the great one.? I ask any honest Democrat if the small, the local, and the trivial and temporary question is not, who shall be governor.? While the durable, the important and the mischievous one is, shall this soil be planted with slavery.? This is an idea, I suppose, which has arisen in Judge Douglas's mind from his peculiar structure. I suppose the institution of slavery really looks small to him. He is so put up by nature that a lash upon his back would hurt him, but a lash upon anybody else's back does not hurt him. That is the build of the man, and consequent- ly he looks upon the matter of slavery in this unimpor- tant light. THE SITUATION. 22/ "I TREMDLE FOR MY COUNTRY WHEN I REMEMBER THAT GOD IS JUST." Judge Douglas ought to remember when he is en- deavoring to force this poHcy upon the American people that while he is put up in that way a good many are not. He ought to remember that there was once in this country a man by the name of Thomas Jefferson, sup- posed to be a Democrat — a man whose principles and policy are not very prevalent among Democrats to-day, it is true; but that man did not take exactly this view of the insignificance of the element of slavery which our friend Judge Douglas does. In contemplation of this thing, we all know he was led to exclaim: "I tremble for my country when I remember that God is just!" We know how he looked upon it when he thus expressed himself. There is danger to this country — danger of the avenging justice of God in that little unimportant popular sovereignty question of Judge Douglas. He sup- posed there was a question of God's eternal justice wrap- ed up in the enslaving of any race of men, or any man, and that those who did so, braved the arm of Jehovah — that when a nation thus dared the Almighty, every friend of that nation had cause to dread his wrath. Choose ye between Jefferson and Douglas as to what is the true view of this element among us." ANOTHER LITTLE DIFFICULTY. There is another little difficulty about this matter of treating the territories and states alike in all things, to which I ask your attention, and I shall leave this branch of the case. If there is no difference between them, why not make the territories states at once.? What is the 228 Lincoln's speeches complete. reason that Kansas was not fit to come into the Union when it was organized into a territory, in Judge Doug- las's view? Can any of you tell any reason why it should not have come into the Union at once? They are fit, as he thinks, to decide upon the slavery question — the largest and most important with which they could pos- sibly deal — what could they do by coming into the Union that they are not fit to do, according to his view, by staying out of it? O, they are not fit to sit in Con- gress and decide upon the rates of postage, or questions of ad valorem or specific duties on foreign goods, or live oak timber contracts; they are not fit to decide these vastly important matters, which are national in their import, but they are fit, "from the jump," to decide this little negro question. But, gentlemen, the case is too plain; I occupy too much time on this head, and I pass on. DOUGLAS '-KICKING THE FAT INTO THE FIRE." Near the close of the copy-right essay, the Judge, I think, comes very near kicking his own fat into the fire. I did not think, when I commenced these remarks, that I would read from that article, but I now believe I will: "This exposition of the history of these measures, shows conclusively that the authors of the Compromise Measures of 1850 and of the Kansas-Nebraska act of 1854, as well as the members of the Continental Con- gress of 1774, and the founders of our system of govern- ment subsequent to the Revolution, regarded the people of the territories and colonies as political communities, which were entitled to a free and exclusive power of legis- lation in their provisional Legislatures, where their re- THE SITUATION. 229 presentation could alone be preserved, in all cases of tax- ation and internal polity." When the judge saw that putting in the word ''slav- ery" would contradict his own history, he put in what he knew would pass as synonymous with it: ''internal polity." Whenever we find that in one of his speeches, the substitnte is used in this manner; and I can tell you the reason. It would be too bald a contradiction to say slavery, but ' 'internal polity" is a general phrase, which would pass in some quarters, and which he hopes will pass with the reading community for the same thing: ' 'This right pertains to the people collectively, as a law- abiding and peaceful community, and not in the isolated individuals who may wander upon the public domain in violation of the law. It can only be exercised where there are inhabitants sufficient to constitute a govern- ment, and capable of performing its various functions and duties, a fact to be ascertained and determined by" — who do you think.^ Judge Douglas says, "By Congress!" "Whatever the number shall be fixed at ten, fitteen, or twenty thousand inhabitants, does not effect the prin- ciple." A FEW VALUABLE COMMENTS. Now I have only a few comments to make. Popular sovereignty, by his own words, does not pertain to the few persons who wander upon the public domain in viola- tion of law. We have his words for that. When it does pertain to them, is when they are sufficient to be formed into an organized political community, and he fixes the minimum for that 10,000, and the maximum at 20,000. Now I would like to know what is to be 230 Lincoln's speeches complete. done with the 9,000? Are they all to be treated, until they are large enough to be organized into a political community, as wanderers upon the public land in viola- tion of law? And if so treated and driven out, at what point of time would there ever be ten thousand? If they were not driven out; but remained there as trespassers upon the public land in violation of the law, can they establish slavery there? No — the judge says popular sovereignty don't pertain to them then. Can they ex- clude it then? No, popular sovereignty don't pertain to them then. I would like to know, in the case covered by the essa}^ what condition the people of the territory are in before they reach the number of ten thousand? WHAT THE ' 'DASH OF A PEN" CAN DO. But the main point I wish to ask attention to is, that the question as to when they shall have reached a suffi- cient number to be formed into a regular organized com- munity, is to be decided "by Congress." Judge Douglas' says so. Well, gentleman, that is about all we want. No, that is all the Southerners want. That is what all those who are for slavery want. They do not want Con- gress to prohibit slavery from coming into the new terri- tories, and they do not want popular sovereignty to hin- der it: and as Congress is to say when they are ready to be organized, all that the South has to do is to get Con- gress to hold off. Let Congress hold off until they are ready to be admitted as a state, and the South has all it wants in taking slavery into and planting it in all the territories that we now have, or hereafter may have. In a word, the whole thing, at a dash of the pen, is at last put in the power of Congress; for if they do not have THE SITUATION. 23 I this popular sovereignty until Congress organizes them, I ask if it at last does not come from Congress? If, at last, it amounts to anything at all. Congress gives it to them. I submit this rather for your reflection than for comment. After all that is said, at last, by a dash of the pen, everything that has gone before is undone, and he put's the whole question under the control of Congress. After fighting through more than three hours, if you undertake to read it, he at last places the whole matter under the control of that power which he had been contending against, and arrives at a result directly contrary to what he had been laboring to do. He at last leaves the whole matter to the control of Congress. THE TWO POINTS IN THE HARPER MAGAZINE ESSAY. There are two main objects, as I understand it, of this Harper's Magazine essay. One was to show, if possible that the men of our Revolutionary times were in favor of his popular sovereignty; and the other was to show that the Dred Scott decision had not entirely squelched out this popular sovereignty. I do not propose, in regard to this argument drawn from the history of former times, to enter into a detailed examination of the historical statements he had made. I have the impression that they are inaccurate in a great many instances. Sometimes in positive statement, but very much more inaccurate by the suppression of state- ments that realty belong to the history. But I do not propose to affirm that this is so to any very great extent; or to enter into a very minute examination of his historical statements. I avoid doing so upon this principle — that if 232 LLNCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. it were important for me to pass out of this lot in the least period of time possible, and I came to that fence and saw by a calculation of my known strength and agility that I could clear it at a bound, it would be folly for me to stop and consider whether I could or not crawl through a crack. So I say of the whole history, contained in his essay, where he endeavored to link the men of the Rev- olution to popular sovereignty. It only requires an effort to leap out of it — a single bound to be entirely suc- cessful. If you read it over, you will find that he quotes here and there from documents of the Revolutionary times, tending to show that the people ot the colonies were desirous of regulating their own concerns in their own way; that the British Government should not interfere; that at one time they struggled with the British Govern- ment to be permitted to exclude the African slave-trade; if not directly, to be permitted to exclude it indirectly by taxation sufficient to discourage and destroy it- From these and many things of this sort. Judge Douglas argues that they were in favor of the people of our own territories excluding slavery if they wanted to, or planting it there if they wanted to, doing just as they pleased from the time they settled upon the territory. Now, however his history may apply, and whatever of his arguments there may be that is sound and accurate or unsound and inaccurate, if we can find out what these men did themselves do upon this very question of slavery in the territories, does it not end the whole thing.^ If after all this labor and effort to show that the men of the Revolution were in favor of his popular sovereignty and THE SITUATION. 233 his mode of dealing with slavery in the territories, we can show that these very men took hold of that subject, and dealt with it; we can see for ourselves how they dealt with it. It is not an argument or inference, but we know what they thought about it. AN IMPORTANT OMISSION. It is precisely upon that part of the history of the country, that one important omission is made by Judge Douglas. He selects parts of the history of the United States upon the subject of slavery, and treats it as the whole, omitting from his historical sketch the legislation of Congress in regard to the admission of Missouri, by which ■ the Missouri Compromise w^as established, and slavery excluded from a country half as large as the pres- ent United States. All this is left out of his history, and in nowise alluded to by him; so far as I can remember, save once, when he makes a remark, that upon his prin- ciple the Supreme Court were authorized to pronounce a decision that the act called the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. All that history has been left out. But this part of the history of the country was not made by the men of the Revolution. SOMETHING ABOUT THE "ORDINANCE OF '87." There was another part- of our political history made by the very men who were the actors in the Revolution, which has taken the name of the ordinance of '87. Let me bring that history to your attention. In 1784, I believe, this same Mr. Jeffersc^ drew up an ordinance for the government of the country, upon which we now stand; or rather, a frame or draft of an ordinance for the government of this country, here in Ohio, our neighbors 234 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. in Indiana, us who live in Illinois, our neighbors in Wisconsin, and Michigan. In that ordinance, drawn up not only for the government of that territory, but for the territories south of the Ohio River, Mr. Jefferson ex- pressly provided for the prohibition of slavery. Judge Douglas says, and perhaps is right, that that provision was lost from that ordinance. I believe that is true. When the vote was taken upon it, a majority of all present in the Congress of the Confederation voted for it; but there were so many absentees that those voting for it did not make the clear majority necessary, and it was lost. now OHIO, INDIANA, ILLINOIS, MICHIGAN AND WISCONSIN WERE ADMITTED INTO THE UNION. But three years after that, the Congress of the Con- federation were together again, and they adopted a new ordinance for the government of this Northwest Territory, not contemplating territory south of the river, for the states owning that territory had hitherto refrained from giving it to the General Government; hence, they made the ordinance to apply only to what the Government owned. In that, the provision excluding slavery was inserted and passed unanimously, or at any rate it passed and became a part of the law of the land. Under that ordinance we live. First here in Ohio you were a territory, then an enabling act was passed, au- thorizing you to form a Constitution and State Govern- ment, providing it was republican and not in conflict with the ordinance of 'Sy. When you framed your Con- stitution and presented it for admission, I think you will find the legislation upon the subiect will show that: THE SITUATION. 235 * 'Whereas you had formed a Constitution that was re- publican, and not in conflict with the ordinance of '87," therefore, you were admitted upon equal footing with the original states. The same process in a few years was gone through with in Indiana, and so with Illinois, and the same substantially with Michigan and Wisconsin. Not only did that ordinance prevail, but it was con- stantly looked to whenever a step was taken by a new territory to become a state. Congress always turned their attention to it, and in all their movements upon this subject, they traced their course by that ordinance of '87. When they admitted new states, they advertised them of this ordinance as a part of the legislation of the country. They did so because they had traced the ordi- nance of '87 throughout the history of this country. Be- gin with the men of the Revolution, and go down for sixty entire years, and until the last scrap of that terri- tory comes into the Union in the form of the State of Wisconsin — everything was made to conform with the ordinance of '87, excluding slavery from that vast extent of country. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. I omitted to mention in the right place that the Con- stitution of the United States was in process of being framed when that ordinance was made by the Congress of the Confederation; and one of the first acts of Con- gress itself, under the new Constitution itself, was to give force to that ordinance by putting power to carry it out in the hands of the new officers under the Con- stitution, in the place of the old ones, who had been legislated out of existence by the change in the Govern- 236 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. ment from the Confederation to the Constitution. Not only so, but I beheve Indiana once or twice, if not Ohio, petitioned the General Government for the privilege of suspendfng that provision and allowing them to have slaves. A report made by Mr. Randolph of Virginia, himself a slaveholder, was directly against it, and the action was to refuse them the privilege of violating the ordinance of 'Sy. This period of history, which I have run over briefly, is, I presume, as familiar to most of this assembly as any other part of the history of our country. I suppose that few of my hearers are not as familiar with that part of history as I am, and I only mention it to recall your at- tention to it at this time. And hence I ask how extra- ordinary a thing it is that a man who has occupied a po- sition upon the floor of the Senate of the United States, who is now in his third term, and who looks to see the government of this whole country fall into his own hands, pretending to give a truthful and accurate history of the slavery question in this country, should so entirely ignore the whole of that portion of our history — the most im- portant of all. Is it not a most extraordinary spectacle, that a man should stand up and ask for any confidence in his statements, who sets out as he does with portions of history, calling upon the people to believe that it is a true and fair representation, when the leading part, and controlling feature, ot the whole history is carefully sup- pressed.* THE REVOLUTIONARY HEROES CLING TO FREEDOM. But the mere leaving out is not the most remarkable feature of this most remarkable essay. His proposition THE SITUATION. 237 is to establish that the leading men of the Revolution were for his great principle of non-intervention by the government in the question of slavery in the territories; while history shows that they decided in the cases ac- tually brought before them, in exactly the contrary way, and he knows it. Not only did they so decide at that time, but they stuck to it during sixty years, through thick and thin, as long as there was one of the Revolu- tionary heroes upon the stage of political action. Through their whole course, from first to last, they clung to free- dom. And now he asks the community to believe that the men of the Revolution were in favor of his great princi- ple, when we have the naked history that they themselves dealt with this very subject-matter of his principle, and utterly repudiated his principle, acting upon a precisely contrary ground. It is as impudent and absurd as if a prosecuting attorney should stand up before a jury, and ask them to convict A as the murderer of B while B was walking alive before them. FIRING AT DOUGLAS. I say, again, if Judge Douglas asserts that the men of the Revolution acted upon principles by which, to be con- sistent with themselves, they ought to have adopted his popular sovereignty, then, upon a consideration of his own argument, he had a right to make you believe that they understood the principles of government, but mis- applied them — that he has arisen to enlighten the world as to the just application of this principle. He has a right to try to persuade you that he understands their principles better than they did, and, therefore, he will 238 Lincoln's speeches complete. apply them now, not as they did, but as they ought to have done. He has a right to go before the community, and try to convince them of this; but he has no right to attempt to impose upon any one the behef that these men themselves approved of his great principle. There are two ways of establishing a proposition. One is by trying to demonstrate it upon reason; and the other is, to show that great men in former times have thought so and so, and thus to pass it by the weight of pure authority. Now, if Judge Douglas will demonstrate somehow that this is popular sovereignty — the right of one man to make a slave of another, without any right in that other, or any one else to object — demonstrate it as Euclid dem- onstrated propositions — there is no objection. But when he comes forward, seeking to carry a principle by bring- ing to it the authority of men who themselves utterly re- pudiate that principle, I ask that he shall not be permit- ted to do it. A RIFLE SHOT. I see, in the judge's speech here, a short sentence in these words: "Our fathers, when they formed this gov- ernment under which we live, understood this question just as well and even better than we do now." That is true; I stick to that. I will stand by Judge Douglas in that to the bitter end. And now, Judge Douglas; come and stand by me, and truthfully show how they acted, understanding it better than we do. All I ask of you. Judge Douglas, is to stick to the proposition that the men of the Revolution under- stood this subject better than we do now, and with that THE SITUATION. 239 better understanding they acted better than you are try. ing to act now. I wish to say something now in regard to the Dred Scott decision, as dealt by Judge Douglas. In that "memorable debate" between Judge Douglas and myself, last year, the judge thought fit to commence a process of catechising me, and at Freeport I answered his ques- tions, and propounding some to him. Among others pro-' pounded to him was one that I have here now. The substance, as I remember it, is, ''Can the people of a United States territory, under the Dred Scott decision, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits, prior to the formation of a State Constitution. !*" He answered that they could lawfully exclude slavery from the United States territories, notwithstanding the Dred Scott decision; There was something about that answer that has propably been a trouble to the judge ever since. A PARADOX. The Dred Scott decision expressly gives ever citizen of the United States a right to carry his slaves into the United States territories. And now there was some in- consistency in saying that the decision was right, and saying, too, that the people of the territory could law- fully drive slavery out again. When all the trash, the words, the collateral matter, was cleared away from it — all the chaff was fanned out of it, it was a bare absurd- ity — no less than that a thing may be lawfully driven away from where it has a lawful right to be. Clear it of all the verbiage, and that is the naked truth of his pro- 240 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. position — that a thing may be lawfully driven from the place where it has a lawful right to stay. Well, it was because the judge couldn't help seeing this, that he has had so much trouble with it; and what I want to ask your especial attention to, just now, is to remind you, if you have not noticed the fact, that the judge does not any longer say that the people can ex- clude slavery. He does not say so in the copy-right essay; he did not say so in the speech that he made here; and, so far as I know, since his re-election to the Senate, he has never said, as he did at Freeport, that the people of the territories can exclude slavery. He desires that you, who wish the territories to remain free, should be- lieve that he stands by that position, but he does not say it himself. He escapes, to some extent, the absurd position I have stated, by changing his language entirely. MAKING THE MOST MONEY OUT OF THE OLD HORSE. What he says now, is something different in language, and we will consider whether it is not different in sense, too. It is now that the Dred Scott decision, or rather the Constitution under that decision, does not carry slavery into the territories beyond the power of the peo- ple of the territories to control it as other property. He does not say the people can drive it out, but tbey can control it as other property. The language is different; we should consider whether the sense is different. Driv- ing a horse out of this lot is too plain a proposition to be mistaken about; it is putting him on the other, side of the fence. Or it might be a sort of exclusion of him from the lot if you were to kill him, and let the worms devour him; but neither of these things is the same as THE SITUATION. 24I ' 'controlliug him as Other property." That would be to feed him, to pamper him, to ride him, to use and abuse him, to make the most money out of him ' 'as other prop- erty;" but, please you, what do the men who are in favor of slavery want more than this.? What do they really want, other than that slavery, being in the territories, shall be controlled as other property.? SQUINTING. If they want anything else, I do not comprehend it. I ask your attention to this— first, for the purpose of pointing out the change of ground the judge has made, and, in the second place, the importance of the change that that change is not such as to give you gentlemen who want his popular sovereignty the power to exclude the institution or drive it out at all. I know the judge sometimes squints at the argument that in controlling it as ether property, by unfriendly legislation, they may control it to death, as you might in the case of a horse, perhaps, feed him so lightly and ride him so much that he would die. But when you come to legislative control, there is something more to be attended to. I have no doubt, myself, that if the territories should undertake to control slave property as other property — that is, control it in such a way that it would be the most valuable as property, and make it bear its just proportion in the way of burdens as property— really deal with it as property— the Supreme Court of the United States will say, '*God speed you, and amen." But I undertake to give the opinion, at least, that if the. territories attempt, by any direct legislation, to drive the man, with his slave, out of the territory, or to decide 242 Lincoln's speeches complete. that his slave is free because of his being taken in there, or to tax him to such an extent that he cannot keep him there, the Supreme Court will unhesingtatingly decide all such legislation unconstitutional, as long as that Su- preme Court is constructed as the Dred Scott Supreme Court is. The first two thingsthey have already decided, except that there is a little quibble among the lawyers between the word dicta and decision. They have al- ready decided a negro can not be made free by territorial legislation. What is that Dred Scott decision.^* Judge Douglas labors to show that it is one thing, while I think it is altogether different. It is a long opinion, but it is all embodied in this short statement: "The Constitution of the United States forbids Congress to deprive a man of his property, without due process of law; the right of property in slaves is distinctly and expressly affirmed in that Constitution; therefore if Congress shall under- take to say that a man's slave is no longer his slave, when he crosses a certain line into a territory, that is depriving him of his property without due process of law, and is unconstitutional." There is the whole Dred Scott decision. They add that if Congress can not do so itself, Congress can not confer any power to do so, and hence any effort by the Territorial Legislature to do either of these things is absolutely decided against. It is a foregone conclusion by that court. Now, as to this indirect mode by ' 'unfriendly legisla- tion," all lawyers here will readily understand that such a proposition can not be tolerated for a moment, be- cause a Legislature cannot indirectly do that which it THE SITUATION. 243 can not accomplish directly. Then I say any legisla- tion to control this property, as property, for its benefit as property, would be hailed by this Dred Scott Supreme Court, and fully sustained; but any legislation driving slave property out, or destroying it as propert}', directly or indirectly, will most assurdely, by that court, be held unconstitational. CONSTITUTIONAL POWDERS. Judge Douglas says if the Constitution carries slavery into the territories beyond the power of the people of the territories to control it as other property, then it fol- lows logically that everyone who swears to support the Constitution of the United States, must give that sup- port to that property which it needs. And if the Con- stitution carries slavery into the territories, beyond the power of the people to control it as other property, then it also carries it into the states, because the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Now, gentlemen, if it were not for my excessive modesty I would say that I told that very thing to Judge Douglas quite a year ago. This argument is here in print, and if it were not for my modesty, as I said, I might call your attention to it.^ If you read it, you will find that I not only made that argument, but made it better than he has made it since. There is, however, this difference. I say now, and said then, there is no sort of question that the Supreme Court has decided that it is the right of the slaveholder to take his slave and hold him in the territory; and say- ing this. Judge Douglas himself admits the conclusion. He says if that is so, this consequence will foUow; and 244 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. because this consequence would follow, his argument is, the decision can not, therefore, be that way — "that would spoil my popular sovereignty, and it can not be possible that this great principle has been squelched out in this extraordinary way. It might be, if it were not for the extraordinary consequences«of spoiling my hum- bug." ANOTHER VIEW. Another feature of the Judge's argument about the Dred Scott case is, an effort to show that that decision deals altogether in declarations of negatives; that the Constitu- tion does not affirm anything as expounded by the Dred Scott decision, but it only declares a want of power — a total absence of power, in reference to the territories. It seems to be his purpose to make the whole of that decision to result in a mere negative declaration of a want of power in Congress to do anything in relation to this matter in the territories. I know the opinion of the judges states there is a total absence of power; but that is, unfortunately, not all it states; for the judges add that the right of property in a slave is distinctl}^ and ex- pressly affirmed in the Constitution. It does not stop at saying that the right of property in a slave is recognized in the Constitution, is declared to exist somewhere in the Constitution, but says it is affirmed in the Constitu- tion. Its language is equivalent to saying that it is em- bodied and so woven into that instrument that it can not be detached without breaking the Constitution itself. In a word, it is a part of the Constitution. Douglas is singularly unfortunate in his effort to make out that decision to be altogether negative, when the THE SITUATION. 245 express language at the vital part is that this is distinctly affirmed in the Constitution. I think myself, and I re- peat it here, that this decision does not merely carry slavery into the territories, but by its logical conclusion it carries it into the states in which we live. One pro- vision of that Constitution is, that it shall be the supreme law of the land — I do not quote the language — any Con- stitution or law of any state to the contrary notwith- standing. This Dred Scott decision says that the right of property in a slave is affirmed in that Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, any state Constitu- tion or law notwithstanding. Then I say that to destroy a thing which is distinctly affirmed and supported by the supreme law of the land, even by a State Constitution or law, is a violation of that supreme law, and there is no escape from it. In my judgment there is no avoi,ding that result, save the people see that Constitutions are bet- ter construed than our Constitution is construed in that decision. They must take care that it is more faithfully and truly carried out than it is there expounded. I must hasten to a conclusion. Near the beginning of my remarks, I said that this insidious Douglas popular sovereignty is the measure that now threatens the pur- pose of the Republican party, to prevent slavery from being nationalized in the United States. I propose to ask your attention for a little while to some propositions in affirmance of that statement. Take it just as it stands, and apply it as a principle; extend and apply that principle elsewhere, and consider where it will lead you. I now put this proposition, that Judge Douglas's pop- ular sovereignty applied will reopen the African slave u 246 Lincoln's speeches complete. rade; and will demonstrate it by any variety of ways in which you can turn the subject or look at it. The Judge says that the people of the territories have the right, by his principle, to have slaves, if they want them. Then I say that the people in Georgia have the right to buy slaves in Africa, if they want them, and I defy any man on earth to show any distinction between the two things — to show that the one is either more wicked or more unlawful; to show, on original principles, that one is better or worse than the other; or to show by the Constitution, that one differs a whit from the other. He will tell me, doubtless, that there is no Constitutional provision against people taking slaves into the new ter- ritories, and I tell him that there is equally Constitutional provision against buying slaves in Africa. He will tell you that a people, in the exercise of popular sovereignty, ought to do as they please about that thing, and have slaves if they want them; and I tell you that the people of Georgia are as much entitled to popular sovereignty and to buy slaves in Africa, if they want them, as the people of the territory are to have slaves if they want them. I ask any man, dealing honestly with himself, to point out a distinction. "I DENY it" says LINCOLN. I have recently seen a letter of Judge Douglas's in which, without stating that to be the object, he doubt- less endeavors to make a distinction between the two. He says he is unalterably opposed to the repeal of the laws against the African slave-trade. And why.^ He then seeks to give a reason that would not apply to his popular sovereignty in the territories. What is that THE SITUATION. 247 reason? "The abolition of the African slave-trade is a compromise of the Constitution!" I den} it. There is no truth in the proposition that the abolition of the African slave-trade is a compromise of the Constitution. No man can put his finger on anything in the Constitu- tion, or on the line of history, w^hich shows it. It is a mere barren assertion, made simply for the purpose of getting up a distinction between the revival of the African slave-trade and his "great principle." At the time the Constitution of the United States was adopted, it was expected that the slave-trade would be abolished. I should assert, and insist upon that, if Judge Douglas denied it. But I know that it was equally ex- pected that slavery would be excluded from the teritor- ies, and I can show by history, that in regard to these two things, public opinion was exactly alike, while in regard to positive action, there was more done in the ordinance of "^"j to resist the spread of slavery than was ever done to abolish the foreign slave-trade. Lest I be misunderstood, I say again, that at the time of the formation of the Constitution, public expectation was that the slave-trade would be abolished, but no more so than the spread of slavery in the territories should be restrained. They stand alike, except that in the ordi- nance of '^y there was a mark left by public opinion, showing that it was more committed against the spread of slavery in the territories than against the foreign slave- trade. "NO COMPROMISE." Compromise! What word of compromise was there about it? Why, the public sense was then in favor of 248 Lincoln's speeches complete. the abolition of the slave-trade; but there was, at the time, a very great commercial interest involved in it, and extensive capital in the branch of trade. Theie w^ere, doubtless, the incipient stages of improvement in the South in the way of farming, dependent on the slave-trade, and they made a proposition to Congress to abolish the trade after allowing it twenty years, a suffici- ent time for the capital and commerce engaged in it to be transferred to other channels: They made no provis- ion that it should be abolished in twenty years; I do not doubt that they expected it would be; but they made no bargain about it. The public sentiment left no doubt in the minds of any that it would be done away. I repeat, there is nothing in the history of those times in favor of that matter being a compromise of the Constitution. It was the public expectation at the time, manifested in a thousand ways, that the spread of slavery should also be restricted. Then, I say, if this principle is established, that there is no wrong in slavery and whoever wants it has a right to have it, is a matter of dollars and cents, a sort of question as to how they shall deal with brutes, that between us and the negro here, there is no sort of ques- tion, but at the South the question is between negro and crocodile. That is all. It is a mere matter of policy; there is a perfect right according to interest to do just as you please — when this is done, where this doctrine prevails, the miners and sappers will have formed public opinion for the slave-trade. They will be ready for Jeff. Davis, and Stephens, and other leaders of that company, to sound the bugle for the revival of the slave-trade, for the THE SITUATION. 249 second Dred Scott decision, for the flood of slavery to be poured over the free states, while we shall be here tied down, and helpless, and run over like sheep. It is to be a part and parcel of this same idea, to say to men who want to adhere to the Democratic party, who have always belonged to that party, and are only looking about for some excuse to stick to it, but never- theless hate slavery, that Douglas's popular sovereignty is as good a way as any to oppose slavery. They allow themselves to be persuaded easily in accordance with their previous dispositions, into this belief, that it is about as good a way of opposing slavery as any, and we can do that wtihout straining our old party ties or breaking up old political associations. We can do so without being called negro-worshipers. We can do that without being subjected to the jibes and sneers that are so readi- ly thrown out in place of argument where no argument can be found. So let us stick to this popular sovereignty — this insidious popular sovereignty. Now let me call your attention to one thing that has really happened, which shows this gradual and steady debauching of puplic opinion, this course of preparation for the revival of the slave-trade, for the territorial slave code, and the new Dred Scott decision that is to carry slavery into the free states. Did you ever, five years ago, hear of anybody in the world saying that the negro had no share in the Declaration of National In- dependence; that it did not mean negroes at all; and when *'all men" were spoken of, negroes were not includ- ed.? I am satisfied that, five years ago, that proposition was not put upon paper by any living being anywhere. 250 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. I have been unable at any time, to find a man in an audience who would declare that he had ever known of anybody saying so five years ago. But last year, there was not a Douglas popular sovereign in Illinois who did not say it. Is there one in Ohio but declares his firm belief that the Declaration of Independence did not mean negroes at all.^ I do not know how this is; I have not been here much; but I presume you are very much alike everywhere. Then I presume that all now express the belief that the Declaration of Independence never did mean negroes. I call upon one of them to say that he said it five years ago. If you think that now, and did not think it then, the next thing that strikes me is to remark that there has been a change wrought in you, and a very significant change it is, being no less than changing the negro, in your estima- tion, from the rank of a man to that of a brute. They are taking him down, and placing him, when spoken of, among reptiles and crocodiles, as Judge Douglas him- self expresses it. Is not this change wrought in your minds a very im- portant change.'* Public opinion in this country is every- thing. In a nation like ours, this popular sovereignty and squatter sovereignty has already wrought a change in the public mind to the extent I have stated. There is no man in this crowd who can contradict it. PUBLIC SENTIMENT. Now, if you are opposed to slavery honestly, as much as anybody, I ask you to note that fact, and the like of which is to follow, to be plastered on, layer after layer, until very soon you are prepared to deal with the negro THE SITUATION. 251 everywhere as with the brute. If pubHc sentiment has not been debauched already to this point, a new turn of the screw in that direction is all that is wanting; and this is constantly being done by the teachers of this in- sidious popular sovereignty. You need but one or two turns further until your minds, now ripening under these teachings, will be ready for all these things, and you will receive and support, or submit to, the slave-trade, revived with all its horrors, a slave code enforced in our territo- ries, and a new Dred Scott decision to bring slavery up into the very heart of the free North. HENRY clay's VIEWS. This, I must say, is but carrying out their words pro- phetically spoken by Mr. Clay, many, many years ago — I believe more than thirty years — when he told an audience that if they repress all tendencies to liberty and ultimate emancipation, they must go back to the era of our inde- pendence and muzzle the cannon which thundered its annual joyous return on the Fourth of July; they must blow out the moral lights around us; they must pene- trate the human soul, and eradicate the love of liberty, but until they did these things, and others eloquently enumerated by him, they could not repress all tendencies to ultimate emancipation. I ask attention to the fact that in a pre-eminent degree these popular sovereigns are at this work; blowing out the moral hghts around us; teaching that the jiegro is no longer a man, but a brute; that the Declaration has nothing to do with him; that he ranks with the crocodile and the reptile; that man, with body and soul, is a mat- ter of dollars and cents. I suggest to this portion of the ^52 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. Ohio Republicans, or Democrats, if there be any present the serious consideration of this fact, that there is now going on among you a steady process of debauching pub- he opmion on this subject. With this, my friends I bid you adieu. ' SLAVERY, CAPITAL, LABOR, AND LABORERS. LINCOLN'S FAMOUS SPEECH TO THE KENTUCKIANS. (Delivered at Cincinnati, Ohio, September, 1859.) My Fellow-citizens of the State of Ohio: This is the first time in my life that I have appeared before an audience in so great a city as this. I therefore — though I am no longer a young man — make this appear- ance under some degree of embarrassment. But I have found that when one is embarrassed, usually the shortest way to get through with it is to quit talking or thinking about it, and go at something else. I understand that you have had recently with you my very distinguished friend, Judge Douglas, of Illinois, and I understand, without having had an opportunity (not greatly sought to be sure) of seeing a report of the speech that he made here, that he did me the honor to mention my humble name. I suppose that he did so for the pur- pose of making some objection to some sentiment at some tfme expressed by me. I should expect, it is true, that Judge Douglas had reminded you, or informed you, if you had never before heard it, that I had once in my life declared it as my opinion that this Government can not "endure permanently half slave and half free; that a house divided against itself cannot stand," and, as I had expressed it, I did not expect the house to fall; that I did not expect the Union to be dissolved; but that I (253) 2 54 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. did expect that it would cease to be divided; that it would become all one thing or all the other; that either the opposition of slavery would arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind would rest in the belief that it was in the course of ultimate extinction; or the friends of slavery will push it forward until it becomes alike lawful in all the states, old or new, free as well as slave. I did, fifteen months ago, express that opinion, and upon many occasions Judge Douglas has denounced it, and has greatly, intentionally or uninten- tionally, misrepresented my purpose in the expression of that opinion. I presume, without having seen a report of his speech, that he did so here. I presume that he alluded also to that opinion, in different language, having been express- ed at a subsequent time by Governor Seward of New York, and that he took the two in a lump aud denounced them; that he tried to point out that there was something couched in this opinion which led to the making of an en- tire uniformity of the local institutions of the various states of the Union, in utter disregard of the different states, which in their nature would seem to require a variety of institutions, and a variety of laws, conforming to the differences in the nature of the different states. Not only so; I presume he insisted that this was a declaration of war between the free and slave states — that it was the sounding to the onset of continual war between the different states, the slave and free states. This charge, in this form, was made by Judge Doug- las on, I believe, the 9th of July, 1858, in Chicago, in my hearing. On the next evening, I made some reply SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 255 to it. I informed him that many of the inferences he drew from that expression of mine were altogether for- eign to any purpose entertained by me, and in so far as he should ascribe these inferences to me, as my purpose he was entirely mistaken; and in so far as he might argue that whatever might be my purpose, actions con- forming to my views would lead to these results he might argue and establish if he could; but, so far as purposes were concerned, he was totally mistaken as to me. When I made that reply to him — when I told him, on the question of declaring war between the different states of the Union, that I had not said that I did not expect any peace upon this question until slavery was extermi- nated; that I had only said I expected peace when that institution was put where the public mind should rest in the belief that it was in course of ultimate extinction; that I believed from the organization of our Government, until a very recent period of time, the institution had been placed and continued upon such a basis; that we had had comparative peace upon that question through a portion of that period of time, only because the pnblic mind rested in that belief in regard to it, and that when we returned to that position in relation to that matter, I supposed we should again have peace as we previously had. I assured him, as I now assure you, that I neither then had, nor have, or ever had, any purpose in any way of interfering with the institution of slavery, where it exists. I believe we have no power, under the Constitu- tion of the United States; or rather under the form of Government under which we live, to interfere with the 256 Lincoln's speeches complete. institution of slavery, or any other of the institutions of our sister states, be they free or slave states. I declared then, and I now redeclare, that I have as little inclina- tion to interfere with the institution of slavery, where it now exists, through the instrumentality, of the General Government, or any other instrumentality, as I believe we have no power to do so. I accidentally used this expressson: I had no purpose of entering into the slave states to disturb the institution of slavery! So, upon the first occasion that Judge Doug- las got an opportunity to reply to me, he passed by the whole body of what I had said upon that subject, and seized upon the particular expression of mine, that I had no purpose of entering into the slave states to disturb the institution of slavery. "O, no," said he, ''he (Lin- coln) won't enter into the slave states to disturb the institution of slavery; he is too prudent a man to do •such a thing as that; he only means that he will go on to the line between the free and slave states, and shoot over at them. This is all he means to do. He means to do them all the harm he can, to disturb them all he can, in such a way as to keep his own hide in perfect safety." Well, now, I did not think, at that time, that that was either a very dignified or very logical argument; but so it was, I had to get along with it as well as I could. LINCOLN SHOOTING OVER THE LINE. It has occurred to me here to-night, that if I ever do shoot over the line at the people on the other side of the line into a slave state, and purpose to do so, keeping my SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 2 5/ skin safe, that I have now about the best chance I shall ever have. I should not wonder that there are some Kentuckians about this audience; we are close to Ken- tucky; and whether that be so or not, we are on elevated ground, and by speaking distinctly, I should not wonder if some of the Kentuckians would hear me on the other side of the river. For that reasen, I propose to address a portion of what I have to say to the Kentuckians. I say, then, in the first place to the Kentuckians, that I am what they call, as I understand it, a "Black Repub- lican." I think slavery is wrong, morally and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should grad- ually terminate in the whole Union. While I say this for myself, I say to you, Kentuckians, that I understand you differ radically with me upon this proposition; that you believe slavery is a good thing; that slavery is right; that it ought to be extended and perpetuated in this Union. Now, there being this broad difference between us, I do not pretend in addressing myself to you, Ken- tuckians, to attempt proselyting you; that would be a vain effort. I do not enter upon it. I only propose to try to show you that you ought to nominate for the next Presidency, at Charleston, my distinguished friend, Judge Douglas. In all that there is a difference between you and him; I understand he is sincerely for you, and more wisely for you than you are for yourself. I will try to demonstrate that proposition. Understand now, I say that I believe he is as sincerely for you, and more wisely for you, than you are for yourselves. What do you want more than anything else to make 258 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. successful your views of slavery — to advance the out- spread of it, and to secure and perpetuate the nationality of it? What do you want more than anything else? What is needed absolutely? What is indispensable to you? Why! if I may be allowed to answer the question, it is to retain a hold upon the North — it is to- retain support and strength from the free states. If you can get this support and strength from the free states you can succeed. If you do not get this support aud this strength from the free states, you are in the minority, and you are beaten at once. If that proposition be admitted — and it is undeniable — then the next thing I say to you is, that Douglas, of all the men in this nation, is the only man that affords you any hold upon the free states; that no other man can give you any strength in the free states. This being so, if you doubt the other branch of the proposition, whether he is for you — whether he is really for you, as I have ex- pressed it, I propose asking your attention for a while to a few facts. THE ISSUE. The issue between you and me, understand, is, that I think slavery is wrong, and ought not to be outspread, and you think it is right and ought to be extended and perpetuated. [A voice, [*'OLord."] That is my Ken- tuckian I am talking to now. I now proceed to try to show you that Douglas is sin- cerely for you, and more wisely for you, than you are for yourselves. In the first place, we know that in a Government like this, in a Government of the people, where the voice of SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 259 all the men in that country, substantially, enters into the execution — or administration rather — of the Government — in such a Government, what lies at the bottom of all of it, is public opinion. I lay down the proposition, that Judge Douglas is not only the man that promises you in advance a hold upon the North, and support in the North, but that he constantly molds public opinion to your ends; that in every possible way he can, heconstantl}^ molds the public opinion of the North to your ends; and if there are a few things in which he seems to be against you — a few things which he says that appear to be against you, and a few that he forbears to say which you would like to have him say — you ought to remember that the saying of the one, or the forbearing to say the other, would lose his hold upon the North, and, by consequence, would lose his capacity to serve you. Upon this subject of molding public opinion, I call your attention to the fact — for a well-established fact it is — that the judge never says yonr institution of slavery is wrong; he never says it is right, to be sure, but he never says it is wrong. There is not a public man in the United States, I believe, with the exception of Senator Douglas, who has not, at some time in his life, declared his opinion whether the thing is right or wrong; but Senator Douglas never declares it wrong. He leaves himself at perfect liberty to do all in your favor which he would be hindered from doing if he were to declare the thing to be wrong. On the contrary, he takes all the chances that he has for inveigling the sentiment of the North, opposed to slavery, into your support, by never saying it is right. This you ought to set down to his 26o Lincoln's speeches complete. credit. You ought to give him full credit for this much, little though it be in comparison to the whole which he does for you. vote it up or down, no matter which. Some other things I will ask your attention to. He said upon the floor of the United States Senate, and he has repeated it, as I understand, a great many times, that he does not care whether slavery is ' 'voted up or voted down. " This again shows you, or ought to show you, if you would reason upon it, that he does not be- lieve it to be wrong; for a man may say, when he sees nothing wrong in a thing, that he does not care whether it be voted up or voted down; but no man can logically say that he cares not whether a thing goes up or goes down, which to him appears to be wrong. You therefore have a demonstration in this, that to Judge Douglas's mind your favorite institution, which you would have spread out, and made perpetual, is no wrong. Another thing he tells you, in a speech made at Mem- phis, in Tennessee, shortly after the canvass in Illinois last year. He there distinctly told the people that there was a ' 'line drawn by the Almighty across this continent on the one side of which the soil must always be culti- vated by slaves;" that he did not pretend to know ex- actly where that line was, but that there was such a line I want to ask your attention to that proposition again: that there is one portion of this continent where the Al- mighty has designed the soil shall always be cultivated by slaves; that its being cultivated by slaves at that place is right; that it has the direct sympathy and authority of the Almighty. SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 26 1 Whenever you can get these Northern audiences to adopt the opinion that slavery is right on the other side of the Ohio; whenever you can get them, in pursuance of Douglas's views, to adopt that sentiment, they will very readily make the other argument, which is perfectly logical, that that which is right on that side of the Ohio, can not be wrong on this; and that if you have that prop- erty on that side of the Ohio, under the seal and stamp of the Almighty, when by any means it escapes over here, it is wrong to have Constitutions and laws * 'to devil" you about it. So Douglas is molding the public opinion of the North, first to say that the thing is right in your state over the Ohio river, and hence to say that that which is right there is not wrong here, and that all laws and Constitutions here, recognizing it as being wrong, are themselves wrong, and ought to be repealed and abrogated. He" will tell you, men of Ohio, that if you choose here to have laws against slavery, it is in con- formity to the idea that your climate is not suited to it; that your climate is not suited to slave labor, and there- fore you have Constitutions and laws against it. Let us attend to that argument for a little while, and see if it is sound. You do not raise sugar cane, (except the new-fashioned sugar-cane, and you won't raise that long,) but they do raise it in Louisiana. You don't raise it in Ohio because you can't raise it profitably, because the climate don't suit it. They do raise it in Louisiana because there it is profitable. Now, Douglas w^ill tell you that is precisely the slavery question. That they do have slaves there because they are profitable, and you don't have them here because they are not profitable. If that 262 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. is SO, then it leads to dealing with the one precisely as with the other. Is there anything in the Constitution or laws of Ohio against raising sugar cane.? Have you found it necessary to put any such provision in your law.'* Surely not! No man desires to raise sugar-cane in Ohio; but, if any man did desire to do so, you would say it was a tyrannical law that forbids him doing so; and whenever your minds are brought to adopt his argument, as surely you will have reached the conclusion, that although slave- ry is not profitable in Ohio, if any man wants it, it is wrong to him not to let him have it. In this Judge Douglas is preparing the public mind f®r you of Kentucky, to make perpetual that good thing in your estimation, about which you and I differ. THE SHARERS IN THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. In this connection let me ask your attention to another thing. I believe it is safe to assert that, five years ago, no living man had expressed the opinion that the negro had no share in the Declaration of Independence. Let me state that again; five years ago no living man had ex- pressed the opinion that the negro had no share in the Declaration of Independence. If there is in this large au- dience any man who ever knew of that opinion being put upon paper as much as five years ago, I will be obliged to him now or at a subsequent time to show it. If that be true I wish you then to note the next fact; that within the space of five years Senator Douglas, in the argument of this question, has got his entire party, so far as I know, without exception, to join in saying that the negro has no share in the Declaration of Independence. SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 263 If there be now, in all these United States, one Douglas man that does not say this, I have been unable on any occasion to scare him up. Now, if none of you said this five years ago, and all of you say it now, that is a matter that you Kentuckians ought to note. That is a vast change in the Northern public sentiment upon that question. A GREAT CHANGE. Of what tendency is that change.? The tendency of that change is to bring the public mind to the conclusion that when men are spoken of, the negro is not meant; that when negroes are spoken of, brutes alone are con- templated. That change in public sentiment has already degraded the black man in the estimation of Douglas and his followers from the condition of a man of some sort, and assigned him to the condition of a brute. Now, you Kentuckians ought to give Douglas credit for this. That is the largest possible stride that can be made in regard to the perpetuation of your thing of slavery. A voice — "Speak to Ohio men, and not to Kentuck- ians!" Mr. Lincoln — I beg permission to speak as I please. In Kentucky perhaps, in many of the slave states cer- tainly, you are trying to establish the rightfulness of slave- ry by reference to the Bible. Yon are trying to show that slavery existed in the Bible times by Divine ordi- nance. Now, Douglas is wiser than you, for your own benefit upon that subject. Douglas knows that whenever you establish that slave- ry was right by the Bible, it will occur that, that slavery 264 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. was the slavery of the white man — of men without refe- rence to color — and he knows very well that you may en- tertain that idea in Kentucky as much as you please, but you will never win any Northern support upon it. He makes a wiser ajrgument for you; he makes the argument that the slavery of the black man, the slavery of the man who has a skin of a different color from your own, is right. He thereby brings to your support Northern voters who could not for a moment be brought by your own argument of the Bible-right of slavery. Will you not give him credit for that.^ Will you not say that in this matter he is more wisely for you than you are for your- selves? Now, having established with his entire party this doc- trine, having been entirely successful in that branch of his efforts in your behalf, he is ready for another. At this same meeting at Memphis, he declares that, while in all contests between the negro and the white man, he was for the white man, but that in all questions between the negro and the crocodile he was for the negro. He did not make that declaration accidentally at Mem- phis. He made it a great many times in the canvass in Illinois last year, (though I dou't know that it was report- ed in any of his speeches there,) but he frequently made it. I believe he repeated it at Columbus, and I should not wonder if he repeated it here. It is, then, a deliber- ate way of expressions himself upon that subject. It is a m'atter of mature deliberation with him thus to express himself upon that point of his case. It therefore requires some deliberate attention. The first inference seems to be if you do not enslave SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 26$ the negro you are wrongiug the white man in some way or other; and that whoever is opposed to the negro be- ing enslaved, is, in some way or other, against the white man. Is not that a falsehood? If there was a necessary conflict between the white man and the negro, I should be for the white man as much as Judge Douglas; buf I say there is no such necessary conflict. I say there is room enough for us all to be free, and that it not only does not wrong the white man that the negro should be free, but it positively wrongs the mass of the white men that the negro should be enslaved; that the mass of white men are really injured by the effects of slave-labor in the fields of their own labor. But I do not desire to dwell upon this branch of the question more than to say that this assumption of his is false, and I do hope that the fallacy will not long prevail in the minds of intelligent white men. At all events, you ought to thank Judge Douglas for it. It is for your ben- efit it is made. The other branch of it is, that in a struggle between the negro and the crocodile, he is for the negro. Well, I don't know that there is any struggle between the negro and the crocodile either. I suppose that if a crocodile (or, as we old Ohio river boatmen used to call them, alli- gators) should come across a white man, he would kill him if he could, and so he would a negro. But what, at last, is this proposition.? I believe that it is a sort of proposi- tion in proportion, which may be stated thus:* 'As the ne- gro is to the white man, so is the crocodile to the negro; and as the negro may rightfully treat the crocodile as a beast or reptile, so the white man may rightfully treat the 266 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. negro as a beast or reptile." That is really the "knip'' of all that argument of his. Now my brother Kentuckians, who believe in this, you ought to thank Judge Douglas for having put that in a much more taking way than any of yourselves have done. Again, Douglas's great principle, ' 'Popular Sovereign- ty," as he calls it, gives you, by natural consequence, the revival of the slave-trade whenever you want it. If you question this, listen a while, consider a while, what I shall advance in support of that proposition. He says that it is the sacred right of the man who goes into the territories, to have slavery if he wants it. Grant that for argument's sake. Is it not the sacred right of the men who don't go there equally to buy slaves in Africa, if he wants them.^* Can you point out the differ- ence.? The man who goes into the Territories of Kan- sas and Nebraska, or any other new territory, with the sacred right of taking a slave there which belongs to him, would certainly have no more right of taking a slave there than I would, who own no slave, but who would desire to buy one and take him there. You will not say — you, the friends of Judge Douglas — but that the man who does not own a slave, has an equal right to buy one and take him to the territory, as the other does. A RUNNING FIRE. A VOICE — " I want to ask a question. Don't foreign nations interfere with the slave-trade.?" Mr. Lincoln — Well! I understand it to be a principle of Democracy to whip foreign nations whenever they in- terfere with us. SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 267 Voice — "I only ask for information. I am a Repub- lican myself." Mr. Lincoln — You and 1 will be on the best termns in the world, but I do not wish to be diverted from the point I was trying to press. I say that Dougla's Popular Sovereignty, establishing his sacred right in the people, if you please, if carried to its logical conclusion, gives equally the sacred right to the people of the states or the territories themselves to buy slaves, wherever they can buy them cheapest; and if any man can show a distinction, 1 should like to hear him try it. If any man can show how the people of Kansas have a better right to slaves because they want them, than the people of Georgia have to buy them in Africa, I want him to do it. I think it can not be done. If it is "Popular Sovereignty" for the people to have slaves because they want them, it is "Popular Sovereign- ty" for them to buy them in Africa, because they desire to do so. the scope of the constitution. I know that Douglas has recently made a little effort — not seeming to notice that he had a different theory — has made an effort to get rid of that. He has written a let- ter, adressed to somebody, I believe, who resides in Iowa, declaring his opposition to the repeal of the laws that prohibit the African slave-trade. He bases his opposi- tion to such repeal, upon the ground that these laws are themselves one of the compromises of the Constitution of the United States. Now it would be very interesting to see Judge Douglas, or any of his friends, turn to the Con- 268 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. stitution of the United States and point out that com- promise to show where there is any compromise in the Constitution,, or provision in the Constitution, express or imphed, by which the administrators of that Constitution are under any obHgation to repeal the African slave-trade. I know, or at least I think I know, that the framers of that Constitution did expect that the African slave-trade would be abolished at the end of twenty years, to which time their prohibition against its being abolished extend- ed- I think there is abundant cotemporaneous history to show that the framers of the Constitution expected it to be abolished- But while they so expected, they gave nothing for that expectation, and they put no provision in the Constitution requiring it should be abolished. The migration or importation of such persons as the states shall see fit to admit, shall not be prohibited, but a cer- tain tax might be levied upon such importation. But what was to be done after that time.'' The Constitution is as sileut about that, as it is silent, personally, about myself. There is absolutely nothing in it about that subject; there is only the expectation of the framers of the Constitution that the slave-trade would be abolished at the end of that time, and they expected it would be abolished, owing to public sentiment, before that time, and they put that provision in, in order that it should not be abolished before that time, for reasons which I suppose they thought to be sound ones, but which I will now try to enumerate before you. WHAT WAS EXPECTED. But while they expected the slave-trade would be SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 269 abolished at that time, they expected that the spread of slavery into the new territories should also be restricted. It is as easy to prove that the framers of the Constitu- tion of the United States expected that slavery should be prohibited from extending into the new territories, as it is to prove that it was expected that the slave-trade should be abolished. Both these things were expected. One was no more expected than the other, and one was no more a compromise of the Constitution than the other. There was nothing said in the Constitution in regard to the spread of slavery into the territory. I grant that, but there was something very important said about it by the same generation of men in the adoption of the old ordinance of '87, through the Influence of which, you here in Ohio, our neighbors in Indiana, we in Illinois, our neighbors in Michigan and Wisconsin are happy, pros- perous, teeming millions of free men. That generation of men, though not to the full extent members of the Convention that framed the Constitution, were to some extent members of that Convention, holding seats at the same time in one body and the other, so that if there was any compromise on either of these subjects, the strong evidence is, that that compromise was in favor of the restriction of slavery from the new territories. MORE OF Lincoln's sarcasm. But Douglas says that he is unalterably opposed to the repeal of these laws because, in his view, it is a compro- mise of the Constitution. You Kentuckians, no doubt, are somewhat offended with that! You ought not to be! You ought to be patient! You ought to know that if he 270 llncoln's speeches complete. said less than that, he would lose the power of "lugging the Northern States to your support. Really, what you would push him to do would take from him his entire power to serve you. And you ought to remember how long, by precedent, Judge Douglas holds himself obliged to stick by compromises. You ought to remember that by the time you yourselves think you are ready to inau- gurate measures for the revival of the African slave-trade, that sufficient time will have arrived, by precedent, for Judge Douglas to break through that compromise. He says now nothing more strong than he said in 1849, when he declared in favor of the Missouri Compromise — that precisely four years and a quarter after he declared that compromise to be a sacred thing, which "no ruthless hand would ever dare to touch, ' ' he, himself, brought forward the measure, ruthlessly to destroy it. By a mere calculation of time, it will only be four years more until he is ready to take back his profession about the sacred- ness of the Compromise abolishing the slave-trade. Pre- cisely as soon as you are ready to have his services in that direction, by fair calculation, you may be sure of having them. But you remember and set down to Judge Douglas's debt, or discredit, that he, last year said the people of territories can, in spite of the Dred Scott decision, exclude your slaves from those territories; that he declared by "unfriendly legislation," the extension of your property into the new territoties may be cut off in the teeth of the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. He assumed that position at Freeport, on the 27th of August, 1858. He said that the people of the territories SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC, 2/1 can exclude slavery in so many words. You ought, how- ever, to bear in mind that he has never said it since. You may hunt in every speech that he has since made, and he has never used that expression once. He has never seemed to notice that he is stating his views dif- ferently from what he did then; but, by some sort of ac- cident, he has always really stated it differently. He has always, since then, declared that ' 'the Constitution does not carry slavery into the territories of the United States, beyond the power of the people legally to control it, as other property. " Now, there is a difference in the language used upon that former occasion and in this lat- ter day. There may or may not be a difference in the meaning, but it is worth while considering whether there is not also a difference in meaning. EXCLUDING AND CONTROLLING. What is it to exclude.? Why, it is to drive it out; it is in some way to put it out of the territory; it is to force it across the line, or change its character, so that as prop- erty it is out of existence. But what is the controlling of it *'as other property.?" Is controlling it as other prop- erty the same thing as destroying it, or driving it away.? I should think not. I should think the controlHng of it as other property would be just about what you in Ken- tucky would want. I understand the controlling of prop- erty means the controlling of it for the benefit of the owner of it. While I have no doubt the Supreme Court of the United States would say "God speed" to any of the territorial Legislatures that should thus control slave property; they would sing quite a different tune, if by the 272 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. pretense of controlling it they were to undertake to pass laws which virtually excluded it, and that upon a very well known principle to all lawyers, that what a Legisla- ture can not directly do, it cannot do by indirection; that as the Legislature has not the power to drive slaves out, they have no power by indrrection, by tax, or by imposing burdens in any way on that property, to effect the same end, and that any attempt to do so would be held by the Dred Scott court unconstitutional. CONTROLLED AS OTHER PROPERTY. Douglas is not willing to stand by his first proposition that they can exclude it, because we have seen that that proposition amounts to nothing more nor less than the naked absurdity, that you may lawfully drive out that which has a lawful right to remain. He admitted at first that the slave might be lawfully taken into the territo- ries under the Constitution of the United States, and yet asserted that he might be lawfully driven out. This be- ing the proposition, it is the absurdity I have stated. He is not willing to stand in the face of that direct, naked, and impudent absurdity; he has, therefore, mod- ified his language into that of being ''controlled as other property. " The Kentuckians don't like this in Douglas! I will tell you where it will go. He now swears by the court. He was once a leading man in Illinois to break down a court, because it had made a decision he did not like. But he now not only swears by the court, the courts hav- ing got to working for you, but he denounces all men that do not swear by the courts, as unpatriotic, .as bad citizens. When one of these acts of unfriendly legisla- SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 2/3 tion shall impose such heavy burdens as to, in effect, destroy property in slaves in a territory, and show plainly enough that there can be no mistake in the purpose of the Legislature to make them so burdensome, this same Supreme Court will decide that law te be unconstitu- tional, and he will be ready to say for your benefit, ''I swear by the court; I give it up;" and while that is going on, he has been getting all his men to swear by the courts, and to give it up with him. In this again he serves you faithfully, and, as I say, more v/isely than you serve yourselves. *'THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT." Again: I have alluded in the beginning of these re- marks to the fact, that Judge Douglas has made great complaint of my having expressed the opinion that this Government ' 'can not endure permanently half slave and ^ half free." He has complained of Seward for using dif- ferent language, and declaring that there is an ''irrepress- ible conflict" between the principles of free and slave labor. [A voice — "He says it is not original with Sew- ard. That is original with Lincoln."] I will attend to that immediately sir. Since that time, Hickman, of Pennsylvania, expressed the same sentiment. He has never denounced Mr. Hickman. Why.? There is a little chance, notwithstanding that opinion in the mouth of Hickman, that he may yet be a Douglas man. That is the difference! It is not unpatriotic to hold that opinion if a man is a Douglas man. But neither I, nor Seward, nor Hickman, is entitled to the enviable or unenviable distinction of having first ex- pressed that idea. That same idea was expressed by the 274 Lincoln's speeches complete. Richmond Enquirer, in Virginia, in 1856; quite two years before it was expressed by the first of us. And while Douglas was pluming himself, that in his conflict with my humble self, last year, he had ''squelched out" that fatal hersey, as he delighted to call it, and had sug- gested that if he only had had a chance to be in New York and meet Seward, he would have ' 'squelched" it there also, it never occurred to him to breathe a word against Pryor. I don't think that you can discover that Douglas ever talked of going to Virginia to ' 'squelch" out that idea there. No. More than that: that same Roger A. Pryor was brought to Washington City and made the editor of the par excellence Douglas paper, after making use of that expression, which, in us, is so unpatriotic and heretical. From all this, my Kentucky friends may see that this opinion is heretical in his view only when ex- pressed by men suspected of a desire that the country shall all become free, and not when expressed by those fairly known to entertain the desire that the whole coun- try shall become slave. When expressed by that class of men, it is in nowise offensive to him. In this again, my friends of Kentucky, you have Judge Douglas with you. ADDITIONAL REASONS. There is another reason why you Southern people ought to nominate Douglas at your Convention at Charleston. That reason is the wonderful capacity of the man; the power he has of doing -what would seem to be impossible. Let me call your attention to one of these apparently impossible things. Douglas had three or four very distinguished men of ' SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 2/5 the most extreme anti-slavery views of any men in the RepubHcan party, expressing their desire for his re-elec- tion to the Senate last year. That would, of itself, have seemed to be a little wonderful, but that wonder is hight- ened when we see that Wise, of Virginia, a man exactly opposed to them, a man who believes in the Divine right of slavery, was also expressing his desire that Douglas should be re-elected; that another man that may be said to be kindred to Wise, Mr. Breckinridge, the Vice-Pres- ident, and of your own state, was also agreeing with the anti-slavery men in the North, that Douglas ought to be re-elected. Still to heighten the wonder, a Senator from Kentucky, whom I have always loved with an affection as tender and endearing as I have ever loved any man; who was opposed to the auti-slavery men for reasons which seemed sufficient to him, and equally opposed to Wise and Breckinridge, was writing letters into Illinois to secure the re-election of Douglas. Now that all these conflicting elements should be brought, while at dagger's points, with one another, to support him, is a feat that is worthy of you to note and consider. It is quite probable that each of these classes of men thought, by the re-election of Douglas, their peculiar views would gain something; it is probable that the anti-slavery men thought their views would gain something; that Wise and Breckinridge thought so too, as regards their opinion; that Mr. Crittenden thought that his views would gain something, although he was opposed to both those other men. It is probable that each and all of them thought that they were using Doug- las, and it is yet an unsolved problem whether he was not 2/6 Lincoln's speeches complete. using them all. If he was, then it is for you to consider whether that power to perform wonders, is one for you lightly to throw away. * 'NO fee" for this. There is one other thing that I will say to you in this relation. It is but my opinion, I give it to you without a fee. It is my opinion that it is for you to take him or be defeated; and that if you do take him you may be beaten. You will surely be beaten if you do not take him. We, the Republicans and others forming the opposition of the country, intend to "stand by our guns," to be patient and firm, and in the long run to beat you whether you take him or not. We know that before we fairly beat you, we have to beat you both together. We know that you are "all of a feather," and that we have to beat you altogether, and we expect to do it. We don't intend to be very impatient ubout it. We mean to be as delib- erate and calm about it as it is possible to be, but as firm and resolved as it is possible for men to be. When we do as we say, beat you, you perhaps want to know what we will do with you. I will tell you, so far as I am authorized to speak for the opposition, what we mean to do with you. We mean to treat you, as near as we possibly can, as Wash- ington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you. We mean to leave you alone, and in no way to interfere with your institution; to abide by all and every compromise of the Constitution, and, in a word, coming back to the original proposition, to treat you, so far as degenerated men (if we have degenerated) may, according to the examples of those noble fathers — Washington, Jefferson, and Madi- son. SLAVERY, labor; ETC. 2^7 WHAT WE MEAN TO DO. We mean to remember that you are as good as we; that there is no difference between us other than the dif- ference of circumstances. We mean to recognize and bear in mind always that you have as good hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to have, and treat you accordingly. We mean to marry your girls when we have a chance — the white ones I mean; and I have the honor to inform you that I once did have a chance in that way. WHAT WILL YOU DO.? I have told you what we mean to do. I want to know now, when that thing takes place, what do you mean to do.? I often hear it intimated that you mean to divide the Union whenever a Republican, or anything like it, is elected President of the United States. A voice — That is so. Mr. Lincoln — ''That is so," one of them says; I wonder if he is a Kentuckian? A voice — He is a Douglas man. Mr. Lincoln — Well, then, I want to know what you are going to do with your half of it.? Are you going to split the Ohio down through, and push your half off a piece.? Or are you going to keep it right along-side of us outrageous fellows.? Or are you going to build up a wall some way between your country and ours, by which that movable property of yours can't come over here any more, to the danger of you losing it.? Do you think you can better yourselves on that subject, by leaving us here under no obligation whatever to return those specimens of your movable property that come 2/8 Lincoln's speeches complete. hither? You have divided the Union because we v^ould not do right w^ith you, as you think, upon that subject; when we cease to be under obhgations to do anything for you, how much better off do you think you will be? WILL YOU make war? IF YOU DO, IT WILL MAKE IT WORSE FOR you! Will you make war upon us, and kill us all? Why, gentlemen, I think you are as gallant and as brave men as live; that you can fight as bravely in a good cause, man for man, as any other people living; that you have shown yourselves capable of this upon various occasions; but man for man, you are not better than we are, and there are not so many of you as there are of us. You will never make much of a hand at whipping us. If we were fewer in numbers than you, I think that you could whip us; if we were equal, it would likely be a drawn battle; but being inferior in numbers, you will make nothing by attempting to master us. But perhaps I have addressed myself as long, or longer, to the Kentuckians that I ought to have done, inasmuch as I have said that whatever course you take we intend in the end to beat you. I propose to address a few remarks to our friends, by way of discussing with them the best means of keeping that promise that I have in good faith made. It may appear a little episodical for me to mention the topic of which I shall speak now. It is a favorite prop- osition of Douglas's that the interference of the General Government, through the ordinance of '^7, or through any other act of the General Government, never has made or ever can make a free state; that the ordinance of '87 SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 2/9 did not make free states of Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois. That these states are free upon his "great piinciple" of popular sovereignty, because the people of those several states have chosen to make them so. At Columbus, and probably here, he undertook to compliment the people that they themselves have made the State of Ohio free, and that the ordinance of '^"j was not entitled, in any degree, to divide the honor with them. I have no doubt that the people of the State of Ohio did make her free according to their own will and judgement, but let the facts be remembered. HOW OHIO WAS MADE A FREE STATE. In 1802, I believe, it was you made your first Consti- tution, with the clause prohibiting slavery, and you did it, I suppose, very unamiously; but you should bear in mind that you — speaking of you as one people — that you did so unembarrassed by the actual presence of the institution among you; that you made it a free state, not with the embarrassment upon you of already having among you many slaves, which, if they had been here, and you had sought to make a free state, you would not know what to do with. If they had been among you, embarrassing difficulties, most probably, would have induced you to tolerate a slave Constitution instead of a free one, as in- deed these very difficulties have oonstrained every people on this continent who have adopted slavery. Pray what was it that made you free.? What kept you free.? Did you not find your country free when you came to decide that Ohio should be a free state.? It is impor- tant to inquire by what reason you found it so.? Let us take an illustration between the states of Ohio and Ken- 28o Lincoln's speeches complete tucky. Kentucky is separated by this river Ohio, not a mile wide. A portion of Kentucky, by reason of the course of the Ohio, is further north than this portion of Ohio, in which we now stand. Kentucky is entirely cov- ered with slavery — Ohio is entirely free from it. What made that difference.? Was it climate.'* No! A portion of Kentucky was further north than this portion of Ohio. Was it soil.? No! There is nothing in the soil of the one more favorable to slave labor than the other. It was not climate or soil that caused one side of the line to be entirely covered with slavery, and the other side free of it. What was it.? Study over it. Tell us, if you can, in all the range of conjecture, if there be anything you can conceive of that made that difference, other than that there w,as no law of any sort keeping it out of Kentucky, while the ordinance of '2>'j kept it out of Ohio.? If there is any other reason than this, I confess that it is wholly beyond my power to conceive it. This, then, I offer to combat the idea that that ordinance has never made any state free. INDIANA AND KENTUCKY. I don't stop at this illustration. I come to the State of Indiana; and what I have said as between Kentucky and Ohio, I repeat as between Indiana and Kentucky; it is equally applicable. One additional argument is applica- ble also to Indiana. In her territorial condition she more than once petitioned Congress to abrogate the ordinance entirely, or at least so far as to suspend its operation for a time, in order that they should exercise the * 'popular sovereignty" of having slaves if they wanted them. The SLAVEry, LABOR, ETC. 28 1 men then controlling the General Government, imitating the men of the Revolution, refused Indiana that privilege. And so we have the evidence that Indiana supposed she could have slaves if it were not for that ordinance; that that she besought Congress to put that barrier out of the way; that Congress refused to do so, and it all ended at last in Indiana being a free state, Tell me not, then, that the ordinance of '87 had nothing to do with making Indiana a free state, when we find some men chafing against and only restrained by that barrier. THE GREAT NORTHWESTERN TERRITORY. Come down again to our State of Illinois. The great Northwestern Territory, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, was acquired first, I believe, by the British Government, in part, at least, from the French. Before the establishment of our independence, it became a part of Virginia; enabling Virginia afterward to transfer it to the General Government. There were French settlements in what is now Illinois, and at the same time there were French settlements in what is now Missouri — in the tract of country that was not purchased till about 1803. In these French settlements negro slave- ry had existed for many years — perhaps more than a hundred, if not as much as two hundred years — at Kas- kaskia, in Illinois, and at St. Genevieve, or Cape Girar- deau, perhaps in Missouri. The number of slaves was not very great, but there was about the same number in each place. They were there when we acquired the ter- ritory. There was no effort made to break up the re- lation of master and slave, and even the ordinance of 1787 was not so enforced as to destroy that slavery in 282 Lincoln's speeches complete. Illinois; nor did the ordinance apply to Missouri at all. ILLINOIS AND MISSOURI. What I want to ask your attention to at this point, is that Illinois and Missouri came into the Union about the same time, Illinois in the latter part of 1818, and Mis- souri, after a struggle, I believe some time in 1820. They had been filling up with American people about the same period of time; their progress enabling them to come into the Union about the same. At the end of that ten years, in which they had been so preparing, (for it was about that period of time,) the number of slaves in Illinois had actually decreased; while in Mis- souri, beginning with very few, at the end of that ten years, there was about ten thousand. This being so, and it being remembered that Missouri and Illinois are, to a certain extent, in the same parallel of latitude — that the northern half of Missouri and the southern half of Illinois are in the same parallel of latitude — so that climate would have the same effect upon one as upon the other, and that in the soil there is no material differ- ence so far as bears upon the question of slavery being settled upon one or the other — there being none of those natural causes to produce a difference in filling them and, yet there being a broad difference in their filling up, we are led again to inquire what was the cause of that difference. It is most natural to say that in Missouri there was no law to keep that country from filling up with slaves, while in Illinois there was the ordinance of 'Sy. Tne ordi- nance being there slavery decreased during that ten SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 283 years — the ordinance not being in the other, it increased from a few to ten thousand. Can anybody doubt the reason of the difference? I think all these facts most abundantly prove that my friend Judge Dougla's proposition, that the ordinance of '87, or the national restriction of slavery, never had a tendency to make a free state, is a fallacy — a proposition without the shadow or substance of truth about it. Douglas sometimes says that all the states (and it is part of this same proposition I have been discussing) that have become free, have become so upon his * 'great principle;" that the state of Illinois itself came into the Union as a slave state, and that the people, upon the "great principle" of Popular Sovereigntv, have since made it a free state. Allow me but a little while to state to you what facts there are to justify him in saying that Illinois came into the Union as a slave state. WAS ILLINOIS A SLAVE STATE.? I have mentioned to you that there were a few old French slaves there. They numbered, I think, one or two hundred. Besides that, there had been a territorial law for indenturing black persons. Under that law, in violation of the ordinance of '^y, but without any en- forcement of the ordinance to overthrow the system, there had been a small number of slaves introduced as indentured persons. Owing to this the clause for the prohibition of slavery was slightly modfied. Instead of running like yours, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime of which party shall have been 284 Lincoln's speeches complete. duly convicted, should exist in the state, they said that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should there- after be introduced, and that the children of indentured servants should be born free; and nothing was said about the few old French slaves. Out of this fact, that the clause for prohibiting slavery was modified because of the actual presence of it, Douglas asserts again and again that Illinois came into the Union as a slave state. How far the facts sustain the conclusion that he draws it is for intelligent and impartial men to decide. I leave it with you with these remarks, worthy of being remem- bered, that that little thing, those few indentured servants being there, was of itself sufficient to modify a Constitu- tion made by a people ardently desiring to have a free Constitution; showing the power of the actual presence of the institution of slavery to prevent any people, how- ever anxious to make a free state, from making it perfect- ly so. I have been detaining you longer, perhaps, than I ought to. POPULAR sovereignty DEFINED. I am in some doubt whether to introduce another topic upon which I could talk awhile. [Cries of ''go on," and ''Give us it. " It is this then: Douglas's popular sov- ereignty, as a principle, is simply this: If one man choses to make a slave of another man, neither that man nor anybody else has a right to object, Apply it to gov- ernment, as he seeks to apply it, and it is this: if, in a new territory, into which a few people are beginning to enter for the purpose of making their homes, they choose SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 285 either to exclude slavery from their limits, or to establish it there, however one or the other may effect the persons to be enslaved, or the infinitely greater number of persons who are afterward to inhabit that territory, or the other members of the family of communities of which they are but an incipient member, or the general head of the family of states as parent of all — however their action may affect one or the other of these, there is no power or right to interfere. That is Douglas's popular sovereignty applied. Now I think that there is a real popular sov- ereignty, in the world. I think a definition of popular sovereignty, in the abstract, would be about this: that each man shall do precisely as he pleases with himself, and with all those things which exclusively concern him. Applied in gov- ernment, this principle would be, that a general govern- ment shall do all those things which pertain to it, and all the local governments shall do precisely as they please in respect to those matters which exclusively concern them. A FEW IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. Upon what principle shall it be said the planting of a new territory by the first thousand people that migrate to it, is a matter concerning them exclusively.^ What kind of logic is it that argues that it in no wise concerns, if you please, the black men who are to be enslaved.? Or if you are afraid to say anything about that; if you have been bedeviled for your sympathy for the negro; if noses have been turned up at you; and if you have been ac- cused of having wanted the negro as your social equal, for a juror, to be a witness against your white brethren, 286 Lincoln's speeches complete. or even to marry with him; if you have been accused of all this, antil you, are afraid to speak of the colored race; — then, 1 ask you, w^hat right is there to say that the planting of free soil with slavery has no effect upon the white men that are to go there afterward as emigrants from the older states? By what right do a few of the first setlers fix that first condition beyond the power of succeeding millions to eradicate it? Why slall a few men be allowed, as it were, to sow that virgin soil with Can- ada thistles, or any other pest of the soil, which the far- mer, in subsequent ages, cannot eradiate without endless toil. Is it a matter that exclusively concerns those few people that settle there first? Douglas argues that it is a matter of exclusive local jurisdiction. What enables him to say that? It is be- cause he looks upon slavery as so insignificant that the people may decide that question for themselves, albeit they are not fit to decide who shall be their governor,, judge or secretary, or who have been any of their officers. These are vast national matters, in his estimation; but the little matter, in his estimation, is the planting of slavery there. That is purely local interest, which no- body should be allowed to say a word about. It is a great national question that Sammedary shall be appoint- ed by the President as Governor of Kansas, that he may go there for a year or two, and come away without there being left behind him a sign for good or evil of his hav- ing been there, but the question of planting slavery on that soil is a little, local, unimportant matter, that no- body ought to be allowed to speak of. Such an expres- sion is absolutely shameful. SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 28/ LABOR AND LABORERS Labor is the great source from which nearly all, if not all, human comforts and necessaries are drawn. There is a difference of opinion about the elements of labor in a society. Some men assume that there is a necessary connection between capital and labor, and that connec- tion draws within it all of the labor of the comunity. They assume that nobody works unless capital excites him to work. They begin next to consider what is the best way for capital to be used to induce people to work. They say that there are but two ways; one is, to hire men and allure them to labor by their own consent, and the other is to buy the men, and drive them to labor. This latter is slavery. Having assumed so much, they proceed to discuss the question of whether the laborers themselves are better off in the conditi on of slavery or of hired laborers; and they usually decide that they are better off in the condition of slaves. THE IMPORTANT RELATION OF CAPITAL AND LABOR. In the first place I say that that whole theory is a mistake. That there is a certain relation between capi- tal and labor; I admit. That it does exist, and right- fully exist, and that it is proper that it should exist, I think is true. I think, in the progress of things, that men who are industrious, and sober, and honest in the pursuit of their own interests, shoulr" after a while, accumulate capital, and then should be allowed to enjoy it in peace, and also, if they choose, when they have ac- cumulated it, use it to save themselves from actual labor, by hiring other people to labor for them. In doing so, 288 Lincoln's speeches complete. they do not wrong the man they employ, for they find young men who have not of their own land to work upon, or shops to labor in. , and who are benefited by working for others in the capacity of hired laborers, receiving their capital for it. Thus, a few men that own capital, hire others, and thus establish the relation of capital and and labor rightfully; a relation of which I make no com- plaint. But I insist that the relation, after all, does not embrace more that one-eight of all the labor of the coun- try. At least seven-eighths of the labor is done without relation to it. SEVEN EIGHTS OF THE LABOR HAS NO RELATION TO CAPITAL. Take the State of Ohio. Out of eight bushels of wheat, seven are raised by those men who labor for them- selves, aided by their boys grown to manhood, neither being hired nor hiring, but literally laboring upon their own hook, asking no favor of capital, of hired laborer or slave. That is the true condition of the larger portion of all the labor done in this community, or that should be the condition of labor in well-regulated communities of agriculturists. Thus much for that part of the sub- ject. Again: the assumption that the slave is in a better con- dition than the hired laborer includes the further assump- tion that he who is once a hired laborer always remains a hired laborer; that there is a certain class of men who remain through life in a dependent condition. Then they endeavor to point out that when they get old they have no kind masters to take care of them, and that they fall dead in the traces, with the harness of actual SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 289 labor upon their backs. In point of fact that is a false assumption. There is no such thing as a man who is a hired laborer, of a necessity, always remaining in his early condition. Tne general rule is otherwise. I know it is so, and I will tell you why. MR. Lincoln's own experience as a laboring man. When at an early age, I was myself a hired laborer, at twelve dollars per month; and therefore I do know that there is not always the necessity for actual labor be- cause once there was propriety in being so. My under- standing of the hired laborer is this: A young man finds himself of an age to be dismissed from parental control; he has for his capital nothing, save two strong hands that God has given him, a heart willing to labor, and a freedom to choose the mode of his work and the manner of his employer; he has got no soil nor shop, and he avails himself of theopportunity of hiring himself to some man who has capital to pay him a fair day''s wages for a fair day's work. He is benefited by availing himself of that privilege. He works industriously, he behaves soberly, and the result of a year or two's labor is a sur- plus of capital. Now he buys land on his own hook; he settles, marries, begets sons and daughters, and in course of time he has enough capital to hire some new beginner. In this same way every member of the whole com^ munity benefits and improves his condition. That is the true condition of labor in the world, and it breaks up the saying of these men that there is a class of men chained down throughout life to labor for another. There is no such case unless he be of that confiding, and 290 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. leaning disposition that makes it preferable for him to choose that course, or unless he be a vicious man, who, by reason of his vice, is, in some way prevented from improving his condition, or else he be a singularly unfor- tunate man. There is no such thing as a man being bound down in a free country through his life as a laborer. This progress by which the poor, honest, in- : dustrious, and resolute man raises himself, that he may work on his own account, and hire somebody else, is that progress that human nature is entitled to, is that improvement in condition that is intended to be secured by those institutions under which we live, is the great principle for which this government was really formed. Our government was not established that one man might do with himself as he pleases, and with another /man too. Lincoln's views on labor. I hold that if there is any one thing that can be proved to be the will of God by external nature around us with- out reference to revelation, it is the proposition that whatever anyone man earns with his hands and by the sweat of his brow, he shall enjoy in peace. I say that whereas God Almighty has given every man one mouth to be fed, and one pair of hands adapted to furnish food for that mouth, if anything can be proved to be the will of Heaven, it is proved by this facf, that that mouth is to be fed by those hands, without being interfered with by any other man who has also his mouth to feed and his hands to labor with. I hold if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all of the eating and none of the work, he SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 29 1 would have made them with mouths only and no hands, and if he had ever made another class that he intended should do all the work and none of the eating, he would have made them without mouths and with all hands. But inasmuch as he has not chosen to make man in that way, if anything is proved, it is that those hands and mouths are to be co-operative through life and not to be interfered with. That they are to go forth and improve their condition as I have been trying to illustrate, is the inherent right given to mankind directly by the Maker. In the exercise of this right you must have room. In the filling up of countries, it turns out after a while that we get so thick that we have not quite room enough for the exercise of that right, and we desire to go somewhere else. Where shall we go to.? "Where shall you go to es- cape from over-population and competition.? To those new territories which belong to us, which are God-given for that purpose. If, then, you will go to those territo- ries that you may improve your condition, you have a right to keep them in the best condition for those going into them, and can they make that natural advance in their condition if they find the institution of slavery planted there.? My good friends, let me ask you a question — you who have come from Virginia or Kentucky, to get rid of this thing of slavery — let me ask you what headway would you have made in getting rid of it, if by popular sover- eignty you find slavery on that soil which you looked for to be free when you get there.? You would not have made much headway if you had found slavery already 292 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. here, if you had to sit down to your labor by the side of the unpaid workman. I say, then, that it is due to yourselves as voters, a3 owners of the new territories, that you shall keep those territories free, in the best condition for all such of your gallant sons as may choose to go there. I do not desire to elaborate this branch of the general subject of political discussion at this time further. I did not think I would get upon this topic at all, and I have detained you already too long in its discussion. A NATIONAL POLICY THAT STAMPS SLAVERY AS INHERENTLY WRONG. I have taken upon myself, in the name of some of you, to say that we expect, upon these principles, to ultimately beat them. In order to do so, I think we want and must have a national policy in regard to the institution of slavery, that acknowleges and deals with that institution as being wrong. Whoever desires the prevention of the spread of slavery and the nationalization of that institu- tion, yields all, when he yields to any policy that either recognizes slavery as being right, or as being an indif- ferent thing. Nothing will make you successful but set- ting up a policy which shall treat the thing as being wrong. When I say this, I do not mean to say that this General Government is charged with the duty of redress- ing or preventing all the wrongs in the world; but I do think that it is charged with preventing and redressing all wrongs which are wrongs to itself. This Government is expressly charged with the duty of providing for the general welfare. We believe that the spreading out and perpetuity of the institution of SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 293 slavery impairs the* general welfare. We believe — nay, we know, that that is the only thing that has ever threat- ened the perpetuity of the Union itself. The only thing which has ever menaced the destruction of the govern- ment under which we live is this very thing. To repress this thing, we think, is providing fgr the general welfare. Our friends in Kentucky differ from us. We need not make our argument for them, but we who think it is- wrong in all its relations, or in some of them at least must decide as to our own actions, and our own course, upon our own judgement. Lincoln's position. I say that we must not interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists, because the Consti- tution forbids it, and the general welfare does not require us to do so. We must not withhold an efficient fugitive slave law; because the Constitution requires us, as I un- derstand it, not to withhold such a law. But we must prevent the outspreading of the institution; because neither the Constitution nor general welfare requires us to extend it. We must prevent the revival of the African slave-trade, and the enacting, by Congress, of a territor- ial slave code. We must prevent each of these things being done by either congresses or courts. The people of these United States are the rightful masters of both congresses and courts, not to overthrow the Constitu- tion, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Consti- tution. To do these things we must employ instrumentalities. We must hold conventions; we must adopt platforms, if we conform to ordinary custom; we must nominate can- 294 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. didates, and we must carry elections. In all these things, I think that we ought to keep in view our real purpose, and in none do anything that stands adverse to our pur- pose. If we shall adopt a platform that fails to recog- nize or express our purpose, or elect a man that declares himself inimical to our purpose, we not only make nothing by our success, but we tacitly admit that we act upon no other principle than a desire to have the "loaves and fishes," by which, in the end, our apparent success is really an injury to us. ANXIOUS FOR THE WHOLE UNION. I know that this is very desirable with me, as with everybody else, that all the elements of that Opposition shall unite in the next Presidential election and in all future time. I am anxious that that should be, but there are things seriously to be considered in relation to that matter. If the terms can be arranged, I am in favor of the Union. But, suppose we shall take up some man and put him upon one end or the other of the ticket, who declares himself against us in regard to the prevention of the spread of slavery — who turns up his nose, and says he is tired of hearing anything more about it — who is more against us than against the enemy, what will be the issue.? Why, he will get no slave states after all — he has tried that already, until being beat is the rule for him. If we nominate him upon that ground, he will not carry a slave state, and not only so, but that portion of our men who are high-strung upon the principle we really fight for, will not go for him, and he won't get a single electoral vote anywhere, except, perhaps, in the State *of Maryland. There is no use in saying to us that we are SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 295 stubborn and obstinate, because we won't do some such thing as this. We cannot do it. We cannot get our men to vote it. I speak by the card, that we cannot give the State of IlHnois, in such case, by fifty thousand. We would be flatter down than the "Negro Democracy" themselves have the heart to wish to see us. WOULD VOTE FOR SOME GOOD SOUTHERN MAN. After saying this much, let me say a little on the other side. There are plenty of men in the slave states that are altogether good enough for me, to be either President or Vice-President, providing they will profess their sym- pathy with our purpose, and will place themselves on the ground that our men, upon principle, can vote for them. There are scores of them, good men in their char- acter for intelligence and talent and integrity. If such a one will place himself upon the right ground, I am for his occupying one place upon the next Repub- lican or Opposition ticket. I will heartily go for him. But, unless he does so place himself, I think it a matter of perfect nonsense to attempt to bring about a union upon any other basis; that if a union be made, the elements will scatter so that there can be no success for such a ticket, nor anything like success. The good old maxims of the Bible are applicable, and truly applicable to human affairs; and in this, as in other things, we may say here that "He who is not for us is against us;" "He whogathereth not with usscattereth." I should be glad to have some of the many good, and able, and noble men of the South to place themselves where we can confer upon them the high honor of an election, upon one or the other end of our ticket. It would do my soul good to do 296 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. that thing. It would enable us to teach them that, inas- much as we select one of their own number to carry out our principles, we are free from the charge that we mean more than we say. But, my friends, I have detained you much longer than I expected to do. I believe I may do myself the compliment to say, that you have stayed and heard me with great patience, for which I return you my most sincere thanks. LINCOLN'S FIRST PROCLAMATION OF FREEDOM. J. H, Wickizer, a lawyer, gives the following as Lincoln's first proclamation of freedom. It was given one day when the two lawyers were riding in a buggy from Woodford County Court to Bloomington, 111. ; when passing through a grove, they suddenly heard the terrific squealing of a little pig near by, occasioned by an old hog that was about to eat up one of her young ones. Quick as thought Lincoln leaped out of the buggy, seized a club, bounced upon, and beat the hog, and saved, the pig; remarking as he jumped back in the buggy: '*By jing! the unnatural old brute shall not devour her own progeny!" LINCOLN'S GREAT COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. DELIVERED AT COOPER INSTITUTE, NEW YORK CITY, FEBRUARY 2/, 1 86o. [This great speech, more than any other one, is sup- posed to have secured Lincoln the nomination for president.] Mr. President and Fellow Citizens of New York: The facts with which I shall deal this evening are main- ly old and familiar; nor is there anything new in the general use I shall make of them. If there shall be any novel- ty, it will be in the mode of presenting the facts, and the references and observations following that presenta- tion. our fathers and the constitution. In his speech last autumn, at Columbus, Ohio, as reported in the New York times. Senator Douglas said: **Our fathers, when they framed the government under which we live, understood this question just as well, and even better than we do now." I fully indorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this discourse. I so adopt it because it furnishes a precise and an agreed stating-point for a discussion between Re- publicans and that wing of democracy headed by Senator Douglas. It simply leaves the inquiry: "What was the (297) 298^ Lincoln's speeches complete. understanding those fathers had of the question mention- ed?" What is the frame of government under which we live? The answer must be: "The Constitution of the Uni- ted States." That Constitution consists of the original, framed in 1787, (and under which the present govern- ment first went into operation,) and twelve subsequent- ly framed amendments, the first ten of which were framed in 1789. Who were our fathers that framed the Constitution? I suppose the ''thirty-nine" who signed the original in- strument may be fairly called our fathers who framed that part of our present government. It is almost exact- ly true to say they framed it, and it is altogether true to say they fairly represented the opinion and sentiment cf the whole nation at that time. Their names being familiar to nearly all, and accessible to quite all, need not now be repeated. I take these ''thirty-nine." for the present, as being ' 'our fathers who framed the government under which we live." What is the question which, according to the text, those fathers understood just as well and even better than we do now? THE great issue. It is this: Does the proper division of local from Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, for- bid our Federal Government to control as to slavery in our Federal territories? Upon this Douglas holds the affirmative, and Republi- COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 299 cans the negative. This affirmative and denial form an issue; and this issue— this question — is precisely what the text declares our fathers understood better than we. Let us now inquire whether the * 'thirty-nine or any of them ever acted upon this question, and if they did, how they acted upon it — how they expressed that better understanding. In 1784 — three years before the Constitution — the United States then owing the North-western Territory, and no other — the Congress of the Confederation had before them the question of prohibiting slavery in that territory; and four of the "thirty-nine who afterward framed the Constitution were in that Congress,, and' voted on that question. Of these Roger Sherman, Thomas Mifflin and Hugh Williamson voted for the pro- hibition—thus showing that, in their understanding, no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything ^else, properly forbade the Federal Government to con- trol as to slavery in Federal territory. The other of the four — James McHenry — voted against the prohibition, showing that, for some cause, he thought it improper to vote for it. ORDINANCE OF I 787, In 1787, still before the Constitution, but while the convention was in session framing it and while the North-west Territory still was the only territory owned by the United States — the same question of prohibiting slavery in the territory again cam^e before the Congress of the Confederation and three more of the "thirty-nine" who afterward signed the Constitution were in that Congress and voted on the question. They were 300 Lincoln's speeches complete. William Blount, William Few, and Abraham Baldwin, and they all voted for the prohibition — thus showing that, in their understanding, no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything else, properly forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory. This time the prohibition became a law, being a part of what is now known as the ordinance of 'Sy. The question of Federal control of slavery in the territories seems not to have been directly before the convention which framed the original Constitution: and hence it is not recorded that the "thirty-nine" or any of them, while engaged on that instrument, express- ed any opinion on that precise question. THE FIRST congress. In 1789, by the first Congress which sat under the Constitution, an act was passed to enforce the ordi- nance of '8y, including the prohibition of slavery in the North-western Territory. The bill for this act was re- ported by one of the "thirty-nine," Thomas Fitzsim- mons, then a member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. It went through all its stages with- out a word of opposition, and finally passed both branch- es without yeas or nays, which is equivalent to a unani- mous passage. In this Congress there were sixteen of the "thirty-nine fathers who framed the original Con- stitution. They were: John Langdon, George Clymer, Richard Basset, , Nicholas Gilman, William Few, George Read, William S. Johnson, Abraham Baldwin, Pierce Butler, Roger Sherman, Rufus King, Daniel Carroll, COOPER IXSTITl'TE SPEECH. 3OI Robert Morris, William patterson, James Madison, Thos. Fitzsimmoris. This shows that in their understanding no line divid- ing local from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, properly forbade Congress to prohibit slavery in the Federal territory; else both their fidelity to correct principle, and their oath to support the Constitu- tion, would have constrained them to oppose the pro- hibition. GEOEGE WASHINGTON. Again George Washington, another of the "thirty- nine," was then President of the United States, and, as such, approved and signed the bill, thus completing its validity as a law, and thus showing that, in his under- standing, no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory. THE FIRST TERRITORIES. No great while after the adoption of the original Con- stitution, North Carcjlina ceded to the Federal Govern- ment the country now constituting the State of Tennes- see; and a few years later, Georgia ceded that which now constitutes the States of Mississippi and Alabama. In both deeds of cession it was made a condition by the ceding States that the Federal Government should not prohibtt slavery in the ceded country. Besides this slavery was then actually in the ceded country. Under these circumstances. Congress, on taking charge of these countries, did not absolutely prohibit slavery with- in them. But they did interfere with it — take control of it — even there, to a certain extent. In 1798, Con- 302 Lincoln's speeches complete. gress organized the territory of Mississippi. In the act of organization, they prohibited the bringing of slaves into the territories, from any place without the United States, by line, and giving freedom to slaves so brought. This act passed both branches of Congress without yeas and nays. In that Congress were three of the ' 'thirty-nine" who framed the original Constitution. They were John Langdon, George Read, and Abraham Baldwin. They all, probably voted for it. Certainly they would have placed their opposition to it upon the record, if, in their understanding, any line dividing local from Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, properly forbade the Federal Gov- ernment to control as to slavery in Federal territory. the LOUISIANA COUNTRY. In 1803, the Federal Government purchased the Lou- isiana country. Our former territorial acquisitions came from certain of our own states; but this Louisiana country was acquired from a foreign nation. In 1804, Congress gave a territorial organization to that part of it which now constitutes the State of Louisiana. New Orleans, laying within that part, was an old and com- paratively large city. There were other considerable towns and settlements, and slavery was extensively and thouroughly intermingled with the people. Congress did not, in the territorial act, prohibit slavery; but they did interfere with it — take control of it — in a more marked and extensive way than they did in the case of Mississippi. The substance of the provision therein made, in relation to slaves, was: First: That no slaves should be imported into the COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 303 territory from foreign parts. Second: That the slaves should be carried into it who had been imported into the United States since the first day of May, 1 798. Third: That no slave should be carried into it, ex- cept by the ov^ner, and for his own use as a settler; the penalty in all the cases being a fine upon the violator of the law, and freedom to the slave. This act, also, was passed without yeas and nays. In the Congress which passed it there were two of the ''thirty-nine." They were Abraham Baldwin and Jon- athan Dayton. As stated in the case of Mississippi, it is probable they both voted for it; they would not have allowed it to pass without recording their opposition to it, if, in their understanding, it violated either the line properly dividing local from Federal authority or any provision of the Constitution. THE MISSOURI QUESTION. In 1819-20 came, and passed, the Missouri question. Many votes were taken by yeas and nays, in both branches of Congress, npon the various phases of the general question. Two of the "thirty-nine" — Rufus King and Charles Pinckney — were members of that Con- gress. Mr. King steadily voted for slavery prohibition and against all compromises, while Mr. Pinckney as steadly voted against slavery prohibition and against all compromises. By this Mr. King showed that in his understanding, no line divided local from Federal au- thority, nor anything in the Constitution, was violated by Congress prohibiting slavery in Federal territory; while Mr. Pinckney, by his votes, showed that in his 304 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. understanding, there was some different reason for opposing such prohibition in the case. The cases I have mentioned are the only acts of the "thirty-nine," or any of them upon the direct issue, which I have been able to discover. SUMMARY VIEW OF THE SLAVERY QUESTION AS HELD BY THE FATHERS OF OUR COUNTRY. So enumerate the persons who thus acted, as being four in 1784, three in 1787, seventeen in 1789, three in 1798, two in 1804, and two in 1819-20 there would be thirty-one of them. But this would be counting John Langdon, Roger Sherman, William Few, Rufus King, and George Read, each twice, and Abraham Baldwin four times. The true number of those of the * 'thirty- nine," whom I have shown to have acted upon the question, which, by the text, they understood better than we, is twenty-three, leaving sixteen not shown to have acted upon it in any way. Here, then, we have twenty-three of our **thirty-nine" fathers who framed the government under which we live, who have, upon their official responsibility and their corporal oaths, acted upon the very question which the text affirms they "understood just as well, and even better than we do now;" and twenty-one of them — a clear majority of the whole "thirty-nine" — so acting upon it as to make them guilty of gross political impropriety and willful perjury, if, in their understand- ing, any proper division between local and Federal au- thority, or anything in the Constitution they had made themselves and sworn to support, forbade the Federal Government to control, as to slavery, the Federal ter- COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 305 ntorles. Thus the tweny-one acted; and, as actions speak louder than words, so actions under such re- sponsibility speak still louder. Two of the twenty-three voted against Congressional prohibition of the slavery in the Federal territories, in the instances in which they acted upon the question. But for what reasons they so voted is not known. They may have done so because they thought a proper divis- ion of local from Federal authority, or some provision or principle of the Constitution, stood in the way; or they may, without any such question, have voted against the prohibition on what appeared to them to be suf- ficient grounds of expediency. No one who has sworn to support the Constitution can conscientiously vote for what he understands to be an unconstitutional measure however expedient he may think it; but one may and ought to vote against a measure which he deems con stitutional, if, at the same time, he deems it inexpedi- ent. It, therefore, would be unsafe to set down even the two who voted against the prohibition, as having done so because, in their understanding, any proper division of local from Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control, as to slavery, in territory. The remaining sixteen of the **thirty-nine," so far as I have discovered, have left no record of their understand- ing upon the direct question of Federal control of slavery in the Federal territories. But there is much reason to believe that their understanding upon that question would not have appeared different from that of their twenty-three compeers, had it been manifested at all. 306 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. For the purpose of adhering rigidly to the text, I have purposely omitted whatever understanding may have been manifested, by any person, hovv^ever distinguished, other than the "thirty-nine" fathers who framed the original Constitution; and, for the same reason, I have also omited whatever understanding may have been manifested by any of the "thirty-nine," even on any other phase of the general question of slavery. If we should look into their acts and declarations on these other phases, as the foreign slave trade, and the morality and policy of slavery generally, it would appear to us that on the direct question of Federal control of slavery in Federal territories, tht sixteen, if they had acted at all, would probably have acted just as the twenty-three did. Among that sixteen were several of the most noted antislavery men of those times — as Dr. Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Govenor Morris — while there was not one now known to have been 'Otherwise, unless it may be John Rutledge, of South Carolina. The sum of the whole is, that of our "thirty-nine" tahei:s w^ho framed the original Constitution, twenty- ©me - — ^a clear majority of the whole — certainly under- stood that no proper division of local from Federal author- ity, lior ;any ipart of the Constitution, forbade the Federal Govemiment ;t© ccontrol slavery in the Federal territories; while all the regst -pp-^bably had the same understanding. Such unquestionably, was the understanding of our fathers who framed the (Original Constitution; and the text affirms that ttey lundejstood the question better than we. COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 30/ AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION. But, SO far, I have been considering the understand- ing of the question manifested by the framers of the original Constitution. In and by the original instru- ment, a mode v/as provided for amending it; and, as I have already stated, the present frame of government under which we live consists of that original and twelve amendatory articles framed and adopted since. Those who now insist that Federal control of slavery in Federal territories violates the Constitution, point us to the provisions which they suppose it thus violates; and, as I understand, they all fix upon provisions in these amendatory articles, and not in the original instrument. The Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott case, plant them- selves upon the fifth amendment, which provides that "no person shall be deprived of property without due process of law;" while Senator Douglas and his peculiar adherents plant themselves upon the tenth amendment, providing that ' 'the powers are granted by ihe Constitution are reserved to the states respectively and to the people. " Now, it so happens that these amendments were framed by the first Congress which sat under the Con- stitution — the identical Congress which passed the act already mentioned, enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory. Not only was it the same Congress, but they were the identical same indi- vidual men who, at the same session, and at the same time within the session, had under consideration, and in progress toward maturity, these constitutional ^.mendments and this act prohibiting slavery in all the 3o8 Lincoln's speeches complete. territory the nation then owned. The constitu- tional amendments were introduced before and pass- ed after the act enforcing the ordinance of 1787; so that during the whole pendency of the act to enforce the ordinance, the constitutional amendments were also pending. That Congress, consisting in all of seventy-six members, including sixteen of the framers of the original Constitution, as before stated, were pre-eminently our fathers who framed that part of the government under which we live which is now claimed as forbidding the Federal Government to control slavery in the Federal territories. Is it not a little presumptuous in any one at this day to affirm that the two things which that Congress de- liberately framed, and carried to maturity at the same time, are absolutely inconsistent with each other.? And does not such affirmation, from the same mouth, that those who did the two things alleged to be inconsistent understood whether they really were inconsistent better than we — better than he who affirms that they are in consistent.? It is surely safe to assume that the "thirty-nine"' framers of the original Constitution, and the seventy-six members of the Congress which framed the amendnaents thereto, taken together, do certainly include those- who- may be fairly called our fathers who framed the govern- ment under which we live. " And so assumamg, I defy any man to show that any one of them ever in his whole life declared that, in his understanding, any proper- division of local from Federal auithority, or any part o£ COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 309 the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the Federal territories. I GO A STEP FARTHER. I go a step farther. I defy any one to show that any living man in the whole world ever did, prior to the be- ginning of the present century, (and I might almost say prior to the beginning of the last half of the present century,) declare that, in his understanding, any proper division of local from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the Federal territories. To those who now so declare, I give, not only ' 'our fathers who framed the government under which we live," but with them all other living men within the century in which it was framed, among whom to search, and they shall not be able to find the evidence of a single man agreeing with them. LET THERE BE NO MISUNDERSTANDING. Now, and here, let me guard a little against being misunderstood. I do not mean to say we are bound to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers did. To do so would be to discard all the lights of current experience — to reject all progress — all improvement. What I do say is, that if we would supplant the opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we should do so upon evidence so conclusive, and argument so clear, that even their great authority, fairly considered and weighed, can not stand; and most suredly not in a case whereof we our- selves declare they understood the question better than we. If any man, at this day, sincerely believes that a pro- 3IO Lincoln's speeches complete. per division of local from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the Federal territoriesy he is right to say so, and to enforce his position by all truth- ful evidence and fair argument which he can. But he has no right to mislead others, who have less access to history and less leisure to study it, into the false belief that ''our fathers, who framed the government under which we live," were of the same opinion — thus substi^ tuting falsehood and deception for truthful evidence and fair argument. If any man at this day sincerely believes ' 'our fathers, who framed the government under which we live," used and applied principles, in other cases, which ought to have led them to understand that a prop- er division of local from Federal authority, or some part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Government to control slavery in the Federal territories, he is right to say so. But he should, at the same time, brave the re- sponsibility of declaring that, in his opinion, he under- stands their principles better than they did themselves; and especially should he not shirk that responsibility by asserting that they "understood the question just as well, and even better, than we do now." But enough. Let all who believe that ' 'our fathers, who framed the government under which we live, un- derstood this question just as well, and even better, than we do now," speak as they spoke, and act as they acted upon it. This is all Republicans ask — all Republicans desire — in relation to slavery. As those fathers marked it, so let it be again marked, as an evil not to be ex- tended, but to be tolerated and protected only because. COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 3 II of and so far as its actual presence among us makes that toleration and protection a necessity. Let all the guar- antees those fathers gave it be, not grudgingly, but fully and fairly maintained. For this Republicans contend, and with this, so far as I know or believe, they will be content. A FE^V WORDS FROM MR. LINCOLN TO THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE. And now, if they would listen — as I suppose they will not — I would address a few words to the Southern people. I would say to them: You consider 3'ourselves a reason- able and just people, and I consider that in the general qualities of reason and justice you are not inferior to any other people. Still, when you speak of us Republicans you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. You will grant a hear- ing to pirates or murderers, but nothing like it to ''Black Republicans." In all your contentions with one another, each of you deems an unconditional condemnation of "Black Republicanism" as the first thing to be attended to. Indeed, such condemnation of us seems to be an in- dispensable prerequisite — license, so to speak — among you, to be admitted or permitted to speak at all. Now, can you, or not, be prevailed upon to pause and to consider whether this is quite just to us, or even to yourselves.-* "BRING FORWARD YOUR CHARGES." Bring forward your charges and specifications, and then be patient long enough to hear us deny or justify. You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes 312 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. an issue; and the burden of proof is upon you. You pro- duce your proof; and what is it.? Why that our party has no existence in your section — gets no votes in your section. The fact is substantially true; but does it prove the issue.'' If it does, then, in case we should, without change of principle, begin to get votes in your section, we should thereby cease to be sectional. You can not escape this conclusion; and yet, are you willing to abide by it.'' If you are, you will probably soon find that we have ceased to be sectional, for we shall get votes in your section this very year. You will then begin to discover, as the truth plainly is, that your proof does not touch the issue. The fact that we get no votes in your section is a fact of your making, and not of ours. And if there be fault in that fact that fault is primarily yours, and remains so until you show that we repel you by some wrong principle or practice. If we do repel you by any wrong principle or practice, the fault is ours; but this brings you to where you ought to have started — to a discussion of the right or wrong of our principle. If our principle, put in prac- tice, would WTong your section for the benefit of ours, or for any other object, then our principle, and we with it, are sectional, and are justly opposed and denounced as such. Meet us, then, on the question of whether our principle, put in practice, would wrong your section; and so meet it as if it were possible that something may be said on our side. Do you accept the challenge.'' No.'' Then you really believe that the principle which our fathers, who framed the government under which we live, thought so clearly right as to adopt it, and indorse COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 3 I 3 it again and again, upon their official oaths, is, in fact, so clearly wrong as to demand your condemnation with- out a moment's consideration. COULD GEN. WASHINGTON SPEAK, WHAT WOULD HE SAY.^ Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning against sectional parties given by Washington in his Farewell Address. Less than eight years before Wash- ington gave that warning, he had, as President of the United States, approved and signed an act of Congress enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory, which act embodied the policy of the govern- ment upon that subject, up to and at the very moment he penned that warning; and about one year after he penned it, he wrote Lafayette that he considered that prohibition a wise measure, expressing, in the same con- nection, his hope that we should some time have a con- federacy of free states. Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has since arisen on this same subject, is that warning a weapon in your hands against us, or in our hands against you.'^ Could Washington himself speak, would he cast the blame of that sectionalism upon us, who sustain his policy, or upon you who repudiate it.!* We respect that warning of Washington, and we commend it to you, to- gether with his example pointing to the right applica- tion of it. WHAT IS CONSERVATISM.^ But yon say you are conservative — eminently con- servative — while we are revolutionary, destructive or something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it 314 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We stick to contend for the identical old pol- icy, on the point of controversy, which was adopted by our fathers who framed the government under which we live; while you with one accord reject, and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting something new. True, you disagree among yourselves as to what that substitute shall be. You have consider- able variety of new propositions and plans, but you are unanimous in rejecting and denouncing the old policy of the fathers. Some of you are for reviving the foreign slave trade; some for a congressional slave code for the territories; some for Congress forbidding the territories to prohibit slavery within their limits; some for maintaintng slavery in the territories through the judiciary; some for the "gur-reat pur-rinciple" that "if one man would enslave another, no third man should object," fantastically called '^popular sovereignty;" but never a man among you in favor of Federal prohibition of slavery in Federal terri- tories, according to the practice of our fathers who framed the government under which we live. Not one of all your various plans can show a precedent or an advocate in the century within which our government originated. Consider, then, whether your claim of conservatism for yourselves, and your charge of destructiveness against us, are based on the most clear and staple foundations. WE DENY IT. Again, you say we have made the slavery question more prominent than it formerly was. We deny it. We admit that it is more prominent, but we deny that we COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 315 made it so. It was not we, but you, who discarded the; old policy of the fathers. We resisted, and still resist,. your innovation; and thence comes the greater promi- nence of the question. Would you have that question reduced to its former proportions.? Go back to that old policy. What has been will be again, under the same conditions. If you would have the peace of the old times, readopt the precepts and policy of the old times. You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves . We deny it; and what is your proof.? Harper's Ferry! John Brown! John Brown was no Republican; and you have failed to implicate a single Republican in his Harper's Ferry enterprise. If any member of our party is guilty in that matter, you know it or you do not know it. If you do know it, you are inexcusable to not designate the man and prove the fact. If you do not know it, you are inexcusable to assert it, and especially to persist in the assertion after ycu have tried and failed to make the proof. You need not be told that persist- ing in a charge which one does not know to be true, is simply malicious slander. ' 'WE DO NOT BELIEVE IT. " Some of you admit that no Republican designedly aided or encouraged the Harper's Ferry affair, but still insist that our doctrines and declarations necessarily lead to such results. We do not believe it. We know we hold to no doctrines, and make no declarations which, were not held to and made by our fathers who framed the government under which we live. You never dealt fairly by us in relation to this affair. When it occurred, some important state elections were near at hand, and 3i6 Lincoln's speeches complete. you were in evident glee with the beHef that, by charging the blame upon us you could get an advantage of us in those elections. The elections came, and your expecta- tions were not quite fulfilled. Every Republican man knew that, as to himself at least, your charge was a slan- der, and he was not much inclined by it to cast his vote in your favor. Republican doctrines and declarations are accompanied with a continual protest against any in- terference whatever with your slaves, or with you about your slaves. Surely this does not encourege them to re- volt. True, we do, in common with our fathers who framed the government under which we live, declare our belief that slavery is wrong; but the slaves do not hear us declare even this. For anything we say or do, the slaves would scarcely know there was a Republican party. I believe they would not, in fact, generally know it but for your misrepresentations of us in their hearing. In your political contests among yourselves, each faction charges the other with sympathy with Black Republi- canism; and then, to give point to the charge, defines Black Republicanism to simply be insurrection, blood and and thunder among the slaves. INSURRECTIONS INPOSSIBLE. Slave insurrections are no more common now than they were before the Republican party was organized. What induced the Southampton insurrection, twenty-eight years ago, in which at least three times as many lives were lost as at Harper's Ferry.'' You can scarcely stretch your very elastic fancy to the conclusion that Southampton was got up by Black Republicanism. In the present state of things in the United States, I do not think* a COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 3 I J general, or even a very extensive slave insurrection is possible. The indispensable concert of action cannot be attained. The slaves have no means of rapid commun- ication; nor can incendiary free men, black or white, supply it. The explosive materials are everywhere in parcels; but there neither are, nor can be supplied, the indispensable connecting trains. Much is said by Southern people about the affection of slaves for their masters and mistresses; and a part of it, at least, is true. A plot for an uprising could scarcely be devised and communicated to twenty individuals be- fore some one of them, to save the life of a favorite mas- ter or mistress, would divulge it. This is the rule; and the slave revolution in Hayti was not an exception to it, but a case occuring under peculiar circumstances. The gunpowder plot of British history, though not connected with slaves, was more in point. In that case only about twenty were admitted to the secret; and yet one of them, in his anxiety to save a friend, betrayed the plot to that friend, and, by consequence, averted the calamity. Occasional poisonings from the kitchen, and open or stealthy assassinations in the field, and local revolts ex- tending to a score or so, will continue to occur as the natural results of slavery; but no general insurrection of slaves, as I think, can happen in this oountry for a long time. Whoever much fears, or much hopes, for such an event, will be alike disappointed. In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many years ago, "It is still in our power to direct the process of emancipation and deportation peaceably, and in such slow degrees, as that the evil will wear off insensibly; 3i8 -Lincoln's speeches Complete. and their places be, pari passu, filled' up by free white laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to force itself on^ human nature must shudder at the prospect held up." Mr. Jefferson did not mean to say, nor do I, that the power of emancipation is in the Federal Government. He spoke of Virginia; and as to the power of emancipa- tion, I speak of the slaveholding states only. The Federal Government, however, as we insist, has the power of restraining the extension of the institution — the power to insure that a slave insurrection shall never occur on any American soil which is now free from slavery. JOHN BROWN. John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave insurrection. It was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves, in which the slaves refused to participate. In fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, with all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not succeed. That affair, in its philosophy, corresponds with the many attempts, related in history, at the assas- sination of kings and emperors. An enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures the attempt, which ends in little else than in his own execution. Orsini's attempt on Louis Napoleon, and John Brown's attempt at Harper's Ferry, were, in their philosophy, precisely the same. The eagerness to cast blame on old England in the one case, and on new Eng- land in the other, does not disprove the sameness of the two things. And how much would it avail you if you could, by the COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 319 use of John Brown, Helper s book, and the like, break up the Republican organization? Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed. There is a judgement and a feeling against slavery in this nation, which cast at least a million and a half of votes! You cannot destroy that judgement and feeling — that sentiment — by breaking up the political organization which rallies around it. You can scarcely scatter and disperse an army which has been formed into order in the face of your heaviest fire; but if you could, how much would you gain by forcing the sentiment which created it out of the peaceful channel of the ballot- box into some other channel.^* What would that other channel probably he? Would the number of John Brown's be lessened or enlarged by the operation? ''RULE OR RUIN." But you will break up the Union, rather than submit to a denial of your Constitutional rights. That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would be palliated, if not fully justified, were we proposing, by the mere force of numbers, to deprive you of some right, plainly written down in the Constitution. But we are proposing no such thing. When you make these declarations, you have a specific and well understood allusion to an assumed Constitu- tional right of yours, to take slaves into the Federal Ter- ritories, and to l;old them there as property. But no such right is specifically written in the Constitution. That instrument is literally silent about any such right. We, on the contrary, deny that such a right has any ex- istence in the Constitution, even by implication; 320 Lincoln's speeches complete. Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is, that you will destroy the government unless you be allowed to con- strue and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events. This, plainly stated, is your lan- guage to us. *'NOT quite so." Perhaps you will say the Supreme Court has decided the disputed constitutional question in you favor. • Not quite so. But, waving the lawyers' distinction between dictum and decision, the court have decided the question for you in a sort of way. The court have substantially said it is your constitutional right to take slaves into the Federal territories, and to hold them there as prop- erty. When I say the decision was made in a sort of way, I mean it was made in a divided court, by a bare majority of the judges, and they not quite agreeing with one an- other in the reasons for making it; that it is so made as that its avowed supporters disagree with one another about its meaning; and that it was mainly based upon a mistaken statement of fact — the statement in the opinion that ' 'the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution." An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of property in a slave is not distinctly and expressly affirmed in it. Bear in mind the judges ' do not pledge their judicial opinion that such right is implicitly affirm- ed in the Constitution; but they pledge their veracity that it is distinctly and expressly affirmed there — "dis- tinctly" — that is, not mingled with anything else — **ex- COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 3 2 I pressly" — that is, in words meaning just that, without the aid of any inference, and susceptible of no other meaning. If they had only pledged their judicial opinion, that such right is affirmed in the instrument by imphcation, it would be open to others to show that, either the word "slave" nor "slavery" is to be found in the Constitu- tion, nor the word "property" even, in any connection with language alluding to the things slave or slavery, and that wherever, in that instrument, the slave is allud- ed to, he is called "a person;" and wherever his master's legal right in relation to him is alluded to, it is spoken of as "service or labor due," as a "debt" payable in service or labor. Also, it would be open to show, by cotemporaneous history, that this mode of alluding to slaves and slavery, instead of speaking of them, was employed on purpose to exclude from the Constitution the idea that there could be property in man. To show all this is easy and certain. When the obvious mistake of the judges shall be brought to their notice, is it not reasonable to expect that they will withdraw the mistaken statement, and reconsider the conclusion based upon it.? 'And then it is to be remembered that "our fathers, who framed the government under which we live" — the men who made the Constitution — decided this same constitu- tional question in our favor, long ago — decided it with- out a divison among themselves about the meaning of it after it was made, and so far as any evidence is left, without basing it upon any mistaken statements of facts. 322 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. Under all these circumstances, do you really feel your- selves justified to break up this government, unless such a court decision as yours is shall be at once submitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political action? But you will not abide the election of a Republican President. In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us.? That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!" To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — my money — was my own, and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle. A FEW WORDS TO REPUBLICANS. A few words now to Republicans. It is exceedingly desirable that all parts of this great confederacy shall be at peace, and in harmony, one with another. Let us Re- publicans do our part to have it so. Even though much provoked, let us do nothing through passion and ill tem- per. Even though the Southern people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmy consider their demands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate view of our duty, we possibly can. Judging by all they say and do, and by the subject and nature of their controversy with us, let determine, if we can, what will satisfy them. Will they be satisfied if the territories be uncondition- ally surrendered to them.? We know they will not. In COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 323 all their present complaints against us, the territories are scarcely mentioned. Invasions and insurrections are the rage now. Will it satisfy them if, in the future, we have nothing to do with invasions and insurrections.^ We know it wilf not. We so know because we know we never had anything to do with invasions and insurrec- tions; and yet this total abstaining does not exempt us from the charge and the denunciation. The question recurs, what will satisfy them.? Simply this: We must not only let them alone, but we must, somehow, convince them that we do^ let them alone. This, we know by experience, is no easy task. We have been so trying to convince them from the very beginning of our organization, but with no success. In all our platform and speeches, we have constantly protested our purpose to let them alone; bnt this has had no tendency to convince them. Alike unavailing to convince them is the fact that they have never detected a man of us in any attempt to disturb them. These natural and apparently adequate means all fail- ing, what will convince them.? This, and this only: Cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this must be done thoroughly — done in acts as well as words. Silence will not be tolerated — we must place ourselves avowedly with them. Douglas's new sedition law must be enacted, and enforced, sup- pressing all declarations that slavery is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our Free State Constitutions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfect- 324 Lincoln's speeches complete. ed from all taint of opposition to slavery, before they will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from us. I am quite aw^are they do not state their case precisely in this v^^ay. Most of them v^ould probably say to us, "Let us alone, do nothing to us, and say what you please about slavery." But we do let them alone — have never disturbed them — so that, after all, it is what we say which dissatisfies them. They will continue to ac- cuse us of doing until we cease saying. I am also aware they have not, as yet, in terms, de- manded the overthrow of our Free State Constitutions. Yet those Constitutions declare the wrong of slavery with more solemn emphasis than do all other sayings against it; and when all other sayings shall have been si- lenced, the overthrow of these Constitutions will be de- manded, and nothing be left to resist the demand. It is nothing to the contrary that they do not demand the whole of this just now. Demanding w^hat they do, and for the reason they do, they can voluntarily stop no- where short of this consummation. Holding, as they do, that slavery is morally right and socially elevating, they can not cease to demand a full national recognition of it, as a legal right and a social blessing. Nor can we justifiably withhold this on any ground, save our conviction that slavery is wrong. If slavery is right, all words, acts, laws, and Constitutions against it, are themselves wrong, and should be silenced and swept away, If it is right, we can not justly object to its nationality — its universality, if, it is wrong, they can not justly insist upon its extension — its enlargement. All COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH, 32$ they ask we could readily grant, if they thought slavery right; all we ask they could readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right, and our thinking it wrong, is the precise fact upon which depends the whole con- troversy. Thinking it right, as they do, they are not to blame for desiring its full recognition, as being right: but thinking it wrong, as we do, can we yield to them.!^ Can we cast our votes with their view and against our own? in view of our moral, social, and political responsibility, can we do this? LET us DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDETSTAND IT. Wrong as we may think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the na- tion; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the national territories, and to overrun us here in these free states? If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none ot those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored — contrivances, such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man — such as Union appeals, beseeching true Union men to yield to disunionists, reversing the Divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance — such as invocations of Washington — imploring men to un- say what Washington said — and undo what Washing- ton did. 326 Lincoln's speeches complete. Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false ac- cusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end dare to do our duty as we under- stand it. RAILS AND MAKINCx RAILS. [Delivered at the State Republican Convention in Decatur 111., May 9, i860. Mr. Lincoln had been car- ried bodily upon the stage, and soon "Old John Hanks" (a democrat) came into the midst of the assemblage bearing on his shoulders "two small triangular heart rails" surmounted by a banner with this inscription: "two rails from a lot made by Abraham Lincoln and John Hanks, in the Sangamon bottom, in the year 1830,' It is said that Lincoln blushed, but seemed to shake with inward laughter. " Great were the shouts and calls for Lincoln] Gentlemen: — I suppose you want to know something about those things (pointing to old John and the rails.) Well, the truth is, John Hanks and I did make rails in the Sangamon bottom. I don't know whether we made those rails or not; the fact is I don't think they are a credit to the maker (laughing as he spoke), but I do know this; I made rails then, and I think I could make better ones than these now. FIRST TALK WITH FRIENDS AFTER RECEIVING TELEGRAM OF HIS FIRST NOMINATION. [This telegram was received in the Journal Office at Springfield. Immediately everybody wanted to shake his hand, and so long as he was willing, they continued to congratulate him.] Gentlemen: (with a twinkle in his eye,) you had bet- ter come up and shake my hand while you can; hon- ors elevate some men, you know. * * * Well, gentle- men there, is a little short woman at our house, who is probably more interested in this dispatch than I am; and if you will excuse me, I will take it up and let her see it. LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH AFTER HIS FIRST NOMINATION. [Delivered to the Committee, at Springfield, 111,. May 19, i860.] MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: I tender to you, and through you to the Republican National Convention, and all the people represented in it, my profoundest thanks for the high honor done me, which you now formally announce. Deeply and even painfully sensible of the great responsibility which I could almost wish had fallen upon some one of the far (337) LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 328 more eminent men and experienced Statesmen whose distinguished names were before the convention, I shall by your leave, consider more fully the resolutions of the Convention, denominated the platform, and, without unnecessary and unreasonable delay, respond to you Mr. chairman in writing, not doubting that the platform will be found satisfactory and the nomination gratefully ac- cepted. And now I will not longer defer the pleasure of taking you, and each of you by the hand. Lincoln's responsibility, and trust in god. Mr. President, and speaker, and gentlejcen; of the general assembly. — It is true, as has beem said by fhe President of the Senate, that very gTfea;t responsibility 338 Lincoln's speeches complete. rests upon me in the position to which the votes of the American people have called me. I am deepiy sensible of that weighty responsibility. I cannot know, what you all know, that witHout a name — perhaps without a reason why I should have a name — there has fallen upon me a task such as did not rest upon the Father of his Country. And so feeling I cannot but turn and look for the support without which it will be impossible for me to peiform that great task. I turn, then, and look to the American people, and to that God who has never forsak- en them. POLICY OF THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. ' 'Allusion has been made to the interest felt in relation to the policy of the new administration. In this I have received from some a degree of credit for having kept si- lence, from others some depreciation. I still think I was right. In the varying and repeatedly shifting scenes of the present, without a precedent which could enable me to judge from the past, it has seemed fitting that be- fore speaking upon the difBcalties of the country I should have gained a view of the whole field. To be sure, after all, I would be at liberty to modify and change the course of policy, as future events might make a change necessary. "I have not maintained silence from any want of real anxiety. It is a good thing that there is no more than anxiety, for there is nothing going wrong. It is a consol- ing circumstance that when we look out there is nothing that really hurts anybody. We entertain, different views upon political questions, but nobody is suf ering anything. This is a most consoling circumstance, and ifrpni it I At COLUMBUS. • 339 judge that iall we want is time and patience^ and a reli- ance on that God who has never forsaken this people. " Fellow citizens, what I have said I have said altogether extemporaneously, and I will now come to a close. SPEECH AT STEUBENVILLE. (Delivered Feb. 14, i86i,) THE MAJORITY MUST RULE. Fellow^-CitizEns: — I fear the great confidence placed in my ability is unfounded. Indeed, I am sure it is. Encompasssed by vast difficulties as I am, nothing shall be wanting on my part, if sustained by the American people and God. I believe the devotion to the Constitu- tion is equally great on both sides of the river. It is only the different understanding of that instrument that causes difficulty. The only dispute on both sides is, "what are their rights.^" If the majority should not rule, who should be the judge.'^ Where is such a judge to be found.^ We should all be bound by the majority of the American people — if not, then the minority must control. Would that be right.? Would it be just or generous? Assuredly not. I reiterate, that the majority must rule. If I adopt a wrong policy, the opportunity for condemnation will occur in four years time. Then I can be turned out, and a better man with better views put in my place. SPEECH AT PITTSBURG. [Delivered Feb. 16, 1851.] Fellow-Citizens: — I most cordially thank His HonoB^ 340 Lincoln's speeches complete. Mayor Wilson, and the citizens of Pittsburg generally, for their flattering reception. I .am the more grateful because I know that it is not given to me alone, but to the cause I represent, which clearly proves to me their good will, and that sincere feeling is at the bottom of it. THE DISTRACTED CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. And here I may remark, that in every short address I have made to the people, in every crowd through which I have passed of late, some allusion has been made to the present distracted condition of the country. It is natural to expect that I should say something on this subject; but to touch upon it at all would involve an elaborate discussion of a great many questions and cir- cumstances, requiring more time than I can at present command, and would, perhaps, unnecessarily commit me upon matters which have not yet fully developed themselves. The condition of the country is an extraor- dinary one, and fills the mind of every patriot with anxiety. It is my intention to give this subject all the consideration I possibly can before especially deciding in regard to it, so that when I do speak it may be as nearly right as possible. When I do speak, I hope I may say nothing in opposition to the spirit of the Constitution, contrary to the integrity of the Union, or which will prove inimical to the liberties, or to the peace of the whole country. And, furthermore, when the time arrives for me to speak on this great subject, I hope I may 'say say nothing to disappoint the people generaly throughout the country, especially if the expectation has been based upon anyfhing which I may have heretofore said. AT PITTSBURG. 341 Notwithstanding the troubles across the river, there is really no crisis springing from anything in the Govern- ment itself. In plain words, there is really no crisis ex- cept an artificial one. What is there now to warrant the condition of affairs presented by our friends ''over the river.?" Take even their own view of the questions in- volved, and there is nothing to justify the course which they are pursuing. I repeat it, then, there is no crisis, except such a one as may be gotten up at any time by turbulent men, aided by designing politicians. My ad- vice, then, under such circumstances, is to keep cool. If the great American people will only keep there temper on both sides of the line, the trouble will come to an end, and the question which now distracts the country will be settled just as surely as all other difficulties of like character which have originated in this Government have been adjusted. Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation shall continue to prosper as heretofore. But, fellow citizens, I have spoken longer on this subject tnan I in- tended to at the outset. THE TARIFF. It is often said that the Tariff is the specialty of Penn- sylvania. Assuming that direct taxation is not to be adopted, the Tariff question must be as durable as the Government itself. It is a question of national house- keeping. - It is the Government what replenishes the meal-tub is to the family. Every varying circumstance will require frequent modifications as to the amount needed, and the sources of supply. So far their is little 342 Lincoln's speeches complete. difference among the people. It is only whether, and how far, the duties on imports shall be adjusted to favor home production. In the home market that controversy begins. One party insists that too much protection op- presses one class for the advantage of another, while the other argues that with all its incidents, in the long run all classes are benefited. In the Chicago Platform there is a plank upon this subject, which should be a general law to the incoming Administration. We should do neither more nor less than we gave the people reason to believe we would when they gave us their votes. That plank is as I now read: ' 'That while providing revenue for the support of the General Government, by duties upon imports as will encourage the development of the industrial interest of the whole country; and we commend that policy of na- tional exchanges which secures to workingmen liberal wages, to agriculture remunerative prices, to mechanics and manufacturers, adequate reward for their skill, labor, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independ- ence. As with all general propositions, doubtless there will be shades of difference in construing this. I have by no means a thoroughly matured judgement upon this subject, especially as to details; some general ideas are about all. I have long thought to produce any necessary article at home which can be made as good quality and with as little labor at home as abroad, would be better policy, at least by the difference of carrying from abroad. In such a case, the carrying is demonstrably a dead loss of labor. For instance, labor being the true standard of value, is AT PITTSBURG. 343 it not plain that if equal labor gets a bar of railroad out of a mine in England, and another out of a mine in Penn- sylvania, each can be laid down in a track at home cheaper than they could exchange countries, at least by the cost of carriage? If there be a present cause why one can be both made and carried cheaper in money price than the other can be made without carrying, that cause is an unnatural and injurious one, and ought natur- ally, if not rapidly, to be removed. The condition of the Treasury would seem to render an early revision of the Tariff indispensable. The Mor- rill Tariff Bill, now pending before Congress, may or may not become a law. I am not posted as to its parti- cular provisions, but if they are generally satisfactory, and the bill shall now pass, there will be an end of the matter for the present. If, however, it shall not pass, I suppose the whole subject will be one of the most press- ing and important for the next Congress. By the Con- stitution, the Executive may recommend measures which he may think proper and he may veto those he thinks improper, and it is supposed that he may add to these certain indirect influences to affect the action of Con- gress. My political education strongly inclines me against a very free use of any of these means by the Executive to control the legislation of the country. As a rule, I think it better that Congress should originate as well as perfect its measures without external bias. I, therefore, would rather recommend to every gentle- men who knows he is to be a member of the next Con- gress to take an enlarged view, and inform himself thoroughly, so as to contribute his part to such an ad- 344 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE, justment of the tariff as shall produce a sufficient revenue and in its other bearings, so far as possible, be just and equal to all sections of the country, and all classes of people. Mr. Lincoln left Pittsburg immediately after the de- livery of this speech, being accompanied to the depot by a long procession of the people of the city. The train reached Cleveland at half-past four in the after- noon, and the President-elect w^as received by a long procession, w^hich marched, amidst the roar of artil- lery, through the principal streets to the Weddell House, w^here Mr. Lincoln, in reply to an address of w^elcome from the Mayor, made the following remarks: — SPEECH AT CLEVELAND OHIO., (Delivered Feb. 15, 1861) the crisis. Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens of Cleveland: We^have been marching about two miles through snow rain, and deep mud. The large numbers that have turned out under these circumstances testify that you are in earnest about something or other. But do I think so meanly of you as to suppose that that earnestness is about me personally.? I would be doing you injustice to suppose it was. You have assembled to testify your respects to the Union, and the Constitution and the laws. And here let me state that it is with you, the people, to advance the great cause of the Union and the Constitution, and not with any one man. It rests with you alone. This fact is strongly impressed on my mind IN CLEVELAND, 345 at present. . In a community like this, whose appearance, testifies to their intelligence, I am convinced that the cause of liberty and the Union can never be in danger. Frequent allusion is made to the excitement at present existing in our national politics, and it is as well that I should also allude to it here. I think that there ' is no occasion for any excitement. The crisis, as it is called, is altogether an artificial crisis. In all parts of the nation there are differences of opinion on politics. There are differences of opinion even here. You did not all vote for the person who now addresses you. What is happening now will not hurt those who are further away from here. Have they not all their rights now as they ever have had? Do not they have their fugitive slaves returned now as ever? Have they not the same Constitution that they have lived under for seventy odd years? Have they not a position as citizens of this common country, and have we any power to change that position? [Cries of ''No"] What, then, is the matter with them? Why all this excitement? Why all these complaints? As I said before, this crisis is all artificial! It has no foundation in fact. It was not "argued up," as the saying is, and cannot therefore be argued down. Let it alone, and it will go down of itself. [Laughter] You must be content with but a few words from me. I am very much fatigued, and have spoken so much that I am already hoarse. I thank you for the cordial and magnificent reception you have given me. I understand that this reception is intended not only by my own party supporters, but by men of all parties. This is as it should be. If Judge Douglas had been 346 Lincoln's speeches complete. elected, and had been here, on his way to Washington, as I am to-night, the RepubHcans should have joined his supporters in welcoming him, just as his friends have joined with mine to-night. If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union on this voyage, nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voy- age. I, conclude by thanking all present for the de- votion they have shown to the cause of the Union. On the morning of the i6th the Presidential party left Cleveland for Buffalo. At Erie, where they dined, loud calls were made upon Mr. Lincoln for a speech, in re- sponce to which he made a few remarks, excusing him- self for not expressing his opinion on the exciting ques- tions of the day. He trusted that when the time for speaking should come, he should find it necessary to say nothing not in accordance with the Constitution, as well as with the interests of the people of the whole country. At North-east Station he took occasion to state that during the campaign he had received a letter from a young girl of the place, in which he was kindly admon- ished to do certain things, among others to let his whiskers grow; and, as he had acted upon that piece of advice, he would now be glad to welcome his fair cor- respondent, if she was among the crowd. In response to the call a lassie made her way through the crowd, was helped on the platform, and was kissed by the President, SPEECH IN BUFFALO, N. Y. (Delivered Feb. i6, 1861) Arriving at Buffalo, Mr. Lincoln had the utmost diffi- culty to make his way through the dense crowd which had assembled in anticipation of his arrival. On reach- ing the American Hotel, he was welcomed in a brief speech by Acting-Mayor Bemis, to which he responded as follows: — Mr. Mayor and Fellow-Citizens of Buffalo and THE State of Nev^ York: — I am here to thank you briefly for this grand reception given to me, not person- ally, but as the representative of our great and beloved country. [Cheers.] Your worthy Mayor has been pleased to mention, in his address to me, the fortunate and agreeable journey which I have had from home, only it is a rather circuitous route to the Federal Capital. I am very happy that he was enabled in truth to con- gratulate myself and company on that fact. It is true we have had nothing thus far to mar the pleasure of the trip. We have not been met alone by those who assisted in giving the election to me; I say not alone by them, but by the whole population of the country through which we have passed. This is as it should be. Had the election fallen to any other of the distinguished can- didates instead of myself, under the peculiar circum- stances, to say the least, it would have been proper for all citizens to have greeted him as you now greet me. It is an evidence of the devotion of the whole people to the Constitution, the Union, and the perpetuity of the [347] 348 Lincoln's speeches complete. liberties of this country. [Cheers.] I am unwilHng on any occasion that I should be so meanly thought of as to have it supposed for a moment that these demonstrations are tendered to me personally. They are tendered to the country, to the institutions of the country, and to the perpetuity of the liberties of the country, for which these institutions were made and created. I TRUST IN GOD. Your worthy Mayor has thought fit to express the hope that I may be able to relieve the country from the present, or, I should say, the threatened difficulties. I am sure I bring a heart true to the work. (Tremendous applause.) For the ability to preform it, I must trust in the Supreme Being who has never forsaken this favor- ed land, through the instrumentality of this great and in- telligent people. Without that assistance I shall surely fail; with it, I cannot fail. When we speak of threaten- ed difficulties to the country, it is natural that it should be expected that something should be said by myself, with regard to particular measures. AWAITING developments. Upon more mature reflection, however — and others will agree with me — that, when it is considered that these difficulties are without precedent, and never have been acted upon by any individual situated as I am, it is most proper I should wait and see the developments, and get all the light possible, so that when I do speak authoritatively, I may be as near right as possible. (Cheers.) When I shall speak authoritatively, I hope to say nothing inconsistent with the Constitution, the. AT BUFFALO. 349 Union, the rights of all the States, of each State, and of each section of the country, and not to disappoint the reasonable expectations of those who have confided to me their votes. In this connection allow me to say that you, as a portion of the great American people, need only maintain your composure, stand up to your sober convictions of right, to your obligations to the Constitu- tion, and act in accordance with those sober conyictions, and' the clouds which now arise in the horizon will be dispelled, and we shall have a bright and glorious future; and when this generation has passed away, tens of thou- sands will inhabit this country where only thousands m^ habit it now. I do not propose to address you at length; I have no voice for it. Allow me again to thank you for this mag- nificent reception, and bid you farewell. SPEECH AT ROCHESTER, N. Y. (Delivered Feb. i8 1861) l^,r Lincoln remained at Buffalo over Sunday, the 1 7th, and on the morning of the i8th left for Albany. On re^^ching Rochester, he was introduced by the Mayor :to a cro^wd of several thousands, to whom he said:— Fellow-Citizens:— I confess myself, after having seen many large audiences since leaving home, over- whelmed with this vast number of faces at this hour of the morning, I am not vain enough tobehevethat youare here from any wish io see me as an individual, but be- cause I am for the ttim^ being the representative of the 350 Lincoln's speeches complete. American people. I could not, if I would, address you at any length. I have not the strength, even if I had the time, for a speech at each of these interviews that are afforded me on my way to Washington. I ap- pear merely to see you, and to let you see me, and to bid you farewell. I hope it will be understood that it is from no disinclination to oblige anybody that I do not address you at greater length. At Syracuse, where preparations had been made to give him a formal reception, he made the following remarks in reply to an address of welcome from the Mayor: — SPEECH AT SYRACUSE N. Y. Ladies and Gentlemen: — I see you have erected a very fine handsome platform here for me, and I presume you expected me to speak from it. If I should go upon it, you would imagine that I was about to dehver you a much longer speech than I am. I wish you to under- stand that I mean no discourtesy to "you for thus declin- ing. I intend discourtesy to no one. But I wish 3^ou to understand that, though I am unwilling to go upon this platform, you are not at liberty to draw any inferences concerning any other platform with which my name has been or is connected. [Laughter and applause. ] I wish you long life and prosperity individually, and pray that with the perpetuity of those institutions under which we have all so long liv^ed and prospered, our happiness may be secured, our future made brilliant, and the glor- ious destiny of our country established forever. I bid you a kind farewell;! 'AT ALBANY. 35 I IN UTICA, N. Y, At Utica, where an immense and most enthusiastic assemblage of people from the surrounding ^ountry had gathered to see him, Mr. Lincoln contented himself by saying. : — Ladies and Gentlemen: — I have no speech to make to you, and no time to speak in. I appear before you that I may see you, and that you may see me; and I am willing to admit, that so far as the ladies are concerned, I have the best of the bargain, though I wish it to be understood that I do not make the same acknowledg- ment concerning the men. [Laughter and applause.]. SPEECH IN ALBANY, N. Y. The train reached Albany at half-past two in the after- noon, where Mr. Lincoln was formally received by the Mayor in a complimentary address, to which he thus re- plied: — - Mr. Mayor: — I can hardly appropriate to myself the flattering terms in which you communicate the tender of this reception, as personal to myself. I most gratefully accept the hospitalities tendered to me, and will not de- tain you or the audience with any extended remarks at this time. I presume that in the two or three courses through which I shall have to go, I shall have to repeat somewhat, and I will therefore only repeat to you my thanks for this kind reception. 35- Lincoln's speeches complete. A procession was then formed, which escorted Mr. Lincoln to the steps of the Capital, where he was wel- comed by the Governor, in presence of an immense mass of the people, which he addressed as follows: — Mr. Governor: — I was pleased to receive an invita- tion to visit the capital of the great Empire State of the nation, on my way to the Federal Capital, and I now thank you, Mr. Governor, and the people of this capital, and the people of the State of New York: for this most hearty and magnificent welcome. If I am not at fault, the great Empire State at this time contains a greater population than did the United States of America at the time she achieved her national independence. I am proud to be invited to pass through your capital and meet them, as I now have the honor to do. I am notified by your Governor that this reception is given without distinction of party, I accept it the more gladly because it is so. Almost all men in this country, and in any country where freedom of thought is tolerated, attach themselves to political parties. It is but ordinary charity to attribute this to the fact that in so attaching himself to the party which his judgement prefers, the citizens believes he thereby promotes the best interests of the whole country; and when an elec- tion is passed, it is altogether befitting a free people that, until the next election, they should be as one people. The reception you have extended to me to-day is not given to me personally. It should not be so, but as the representative for the time being of the majority of the nation. If the election had resulted in the selection of AT ALBANY. 353 either of the other candidates, the same cordiaHty should have been extended to him as is extended to me to day, in testimony of the devotion of the whole people to the ConstitLtion and the whole Union, and of their desire to perpetuate our institutions, and to hand them down in their perfection to succeeding generations. I have neither the voice nor the strength to address you at any greater length. I beg you will accept my most grateful thanks for this devotion — not to me, but to this great and glorious free country. Mr. Lincoln was then escorted to the Hall of Assemb- ly, and was formally received on behalf of the members of the legislature, to whom he made the following ad- dress: — Mr. President and Gentlemen on the Legislature OF THE State of New York: — It is with feeling of great diffidence, and, I may say, with feelings of awe, perhaps greater than I have recently experienced, that I meet you here in this place. The history of this great State, the renown of those great men who have stood here, and spoke here, and all been heard here, all crowd around my fancy, and incline me to shrink from any attempt to address you. Yet I have some confidence given me by the generous manner in which you have invited me, and by the still more generous manner in which you have received me, to speak further. You have invited and received me without distinction of party. I cannot for a moment suppose that this has been done in any con- siderable degree with reference to my personal services, 354 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. but that it is done in so far as I am regarded at this time as the representive of the majesty of this great nation. I doubt not this is the truth, and the whole truth, of the case, and this is as it should be. It is much more gratifiying to me that this reception has been given to me as the representative of a free people, than it could possibly be if tendered as an evidence of devo- tion to me, or to any one man personally. And now I think it were more fitting that I should close these hasty remarks. It is true that, while I hold myself, without mock modesty, the humblest of all in- dividuals that have ever been elected to the Presidency, I have a more dificult task to perform than any one of them. You have generously tendered me the united support of the great Empire State. For this, in behalf of the nation — in behalf of the present and future of the nation — in behalf of civil and religious liberty for all time to come, most greatfully do I thank you. I do not pro- pose to enter into an explanation of any particular line of policy, as to our present difficulties, to be adopt- ed by the incoming Administration. I deem it just to you, to myself, and to all, that I should see every thing, that I should hear every thing, that I should have every light that can be brought with-' in my reach, in order that, when I do so speak, I shall have enjoyed every opportunity to take correct and true grounds; and for this reason I don't propose to speak, at this time, of the policy of the Government. But when the time comes I shall speak, as well as I am able, for the good of the present and future of this country — for the good both of the North and the South of this coun- AT TROY. 355 try — for the good of the one and the other, and of all sections of the country. [Rounds of applause.] In the mean time, if we have patience, if we restrain ourselves, if we allow ourselves not to run off in a passion, I still have confidence that the Almighty, Maker of the Uni- verse, will, through the instrumentality of this great and intelligent people, bring us through this, as he has through all the other difficulties of our country. Rely- ing on this, I again thank you for this generous recep- tion. [Applause and Cheers.] SPEECH AT TROY, N. Y. On the morning of the 19th of Febuary, Mr. Lincoln v/ent to Troy, and, in reply to the welcome of the Mayor, said: — Mr. Mayor and Citizens of Troy: — I thank you very kindly for this great reception. Since I left my home it has not been my fortune to meet an assemblage more numerous and more orderly than this. I am the more gratified at this mark of your regard, since you assure me it is tendered, not to the individual, but to the high office you have called me to fill. I have neither strength nor time to make any extended remarks, and I can only re- peat to you my sincere thanks for the kind reception you have thought proper to extend to me. SPEECH AT HUDSON, N. Y. On the route to New York, by the Hudson River Rail- road, very large crowds of people had assembled at the 356 Lincoln's speeches complete. various stations to welcome him. At Hudson he spoke as follows: — Fellow-Citizens: — I see you have provided a plat- form, but I shall have to decline standing on it. [Laughter and applause.] The superintendent tells me I have not time during our brief stay to leave the train. 1 had to decline standing on some very handsome plat- forms prepared for me yesterday. But I say to you, as I said to them, you must not on this account draw the inference that I have any intention to desert any plat- form I have a legitimate right to stand on. I do not ap- pear before you for the purpose of making a speech. I come only to see you, and to give you the opportunity to see me; and I say to you, as I have before said to crowds where there are so many handsome ladies as there are here, I think I have decidedly the best of the bargain. I have only, therefore to thank you most cordially for this kind reception, and bid you all farewell. SPEECH AT POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. At Poughkeepsie, where great preparations had been made for his reception, he responded thus to an address from the Mayor: — Fellow- Citizens: — It is altogether impossible I should make myself heard by any considerable portion of this vast assemblage; but, although I appear before you mainly for the purpose of seeing you, and to let you see, rather than hear me, I cannot refrain from saying that I am highly gratified — as much here, indeed, under the circumstances, as I have been anywhere on my route AT PEEKSKILL. 357 — to witness this noble demonstration — made, not in honor of an individual, but of the man who at this time humbly, but earnestly, represents the majesty of the nation. This reception, like all others that have been tendered to me, doubtless emanates from all the politi- cal parties, and not from one alone. As such I accept it the more gratefully, since it indicates an earnest desire on the part of the whole people, without regard to poli- tical difference, to save — not the country, because the country will save itself — but to save the institutions of the country — those institutions under which, in the last three-quarters of a century, we have grown to be a great, an intelligent, and a happy people — the greatest, the most intelligent, and the happiest people in the world. AT PEEKSKILL, N. Y. At Peekskill, in reply to a brief address from Judge Nel- son, Mr. Lincoln said: — Ladies and Gentlemen: — I have but a moment to stand before you, to listen to and return your kind greet- ing. I thank you for this reception, and for the pleasant manner in which it is tendered to me, by our mutual friend. I will say in a single sentence, in regard to the difficulties that lie before me and our beloved country, that if I can only be as generously and unanimously sus- tained as the demonstrations I have witnessed indicate I shall be, I shall not fail, but without your sustaining hands I am sure that neither I, nor any other man, can hope to surmount these difficulties. I trust that in the course I shall pursue I shall be sustained, not only by the 358 Lincoln's speeches complete. party that elected me, but by the patriotic people of the whole country. SPEECHES IN NEW YORK CITY. The President-elect reached New York at three o'clock Feb. 19, and was received by an immense demonstration of popular enthusiasm. Places of business were general- ly closed, and the streets were filled wifh people, eager to catch a glimpse of his person. On reaching the Astor House, he was compelled by the importunity of the assembled crowd to appear on the balcony, from which he said: — Fellow-Citizens: — I have stepped before you merely in compliance with what appears to be your wish, and not with the purpose of making a speech. I do not pro- pose making a speech this afternoon. I could not be heard by any but a small fraction of you, at best; but, what is still worse than that, I have nothing just now to say that is worthy of your hearing. [Applause.] I beg you to believe that I do not now refuse to address you from any disposition to disoblige you, but to the con- trary. But, at the same time^ I beg of you to excuse me for the present. In the evening, Mr. Lincoln received a large deputa- tion at the Astor House from the various Republican associations which had taken an active part in the elec- tion canvass, and in reply to a brief welcome from Mr. E. D. Smith, on their behalf, he ifius addressed them: — Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: — I am rather an old man to avail myself of such an excuse as I am now about to do. Yet the truth is so distinct, and presses itself so IN NEW YORK. 359 distinctly upon me, that I cannot well avoid it — and that is, that I did not understand when I was brought into this room that I was brought here to make a speech. It was not intimated to me that I was brought into the room where Daniel Webster and Henry Clay had made speeches, and where, in my position, I might be expected to do something like those men, or do something worthy of myself or my audience. I, therefore, will beg you to make very great allowance for the circumstances in which I have been by surprise brought before you. Now, I have been in the habit of thinking and speaking some- times upon political questions that have for some years past agitated the country; and,*if 1 were supposed to do so, and we could take up some of the issues, as the law- yers call them, and I were called upon to make as argu- ment, about it to the best of my ability, I could do so without much preparation. But that is not what you desire to be done here to-night. I have been occupying a position since the Presidential election of silence, of avoiding public speaking, of avoid- ing public writing. I have been doing so, because I thought, upon full consideration, that was the proper course for me to take. [Great applause.] I am brought before you now, and required to make a speech, when you all approve more than any thing else of the fact that I have been keeping silence. [Great laughter, cries of "Good," and applause.] And now it seems to me that the response you give to that remark ought to justify me in closing just here. [Great Laughter.] I have not kept silence since the Presidential election from any party wantonness, or from any indifference to the anxiety that 360 Lincoln's speeches complete. pervades the minds of men about the aspect of the polit- ical affairs of this country. I have kept silence for the reason that I supposed it was peculiarly proper that I should do so until the time came when, according to the custom of the country, I could speak officially. A voice — The custom of the country.? I heard some gentleman say, ' 'According to the custom of the country." I alluded to the custom of the Presi- dent-elect, at the time of taking the oath of office. That is what I meant by "the custom of the country.'' I do suppose that, while the political drama being enact- ed in this country, at this time, is rapidly shifting its scenes — forbidding an anticipation with any degree of certainty, to-day, what we shall see to-morrow — it was peculiarly fitting that I should see it all, up to the last minute, before I should take ground that I might be dis- posed (by the shifting of the scenes afterwards) also to shift. [Applause.] I have said, several times, upon this journey, and I now repeat it to you; that when the time does come, I shall then take the ground that I think is right — [applause] — the ground that I think is right — [applause, and cries of "Good, good" — right for the North, for the South, for the East, for the West, for the whole country. [Cries of "Good," "Hurrah for Lincoln," and applause.] And in doing so, I hope to feel no necessity pressing upon me to say anything in conflict with the Constitution; in conflict with the continued union of these States — [applause]— in conflict with the perpetuation of the liberties of this people — [applause] — or anything in conflict with any thing whatever that I have ever given you reason to ex- IN NEW YORK. 36 1 pect from me. (Applause.) And now my friends have I said enough.? (Loud cries of "No, no," and three cheers for Lincoln. ) Now, my friends, there appears to be a difference of opinion between you and me, and I really feel called upon to decide the question m3'self. [Applause, during which Mr. Lincoln descended from the table.) On the morning of the 20th Mr. Lincoln proceeded to the City Hall, where it had been arranged that he should have an official reception. He was there addressed by Mayor Wood in the following terms: — Mr. Lincoln: — As Mayor, of New York, it becomes my duty to extend to you an official welcome in behalf of the Corporation. In doing so, permit me to say, that this city has never offered hospitality to a man clothed with more exalted powers, or resting under graver respon- sibilities, than those which circumstances have devolved upon you. Coming into office with a dismembered Gov- ernment to reconstruct, and a disconnected and hostile people to reconcile, it will require a high patriotism, and an elevated comprehension of the whole country und its varied interests, opinions, and prejudices, to so conduct public affairs as to bring it back again to its former har- monious, consolidated, and prosperous condition. If I refer to this topic, sir, it is because New York is deeply interested. The present political divisions have sorely afflicted her people. All her material interests are para- lyzed. Her commercial greatness is endangered. She is the child of the American Union, ^he has grown up under its maternal care, and been fostered by its paternal bounty, and we fear that if the Union dies, the present 362 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. supremacy of New York may perish with it. To you, therefore, chosen under the forms of the Constitution as the head of the confederacy, we look for a restoration of fraternal relations between the States — only to be ac- complished by peaceful and conciliatory means, aided by the wisdom of Almighty God. To this address Mr. Lincoln made the following re- ply:— Mr. Mayor: — II is with feelings of deep gratitude that I make my acknowledgements for the reception that has been given me in the great commercial city of New York. I cannot but remember that it is done by the people, who not by a large majority, agree with me in political senti- ment. It is the more grateful to me, because in this I see that for the great ptinciples of our government the people are pretty nearly or quite unanimous. In regard to the difficulties that confront us at this time, and of which you have seen lit to speak so becomingly and so justly, I can only say that I agree with the sentiments expressed. In my devotion to the Union I hope I am behind no man in the nation; As to my wisdom in coducting affairs so as to tend to the perservation of the Union, I fear too great confidence may have been placed in me. I am sure I bring a heart devoted to the work. There is nothing that could ever bring me to consent — willingly to consent — to the destruction- of this Union (in which not only the great City of New York, but the whole country, has acquired its greatness) unless it be that thing for which the Union itself was made. I understand that the ship is made for the carrying and preservation of the cargo; and so long as the ship is safe with the cargo,, it IN JERSEY CITY. 363 shall not be abandoned. This Union shall never be abandoned, unless the possibility of its existence shall cease to exist, without the necessity of throwing pas- sengers and cargo overboard. So long, then, as it is possible that the prosperity and liberties of this people can be preserved within this Union, it shall be my pur- pose at all times to preserve it. And now, Mr. Mayor, renewing my thanks for this cordial reception, allow me to come to a close. [Applause.] IN JERSEY CITY. On the morning of Thursday, the 2 1st, Mr. Lincoln left New York for Philadelphia, and on reaching Jersey City was met and welcomed, on behalf of the State, by the Hon. W. L. Dayton, to whose remarks he made this reply: — , Mr. Dayton and Gentlemen of the State of New Jersey: — I shall only thank you briefly for this very kind reception given me, not personally, but as the temporary representative of the majesty of the nation. [Applause.] To the kindness of your hearts, and the hearts of your brethren in your State, I should be very proud to respond, but I shall not have strength to address you or other assemblages at length, even if I had the time to do so. I appear before you, therefore, for little else than to greet you, and to briefly say farewell. You have done me the very high honor to present your reception cour- tesies to me through your great man — a man with whom it is an honor to be associated anywhere, and in owning whom no State can be poor. [Applause.] He has said 364 Lincoln's speeches complete. enough, and by the saying of it suggested enough, to re- quire a response of an hour well considered. (Applause.) I could not in an hour make a worthy response to it. I therefore, ladies and gentlemen of New Jersey, content myself with saying, most heartily do I indorse all the sentiments he has expressed. [Applause.] Allow me, most gratefully, to bid you farwell. [Applause.] IN NEWARK. At Newark he was welcomed by the Mayor, to whom he said: — Mr. Mayor: — I thank you for this reception at the city of Newark. With regard to the great work of which you speak, I will say that I bring to it a heart filled with love for my country, and an honest desire to do what is right. I am sure, however, that I have not the ability to do anything unaided of God, and that without his support, and that of this free, happy, prosperous, and intelligent people, no man can succeed in doing that the importance of which we all comprehend. Again thanking you for the reception you have given me, I will now bid you far- well, and proceed upon my journey AT TRENTON. At Trenton he was received by a committee of the legislature, and escorted to both branches, which were in session. The President of the Senate welcomed him in a brief address, to which the President-elect made the following reply: — Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Senate of AT TRENTON. 3^5 THE State of New Jersey:— I am very grateful to you for the honorable reception of which I have been the object. I cannot but remember the place that New Jersey holds in our early history. In the early Revolu- tionary struggle few of the States among the Old Thirteen had more of the battle-fields of the country within their limits than old New Jersey. May I be pardoned if, upon this occasion, I mention that away back in my childhood, the earliest days of my being able to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one as few of the younger members have ever seen, ' 'Weem's Life of Washington." I remember all the accounts there given of the battle-fields and struggles for the liberties of the country, and none fixed themselves upon my imagination so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey. The crossing of the river; the contest with the Hessians; the great hardships endured at that time, all fixed themselves oa my memory more than any single Revolutionary event; and you all know, for you have all been boys, how these early impressions last longer than- any others. I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that these men struggled for. I am exceedingly anxious that that thing which they struggled for; that something even more than National Independence; that something that held out a great promise to all the people of the world to all time to come— I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most 366 Lincoln's speeches complete. happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his most chosen peo pie, as the chosen instrument — also in the hands of the Almighty — for perpetuating the object of that great struggle. You give me this reception, as I understand, without distinction of party. I learn that this body is composed of a majority of gentlemen who, in the exercise of their best judgement in the choice of a Chief Magistrate, did not think I was the man. I understand, nevertheless, that they came forward here to greet me as the constitu- tional President of the United States — as citizens of the United States to meet the man who, for the time being, is the representative man of the nation — united by a purpose to perpetuate the Union and liberties of the peo- ple. As such, I accept this reception more gratefully than I could do did I believe it was tendered to me as an individual. Mr. Lincoln then passed to the Assembly Chamber^ where, in reply to the Speaker, he spoke as follows: — Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen: — I have just enjoyed the honor of a reception by the other branch of this legis- lature, and I return to you and them my thanks for the reception which the people of New Jersey have given through their chosen representatives to me as the repre- sentative, for the time being, of the majesty of the peo- ple of the United States. I appropriate to myself very little of the demonstrations of respect with which I have been greeted. I think little should be given to any man, but that it should be a manifestation of adherence to the Union and the Constitution. I understand myself to be At TRENTON. 367 received here by the representatives of the people of New Jersey, a majority of whom differ in opinion from those with whom I have acted. This manifestation is, therefore, to be regarded by me as expressing their devo- tion to the Union, the Constitution, and the Hberties of the people. You, Mr. Speaker, have well said that this is a time when the bravest and wisest look with doubt and awe upon the aspect presented by onr national affairs- Un- der these circumstances, you will readily see why I should not speak in detail of the course I shall deem it best to pursue. It is proper that I should avail myself of all the information and all the time at my command, in order that when the time arrives in which I must speak officially, I shall be able to take the ground which I deem the best and safest, and from which I may have no oc- casion to swerve. I shall endeavor to take the ground I deem most just to the North, the East, the West, the South, and the whole country. I take it, I hope, in good temper, certainly with no malice towards any section. I shall do all that may be in my power to promote a peace- ful settlement of all our difficulties. The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am. [Cheers.] None who would do more to preserve it, but it may be necessary to put the foot down firmly; [Here the au- dience broke out into cheers so loud and long, that for some moments it was impossible to hear Mr. Lincoln's" voice.] And if I do my duty and do right, you will sus- tain me, will you not.^ [Loud cheers, and cries of "Yes,' yes, we will"] Received, as I am, by the members of a legislature, the majority of whom do not agree with me 368 Lincoln's speeches complete. in political sentiments, I trust that I may have their assistance in piloting the ship of State through this voy- age, surrounded by perils as it is; for if it should suffer wreck now, there will be no pilot ever needed for another voyage. Gentlemen, I have already spoken longer than I intended, and must beg leave to stop here. The procession then moved to the Trenton House where the President-elect made the following speech to the crowd outside: — Fellow-Citizens: — I have been invited by your rep- resentatives to the Legislature to visit this, the capital of your honored State, and in acknowledging their kind invitation, compelled to respond to the welcome of the presiding officers of each body, and I suppose they intend- ed I should speak to you through them, as they are the representatives of all of you; and if I was to speak again here, I should only have to repeat, in a great measure, much that I have said, which would be disgusting to my friends around me who have met here. I have no speech to make, but merely appear to see you and let you look at me; and as to the latter, I think I have greatly the best of the bargain. [Laughter.] My friends, allow me to bid you farwell. SPEECHES IN PHILADELPHIA. (Delivered at the Continental Hotel, Feb. 21, 1861.) The party arrived at Philadelphia at 4 o'clock, and the President-elect, proceeded immediately to the Continen- tal Hotel, was welcomed in a brief speech from Mayor Henry, to which he replied as follows: — in philadelphia. 369 Mr. Mayor and Fellow- Citizens of Philadelphia: — I appear before you to make no lengtly speech, but to thank you for this reception. The reception you have given me to-night is not to me, the man, the individual, but to the man who temporarily represents, or should represent, the majesty of the nation. (Cheers) It is true, as your worthy Mayor has said, that there is anx- iety among the citizens of the United States at this time. I deem it a happy circumstance that this dissatisfied position of our fellow-citizens does not point us to any thing in which they are being injured, or about to be in- jured; for which reason, I have felt all the while justified in concluding that the crisis, the panic, the anxiety of the country at this time, is artificial. If there be those who differ with me upon this subject, they have not pointed out the substantial difficulty that exists. I do not mean to say that an artificial panic may not do considerable harm; that it has done such I do not deny. The hope that has been expressed by your Mayor, that I may be able to restore peace, harmony, and prosperity to the county, is most worthy of him; and happy, indeed, will I be if I shall be able to verify and fulfill that hope. (Tremendous cheering. ) I promise you, in all sincerity, that I bring to the work a sincere heart. Whether I will bring a head equal to that heart will be for future times to determine. It were useless for me to speak of details of plans now; I shall speak officially next Monday week, if ever. If I should not speak then, it were useless of me to do so now. If I do speak then, it is useless for me to do so now. When I do speak, I shall take such ground as I deem best calculated to restore peace, harmony, and 370 Lincoln's speeches complete. prosperity to the country, and tend to the perpetuity of the nation and the hberty of these States, and these people. Your worthy Mayor has expressed the wish, in which I join with him, that it Were convenient for me to remain in your city long enough to consult your merchants and manufacturers; or as it were, to listen to those breath- ings rising within the concecrated walls wherein the Con- stitution of the United States, and, I will add, the Dec- laration of Independence, were originally framed and adopted (Enthusiastic applause.'*) I assure you and your Mayor that I had hoped on this occasion, and upon all occasions during my life, that I shall do nothing in- consistent with the teachings of the holy and most sacred walls. I never asked anything that does not breathe from those walls. All my political warfare has been in favor of the teachings that came forth from these sacred walls. May my right hand forget its cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if ever I prove false to those teachings. Fellow-citizens, I have addressed you longer than I expected to do, and now allow me to bid you good-night. On the 2 1 St, Mr. Ldiacoln visited the old Independence Hall, from which was originally issued the Declaration of Independence. He was received in a cordial speech by the Rev. Theodore Cuyler, D. D. to which he made the following response: — Dr. Cuyler: — lam filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here in this place, where were collected to- gether the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to prin- ciple from which sprang the institutions under which we IN PHILADELPHIA. 37 1 live. You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task of restoring peace to the present distracted condition of the country. I can say in return, sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the senti- ments which originated in and were given to the world from this hall. I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were in- curred by the men who assembled here, and framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept that Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the sep- aration of the Colonies from the mother-land, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. (Great applause. ) It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of In- dependence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon t'nat basis.? If it can, I will consider myself one of the hap- piest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cam not be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awfuL But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I W9.s about to say I wouH rather be 37^ LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLEtl t. assassinated on this spot than surrender it. (Applause.) Now, in my view* of the present aspect of affairs, there need be no bloodshed or war. There is nc > necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course; :and I may say in advance that there will be no bloodshed I unless it be forced upon the Government, and then it will be com- pelled to act in self defence. [Applause.] My friends, this is wholly an unexpected speech, and I did not expect to be called upon to say ai word when I came here. I supposed it was merely to d o something towards raising the flag — I may, therefor* e, have said something indiscreet. (Cries of No, no; ) I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by^. and if it be the pleasure of the Almighty God, die by. One object of the visit to Independence Hall was, to have Mr. Lincoln assist in raising the national flag over the Hall. Arrangements had been made for the perform- ance of this ceremony, and Mr. Lincoln was escorted to the platform prepared for the purpose, and was invited, in a brief address, to raise the flag. He responded in a patriotic speech, announcing his cheerful compliance with the request. He alluded to the original flag of thirteen stars, saying that the number had increased as time rolled on, and we became a happy, powerful people, each star adding to its prosperity. The future is in the hands of the people. It was on such an occasion we could reason together, reaffirm our devotion to the country and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. Let us make up our minds, said he, that whenever we do put a new star upon our banner, it shall be a fixed one, never AT LANCASTER. 373 to be dimmed by the horrors of war, but brightened by tl je contentment and prosperity of peace. Let us go. 01^ to extend the area cf our usefulness, and add star upon si" .ar, until their light shall shine over five hundred mil- lions of free and happy peop'le. Then he performed his part in the ceremony, amidst a thundering discharge of artillery. In the afternoon he left for the West. On reaching Lancaster he was received with a salute, and replied to a.n address of welcome in the follow words: — SPEECH AT LANCASTER, PA. Ladies and Gentlemen of old Lancaster: — I appear hot to make a speech. I have not time to make a speech at length, and not strength to make them on every oc- casion; and worse than all, I have none to make. There is plenty of matter to speak about in these times, but it is well known that the more a man speaks the less he is understood — the more he says one thing, the more his adversaries contend he meant something else. I shall soon have occasion to speak officially, and then I will endeavor to put my thoughts just as plain as I can ex- press myself — true to the Constitution and Union of all the States, and to the perpetual liberty of all the people. Until I so speak, there is no need to enter upon details. In conclusion, I greet you most heartily, and bid you an affectionate farwell. On reaching Harrisburg on the 22nd, Mr. Lincoln was escorted to the legislature, and was welcomed by the pre- siding officers of the two houses, to whom he replied as follows:-^ SPFECH AT HARRISBURG, PA. (Delivered Feb. 22nd, 1861, in the Legislative Hall.) Fellow-Citizens: — I appear before you only for a very few, brief remarks, in response to what has been said to me. I thank you most sincerely for the reception, and the generous words in which support has been promised me upon this occasion, I thank your great Commonwealth for the overwhelming support it recently gave, not me personally, but the cause which I think a just one, in the late election. (Loud applause.) Allusion has been made to the fact — the interesting fact, perhaps, we should say — that 1 for the first time appear at the Capital of the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on the birthday of the Father of his Coun- try, in connection with that beloved anniversary con- nected with the history of this country. I have already gone through one interesting scene this morning in the ceremonies at Philadelphia. Under the high conduct of gentlemen there, I was for the first time allowed the privilege of standing in old Independence Hall (enthus- iastic cheering,) to have a few words addressed to me there, and opening up to me an opportunity of express- ing with much regret, that I had not more time to ex- press something of my own feelings, excited by the occa- sion, somewhat to harmonize and give shape to the feel- ings that had been really the feelings of my whole life. Besides this, our friends there had provided a magnif- icent flag of the country. They had arranged it so that I was given the honor of arising it to the head of its staff. (Applause. ) And when it went up, I was pleased (374) AT HARRISBURG. 37 S that it went into its place by the strength of my own feeble arm, when, accordfng to the arrangement, the cord was pulled, and it floated gloriously to the wind, without an accident, in the light, glowing sunshine of the morn- ing. I could not help hoping that there was, in the en- tire success of that beautiful ceremony, at least something of an omen of what is to come. [Loud applause.] How couid I help feeling then as I have often felt.^ In the whole of that proceeding I was a very humble instrument. I had not provided the flag; I had not made the arrange- ments, for elevating it to its place; I had applied but a very small portion of my feeble strength in raising it. In the whole transaction I was in the hands of the people, who had arranged it, and if I can have the same gener- ous co-operation of the people of the nation, I think the flag of our country may yet be kept flaunting gloriously. {Loud, enthusiastic, and continued cheers.) I recur for a moment but to repeat some words uttered at the hotel, in regard to what has been said about the military support which the General Government may ex- pect from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in a proper emergency. To guard against any possible mistake do I recur to this. It is not with any pleasure that I contem- plate the possibility that a necessity may arise in this country for the use of the military arm. (Applause.) While I am exceedingly gratified to see the manifestation upon your streets of your military force here, and exceed- ingly gratified at your promises here to use that force up- on a proper emergency— while I make these acknowledge- ments I desire to repeat, in order to preclude any pos- sible misconstruction, that I do most sincerely hope that 376 Lincoln's speeches complete. we shall have no use for them. (Applause.) That it will never become their duty to shed blood, and most especially never to shed fraternal blood. I promise that, so far as I may have wisdom to direct, if so painful a re- sult shall in anywise be brought about, it shall be through no fault of mine. (Cheers.) Allusions has also been made by one of your honored speakers to some remarks recently made by myself at Pittsburg, in regard to what is supposed to be the especial interest of this great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.' I now wish only to say, in regard to that matter, that the few remarks which I uttered on that occasion were rather carefully worded. I took pains that they should be so. I have seen no occasion since to add to them, or subtract from them. I leave them precisely as they stand (applause,) adding only now, that I am pleased to have an expression from you gentlemen of Pennsylvania, significant that they are satisfactory to you. And now, gentlemen of the General Assembly of the Common- wealth of Pennsylvania, allow me to return you again my most sincere thanks. After the delivery of this address, Mr. Lincoln devoted some hours to the reception of visitors, and at six o'clock retired to his room. The next morning the whole country was surprised to learn that he had arrived in Washington — twelve hours sooner than he had origin- ally intended. His sudden departure proved to have been a measure of precaution for which events subse- quently disclosed afforded a full justification. For some time previous to his departure from home, the rumor had AT WASHINGTON. 377 been current that he would never reach the Capital alive. An attempt was made on the Toledo and Western Rail- road, on the nth of February, to throw from the track the train on which he was journeying, and just as he was leaving Cincinnati a hand grenade was found to have been secreted on board the cars. These and other cir- cumstances led to an organized and thorough investigation, under the direction of a police detective, carried on with great skill and perseverance at Baltimore, and which re- sulted in disclosing the fact that a small gang of assassins, under the leadership of an Italian who assumed the name of Orsini, had arranged to take his life during his passage through Baltimore. General Scott and Mr. Seward had both been apprised of the same fact through another source, and they had sent Mr. F. W. Seward as a special messenger to Philadelphia, to meet the President-elect there, previous to his departure from Harrisburg, and give him notice of these circumstances. Mr. Lincoln did not deviate from the programme he had marked out for himself, in consequence of these communications; ex- cept that, under the advice of friends, he deemed it prudent to anticipate by one train the time he was ex- pected to arrive in Washington. He reached there on the morning of Saturday, the 23d. LINCOLN'S SPEECH IN WASHINGTON. (Delivered, Wednesday, Feb, 27, 1861 at his Hotel.) On Wednesday, the 27th, the Mayor and Common Council of the city waited upon Mr. Lincoln, and ten- dered him a welcome. He replied to them as follows: — Mr. Mayor: — I thank you, and through you the muni- 3/8 Lincoln's speeches complete. cipal authorities of this city who accompany you, for this welcome. And as it is the first time in my Hfe, since the present phase of politics has presented itself in this country, that I have said anything publicly within a region of country where the institution of slavery exists, I will take this occasion to say, that I think very much of the ill-feelings that has existed and still exists between the people in the sections from which I came and the people here, is dependent upon a misunderstanding of one another. I therefore avail myself of this opportunity to assure you, Mr. Mayor, and all the gentlemen present, that I have not now, and never have had, any other than a kindly feelings towards you as the people of my own section. I have not now, and never have had, any dis- position to treat you in any respect otherwise than as my own neighbors. I have not now any purpose to withhold from you any of the benefits of the Constitution, under any circumstances, that I would not feel myself constrain- ed to withhold from my own neighbors; and I hope, in a word, that when we shall become better acquainted — and I say 'it with great confidence — we shall like each other the more. I thank you for the kindness of this recep- tion. On the next evening a serenade was given to Mr. Lin- coln by the members of the Republican Association, and he then addressed the crowd which the occasion had brought together as follows: — My Friends: — I suppose that I may take this as a compliment paid to me, an4 as such please accept my AT WASHINGTON. 379 thanks for it. I have reached this City of Washington under circumstances considerable differing from those under which any other man has ever reached it. I am here for the purpose of making an official position among the people, almost all of whom were politically opposed to me, and are yet opposed to me, as I suppose. I propose no lengthy address to you. I only propose to say, as I did on yesterday, when your worthy Mayor and Board of Aldermen called upon me, that I thought much of the ill-feeling that had existed between you and the people of your surroundings and that people from among whom I came, has depended, and now depends, upon a misunderstanding. I hope that, if things shall go along as prosperously as I believe we all desire they may, I may have it in my power to remove something of this misunderstanding; that I may be enabled to convince you, and the people of ^your section of the country, that we regard you as in all things our equals, and in all things entitled to the same respect and same treatment that we claim for our- selves; that we are in no wise disposed, if it were in our power, to oppress you, to deprive you of any of your rights under the Constitution of the United States, or even narrowly to split hairs with you in regard to these rights, but are determined to give you, as far as lies in our hands, all your rights under the Constitution— not grudgingly, but fully and fairly. [Applause.] I hope that, by thus dealing with you, we will become better ac- quainted, and better friends. And now, my friends, with these few remarks, and again returning my thanks for this compliment, and ex- 3 So LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. pressing my desire to hear a little more of your good music, I bid you good-night. This closed Mr. Lincoln's public speeches down to the date of inauguration. This journey, made in fact on the eve of the great Rebellion, when the public mind was thoroughly aroused, was of the greatest interest to the whole country. And it is safe to say, that amidst all the complications, dangers and probable consequences, no one comprehended the situation more clearly, and with more serious earnestness than the President-elect. Abraham Lincoln. LINCOLN'S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. (Delivered March 4, 1861, at Washington.) Fellow-Citizens of the United States: — In com- pliance with a custom as old as the government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly, and to take, in your presence, the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President before he enters on the execution of his office. position stated. "I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to discuss those matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the southern states, that, by the accession of a republican administration, their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the publish- ed speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches, when I declare that "I have no purpose directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists:'' I believe I have no lawful right to do so; and I have no (381) 3S2 Lincoln's speeches complete; inclination to do so. Those who nominated and elect- ed me did so with the full knowledge that I had made this, and made many similar declarations, and had never recanted them. And more than this, they placed iri the platform, for my acceptance, and as a law td themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read: "Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the i-igtits of the states, and especially the right of each state to brder and control its own domestic institutions ac- cording to its own judgement exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and fendurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any state or territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. " **I now reiterate these sentiments; and in doing so I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the prop- erty, peace, and security of no section are to be in any- wise endangered by the now incoming administration. * T add, too, that all the protection, which, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be given to all the states when lawfully demanded, for what ever cause, as cheerfully to one section as to another. There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read Is as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions: "No person held to service or labor in one state under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in conse-^ 3S3 FIRST INAUGURAL SPEECH. quence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to v^hom such service or labor may be due.' ''It is scarcely questioned that this provision was in- tended by those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the lawgiver is the law. ' *A11 members of Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution — to this provision as well as any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come Within the terms of this clause 'shall be delivered up,' their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in good temper, could they not, with nearly equal unanimity, frame and pass a law by means of which tto keep good that unanimous oath.? "There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced by national or by state author- ity; but surely that difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be but of little 'consequence to him or to others by which authority it is done; and should any one, in any case, be content that this oath shall go unkept on a mere substantial contro- versy as to how it shall be kept.'* "Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards of liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a slave.? And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the enforce- ment of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that 'the citizens ')f each state shall be entitled to all the 384 Lincoln's speeches complete. privileges and immunties of citizens in the several states?^ NO MENTAL RESERVATIONS. '*I take the ofBcial oath to-day with no mental reserva- tions, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules; and while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as pro- per to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in hav- ing them held to be unconstitutional. "It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our national Constitution. During that period fifteen different and very distinguished citizens have in succession administered the executive branch of the government. They have conducted it through many perils, 'and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope for precedent, I now enter upon the same task, for the brief constitutional term of fonr years, under great and peculiar difficulties. "I HOLD THE UNION OF THESE STATES IS PERPETUAL." "A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted. I hold that in the contemplation of universal law and of the Consti^tiw... tion, the union of these states is perpetual. Perpe,i^iii|:y is imphed, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assQyt that no,, government proper ever had a provisioxv int i;tS; orgg.nfe: law for its own termination. Conti?iiiii!€^ to execute alt the express provisions of our nati^ali Constiitu^Uo©-, and the 385 FIRST INAUGURAL SPEECH. Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. '•Again, if the United States be not a government pro- per, but an association of states in the nature of a con- tract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties w^ho made it.^ One party to ci contract may violate it — break it, so to speak; but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it.'^ Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself. "The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen states expressly plighted and engagad that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of the Confederation, in 1778; and, finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect union. But if the destruction of the Union by one or by part only of the states be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before, the Constitution having lost the vital element of perpetuity. , "It follows from these views that no state, upon its owu mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void; and that acts of violence within any state or states against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances. 386 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. "I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my abihty, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the states. Doing this, which I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, I shall perfectly perform it, so far as is practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisition, or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. "I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. ''In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it is forced upon the na- tional authority. WHAT SHALL BE DONE.^ "The power confided to me will be used to hold, oc- cupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. ''Where hostility to the United States shall be so great and so universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people that object. While strict legal right may exist of the government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable with- 387 FIRST INAUGURAL SPEECH. al, that I deem it best to forego for the time the uses of such offices. ' 'The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be fur- nished in all parts of the Union. "So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection. "The course here indicated will be followed, unless current events and experience shall show a modification or change to be proper; and in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised according to the cir- cumstances actually existing, and with a view and hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. "That there are persons, in one section or another, who seek to destroy the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm nor deny. But if there be such, I need address no word to them. A WORD TO THOSE WHO LOVE THE UNION. To those, however, who really love the Union, may I not speak, before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes.? Would it not be well to ascertain why we do it.? Will you hazard so desperate a step, while any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence.? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are no greater than all the real ones you fly from? Will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? All pro- fess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written in the Constitution, has been denied? I 38S Lincoln's siPEECMES coMPLfeTH. think not. Happily the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. "Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly-written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If, by the mere force of numbers, a major- ity should deprive a minority of any clearly-written con- stitutional right, it might, in a moral point of viev/, justify revolution; it certainly would, if such right were a vital one. But such is not our case. "All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and nega- tions, guaranties and prohibitions in the Constitution, that controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with provision specifi- cally applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by state author- ities.^ The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the territories. !* The Con- stitution does not expressly say. From questions of this class, spring all our constitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. THE MAJORITIES VS. THE MINORITIES. "If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease. There is no alternative for continuing the government acquiescence on the one side or on the other. If a minority in such a case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent, which, in time will ruin and divide them, for a. minority FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 389 of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such a minority. For instance, why not any portion of a new confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it.-* All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this. Is there such a per- fect identity of interests among the states to compose a new Union as to produce harmony only, and prevent re- newed secession? Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. —^ "A majority held in restraint by constitutional check ■ limitation, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism. Un- animity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a per- manent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible. So that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism,/ in some form, is all that is left. "I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Su- preme Court, nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to a suit, as to the 1 object of that suit, while they are also entitled to a very \high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the government; and while it is obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for 390 Lincoln's speeches complete. other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice, *'At the same time the candid citizen must confess that, if the policy of the government upon the vital question affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, as in ordinary litigation between parties in personal action, the people will have ceased to be their own masters, unless having to that extent practi- cally resigned theiif government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. / ' 'Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink, to decide cases properly brought before them; and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes. One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extend- ed, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended; and this is the only substantial dispute; and the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution and the law of the suppression of the foreign slave trade, are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people im- perfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured, and it would be worse, in both cases, after the separation of the sections, than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed would be ultimately revived, without restriction, in one sec- tion; while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrender- FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 39 1 ed, would not be surrendered at all by the other. ' 'WE CANNOT SEPARATE. " "Physically speaking we can not separate; we can not remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and be- yond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They can but remain face to face; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before.^ Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws.'* Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends.? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. "THE PEOPLE." . " /^ "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the I ^ people who inhabit it. When ever they, shall grow ' weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending, or their revolu- tionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the national Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amend- ment, I fully recognize the full authority of the people | over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the ; modes prescribed in the instrument itself, and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose i 392 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. '•I will venture to add, that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish either to accept or refuse. I understand that a pro- posed amendment to the Constitution (which amend- ment, however, I have not seen) has pfssed Congress, to the effect that the federal government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of states, in- cluding that of persons held to service. To avoid mis- construction of what I have said; I depart from my pur- pose not to speak of particular amendments, so far as to say that, holding such a provison to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable. * 'THE ULTIMATE JUSTICE OF THE PEOPLE. " ' 'The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix the terms for the separation of the states. The people themselves, also, can do this if they choose, but the executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present government as it came to his hands, and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. Why should there not be a patient con- fidence in the ultimate justice of the people.? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. * 393 present differences is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, the American people, By the frame of the government under which we live, this same people has wisel}'' given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that' little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no adminis- tration, by any extreme wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years. "MY COUNTRYMEN ONE AND ALL." "My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. "If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time: but no good object can be frustrated by it. "Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. "If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there is still no single reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotsm, Christ- ianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet 394 • LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulties. *'In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. * 'You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government; while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it. "I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. 'The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. " The address delivered and the oath administered, the august ceremonies of the occasion were concluded; and, passing back through the Senate Chamber, the President was escorted to the White House, where Mr. Buchanan took leave of him, and where the people were received by him in large numbers. Mr Lincoln, on being asked whether he felt frightened while delivering his address, in consequence of the threats of assassination, replied that he had frequently experienced greater fear in ad- dressing a dozen western men on the subject of temperance. GRADUAL EMANCIPATION. (Delivered before the Senators and Congressmen of the Border Southern States in the Executive Mansion, July, I2th 1862.) A few days before the adjournment, the President, evidently looking forward to the necessity of a more rad- ical and decisive policy in regard to Slavery, invited the Senators and Representatives of the border Slave States to a conference. The disastrous Peninsular campaign was now over, and depression prevailed throughout the country. The war must somehow be ended, with the rebellion overthrown; and the employment of every effective and legitimate war measure, he felt to be now demanded. He desired the great change to come as lightly as possible on the still loyal Slave States, and it was in this spirit that the interview was solicited by him. Having convened at the Executive Mansion, on the 12th of July, these Representatives were addressed by Mr. Lincoln (reading v^hat he had carefully prepared for the occasion) as follows: — Gentlemen: After the adjournment of Congress, now near, I shall have no opportunity of seeing you for several months. Believing that you of the Border States hold more power for good than any other equal number of members, I feel it a duty which I cannot justifiably waive to make this appeal to you. I intend no reproach or complaints when I assure you that, in my opinion, if you all had voted for the resolu- (395) 396 Lincoln's speeches complete. tion in the gradual emancipation message of last March, the war would now be substantially ended. And the plan therein proposed is yet one of the most potent and swift means of ending it. Let the States which are in rebellion see definitely and certainly that in no event will the States you represent ever join their proposed Confedaracy, and they cannot much longer maintain the contest. But you can not divest them of their hope to ultimately have you with them so long as you show a determination to perpetuate the institution within your own States. Beat them at elections, as you have over- whelmingly done, and, nothing daunted, they still claim you as their own. You and I know what the lever of their power is. Break that lever before their faces, and they can shake you no more forever. Most of you have treated me with kindness and con- sideration, and I trust you will not now think I im- properly touch what is exclusively your own, when, for the sake of the whole country, I ask "Can you, for your States, do better than to take the course I urge.?" Dis- carding punctilio and maxims adapted to more manage- able times, and looking only to the unprecedentedly stern facts of our case, can you do better in any possible event.? You prefer that the constitutional relations of the States to the nation shall be practically restored without disturbance of the institution; and if this were done, my whole duty in this respect, under the Con- stitution and my oath of office, would be performed. But it is not done, and we are trying to accomplish it by war. The incidents of war ran not be avoided. If the war continues long, as it must if the object be not sooner GRADUAL EMAKCiPATION. 397 attained, the institution in your States will be ex- tinguished by mere friction and abrasion — by the mere incidents of the war. It will be gone, and you will have nothing valuable in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone already. How much better for you and for your people to take the step which at once shortens the war, and secures substantial compensation for that which is sure to be wholly lost in any other event! How much better to thus save the money which else we sink forever in the war! How much better to do it while we can, lest the war, ere long, render us pecuniarily unable to do it! How much better for you, as seller, and the nation, as buyer, to sell out and buy out that without which the war could never have been, than to sink both the thing to be sold and the price of it, in cutting one another's throats! I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a de- cision at once to emancipate gradually. Room in South America for colonization can be obtained cheaply and in abundance, and when numbers shall be large enough to be company and encouragement for one another, the freed people will not be so reluctant to go. I am pressed with a difficulty not yet mentioned — one which threatens division among those who, united, are none too strong. An instant of it is known to you. General Hunter is an honest man. He was, and I hope still is, my friend. I valued him none the less for his agreeing with me in the general wish that all men every where could be freed. He proclaimed all men free with- in certain States, and I repudiated the proclamation. He expected more good and less harm from the measure 398 Lincoln's speeches complete. than I could belive would follow. Yet, in repudiating it, I gave dissatisfaction, if not offence, to many whose sup- port the country cannot afford to lose. And this is not the end of it. The pressure in this direction is still upon me, and is increasing. By conceding what I now ask you can relieve me, and, much more, can relieve the country in this important point. Upon these consideration, I have again begged your at- tention to the Message of March last. Before leaving the Capitol, consider and discuss it among yourselves. You are patriots and statesmen, and as such, I pray you consider this proposition, and, at the least, commend it to the consideration of 3'Our States and people. As you would perpetuate popular government for the best people in the world, I beseech you that you do in no wise omit this. Our common country is in great peril, demanding the loftiest views and boldest action to bring a speedy relief. Once relieved, its form of government is saved to the world: its beloved history and cherished mem- ories are vindicated, and its happy future fully assured and rendered inconceivably grand. To you, more than to any others, the privilege is given to assure that happi- ness, and swell the grandeur, and to link your own names therewith forever. SHIELDING GEN. McCLELLAN. (Aug. 6th 1862, at Washington.) The following remarks were made by Mr. Lincoln at a war meeting held at Washington on the 6th of August, after the retreat to the James River, and just before the SHIELDING m'cLELLAK. 399 Withdrawal of the army from the Peninsula:-— Fellow-Citizens: — I believe there is no precedent for my appearing before you on this occasion, bnt it is also true that there is no precedent for your being here yourselves, and I ofTer, in justification of myself and of you, that, upon examination, I have found nothing in the Constitution against it. I, however, have an im- pression that there are younger gentlemen who will en- tertain you better, and better address your understanding than I will or could, and therefore I propose but to de- tain you a moment longer. I am very little inclined on any occasion to say any thing unless I hope to produce some good by it. The only thing I think of just now not likely to be better said by some one else, is a matter in which we have heard some other person blamed for what I did myself. There has been a very wide-spread attempt to have a quarrel between General McClellan and the Secretary of War. Now I occupy a position that enables me to ob- serve, that these two gentlemen are not nearly as deep in the quarrel as some pretending to be their friends. General McClellan's attitude is such that, in the very selfishness of his nature, he cannot but wish to be suc- cessful, and I hope he will — and the Secretary of War is in precisely the same situation. If the military com- manders in the field cannot be successfull, not only the Secretary of War, but myself, for the time being the master of them both, cannot but be failures. I know General McClellan wishes to be successful, and I know he does not wish it any more than the Secretary of War for him, and both of them together no more than I wish 400 Lincoln's speeches complete, it. Sometimes we have a dispute about how many men General McClellan has had, and those who would dis- parage him say that he has had a very large number, and those who would disparage the Secretary of War insist that General McClellan has had a very small number. The basis for this is, there is always a wide difference, and on this occasion, perhaps a wider one than usual, between the grand total on McClellan's rolls and the men actually fit for duty; and those who would disparage him talk of the grand total on paper, and those who would disparage the Secretary of war talk of those at present fit for duty. General McClellan has sometimes asked for things that the Secretary of War did not give him. General McClellan is not to blame for asking what he wanted and needed, and the Secre- tary of War is not to blame for not giving when he had none to give. And I say here, as far as I know, the Secretary of War has withheld no one thing at any time in my power to give him. I have no accusation against him. I believe he is a brave and able man, and I stand here, as justice requires me to do, to take upon myself what has been charged on the Secretary of War, as with- holding from him. I have talked longer than I expected to do, and now I avail myself of my privilege of saying no more. TO A DEPUTATION OF RELIGIOUS MEN FROM CHICAGO, WHO REQUEST IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. (Delivered at Washington, Sept. 13, 1862.) Gentlemen:— The subject presented in the memorial is one upon which I have thought much for weeks past, and I may even say for months. I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and that by rehgious men, who are equally certain that they represent the Divine will. I am sure that either the one or the other class is mistaken in that belief, and perhaps in some respects both. I hope it will not be irreverent for me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal his will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed he would reveal it directly to me; for, unless I am more deceived in myself than I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the will of Provi- dence in this matter. And if I can learn what it is I will do it! These are not, however, the days of miracles, and I suppose it will be granted that I am not to ex- pect a direct revelation. I must study the plain physi- cal facts of the case, ascertain what is possible, and learn what appears to be wise and right. The subject is difficult, and good men do not agree. For instance, the other day, four gentlemen of standing and intelhgence from New York called as a delegation on business connections with the war; but before leaving (401) 402 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. two of them earnestly besought me to proclaim general emancipation, upon which the other two at once attack- ed them. You know also that the last session of Con- gress had a decided majority of antislavery men, yet they could not unite on this policy. And the same is true of the religious people. Why, the rebel soldiers are praying with a great deal more earnestness, I fear, than our own troops, and expecting God to favor their side: for one of our soldiers who had been taken prisoner told Senator Wilson a few days since that he met noth- ing so discouraging as the evident sincerity of those he was among in their prayers. But we will talk over the merits of the case. What good would a proclamation of emancipation from me do, especially as we are now situated.^ I do not want to issue a document that the whole world will see must necessarily be inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the comet! Would my word free the slaves, when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the rebel ;States.? Is there a single court, or magistrate, or individual that would be influenced by it there? And ^wha>t reason is there to think it would have any greater (effect upon the slaves than the late law of Congress, \\vhich I afp>proved, and which offers protection and free- 4som to the s'l'S-yes of rebel masters who come within our lines? Yet I can>not learn that that law has caused a single sl-ay^ tp come over to us. And suppose they could be inidwoed by ^ ^acclamation of freedom from me to throw themselves ii^pon .-iis, >vhat should we do with tbem.? How can aw^ ifeed an4(Car,fe^or such a multitude? General Butler wrote m§ .a fe^v days since that he was TO A DEPUTATION OF CHICAGO MINISTERS. 403 issuing more rations to the slaves who have rushed to him than to all the white troops under his command. They eat, and that is all; thojgh it is true General Butler is feeding the whites also by the thousand; for it nearly amounts to a famine there. If, now, the pressure ' of the war should call off our forces from New Orleans to defend some other point, what is to prevent the masters from reducing the blacks to slavery again. ^ For I am told whenever the rebels take any black prisoners, free or slave, they immediatly auction them off! They did so with those they took from a boat that was aground in the Tennessee River a few days ago. And then I am very ungenerously attacked for it! For instance, when,, after the late battles at and near Bull Run, an expedition' went out from Washington under a flag of truce to bury the dead and bring in the wounded, and the rebels seized] the blacks who went along to help, and sent them into slavery, Horace Greely said in his paper that the Gov- ernment would probably do nothing about it. What could I do.^ Now then, tell me, if you please, what passible result of good would follow the issumg of such a proclamatiom as you desire.? Understand, I raise no objections against it on legal or constitutional grounds,, for, as commander- in-chief of the army and navy, in time of war I suppose that I have a right to take any measure which may best subdue the enemy; noi; do I urge objections to s* moral nature, in view of possible consequence of insuf^ rection and massacre at the South. I view this ma^cter as a practical w?tr njeasure, to be decided on according to the adv^n^tages or disadvantages it may offer to tUe,j suppressiiop; ol the rebellion. 404 Lincoln's speeches cqmplete, (The committee replied to these remarks, insisting that a proclamation of emancipation would secure at once the sympathy of Europe and the civilized world; and that as slavery was clearly the cause and origin of the rebel- lion, it was simply just, and in accordance with the word of God, that it should be abolished. To these re- marks the President responded as follows: — ) I admit that slavery is at the root of the rebellion, or at least its sina qua non. The ambition of politicians may have instigated them to act, but they would have been impotent without slavery as their instrument. I will also concede that emancipation would help us in Europe, and convince them that we are incited by some- thing more than ambition. I grant, farther, that it would 1 help somewhat at the North, though not so much, I fear as you and those you represent imagine. Still some addi- tional strength would be added in that way to the war, and then, unquestionably, it would weaken the rebels hy drawing of their laborers, which is of great importance; but I am not so sure we could do much with the blacks. If we were to arm them, I fear that in a few weeks the arms would be in the hands of the rebels; and, indeed, thus far, we have not had arms enough to equip our white troops. I will mention another thing, though it meet only your scorn and contempt. There are fifty thousand bayonets in the Union army from the Border Slave States. It would be a serious matter if, in con- sequence of a proclamation such as you desire, they should go oy^r to the rebels. I do not think tb^ey. all^ would— 3|>ot so many indeed, as a year ago, or; as; six ruaijiths ago — not so many to-day as yesterdaj^.. Every TO A DEPUTATION OF CHICAGO MINISTERS. 405 day increases their Union feeling. They are also get- ting their pride enlisted, and want to beat the rebels. Let me say one thing more; I think you should admit that we already have an important principle to rally and unite the people, in the fact that constitutional govern- ment is at stake. This is a fundamental idea going down as deep as anything. Do not misunderstand me because I have mentioned these objections. They indicate the difficulties that have thus far prevented my action in some such way as you desire. I have not decided against a proclamation of liberty to the slaves, but hold the matter under ad- visement. And I can assure you that the subject is on my mind, by day and by night, more than any other. Whatever shall appear to be God's will that I will do. I trust that in the freedom with which I have canvassed your views I have not in any respect injured your feel- ings. THE PRELIMINARY EMANCIPATION PROCLA- MATION. This proclamation was issued September 22nd, 1862. It was, however, only a preliminary proclamation. It only declared free the slaves of those states and those sections of states which should be in rebellion on the 1st of January, 1863, leaving to every disloyal state an opportunity to save its institution by becoming loyal, and doing what it could to save the Union: PROCLAMATION. "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that here- a ter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the United States and each of the states, and the people thereof, in which states that relation is or may be suspended or disturbed. * 'That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Con- gress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all slave states so-called the people whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United States, and which states, may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of African descent^ (406) PRELIMINARY PROCLAMATION. 4O7 with their consent, npon this continent or elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the governments existing there, will be continued. ' 'That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in re- bellion against the United States, shall be then, thence- forward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any effort they may make for their actual freedom. "That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states and parts of States, if any, in which the people therof re- spectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and that the fact that any state, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such state shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such state, and the people there- of, are not then in rebellion against the United States. ' 'That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress entitled *'An Act to make an additional Article of War," approved March 13th, 1862, and which act is in the words and figures following: "Beit enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 4o8 Lincoln's speeches complete. sentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter the following shall be pro- mulgated as an additional article of war for the govern- ment of the army of the United States, and shall be obey- ed and observed as such: "article — All officers or persons in the military or naval service of the United States are porhibited from employing any of the forces under their respective com- mands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor who may have escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to be due; and any officer who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of violating this article shall be dismissed from the service." "Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That this act shall take effect from and after its passage. " "Also, to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled *An act to suppress Insurrection, to banish Treason and Rebellion, to seize and confiscate Property of Rebels, and for other purposes,' approved July i6th, 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures folio- ing: "Sec 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons, or deserted by them, and ccming under the control of the government of the United States; and all slaves of such persons found on [or] being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall PRELIMINARY PROCLAMATION. 409 be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves. "Sec. 10 And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into any state, territory, or the District of Columbia, from any other state, shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offense against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the present rebellion, nor in anyway given aid and comfort thereto; and no per- son engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretense whatever, assume to de- cide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service." "And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respec- tive spheres of service, the act and sections above recited. "And the Executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion, shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional relation between the United States and their respective states, and people, if that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves. "In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and 41 o Lincoln's speeches complete. caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. ''Done at the city of Washington, this tenth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred [l. s.] and sixty-two and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. Abraham Lincoln. *'By the President: *'Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State. " In the cabinet meeting held previous to the issue of the proclamation, Mr. Lincoln had concluded the reading of the third paragraph, when Mr. Seward interrupted him by saying: "Mr. President, I think that you should insert after the word, 'recognize' the words, 'and maintain.'' The President replied that he had fully considered the import of the expression, and that it was not his way to promise more than he was sure he could perform; and he was not prepared to say that he thought he was able to "maintain" this. Mr. Seward insisted that the ground should be taken, and the words finally went in. FIRST SPEECH AFTER THE PRELIMINARY PRO- CLAMATION. Two days after the issue of the proclamation, a large body or men assembled before the White House with music, and called for the President. He appeared, and addressed to them a few words of thanks for their courtesy saying: Fellow-Citizens: — I appear before you to do little more than acknowledge the courtesy you pay me, and to FIRST SPEECH AFTER PRELIMINARY PROCLAMATION. 4 II thank you for it. I have not been distinctly informed why it is that on this occasion, you appear to do me this honor, though I suppose it is because of the proclamation. What I did, I did after a very full deliberation, and under a very heavy and solemn sense of responsibility. I can only trust in God I have made no mistake. I shall make no attempt on this occasion to sustain what I have done or said by any comment. It is now for the country and the world to pass judgement, and may be take action upon it. I will say no more upon this subject. In my position I am environed with difficulties. Yet they are scarcely so great as the difficultiesof those who, upon the battle-field, are endeavoring to purchase with their blood and their lives the future happiness and prosperity of this country. Let us never forget them. On the 1 4th and 1 7th days of this present month there have been battles bravely, skilfully, and successfully fought. We do not yet know the parti- culars. Let us be sure that, in giving praise to certain individuals, we do no injustice to others. I only ask you, at the conclusion of these few remarks, to give three hearty cheers to all good and brave officers and men who fought those successful battles. (After two years of experience he was enabled to say: ''As affairs have turned, it is the central act of my ad- ministration, and the great event of the ninteenth cen- tury.") THE FINAL EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. (Issued by President Lincoln, January i, 1863, at Washington.) "Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall tliQu be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authoritj' thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and w^ill do no act or acts to repress such per- sons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. "That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states and parts of states, if any, in which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any state or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such state shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence (412) EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 413 that such state, and the people thereof, are not then in rebelHon against the United States. ''Now, therefore, I Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate, as the states and parts of states wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: "Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terra Bonne, Lafourche, St. Marie, St. Martin and Orleans, iucluding the city of New Orleans,) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Vir- ginia, and also the counties of Berkely, Accomac, North- ampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Nor- folk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth,) and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as; if this proclamation were not issued. "And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States, 414 Lincoln's speeches complete. are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Execu-- tive Government of the United States, including the mil- itary and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. "And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them, that in all cases^ when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. ''And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, stations and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. *'And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgement of mankind, and the gracious favor of the Almighty God. "In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. "Done at the city of Washington, this first day of Jan- uary, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight [l. s.] hundred and sixty-three, and of the Indepen- dence of the United States the eighty-seventh. Abraham Lincoln. "By the President: "William H. Seward, Secretary of State." A single paragraph in this proclamation was written by Secretary Chase. He had himself prepared a procla- mation, which embodied his views, and had submitted it to Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln selected from it this sen- EMANCIPATIOINJ PROCLAMATION. 41$ tence: ''And upon this act, believed to be an act of jus- tice warranted by the Constitution (upon mihtary neces- sity,) I invoke the considerate judgement of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God;" and adopted it, interpolating only the words between brackets. It is an illustration of Mr. Lincoln's freedom from vanity, first that he adopted the words at all, notwithstanding their dignity and beauty; and, second, that he freely told of the cir- cumstance, so that it found publicity through his own revelations. TO THE WORKING MEN. Early in the year, the working men of Manchester, Eng. sent Lincoln a letter, to which he gave a grateful and cordial reply. They, although greatly suffering in consequence of the war, sent him their sympathy; and in his reply, he said to them: "It has been often and studiously represented that the ' attempt to overthrow this government, which was built upon the foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively upon the basis of human slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe. Though the action of our disloyal citizens, the working men of Europe have been subjected to severe trials, for the purpose of forcing their sanction to that attempt. Under these circumstances, I cannot but regard your decisive utterance upon the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism, which has not been surpassed in any age, or in any country."'- - ^' I do not doubt that 4i6 the sentiment you have expressed will be sustained by your great nation; and, on the other hand, I have no hesitation in assuring you that they will excite admira- tion, esteem, and the most reciprocal feelings of friend- \ ship among the American people. " EXTRACT FROM LINCOLN'S LETTER TO CONKLING. In a letter written August twenty-sixth, to James C. Conkling, in reply to an invitation to attend a mass meeting of "unconditional Union men," to be held at his old home in Springfield, Illinois, it is evident that Mr. Lincoln was hopeful and confident of results. In this letter he treated again of the subject of emancipation; and handled the clamorer for peace, the enemies of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the advocates of com- promise, with admirable skill. The closing paragraphs are peculiarly keen, clear and sparkling: "You say that you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but no mat- ter. Fight you, then, exclusively to save the Union. Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be an apt time then for you to declare you will not fight to free negroes. I thought that, in your struggle for the Uuion, to that extent it weakened the enemy in his re- sistance to you. Do you think differently.^ I thought that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do in saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise to you.? But negroes like other people, act upon motives. Why should they TO CONKLING. 41/ 'do anything for us, if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made must be kept. "The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great North- west for it; nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up they met New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their way right and left. The sunny South, too, in more colors than one, also lent a helping hand. On the spot, their part of the history was jotted down in black and white. The job was a great national one; and let none be slighted who bore an honorable part in it. And whde those who have cleared the great river may well be proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say that anything has been more bravely and well done than at Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and on many fields of less note. Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgotten. At all the watery margins they have been present, not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp they have been and made their tracks. Thanks to all. For the great republic — for the principle it lives by and keeps alive — for man's vast future — thanks to all. "Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that among free men there can be be no successful appeal from the ballot, to the bullet. 41 8 LINCOLN*S SPEECHES COMPLETE. and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost. And there will be some black men who can remember that with silent tongue, and clinched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bay- onet, they have helped mankind on to this great consum- mation; while I fear there will be some white ones unable to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder it." A FOURTH OF JULY SPEECH. (Delivered, at Washington. July 1863.) The battle which resulted in the capture of Vicksburg, on the 4th of July, was immediately followed by that of Port Hudson, which was surrendered to General Banks, together with about seven thousand prisoners, fifty cannon, and a considerable: number of small arms. The whole course of the Mississippi, from its source to its mouth, was thus opened, and the Confederacy virtually separated into two parts, neither capable of rendering any effective assistance to the other. The great victories, by which the Fourth of July had been so signally and so gloriously commemorated, called forth the most enthusiastic rejoicing in every section of the country. Public meetings werp held in nearly all the cities and principal towns, at which eloquent speeches and earnest resolutions expressed the joy of the people, and testified their unflinching; purpose to prosecute the THE FOURTH OF JULY SPEECH. 419 war until the rebellion should be extinguished. A large concourse of the citizens of Washington, preceded by a band of music, visited the residence of the President, and the members of his Cabinet — giving fhem, in suc- cession, the honors of a serenade — ^which the President acknowledged in the following remarks: — Fellow-Citizens: — I am very glad indeed to see you to-night, and yet I will not say I thank you, for this call; but I do most sincerely thank Almighty God foi the occasion on which you have called. How long ago is it.' — eighty odd years since, on the Fourth of July, for the first time, in the history of the world, a nation, by its representatives, assembled and declared as a self- evident truth, "that all men are created equal." That was the birthday of the United States of America. Since then the Fourth of July has had several very pop- ular recognitions. The two men most distinguished in the framing and support of the Declaration were Thomas Jefferson and John Adams — the one having penned it, and the other sustained it the most forcibly in debate — the only two of the fifty-five who signed it, and were elected Presi- dents of the United States. Precisely fifty years after they put their hands to the paper, it pleased Almighty God to take both from this stage of action. This was indeed an extraordinary and remarkable event in our history. Another President five years after, was called from this stage of existance on the same day and month of the year, and now on this last Fourth of July, passed, when we have a. gigantic rebellion, at the bottom of 420 Lincoln's speeches complete. which is an effort to overthrow the principle that all men were created equal, we have the surrender of a most powerful position and army on that very day. And not only so, but in a succession of battles in Pennsylvania; near to us, through three days so rapidly fought that they might be called one great battle, on the first, second and third of the month of July; and on the fourth the cohorts of those who opposed the Declaration that all men are created equal, * 'turned tail" and run, [Long continued cheers.] Gentlemen, this is a glorious theme, and the occasion for a speech, but I am not prepared to make one worthy of the occasion. I would like to speak in terms of praise due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the Union and liberties of the country from the beginning of the war. These are try- ing occasions; not only in success, but for the want of success. I dislike to mention the name of one single officer, lest I might do wrong to those I might forget. Recent events bring up glorious names, and particular- ly prominent ones; but these I will not mention. Hav- ing said this much, I will now take the music. LINCOLN'S WONDERFUL SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG. (Delivered at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery on the Gettysburg battle field, Nov. 19, 1863.) Ladies and Gentlemen: — Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the propo- sition that all men are created equal. Now we are en- Lincoln's wonderful speech at Gettysburg. 42 1 gaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as «. final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live- It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggeled here, have con- secrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here; but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honord dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the govern- ment OF the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." ''GOD BLESS THE WOMEN OF AMERICA." (On March t6 1864, at the close of a fair in Wash- ington, for the benefit of the sick and wounded soldiers of the army, President Lincoln, happened to be present, in response to loud and continuous calls, made the fol- lowing remarks: — Ladies and gentlemen: — I appear to say but a word. This extraordinary war in which we are engaged falls heavily upon all classes of people, but the most heavily upon the soldiers. For it has been said, all that a man hath will be give for his life; and while all contribute of their substance, the soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his country's cause. The highest merit, then, is due to the soldier. In this extraordinary war, extraordinary develop- ments have manifested themselves, such as have not been seen in former wars: and among these manifesta- tions nothing has been more remarkable than these fairs for the relief of suffering soldiers and their families. And the chief agents in these fairs are the women of America. I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy: I have never studied the art of paying compliments to women; but I must say, that if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct during this war. I will close saying, God bless the women of America! (422) MAN PROPOSES AND GOD DISPOSES. (At a fair in Baltimore for the Sanitary Commission.) Ladies and Gentlemen: — Calling to mind that we are in Baltimore, we cannot fail to note that the world moves. Looking upon these many people assembled here to serve, as they best may, the soldiers of the Union, it occurs at once that three years ago the same soldiers could not so much as pass through Baltimore. The change from then till now is both great and gratify- ing. Blessings on the brave men who have wrought the change, and the fair women who strive to reward them for it! But Baltimore suggests more than could happen with- in Baltimore. The change within Baltimore is part only of a far wider change. When the war began, three years ago, neither party, nor any man, expected it would last till now. Each looked for the end, in some way, long ere to-day. Neither did any anticipate that domestic slavery would be much affected by the war. But here we are; the war has not ended, and sla- very has been much affected — how much needs not now be recounted. . So true is it that man proposes and' God disposes. But we can seethe past, though we may not claim to have directed it; and seeing it, in this case, we feel more hopeful and confident for the future. The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. (423) 424 * Lincoln's speeches complete. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, andl the product of other men's labor. Here are two,, not only different, but incompatible things called by the same name, liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two dif- - ferent and incompatible names — liberty and tyranny. The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act, as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precise- ly the same difference prevails to-day among us human . creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold the process by which thou- sands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty. . Recently, as it seems, the people of Maryland have been doing some- thing to define liberty, and thanks to them that, in what they have done, the wolf's dictionary has been repudia- ted. It is not very becoming for one in my position to make speeches at great length; but there is another subject upon which I feel that I ought to say a word. A painful rumor, true, I fear, has reached us, of the massacre, by the rebel forces at Fort Pillow, in the west end of Ten- nessee, on the Mississippi River, of son.\£ three huadied MAN PROPOSES AND GOD DISPOSES. 425'. colored soldiers and white officers, who had just been-, overpowered by their assailants, There seems to be- some anxiety in the public mind whether the govern- ment is doing its duty to the colored soldiers, and to- the; service, at this point. At the beginning of the war,, and for some time, the use of colored troops was ni^t contemplated; and how the change of purpose waiSi wrought, I will not now take time to explain. Upon a clear conviction of duty, I resolved to turn that element of strength to account; and I am responsible for it to the American people, to the Christian world, to history, and on my final account to God. Having determined to use the negro as a soldier, there is no way but to give him all the protection given to any other soldier. The diffi- culty is not in stating the principle but, in practically , applying it. It is a mistake to suppose the government is indifferent to this matter, or is not doing the best it can in regard to it. We do not to-day know that a colored soldier, has been- massacred by the rebels when made a prisoner. We fear it, believe it, I may say, but we do not know it. To take the life of one of their prisoners on the assump- tion that they murder ours, might be too serious, too cruel a mistake. We are having the Forf Pillow affair thoroughly investigated; and such investigation will probably show conclusively how the truth is. li, after all that has been said, it shall turn out that there has been no massacre at Fort Pillow, it will be almost safe to say there has been none, and will be none elsewhere. If there has been the massacre of three hundred there, or even the tenth part of three hundred, it will be con- .426 Lincoln's speeches complete. clusively proven; and being so proven, the retributation shall as surely come. It will be a matter of grave con- sideration in w^hat exact course to apply the retribution, .but in the supposed case, it must come. THE WAR. (In June, 1864 the President attended a fair at Phila- delphia, one of the largest that was held in all the coun- try. At a supper given to him there, the health of the President having been proposed as a toast, the President said in acknowledgment: — ) Ladies and Gentlemen: — I suppose that this toast is intended to open the way to me to say something. War at the best is terrible, and this of ours in its magnitude and duration is one of the most terrible the world has ever known. It has deranged business totally in many places and perhaps in all. It has destroyed property, destroyed life, and ruined homes. It has produced a national debt and a degree of taxation unprecedent in the history of this country. It has caused mourning among us until the heavens may almost be said to be hung in black. And yet it continues. It has had ac- companiments never before known in the history of the world. I mean the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, with their laT^ors for the relief of the soldiers, and the Volunteer Refreshment Saloons, understood better by those who hear me than by myself — (applause) — and these fairs, first begun at Chicago and next held in Boston, Cincinnati, and other cities. The motive and object that lie at the bottom of them is worthy of the THE WAR. 427 most that we can do for the soldier who goes to fight the battles of his country. From the fair and tender hand of women is much, very much done for the soldier, con- tinually reminding him of the care and thought for him at home. The knowledge that he is not forgotten is grateful to his heart. (Applause.) Another view of these institutions is worthy of thought. They are vol- untary contributions, giving proof that the national re- sources are not at all exhausted, and that the national patriotism will sustain us through all. It is a pertinent; question, When is the war to end.^ i do not wish to name a day when it will end, lest the end should not come at the given time. We accepted this war, and did not begin it. (Deafening applause.) We accepted it for an object, and when that object is accomplished the war will end, and I hope to God that it will never end until that object is accomplished. (Great applause.) We are going through with our task, so far as I am con- cerned, if it takes us three years longer. I have not been in the habit of making predictions, but I am almost tempted now to hazard one. I will. It is, that Grant is this evening in a position, with Mead and Hancock, of Pennsylvania, whence he can never be dislodged by the enemy until Richmond is taken. If I shall discover that General Grant may be greatly facilitated in the capture of Richmond, by rapidly pouring to him a large number of armed men at the briefest notice, will you go? (Cries of "Yes"; Will you march on with him.^* (Cries of -'Yes, yes.") Then I shall call upon you when it is necessary. (Laughter and applause.) SPEECH AFTER BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS. (Delivered in response to a Serenade May gfh, 1864 at the Whitehouse.) Fellow-Citizens: — I am very much obliged to you for the compHment of this call, though I apprehend it is owing more to the good news received to-day from the army than to a desire to see me. I am, indeed, very grateful to the brave men who have been struggling with the enemy in the field, to their noble commanders who have directed them, and especially to our Maker. Our commanders are following up their victories resolutely and successfully. I think, without knowing the parti- culars of the plans of Gen. Grant, that what has been accomplished is of more importance than at first appears. I believe I know (and am especially grateful to -know,) that Gen. Grant has not been jostled in his purpose; that he has made all his points; and to-day he is on his line, as he purposed before he moved his armies. I will vol- unteer to say that I am very glad of what has happened; but there is a great deal still to be done. While we are grateful to all the brave men and oiBcers for the events of the past two days, we should, above all, be very grateful to Almighty God, who gives us victory. There is enough yet before us requiring all loyal men and patriots to perform their share of the labor and fol- low the example of the modest General at the head of our armies, and sink all personal considerations for the sake of the country. I commend you to keep yourselves in the same tranquil mood that is characteristic of that (428) TO A DELEGATION OF METHODIST CLERGYMEN. 429 l)rave and loyal man. I have said more than I expected when I came before you; repeating my thanks for this call, I bid you good bye. SPEECH IN RESPONSE TO A DELEGATION OF DISTINGUISHED METHODIST CLERGYMEN. (Delivered May 14th, 1864. Gentlemen: — In response to your address, allow me to attest the accuracy of its historical statements, indorse the sentiments it expresses, and thank you, in the na- tion's name, for the promise it gives. Nobly sustained, as the Government has been by all the churches, I would utter nothing which might in the least appear invidious against any. Yet, without this, it may fairly be said that the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best, is, by its greater numbers the most important of all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to heaven than any. God bless the Methodist Church; bless all the churches; and blessed be God, who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches. There was some corresponding action on the part of nearly or quite all the general ecclesiastical bodies of the United States. *'A11 the churches," without regard to sectarian difference, not only confided in his high charac- ter, but also received from him a reciprocation of kindly feeling and thankfulness. LINCOLN'S SPEECH ON RECEIVING HIS RENOM- INATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. Immediately after the Convention, a committee of one from each State represented therein, waited on the Pres- ident, orally commnnicating the fact of his renomination. Responding to the address of their Chairman, Mr. Lin- coln said: — Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: — I will neither conceal my gratification nor restrain the expression of my gratitude that the Union people through their convention, in the continued effort to save and ad- vance the nation, have deemed me not unworthy to re- :main in my present position. I know no reason to doubt that I ahall accept the •nominati6n tendered; and yet, perhaps, I should not de- clare definitely before reading and considering what is •called the platform. I will say now, however, I- approve the declaration in favor of so amending the Constitution as to prohibit slavery throughout the nation. When the people in re- Tolt, with a hundred days of explicit notice that they coiild within those days resume their allegiance without the overthrow of their institutions, and that they could not resume " it afterward, elected to stand out, such amendments to the Constitution as is now proposed be- came a fitting and necessary conclusion to the final suc- cess of the Union cause. Such alone can meet and cover all cavils. Now, the unconditional Union men. North [430] ON HIS RENOMINATION. 43 1 and South, perceive its importance, and embrace it. In the joint names of Liberty and Union, let us labor to give it legal form and practical effect. SPEECH TO THE OHIO DELEGATION. In response to a call from the Ohio delegation in the Baltimore Convention, accompanied by Menter's band, of Cincinnati, the President remarked: Gentlemen: — I am very much obliged to you for this compliment. I have just been saying, and as I have just said, I will repeat it: The hardest of all speeches which I have to answer is a serenade. I never know what to say on such occasions. I suppose that you have done me this kindness in connection with the action of the Baltimore Convention which has recently taken place, and with which of course, I am very well satisfied- [Laughter and applause.] What we want still more than Baltimore Conventions or Presidential elections is suc- cess under General Grant. (Cries of "Good," and ap- plause.) I propose that you constantly bear in mind that the support you owe to the brave officers and soldiers in the field is of the very first importance, and we should therefore bend all our energies to that point. Now, with- out detaining you any longer, I propose that you help me close up what I am now saying with three rousing cheers for General Grant and the officers and soldiers under his command. RESPONSE TO THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE. In an interview with a delegation of the National Union League, in the East Room, he used substantially the following language — the homely illustrations at the close (and the manner of presenting it,) exciting prolonged laughter and applause: Gentlemen: — I can only say in response to the kind ■remarks of your Chairman, as I suppose, that I am very grateful for the renewed confidence which has been ac- icorded to me both by the Convention and by the Nation- ral League. I am not insensible at all to the personal compliment there is in this, and yet I do not allow my- self to believe that any but a small portion of it is to be appropriated as a personal compliment. That really the Convention and the Union League assembled with a higher view — that of taking care of the interests of the country for the present and the great future — and that the part I am entitled to appropriate as a compliment is only that part which I may lay hold of as being the opinion of the Convention and of the League, that I am not en- tirely unworthy to be entrusted with the place which I have occupied for the last three years. But I do not al- low myself to suppose that either the Convention or the League have concluded to decide that I am either the greatest or the best man in America, but rather they have concluded that it is not best to swap horses while cross- ing the river, and have further concluded that I am not so poor a horse that they might not make a botcl\of it in trying to swap. [432] ACCEPTS THE NOMINATION. The Commitee to notify President Lincoln of his re- nomination subsequently transmitted to him a letter, for- mally announcing the choice of the Convention, in the course of which they said: We believe, sir, that the honest will of the Union men of the country was never more truly represented than in this Convention. Their purpose we believe to be the overthrow of armed rebels in the field, and the security of permanent peace and union, by liberty and justice under the Constitution. That these results are to be achieved amid cruel perplexities, they are fully aware. That they are to be reached only by cordial unanimity of couusel, is undeniable. That good men may sometimes differ as to the means and the time, they know. That in the con- duct of all human affairs the highest duty is to determine, in the angry conflict of passion, how much good may be practically accomplished, is their sincere persuasions. They have watched your official course, therefore with unflagging attention; and amid the bitter taunts of eager friends and the fierce denunciation of enemies, now moving too fast for some, now too slowly for others, they have seen you throughout this tremendous contest patient, sagacious, faithful, just; leaning upon the heart of the great mass of the people, and satisfied to be moved by its mighty pulsations. It is for this reason that, long before the Convention met, the popular instinct had plainly indicated you as its [433] 434 Lincoln's speeches complete. candidate; and the Convention, therefore, merely record- ed the popular will. Your character and career prove you unswerving fidelity to the cardinal principles of American Liberty and of the American Constitution. In the name of that Liberty and Constitution, sir, we earnestly request your acceptance of this nomination. To this letter, Mr. Lincoln replied in the following words: Executive Mansion, ) Washington, June 27, 1864 ) Hon. William Dennison and others, a Committee of the Union National Convention: Gentlemen — Your letter of the 14th instant, formally notifying me that I have been nominated by the Convention, you represent for the Presidency of the United States, for four years from the 4th of March next, has been received. The nomination is gratefully accepted, as the resolutions of the Convention — called the platform — are heartily ap- proved. While the resolution in regard to the supplanting of republican government upon the Western Continent is fully concurred in, there might be misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of the Government in re- lation to the action of France and Mexico, as assumed through the State Department, and indorsed by the Con- vention, among the measures and acts of the Executive, vx/ill be faithfully maintainad so long as the state of facts shall leave that position pertinent and applicable. I am espectally gratified that the soldier and the sea- men were not forgotten by the Convention, as they for- SPEECH TO OHIO SOLDIERS. 435 ever must and will be remembered by the grateful coun- try for whose salvation they devote their lives. Thanking you for the kind and complimentary terms in which you have communicated the nomination and other proceedings of the Convention, I subscribe myself. Your obedient servant, Abraham Lincoln. Everywhere through the loyal States, and not less among our heroic armies fighting for the Republic on dis- loyal soil, and among our brave forces aiioat on gunboats and men-of-war, the nomination of Abraham Lincoln to a second term was received with joy, and ratified with hearty good will. More than thirty years had passed since any President of the United States had received the honor of a re-election. Never, as yet, had any President from the North been chosen for a second term, although every Southern President, elected as such, until the time of Mr. Polk, had served for eight years. SPEECH TO OHIO SOLDIERS. (Delivered before a Regiment of Ohio "Hundred-Days Men," in Wash- ington, August i8, 1864.) Soldiers: — You are about to return to your homes and your friends, after having, as I learn, performed in camp a comparatively short term of duty in this great contest. I am greatly obliged tayou, and to all who have come forward at the call of their country. I wish it to be more generally understood what the country is now en- gaged in. We have, as all will agree, a free government where every man has a right to be equal with every 436 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. other man. In this great struggle this form of govern- ment and every term of human rights are endangered, if our enemies succeed. There is more involved in this contest than is realized by every one. There is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. I say this in order to impress upon you, if you are not already so impressed, that no small matter should divert us from our great purpose. There may be some inequalities in the practical appli- cation of our system. It is fair that each man shall pay in exact porportion to the value of his property; but if we should wait, before collecting a tax, to adjust the taxes upon each man in exact proportion with every other man, we should never collect any tax at all. There may be mistakes made sometimes; things may be done wrong while all the officers of the Government do all they can to prevent mistakes. But I beg of you, as citizens of this great Republic, not to let your minds be carried off from the great work we have before us. This struggle is too large for you to be diverted from it by any small matter. When you return to your homes, rise up to the height of a generation of men worthy of a free govern- ment, and we will carry out the great work we have com- menced. I return to you my sincere thanks for the honor you have done me this afternoon. SPEECH TO THE 148TH. OHIO REGIMENT. (Delivered at Washington, August 31, 1864.) Soldiers of the 148th Ohio: — I am most happy to meet you on this occasion. I understand that it has been your honorable privilege to stand, for a brief period, in the defense of your country, and that now you are on your way to your homes. I congratulate you, and those who are waiting to bid you welcome home from the war; and permit me, in the name of the people, to thank you for the part you have taken in this struggle for the life of the nation. You are soldiers of the Republic, every where honored and respected. Whenever I appear be- fore a body of soldiers, I feel tempted to talk to them of the nature of the struggle in which we are engaged. I look upon it as an attempt on the one hand to overwhelm and destroy the national existence, while on our part we are striving to maintain the government and institutions of our fathers, to enjoy them ourselves, and transmit them to our children, and our children's children for- ever. To do this, the constitutional administration of our Government must be sustained, and I beg of you not to allow your minds or your hearts to be diverted from the support of all necessary measures for that purpose, by any miserable picayune arguments addressed to your pockets, or inflammatory appeal made to your passions and your predjudices. It is vain and foolish to araign this man or that for the part lie has taken, or has not taken, and to hold the [437] 438 Lincoln's speeches complete. Government responsible for his acts. In no administra- tion can there be perfect equality of action and uni- form satisfaction rendered by all. But the Government must be preserved in spite of the acts of any man or set of men. It is worthy of your every effort. Nowhere in the world is presented a Government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest among us, are held out the highest privileges and positions. The present moment finds me at the White House, yet there is as good a chance for your children as there was for my father's. Again, I admonish you not to be turned from your stern purpose of defending our beloved country and its free institutions, by any arguments urged by ambitious and designing men, but stand fast to the Union and the old flag. Soldiers, I bid you God speed to your homes. SPEECH TO THE LOYAL MARYLANDERS. (Delivered Oct. ig, 1864 at the Executive Mansion, Washington, in Re- sponse to a Serenade.) Friends AND Fellow-Citizens: — I am notified that this is a compliment paid me by the loyal Marylanders resident in this District. I infer that the adoption of the new Constitution for that State furnishes the occasion, and that in your view the extirpation of slavery consti- tutes the chief merit of the new Constitution. Most heartily do I congratulate you and Maryland and the na- tion, and the world upon the event. I regret that it did not occur two years sooner, which I am sure would have saved to* the nation more money than would have met all the private loss incident to the measure. But it has SPEECH TO THE MARYLANDERS. 439 come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends may fully realize all their anticipations of good from it, and that its opponents may by its effect be agreeably and profit- ably disappointed. A word upon another subject. Something was said by the Secretary of State, in his recent speech at Auburn, which has been construed by some into a threat that if I should be beaten at the election, I will, between then and the end of my constitutional term, do what I may be able to ruin the Government. Others regard the fact that the Chicago Convention adjourned, not sine die, but to meet again if called to do so by a particular individual, as the intimation of a purpose that if their nominee shall be elected he will at once seize control of the Govern- ment. I hope the good people will permit themselves to suffer no uneasiness on either point. I am struggling to main- tain the Government; not to overthrow it. I am strug- gling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it, and I therefore say, that if I shall live, I shall remain President until the 4th of next March, and that whoever shall be constitutionally elected thereto in November, shall be duly installed as President on the 4th of March, and that in the meantime I shall do my utmost, that "whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage shall start with the best possible chance to save the ship. This is due to the people, both on principle and under the Constitution. Their will, constitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all. If they should deliberately resolve to have immediate peace, even at the loss of their country and their liberties. 440 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. I know not the power nor the right to resist them. It is their own business, and they must do as they please with their own. I beheve, however, they are still resolved to preserve their country and liberty, and in this, in office or out of it, I am resolved to stand by them. I may add that in this purpose, to save the country and its liberties, no classes of people seem so nearly unanimous as the soldiers in the field and the seamen afloat. Do they not have the hardest of it.? Who should quail while they do not.? God bless the soldiers and seamen, with all their brave commanders. It is now known that the communication was kept up between the rebel cabal in Canada and the men at Rich- mond, in whose "confidential employment" they were, by means of special messengers passing through the States. Directly after the October elections, a dispatch in cipher, which has since come into the possession of the Government, was sent from Canada to headquarters, found to contain the following language, under date of October 13th, 1864: We again urge our gaining immediate advantage. Strain every nerve for victory. We now look upon the re-election of Lincoln as certain, and we need to whip the hirelings to prevent it. Besides, with Lincoln re- elected, and his armies victorious, we need not hope even for recognition, much less the help mentioned in our last. Holcombe will explain this. Our friend shall be im- mediately set to work as you direct. SPEECH ON THE NIGHT OF THE PRESIDEN- TIAL ELECTION. (The feeling which was uppermost in the President's heart at the result of the election was joy over its effects upon the cause. He expressed this sentiment in some remarks which he made, when serenad*ed by a club of Pennsylvanians, at a late hour on the night of the elec- tion. His speech was a follows: — Friends and Fellow-Citizens: — Even before I had been informed by you that this compliment was paid to me by loyal citizens of Pennsylvania, friendly to me, I had in- ferred that you were that portion of my countrymen who think that the best interests of the nation are to be sub- served by the support of the present Administration. I do not pretend to say that you who think so embrace all the patriotism and loyalty of the country. But I do be- lieve, and I trust without personal interest, that the wel- fare of the country does require that such support and indorsement be given. I earnestly believe that the con- sequence of this day's work, if it be as you assure me, and as now seems probable, will be to the lasting advan- tage, if not to the very salvation of the country. I can- not at this hour say what has been the result of the elec- tion; but whatever it may have been, I have no desire to modify this opinion, that all who have labored to-day in behalf of the Union organizations have wrought for the best interests of their country and the world, not only for the present, but for all future ages. I am thankful to God for this approval of the people. But, while deeply [441] 442 Lincoln's speeches complete. grateful for this remark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free gov- ernment and the rights of humanity. LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH AFTER HIS SECOND ELECTION. (Delivered in response to a Serenade at the White House, Nov. lo 1864. Friends and Fellow-Citizens: — It has long been a grave question whether any government not too strong for the liberties of its people can be strong enough to maintain its own existence in great emergencies. On this point the present Rebellion brought our Republic to a severe test; and a Presidential election, occurring in reg- ular course during the RebeUion, added not a little to the strain. If the loyal people united were put to the utmost of their strength by the rebellion, must they not fall when divided and partially paralyzed by a political war among themselves.? But the election was a necessity. We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us. The strife of the election is but human nature prac- tically applied to the facts of the case. What has oc- curred in this case, must ever recur in similar cases. SECOND ELECTION. 443 Human nature will not change. In any future great na- tional trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weaK and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this, as phil- osophy to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged. . But the election, along with its incidental and undesir- able strife, has done good too. It has demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national elec- tion in the midst of a great civil war. [Enthusiastic cheers.] Until now, it has not been known to the world that this was a possibility. It shows also, how sound and how strong we still are. It shows that, even among candidates of the same party, he who is most devoted to the Union, and most opposed to treason, can receive most of the people's votes, [Long-continued applause.] It shows, also, to the extent yet known, that we have more men now than we had when the war began. Gold is good in its place, but living, brave, patriotic men, are better than gold. [Applause.] But the rebellion continues; and now that the election is over, may not all, having a common interest, re-unite in a common effort to save our common country.? [Cries of ''Yes," ''Good."] For my own part, I have striven, and will strive, to avoid placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here, I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am deeply sensible to the high compliment of a re-election, and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God, for having directed my countrymen to a right con- 444 LINCOLN S SPEETCHES COMPLETE. elusion, as I think, for their own good, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be dissa- pointed or pained by the result. [Applause.] May I ask those who have not differed with me to join with me in the same spirit toward those who have.? And now, let me close by asking three hearty cheers for our brave soldiers and seamen, and their gallant and skillful commanders. The cheers were given with hearty good will in re- sponse to the President's call. A venerable Democrat in the crowd remarked, with feeling: ''God is good to us. He has again given us as a ruler, that sublime specimen of His noblest work, an honest man." GEN. SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA. (Delivered in Response to a Serenade in Washington, Dec. 6, 1864,) Friends and Fellow-Citizens: — I believe I shall never be old enough to speak without embarrassment when I have nothing to talk about. I have no good news to tell you. We have talked of elections until there is nothing more to say about them. The most interesting news we have is from Sherman. We all know where he went in at, but I can't tell where he will come out at. I will now close by proposing three cheers for General Sherman and his Army. SWEDEN AND NORWAY. (A cordial speech of Baron de Wetterstedt, the min- ister representing the kingdom of Sweden and Norway, on the occasion of the elevation of his mission to a higher grade by his Soveriegn, and his official presentation on the 20th of January, to the President, drew from Mr. Lin- coln the following deservedly friendly address:) Barron de Wetterstedt: — My memory does not re- call an instance of disagreement between Sweden and the United States. Your predecessor was most agreeable in his intercourse with this Government, and I greet you with the same good feeling which was entertained for him while he resided with us. The consideratien which your Government has manifested by raising the rank of its mission here, is acknowledged with sincere satisfac- tion. You may be assured that on my part every occa- sion will be improved to exhibit the sincere desire which this Government entertains for the prosperity and wel- fare of the Government and Kingdom of Sweden and Norway. A VASE OF LEAVES FROM GETTYSBURG. (Delivered at Washington, Jan. 25, 1865.) On the 25th of January, a delegation of ladies and gentlemen from Philadelphia, headed by the Rev. Dr. Suddards, waited on the President, to present him with a vase of leaves, gathered by the lady donors, on the battle- field of Gettysburg. Mr. Lincoln replied to the presen- tation as follows: — Reverend Sir and Ladies and Gentlemen: — I accept, with emotions of profoundest gratitude, the beautiful L445] 44^ Lincoln's speeches complete. gift you have been pleased to present to me. You will, of course, expect that I acknowledge it. So much has been said about Gettysburg, and so well said, that for me to attempt to say more may, perhaps, only serve to weaken the force of that which has already been said. A most graceful and elegant tribute was paid to the patriotism and self-denying labors of the American ladies, on the occasion of the consecration of the National Cem- etery at Gettysburg, by our illustrous friend, Edward Everett, now, alas! departed from earth. His life was a truly great one, and I think, the greatest part of it was that which crowned its closing years. I wish you to read, if you have not already done so, the glowing, and eloquent, and truthful words which he then spoke of the women of America. Truly, the services they have ren- dered to the defenders of our country in this perilous time, and are yet rendering, can never be estimated as they ought to be. For your kind wishes to me, person- ally, I beg leave to render you, likewise, my sincerest thanks. I assure you they are reciprocated. And now, gentlemen and ladies, may God bless you all. X LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. (Delivered, March 4, 1865, at Washington.) Mr. Lincoln was re-inaugurated into the Presiden- tial office on the fourth of March. An immense crowd was in attendance — a crowd of affectionate friends, not doubtful of the President, and not doubtful of one an- other and the future, as at the first inauguration. Chief Justice Chase administered the oath of office; and then Mr. Lincoln read his inaugural address concerning which it has been well said that it was a paper whose Christian sentiments and whose reverent and pious spirit has no parallel among the state papers of the American Presi- dents. It showed the President still untouched by re- sentment, still brotherly in his feelings toward the enemies of the government, and still profoundly conscious of the overruling power of Providence in national affairs. The address was as follows: WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE, WITH CHARITY FOR ALL. Fellow- Countrymen: — At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office, there is less oc- casion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed very, fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declara- tions have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. *'The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly [447] 448 Lincoln's speeches complete. depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in re- gard to it is ventured. "On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, in- surgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it with- out war — seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the na- tion survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish; and the war came. 'One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a pecu- liar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, per- petuate and extend this interest, was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the government claimed no right to do more than to re-- strict the territorial enlargement of it. "Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither an- ticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less funda- mental and astounding. "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, Lincoln's second inaugural address. 449 and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces. ; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of of- fense, for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of these offenses, which in the providence of God must needs come, but which having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him. Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may soon pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with another drawn with the sword; as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to fmish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have born the battle and for his widow and orphans, to do all which 450 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE, may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." SPEECH TO THE 140th INDIANA REGIMENT. (Delivered at Washington, March 17, 1865,) (Governor Morton had made a brief speech, in which he congratulated his auditors on the speedy approaching end of the rebellion, and concluded by introducing President Lincoln, whose purity and patriotism were confessed, he said, by all, even among the most violent of his opponents. His Administration would be recog- nized as the most important epoch of histor}^ It had struck the death-blow to slavery, and clothed the Re- public with a power it never before possessed. If he had done nothing more than put his name to the Emanci- pation Proclamation, that act alone would have made his name immortal.) The President addressed the assembly as follows: — Fellow-Citizens: — It will be but a very few words that I shall undertake to say. I was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and lived in Illinois; and now I am here, where it is my business to care equally for the good people of all the States. I am glad to see an Indiana regiment on this day able to present the captured flag to the Governor of Indiana. I am not disposed, in saying this, to make a distinction between the States, for all have done equally well. There are but few views or aspects of this great war upon which I have not said or written something where- by my own opinions might be known. But there is one TO THE 140 INDIANA REGIMENT. 45 1 — the recent attempt of our erring brethern, as they are sometimes called, to employ the negro to fight for them. I have never written nor made a speech on that subject, because that was their business, not mine, and if I had a wish upon the subject, I had not the power to intro- duce it, or make it effective. The great question with them was whether the negro, being put into the army, will fight for them. I do not know, and therefore can not decide. They ought to know better than, me. I have in my lifetime heard many arguments why the negroes ought to be slaves; but if they fight for those who would keep them in slavery, it will be a better argument than any I have yet heard. He who will fight for that, ought to be a slave. They have concluded, at last to take one out of four of the slaves and put them in the army, and that one out of the four who will fight to keep the others in slavery, ought to be a slave himself,_ unless he is killed in a fight. While I have often said that all men ought to be free, yet would I allow those colored persons to be slaves who want to be, and next to them those white people who argue in favor of mak- ing other people slaves. I am in favor of giving an ap- pointment to such white men to try it on for these slaves. I will say one thing in regard to the negroes being employ- ed to fight for them. I do know he cannot fight and stay at home and make bread too. And as one is about as important as the other to them, I don't care which they do. I am rather in favor of having them try them as sol- diers. They lack one vote of doing that, and I wish I could send my vote over the river so that I might cast it in favor of allowing the negro to fight. But they can 452 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. not fight and work both. We must now see the bottom of the enemy's resources. They will stand out as long as they can, and if the negro will fight for them they must allow him to fight. They have drawn upon their last branch of resources, and we can now see the bottom. I am glad to see the end so near at hand. I have said now more than I intended, and will therefore bid you good-bye. CAPTURE OF THE TUNE DIXIE. (Delivered in Response to a Seranade at the White House, April lo, 1865) My Friends: — I am greatly rejoiced that an occasion has occurred so pleasurable that the people can't restrain themselves. I suppose that arrangements are being made for some sort of formal demonstration, perhaps this evening or to morrow night. If there should be such a demonstration I, of course, shall have to respond to it, and I shall have nothing to say if I dribble it out before. I see you have a band. I propose now closing up by requesting you to play a certain air, or tune. I have always thought "Dixie"' one of the best tunes I ever heard. I have heard that our adversaries over the way have attempted to appropriate it as a national air. I insisted yesterday that we had fairly captured it. I presented the question to the Attorney General, and he gave his opinion that it is our lawful prize. I ask the band to give us a good turn upon it. LINCOLN DOES NOT WISH TO MAKE ANY MISTAKES. (Delivered at the White House on the evening of April lo, 1865.) My Friends:— I am informed that you have assembled here this afternoon under the impression that I had made an appointment to speak at this time. This is a mistake. I have no such appointment. More or less persons have been gathered here at different times during the day, and in the exuberance of their feelings, and for all of which they are justified, calling upon me to say something, and I have, from time to time, been sending out what I supposed was proper to disperse them for the present. , . . t j • I said to a larger audience this morning which I desire now to repeat. It is this; That I supposed in conse- quence of the glorious news we have received lately, there is to be some general demonstration, either on this or to morrow evening, when I will be expected, I pre- sume to say something. Just here, I will remark, that I would much prefer having this demonstration take place to morrow evening, as I would then be much better pre- pared to say what I have to say than I am now or can be this evening. I therefore say to you that I shall be quite willing, and I hope ready, to say something then; whereas just now I an not ready to say anything that one in my position ought to say. everything I say, you know, goes into print If I make a mistake it doesn't mearly affect me (453) 454 Lincoln's speeches complete. or you, but the country.- I therefore ought at least try not to make mistakes, If then a demonstration be made to morrow evening, and it is agreeable, I will endeavor to say something, and not make a mistake, without at least trying to avoid it. Thanking you for the compliment of this call, I bid you good evening. PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S LAST SPEECH. A CAREFULLY WORDED, VERY WISE, AND MEMORABLE PRO- DUCTION. (Delivered on Tuesday Evening, April ii, 1865, in Response to a Serenade at the White House. This was the address promised above.) Fellow-Citizens: — We meet this evening not in sor- row, but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of Peters- burg and Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, however. He from whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanks- giving is being prepared, and will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part give us the cause of rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be par- celed out with others. I myself was near the front, and had the high pleasure of transmitting much of the good news to you; but no part of the honor, for plan or execu- tion, is mine. To Gen. Grant, his skillful officers and brave men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take active part. ^ By these recent successes, the re-inauguration of the Lincoln's last speech. 455 national authority, reconstruction, which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great diffi- culty. Unlike the case of a war between independent nations, there is no authorized organs for us to treat with. No one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with and mold from disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner and means of reconstruction. As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to my know- ledge that I am much censured from some supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the new State Government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much as, and no more than, the public knows. In the annual message of December, 1863, and accompanying proclamation, I presented a plan of reconstruction (as the phrase goes,) which I promised, if adopted by any State, should be acceptable to, and sustained by, the Executive Government of the nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the only plan which might possibly be acceptable; and I also distinctly protested that the Exe- cutive claimed no right to say when or whether members should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States, This plan was, in advance, submitted to the then Cabinet, and distinctly approved by every member of it. One of them suggested that I should then, and in that connec- 45^ Lincoln's speeches complete. tion, apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana: that I should drop the suggestion about apprenticeship tor freed people, and that I should omit the protest against my own power, in regard to the admission of members of Congress, but even he approved every part and parcel of the plan which has since been employed or touched by the actions of Louisiana. The new Constitution of Louisiana, declaring emanci- pation for the whole State, practically applies the pro- clamation to the part previously excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship- for freed people, and it is silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress. So that, as it applies to Louis- iana, every member of the Cabinet fully approved the plan. The message went to Congress, and I received many commendations of the plan, written and verbal; and not a single objection to it, from any professed eman- cipationist, came to my knowledge, until after the news reached Washington that the people of Louisiana had be- gun to move in accordance with it. From about July, 1862, I had corresponded with different persons, supposed to be interested, seeking a reconstruction of a State Government for Louisiana. When the message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached New Orleans, Gen. Banks wrote me he was confident that the people, with his military co-operation, would reconstruct sub- stantially on that plan. I wrote him, and some of them, to try it. They tried it, and the result is known. Such only has been my agency in getting up the Louisiana government. As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as Lincoln's last speech. 457 before stated. But, as bad promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, and break it, whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is ad- verse to the public interest. But I have not yet been so convinced. I have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be definitely fixed on the question whether the seceded States, so-called, are in the Union or out of it. It would, perhaps, add astonish- ment to his regret were he to learn that, since T have found professed Union men endeavoring to make that question, I have purposely forborne any public expression upon it. As appears to me, that question has not been, nor yet is, a practically material one, and that any dis- cussion of it,'while it thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that question is bad, as the basis of a contro- versy, and good for nothing at all — a merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded States, so- called, are out of their proper practical relation with the Union, and that the sole object of the Government, civil and military, in regard to those States, is to again get them into their proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible, but in fact easier to do this without deciding, or even considering, whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical 458 Lincoln's speeches complete. relations between these States and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts, he brought the States from without in- to the Union, or only gave them proper assistance they never having been out of it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana government rests, would be more satis- factory to all if it contained fifty, thirty, or even twenty thousand, instead of only about twelve thousand, as it really does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the election franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still the question is not whether the Lou- isiana government, as it stands, is quite all that is des- irable. The question is ''Will it be wiser, ♦to take it as it is, and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it.^" ''Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical re- lation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discard- ing the new State government.^" Some twelve thousand voters, in the heretofore slave State of Louisiana, have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the State, held elections, organized a State government, adopted a free State constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and white, and empowering the Legislature to confer elective franchise upon the colored man. The Legislature has already voted to ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery through the nation, These twelve thousand persons are thus fully committed to the Uuion, LINCOLN'S LAST SPEECH. . 459 and to perpetual freedom in the States— committed to the very things and nearly all the things the nation wants —and they ask the nation's recognition and its assistance to make good that committal. Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white men, ''You are worthless, or worse, we will neither help you, nor be helped by you." To the blacks we say, ''This cup of Liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips, we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where and how." If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I have, so far, been unable to perceive it. If on the contrary, we recognize and sustain the new government of Louisiana, the con- verse of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of the twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigil- ance, and energy, and daring the same end. Grant that he desires elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced step towards it, than by running backward over them.? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. [Laughter.] Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote 460 Lincoln's speeches complete. in favor of the proposed amendment to the Nationa Constitution. To meet this proposition, it has been argued that no more than three-fourths of those States, which have not attempted secession, are necessary to vaHdly ratify the amendment. I do not commit mysell against this, further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable, and sure to be persistently question- ed, while ratification by three-fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable. I repeat the question. "Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State government.'*" What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to other States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each state, and such important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and, withal, so new and unprecedent- ed is the whole case, that no exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become a new entanglement. Important principles may, and must, be inflexible. In the present situation, as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act, when satisfied that action will be proper. REMINISCENCES OF LINCOLN. AN INTERESTING CHAPTER. Secretary Usher, who was an old friend of Mr. Lincoln, and a member of his Cabinet at Washington, gives the following interesting reminiscences, characteristics, etc. , of this great man: LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. Lincoln belonged to the reasoning class of men. He dealt with his own mind and turned things over there, seeking the truth until he estabhshed it and it became a conviction. As a lawyer, he never claimed everything for his client. He stated something of both sides of the case. I have known him to say: ''Now, I don't think my client is entitled to the whole of what he claims. In this point or that point he may have been in error. He must rebate something of his claim." He was also very careful about giving personal offense, and if he had some- thing severe to say, he would turn to his opponent or to the person about to be referred to and say: "I don't like tousethis language," or 'I am sorry that I have to be hard on that gentleman'; and, therefore, what he did say was thrice as effective, and very seldom wounded the person attacked. Throughout Mr. Lincoln's life that kind of wisdom attending him, and made him the great and skillful politician he was in handling people. He had a smooth, manly, pleasing voice, and when arguing in court, that voice attracted the jury, and did not tire them, so that they followed his argument throughout. He was (461) 462 Lincoln's speeches complete. not a graceful man. He would lean on the back of a chair, or put the chair behind him, or stand hipshotten, or with arms akimbo, but yet there was a pleasure in listen- ing to him, because he seemed so unmercenary. Lincoln's ambition. I do not think Lincoln was ambitious at all. It seems to me that his object in life was no greater than to make a living for his family. The dream of avarice never crossed him: He took no initial steps to reach the Pres- idency or the Senate, and was rather pushed forward, than a volunteer: I can't recall in those days when he attended court that he ever spoke about himself or took any satisfaction in victory over an adversary, or repeated any good thing he had done or said. As a partisan he always reasoned for the good of the party, and not con- cerning his own advancement. Consequently, when the people had made up their minds that there was talent in him, of a remarkable kind, they came to his assistance with a spontaneity and vehemence that was electrical. He reaped the great reward of unselfishness as few men have ever done. # Lincoln's nature. I can recall a certain incident that illustrates Lincoln's nature. Somewhere near the town of Paris there was a Whig population, with strong prejudices in favor of pro- tecting slavery. These people liked Lincoln, and be- lieved in him, and saw with pain that he was becoming a Radical. They came to him during court and said: 'We want you to come up and talk to us. We don't want to quarrel with you, and will hear all you have to REMINISCENCES OF LINCOLN. 463 say; but something must be wrong when as fair a man as you is drifting over to Abolitionism. 'Very well,' said Mr. Lincoln, *I will come upon such a day and give you my views.' Lincoln went on that day, and made a temper- ate, and sweet-toothed, cordial address on the issues of the day. He said: 'My friends, I perceive you will not agree with me, but that ought to make no difference in our relations with each other. You hear me, as you al- ways have, with kindness, and I shall respect your views, as I hope you will mine.' They heard Lincoln through, and dismissed him with respect, but did not agree with him. There was another person up there by the name of Stephens, who was lame, and he undertook to empha- size Lincoln's views, and put his foot in it. A certain doctor, of Southern origin, interrupted Stevens, and said he would thrash him. Stevens turned around and replied, 'Well, doctor, you can thrash me, or do anything of a violent sort to me, if you don't give any of your pills.' Lincoln used to tell this story with a good deal of delight. You see, in those days the settlers in Illinois would live in the edges of the timber, which grew in spots and patches, and left naked prairie between the groves. It was at such a place that Lincoln made that speech on the slavery question. LINCOLN AND THE LADIES. He was almost wholly possessed with a sense of duty and responsibility. He was not shy in the company of ladies, but I don't think he thought anything about them until they came before him as guests and callers. Some of his wife's people .were southerners, and public attacks 464 Lincoln's speeches complete. were made on them, as, for instance, it is said that one of them had gone through the hnes with a pass from Mr. Lincoln, and taken a quantity of medicine, etc. I re- member that an old partner in law of mine brought his wife to Washington, and they wanted to see Mr. Lincoln. There was a great crowd waiting around his door, but the door-keeper admitted us at once, and Mr. Lincoln came forward with both hands extended and shook the lady's hand, rather divining that she was the wife of my part- ner. He told a little anecdote or two, and said some quaint things, and when the lady came out she said to me: "Why I don't think that he is an ugly man at all." He was almost a father to his wife. He seemed to be pos- sessed of the notion that she was under his protection, and that he must look out for her like a wilful child. Lincoln's temper. I remember one event showing Lincoln's temper. He had issued a proclamation stating that when one-tenth of the voters of a Congressional district, or a part of a State, resumed their position in the Union, and elected a mem- ber of Congress, they should be recognized as much as the whole constituency. Chase remarked: 'Instead of saying voters, I suggest that you put in citizens;' I saw in a minute what Chase was driving at. This question had arisen as to who were citizens, and Mr. Bates, the Attorney-General, had pronounced negroes to be citizens. The law of the administration, therefore, was, that ne- groes were included in citizenship. As I walked away from the Cabinet that day Chase was at my side, and he said: Mr. Usher, we must stick to it that citizens, and REMINISCENCE OF LINCOLN. 465 not voters, be named in that proclamation.' I turned about when we had got to the Treasury, and walked back on the plank which at that time led to the White House, and I told Lincoln that Chase was very pertinacious about the word citizens instead of voters. 'Yes' said Lincoln, 'Chase thinks that the negroes, as citizens, will all vote to make him President.' Lincoln's sadness. Lincoln was, in his fixed quality, a man of sadness. If he were looking out of a window when alone, and you happened to be passing by and caught his eye, you would generally see in it an expression of distress. He was one of the greatest men who ever lived. It has now been many years since I was in his Cabinet, and some of the things that happened there have been forgot- ten, and the whole of it is rather dreamy. But Lincoln's extraordinary personality is still one of the most distinct things to my memory. He was as wise as a serpent. He had the skill of the greatest statesman in the world. Everything he handled came to success. Nobody took up his work and brought it to the same perfection. Lincoln's kindness. Lincoln had more patience than anybody around him. Sometimes, when we were considering a thing of import- ance in the Cabinet, his little son would push open the. door and come in with a drum and beat it up and down^ the room, giving us all a certain amount of misery. Wx-. Lincoln, however, never ordered the boy to be take-n^out,, but would say: *My son, don't you think you eaa. make- a little less noise.?' That Thaddeus was ^ situbbom little.: 466 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. * chap. We could not make up with him when he got offended. Robert was as well-behaved a young man as I have ever seen. He went to Hartford and graduated, and we entertained high respect for him. SEWARD AND LINCOLN. I think that Lincoln had a real fondness and admira^ tion for Seward. There was no suspicion or rivalry whatever between them. Seward supported Lincoln in every position or scruple that he had. My impression is, that those two men were as cordial and intimate as any two persons of such prominence could be. After Caleb Smith, of Indiana, was made a member of the Cabinet, he desired me to be his Assistant Secretary. Mr. Smith w^as nominated District Judge of the United States in the course of time, and then Mr. Lincoln pro- moted me at Smith's request. I was in the Cabinet somewhat more than two years, and a part of the time was under Mr. Johnson. That Cabinet was very ill-sort- ed. My predecessor. Judge Smith, was a kind man, but without much discrimination as to his followers. There hardly was ever such a thing as a regular Cabinet meeting in the sense of form. Under Johnson and under Grant, I have seen a table with chairs placed in regular order around it, as if for Cabinet council. Nothing of that kind ever occurred in Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet. Seward would come in and lie down on a settee. Stanton hardly ever stayed more than five or ten minutes. Sometime Sew- ard would tell the President the outline of some paper he was writing on State matter. Lincoln generally stood up and walked about. In fact, every member of that REMINISCENCE OF LINCOLN. 467 Cabinet ran his own Department in his own way. I don't suppose that such a historic period was ever so simply operated from the center of powers. Lincoln trusted all his subordinates and they worked out their own perfor- mances. "I regard Seward," said Mr. Usher, "as on the whole the strong man of the Cabinet, the counsel of the President." HOW LINCOLN BECAME PRESIDENT. Mr. Lincoln became Tresident mainly on the score of his debate with Dcuglcs. He had never been in any great prominence as office-holder. His thorough-going devotion to his party brought him universal good-will, however, and he grew so harmoniously into the advocacy of Republican principles and opposition to Douglas notion of squatter sovereignty, that there was a general desire to see him come forward and debate with Douglas. I can tell you something interesting about the debate. Lincoln had no money. He was in no position to match a man of Douglas' financial resources. The peo- ple in Lincoln's following, however, put their hands in their pockets and subscribed for a band of music to ap- pear with him, and that band was procured in Indiana. They put the band on a wagon to send it by the roads from point to point of meeting. Douglas meantime came on to New York and borrowed $100,000. I think he got some of it from Ben Wood and Fernando Wood.. He then took a special train of cars and made a sort of triumphal tour of the State, designing to carry the Senatorship by storm. Lincoln said after the contest was over with a certain serious grimness, 'I reckon that 468 Lincoln's speeches complete. the campaign has cost me fully $250.' It was generally understood in the west that the same campaign cost Douglas $ 1 00, 000 • Lincoln's speeches against Douglas were extemporane- ous, and he never revised them. Douglas did revise his remarks. Lincoln reasoned so closely and carefully on Douglas' false statements that he came out of the cam- paign covered with respect, and instantly the movement started to make him President. "I think it is due," said Mr. Usher, *to Mr. Seward's memory to say that his extreme views on the slavery question helped to beat him. CARELESS OF HIS LIFE. Lincoln was too careless. He would go out of his house at night and walk over to the War Department, where Stanton was receiving dispatches unattended. I said to him: "Lincoln, you have no business to expose yourself in this way. It is known that you go out at midnight and return here sometimes at two o'clock in the morning from the War Department. It would be very easy to kill you." The President replied that if anybody desired to assassinate him he did not suppose any amount of care would save him. Lincoln's plan of reconstruction. "Lincoln would have made," says Mr. Usher, "a: powerful white Republican, party in every Southern State. He had that in hifn which would have made the Southern people support him in preference to the radical Northern politicians. Lincoln would have said in private to their leaders, 'You will have to stand in with me and help me out; otherwise Sumner and REMINISGENCES OF LINCOLN. 469 Stevens and those other fellows will beat us both. You go back home and start some schools yourselves for the negroes, and put them on the route to citizenship. Let it be your own work. Make some arrangement to give them some land ultimately out of the public domain in your States. In that way you will have them your friends politically, and your prosperity will not be em- barrassed.' Only Mr. Lincoln could have carried out this platform. His temperament, eminence and quality all adapted him for such a great part. THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. It was on the evening of Friday, April 14, 1865, that President and Mrs. Lincoln, with Miss Mary Harris and Maj. Rathbun, of Albany, son-in-law of Senator Harris, visited Ford's Theatre, at Washington, for the purpose of witnessing **The American Cousin," which was running at the theatre. The fact that this distinguished party was to be present at the performance had been duly an- nounced in all the local papers, and the theatre was densely crowded. The Presidential party occupied a box on the second tier. The scene was a brilliant one, and all went merry with the audience and actors alike until the close of the third act, when the sharp report of a pistol was heard, and an instant afterward a man was seen to spring from the President's box to the stage, where, striking a tragic attitude and brandishing a long dagger in his right hand, he cried out, "Sic semper tyran- nis!" and then, amid the bewilderment of the audiQnc;e, 4/0 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. rushed through the opposite side of the stage and made his escape from the rear of the theatre. The screams of Mrs. Lincoln told the audience but too plainly that the President had been shot. All present rose to their feet, and the excitement was of the wildest possible description. A rush was made to the President's box, where, on a hasty examination being made, it was found he was shot through the head. The President was quickly removed to a private house oppo- site the theatre, where, on further examination, his wound was pronounced to be mortal. This tragic occurrence, of course, immediately put a stop to the performance, and the theatre was closed as quickly as possible. The assas- sin in his hurried flight, dropped his hat and a spur on the stage. The hat was identified as belonging to J. Wilkes Booth, a prominent actor, and the spur v/as re- cognized as one obtained by him at a stable on that day. One or two of the actors and members of the orchestra declared that the assassin was no other than Wilkes Booth, and the evidence almost momentarily accumulating fixed him beyond doubt as the author of the bloody tragedy. Almost before the audience had left the theatre it was known that the assasin, after he got out, made his escape on horseback. [But was afterwards shot.] The news of the hideous tragedy spread like wild-fire, and the greatest excitemen prevailed thoughout the city, dense throngs of people congregated in the locality of the house where President Lincoln was lying. While the general excitement was at its height, it became known that an attempt had been made to assassinate Mr. Sew- ard, Secretary of State. When it was known that Secre- THE ASSASSINATON. 4/1 tary Seward was not dangerously wounded, the general anxiety was centered on President Lincoln, and while the scene in the streets was one of the wildest excitement and confusion, within the chamber where President Lincoln was lying all was sadness and stillness. Several members of the cabinet had hastened to his side. Medical and surgical aid were obtained, and everything was done to relieve the suffering President. It was soon ascertained, however, that it was impossible for him to survive, the only question being how long he would linger. All through the weary hours of the night and early morning the Pres- ident lay unconscious, as he had ever since his assassina- tion. He was watched by several faithful friends, in ad- dition to near relatives. At his bedside were the Secretary of War, Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Interior, Postmaster General, and the Attorney General, Senator Sumner, Gen, Farnsworth, Gen. Todd, cousin of Mrs. Lincoln; Maj. Hay, M. B. Field, Gen. Halleck, Maj. Gen. Meigs, the Rev. Dr. Gurley, Gen. Oglesby, of Ill- inois, arid Drs. E. N. Abbott, R. K. Stone, C. D. Hatch, Neal, Hall, and Lieberman. In the adjoining room were Mrs. Lincoln, her son, Capt, Robert Lincoln, Miss Harris, Rufus S. Andrews, and two lady friends of Mrs. Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln was under great excitement and agony, exclaiming again and again: "Why did he not shoot me instead of my hus- band.''" She was constantly going back and forth to the bedside of the President, crying out in the greatest agony: *'How^ can it be so,:" The scene was heartrend- ing in the extreme, aud all were greatly overcome. The surgeons and members of the Cabinet, Senator Sumner, 472 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. Capt. Robert Lincoln, Gen. Todd, Mr. Field, and Mr. Andrews were standing at his bedside when he died. A. twenty-two minutes past 7 a. m. on April 15, the looked for but dreaded end came, and as he drew his last breath the Rev. Dr. Gurley offered up a prayer for the deceased's heart-broken family and the mourning country. The President died without a struggle, passing silently and calmly away, having been in a state of utter unconscious- ness from the time he was shot till his death. All present in the silent death chamber felt the awful solemnity of the occasion, and the scene was heartrending and touching. Mrs. Lincoln, shortly after her husband's death, was driven, with her son Robert, to the White House, where, but the evening before, she left for the last time with her honored husband, who was never again to enter that home alive. THE EFFECT OF THE PRESIDENT'S DEATH. The news of the President's death fell like a pall over the city, and before long every house was draped in mourning. The grief felt was widespread, and the deepest gloom and sadness prevailed on all sides. The President's corpse was removed to the White House be- fore noon, and a dense crowd accompanied the remains. After an autopsy had been made on the corpse it was em- balmed and placed in a handsome mahogany coffin, on which was a silver plate bearing the inscription: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Sixteenth President of the United States. Born February 12,1 809, Died April 15, 1865. In the evening City Councils, clergy, and others held THE ASSASSINATION. 473 meetings to officially express regret at the President's death. Sunday, the i6th, was a solemn and mournful day in Washington, as also in every city in the States. The Churches were crowded, and not a sermon was preached but the tragic occurrence was touchingly alluded to. The interior of the White House all .day presented a scene of overwhelming sadness. The body of the Chief Magis- trate of the Nation was temporarily laid out in one of the upper rooms of the house. The body was dressed in the suit of plain black worn by him on the occasion of his last inauguration, while on his pillow and over the breast were scattered affectionate offerings in the shape of white flowers and green leaves. On Monday the body of the murdered President lay in state in the coffin, which was placed on a grand cata- falque erected in the East Room of the White House. The room was heavily draped in mourning and a guard of honor surrounded the coffin, The populace by thou- sands gathered at the White House and there viewed the body. All the streets leading to the White House were thronged with people from early morn till late at night wendmg their way to where rested the sarcophagus in which was confined the cold and motionless form of him who but a few days since had hold of the helm of the ship of State. The universality of the mourning was remark- able. Old and young, rich and poor, all sexes, grades and colors, united in paying their homage to the great and illustrious dead, and one of the most touching sights was that of the wounded soldiers from the hospitals, who came to have a long, last look at the face of the late 474 Lincoln's speeches complete. President and honored and beloved Commander-in-Chief. On Wednesday morning a funeral service was held at the White House. The whole scene presented in the room was one of solemnity, and a single feeling appeared manifest among all, and that was grief. The services were conducted by the Rev. Dr. Hall, of the Episcopal Church, in the city, and the funeral oration was delivered by the Rev. Dr. Gurley, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in the city, which Mr. Lincoln and his family were in the habit of attending. At the close of these services the funeral cortege started for the Capitol. The beat of the funeral drum sounded upon the street, and the cortege marched with solemn tread and arms reversed. The procession consisted of a large military escort, in- cluding a body of dismounted officers of the army and navy and marine corps; Following these came the civic authorities, and after them the funeral car, drawn by six gray horses. A long line of sad, weeping relatives of the deceased followed in carriages. Next came President Johnson, accompanied by Mr. Preston King, of New York, with a strong calvary guard on either side. The rest of the procession consisted of the Cabinet and diplo- matic corps, Judges of the Supreme Court, and clerks of the Departments, and was closed by 1,500 well-dressed negroes of various organizations. The procession was one hour and a half passing a given point and was witnessed by at least 150,000 people. After the body had been placed in the Capitol, the Rev. Dr. Guriey read the burial service, at the close of which the outside procession slowly dispersed. The body of the late President lay in state in the Capitol all the THE ASSASSINATION. 475 day and through the night, attended by guard a of honor and viewed by an immense number of citizens. Early on Friday morning, the 2ist, the body was carried to the depot of the BaUimore & Ohiy Railway, and the distinguished party that was to accompany the remains to Springfield, 111., left on their sad errand by the half-past 7 a. m. train. The rcute was as follows, and the arrangements were all carried out to perfection, there being no delays on the journey: From Washing- ton to Baltimore, Baltimore to Harrisburg, Harrisburg to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to New York, New York to Albany, Albany to Buffalo, Buffalo tc Cleveland, Cleve- land ti Columbus, Columbus to Indianopolis, Indianop- olis to Chicago, Chicago to Springfield. All the towns along the route were draped in mourning, and at the cities above mentioned, where the funeral train stopped, the cofBn was removed from the funeral car and borne in solemn and majestic procession through the streets to the principal public building in each city, where suitable ceremonies were performed, and the sad procession in each city witnessed by thousands of citizens and visitors from neighboring towns. The funeral train reached Springfield, 111. , on the 4th of May, where the body of the illustrious President lay in state until seen by thou- sands and tens of thousands of former friends and fellow- citizens, many of whom had known Mr. Lincoln from early manhood. The final ceremonies were then held, Bishop Simpson of the Methodist Episcopal church de- livering the oration, after which the body was consigned to the silent tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery. PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S FAVORITE POEM. "oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud." The evening of March 22nd, 1864, says F. B. Carpen- ter, was a most interesting one to me. I was with the President alone in his office for several hours. Busy- with pen and papers when I went in, he presently threw them aside and commenced talking to me of Shakspeare, of whom he was very fond. Little 'Tad, "his son, coming in, he sent him to the library for a copy of the plays, and then read to me several of his favorite passages. Re- lapsing into a sadder strain, he laid the book aside, and leaning back in his chair, said: * 'There is a poem which has been a great favorite with me for years, which was first shown to me when a young man by a friend, and which I afterwards saw and cut from a newspaper and learned by heart. I would, "he continued, ''give a great deal to know who wrote it, but I have never been able to ascertain." Then half closing his eyes, he repeated the verses to me, as follows: Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud.? — Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, A flash of the lightning, a break of the v^ave, He passeth from life to his rest in the grave. The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, Be scattered around, and together belaid; And the young and the old, and the low and the high, Shall moulder to dust, and together shall lie. (476) Lincoln's favori te poem. 477 The infant a mother attended and loved; The mother,. that infant's affection who froved, The husband, that mother and infant who blest,— Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest. The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye. Shone beauty and pleasure — her triumphs are by; And the memory of those who loved her and praised. Are alike from the minds of the living erased. The hand of the king, that the sceptre hath borne, The brow of the priest, that the mitre hath worn. The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave. Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave. The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap. The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep,^ The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread. Have faded away like the grass that we tread. The saint, who enjoyed the communion of heaven. The sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven, The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just. Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust. . So the multitude goes — like the flower or the weed^ That withers away to let others succeed; So the multitude comes — even those we behold, To repeat every tale that has often been told: 4^8 LiNCoLN^s favojiite: poem. For we are the same our fathers have been; We see the sarae sights our fathers have seen; We drink the same stream, we view the same silii, And run the same course our fathers have run. The thoughts we are thinking, our fathers would think; From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would shrink, To the life we are clinging, they also would cling — But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing. They loved — but the story we cannot unfold; They scorned — but the heart of the haughty is cold; They grieved — but no wail from their slumber will come; They joyed — but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. They died — ay, they died — we things that are now, That walk on the turf that lies o'er their brow, And make in their dwellings a transient abode. Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road Yea! hope and despondency, pleasure and pain. Are mingled together in sunshine and rain; And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge, > Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. 'Tis the wink of an eye, — 'tis the draught of a breath; From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud: — Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud.? (This poem was written by Wm. Knox, a Scotchman.) Standurd Library, Cloth Edition PUBLISHED BY £ CHICKGO. I1-I-. ••♦♦♦♦♦♦ ALL • Handsomely . bound . in . Cloth, With Gilt Side and Baclc Stamps. Will be seni by Mail on receipt of ihe Price by the Publishers, Postage stamps. Postal Notes, Postoffice »'*«'»' ;^' J?^^'®** Money Orders may be sent to the Pnblisters by MaU at any time, and tbey will promptly forward tlie Books ordered. ,....I-MOODY'S ANECDOTES and ILLUSTRATIONS, $i.oo 2IO pages. As related by D. L. Moody in his Re- vival Work. !....2^M00DY'S CHILD'S STORIES., Illustrated ..... . i.oo As related by D. L. Moody in his Revival Work. ^-SAM JONES' SERMONS, Vol. I. 346 pages i.oo ,....4— SAM JONES' SERMONS, Vol. IL 34o pages i.oo 5— SAM JONES' ANECDOTES. 300 pages i.oo As related by him in his Revival Work. 6— GREAT SPEECHES of Col. R. G. INGERSOLL. Complete; 352 pages 7_WIT, WISDOM AND ELOQUENCE OF COL. R. G. INGERSOLL. 240 pages i-oo I.oo .^-MISTAKES OF INGERSOLL. 600 pages. .... .. . . Criticisms of the Cler- v,and bis Lectures, "Mistakes of Moses," "Skull " "What Shall Wt Do to be Saved?" "Thomas Paine," "Funeral Oration at Ris Brollier's ^^"^ " ^^p«ad«d. .o« STANDARD LIB V. e. n KblTlOf^. 9— ABE LINCOLN STORIES. English. 240 pages >t .., ....10— ABE LINCOLN STORIES. German. 240 pages .... II— EDISON AND HIS INVENTIONS Including sketch of his life, description of inventic n f also a complete Electrical Dictionary, revised iv complete. 264 pages. Illustrated. ,...i2--CHICAGO : History, Stories and Stranger.; Guide. 400 pages. Illustrated . . . . 13— POETIC PEARLS. Illustrated, gilt. 407 pages . ,...14— POETIC PEARLS. Illustrated, plain. 407 pages ,...15— ENTERTAINING ANECDOTES. 240 pages. ... . 1 From all available sources. Illustrated. ...16— BILL NYE'S CORDWOOD ,. . . 17— TEN YEARS A COW-BOY. 471 pages Romances, Adventures, Life on the Plains, with e perience as Cow-boy, Stock Owner and Ranch< . with Descriptions of the Plains, Articles on Cattu and Sheep Raising, how to Make Money on tt Plains. Illustrated. ..•.I&-GEMS OF TRUTH AND BEAUTY. 300 pages... By Talmage, Moody, Beecher, Spurgeon, Guthrie and Parker. • ..19— STORIES, SKETCHES AND LIFE of GEN. GAR FIELD, from the Log Cabin to the White House, with a full account of his Assassination, Death and Burial. 228 pages. Illustrated i .00 ...20— EVERY -DAY COOK BOOK and Encyclopedia OF Practical Recipes for Family Use. By Miss E.Neill. Economical, reliable and excellent. 324 pp. i 00 . . . 21— GENERAL HANCOCK. Including his early history, war record, public life, and all the interestmg facts cf his career 50 ,..22— JETHRO WOOD, Inventor of the Modern Plough. An account of his life, services and trials, together with the facts subsequent to his death and incident to his great invention. Illustrated 50 *,.23— THE LORD'S PRAYER, in the Principal Languages, Dialects and Versions of the World; printed in type and vernacular of the different nations. 200 pages. . i .00 This little book is placed before the public for the purpose of giving, in a concise form, an introductory view of the principal languages and dialects of the world as they appear in print, and at the same time to aid in the cultivation of religjious thought and the adoration of the Supreme Being. ...24— STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GEN. GRANT, at Home, Abroad, in Peace and in War, 8vo, 2 16 pp^ i .ou i \^ t